Persona 4: Requiem
by UngratefulDead
Summary: If a man sets his heart out to do nothing but the complete opposite of what he is told, tell me something. Is he still the one in control? Follows Justin, a transfer student from California as he is dragged into the Hanged Man murder cases. Covers P4, P4A, and a new arch for Requiem. Strong language. OC x Chie, Yu x Yukiko. Updated Daily.
1. Prologue

PROLOGUE

* * *

"You're not being very cooperative, Mr. Tylor."

Two gentlemen sat across from each other in a dark room, a man in what seemed to be his late 40's, and a teenager, who couldn't have been more than nineteen. It was pitch black, save for a singular light blossoming from the end of the young man's cigarette. Under normal circumstances, the kid would have had those confiscated, but it seemed that both were in agreement that it was irrelevant towards the bigger picture.

"And why the fuck should I?"

"Because people's lives are at risk unless you cooperate."

"People's lives are at risk if I do."

The older man had just about lost his patience at this point. The two had been running around in circles much like this for the last hour or so, and it certainly didn't help that the kid's smug attitude was practically insufferable. The older man couldn't help but wonder how this kid could have had ANY friends, but quickly brushed the thought aside. _Now's not the time. I have to keep a cool head here._

"Perhaps you don't quite understand. You and your little friends' game is putting us all at risk, and unless you tell me everything you know, people will die."

"Oh no I understand quite clearly. I think YOU are the one who doesn't quite comprehend."

"Then tell me. WHAT don't I comprehend?"

"They aren't the ones who started this. In fact, they may be the only ones who can stop it."

Maybe it was the toxic odor of smoke filling the room. Maybe it was the kid's smug insolence hiding behind half a grin. Maybe it was the pressure of the entire situation pushing down upon him. Whatever it was, it was enough to push the older man over the edge.

"I've had enough of these games kid. You're going to tell me what you know, and you're going to do it now."

At this point the older gentleman had been leaning across the table, his fist digging into it's wooden surface. The teenager took a drag of the cigarette, the smell of smoke perfuming the room in it's terrible odor. He paused for what seemed like a good minute, starring across the black room, at what, one could only guess. Finally after what felt like ages, the teenager lifted his eyes, the light of his cigarette reflecting off them to reveal their light blue color, his strawberry-blonde hair illuminated by the cigarettes tip. It was swept across his face in such a way that it covered his left eye. Maybe he didn't understand fashion these days, but the interrogator couldn't help but question how anyone could walk around with their eye covered like that. The teen let loose a quick sigh.

"My cooperation is circumstantial. Tell me, what exactly do you want to know?"

"Everything."

The young man smirked at the cliche'.

"Everything it is, then. Just don't say you never asked for it."


	2. Chapter 1: April 11, 2011

CHAPTER 1

APRIL 11, 2011

* * *

The young man stepped down the steps of the plane and onto the naked runway below him. It was April, and though the weather was still cold, the sun seemed to shine the brightest he had ever seen it. The teenager gave a quick shake of his head and kept walking. He still had to go through customs, and knowing how much a pain in the ass that could be from his previous travels, he had no intention of drawing it on any longer than had been.

"Name"

"Justin Tylor," the blonde said, handing over his photo identification.

"Alright, everything checks out here. Coming from San Diego, huh?"

"…Yeah."

The teen was not very fond of small talk with people he knew, let alone complete strangers at an airport. In fact, that's probably the last kind of person he wanted to talk to.

"Alright, everything checks out. Enjoy your stay in Inaba."

"Thanks…"

He grabbed the paperwork that customs officer had handed him and walked out the door, backpack slung across his back, quickness to his step. Something never really struck him quite right about airports. Perhaps it was the overly anal work force that seemed to want to strip you down at any chance they got. Perhaps it was the fact that a plane carrying thousands of people could fall out of the sky at any given moment. Perhaps it was the huge crowds of people. He never really did feel quite right in crowds. Hell, maybe he just didn't like airport food. Whatever the reason, he wanted out, and fast.

There was no one waiting for him at the gates of the airport, nor did he expect there to be. He had left alone, arrived alone, and intended to keep it that way. He didn't have any family or friends here anyway. So he walked.

By the time he reached where he'd be staying for the time, he was out of breath. For such a small town, it seemed like the roads went on forever. It took him a few hours before he made it to the dusty old building he would call home for the next few years. His family had owned a summer house out in Inaba for a long time, though they never really had time to actually visit.

"And they never will," he muttered under his breath.

He opened the door slowly, feeling around for a light switch on the wall. Nothing.

"Figures." He sighed.

It was dark as hell outside, and it was getting late, but fumbling around furniture wasn't exactly his idea of a good time. In retrospect, he wasn't really sure what his idea of a good time was anyway. It sure wasn't that though. He reached into his hoodie pocket and grabbed a hold of a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. He hadn't had a smoke in a good twelve or so hours, what being on a plane and all, plus he could use the lighter to find the way to the beds. He placed the cigarette in between the slits of his mouth and lit it up, taking a quick drag of his cigarette before making it inside the house.

It took a while, lighters not being as bright as you would think, but Justin eventually found the way to his room. He threw his backpack against the wall, making a slight thud as it slid down to the floor. It was late, and he was too tired to unpack, so instead he just rolled onto his bed, cigarette still in hand. He had school tomorrow, why here of all places, he never knew, but it had been in his parents' will after they passed away, and he intended to follow their last wishes. He took another drag of his cigarette, his eye lids growing heavy as they stared up towards the blank ceiling.

"Happy freakin' birthday, me."

He took one last drag of the cigarette before putting it out and going to sleep.


	3. Chapter 2: April 12, 2011

CHAPTER 2

APRIL 12, 2011

* * *

The sun shone through the bedroom window, brightly illuminating the room. Justin's eyes slowly slipped open into the conscience world, the light glaring into his eyes.

"God damn it's bright."

Justin moaned a bit as he pushed himself forcefully off of the bed, hitting the floor on the way down. Not that it was unintentional, mind you; unless you're made of rock, falling onto a hardwood floor should wake you up. He clutched his head lightly as he pushed himself off the cold floor. Looking at the clock hanging over his bedroom door, it seemed now would be a good time to get ready for school.

He threw on his uniform, followed by his usual black hooded jacket. It was hot as hell, wearing a jacket over a jacket, but he didn't really care. It was what he wore everyday anyway, and he thought it looked better on him than the uniform did. He grabbed his backpack from the wall he had flung the backpack against the previous night, and slung it over his shoulder, grabbing his pack of cigarettes as he marched out the front door. He didn't even think about eating breakfast that morning, nor would he probably have eaten any if he did. The sight of food in the morning just made him sick to his stomach.

Despite it being chilly outside, the sun was shining brightly. In California, it was generally warm all year-long, but even then the sun didn't shine half as bright as it did here. Justin had almost wished for rain. Maybe then it wouldn't be so god damn bright.

A small smile crossed his lips. Justin actually preferred rain to the sun anyway. There was something mesmerizing about the sound of rain rhythmaticly pelting against the windows. His smile faded back into its usual form, not quite a frown, but definitely not a smile. He noticed a few people walking on ahead of him, though one in particular seemed to catch his eyes.

There were two girls keeping a steady pace ahead of him, making idle chit-chat with each other. They seemed to know each other well, at the very least. The one to the right was wearing a red cardigan and had flowing black hair. Based on the way she was walking she seemed like she was a relatively shy person. But then, Justin had never been a great judge of character before.

However, it was the girl to her left that had caught his attention. From what he could see standing a good dozen or so feet back, she had short brown hair and was wearing a green jumper suit and a short skirt. She seemed sort of laid back, but brimming with confidence. _Who is this girl? _He thought silently to himself. _More importantly, why do I even care?_

It was only a few minutes before he realized he was at school. And by realized, I mean walked head first into a pole. He had been so lost in thought he hadn't even considered to look where he was going. He pushed his hand into his forehead. It was slightly bruised, but otherwise it was fine. His pride was more hurt than anything. Or at least, it would be if anyone else was around. Taking a glimpse around it seemed that no one had been behind him when it happened, and the people in front were too pre-occupied to notice. He blushed a little bit, and quickened his step as made his way into the school.

* * *

He trailed behind the teacher in the hallways of his new school. Standing next to him was another young man, with short, silver hair. Apparently Justin wasn't the only one transferring into class that day. It pissed him off a bit, though he wasn't sure why. I mean, two transfer students means less attention on him, right? So then why did he even care?

Justin looked around a bit as they walked down the hallway to his new homeroom. The halls were small, but they seemed to go on forever. It also didn't help that everything looked the same. He looked ahead again to the teacher who had been leading them down the halls. He was wearing a blue suit and a yellow tie, his back was hunched over further than Justin had thought humanly possible. I mean, Justin had some bad posture, but this guy sure took the cake. And that's not even getting started on his teeth. He looked like a donkey, for Christ's sake.

After walking around for a minute or so, the trio found the doors to their homeroom, to which the three promptly entered. The sound of discussion and laughter filled the room. Or at least it had until the teacher spoke up.

"Awright, shut your traps!"

The room grew quiet quicker than a bad joke at a funeral. Justin raised an eyebrow. Back where he came from, you couldn't get kids to do anything. They were like animals fighting over the last piece of meat from a hunt. But this guy got them to shut up and sit down in a single sentence. _I think the two of us will get along just fine_, Justin thought to himself.

"I'm Kinshiro Morooka, your homeroom teacher from today forward! First things first! Just 'cause it's spring doesn't mean you can swoon over each other like love-struck baboons-"

The teacher continued to lecture about chastity or some shit. Quite frankly, Justin had stopped paying attention at this point. Instead he had been looking around the room at some of the people who he would have the pleasure of having to put up with for another year. He noticed someone familiar in the sea of students, two people to be more precise; the raven haired girl in the red cardigan, and the brown-haired girl sitting behind her. _Oh sweet Jesus,_ he thought to himself. He really just wanted to forget what had happened this morning, but that's a lot more difficult when you're sitting in the same room as the person who made you walk into a pole.

"-but I'd better introduce these transfer students."

Justin snapped back into reality. He usually didn't pay much attention to what people around him were saying, but he knew how to snap back to reality when he heard certain keywords. In this case he had been waiting for something along the lines of "introduction," or "name," or "transfer." Two out of 3 ain't bad.

"This sad sack's been thrown from the big city out to the middle of nowhere like yesterday's garbage. And this one here's been sent our way from the city of vice and sleaze in California."

_Oh,_ Justin thought to himself. _He's one of THOSE teachers._ He sighed a bit under his breath. And here he was hoping that the teacher maybe had some authoritative control over everyone, or maybe knew what he was doing. And city of vice? Isn't that Vegas? The silver haired boy shot him a quick glance, as if to say "can you believe this guy?" Justin responded by rolling his eyes and leaning back against the wall behind them. He crossed his arms and looked slightly upwards to the ceiling.

"And they're both as much losers here as they were there. So you girls better not get any ideas about hitting on them."

Justin couldn't help but chuckle a bit at the thought. Which was apparently all he needed to do to send the teacher off on a rant.

"The hell you laughing about. You listen here, this town is miles away from your big city of assholes and perverts, in more ways than one."

"Thank god," Justin mumbled.

"That's it, you're going on my shit list effective immediately."

_Oh joy._ Justin shot a quick glance towards the silver-haired boy, as did the silver-haired boy to him, almost in complete unison. It's clear they were thinking the same thing.

"Tell 'em your name kid and then sit your ass down."

"It's Justin."

"Excuse me, is it okay if he sits here."

Justin took his glare away from Marooka. Who the hell cared where he sa- HOLY CRAP. Sitting in the middle of the room was the brown haired girl, her arm up in the air.

"Huh? Yeah sure. Hear that, your seat's over there. So hurry up and siddown already!"

_WAITWHAT!? _Justin practically screamed inside his own head.

"Uh…. Sure." He said casually making his way over to his desk, plopping his bag next to his desk. Why was she so enthusiastic about having him sit near her? She doesn't know him, and he doesn't know her.

"He's the worst huh. We call him King Moron."

_AND NOW SHE'S TALKING TO ME. FUCK YOU GOD, FUCK YOU SO MUCH._

"Never before has a name been so appropriate."

"Rotten luck for you to get stuck in this class… Well we'll just have to hang in there for a year."

He felt sick to his stomach already, and it's been 3 minutes. A year? No. No fucking way.

"Shut your traps!" King Moron interrupted before proceeding to give the same treatment he had given Justin to the Silver-Haired boy. At this point Justin had once again zoned out. It was clear he wasn't gonna get any useful information out of King Moron, though he did pick up that the boy's name was Yu Narukami before he eventually took the empty seat behind the brown haired girl.

* * *

The rest of the day went by at a sluggish pace. The first day of school was always the worst. They pretty much took up your entire day telling you about how you needed pencils and folders, and all that other shit that people should have been able to put two and two together on. And it certainly didn't help that his anxiety was through the roof sitting next to this girl. He still hadn't the slightest idea who she was, but she clearly seemed interested in SOMETHING about him.

After what felt like ages, the words he had been hoping to hear finally graced his ears.

"That's all for today. Normal lectures will start tomorrow."He felt like jumping up with joy at this point. Nothing less than a parade would be adequate to describe how happy he was to finally be able to leave this hellhole. However, just as he was about to grab his bag and make a b-line for the door, the intercom chimed in.

"Attention all teacher. Please report to the faculty office for a brief staff meeting."

Justin froze for a moment. Whoever was on the intercom had an urgency to their voice, they sounded panicked. _I don't like the sounds of that…_

"All students must return to their classrooms and are not to leave the school until further notice."

_Goddammit! _Justin couldn't help but slam his head into his desk; presumably harder than he intended given the looks some people were giving him when he raised his head back up.

"You heard the announcement, don't go anywhere until you hear otherwise."

He marched out of the room, that slump in his back seemingly more prominent each time Justin saw it. He looked like a candy cane around Christmas time. A fairly sound comparison given that both were bitter as all hell.

"…he's seriously getting on my nerves."

Justin looked to the side out of the corner of his eyes. With King Moron gone, the spirit that had filled the room when he first arrived once again found residence in the classroom. It was kind of nice, though that feeling didn't last too long once Justin heard the sounds of police sirens passing by the building. Given the announcement but a moment ago, it certainly wasn't looking good. He also made a quick note of pushing the pack of cigarettes in his pocket down further. He wasn't worried that was what they were here for, nor that they would find it, but he'd rather be safe than sorry.

"Did something happen? Those sirens sound awfully close."

"I can't see a damn thing, frickin' fog."

Justin took a quick glance out the window. Huh, it was getting pretty foggy. Strange considering it was so bright out earlier. It must have rained at some point while he was trying to drown out King Moron's insufferable voice.

"Yeah, like every time it rains lately it gets all foggy."

_This is what I get for hoping for rain…_

"Hey, did you hear? I heard the paparazzi's looking all over for that announcer."

"Oh yeah, you mean Mayumi Yamano, right?"

_Yamano? Who the hell was that? It sounds like it's big though considering everyone seems to have heard of her. Maybe she's a local celebrity or something. _Justin's thoughts were interrupted by the shouting of one of the students.

"Are you serious?"

_Figures I miss the part I actually gave a damn about._

The student walked over to the black-haired girl, who had been sitting up and to the right of Justin.

"H-Hey, Yukiko-san. Mind if I ask you something…?"

_Oh so that's her name,_ he thought. _Now I don't have to call her black haired girl wearing a red cardigan. So much easier._ He was only half sarcastic with himself.

"Is it true that announcer's staying at your family's inn?"

"I can't discuss such things."

_Well I was half right. She's not shy, she just has a stick up her ass._

"Y-yeah, guess not."

The brown haired girl who had been sitting next to him stood up and slid over her desk to the other side, approaching the black haired girl.

"Sheesh, how much longer is this gonna take?"

_The question of the century, ladies and gentlemen._

"There's no telling."

"I shoulda left before the announcement came on."

_Oh I like this girl already._

"By the way did you try what I told you the other day."

Yukiko seemed confused, as though she wasn't quite sure what thing it was that brown haired girl was talking about.

"You know, that thing about rainy nights."

_I don't like where this conversation is going…_

"Oh!"

The way she spat that out, as though she was surprised that it had been brought up, certainly didn't dismiss the concern Justin had. Suddenly he felt really uncomfortable listening in.

"No, not yet, Sorry."

"Ahhh, that's okay."

_Thank god that's the end of that conversation._

"Well it's just-"

_Nope. Nevermind. Continue with the awkwardness._

"I heard a guy in the class next door yell something like "My soulmate is Yamano, the announcer!"

_This conversation just went from awkward to I will never be able to cleanse my brain of this shit, territory._ Luckily, the intercom chimed in once again, putting a halt to whatever it was that was being discussed.

"Attention all students. There has been an incident inside the school district. Police officers have been dispatched around the school zone."

Justin groaned. He got the strangest feeling creeping up into him that he was going to die here, a frail old man waiting for the doors to the school to open and let him out.

"Please stay calm and contact your parents and guardians as soon as possible, and quickly leave the school grounds as quickly as possible."

Done and done! Justin grabbed his bag ready to make another mad dash towards the door. Just as his hands made contact with the door to his freedom, he heard a familiar voice coming from behind. _Oh come on, not today…_

"Hey are you going home by yourself?"

"That was the plan."

"Why don't you come with us?"

…_What?_ Justin turned around to see the brown haired girl, staring at him. Yu and Yukiko were with her too. _Well he seems to have fit in awfully quick. _Again, he felt awfully pissed off at Yu for some reason, though he wasn't quite sure why. He didn't really know any of these people too well, but they seemed nice enough. Maybe he just hated nice.

"Oh nearly forgot! I'm Chie Satonaka. You know I sit next to you right."

_How could I possibly forget._

"Yeah.

"Well nice to meet you."

Justin stared at her for a second. He just wanted to go home, sit in his room, rotting his lungs away while starring at the ceiling. So what came out of his mouth next came as a surprise even to him.

"What exactly did you have in mind?"

"We were gonna head over to the Junes."

"Junes?"

Justin raised an eyebrow. _The fuck was a Junes?_

"Oh it's the local mini-mall."

"Well that makes more sense."

Justin sighed a bit. He really didn't want to go, but he didn't want to be a dick. _Well you'll have to find out where everything is around town anyway, might as well do it now._

"Oh, I nearly forgot! This is Yukiko Amagi."

"Oh, nice to meet you… I'm sorry this is so sudden."

_Definitely a stick up her ass_, he thought to himself, trying not to laugh at how ridiculously formal she was acting.

"C'mon, don't apologize like that. It makes me look like I got no upbringing."

Justin removed his gaze from the two bickering girls and moved his attention towards Yu. He was forcing himself not to smile, and doing an awful job at it.

"I just wanted to ask some stuff. Really, that's all."

_Of course she does. _Justin thought. He felt like part of him died everytime he heard someone say something along those lines. "What's California like," or, "Oh my god have you ever been to Hollywood," or, and here's the big one, "have you ever met Bruce Willis?" Jesus I love Bruce as much as the next guy, but it's ridiculous how many people assume I've met the guy. Does he even live in California?

"Come on,"

Chie gestured towards him and Yu to follow her, before she was interrupted by someone. He had messy brunette hair and a set of orange headphones wrapped around his neck. Justin had long but thought people just used the headphones that came with their iPods now, at least when they were listening to music in public. He had a pair a lot like this kid's, but he'd be damned if he used them for anything other than playing video games. Bringing them out into public? Sounded like a sure way of getting mugged.

"Uh, umm, Miss Satonaka…?"

_Oh he is forcing this out. _Justin frowned a bit. He could tell he was forcing himself to be formal. He was kinda like the polar opposite of Yukiko; where she had to pull the stick out of her ass, this kid was trying to shove one up his.

"This was really awesome. Like, the way they moved was just amazing to see."

Chie seemed a bit weirded out. Justin was a bit weirded out himself. _What was he watching, a Broadway dance number?_

"And… I'm really sorry! It was an accident! Please just have mercy until my next paycheck! Seeya, thanks!"

_Calling it now, he totally broke it. _The kid dropped the case into Chie's hands before trying to make his escape through the classroom door.

"Hey! Stop right there! What did you do to my DVD!?"

Chie took off after the kid. She was fast, much to Justin's surprise. Even with a head start, it wasn't long before Chie was able to catch up with him. It was at that moment that Justin had to avert his eyes. Chie lifted her foot and planted one of the most intense testicular assaults he had ever laid eyes on. It's amazing they didn't burst into a puddle of blood. It took every inch of his being not to flinch.

Looking back to Yu and Yukiko, it was clear that Yu was thinking the same thing. Yukiko, on the other hand, barely reacted. It was like she was used to seeing this happen._ I wouldn't be surprised,_ he thought returning his eyes back to Chie and the brunette, cowering in pain. Chie opened the DVD case, a wave of shock running over her as she saw the contents.

"What the!? I can't believe this! It is completely cracked…"

"Called it."

"My trial of the dragon…"

"I think mine's cracked too. Critical hit to the nads."

_You're lucky that's all they are._

"Yosuke, A-Are you all right?"

_I felt that from over HERE. I'm guessing no._

"Oh, Yukiko-San, are you worried about me?"

"He's fine, Yukiko. Let's ditch him."

Chie slung the backpack off of her shoulder and put the DVD case inside. Against his better judgement, Justin decided to pipe in.

"How'd you break it anyway? Don't you, like, have to take a hammer to those things to crack 'em?"

"…uh….well…I kinda sorta crashed my bike."

"Well that would certainly explain it."

"Come on already, let's go!"

Chie had already been half way out the door. What the hell is she in a hurry for anyway? It's just a mall. Justin took one last glance at Yosuke before taking his leave.

* * *

The trio walked outside to the school gates out front, with Yu following behind shortly after. _He probably wanted to make sure that kid was alright._ Justin thought. In retrospect he probably should have asked if he was alright too, but then breaking someone else's DVD? He had it coming. Plus, Justin got the feeling that Chie was the last person he'd want to cross.

Justin recoiled as he accidently bumped into Chie. He had looked behind him as he noticed Yu coming out of the school, so he hadn't noticed the two stop when someone had approached Yukiko.

"Sorry, was looking the other way." He said, rubbing the back of his head, his cheeks red with embarrassment. Or was it fear? Who could really tell?

"Oh, it's alright."

_Crisis averted._

"You're Yuki, right? Y-You want to go hang out somewhere?"

_Well, this is strange, _Justin thought to himself. The two clearly didn't know each other, but here he was calling her Yuki, and asking to go hang out. Something just didn't check out.

"What…? Wh-Who are you?" Yukiko mustered up. She sounded a bit panicked, and Justin was having trouble telling if that was just the stick up her ass, or if this was going to be a serious problem. He took a step towards the side of Yukiko, just in case. From over his shoulder he could hear a few passing students stop to make a comment.

"What's up with him? What school does he go to?"

_He doesn't even go to this school!? Oh this is not going to end well._

"Nevermind that, he's going for Yukiko-San? Man you'd think he'd at least wait until she's alone to make his move."

"I bet you a can of TaP he gets knocked out."

"No bet. Haven't you heard how difficult the Amagi Challenge is?"

_What in the- This is a fucking game to these people? That's awful!_ Justin felt almost physically pained by the comments they were making. The Amagi Challenge? What kind of asshole does this shit? Taking a quick glance at Yukiko, it was clear she could hear the comments, and even clearer that they were upsetting her. Had they not been on school grounds, Justin probably would have kicked their assess right then and there.

"Um, s-so… are you coming or not."

"I-I'm not going…"

Although the situation was pretty strange, the kid that had approached Yukiko didn't seem like he had any bad intent. He was actually fairly polite, and given the way he was stuttering over his words, it seemed like he was having a hard time talking to her. Maybe he just had a crush on her?

That theory immediately went out the window. As soon as Yukiko finished her sentence, the young man's face tensed up, his eyes dropping into a glare. He was about to take a step forward, but Justin gave him a death glare as soon as he saw his leg about to move. The young man took a step back, mortified, but also infuritated.

"…Fine!"

And just like that he ran off. Justin let out a puff of air. That could have gone badly very quickly. Justin gave a quick look around. Chie and Yukiko both looked a bit dumbfounded, Yukiko more-so. Yu had apparently made his way to Justin's right side. _When the hell did that happen_, he thought. He had a stern expression on his face. It seemed as though they both were prepared in case things went wrong.

"Wh-What did he want from me…?"

Justin was about to point out the obvious, when Chie chimed in, as though reading his mind.

"What did he want…? Obviously, he was asking you out on a date."

"Huh? Really?"

Wait, she didn't know? Well that would explain what she was panicking over, though Justin could hardly blame her, under the circumstances. It wasn't like the two knew each other, and the way he had been talking was fairly creepy. Still, she didn't have the slightest clue? Once again, as though reading his mind, Chie asked the question on everyone's minds.

"You really had no clue? Sheesh… But then again, that was way over the top. It was creepy how he called you Yuki all of a sudden."

"You two don't know each other, right?" Justin chimed in. He was still a bit confused about all of this.

"No. This is the first time I've seen him."

First time she's seen him? Well it's clear that he doesn't go Yasogami, so he couldn't possibly have known her from that. The only other option would be that maybe they had seen each other outside of school before.

"Maybe he's a secret admirer?" Yu piped in. Come to think of it, it was the first time he had said anything all day. He hadn't even been the one to introduce himself in the morning. His voice was calm and collected, but also seemed to have a hint of sarcasm in it.

"You think so?" Yukiko said, slightly flustered.

Right on cue, Yosuke came rolling down the hill of the school gate on his bicycle. _How in the hell can he sit on that thing after the testicular brutality he just went through?_

"Yo, Yukiko-San. Turned down another lovelorn fool, huh? Man you're cruel … You got me the same way last year."

"I don't recall doing that."

_Waitwhat? Does she really not understand what's going on when people ask her out?_

"Whoa, you serious? So then you wanna hang out sometime!?"

"…I'd rather not."

_Hey-oh. Need some ice for that burn? Man, when did Yukiko grow a pair._

"That'll teach me to get my hopes up. Anyways, you two better not pick on the transfer students too much."

Yosuke took off in a hurry, with Chie shouting at him from behind.

"We're just curious is all?"

_Yeah, well, that's part of the problem, isn't it?_ Justin sighed. Gets him every time. Justin took a look around. He noticed that a small crowd had been forming around them. They weren't really causing a scene, were they? Either way, this wasn't doing much good for his claustrophobia, and there was no way he was going to be able to pop a cigarette here. Usually he could just smoke a bit when his anxiety acted up, but at a school full of people watching? Even he didn't have the balls for that. The sooner they got away from the crowd, and the sooner he could get a smoke, the better.

"U-Um, I'm sorry for dragging you guys into this…"

"It's no problem" Yu spoke up. Justin respectively disagreed. This was exactly the kind of stuff he had hoped to AVOID by going home. Regardless, he didn't want to be rude, so he nodded in agreement. Chie took a quick glance around, just noticing the crowd that had formed around them.

"C-C'mon, let's go. Everybody is starring."

_Finally._

* * *

The group had been walking for about a half hour or so, making idle chit chat with each other. At the moment, Chie was talking with Yu about what brought him to Inaba.

"Ah… so you came here because of your parents job. Haha, I thought it was something more serious, like your parents died or something."

"Chie!" Yukiko blurted out.

_Glad to see someone here thinks before they talk. I should have known she would be one of those types. They always are._

"Well what about you Justin, you're parents move here or something? Seems strange for someone to want to move from California to somewhere like here."

It took every inch of his soul not to deck her right there and then. And even then, he still couldn't help being aggressive towards the notion.

"No, my parents are six feet under, thank you very, fucking, much."

It didn't really strike him as being rude until he saw the shocked expressions on everyones face. He couldn't really tell whether they were shocked over his parents, or the comment he just made. He was guessing more so the latter. _Shit. Dick move, me. Dick move._ He softened his glare and looked to the side. He didn't feel comfortable making eye contact with the rest of the group after that.

"…Sorry. It's a sensitive topic."

"No, I'm sorry, I should have thought before I said anything."

It was clear the Chie was upset, though it seemed more so at herself than Justin. He couldn't tell if he should be relieved or feel like a huge douche. So he went with the latter.

"L-Let's just pretend I never said anything," he stuttered as he reached into his pockets for a cigarette. He didn't really care that people were watching him right now. He needed to calm down.

"Justin!" Chie spoke up, surprised at the cigarette he held in one hand and the lighter he held in the other. "You're smoking!?"

"I normally do. Why, don't like second-hand smoke?"

"But isn't that illegal!?" It was hard to tell if Chie was angry, or scared that someone would get in trouble. Maybe a little of A and a little of B.

"One hundred percent, but I'll probably end up ripping someone's head off if I don't calm down, and I'm pretty sure murder is a bigger crime than smoking." He took another look at Chie, a slightly worried look on her face. "Don't worry, no one's going to get in trouble."

"I'm holding you to that."

Justin chuckled a bit as he lit up the end of his cigarette. Looking around the group, it seemed everyone was still nervous at the prospect of him smoking around them. After a minute or so, Justin decided to just throw it on the ground and put it out with the end of his shoe. Clearly it was just making everyone uncomfortable, which certainly wasn't helping. It took a few minutes for conversation to begin again. For once, Justin gladly embraced conversation; it made him feel like less of an asshole.

"There really is nothing here, huh?" Chie broke the silence. Both Justin and Yu looked at her with a bit of surprise. _From one depressing topic to the next, huh?_

"I think that's part of the charm." Justin choked up. He still felt awkward from earlier, but it wouldn't get better unless he kept talking.

"I agree." Yu added in._ Not a big talker is he?_

"I mean, that is what makes it nice, but there's nothing much we can show to people from outside…"

Chie looked to the side for a bit, as though she was looking for something.

"Oh! Though, there is something from Mt. Yasogami… I think our dyed clothes or pottery is kinda famous."

_Oh boy. "Come to Inaba; we make hippie crap." I get the feeling that won't sell very well._

"Oh wait, there's the Amagi Inn! Yukiko's family runs it. It's the pride of Inaba!"

"Oh really?" Justin pitched in. He had no idea Yukiko's family ran an inn, let alone the "pride of Inaba." Which, of course, he highly doubted, but it was intriguing nonetheless.

"Huh? It's… just an old Inn."

"Oh, no way, it's been in all sorta magazines as a hidden treasure."

Justin wanted to point out that it's not "the pride of Inaba" if it's a "_hidden_ treasure," or that he has never read a single magazine referring to the Amagi Inn, but ultimately decided against it. It's not like he read magazines that much anyway.

"It's a great inn! It's been going for generations, and Yukiko here is going to take over someday. The Inn actually attracts a lot of visitors to Inaba. It pretty much keeps this town going."

"…I don't think that's entirely true."

_That's because it's not. Someone should explain to Chie how an economic system works._

"So tell me Yu, you think Yukiko's cute, huh?"

Justin coughed heavily, as though choking on air. Why in hell's name are we talking about this RIGHT IN FRONT OF HER. Yu didn't look too pleased at the question either. He reeled his head back a little bit, his face red with embarrassment.

"Come on… don't start this again…"

_Wait this has happened before? Why does this NOT surprise me?_

"She's really popular at school, but she's never had a boyfriend. Kinda weird, huh?"

_And there goes the pitch, STRIKE TWO. Why don't we make this a whole fucking hat trick of awkward, while we're at it._

"C-Come on, stop it." Yukiko's face is bright red at this point. Clearly she doesn't want people knowing that. And why would she?

"Y-You shouldn't believe that, okay? It's not true that I'm popular or that I've never had a boyfriend!"

_Denying popularity? That's a first. There may be hope for this girl yet._

"Wait, no! Wh-What I meant to say was, I don't need a boyfriend!"

In almost perfect unison Yukiko and Justin spoke up, one embarrassed, the other on the verge of laughing, "Geez… Chie!" It was funny enough to get a giggle out of everyone, save Yukiko. She still looked completely mortified by Chie's comment.

"Hahaha! Sorry, sorry. But this is our chance to talk to somebody from the big city, and you barely said a word."

"Well that was probably my fault." It was an awkward topic, but Justin thought it would be okay to joke about it. Luckily so did the others; if by others you meant Chie. Which was good enough given that she seemed to be the only one still slightly off-put by Justin's out lash. Yu, grinned slightly too, though it was more a "glad that's over with" grin than a "that's funny" grin. The laughter was interrupted however, when Justin bumped into someone. Apparently a crowd had been gathering around the shopping district.

"Oh sorry, bout that." _Two for two, three if I want to count the pole._

"Huh, wonder what's going on." Chie spoke up, curiously.

"Hold on, I'm good at eavesdropping." Justin said, pushing his way slightly through the crowd.

"So that high-schooler left school early today, and as she came down this street…"

"Wow. Who could imagine THAT hanging from an antenna?"

_Hanging from an antenna? What the hell could be hanging from an antenna that's drawing in such a crowd._

"I wanted to see it too."

"Uh, you got here too late… The police and fire department took it down just a moment ago."

_The police? What was it a dead body or something?_

"Well I think it's terrifying. I can't believe a dead body showed up around here…"

…_What? WHAT!? I WAS JOKING GODDAMIT. HOLYSHITHOLYSHIT._ Justin pushed his way through the crowd, back to where Chie and the others were waiting.

"Guys, you are not going to believe th-" Justin stopped once he noticed someone else with them. He was an older man with black, messy hair, and a rough beard around his chin.

"Who are you?"

"Detective Dojima. I'm Yu's guardian."

_Detective? Shit, don't put your hands in your pockets._

"That damn principal. We told him not to let them through here… Listen, you three really ought to stop wandering around and head straight home."

Yu nodded slightly at the proposition. "Yeah. I'll see you at home."

Dojima nodded and turned around to get back to work. A few moments passed before the group exchanged words again.

"Was this what that announcement was about?" Chie wondered out loud.

"Sure seems that way," Justin added in.

"What do they mean… it was hanging from the antenna…?" Yukiko had the slightest tone of disgust in her voice.

"Maybe… it was hanging from a noose? Like suicide."

At this point, Yukiko looked like she was about to vomit. _Now would be as good a time as any to drop the subject._

"Hey, guys…? Why don't we go to Junes some other time?

_Well there goes an hour of my life._ Yet somehow he didn't regret it. He almost got caught by a detective, got into awkward conversations about Yukiko's love life, and almost murdered Chie for bringing up his parents, but he still kinda had fun.

"Good idea…"

"Alright then, we're taking off. Starting tomorrow, neighbors, let's do our best."

* * *

The four went their separate ways for the evening. Justin found himself walking down the shopping district on his way back home. Other than the crowd at the end of the street, the district was relatively empty. Most of the stores looked boarded up, closed for business. Justin was half guessing it has to do with this "Junes" place. As he kept walking, something caught the corner of his eye.

As he turned, he looked at an old electronics store. They had videos, video games, music, pretty much anything that could fit on a CD. That wasn't what caught his eye though. As he had been passing by, he noticed something that looked familiar in the display case.

_Trial of the Dragon, huh?_

He remembered that Yosuke guy cracked Chie's copy of whatever movie this was supposed to be. And even though he was generally a poor judge of character, he got the strangest feeling that Yosuke had no intent on replacing it. _I'm sure I'm going to regret doing this,_ he thought to himself as he pulled out his wallet.


	4. Chapter 3: April 13, 2011

CHAPTER 3

APRIL 13, 2011

* * *

The sound of the bell chimes woke Justin up. School was finally over, and despite the fact that he had been asleep the entire time, it felt good to be able to get out of there. He rubbed his eyes a bit and straightened out his back. Looking around the classroom, he noticed King Moron leaving the room in a hurry. And suddenly, Justin felt incredibly thankful for having fallen asleep, for two reasons; the first being that he wouldn't have to listen to another word coming out of his mouth about purity or whatever the hell it was he talked about. The second, and perhaps more important, he now knew King Moron had no idea when Justin was asleep, which meant he could do it ANY time.

"So you're getting used to this place?"

Justin turned around at the slightly familiar sound of Yosuke's voice. He had begun to strike up conversation with Yu. _When the hell did they get to be friends,_ Justin wondered to himself. Something about Yu really just did not rub him the right way. _What is he always so happy about, and how the hell is he making friends as quickly as he is? It irritates the fuck out of me._ He wasn't quite sure why it annoyed him so much, but it did.

"I think so."

"Wow that was fast." He paused for a moment. Maybe he thought the sarcasm was going to go over Yu's head. Yu of course grinned that grin of his in response. Yosuke let out a bit of a sigh as he looked over towards the windows.

"There isn't much to do here compared to the big city, but there is that certain… something you can't get anywhere else…"

_Wait, are those two potheads or something,_ he wondered to himself. _The way he stressed 'something' sounds way too familiar._ Back at his old school, a lot of the kids Justin went to class with were into marijuana. And you could always tell which ones because they were always, A, too stupid to not talk about it in public, and B, always trying to use everyday words to cover up the word "pot." And they did a terrible job at it too. You can't just put stress on the word "Swiss cheese," and be nonchalant at the same time. It would also explain what Yu was smiling about all the time.

"The air's clean, the food's great… Oh, you know the local delicacy?"

_Crack, right?_

"It's grilled steak, man! Like that's anything special, huh! You know, I know a place where you can get it cheap. Wanna come? You helped me this morning, so it's on me."

_Well I guess that answered one of my questions. I'm just going to assume he rode his bike into a pole or something. _As he finished collecting his thoughts, Justin was interrupted by the sound of Chie coming over from the front of the classroom.

"What about me, huh? No apologies? Uh, my Trial of the Dragon?"

"Urgh… You always come around when I'm talking about food..."

_I knew he'd forget._ Justin sighed, slightly in relief. He had decided to buy a copy of Trial of the Dragon that he had seen on his way home the night before. He was slightly irritated that Yosuke had decided to be a complete ass and forget all about the DVD, but at least he didn't waste his money. I mean, it wasn't like Justin had any intention on watching the movie.

"Well you DO owe her." Justin piped up casually, hoping not to sound as though he was eavesdropping.

"How about it, Yukiko? Don't you think he should treat us, too?"

_Yukiko? Did he break something of hers too?_

"I'll pass… I don't want to gain anymore weight. I need to help out at the Inn today anyway."

"Wow, Yukiko-san! You started training to take over the family business?"

Now that Yosuke brought it up, it did seem a bit strange that she was working at the Inn already.

"It's not like that! I'm just helping out when it gets busy. I should be going."

Yukiko casually walked out of the room. _Geeze, when my parents were around, I'd barely help them with the dishes, let alone an entire inn._

"Well, how bout you Justin. Want to come with?"

Justin was surprised at the offer that Chie had extended to him. Partially because he had been a bit of an ass towards her yesterday, partially because it was Yosuke's money they were spending. Though he did owe her, so I guess it was okay.

"Huh? Oh uh… sure."

"Great then, it's settled. We should get going."

* * *

_So this is Junes, _Justin thought as he took a seat at one of the tables in the food court. It was very spacious, and more than a few stores caught his eye as he navigated his way to the food court. They even had an entire supermarket on the bottom floor. _What kind of mall does that? Not that I'm complaining, that just strikes me as a bit strange._

"THIS is the cheap place you were talking about…? They don't have grilled steaks here."

_Of course they don't,_ he sighed. _This really isn't helping my whole "Potheads replacing pot with random words," theory._

"Yeah, well, once you hopped on the freeloader train, I had to change my plans."

"Well you DO owe her."

"I know! God rub it in some more."

Justin chuckled. It was hard to tell if Yosuke was joking, or seriously getting irritated by the implication. He guessed a little of both.

"Still that's no reason to take us to your place."

"His place?" Justin piped up. _Wait, did Yosuke OWN the Junes. Mark this place off as somewhere I never want to visit again._ Justin shot a quick glance Yu's way. He seemed just as puzzled.

"Oh right. I haven't told you yet, huh? I moved here from another city about six months back. This location just opened up, and my dad was assigned to manage it. So our entire family came out here."

_Jesus, all my friends are entrepreneurs._ Justin paused for a moment. _Did I just call them friends? I've known them for a day…_

Yosuke had reached for one of several drinks he had brought over to the table. _I guess he was too cheap to even grab SOMETHING to eat. _Justin half wanted to slide Chie's DVD over to here, and tell Yosuke to get off his ass and buy some fucking food with the $20 he saved. Regardless, everyone reached in and grabbed a drink. Justin took a sip. _Watermelon soda? Don't they have Coca Cola or something around here?_

"Satonaka, yours is on me too."

"Yeah, I know."

_You go girl._

A few moments passed by in complete silence. No one had said anything awkward, but I guess there was just nothing to talk about at the moment.

"…Hey listen guys." Justin choked up. This wasn't a topic he was looking forward to bringing up. "Sorry for being a complete ass the other day."

"What do you mean?" Chie added. She seemed legitimately perplexed.

"You know. With the whole parents thing."

"Oh. OH." Chie turned hot red with embarrassment. Clearly it wasn't something she wanted to talk about either. "Really, it's okay. It was my fault too."

"Yeah, you reacted the way I think anyone would have." Yu added. _A sentence with more than five words? Who are you and what have you done with Yu._

"D-Did I miss something." Yosuke asked. That's right; he hadn't been there when this all went down.

"Nothing you need to worry about. Anyway, consider this my way of saying sorry." Justin reached down into his bag and handed Chie the DVD case. At first she wasn't sure what she was looking at, but once it clicked, her face lit up like a Christmas tree.

"Is this...?"

"Yeah, I saw it in the shopping district on the way home. Figured, why the hell not."

"You didn't have to do this you know. Yosuke's the one who broke it."

"Well now I guess he has money for grilled steaks next time." Justin added. He made sure to come across as joking, but he was dead serious inside. _Fucking cheapskate._

"Hey, I got everyone soda," Yosuke added. He truly thought it was a joke. Justin wasn't sure whether that was blessing or a curse.

"Yeah but I feel bad. I mean, it was my fault in the first place. And don't you have other things you'd rather spend your money on." Chie's eyes were looking down now, almost as though she was ashamed. _What does she have to be ashamed of_, he thought, almost irritably.

"I don't care too much for money, money can't buy me love."

"Wh-what?" Chie's face turned bright red with embarrassment. It took a moment for Justin to realize quite why.

"Wait, no, not like that. Jesus. It's a reference to a Beatles song. Haven't you ever heard it before?"

Chie's face only turned redder once she realized she had gotten embarrassed over nothing.

"O-Oh…. Uh… No, I haven't."

"Seriously?" Justin himself wasn't a big Beatles fan, but even he thought this was strange. "Well then I guess I know what I'm buying you next time."

"No!" Chie shouted quickly, before looking back down. _Did I do something wrong,_ Justin thought to himself._ I probably ended up making things worse with that money remark._

"…I mean, you've done enough already. You don't need to buy us gifts, you know."

"You're right. I don't have to. But I did it anyway."

It was true. He didn't have to pay Yosuke's tab. In fact, he had zero reason to. He pretty much hated Yosuke's guts.

"…Well thanks." Although Chie had been thoroughly embarrassed by this point, she still seemed excited about the gift Justin had given her. She put it in her book bag, before resurfacing to the table. Her face was still red with embarrassment. If he was being honest with himself, Justin thought it was actually kind of adorable. Cuter still was her trying to burrow her face into the neck of her jumper, covering her blushed face. As if she was fooling anyone.

"Y-You know," Chie hurriedly blurted out, trying to change the subject, "It's only been half a year since this place opened up, but I haven't been to the local shopping district much since."

"I can see why. You guys saw the supermarket downstairs, right?"

"A lot of stores started closing, and… Oh, uh…"

Chie blushed again. It seemed she just could not catch a break today.

"You can't blame it all on Junes, can you?"

Yosuke let out a bit of a sigh. Seemed like a sore topic for him, and why wouldn't it be. If someone accused you of putting several people out of a job, you'd get awfully irritable too. Yosuke turned his head. At first it seemed like he was trying to avoid the topic, but Justin soon realized that he had been looking at someone across the food court. _A friend of his, maybe?_

"Hey… It's Saki-senpai! Sorry, be right back."

Yosuke practically pushed the chair out from beneath him. He hadn't even run this fast when Chie had bloody-murder in her eyes.

"Yosuke's girlfriend?" Justin asked. It sure seemed that way.

"Oh, that's Saki Konishi. Her family runs a liquor store in the shopping district."

_Oh, so he's not a pothead, he's just an alcoholic. Great..._

"…I think she's working here part-time, though."

"Well I can't imagine it would be entirely legal for her to be working at her parents' store." Yu nodded in agreement with Justin, but otherwise remained silent.

"Yeah, you're probably right." Chie seemed a bit disappointed that she had over-looked the nature of their family business.

"Hey… are those the kids that transferred in."

Justin and Yu simultaneously turned their heads to the sound of Saki and Yosuke in the distance.

"What is it about transfer students that everyone seems to be getting so worked up over." Justin wondered out loud. He realized that pretty much applied to Chie too, but thankfully it seemed to go right over her head.

"Seriously..." _A man of many words, ladies and gentlemen._

It was at that moment that Saki had gotten out of her seat and approached the rest of the group, Yosuke following close behind. Justin couldn't comprehend what it was about new kids that everyone couldn't just leave them be.

"You guys are the transfer students, right? Oh, did you hear about me already?"

_No. Of course not. Like seriously, who the hell asks people that? It's not like she was famous or anything. Unless she was, you know, famous for being famous._

"It must be nice having someone else from the big city to talk to, huh?

_Is she talking about Yosuke or Yu? I don't know, I wish she would just stop gapping already. It's frickin' weird._

"I don't see Hana-chan hanging out with the other guys much."

Justin practically choked on his drink. _Is it tradition around here for people to disclose other people's personal lives or something? Hot damn._

"N-Not necessarily…"

"He doesn't have too many friends, so I hope you two get along."

_Well I could tell that muc- Wait why are we even talking about this? She didn't seriously drag herself over just to say Yosuke has no friends, right?_

"Hana-chan's a good guy, but he can get nosy sometimes. You gotta tell him right to his face when he starts to annoy you."

"That so?" A devious smile crept across Justin's face. "Hey Yosuke, you're a fat sack of shit. Go fuck yourself."

"Yeah, yeah, very funny…"

It was always nice that Yosuke seemed to think Justin was joking when he had been dead serious. It's like saying to the Pope that Jesus was a rapist, and then the Pope laughing. Actually, looking around the room, it seems no one had thought Justin was being serious. _Oh this is going to be fun._

"C-C'mon, Senpai. There's no need to worry about something like that."

"Well, my break's just about over. Back to work I go. Laters!"

Saki turned around and marched out the food court to where ever it was she worked at Junes. Yosuke called out to her, trying to get her attention before she left, but to no avail. Though Justin didn't think it was so much that she didn't hear him as it was she didn't WANT to hear him. Yosuke sighed and took his seat at the end of the table.

"Hahah, Saki-Senpai says I'm annoying, but she's even nosier than me."

"Whatever you say, you sack of rodent feces." Justin smirked. He could get away with it apparently, so he'd be damned if he didn't take every opportunity he could to make Yosuke feel like a sack of shit.

"I doubt that, you pile of horseshit." Yu added in. _Didn't think he'd have the balls to join in._

"Yeah, I mean you're the nosiest of them all, you rotting whale's carcass."

"Nice one, Chie." Justin remarked. It WAS a good one. I mean, she pretty much called him a fatass and ugly in three words.

"Alright, alright, I get it!" Yosuke shouted over the wave of insults piling on him. His brow scrunched up, lowering into a scowl. "But in all seriousness, she has a younger brother, and she pretty much treats me the same way…"

"Ohhh, you don't want her treating you like a brother, huh? Oh I get it… So that's how it is…"

"Shit just got Shakespearean up in this bitch. Saki, Saki, where art thou Saki." Justin added in.

"The daughter of a local family-run liquor store and the scion of the invading chain… The flame of forbidden love!"

Justin smiled a bit, not at the conversation, but at how even though they'd known each other for only a day Chie and him already had a pretty good back-and-forth going on.

"Wha-!? Dude, it's not like that."

"Well not anymore it's not. Kid, you got friend-zoned so hard, that the people within your immediate radius got friend-zoned. And Yu and I don't even KNOW her."

Yu couldn't help but chuckle, much to Yosuke's surprise. _Y tu, Yu?_

"Oh reaaaally… Well I know just the thing to cheer up that lovesick heart of yours. You ever hear of the Midnight Channel?"

_Midnight Channel? Sounds kind of like some porn channel. I'm game._

"You're supposed to look into a TV that's switched off, alone, exactly at midnight on a rainy night."

_Then you say Bloody Mary's name three times, right?_

"And while you're staring at your own image, another person will appear on the screen. And they say that person is your soul mate."

As much as he tried, Justin was unable to stop himself from laughing hysterically. This had to be the biggest load of bullshit he had ever heard. Looking around the table, it seemed as though everyone else thought so too.

"What? For a second, I thought you were actually going to say something useful. How can you get all excited over such a childish urban legend like that?" It pained Justin to think that he was agreeing with Yosuke on something.

"Childish, huh? You don't believe it, do you!?"

"Of course I don't."

"Chie," Justin was just snapping out of his laughing fit to the real world, "I want you to listen to what you just said. If you look into a turned off television, at midnight, ONLY when it's raining, you can see your soul mate. Tell me how that makes any sense at all. I mean, wouldn't everyone notice if there TV's just sorta flipped on in the middle of the night?"

"Well, it's raining tonight! Let's all try it out- Then you'll see!"

"Try it out…? Wait, you haven't even tried it yourself!?"

"Wasn't it raining last night?" Yu added in.

"Yep. I didn't see anything on my television, how 'bout you, Yu." Justin smirked. This was comedy gold, intentional or not.

"Nothing."

"I'm trying to remember the last time I heard something this stupid…"

Chie's face was red, but for once it was red with rage. It was like her blood was boiling under her skin. _I should probably stop before I get kicked in the balls too._

"All that aside… you know that "incident" yesterday? You guys think it was murder?"

"I don't really know much about it, but there's no way a body got up their by accident." Given the look Chie was giving him, Justin was more than happy to jump aboard the new topic.

"Ooh, what if the culprit behind it was still lurking around…?"

Chie's face seemed to lighten up a bit. At least she didn't look like she was going to pounce across the table and rip someone's throat out anymore.

"Sheesh, you shouldn't joke about stuff like that. Now who's the childish one…?"

"Clearly he'd still be lurking around if they don't even know who it is yet, anyway." Justin added, which probably didn't help everyone get off the topic.

"Look, all I'm saying is, you guys better try it out tonight."

"We're still talking about this?" Justin wondered aloud? It seemed that Yu was just as confused, where as Yosuke was just irritated by this point.

"Alright, fine, geeze."

* * *

The hours passed over small talk before everyone started to get up and leave. _I should probably get going too,_ Justin thought to himself. Yu and Yosuke had just dismissed themselves a moment or so earlier, leaving Chie and Justin behind. Justin pushed himself out of his seat and was getting ready to leave when Chie gave him a bit of a puzzled look.

"What, is there something in my teeth?"

"Huh? You heading home?"

"Was planning on jumping into bed and giving myself lung cancer, why?"

Chie gave him a very quick glare. It wasn't vicious or anything like that, but it was clear she was still a little iffy on the whole smoking subject.

"Well I was going to hang around Junes a little longer, I thought you might like to join me."

_Well that's certainly strange. Why does she need me around to do some shopping? It's not like I'll end up doing anything but bitch and moan anyway._

"You sure?"

"Yeah, I mean we are friends after all."

_Friends huh…_

"...Lead the way."

Chie's face lit up with excitement. Justin couldn't comprehend what she was so pepped up over. _It's just a bit of shopping, right? …Right?  
_

* * *

The two wandered around the mall for an hour or so, making small talk.

"So tell me, what was it like in California."

_There it is! I knew she was going to ask me that!_

"It's…" Justin paused for a moment. He had a lot of words to describe California; like a filthy cesspool of vermin feeding on the weak, or a shithole full of Ritalin rats sniffing liquefied glue to try to get away from their miserable excuses of lives. Of course, none of this is stuff he would dare say out loud unless he wanted to get slapped upside the head.

"…It's not all its hyped up to be."

"Really?" Chie seemed shocked, but interested all the same. It was hard to tell if she knew that he was choosing his words carefully.

"Yeah, that stuff you hear about on television and the news? It's all a lie."

Chie looked slightly disappointed. _Why the hell do people care about California so much? It's just like anywhere else, except everyone is a drug addict._

Justin stopped, as something caught his eye. It took a good few steps before Chie realized that he had stopped following her. By the time she turned around, Justin had been staring intensely through the glass window of a small music store. Chie walked back over, curious as to what had caught his attention. Looking inside of the glass case, she saw a guitar. It had a black coating over its body and a white pick board to its side. The strings shimmered against the silver inlets along the neck of the guitar. The top of the guitar read Gibson in big gold letters. Chie wasn't exactly an expert on instruments, but she could tell that it was a beauty of a guitar.

"You play guitar?" Chie spoke up, breaking the moment of silence.

"A little bit."

Chie took a glance at the guitar, and then back at Justin, before boldly grabbing him by the wrist, pulling him towards the entrance of the store.

"Well come on then! Starring at it won't change anything."

Justin at this point was completely baffled, trying to firmly plant his feet in the ground to avoid being pulled into the store. _I've heard of being dragged to the mall, but this brings a whole new meaning to the word._ It took a bit of force on Chie's behalf, but she finally managed to drag Justin to the front counter of the store.

"Excuse me sir. How much is that guitar you have on display?"

"What are you doing!?" Justin whispered to Chie, slightly aggravated.

"Hmm? The Gibson? 155000¥."

"Oh…"

The smile on Chie's face vanished nearly immediately, the light in her eyes faded into darkness as though it had never been there to begin with. _I don't know what she was expecting to do anyway. There was no way in hell I was gonna let her buy this._

"Alright, thanks."

She sounded almost heartbroken. _Good job me; this is why you don't do window shopping._ The two were about to leave the store, when Chie decided she wanted to take a closer look at the guitar anyway. The shape of the guitar was absolutely beautiful; the curvature seemed perfect in every way. She could practically see her face in the guitar's body, too. Little details like this just ended up making both of them feel like shit, Chie because she would never be able to afford that, and Justin for making her feel like she had to be able to afford it in the first place.

Then Chie's face brightened up, as though she had an idea. Well it was an idea alright, just not a very good one.

"Hey, do you think you could play a song?"

"Huh? Right here?"

"Yeah, you said you played before, right?"

It's true. He did say that. But he never once had done it in public, and somehow, He didn't think the store manager would approve of him plucking at the strings of a guitar he obviously couldn't afford.

"I don't think that's such a good idea."

"C'mon, you've got nothing to worry about."

The way she was staring at him, oh god the way she was staring. The sparkles in her eyes felt like they were piercing his very soul right now. _Fucking puppy dog eyes; work every time._

"…Alright fine, but quickly."

Chie jumped up in excitement. She's getting her hopes up way too high. He picked up the guitar from the stand it had been resting on at the front of the store and rested it on his lap. He plucked each string to make sure it was in tune. The way the strings vibrated felt wonderful. There was so much power behind each string, and it felt so natural against his fingertips. _What the fuck am I doing. I don't need her feeling any worse than she already does._

Justin shuffled through the songs he knew in his head. _Geeze, I apparently know a lot of really shitty songs_, he thought, going through the list of songs he knew how to play. He even considered "Police Truck" by the Dead Kennedys for a brief moment. He practically had to slap himself after that. What the fuck was wrong him to think that would be a good idea. In the end, he settled on "Kryptonite." It was cliché as all hell, but it was the only song he could think of where he wouldn't get arrested or kicked in the balls.

He started strumming the main riff, much to Chie's pleasure. If you thought her eyes were big before, you should have seen them then. _I wonder if she knows this song._ In retrospect, he probably should have played "Money Can't Buy Me Love," but it was too late now that he started. Justin hesitantly opened his mouth to choke up the lyrics to the song. He wasn't a very good singer, or at least he thought so. He never really sang in front of anyone, so he never actually heard anyone complaining about it. _I'm sure they would if they could._

_I took a walk around the world to ease my troubled mind_

_I left my body hanging somewhere in the sands of time._

_But I watched the world float to the dark side of the moon._

_I feel there's nothing I can do._

_Alright, so far so good._ Much to Justin's surprise, Chie hadn't covered her ears screaming in bloody agony. That's always a plus.

_I watched the world float to the dark side of the moon._

_After all I knew it had to be something to do with you._

_I really don't mind what happens now and then._

_As long as you'll be my friend at the end._

Justin looked up again from the neck of his guitar for a brief second. He had noticed at this point that Chie wasn't the only one staring at him anymore. _Oh for the love of fuck. I KNEW this would happen._ Justin strummed hard on his guitar, not necessarily because it felt right, but because he had a nervous tendency of playing louder in case he made any mistakes. That way the sounds of the other strings would cover up the sound of his fault. He opened his mouth wide open, as though to belt out the chorus.

_If I go crazy then will you still call me Superman?_

_If I'm alive and well, will you be there holding my hand?_

_I'll keep you by my side with my superhuman might._

_Kryptonite._

Even though there was still a lot left to the song, Justin decided it would be a good time to stop. People were staring, and it's not like the song really got much different anyway. At this point he just wanted to hang the guitar up and leave.

"That was amazing!" Chie practically shouted with glee. She still had those puppy dog eyes on too, much to Justin's displeasure.

"It was alright." He rubbed the back of his head, slightly embarrassed.

"It was more than 'alright,' it was incredible!" Chie grinned.

Justin hurriedly got up from his seat to make a b-line for the exit, Chie trailing behind, trying to catch up with him.

"W-What's wrong." Chie asked, her glee quickly transforming to concern.

"It's nothing. I just get claustrophobic really easy." Technically it wasn't a lie, though from the looks of it Chie didn't quite believe him. It didn't matter either way. The two remained silent for the rest of the time they spent together in the mall.

* * *

11:59.

Justin starred at the television screen resting on the opposite end of his bedroom.

"Why the fuck am I doing this." He yawned. "This has got to be the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. And yet here I am, staying up till midnight trying it out."

He grunted at the thought. He probably just felt guilty about the guitar fiasco earlier today. _What the hell was Chie thinking? She couldn't have possibly thought she could afford that, and even if she could, there was no way I would let her buy it. Out of the question._

He sighed again. _Come on already clock. Change…_

12:00

_See nothing. Now I can finally-_

Just then the TV flickered on.

"…What… the… fuck?"

He crawled over to the front of the TV getting a good look at it. _Oh I get it, I'm being Punk'd right?_ It made sense. It was all just some prank Chie had made up to watch him squirm… So then how is the TV working when it's unplugged?

"Ohshitohshitohshit. What the fuck."

_CALM THE FUCK DOWN. Alright, deep breathes. Okay good. Alright now focus, WHAT am I looking at._

It was hard to make out. Whatever room this was being filmed in was dark as all hell. There was a dark green tint to everything. There was something in the center of the room, flailing about strangely. Was that a person? As they flailed around more, Justin could make out tell-tale shapes from the figures silhouette. Fingers, hair, arms, that stuff. But what the hell was going on.

Just then the TV flipped back off. Justin scrambled for the remote, and pressed a few buttons. Nothing. This…. This actually happened?

Oh shit what the hell is going on here.


	5. Chapter 4: April 14, 2011

CHAPTER 4

APRIL 14, 2011

* * *

The intercom chimed signifying the end of the day. _Such a sweet sound, _Justin thought. Of course, it really didn't matter. He had been folding origami hats out of dollar bills for the last few periods, and had made a stack out of the hats on top of Abraham Lincoln's head; a task that sounds like it would involve more shits and giggles if Chie would stop poking him and asking how he was doing it. He promised he'd teach her how at some point. _Spoilers, not gonna happen. Ever._

"Y-Yo, um…"

Yosuke and Chie had started gathering around Yu's desk. Justin could only assume it had to do with the television last night. At least he hoped so. It would certainly prove he wasn't crazy if they did.

"It's, uh, it's not really that important but…"

"This have to do with the TV?" Justin perplexed.

"Y-yeah, how'd you know?"

"Oh thank god, I'm not going crazy." He sighed a breath of relief, before it dawned on him that this was something other people were seeing. _What in the hell?_

"I hate to change the subject," Chie butted in, "but have you heard the rumors? Supposedly, Saki's the one who discovered the body the other day."

Yosuke seemed a bit shocked by the sudden change of topic, but went along with it anyway.

"I wonder if that's why she looked so down… She doesn't seem to be at school today either."

Justin heard the sound of the desk behind him screeching a little bit. He had almost completely forgotten Yukiko was there. It seems she was getting up to leave.

"Huh? Hey Yukiko, are you helping out at the inn today too?"

"Things are really out of hand right now… I'm sorry."

Yukiko walked slowly out of the room, her head hung with embarrassment. _Why does she always get so embarrassed when something comes up like this? It's not like it's her fault or anything..._

"Is it just me, or does Yukiko-san seem way stressed out today?"

Justin gave him a quick glare. "And you're not?"

Yosuke looked to the side, avoiding eye contact. Justin was getting a bit irritated by this point. How is it that he was the only one freaking out over the television incident?

"I guess they're running her ragged…"

"I hate to interrupt this RIVETING conversation, but why in the hell are none of you as freaked out over this as I am."

The group fell silent for a brief moment. _Justin strikes again._ It seemed he had a knack for making things ridiculously awkward. Though what surprised him the most wasn't that the room had grown dead silent, it was the way Yu was fidgeting around in his desk. _He knows something. But what?_

"You saw something last night?" Chie piped up, breaking the silence.

"Uh, well… What about you?"

"I did, I seriously saw a girl. But… my soulmate's a girl? What's that supposed to mean?"

Justin couldn't help but choke up at that point. Chie believed that what they were seeing was their soulmate, right? So why was she not all worked up over seeing a girl? Unless… Oh. OH! Well that explains a lot actually.

"Well I guess that should answer your question" Yosuke added in with biting sarcasm, pointing towards Justin's coughing fit. By the time Justin had finished choking on his spittle, Chie had her hands wrapped around Yosuke's throat.

"Is now really the time?" Justin rather enjoyed seeing Yosuke getting strangled to death, but it was hard to enjoy the moment. Chie let loose her grip on Yosuke before crossing her arms and pouting.

"A-Anyway, I couldn't quite tell who it was, but it was a girl for sure."

_That really doesn't narrow things down._

"Her hair was brown, about shoulder length. She was wearing our school uniform, and…"

"Hey… I think that's the same person I saw. I couldn't make out that much detail, though. The Image I saw was much blurrier…"

"I couldn't really make out much either, but now that you mention it, the person I saw kinda looked like that too." Justin added.

_They all saw the same person? What the hell was that supposed to mean?_

"Wait so you both saw it too?" Chie asked, seemingly as puzzled as Justin had been.

"I did too." Yu added on, timidly.

_Ah, there we go. Was wondering when he was gonna pipe in._ Up until this point he looked like a hamster on coffee, the way he was shaking around in his desk. Was he really this riled up over the television?

"And we all saw the same girl…? Does that mean… we have the same soulmate?

It took every fiber of Justin's being not to shout out "No you dumbshit!" Instead he settled for bitter sarcasm.

"Well unless there's some crazy 5 sided love triangle going on here, I doubt we all have the same soul mate."

"There was… something else." Yu again intervened. _So are we going to finally find out why he's fidgeting like a jackhammer over here?_

"I was a bit surprised when something actually did show up on screen. I got curious, so I stuck my hand out to touch the screen… And it went right through the glass."

…_What? It did what!?_

"Actually, I sort of fell in. I got stuck trying to pull myself out. I guess my TV was too small or something."

_You got stuck? IN THE FUCKING TV!? WHAT FUCKING NIGHTMARE IS THIS!? _As if that wasn't surprising enough, a quick glance around the group showed they didn't believe him in the slightest. _Under normal circumstances, I might have agreed with them. But you believe that soulmate shit and not this? Where the hell is the line being drawn here?_

"What was that part about getting sucked into your TV…? Were you that tired last night? You must have just fallen asleep in front of your TV."

"I-I…"

"That'd be one interesting dream, though. I like the part where you got stuck cause your TV was too small. That's pretty realistic."

Yu kept opening his mouth as if trying to find the right words to say. He was beat red embarrassed. Not a single person in this room believed him, save for Justin.

"Are you two serious right now?"

"Hmm? What do you mean." Yosuke asked, raising one of his eyebrows.

"You guys accept that you somehow can see your mystical embodiment of a soulmate on a turned off television, but somehow sticking your hand into the TV? That's where you guys draw the line?"

"Well, I mean it's pretty hard to believe…" Chie stuttered a bit over her words. She seemed almost embarrassed by the situation. _And rightfully so._

"And normally I would agree, but given the circumstances? No. No it isn't."

Yosuke and Chie gave each other a passing glance before hanging their heads with shame.

"Maybe you're right…" Chie sighed.

_Maybe I went a little too far… I didn't mean to make things awkward…_

That thought was immediately shoved out of Justin's head however, when her face suddenly lit up, like she had just been given a golden idea from the heavens.

"Hey, what if we tried it out with a bigger screen?"

Yu jumped back a bit in his seat. It was clear he wasn't fond of the idea, although after a brief moment he nodded in agreement to the idea. It seemed like he was forcing himself to agree.

"You know, we've been beefing up the electronics department this month at Junes. Who knows, we might find a TV big enough for this guy to fit in."

Yu's face turned bright red once again as Yosuke laughed that insufferable laugh of his. And so Justin didn't feel bad at all about smacking him upside the head.

"Ow!" Yosuke shouted, grabbing the back of his head.

_Good, I hope it hurt a whole fucking lot._

* * *

It took a good hour or so of walking, but they finally made it to their destination. The Junes electronics department was loaded from top to bottom with every kind of television you could think of; flat-screens mostly. Justin could barely make heads or toe of which way was up and which way was down with all of the television monitors.

"Wow, this is huge! And… Holy crap it's expensive! Who buys something like this?"

"I dunno… Rich folks? Honestly, not many people shop for TVs here. That's why we don't have clerks around."

"Focus, guys."

"Oh right, sorry."

Chie and Yosuke starred at the big screen for a brief moment before turning to acknowledge the other. They gave each other a quick nod before walking up to the television and pressing their palms against it. Nothing. Huh, maybe it was just a dream after-all. Unless this was something specific to Yu. Speaking of Yu, Justin decided to turn his attention towards him for a brief moment. His face was completely red again. He seemed almost mortified that nothing had happened. Perhaps he thought it was a dream too.

"…Nope, can't get in. Figures."

"Haha, this proves it. It was all just a dream."

"Huh, guess so." Justin added hesitatingly. Something still seemed off to him.

"Besides, these flat-screen TVs are so thin, you'd just end up on the other side…"

"I doubt that's how it would work."

Justin sighed, placing his thumb to his forehead. He got all worked up over this for nothing. Though there was still the matter of the Midnight Channel. What was going on with that?

"Well, while we're here, you said your parents are in the market for a TV, right Chie?"

"Hmm? Oh yeah! I almost forgot all about it. Well all they said was they wanted one that's cheap. You got any suggestions?"

The two walked over to another aisle in the store, Yosuke donning the most irritating fake salesman voice Justin had ever had the displeasure of hearing. _I swear, this guy needs to get his ass kicked. _In his thoughts, Justin hadn't even noticed Yu walk past his back and up to the TV. Justin turned around to find him pressing his palm against the TV screen much like the others.

"I wouldn't worry abou-"

He was interrupted mid-sentence as the screen shimmered around Yu's hand as it delved into the television screen.

"No fucking way…"

Justin ran over as quickly as he possibly could to Yu. _Holy shit! He's putting his hand inside the FUCKING TV!?_

"Yu, what the fuck are you doing!?"

"I have no idea, it just sorta went through!"

"Oh yeah, Yu, what kind of TV do you-"

Off in the distance Yosuke had just noticed what was unfolding between Yu and the television screen. Chie was apparently still oblivious to it. _Typical Chie._

"Huh, something wrong, Yosuke?"

"I-Is his arm… in the TV…?"

At this point Chie had finally turned around to see what Yosuke was starring at. This was immediately followed by her jaw dropping what seemed like 20 feet.

"Whoa… Uh… Is that some kinda… new model? L-Like with a new function?"

"Of course it's not!" Justin shouted over from where Yu had stuck his hand through the screen. The two ran over quickly, awestruck by whatever the hell it was that Yu was doing.

"You gotta be kidding me… Did you really stick your hand through the screen?"

"I told you. None of you wanted to believe us, and now look." Justin was trying to be at least a little nonchalant, but it just came out as a panicked mess of words.

"Oh man… This is for real… That's some magic trick, man! So how's it work, huh!? What's the magician's secret!?"

"Are you fucking kidding me Yosuke?"

"I…. might be able to fit in more than my arm…"

"What, NO! Don't do that!"

Yu removed his hand, only to place his head inside in its place.

"H-Hey, don't do that! What're you doing!?"

"Oh my God!"

"It's… empty inside…"

"Wh-What do you mean "inside"!?"

"Wh-What do you mean "empty "!?"

"Oh Christ, this is NOT happening."

"Spacious too…"

"Wh-What do you mean "spa-"

"Probably the same god damn thing he meant by "empty," now can we stop asking questions and help me get this guy out of there?"

Justin rushed over grabbed Yu by his waist to try and pull him out. His body didn't even budge from Justin tugging at it with all his strength.

"Holy crap… I-I think this is all too much for my bladder…"

_Are you fucking kidding me!? HOLD IT! WE HAVE SOMEONE INSIDE A GODDAMN TV HERE!_

"What the-? Are you gonna pee your pants!?"

"Not before he helps me get Yu out he's not!"

"I've been holding it in all day! I-I haven't had a chance to go…"

"What the hell is wrong with you Yosuke."

"Aaarrgh! Can't… hold it… anymore!"

"Holy shit, just go already. You pissing your pants isn't helping the situation."

Yosuke darted off, only to skid to a stop at the end of the aisle, and come running back.

"Shit! Customers! They're coming!"

"Wh-What are we going to do."

"Calm down and help me pull!"

Chie ran over to help Justin pull at Yu's waist. For whatever reason he still wouldn't budge. Not that it was a problem for much longer, because Yosuke, being the idiot that he was, had apparently forgotten to tie his shoes. Needless to say, wrong time, wrong place. Yosuke stepped on his shoelace and tripped into the group of teens trying to pull Yu out. They had put so much of their strength into pulling Yu out, that they were completely unable to stop themselves from falling forward into the TV during the collision.

As the group fell forward, face first, Justin felt as though he was seeing his life flash before his eyes. Of course, it was actually just whatever was going on in the TV world. It was like a strange black and white vortex on the inside. Had Justin recently eaten, he probably would have vomited from the seizure inducing imagery in front of him. Which was particularly bad thing here, because given the rate they were falling at it probably would have flown right back up into his face.

Even though it felt like they had been falling for ages, Justin could catch a glimpse of something in the distance, as the vortex started to subdue. He couldn't make out much at the rate he was falling, but it looked kind of like a target. Of course, he hadn't had much time to think about what he was looking at, or why it was a target. Justin landed against the floor head first as he reached the end of his fall. He was knocked out cold.

* * *

It was a long while before he awoke to a familiar face.

"-ake up! Come on!"

Justin pushed himself slightly off the ground, his ass still firmly planted to the floor, but his back curving upwards.

"Ugh… how much did I have to drink?"

Chie smacked him upside the back of his head. Probably not the smartest thing she could have done given that he had just landed on it. And holy shit did it hurt. It felt like a thousand mosquitoes were hammering against the inside of his skull. He'd be surprised if his head was still in one piece.

"Now's not the time for jokes!" Chie beamed at him, a combination of worry and murder in her eyes. _What, did I land on her or something?_

"Sorry, gah-"

He moaned as he tried to push himself off the floor. He stood up for a brief moment before trying to take a step, tumbling back down to the ground in the process. Luckily for him Chie managed to catch him mid-fall and help him back up. Chie starred at him in a way as though to say "You don't look so good."

"Sorry, I'll be fine. Promis-"

He stumbled again. He hadn't even been moving that time. How hard did he hit his head that he couldn't even stand up straight? Chie let out a sigh, as though she were disappointed at how stubborn he was being.

"…Here, give me your arm."

Justin lifted his arm up as she wrapped it around the back of her head, supporting his weight on hers.

"You know, you don't have to do this."

"You're right, but I am."

Chie smiled weakly at him. _Clever girl, _he thought to himself. He was searching around his head for a witty response, but his head was pounding so hard he could barely think straight. At the most he could muster out a chuckle at the comment.

Justin took a glance around. There was a sickly green fog covering every inch of land he could see. He couldn't see a damn thing. It suddenly occurred to Justin that he hadn't seen Yu or Yosuke at all. In the distance, he could just barely make out two humanoid figures. The more he thought, the more the pressure in his head screamed out in pain, so rather than guess at whom it could be, he decided to just assume that it was the rest of the gang.

"What is this place?" Justin piped up. The others had clearly been conscious longer than he had, so they must have had SOME idea of what was going on.

"Well… inside the TV, I guess?"

"Not what I meant, but alright."

Justin groaned a bit. _Of course we're in the TV. What did you forget what just happened like five- Actually, how long HAS it been? I couldn't have been out that long, right?_

"…Whoa." Yosuke blurted out suddenly.

"Wh-What now!? Did you wet your pants!?"

"You mean he hasn't already?" Justin was half serious. If falling into a television and whacking your ass on the floor from dozens of feet in the air didn't make you piss yourself, what would?

"No, stupid! Look around!"

Justin looked around for a brief second before giving up. He couldn't make out a thing with this fog, and squinting just made his skull feel like it was about to explode. Thankfully, from the looks on everyone's face, it seemed they were able to make out a thing or two.

"Is this… a studio?"

"It sure seems that way." Yu reasoned.

"All this fog… or is it smoke? There's no place like this in Inaba, huh?"

"Hell no."

At this point Justin was feeling pretty shitty. Partially because his head felt like it was on fire, and partially because he wasn't much help when just the ACT of staring at things was physically paining him. He felt like a giant bag of rocks, serving no purpose than to impede progress and get dragged around. Hell he couldn't even STAND on his own. What good was he?

"What're we gonna do…?"

"We need to find a way out." Yu added with authority.

Justin felt like telling Yu to fuck off. It was his fault they fell in the television in the first place. I mean yeah, Yosuke was a complete fuckwit and tripped on his shoelace, but there was no reason for Yu to go sticking his entire head into the TV. Plus, he saw him pull his hand out of the screen; he clearly could have pulled his head out too.

"G-Good plan."

"I didn't realize that qualified as a plan. Do we even know how to get out?"

_The million dollar question_, or at least Justin had assumed given the way everyone started looking at each other funny.

"I-I don't see the way in… or out!"

"What? That can't be right! H-How could that be!?"

"I don't know! Don't ask me!"

Justin almost had to tighten his grip on Chie as she swayed back in forth to argue with Yosuke. It took her a while to realize that Justin was having trouble hanging on to her while she was going at his throat, and stopped moving.

"I can't take this anymore! I wanna go home!"

"Okay… so how!?"

"Both of you calm down." Yu dictated. And surprisingly enough they listened. If Justin had been the one arguing just now, he might have just socked Yu one in his smug face, but here were Chie and Yosuke backing down without any argument.

"Alright, alright… L-Let's calm down and think about this."

"Is there really a way outta here…?"

"We got in here, didn't we?"

"Right, so we must be able to get out somehow."

"That's true, but…"

Chie paused midsentence. It was hard to get a good look at her face from his angle, but from what Justin could see, her eyebrows were curved upwards with worry, her eyes looked as though they were about tear-up at any second.

"If there's no exit, we're trapped, so let's cross our fingers and look around."

That was all Chie needed to push her over the edge. Tears started streaming from her eyes. She wasn't just scared; she was completely and utterly terrified. And Yosuke just hammered in the last nail in the coffin.

"Oh, wonderful. Nice going asshole." Justin spat out. _Why did Yosuke have to be such a dick sometimes? Whatever happened to building team morale?_

Chie wiped the tears from her eyes with the sleeve on her free arm. Her eyes were still red though, and her skin darker where the tears had rolled down her cheek.

"I-It's fine. Let's just… Let's just try to find an exit." She could barely talk without welling back up again, but she started moving forward nonetheless. _Great, she's about to break out into tears, AND she has to carry me ass around. Life fucking sucks._

* * *

The group wandered around in the fog for a good few hours. They weren't finding much, save for the occasional railing one of them bumped into. Yu and Yosuke had taken the lead, while Chie and Justin stayed a little further behind. Probably because they moved slower as a group then they did when they weren't leaning on each other. Justin just wanted to let go of her and walk on his own, but every time he started to loosen his grip, it felt like someone was playing the drums on his skull.

It took a lot of walking, but the gang eventually came across what seemed like a balcony. _Funny, I don't remember walking up any stairs. How'd we end up getting here?_ It briefly caught Justin's thoughts that they had no idea where they had been going, nor how to get back. Or at least he didn't.

"What is this place…? It feels different from where we were before…"

Justin looked around. He honestly had stopped taking in the sights after a while of walking. He couldn't see far, and his head screamed in pain every time he tried to focus his vision on something. Still something about this place did seem different than where they had come from.

"Looks like the fog's lighter over here."

"Now that Justin mentions it, it does look like the fog has lifted a bit." Yosuke added quietly. It seemed he was deep in thought. "It looks like we're in some kinda building, but… Damn, this fog's still too thick, I can hardly see."

"Are you sure we're not wandering farther away?"

"I can't be positive, but we gotta trust our instinct a little."

"Our? I wouldn't trust your instinct on whether a turkey sandwich was edible, Yosuke." Justin added in snidely.

He was joking, but as the comment came out of his mouth, he had almost found himself agreeing with it. They'd been walking around for hours now, and they had no idea where they were? They could be miles away from where the entrance was by now!

"Enough, you two," Yu jabbed at the two of them. Justin was in no mood to be arguing anyway, so he dropped the subject. Yu and Yosuke continued to take the lead down the hallway, Chie and Justin following as best as they could in their awkward huddle. As they walked further down the hallway, Justin could start to make something out in the distance. Its red color practically broke through the green coating that had colored everything he'd seen since the group had arrived.

"Hey, you guys up front see that right?"

"Yeah, what is it?"

"You think it might be the way out?"

Chie practically jumped for joy as the words left Justin's lips. He hadn't meant to get her hopes up, but it did almost look like the vortex they had fallen through earlier. They group stopped as they approached the swirling red vortex. Yu pressed his palm against it, as the vortex dissolved away. Not even the way the television screen had shimmered before granting the teens access. It had completely vanished at its focal point.

Where the red swirling particles had once been was instead the opening to a room. It was… completely clear of fog. The fog that had surrounded the teens seemingly stopped at the doorway, as though there were some sort of invisible force field surrounding it. As the group walked inside, a scarf hanging from the ceiling immediately caught Justin's eye. It was tied in the shape of a noose.

"What in the hell…"

Yosuke's face light up as he reeled his head back, as though he had suddenly gotten an idea. Yosuke reached into his pockets and grabbed his cell-phone. He flipped the phone open, only for his face to droop back down in immediate succession.

"No service. What a surprise…"

"Well it wasn't like you were gonna call the cops and say "Help! I'm trapped in a TV!""

"He's got a point," Chie added in with agreement. Yosuke sighed.

"Yeah, I guess you're right."

Chie twisted her head around, examining every little bit of the room. Justin couldn't really blame her. Here, in the middle of god only knows, there was a bedroom with a singular scarf noose hanging down. Nothing about this place made sense. Justin gave his attention to the noose once again. _Where's the body though…_

"Huh? What the…!?"

Justin looked back towards Chie, snapped out of his concerns with the noose. The look on her face was that of complete and utter shock, with just a hint of fear. Justin turned his around as much as he could to see what she had been looking at. Behind the two were several posters. All of the same person, though who it was, Justin couldn't make out; mostly because the faces had been completely cut off.

"It's a dead end! There's no exit!"

"It keeps getting creepier and creepier the further we go..."

Justin had to stop himself from pulling his cigarettes out of his pocket. His heart was racing at this point, yet somehow, he didn't think smoking was a great idea when his head was probably split down the middle. Plus, he didn't think Chie would appreciate him blowing smoke into her face. Of course, Justin's inner debate on whether or not to smoke was interrupted when he heard the shouts of Yosuke squirming in agony behind him.

"Aargh! I can't hold it any longer…"

"YOU STILL HAVEN'T GONE!?" Justin shouted, partially because of the shock, partially because the pain in his head intensified as he raised his voice.

"My bladder's gonna explode…!"

Yosuke ran over to a wall on the opposite side of the room, his hands shoved into his crotch, presumably unzipping his fly as he made his way over there.

"Yosuke!? What're you doing!?"

"Dude, that is someone's bedroom wall!" Justin paused for a moment. "…At least, I think it is."

"I gotta let it out before I piss my pants!"

"You're going here!? Oh, you have got to be kidding…"

"With all this green fog around!? You're gonna end up getting TV herpes, or something!"

Yosuke looked down for a moment. It was completely silent. Justin had been waiting to hear the sound of Yosuke's piss splashing against the wall. Nothing.

"T-Turn around! I can't go if everyone's watching!"

"Dude, no one wants you watch you piss, just go already!"

Silence again swept the room for a brief moment. Justin could hear the sound of zipping. _What a fucking drama-queen._

"Aaaaargh… I can't do it! It's all your fault if my bladder bursts!"

"Like I care…"

"I second that notion."

Yu gave the two of them a glare. Chie ended up hanging her head in shame again, while Justin glared right back at him.

"Anyways… What's with this room? Check out these posters… Their faces are all cut out… Somebody must really hate this person…"

"Oh, please, I don't need this when there's a noose hanging right next to us." Justin added. He felt sick to his stomach at this point, and he couldn't tell if it was because of his head or because of the shit he was seeing right now.

"Dude… this chair and rope… That kind of arrangement is never good…"

Chie chuckled a little, but not in the "that's funny" kind of way. It was more of a "holyshitletsgethefuckoutofhe re," kind of chuckle.

"C'mon… Let's go back to where we came from, and look somewhere else for an exit…"

Yosuke looked back over to the posters for a brief moment, an eyebrow raised, as though he were deep in thought.

"I swear I've seen that poster somewhere before."

"Who CARES!? Let's go! I am sick of this place!"

"Same here, in more ways than one."

Chie glanced at Justin for a moment, her eyes dull with concern, eyebrows curved with worry.

"I'm not feeling so good either…"

"Now that you mention it, me too… Alright let's head back. I'm seriously starting to feel sick…"

* * *

"Whew… We finally made it back here."

_No kidding. We've been walking for hours. We're lucky we even made it back here in one piece._

"Wait… What's that…?"

Justin looked up. He didn't see anything, but then, that wasn't unusual in this fog. It didn't help that his head felt worse and worse as they kept moving. He probably had a concussion. More than a few times, Chie had to shake Justin as his eyes drooped close, though he wondered if it was out of concern or whether she had a problem dragging around a sleeping teenager. He was guessing the latter.

Just as he finished thinking on that subject, Justin could start to make out the shadow of something, though what it was he couldn't tell. One thing's for sure, it wasn't human. Justin tried to shift his weight to get into a fighting stance, but the stress on his head just made him lose balance and tip into Chie.

"Th-There's something over there!"

As the figure got closer, Justin could start to make out some details. It was short, and round. Where one would expect a head, he instead saw big, wide eyes, not much different than the kind you would find on Goofy at Disney World. Its body was colorful, with different shades of yellow, white, blue, and red mixed all around its body.

_It's… A bear mascot? What the hell?_

"W-What is this thing? A monkey? A bear…?"

"What in the world…?"

Justin was about to express his own surprise, but could barely gather the strength to open his mouth. He was exhausted, and his head still hurt like a bitch. Maybe he could just close his eyes for a minute or t-

Chie shook him again. "Thanks," he whispered under his breath. It was loud enough for her to hear, but not so loud that it took up any of his energy. Chie responded by giving him a worried look. He felt bad that he kept worrying her like this, but it wasn't like he was doing it intentionally.

"Th-That's what I wanna know! Who are you guys…?" The bear spoke up. He sounded just like a child. He wasn't a child right? Cause that would be pretty fucked up.

"It talked!?" Chie's expression suddenly changed from that of surprise to that of aggression. _I don't like where this is heading. _"Uhh… What are you!? Y-You wanna fight!?"

The bear receded back a bit, cowering in fear.

"D-Don't yell at me like that…"

Yu cleared his throat, "Uh hey… My name's Yu Narukami. Do you mind if I ask you a question?"

"Huh?"

"What is this place?"

The bear paused briefly, as though trying to think of an answer.

"…This place is what it is. It doesn't have a name."

"Figures." Justin muttered under his breath.

"It's where I live."

It seemed the rest of the group was surprised at the notion that anyone had lived here. Truth be told, Justin was slightly surprised as well. He looked like a children's mascot, and if the room they had been in was this guy's bedroom… Well let's just say he wouldn't let him anywhere near children.

"Y-You live here…?"

"If I was you guys, I'd hurry back to the other side. Someone's been throwing people in here. It's a big headache."

Justin groaned. "Please don't say headache."

"Huh? What's wrong with him."

"He hit his head when he fell in… He might have a concussion. It's important that we get him out of here."

This had been the first time anyone had made any mention of his head injury, other than Chie carrying him around. She seemed legitimately worried about his injuries. Hell, she looked like she was on her wit's end with concern. Justin felt like an ass for making her worry, yet for some reason he felt better knowing she cared. But why?

"Throwing people in? What're you talking about?"

"I dunno who's doing it! I just want them to think before they go doing things like that!"

"Hey, what's your problem? What gives YOU the right to yell at us like that!? What are you!? Where are we!? What the heck's going on here!?"

The bear had gone back to cowering in fear of Chie's presence for a brief moment before trying to take shelter behind Yu's legs. _As if that would help._

"Calm down, Chie." Yu voiced from across the room.

"S-Sorry." Chie stammered the sentence out, her face a slight tint of red.

"I already told you… A-Anyways, you should hurry back."

Yosuke pinched his forehead in annoyance. Justin couldn't really blame him. If his head wasn't killing him so much, he probably would have been doing the exact same thing.

"What it comes down to is, you want us to get outta here, right? Well, so do we! We just don't know how, dammit!"

"Urrrrgh! That's why I'm saying I'll let you out!"

_Oh sweet Jesus thank you._

"Like I keep saying-"

"Yosuke, shut the fuck up…"

Justin had gathered as much energy as he could just to make that come out as anything other than a whisper. He just wanted Yosuke to be quiet for five seconds. Everyone's voices were pounding against his head like wrecking balls, and besides. The bear said he was letting them out, there was no reason to be arguing. Yosuke gave a quick glance Justin's way before averting his eyes from making contact with him.

The bear side-stepped around Yu's legs and tapped his foot a few times. The gang was soon blinded by an explosion of pink smoke. As it faded away, they could make out the shapes of three television sets stacked up on top of each other.

"What the Hell!?"

"Oh I get it," Justin moaned, "We leave the same way we came in, right?"

The group gathered in front of the television set, examining it from top to bottom. It seemed they were more curious as to how the television sets had appeared miraculously before them than how they would be getting out. Justin was slightly confused himself, but at this point he just wanted to go home. Everything else was irrelevant.

"Okay, now go, go, get outta here! I'm a busy bear!"

Just then he felt something pressing up against his spine. It was the bear, trying to push him through the television set. It was a lot more awkward when he was trying to push two people through at once, but he managed to do it. After much force, the bear was able to push both Chie and Justin through, Justin's chin digging into her shoulder, and her leg caught between his. That's not to mention the awkwardness of falling through that vortex again like that.

* * *

Luckily for Justin, he had ended up falling on Chie as they reemerged through Junes. He felt like a dick for being happy about that, but he figured his head had taken enough abuse that day. Plus she didn't seem like she was hurt, other than being a bit sore from the impact. Looking around as the two got up, they noticed Yu and Yosuke had fallen through slightly after them.

"Did we… make it back?"

Yosuke took a look around the store. He had been familiar with the opening and closing times of each of the departments in the Junes, and it seemed as though the Electronics Department would be closing soon.

"Crap, it's already that late?"

"How late is late?" Justin choked up.

"I couple minutes to nine."

"Looks like we were in there for quite awhile…"

Yosuke's expression suddenly went completely blank, his mouth hanging by the jaw as he stared at something in the distance.

"That's right… Now I remember where I saw that poster before."

Yosuke walked over to a support column in the middle of the store. On it was a poster. Justin took as good of a look as he could without straining himself. That was definitely the poster from that room earlier. It looked like an advertisement for a concert. _I wonder why the face had been cut out…_

"Hey, you're right, they're the same. I couldn't tell before without the face, but it was Misuzu Hiiragi… She's been all over the news lately."

"I don't get it, who buys a poster of a singer just to cut the face out?"

"Haven't you hear the rumors? Something about… her husband having an affair with that announcer lady who died the other day."

"You think the two are connected."

"I don't know…"

Chie starred at the picture for a while, as though the suggestion that it had something to do with that room they were in had struck her to the core.

"Hey, so does that mean… that weird room we saw… Could it be related to that Yamano lady's death…?"

Yosuke paused for a moment, grabbing below his bottom lip, deep in thought.

"Now that I think about it… there was that creepy noose hanging from the ceiling…"

Yosuke shook his head. _I guess that's his way of slapping himself if he says or thinks something really stupid. _Justin paused for a moment. _Well then he should be shaking his head all the time._

"Yaaargh, stop! No more! We gotta stop talking about this."

"Agreed." Yu, Chie, and Justin all chimed in with perfect unison. Though it was harder to hear Justin since had resorted to saying it under his breath.

"I'm gonna wipe whatever happened today from my brain-"

"Gah, there you go again." Somehow the mere mention of anything head related was physically paining him at this point.

"I'm feeling a chill too."

Justin took a side glance at Chie. Come to think of it, she wasn't looking too great herself. Her skin was pale, and her eyes were getting red. It looked like maybe she was catching a bug.

"I'm gonna drop Justin off at the hospital and then head home… I wanna lie down and rest."

"Wait, what?"

Justin hadn't even whispered that one. There were three things Justin hated in the world; crowds, stairs, and hospitals. He had no intention of going, and it's not like Chie was in much condition to be dragging him there either. Chie obviously could tell he was going to be stubborn, given the look on her face.

"Well yeah, you have to get your head checked. You hit it pretty hard."

"This is not gonna happen."

"You know, you don't have to do everything on your own…"

"That's not it at all." Justin was pretty frantic the way he blurted it out. _What the hell does she mean by that? I don't do everything on my own…_

"Then what is it?"

"Me and hospitals just don't mix, that's all."

Chie grinned a devious smile. _Oh boy, she was getting a kick out of this somehow._

"Oh, I see how it is. You're afraid of needles, aren't you."

"Well yes, but I doubt their planning on sticking a needle in my skull."

"Well then you've got nothing to worry about."

Chie grabbed his arm and placed it around the back of her head again. She knew all too well he was too weak to walk on his own anyway, so it's not like he had much say in the matter.

"Alright we're off you guys,"

"Alright see ya Chie, Justin."

Justin tried to firmly plant his feet into the ground, but he barely had the strength to stand, so it didn't do much in the ways of slowing Chie down as she dragged him out of the Junes. People were starring at the awkward bundle that Chie and him had to form to get him to walk straight. _It just gets worse and worse, doesn't it._

* * *

Justin opened the door back out to the waiting room. It turns out that he HAD gotten a concussion, and as much as he hated to admit it, dragging him to the hospital was probably the best thing Chie could have done. He still didn't like it one bit, but he was glad it was over at the very least. He made his way over to where Chie had been waiting for him earlier. _Maybe she went home already. She doesn't have to wait me, nor does she have any reason to._

But, as Justin slowly turned the corner he found Chie sitting in the same spot she had been earlier; fast asleep. He had been in the doctor's office longer than he had assumed he would be, and it WAS getting pretty late. Justin took a seat next to Chie. He starred at her a bit, trying to decide whether to wake her up or not. Despite all that had happened today, she looked almost... happy; content with whatever she was dreaming of. _We're gonna have to leave sooner or later..._ Justin gave her a very light shake to wake her up. Her eyes slowly flickered back into reality, as she let loose a yawn. It took her a moment to remember what she was doing at the hospital.

"So how'd it go?" she moaned under her breath. It was clear she was still half asleep.

"The bandage doesn't give it away?"

Chie looked up. She hadn't even noticed the gauss wrapped around the entirety of his forehead. She seemed worried, so Justin tried to alleviate some of her concern.

"Doctor says I'll be up and walking by tomorrow, and the headaches will be gone by the end of the week."

Chie's face brightened up a bit. "Well that's wonderful news."

The two sat there in silence for a while. Something was still bugging him that had been said earlier._ I don't have to do everything on my own. But… I don't just rely on myself, right...? ...What am I saying; I just tried to walk home, by myself, with a concussion... Maybe she's right…_

"Hey listen I hate to ask," Justin started. The words were practically plugging up his throat. "-But you think you could help me back to my house? It's just down the street."

Chie seemed a bit shocked by the preposition, but in a good way. It was like she was pleasantly surprised that he had asked her to help him out. A grin crept across her face.

"Yeah, of course."

* * *

It was only a short walk, about fifteen minutes, even at the grueling pace they had been moving, before they reached the house. The two walked up the porch, Justin digging through his pockets to try and find the house key. Chie could tell he was having a hard time finding it, though she couldn't understand why. He only had so many pockets, right?

"Why not just knock on the door. Someone will open it for you, right?"

"Huh?"

"I mean it's pretty late, whoever you're staying with has to be inside by now, right?"

"What do you mean? I live by myself."

"You what?"

Justin couldn't understand quite why Chie had been so shocked by that. I mean she knows his parents were dead. Was it out of the ordinary for a kid to live by himself out here? It happened all the time in California. It took a second, but Justin finally found the key and opened the door to the house. He had half expected to say goodbye to Chie and close the door, but she seemed to follow him inside.

"Is that even legal?"

"Yeah, my parents used to use this place as a summer house. It's all paid for in advance, and it's signed in my name."

Justin leaned against the wall of the hallway, while Chie took a seat on the nearby couch. It was made of leather, much to her surprise. Justin pushed the door closed a bit as he searched for the light switch, using his lighter to help guide him to it.

"Yeah, but what about food and heat and all that stuff."

"Trust fund. I get so much money a month, and put some of that aside for the essentials."

He had found the light switch in the kitchen and flipped it on. He decided to rummage through the fridge for something to drink. He had a feeling they were going to be here for a while. _Me especially since I LIVE here, _he added onto the thought sarcastically. He pulled out a glass and a bottle of Coke.

"You want anything?"

"Oh, uh… No thanks."

"You sure?"

He was going to feel like a douche for drinking in front of her if she wasn't drinking something too.

"Yeah, I'm good."

"Alright, suit yourself."

He finished pouring his glass of cola and shoved the rest of the bottle into the fridge. He took a sip of the glass before putting it back down on the counter. He could hear rain start to pitter patter against his window. _Shit, I forgot it was supposed to rain tonight. Chie still has to walk home. _Given the look on Chie's face, it seems the same thought had struck her.

"Christ, I forgot it was supposed to rain tonight… What time is it anyway."

Chie almost immediately recognized what he was trying to get at.

"Oh no. Nononono. We are not watching that again."

"Well it wasn't like I was planning on jumping through it again anytime soon" Justin sarcastically pointed towards his gauss bandage. "'sides, you're pretty much stuck here till the rain passes."

Chie raised a finger as though to object, but seemed to back down. It was clear she felt uncomfortable being here any longer than she needed to be, though whether it was because of him or if she was just being polite was debatable. Chie sneezed, clearly a result of whatever the hell it was she caught inside of the television.

"It's alright; it's just a little rain. I can get home by myself."

"Not with that cold you're not."

"It's just allergies, I'll be fine." She seemed to be getting irritated that Justin was forcing her to stay until the storm passed.

"You know, you don't have to do everything on your own."

Chie's face lit up, though her eyebrows were still scrunched down on her brow. It's hard to describe; it was as though she looked angry and happy at the same time.

"Oh, I get it. So now you're stealing MY quotes. I see how it is."

"All is fair in love and war, m'lady."

Chie couldn't help but giggle at being called "m'lady." It sounded so out forced and out of place.

"You still don't want that drink?"

"Well, I guess I'm going to be stuck her for a while anyway."

Justin reached back into the fridge and pulled out the Coca Cola. He didn't even bother to ask what she wanted. He finished pouring the glass, put the bottle away, and carried her beverage over to her.

"Here you go."

"Thanks."

Chie grasped the drink in both hands and took a sip. Given the look on her face, she wasn't a fan of Justin's tastes in drinks.

"You don't have to drink it if you don't like it."

Chie seemed slightly offended that he had pointed it out, but also partially relieved that she wouldn't have to force herself to keep drinking it.

"So how long have you… you know… lived by yourself."

"That's a bit personal, don't you think."

Chie's face turned bright red.

"O-Oh, sorry, I didn't mean-"

"I'm just pulling your leg. A couple years now, why?"

"You said you came from California, right? Why come here? I mean, if you've been living alone this entire time, it must have been your choice."

"Sorta. It was in my parents will. I guess they liked the area or something, I don't know, it was very vague."

"Oh…"

Chie's face only got redder the more the conversation seemed to shift towards Justin's dead parents. It didn't matter either way, because at that moment, it had turned 12:00. The television set in the living room flickered on. And on the screen was the familiar person they had both seen the night before.

"There she is, that's the one I saw last night!" Chie was practically shouting.

"So we DID see the same person."

However, unlike last night, the flailing image of the young girl suddenly vanished half way through the shot. She was gone without a trace, leaving the camera filming on an empty room. The television shut off only moments later.

"That… didn't happen last time." Justin said, taking a sip of his drink.

"No… it didn't." Chie was a lot more baffled at what she had seen than Justin. She couldn't help but wonder how he was staying so collected right now. Maybe falling on his head did him some good.

* * *

The rain stopped about a half-hour later. The two said their goodbyes as Justin locked the door behind him, clumsily making his way back to his bedroom. He tossed himself onto the bed and looked up towards the ceiling, his hand digging through his pockets. He hadn't gotten the chance to smoke all day, and he knew how Chie felt about it. This was the first chance he had all day, and god dammit, he was going to savor it. Justin put the cigarette in his mouth, and lit the end ablaze.

_**Aww, how fucking adorable. You actually give a damn about her feelings.**_

Justin's eyes opened wide open. _What the shit? I… thought I just heard someone…_

_**Don't play coy, you know what you heard.**_

"Who the fuck's there!?"

Justin jumped out of his bed, searching around the room. He didn't see anyone, and nothing looked out of place.

_**Why, there's no one here but you.**_

"Bullshit, who the hell are you. Show yourself."

_**Aww, I'm offended. Don't you even recognize yourself? I'm you.**_

_**And you are me.**_


	6. Chapter 5: April 15, 2011

CHAPTER 5

APRIL 15, 2011

* * *

The intercom buzzed. It was only midday, and they had been instructing the students to do something. Justin had barely heard it though. He had been listening to his iPod, and although it had been blasting fairly loud, it seemed King Moron hadn't noticed it at all. Either that or he didn't care.

"What are you listening to anyway?" Chie seemed legitimately curious, though also sort of peeved. He did have them stuck in his ears all-day after all.

"Well it's on shuffle…"

Justin grabbed a hold of his iPod to take a look at what song was playing, despite clearly recognizing the tune. It was a habit of his, and a stupid one at that.

"The Black Keys." Chie's eyes widened with amazement. _Oh shit, what did I do?_

"Oh my god, I love the Black Keys!" Her eyes were sparkling as though Justin had just told her she won a million dollars. "Which album are you listening to?"

"El Camino."

"You should give Attack and Release a listen."

"That's the one with "I Got Mine," right?"

The conversation seemed to drag on forever with Chie practically choking over the fangasm that was spewing out of her mouth. Justin was relatively unfamiliar with the Black Keys, save an album or two. For him, it was as though he was being dragged along on a ride he hadn't bought tickets for.

_**Why don't you just tell this bitch to shut her trap?**_

_You again?_

_**Yes, me, me, me.**_

The night prior, Justin had awoken to the sounds of a voice in his house. The voice claimed to be him, his inner self or some crap like that. And he would have shrugged it off as a bad dream had he not heard it again this morning. _I couldn't possibly have hit my head THAT hard, right? I mean, this can't be medically possible, can it!? First the television, and now this? I'm going crazy, aren't I!?_

"Something wrong Justin?"

Looking up, Justin could see that he had dazed out in the middle of their conversation, and Chie clearly noticed. Her eyes weren't sparkling the way they had when Justin had unwittingly brought up her favorite band, or the way they had been when she forced him at gunpoint to play guitar. They were practically lifeless, giving him the same look they had when he had fallen on his head, the same look when she found out his parents were dead, the same look when she had to keep shaking his body to keep him from falling into a coma. Justin just wanted to grab her by the shoulders and tell her what was going on, how he was hearing shit in his head. But he didn't. She'd just think he was crazy. And she'd probably be right.

_**Go on. Tell her all about the big bad man in your head. Tell her all about the terrible things he's telling you to do!**_

_Shut the fuck up!_

"You don't look so good. Are you sure your head is alright?" Chie looked up to stare at the gauss bandages wrapped around his forehead.

_No. No, it isn't. Nowhere near._

"…Yeah, its fine. Just a headache is all…"

"…Alright, if you say so. Just… don't strain yourself too much."

"I'll be fine, thanks."

"You need a hand getting to the assembly?"

_Assembly? Is that what that announcement was for? I wonder what it could be about._

"I don't know where it is, but I can walk fine, if that's what you're asking."

A grin stretched from the corners of Chie's face. She seemed relieved that he was getting a little better anyway. Or at least, it seemed so to her. Obviously Justin could tell something was not quite right in his head.

"I'll lead the way."

* * *

It was only a brief moment of walking until Chie and Justin had made it to the auditorium. And much to Justin's surprise, that's apparently a long enough time for the voice in his head to start making comments about Chie's ass. _Other me is a fucking pervert._

_**I don't know what you're talking about. This is how you really feel, isn't it.**_

_About what? Chie's butt? Yeah, no._

_**Just admit it. I won't judge you. Much.**_

The auditorium was loud with the sounds of gossip being passed between person to person. _It is pretty weird getting called to an unexpected assembly at this time. I can't really blame them for trying to figure out what this was about._

"Hey… Did you see it yesterday?"

"Of course not… What, is that rumor for real?"

"I dunno, but it seems a lot of people have seen it."

_Huh? Are they talking about the midnight channel?_

**Heheha…**

…_What the fuck are you laughing about?_

_**It's a surpriseeeeeee-**_

_What the fuck do you mean a surprise?_

_**You'll find out soon enough.**_

"Huh, Yukiko said she'd be here after lunch…"

Justin turned his attention towards Chie, who had been checking the time on her cell-phone,

"Filling in at the Inn, I assume?"

"Yeah. It must be tourist season, or something."

"In the middle of April? Doesn't that usually start in the summer?"

_**Oh it's tourist season alright, and they're allllllllll here to see Inaba's main attraction…**_

_Seriously? What the fuck is wrong with you._

_**I could ask you the same, me.**_

"Huh, now that you mention it, it does, doesn't it."

"Maybe there's a convention in town, or something."

"Well that makes sense I guess."

Chie paused for a moment to take a glance around the auditorium.

"I wonder why they're holding a school assembly all of a sudden."

"I was thinking the same thing."

_**Really? 'Cause I could have swore you were thinking about Chie's ass a moment ago.**_

_What? That was you, not me._

_**But I am-**_

_I fucking get it, you're me, Jesus, shut the fuck up already._

"…Hey, what's wrong, Yosuke?"

_Huh, something wrong with Yosuke?_ Justin turned around to see what the fuss was about. The sight that had met his eyes left him wondering the same thing as Chie. His chin was pointing down towards the floor, his skin pale, his eyes darting back and forth between the floorboards. The glimmer that Justin had grown used to seeing in Yosuke's eyes was strangely absent, that goofy smile he was always wearing replaced by a frown. _I wonder if he caught the same cold Chie did._

"Oh, it's nothing…"

Justin focused his attention back to the front of the auditorium, where one of the teachers had made their way to the podium.

"Everyone, please settled down. The school assembly is about to begin."

The chatter that was being exchanged between the students slowly came to a stop. It was not until it was completely silent that the announcement continued.

"First, the Principal has something to say."

The teacher stepped off of the podium, moving towards the side of the stage before nodding a signal to the principal that he could take his position. The principal skulked over to where the previous teacher had been standing, dragging his feet along the way. Much like Yosuke had been earlier, his chin was pointing down towards the ground, a very clear sorrowful air amongst him. He cleared his throat as he leaned into the microphone.

"I… regret to say that I have a terrible announcement for all of you."

_**Wait for it…**_

_Huh?_

"One of our third-year students, Ms. Saki Konishi of Class 3… has passed away."

_WHAT!?_

_**Surprissssssssssse.**_

_Wait a second, YOU KNEW!?_

_**And thoroughly enjoyed too…**_

_You monster… You FUCKING monster!_

_**Oh don't get your panties in a bunch. It's not like I did anything to her. That falls completely on herself.**_

_What the hell are you…_

_**I am a shadow. The true self.**_

"Passed away…!?"

Justin turned his attention towards Chie, trying to hide his mortified expression as best as he could. Not that it would have mattered, as it seems she was just as shocked as he was; although he was sure it was for completely different reasons. Looking around, it seemed the same applied for Yu as well. Yosuke didn't even say a word. He lowered his head further towards the ground, as though he were physically pained by the comment.

"…You all right man?"

Yosuke didn't respond. It was though he didn't even hear Justin, he was wallowing too much in grief to care what was happening around him.

_**What do you care? I thought you hated Yosuke's guts? Let the little shit suffer.**_

_Yeah, well unlike SOME people, I'm not a complete asshole._

_**Whatever helps you sleep at night, kid.**_

"Ms. Konishi was found deceased early this morning. The reasons behind her passing are currently under investigation by the police. If they ask you for your cooperation, I urge you as students of this school to provide only the facts."

The crowd started up again, most likely trying to figure out what little they could about Saki's passing from whoever was standing in their immediate vicinity.

_**Only the facts huh? How's this one sound. She was a complete bitch and a booze junkie.**_

_I don't even KNOW her, where the hell are you pulling this one from._

_**It's what you thought, wasn't it?**_

He didn't really have much room to argue. Justin did find her to be a bit bitchy when he first met her. But they'd only known each other for a few seconds; it seemed ridiculous to assume that's how he felt about her based on that alone.

"Found dead… How could this happen…?"

"All right, please quiet down…"

* * *

"Hey… did you guys check out the TV last night?"

Justin, Chie, and Yu had all been gathered in the hallway when Yosuke came up to them. They had been eavesdropping on some other students spreading rumors about the situation. One of them said something about the Midnight Channel, but this was hardly a surprised to Justin anymore. Whatever that voice in his head was made it very clear that he knew something, and Justin was almost entirely convinced it had something do with the television. Still, it was a strange topic for Yosuke to bring up. _I would have thought he'd be grieving right now._

_**If only he was in the bathroom slitting his wrists. Then we could kill two birds with one stone. Literally.**_

"Yosuke! Not you too!

"Just listen for a sec! Something kept bothering me, so… I watched it again,"

"As much as I hate to admit it, Chie and I watched it again last night too."

Everyone started to give Justin a look. It was a combination of disgust and shock. You could add embarrassment and anger in Chie's case. It hadn't really clicked with Justin what the implications were right away.

_**Oh, you two "saw it," huh.**_

_What? Oh shit. I did NOT mean it that way._

_**You totally did.**_

_Oh, fuck off, me._

"Uh… how do you know Chie saw it too?" Yosuke added. He looked like he was about to barf at the thought of Chie and Justin- _NO GET THE IDEA OUT OF YOUR HEAD. Jesus, I AM a perv._

"Shit, no. Not like that. Me and my big mouth- Chie had to walk me home from the hospital, it started to rain, I let her in until the storm passed, it was midnight, the TV did its thing, it stopped raining, and she went home. That's it. Nothing happened."

All though Yu and Yosuke seemed to have been relieved by the clarification, Chie was still giving Justin the most threatening glare he could have possibly imagined.

_**Say goodbye to your balls, kid.**_

_For once, we agree._

"Back on topic, I think the girl on the screen was Saki-senpai."

"Hey… now that you mention it, what we-I, sorry!" Chie looked like she was about to rip his head off by this point. "What_ I _saw did kinda look like Saki."

"There's no mistaking it… Senpai looked like… she was writhing in pain…"

_**Oh and what a wonderful sight it was! You have DVR, right?**_

_Sorry, I'm not into snuff films, you fucking animal._

"And then… she disappeared from the screen."

"What…?"

"And that's when she d-," Justin cut himself off. He forgot Yosuke and Saki were pretty close, so he had to make sure to avoid anything that sounded like the word 'die.'

"Sorry, forget I said anything." Yosuke just shook his head and tried to ignore the comment.

"You heard that Senpai's body was found in a similar situation as that announcer's, right…? Well remember that guy you told us about? How he was all excited that his soulmate was the announcer?"

"You don't mean-" Yu spoke up. It seemed like the pieces of the puzzle were starting to fall in place for everyone. Save maybe Chie, who it took an extra bit of explaining before the implications finally struck here.

"Yeah. Ms. Yamano might've been on that Midnight Channel before she died, too."

Chie still looked stumped, although Yu and Justin both seemed to have a good idea of what was going on by this point.

"What's that supposed to mean."

"It means that whoever got shown on the Midnight Channel…"

"Becomes the next victim." Yu finished Justin's thought for him, much to his displeasure.

_**Why don't you tell Yu to fuck off. This is your show, kid, don't let this fuck-face steal the spotlight.**_

_My show…? This is a fucking MURDER, one that YOU seem to be in on, if I may add. This isn't a goddamn game._

_**It is for me.**_

_And that is why you disgust me._

"I can't say that for sure, but something tells me… I just can't dismiss this as coincidence."

Chie had starting fidgeting in place. She was getting, understandably, uncomfortable by the theory Yosuke and the gang had put on the table.

"Plus, remember what that bear thing said? How that place was dangerous, and we should leave before the fog clears…? It also said that someone's been throwing people in there. And that room with the posters on the wall… It has to have something to do with the announcer's death. I mean… don't you think there's some kind of connection there? Couldn't that world in the TV have something to do with Senpai and the announcer's death!?"

_Care to confirm or deny?_

_**What would be the fun in that?**_

"I agree. That can't be a coincidence." _Yu actively talking? This is a dream, right? It would explain why I'm hearing shit._

"If there is a connection, then it's a good bet that the two of them went inside that world. That would explain the posters in that room."

"But how? I thought Yu was the only one who could get us inside."

Justin raised a valid point, one that it seemed nobody present had an answer to. Well except maybe the voice in Justin's head, but it was clear he had no interest in helping.

"Well… if we look around , we might find a place that has something to do with Senpai too."

"Yosuke, don't tell me…"

"Yeah… I'm thinking about going in again. I want to find out for myself."

"D-Don't do this… You should just let the police handle this. I mean, look what happened last time."

Chie made a very visible, and not at all subtle motion towards the bandage on Justin's head. Justin couldn't help but sigh at her lack of tact. He didn't like being used as an example.

_**Aww, how adorable. How does it feel being nothing more than her pity pet?**_

_I don't know, you tell me. You're me after all, so I guess that would make you her pity pet too._

_**Do I sound like I give a shit what she thinks about me? She doesn't even know I exist.**_

_Alright, you've got a point…_

"You think we can rely on the police!? They haven't made any progress on the announcer's case. Besides, even if we told them about the world inside the TV, there's no way they're gonna believe us."

"He's got a point." Yu added, turning his head towards Chie.

"If I'm completely off-base with this, that's fine… It's just… I need to know why Senpai had to die like this?"

Chie sighed heavily. "Oh, Yosuke…"

"After what I've seen and what I've put together, there's no way I can ignore it now…" Yosuke paused for a brief second, before turning his head towards Yu. It had only just struck Justin that he couldn't actually get into the television unless Yu helped him in. "I'm gonna go get ready. I'll be waiting for you at Junes."

And with that, Yosuke dashed down the hallway and out the door. I don't think he quite realized school wasn't over for another hour.

"I can kinda understand how he feels… But we can't be sure we'll be able to get out safely again."

"I don't know, that bear was willing to help last time, why wouldn't he do it again?"

"What should we do?"

Justin took a deep breath, before leaning against the wall behind him. _What SHOULD they do? _Justin passed a glance over to Yu. As much as he hated to admit it, eye contact was their primary means of communicating with each other. Hell, they had been doing it before they even knew each other's names. From the looks on his face he seemed like he was onboard with jumping into the television again.

"I say we help him."

"Y-You serious…?"

"Quite frankly, I agree with Yosuke. Something's not quite right about that world, and it's not like the cops can do anything about it. Besides, it might be helpful for him to get some closure."

Chie looked over to Yu as though pleading for him to object to Justin's ramblings, but instead only found him nodding in agreement.

"…Well…Uh… Anyways, let's go to Junes. We can't leave Yosuke alone…"

Chie practically charged out the door, most likely so she could get to Yosuke first and try to talk him down. Yu and Justin followed close behind, but they weren't too concerned about her changing Yosuke's mind. He could be really stubborn when he wanted to be.

* * *

By the time they had worked their way over to the electronics department, Yosuke had already been waiting, and prepared to embark at Yu's magic touch. He was holding a golf club and had a rope tied around his waist. Justin couldn't help but moan. _Did this guy know NOTHING about subtlety?_

_**It took you long enough, you lard ass. Now will you PLEASE feel free to send him my way?**_

_What? You mean-_

_**Exactly.**_

_No. No, fuck you. I'm not sending him into a massacre, even if I hate the guy._

_**Massacre? Oho, no. Not yet. I like to play with my prey. All in good time.**_

_I don't believe you._

_**You don't believe in yourself? Harsh. But it matters not. My quarrel is with you, not these fools.**_

_Me? The fuck I do to you?_

_**You were born.**_

"You guys came…!"

"We came to stop you, idiot!"

"Actually, I came to help him." Yu added in timidly.

"W-What? You were serious about that?"

Chie swapped her gaze back and forth between the three, not sure who she should be pleading to in order to stop the madness.

"C'mon… You really shouldn't do this. It's too dangerous."

"I know… but we were able to come back once, right? If we go in from the same location, maybe we'll meet that bear again."

"Maybe isn't good enough!"

"Look, I can't just act like everyone else and pretend this has nothing to do with me."

"That's true, but…"

Yosuke turned his attention towards Yu and Justin.

"What about you? Could you just walk away?"

Yu and Justin gave each other a quick glance, before letting out a small puff of air.

"Probably not." Yu remarked.

"Don't worry, I'm not going in without a plan. Chie, I'm leaving you in charge of this."

Yosuke grabbed the rope around his waist and handed the end of it to Chie. It took a moment for Chie to quite realize what he intended to use it for.

"Huh? What's that? A rope…?"

"We'll go in with this tied to me, so I want you to hold onto this and wait here."

"Wh-What? Then, this is a lifeline? C'mon, wait a sec…"

"Are you sure that'll be long enough?" Justin pointed out. Remembering how long they had fallen, he wouldn't be surprised if the rope ended up just pulling Chie into the TV with them. _More importantly, how was Chie supposed to explain the rope hanging out of the TV screen? _Yosuke only gave him a quick nod, as he handed Yu the golf club he was holding. Surprising no one, that didn't really reinsure Justin's doubts. He sighed.

"Alright then, let's get going."

"Where do you think you're going." Yu placed his hand on Justin's shoulder.

"Inside the TV…?"

"Not with that injury you're not."

"What?" Justin could practically feel the rage boiling up inside him. Who the hell gave Yu the right to tell him what to do? Looking around he could see that Yosuke was in agreement as well. Chie was still doing all she could to convince them not to go through with their hastily thrown together plan."

_**Beat the living shit out of him. It will amuse me.**_

_If you haven't caught on yet, I'm not listening to a WORD you say._

_**Oooooh, but then you'll miss me revealing the murderer. That would be a real shame.**_

_I know damn well that you're not going to tell me that anyway._

_**You know me so well.**_

"Just stay up here and help Chie out with the rope."

Justin wanted to ask why two of them had to stay back, but then remembered that Chie had wanted nothing to do with the TV, so it wasn't like she was going to take his place on the expedition.

"Fine, but you owe me." Yu chuckled. _The fuck's so funny? I'm serious._

"Alright… Let's go. There's no use wasting any more time. Chie, Justin, whatever you do, don't let go of the rope!"

Yu and Yosuke gave a quick nod at each other before approaching the television. Yu placed his palm against the screen allowing to Yosuke to step inside, followed immediately by Yu.

"H-Hey! I said wait!" By the time Chie had finished her sentence, the two were long gone.

"Well, it looks like we're going to be stuck here for a while." Justin groaned.

_**You say that like you didn't want to be stuck with your little girlfriend.**_

_You know, you keep saying you're me, but then you pull stuff like this out of thin-air. You seem to know so little about me, for me._

_**You're a very bad liar.**_

_Fuck you too._

Chie gave the rope a small tug, maybe to make sure there was still rope room, maybe to get a signal back from Yosuke. Whatever the reason, it didn't matter, the rope snapped in two almost immediately. Justin was barely able to catch Chie as she fell backwards from the rope tearing in two.

"Gotcha."

_**HAHAHAHA. Oh god, that was too perfect.**_

_I knew you were lying._

_**Lying? Oh no, I had nothing to do with that.**_

_Then who did?_

_**Come now, you know the rules of the game. You have to figure it out as you go.**_

_Goddammit!_

Chie took a second to snap back to reality after nearly busting her ass on the floor. Her face scrunched up with worry the second she realized what had just happened.

"See…? I knew this wasn't going to work…"

"Shit! Alright, alright… gotta stay calm."

Justin placed his palm against the TV screen. Nothing. He forgot they had needed Yu to get in or out.

"Oh god, what are we going to do...!?"

Looking back at Chie, she had already started tearing up, her eyes moist with tears. The voice in his head was laughing like a maniac at this for some reason, but he just shut it out as though it weren't there. Justin walked over to where Chie had been sitting on the floor and took a seat besides her.

"Everything will be fine."

"You don't know that!"

"You're right. I don't. But we have to have faith in them."

Chie wiped away her tears with the sleeves of her jacket. After that it grew silent for a few minutes, the two of them staring at the television monitor that Yu and Yosuke had ventured into. Neither looked at the other, nor did they need to. They knew exactly what the other was thinking, their thoughts scrambled in a heap of worry and doubt. Justin had tried to break the silence on several occasions, but couldn't seem to find the words he was looking for. So instead he reached for his cigarettes. Chie noticed him dig into his pockets and gave him a look.

"Here!? People are watching!"

Justin stared at her for a moment, then back to his cigarette. He puffed out some hot air and placed it back in the package he had taken it from. Chie sighed slightly. She knew he was just trying to break the awkward atmosphere, but then there really wasn't much to talk about.

"So… what do we do now?"

"Got a deck of cards?"

"No."

"Well so much for that idea."

* * *

Time passed. Seconds turned to minutes, minutes to hours, and yet Yosuke and Yu still weren't back. Justin wasn't sure what was worse, how stupid Chie and Justin looked sitting and staring at the same TV for three hours, or the fact that Yu and Yosuke hadn't returned yet. A thought occurred to him. The voice in his head knew what was going on in the other world, right? Maybe he could try to reason with it.

_I don't suppose YOU know what's going on over on that side._

_**And I suppose you expect me to tell you?**_

_Damn straight I do._

_**Yeah no.**_

_And why not._

_**Why should I?**_

_Because you have no reason not to, and every reason to._

_**Name one reason.**_

_You're me. And I will fuck me up if you don't cooperate._

_**It doesn't work that way.**_

_Want to try?_

There was a brief pause in the exchange between the two.

_**Hehe. Alright, I'll bite. They're very much alive and well. In fact…**_

At that moment, Yosuke and Yu took a step out of the television. They looked slightly shaken, but otherwise very much in tact. Yosuke was even smiling for the first time that day. Chie practically jumped at the sight of the group. Justin could almost swear she was going to hug Yosuke.

_**And that my friend was your only wish. Good job wasting it.**_

_Yeah, like I wanted anything from you._

_**Besides what you just asked for, right?**_

"Y-You guys came baaack…!"

Chie looked like she was going to burst into tears of joy at any second. Of course, what happened instead didn't surprise Justin in the slightest, Chie being Chie, and Yosuke being Yosuke and what not.

"Huh? Chie? Whoa, what's with that face?

Chie stood up and threw the remains of the rope she had been holding at Yosuke. It wasn't like it was heavy or anything like that, but it still somehow managed to knock Yosuke to the ground for a brief moment. Yosuke shouted out in pain before standing back up. _What a pussy. It's a rope, not a fucking rock._

"The nerve of you guys! You are such morons! I can't believe this! You guys suck!"

Chie's face had been running with tears at this point. She seemed fine, albeit a bit worried, when Justin was waiting for the duo to return, but here she was, pouring her eyes out. Justin almost felt bad for not noticing she was this upset earlier.

"The rope got cut off… and I had no idea what to do… I was so worried… I mean scared stiff, dammit! I hate you both!"

Chie turned around and darted in the other direction, covering her eyes with the arm of her sleeve, most likely so no one could see her crying.

"W-Wait! Goddammit, I'll go get her."

_**Easier to pick up when they're like this, eh?**_

_Why does everything have to be about hooking up with you?_

* * *

It took a half hour or so of wandering around the mall until Justin found Chie. He had almost given up looking, figuring she had gone home. Yet here she was sitting in the corner of the food court, her head resting in her arms. Justin could tell she was still crying from half-way across the food-court. He approached the table and put an arm on Chie's shoulder. She barely looked up to see who it was.

"…Oh… hey."

"You know, you had everyone worried sick. Are you alright?"

Chie lifted her head completely out of the resting place she had made in between her arms. Her eyes were still completely full of tears.

"Why does he have to be such a jerk."

"We are talking about Yosuke, right? 'Cause last I checked, he was always a jerk."

Chie laughed slightly, though the tears kept falling from her eyes. No words were exchanged for a brief moment between them.

"…Come on, I got an idea on how to cheer you up."

"H-huh?"

Justin grabbed Chie by the wrist and dragged her out of her seat, much to Chie's surprise. She was practically tripping over her steps trying to keep up with Justin. Whatever idea he had, it must have been good if he was in such a big rush.

* * *

"What are we doing HERE."

Justin had dragged Chie all the way over to Yosuke's house, for what reason, she had no idea, and she almost didn't want to. She wanted nothing to do with Yosuke, and Justin knew that. So why had he dragged her all the way there?

"Well, back in California, we had a way of dealing with people like Yosuke. Pick your weapon."

Justin showed Chie a carton of eggs he had picked up on the way out of Junes. He had been keeping it hidden in a Junes bag the entire time, though she was surprised the shape of the egg carton pushing against the bag didn't tip her off immediately. Justin took a single egg out of the carton and started throwing it in the air and catching it.

"W-Wait a second, we're egging his house? I mean, I am mad at Yosuke and all, but his parents are going to be the ones that have to clean up."

Justin smirked at the comment, much to Chie's displeasure.

"Who said we were egging the house?"

"What do you mean…?"

"Think about it, what does Yosuke cherish the most."

Chie paused for a moment. She actually wasn't sure what Justin was referring to at first. And then it hit her like a bug against the car windshield.

"His bike."

"Bingo. Say, do you know the time?"

"Huh? It's about eleven, why?"

"Well think of it this way. Yosuke rides his bike to and from school every morning, right? And somehow I doubt Yosuke gets up early in the morning."

"He doesn't."

Justin almost wanted to ask her how she knew that, but figured it wasn't worth getting kicked in the balls.

_**Oooo, sounds like someone's jealous.**_

_Of Yosuke? Please._

"So then, if we go now while he's asleep and egg his bike, he won't have time to wash it off in the morning. And since he plans his schedule around getting to school on bike, he won't have time to walk. Which means…"

"He'll have to ride his bike to school covered in egg." A devious smile swept Chie's face. The plan was perfect in everyway.

"Right on the money."

The two snuck out from the bushes they had taken cover behind and down to the chain linked fence Yosuke's bike had been leaning against. Justin handed Chie the egg he had been tossing around, and much to his amusement, she didn't even hesitate to hurl it at the bike. Egg after egg pounded against the bike, a good few of them getting on the seat, which was always a plus. He could practically see the egg stuck to Yosuke's ass as he walked into class the next day.

But as all good things do, the egging finally came to an end. They only had so many eggs after all. Chie was practically out of breathe, though Justin couldn't imagine why. Had she been throwing the eggs at the bike that hard? She huffed a few times before mustering up the energy to talk.

"That… was fun…"

"Remind me to buy more eggs next time."


	7. Chapter 6: April 16, 2011

CHAPTER 6

APRIL 16, 2011

* * *

"Alright, which one of you was it!"

Yosuke had just burst through the classroom door, murder in his eyes. Looking down, Justin couldn't help but grin that Yosuke didn't even bother to clean the SEAT off before riding to school. Justin could very visibly see runny yolk dripping from his left ass cheek, as much as he had tried to hide it with his school jacket. Justin didn't stare for long though, mostly because he had no interest in staring at Yosuke's ass, but also because Yosuke walked up to Chie, hell-bent on causing a scene.

"It was you wasn't it!?"

"H-huh?"

Justin took a good hard look at the two as they were face to face. It was clear Chie hadn't quite caught on that he was referring to his bike being egged, and even then, her face had scrunched up into a scowl. It seemed she wasn't too happy about being accused of whatever it is she did or did not do. Not to mention she seemed worried about something before Yosuke busted in. That probably pushed her over the edge. Yosuke, of course, was already pissed when he entered the room, so that covers all the bases as far as he is concerned. At this rate, they'd have knives at each other's throats in no time.

_**Oh boy, this is getting good. If only I had some popcorn.**_

_You're a disembodied voice in my head, how in the hell are you supposed to eat popcorn?_

"Oh don't play dumb, you totally egged my bike!"

"I did not!"

"You totally did! You ran off all pissy-faced and then decided to egg my bike to get back at me!"

"Pissy fa- What the hell is that supposed to mean!?"

Justin watched on as the two exchanged insults back and forth. It certainly didn't help that tension between everyone had escalated over the last few days, what with the television and the murders.

"Jesus, enough you two! I did it. Now stop yelling, you're giving me a headache."

Technically, it wasn't a lie. The doctor said the headaches wouldn't clear up for another few days. _If I'm lucky maybe whatever's in my head will go with them_

_**Trying to impress your girlfriend, eh? Taking the fall so you can get in her skirt?**_

_She's not my- You know what? Why am I even TRYING to explain this to you?_

Chie gave Justin a look, but not the usual worried expression, or that glare she gave when he said something stupid. It was a strange mixture of relief and guilt, as though she felt bad that Justin had taken the blame, but relieved that she wouldn't have to put up with more of Yosuke's crap. Yosuke on the other hand looked like he was about to shank Justin.

"You what!? Dude what the hell! What did I do to you!?"

"Oh calm down. It was all in good fun. Besides, you could have wiped your seat off before you left. No one forced you to sit on rotten egg."

"That's not the point!"

"That's ENTIRELY the point."

"Enough, both of you!"

Chie had shouted that so loud that the entire classroom had turned to see what was happening. Despite Yosuke arguing with every living person in that classroom, he hadn't really caused much of a ruckus compared to Chie's bellow.

"S-Sorry," she choked up, her face turning red with embarrassment. She waited a moment for everyone to go back to what they were doing before turning back to the two of them.

"This is more important, have either of you seen Yukiko."

Now that Chie mentioned it, Justin hadn't seen Yukiko for a couple of days now. He just hadn't noticed since the most they ever interacted with each other was when she was leaving to go to the inn.

"Huh? Y-Yukiko-san? Uh…no…? At least, I haven't seen her today."

"Neither have I," Yu added in, though I don't think anyone suspected he had interacted with her on any basis.

"Oh man… Hey, is that stuff you were talking about for real? You know… All that about how people showing up on the Midnight Channel is related to the other world?"

"Oh! I talked with Yu about it on the way here. We were thinking of checking it out later-"

Justin practically interrupted him midsentence just by glaring at him. _Goddammit Yosuke, do you not remember ANYTHING that happened yesterday. ANYTHING at all._

_**The hell you think you're doing? Let them come on over. We'll have a gooood time.**_

_Yeah, no._

"I… uh… decided to check the Midnight Channel again last night. The person on TV yesterday… I think it was Yukiko."

"What!?" For once Justin wasn't coughing up a lung from his shock, though he kinda hoped he would. Maybe over all the coughing he wouldn't have to hear "other him," being a complete douche nozzle.

_**Can they come over nowwwwwwwwwww?**_

_Hold your fucking horses, I'm sure she's just busy._

_**We'll seeeeeeeee-**_

"That kimono looks like the one she wears at the Inn, a-and she wore it during the interview a few days ago too."

"There was an interview?"

"Yeah, you didn't know? Apparently the announcer had been staying at the Amagi Inn before she died, so they were trying to do a follow up story with Yukiko."

_**Follow up story, eh?**_

_Are you just taking random words out of sentences and trying to make them perverted?_

_**Who said that was supposed to be perverted? That's all on you, kid.**_

"Come to think of it, I did run into Yukiko on the way home yesterday. She was wearing the same Kimono is she was on the Midnight Channel…"

"I got worried, so I sent her an e-mail yesterday, but she hasn't responded… I called her earlier in the evening though, and she said she'd be at school today..."

Chie looked like she was about to cry. She just could not catch a break lately, everything just seemed to be going horribly wrong for her.

_**Oh look. She's going to cry again. As usual.**_

_Don't be a dick._

_**I'm just being me.**_

_Well stop being you then._

"Calm down. We get the picture."

_Wow, that totally wasn't douchey at all._

_**Well there's a couple of ways of fixing that problem.**_

"And suddenly I don't feel sorry for egging your bike anymore."

_**Just like that.**_

"Will you shut up about the damn bike!?"

"Will you stop acting like a douche?"

"Both of you, stop."

_**I am so proud of you right now, kid.**_

_I'm starting to regret it already._

Yosuke puffed hot air from his nostrils. He wasn't going to do anything yet, but he was going to find a way to get back at Justin, one way or another. After a few seconds of letting the hot air leave his brain, Yosuke turned his attention back over to Chie.

"You're sure you still haven't heard from her?"

"…No…"

"Well maybe now would be as good a time as any to explain the situation."

Yu went on to explain everything to the two, about Teddie and Personas. All fascinating information, though what really caught Justin's attention was the word "Shadows." He recalled that the voice that had been residing in his head for the last couple of days said something about being a shadow. And these shadows were supposed to be the embodiment of the suppressed feelings one has. They share the darkest part of their host to the world, hoping to get the victim to deny their existence. It was as though they were bound by some contract that stipulates they had to be disowned by their owner before they can attack, and replace the original victim. Though something about that entire theory seemed… off.

_So why didn't the announcer's and Saki's shadows replace them._

_**Simple, they weren't killed by their own shadow.**_

_So what, did you kill them?_

_**I already told ya, no.**_

_Then who did?_

_**Some of the lesser shadow most likely. Oh how embarrassing it must be to die to such a pitiful excuse of a warrior. We just use them as cannon fodder, and yet they still managed to kill TWO people. You humans are pathetically weak.**_

"What's that supposed to mean…? Wait, are you saying… Yukiko was thrown in there!?"

"Calm down Chie, let's not jump to conclusions here."

"We don't know yet for sure. We should check to see if she's safe first. Give her another call."

Chie paused for a moment before giving Yosuke a hesitant nod and punching a number into her phone. Justin didn't half blame her, what with all the information Yosuke had dropped on them a moment ago. This… "Persona," shit didn't make much sense to Justin, but it was clear to him that Chie was much more focused on the Midnight Channel aspect of Yosuke's lecture. And why wouldn't she, Yosuke had practically told Chie that Yukiko was going to be murdered. He wasn't exactly subtle when it came to this stuff. Maybe that's why Justin despised him as much as he did.

_**So what do you think, Chie and Yukiko, you think those two are… You know-**_

_God no! The hell is wrong with you!_

_**They seem awfully close, and it's not like Chie objected to having a "soulmate" who was a chick. Don't get pissy at me just because your girl's into chicks.**_

_Oh god, you might be right. That is not a pretty thought._

_**It is for me.**_

_And once again, I am completely unphased by your pervertedness._

"…No good… Her voicemail picked up… She's not answering…"

"Are you serious…? Then is Yukiko-san inside that place…?"

"Smooth, Yosuke."

"Jus-S-Stop it! Something must've come up, like an errand or something…"

_Like an errand or something…_

_**Like an ERRAND or SOMETHING, eh?**_

_Can you shut up, for like, five seconds? I'm trying to think here._

"Wait, have you tried calling the inn?"

Chie looked strangely shocked at the implication. From the looks of it, she had completely overlooked that she had been working at the inn recently. Which was fine, considering Justin only just remembered it himself.

"Hey, you're right! She wouldn't be able to answer her cell if that's it…"

"Yeah, but would she skip school for that?"

_**Is he fucking serious?**_

_He's never been more serious in his life._

"Yosuke, where the hell have you been? She's been skipping school to help at the inn ALL, FUCKING, WEEK."

"Geez, sorry I asked."

"W-Well, I'll give the inn a call… Umm… I've got the number here somewhere… C'mon Yukiko… Pick up…"

The group grew silent, all eyes were on Chie, everyone knowing the expression on her face would immediately tell them if she would bare good news or bad. The phone rang for a while, but with no answer. It wasn't looking goo-

"Oh is this Yukiko!? …Thank god she's there!"

_Well never fucking mind._

_**Her time will come eventually.**_

_Not if I have anything to say about it._

_**You don't.**_

_We'll just see about that._

"Uh-huh… Uh-huh, I see… Hm? Oh. Nah, it was nothing. I'll e-mail you again later…"

Chie hung up the phone, her face practically illuminated with relief. Justin didn't think he'd ever seen her so happy, not even at the egg extravaganza last night.

"She was over at the inn. She said they had a big group reservation and she had to help out."

"See, I told you she'd be fine."

"Yeah… Now that I think about it, this has happened before, too. At least once a year. She said she'll be at the inn tomorrow, too."

The illuminating smile that had swept across Chie's face dissolved in almost in instant, replaced by a snare, her face red with rage, her eyes piercing the very souls of those it swept across. And it was all aimed at Yosuke, much to Justin's pleasure. Unfortunately, it was also much to the pleasure of the voice in his head. Way too much pleasure.

_**I could masturbate to this shit.**_

_Please don't. I'd like my head to not have herpes, thank you very much._

"Oh for crying out loud, Yosuke! You got me worried over nothing! She was totally fine! And you were all, "Is Yukiko-san inside that place…?" Hmph…!"

"And that's why we don't jump to conclusions. Isn't that right, Yosuke." Justin had proceeded to give him a death glare of his own.

"S-Sorry..."

* * *

The school hours passed by slightly quicker than usual, though that may have been because Justin was playing video games on his PSP the entire time. I Heart Katamari, to be precise. Chie had to kick him at the ankles on more than one occasion to put the thing away. Of course, he never did. He had no reason too. Besides, he could see Chie looking at the screen from the corner of her eyes on more than one occasion. She looked almost bewildered by the chaos going on in his game, as though she was trying to make heads and toe of why Justin was rolling a giant ball of stuff around. That of course is the exact opposite mentality you'd want to have playing Katamari.

As the bell rang, the Chie and Justin got up from their seats and made their way to the door. Everyone had agreed to meet at Junes after-school to discuss some things involving the television. What exactly it was that Yu and Yosuke had planned to talk about, however, was completely beyond Justin. Yu and Yosuke had to stay behind for a little bit to explain why Yosuke had been covered in rotten egg when he came to school. I guess they suspected it had to do with bullying, and they assumed it was Yu's fault since they both came in with each other.

_**Two birds with one stone, eh?**_

_Eh, Yu's alright. He just irritates the fuck out of me sometimes. Yosuke had it coming though._

"You know, you didn't have to take the fall earlier." Chie spoke up as they made their way out the school gates. Justin was a bit surprised that she even remembered that argument, let alone brought it back up. Maybe the whole thing with Yu and Yosuke in the principal's office reminded her of it.

"It was my idea, wasn't it?"

"Yeah, but I was the one who threw them…"

Chie looked down towards the pavement as she walked besides him. Whereas earlier she had this strange mixture of relief and guilt, she now only seemed to feel bad for letting him take the fall for her.

"I wouldn't worry about it. Yosuke will forget all about it by the end of the day."

"No he won't. You know how stubborn he gets."

"Well then I tell you what; I'll go rob a bank, and then you take the fall. We'll call it even."

_**Ohoho, why didn't you tell me sooner! I'm a fucking pro at that shit.**_

_I'm only joking._

_**I'm not.**_

_I know you're not._

Chie chuckled at Justin's joke. "I don't think that's quite the same thing."

"So… I should hold off on buying the gun then?"

"You're not serious, right?"

"Of course not."

There was a small gap of silence in between their conversation.

"Hey, I've been meaning to ask, you try the DVD out yet?"

"Huh? Oh that! Y-yeah, why?"

"Just want to make sure it was working alright."

"I still don't get why you bought that for me."

"Because I knew Yosuke wouldn't."

"True, but you barely even knew me. You still don't really."

_**But he'd really like to, if you catch my drift.**_

_She can't hear you._

_**That's the point.**_

"You seemed like a nice person, minus the whole kicking Yosuke in the crouch thing of course, so I took a chance."

Chie looked at him with a mixture of shock and anger.

"W-Wha? It was one time!"

"Consider where you kicked him. Once is plenty."

"Oh you are just the worst."

"Aren't I?"

Chie gave Justin a playful shove, though even that nearly knocked Justin into a nearby car. She really was a lot stronger than she looked.

* * *

"O-Okay, I think that's more than enough of my sorry escapades."

"If I hadn't seen the place first hand… I'd never have believed a story like that."

"Yeah, no kidding."

_You know. Something's bugging me about this whole shadow thing. What in the hell are you doing in my head anyway?_

_**I really have to answer that one for you? Only one of us can be on your side at any given time. That's why we have to take your place.**_

_That explains why you're not physically here, but not what you're doing in my head._

_**Let's just say the human mind is more intertwined with our world then you think. Or maybe you're just crazy.**_

_I wouldn't even rule it out at this point._

"Anyways, we need to know what's going on inside-"

"Wh-How? By talking to that Teddie guy?

Yosuke took a look around the mall. People were practically flooding into the store, which made it nearly impossible to get into the TV without being noticed. Justin couldn't help but wonder if there was a sale going on today, or something.

"Yeah, too bad there's so many customers around… I forgot there's a sale in the electronics department today…"

"Wait really? Does that include the GameShop upstairs?"

The rest of the group started giving Justin a disapproving stare.

"What? It's not like I'm going to go running up there now."

"Hmm… I got it! C'mere a sec."

Yosuke gestured everyone towards the TV in such a way that they were practically huddled together. A little closer and Justin was sure they wouldn't be able to move. Justin was almost anticipating a remark from his shadow about being huddled up against Chie, but surprisingly, he remained quiet. Maybe because Justin pretty much just made the remark himself.

"Yu, try sticking your hand in and calling Teddie over. I bet that bear's wandering around the entrance anyway."

"Got it."

"Chie, Justin, stand over here. Make a wall with me."

"A wall?"

"I don't think three people really make a wall, Yosuke."

"It'll be fine."

Justin sighed. He knew it wasn't going to work, he just knew it. Plus Yosuke still smelled like rotten eggs, he didn't want to be anywhere near the guy. Judging from the face Chie was making, she didn't want to be near Yosuke either until he took a goddamn shower.

"Alright, fine."

The three huddled together, so as to surround Yu from all three sides. It was ridiculously cramped, and god forbid one of them fell backwards, but otherwise it seemed to be working. Yu stuck his hand in, feeling around for something on the otherside, but to no avail. At least not at first. Suddenly Yu pulled his hand back, clutching it at his wrist. There were red marks all over his fingers.

"Son of a-"

"Wh-What's wrong!?"

"He just bit me!"

"Shhh! Not so loud, you idiots!" Chie and Justin had both said at the exact same time. The way the two of their voices overlapped each other made them, ironically enough, sound much louder than Yosuke and Yu had been. Chie took a quick glance at Yu's hand.

"D-Dude, he really did bite you! Are you okay!?"

"I think I'm dying."

_Did- Did he just make a joke?_

_**That's your shtick. Kill the bastard.**_

"No you're not."

"I think that was supposed to be a joke, Chie."

"I know. It wasn't very funny."

"Oh snap. Need some ice for that burn, Yu?"

Yu looked more pained by Chie's announcement that Yu wasn't funny than he had been from getting bitten.

"Hey, you! We know you're in there!"

There was a brief pause before the group received any response. The TV screen started to shimmer much like it had when Yu touched it earlier, only this time, nothing was coming in or out other than sound.

"Ooh ooh, is this a game?"

"No, it's not a game!"

The sound echoed as it made its way out of the TV. Justin was sure people would hear it, but alas, no one seemed to notice.

"Shit that's loud. Lower it down a notch or two, Teddie."

"You know my name, Justin-san?"

"Yeah, Yu and Yosuke filled us in on everything. And apparently they did the same for you, considering you know my name. But that's not important, we need to ask something."

"Can you sense anyone in there right now?"

"Who's "Anyone"? I'm a lonely little bear like always. This land feels so… bear-ren."

"Did-Did he just make a bear pun?"

"He totally did."

_Motherfucker, bear puns are MY thing._

_**Well there's one way of fixing this.**_

"This is claws for concern."

_**I was going to suggest beating the fluff out of him, but sure. Why the fuck not.**_

"Oh that was bad." Yosuke interrupted. As if he had any sense of humor.

"But was it unbearable?"

"Shut it you two! So there's no one inside…? You're sure?"

"I-I'm not lying! My nose is running as good as ever!"

Chie and Justin both gave each other a confused glance. They were both at a loss of words. _His nose is running as good as ever, what in the fuck does that mean? What, is he smelling people out or something?_ It took a moment before Chie broke of their stare, her face shifting from confusion to concern. Justin couldn't understand why, they just found out that Yukiko was fine.

"I'm gonna go warn Yukiko anyway. Since she'll be busy this weekend helping out at the inn, I doubt she'd go anywhere alone, but still…"

"Yeah… You'll walk to school with her on Monday, right?"

"Sure, I'll go pick her up at her house."

"Maybe we'll find out more on tonight's midnight channel. Cross your fingers that this is all just a misunderstanding..."

"Sounds like a plan," Yu added in agreement.

"Oh, I still need to get yours and Justin's numbers."

"Ugh… Do I have to?"

"Just do it." Yu answered on Yosuke's behalf.

"Alright fine, here."

The three put their cell phones into the center of a circle they made. It was amazing how cell-phones worked out here; you could transfer numbers just by pointing them at each other. It seems like it would be useful if you ever forgot your number. By the time they had finished exchanging numbers, Chie had already left. _I guess she was still worried about Yukiko._ Justin decided to take his leave at that moment to. After all, there may or may not be a sale on video games up stairs. Just as he was about to leave the store, however, he was interrupted by the sound of Yosuke's voice.

"Oh, and Justin?"

"Yeah."

As he turned around he was immediately pelted in the face by something. Given that it felt hard when it hit his face, but was pretty much dripping down his cheeks, he only could assume it was an egg. Actually, he knew it was an egg after getting a good whiff of it. _How fucking old was this egg anyway? Was Yosuke saving one for just such an occasion or something?_

"That's for this morning."

_**Still feel like going to that sale?**_

_Fuck you._

* * *

11:59

_Jesus, I've taken, like, three showers and I still smell like rotten egg. That WAS an egg right?_

_**I couldn't tell, what with all the yolk stuck in my eye.**_

_Very funny. I take it you're still not going to tell me what's going on with this TV shit, right?_

_**Let's just say there's something… EXTRA special tonight.**_

_I don't like the sounds of that._

_**But you will.**_

12:00

The television screen started to flicker into focus. However, instead of seeing the dark, greenish room he had become accustomed to seeing on the Midnight Channel, he saw the backdrop of an enormous brick castle. It was cryptic, archaic even, and yet it still had a certain beauty to it. Of course, Justin didn't have much time to reflect on architecture as Yukiko had suddenly stepped into frame. There was no doubt about it that it was her. It wasn't like the blurry silhouettes they had been seeing as of late on the channel, she had been coming in crystal clear. _And what in the hell is she wearing?_

**"Good Evening! Tonight, Princess Yukiko has a big surprise."**

…_Princess Yukiko? There is no way that's Yukiko. No way in hell._

**"I'm gonna go score myself a hot stud! Welcome to not a dream, not a hoax; Princess Yukiko's Hunt for her Prince Charming."**

"WaitWHAT!?"

_That is DEFINITLY not Yukiko. This has to be her shadow or something, right? I mean, I've only talked to her for a little bit, but even then I knew she was too shy to say something like "scoring myself a hot stud."_

_**Shhh, it's getting to the best part!**_

**"And I came prepared, I've got my lacy unmentionables on-"**

_She what?_

_Uh…_

Yukiko went on to say some more perverted stuff, but Justin didn't hear any of it. His mind was still caught in that "lacy unmentionable" comment.

**"Well here I go!"**

_Uh…_

_**Kleenexs are on the counter. I'll let you do your business.**_


	8. Chapter 7: April 17, 2011

CHAPTER 7

APRIL 17, 2011

* * *

"Chie? What are you doing here? It's like, seven in the morning…"

Justin had been woken up by the sound of knocking at his door but a few moments earlier. His eyes were barely open, but he could still make out Chie's familiar face. Though the question is, what exactly was it that she wanted that she had been knocking on his door so early. Or at all for that matter.

"Oh, sorry, I didn't wake you, did I?"

"It's fine. What's up?"

Chie bit her bottom lip, as though she were hesitating to say something.

"Well… I went to the inn yesterday to check on Yukiko, like I said I would, but when I got there her parents said she had been gone since the afternoon. No one's seen her anywhere."

Chie's voice grew more and more frantic as she continued her sentence, as though just recapping what had happened was making her worry more.

"Shit. Did you see the Midnight Channel last night?"

"No, I was looking around for Yukiko. Why? She wasn't on it again was she!?"

"Uh… That would be an understatement."

Justin rubbed his eyes as he looked up towards the ceiling. He had a habit of doing that when he was trying to think of something. He puffed out some hot air from his cheeks before lowering his head back down to eye-contact with Chie and gesturing for Chie to come inside.

"Come in. I'm gonna go head upstairs and get changed quick quick."

"Uh… Okay…"

It seemed Chie didn't quite realize he was still in his pajamas. Which was understandable considering what it was Justin had been wearing. He had grey sweatpants on and a black t-shirt that was just a little too big to be wearing around in public. Chie took a seat on the couch as Justin dragged his feet over to his room and closed the door. By the time he came out a good five or so minutes later, he was sporting a golden-yellow t-shirt. His jeans were torn around his shins, and his sneakers looked worn and torn. He was throwing on his black hoodie when something caught Chie's attention. On both wrists were gauss bandages wrapped a couple of inches up his arm.

"H-hey, is something wrong with your wrists?"

"Huh? Oh. Uh. N-no, why?"

Justin was probably one of the worst liars out there. The way he stuttered over his words immediately gave it away to Chie that something was up.

"You didn't get hurt again, right?"

"Look, it was a long time ago."

Justin unrolled the bandages around one of his wrists and showed it to Chie. There were red scars all across his arm, almost in a pattern. They looked like very old, very deep cut marks.

"W-what happened?"

"You'll understand if I don't want to talk about it."

And with that Chie gave him a worried nod of acknowledgment as he wrapped the bandages around his wrist back up. She had more or less realized the implications anyway. Justin was almost surprised it took her this long to notice them, but then realized she wouldn't be able to see them with his hoodie on all the time. And much like Chie had noticed the bandages around his wrists, Justin noticed her turning her attention to a framed photo on the window sill. She seemed to squint to try to make out the details from where she was standing, though it was probably just her trying to see with the sun shining straight in her face.

"Whose this a picture of?"

"My father and I. Why?"

"He looks just like you."

Well not JUST like him. His hair was black, as opposed to the strawberry blonde shade that Justin had. Plus the nose and cheek structure was completely different. Still, he could understand how people could see the resemblance.

"I get that a lot. Alright, so fill me in on what's going on with Yukiko."

Chie recapped everything she had done last night, about visiting the inn, about looking around the town, about how Yukiko hadn't answered her cell at all. Everything. Justin followed that up by explaining what he had seen on the midnight channel last night.

"What!? Yukiko would never say anything like that."

"That's what I thought, too. But it was very visibly Yukiko, no doubt about it. Maybe it was her shadow or something."

Chie's eyes darted to the side as though she were trying to think of something, though she didn't seem to find much in her jumbled mess of thoughts.

"Maybe…"

"I'm supposed to be meeting Yu and Yosuke at the Junes in a bit to talk about this. Maybe they have an idea what's going on."

"I hope so…"

Justin half expected Chie to cry at any second, but instead she just sort of stared out into space. Her eyes weren't filling with tears; they just looked sort of… dead.

**_Dead eh? I can work with that._**

_I'm sure you could._

**_Aww, what's wrong. Don't enjoy my company?_**

_More like I'm used to the shit that comes out of your mouth._

**_And out of your heart._**

_I don't CARE where it comes from. The point is, it doesn't bother me anymore._

**_We'll then I guess I'll just have to step up my game._**

_You do that._

That was the last time Justin heard his shadow in his head. Maybe it was because his head had healed by that point, or maybe it was because his shadow had something devious in mind. Maybe the shadow had just given up on getting a reaction from Justin through his brainwaves. Whatever it was, it left Justin with a feeling of uneasiness. As much as he hated the shadow's company, he always knew what was going on when the two talked. Now he had to figure things out on his own.

"Alright then, let's get going."

* * *

Chie and Justin finally arrived at the front gates to Junes. They were a bit late, as they had decided to take one more sweep around town to see if they could find Yukiko. Though they didn't have much luck. Chie almost looked heartbroken that they were unable to find her.

"Don't worry, we'll get to the bottom of this."

"I know, it's just-"

Chie paused for a moment, her head slunk towards the ground, her eyes tearing up slightly.

"She'll be fine. I promise."

Just then, a group of people came bustling out of the front door to the Junes. Cops from the looks of it. Chie and Justin were awe-struck at first. Had something happened that the cops were here? It looked like they were dragging some people out t- _HOLY SHIT ITS YU AND YOSUKE._

"Alright, you punks are going downtown."

"W-Wait, it's just a big misunderstanding!"

"Save it for the station!"

And in just a moment, the two had been loaded into the car and driven off down to the station. It took a moment for Chie and Justin to make heads and toes of what had just happened.

"What. The. Fuck."

"What did those idiots do!?"

"Goddammit. Chie, do you know where the police station is?"

"H-huh? Yeah."

"Let's go see if we can bail them out."

"Whoawhoawhoa. I'm not paying their bail."

"Nor am I. If it costs a single cent to get Yosuke out, it's not worth it. Sometimes they just need someone to sign off on their release though."

"With that many cops dragging them out? I don't think it'll be that simple."

"It's worth a shot anyway."

* * *

"Hanamura and Narukami."

"Alright let me check the book here… They're already set to be released. Apparently Dojima's signed off on them already."

"Dojima?"

"Yu's uncle, remember?"

"Oh right, he's a detective right? Well I guess that makes sense."

Justin was about to turn around to take a seat in the waiting room, when a thought occurred to him. They still didn't even know what they were arrested for in the first place.

"Oh, crap. I almost forgot. What exactly are they in for anyway?"

"Huh? You don't know? I would have thought you would considering you were trying to sign-off on them."

The cop seemed annoyed that the teens were going to sign off on their friends without even knowing what the crime they commited was.

"Let's see here… Possession of weapons in public."

"What!?" Justin and Chie replied in unison.

"Yep, a katana and a kunai to be precise. We've already confiscated the weaponry, and no they won't be getting it back."

"Where the hell did they even FIND something like that!?"

Chie put her head in her hand, her fingers pinching at her forehead. It was clear she was irritated, and understandably so. _How fucking stupid is Yosuke that he brought WEAPONS into a public mall!?_ As Chie raised her head back up she noticed something from the corner of her eye. It was Yu and Yosuke making their way to the waiting room. It seems they had just been released.

"There you are! Sheesh, what're you guys doing!?"

Yosuke was going to open his mouth, but that was stopped immediately by Justin punching Yosuke in the face. Almost all of the cops that had been on duty turned their attention to the quarrel, ready to jump in. Punching Yosuke in a police station was probably not the best idea Justin had had.

"Are you fucking retarded!? You brought weapons into FUCKING JUNES!?"

"Ow! Dude, calm down!"

"Hey, I had nothing to do with it!" Yu added defensively.

"I could have told you that much already. Yosuke, what in the HELL was going through your head that you thought it would be a good to bring WEAPONS INTO JUNES!? You've done some stupid shit before, but this? Were you dropped on your head as a kid!?"

"Look, this isn't important right now, something's up with Yukiko-san."

"We know, that's what we came here for!"

The atmosphere was tense for a while, all exchange between the four constrained to eye contact with each other. It was a good while before conversation started back up.

"I…I kept calling her cell, but she didn't pick up… So I went to her house, and it turns out that Yukiko really did disappear…!"

"I guess we've got no choice but to go now…"

"Yosuke, I'll be surprised if they even let either of you back IN Junes."

"It should be fine. My dad's the manager, remember?"

"Still."

"But that aside, the cops are saying some weird stuff. They think Yukiko-san's hiding to "lay-low"… Apparently, Yukiko-san's mom collapsed because that announcer lady bitched her out. They think that gives her a motive…"

"What? That has got to be the shitiest motive I have ever heard. Jesus, who the hell is investigating this case?"

"That would be my uncle."

"Yu, your uncle is a complete moron."

Given the expression on Yu's face, he wasn't sure whether to be offended or to agree.

"They think Yukiko did it!? What the hell is wrong with them!?"

"Dude, don't snap at me! Yukiko's the victim here, dammit, not the suspect…"

"Alright everyone, just calm down for a second here. We need to go save her."

"R-Right! That's the important thing!"

"With the police totally on the wrong track, we've gotta handle it ourselves."

Justin was about to say something, but then paused, his eyes dilating slightly as though something had just occurred to him.

"Uh… guys? I just realized… We're having this conversation in front of the cops."

Everyone's expressions soon changed to match Justin's.

"Shit, he's right! W-We should go outside."

The group walked outside as non-chalantly as possible, but even that got some strange looks from the cops. It seems they didn't really notice what they were saying, but they were suspicious of them. Probably because Justin had almost beat the living crap out of Yosuke inside a police station.

"I'm going in to help too!"

Yu and Yosuke gave Chie a shocked look. It was immediately clear that they were opposed to the idea.

"And that's final! I'm going to save Yukiko no matter what!"

"Are you going to be all right…?"

"Yosuke, remember that time she kicked you in the balls? She'll be fine."

Chie gave Justin a glare. It wasn't really an angry glare or an "I'm going to MURDER you," glare, it looked actually kind of playful.

"But man… They just confiscated our weapons. We can't go in empty-handed."

"Yosuke, are you fucking kidding me. You just got arrested for this, and now you're going to do it again!?"

"Relax, we can figure out a way to sneak them in!"

"God you are so fucking stupid sometimes it pains me."

"Weapons…? I know just the place!"

_What the shit? _Everyone seemed equally surprised that Chie knew where they could get a hold of weapons, let alone that she was onboard with bringing them in to the Junes after Yu and Yosuke were just arrested for that. _Maybe she works for the mafia or somethin'._

"C'mon follow me!"

* * *

"Here we are!"

"Wh-What kind of shop is this…?"

That was a good question. As Justin swept his eye from object to object he could make out all sorts of forged weaponry: katanas, kunai, the works. It wasn't like the place was hidden either, it was near the entrance to the shopping district, close to the bus station. Obviously Chie hadn't brought them to the black market, or anything like that, or else it would have been harder to find.

"A metalworks… I guess? They sell all sorts of metal crap… like katanas and stuff."

"Doesn't that seem weird to you!? Why would you know about a place like this anyway?"

"I was just about to ask that myself."

"Oh, I get it… You watched one too many kung-fu movies, and…"

"It's not that at all! I overheard some guys in our class talk about it. They said this place sells weapons and armor."

"Yeah, but why would THEY know about this place?"

"I don't know- Look are we going to buy something or not!"

Justin shrugged. She had a point. Where she heard it from and who heard it from who, and why they knew. All of it was completely irrelevant to the situation. Chie must have thought the same because she immediately started looking at some of the armor.

"Here, this one looks good. Oh, but it might be too heavy…"

"Well it IS a suit of armor."

Justin figured he might as well take a look around. He wasn't exactly the athletic type, so he needed something that relied less on strength, and more on finesse. It felt like he had been browsing for ages before his eyes finally passed over something of interest. It was a .44 Magnum, silver plated. Engraved in its side was a floral pattern. It was complex, yet stunningly beautiful, plus Justin didn't have to be strong to pull a trigger. And he wouldn't have to worry about sneaking it into Junes either. All he'd have to do was put it in his pocket.

Of course there was a problem, Justin was almost entirely positive that handguns were prohibited for citizen use in Japan. Citizens were only allowed to purchase hunting weapons, and even then they had to go through a shit ton of legal work. Though that did beg the question what it was doing on the shelf if he wasn't allowed to sell it.

"Hey, aren't handguns supposed to be off limits?"

The shopkeeper gave him a quick-look over, as though he were examining his character just by appearance alone.

"It's a 'BB gun.'"

Justin caught on almost immediately. He wasn't sure whether he should object to him selling handguns to teenagers or to just play along and grab his weapon. In the end Justin decided to go along with the charade, picking up a box of "pellets," as well. He placed his purchase inside of his pocket, his ammunition in a bag. It had cost a bit more than he was originally willing to shell out, but he could skip lunch for a few days. Turning around, he could see everyone looking at him disapprovingly. He couldn't understand why. They were buying swords, so what's the big deal with him being a handgun?

"What? I've taken classes before."

That was only half a lie. He had never once taken a class, but he had shot a gun before. Still, it seemed that his "classes" weren't easing their concern. Probably because he was technically carrying around an illegal firearm now. But then, Justin had been carrying around illegal smokes for a while now too, so it's not like it made much of a difference.

"I dunno, Chie… I still think it's too dangerous. I know how you feel, but-"

"You don't!"

Justin turned his attention towards Chie, who had just gotten up in Yosuke's face, which was fairly common actually. She was holding back tears, though failing miserably. It seemed to Justin that Chie had been crying a lot lately. He half felt bad about it. It wasn't his fault or anything, but apparently he had been doing a miserable job of cheering her up as of late.

"You don't know shit about how I feel…! Yukiko might die from this, for crying out loud!"

Justin quickly forced his glance in the direction of the shopkeeper. Luckily he had just left the counter to start working on the forge in the back, so he probably didn't hear that. And if he did, he didn't seem to care much.

"I'm going and that's that!"

"I don't know why you're fighting this so much anyway. Chie's saved our asses on more than one occasion now."

It was technically true. She had at least saved Justin. Had she not been shaking him awake every five minutes inside the television, he could have very well slipped into a coma.

"Oh alright, just be careful."

"Psh, I'll be fine! My reflexes are second to none!"

"Listen, you don't know what it's like in there! If you're not gonna listen to our warnings, we're leaving you here!"

"Hey, Yosuke."

"Hmm?"

"Shut the fuck up."

Justin shot him his usual death glare. He had practically reserved it for anytime Yosuke was being a complete ass. Yosuke sighed slightly, as though he had realized he was being a douche. But probably not.

"If you insist on coming, just make sure you have something to protect yourself."

"Alright… Sheesh."

"But man, what should we get…? Hey Yu. Mind picking something for me, too?"

"Wh-wha? Why me?"

"Well I figured you'd know more about this stuff than I do."

"I don't." Yosuke almost seemed disappointed.

It took a while, but everyone eventually found what they were looking for. Yu had picked up a Katana, Yosuke some knives, and Chie… Well Chie bought shoes. _I guess it's alright since they had steel tips and stuff, and Chie is one hell of a kicker, but still._ Justin slipped into thought as he watched the three picking up their purchases and putting them on the counter. Chie could easily sneak hers in, considering all she had to do was WEAR them, but in Yu and Yosuke's case? How were they supposed to hide a longsword and two hugeass knives? They HAD only just gotten arrested for bringing those exact same things into the Junes earlier.

"I got my stuff all picked out! How about you guys?"

"You know… if we wear this stuff around town, we'll just get picked up again. But it's not like we can waltz into Junes with a sack full of gear and expect no one to notice, either…"

"And that's why you should have picked up something small. Me and Chie'll have no problems getting in. You? I don't see you hiding those kunai very well."

"Why not conceal them under our uniforms? I don't think people would notice."

_There are so many things wrong with that plan._

"I don't think Yu's gonna be able to hide a katana in his pants."

"Well we only need to do it once, then we can leave the stuff with Teddie, right?"

"Okay that eliminates the suspicion the SECOND time around, but that still leaves the problem of Yu carrying a sword around in his pants."

"I'll find away to sneak Yu's stuff through the back. Everyone else though can hide it under their clothes, right?"

"I guess."

It was clear Yosuke was going to fuck up getting the katana over to the electronics department without getting caught, but it's not like Justin had a better plan.

"Alright, let's split up and get ready. The store will be crowded until the afternoon sale ends, and if we walk around together the cops might get suspicious."

"Not really? We're teenagers at a mall. Why wouldn't we be walking together?"

"Well, just to be on the safe side."

"Then, I'll see you guys at the Junes food court!"

* * *

Justin, Chie, and Yosuke had been sitting at the food court, waiting for Yu to arrive. For whatever reason, he seemed to be taking the longest to get there. Of course, it wasn't like he was missing much but awkward discussion. Justin had been the first to make it to the food court, by a good half-hour or so. He had wondered why, considering they all left from the same place at the same time, but immediately realized as they took a seat across the table from him.

"You guys got changed into your school uniforms?"

"You didn't? Dude, I thought we agreed on it!"

"We could have hid it under our normal clothes too you know. I didn't think you guys meant it HAD to be our uniforms. Besides, you guys stick out like a sore thumb."

"We kinda do, don't we?"

Chie seemed slightly embarrassed that she hadn't thought to just come in her regular clothes. Really all she needed to do was change her shoes and she would be fine. Yosuke might have been a bit more understandable, if he hadn't already been wearing a much bulkier coat. He actually lost coverage for hiding his weapons.

"Guess it doesn't help that we're wearing our school uniforms on a Sunday…"

It was about an hour or so later that Yu finally arrived.

"What took you so long?"

"Sorry, I got sidetracked… Why aren't you wearing your uniform?"

"Why is ANYONE wearing their uniform!?"

"That's not important right now, you two. The sale should be ending soon, so that'll get rid of some of the people wandering around here."

"You managed to get the sword in all right?"

"Yep, already handed it off to Teddie."

"Wait, how? I thought Yu was the only one who could get us through the TV."

"I thought so too, but apparently it reacts to anyone with a Persona."

"Makes sense I suppose."

"Alright… Let's get going. Chie, it's not too late to-"

"I'm going!"

"Seriously, Yosuke, why are you so set on her staying behind?"

"I'm just concerned is all! Just don't push yourself, got it!?"

* * *

The gang made their way over to the electronics department. Justin hadn't really noticed, but a lot of people had stopped to stare at the rest of the group, who had been wearing their uniforms the entire time. By the time the three had made their way to the point of entry, the electronics department was almost completely empty. Yu and Yosuke pressed their hands against the TV, allowing Chie and Justin to make their way through first.

Although they had still fallen on their way to the other-side, Justin was able to land on his feet this time. It felt almost as though the fall was shorter. Hell, it didn't even hurt for him to land on his legs from the fall, much to his surprise. He was almost entirely positive physics didn't work quite that way. Chie soon followed, though she nearly landed flat on her face. Justin managed to grab her in time before she hit the floor. Yu and Yosuke didn't even look like they were falling, they practically stepped through the television. Actually, now that he thought about it, Justin didn't recall coming through the television last time he entered. He had defiantly fallen from above the bullseye on the target, yet here he fell out from the screen of the TV Teddie had made.

Speaking of Teddie, Teddie looked like he was pacing back in forth in the corner of the room they had entered. Yu walked over and picked up his sword before the group proceeded to interact with the costumed bear.

"Whoa, it really is that bear from last time…"

"What're you doing?

"Can't you tell? I'm thinking about stuff. I've been deli-bear-ating over it for a long time now."

It took every fiber of Justin's being not to counter Teddie's bear pun with one of his own.

"Hey, that wasn't a bad joke. Heehee…!"

"I could do better."

"Ugh, please don't. So did you figure anything out? Eh, it's probably useless to think about it too much. I've seen the inside of your skull, and it was empty."

"Smooth, Yosuke."

"How rude! You're right though. I try and I try but nothing comes to my head."

"Maybe you have amnesia."

"What's that?"

"It's when you forget all your memories, or something like that."

"Will you guys shut up!? Now's not the time!"

"She's got a point."

"Listen… Someone came here yesterday, right?"

Teddie jumped backwards in shock.

"Wow! There's a girl with a better nose than me!?"

"Never mind that! Tell me more about that 'someone'!"

"I think it happened a little after I talked with you guys. After that, it felt like someone was here."

"Is it Yukiko-san!?"

"I don't think he knows who that is, Yosuke."

"I don't know, I haven't looked."

Teddie paused for a moment before pointing his nose upwards. It twitched slightly as he started to smell the air around him. It was actually a lot less adorable then you would think it was. After a couple of seconds, Teddie turned around and faced towards Yu.

"The presence is over that way. That's probably where they are."

"Over there, huh…? Is everyone ready?"

"Y-yeah."

Yu only nodded in agreement.

"Hold on, wait a second. They? Whose they?"

Everyone started to look at Justin. They had subconsciously dismissed it as improper word choice. None had even considered he had legitimately meant more than one person.

"I don't know. I sense more than one person coming from that direction though."

"Well standing around here isn't going to help. C'mon!"

Chie darted off in the other direction faster than you could say "stop." Justin had known she was worked up over saving Yukiko, but he didn't realize she was THIS worked up. The rest of the gang took off after her, but they struggled to even keep the same pace as her, let alone catch-up.

After running blindly in the other direction for a while, Justin finally bumped into someone. Given the sound he heard, as he fell flat on his face, he could only assume it was Chie. Justin couldn't make a damn thing out in all of this fog. Where the hell were they even at?

"Hey watch it!"

"Sorry!"

"…What is this? A castle!?"

"Just like the midnight channel… This has got to be where Yukiko is."

"You're positive that no one's behind a camera for that bizarre midnight program."

"Program…? I don't know. Maybe people on your side can see stuff in this world. It might be that. And I told you before! There's only me and Shadows here! There's no "camera" stuff going on. This world has been like this from the beginning."

"From the beginning…? That's what we don't understand!"

"I dunno… Can you guys explain everything about your world?"

"He's got a point."

"I've never seen this program thingy before. So I don't know."

"Well… is that really what's happening? Are we really looking into this world?"

"It makes sense, doesn't it? This was definitely that castle from the midnight channel…"

"Yeah, but the first time Yukiko showed up on the channel was before she disappeared. Doesn't that seem off? I mean, Yukiko saying stuff like "score myself a hot stud"? That's not like her at all!"

"Score? Stud…?"

"Oh jeez. I am not explaining this to him."

"Yeah, I couldn't believe it either… Yukiko-san would never say anything like that."

"But her shadow would." Justin decided to raise his index finger for dramatic effect. It didn't work.

"Hey… Maybe you're right!"

"There's still a lot of stuff I still don't get. But after hearing your story… I think that program happens because of the person who appears on it. Or something like that…"

"And that's why the program was different when Yukiko was in and out of the TV…!"

"So… Yukiko is producing that show herself?"

"In a matter of speaking."

"Ugh, I don't get this at all."

Chie paused for a moment. Her head reeled back slightly as though someone had just hit her in the back of the head with a spitball.

"Hey… Do you feel Yukiko's presence from inside?"

Justin was almost about to respond with a sarcastic remark about how incredibly weird that made Chie sound before realizing that her comment was addressed to Teddie.

"I'm pretty sure. So, um, what's this "scoring with a hot stud," thing…?"

"Goddammit Chie, look at what you've done. Now we have to explain to Teddie what a "hot stud" is."

Chie didn't even seem fazed by Justin's remark. It was like she was in a completely other world.

"Yukiko's here… I'm going on ahead!"

"Waitwhat? Hey wait!"

Chie charged ahead by herself, with Justin trailing close behind. She had no idea where she was going, and yet she still was trying to run on ahead? What the hell was she thinking!? Looking behind him, he could tell it took Yosuke and Yu a slight bit longer to react. In fact, they were a good twenty five or so feet behind him, where as Chie was maybe five feet in front of him. Justin reached for the magnum in his pocket, just in case anything popped up while he tried to keep up with Chie. And sure enough it did.

Out of the darkness, a few strange creatures started to seep out of the wall. They were round and had a zebra like pattern all across them. They also had a mouth with long tongues in it that Justin couldn't possibly imagine were able to actually fit inside of the shadowy mass he was looking it. It was too damn big. He couldn't stop though, so he popped a shot off at the shadows, tearing holes straight through the back of their mouths, black ooze dripping from the open pore as they fell to the ground. Justin jumped over them as he tried to quicken his pace to keep up with Chie. However, every shot he had to stop for a moment to avoid dislocating one of his limbs, and each time he jumped over a shadow's corpse he found the distance between the two of them growing. Looking back, he couldn't even see Yosuke and Yu anymore. They had probably had to stop to deal with the shadows, since they had only close-range weapons. Plus they had to deal with Justin's leftovers. He felt bad that they were cleaning up his mess for him, but he figured this was more important.

After running for what felt like ages, Justin came face to face with a giant red door. He had to stop for a moment to catch his breath. He never really was the athletic type, so his ribs were killing him at this point. Plus he didn't see Chie anywhere, which concerned him. _Where the hell could she have gone too? She wouldn't have closed the doors behind her if she opened these, right? _Yosuke and Yu caught up a few moments later. Much to Justin's relief they didn't seem upset about him leaving the shadows for them to handle.

"Where's Chie!?"

Justin panted slightly as he tried to get some air into his lungs.

"I don't know, she got too far ahead of me."

Just then Justin heard something buzzing in his ear. It was Teddie. Justin didn't know how, and quite frankly, he didn't care how, but Teddie had somehow been able to communicate from them. It actuall kind of reminded him of how his shadow had communicated with him…

"There she is! She's behind that door!"

"Why would she close the door behind her though…" Justin struggled to get the words out of his mouth. Trying to keep up with Chie had taken a lot of his energy.

"You don't think…"

Justin's eyes widened. He immediately understood the implication that Yosuke had been making. Neither Chie, nor Justin had encountered their shadow yet, well at least not in person. Which means Chie's shadow could very well be here.

"Shit! Help me open this door."

It took the combined strength of the three to open the door. Well that certainly settled one thing, the door HAD to be open when Chie had made her way here, otherwise she wouldn't be able to open the door on her own. As the door opened they could hear a familiar voice, but it wasn't Chie's. Chie had been standing in the center of the room, starring at the ceiling. It was as though she were frozen in place. _I know her shadow did this, I just KNOW it._

"Chie! Are you alright!?"

Not a single response. It was though she hadn't even heard Yosuke.

"…Chie?"

"She said that red looks good on me…"

"Wait a second that's-"

"Yukiko-san!?"

"I hated my name… Yukiko… "Snow"… Snow is cold and it melts quickly… its transient… worthless… But it's perfect for me… Apart from inheriting the inn, I'm worthless… Still… Chie told me that red looks good on me."

"Are these... Yukiko-san's inner thoughts? I remember hearing Saki-senpai's, too…"

"Yeah. This castle is probably here because of this Yukiko person."

_…Teddie? When the hell did he get here? I thought he was waiting at the entrance._

"But… why a castle?"

"I don't know."

"Yukiko…"

"Chie was the only one who gave my life meaning… She's bright and strong, and she can do anything… She has everything that I don't… Compared to Chie, I'm… I'm… Chie protects me… She looks after my worthless life… And I… I don't deserve any of it… Chie is so kind…"

"Yukiko, I-I…"

**"Chie is so kind, huh? What a joke."**

"Wh-What…!?"

Justin immediately recognized that voice. It was Chie's only… more distorted. Come to think of it, that's a lot like what his shadow had sounded like, which can only mean one thing. He immediately drew his gun, pointing it around the room trying to find the source of the noise.

"Chie, listen to me. Whatever you do, you have to keep calm."

"H-huh?"

And from the darkness the shape of a humanoid started to manifest itself in front of them. It looked almost exactly like Chie, except for one major fault. Chie's eyes were brown, not a golden yellow. It was immediately obvious that this wasn't Chie. Justin braced his arm and pointed his gun at the figure, slowly making his way up towards Chie's side. The shadow didn't seem to notice though, opting to ignore the man with a gun pointed at her head.

"Oh man… Is that…!?"

"Chie's shadow."

Chie turned her head towards Justin. She was completely flabbergasted.

"M-My shadow!?"

"It's just like Yosuke! She lost control over her suppressed self! Now it's a shadow!"

**"Are we talking about THAT Yukiko!? She says I'm protecting her!? She says she's worthless! Ahaha, that's how it should be, right?"**

Chie bit her bottom lip. She was very visibly pained by what her shadow was saying, which Justin knew was going to be a problem immediately.

"Don't give it the satisfaction Chie. It just wants to see you react."

**"Quiet you! This is between me and myself!"**

"Wh-What're you saying?"

**"Yukiko's so good looking… Sooo fair-skinned… soo feminine… She's the one all the guys drool over. When Yukiko looked at me with such jealousy… Man, did I get a charge out of that. Yukiko knows the score. She can't do anything if I'm not around… I'm better than her… Much, much better!"**

"No! I have never thought that!"

"Don't say anything. My shadow did this exact same thing."

"Y-You're shadow?"

Chie seemed completely confused. So did Yu and Yosuke, though Justin hadn't been able to see them from where he was standing. It had completely slipped his mind that he hadn't communicated with his shadow inside the TV world. _She probably thinks that I met it on the way up here._

"I'll explain later. Just stay calm. It's going to say some pretty fucked up stuff. The most important thing is that you don't give into your emotions."

**"I SAID QUIET!**

"We need to protect Chie-chan, right now!"

The rest of the gang moved forward, as though to give Chie back up, much to Chie's displeasure.

"N-No! Don't come near me! Don't look at me!"

"Chie, calm down!"

"No… No, This isn't me!"

"Don't say that! Your shadow will go beserk!"

**"That's right. I'm the one who can't do anything alone… I can't win as a girl, let alone as a person… I'm pathetic."**

"That's not true, and you know it." Justin's grip tightened around the pistol. If this went on any further, he'd probably have to take a shot. He just didn't know how Chie's shadow would react to that.

**"But Yukiko… She depends on me… That's why she's my friend… I'll never loosen my grip on her… She's too important to me."**

Justin squeezed off a shot from his magnum. He had half anticipated the results. The shadow hadn't been wounded or defeated, or anything like that from his intervention. Instead it had simply moved its head slightly just before the shot, allowing the bullet to sail straight into the wall besides her, much to her amusement.

"Next time it's going in your skull."

**"You couldn't hit it if you tried."**

"Want to try me?"

"No… That's not how I think of her…"

"Chie, don't say it. I know it hurts, but you have to stay strong. The shadows just take the deepest, darkest part of you and try to blow it out of proportion. This… thing. It might be you, but that does not mean you are it. You're better than this, and I know you know it."

**"So, you're just gonna turn your back and deny me again? But things are different now. When the time comes… I'll be the one left standing. You won't mind, right? I'm still you!"**

"Shut up! You're…

"Chie! Don't!"

"You're not me."

Suddenly an intense wave of power exploded from Chie's shadow, flinging both Chie and Justin backwards. It had completely knocked Chie out. Justin hit the ground pretty hard, he was almost entirely positive he broke his spine somehow, but otherwise he was fine. The shadow's shape changed. Where once a yellow-eyed Chie had stood was now a disgusting mass of limbs, a whipped executioner at top, as though it were sitting on some disgusting throne of limbs. Justin fired off a few shots at the beast, but it was no use. The shadow whipped the gun right out of Justin's hand.

**"Hehehe… I am a shadow, the true self! What do you guys think you're doing? Trying to defend the "real" me? Then you're gonna pay the price!"**

"Shut up! Quit being such a pain! Chie… just hang in a little longer…"

In a flash of power, the two summoned their personas. They were huge, a good three times bigger than either Yu or Yosuke had been. They were practically radiating light as they charged forward to deal with Chie's shadow. But with a quick whip, the shadow had sent the two personas flying backwards to their owners. Yu and Yosuke were barely able to dodge them, hell they only just barely passed over Justin's head before they collided into the wall.

**"Hah, think you can stop me that easy!?"**

"Izanagi, ZIO"

"Jiraya, GURU"

In a maginficant show of power, the two let loose a barrage of elemental power, sparks flying through the air as the wind pushed Chie's shadow across the room. It was stunning to say the least. Justin almost couldn't move from the shock of what he was witnessing, but he forced himself to snap out of his daze. He didn't have personas like Yu and Yosuke did, but he could still help, goddammit. He searched around the room for where his gun had been knocked to.

"There it is."

Picking himself up off the ground, he started to make a b-line towards the gun before Yosuke's person came crashing down in front of him. The force of the impact nearly swept Justin off his feet, but he kept running. Just as the gun was in his reach, he felt something grip at his leg. Chie's shadow had noticed him making a run for the gun and had gotten a grip on his leg with the tentacle like appendages growing out of it's back. She tugged him up towards her face, Justin hanging upside down as it made eye contact with him.

"Trying to play the hero?"

"Just a little."

Chie's Shadow had been so focused on dragging him in while fending off Yu and Yosuke, that it hadn't noticed that Justin had managed to grab his magnum before being dragged it's way. He fired two rounds into its eyes, effectively blinding it. As the shadow screamed out in pain, it released it's grip on Justin, effectively dropping him towards the ground. Justin managed to hit his head again, but it wasn't as bad as when he had first come into the TV. It hurt like a bitch, but he could still stand, which is always a plus.

"Nice shot, Justin."

"And you guys thought I was crazy for getting the magnum."

The two changed up the formations of their personas, taking advantage of the shadow's new weakness. It could no longer see where anything was, so if they kept attacking from different angles, it wouldn't be able to counter. As their personas swooped into start doing some damage, Justin noticed Chie start to push herself off the ground out of the corner of his eye. He rushed over to help her, not to get her off the ground, but to keep her there so she wouldn't get hit by the projectiles going to and fro.

"Don't get up yet. Are you alright."

"That thing. That isn't me."

"It is, Chie. It's a deep, dark part of you, but its part of you all the same."

"I would never think of Yukiko like that."

"Chie, EVERYONE has thought of their friends like that at some point. Hell, why do you think I keep Yosuke around."

Chie looked off towards the behemoth that was fighting off Yu and Yosuke's personas.

"That thing was inside me…?"

"Well, not PHYSICALY, but yeah."

It was just at that moment that Chie's shadow came crumbling down to the ground, Yu having dealt a critical strike at its head. The shadow's twisted shape twitched wildly as it hit the floor before going completely still, its shape dissolving into its original form. Justin stood up and gave Chie his hand to help her up.

"Thanks…"

The two walked slowly over to where Chie's shadow laid, Justin with his gun pointed at its head just in case. Or at least it had been until Chie put her hand over its muzzle, pushing slowly down on it. For whatever reason, she thought there was no reason for Justin to be on guard. Yu, Teddie, and Yosuke soon ran up to meet with the two as they stared at the shadow's unconscious form.

"Chie! Are you okay?!"

The shadow soon started to push itself off the ground. Justin was about to reach for his gun, but Yosuke gave him a quick nod. Apparantly he didn't think there was need for concern either, and as much as he wouldn't trust Yosuke with anything else, there was no reason to doubt him when it came to shadows. He had fought one before, after all. The shadow twisted it's head around to make eye-contact with Chie. Strangely, where the shadow's eyes were filled with malice and hate before they seemed… empty now.

"What's the matter…? Got nothing to say anymore?"

"Stop it, Chie. It's alright."

"B-but…"

"We understand Chie. You have to realize that that thing is only a small part of you. You're better than that."

Chie paused for a moment, her gaze drooping to the floor, as though she were ashamed. Justin was almost annoyed that she felt bad about this. It wasn't like it was her fault or anything. Minus the whole running in alone part, of course. A brief moment of silence passed before Chie turned her attention back towards her shadow.

"Yeah… I kinda get it now. You are me… A side of me I couldn't forgive… That I tried to ignore… But you still exist. You're a part of me…"

The shadow nodded, as though in agreement, as it shape dissolved away, a bright light in it's place. And from the bright light emerged something else, something majestic and glowing with light. It was Chie's persona. Justin was almost jealous. The persona's shape soon dissolved, however, much like the shadow had moments ago. There was a brief moment of silence before the rest of the gang moved into get around Chie. Justin placed his hand on her shoulder, giving her a nod of support. He'd never admit it out loud, but he was proud of Chie for conquering her weaknesses.

"I… Um, well it's true that part of me feels that way… B-But I wasn't lying about being friends with Yukiko…!"

"You don't need to explain that to us. We already know."

"Like we didn't know that already."

In a sudden instant, Chie collapsed to her knees.

"Chie! Are you alright!"

"I'm okay… Just a little tired…"

"You don't look okay at all… And I bet, you can use the same power we have now."

"Huh…?"

"Hey, what should we do?"

Yosuke gestured towards Yu, though Justin for some reason was the one to respond.

"I think we should call it a day…"

"All right. Let's get back to the entrance."

"I-I never said I needed a break! I… can still keep going…"

"Don't over do it."

"Honestly Chie, you look like you're going to collapse any second now. We don't need you getting hurt."

"It's not that we don't think you can. It's just , we have to save Yukiko-san, no matter what. Now that you have the power, you can fight with us-"

"Oh what, and I can't? Fuck you man."

He was joking of course, though Yosuke didn't seem to take it that way.

"I-I didn't mean it like that… But anyway, that's why we're saying we should go back and regroup."

"But Yukiko's still in here, isn't she!? I-I… if those were Yukiko's true feelings… then I have to tell her something. I'm not as strong as she thinks! It's because she's with me. Because we were always together, I was able to act that way. If we weren't, I'd…"

There was a brief pause of silence. It seemed the entire group had been struck by the words Chie had made. It was touching to say the least.

"Well you need to get your strength back! Then you can tell her! Yuki-chan's normal. The shadows only attack when the fog lifts here anyway."

"And the fog lifts here when it gets foggy on our side, right?"

"Bingo. So Yukiko-san will be safe until then, right?"

"I'm positive."

"The fog usually appears after it rains, but it's been sunny lately. I don't think it's going to rain anytime soon either. So we'll have plenty of time to save Yukiko."

"But, I-I can't turn back now! We've come so far! Yukiko's still here! She's all alone… She must be so scared!"

"Then you tell me how much further we gotta go to reach Yukiko-san!"

"Th-That's…!"

"You don't know what's up ahead. The enemies might be even stronger. Justin doesn't even have a Persona! If we push ourselves too hard and get wiped out, who'll save Yukiko-san then!?"

"Dude, calm the fuck down."

"We can't fail, no matter what… Am I wrong?"

"No, you're not, but that's no reason to act like an asshole."

Chie sighed, though whether it was because Justin and Yosuke were going at it again or because of what Yosuke had said was unclear.

"Alright."

Justin bent down and gave Chie a hand up. As he let go of her grip however, she nearly stumbled back down to the ground, much like Justin had when he had hit his head. He grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her back up to her standing position, wrapping her arm around the backside of his neck. She seemed reluctant for Justin to be helping her like that, but then, she really couldn't object.

"Just like old times, huh?"

Chie chuckled slightly at the irony.

"I'm sorry about before. I shouldn't have rushed in like that."

"Don't worry about it. Just- Just next time you do it, you should get someone who runs track to chase you. My lungs are still killing me."

* * *

It took a while to make it back to the entrance, mostly because Justin and Chie were stuck in that awkward huddle again, but they eventually made it a back. They hadn't left the TV yet, though. There were a few things that they needed to discuss.

"I… I'm feeling even worse than the last time I came in here… My head feels like it's gonna split open…"

"Your head? You remember what happened to me last time."

Chie couldn't help but laugh at that. It was refreshing to see Chie laugh again. Lately she had been so down in the dumps that even the slightest chuckle was a relief.

"Still, are you guys okay?"

"Crap." _D-did Yu just swear? Holy shit, it's the end of the world. _"We forget to get Justin and Chie glasses too."

"That's right, you're not wearing the glasses."

"Oh yeah… What's with those glasses? Did your eyesight go bad?"

"Now that you mention it, I hadn't even noticed you guys were wearing those; what with all the fog and all."

"Man… You two didn't notice till now?"

"Tum de Dummm! I got some pairs ready for Chie-chan and Justin-san too. Here you go!"

Teddie held out his hands, a pair of glasses in each. Chie grabbed the pair with the yellow frame, while Justin grabbed the pair with the thin black frame. Glasses weren't really his thing, but he could only imagine that thinner frame looked better on him then the thick yellow ones would. Surprisingly, they did look good on Chie, though he could imagine the thin black frames would look good too. Putting them on, Justin could see straight through the fog, as if it wasn't even there.

"Whoa! What the-!? This is awesome! It's like the fog doesn't exist!"

"Well that would explain how Yu and Yosuke weren't tripping over everything."

"Why didn't you whip those out earlier if you had them?"

_…_

_Why DIDN'T he do that? The fuck, Teddie!?_

"I made them right now! You didn't tell me they were coming! It was all so sadden! I mean, sudden!"

"…You made this. Just now. How the hell does that even work?"

"A magician never reveals his secrets, Justin-san."

"Hey, is it alright if I keep this?"

"I can only assume that's why he gave these to us."

"Fo' sho!"

"Never say that again."

"We'll have to stop here today… But I'll be back here with these puppies. You guys better not come here without me, got it!?"

"No, see, now that you have a persona, they get to try and leave ME behind. It all comes full circle."

"If we don't work together, we won't be able to solve this case or save Yukiko-san… Right?"

"Dude, don't say it like that!"

"Alright, starting tomorrow, let's save Yukiko." Yu added in. His deadpan voice was oddly soothing given all the tension there's been lately.

* * *

Justin and Chie were making their way back to Chie's house. Chie was still pretty weak, so Justin agreed to help her back. At least, up until visual range of their house, lest things get awkward with her parents.

"Hey, earlier you said something about your shadow. I thought you didn't have a persona?"

"I don't."

"I don't understand then. You're still alive, so you must have won right?"

Justin laughed slightly at the comment. He knew exactly what Chie had thought had happened, and it was completely wrong. Though he couldn't have imagined her guessing the alternative.

"Promise you won't think I'm crazy if I tell you what happened?"

"Now why would I think you're crazy!?"

"Well you haven't heard it yet. You remember how I bumped my head the first time we went into the television?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, I'm not sure how, but apparently that allowed my shadow to get inside my head. Literally."

"Wait, you mean-"

"Yeah, he was stuck in my head all week. And let me tell you something, you put up with your shadow for 5 minutes. I put up with mine all week."

"It's not a competition you know." There was a brief pause in the discussion. "…If you don't mind me asking, was your shadow as bad as mine?"

"Oh god, mine was a thousand times worse."

"Really? What'd he say."

"You don't want to know."

"I kinda do."

"Eh… Another time."

"Oh! There's my house up ahead."

"You sure you can walk the rest of the way?"

"I'm fine, I'm just a little tired is all…"

"I was fine too. Just a little concussion was all."

Chie laughed slightly. Justin didn't know what it was about his concussion that was so funny, but it was almost always guaranteed to get a laugh out of Chie as of late.

"Alright then, I'll see you in school tomorrow."

What happened next, Justin couldn't possibly have foreseen. Chie leaned up and give him a quick peck on the cheek before waving goodbye and walking over to her house. For what felt like ages, Justin just stood there, his hand pressed against where her lips had meet his skin. It was common in California to say goodbye by kissing someone on the cheek, but that was usually an honor reserved amongst family members. And even then there was something different about this; though what it was he couldn't quite put his finger on

_..._

_...What the fuck just happened?_


	9. Chapter 8: April 18, 2011

CHAPTER 8

APRIL 18, 2011

* * *

It was early morning, the light practically blinding Justin. He was still having trouble getting used to the weekend only being a day long. He had briefly considered just not coming to school on Saturday's before deciding it just wasn't worth it. He'd pretty much have to hide out in his house all day, and once Yu and the gang caught on, they'd never let him hear the end of it. He flipped a coin around in between his knuckles, its faces swapping between each daft movement of his hands. He was trying to distract himself from his thoughts, and he figured the best way to do that was to do something he had to concentrate hard on. Yet it still wasn't helping.

"I wonder how Chie's doing. Too much stuff happened yesterday. I hope she's back to her usual self…"

Justin groaned. That was exactly the subject he was trying to avoid thinking of. Last night Chie had given him a peck on the cheek before making her way to her house. He didn't understand why, and the more he thought about it the more his head hurt. He just wanted to avoid the topic altogether, but he couldn't. It had been on his mind the entire night and, so far, all of the day. And yet he couldn't figure out why it bothered him so much. I mean, it had to have been a friendly way of saying goodbye or something, right? They were just friends after all, there was nothing between them. At least… Justin didn't think so.

Interrupting his thoughts, the doors to the classroom slid open, Chie walking through, a wide smile across her face as she approached the trio.

"Oh, mornin'"

"You feeling better today?"

"Yep."

Chie paused for a brief moment, her smile suddenly shifting into a frown as she put her hand around the back of her head.

"Um… Thanks for everything yesterday. It's kinda embarrassing, ya know? You guys were right there to see my hidden feelings and all…"

Chie looked around the group, analyzing everyone's faces as though searching for a reaction. Yu and Yosuke had worn a smile as though to imply it didn't matter to them. It didn't really matter to Justin, either, but he couldn't even make eye-contact with Chie anymore. It felt too awkward. He could practically feel her eyes upon him, looking at his face for his tell-tale smirk, that same smirk he did every time Chie had been over-reacting. Instead she found Justin trying to look in the opposite direction, as though he were ashamed of her. Justin could almost hear her spirit breaking. He felt like a huge douche, but he still couldn't force himself to look her way.

"D-Don't sweat it."

They way he stuttered out the sentence; he could tell everyone had disapproved of Justin and his refusal to look in her general direction. Yosuke was practically trying to cover Justin's bases for him, but to no avail. He knew what he had done, and it was too late to remedy the situation. Chie looked away and towards the ground. She was almost physically pained by Justin's refusal to acknowledge her, she was practically about to cry, and yet as much as Justin had been there for her when she was like this before, he couldn't find a single word in his mind to say to her. Not a single one. And he hated himself for it.

"The same thing happened to Yosuke, right?" She was choking up her words, painfully trying to force the conversation away from Justin's assholeishness. "So… what was it like?"

"Huh? Uhhh, how should I put this…? Oh, I nearly forgot! None of that happened when yours awakened huh?"

Justin almost found it humorous how he was trying to force the subject over towards Yu instead. Almost. He still felt completely empty inside.

"Hmmm, could that be because you've got nothing to hide?"

_I doubt it…_

"Oh? So nothing happened for you? I gotta agree that you seem like a pretty open guy. There's a funny air about you."

_Open? The guy hardly talks!_

"I dunno, I guess that's what draws people to you, or something like that."

"Was that a compliment?"

Chie forced herself to laugh. She was still choking up words. She was still obviously hurt by what Justin had been doing.

"Yeah, it's a compliment."

"Uh… if you say so…"

Yu and Yosuke chuckled slightly at the comment, though neither Justin or Chie joined in. He could tell she was looking at him again. He hated what his very presence was doing to her. He half considered excusing himself from the conversation, but figured that would just make things work.

"Oh… Uh… I forgot something in my locker! …I'll, uh… I'll be back in a second."

Justin knew she was lying, but all the same he lifted his eyes from the desk below him, focusing them on Chie as she made her way to the door. Her right fist was furiously rubbing at her eye, and it was immediately clear that she was crying. Luckily for Justin, apparently Youske and Yu had noticed and proceeded to rip him a new one as the door closed behind her.

"Dude, what the hell!?"

"I know, I know…"

Yu only gazed at him disapprovingly. And yet, that's all he needed to do to make Justin feel like complete shit.

"You know what she went through, why are you acting like this?"

"Something… Something happened last night."

Yu and Yosuke softened their glares slightly as the exchanged eye-contact with each other, as though both were curious as to what exactly happened.

"W-What do you mean?"

Justin sighed. "Can you keep a secret? Cause I know Chie would kill me if she ever found out I told you two."

"Well I don't know about Yosuke, but I can. What's up?"

Justin paused for a moment. He wasn't entirely sure he even wanted them to know, and even if they did, he was sure they wouldn't understand.

"Well… You guys know how I had to walk Chie home last night, right? Well I was dropping her off at her house and she… Kinda sorta gave me a peck on the cheek."

Yosuke and Yu gave each other a look. They seemed like they were both surprised, and not so angry anymore, but somehow telling other people about it just made Justin feel even shittier. This wasn't exactly something he wanted people to know about, and he doubted Chie wanted anyone to know about it either, but clearly he didn't have any idea how to handle the situation. He needed some advice and fast.

"Seriously?"

"Yeah... I have no idea what to do."

"Honestly, you two would make a cute couple."

"Oh fuck you, Narukami. It's not like that."

"Seems like Chie thinks it is."

Justin hadn't actually thought of it like that. He had just been being nice but… Did Chie think there was supposed to be more to it than that?

"Shit... You might be right..."

"Maybe you should talk to her about it."

"I'm no good at that kind of stuff..."

"What're you talking about? Dude, you're always cheering her up. Usually at my expense, but that's beside the point."

"It's not the same thing, Yosuke."

"Either way, you should still apologize to her. She probably thinks you're avoiding her on purpose right now."

"I WAS avoiding her on purpose."

"But not for the reasons she thinks."

Justin groaned. He would have to apologize to her sooner or later, but how do you bring a topic like that up without making things ridiculously awkward. I mean, the way Justin saw it, they were just friends. What if Chie actually though there was more to it? What if he was just over-reacting and that was her way of saying goodbye. Either way, he'd feel like a huge dick afterwards.

"All right, all right. I'll go talk to her. But I swear to God if any of you mention this to anyone-"

"You're secret's safe with us."

Justin picked himself up from his seat and made his way to the door. He took one last look behind him at Yu and Yosuke. He didn't like the look of the grins on their faces. He knew he shouldn't have said anything to them.

* * *

"Chie?"

Justin had finally found his way to Chie's locker. She had been the only one down there at the moment, and her head was pressed against the cold steel of her locker, tears dripping down from her face.

"What do you want!?"

"Look. We need to talk…"

"What's there to talk about? You made it quite clear what you think of me. You're ashamed of me..."

"It's not that…"

Justin rested his hand on Chie's shoulder. He half expected her to try and push it away, but instead she just let him rest it there.

"Come on, stop crying. You know I hate seeing you like this…"

"I don't give a damn!"

"Chie, please, calm down… You didn't do anything wrong."

"Then why are you being such a jerk!?"

"You want me to just say it? You remember last night, on the way back to your house?"

"Y-yeah?"

"Before you left you… did something. Uh… You know…"

Chie just stared at him blankly. She really had no idea what he was getting it, and that's what was making this incredibly awkward for Justin.

"You gave me a peck on the cheek before you left…"

Chie's face turned bright red.

"I Wh-What!?"

"Yeah, don't you remember?"

"N-No, I don't."

Justin thought it was completely stunning, but giving her face a quick look over, it seemed she was telling the truth. In fact, she looked completely mortified. _She must have done it subconsciously, though why is another question. One that I don't plan on asking anytime soon._

"Well… You did. So… yeah…"

"Oh God. I-I'm sorry…"

"You don't need to apologize, though I'm surprised you don't remember…"

Chie averted her gaze, much like Justin had done earlier. Her face was redder than he had ever seen it been before in his life.

"So yeah… That's why I was acting that way…"

"I… I'm sorry for flipping out on you."

"It's fine. To be honest, I WAS acting kind of like a douche. Let's just pretend none of this ever happened."

Chie nodded her head in agreement. Justin didn't think he needed to tell her that to get her to try and push it out of her mind, but he was hoping that would clear some of the tension between them. Of course, the tension was soon broken anyway by the sound of the bell ringing.

"Shit! We're late!"

"Oh god, my parents will never let me hear the end of this."

Justin rubbed at his chin for a moment. He had been growing some facial hair around his chin, and he didn't have the slightest idea why, but the slightest sensation of the hairs pressing against his fingertips seemed to help him think.

"Alright, I got an idea. Follow me."

* * *

"Geez, what's taking those two so long?"

"Maybe they're, you know…" Youske gave Yu a wink and a quick nudge of his elbow. Yu immediately blushed at the implication.

"I don't think Chie's the kind to skip class for that…"

"But Justin is. Has he ever once paid attention in class?"

"No."

"Plus, he's pretty good at convincing Chie to do stuff."

"I don't know… He said it wasn't like that…"

"Oh man, you believed that?"

"Why wouldn't I?"

"Dude, did you see how defensive he got when you said they'd make a cute couple?"

"What, you think he has a crush on her or something?"

"I don't just think so. I know so."

Yosuke's and Yu's conversation was interrupted by the slight sound of vibrating in Yosuke's pocket. He carefully, but swiftly opened the phone so King Moron wouldn't hear it. Class had already started, and he was in the process of taking attendance, so Yu and Yosuke had been whispering the entire time. Yosuke took a glance at the text message he just received, a smug look crossing his face.

_We're at the door right now. Give us a distraction._

Yosuke chuckled silently under his breath. Slightly because causing a commotion was his specialty, slightly because Justin had actually taken the time to use proper grammar in a text when they were this late. Yosuke shot his hand up into the sky.

"Um… Mr. Marooka? I think you have something on your face."

Yu gave Yosuke a glance. For a moment he was about to kick at his ankles, until he noticed the doors to the class slowly slipping open. Mr. Marooka was too busy making his way over to Yosuke's desk to really notice. Yu was finally starting to catch on.

"And what is that supposed to mean, you little punk!?"

Justin and Chie slowly made their way into the room. However, instead of making a mad dash for their desk during the commotion, it seemed the two were slowly sneaking towards their desks, while moving backwards. _What the hell are they doing?_ Yu thought to himself.

"Well it's really bothering me, I mean it's hu- Oh sorry wait, that's just your teeth. Nevermind."

"WHAT!? THAT'S IT! YOU'RE GOING ON MY SHIT LIST, EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY!"

Marooka turned around, about to march his way back up to the front of the classroom. Yu almost had to look away; Chie and Justin hadn't made it back to their seats yet, and he did not want to see the shitstorm unfold.

"And where do YOU TWO think you're going, sit back down!"

"Yes sir, King Moron, sir!"

"You're already on my shit list, you punk!"

Justin giggled a bit, as he turned around to make his way back to his desk, this time walking straight towards it instead of walking backwards. Chie smiled too as she slid over her desk to her seat. Yu had finally caught on. If they walked backwards, they'd be facing the door if they got caught. That way it would look like they were sneaking out, not in. Yosuke gave them a quick wink as they turned around to make eye contact with the rest of the gang.

"You owe me for that." Yosuke added on, half joking.

"You owed Chie a DVD, so I think we can call it even."

* * *

After hours of sitting through school, and another hour or so of walking to the Junes, everyone had made their way inside of the television again. Even longer still until they made their way back to the entrance of the castle. _There has to be a way of getting back and forth quicker…_ Justin sighed as they finally came to a stop in front of the castle. Everyone was getting their gear ready to go inside, but seeing as Justin only needed to put a few bullets in the chamber of his gun, he was done much sooner than everyone else. It was probably for the better anyway. The walk had not done wonders for his ribs, and he needed a moment to sit down and get his bearings. It was a good ten or so minutes before everyone was ready to get going.

"Alright, so what's the plan?"

"Hopefully something with less running this time… I don't think my lungs can take anymore of that…"

Justin moved a stray strand of hair out of his eye using the barrel of his gun. Chie looked at him with a combination of disparagement and worry. _She get's way too worked up over this stuff. It's not like I'm gonna pull the trigger when it's pointed right at my head._

"We don't need to rush. Yukiko will be fine. It's important that we pace ourselves accordingly."

Yu was right, for once. Or maybe that was just Justin's lungs talking. Either way, Justin was completely on board with Yu's plan. The investigation team made their way inside of the castle, slowly walking down through the hallways. Very rarely did they run into any shadows, and when they did, they had been brought down relatively quickly. Although Justin was trigger-happy the day before while chasing Chie, he had been hesitant to fire many shots off today. _A sword is a pay-once play-forever kind of thing, a gun was more subscription based._ Justin almost hated himself for using gaming terminology to describe weapons, but it was what he was most familiar with. Either way, ammo was expensive, and he was already skipping lunch a few days this week as it was.

"Hey Justin, I've been meaning to ask, you said something about your shadow yesterday. How exactly did that happen?"

"Oh boy, this again. I already explained this to Chie, but basically you remember how I hit my head? Well I guess that let the shadow get inside my mind or some shit. I don't know."

"Inside your mind? How hard did you hit your head exactly."

"Yosuke, never piss off someone holding a gun."

"All right, all right; point taken!"

"You still never told me what your shadow said to you."

"I thought we agreed we weren't going to talk about it."

"I know, but I'm still curious."

Justin sighed. He knew he was going to get kicked in the balls at some point during his recap.

"Let's just put it this way. Other me is a perv."

"…What'd he say?" Yosuke seemed way too interested. He had on that same grin he had on this morning when they had that discussion about Chie.

"I have never heard more comments about people's assess in all my life. Hell, I think he commented on YOUR ass at one point, Yosuke."

"Waitwhat!?"

Justin knew that wasn't the response Yosuke was expecting. Justin knew Yosuke had wanted to hear something about Justin and Chie, so when Justin saw the opening to creep Yosuke the hell out, he decided to take it. That would teach him for putting his nose in other peoples' business.

"Yeah you remember that time you sat on rotten egg?"

"Not cool, man."

"Neither is you asking about my shadow."

"All right, fair enough. Though something is bothering me."

"Yeah?"

"You've only talked to your shadow right? So does that mean he's still… You know…?"

Justin recalled the words the shadow had said the last time he had heard it. _"Then I better step up my game," I believe it was. This isn't giving me much hope for what's going on with my shadow._

"Probably. He doesn't bother me though, so we can just have our discussion, I can accept him, and we can go on our merry way."

"You think it'll be that easy?"

"I don't see why not."

* * *

It took some more walking, but the group eventually made their way back to where they had found Chie the day before. The doors were strangely closed again. Justin didn't recall any one closing the doors on their way out yesterday.

"Teddie, you picking up anything?"

"I sense someone behind this door."

"You think it's Yukiko?"

Chie seemed to get enthusiastic at the thought. Justin couldn't really blame her. The sooner they got out of here, the better.

"Well only one way to find out. Everyone help me get this door open."

As the door opened, they were greeted by a familiar sight. There was a strange black smoke clouding the room, but Justin could still make out a humanoid figure. It had black flowing hair, just like Yukiko. But something was completely off about this. _Why isn't she freaking out if this IS Yukiko? Actually, why is she wearing that dress? Unless… _Justin placed his arms out to stop everyone from proceeding any closer. He couldn't be sure quite yet, but he was almost entirely positive that wasn't Yukiko. It had to be her shadow.

"Yukiko…?"

"Yukiko-san!? Are you alright!?"

"That's not Yukiko…"

"H-Huh? What are you talking about, that looks just like her!"

"Yukiko, are you all right?"

"**Heehee… Ahahahahahaha!"**

"I knew it. That maniacal laugh? That distorted voice? This is her shadow."

"**Oh my! Special guests? I wonder how they'll play into all of this! Things are really heating up!"**

There was a brief pause in conversation between everyone. Justin glanced to each side of him. Everyone seemed to be confused, though Chie seem more so than the rest. Why wouldn't she, though? This was her best friend, and here she was being… Well, weird as all fuck.

"**Okie-dokie! I'm going back to the hunt for my Prince Charming! Ohhh, where could he be…? This place is huge! It's sooo exciting, but it makes it so hard to find him! Ohh! Maybe he's playing hide-and-seek in the fog! Ready or not, here I come!"**

"This… this is just shameful."

Justin half expected Chie to slap him for that, what this being Yukiko's inner self and all, but instead he found her only nodding in agreement.

"**Let's go further in then… Shall we?"**

Justin was about to take a step forward, hoping to deal with the shadow here, rather than later, but was interrupted by the appearance of what appeared to be a title card. It read in flashy, colorful letters: "Princess Yukiko's Hunt for Her Prince Charming."

"Wh-What the hell is this!?"

"What the hell? Is that… Is that a title card?"

"You're… You're not Yukiko… Who are you!?"

Justin resisted the urge to slam his palm into his head. It was only a few moments ago that he thoroughly explained to Chie that this was Yukiko's shadow. How the hell did she not get it?

"**What're you talking about? I'm Yukiko… and Yukiko is me."**

"Where's the real Yukiko!?"

Sound burst through the halls, as though a crowd had been gathering around them. Justin couldn't see anything, but he could hear it all very clearly. The voices were getting visibly upset, chatting amongst each other, groans and moans filling the air.

"What's with these voices…!?"

"It's like a studio audience."

"The shadows are getting agitated!"

"They're what now? What's that mean?"

"**Well, I'm off again! Heehee! You'd better be waiting with bells on, my dear Prince!"**

"Honey, I think I speak for everyone here when I say we don't roll that way. Except maybe Yosuke."

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean!?"

"It means I am calling you a homosexual, Yosuke."

"Dude, whatever…"

And with that the shadow charged off in the other direction. It took a second for him to react, but Justin soon started to trail the shadow, the rest of the gang following close behind.

"Hey, wait!"

They practically had to shout to hear each other as they ran down the hallways to keep up with Yukiko's shadow. How in the hell she was running so fast with such a bulky dress on was beyond Justin, but it really didn't matter. The investigation team tried to make heads and toes of what was going on as best as they could while still keeping up with the shadow.

"I don't think she's getting this excited over nothing! The real Yukiko wants to show us something! I can feel it!"

"Yeah!? Well, the real Yukiko should slow the fuck down!"

"It's hard to explain! It seems like she has a strong connection to this castle! This is a lot more dangerous than I thought!"

"I still don't get it! Why a castle! Is this supposed to be symbolic!?"

"I don't really think shadows are the poetic type!"

"Aren't they though?!"

"Look, it doesn't matter!"

Justin stopped as he came face to face with another door. It was closed, but he knew the shadow had run this way. There was no doubt about it, though he had to wonder how the hell she got through on her own. It wasn't like she was that far ahead of them anyway, so if she had stopped to open or close the door, Justin should have been able to see it. He stopped to catch his breath, forcing air in and out of his lungs.

"She's behind this door but… There's something else there too…"

Justin wheezed as he tried to regain his composure. Everyone gave each other a quick glance over before turning their attention back to Justin.

"Are… you all right?"

"Yeah… I'm… fine…"

"You've been running out of breath a lot lately."

"Like I said… Not the athletic type…"

"Maybe you should sit this one out…"

_Justin turned around to give Yosuke his usual death glare. What, he's done with Chie now that she has a persona, so now it's his turn? Fuck. That._

"I'm going. That's final."

Justin practically kicked the door open by himself, he was bursting with rage. Justin reached into his pocket and grabbed his lighter, lighting a cigarette up in his mouth. Come to think of it, he hadn't had a smoke in a couple of days. He was probably going through withdrawal, which would explain the heavy breathing as of late. Looking up from the lit end of his cigarette, Justin noticed that the door did give way to his kick but it wasn't completely open. He made a gesture to the rest of the team to help him push it the rest of the way open. As they made their way inside, they were greeted by a familiar sight. Not only had Yukiko's shadow been there, but so had Yukiko, sprawled out across the floor. From the looks of it she was completely unconscious, but even then everyone had to practically hold Chie back as they made their way forward.

However, something else had caught Justin's eye. It wasn't Yukiko, or her shadow, or that they were finally getting to the end of this tangled maze of a castle. On the footsteps just to the left of Yukiko's shadow, he could make out another figure, sitting down and puffing on a cigarette. It's golden eyes were starring off into the distance as if it hadn't even noticed the group of teenagers barrage in. But then, the shadows had a habit of doing that.

"Yukiko!"

"I knew it… There's two of her!"

"And two of me apparently." Justin added on nonchalantly as he took another drag of his cigarette. Normally he might have gotten panicked at the sight of his shadow awaiting his arrival, but as with all his anxieties, smoking helped keep his mind calm and focused.

"Huh? Oh shit…!"

"**Oh? Oooooh, what's this?"**

Justin's shadow, having heard Yukiko's shadow react, turned his attention towards the group, and evil smirk sweeping across his face.

"**Looks like the guests of honor have finally arrived!"**

Justin puffed out some smoke, taking a moment of silence to think before turning his attention towards his shadow, mocking him from the corner of the staircase.

"I am not in the mood for this shit today, what do you want?"

"**Me? Well I just came to watch the fun!"**

"I wouldn't call this FUN."

"**I would."**

"I know you would. Can we get this shit over with. I'd like to focus my attention on ONE shadow at a time, thank you very much."

Justin's shadow laughed with maniacal glee.

"**Like I said, I'm just here to watch. I have bigger plans in store for you anyway."**

"The fuck does that mean."

"**All in due time."**

The shadow took another drag of its cigarette before turning his attention back towards Yukiko's shadow. Justin almost wanted to bust a cap in his ass from where he was standing, but he knew how that would turn out. Looking around the rest of the team, it seemed no one was quite sure how to react to Justin's shadow. Technically, he wasn't any immediate threat, where as Yukiko's shadow was, but… They couldn't just leave him there right?

"**It seems that four princes are here to see me! My my! Are you the surprise guests who came in late."**

"What? You just saw us, like five minutes ago. Of course it's us!"

"**Awwwwwww… I wish I'd gotten a better look at you!"**

The shadow slowly made its way down the stairs, closer to where Yukiko had been laying unconscious. Justin immediately drew his magnum and pointed it at Yukiko, much to his own shadow's glee.

"**Oh, put that damn thing away. You know how well that worked last time. That is to say, not at all. Hehehe…"**

Even though his shadow had a point, this entire situation made him too uneasy to lower his weapon. He exhaled some smoke out of the corner of his mouth. In retrospect, he'd need one hand to hold the cigarette, and if he wanted to be accurate with the magnum, he'd need both hands around its grip. So long as there was an immediate danger, Justin couldn't take his other hand off the gun, and had to leave the cigarette in his mouth. It wasn't really a problem… except now he really had no way of talking. Unless… Justin spit the cigarette off to the side, stomping his foot down hard on it. He had completely forgotten that they were standing on a rug, and rugs were flammable, so he was lucky the cigarette hadn't gone out of his reach.

"**My, it's getting crowded here. Why don't you and I go somewhere else…?"**

"Please tell me she means "you" the singular and not "you" the plural."

Chie whacked Justin upside the back of his head for his comment. In retrospect it probably wasn't the best idea to make jokes like that about Yukiko when she was best friends with a psychopath.

"**A land far, far away, where no one knows me. If you're my Prince, you'd take me there, won't you? C'mon… pretty please?"**

"Oooh. Is this 'scoring a hot stud'!?"

"Not the time, Teddie."

"Four princes…? Wait, does that include me, too…?"

"Oh, I sure as hell hope not."

"Duh! The fourth one's gotta be me!"

"I seriously doubt that."

"I can't decide which of you makes a worse Prince."

"And what's that supposed to mean!?"

"Well Chie, you're a chick. And Teddie… Well, Teddie is a fucking bear."

_Either we're approaching lesbian territory, or bestiality territory. Both of them make me want to vomit a little bit._

"**My votes on the bro with a vagina." **Justin's shadow smirked from the staircase.

"Bro with a vagina…? Really…?"

"And what the hell is THAT supposed to mean!?"

"Just ignore everything he says. He does that kinda shit a lot."

Chie smacked Justin upside the back of his head. Again.

"What the fuck was that for!?"

"Well your shadow said it, so you must have been thinking it!"

"No, you idiot! Were you thinking half the shit that your shadow said!?"

"Well… No… I-"

"Well then why would it be any different for me!?"

"S-Sorry…"

Justin's shadow smirked at the violent out lash he had managed to get out of Chie. He may not be able to fuck with Justin's head anymore, but he could get everyone around him to hate his guts, apparently.

"**Chie… Yes, she's my Prince… She always leads the way… Chie's a strong Prince…"**

_Brain, remind me later to explain how a hierarchy works to Yukiko. Cause I'm pretty sure princes don't do shit._

"…**Or at least, she WAS."**

"Was…?"

"So then Teddie's the fourth prince? This is just fucked up in every way."

Teddie was practically jumping for joy that Chie's princely status had apparently been given over to him. It was really creepy when you realized how excited both Yukiko's shadow and Teddie were about his new title. Like, nightmares for a week, kind of creepy.

"**When it comes down to it, Chie's just not good enough! She can't take me away from here! She can't save me!"**

"Yukiko…"

"Save? Save her from what?"

"S-Stop…"

Justin and the rest of the gang had been so focused on Yukiko's shadow that they hadn't even noticed Yukiko flicker back into consciousness. It was clear that Chie wanted to run over to Yukiko, but Justin put his hand out, signaling for Chie to stay back.

"**Trying to separate the two lovebirds, huh? That's cold man."**

One strike and he was down. Chie had kicked Justin straight in the crotch after his shadow's snarky comment.

"Whoa! Chie!"

"-THERFUCKER! I TOLD YOU- THAT IS HIM TALKING, NOT ME! SONOfa-"

"S-Sorry, instincts."

"Your instincts hurt like a bitch! Mother-"

"**Oh I can get used to this! Shall we make it a hat-trick?"**

"**Historic inn? Manager training!? I'm sick of all these things chaining me down! I never asked to be born here! Everything's decided for me! From how I live, to where I die! To hell with it all!"**

"That's not true…"

"**I just want to go somewhere far away… Anywhere but here… Someone, please take me away… I can't leave here on my own…"**

Justin had finally made his way back up to his standing position, no thanks to Chie. He gripped his gun tight around the grip once again and pointed it in the shadow's direction.

"Well that would explain the whole "prince," thing."

"**I'm completely useless…"**

"Stop… Please stop…"

"Just don't react to it Yukiko. It's gonna hurt, but if you don't react it can't do anything to you."

"**That's a bunch of bull."**

"You haven't done jackshit to me. I don't see why Yukiko would be any different."

"**True. But I can piss Chie off, and then that bitch'll do the rest of the work."**

Justin jumped backwards. Sure enough, Chie had reacted to his shadow calling her a bitch, and had attempted to kick Justin again. Of course, having thought ahead, Chie's kick completely missed him.

"Dammit Chie!"

"I'm sorry! I'm trying not to!"

"Try harder!"

"**Case and point."**

"**I have no hope if I stay, and no courage to leave… So I sit on my ass hoping that someday my Prince will come! I don't care where we go! Anywhere's fine! As long as it's not here, I don't give a damn!"**

"Oh, fuck this."

Justin dropped his aim on the shadow, running forth to make his way up towards where Yukiko's shadow was. Or at least he was until he heard a shot being fired off. Immediately guessing the source, Justin turned his attention towards his shadow, sitting nonchalantly against the stairs, a smoke on one hand, a magnum in the other.

"What? You going to shoot me? You and I both know damn well you can't kill me unless I deny your existence."

"**Hmm… True…"**

The shadow raised his arm once again, only this time, rather than point the gun at Justin, he pointed it down towards the rest of the group.

"…**But nowhere does it say I can't kill these sadsacks."**

Justin paused for a moment. He wasn't sure whether his shadow was bluffing or not. I mean, if that was true, why hadn't he just killed Yukiko so her shadow could take her place? Unless there was some sort of "honor amongst thieves," thing going on here, some sort of code that stipulated they couldn't kill each other's counterparts. Justin decided that it wasn't worth risking before stepping back down the steps slowly, his gun's sights switching swiftly between his shadow and Yukiko's.

"**Good boy. Maybe if you bark we'll throw you a bone next time."**

"Oh you just wait until I get my hands on you."

"**Until I get my hands on YOU, you mean."**

"**Historical tradition? Pride of the town? What a bunch of bullshit!"**

"How dare you…"

"Calm down Yukiko. Don't say what I think you're going to say…"

"**That's how I really feel… Isn't that right… me!?"**

"N-No…"

"Stop! Don't say it!"

"No! You're not me!"

"SHIT!"

Both shadows seemed to laugh in perfect unison, although where Justin's shadow seemed to just be enjoying the sight, Yukiko's shadow seemed to change. To morph into a new form. God could only hope it wasn't as disgusting as Chie's was.

"**Heeheehee…! Aaaah! This feels wonderful! It's building… more and more… If this keeps up… I'll… I'll…!"**

A sudden wave of power blew Justin and Yukiko back. Strangely enough, Chie, Youske and Yu were able to stand their ground just fine. It must have had something to do with having a persona. As Justin opened his eyes back up after having collided with the wall behind them, he noticed something different in Yukiko's shadows place. It looked like a giant red bird, hanging out of a cage. It wasn't anywhere near as disturbing as Chie's had been, but it was still wrong in everyway. Justin grabbed a hold of his magnum.

"Yukiko!"

"Yeah, I'm okay too guys! Don't sweat it or anything!"

"Not the time, dude!"

"We have to stop it! Yukiko's in danger!"

"We know!"

"It's all right, Yukiko… Just hang in there! We'll save you!"

Yukiko's shadow's power burst forth from the cage it had been residing in, fire spreading across the room. The rug they had been standing on was soon set ablaze as the group found themselves fleeing from the fire trail that had been set into motion. Everyone was having a hard time breathing with all the smoke, save for Justin, who, while still finding slight difficulty in breathing, had been finding the smoke easier to breathe in. _And they said smoking will kill ya._

"**I am a shadow... The true self… Now, my princes… Why don't we dance and make merry together?"**

Chie, Yu, and Yosuke summoned their personas, once again making Justin feel like the odd-ball out for not being able to summon one himself. Each persona dashed around the flames, trying to make their way towards the caged bird. Each having relatively no success as stray bits of molten stone collided with them from the burning building. Justin took a look around, noticing that the bird seemed awfully focused on the personas, and not so much the people wielding them. Blast after blast of raw heat soared above his head, yet not a single one had come his way. He could probably make his way around the fire and get a sneak attack in from behind.

Justin ran through the smoke, covering his mouth with the end of his jacket. He had almost wanted to take it off, but decided against it. It was a really nice hoodie after all, he would hate if it caught on fire, even if it was practically killing him here. Pieces of burning rubble came crashing down around him, and more than once he was almost struck by a persona being sent hurling around the arena. Everyone had been doing scratch damage here and there, but that wasn't doing much good when Yukiko's shadow was burning the entire building down.

"**Oooh, look at you playing the hero. Covert Ops this time?"**

"Unless you're going to shoot someone, move out of the fucking way."

"**That ain't a half bad idea."**

"It doesn't matter if it is, you couldn't do it if you wanted to."

"**How so?"**

"See how close I am to you? You couldn't pull the trigger without risking hitting me. Which is a violation of… shadow code, or whatever the fuck it is you guys call it."

The shadow paused before groaning slightly.

"…**Fine. You win this round. But don't think this is over."**

Justin's shadow vanished in a puff of purplish smoke, his figure dissolving away into the smoke that filled the air. Justin took a deep breath, or as deep of one as he could with all the smoke in the air. He could see Yukiko knocked out cold just behind her shadow's cage. They had to finish this quickly; otherwise she would inhale too much smoke. Justin examined the cage thoroughly. There had to be some sort of structural weakness he could use to his advantage.

It took a moment, but he finally found it. The chain that had been holding the cage up had a slightly rusty kink. If he shot at it, it should loosen enough for the entire chain to break. "You know what they say about the canary in the mine?" He pointed his gun upwards and fired a few shots at the chain. The first two shots ended up missing. He was almost entirely positive one hit Yosuke's persona too at some point. The third shot however, found its target. The bullet ripped clean through the metal of the chain, the cage crashed down towards the ground, nothing but a twisted heap of metal.

"How 'bout the canary in the furnace?"

The bird inside the cage twisted its head around. Its body was tangled in the twisted metal of the cage that had been bent by the collision with the floor, but it could still twitch its limbs ever so slightly. Unfortunately for Justin, the head had been twisted towards him after the collision.

"**AGI."**

Chie, having barely seen this from where she was standing ordered her persona to move in.

"Tomoe, Bufu!"

"Wait, Chie don't!"

Too late, Chie had made a shield of ice to protect Justin from the incoming blast. The only problem with that though, is that fire still very much melts ice. Justin turned his head to avoid the blast of steam that emerged from the impact, but to not much avail. He still took a good chunk of it to the left side of his face, and it burned like a bitch. He screamed out in pain, dropping to the ground, his head in his hands. Chie had been completely speechless. What had she done?

Yu and Yosuke quickly used the distraction to seal in one last blow on canary, severing its head from its body, effectively disabling the shadow. The shadow's corpse twitched as its shape returned back to that of Yukiko's. It was irrelevant though, the room was completely on fire, and would collapse at any second. Chie, Yu, and Yosuke ordered their personas to grab Yukiko, Justin, and Yukiko's shadow respectively. As much as they'd like to just leave the shadow there to burn, they knew they had to take it with them. The personas dropped the three off outside the entrance to the room as burning rubble sealed the way in. Everyone huffed a sigh of relief, save Justin who was still holding back screams of pain.

"Justin, are you all right?" Chie was practically spitting the words out of her mouth. This had been completely her fault. She hadn't once considered the possibility of the ice melting like that.

"It's fin- No it's not- SHIT that burns! Look, is Yukiko alright!?" Justin had his hand pressed against his left eye.

"We can check on her in a second, are you going to be okay?"

"It burns like a bitch, but I'll be fine." If only that were true. Chie was hesitant to leave Justin's side, but forced herself to go check on Yukiko anyway. They still need to deal with her shadow anyway.

"Yukiko, are you hurt…!?"

Yukiko had only just regained consciousness and had turned her head to make eye contact with her shadow, looking up from the cold ground they had dropped it on.

"No… I'm not-"

"We understand. You're not the only one like that, Yukiko-san. Everyone has something they can't show to other people, or don't want to admit to themselves…"

Chie looked hesitatingly towards the ground before looking back towards Yukiko.

"Yukiko… I'm sorry. I was so self-centered that… I never understood what you were going through… I'm your friend, and I still… Oh, I'm so sorry…"

"Chie…"

"I was always jealous of you, Yukiko. You had everything that I didn't… That jealousy was like a wall, and I was so lonely…! I wanted you to need me … But it was me we who needed you. I can't do anything right on my own… I've cause so much trouble for Yosuke and… especially Justin. I mean… look at him."

"I can hear everything you're saying and it is NOT HELPING! Shiiiiiiiiitttttttt-"

"If you weren't by my side, I… I wouldn't know what to do…"

"Chie… I never saw the real you either… I was too busy trying to find an easy way out."

"Look guys, this is REALLY heartwarming, but I swear to god my eye hurts enough without crying!"

Yukiko stopped to face towards her shadow.

"'I want to run away…' 'I want someone to save me…' You're right; those feelings are part of me, too. I understand now… You're me."

The shadow nodded in agreement, and much like Chie's shadow had done when she had confronted hers, it erupted into a burst of white light, taking on a new shape. It was humanoid, but with bird like wings. It was beautiful for what Justin could see from the eye he didn't have covered. And much like Chie had, Yukiko soon collapsed as the persona vanished into thin air.

"Are you okay!?"

"Yes, I'm just a little tired... You all came to rescue me…?"

"Of course!"

"Thank you…"

"Don't even mention it. I'm just so glad you're safe…"

"So, who threw you in here?"

"Huh…? Who are you? Rather… What are you?"

"I'm Teddie! So, who threw you in?"

Yukiko paused, looking towards the ground. It was hard to tell if she was trying to think or if she was ashamed of something.

"I don't know… I think… someone called my name… But my memory's a blur. I can't remember who it was… I'm sorry, um… Teddie."

"No new clues…"

"Not necessarily. Now we know for sure that someone threw Yukiko-san in here."

"Th-That doesn't matter now anyway. Look we should really be making sure Justin is alright."

"Oh, crap, I almost forgot!"

"Nice to see you care, asshole!"

"Quit your bitching and show us your eye."

Justin lifted his palm from in front of his eye. The area around it was completely red, but it looked like it would heal given some time. What was a problem, however, was the way Justin immediately started to blink his eye in rapid succession. He was panicking about something, though what he was panicking about was uncertain at first.

"G-guys!? I can't see shit…!"

"Wh-What!? Qu-Quick, how many fingers am I holding up!?"

"Four, I can still see out of my other eye, dumbass."

Everyone had started to panic, even Yukiko who had pretty much been unconscious throughout the entire affair.

"W-We need to get him to a doctor. Like, right now!"

"No. No, fuck that!"

"You can't even see out of your eye! You HAVE to go, dude!"

"It's probably fine!"

"You know what'll happen if that thing gets infected!? You're going, that's final!"

Chie didn't even speak up, though from what Justin could make out, her eyes were completely dilated. She was mortified that whatever the fuck was going on with Justin's eye had been completely her fault. He wanted to reassure her that he'd be fine, but he was still shocked by what was going on himself. Yosuke grabbed Justin by the arm and helped him up. Justin could still walk fine, but as far as Yosuke was concerned, he was going to have a hard time moving around if he couldn't see. Everyone pushed on ahead, trying to pace themselves as quickly as possible, with Chie following timidly behind.

* * *

"W-Well!?"

Justin had finally made his way back to the waiting room. He was wearing a bandage wrapped around his forehead and his left eye. He had also swept his hair over to the side to try and hide the bandages as much as possible. Unlike the last time he was here, the entire gang was waiting for him to come back outside. Even Yukiko, though she had understandably fallen asleep. Justin was half surprised they didn't drop her off at home. I mean, isn't she supposed to be missing?

"Well, good news and bad news."

"Oh god…"

Taking a look at Chie, Justin could tell she had been crying at some point in the waiting room. I mean it WAS kind of her fault, but Justin would take being blind any day over being burnt alive to a crisp.

"They say the burns weren't too bad, so my vision will come back, but uh… It's going to take a while…"

"How long is a while…?"

"A couple weeks."

Chie burst back out into tears. She was really beating herself up over this. Justin decided to take a seat next to her, resting his hand on her shoulder.

"Calm down Chie, it's not your fault."

"Yes it is!"

"No, it's not. If you didn't do what you did, I probably would have been burnt alive. Then we'd have more problems than me not being able to see out of one of my eyes."

"I could have done something else! I didn't have to use Bufu…!"

"You kinda did. Besides, check this out."

Justin grabbed a hold of a cane in his other hand, tossing it up ever so slightly so he could grab it at a lower point on its shaft.

"I get to carry this thing around everywhere I go for the next few weeks!"

"How is that supposed to be a good thing!?"

"Well it's not like I NEED it. Have you carried a cane around when you didn't need one? That shit is amazing. You can twirl it around and do broadway dance numbers and stuff."

Chie chuckled only slightly at the joke. It wasn't like it was supposed to be funny in the first place. He was dead serious, canes are the shit.

"Look, point is, don't worry about it. I only need one eye anyway."

"…Thanks…"

"No, madam, thank you. Now then, if we're done talking about my sorry escapades, I believe we still need to get Yukiko home."

"Huh? Oh shit, that's right! We should get going."

Yosuke gave Yukiko a gentle shake to wake her up before they departed. Yosuke gave her a quick recap, as everyone got up to leave. She seemed slightly relieved that his vision would come back, though she still seemed bothered by something.

Justin was the first to walk out of the building, a twirl in his cane, a whistle on his lips. All he needed was a top hat and he would be golden. Chie immediately followed, though she kept a slow pace behind Justin. As much as he tried to convince her otherwise, she still felt bad about the entire ordeal. Given the looks on some of the others faces as he continued whistling, so did they. Or rather, maybe they just couldn't understand what he could be so happy about. For Justin, he just couldn't see what there was to get all down in the dumps about. At least one eye still worked, right?

* * *

The interrogator took another look at Justin's eye from across the table. Looking at it closer, he noticed that the pupil was completely missing from his left eye. There was just a blue iris, and nothing else. He hadn't understood why his hair was swept across it like that earlier, but now that he had heard the story, it started to make sense. I mean, if you were blind in one eye, you wouldn't want people starring at it either.

"Did it get better?"

"No."

"I would have sued the doctors if I were you."

"I considered it, but I think in the long run it was better that they were wrong. I mean, if I had come out that day and said to everyone I'd be blind forever? Well, I don't think things would have gone over too well."

"Do they know?"

"Know what? That I'm blind in one eye? Sorta. Chie found out a long time ago, and I'm sure the others suspect it, but that's about it."

The middle aged man reached out and grabbed a glass from the middle of the table. Midway through the story another officer had brought in beverages for the two: water for the detective, soda for the kid. Justin had taken offense at first that they assumed he should get a soda just because of his age, but he decided to just let it go. It wasn't worth getting in an argument over.

"So let me try to put this in perspective. You and your friends… can jump into TV's? And that's because you have… what was it you said… personas?"

"If you weren't willing to hear the truth, then you shouldn't have asked to hear what I know."

"I believe you. I can tell just from the look in your eyes… well eye-"

"Don't joke about the eye."

"I didn't mean it that way. As I was saying, from the look in your eye, I can tell you weren't just making up bullshit. Either this has got to be the most premeditated fiction I have ever heard, or you're telling the truth. I'm going to assume the latter. I'm just having trouble wrapping my head around this."

"Most people do."

"Now I've noticed a common theme throughout your story so far. Almost from day one you had been interacting with your… what was it, 'shadow'? I don't understand, why didn't it confront you the way the others' did."

Justin paused for a brief moment, tapping at the tip of his cigarette to let the ashes fall in a nearby ash tray, taking a sip of the drinks that had been brought in for the two of them.

"To this very day, that question still eludes me. Maybe I'm just special."

He smirked at the thought. There was nothing about him that was special. Sure he had persona, and all that crap, but so did all his friends, and then some. It's like saying you're in the 27 club. Yeah it's cool in all, but in the end who really gives a fuck.

"Well maybe I can help you figure that out, though I'll need to know more. Continue with your story."

Justin chuckled a bit, much to the confusion of the interrogator.

"Something funny?"

"I'm surprised you haven't told me to cut the crap out about me and my social life."

"Well, I did ask for everything, didn't I?"

Justin chuckled once more before taking another drag at his cigarette.

"Smart man."


	10. Chapter 9: April 19, 2011

CHAPTER 9

APRIL 19, 2011

* * *

It was midday, lunchtime. Everyone had gathered up on the roof to have some lunch, though why the roof and not, say, the fucking cafeteria, was completely beyond Justin. Really, anywhere but the roof would have been acceptable for him, but no. Had to be the goddamn roof. He had gotten more than a few funny looks from his friends as he tried to force his way up the stairs to the rooftops.

"Hey, are you alright? You don't look so good…"

He didn't feel good. He could practically feel the blood rushing out of his body, his skin turning pale as he held on to the railing upwards for dear life, his legs wildly shaking as he forced himself closer and closer to the roof. He hated stairs, and not for the reasons one would think. Whereas most people hated stairs because they were lazy sacks of crap, Justin had a legitimate fear of them. The higher he went up on them, the weaker his knees got, the more difficult he found it to stand. Climacophobia, the doctors called it; fear of climbing stairs. Apparently it stemmed from a fall he had as a child, though this was entirely based on a testimony from his parents. He himself never recalled such a fall.

"Y-yeah, I'm f-fine."

He really wasn't. He could feel his legs sinking closer and closer to the ground, trying to get as much balance as possible as he climbed the staircase. And this was only the third flight of stairs he had climbed. If the building had been any taller, he would have practically been on his knees by the time he made it to the rooftop. And even now, he found himself rushing away from the staircase the second he made it to the stable grounds of the roof. His vision was shaking slightly as he tried to regain his bearings, his breathing frantic and unstable. He immediately reached for a cigarette in his pocket. If there was any plus side to being up on the roof, it was that he was in no immediate danger of being caught smoking. He lit it up and took a good long drag of the cigarette before exhaling the smoke. In retrospect, maybe it wasn't so much smoking that helped him calm down as it was the deep breathing he had to do when he was smoking. Either way, he took a few more puffs before extinguishing the smoke and carefully discarding of the evidence.

"You sure your okay?"

"Yeah… Yeah, I'm fine. I just really hate stairs."

Everyone gave each other a quick look of confusion. Surely Justin wasn't panicking just because he hated stairs?

The awkward atmosphere Justin's anxiety attack had caused was soon pushed out of the way as they all made their ways over to the far end of the roof, lunches in hand. Save for Justin who had opted out of bringing lunch for the day. If he had known everyone would be eating lunch together today, he probably would have reconsidered that decision.

"Hey, don't you have a lunch?"

"H-Huh? Oh, uh… I don't really eat much…"

It was only a half lie. He really didn't eat that much. He outright refused to eat breakfast in the morning because it just made him sick, and when he did eat lunch and dinner, he generally ate very little. Food just didn't really settle right in his stomach. Still, from the looks of it, Chie didn't believe him in the slightest.

"You sure? You can have some of mine if you want."

"Positive. Thanks for the offer, though."

"Well… alright…"

It was hard to tell if Chie felt bad that Justin wasn't eating, or if she was still caught on what had happened to his eye the day before. It probably didn't help that he took the cane they gave him everywhere he went. But goddammit, it's a fucking cane. When someone gives you a cane, you fucking use it. Either way, Justin felt bad that he was more or less a living embodiment of grief for Chie. It seemed like all week he had been getting himself into some kind of trouble that just made things awkward for everyone involved.

Justin decided to take a look around at what everyone was eating, against his better decision. He was actually pretty hungry, but he wouldn't dare let any of the others know. He wasn't a charity case, after all. Chie had instant noodles, and Yosuke had steak bits. Justin couldn't even guess at what it was that Yu was eating, but goddammit, it looked delicious. Justin almost had to stop himself from drooling at the aroma coming from his food. It smelled like steak, but with a pepper spread on it, amongst other spices. He somehow doubted he made that all on his own.

"So, how'd everything go with Yukiko?"

For whatever reason, they had dropped Justin off at his house first last night. He wasn't sure if it was because his house was closer, or if it was a pity thing. Really, he wouldn't have minded walking with the rest of the group to drop Yukiko off, but they seemed to insist otherwise. Either way, he still didn't know how things worked out concerning her.

"Good. She's going to take a week or two off to recuperate, but otherwise she seems fine."

"Well that's good to hear. She remember anything yet?"

"No… We figured maybe she just needed some time."

"Makes sense to me."

It actually didn't, but he didn't think questioning Yukiko right now would make things better. The problem is she could barely remember what had happened when she was still in the television, right? So how would she remember anything a week or so later? The memory would get stale by that point. A week might be too long to ask her questions about this stuff…

"So… uh… how's your eye?"

Chie had practically forced the subject out. He knew she didn't want to talk about it, though she did want to make sure everything was okay.

"This again? I told you, it's all right. Quit worrying so much."

"I know, it's just… I feel responsible, you know?"

"Jeeze, Chie. It's not like I'm going to be blind forever."

"I guess…"

There was a brief pause in discussion between everyone, as if the mere mention of Justin's eye was enough to kill the mood. It killed him a bit on the inside to think that his very existence, the act of just being there, was making things awkward. It took a while before Yosuke tried to awkwardly push the discussion over to something more upbeat.

"…S-So… uh… any of you guys get that new Risette album?"

"Risette? Don't tell me you're into that stuff, Yosuke."

"Risette? Who's that?"

Everyone started to give Justin a dirty look, as though he were an idiot to ask that question. Even Yu, was looking at him funny. How big was this Risette person that everyone but him seemed to know who she is?

"Dude, you serious?"

"Yeah, I've never heard of her before…"

"Dude, she's all over the place! She's got like twelve albums out now and she's only been an idol for a couple of years…!"

Idol was the keyword here. Justin never really identified with those type of musicians. Not that he really kept up with modern music anyway, other than The White Stripes and occasionally The Black Keys. The only music he really listened to was classic rock and punk. Still, you would think he'd have heard the name being thrown around if she was as famous as Yosuke made her out to be. Unless…

"You know, she's probably not very big over in California."

That was it. That was why he hadn't heard of her, he couldn't have. No one there would have heard of her, and it's not like Justin had been living in Inaba long enough to pick up on the trending artists.

"Well… that sort of explains it. But still, I'm surprised you haven't heard of her over here yet."

"Yosuke, it's been a week."

"She's very popular."

"Given the looks you guys gave me? I figured that much already."

Yosuke looked up into the sky for a brief moment before a smirk swept across his face. He grabbed his headphones and handed them to Justin. Justin immediately caught on to Yosuke's idea, and just as quickly was opposed to it. He didn't want to listen to any of that idol crap.

"Here, I have some Risette on my iPod."

"I'll pass."

"Dude, just put the headphones on."

Justin swapped a glance with Chie quickly. They both looked slightly bewildered, but from the looks of it, both were in agreement that if he just listened to Yosuke's shitty music for a few seconds he would shut the fuck up about Risette.

"Fine. Just don't blast it. My ear is still killing me from yesterday."

"Hey! You said it was fine!"

"It is. It's just a little sore is all."

"You better not be lying!"

"Please, would I lie to you?"

"Yes."

"Definitely."

"No question."

"Yeah, fuck you guys too. Give me the damn headphones."

Justin practically swiped the headphones out of Yosuke's hands, wrapping them gently around his head, careful not to rub the burn on his ear the wrong way. Justin had been relieved that the burn wasn't so bad that he damaged his hearing, but god be damned if loud shit didn't make his ear ring like a bitch. Yosuke slowly went through his library of songs, his eyebrows scrunched as if he were having a hard time picking one.

After what felt like a good whole minute, sound started to blare through the headphone set. _GODDAMMIT YOSUKE, I SAID __**DON'T **__BLAST IT._ Even with his left ear ringing like all hell, Justin could still sort of make out the sound coming through his right. And he completely regretted it. It was exactly the bubblegum pop crap he had expected to hear. He felt like a part of him had just died listening to this shit. Hell, he even took a moment to apologize to Zeppelin, and the Beatles, and all those other rock bands he loved inside his mind; apologize for the way music had fallen from its throne and that this is what they had left behind in their wake. Still, she had a nice voice. It was a shame she was wasting her talents on this kind of crap. Justin just shook his head after a couple moments of listening to it, pulling the headphones off in the process.

"Not my thing." He had put it VERY delicately.

"Oh come on man! You had your mind set on hating it before I even turned it on!"

It was true, he did. But even if he hadn't, he knew he would have hated it.

"Only a little."

"Oh, and what exactly do you listen to that's so much better!?"

"We're having a music war?"

"Yosuke, don't be such a crybaby."

_Damn. Even Chie is getting into it._

"No, I want to know what he listens to that he thinks his taste in music is better!"

Justin reached into his pocket, pulling out his iPod. Rather than handing Yosuke the headphones, however, he just tossed the entire device Yosuke's way.

"Pick any song on there. Any one at all."

Yosuke put the headphones in his ear, as he shuffled rapidly through Justin's music library. Most likely so he could find a song that sounded like complete shit based on the title. It took a while, but he eventually tapped his thumb against the touch screen, focusing his eyes back up towards Justin. After a few seconds, his brow scrunched up, his mouth open with disbelief. He looked back down towards the iPod and tapped at it again. And again. And again and again and again. After a while he outright tore the ear buds out of his ears and threw the iPod back Justin's way. He barely caught it before it went flying off the rooftop, much to Chie and Justin's displeasure.

"Alright, fine! You win!"

"Let it here forth be proclaimed that I, Justin J. Tylor of Inaba, have superior taste in music to that of Yosuke Hanamura, Scion of Junes!"

Chie giggled slightly at the overly exaggerated formality of Justin's proclamation. Even Yu smirked a bit at Justin's over confidence in his victory. Yosuke just grumbled under his breath.

"What's the J stand for?"

"Huh? Oh, Jeremiah."

Yosuke burst out in a fit of laughter, much to the disapproval of everyone else.

"Your middle name is Jeremiah!? Pfft-"

"Oh I'm sorry, what was YOUR middle name again?"

Yosuke's laughter cut off nearly immediately.

"Yeah, that's what I thought."


	11. Chapter 10: April 20, 2011

CHAPTER 10

APRIL 20, 2011

* * *

It was the afternoon; the sound of the bell had snapped Justin back into reality. As usual, he had not been paying attention in class in the slightest, instead opting to draw in class. Over time a blank white canvas that he had set in front of himself was filled with pencil shavings, shades of gray making out figures and shapes. As to what his masterpiece was, it was everyone celebrating over the corpse of Yukiko's shadow in the best way they knew how. Yu, Chie, Yukiko, and Teddie were all doing victory jigs, and jumps of joy. Justin… Well Justin had drawn himself pissing on the shadow's remains. It wasn't subtle, but he'd be damned if it wasn't badass. He also gave himself a five-o-clock shadow and a pair of sunglasses; pretty much everything he could to make himself seem as awesome as he felt.

Chie had taken a look over to see what he was drawing on more than one occasion, each time a new question as to what was going on in his drawing. There were obvious questions like: "Why the hell are you peeing on Yukiko's shadow," or "Why is Teddie's head on fire." To answer the latter question, comic relief. Then there were some of the more obscure questions, like "Why isn't Yosuke in this drawing." Justin gave her a small glare at that question, followed up with "Because it's Yosuke." He had briefly considered replacing the shadows head with Yosuke's, but figured that would just get him an ass kicking.

Everyone had gotten up from their seats, ready to leave the dreaded confines of the school. Justin had gotten out of his seat to stretch, but otherwise had not left yet.

"Hey Justin, you doing anything after school?"

"Not really."

"I'm going to Aiya's, want to come with?"

"That's that ramen joint, right?"

"Yep."

"Sure, why not."

A wide grin stretched across each end of Chie's face. It was nice to see her smiling again, what with the shit that's been going on lately. Though he couldn't imagine what there was to get so happy about a ramen joint. Or was it that she was happy Justin was tagging along? Justin dismissed the idea from his head almost immediately. There was nothing particular joy-inducing about him. He had one eye, an attitude, and a shit-ton of personal issues. There was no way in hell anyone could be happy around him, as much as it pained him to admit it. Yet here Chie was, grinning that ridiculous grin of hers. Maybe he wasn't as bad as he thought he was. Maybe.

* * *

"So what are you going to order."

That was a good question. In all honesty, Justin hadn't had any desire to eat food all day. Just the sight of it was making him sick to his stomach, so why he had even accepted Chie's invitation to come to a place reeking of the scent of ramen and steak was beyond him. Still, he was here, and he did need to eat sooner or later, so he figured he'd order something small, hopefully something he could keep down.

"Probably just some ramen. You?"

"Well obviously I'm getting the grilled steak!"

The way Chie's face lit up was almost blinding. _What was it about steak that gets her all worked up like this?_

"So how come we didn't invite Yosuke and the others?"

"I thought you hated Yosuke?"

"I do. Still, I'm curious."

"Well… Yu had basketball practice, and Yosuke had to go work at Junes."

"Yu's on the basketball team? When did that happen?"

"Huh? I… think sign-ups were yesterday..."

The way Chie had been pausing in between words indicated that she had been digging through her memories to try to find an answer to Justin's question.

"Yesterday? He got accepted for the team already?"

"They don't have a lot of members."

"Ah… So they take what they can get."

"Kinda. They don't really have the luxury of turning people down, but I don't think that's why they accepted Yu."

"Have you seen him play before?"

"Well… no… He just sorta strikes me as the type who's good at that stuff."

Justin tried to imagine Yu as a basketball player. He certainly was a quick runner in the television, though how he handled a ball, he could only imagine. Still, it wouldn't surprise him if Yu was actually good at that sorta stuff. God knows Justin wasn't.

"And obviously Yukiko isn't available either, so that leaves me."

"Well when you say it like that, it sounds bad!"

"I didn't mean it like that…"

He actually did.

The two eventually put their orders in for food. Though, where as Justin had only put in an order for a small bowl of ramen, Chie put in order in for two grilled steaks. _Jesus, she REALLY likes steak._

"…Hey, don't hate me for asking this but-"

"Is it about the eye?"

"Sorta."

Justin sighed. "…Go ahead."

"Is it true what they say about depth perception?"

Huh. That… was actually a pretty good question. Justin hadn't really noticed much difference, but now that she brought it up… he wasn't quite sure. He'd by lying if he said he hadn't been curious at this point.

"I'm… not actually sure. Might be worth looking into." He paused for a moment. "Alright, I know how we can test this, hold up your hand."

"Huh? O-Okay…?"

Chie hesitatingly held her hand up in front of her, her palm facing towards the side. She had almost twisted it around so her palm would be facing towards Justin, but he gave her a quick nod to signify that she should keep her hand the way it was. Justin picked up his own arm so that it mirrored Chie's, before swinging it forth. It seemed he was trying to go for a hi-five of sorts, but he ended up missing Chie's hand altogether, much to his displeasure.

"Well… that sucks."

Chie sighed before turning her head in the opposite direction, her eyes focused on the wall that they had been seated next to, her head resting against the palm of her hand. It was obvious, that their little test had just made her feel worse about the entire situation with Justin's eye. And everytime Chie felt bad about Justin's eye, Justin felt bad about Chie feeling bad about his eye. It was like a never ending cycle of feeling bad.

"You really need to stop beating yourself up over all this."

"I know, I know, it's just-"

"You. Are not. Responsible."

There was a long pause in the conversation between the two, the atmosphere between them tense. Chie's self pity act had been starting to get on Justin's nerves. He knew she didn't mean it, but it pissed him off all the same. And the more pissed off Justin started to get with the subject, the more Chie felt guilty for the accident. After what felt like a good five minutes of silence between the two, Justin finally spoke up.

"I'm making it a rule, here forth in. You are not allowed to feel bad about my eye-"

"But-"

"No buts! 'Cause every time you start to feel bad about it, I start to feel bad, and then nothing gets accomplished except we both feel bad. Just pretend it never happened. It'll be fine in a couple weeks anyway, so there's nothing to get worried about."

Chie paused for a moment. Justin had half expected his speech to make her tear up. He didn't really realize until after he was done how much of a douche he had come across as. Instead, a wide grin swept across Chie's face. Her eyes had started to sparkle again, which was something Justin hadn't seen in a long-time.

"Yeah, you're right."

Justin smiled back. It was a funny sensation to him. He smirked a lot, and sometimes he'd grinned, but he'd never really smile. He wasn't entirely sure what he was smiling about either. He had practically been at Chie's throat just a moment earlier.

* * *

The food came out only a few minutes later, over a hypothetical discussion about superpowers. He couldn't really remember what brought up the topic, but he was intrigued all the same. That was the best part of hypothetical situations like this, you could have debates back and forth over what could and couldn't happen. There was no real factual basis that said one power was superior to the other, so the debates these questions spawned were always interesting, and there was always some strange new theories being thrown around.

"You are not going to sway my opinion on this, ability to control time, that's the power to end all powers."

"I mean… That's cool and all, but don't you think flying would be better…?"

"Well first of all, you're barking up the wrong tree. I don't know about you, but I've been in planes. They're not all they're hyped up to be."

"That's not the same thing!"

"How do you figure?"

"The plane is what's flying, not you!"

"True, but I can't imagine not being able to breathe in the outer hemisphere, or having birds fly into your face every five seconds would add onto the experience."

"Well obviously you'd be able to breathe. It would be, like, part of the power or something!"

"That doesn't answer the bird question."

"Well, you'd just fly around them right?"

"If you're both flying in opposite directions, you're not going to have much time to move out of the way."

"No, no, because you wouldn't fly so fast that you couldn't react in time."

"Let's be honest, if you had the power to fly, would you be doing it slowly?"

"Well… no…"

"Alright then. Besides, it's not just birds you'd have to look out for; you'd have to look out for planes too."

"Well it can't be THAT hard, I mean the planes avoid each other all the time… R-Right?"

"Yeah, but that's because they have a strict schedule of when they can and can't depart. They already know where all the planes are because someone in control tells the pilots. If you're flying by yourself, you'd have no clue."

Chie had been chewing a piece of steak by the time Justin had finished his lecture on how planes work, so it took her a moment to respond.

"Alright fine, what's so great about this "time control" thing?"

"Well think of it this way. Imagine you're going through your typical day. Except, oh crap, you forgot your homework. No problem; pause time, do it then, resume time, hand it in. Maybe you're trying to pick up a boy- you guys do that, right?"

"Sometimes."

"Alright, so you're trying to pick up a boy, but you said something really stupid and everything falls apart. That's okay, just rewind time a bit, and redo the conversation. Can't put up with school? Just fast-forward through all the lectures. Maybe you're watching one of your kung-fu movies and wanted to see something over again, rewind time then replay it."

"Couldn't I just use the remote for that?"

"Yeah, but wouldn't it be cool if you didn't have to?"

"Wouldn't messing around with time like that change the future though?"

"Well that's partially the point."

"Yeah but what if you screwed up something when you were messing around with time. Couldn't that, like… ruin the future or something…?"

"No, because you could just go back and fix the problem."

"Yeah but then you'd have to relive your life over-again from that moment in time."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, your body wouldn't do anything while you're fast-forwarding, right? So you couldn't fast-forward through everything."

"That's true I guess."

"And I don't think I could take living my life twice."

"Why not?"

"Well, you'd already know everything that's going to happen, all the good things, all the bad things. I mean, wouldn't that kind of suck?"

Justin really hadn't thought of it like that before. I guess part of the spice of life is those little surprises, not knowing what's going to happen. If you know everything in advance, well, what's there to look forward to?

"Alright, fine. How about this one: the power to jump into televisions?"

Chie kicked his legs from under the table. She was barely holding back laughter, so he could tell it was supposed to be playful at the very least. He laughed a bit as well. Justin had just finished his bowl of Ramen, though Chie still had her second steak left to eat.

"Hey, you want to try a bite?"

"I'll pass."

"Oh come on. You'll like it, I swear."

"It's not that. I just don't really eat is all."

"Look, we can do this the easy way, or the hard way."

Justin was, frankly, surprised. Never once had he been threatened into eating a steak before. _How good is this steak that she is willing to force me to eat it?_

"...Alright...Fine. Where's the mustard?"

"Mustar- What!?"

"I know, I know, it sounds strange. But I went on vacation once in the Caribbean, back when my parents were still alive, right? Well they had grilled steak, but they put this mustard spread on top. It wasn't quite mustard, like there were other spices and stuff in it, but all you could taste WAS the mustard, so it might as well have been mustard."

Chie gave him a funny look. As though putting mustard on steak had to be the weirdest thing she had ever heard; as though he had desecrated some sort of holy artifact. And given the way Chie loved steak, Justin wouldn't be half surprised if that's what she thought.

"That sounds disgusting."

"Oh really? Well I'll cut you a deal. I'll eat a bite of the steak if you try one with mustard."

"…Do I have to?"

"Do I have to eat the steak?"

"Yes."

"Well there's your answer."

Justin was good at shaping a situation around so that he got something out of it. When he was younger, and his parents dragged him to the mall, for example, he would always find a way to march out of there with a video game or an action figure, despite his parents' objections. Chie let out a sigh as she looked around for a container of mustard. It took her a minute, but she found one on the empty table behind them. She reached over and grabbed the container before planting it firmly on the table they had been sitting it. Chie glanced at the bottle of mustard, then back to Justin, as though expecting to hear that he was joking, much to no avail. She sighed as she sprayed a little bit of mustard on the side of the plate, dipping a small piece of steak into it before placing it in her mouth. Her eyes lit up almost immediately. Justin hadn't been lying, it wasn't half bad.

"And that's why you don't judge a book by it's cover."

"But… It's a steak… With mustard…"

"Well I didn't mean LITERALLY."

Justin reached out and grabbed a small piece of steak for himself, dipping it in the mustard Chie had sprayed on the plate earlier. A deal was a deal after all. He put the steak in his mouth, and almost immediately regretted it. Well-done would be an understatement, not to mention chewy as all hell. He could barely swallow the thing. He'd hate to imagine what it would taste like if he didn't put mustard on it.

"Well?"

"Not bad."

It almost pained Justin to let those words out of his mouth. It was one of the worst things he had ever tasted. But Chie really liked it, hell she practically worshipped it, so there was no point throwing a bitchy fit over it.

"Told you you'd like it."

_Yeah, you did you liar._

"So what was with you on the stairs yesterday. You didn't look so hot."

"You'd probably laugh if I told you."

"Now why would I do that."

"How many of my concussion jokes did you laugh at?"

"Alright, alright, point taken. I promise."

"Climacophobia. Fear of climbing stairs."

"That's a thing!?"

"See, I knew you would do this."

"No, it's not like that! I'm just surprised is all."

"Yeah, I get like that when I climb up a couple of flights of stairs."

"I don't understand, you're not like that when you go up the stairs to homeroom."

"It's closer to the ground."

"So… you're afraid of heights?"

"No, I have no problem going down stairs. Just up. It's hard to explain."

"You know, we could have went somewhere other than the roof if you just told us…"

"It's fine."

"You sure?"

"Have I ever lied to you?"

"Yes."

"Oh you are just the worst."

"Aren't I?"


	12. Chapter 11: April 21, 2011

CHAPTER 11

APRIL 21, 2011

* * *

"Chie… Where the hell did you get my number?"

"I got it from Yosuke. Where are you? Class is starting…!"

Justin had been lying in bed, starring at his ceiling. He didn't know how, but somehow he had caught a pretty nasty bug last night. Either that or food poisoning, and given how god horrid that steak was he ate, he wouldn't rule the option out. Either way, it seemed like every five minutes he needed to vomit, so he decided to stay home for the day. Actually, come to think of it, Chie was in class right now, at least, he thinks so, so how the hell was she calling him without King Moron noticing? He thought about it briefly for a moment before brushing the thought off. Considering half the shit he got away with in class, he somehow didn't find talking on the phone around him to be completely unfeasible.

"What do you mean where am I? I'm sick!"

"Wait, really?"

"No, I'm sitting right next to you. Yes really!"

"Hey, don't get snippy at me!"

She was right; Justin was a bit irritable that day. It wasn't like it was her fault or anything, unless it turns out this is food poisoning, in which case it's ENTIRELY her fault, it was just the fever speaking.

"Sorry, sorry... Yeah, I'm going to be out today…"

"You have a cold or something?"

"Honey, I wish I knew."

"Well… alright. Give me a call if you need anything."

"Two problems with that: One, I don't have your number. Two, how exactly are you planning on helping me from school?"

"Well, I could always sneak out during lunch."

"I appreciate the thought, but really. Don't."

Chie proceeded to give him her number anyway. Justin had realized something about Chie over the last week or so, once she gets worried about something, there is absolutely no way of getting her mind off the topic. He didn't need help anyway, it was just a bug.

"Shouldn't you be getting off the phone before King Moron catches you?"

"He had to leave the room for something."

"Still."

"Alright then. Remember, don't hesitate to call."

"No promises."

"Okay, later."

And with that the two hung up their phones. Justin dropped the phone on the counter next to his bed and picked up the pack of cigarettes next to him. He had nothing better to do for the next twenty-four hours, except maybe sleep, so he figured he'd pass the time by giving himself lung cancer.

* * *

Time passed by slowly. It always does when you're sick. You could be having a ball doing whatever it is sick people do, and yet you could still barely knock an hour off of the day. It was practically maddening for Justin. He had been in his bed for only a half hour and already he couldn't take it. He forced himself off of his mattress, wrapping the blanket around him as he made his way down to the living room, in search of something to do. _How about video games? Yeah, that seems like a good way of knocking a few hours of my life off._

Justin practically leapt over to his collection of games. They were all organized neatly in alphabetical order. He could be a real slob when it came to his room, his clothes, really anything about him, but never would he leave his video games unorganized. He always wondered why he got so OCD about something so ridiculous, but figured it wasn't worth questioning. His eyes skimmed through the title of each game as he searched for something to waste his time with. _Saint's Row 2, Saint's Row the Third, Skyrim- God, this is all crap! I've played through these games like a million times already!_

It seemed like ages before he finally pulled a case out to put into his PS3, the title along the spine reading Borderlands. He had finished nearly every quest in the game, and logged god only knows how many hours into the online, but it seemed it was the only thing he was interested in playing. And he did for a few hours. But a few hours does not make up a whole day, and nearly instantly Justin found himself dying of boredom once more. Justin looked up towards the time on the digital clock that had been resting on a shelf behind the television. 11:43. Justin couldn't stop himself from slamming his head down into his lap. He had been up for three, maybe four hours, and he already was going out of his mind.

"That's it. I can't do this. I need some air."

Justin tossed aside the blanket he had been wearing and ran up to his room, hastily throwing on a wrinkled t-shirt and some jeans. He looked like a complete mess, his hair was messy, his clothes were wrinkled, and his eyes were completely red. Looking in the mirror, Justin could almost swear he was a junkie. But he didn't give a damn. He needed to get out of the house; he didn't care what he looked like. He rushed back down the stairs, throwing his hoodie on in the process as he made a mad dash for the door knob. He slammed the door open, blindly rushing outside to get some air in his lungs. Or at least, that was the intention. Instead he found himself accidently walking into someone, the instant his door opened. It took him a moment to realize it was Chie. _Dammit, I TOLD her not to leave school over me._

"Chie…? What are you doing here?"

"Well… I know you said you didn't need anything, but I figured you might need some soup or something, so I ran over to the shopping district and picked these up for you."

Chie handed him a bag. It was full of all kinds of canned soup; chicken noodle, minestrone, you name it, it was there. Justin wasn't sure whether or not to feel grateful, or annoyed. He had told her he didn't need anything, and on top of that she was spending her money on him? Unacceptable.

"Chie…"

"What are you all dressed up for- Wait. You weren't trying to leave the house, were you?"

"I just needed some air, that's all."

Chie gazed at him for a while, a combination of concern and disapproval in her eyes.

"You really should get some rest, you know…"

"I'm fine, honest."

"Justin, your eyes are as red as the sun! You need to stay inside."

"I can't. I'm going stir crazy in there."

"I know how you feel, but you won't get better unless you do."

Justin starred at her for a few moments before sighing. She was right, as much as he hated to admit it.

"Alright, fine."

A wide grin crept across Chie's face, as though she was satisfied that Justin was going to go out of his mind pacing around this fucking house.

"Please tell me you didn't skip lunch to bring me these…"

"Well… When else was I going to get them?"

"Goddammit Chie… Do you think you can walk and eat at the same time?"

"H-Huh? Yeah, but- Wait a second-"

Justin had already turned around at that point, dropping the bag of cans delicately on the counter, making his way to the food pantry. Inside were a few packages of instant noodles. Justin grabbed one and quickly threw it in the microwave. They only took a minute to make, but even that seemed like too much. Chie had only a little more than ten minutes to make her way back to school. All the while he could hear Chie objecting to his hastily thrown together plan. Apparently she also didn't know it was common courtesy to not enter someone's house unless they invite you in. Justin felt her hand rest across his shoulder.

"Really, it's okay. I don't need anything."

"Yes, you do."

"I CAN go a lunch period without eating you know…!"

"I don't doubt that, but that doesn't make it healthy."

The microwave beeped as Justin quickly open it to grab the warm container of noodles. He handed it off to Chie, practically rushing her out the door. She had nine minutes left to eat and still make it back to class. If she started now, she should make it back in time.

"Alright, hurry back to class. Go, go!"

"A-Alright… I'll… uh… call you later and see how you're holding up."

"That's fine, now hurry up."

He quickly closed the door behind her, knowing she'd try to make small talk with him if he didn't. He had hoped he didn't seem like a douche the way he had rushed her out, but it was important she got back to class, like right now. He let out a sigh as he made his way over to the couch, flopping onto the padded cushions._ What in the world was Chie thinking? It was a nice gesture, sure, but… I don't know._ Justin puffed out some hot air from his cheeks again. Even when he was sick he couldn't seem to catch a break.

It took a couple minutes, but he eventually managed to force himself out of the coach coffin he had made out of pillows and blankets. Even though he wholly objected to the idea, Chie DID buy him soup, and it's not like they were going to get a refund on it, so he decided to take a look at what she had bought. There was one of practically every variety. Name a vegetable, there was a cream of it. _Holy shit, how many cans did she buy? There is no way this was cheap… _It took a bit of rummaging through cans, but Justin eventually managed to find a can of plain chicken noodle. Not that those other soups were bad, mind you, it's just they weren't fucking chicken noodle. He was in the middle of searching for a can opener, when suddenly he felt the inside of his stomach turning, tying knots with every motion, acid and mucus seeming to splash around in his esophagus. He made a mad dash to the bathroom before vomiting again. _That settles it. No food. Ever again._

* * *

Time passed dreadfully slow. It seemed like for every hour that passed in Justin's mind, only a minute had passed in real life. And just the other day he had been saying, hey, maybe the ability to control time isn't such a good idea. Fuck that. He should be able to fast-forward through shit like this. He averted his gaze from the crappy TV-movie he had been watching to check the time. 3:12. He was sorta surprised Chie hadn't given him a call. Not that he was complaining, but he was almost entirely positive he knew where that chat would go. Sure enough, only a few minutes later he heard knocking at his door. _You really hate my guts today, don't you God?_

He forced his way over to the door, though he hadn't decided whether or not to open it. He could just pretend he was sleeping and not have to deal with this crap right now. It wasn't that he didn't enjoy Chie's company, or anything like that, it's just he had a sinking feeling deep-down that she was going to give him crap for practically pushing her out of his house earlier. He sighed slightly as he pushed the door open. There stood Chie, though she had been holding a bag in her left arm. _Please tell me that's not more soup…_

"Hey, sorry I didn't call. I figured you could use some company so I decided to drop by."

"Chie, I have god only knows what kind of bug, and it may or may not be contagious. Do you really think that's such a smart idea?"

"I'll be fine! I promise."

"You can't promise that kind of thing."

"I just did."

_Well played._

"Wouldn't you rather be hanging with Yu and Yosuke?"

"Not really. Besides, Yu has drama."

"He's in drama too!? Jesus, how many clubs is that guy in?"

"You can only join two, so…"

"Wait really?"

"Yep. It was King Moron's idea; something about guys using clubs as a way of picking up girls, or something."

"That does sound like King Moron. Alright, fine. You can come in for a little bit, but I swear if I hear you sneeze even once…"

"You worry too much."

Chie practically forced her way past him to drop the bag she had been carrying on the counter. Or at least, that seemed to be the intention before her eyes caught a hold of the bag full of soup cans she had brought earlier. Leave it to Justin, with more than three hours in between Chie's visits, to fail to hide the bag somewhere.

"You didn't have any?"

"I was going to, but then one thing lead to another, and it all ended with me vomiting in the toilet."

"Way too much information."

"You didn't have to buy that many cans, you know. Actually, you didn't need to buy ANY cans, but that's besides the point."

"Well, I didn't know what you liked so I just grabbed one of everything."

"How much did it cost you?"

"Huh? That's not import-"

"How much?"

"3000 Yen."

"Oh for the love of… Chie!"

"What? It's no big deal."

"It is for me! I don't like you spending money on me like this!"

"Well I didn't like you spending money on that DVD Yosuke broke, but you don't see me complaining."

She had a point. He had bought the DVD for a number of reasons. To be nice, to apologize for being an ass, to do with Yosuke probably wouldn't. He never once considered the way she felt towards a total stranger at the time spending money on her. In retrospect, she did object a lot to him trying to give her the DVD.

"All right, all right, fine. Just… Just don't make a habit of it."

Justin paused for a brief moment as Chie placed the plastic bag she had been holding onto the counter, shuffling through its contents, for what, Justin could only guess.

"What's in the bag?"

"I brought some of my DVD's over. Something to keep you busy anyways."

Justin wasn't quite sure if a cheap kung-fu movie was going to be much better than the cheap TV-movie he had been watching, but at this rate, he would take anything he could get to pass the time. Chie eventually found the case she was looking for, placing it down on the counter as she took the disc over to the TV in search of the DVD player. Justin decided to take a look at the case while she struggled to find where to put the DVD.

"Hey, where's your DVD player."

"Just put it in the Playstation, it should autostart."

Justin flipped the case over to see a familiar sight. "Trial of the Dragon." _Oh very clever, Chie, very clever._

Justin made his way over to the coach, more specifically the spot closest to the hallway, lest he need to make a mad dash to the bathroom. Chie decided to take a seat on the opposite end of the couch, though she did eventually put her feet up on the middle seat. Justin didn't really mind, though he hoped her shoes weren't covered in dirt or anything.

The movie started off in Japan, or at least, that's what it looked like, though it eventually made its way over to America; New York to be precise. He hadn't really been paying attention to the story but it had something to do with some ninjas seeking revenge against some guy that killed their entire clan, or some bullshit. Honestly, he couldn't think of a single person who watched kung-fu movies for the storyline ever, save maybe Chie who hadn't so much as blinked since the movie started.

Justin was actually sorta surprised by the movie. All the choreography was very nice, though what had really caught his attention was how much of a gore-fest it was. He was just expecting to see people getting knocked out, kicked in the face, that sort of thing. Not here. Decapitations left and right; and he was almost entirely positive that someone, somewhere in the world, had been playing a drinking game to this movie. Take a shot for every limb that gets cut off. You'll die of alcohol poisoning in an hour. At one point Justin had started to give a small applause as one of the nameless goons had their arm chopped clean off, much to Chie's disapproval.

"What are you doing?"

"Giving him a hand."

The pun was so bad it was almost funny. Almost. She chuckled a bit at the joke before immersing herself in the movie again. Justin took a glance at Chie before looking at the movie again. She was one hundred percent immersed in this movie, much to his surprise. He always knew she liked kung-fu movies, but he never would have imagined they were bloodbaths like this. Most girls would have gotten squeamish after only a few minutes, but here was Chie, eyes wide open, her face filled with glee. Justin briefly wondered whether it was the blood that she was so interested in, or the kung-fu. Because if it were the former, he had the first three Saw movies on DVD that they could watch.

By the time the movie ended, Chie had already had another DVD in her hand. The way she swapped the discs out, one could almost believe they were watching the same movie. The transition was seamless. This went on for a good few hours, with Justin occasionally butting in to make a bad joke about whatever body part had been detached just a moment earlier. It annoyed Chie every time he did it, but she almost always chuckled afterwards. Though, she was most likely laughing at Justin, not with him. These were some seriously bad puns that were coming out of his mouth.

By the time the last movie was over, it was nearly 11:00. Justin almost expected Chie to be ready with another DVD, so it surprised him when he didn't see the slightest movement from her end of the couch. He turned his head to see Chie fast asleep. She must have fallen asleep at some point in the movie, though how was beyond him. It wasn't like there was so much going on that you couldn't fall asleep, mind you, but the way Chie had been watching each and every move of the actors, it was hard to believe she could have dozed off. Justin got up and stretched a bit before going over to wake Chie up. Her legs were still rolled up in a ball on the coach, that ridiculous grin she had still swept clean across her face. If her eyes hadn't been closed, you probably wouldn't be able to tell she was sleeping. He gave her a gentle nudge as her eyes fluttered back open to the waking world.

"Hmm…? Is the movie over?"

"Yeah, it finished a couple minutes ago."

Chie rubbed her eyes a bit. Justin sincerely hoped that it was because she was just waking up, and not because she had caught something from him. She took a look around the house for a brief moment before starring at the digital clock above the TV.

"Geez, it's that late already." She yawned a bit. "I should get going…"

Justin was getting a bit tired himself, ironically enough. He had been concerned this entire time that Chie would get whatever it was he caught, yet instead, he had caught Chie's contagious yawn. It was a good thing though; every hour he was asleep was another hour he didn't have to put up with. Chie made her way to the door, grabbing a hold of the knob to open it.

"Alright, hopefully I'll see you at school."

"I already told you, I'm fine!"

"I was talking about me."

"Oh… Right, sorry!"

And with that, Chie opened the door and departed, waving goodbye as she maneuvered her way backwards to the sidewalk. Justin closed the door slowly before forcing his way over to the couch and slamming his body against its cushions. He was too tired to make it back up to his bed, and the blanket was down here already anyway.


	13. Chapter 12: April 22, 2011

CHAPTER 12

APRIL 22, 2011

* * *

"Who are you talking to!?"

Yosuke had been on the phone in the middle of class, before a test, no less. Chie couldn't quite comprehend why of all times to be on the phone he picked now. Couldn't he just text like a normal human being.

"Justin. He's outside the door."

Yosuke nodded towards the door leading in and out of the classroom. Chie took a look towards the sliding doors. It took her a moment, but she could sort of make out the top of his head, at least, she thinks it was his head. Really it could have been anyone. Either way, she was completely confused. Justin had apparently been sick again today, so what was he doing outside the classroom? _Maybe he got better and decided to come in anyway._

"Does he need a distraction to get in again or something?"

"Other way around."

"…What's that supposed to mean?"

Chie could tell almost instantly that the two were up to something, though why Justin had been working with Yosuke had confused her. She had never so much as seen them in the same room without trying to strangle each other, let alone work together.

"You'll see. Alright, you in position?"

Chie tried to listen in as carefully as she could. Yosuke was a seat to the left and back of her, so on top of having to try to hear what Justin was saying with the cell-phone pressed against Yosuke's ear, she also had to try and compensate for distance. If she listened closely, she could just barely make out a word here or there.

"Why exactly am I doing this again?"

"Because you'll need it too."

"No I won't."

"Dude, we can argue this later, are you good to go?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, go."

Just then a loud sound echoed through the classroom from out in the hallway. _What in the hell is Justin doing?_ It sounded almost like someone was banging against a locker, hard. But… there were no lockers on this floor, which meant it couldn't have been that. Hearing the noise, King Moron lifted his head. He had been just about to pass out the test when the noise reached his ears. A scowl spread across his face… Well, more so than usual anyway.

"What in the blazes is going on out there!? I swear if I catch you punks breaking the rules out there-"

King Moron opened the door, peeking his head out of the classroom door, examining the hallways for the source of the racket that had distracted him. The noise seemed to stop, and since King Moron didn't seem to see anyone, Chie can only presume that Justin had run away once he noticed King Moron coming. Or so she thought. Seemingly out of nowhere, King Moron's head jolted back, an egg yolk splattered between his two eyes. Chie couldn't help but flinch. She could only assume it had been Justin that had shot the projectile at King Moron, and if he saw Justin, shit would hit the fan. King Moron rushed out almost immediately, shouting all sorts of obscenities, his face redder than a chili pepper.

Yosuke jumped out of his desk, making a b-line for King Moron's desk up front. Much to Chie's relief, Justin also made his way into the classroom. He wasn't wearing his uniform, so it looked like he'd be gone after… whatever it was they were doing, but it was good to see King Moron hadn't caught him. Yosuke started flipping through each of the pages in the pile on Marooka's desk.

"Test, test, test, goddammit where's the answer key."

_Answer key? Wait, they're trying to steal the answer key? Everyone is watching!_

"Obviously he wouldn't leave it on the desk. Check the drawers."

"R-right!"

"What are you idiots doing!?" Chie piped up.

Given the looks of some of her classmates, this was not going to end well for either of them. Actually, Chie was curious as to what Yu was doing that he wasn't trying to stop Yosuke. Chie turned around quickly to see that his desk was empty. _But wait, he was in this morning. I KNOW he was._ Chie looked around frantically to see where Yu might have gone. Turns out, he had been waiting at the door keeping an eye out for King Moron. _He's in on this!?_

"I have no fucking idea. Yosuke, what AM I doing here."

"Like I said, you'll need it too. I mean, it's not like you pay attention in class."

"The fuck's that supposed to mean?"

"I'm just saying, maybe you could a little extra help."

"Will you just concentrate on getting the damn file?"

"Right, right. Let's see… homework, quizzes, tests… Answer keys, alright."

Yosuke pulled out a slip of paper out of the bottom drawer of King Moron's desk. He held it up so that he could clearly see it in the light and then pulled out his cell-phone to take a picture.

"Anyone else need it?"

Everyone looked around for a brief moment, as though checking to see the reactions of those around them. It always amazed Justin that so many people would base their decision based solely on whether their friends agreed or not. Slowly, but surely, a few hands started to go up, as Yosuke passed the paper down the rows. By the time the third or fourth person had taken a picture of the answer key, almost every hand in the room was up, much to Chie's disgust. She wasn't exactly the brightest bulb on the tree, but she would never consider cheating.

"Yu, any sign of King Moron."

"Nothing yet."

Yosuke, for whatever reason decided to rummage through more of Marooka's files. It seemed at first that he might be looking for the answer keys to future tests, maybe even the exams. Instead, he pulled out a large folder with several dividers; at least a good twenty or so. Chie squinted her eyes to try and read the text along the side of the folder. It read grades. _What the hell are they doing!? Are they seriously trying to change their grades!? There's no way they're going to get away with that!_

It turns out that thought hadn't even crossed Yosuke's mind, or at least, if it did he never acted upon it. Though what he did do, Chie wasn't quite sure was much better.

"Alright let's see… Amagi: 94, Hanamura: 78, Narukami: 87, Satonaka:…"

Yosuke paused for a brief moment to look up at Chie. It was a combination of surprise and disgust.

"68? Really?"

Chie jumped out of her seat, and made a b-line for Yosuke, murder in her eyes. As she made her way up to the desk, she swung her knee forward in an upward arch, nailing Yosuke right in the gut, as she grabbed the folder from his rapidly loosening grip.

"That's none of your business, you jerk!"

Yosuke was barely able to pick himself off the ground. When you pissed of Chie, you'd be lucky if you could breathe through a straw by the time she was through with you.

"Overkill much!"

"You totally deserved it! That's private information!"

"Alright, all set up."

Chie turned her attention to Justin. He was just lowering himself from standing on a chair, so whatever he was doing he must have needed the boost to reach. Chie looked up to notice a ceiling tile loose, and an ever elaborate set-up of string. It looked almost like a tripwire of sorts, a long strand of string hanging from the tile, and another strand spreading across the bottom of the door way.

"Wh-What did you do…?"

"All you need to know is, do not use that door. Yu, any sign of King Moron yet?"

"No."

"Well then, this is where I take my leave. Yosuke, you record this on your phone, and we'll call it even."

"Will do."

And with that, Justin ran towards the door that Yu had been standing by, Yu opening it for him so he could make a clean escape. He closed the door carefully behind Justin as he made his exit.

"Where did he even get the string from?"

"He probably brought it with him. Like the eggs."

"Eggs? There's more than one?"

"Yeah, didn't you see him walk in with the carton?"

"Well he certainly didn't walk out with it!"

"Hey… You're right. Shit, look around, make sure he didn't leave them by accident."

"Uh guys, King Moron's coming back."

"SHIT!"

Yosuke ran over and grabbed the answer key from a kid who had been using it in the middle row. It was a shame that not everyone got the chance to take a picture, but they were completely out of time. He quickly rushed back and dropped the paper back in its respective drawer, before making a b-line back to his own desk. Chie had put the grade folder away already while Yosuke had searched for the answer key, and had made it back to her desk by the time Yosuke had replaced the answer key in its correct drawer. As for Yu, well, he had been back in his desk the moment he saw King Moron coming back. Yosuke jumped back into his seat, cell phone at the ready to video tape whatever it was that Justin had done.

Everyone's hearts were racing a thousand miles an hour by the time King Moron had walked through the door. His face was still red with anger, and from the looks of it, he hadn't done much to wipe the egg off of his face yet. He took a step forward, his foot getting caught on the string Justin had elaborately set up. What happened next was like watching a simple, yet beautiful machine in action. The pressure of King Moron tripping over the string had pulled down on the string leading to the loose ceiling tile. It only tugged at it slightly, but that's all it needed. Yosuke grinned almost immediately. So THAT's where the eggs were. The tug at the ceiling panel had made a slight slope; just enough for them to all roll out right above King Moron's head. It was like a shower of egg yolks.

The classroom burst into laughter, nearly every single person had joined into a chorus of giggles and hysterics. As mortified as she had been by the entire situation up until this point, even Chie couldn't help but laugh. The only ones who hadn't been laughing were King Moron, for obvious reasons, and Yu, who instead had on that goofy grin of his.

"Which one of you little shits did it…"

For once King Moron wasn't shouting, he was grumbling through his teeth. It was though he was speaking with pure testosterone. Not a single person informed King Moron that Justin had been the mastermind, though many exchanged glances with each other considering the possibility. Chie just smiled. Justin seemed to always find a way of causing havoc, even when he wasn't there.

Chie suddenly felt a vibration in her pocket. She had just received a text message from Justin. She assumed he was checking to see how the aftermath of his little prank had gone. Instead she found a single sentence, if you could even call it that.

"68 is just an upside-down 89."

Chie couldn't help but blush, a wide grin sweeping across her face.


	14. Chapter 13: April 23, 2011

CHAPTER 13

APRIL 23, 2011

* * *

"No, dude, I bought them last time!"

Justin and Yosuke had been arguing, as per usual, after school at the Junes, trying to decide who should be buying drinks for the table. Chie and Yu insisted that they could buy their own drink, but it seemed Justin and Yosuke had just brushed it off.

"You totally owe me for yesterday though!"

"You said we'd be even if I recorded your prank!"

"Yeah, but in retrospect, that doesn't quite make up for me helping you cheat on your test."

"Now wait a second, you can't just turn around and change the agreement!"

"Watch me."

Chie and Yu couldn't help but give each other a glance of confusion. They already said they'd just buy their own drinks, why was this even being argued. Unless they were arguing for the sake of arguing, which would make sense considering how much they were usually at each other's throats.

"Seriously guys, we'll just get our own drinks, it's not a problem."

"You know what? I know how we'll solve this problem." Justin reached into his pocket, grabbing a hold of a shiny quarter. As he held it up he showed the heads side of the coin to Yosuke. "Heads, you buy, Tails, I buy."

Yosuke groaned slightly as his eyes paced rapidly back and forth between the others. After what felt like a good minute of silence, he finally spoke up.

"Alright fine. Flip it."

Justin placed the quarter against the top of his hand, his thumb pressing up against its cold metal surface. With a quick flip of his thumb, the coin soared upwards through the air, spinning in every possible direction, cutting through the air like a knife through butter. As it came down Justin opened his fist to allow the quarter to land on the surface of his palm. The second the cold steel touched his hand, he tightened his grip around the coin, swinging his arm around to the other, before slamming the coin down upon the back of his other hand. Yosuke looked on, a slight sense of dread in his eyes. There was a fifty-fifty chance he would lose. He practically had to force his eyes shut as he saw Justin move his hand away from the surface of the coin.

"Well?"

"Heads."

"Goddammit! Fine, I'll be right back."

Yosuke practically pushed his chair over as he made his way over to the stands to grab something to drink. Justin only smirked, his hands reaching back into the depths of his pocket to deposit his coin before returning them to their usual position behind his head. Chie gave him a quicklook over before deciding something wasn't quite right.

"Double-sided coin?"

"Yep."

"Justin!"

"What? He should have checked the coin before we started!"

It was a valid point, even if the others wouldn't concede it. If Yosuke had simply asked to see the coin before-hand, Justin would have had to buy the drinks for trying to cheat. Coin-flipping honor and all that shit. Yosuke came back a minute or so later, four drinks in hand.

"Alright, Dr. Fizz for us three, and water for Justin."

"Wat-er you mad or something?

"Ugh! Enough with these puns! They're so bad!"

"That's sorta the point."

Justin happily grabbed the water from the table. It wasn't Coca-Cola, but at least it wasn't that watermelon tasting shit. Really, he didn't even care about the drinks, he was just happy to have beaten Yosuke at yet another battle of the wits. The rest of the group took a sip from their cups too before Justin steered the conversation away from Yosuke and Justin's deathmatch.

"So how'd the test work out for everyone yesterday?"

"Awful."

Justin looked at Yosuke with a combination of shock and disgust. _Awful? How in the hell…_

"What did you get…?"

"42."

Justin couldn't help but spit up a bit of his drink, much to everyone else's disgust. Thankfully, he had turned his head in time so it didn't end up all over the table.

"Dude, what the hell!?"

"Hold on, let me get this straight. You had the freakin' answer sheet in front of you, and you STILL failed?"

Yosuke groaned. "I put all the answers on the wrong line,"

"Oh my god, you are such an idiot!"

"Hey don't judge! You didn't even have to take the test!"

"I don't think putting the answers on the right line would have been a problem."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever."

"How about you guys? You guys do better than Yosuke?"

Chie averted eye-contact briefly, her face turning hot red with embarrassment.

"Well, yeah…"

"Oh you are such a liar! You totally bombed it, didn't you?"

Justin gave Yosuke the usual death glare. He knew from yesterday alone that you shouldn't fuck around with Chie's grades, lest you lose a lung or two. It was clear she didn't want to talk about her grades, so obviously Yosuke should have just dropped the topic and saved himself from some pain.

"I did not!"

"Oh really? Then what DID you get?"

"65…"

"Pfft, that's barely passing."

Justin was surprised Chie's legs could reach Yosuke's crotch from where she was sitting. At least… he assumed it was his crotch based on the way Yosuke reacted. She definitely kicked him though, and kicked him hard. His head practically bounced off the table as it collided with it on his way to reach for whatever Chie had hit.

"I'm sorry, what was that last part?"

"N-Nothing! Oh shit that burns…"

"Well the bright side is you didn't cheat, and somehow you STILL did better than Yosuke."

"Up yours too, man…"

"I guess…"

"Well how about you, Narukami? How'd you do?"

"Eh, I did alright. 87."

"Not bad."

The conversation paused briefly as everyone proceeded to take a few swigs at their drinks, save for Yosuke who as still huddled up in pain. Justin almost felt bad for him sometimes. I mean, he was a complete douche sometimes, and he always got what he deserved, but still.

"So wait, Justin. I thought you were supposed to be sick today?" Chie seemed way too interested in his health as of late.

"Sorta. I still have a bit of a cold."

"Shouldn't you be at home then?"

"It's a cold, not Pink Eye."

The discussion paused for a moment. He probably picked the worst disease relatively possible for his analogy. _Now everyone's just gonna get all worked up over my eye again… _Sure enough, it seemed everyone had started to stare at his eye again, though no one spoke a single word about it. Justin almost bitched out everyone for starring at his eye, but decided it wasn't worth it. They were just going to stare anyway.

"Well then how come you weren't at school?"

"Because I had an excuse not to be?"

"I don't get it. When you were sick, you complained you had nothing to do; now you're purposely trying to stay home. What gives?"

"I can still leave the house with a cold, one. Two, time just moves slower when you're slowly dying from a vomit inducing virus. Way too slow. When I'm fine, it's like a vacation."

"Maybe I should tell King Moron you've been playing hooky." Yosuke smirked. He hadn't been serious, at least, Justin had hoped not.

"Maybe I should tell King Moron how you stole the answer key to that test."

"With the grade I got? No way would he believe you."

It was true. If Yosuke had any ounce of competence in him, his grade surely would reflect whether or not he had cheated. But instead he put everything on the wrong line. It's a wonder he even got the grade he did.

"Besides, if you did that, I'd have to tell him about your little stunt with the eggs."

"Yosuke, you are a bastard after my own heart."

"Alright, alright, enough with the blackmail! Can we please talk about something else?"

It was hard to tell if Chie was trying to steer the conversation away from its current destination because of the content of the topic being discussed, or because she thought the two were going to try to kill each other again. Maybe a little bit of both. Either way, it mattered not; Justin and Yosuke quickly decided to drop the subject. The only problem is there was little to nothing else to talk about. Justin dug around in his head for a topic to discuss, but was struggling to even think of a good starting point. By the time something had finally popped into his head, before he had even finished the thought, he practically shouted out the first thing that came to his mind. He immediately regretted it.

"So I've been thinking a bit about my shadow…"

_SHIT! Bad subject, BAD SUBJECT. _Justin averted eye contact briefly as he tried to think of a way to ease out of the topic he had just thrown on the table. Much to his surprise, however, no one seemed put off by the topic of discussion he had proposed. In fact, some of them even looked mildly interested.

"What about it?"

"Well… Why didn't it do the same thing your shadows did? Trying to get you to deny its existence, spilling your secrets out, that sort of thing. Why is it trying to beat around the bush like this? I mean, surely me being aware of my shadows existence gives me the advantage, right?"

"You know, I was wondering that myself. You said you talked with it before, right?"

"Yeah."

"Maybe it had already tried to get you to deny him, and it hadn't worked."

"I thought so too at first but… I'm not even sure what my shadow is supposed to represent."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, take Yukiko's shadow. It made it painfully clear that it was suppressed hatred or fear of being trapped, forced to do something she didn't want to do. Chie's was suppressed jealousy of Yukiko, as well as suppressed desire to control her. And Yosuke… Well I wasn't there for Yosuke's but I'm assuming the shadow made it clear what emotions Yosuke had suppressed. Mine hasn't done anything like that."

"It hasn't?"

"No… I mean, it's been a huge asshole, but…"

"Maybe that's the suppressed part of you?"

"Being an asshole? Please, I do that on a normal basis, nothing I would deny."

"Well didn't you say something about your shadow making comments about people's butts, or something like that…?"

"Huh? Well yeah, but-"

"Maybe inner you is a pervert."

"I just sorta assumed that fell under asshole. Again, I wouldn't really deny something like that."

"Wait, so you ARE a pervert?"

"Fuck no."

"You just denied it."

"No, I'm saying that some part of me is probably like that. Just not ALL of me. I don't go around starring at people's asses like you do Yosuke."

"Dude, I do NOT do that."

"Bullshit."

"Well, I mean… Once or twice, but I don't make a habit of it!"

Chie looked completely disgusted by the conversation at hand. Before she had been all on-board with trying to help figure out the mystery behind Justin's shadow, but it seemed that had just deteriorated into an argument over who's the biggest pervert.

"Yeah, okay. Go back to 'listening' to your Risette albums."

"And what's that supposed to mean."

"You tell me. I only said you were listening to music. Why are you getting all worked up over listening to music? Unless, that's not what you were doing…?"

Yosuke blushed. It's true. Justin only said listening to music, even if it was completely obvious he meant something else. Yosuke had more or less sealed his own tomb.

"Can we NOT talk about this?"

"Chie's right."

"Back on topic here, I have no idea what my shadow is supposed to be. And I can't accept him unless I do, right?"

"And what was that he said about 'bigger plans in store,' or something like that?"

"You don't think…?"

"What, that I'm going to get kidnapped? Thrown into the TV? I don't think so. I know how to defend myself in there, plus I know my way around. It would really serve no purpose other than getting me alone for a little bit, and even then, so long as I don't deny my shadow nothing could happen, right? It would be a ballsy move with no payoff. Hell, I might even see the killer's face that way."

"That's true, but you wouldn't be able to defend yourself without your weapon right?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well if you got kidnapped, Teddie would have your gun, right? So how would you fight off the shadows if they chased you?"

"Well… Uh… How do I put this…"

The conversation paused for a moment, the group's eyes slowly starting to dialate as they realized what Justin was getting at.

"You don't mean…"

"Yeah… I don't leave the gun with Teddie. I don't trust him with it."

"What the hell is wrong with you!"

"What?"

"What if you got caught with that!?"

"I imagine the same thing would happen as if I got caught with the cigarettes."

"I think those are two entirely different levels of crime, dude."

"Point is, don't worry about it. I know how to hide this stuff.

"Oh god this is not happening…"

"What, you want me to leave it with Teddie so he can get bored one day and accidently blow his brains out? Yeah sure, that sounds like a great plan!"

"Dude he doesn't have a brain!"

"It's a figure of speech, Yosuke."

"Just unload the gun and keep the ammo! Problem solved!"

"I… actually hadn't thought of that…"

A silence briefly filled the air, everyone giving Justin a glare that was a combination of disapproval and anger. He couldn't imagine what everyone was all pissed off about, it was an honest mistake.

"And you called ME the idiot."

"Yosuke, never piss off someone with a gun."


	15. Chapter 14: April 24, 2011

CHAPTER 14

APRIL 24, 2011

* * *

"Oh sweet mother of crap… There goes my lung…"

Chie had called Justin earlier that morning to see if he was free for the day. She had apparently invited Yu and Yosuke too, but they were busy meeting up with some guys from the basketball team. Justin was half expecting to be dragged over to Junes again, so when he heard that Chie just wanted to do training, well, he was more than a little curious. She explained everything to him on the way down to the riverbank, practicing for when they were fighting shadows. In retrospect, that should have been the first clue that he should run like hell in the opposite direction; the second was the follow up explanation of: "I tried practicing at home… But my parents yelled at me for putting a hole in the shoji."

She must have seen the doubt in his eyes at that point, because she had to second guess whether he'd be okay with training. Only a mere few minutes later had he regretted saying he was cool with it. He had assumed training would be running laps, or doing push-ups, or something along those lines, not getting kicked straight in his gut. And it hurt like a bitch too. If ever there were a case of someone's organs exploding from someone kicking them, this would be that time. He was surprised he hadn't started spitting up blood at some point.

"A-Are you okay?"

_No, not even remotely close. I'm relatively positive that I am dying right now, and it's all your fault, Chie!_

"Y-Yeah. Just… Just give me a second to catch my breath."

"Did I kick too hard…?"

Chie looked at him funny. She looked worried, but not in the usual way, where she had panicked over every little thing wrong with Justin. It looked more like pity than anything else, pity that they had been at it for only a few minutes and already he was close to vomiting blood. As though he needed her sympathy. She was patronizing him just with a simple raise of the eyebrows. _Oh it is on now._

"Alright… Alright I'm good. Hit me."

He didn't really mean 'hit me' as in physically hit him, more of a "come at me bro," kind of thing, only not obnoxious and douchey in every way possible. Sure enough Chie came at him full-force with another kick, only this time Justin had been prepared. Before he had been caught off-guard, unaware that "training" actually meant sparring, but this time; this time he was ready. He quickly jumped back, the kick sweeping clean in front of him. This was immediately followed by another kick, and another, each one gracefully being side-stepped by Justin.

Justin was never the athletic type, so back when they used to play dodgeball in middle school, he tried to avoid throwing the ball, catching the ball, or anything one would actually do in a sport. Instead, he focused entirely on running away like a little bitch. And as terrible as that sounded, it actually worked. After two or so years of getting pegged in the face with a ball, Justin could dodge nearly anything you threw at him. More often than not, he was the last player on the court. Of course, that didn't count for jack-shit when you couldn't throw a ball. Regardless, he may not have been a heavy hitter, but he could dodge whatever Chie threw at him, much to her displeasure.

"Quit moving!"

"And get kicked in the face? Pass!"

It took a couple minutes of wild kicking, but eventually Chie started to slow down a bit. Clearly she wasn't used to having to follow up kick after kick in immediate succession. She sent another kick flying towards Justin, only this time, he opted to try to grab her by the foot mid-kick, kinda like in those action movies. He was entirely surprised when it worked, what considering he couldn't even catch a ball, let alone a person's foot. Chie's face soon lit up with panic. So long as Justin had a grip on her leg, she was trapped in that position. The only real question was what exactly was Justin going to do now that he had the advantage. Go for her knee cap? An upper-body assault?

She was surprised when she found that Justin had actually gone for the most obvious option, simply pulling on her leg so she fell flat on her ass. Chie puffed out some hot air as she laid down on the grass. He had gotten her pretty good; though she had to wonder why just pull on her leg. It wasn't exactly an efficient means of taking someone down. Hell, at most Chie's ass was a little sore, nothing she couldn't get up from immediately.

Chie looked up at the sky. It was actually quite the sight to behold. The sun was shining a beautiful radiant color through the cracks of the clouds; birds flew around in v formation, chirping beautiful melodies. Had she not been in the middle of training, she would have been tempted to stay there, lying in the grass. Her view of the sky, however, was eventually clouded by the shadow of Justin making his way up towards her, his hand extended to the ground.

"Need a lift?"

Chie gripped his hand firmly, though half-way through him pulling her up, she had a devious idea. Instead of using his weight as support to get up, she instead tugged on his arm, sending him tumbling to the ground next to her, landing face first against the dirt. This was not going to do wonders for his allergies. Justin slowly rolled his body over so he was facing the same way as Chie.

"Last time I offer you a hand."

"Never lower your guard."

Chie smirked. It was clear she had stolen the line straight out of one of her kung-fu movies, but Justin decided not to point it out. Rather, he instead turned his attention up towards the clouds gently sailing above him. He hadn't watched the clouds since he was a small child. Thinking of it now, he wasn't sure why. It was a beautiful sight. There was a silence between Justin and Chie for a good few minutes as they starred up into the sky. It wasn't interrupted until Justin eventually raised a finger pointing skyward.

"That one is totally a velociraptor."

Chie turned her head to give Justin a glance of confusion. In all fairness, it was a pretty strange remark.

"A… velociraptor?"

"Yeah, you know, like the dinosaur. See look," Justin propped himself up so he could point more closely at the cloud's shape in the sky. "You got the head there, the eye there, and the claw there. Then if you wrap back around over here, you can kind of see a tail sticking out."

"Looks like a turtle to me."

"Hmm… I can kindaaaa see that. I still think it's a raptor though."

"What even made you think it was a dinosaur."

"I haven't really watched the clouds go by since I was a kid, but I remember the first thing I always used to do was look for a dinosaur. Usually a T-Rex. I guess it kind of stuck with me."

"Aww… That's adorable."

Justin immediately blushed. He knew she was talking about when he was a kid, but the comment still struck him as tad bit… strange. Chie must have noticed him blushing too, because when he turned his head to look at her, her face was hot red, and her head was tilted away from him, as though to avoid looking in his direction. There was an awkward moment of silence between the two before Justin pushed himself off of the ground, dusting dirt off of his hoodie in the process. Justin had gone to reach out his hand to help Chie up, but was distracted by the sight of something on her shoulder. She stood up on her own, brushing grass off of her shirt.

"Want to go at it agai…" Chie's words slowed down to a crawl as she noticed Justin's eyes focused elsewhere. "Something wrong?"

"You wouldn't happen to be okay with bugs, right?"

"N-no, why…?"

"Uh… I would suggest not turning your head left then."

Justin didn't know why he had even bothered saying that. He knew she was just going to turn her head to look at it anyway, especially if he told her not to. Chie's eyes immediately dilated, her mouth curved back with disgust and fear as she noticed a grasshopper perched across her shoulder.

"Get it off! Get it off!"

Chie fumbled about, trying to knock the bugger loose without having to touch it or bringing it anywhere near her skin. Justin himself was not exactly very fond of bugs himself, so there was no way in hell he was going to try swatting that off with his bare hand. Instead he picked up a stick from a nearby ditch.

"Quit moving!"

Justin made a quick jab of the stick, knocking the vermin off of Chie's shoulder. Luckily, as though anticipating Justin's movement, Chie jumped forward ever so slightly, allowing the grasshopper to fall to the ground, as opposed to her back or her legs. This was immediately followed by Justin stepping on the thing. It didn't settle quite well with Chie to see Justin just kill a grasshopper for being a grasshopper, but then, so long as it wasn't on her, she'd be fine. The two breathed heavily for a brief moment before words were exchanged

"Geez, Chie, I didn't take you as the type to be afraid of bugs."

"Me!? What about you!? You were swatting it a way with a STICK!"

"Chie, I have a phobia of STAIRS. How in the hell does this surprise you?"

"I'm just no good with anything with thin, jointed legs. Or anything creepy or squirmy." Chie paused for a moment, scrunching her face up in disgust. "Ack, now I can't get 'em out of my mind! I can't stand those things."

"Well, I'm sure Yukiko's worse when it comes to bugs, at least. So there's always that."

"Actually, she's fine with them."

"Really? Hold on, let me get this straight. You, the chick who's into kung-fu, are afraid of a grasshopper, but Yukiko, who is ridiculously shy, reserved, and is pretty much the girliest girl I have ever met, isn't?"

"I can't help it. I totally lose it when I see those things. Kinda funny, huh?"

"I thought it was very feminine."

"Th-That's not true! Besides you did the same thing!"

"Ah, but alas, m'lady, I am a VERY girly man."

Chie couldn't help but laugh at the comment, though whether it was Justin's insistence on forcing the word "m'lady" in again, or him calling himself a girly man that she found so hysterical was debatable. Her laughter eventually came to a stop, however, and her grin eventually formed itself into a frown.

"I really should get over my fear of bugs. I don't want to look like a sissy…"

"What, cause you're afraid of bugs? That doesn't make you a sissy, that makes you you. Besides, I don't exactly have much room to judge people based on their fears."

"You think so?"

"Would I lie to you?"

"Yes."

"Sooner or later that will stop working on me."

"Is it working now?"

"Yes."

"Well then that settles that."

_One of these days, Satonaka, ONE OF THESE DAYS…!_

"Alright, you want to go another round."

Justin cracked his neck from side to side. It seemed really badass whenever an actor did it in movies, but alas, not so much in real life. Regardless, as he finished jolting his neck muscles to and fro, he lowered his stance, legs spread apart, arms hanging loosely in front of his face.

"Alright, ready."

* * *

Justin immediately plopped down on his couch, ice pack to his head. He had gotten over-confident from his victory earlier that day, and had taken a pretty bad blow to his head. In all fairness though, he thought it was generally agreed upon that attacks towards the head were off-limits. Chie could be really vicious during training if she wanted to.

"You sure you're alright?"

His head was bleeding slightly, a footprint carved into the side of his head, but it was only a superficial cut, nothing he had to worry about.

"If I say no, will you stop asking?"

"I'm just worried is all…"

"That's the problem, isn't it? It's just a cut; don't worry so much about it."

Chie sighed. She knew Justin was just trying to alleviate her concerns, but he could be a real ass about it sometimes. Either way, she found herself taking a seat next to him on the couch, starring at him slightly from the sides.

"How did you learn to kick so hard anyway?"

"H-huh? Oh… I guess I just sorta practiced…"

"That… slightly concerns me."

"…Why?"

"What did you kill?"

Chie picked up a pillow from the opposite end of the couch and threw it at Justin. Probably not the smartest move, because now their was a blood stain all over it.

"Alright! Alright! Geez, I won't tell anyone about the body."

"You are such a jerk!"

"Aren't I?"

"Oh no, that is NOT working on me again."

"Oh it totally is."

"Is not!"

"Then what are you mad about?"

"I-"

Chie paused. They had only been off-topic for a brief moment and she already forgotten what Justin had said to irritate her.

"That's what I thought."

"Alright fine, you win."

Chie practically slammed her back against the back cushion of the couch, a slight pout on her face. Justin lifted his eyes to look at the digital clock. It was still fairly early, and he had nothing better to do but bleed out at the moment. He picked up a controller in front of him, turning on the television from the distance. As the screen flickered into light, it seemed that the Playstation 3 had been left running overnight. Justin had a bad habit of forgetting to turn it off sometimes, but that made it convenient today since every time he got up to move, his back felt like it was inflated along five different spots on his spine. He quickly grabbed the controller off the coffee table.

"What game is this?"

"Dark Souls."

An amusing thought struck Justin. Chie didn't seem the type to play video games, so why not let her take the reins on this little operation. It would be fun to watch how she reacted to a game like this. He dropped the controller gently in her hand.

"H-huh? What's this for?"

"Well you're playing, aren't you?"

"W-wait, I don't even know how to play!"

"That's good, cause neither do I."

It wasn't completely far from the truth. He knew how the controls worked and shit, but god forbid he go five steps without something killing him. Time passed as Chie struggled to get a hang of the controls. At first it seemed she thought she was dying because she didn't know how to play, but as she got more and more accustomed to it, it became clear to here that this was the game's way of flipping her off.

"What the hell!? Where did that dragon come from!?"

"Only one hit? You had full health, right?"

"I think so…"

"Holy shit that is tough."

"How are you supposed to survive that thing!?"

"Maybe you have to outrun it."

"Yeah... Okay, that makes sense."

So Chie tried to outrun it. Twice. Once with armor, once without, each time failing miserably to outrun the flames that engulfed her avatar, instantly killing it.

"Well, I guess that rules outrunning it out."

"How is this even supposed to be fair!?"

"It's not."

"This is such bull!"

Justin couldn't help but chuckle. He had half expected that kind of reaction out of her anyway. God knows that's how he acted whenever he got killed in this game, anyway.

"How do you even put up with this? It's so hard!"

"That's part of the fun, I guess."

"I didn't know torture was supposed to be fun."

"Well, that depends on who you ask."

"You know what, forget I even said anything."

It took a good two hours or so, but Chie eventually managed to get her character to a boss fight. It was past where Justin had been able to get, which impressed him considering Chie barely knew the controls. It was huge, at least 4 times the size of the player, and had wide arching swings. It completely annihilated Chie before she had even finished entering the room. This was immediately followed by Chie throwing the controller across the room, and Justin laughing like a maniac.

"Oh I am so done with this game."

"Well I am too if you threw that controller as hard as you kick."

"S-sorry about that."

"No worries, I do it at least twice a week anyway."

Chie squinted her eyes a bit, starring at the wall. Sure enough, to the right of where her controller had hit was the slightest indentation, most likely a result of having objects hurled at it on a regular basis. Chie couldn't help but laugh along after realizing she wasn't the only one who had nearly broke a controller in her rage.

"Oh man, remind me to get a second controller at some point."

"I could always bring mine from home."

"You have a Playstation?"

"Yeah, why?"

"You never really struck me as being into video games."

"Why? 'Cause I'm a girl?"

"Would you be offended if I said yes?"

"Kinda."

"Then no."

"And you say you never lie."


	16. Chapter 15: April 25, 2011

CHAPTER 15

APRIL 25, 2011

* * *

"Jesus, you look like shit today."

Justin had just made his way to the usual meeting spot at Junes when Yosuke piped up about his appearance. Normally Justin would have had a witty remark about how Yosuke always looked like shit, or something along those lines, but quite frankly he agreed. He felt like shit, that's for damned sure.

"I didn't get much sleep last night…"

He usually didn't get much sleep at night normally, but there was something about last night in particular that made him particularly restless. Hell, he had slept through almost the entirety of school and he still felt like he hadn't slept for days. And yet, a lack of sleep seemed to be the least of his problems. He knew exactly why he hadn't been able to sleep, he had been having a strange dream for the entirety of the night. He didn't really understand what was going on, but… it felt so real, like he had been awake the entire time.

"This isn't because of that incident yesterday, right?"

"My head is fine, Chie."

"W-wait, incident?"

"Yeah, Yosuke, an incident; because you two were busy hanging out with your friends from basketball, I ended up getting kicked in the face by Chie."

Justin paused for a second. That wasn't what he meant to say, and it certainly wasn't the way he meant to say it. He wasn't even sure why he responded that way, Yosuke hadn't said anything particularly stupid yet, and Chie was probably going to start worrying out of her mind now. Given the looks of the rest of the group around him, they weren't sure whether to be pissed or shocked, Yu and Yosuke especially, considering they were unaware of Chie's plans to spar that day. Justin rested his forehead in the palms of his hand, eyes closed, fingers sweeping his hair back.

"…Sorry. I'm just a little out of it today."

"Dude, no kidding. What happened?"

"Just had a bad dream last night. It's nothing."

"Doesn't sound like nothing."

"It's NOTHING."

The dream seemed too strange to Justin for it to be nothing, but quite frankly he didn't want to talk about it. He didn't even want to so much as think about it. He just wanted to pretend it never happened and move on with his life. Looking around the table, it seemed no one quite believed him, but Justin couldn't give less of a fuck. So long as they stopped talking about it, he'd be fine. There was silence in the air for a brief moment before Yosuke changed the subject.

"So… uh… H-How'd you do on the make-up test?"

"Hm? Oh that thing. I don't know, he hasn't graded it yet."

"Well how'd you think you did?"

"Alright, I guess…"

It was hard to tell if Justin was just really out of it today, or if he was lacking in confidence for his performance on the test. Could have been a little of both, either way, it was difficult for the others to strike up conversation with him.

"Are you sure you're alright?"

"For the last fucking time-"

Justin paused. He had snapped pretty badly actually. Jesus, he didn't remember a thing about his dream, and yet was it so bad that it was making him this irritable? All he remembered was a girl, maybe around twelve or so. Everything else seemed to be covered by smoke, or fog, or SOMETHING. Justin sighed, he wasn't getting anywhere with this, yet he couldn't get it out of his mind, and clearly everyone else was suffering because of it.

" I'm sorry… Maybe I should just go…"

"Huh? It's okay. Honest!"

"No. No it's not."

Justin puffed some hot air our before getting out of his seat. The rest of the group looked at him with worried eyes, but he didn't care. He knew they'd be fine once he left anyway. He slowly made his way out of the food court, the sounds of the others trying to beckon him back being lost in the roar of the crowd.

"Geeze… What's gotten into him today?"

"It must have been a really bad dream…"

Yosuke sighed. They pretty much hated each other's guts, but even then he couldn't stand seeing him like this. He looked completely depressed.

"Maybe we should go look for him…"

"I don't know, Chie, I think he just needs some time alone."

"I think he needs help sorting this all out."

"Seriously, just… just give him some time."

Chie was surprised to see Yosuke so opposed to the idea of her trying to find Justin. She knew the two didn't like each other, but this just seemed low, even for him.

"Look, if you don't want to come that's fine, but I'm going to make sure he's alright."

"Chie…"

"Don't 'Chie' me. I'm going, and that's that."

Chie pushed her way out of the chair, nearly knocking it over in the process. Yosuke only gave her a disapproving glance. He knew nothing he could say to her would change her mind, but that didn't mean he approved. Looking over at Yu, it seemed he wasn't sure how to feel about this entire situation. It mattered not, however. Chie made her way out the food court, hoping to catch up with Justin.

* * *

It took hours of walking around town before Chie eventually managed to find Justin in his house. In retrospect, that probably should have been the first place she looked, but she figured maybe he needed to get some air. She ran up to the door to knock on it, but when she banged her fist against the door, it seemed to push open. At first she thought it was Justin opening the door, but she soon realized the door had simply been left unlocked and had opened because she had banged on it. She slowly pushed the door open, making her way inside the house, when the sound of music hit her ears.

It was faint, but she could clearly make out a guitar and some words. It was most likely Justin doing his thing on guitar, so she could use the music as a way to find the source. As she gently made her way into the house, she noticed the house seemed to be torn apart. Pillows were thrown around the entrance, loose papers scattered across the counter. Chie slowly made her way to the counter, careful not to let Justin hear her from wherever he was. She didn't want him to think that she was trying to break into his house or anything. After slowly creaking over to the counter, her eyes fell upon the crumpled up paper thrown around. It was a list of names, all of them scratched out with pen, save for one.

_Maya? Who's Maya?_

Chie averted her eyes from the paper. There would be plenty of time to decipher what the names meant. At the moment, she was more concerned about Justin. The way the couch pillows had been thrown around certainly didn't ease her mind. She slowly made her ways up the steps to the source of Justin's guitar playing. She was careful not to let any of the stairs creak as she made her way up to his bedroom on the second floor, even more careful to make sure she was out of sight when she noticed the door to his room wasn't completely closed. She pressed up against wall for a brief moment before making her way towards the door crack.

She made a quick glance inside before hiding her head behind the door once more. Justin was definitely in his room, and sure enough the sound of music that filled the air was stemming from his guitar. Listening to the strings ring on the guitar, it had been one of the most beautiful, and yet the saddest melody Chie had ever heard. She could barely make out what Justin was singing at first, he was practically mumbling, but she seemed to have an easier time making it out as he went along.

_Yesterday_

_All my troubles seemed so far away,_

_Now it looks as though they're here to stay,_

_Oh I believe, in yesterday._

_Suddenly._

_I'm not half the man I used to be._

_There's a shadow hanging over me._

_Oh yesterday came suddenly._

Chie continued listening. She had never heard the song before, yet, she felt as though her heart grew a little heavy hearing the words come from Justin's mouth. How could a song so beautiful make her feel so sad inside?

_Why she had to go, I don't know, she wouldn't say._

_I said something wrong, now I long for yester-_

Justin suddenly seemed to strike a sour note. It was rather obvious he had accidently played the wrong note, much to his very visible anger.

"FUCK!"

He quickly pulled the guitar off of his shoulder and practically hurled it across the room. The guitar broke in two as it bounced off against the wall, the neck snapping off the body of the guitar. Chie had never seen Justin so angry before, let alone over something as silly as hitting the wrong note. She took a quick glance at the rubble of the guitar before making her way into the room. It was a nice guitar, or at least, it was before Justin had broken it. She almost felt bad about it, even if it was entirely Justin's fault. As she poked her head through the crack in the door, Justin had his head pressed inside of his palms

"I thought it was beautiful."

Justin removed his head from his palms, his eyes wide with surprise as he saw Chie standing in the crack of the door.

"How the hell did you get in my house?"

This wasn't the playful Justin, or the bitterly sarcastic Justin Chie had come to know. He was visibly angered by Chie's presence in his house at the moment. It almost scared Chie to see him like this.

"W-well the front door was open and I wanted to make sure you were alright so-"

"Well I'm fine!"

Chie paused for a minute, thinking back on what Yosuke had said; how Justin probably just needed some time. Maybe he was right; she had never seen Justin get so worked up over silly little things like this. It was frightening the way his voice rasped with anger, how his glare seemed to pierce through her very heart. She averted eye contact for a brief moment, instead choosing to look around the room at the mess Justin had made. On top of the broken guitar, there seemed to be pillows and blankets thrown abound, and more than a few articles of clothes thrown haphazardly across the floor. There was an open drawer, though it was completely empty. It took a while before Justin eventually broke the silence.

"Look, just… just leave me alone." His voice wasn't as angry anymore, though he seemed physically pained by something.

"Is all this about that dream?"

Justin paused a moment, looking down towards the ground before letting out some hot air from his cheeks.

"Yeah."

Chie made her way over to the bed Justin had been sitting on, taking a seat next to him. She had half expected for him to start flipping out on her again, but instead he just remained silent, eyes examining the floorboards below him.

"What happened?"

"I don't really remember much, but… there was this girl…"

"A… girl?"

"She looked like she was around twelve, maybe thirteen. She had short black hair and hazel eyes and… she was wearing a hoodie, kind of like mine."

Chie paused for a moment. _A little girl? Wait, maybe…_

"Maya?"

"I see you've been shifting through my shit."

"Well, everything was thrown around and I was concerned, so…"

"Yeah… It took a bit of thinking, but I remember seeing that little girl before. We used to know each other when I was younger, back in California."

"What was she like?"

"I don't really remember. Everything's a blur about her… I remember she gave me a chain a while back, it had dog tags with both of our names on it, but…"

Chie paused for a moment. _So that's why all these clothes are thrown around. He was trying to find the chain._

"You couldn't find it."

"Right. I was hoping maybe her dog tag would remind me something about her, but that only really works if I can find it."

"I can help you find it if you want."

"Don't bother; I tore up this entire house looking for it. It's not here."

Chie looked at him with saddened eyes. She was almost heartbroken that she couldn't really help him with his problems. I mean, she didn't know a thing about this Maya person, so it's not like she could really help him in that department. A brief moment of silence passed before discussion started up again.

"Sorry about your guitar."

Justin lifted his eyes for a brief moment to take a look at the damage he caused. It hadn't really struck him until now that had broken the thing in two.

"Well, there goes my lunch for the next few months."

Chie had half expected him to smirk like he usually did, but instead found only a frown as he lowered his head slightly.

"What was that song you were playing?"

"Yesterday. It's a Beatles song."

"It sounded wonderful, but it was so… sad…"

"Well it IS a break-up song."

"Were you and Maya… you know?"

"What? No. I would have remembered if we were."

"How come you were playing it then?"

"I was trying to keep my mind off of this Maya shit. It didn't really work apparently."

"Maybe you should have tried something a little happier then."

"Maybe."

There was an awkward pause in discussion between the two, before Justin piped up once again.

"If it's alright, I think I need some time alone."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah."

"Well… alright then… I'll call you later to see how you're doing."

"I'll be fine. I promise."

"I'm holding you to that."

Chie slowly made her way out of the room. She didn't want to leave, but it actually might do Justin some good just to calm down and think. She was about to make her way outside the door when she hesitated for a moment. She reached into her pocket and pulled out some money, slipping it onto the counter, a note under it.

_Maybe this will help with the guitar :) - CHIE_

* * *

**AUTHORS COMMENTS**

**Before anyone asks, no it is _not_ Persona 2 Maya.**

**Thanks for all the support so far guys. Its been a little over a week and a half since I started writing this, and already the amount of support and critique I've received has been astronomically important to me, so I'd like to shout out to everyone who has helped me improve and given me feedback. You guys are the best.  
**

**It's Saturday, real world time, at the time of writing this, so I think now would be a good time to end this week in P4R by answering some of the fan reviews, just as a little thank you for all the support you've shown. Hopefully we can answer a few questions while we're at it, who knows ;D**

_Hey there. Excellent read so far. Completely enjoyed the Justin and Chie moments so far. Unlike most OCs, he well written and the choice of song you picked, kryptonite was good. Although I don't agree with the views you have on California. While not da best place, it's better than most places on earth to live, and San Jose is a good place as well. Sure there are ignorant people who do stupid shit an make Cali look horrible but it isn't as bad. I live here and it will always be home. Anyways keep going I want to read what you have next an see Justin's Shadow. - Wolf's Honour_

**Glad to see you're enjoying it so far, Wolf. I've been trying to put a lot of emphasis on Chie's and Justin's friendship as opposed to that of the group, so when I hear that those little moments between the two work out well, it's really nice to hear. I'm also trying to do something a lot bigger for Justin's shadow than the others, so it's nice to see some interest in what's going to happen there.**

**As for California, I've only been there once or twice on vacation. From what I've seen its a very nice place, though as you said, you do have people who do stupid shit. Who knows, maybe that's why Justin hates the place so much. We'll just have to wait and see ;D**

_Jesus, are you me? My name is Justin and I'm pretty abrasive in real life. Not so much online though, which is kind of weird. And I'm from California too. Reading this makes me a little uncomfortable, haha. Gotta' say, it's definitely interesting! - MoldyJellyBean_

**I knew something like this was going to happen sooner or later, but damn that was fast XD.**

_Enjoying it so far, refreshing to see every day updates work out. Keep them coming and i'll keep reading! 3 rise! - Gaintbomb_

**Thanks! I've had more than a few scares trying to meet the deadline on some of these entries, especially the other when the internet went down; yikes! But I enjoy writing this enough that I could write on a daily basis, so it all works out in the longrun.**

**P.S. Love the username.**

_Does Justin hate reach out to the truth or make history? Because if he hates either of those then he really has horrible taste. But then again, he's a generic emo who cuts himself and smoke like a chimney. This Yosuke hate is stupid. Do you hate non-existent successful people? - Secret Weapon Unit 06_

**Hey, thanks for the critique! To answer your question, I don't think Risette wrote or performed either of those songs, but I'm sure Justin would like them if she did. I mean, who could possibly hate Reach Out for the Truth?**

**As far as the Yosuke hate, just to clarify, I very much enjoy Yosuke's character, Justin just has too much of a differing personality to really get along with him. And it's not so much as he hates him as he enjoys jabbing at him a lot. They're kinda like brothers in way, where they like each other, but they're constantly bickering. At least that's how I see it. Either way, I'll tone down the Yosuke/Justin quarrels a bit.**

**It's also not so much that Justin is emo as much as he is lacking in self-confidence. The idea behind Justin was that he was supposed to be a teen angst character, swearing a lot, pulling pranks, smoking, the works. He's a loose cannon that doesn't play by the rules! Besides, whoever said that those cut marks on his arm were from him cutting himself? ;) Hopefully all your concerns will be fixed in the next few entries though, I appreciate the feedback!**

**P.S. "Smokes like a chimney" made my day XD**

_LIFE LESSON: Never piss off someone with a gun - Gicofokami_

**Words to live by!**

_Wow, Two updates in one day. So far your story been really good and your keeping your OC believable I wonder what Persona he'll get and what Arcana he is._

**Justin is a Hermit, the Hermit arcana of course representing solidarity and retreat, but also wisdom. As for his persona, well we'll just have to wait and see ;D**

_Intresting start since Justin's 19 I'm guessing this interview takes place during arena. - Mzr90_

**Ah, good question! Justin is 16 around the start of the story, much like the rest of the second-year P4 cast. Persona 4 Arena takes place in the spring of 2012, a year after the events of P4, so he's 17 at that time. That means the interview takes place two years after the events of P4A.**

_Love Justin. He is so relatetable. Great chapter and keep it up. - Vampuric Spider_

**Special thanks to this guy here, as well as Mzr90, who has written a review after nearly every chapter. Happy to see you're enjoying it, and thanks for all the feedback.**


	17. Chapter 16: April 26, 2011

CHAPTER 16

APRIL 26, 2011

* * *

"I've told you already about giving me stuff before! Take the damn money back!"

Chie and Justin were arguing back and forth before school had started. It seemed that Justin had found the money Chie left behind, and he wasn't exactly pleased with it. _Dammit, she knows how I feel about her spending money on me, let alone out right giving me some. Why does she keep doing this to me?!_

"But you need that to get another guitar!"

"No I don't! I don't need another freakin' guitar, and if I did I would use my own money!"

"It's only 2,000 yen! What are you freaking out over!"

"Chie, that is 2,000 more yen then I would EVER accept from you."

"I'm not taking it back."

"Chie, listen to me. I am going to make this VERY clear. I would rather BURN this money than spend a single cent of it on myself. Take it, and this is the last time I tell you!"

Justin shoved the fistful of money onto Chie's desk. Chie had known he would be pissed about her leaving money behind for him, but this was aggressive even for him.

"You know, I'm just trying to help!"

"I'm not a charity case; I don't need your fucking money!"

Chie was practically fighting back tears. She knew Justin had been having a tough time lately, but she had never seen him so angry before, and over something as ridiculous as someone lending him money? This wasn't the Justin she knew, and it definitely wasn't the Justin she had befriended. She took a look around the classroom. Everyone had been starring at the two arguing. Even Yu and Yosuke were looking on in disbelief.

No words were exchanged between the two after that point. The two just took a seat in their desk, Justin slamming his head against the top of his. He knew he had been being a dick, but with everyone watching him he felt like he didn't really have much of a choice. You don't just start a ruckus and then back-down; people think you're a fucking psychopath. Chie had simply turned her head way from Justin's side of the room. She felt like crying, but she couldn't find a single tear to shed.

It took a while, but people eventually stopped starring at the spectacle they had just witnessed, save for Yu and Yosuke, who were still trying to make heads and tails of what had just happened. Even from the very get go Chie and Justin seemed to get along so well. Hell, Yosuke was almost entirely positive Justin had a thing for Chie, so what the hell happened that they were acting like this.

"Dude, what has gotten into you lately…"

Justin took a while to answer, lifting his head from the cushion he had made from his arms. His eyes were red, even redder than the day before. Looking at him now, Yosuke had just noticed he had some very dark rings under his eyes. The guy looked like he hadn't slept in a week.

"It's that fucking dream. I had it again last night, and I still have no idea what the hell is going on."

He paused for a brief moment before turning to Chie.

"Look, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to get pissed off like that."

Chie sighed. She knew he didn't mean it, but… It was hard to forgive him after some of the things he said. She was just trying to be nice, and Justin practically ripped her a new a-hole for it. She rubbed her forehead with her thumb before turning her attention back to Justin.

"This is the last time I'm letting you off the hook."

"I wasn't expecting you to anyway."

"Look, clearly this dream is tearing you apart. We need to find out what's going on."

"I'd fucking love to, Yosuke, but I can't even remember what happened. All I remember was that little girl."

"Maya, you mean?"

Justin looked at Yosuke then back to Chie. His sorrowful expression was soon filled with anger again.

"What the hell, Chie!? Why would you tell them about that!?"

"Well, I thought they would need to know that…"

"It's fine, dude. We understand."

"No, no you really fucking don't."

"Well we need to figure this out, because quite frankly, I can't take seeing you act like a complete asshole anymore."

Justin sighed. Yosuke was right, as much as he hated to admit it. There was something about this dream that was causing him to snap. He didn't understand why, either. It was just a dream right? So why did he panic at the mere thought of it.

"Alright fine, what exactly did you have in mind?"

"Well first we need to know what you do remember."

"There was a girl, she had short black hair, hazel eyes, and she was wearing a black hoodie, kind of like mine. She looked like she was around twelveish or so. Her name is Maya, though I don't really remember much else about her than that."

"Didn't you say she gave you a chain with your names on it?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Well you must have at least been friends then, right?"

"Probably. It's strange; you would think I'd remember her more."

"What else."

"Well that's about it. I couldn't see much because there was smoke everywhere."

"Smoke? You sure it wasn't fog?"

"No, definitely smoke. I recognized the smell."

"That might mean something… but what?" Yu had just joined in on the conversation.

"Well, Justin does smoke…"

"Yeah I doubt that's what it means, Yosuke."

There was a brief pause in dialogue between the group. Everyone was trying to think of what the smoke could possibly mean in connection to Maya, but it was difficult when they didn't know a thing about her. After a good two or three minutes, Yosuke finally spoke up.

"I… may have an idea."

* * *

"You want me to talk to my shadow? Are you out of your goddamned mind?"

The group had all gathered outside of the electronics department as per Yosuke's request earlier that morning. Everybody gave Yosuke a glare as the idea came out of his mouth. It had literally been the stupidest idea he had ever come up with, and he's had some pretty stupid ideas.

"Well the way I see it, you can't remember anything about Maya because you suppressed the memory. So, who better to get that information from than an embodiment of your suppressed emotions?"

"Except you're missing a vital point: HE'S MY FUCKING SHADOW! He is trying to KILL ME!"

"It is a pretty shitty idea, Yosuke."

If even Yu thought an idea was shitty, it generally was a pretty shitty idea. Chie didn't even say anything about the stupidity involved in this idea. She just pinched her forehead, trying to hold herself back from kicking Yosuke.

"Oh come on, the shadow can't hurt him unless he denies its existence right? All he has to do is keep calm."

"There's no way in hell my shadow would tell me jack shit."

"Didn't you manage to get information out of him a couple times?"

"Well yeah, but-"

"Well then what's the problem? Besides, you need to deal with your shadow sooner or later anyway."

Justin sighed. He had a point. There was a brief pause in discussion before Justin eventually and hesitatingly spoke up.

"Alright, fine. Let's get this over with."

"What!? You can't be serious."

"He's right, Chie. I do need to deal with my shadow eventually anyway, and I'd rather him not show up while we're dealing with someone else's shadow again."

Yu sighed. He clearly didn't support the idea, but he wasn't as vocally against it as Chie was being.

"Alright… If you have to do it I guess I'll tag along."

"And you support this!?"

"No. But he's going to need all the help he can get, and I know Yosuke and him aren't going to change their minds anytime soon."

"You know me so well. Alright we're heading in."

Justin didn't even wait for a response from Chie as Yosuke opened the gateway into the television. Chie had practically been screaming as Yu finished making his way through. As much as she hated the idea, she had to follow them in. Like Yu said, he'd need all the help he can get, and since they were already in the TV, there was no point in staying behind.

"You guys, this is a really bad idea."

"Yep, but we're doing it anyway."

Teddie seemed surprised to see the team make their way inside. As far as he knew, nothing had shown up on his side.

"Huh? Wh-What are you guys doing here?"

"We had a stupid idea, agreed it was fucking retarded, and then decided to do it anyway."

"That… actually sums it up fairly well. Teddie, do you think you could sniff out a shadow?"

"A shadow? What for?"

"W-well…"

"These idiots are trying to find Justin's shadow."

"Wh-What? Why would they want to do that?!"

"We're hoping to get some information out of him."

"Please, Teddie, talk some sense into them…"

Teddie's gaze shifted from person to person, as though he were deciding based solely upon their facial expressions.

"Well… I could try to sniff it out."

"WHAT!?"

"You heard the bear, let's get rolling."

Teddie soon took off, the rest of the group following behind him; save Chie who was hesitant to go.

"This is not going to end well…"

* * *

"Well here we are."

"What the hell is this place?"

Justin looked around. It was starting to come back to him. This was the same place he had seen in his dream. He couldn't tell because of all the smoke before, but this was definitely the place. It was like a small maze of alleyways, torn down building haphazardly thrown about, graffiti overlapping the rotting brick walls. He remembered seeing this place in real-life somewhere too, though he couldn't recall where. Unless he saw it in a movie or something, it had to at the very least be in California, right?

"This is the place from my dream."

"Whoa, really? You think there's a connection."

"There has to be. Teddie, any luck finding the shadow?"

"Nothing. He has to be around here somewhere though."

"Well, then we better start looking."

"I still think this is a bad idea…"

"Well the quicker we get this done, the quicker we can leave, no?"

"I guess…"

For the next half-hour or so the gang opened nearly every door they had run into. Most of the buildings were rundown on the inside, old bakeries and stuff. In a way, this whole place looked like the slums, what with the graffiti and worn down architecture and all. Some doors wouldn't even open, no matter how hard you pulled at them. Come to think of it, Justin had recognized all the buildings they had been to. Maybe he had been to this place, and he couldn't open certain doors because he had never gone inside them?

"Any luck?"

"Nothing."

"Goddam- Wait a second…"

Justin squinted his eyes. He could just barely make a figure out in the distance, but he almost instantly knew who it was.

"It's her."

"What?"

Justin ran off in the direction of the figure as the others tried to keep up behind him. There was no doubt about it, his dream and this world they were exploring, were somehow connected, though how was another question entirely. As he rounded the corner of an alleyway, he was met by two figures, a girl and a boy sitting against a wall. They both looked like they were the same age. The girl was obviously Maya, but the boy… The boy must have been Justin. He had the same hair color, same eyes, everything. He looked like he was crying, though about what he could only guess. It seemed neither had noticed him; maybe they couldn't. Either way, Justin stood over the two as they talked with each other.

"Hey, what's wrong kid?"

"A kid from school stole my backpack…"

"That's what you're crying about?"

The blonde haired child only nodded his head. The girl starred at him for a second before standing back up.

"Do you know what his name was?"

"H-His name? It was Cliff Jefferies. Why?"

The girl chuckled a bit.

"Oh, HIM. I see he's still at it. Come on, I got an idea."

She stuck her hand out so the boy could grab a hold of it, helping him up to his feet. The blonde seemed more confused than anything.

"W-Where are we going."

"Well we're going to need some eggs."

"Eggs? For what?"

"It's a surprise. By the way, my name's Maya, what's yours?"

The boy's gaze shifted away from hers. For whatever reason it was clear that he didn't want to answer the question. Justin knew why though. He started to recognize the scene that was unfolding in front of him. It had happened on the first day of middle school. It mattered not though, before the scene could finish unfolding in front of his eyes, the figures faded out as the rest of the group made their way around the corner, struggling to catch their breath.

"Dude, why'd you run away like that?"

"I saw Maya, she ran down this way."

"Huh? I don't see her anywhere."

"She disappeared as you guys came around the corner."

"Are you sure you're not seeing things?"

"The fuck is that supposed to mean? I'm not crazy, you douche."

"Alright, jeeze. Just making sure."

Justin paused for a moment to think. He remembered this scene quite vividly now. He had gone to school that day and gotten ambushed by the school bully, Cliff. He didn't even make it to school that day, he just sort of ran off into the alleyways. That's where he met Maya. Justin sighed.

"**Came running back, eh? Aww, I knew you'd miss me."**

The sound of Justin's shadow's voice rang through the alleyway. The others seemed slightly uneasy as the sound met their ears, though Justin was completely unfazed. His shadow couldn't lay a finger on him, and he already knew what the bullshit that came out of his mouth was like. The shadow soon stepped around the corner of the opposite side of the alley, though something seemed off about him this time around. Looking closely Justin noticed that the pupil on his left side was missing. At the time, he thought it was his shadow being an asshole as usual.

"Please, you know why I'm here."

"**Straight to business, eh? You're no fun anymore."**

"It was never fun to begin with."

"**It was for me."**

"Yeah so is murder and robbery according to you. You don't exactly have a very good definition of fun."

"**Oh, and what exactly is YOUR definition of fun? Making an ass out of yourself in front of your little girlfriend?"**

Chie seemed only slightly bewildered by the shadow's insistence that the two of them were a thing. She had pretty much dismissed it as the shadow's way of trying to insult Justin. Though how that was supposed to be an insult was beyond her. Yosuke simply smirked, as though this was some sort of confirmation on his theory that Justin had a thing for Chie.

"She's not my- Wait, why am I even explaining this to you. Just tell me what I need to know so I can leave."

"**I haven't the slightest clue what you're talking about."**

The shadow was smirking as Justin made his way up to him, delivering a strong punch to his gut. The shadow simply laughed as it slumped forward from the fist digging into his stomach.

"Don't play fucking dumb. Tell me what you know!"

"**Oh, what's wrong? Losing your cool? I thought I didn't bother you?"**

"You don't."

"**Could have fooled me."**

"Just tell me what you know about Maya!"

"**Maya? Oh man, you mean to tell me you forgot about her? Wow, you're just the shittiest friend, aren't you?"**

Justin glared at the shadow for a moment. Again the shadow had unwittingly passed along some important information. They were in fact friends, at least at some point or another. Though, he was right. What kind of person forgets their friends?

"I can put an end to your miserable little existence right now, so you can tell me what you know or you can go away forever. Your choice."

"**And how exactly do you plan on doing that?"**

"All I have to do is accept you, and you're as good as dead."

"**How do you accept what you don't know?"**

"The fuck's that mean?"

"**You can't accept me if I never even told you what I am in the first place!"**

Justin paused. The shadow had caught on to his bluff. If it was as simple as accepting his shadow, the shadow would be gone already.

"Then tell me. What ARE you."

"**In due t-"**

"Enough of this due time bullshit! Tell me now!"

"**I ain't telling you shit, kid."**

Justin let loose the grip on his shadow's shirt. He had been holding him in place by the collar, much to his shadow's amusement. Something had struck him about the last sentence to come out of his shadow's mouth. He hadn't just heard his shadow's voice, he had heard another's; Maya's. And the way he added kid in at the end of his sentence, it was just like what he had seen Maya do a few moments ago.

"Y-You're…"

"**Finally putting two and two together huh?"**

"You're not suppressed emotions… You're a suppressed memory. You ARE Maya."

"**We have a winner!"**

The rest of the group was completely and utterly shocked. They didn't know anything about Maya, but something about that last sentence had completely tipped Justin off. It sorta made sense; he had spoken to his shadow in his head at one point, so if his shadow was supposed to be a manifestation of the memories of Maya, then those dreams were actually still the shadow in Justin's head.

"W-wait… HE'S Maya!?"

"I am so confused…"

Justin gripped at the shadows collar again, only this time shoving him up against the brick wall to their sides. The shadow was amused to say the least.

"Tell me! Who is Maya?! Why can't I remember anything!?"

The shadow giggled in glee.

"**It'll come to you in time."**

"It'll come to me now if you value your organs!"

"**Do I look like I have a heart?"**

"Definitely not."

"**Well then my organs aren't a problem, are they?"**

"Tell me!"

Justin head butted the shadow, breaking the skin as blood seeped down the shadow's face. It wasn't red, it was a very dark purple, almost black in fact. The shadow only laughed, however, as though he were finding enjoyment in his pain.

"**No."**

Before Justin could take another swing at the shadow, he vanished into thin air, a puff of purple smoke exploding around where his body once was. Justin wheezed a bit as he inhaled it, before eventually falling unconscious. The rest of the group hurriedly ran over to Justin to catch him on his way down to the ground.

* * *

OCTOBER 12, 2007

Justin was making his way down the alleyways after school, backpack slung over his right shoulder. He had met Maya only a few weeks ago, yet he found himself often coming down this way to hang-out with her. It was strange, he knew they both went to the same school, yet he never saw her there. They must have had completely different schedules. He rounded the final alleyway corner to see Maya sitting in the usual spot next to an old dumpster. He took a seat next to her, dropping his bag off to his left side.

"Hey Maya, whatcha' listening to?"

Maya almost always had her iPod headphones on by the time Justin had rounded the corner. It was almost like a routine. She paused the song for a moment, pulling the ear buds out of her ears as she turned towards him.

"Pepper; it's by the Butthole Surfers."

"The who!?"

"No, that's a different band. Butthole Surfers."

"Who names a band that?"

"These guys apprantly. Here…"

Maya handed him one of the ear buds she had in one of her ears. It wasn't uncommon for the two to listen to music together, though Justin was slightly hesitant on listening to any song by a band called 'Butthole Surfers.' Maya could apparently tell because she gave him the usual "Don't be baby" glare. He hesitatingly put the headphone in his air, sound starting to pulsate from the ear bud.

It started off with… Well he wasn't even sure. He wanted to say a guitar, but it was too distorted. It sounded almost like it was being played backwards. Maybe it was just a trumpet. This was immediately followed by the rhythmatic beating of drums, and a calm collected voice speaking over them. Something to do about dying in Texas; he didn't really understand. Hell even the chorus didn't make sense to him.

_I don't mind the sun sometimes, the images it shows._

_I can taste you on my lips and smell you in my clothes._

_Cinnamon and sugary, like softly spoken lies._

_You never know just how you look through other peoples' eyes._

By the time the song ended, Justin was just completely confused. The instrumental was pretty good actually, but those lyrics. Jesus, what the hell were they supposed to mean.

"So why is it called Pepper?"

"Not sure."

"Those lyrics made no sense."

"Forget the lyrics, did you hear that sitar?"

"Sitar?"

"You know, the weird sounding one. Like the kind they use in Indian music or somethin'."

"Oh, that! Yeah, what was up with that?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well why was it even there?"

"Well… It's supposed to be psychedelic rock, I think."

"Psychadelic?"

"Yeah, you know, like Pink Floyd and stuff. Though I think Pink Floyd was a different kind of psychedelic rock…"

"Never heard of them."

"You're kidding right?

Maya seemed almost digusted by the insinuation that Justin had never heard of Pink Floyd.

"Nope."

"I have lost all hope in this generation."

There was silence between the two for a brief moment, before Maya started digging through her pocket for something. After a couple of seconds she had in her hand a lighter and a single cigarette, much to Justin's surprise.

"Uh… M-Maya. What are you doing."

"Having a smoke, why?"

"Isn't that illegal!?"

"Oh, no one'll know."

"I will."

"What are you, a rat?"

"Well… no-"

"Then what's the problem?"

She light the tip of the cigarette, taking a small drag of it before wheezing, smoke dripping from the corners of her mouth. From the looks of it, it wasn't something she was entirely used to. She must have just started to smoke, or at the very least, not done it often. Given the way she only had a single cigarette on her, it must have been a matter of whatever she could sneak in.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah. Here."

Maya tried to pass the cigarette off to Justin, though he refused to accept the 'gift' she was trying to give him.

"I-I'll pass."

"What? Afraid you're going to get cooties or something?"

"No, it's not that, I just don't smoke."

"Quit being a baby and just try it."

She forcefully handed the cigarette off to him. Justin wasn't entirely sure what to do. He had never smoked before in his entire life, he had always been taught that smoking is bad for your health; that you should never smoke. And yet here he was, a lit cigarette in his hand, Maya egging him on to take a drag. He didn't want to offend her; she was pretty much the closest thing he had to a friend. He sighed slightly, placing the cigarettes delicately in his mouth, inhaling at the smoke before throwing a coughing fit, and passing it back towards Maya.

"Well, how was it."

"Unpleasant." He was still gasping for air. The sensation of smoke in his lungs was not sitting well.

"You'll get used to it."

* * *

APRIL 26, 2011

Justin awoke to the familiar sight of Chie trying to shake him awake. He hated to admit it but this happened way more times than it really should. He had almost gotten used to seeing Chie's face staring at him as he opened his eyes. Which was really fucking creepy when you thought about it.

"Oh thank god he's awake."

"Ugh… What happened."

Now that he looked around, he noticed they weren't in the alleyway anymore. Rather it seems they had made their way back to the entrance of the television. The rest of the group must have dragged him back. Seemed like a bad idea to move him around when they didn't even know what happened.

"You inhaled some kinda of smoke, it knocked you right out."

"Where's my shadow?"

"We don't know. He disappeared in the smoke."

"Goddammit."

"Are you alright?"

Chie extended her hand to give Justin a boost up. As he regained his composure and managed to stand on his feet again, he dug through his pockets for his cigarettes, placing one in his mouth after a good few seconds.

"I must be fine, cause my hearts still beating."

"Well that's good at least…"

"It's a shame we didn't get anything out of your shadow…"

"Not necessarily."

"What do you mean?"

"Well think about it, he more or less confirmed that I and Maya were friends at some point."

"Oh yeah, that's right. He called you a bad friend or something, right?"

"Yeah, rub it in some more."

"Well I didn't mean-

"It's fine, but listen. When I was just out-cold I had another one of those dreams. But this time I could make everything out."

"Really? Did you remember anything?"

"Nothing I didn't really know. It was mostly just the two of us sitting down listening to music. Though… I think there was something about smoking…"

"Huh?"

"Y-yeah, I remember now. She passed off one of her cigarettes to me. It was the first time I had a cigarette."

"That's awful!"

Chie seemed almost disgusted that someone had gotten Justin into smoking. He couldn't understand why, it wasn't like she had forced him to do it. It was his own choice, and looking at it now, it hasn't really affected him negatively. Except his breath smelling like smoke from time to time, but even then there was gum for that.

"You think inhaling that purple smoke had something to do with your dream?"

"God, I sure hope not."

Justin pressed his fingers up against his forehead. Getting small bits of information over time wasn't helping him at all. And what was that shit about his shadow being Maya? Something had to have happened between the two that his memories would manifest that way. And he wanted to know now; not later.

"I think maybe we should just call it a day."

"Yeah, I agree. Chasing after your shadow isn't going to help if he won't cooperate. Besides, we don't know what that smoke did to you."

"It was probably a hallucinogen of some sort. I don't think it'll be a problem."

Justin had to smirk at the irony. His dream was about Maya and him listening to psychedelic rock. It seemed like hallucinogens and psychedelic rock always seemed to be connected to each other in some way.

"Ugh, all of this information is useless."

"Speak for yourself, Yosuke."

"Well we still don't know a damn thing about her except that she smokes."

"True…"

Yosuke sighed.

"Maybe… Maybe we just need to give it some time. You said you could make out the dream clearly, right?"

"Yeah?"

"Well maybe you can see the ones you have at night now too."

"Worth a try anyway."

"Alright then. Let's head out. We can try sorting this out tomorrow."

And so the group left the confines of the television world and went on their merry ways. It was fairly late, so it seemed everyone was just going home to get to bed. Justin couldn't really make head or toes of what was happening quite yet, only that Maya and him were friends, and that his smoking habits probably stemmed from it. Even with the little information he did have, however, one thing was for certain. He had Pepper stuck in his head the whole way home.

* * *

"Maya? Wait, you mean THAT Maya?"

"Yes, THAT Maya."

"She never really struck me as the type to get into smoking. She always seemed like a good kid."

"Oh what, smoking suddenly makes you a bad person? I'm smoking right now? Does that make me Hitler? Besides, you weren't there, don't act like you know shit."

The interrogator paused for a moment, his eyes focused solely on Justin as he put out the remains of his cigarette. He had pretty much been smoking since the start of the session, so he was a bit surprised to see him stop.

"So your shadow was linked to Maya, correct?"

"Correct."

"I see. I think I might have a theory as to why your shadow didn't out-right attack you then."

"And that would be?"

"Well, you said that you had lost all memory of her, correct? If your shadow was an embodiment of your suppressed memories, it would need to wait for all your memories to come back."

"That doesn't explain why he didn't just tell me everything."

"I'm still trying to work that one out. It could simply be a case of show, don't tell."

"In that case, it would certainly make sense. By the time my memory came back… Well let's just say I might have been better off forgetting."

"And that's why your shadow waited it out."

"Seems so."

"Alright, go on. I'd like to hear how this shadow business onfolded."

"You're in for quite a wait then."

"It's the journey, not the destination."

Justin smirked, leaning back slightly in his chair.

"I don't think I'd agree with you on that one."


	18. Chapter 17: April 27, 2011

CHAPTER 17

APRIL 27, 2011

* * *

"Whew. Let's call it a day."

"Oh thank you sweet Jesus."

Chie had invited Justin along to another one of her training sessions, and although every fiber of his being told him it would be a shitty idea, he tagged along anyway. He managed to dodge a good portion of her kicks, as per usual, but he still got more than a few good kicks to his gut. Chie extended her arm to help Justin back to his feet. She had gotten a good blow on him before she had decided to call it quits, so he was pretty much down for the count.

"Thanks."

"I'm surprised you tagged along again."

"A little bit of blood in the lungs never killed anyone. Actually, no wait, totally did. Scratch that thought."

Chie gave him a playful shove. She usually did when he was being sarcastic like that.

"That's not what I meant. I mean, don't take this the wrong way, but you've been kind of a jerk lately."

Justin paused for brief moment. _Yeah no offense taken, what with you calling me a jerk after I voluntarily just got the living shit kicked out of me by you. But hey, don't sweat it._ Even in his thoughts Justin had the odd tendency of trying to mask his feelings with sarcasm. In actuality, he did agree with Chie. With all that shit about Maya bugging him, he had been snapping at her a lot lately.

"Y-Yeah…"

"Hey, Chie. Whatcha' doin'?"

Justin hadn't even noticed the figure of another person approaching the two of them, despite him being in clear sight. He must have been deep in thought at the moment. Chie turned around, slightly surprised at the sound of the teenager's voice from behind her. The look on her face suggested that the two knew each other; though Justin wasn't sure how he hadn't met him if that was the case. After all, Chie and Justin practically spent every minute after-school together.

"T-Takeshi…!? W-Well… training! I'm working out!"

"Huh? When are you going to graduate to being king of the hill?"

_Graduate to king of the hill, the fuck's that mean?_

"K-King of the hill…?"

"In kindergarten it was the Runt Gang, in elementary school you were an Ally of Justice. Middle school, it was Vanguards of the Lunch Revolution, wasn't it?"

It was cheesy as fuck, but Justin couldn't help but think "Vanguards of the Lunch Revolution," was catchy as hell. But then, anything that had to do with a revolution of some sorts usually did that to him. Not that he was a fan of revolting or anything like that. He just loved the way the word slipped off the tongue, especially if you pronounced it "rev-o-lu-she-on" as opposed to "rev-o-lu-shaun."

"Haha, so… What is it now? You a Protector of Earth's Peace?"

"W-Well…"

_Oh my god, it totally is isn't it? _Justin had been smirking at first, but the way Chie's voice seemed to quiver at Takeshi's jabs had not been sitting well with him. His smirk eventually died away, a frown and glare in its place. He had thought it was just the two joking around at first, but it certainly didn't seem like Chie was finding much amusement in his words.

"Dude, don't be a dick."

"Huh!?"

"Oh, uhhh… I didn't mean that in a mean way."

He definitely did. Looking at him, it seemed he had just noticed Justin had been there, and the way he spoke; it was clear he was trying to retract the statement. Probably so he wouldn't get his ass kicked.

"I'm Takeshi Kouno. I was with Chie up until middle school."

Justin practically had to force his hand out to shake the guys hand. He had thought he was pretty clever at first, but now that he got a good look at him, he could tell he was a complete asshole. He hadn't been making those comments to Chie as a joke, he had been doing it to make her feel like shit. The only reason he stopped was because he was too much of a coward to go toe-to-toe with someone his own size. Still, Justin was surprised Chie didn't say something to him. She's usually very vocal about being ragged on, by Justin, Yosuke, or otherwise.

"You're that transfer student right?"

"Yeah, but believe it or not I do have a name. Justin Tylor, the pleasure's all yours."

Takeshi looked off towards the side. Justin may have gone a bit overboard with the sarcasm. Some people took it a lot more seriously than others. Takeshi was one of them apparently. Quite frankly, Justin didn't care, though. They had known each other for not even five minutes and he already disliked the guy. Hell, he might have broken Yosuke's record.

"…I'm not gonna get in you guys' way."

"Hey, what are you…"

"…What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"Well you two are dating right?"

Justin started coughing on air again; Chie's face was completely red. He was almost surprised she didn't kick the living shit out of Takeshi for that.

"No! Jesus, why does everyone think it's like that!?"

"…Everyone?"

"Ugh… You know how Yosuke gets."

"Yosuke thinks so too!?"

Chie almost seemed mortified that even Yosuke, who knew the two personally, thought that they were a thing. Couple that with some of the things Justin's shadow had said and she felt completely uneasy.

"Uh… well then… Oh! How's Yukiko-san doing…? Does she have a boyfriend yet?"

"Subtle."

"…She's fine, and I don't think so."

"I see. Cool, cool. She still good looking? Maybe I should try for her again."

Justin couldn't help but grunt in disgust. Was this guy for serious? Looking at Chie, it seemed she was just as disgusted._ If the next thing out of his mouth was perverted, and Chie doesn't kick him, I swear to god I will do the honors._

"I'll see you later. Say hi to Yukiko-san for me."

Takeshi ran off in the direction, starting off with a cool strut, though that quickly turned into a run. Justin knew exactly why too. You don't piss off someone like Chie or Justin and expect to keep both of your balls in one piece. Looking at Chie, she actually seemed almost sad to see Takeshi leave. It was strange, he could tell she was completely and utterly disgusted by him, yet her she was with that sorrowful expression in her eyes.

"Please tell me you're not going to tell Yukiko."

"Absolutely not."

"Oh thank god."

"I-I'm sorry. He really is rude, huh?"

"What are you apologizing to me for? You were the one he was ragging on."

"Well… what about that comment about the two of us… you know…?"

Justin paused. His face was slightly red, though it hadn't really been noticeable. _So that's what she's so worked up about._

"Honestly? I'm used to it at this point."

"I'm not."

"I didn't take you as the kind of person to care what other people think."

"Well this is different."

"Well it could be worse. You could have gotten paired up with Yosuke or something. At least I'm a freakin' stud."

Chie knew he was being sarcastic, so she gave him another one of those gentle shoves. Justin laughed. At least they could joke about this kind of stuff without things getting awkward, though Chie still seemed upset about something.

"Seriously… He was always staring at Yukiko…"

"Ugh, what a perv."

"…Yeah."

At that moment something started to click with Justin. The way she seemed offended that he was looking at Yukiko, that awkward pause before agreeing with Justin when he called him a perv; she totally had the hots for this guy.

"Hold on, wait a second. Are you jealous?"

"W-What!?"

"Oh my god, you totally are."

"It's not like that! He's nothing but an old classmate to me!"

Chie's face was beat red. Either Justin was spot on the money, or that had to be the most offensive thing she had ever heard. And given how much of a creep that guy was, it was hard to tell which it was; though Justin was putting his money on the former.

"We're just friends, y'know…? We used to get that a lot though…"

"It's like an unwritten rule that guys can't just be friends with girls. Unless they roll THAT way."

"I know right?"

Justin chuckled.

"…But that's all in the past anyway!"

Justin knew she was bullshitting, but he played along anyway.

"Hey, you want to head to Aiya's?"

"I don't know… my stomach might have exploded from you kicking it so much."

"Oh quit being such a baby!"

* * *

"Jeeze, I've never seen you so happy about eating ramen."

"On the happiness scale, it's pretty high up there with watching action movies…"

"There's a happiness scale? Oh man, where do you think I rank on that."

"Very, very low."

"Oh, gee. Thanks."

Chie laughed slightly. She didn't really mean it of course, but whenever she saw an opportunity to take a jab at Justin, true or not, she took it. In a way, the way he acted around Yosuke was starting to rub off on her. The only difference was that where Yosuke took offense, Justin would laugh along with her.

"I need to work hard and pump myself up, or else I can't pull us out of a jam, right?"

"Well I don't know about that. You already kick like an elephant that just had its last peanut stolen."

"Elephants do that?"

"If they did, we would all be fucked."

Justin smirked slightly. It sounded almost like a tagline for a really bad b-movie about loose-cannon elephants. Which Justin would gladly pay to see. I mean, come on, renegade elephants? It makes no goddamn sense, but it doesn't need to, it's just that awesome.

"I just want to be able to protect everyone if things go wrong… especially Yukiko."

"Oh, what, no love for me?"

"I've already saved your butt like five times."

Justin chuckled slightly. He had intended that as a jab at her singling Yukiko out of the group, but what Chie said was true. God knows he'd probably be dead if it wasn't for her.

"Alright, alright, point taken. How is Yukiko anyway?"

"She says she'll be back in school by Saturday."

"Well that's good. I take it you haven't asked her anything about the TV incident."

"No…"

"That's alright. I just hope she hasn't forgotten anything. It has been two weeks."

"You think that'll be a problem?"

"It could be, but I doubt it."

That was a complete fabrication, and Justin knew it. He had just said that so Chie wouldn't start freaking out. From the looks of it, she didn't entirely believe Justin, but she went along with it anyway.

"I hope she's not straining herself. Makes you worry, huh?"

"I'm sure she's fine. She's tougher than she looks."

"Yeah, you're right."

Chie seemed to cheer up slightly, though that might have just been because she was eating. Justin knew she was into this kind of stuff, but damn. Maybe he should stop trying to cheer her up and just buy her bowls of ramen. He'd get better results, and it would save him some time and effort. Not to say he didn't like trying to cheer her up, it's just why do that when you can do it easier and better.

"So how'd things go with the dream last night?"

Justin stopped eating. _Why'd she have to bring up this topic of all things_? Chie must have noticed him hesitate, because she immediately tried to back out of the topic.

"Oh… uh… S-Sorry. F-Forget I asked."

"Nah, its fine, just caught me off guard is all. It was the same exact dream as when I had been knocked out earlier that day."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I thought it was a bit strange too. Though I wonder why the smoke cleared up this time around."

"You think it has to do with that purple smoke…?"

"I REALLY hope not, though it probably does."

There was a brief pause in the conversation. It looked like Chie wanted to ask something, but she was forcing herself to keep her mouth shut. Justin had a good idea what she wanted to ask anyway, so he gave her the go ahead to ask.

"You look like you want to say something."

"N-no, it's fine."

"Seriously, it's alright."

"W-well… You don't have to answer if you don't want, but… What was Maya like? In your dream I mean."

"Good question. Well… She was kind of laid back, like she didn't really care about what was going on around her. She was also bossy as fuck."

"Oh yeah, that thing with the cigarette. What kind of person does that?"

"Maya, apparently, and I'd appreciate you not talking about her like that."

"S-sorry, I didn't mean…"

Chie's eyes dropped to the floor. She didn't mean to snap like that. She didn't even know why that had pissed her off so much. It wasn't like she knew Maya personally, and Justin did accept it of his own freewill, but… Something about this just didn't settle right with her. She didn't like this Maya person one bit.

"Anything else?"

"That's about it. She was pretty blunt about things, but other than that she was just your average teenager."

"You know, she sounds a lot like you in some ways."

"A lot like… The hell is that supposed to mean?"

"Laidback, blunt. You do boss Yosuke around a lot."

"Yeah, but its Yosuke."

"Still, it sounds a lot like you. I can see how the two of you could have gotten along."

Justin hated to admit it, but that did sort of sound like him. Which was weird, because in the dream he seemed so withdrawn; so socially awkward as a child. Yet here he was, four years latter cursing up a storm and being a sarcastic prick. Maya must have started to rub off on him at some point.

"Okay, okay, maybe just a little."

Chie grinned. It wasn't like he had told a funny joke or anything, but it was nice to see Justin back to his normal self.

"You know, Vanguards of the Lunch Revolution has a nice ring to it."

"Well I certainly thought so, but Takeshi seems to beg to differ. And why are you pronouncing revolution that way?"

"Because, it just rolls off the tongue. Try it."

"Rev-o-lu-she-on."

"Now tell me, doesn't that make you feel classy as all hell?"

"I'll have you know I am always classy!"

"And I'm the queen of Scotland."

Justin was almost entirely positive that Scotland didn't have a queen, which just made the remark seem funnier to the both of them. the two laughed a bit before returning to their conversation.

"So how long have you and that Takeshi guy known each other anyway?"

"Well… It was back in kindergarten at least."

"Damn that's a long time."

"Yeah, we used to be pretty good friends, but he ended up going to a different high-school. I don't really see him that much anymore."

"You miss him?"

"Wh-What? No!"

"Not like that. Though you did just get awfully defensive…"

"It. Is. Not. LIKE THAT!"

Chie's face was bright red, though Justin was having a hard time telling if it was anger or embarrassment that was doing that to her. Justin smirked. He always thought it was adorable the way she got so flustered over things, though why was another thing entirely.

"Hey don't worry. Your secret is safe with me."

Chie smacked him upside the head. She had more-or-less stopped doing that in exchange for shoving him, so whenever she had decided to smack him instead, that was usually a good indication that he should stop whatever it is he was doing.

"Ow! I'm just pulling your leg."

"Well it's not funny!"

"It was for me."

"I don't know why I bother telling you stuff."

"Because you love me?"

"Yeah, yeah, very funny."

"Admit it, you smiled."

"Just a little."

"I'll count that as a victory for me."

"You're still behind by two."

"Oh you're keeping score now?"

"Only when I'm winning."

"So all the time?"

"Pretty much."


	19. Chapter 18: April 28, 2011

CHAPTER 18

APRIL 28, 2011

* * *

"Have you had the steak skewers? The meat is tender and delicious, and they hardly cost anything!"

"Since when did you become a saleswoman?"

Justin groaned in pain. Why he kept letting Chie kick him around after-school was beyond him, but he did it anyway. His gut felt like it was going to spew out a fountain of blood at any minute, and the mere mention of food was making his stomach twist around in knots. He was in enough pain without adding nausea to the mix. Besides, he didn't trust Chie's opinion on anything steak related after the whole food poisoning incident.

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean? You know, it might not even be cow meat…"

Justin couldn't help but gag. He was sure he was going to vomit, but instead found only a dry heave. _Not even cow meat? Oh god this explains so fucking much. Never eat anything with Chie ever again._

"Whoa… I was just kidding. Don't get sick on me. Though thinking about it, that is kind of gross…"

"Gee, ya think? Oh shit… For future reference, the gut is off-limit during training now."

Chie gave him a worried stare. He had taken a beating from her on more than one occasion during their training sessions, but it seemed like after each passing day of training he seemed to get worse and worse. Not only was he getting hurt a lot easier, she had found that he was having a harder time maneuvering around, taking more blows. Couple that with his apparently deteriorating resilience, and he was keeling over in pain after only a good half-hour. _Maybe he just needed to take a break from training for a little bit, to regain his strength and all._

Only a short few moments later did a man with a badge come approaching the two. Justin hadn't seen him coming from behind, though Chie seemed to notice him near instantly. He was a police officer, a high-ranking one from the looks of it.

"Huh? The police are here…"

Justin turned around to catch a glimpse of the officer, subtly putting his hands in his pocket to push down on his cigarettes again. It really wouldn't help in the long run, but it made Justin feel safer carrying them around.

"Th-Then is this place really serving fake-meat?"

Justin couldn't help it anymore; he ran across the street, finding a near-by garbage pan before vomiting up the remains of his lunch. Chie wasn't sure whether to be concerned or disgusted. She hadn't kicked him that hard, right? It took a while, but he eventually came back, smelling slightly of half-digested instant noodles. It wasn't a pretty smell to say the least, but then she didn't have any gum on her so she'd have to put up with it.

"Why is it every time we do something involving steak, I end up getting sick?"

"You don't look so hot."

"You kidding? I'm always hot."

"Not like that!"

She knew he was joking, but she was too concerned to really brush the comment off. Justin seemed to be sick more often than not, and usually it was Chie's fault in one way or another. She felt responsible, if not outright guilty. Those feelings were pushed aside for a moment when their conversation was interrupted by the voice of an older gentleman.

"Excuse me."

It was the police officer. Justin had assumed that he was just there on a lunch break or something, but here he was intervening on their conversation. Justin's hands fidgeted slightly. Every fiber of his being wanted to put his hands in his pockets, but he knew how that usually ended. Chie seemed out-right mortified, though god only knows why.

"Y-Yes? I haven't eaten any of the meat today, I swear!"

"Even if it was fake meat, I doubt you'd get in trouble for eating it."

"Really?"

"Have you ever been to a Burger King?"

"No…?"

"Wait really? Oh man we have got to go sometime."

"Well not after you said that! What, do they use fake meat too?"

"It's a fast food joint. That's pretty much a given."

"Oh that is absolutely disgusting!"

"No, it's actually really good."

The police officer seemed absolutely bewildered. He just wanted to ask them a question, and here was Chie, freaking out over meat, whatever the hell that meant, and Justin, fidgeting about trying to resist the urge to place his fists in his pockets.

"Er… alirghtttt… Uh, as I was about to say, lately there have been several incidents with a group of teenagers bullying people around here."

Chie stopped freaking out for a moment, as though the comment had struck her upside the back of her head.

"…Bullying?"

"Extortion if you will. Have you seen anyone suspicious?"

Justin stared at the officer for a brief moment. _Wait a second… We're teenagers, and we're hanging out around this place… Is he fucking accusing of us something? Oh you son of a bitch…_ His stare eventually dropped into a glare. The police officer had apparently noticed, because he got more than a little suspicious of Justin. This in turn scared the shit out of Justin. He wasn't afraid of this guy, though he was afraid of what would happen if he asked him to turn out his pockets.

"Is that an accusation?"

Chie turned around to Justin, her eyes were wide. She knew what Justin was getting at, and she knew damn well he was in no position to be pissing the police off. She nodded her head ever so slightly to the sides so that the officer couldn't see her, though Justin could, as though to try to signal to Justin not to keep going with this line of conversation.

"Excuse me?"

"Well we're teenagers, and we're hanging out around here. Does that make us your criminal?"

"I'm only asking if you've seen anyone. Though you seem to be getting rather defensive…"

Chie kicked at the back of Justin's leg. It seemed the only way to get him to back down was to snap him out of his blood rage. Justin gave her a quick glance and then looked back towards the police officer. He was incredibly suspicious of the two now, no thanks to Justin. He really should learn to keep his mouth shut sometimes.

"N-No one in particular…"

"Nothing."

"Hmmm… I see." The way the police officer slurred the end of the word indicated that he believed the two of them were the culprits, much to Justin's displeasure. "Well, you two be careful then."

The police officer slowly turned, giving Justin a quick glare before making his way away from the scene. This was immediately followed by Chie turning around and tearing him a new a-hole.

"What the hell do you think you're doing!?"

"Not taking HIS shit, that's for damn sure."

"You can't just go arguing with police officers!"

"Watch me."

Chie rubbed her forehead with annoyance. Justin could be a pretty likeable guy, but once he got pissed off over something, it was like he was a completely different person; stubborn, vocal, vicious in some cases. And the worst part was there was almost no changing his mind once he hated something or someone. She sighed, deciding to try to get away from the topic at hand.

"Well, at least the meat is okay… But still, bullying!? What cowards, ganging up on the weak like that."

"It's California all over again. Like seriously, who the hell gets a kick out of that?"

"It's so cruel! And stupid!"

Chie was completely red with anger. Justin had never once seen her so mad, about anything really. _If she gets this worked up over bullying, I'd hate to see what it would be like if someone fucked with her steak._

"We'll grab 'em and make them apologize! Right, Justin?"

_Huh? Shit she really IS pissed. Oh man, this isn't going to end well._

"Well, we kinda have to know who they are before we can do that."

"Well… maybe we could ask around and find out. We can be like detectives!"

"I call dibs on being Cole Phelps."

"What? Oh c'mon! You should be Rusty, and I should be Phelps!"

Justin smirk faded away from his face the instant he realized Chie knew EXACTLY what he was talking about.

"Wait a second, you played L.A. Noire?"

"Yeah, why?"

"I didn't think you'd be into that kind of game. And for the record, fuck Rusty. No one wants to be Rusty."

Chie laughed, though it wasn't intended as a joke. Justin swore by the end of the game if he heard him accuse the victim's spouse of being the murderer one more time, he was going to shank his ass. Chie suddenly made her way over to a tipped over recycling bin near the corner of the building they had been buying steak from, placing her leg upon it while trying to strike a heroic pose. It looked ridiculously cheesy, though that may have partially been because the recycling bin was cracked, so her foot slipped right through into a pool of trash. Strangely, she didn't try to move her foot, she must have been committed to the image she was trying to make.

"Mowing down villains, and saving the weak, a lone female fighter stands… To protect the town's peace, she throws herself into the battlefield, unbeknownst to all…!"

"Alright, so that accounts for me, what about you."

Chie jumped off the bin, making her way over to Justin, a wide grin across her face.

"I didn't know you were a 'female fighter.'"

"Well I do train with you a lot; so I fight females. That makes me a female fighter. Check and mate."

Chie smirked.

"Alright, and you want to explain the 'she' part."

Justin opened up his mouth, trying to formulate a rebuttal. _Shit, she's right. She did say she._

"I got nothin'"

"Check and mate."

"Still keeping score?"

"I'm up by three."

Justin chuckled slightly, giving her a gentle push.

"Still… I'd feel better if you helped me. And it'd make me… kinda happy…"

Chie was blushing, though where as her face was normally a red color when she blushed, it seemed her face was lit up with a slight pink tint. Justin was slightly confused by the sudden change in her cheek color, though he figured it wasn't worth getting into.

"Would I let my girl do all the work? …Well actually that doesn't sound like a bad idea. See ya'!"

Chie gripped him by the back of the collar as he was about to jog away. She knew he wasn't going to go anywhere, but she did it anyway. God knows how long he would have walked before turning around, anyway, so might as well cut the joke off while it was still funny. Knowing Justin, he'd probably try to sneak up behind her claiming that was his evil twin that she had just talked with. Justin had began to laugh when the two were interrupted by the sound of a familiar voice making it's way through the alleyway.

"S-stop it."

"Hold on. I recognize that voice."

"I-Is that Takeshi?"

"Shutup dumbass!"

"Yeah, that's right. We all know it's time to cough up."

"Hey, you don't think…"

"What, this's it? Quit bullshitting us!"

"Sounds like he's getting mugged."

"Wh-What!? How can you be so sure!?"

Justin blinked fast a few times before averting eye contact. It wasn't a question he felt comfortable answering, though he wasn't sure why. Chie was a bit confused herself why he wouldn't answer. Had he been mugged before, or something?

"Look that's not important right now."

"Y-Yeah, you're right. Let's go Bekowsky!" Chie wasn't sure why she was joking at a time like this. Maybe it helped calm her down a bit, or maybe it was that she had just gotten so used to Justin doing the exact same thing.

"Funny way of pronouncing 'Phelps,'"

* * *

"Takeshi…!"

The two turned the final corner of the alleyway to see Takeshi completely surrounded by not one, not two, but three hoodlums. Justin pulled out a single cigarette from the package in his pocket. He didn't need a smoke, nor did he want one, but it certainly made him come across as someone who was willing to step outside the law. _Frontier justice up in this bitch._

"Hey, someone else's here."

"Whatever, let's take their money while we're at it…"

"This guy only had 1,000 yen on him."

Justin's glare deepened. Half of him wanted to snap the fuckers' necks right there and then. Technically it would be self-defense. Instead he simply lit up the end of his cigarette, taking a drag at it as he and Chie made their ways closer to the gang. Takeshi practically made a mad-dash behind the duo, though whether Justin was relieved that he was out of harms way, or pissed that he was being such a pussy was hard to determine.

"Hey!"

"Whaddya runnin' for? Gonna hide behind a girl, huh?"

Chie ignored the punks talking shit to Takeshi.

"Are you alright?"

"I-I'm fine… Y-You've always been good at stuff like this! Th-They took all my money. You're gonna get them for me, right!"

Justin lifted his glare from the thugs for a brief moment to give Takeshi a glare of his own. He was going to have a girl try to beat the crap out of a gang of thugs over 1,000 yen? This guy is complete scum. Justin reached into his pocket and pulled out some money, practically throwing it in Takeshi's face.

"You're a real gentleman, you know that?"

He meant for it to come out slightly more sarcastic, but he had already gotten into another one of his rage spells. Takeshi was completely speechless, and Chie almost the same, though she had completely understood what had provoked Justin into doing it. It didn't matter at the moment though; the two had bigger priorities than Takeshi's scumbag nature. Chie lowered her stance, ready to pounce at any moment.

"Hey, cowards! Ganging up on one guy… You oughtta be ashamed!"

"T-Take care of them for me!"

In a split second, Takeshi took off running in the opposite direction, tail between his legs. Justin had never been more disgusted by a human being in all his life.

"Uh, wow, that was fast!"

"Fucking pussy."

Chie was slightly caught off-guard by Justin's comment, but decided to turn her attention back to the matters at hand, returning back to her fighting stance, jumping from leg to leg, ready to attack at any given time.

"C'mon, what's the matter? Let's throw down!"

"Huh? What's with this bitch?"

"Y'think you're all that? I ain't afraid to hit a girl… I'll kick your ass!"

Justin took a step inbetween the two, much to Chie's displeasure. He could hear her stop jumping around behind him, the sound of her shoes no longer tapping against the pavement. The thugs seemed equally confused.

"Oh and what's up with this guy? Here to save your little girlfriend?"

Justin didn't respond, nor did he remove his stare from the thug in front of him. Instead he simply placed his cigarette in his mouth, inhaling the smoke. Chie's face was getting red behind him. It was seriously starting to get on her nerves that everyone, even people they didn't know, thought she was his girlfriend.

"What's wrong, nothing to say? Scared? And what's with that cigarette, think you're some kind of tough guy?"

Chie had half expected Justin to come out with some sort of sly remark, or sarcastic comment that would throw the punks for a loop. Instead he just stood there, starring what appeared to be the leader of their group down.

"Well don't you worry, we'll be sure to take good care of your girl after we're done with you."

It was at that moment, Chie realized why Justin hadn't been speaking. Just as the leader of the gang got up in Justin's face, he exhaled a large puff of smoke straight into his face. He had been holding it in for a good thirty or so seconds just for such an opportunity. His lungs were practically on fire, but he didn't care. The leader's face jumped backwards as the smoke got in his eyes, though strangely he seemed completely immune to the smoke, only insulted by Justin's attempts at blinding him.

"You motherfucker!"

The leader went to swing at Justin's gut, though Justin was quicker. He quickly threw his cigarette upwards in the air, ducking just below the punch and delivering an elbow straight to the leader's sternum. This was immediately followed by him roundhouse kicking him in the head as he huddle down in pain, knocking the guy clean out. If there was one thing someone could say about Justin, it's that he hit hard when he was pissed. He held his hand upwards, catching a hold of the cigarette he had thrown and placing it in his mouth to take another drag.

"Anyone else?"

"Uh… Screw this, let's go!"

The two conscious thugs ran away, hauling their friend's unconscious body along with them. Justin let out a huge sigh as they made their way around the corner. His heart was way faster than he thought was healthy. He had been holding his breath slightly throughout the entire ordeal so that no one would notice his chest pounding.

"Hey! Hold on! Wait!"

Chie tried to chase after them, but stopped as they made their way out of the alley. She seemed disappointed, upset even. She hung her head to the ground, as Justin made his way back towards her.

"What the heck… Running away when you stepped in."

"To be fair, I did just beat the shit out of one of them."

Chie's head suddenly jolted up, her eyes pulsating slightly, her teeth gripped together. Her face was completely red with anger, though Justin was completely surprised when she directed it at him.

"Why'd you butt in!?"

"…What?"

"What, you thought you couldn't leave it up to me!?"

"Hey! What the hell happened to "Phelps and Bekowsky?" I thought we were supposed to be doing this together! What happened to being partners!"

"I could've handled them myself!"

"But you didn't! So I did!"

Justin regretted saying it almost immediately. He didn't mean to make it sound like he had done all the work by himself, even if he kind of did. He was expecting Chie to storm off in a fit of rage, but instead, she simply hung her head in shame, as though her inaction we appalling to her.

"…Sorry. I charged in by myself… Caused you trouble…"

"Chie, I… I didn't mean it."

"Yes you did. You're a hundred percent right though… I gotta remember I'm not alone… It's always like that. Everyone's doing their best… Then I start to worry that it's all up to me and I've gotta work harder…"

Justin felt like a complete scumbag. Half of him just wanted to slam his skull against the wall for being such an idiot. There was no reason Chie should feel the way she did right now, no justification for what he had said.

"I worry that someday, I'll end up causing even more trouble, like today… Haha… I'm so stupid."

"You're not stupid Chie. That's an honor reserved for me. You helped that Takeshi kid out, and as much as he didn't deserve it, you did a great thing. It might have been brash, but not stupid."

Chie looked up, her eyes slightly watering, though they seemed to be cheerful at the very least.

"You think so?"

"Would I lie to you?"

There was a brief pause of silence between the two.

"No."

_No? _Justin was completely taken by surprise by her answer. She normally said yes when he asked her that. Did something change? Looking at her now, he noticed her face had that pinkish color to it again, as opposed to the red tint that normally over took her face.

"Thanks… uhm…"

"Yeah?"

"Oh… uh… its nothing."

"I don't have a grasshopper on me, do I?"

"Oh you are just the worst."

"If you say so, Phelps."

* * *

December 10, 2009

"Maya, are you out of your goddamned mind!"

"Look, I fucked up bad. I need the money or shit is going to hit the ceiling."

"This is crossing the line!"

"Crossing the line is what Kurt will do to us if he finds out what I did."

"Why are you dragging me into this, it's your fault!"

"Oh don't play innocent! You could have stopped me!"

"I tried to!"

"'Tried to' isn't good enough!"

"I won't do it."

"Jesus, stop being a fucking pussy and take the damn thing!"

"No. No fuck this!"

"Just point the damn thing at him while I get the wallet! No one has to get hurt."

"Yeah? And what if something goes wrong?"

"Nothing will go wrong."

"That's what you said last week!"

"Enough!"

Maya slapped Justin across the face, a red mark where her hand had struck him.

"Listen to me, if we don't do this, do you realize what Kurt is going to do to us? He's not just going to kill us, he's going to kill us, piss on our corpses and then send them home to our families chopped up into pieces. This isn't a fucking game!"

"Oh shit, oh shit, this is not happening..."

"Just point the fucking gun at him, it'll be fine."


	20. Chapter 19: April 29, 2011

CHAPTER 19

APRIL 29, 2011

* * *

"Then what the hell was the gun for!?"

Justin was scrambling through notes on his kitchen counter. He had another dream last night, only this time it wasn't just hanging with Maya. It was… arguing. The two were bickering back and forth. He didn't know what they were arguing about, and that's what bothered him. It wasn't so much that they were arguing that set him on edge, it was what Maya said before Justin woke up in a cold sweat. "Just point the fucking gun at him, it'll be fine."

A gun? Justin couldn't believe it. What the hell were they doing that he had a gun, more so that he had needed to point it at someone. Justin seemed to not want to be involved in his dream, but… What was it that Maya had tried to get him to do? Justin scrambled through the papers scattered across the counter again. He had written every sentence, every word from that dream down, and had been trying to make connections, though he wasn't making much headway. All he knew for certain was that whatever Maya had done, it had dragged them both into some deep shit.

"Just point the damn thing at him while I get the wallet! No one has to get hurt," he read off one of the pieces of the paper. No one has to get hurt… At the very least they must not have intended to fire off the gun, though what could possibly incite them into needing one in the first place concerned him. It had to have been for show then, so what could they have been doing that they needed someone to think they had a gu-

"Oh dear god."

Something just struck the back of Justin's mind. The other day Chie had asked him how he knew what a mugging sounded like. He wasn't comfortable answering the question, but come to think of it, he really had no idea where he had heard something like that before. He definitely knew what that had sounded like though… Did… Did Justin mug someone? And wait… he had fired a gun before, he knew that much, but… where? He couldn't seem to recall anything… The implications weren't looking good to say the least.

"Okay, okay, calm down. You're probably just tired, I'll have some caffeine, and then I'll be able to remember… Yeah, alright that makes sense."

And so Justin made a cup of coffee. He actually hated the taste of it, but loved the smell. Everybody has a favorite scent, whether they'd admit it or not, and in Justin's case, it was coffee. Normally, he would just make a batch every once in a while to get a good whiff of it before forcing himself to chug the cup down, but at the moment, he absolutely needed to have a good sip of it. The caffeine made its way through his bloodlines, rejuvenating him ever so slightly, giving him more energy. So then, why could he still not remember a damn thing?

He… He must have shot someone. Mugged them and shot them at gunpoint. He couldn't say for sure, but the way the conversation had been going… Justin was definitely the one holding the gun, and Maya had said something about needing a wallet. Add into the fact some of Justin's missing memories. It wasn't looking good. Justin wanted to vomit. Had he done the unthinkable? His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of knocking at his door.

"Hey Justin! You home!?"

_Shit, what the fuck is Chie doing here!?_

Justin looked down towards the papers he had been scribbling on, every last word of that dream, every last connection he had made, and his conclusion, clear as day in big bold letters. He starred at them for a moment, before looking back towards the door. If Chie came in and found these papers… Well, no one wants to be friends with a potential murderer.

_No… No, no one can know._

Justin quickly slid the papers off the table into a neat stack in his arms, throwing them in the trash next to kitchen counter. Every fiber of his being wanted Chie to help him, to reassure him that what he thought was completely off base. But he knew better. He knew what she would think, that he was a lunatic, a murderer, a crook. As long as he kept quiet, nothing would happen. That dream… it never happened. Justin ran over to the door, trying to open it as nonchalantly as possible. He was more than a little surprised to see that Chie was not alone.

"Oh hey Justin!"

"Chie, Yukiko."

He gave a quick nod to each. It wasn't uncommon from Justin. He usually greeted people as well as gave departures by giving a quick bow of the head. It was a bit strange to get used to at first to the people who didn't know him, but once you did, it was just like a nervous habit.

"O-Oh... Good morning."

"I see you're alive and kicking. Feeling well I hope?"

Yukiko seemed slightly caught off guard by the comment, though that might just be Yukiko being… well Yukiko.

"Um, yes, I'm better now. I'll be able to go to school again… so that's nice."

Yukiko looked off to the side, as though she were embarrassed by something. Justin's frown turned into his usual smirk. His mind was still a mess, but god be damned if he let Chie so much as suspect what had happened.

"That's the first I've heard someone happy to go to school."

"I'm… I'm sorry about what happened. I caused everyone some real trouble."

Chie and Justin looked at her with surprise. _What the hell is she apologizing for? It wasn't her fault. Besides, it's not like anyone got hur_- Justin paused for a moment. _Shit! That's right, my eye._ It might seem ridiculous, but going without sight for two weeks already, he had already gotten used to not being able to see out of it. It was like her never had a left-eye to begin with. Either way, she seemed more than a little upset over it.

"No… sorry isn't quite right… What I meant to say is, thank you."

Justin smiled. He hadn't done anything particularly noteworthy, but it was nice to get some kind of acknowledgement. Well, acknowledgement that wasn't a really awkward peck on the cheek. Justin still wondered what had possessed Chie to do that, even more so why she hadn't remembered. It didn't really bother Justin anymore… but it kind of did in a way. Either way, he gave her a quick tip of his head.

"Don't thank me, ma'am. Just doing my job as ace' guy who jumps into televisions to beat the crap out of people who look like other people.'"

Yukiko seemed slightly wierded out by the comment. _Shit, that's right. She's not used to my sarcasm, yet. Might want to lower it down a notch for the moment._

"H-huh?"

"Oh nothing, just a bad joke."

"No worse than usual." Chie jabbed at him.

"Yeah? Well you laughed at them, so I guess you have shit taste in humor. Score one me."

"Still up by two."

"Not for long."

"Up by two?"

"Oh, well… Me and Chie are keeping score of… What exactly ARE we keeping score of…?"

"Oh uh… joke wars won I guess."

"Alright, we'll go with that."

"You're losing to Chie?"

Justin wasn't sure who that jab was intended at, which is what made it so good. Was she saying Chie's jokes were bad, or that Justin's were worse… Maybe both, who knows. Either way, Justin couldn't help but chuckle at the remark.

"So what brings you two ladies here anyway?"

"We were going to go catch a movie. We wanted to see if you'd like to tag along."

"Did you already invite Yosuke?"

"Well, not yet."

"Make that not yet a no and we got a deal."

Chie gave him a gentle shove. She knew he was joking, though Yukiko took it seriously. Justin was finding it hard to tone down his sarcasm anymore than he already had. Anymore and he would have been completely monotone.

"W-Wait, did something happen between you two?"

"Nah, it's just their shtick. They jab at each other like this all the time." Chie explained on Justin's behalf.

"Oh. I see."

"What movie are we seeing anyway?"

"The Avengers."

Justin took a quick look at Yukiko. He knew immediately that Chie was pretty much dragging her along. And he was right. She was biting slightly on her bottom lip, it was clear this wasn't exactly her type of move. _Well I guess fun isn't her type of movie either._

"Why didn't you say so sooner! Let's roll!"

* * *

"Justin, what are you doing?"

Justin had been throwing pieces of popcorn at some guy sitting below them. He had a huge afro, and the popcorn kernels were practically embedding in his hair. It was absolutely beautiful. Hell, having seen what he was doing, Yosuke joined in too. Yu unfortunately, was unable to make it, saying he needed to babysit his cousin, Nanako. Justin normally would have suggested just taking her with him, but he wasn't familiar with how his family life was, so he thought it would be best not to bring the idea up.

"Waiting for the previews."

"Well stop that, you're going to get us in trouble!"

"Don't worry, I've done this before."

"And that's what concerns me!"

The lights started to dim in the theatre, much to Justin's slight displeasure. On one hand, they got to watch the best part of the movie; the previews. On the other hand, he could no longer make out the man down front's afro. It was black, so it sort of blended in once the lights went out. Not that it really mattered, though. He probably should have been eating the popcorn in the first place, not throwing it at some guy.

Each preview went by; some good, some bad. Though the one that had really caught Justin's eye was something called Looper. From what he could gather, it was some sort of time-travel movie. The topic of time-travel always tickled Justin's fancy, but when you combine that with pseudo-mafia movies? You have the best film ever made on your hands. There was one scene in the trailer that particularly caught Justin's eye, as someone had fallen out a window in slow-motion, the camera rotating around ninety degrees. It was a gorgeous sight. Though Yosuke seemed to disagree.

"Jesus that looked terrible."

"Are you kiddin'? That was freakin' awesome."

"How the hell is Bruce Willis supposed to be Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the future! They look nothing alike."

"It's Bruce Willis; it doesn't need to make sense."

"Hey Justin, you used to live in California, have you ever-"

"Do not. Finish. That sentence."

Chie opened her mouth slightly in surprise. She didn't think what she had asked was offensive or anything. Of course, it was to Justin. He knew that question would come up sooner or later, he just knew it. But it didn't matter, he got the preemptive strike.

"Besides, Dark Knight Rises looks so much better."

"Ugh, they completely ruined Bane."

Yosuke turned his attention to Justin.

"Who the hell is Bane?"

Justin resisted the urge to smack Yosuke upside the head. Partially for not knowing who Bane, his favorite comic-book villain, was, partially for not knowing the name of the villain of the trailer he had only watched a few moments ago.

"Are you kidding? He's the bad guy in the Dark Knight Rises!"

"You mean it's not going to be The Riddler?"

"Did he look like he was wearing green!?"

"Well… no."

"Then how the fuck was that supposed to be The Riddler!"

"I just thought it was a new design direction."

"I will BREAK you, Yosuke."

The joke obviously went over Yosuke's head, though it seemed to get a chuckle out of Chie. Not surprisingly, though, since she had played both of the Arkham Asylum games. They had played video games online a couple days ago over the Playstation Network, so he had decided to take a look at some of her game collection. She had really good taste in games; save for Black Ops; though Justin was in no position to speak when he owned the game too. _I really should get around to selling that…_

The movie eventually started, much to the group's pleasure; save Yukiko, who seemed like she just wanted to go home. It clearly wasn't her type of movie, and she was more confused than anything as the movie progressed. Chie was practically jumping out of her seat during the action scenes, though Justin barely even reacted. Really, he was only there to see Captain America be the best American you can be. Of course, this was obvious when he was the only one in the theatre to laugh at "There's only one god, ma'am." It wasn't that it was a particularly nationalist statement or anything, but Justin knew all about the stereotypes associated with a 1940's American; and let me tell you, they fit the Captain to a tee.

Yosuke was actually rooting for Loki the entire movie, much to Chie's dismay. Every time something bad happened to the heroes, Yosuke let out a silent whoop, and fist pumped at the air. Had Justin not been sitting between the two, he swore Yosuke would be wearing a tub of popcorn on his head for the remainder of the movie. As for Yukiko, she eventually found herself cheering for Black Widow, though god only knows why. Justin had half assumed that's who Yosuke would be rooting for, what with Yosuke being Yosuke and Black Widow being Black Widow and all. Chie… Well Chie was rooting for pretty much all of them, though it seemed the Hulk was her main player. It made sense, given that he fought using only his fists, where the others had been using weapons. Though Justin could have swore she was leaning over towards Captain America towards the end after he fought off a huge wave of enemies using just his fists and shield.

By the time the movie was over, there were mixed reactions through-out the viewing party. Justin had half expected Yukiko to be the one person in the group to not like it, but she seemed more than impressed with the way the movie ended, which is more than Justin could say for himself. The special effects were phenomenal, but somehow he felt like there was no real conflict. It was completely anti-climatic, despite the huge ass... alien… things destroying New York. He shrugged it off as him just going in with much higher expectations than could be met.

Chie… Well Chie was Chie. You know that one person that asks if you remember that one part in the movie you just finished watching? Well, that was her. It wasn't so bad, considering he had apparently missed a couple of lines that Chie recapped on, but even then, it was nothing noteworthy. Yosuke seemed disappointed the villain lost, but then, it WAS a superhero movie, so he wasn't expecting Loki to win in the first place. Still, he seemed to be a lot like Chie, going on and on about the movie after it was over.

* * *

"So what did you think, Justin?"

"It was alright."

"Alright? That was incredible!"

"It was just like every other Marvel movie."

"Oh come on, that one part with the hulk at the end was awesome."

"Kinda…? Seems more like a plot-hole than anything. If he's angry all the time, shouldn't he be the Hulk all the time?"

"No, 'cause he learned to control the Hulk even when he's angry."

"Then why the hell was he going batshit insane inside the ship earlier."

Chie paused. She didn't really have an answer to the question.

"Alright, alright, so there were some plot holes."

Chie sighed slightly.

"Alright, so which one was your favorite."

"Well obviously the Captain. You?"

"I'm not sure. I'm thinking either the Hulk or Thor."

Come to think of it, Thor's actor was pretty good; though he had nothing on America Man.

"I mean did you see the way he punched that big centipede thing."

"I thought you didn't like bugs."

Chie kicked at his ankles slightly. It had slipped his mind that Yosuke wasn't aware of her bug phobia; Yukiko probably knew already though.

"Well that's why I liked him punching it so much!"

"Wait a second. You're afraid of bugs?"

Yosuke was smirking in the corner. Justin leveled his eyebrows just above his pupils. He knew he had something devious in mind, though what was another question.

"None of your business!"

"Oh, you totally are!"

He chuckled slightly.

"Don't even think about it." Justin glared at him.

"I wasn't!"

"Oh really. Then how did you know what I thought you were thinking of?"

Yosuke paused, his eyebrows raised, mouth slightly agape. Justin almost always was able to catch Yosuke in his bullshit, and this was no exception.

"L-Lucky guess?"

"I'm serious. Don't."

"Relax, it was just a thought."

"Well it's pretty obvious to me who Yosuke's favorite character is, how bout you Chie."

"Black Widow?"

"Well, favorite in the non-perverted sense of the word."

"…Black Widow?"

Justin couldn't help but laugh. It was probably true, knowing Yosuke. Hell, he was probably just cheering for Loki the entire movie to try to tick off Chie. He had a habit of taking friendly jabs at everyone whenever he got the chance. Save for maybe Yukiko, but he hadn't really seen them together, so that would explain it. Even then, he was sure Yosuke was smart enough not to take jabs at someone who clearly couldn't tell what was and wasn't a joke.

"What? No! Loki's my main man."

"Totally Black Widow."

"Yep."

"Well screw you guys too. How 'bout you, Yukiko."

"…Black Widow."

"H-Huh!?"

Chie seemed completely flabbergasted that Yukiko thought Black Widow was a good character. Justin half-agreed, but not quite for the same reasons. He didn't like Black Widow because it seemed the film revolved too much around her and not enough around the avengers. As for Yosuke… well Yosuke was sticking his tongue out next to Justin; to which Justin nonchalantly punched him without lifting his gaze from Yukiko. Basically, he pulled a Hulk on Yosuke. Yukiko seemed slightly concerned, though Chie just shook her head in a way as though to imply this happened on a normal basis. It didn't, of course, but it did calm Yukiko down slightly.

"A-Are you okay, Yosuke?"

"Ow! Dude, I think you broke my nose."

"Quit being such a baby, I have a broken EYE."

"You can do that?"

"No, you idiot."

"How is your eye anyway?"

Chie and Yosuke gave Yukiko a look as though to say "No, DON'T ASK THAT." Justin didn't mind though, it wasn't like she was there the last few times they discussed it. She didn't know it was a sensitive topic.

"Hmm? Oh… Uh… I can sorta see out of it now, though it's not back all the way."

He was lying. He still couldn't see a damn thing out of his eye, but the doctor said his would be back in a couple weeks anyway, so it should be back soon enough that his lie wouldn't matter. Besides, he could tell that Yukiko somewhat blamed herself for what happened with his eye. In retrospect, everyone sorta blamed themselves, save for Yosuke.

"Huh!? Really!?"

"Yeah. Should be fully back in a couple days top."

"Well that's great news! We should have a celebration."

"Can we not…?"

"What, don't like parties?"

"C'mon dude, it'll be fun."

_We aren't having a party for something that hasn't actually happened yet, no._

"Can I keep the cane?"

"Huh? Well if you want I guess."

"Then fuck the celebration, I got everything I need."

Justin gave his cane a quick twirl before planting it back in the ground. Chie laughed slightly. She didn't know what it was with Justin and canes, but goddammit, that thing always seemed to cheer him up. He was actually pretty good at twirling that thing around too. She could have half sworn he had used it all his life the way he handled it.

"Geez… What is it with you and canes?" Yosuke was grabbing at the tip of his nose.

"Have you ever seen the music video for Blue Orchid?"

"Yeah?"

"That's what's up with me and canes."

"What is Blue Orchid?" Yukiko added.

Both Chie and Justin seemed surprised, Justin slightly more seeing how Chie was surprised. He didn't know she listened to the White Stripes. Actually, Justin was sorta surprised Yosuke didn't say anything himself.

"Only the greatest song ever written!"

Well not the greatest. Nowhere near. But overcompensation does wonders when talking about music.

"It's like the music of the gods."

Justin smirked. He had been waiting for someone to say something like that for the last fifteen minutes.

"There's only one god ma'am."

"And this is why we don't invite Justin to anything." Yosuke added on wise-crackingly, still holding his nose. Justin swung the bottom end of his cane back around, whacking Yosuke straight in the crotch. It had been intended to hit him in the gut, but this was a much better shot.


	21. Chapter 20: April 30, 2011

CHAPTER 20

APRIL 30, 2011

* * *

"Sorry to keep you waiting. The soba is yours, right Chie?"

The group had all gathered up on the rooftop after school, as was quickly starting to become the tradition. Justin longed for the days when they would just go to Junes. Sure, it took a while to walk there, and his back was always sore by the time they found a seat, but at least there were no stairs to climb. And now Yukiko and Chie were dragging food up here? Despite not having this effect on him before, the smell of food just made his stomach twist into more knots. He wanted to vomit, so instead he pulled out a quick cigarette, trying to hide it from Yukiko with his hand. It very clearly didn't work, though she only seemed mildly shocked. I guess she was used to it, what with him doing it the first day he met her AND the time he helped rescue her from her shadow.

"Thanks! Oooh, that smells gooood…"

"What IS soba, anyway?"

"What? You eat it all the time, dude!"

"I do?"

Justin was completely confused. What the hell did he eat so often that he hadn't recognized whatever that soba stuff was?

"Uh, yeah. Instant noodles?"

"OH. Well now I feel stupid."

He should have been able to tell just from the packaging Yukiko had brought it over in. Hell, looking at it now, it was the exact same brand that Justin ate. Normally he'd beat himself up over something like this, but then, he had a lot on his mind lately, so he's been a little off edge with this kind of stuff.

"These instant noodles are just the thing to help me through the day… How much longer do I have to wait on this?"

"It still needs a few minutes."

Yukiko took a seat next to Chie.

"So, why're we here…? Oh yeah, we were going to ask Yukiko what happened."

Yosuke straightened up slightly. He had been leaning against the barrier behind him the entire time, but apparently this question deserved a little more class. But only a little, cause god forbid Yosuke stand all the way up for once in his life.

"Yukiko-san, I hate to bring up stuff you'd rather not think about… But I need to ask you again. Did you recall anything about when you got kidnapped?"

Yukiko glanced away for a moment, searching through her memories. The way her eyes dropped to the floor after a moment did not bare good news. Justin knew waiting this long would be a bad thing. You always get the witness testimony while the memory is still fresh in their head. He almost wanted to say "I told you so," but figured that would just make Yukiko feel like shit. Not that she apparently didn't already given the way she was fidgeting and avoiding eye-contact.

"No… I thought I might remember something if I let it sit for a while, but as time passes it only gets hazier."

"Dammit, I knew this would happen."

Justin tried to stop himself, though he was much too late. He had meant to think that, not say it. Now Yukiko probably feels like crap for forgetting whatever it was that happened.

"S-Sorry."

"No, I didn't mean it like that. It's not your fault."

Yukiko seemed confused for a brief moment before turning away again, digging through her memories.

"I think… the doorbell rang at the entrance… and someone called for me… But when I woke up after that, I was already in the castle. I'm sorry."

"No need to apologize."

Justin went to lean back, having completely forgotten that the fence was over to his right, not behind him. He damn near fell of the roof, though luckily, he managed to catch himself before hand. He did manage to make himself look like an ass though, which was always a great way of starting a theory proposition.

"Actually… that was very helpful. We didn't know anything about a doorbell or a visitor. It could very well be tied to the case."

"Wait, are you saying the visitor is the culprit!?"

"Could be, could be coincidence. However, we do have a lead now."

Justin gave Yukiko a small bow of his head, much to her surprise. She hadn't thought what she had said would actually be useful in any capacity.

"I don't know... If it's true, then that's one daring criminal."

"Most criminals are."

"Yeah, but what kind of killer just rings the doorbell!?"

"You'd be surprised how many cases I've seen on TV that played out exactly like that."

"Really? Do you remember anything about them?"

"Well… uh… they were unsolved. So yeah."

Justin wasn't sure what Yosuke was more surprised about; the fact that these cases, similar in nature to the one they were investigating, went unsolved, or that a case where someone rang the front doorbell didn't so much as have a culprit. Either way, he was very visibly confused, dumbfounded even.

"Well that certainly doesn't help!" Yosuke sighed. "The police are probably looking for witnesses… but I don't think we can expect much from them."

"Especially not Yu's uncle."

"I resent that."

"Yeah, but it's true."

Yu shrugged his shoulders. It sort of was in a way, even if he knew that Justin had intended that as a joke. Chie averted her gaze for a brief moment, clearly caught up in her thoughts.

"I wonder why whoever it is would do stuff like this."

"Who knows? Some people are just so fucked up that they do this kind of thing for fun."

"That's horrible!"

"We won't really know until we confront 'em ourselves."

Justin, shook his head gently from side to side before turning his gaze over Yosuke's way, his mouth slightly ajar with awe. _Confront 'em ourselves? What the shit? What could possible possess us to try and confront a murderer. He'd fucking kill us all._

"But we can be sure of one thing. It's no coincidence that people keep ending up in that place. Someone on our side is definitely kidnapping people and throwing them into the TV. It's murder alright…"

Justin flicked the butt of his cigarette off the roof and into a tree. He had almost slapped himself for disposing of the cigarette in a way that it could easily be found on school grounds, but then was relieved to see it get caught up on a tree branch on the way down. The cigarette was already out, so he didn't have to worry about it catching fire or anything, and even if the wind dislodged it from the tree, it would probably end up floating out of the school zone. He sighed slightly in relief before turning his attention back towards Yosuke, who had been deep in thought trying to piece the puzzle together from what they knew. After rubbing at his chin for a little while longer he sighed, turning his attention back towards Yukiko.

"Oh that's right, we never told you. This guy and me are gonna catch the culprit ourselves!"

"Uh, what? Aren't you forgetting me and Chie?"

"Yeah! What about us!"

It seemed the remark had gone completely over Chie's head until Justin pointed it out. Justin could maybe understand leaving Justin out of the loop, since he didn't have a persona yet, but Chie did, AND she had been helping on the case since the beginning. Why wasn't she part of the team?

"Well obviously you guys are part of the team too."

"Oh, fuck you Yosuke. We don't need this. Me and Chie will form our own detective agency, and it'll be ten times better than yours ever was."

"We will?"

"Phelps and Bekowski; Undercover National Investigators of Televisions."

It went completely over everyone's heads that that was supposed to be shortened down to UNIT, but Justin didn't mind. It wasn't like that was supposed to be the joke or anything; just something he threw in on the side.

"Who's Phelps and Bekowski?" Yukiko spoke up. She didn't quite get the joke, not surprising anyone. Really, neither did Yosuke and Yu, but at the very least they had brushed it off as an inside joke between Chie and Justin. Yukiko had completely taken the comment seriously.

"Oh, uh… It's an inside joke." Chie tried to explain. Justin wasn't sure why she didn't just explain how they stole it from a detective game, but whatever. If she wanted to keep it a secret, he could play ball.

"Regardless… The police are out of their leagues on this case, but we got Personas. Except Justin."

"Bitch, I've got a shadow. Which one do you think is more willing to kick your ass?"

"Actually, now that Yosuke mentions it, you have a persona now too, Yukiko."

"Hey… That's right! Yukiko, I know this might seem sudden, but now that you have persona… would you be willing to lend us a hand?"

"Huh? Um…"

Chie seemed almost enraged that Yosuke was allowing Yukiko onto the team, but had completely forgotten about Justin and herself's involvement. This would not stand! She shot her hand up into the sky, as though waiting to be called on before speaking. Justin couldn't help but smirk at the gesture.

"I'm helping out too! I can't believe someone would throw people into a place like that. I'm gonna sock whoever's doing this!"

"Chie…"

Justin couldn't help but chuckle slightly at the comment. He thought it was adorable the way she got angry like that from time to time. It was really the best part of her personality, that she wouldn't take shit from anyone, even if she wasn't personally involved. Though, Justin supposed she technically was now, what with her shadow and Yukiko getting kidnapped and all.

"Oh so that's how it is! Well go on, scram! I don't need you. I can be Phelps all I want now."

Justin stuck his tongue out in a childish motion. Chie chuckled slightly, though no one else did. Really Yosuke felt like he was interrupting something between the two anytime they exchanged one of these dumb jokes. They weren't funny, or at the very least, only those two seemed to get it. Though then again, Yosuke still firmly stood behind the belief that the two were into each other, as much as they would hate to admit it. Justin withdrew his tongue before turning his attention back towards Yosuke.

"Well I was already in the team in the first place, so fuck you. You won't get the satisfaction of hearing me beg."

Yosuke smirked slightly. That wasn't a half bad idea. Justin, of course, immediately noticed the smirk, and dropped his own smirk down into a frown. He had just given Yosuke a horrible, horrible idea. And knowing him, he was going to use it. That is, he was until Justin threw his cane up slightly, grabbing a hold of it at a lower point on the shaft. After yesterday's incident, Yosuke knew all too well what Justin had intended to mean by that. And if he intended to keep his balls in one piece, he would keep his mouth shut.

"…Let me help too. I want to know why this is happening. Especially if someone hates me so much they want to kill me. I don't want to run away from myself anymore."

Justin rubbed at his chin slightly. Something Yosuke and Yukiko had said had struck him as a bit off.

"Why are we still assuming murder is the intention?"

"Huh? Have you seen that place? How could it NOT be the intention?"

"Well… no one else can enter but those with personas, right? So where better to commit a crime than somewhere with no witnesses."

"Yeah but what else could they be doing in there?"

"I'm hoping not the obvious."

Yukiko's eyes widened as the words left Justin's mouth. She understood the implications, much to Justin's displeasure. He had purposely avoided out-right saying it specifically so she WOULDN'T freak out.

"Wh-What!?"

"Now, why'd you have to go and say that!?"

"Chill, I'm entirely positive that's not it. Yukiko, you would remember if that were the case. I'm just trying to think of what crimes could possibly justify going through such lengths as dumping the witness off in a TV."

"Y-yeah. You're right…"

Yukiko was clearly not entirely convinced, though it seemed that Justin's comment had slightly alleviated her concerns. She WOULD have remembered if the criminal had tried to take advantage of her.

"Regardless of the intention, this guy is still a criminal, right? Then let's all work together and catch this asshole!"

"Agreed."

"Oh, but how are we going to find them? We don't have a single lead yet."

"I'm the third one to be targeted so far… But I have a feeling this isn't the end of it. If we had an idea of who might be targeted next, wouldn't we have an advantage over the killer?"

"So we'll out smart them, huh…? Yeah, that might work. Okay, let's see if we can figure out what ties the victims together. First there was that announcer, Mayumi Yamano. Second was Saki Konishi… Senpai. Third was Yukiko Amagi."

"She's right there. No need to refer to her in third person."

"Just trying to be consistent!"

Yosuke seemed slightly disgusted by Justin interrupting his chain of thought to point out how socially awkward his statement had been.

"What do they all have in common?"

Justin was about to speak up. There were more than a few connections between the two But just as he was about to explain his theory, Yu seemed to jump in, nearly every point memorized and linked in his mind. It was as though he had been WAITING for this moment.

"Well for starters, they all live in Inaba; though that should be obvious. They were also all females. That might be significant."

"Bingo."

Justin groaned slightly. He had made the same conclusion, so he felt almost a little cheated by being beaten to the punch. Though it was probably better in the long-run. After Justin implied there was a possibility of sexual assault being involved, well, maybe he shouldn't have been the one connecting the dots as far as gender.

"How dare he target females! Now that is unforgivable!"

"Implying it would have been forgivable if it was a man."

"This culprit's gotta be some kind of pervert…"

Chie had apparently forgotten all about Justin's crackpot theory on what the criminal was doing, because she didn't even bother to try and beat around the bush on it. Surprisingly enough, though, it seemed Yukiko no longer believed that was what had happened.

"Also, what about this? The second and third victims had some sort of connection to the first one."

Chie gasped slightly.

"Hey, that's right! Yukiko and Saki-senpai both had connections to that announcer…"

"That's true."

Justin felt like he was completely out of the loop. _What, do they all know each other or something? Am I missing something here?_

"Okay, clearly I'm out of the loop on this one. What connection?"

"Saki-senpai was the one who discovered the announcer's body, right? And the announcer stayed at the Amagi Inn the night of the murder."

"Oh that's right! Wasn't there, like, an argument between Yukiko's mom and the announcer."

"So I heard."

Yukiko only gave a nod, as though giving confirmation.

"So can we assume females linked to the announcer are being targeted?"

"I think that's safe to assume."

"There's another angle we can take, too. If another person disappears…"

"Wait… Didn't Yukiko show up on the Midnight Channel BEFORE she was kidnapped? You think it might have been a warning?"

"You think they might be on that Midnight Channel?"

Justin nodded his head. He was almost entirely positive the two were connected. It couldn't be a coincidence.

"Yeah, it's hard to tell who at first, but what's important is, it's happened before the victim's disappeared. It's kinda like a ransom note. We still don't know why that happens, but we'll have to rely on it for now."

"The next time it rains…"

Yukiko didn't even finish her sentence. The entire team knew exactly what it was she was implying. The next time it rains, they could check the Midnight Channel to see if anyone else would appear on it. Everyone nodded their head in agreement, agreeing to look at the television at the next instance of rain.

"By the way, aren't those done by now?"

Justin gave a quick look at Yosuke, who had been giving a look at Chie and Yukiko. _Oh, the instant noodles!_ In all honesty, Justin had forgotten all about them himself, but then, that was probably because he wasn't the one eating them. Chie's eyes widened, as though she had just been given a gift from the gods. _Remember how I said Chie really likes steak? Fuck that, she just really fucking loves food._

"Woah, that's right! Chow time!"

Chie and Yukiko opened up their containers, digging into the ramen noodles. Chie especially, jesus she acted as though she hadn't eaten for a week. Looking at Yu and Yosuke, they looked almost jealous. _Well they should have brought their own food then. Tough shit._

"Hey, could I try just a little bit of that!? Just one tiny bite!?"

Chie looked like she was going to rip Yosuke's head off. No one touches her instant noodles and lives, especially not Yosuke.

"Hey! Hands off the soba, pal! Go get your own if you want some!"

Yosuke, much to Justin's surprise, immediately busted out puppy dog eyes. Chie's glare immediately softened, as though she felt bad for eating her own food. Her own. Fucking. Food. Not to mention this was Yosuke who had been begging her. She never gave him shit. _Holy shit! He knows the secret art of puppy dog eyes! Burn his ass at the stake before we end up listening to his crazy ass demands!_

"Rrrngh… Okay, but just one bite, got it?"

Yosuke practically swept the bowl out of Chie's hands. And he certainly took more than one bite, surprising no one. Leave it to Yosuke to con someone out of their food. Looking back over at Chie, it seemed she immediately regretted handing the bowl over to Yosuke. Deep down she knew what was going to end up happening.

"Do you want to try some?"

Yukiko was starring at Yu, who seemed more than a little surprised by the proposition, but not at all against it. She passed the bowl off to Yu, who took, once again, more than one bite. Justin felt half bad. He didn't want any instant noodles, but no one offered him shit. Though, after what happened next, that might have been for the better.

"It's soooo good… The aroma, the flavor, and the texture all combined… This is perfect!"

Yu nodded his head in agreement.

"Jesus, Yosuke. Its instant noodles. Calm down."

Suddenly, the two started to quicken the pace they had been eating the noodles at. Chie and Yukiko were completely appalled. They knew what was happening.

"Aaaack! What the hell are you doing!?"

Justin reached out his arm, gripping a hold of Yosuke's wrist. He could only stop one, so he decided to stop Yosuke. He was pretty much the only one whose life was at danger if he finished that bowl of Noodles. As Justin's grip pulled back on Yosuke's arm, he snapped back into reality, as though he were in a state of perpetual instant-noodle based bliss beforehand. Yosuke quickly passed the bowl off to Chie before shaking Yu back into the real world. His face turned beat red as he realized what he had done, and handed the bowl back Yukiko's way. Chie was more than a little pissed as she looked down at the contents of her bowl. It wasn't quite empty, but it was damn close.

"You ate everything…"

"M-My fried tofu…"

Chie marched right up into the three of their faces, bloody murder in her eyes.

"I hope you guys understand what this means."

"Welp! I'm out. See you guys at your funeral."

Justin sidestepped away from the group of guys, hoping to be able to make a mad-dash if under the circumstances Chie decided Justin had been affiliated with the two. He was going to minimize the splash damage, one way or another.

"W-Wait wait wait! Stop! I'm sorry! I-I'll buy you steak! It'll be on me!"

"Isn't that what you said last time?"

"Dude, shut up! Y-You hear me! The very best!"

Chie's anger slowly shifted from that of a psychopathic lunatic to that of a gleeful ten year old who had just gotten a puppy for Christmas. She had just been offered the holiest of all meals: Steak.

"Steak…!?"

"My tofu…"

Yukiko looked almost as though said puppy earned on Christmas morning had been dead upon opening the box, because 'Santa Claus' forgot to poke holes in it for air. Chie apparently noticed, because she turned to try and cheer her up.

"C'mon, Yukiko. There's steak in it for us now. We can get instant noodles anytime we want, right?"

"Well… as long as it isn't too fatty."

"Well that's probably going to be a problem."

Justin had began to chuckle at his own joke when Chie shot him a death glare. Had he insulted her precious steak? Blasphemy! He must be prosecuted to the highest extent of the law! Executed! Crucified! Made not alive anymore!

"What's that supposed to mean…!"

"N-Nothing! Don't hurt me!"

Justin practically ran to take cover behind Yosuke, who in turn took cover behind Yu, who in turn took cover behind no one, since he was the last one to hide behind. Sucks to be Yu right now.

"Okay, we've reached a verdict! You are hereby sentenced to buying us steak! That includes you Justin."

"Wh-What? But I tried to stop them!"

"You insulted my steak, and now you're going to pay the price...!"

"Fuck."

* * *

"Man, talk about great timing. We just started serving grilled steak today. We're doing our part to spread this town's specialty dish. Plus, we've already got an excellent grill."

"That's just a Yakosoba griddle… Oh well, steak is steak. It's far from a fillet steak though."

Justin raised his head from the table they had been sitting around, a napkin sticking to his forehead for a moment before it slipped off. His eyes were slightly red, though that was because he had actually fallen asleep for a brief moment while Yosuke put in the order for Yukiko and Chie. Justin, Yu, and Yosuke, of course, bought nothing. They could hardly afford the two grilled steaks as a collective as it was.

"Chie, I haven't been able to afford lunch for the last two weeks; what makes you think I could afford a fillet steak."

Chie's mouth went ajar for a few seconds, before closing it and averting eye-contact. She had completely forgotten about Justin's financial situation; how he only got so much money a month, and how she had pretty much just forced him into buying her a steak just for calling it fatty. She felt like a complete bitch.

"S-sorry…"

Justin sighed. He didn't mean to make her feel bad, but then, he wasn't even involved in Yosuke and Yu's feast. Why had he had to buy her steak? _She totally deserves to feel bad right now._

"It's fine…"

"Yukiko, are you okay with this? It's not too heavy for you?"

"I am not ponying up for a second steak." Justin added, placing his head back down on the table. He half wanted to fall asleep again. He hadn't been getting much sleep with his dreams as of late. Especially the one about the gun, whatever the hell was going on there.

"I'll eat it… I'm still mad."

"Oh come on!"

"So back on topic. I wonder what kind of person the culprit is."

"If you focus on just the announcer's ca-"

Justin tried to force his eyes open as they slowly drooped back close. He hated to admit it, but he was exhausted. Maybe he could just close his eyes for a few moments…

* * *

SEPTEMBER 12, 2009

* * *

Justin turned around the corner. Maya and him were going to meet at the usual spot to hang out, though it seems plans must have changed as he rounded the final corner. Maya was certainly there, though she was not the only one. There was an older gentleman standing next to her, conversing with her about something, though what Justin could only guess at. The man had neck-length, wavy brown hair, and a rough five-o-clock shadow. He had green eyes, and from the looks of it, a smile that could melt an ice-queen's heart. The guy was a pretty-boy, but goddammit, he was doing one hell of a job at it. Justin slowly approached the two, hoping not to interrupt whatever they may be doing. He saw the two exchange something as he made his way up to the two, though what it was, he couldn't see. It was being completely blocked by Maya's back.

"Hey Maya, what's up."

Maya turned around, a big grin on her face. It was refreshing to see her smile like that, considering she always seemed to be bitching about something or someone. She wasn't exactly well-off in life, so it was hard for her to find the good things around her. The gentleman behind her gave Justin a slight smile, though he seemed more concerned as to what Justin's identity was than anything.

"Oh hey Justin."

"Friend of yours?"

Maya turned back around to the other man, giving him a small grin.

"Oh this is that guy I was telling you about. Kurt, Justin. Justin, Kurt."

Kurt's face lit up brightly, a wide grin sweeping across his face. Any suspicion he had of Justin had immediately vanished in the air, though why was another question entirely. What exactly had Maya said about him that this Kurt fellow was so happy to see him? Kurt held out his hand, reaching for a handshake from Justin.

"Kurt Kimbler. Charmed. Maya's told me a lot about you."

"Did she now? Hopefully positive things."

Maya gave him a slight shove. She usually did that whenever Justin said something incredibly stupid. Kurt chuckled slightly at the gesture. Justin wasn't really sure who this Kurt guy was, but he liked him already. He had that smile that just told you he was a good guy.

"But of course."

Kurt briefly lifted his gaze away from Justin to turn his attention back to Maya. She had been digging through her pockets for something, though what, Justin could only hope to guess. Kurt shook his head slightly from each side, a smile still sweeping across his face.

"Don't worry about it; it's on the house this time."

"Huh? No it's alright; I just need to remember where I put it."

"Well if you find it you can pay me with it next time."

Maya laughed slightly.

"You never change do you?"

"They say it's my best quality."

Kurt had been wearing a fedora for the entire conversation, though he had grasped it firmly at the front to give it a quick tip towards Maya. The guy was charming as all fuck. Kurt turned his attention towards Justin again, his smile practically piercing through Justin's soul as he put out his hand again. It seemed he was ready to depart from whatever business he had here.

"It was nice meeting you. Hope we run into each other again."

"Likewise."

Justin smiled back at him, clasping at Kurt's hand. After a quick shake of his hand, Kurt placed his fists back into his coat pocket, departing the way Justin had came, a slight skip to his strut. Justin turned back around to see Maya, pushing something underneath the dumpster they normally sat next to. As she reemerged, she had a single cigarette in her hand, her other hand digging around in her hoodie pocket for her lighter.

"What's under the dumpster?"

"Huh? Oh that's where I hide my smokes."

"Huh? Wait so does that mean…"

"Yeah, Kurt gets me some from time to time. He's a nice guy."

"He sure seemed it. Wonder what he's doing in this kind of business then."

"What, nice guys can't help people get smokes?"

"That's not what I meant…"

"Yes it was."

Maya smirked as the two sat down, passing the cigarette back and forth between each other.

* * *

APRIL 30, 2011

* * *

"-ustin, wake up!"

Justin snapped back into reality. How long had he been asleep that people were noticing? Longer still that he was able to have a dream? Jesus, this was a new one, though all it did was serve to confuse him more. Kurt… He remembered that name from before. Maya mentioned something about pissing Kurt off… But he seemed like such a nice guy. Could you even piss off someone like that? Justin shook it off as he pulled his head off the table. His eyes were still red, and he had apparently broken out into a sweat at some point.

"Dude, you look terrible."

"Ugh… Sorry, haven't been getting much sleep."

"Were you having another one of those dreams?"

"Yeah, though nothing new as far as information."

That was a lie, and Justin knew it. He knew who Kurt was now, and he knew what Kurt did for a living. He was a smuggler of sorts, an illegal distributor of cigarettes, potentially amongst other things. It could help him try to piece this puzzle together. The only problem was, there was no way of explaining what was up with Kurt without mentioning the dream about the gun. Justin simply couldn't risk telling them. It hurt him knowing he couldn't even trust his closest friends with that kind of information.

"Huh? Has Justin been having bad dreams?" Yukiko was completely out of the loop with Justin's shadow, and he had no intention of getting her up to date.

"Someone can explain it later. How long was I out?"

"Well we were about to head into the TV so Yukiko could get her glasses from Teddie."

Justin stretched in his seat.

"Lead the way."

* * *

"Wow… This really is inside the TV… It's Teddie… Then it wasn't a dream."

"Well I think the very fact that we knew what had happened in your 'dream' should have tipped you off to that earlier, but alright."

Yukiko looked off in the distance. She hadn't even considered that. Justin didn't mean for the comment to insult her intelligence, he just wanted to point that out.

"Are you feeling better, Yuki-chan? I did what you said. I've been a good bear."

Justin didn't like the sounds of this one bit. Did Teddie…? _Oh god that is absolutely disgusting. How would that even work? Does he even have a… You know?_

"Oh, I see. Good boy!"

Yosuke seemed to be just as mortified by the sight in front of him as Justin was. It seemed that Yu and Chie hadn't quite caught onto the undertones in Teddie's voice, though he was sure that would become apparent soon enough.

"W-Well, this bear's part of the reason we want to find the culprit."

"I'm one of the group now too. Let's work together, okay?"

"Yep, I was thinking the same thing! That's why I got these ready for you Yuki-chan!"

Teddie walked up to Yukiko, holding out a pair of glasses. Justin couldn't really see them from where he was standing, though they looked a lot like his. Actually, come to think of it, Justin had completely forgotten to put his own glasses on. He hadn't put them on at all since he had gotten them. He wasn't used to putting them on, so he just sort of forgot when he was in the TV world. Justin reached into his pocket to put his glasses on… Holy fucking shit.

Justin blinked a couple times. It wasn't just that he could see out of them, he could see out of both eyes. He had to pull them off then push them back on to make sure he wasn't just crazy. He wasn't. _How the hell is this medically possible!? Aren't glasses supposed to just enhance your vision, not repair it?_ He felt like shouting with glee at the ability to see, but held back the urge. The others still didn't know that he couldn't see yet. In fact, Chie had tried to throw a celebration for his vision healing. This was clearly not the case.

"Oh, so these are what everyone's wearing. Thank you, Teddie. You're right… It's just as if the fog didn't exist…"

While Yukiko was completely awestruck by the power of the glasses she had put on, Chie looked more confused than anything. As though a thought had struck her, and she couldn't seem to find a solution to it.

"Hey, tell me something. How come you have so many pairs of glasses?"

"Excellent question! Guess what? I'm the one who makes them!"

"I thought we covered that already."

It was true. He could have sworn that Teddie said he had just made Justin's and Chie's glasses on the spot when they first got theirs.

"I've lived here for a long time. So I came up with some ways to be comfortable here."

"By… making glasses…?"

"I see. But don't you need a pair."

Another good question. Justin had more or less passed it off as him being used to it since he lived here, but there must have been a more plausible explanation than that.

"Oooh, good point. Another great question! Listen to this, my eyes themselves are lenses!"

…_What?_ Justin was completely confused. How the hell does that even work; how was he able to fricken' SEE and make the goddamn lenses in the first place if he didn't have eyes? Though in retrospect, that actually explained a couple things. Justin could see out of both eyes through the glasses, because for whatever reason, the lenses could be used as eyes. As to why the lenses did that, well, Justin hadn't the slightest clue. Some mysteries are just not worth looking into.

"You didn't know?"

"…Of course not."

"Wh-Why are you being so mean? You act as though you're not interested. I'm a really dexterous bear. See how smoothly my fingers run."

Teddie stuck his hand out, moving little stubs around his paw as though he were trying to flail his fingers about. Of course, since he didn't HAVE fingers, that was a lot like trying to bite something without teeth, or fuck without a- Well, you get the point.

"What am I even looking at!?"

"Something very very strange."

Yosuke gave the bear a shove, knocking him clean over on his head, before Teddie's body recoiled back up. Kinda like a punching bag that got hit really hard and had rebounded back towards the source of the punch.

"Ow!"

"Hmm? You dropped something."

"Hmm? Oh. That's a pair I kinda screwed up on."

Yukiko reached down to grab the pair of glasses. Justin was half expecting her to hand it back over to Teddie, but instead she just giggled with glee as she replaced the glasses on her head with the faulty pair. Justin could not figure out what in the life of her had possessed her to do that, especially after getting a better look at the pair.

"Dear god, she turned into Groucho."

"Who's Groucho?"

"Never say that sentence again."

Yosuke shrugged the comment off. He'd just google it later tonight.

"Oh… Umm… Y-Yukiko?"

Yukiko burst out into a fit of laughter, though it seemed no one else had joined in. Truth be told, Justin found the glasses kind of funny, but he didn't want to be the only one laughing in the theatre again, so he kept his mouth shut.

"How do I look?"

"Looks great."

Yukiko burst out laughing again, while Chie gave Yu a quick jab of her elbow, as though to say "Don't encourage her."

"Do you like that one, Yuki-chan?"

"I want to wear this one. It's even got a nose guard!"

"That's it. I'm out."

Justin had begun to walk away, but as per usual, Chie grabbed a hold of him by the back of the color, pulling him back to the circle they had formed.

"Ohhh no you don't!"

"How bear-y unfortunate… that pair doesn't have the right lenses. Guess I should have made a real pair."

"Are you sure you're koala-fied to make those glasses, Teddie?"

"Oh no, not you too. No more bear puns from either of you."

_Oh I'm sorry, I'll just make steak puns from now on ma'am._

"Aww, too bad. Here, Chie, your turn."

Yukiko replaced the faulty pair with her normal set of glasses, attempting to hand off the ridiculous glasses she had been wearing to Chie.

"Don't do it, it's a trap!"

"Man… All right…"

"NOOOOOOOOOOOO-!"

Justin crouched onto his knees, screaming out as the mighty fell to the temptations of peer pressure. Chie just rolled her eyes at him as she put the glasses on. She looked absolutely ridiculous with them on, and she damn well knew she did too. Yukiko… Well Yukiko started laughing like a hyena. It was actually embarrassing just listening to her laugh. I mean, Chie looked absolutely ridiculous, but nothing to be laughing like this over.

"How'd it come to this…?"

"Damn you! Damn you all to hell!"

"Y-Yukiko-san? Hellooo…?"

"There goes one of Yukiko's laughing fits… I never thought she'd do it when someone besides me was around."

Chie's curiosity with Yukiko's sudden disposition change was soon overcome with anger. Why the hell was she even wearing these glasses! They're awful!

"These stupid glasses are useless for investigating! I mean, what the hell's this nose for, anyway!?"

"Nice work, huh? That's what happens when you guys leave me here alone and I get bored!"

"Note to self; get Teddie a PSP."

"W-Well, I'm glad that she's in high-spirits again… I guess…"

"Oh Chie, the look on your face… Hahaha, it was so funny!"

"How the hell can she see Chie's face underneath those things?"

"Well clearly she thought that was her face."

"…What?"

Chie looked at Yosuke with bloody murder in her eyes. Or at least, Justin had assumed. He couldn't tell with the lenses blocking the way, but he could practically see the steam coming out of her ears, and her skin was definitely beat red.

"Yosuke, run."

"What?"

"Run, and don't stop, you hear me!"

Yosuke took one last glance at Chie before making a mad dash for the television.

He didn't make it in time.


	22. Chapter 21: May 1, 2011

CHAPTER 21

May 1, 2011

* * *

"In the movie I watched the other day this guy knocked down a tree using only his leg!"

"When the hell did that happen in Avengers?"

"No, not that! I watched one of my kung-fu movies yesterday."

As per usual, Chie had dragged Justin along on another one of her training expeditions. For once he'd like to be able to just sit down and talk like normal human beings do. But no, that apparently isn't extreme enough. Someone has to lose a testicle by the end of the day, or the day wasn't worth living through. Still, at the very least it seemed Chie wasn't trying to beat the ever loving crap out of Justin; at least not yet anyway. Instead she had been doing some stretching exercises while trying to hold a conversation with him. It was weird, considering Justin out-right refused to make himself look like an ass by doing stretching exercises. It basically meant Chie was doing all these weird stretches while he stood there and watched.

"How does someone kick that hard…? Just practice?"

"If by practice you mean special effects, then yes."

"Well obviously it was fake! But there's gotta be someone out there that's done it before."

"I sincerely doubt it."

Chie seemed almost disappointed, much to his displeasure. Justin was concerned that she legitimately wanted to be able to kick a tree down using only her foot. She kicked hard enough as it was, he didn't need her ripping through his stomach when they were in the middle of one of their training sessions.

"Ch-Chie!"

Justin's usual smirk immediately drooped into a frown. _Oh fuck no, I recognize that voice._ Sure enough, it was Takeshi, making his way up to the two of them. From the looks of it, he was more than a little confused as to why Chie was stretching her limbs like that while Justin just stood there. Chie straightened up from her stretching position as she got a sight of Takeshi making his way up to them.

It took every fiber of Justin's being not to smack Takeshi for being a complete douche the last time they saw each other. Who has a lady fight their fights for them? And over 1,000 yen, no less. Justin wasn't exactly rich, but 1,000 yen? Let it fucking go man.

"Oh, hey Takeshi…"

Chie's face had been neutral but a moment ago, as though she didn't have any particular disposition to the guy. It was strange considering she had brightened up a bit the last time they had met under these conditions, though I suppose that changed after his show of courage a few days ago. However, her eyebrows soon dropped into an angry stare. Justin had thought she was going to kick his ass for running like a coward, so what she said next took him by surprise.

"W-Were you robbed again?"

"No…"

Justin was more than a little confused. Why would she even consider helping this guy if he got robbed again? It's not like he was nice to her or anything, and god knows he was complete scum. _Maybe she's just a bigger person than I am..._ Justin sighed.

"I took off right after that, right? So I thought I'd apologize…"

Justin still didn't like the guy, but he felt the tension in his brow loosen a bit. At least he had the guts to apologize.

"…Why don't you be a man and admit you ran away?"

Justin chuckled. He had almost assumed Chie had forgiven Takeshi already, and then here she was busting out an insult to his manhood. He would have applauded under normal conditions, but he felt it was better for the two of them to work it out on their own.

"Wh-What…? Were you this anal before?"

Justin coughed slightly. He admittedly had a dirty mind, so he didn't really think he meant anal as in "anal-retentive" at first. Even then, he was almost entirely positive that he had used anal in the completely wrong context. Chie seemed a bit flustered once she realized what Justin had started coughing over, her cheeks turning bright red. She wasn't really sure who she should be angry at, Takeshi for calling her anal, or Justin for thinking he meant anal in THAT way.

"Tch, if you lose that sunny attitude. You won't have anything left."

Justin stopped coughing long enough to hear Takeshi start ragging on Chie again.

"…Shut up!"

It was a very timid counter to Takeshi's attack. For whatever reason, she had decided not to go full-blown apeshit on his ass. So Justin decided to do it for her.

"Oh fuck off, Takeshi!"

"Huh!?"

Chie gave him a glare as though to tell him to just let it go, but Justin was having none of that. This guy had been ragging on her since day one, left her alone to face his muggers, where god knows what could have happened, and then he has the audacity to insult her. This wasn't just for Chie, this was for Justin. He wasn't going to let this guy drag her or anyone else through the mud any longer.

"Wh-What!?"

"You heard me! Chie saved your ass just the other day, and then you have the audacity to insult her? You're one real motherfucker of a gentleman, aren't you?"

"Now wait just a minute…!"

"No, you shut the fuck up! I'm tired of your bullcrap already! Let me make this absolutely clear, if I ever hear you bashing her like that again, I will finish the job those muggers started."

"Justin!"

Chie was appalled that he was acting like this. Sure Takeshi was being a dick, but to threaten him with physical violence just because he called Chie a name? That's crossing the line. Takeshi was just completely speechless. He probably wasn't used to having shit thrown back into his face.

"I-I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize to me, apologize to her!"

Takeshi turned his gaze back to Chie before dropping it down towards the ground. Justin was having a hard time telling if he was mortified by Justin's outburst, or if he truly felt bad. Probably the former.

"It's alright, Takeshi."

Chie glared at Justin slightly. It's not like she couldn't handle herself, and yet here Justin was trying to fight her battles for her. Still… she supposed she should be grateful that he cared enough to step in to the argument in the first place.

"S-So… uh… what's up with Yukiko."

Takeshi nervously tried to change the subject. He never outright said sorry to Chie, much to Justin's disgust.

"I saw her with you guys the other day… She seemed weirdly cheerful… She had this funky laugh, y'know…?"

Was he going to start talking shit about Yukiko now? Justin just shook his head in disgust. Before he just wanted to smack this kid, but now? Now he was working out places to hide the body.

"That funky laugh…? That's how she really is."

"Oh, you've rubbed off on her, huh? I can't believe it… That's not Yukiko-san… She was better gloomy."

_Alright, that's it._ Justin was about to punch Takeshi in his smug face. Who does he think he is trying to tell people what they should and shouldn't be? First Chie, now Yukiko? No one would object to this guy getting a good ass-kicking. He was ready to take a swing at the guy when Chie suddenly spoke up. She sighed slightly before opening her mouth to talk.

"…Look. If you get into trouble again, I'll step in and help."

"Huh…? Oh… Uh… thanks."

"So why don't you shut your mouth about Yukiko!?"

Justin forcefully blinked, as though he wasn't quite sure he had just heard what he thought he heard. He knew Chie was protective of Yukiko, but she hadn't even defended herself from this guy. Justin was almost entirely positive she had a crush on him at one point. I mean, it makes sense. Dealing with all of his shit, getting jealous whenever he had his eyes on Yukiko. But here she was, not giving a damn about any of that. Justin smirked slightly before glaring at Takeshi again.

"You don't know anything about her! She's a good person, got it!?"

"Wh-What the hell!?"

Justin had never been prouder of Chie in all his life as Takeshi turned around to walk away. He was just about to give Chie one of those playful shoves the two gave each other when something Takeshi had mumbled under his breath caught his attention.

"…jesus, what am I going to do about Kurt's goons now…"

Justin's eyes dilated. _Kurt!? No, it can't be the same Kurt, right? Right!?_ He suddenly made a mad dash for Takeshi, grabbing him by the collar, much to Chie's shock. She had half expected Justin to try and beat the crap out of him, much to her disapproval, so she was surprised when he instead took the opportunity to get up in his face.

"What did you just say!?"

"H-Huh!? I didn't say anything! Let me go!"

"Who the fuck is Kurt!"

"Huh!? None of your business!"

Justin kneed him in the groin, sending him down to the ground as he loosened his grip around Takeshi. Chie ran over to try and stop Justin, but to not much avail.

"Justin! Stop!"

"Give me a name, Takeshi, or so help me…!"

"K-Kurt Kimberly!"

Takeshi raised his arms into cowering position, hoping to protect himself if Justin went any further with his interrogation. Instead Justin stumbled away from Takeshi. Whoever this Kurt guy was, he was certainly involved with what was going on with Maya. He'd have all the answers, right!?

"Where is he...?"

"I don't know! I don't deal directly with him!"

"Justin, what are you doing!"

Chie had gripped at him by his upper arm. She was almost entirely positive that Justin was going to beat the living crap out of Takeshi if she didn't. Takeshi soon got up and made a mad dash away from the two.

"What the hell is wrong with you!"

"That name… Kurt Kimberly…"

Chie's glare softened the moment she realized what was going on. Justin recognized the name, which means it must have come up in another one of his dreams… Though he said that he had just been having the same dream over and over again, right?

"Don't tell me it was another one of your dreams…"

"What the hell is he doing all the way out here…"

"You know him?"

"By name and occupation only. Remember that dream in the food court? Well, Kurt was there. He was selling Maya cigarettes…"

Chie's eyes widened slightly.

"You think he might know something?"

"Kurt and Maya clearly knew each other well. He has to know SOMETHING."

Chie let loose her grip on Justin's arm. She hadn't really noticed her hand was still wrapped around it until just now, but even then, it seemed there was no reason for her to be restraining him. He had no intention of hurting Takeshi so long as he cooperated. And wouldn't you know it; Chie practically helped him get away. Justin didn't really hold a grudge, he knew why she had done it, but even then Chie felt like shit after she had realized why he had been acting that way. She sighed as she let go of his arm.

"I'm sorry…"

"It's alright. You didn't know." Justin sighed. "I should have said something sooner."

"You've known…?

Justin gave a glance Chie's way, before letting out some hot air. Her eyes were wide with concern, her lips curved downwards with disappointment. She had thought he could trust her with anything, hell so did Justin, yet her he was hiding everything he knew away from her.

"I… I can't tell you. I'm sorry."

"Is it bad…?"

"I can't say for certain… but it sure looks that way."

Chie looked off to the side. She didn't want to force Justin into telling her something if he didn't want to, but she felt almost hurt that he couldn't share something with her. It must have been a painful experience of Justin refused to talk about it. Chie tried to smile, though the worry in her eyes was still shining through like the sun through the clouds.

"Well we're just going to have to find this Kurt Kimbler then!"

"How, we don't have any le-"

Justin paused.

"Hey wait a second. Takeshi was mumbling something when I heard him bring up Kurt… 'What am I going to do about Kurt's goons now,' I believe it was…"

"Huh? Wait, you mean…"

"Those bullies from earlier must be Kurt's men."

Chie frowned. The way Justin had beaten up one of the thugs… Kurt couldn't have been pleased to hear about that. It would make it difficult to get information out of any of the parties involved now. Hell, they didn't even know where they could find those thugs now. She sighed slightly as she averted eye-contact. Justin had been thinking along similar lines, as he let out some hot air from his cheeks. Jesus, nothing ever seemed to work out for him.

"Sorry about interfering earlier."

"Huh?"

Chie was surprised by the sudden topic change. She thought they had been trying to figure out where they could find Kurt, but here Justin was bringing the topic back around to Takeshi. Maybe Justin just didn't want to think about Kurt. Clearly if it wasn't a topic he was entirely comfortable confiding in Chie, thinking about it must have been a painful experience.

"I went a little overboard, huh?"

"It's alright. I know you were just trying to help."

"I know you could have handled it yourself, but… You know, you didn't say anything…"

Chie chuckled. It wasn't that this was a particularly funny topic or anything, and it was a particularly forced and awkward chuckle, but she felt like it was a good way of indicating that bygones should be bygones. Really, she thought Justin was out of his mind earlier when he had gone on one of his anger-fits, but in actuality he had just been trying to give her a hand.

"Well, I couldn't just stand by and let him rag on Yukiko like that…"

"Seriously, who the hell says 'she was better gloomy'?"

"An idiot?"

"Damn straight!"

The two laughed a bit, mostly because the awkward tension that had been filling the air had been broken. They had plenty of time to find out who this Kurt guy was; there was no need to get all worked up over it.

"You know… Takeshi did remind me of something. Way back, I saw Yukiko sitting by the road, holding a dog. I asked her what's up and she said she ran away from home… She'd picked up the dog, but her parents told her she couldn't have a pet, and that she's have to get rid of it… She looked like she was dead or something… I tried everything I could think of to make her laugh. And that's how we became friends."

Justin smiled softly. He wasn't sure why exactly Chie felt the need to share this with him, but he was sorta glad she did. It was heart-warming to say the least. I mean, what was his and Maya' story? They egged someone's house and then started to smoke cigarettes?

"From that moment… I told myself I'd protect Yukiko… "

She paused for a moment, averting her gaze away from Justin, and back towards the ground. Her eyes were shimmering with the slightest hint of tears. Justin wasn't sure why, though he could only expect it had to do with what she said next.

"But… Somewhere along the way, I messed up, and that shadow popped out… After that, I tried to focus on what's good about me. I swore to quit being nothing but the girl Yukiko can rely on… So I just tried my best. At finding the culprit and stuff… just generally being more reliable… That's all."

She paused for a brief moment, tears starting to roll down her cheeks.

"I feel like I missed the point…"

Justin looked at her for a brief moment before sticking his finger out to catch a tear that had been running down her eye. She seemed a bit caught off guard by the motion, but happy none-the-less. Justin wrapped his arm around her back, his hand on her opposite shoulder, her shoulder against his.

"That's the first step."

"…Thanks. You're too kind. Though… maybe just half a step?"

Chie started to blush that pinkish-color again. Justin was still completely perplexed as to why she only did that around him. Justin chuckled at her embarrassment.

"I wouldn't say KIND, but I'll take what I can get."

"Well what would you say then…?"

"I'm not even sure."

Chie smiled at him briefly before speaking again.

"I wonder if there's anyone out there who can say, 'This is what makes me worthwhile!' I guess everyone's looking for it."

"God only know I do."

"What are you talking about? There are plenty of things that make you worthwhile."

"Name one."

"You're a good person."

"I'm not sure I'd agree with you."

Justin's thoughts raced back to the dream he had, the one about Maya and the gun. His eyes faced towards the ground, in shame. You can't be a killer and a good person at the same time. Chie looked at him, the sparkle in her eyes gone. She hated when Justin beat himself up like this. It's not like he even did anything bad, he's just grasping at straws, literally putting himself down; and for what? She sighed as she tried to change the subject. She knew there was going to be no use trying to convince Justin that he was better than he gave himself credit for.

"Oh yeah… that dog Yukiko picked up? It's gotten really fat at my place."

Justin let go of his grip along Chie's shoulder. He was more than a little surprised by the comment.

"Wait, you took the dog in for her?"

"Mhmm. You should come by and see it sometime! It smells, but it's cute! Maybe I'll walk it over to your house."

Justin chuckled.

"And you ever doubted you and Yukiko were friends. Keeping the dog for her? That is literally the nicest thing I have seen someone do in… God, forever."

"Well I don't know about that…"

"Don't be so modest."

"I could say the same to you."

"Not modesty, honesty."

"You can't honestly believe some of the things you say about yourself, right?"

"If only you knew Chie. If only."


	23. Chapter 22: May 2, 2011

CHAPTER 22

May 2, 2011

* * *

"Ugh, exams are the worst."

Justin had his head slammed against the library desk, his skin practically sticking to the wooden surface. He had just found out that exams were supposed to be next week, though that didn't really affect him that much. In reality, Justin never studied, even for exams. He just sorta skimmed whatever subject book the test would be on a few minutes before the test. Who it did affect, however, was Chie, who had barely been passing in school as it was. Chie had asked for his help studying for the test, and it's not like he could just say no, so here he was, listening to the clock tick away as he tried to keep his mind elsewhere.

"Alright, so then I add X to this side, right?"

"No, you subtract it. You have to do the same thing to both sides, not the opposite."

"Oh! Alright."

Justin sighed. It wasn't that he disliked giving Chie a hand… it was just he disliked giving Chie a hand studying. I mean, it was clear she desperately needed it based on some of the questions she had asked, but still. He really would rather be doing something else; eating ramen, going to Junes, playing video games. Hell, he would take getting kicked in the gut to this any day of the week. At least then he could move around. Really, that was what he despised so much about studying. You wouldn't really notice unless someone pointed it out, but Justin was completely incapable of staying still. If you went somewhere like the roof to hang-out, he would pace around. If you were sitting at the mall, he would be shaking his knee back and forth. If you had been sitting in school, he'd be tapping his fingers against the end of his desk. Hell, even at night he kicked at his blankets like a motherfucker. Studying? You couldn't have any of that shit, lest you lose concentration. And he almost always did, which is why Justin simply stopped studying after a while. It's not like he got anything done, and his grades didn't change anyway.

"How come you aren't studying?"

"I never study."

"But exams are just next week!"

"I never. Study."

Justin gave Chie a glance. He had never been more serious in her life. Looking at him now, it was clear to her that he didn't want to be there. Hell, she really didn't either, but she needed to get these grades up or her parents would kill her. You wouldn't know it from looking at her, but Chie's parents were actually pretty strict. Which is strange, as one would assume that's what Yukiko's parents were like. Yukiko's parents were exactly what people expected Chie's parents to be like, and vice-versa. It actually made things really awkward when people met their parents. Chie looked up at the clock, checking to see how long they had been studying. It had been about an hour or so. Chie sighed.

"Just a couple more minutes and we can go."

Justin tried not to look happy about that, but alas, it shone through clearer than a dead fish in a fish bowl. Chie simply shook her head. It was a nice gesture that he was trying to help her with her grades even though he didn't really want to, but it just made her feel like shit for dragging him along, and then when she felt like shit she couldn't concentrate and everything just sorta falls apart.

"We can stay as long as you want."

"Well I only want to stay for five more minutes."

"Fair enough."

"Alright, so history. What do you know about communism?"

"Everyone worked harder with a gun in their back for a bowl of rice a day; slaved for soldiers till they starved, and their heads were skewered on a stake. Next question."

_I hope she doesn't take that answer seriously…_

* * *

"Today is steak bowl day! Just you wait!"

"You and your steak."

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

The two had gathered outside of Aiya after finishing their studying session. This, Justin could deal with. He was more than happy to move his legs again, and at least he could quit making sarcastic remarks about communism using Dead Kennedy lyrics. Not that he didn't have fun doing that, mind you, but he was running out of material, and there was no way in hell he was touching Police Truck with a five and half mile long pole. He valued his life enough.

"I'm not buying you another steak."

"I said sorry already! Jeeze."

Justin chuckled. He knew she still felt bad about it, so the more he shoved it in her face, the more she'd realize he really didn't give a flying fuck. The two were about to make their way inside, when they heard an all too familiar sound.

"I-I don't have anymore."

Justin stopped cold in his tracks.

"D-Don't tell me they're at it again!?"

"You think it's the same people?"

Chie stared at him for a brief moment before remembering their conversation from the previous day. That's right, those thugs Justin had beaten the crap out of the other day might have had a connection to Kurt. As much as she hated to think it, she was almost glad that they were at it again. They would have never been able to track them down again if they hadn't.

"Let's go!"

Chie ran off down the alley-way, though Justin took his time, tapping his cane about as he made his way around each corner. The thugs weren't going anywhere, and if they saw him running in, well that could potentially scare the lot of them off. At least if he walked in casually they'd second guess running away. He rolled the end of his cane against the bricks in the walls beside him, whistling a tune about some guy named Lee. By the time Justin had made it over to where Chie had ran off to, she had already been prepared to jump the lot of them should they try to make a foul move. As he got closer and closer to the group he noticed that the apparent victim here was a small child, probably no older than ten. What kind of sick fuck mugs a ten year old?

"Huh? Aw not her again!"

"And she's got company."

The head thug looked startled. Had the others not been watching him, Justin could have sworn he would have made a mad dash away from Justin. But alas, people like this guy got their power from being encouraged by others. If those other two punks weren't there egging him on, he'd be worthless. He'd have nothing and no one. He'd have no reason to be mugging people. Justin gave the leader a glare as he slowly paced himself forward.

"Alright assholes. I've got questions, you've got answers. If you want to keep your shins where they are, you'll tell me everything."

"What!? We're not telling you shit!"

"Wrong answer."

Justin was about to take a swing at one of their knees, bringing them down to the ground when Chie put her hands in front of her, her head gesturing towards the small child in the corner. _Shit, that's right. I can't beat the living daylight out of these thugs with him around. He'll be scarred for life._ The thugs apparently noticed Chie holding him back, because they suddenly stopped withdrawing from the sight of Justin and had gone back to the head on aggressive nature they had showcased during their first encounter.

"Heheh, I know how to handle this bitch."

"You look like you got something planned."

Justin only frowned as he leaned on his cane, anticipating whatever "clever" plan they had come up with. Seriously, how good can this plan be when one of the thugs just said "you look like you've got something planned," after he had just said he had something planned. Clearly they are not the sharpest tools in the shed.

"H-help!"

Justin looked down to see the child again. He was scared out of his fucking mind. He gave him a reassuring nod and smile to try to calm him down. And it worked to a certain extent, though that went down the drain the instance the thugs started opening their mouths.

"Hear that, 'Chie-chan'? He wants help."

If Justin had been drinking something at the moment, he probably would have had to do a spit-take. How the hell did they know Chie's name?

"How do you know my name…?"

"We ran into the guy you saved last time… Had a friendly conversation."

_Takeshi!? That motherfucker sold us out? So that's how he was going to get Kurt's goons of his back; by giving names. Takeshi sold us out to save his own ass!? I am going to MURDER that son of a bitch!_

"So then I assume you know who I am as well."

"Of course, 'Justin.' What kind of fucking name is that anyway?"

"It's latin for Justice. You know, the thing I'm going to lay down on your ass if you don't tell me exactly what I want to know."

"You know, that Takeshi guy told us a lot of stuff. Like where you live, and about that precious 'Yukiko-san' of yours."

He did what? He hadn't just given names; he had given addresses, loved ones. He was so afraid of Kurt, yet he was willing to sell out his friends, possibly costing them and innocent's lives just to save his own ass? _I'm going to find him, and I'm going to make him pay. One way or another._

"…What are you trying to pull!?"

"Oh, I'm just going to have a little chat with this kid. Stay put, okay? Cause who knows what'll happen to 'Yukiko-San' if you get in our way…?"

"Man that's nasty."

Justin only smirked at the comment. He knew it was an empty threat, though Chie certainly didn't. She was completely freaking out. Justin had a solution if worst came to worst, but he knew Chie wanted to handle this situation on her own.

"Why, you…!"

Chie took a step forward, as though about to beat the shit out of one of the thugs.

"You sure about that? So you don't care what happens to your best friend?"

"Fine, then hit me!"

Justin was a little more than surprised. That was not what he had expected her to do. He had expected her to kick ass and then take names, not give them a free swing at her. Justin slowly creeped his hand into his pocket. Chie had thought Justin dropped his gun off with Teddie, but truth of the matter is, it wasn't that he didn't trust Teddie; it was that he didn't trust anyone. Hell, he didn't even trust himself with a gun anymore, but alas he trusted himself with it more than he did anyone else.

"You're pissed at me, right!? Then why don't you just take a swing at me? I won't fight back. Be my guest. The face, the gut, just pick a target! As hard as you want!"

Chie stepped right up into one of the thugs face, only a centimeter or so away to be precise. Justin smirked; he sorta understood what she was trying to do now. Reverse Psychology, give them what they want, and they won't want it anymore.

"C'mon!"

"What's with this bitch…? She for real?"

"Whatever man… let's go…"

The thugs turned to walk away, though Justin had stuck the hooked end of his cane out, grabbing the one in front by his neck. Chie had scared them off for the most part; they would no doubt leave once Justin let them, but in the mean time, he still needed answers.

"Not so fast. I still have some questions."

"Pfft, Like I'd tell you anything."

"That a fact?"

Justin tugged at the cane, sending the thug closer to him. He grabbed him by the head and slammed his face against the brick wall, breaking off one of his teeth and sending blood down the side of his cheek. Chie recoiled in slight horror as she watched the violent outburst, though that was mostly because there was a child present. In actuality, she understood that Justin and Chie had this good cop, bad cop, thing going. It was obvious which one was which.

"How about now."

"I-I'll talk!"

"Kurt. Tell me where he is."

"In the rundown warehouse! They don't use it anymore so he hides all the goods there!"

"Good boy."

Justin let go of his grip on the thug, dropping him gently to the ground before he took off in a mad dash, the other thugs following close behind. Justin sighed. It might not have looked it with all his outbursts as of late, but Justin really hated having to resort to violence like that to get an answer out of someone. He leaned over and picked up the thugs tooth from the ground, rotating it at every angle. He had half considered keeping it as a trophy before realizing how absolutely disgusting that was.

"M-Miss, M-Mister… Thank you…"

Chie's expression of horror and disgust at the bloodshed she had just witnessed turned into shock, and then eventually joy. She hadn't been expecting thanks, especially over just trying to do the right thing, but it was nice none-the-less. Justin himself smirked slightly. He'd like to think he did that for the kid, but in actuality he had done it just to get answers about Kurt. That's not to say he wouldn't have done it if Kurt wasn't involved but… He needed that information.

"Huh? Oh, no, don't worry about it!"

The child gave a quick nod of his head towards Chie before running out of the alley, most likely back towards his house. Justin sighed. In a way, the kid reminded him a lot of when he was younger; stuttering over words, ridiculously polite and formal… Thank god he grew up. Chie turned towards Justin. She looked completely exhausted.

"My heart's still pounding…"

"I could imagine!"

"…was that stupid of me?"

"You saved that kid, didn't you? Reckless? A little. Stupid? Not at all."

Chie's face brightened up a bit at the remark.

"…Thanks."

Justin smiled at Chie as her face turned pink with embarrassment. At least, Justin had assumed it was embarrassment. He noticed her face seemed to turn that pinkish color when ever Justin had been trying to flatter her, as opposed to that reddish color when she was mortified.

"It might've been stupid, but I wanted to save them… That kid, Yukiko."

"I don't think Yukiko was ever in real danger. It was just a bluff to get you to stand down."

"You think so?"

"Yeah. Though I think we still need to kick Takeshi's ass for that."

Justin was entirely surprised to see Chie nodding her head in agreement. She wasn't exactly fond of the guy anymore, but she still defended him when Justin tried to talk shit about him. Now she had been outright agreeing with him.

"I know that feeling wasn't fake… I really wanted to protect them… "

She paused for a moment, her face turning bright pink.

"Uhm, well… I also wanted to protect you."

Justin started wheezing again, much to Chie's displeasure. She really couldn't tell if it was the smoking that did this to him, or if he just seemed to choke on comments floating through the air. _Protect me? The fuck do I need protecting from?_

"I might be a little flaky… And maybe you don't need protecting… But… I…"

Chie was stammering over her words, trying to choose them very delicately. Justin felt his face growing completely red. _What the hell is going on?_

"I want to protect you…"

"Uh…"

Justin tried to answer that remark, though nothing seemed to immediately pop in his head on how to respond to that. _Seriously what is with all this 'protecting' crap abou- Wait. She doesn't mean...? Oh dear god she does_. Justin blushed as he started to understand the implications, which in turn only made Chie blush harder. Justin really wasn't sure how to feel about the situation. His stomach felt like it was turning into knots.

"I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-"

Justin wasn't entirely sure what had compelled him to do it, but he grabbed Chie by the hand, pulling her towards him as he pressed his lips against hers. Chie's eyes had been wide with shock at first, though they eventually fluttered close as their lips parted ways. By the time Justin realized what he had just did, his face was hot red. He didn't know why he had done it, but he did. He was filled with a variety of emotions; confusion, shock, embarrassment… Strangely enough, he felt… happy. He felt like his heart was going to burst out of his chest at any given moment, and god knows his hand was completely wet with sweat by this point.

"You're really bad at this you know." Chie joked, her entire face flushed.

Justin really didn't have much room to argue. It was embarrassing to admit, but he actually had never kissed a girl before. Especially not one he had known for three weeks. _Jesus, I must be out of my goddamned mind._ Justin let loose his grip in Chie's hand, instead choosing to place it against his forehead. He had a headache the likes of which he had never felt before, not to mention he was confused beyond all recognition. Chie only seemed to be confused by the motion.

"Something wrong…?"

A lot of things were wrong, though Justin wasn't sure how to explain it without hurting Chie's feelings. It wasn't so much that he didn't like her. He really did. But he was completely caught off-guard by this entire situation. He had thought they were just friends, yet here they were having just exchanged a kiss on the lips.

"No. I'm just a little… surprised. Shit…"

Chie looked more than a little concerned. The way Justin was fidgeting about afterwards wasn't a good sign. Eventually he puffed out some hot air from his cheeks. Justin reached out his hand again, weaving out his fingers in between Chie's. He wasn't sure what he should or shouldn't be doing anymore, but he just didn't care. Chie started to blush again as their grip on each other's hands tightened.

"We cannot let Yosuke know about this. Ever."

Chie giggled at the comment. Of course there was no way in hell Yosuke would EVER be allowed to find out. They got enough crap about them as it was from Yosuke, they didn't need to confirm his not-so-crackpot theory. Chie and Justin starred at each other for a brief moment before averting eye-contact. In all honesty, it was pretty embarrassing for the two of them.

"Was I really that bad?"

"I've had worse."

Justin gave her a playful shove.

* * *

"The fuck are you laughing about?"

The interrogator had started to chuckle from across the table. It wasn't a mean chuckle or anything like that, but Justin still didn't like the idea of someone he hardly knew laughing at him for something that personal.

"Ah, young love."

Justin shook his head in disgust. His love life wasn't up for discussion.

"Reminds me of when I was a boy actually. That's how I ended up meeting my wife, you know."

"So I've heard."

"Did you two end up dating?"

"I don't see how that's any of your concern."

"I don't see how it's not. I haven't seen you in a good five years or so. We have a lot of catching up to do."

Justin starred at the man for a good few seconds before letting out a sigh.

"Fine. Kinda, but not really. We kept it as a secret from everyone, and even then, it's not like we went on dates or anything. We just hung out like usual."

"She sounds like a nice girl."

"She is."

The interragtor took another sip of his beverage, a smile sweeping across his face. It was refreshing to see two people fall in love at such a young age.

"Alright. So what's going on with this Kurt business."

"Well, as you know, I managed to get the information on Kurt's hideout from those thugs."

"A risky move, but I suppose the payout was worth it."

Justin pulled out another cigarette, lighting it up at the end before answering the question.

"I should have cashed out when I had the chance."

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTES**

**Hey guys. Just a heads up, on 10/6 and 10/7 I'm going to be at my cousin's wedding. Unfortunately, there isn't going to be any wi-fi, which means there will be no updates for those two days. On the bright side, I'll still have my laptop with me, which means I can still get some updates ready for when I return from our short break. Instead of doing an update on Saturday - 10/6 and Sunday - 10/7, I did a double update today and plan on doing a double update on Monday to try and compensate for the missed dates. Sorry for the inconvenience.**


	24. Chapter 23: May 3, 2011

CHAPTER 23

May 3, 2011

* * *

"I must be out of my goddamned mind."

Justin starred at the ceiling of his bedroom, his hand planted against his forehead. He hadn't even been able to close his eyes last night, let alone sleep, and yet he wasn't even tired. His mind seemed to race around, thought after thought pelting against his brain. What had happened between him and Chie, he couldn't possibly explain what had to have gotten into him. They had known each other for three freakin' weeks. How was that enough time for either of them to fall for each other? There was only one possible explanation: Justin must have died and gone to hell at some point.

There was no way this could possibly work out between them. I mean, did Chie even really know Justin all that well? All she knew about him was that he was a sarcastic prick that probably has more problems than an algebra test. Not exactly the most charming traits to find in a person. His thoughts were interrupted by the all too familiar sound of knocking at his front door. He didn't need to answer the door to know who it was. It was always Chie, every freaking time. Maybe if he just played dead she'd go away and leave him to his thoughts. And as much as he wanted to do just that, he had forced his way to the door, opening it up slightly. Sure enough, there stood Chie, her eyes shining brighter than he had ever seen them shine before. He wished they didn't, it just made this entire situation worse.

She must have noticed Justin's reluctance to open the door, because her smile soon turned to a frown, her eyebrows curved upwards with concern. He hadn't noticed it, but he had on a frown when he opened the door, nor did he greet Chie with the traditional "Hey." Rather, he had been staring at her with dark rings under his eyes. Even though he wasn't tired, he had gone over twenty-four hours without sleep.

"H-Hey... Geez, you don't look so good."

An understatement, to say the least.

"You didn't have another one of those dreams, did you!?"

Justin hadn't even considered that he had come across like that. In retrospect, he looked a lot like he did any other time he had one of those dreams; dark rings under his eyes, a frown spread across his face, his hair messy as all hell. Justin let out a burst of hot air. No, it wasn't a dream, but honestly, he would prefer it to this.

"No… listen, we need to talk."

"H-huh? A-about what?"

_Dammit Chie, stop making this so difficult!_

"About yesterday…"

Justin paused for a moment, taking in the sight of Chie's face, looking for the slightest change of emotion. She still seemed concerned, though there was the slightest upward curvature in the cracks of her mouth. She seemed happy about it, at the very least, which did nothing but confuse Justin more.

"Chie, what do you even SEE in me."

"Wh-what do you mean?"

"You've known me for three weeks, Chie. THREE. WEEKS. Do you even KNOW anything about me!?"

Chie averted eye-contact for a moment. Clearly this isn't what she thought Justin was going to say, even clearer that she didn't like where this was heading. In all honesty, she had no idea how to answer that question. There were plenty of things she liked about him, but when he put her on the spot like that, she was finding it difficult to think of a single thing. Justin knew it was going to be a difficult question, but if she couldn't answer, there really was no spark between them.

"W-well…"

"Seriously. Just one thing. One thing you like about me."

Chie starred at him for a brief moment, biting on her bottom lip as she tried to think.

"You're you…"

She smiled slightly at the remark, though she still seemed concerned. Justin sighed. It was clear she was just trying to side-step the question, yet somehow… it worked. I mean, she could have given him an entire list of things she liked about him, and he still wouldn't be entirely convinced; yet here she was saying she only liked him because Justin was Justin. She liked him just for being himself… They say love is supposed to be unconditional, though Justin never thought they meant it like this.

In retrospect, he wasn't even sure why had felt the need to interrogate Chie on the incident. He had kissed her, not the other way around. What the hell had he been thinking? I mean, he liked Chie, but he didn't really like her like that. At least… he didn't think he did. Something had to have made him do it, though he wasn't entirely sure what. Hell, if he didn't really like her that way, why would he be debating back and forth in his head like this. It was all just too confusing.

"…I'm sorry, I'm just…"

"Confused?"

"Yeah…"

Chie looked slightly concerned, though she seemed at least a little bit happy that Justin had confided in her. She averted eye contact once again, her cheeks a rosy pink color. Justin couldn't help but groan. He was going to give this dating thing a chance, but even little stuff like that pink shade her face turned when she was around him just confused him more. Three weeks. Three. Fucking. Weeks. Surely this was completely unheard of.

"Uh… W-Well the rest of us are all heading to Junes. I thought you might like to join us…"

Justin brushed a few stray hairs from his face, letting out some hot air in the process. That actually seemed like a good idea. Maybe if he just kept his mind off of him and Chie he'd be alright.

"Y-yeah. Yeah, alright. I take it the others know?"

"Yosuke's on-shift, so he's already there, and Yukiko's going to meet us there."

"And Yu?"

"I was hoping you'd come with me to ask."

Chie grinned that wide grin of hers. As confused as he was, Justin couldn't help but grin back. It was like puppy-dog eyes, only instead of being a mind-control device, it just made him smile back. _Damn she's good._

"Sure, just give me a few minutes to get ready."

* * *

"Oh good, you're home!"

Justin stood behind Chie as Yu opened the door. A smile spanned his face for a moment, though it turned into a frown the minute he realized what she was there for. Yu took a glance over her shoulder, having noticed Justin with her. He was pacing back and forth, more so than usual. He briefly wondered why before turning his attention back towards Chie.

"Hey, if you're free today, wanna go somewhere? Yukiko's coming, too."

Yu's eyes widened abit once Yukiko's name was mentioned. Justin couldn't help but groan. He knew damn well where that was heading. Of course, that only lasted for a moment as Yu bit his bottom lip, making a slight nod of his head towards Nanako. Justin hadn't even noticed her, probably because Chie and Yu were both significantly taller than her AND were standing in the way. Justin gave her a small grin, though she only seemed embarrassed by the motion. Chie didn't seem it all phased by Yu's duties to babysitting Nanako, instead choosing to extend her invitation to her too.

"How 'bout you, Nanako-chan? Wanna come?"

"U-Um…"

Yu placed his finger towards his chin, as though to think. He could still babysit her if he took her with them right? Besides, might be good for her to get out of the house.

"Yeah, come with us."

"Huh? I-I can come?"

Justin couldn't help but laugh. Why wouldn't she be able to? Unless her father was against that kind of thing, but Yu probably wouldn't have asked her if she couldn't.

"Yeah, Heh… of course you can!"

* * *

"Why'd you bring poor Nanako-chan to a place like this on Golden Week?"

The group sat around their usual spot in the food court. It was amazing that they always managed to get the same table, but Justin didn't pay it too much mind. Yosuke was still on shift, so he had been shuffling back and forth between chatting with the group and jumping behind the food-court counter.

"I'd imagine the same reason she dragged me along."

"Because they're in love?"

Chie kicked Yosuke under the table, as per usual. The only difference was this time her eyes were opened wide, her face beat red. She might as well have been wearing a giant neon sign that said "Justin x Chie FOREVER." Justin couldn't help but sigh. His cheeks felt a little hot themselves, but since he had been leaning his head on his palm anyway, no one would be able to notice.

"Ow! I was just joking!"

"No you weren't."

"Hey, shut up!"

Chie glared at him for a few more moments. It looked as though she wasn't sure whether she wanted to kick him again or not. Instead she decided to just answer his question so he would shut up.

"Where else is there to go?"

"I love Junes!"

At that very moment Yosuke practically leapt out of his clothes in joy. For a guy who didn't really want to be associated with Junes, he sure got awfully proud whenever someone complimented it. Like, what was he supposed to be proud of anyway. He's the son of the manager, not exactly an impressive feat.

"N-Nanako-chan…!"

"Easy there tiger, she's still a minor."

"Yeah, yeah, up yours too."

Justin chuckled. It was always good fun when the group was joking about each other's love lives. Just so long as they weren't joking about his love life, in which case it was absolutely mortifying.

"But we were supposed to go on a real trip somewhere. We were going to make boxed lunches…"

"Wow! You can make boxed lunches, Nanako-chan?"

Justin had no idea what a boxed lunch was, but given that most of his questions were met with an obvious answer or a sarcastic response, he decided to just assume it was some sort of sacred treasure. Especially with the way everyone was impressed with Nanako's ability to make one. Or at least, the thought of Nanako making one. Nanako nodded her head and placed her gaze on Yu, suggesting that he had been the one in charge of making 'boxed lunches.' Justin couldn't help but smirk. Yu never struck him as a cook.

"Oh, so you're the family cook. Pretty impressive, 'big bro'!"

"Big… bro."

_Oh jesus, what did Chie just start._ Justin exchanged a glance with Yu. It was clear he wasn't sure how to react to being called 'big bro.' He WASN'T her big bro, so there was that. Still, it was kind of adorable, in a weird way.

"Whoa, you can cook? Well, you do seem to be great with your hands-Um, never mind."

Justin was mid-way through a sip of cola when Yosuke had made that remark. As disgusted as he knew the others got when he did a spit-take, Justin could not help himself. He turned away from the table as a fountain of cola spouted from his mouth. The rest of the group recoiled, a look of disgust on their face, save Nanako who found it somewhat humorous.

"Dude, that's disgusting! Now I've got to clean that up!"

"Jesus, Yosuke. Keep it G-rated around the kid, will ya?"

Nanako looked completely confused. She was too young to understand the innuendo, but Justin still didn't need her going home and asking her father what that meant. He'd probably kill the lot of them, or at the very least Yu.

"I-I'm a pretty good cook too, you know… Probably. If you'd asked, I would've whipped up some boxed lunches as easy as pie. Yeah…"

"…Probably?"

Chie gave Justin a quick glare. _Touchy subject?_

"Uhh, lemme think about-No."

"What makes you think I can't cook!? Let's have a cook-off and see for ourselves!"

"That's just between you and Yosuke, right? Because I have enough problems without poisoning someone."

It was true. If it didn't have heating instructions on a microwave tray, Justin was almost guaranteed to make it inedible. He managed to burn macaroni and cheese once. You know, that thing you BOIL.

"My, my, doth the lady protest too much? And hey, I never said I cooked. But I have this weird feeling… Like I'd win anyway…"

"Ahaha, I can understand that."

"What the-Yukiko!?"

Chie was completely bewildered, betrayed be her best friend. Justin couldn't help but gag a little bit. How bad WAS her cooking?

"Here, Nanako-chan can be our judge. I bet we'll make something that ranks up there with your mom's cooking, Nanako-chan!"

Yu flinched slightly at the comment, though no one really knew why until Nanako spoke up a few moments later.

"I don't have a mom. She died in an accident."

The table grew completely silent, smiles turning to expressions of shock. Justin had been in the middle of taking another drink, having stopped as the comment hit his ears, the soda brushing up and down against his lips. Chie swapped her glance back and forth between the two, though none of the others seemed to have made the connection. Justin gently put the cup down on the table before placing his face in his hand. _She's six. She shouldn't have to deal with this kind of shit…_

"You alright…?"

Chie silently whispered to Justin on the side. No, no he really wasn't. He had a hard enough time coping with his parents' death at the age of sixteen; he couldn't possibly imagine how Nanako was doing it at her age. Or why. Why should any child have to live without their parents? Justin just wanted to punch something or SOMEONE. _Maybe I'll just punch Yosuke for even bringing up the topic in the first place. I mean, he had no way of knowing her mother was dead, but hey. He's a good scapegoat._

"Y-yeah…"

"Hey, Yosuke…"

"I-I see… Um… Sorry, I didn't know."

Justin huffed. At least he had the decency to apologize for being a douche nozzle.

"It's okay. Even if I don't have a mom, I have Dad with me… And now I have a brother, too."

Yu's face turned beat red. He really wasn't fond of being called her brother, or at the very least, not in public.

"And I'm having a lot of fun today! I love Junes!"

"Y-Yeah? That's good."

Yosuke sighed with relief, as though a cloud had been lifted from over his head. _No one got this worked up over MY dead parents. Well, except Chie, but given the way this is turning out, I'm not at all surprised._

"We'll play with you anytime you want, Nanako-chan!"

"Yeah, we should hang out more often."

Justin really wanted to object. He liked Nanako, she was very likeable AND mature for her age. So why didn't he want her there? Simply put, if they took a six year old with them everywhere, he'd have to keep censoring himself, and given that he had the biggest potty mouth in the entire city, that was going to be problematic.

"C'mon, Nanako-chan. Let's go get a soda!"

"Okay!"

The two got up from their seats, making their way to the counter. Justin half-expected Yosuke to use her as an excuse to get out of working. That way, he could grab her soda, and then take a break. Considering Yosuke had been running back and forth damn near the entire time they were there anyway, he assumed Yosuke probably wasn't on break to begin with.

"She's a strong girl…"

"I think she's too young to understand."

"She makes me feel like the little kid here…"

"Chie, you were always the little kid here."

Chie gave Justin a light shove, her face turning red again. She was starting to get more than a few funny looks from Yu and Yukiko. _Goddammit Chie_, _we're supposed to be keeping this a secret!_ Suddenly Chie stood up, slamming her hands on the table, as though trying to make a point.

"That's it; I'm gonna go get something for Nanako-chan too!"

Chie and Yukiko got up, making their way out of the food court, towards what, Justin could only guess. That left him and Yu alone sitting at the table. Maybe they could have a starring contest; it wouldn't be much different from their usual conversations. Yu gave a quick nod in the direction Chie had left.

"What's up with you two?"

"What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean."

"Oh. That. It's not lik-"

Yu gave him a glare. Clearly he wasn't buying Justin's bullshit for even a second. Justin sighed before taking a look around. Yosuke had indeed gotten behind the counter again, so he would be up there for awhile, and Chie and Yukiko were long gone. Nanako might come back, but Justin didn't think she'd even understand what the two of them were talking about. And Yu… Well Yu still hadn't spilled the beans from the first time he talked to him.

"You can't say a word of this to anyone."

Yu nodded his head in agreement.

"We sorta… kissed. Like on the lips."

"Damn."

"What?"

"I owe Yosuke 2,000 yen."

Justin shook his head in disgust.

"You two were betting on it?"

"Well I didn't think you two were into each other."

"Yu,_** I**_ don't even know if we're into each other. I mean, SHE sure seems it but… I don't know. It's been three weeks. That can't be normal."

"Well I don't know about that."

"What do you mean?"

"Well does it really matter how long you know each other if you like each other?"

"But I don't know if I do like her like that! I just sorta… did it. I don't even know what got into me."

"Sounds like love got into you."

"You think it's that simple?"

"It's always that simple."

It was corny as all hell, but it sorta made sense. Justin smirked slightly. For a guy who never talked, he seemed to know a lot more about being social than Justin did.

"Alright, so what's going on with you and Yukiko?"

Yu recoiled his head backwards. _Gotcha, you son of a bitch._

"What?"

"Oh don't think I didn't notice how wide eyed you got when we mention her name at your house. Or how you just flinched two seconds ago."

"I don't really know her…"

"Oh no you don't. I told you about me and Chie, so now you have to tell me about you and Yukiko."

Yu sighed. Justin had a point…

"Alright, alright. She's a really nice girl."

"You two would make a good couple."

"Huh?"

"Well you barely talk, no offense, and Yukiko… Well Yukiko has a stick up her ass. You're perfect for each other."

"I'm sure she'd disagree."

"Never know if you don't ask."

Yu paused for a moment, staring in the direction the two girls had walked off.

"Maybe I should ask her to hang out sometime."

"Sounds like a good idea to me. But uh, word of advice?"

"Yeah?"

"Keep an eye on Teddie."

Yu nodded his head in agreement, his eyes wide open, his face slightly red with anger. Justin had been joking about Teddie, but it seemed Yu thought he was a serious threat. Even though he's a bear. Like seriously, if him and Yukiko got together, then clearly Yu was never her type to begin with. Justin looked out of the corner of his eye to see Yosuke jumping back over the counter.

"I swear to god if I hear one word of this come out of Yosuke's mouth."

"Hey, I promised didn't I?"

"No, actually, you just nodded."

Yu didn't respond.

"Uh, Yu…?"

Still quiet.

"Yu, I will rip your dick off if you say one word to Yosuke. I'm not joking."

"Alright, alright! I promise!"


	25. Chapter 24: May 4, 2011

CHAPTER 24

May 4, 2011

* * *

"So what do you know about this Kurt guy."

It was another holiday, and Yosuke and Yu were busy, so Chie had decided to join Justin for the day. The problem was, however, that today was the day Justin was going to get answers from Kurt. Justin was a little reluctant to let Chie tag along, but she was really the only one who knew what was going on with Kurt and the thugs. Maybe she could help him figure a few things out.

"Not much. He seemed like a nice guy in my dream, but Maya pissed him off over something."

"Do you know what?"

"Nadda. Hopefully we'll find out soon enough."

Justin and Chie stopped outside a big building in the shopping district, big black bars coming down and blocking the entrance, windows boarded up. The place had clearly been shut down a long time ago.

"This the warehouse?"

"Yep?"

"So… how do we get in."

Chie looked around for any signs of an entrance, but to not much avail. She sighed slightly.

"The back maybe?"

The two walked around back, carefully examining each wall, each corner, each crevice, for the slightest sign of the entrance. There was no back entrance, but Justin did notice something; a stack of cardboard boxes, making an almost stair-like formation. The entrance must be on the roof then, no? He tapped Chie on the shoulder, pointing up towards the roof, before carefully making his way up the cardboard boxes. Chie followed shortly behind him, though one of the cardboard boxes caved in on itself as Chie went to stand on it. Justin reached out his hand to give Chie a boost up towards the top, though she nearly pulled Justin OFF of the roof. As she climbed her way up Justin's arm, she seemed more than a little happy that Justin had offered her the boost up. She rolled over on her back as she finally made it to the top of her ascent, huffing heavily on the air.

"…Thanks."

She smiled meekly up at him; her eyes slightly squinted as the sun shone in her eyes. Justin grinned back, lending her a hand back up. As Chie made her way back up to her feet, Justin looked around the roof for an entrance. Sure enough, there was a door up top leading to a staircase back to the bottom floor. Justin slowly, but forcefully opened the door, Chie following quietly behind.

* * *

The bottom floor was relatively empty, stands where boxes could be stacked practically coating the place. The sounds of the two's footsteps echoed loudly through the room, as did the tapping of Justin's cane against the floor below him. Of course, that had been the intention once Justin noticed a person sorting through a few small boxes on the opposite side of the warehouse. They looked like cigarette cartons, which only meant one thing: Kurt Kimberly.

The figure turned around, a small bit of light from the ceiling glass illuminating his face. It was Kurt alright, only he seemed to have aged quite a bit since the time in his dream. His facial features seemed more prominent, the cracks of his mouth bigger when he smiled. Even so, he looked nearly the same; same hair style, same rough bear, same eyes, nose, mouth. Hell, he was even wearing that same fedora. He smiled lightly as he turned towards the two figures.

"Sorry, we don't do business directly from our storage."

"I'm here for a different kind of business."

Kurt squinted slightly. He recognized Justin's voice immediately, though he certainly didn't recognize the figure.

"…Justin?"

"Kurt."

Justin was half expecting the guy to pull out a gun, or try to run. Whatever Maya had been involved with had apparently involved Justin, and she seemed convinced that he was going to kill the both of them. Instead, he was met by Kurt making a mad dash up to him and greeting him with a large hug. Justin didn't hug him back of course; he was more than a little caught off guard by the friendly gesture. Kurt gave him a pat at his back as he let loose his hold on Justin.

"Oh man, it's good to see you!"

Chie seemed more than a little confused. This was not what she imagined Kurt to be like, and even less so how she thought he would react to Justin after Maya apparently pissed him off. She exchanged a glance with Justin, trying to figure out what was going on, but all he could offer her was a shrug of his shoulders. This was not what he had expected to happen in the slightest.

"Uh… good to see you too?

Kurt grinned at him for a moment longer before noticing the cane Justin was holding, his smile near instantly turning to a frown.

"Jesus, that thing about your leg was true?"

"What?"

"Well, you've got that cane, and there was that rumor about you losing your leg and…"

"Wait wait, there was a rumor about me losing my leg?"

"You didn't hear about that?"

"No..."

"Well they say you fell down the stairs."

Justin paused for a moment. A fall down the stairs huh… He didn't remember that. And that's what concerned him. He didn't remember the fall down the stairs that gave him his fear of climbing stairs either.

"Well, my leg's still intact."

Justin pulled back the hair that had been swept across his left eye, showing off his pupil-less iris. Luckily for Justin, Chie couldn't see his eye from the angle she was standing; otherwise she might have given him hell. After his vision didn't come back, he was a little concerned, but when he looked in the mirror and found his pupil completely gone, well… He didn't need a doctor to tell him the problem. Kurt seemed more than a little surprised.

"Jesus, man, what the hell happened."

"Long story, there was some steam involved."

"Tried cooking again?"

"What? No. Jesus, I'm not THAT bad."

Kurt gave him a funny look. _How the hell would Kurt even know how well I cooked?_ Kurt looked over to the other figure standing next to him. His frown suddenly shifting to a wide-grin again.

"I see you've found yourself a nice girl."

Justin gave another quick glance towards Chie. Really, if you ask a question enough times, eventually you'll get the answer you're looking for; but that didn't mean either of them were particularly comfortable with Kurt knowing jackshit about the two's love life.

"Why the hell does everyone assume we're a couple?"

Kurt shook his head, a smirk stretching from cheek to cheek.

"You never were a good liar."

Kurt pressed up against Justin, cupping his hand around his mouth to whisper in his ear. Justin was a little uncomfortable with Kurt getting so up-close and personal. It was like they had been the best of friends at some point. And given that Justin couldn't remember shit, that very well may have been the case.

"She doesn't know about the eye, does she?"

Justin nodded his head as Kurt gave him a quick grin.

"Alright, I gotcha. Don't worry, your secrets safe with me."

He stuck his hand out towards the other figure, a wide smile across his face. He was hard not to like, even when he was involved in shady business like smuggling cigarettes to minors.

"Anyway, Kurt Kimberly. And you would be?"

"Oh… Uh… Chie Satonaka."

"Charmed."

The two shook hands before Kurt went back to his laid back position, hands in his pockets, slight backwards curvature to his back.

"It's been forever man!"

His smile loosened up slightly, though he was still grinning.

"But aren't you still supposed to be in school? What are you doing all the way out here?"

Justin pressed his fingers against his head. He really wasn't sure if he should be telling Kurt anything. I mean, other than his goons, he hadn't really done anything to Justin to make him NOT trust him.

"My folks endded up passing away. Will and testament and all that shit had me relocated here."

Chie looked at Justin, concern in her eyes. Justin was very visibly trying to force the information up. Hell, Chie didn't even know that he was here because of his parent's will, yet here he was telling some random guy who may or may not be trying to kill the both of them. She felt like complete shit. Why would Justin trust someone like Kurt with that information, but not her? Kurt frowned. For whatever reason it seemed that his parents' passing had hit him hard. There was no way Justin and Kurt weren't friends at the very least, from the looks of it, otherwise he wouldn't be reacting the way he was.

"Jesus… I'm so sorry man."

"It's not a problem. Look, I'm here for a reason Kurt. What do you remember about Maya."

The frown on his face only seemed to deepen at the mention of Maya's name. The name apparently did not sit well with him, and it very visibly showed. Even then, he didn't seem to freak out or anything.

"Maya, huh? You'd probably know more than I do."

"That's the problem Kurt. I don't. I don't remember ANYTHING."

Kurt rubbed at his chin a bit, looking down towards the ground, before turning his attention back towards Justin.

"What exactly is it you want to know."

"What did Maya do to piss you off?"

"Piss me off? Have you ever seen me angry?"

"Honestly, Kurt, I barely remember you."

Kurt seemed almost hurt by the comment. Justin more or less had marked Kurt off as a forgotten friend at this point. They way he was offended that Justin had lost all memory of him. He wouldn't have that look on his face if he didn't care for Justin in some capacity.

"You don't huh…"

"It's not intentional, Kurt."

"I know, I know, I just…"

Kurt let out a sigh before looking Justin dead on in the eyes again, his mouth still curved downwards in a frown. He looked like he felt almost betrayed that Justin had forgotten him. He quickly tried to change the subject, much to Justin's displeasure. He seemed like a nice guy at the very least, so he hated the fact that he had betrayed Kurt in some capacity.

"Maya, right? Well… there was that one time with the cigarettes, I guess."

"What happened."

"Well, you know Maya's family was poor, right?"

"Vaguely."

"Well… She came up to me one day with an offer. Said something about being able to hide some of the merchandise, and in exchange I'd give her a small cut off the profits."

Justin crossed his arms. It sorta made sense. Maya and Kurt were apparently good friends, at least, before that dream with the gun, so it would make sense for her to turn to Kurt to try and make some money on the side; especially when Kurt pretty much ran an underground crime scene.

"But she didn't deliver."

"Well I wouldn't say it like that. She just…"

Kurt paused for a moment, picking his words carefully. Whatever Maya did, Kurt was still trying to show the upmost respect in regards to her. Hell he was practically defending her, even if she had wronged him.

"…Misplaced them. Still, that was money down the drain, and I am a business man, so…"

"You expected her to pay it back."

"Right! See, you understand."

Chie gave Justin a look. She wasn't entirely in the loop on what was going on in Justin's dreams, but from where she was standing it looked as though Kurt was trying to force a slum dog to pay for his merchandise. She was almost disgusted by the man, as charming as he had been.

"I'm not gonna lie Kurt, that doesn't seem like something to piss on someone's corpse about."

Kurt recoiled his head back in disgust, his mouth curving backwards, showing off his blindingly white teeth. Justin nearly smacked himself for thinking it, but goddamn Kurt was one sexy motherfucker. How he had never seen Kurt with a girl of his own before was completely beyond him. Maybe the whole "illegally selling smokes" thing was a huge turn-off.

"Piss on someone's- What!?"

"That's what Maya said. She said she pissed you off, and that you were going to kill us, piss on our corpses, and send them back to our families cut into tiny pieces."

Both Kurt and Chie looked absolutely bewildered, though Chie looked like she was going to hop across the room and beat the shit out of Kurt. Justin more or less had to talk her down using just his eyes; which is actually a lot easier than it sounds on paper.

"What!? Now why would I do that! I'm a businessman, not a barbarian!"

"Is that what you tell your little goons?"

Kurt paused, placing his hand against his forehead.

"What did they do this time…"

"They mugged a ten year old child and threatened a very good friend of mine. You're lucky I didn't send them back to you in a body-bag."

"Those sons of a-"

Kurt paused, pacing around the room. He was very visibly angered by his employees. Or maybe he was just angry that they had targeted a friend of Justin's. Who knew, all Justin knew was that Kurt was pissed off now.

"I sell cigarettes, Justin. I'm no made man. I don't go around mugging people to make a profit."

"Well your thugs do."

"Not for long."

Justin paused for a moment. Kurt really didn't seem the violent type from what he saw of him, but that… That sounded almost like he was going to whack the three of them off. He decided not to question it though, instead proceeding with his previous line of questions.

"So you weren't going to kill us?"

"God no. If she need more time to get the money, she could have just asked."

_Shit, we might have mugged someone for money we didn't even need…_

"Alright… so what happened after that?"

"Nothing. She paid for the cigarettes and I never saw her again."

"Goddammit…!"

Justin recoiled his head in rage. Kurt was a dead-end for information. He knew that Kurt was a nice guy, and he knew what Maya had gotten involved in, but that's it. Nothing about what could have happened with that gun. Though that mugging theory seems to be holding up particularly well right about now. Justin pressed his hand against his skull, sighing.

"Alright… Thanks Kurt. You know, you never change."

Kurt tipped the front of his fedora, a smile finally sweeping across his face again.

"They say it's my best trait."

Justin had turned around, ready to march out the way he came in, when a sudden thought struck his mind.

"Where exactly WAS Maya hiding the cigarettes anyway?"

"Huh? I don't really know, she was using all this weird codename crap. Something about a TV, or somethin'"

"…What?"

"Yeah, I know right? What the hell is TV a codename for?"

Justin gave a side glance towards Chie. Chie's mouth was wide open, her eyes slightly squinted, as though she didn't quite believe what she had heard. Hell, Justin didn't really believe it either. It couldn't have been what they thought… right? Maybe… Maybe there was a broken TV somewhere, and Maya hid the cigarettes inside of it. That would make sense right? Then if someone took the TV, the smokes would go with it! Yeah, that explains it!

"Alright, thanks Kurt."

"Anytime! Keep in touch, man."

Justin gave him a quick nod before turning towards the door again. Kurt seemed like a nice enough guy, plus he was just as entangled in this situation as Justin and Maya were. It might be worth keeping an eye on this guy. He was about to leave when Kurt spoke up again.

"Oh hey, wait."

Justin turned back around to be met by the sight of Kurt tossing him a carton of cigarettes. Justin barely caught them as they pounded against his chest. It was no secret that Justin had a hard time doing anything remotely athletic, catching included, so it almost came as a pleasant surprise for Justin when he managed to stop the carton from hitting the floor.

"On the house."

Justin looked at the carton. Same brand he smoked, plus he WAS running low. Still, as nice as Kurt seemed, something just didn't rub him right about this. He had given Maya free cigarettes before, but they were always just a pack at a time. An entire carton of them? What the hell is the catch?

"For free? These aren't laced with acid or something are they?"

"Oh, we've got some of those if you want that instead."

"You know what, forget I asked."

* * *

"Television?"

The interrogator rubbed at his bottom lip using his index finger. It seemed his intrest had been piqued just as much as Justin's had been at that point in time.

"You mean to tell me that she stashed the cigarettes inside the other world."

Justin smirked slightly.

"I'll get to that when the time is right."

The interrogator leaned back in his chair slightly. Clearly the thought of Maya being able to enter the television as well had puzzled him. From his basic understanding of the situation, there were two requirements for entering the television. One, you needed to have a persona. Two, you needed to live in the Inaba region. Unless he had misunderstood the second requirement, Maya shouldn't have been able to enter the television even if she did have a Persona. Unless the Midnight Channel had aired in California as well at some point. A confusing conundrum to say the least.

"Alright, so what about Kurt. Did you keep in contact with him?"

"Yeah. Turns out, he's actually a good guy. I still don't understand what Maya had been so paranoid of."

"Maybe the fact that he runs an illegal distribution ring!? Come on, surely you can see why he isn't someone you should associate with."

Justin seemed more than a little disgusted in the interrogator. Yes Kurt had been involved in some less than legal activities, but that isn't what defines him as a person.

"He's a good guy. I don't regret making his acquaintance for a second."

"He's an illegal tobacco peddler! Weren't you raised better than that!?"

"Apparantly not!"

Justin had started to lean across the table, his hands pressing on the surface. The interrogator was more than a little enraged by Justin's outburst. He certainly didn't approve of him getting involved with a character like Kurt, that was for damn sure. He sighed slightly before standing up.

"That's all for today's session. We'll continue this in the morning."

* * *

Justin was escorted out of the interrogation room by two officers, dressed in formal business attire. They were most likely detectives of some sort, not the usual police precinct. It took a while of walking before they escorted him to the cell he would retire to for the duration of his stay. It looked like a normal room for the most part. You had a bed, a dresser, a desk. Hell there was even a television at one point, but the cops took that out after Justin had disclosed his ability to jump into a television. He couldn't help but smirk at the thought of their reaction when the interrogator had passed that information along.

Justin lied on the bed. He wanted to smoke, but alas, he wasn't allowed to smoke when he wasn't under supervision by an officer. Guess they were afraid of what he would do with a lighter. Burn the place down? Please, it's made of concrete. He doubted it was all that flammable. Instead, Justin pressed his two fingers against his right ear, speaking out softly so that the guards wouldn't hear him mumbling to himself. They probably wouldn't be able to anyway, what with the walls and door, but it was better safe than sorry.

"Talk to me Rise."

"Y-you don't like my music?"

She sounded like she was going to cry on the other side. Justin had to sit up abruptly.

"Rise…? How long were you listening…?"

"The whole time. I wanted to make sure you were okay, so I…"

Justin rubbed his face. There was so much shit he had told the interrogator that he didn't want his friends to know. Especially not a gossip like Rise.

"So then the whole thing with the eye…"

"Y-yeah…"

"Have you told the others?"

"N-No, not yet-"

"Well, keep it that way."

"Why wouldn't you tell us about your eye? We could have helped you know!"

"Because it's not a big deal. Besides, what were you going to do, find a cure for blindness?"

"Well, no-"

"Then stop worrying about it… And for the record, it's just not my type of music."

"You're such a liar!"

'Would I l-"

"Yes."

Justin blinked fast, as though he wasn't sure he had just heard Rise interrupt him like that. That was more Chie's thing than her- Wait. Rise heard everything right? So does that mean she heard all that stuff about him and Chie? _Oh jeeze, Chie is going to kick my ass if she gets wind of this._

"Alright, so what's going on over on your end."

"Well…"

"Still can't find him?"

"S-sorry…"

Justin couldn't help but sigh. The entire point of him even getting interrogated was to buy the others time while they searched for the target. He really didn't want to stretch this whole interrogation thing on any longer than he had needed to.

"It's fine. Be sure to keep in touch."

"Alright will do."

"Oh, and say hi to Chie for me, will ya?"

Justin could hear the slightest chuckle come out from Rise on the other side. She knew damn well what Justin meant by that.

"Alright, I will."


	26. Chapter 25: May 5, 2011

CHAPTER 25

* * *

"Welcome back, Mr Tylor. I hope you're willing to be more reasonable today."

Justin took a seat across the table from the interrogator. The previous day's interrogation had been at night, so it was impossible to see save for whatever light had been provided by Justin's cigarette. Now, however, it was early in the day, and the sunlight had been seeping in through the outside window. The glare was going to be a pain in the ass, though Justin knew he was in no position to be complaining about it.

"Now then, when we last left off yesterday, you had finished telling me about how you met up with Kurt, correct."

"Yep."

"Alright then, you may proceed from there."

Silence filled the room for a brief moment, Justin looking the interrogator dead in the eye as he lit one of his cigarettes up. No words were exchanged between the two as Justin took a drag at his cigarette. He felt his heart slow down just a little bit as the smoke filled his lungs. He hated to admit it, but the more he smoked, the more he needed it to calm himself down. It was an addiction, but god be damned if he planned on quitting anytime soon.

"No."

The interrogator raised an eyebrow with surprise.

"No?"

"No."

"Mr. Tylor, may I remind you of our agreeme-"

"Our agreement is null and void."

Justin slammed the table with the fist that had not been holding a cigarette, much to the interrogator's displeasure. He had hoped that a night in his cell would calm him down, but it seemed that all it did was piss him off more.

"You said you'd tell me everything."

"I said my cooperation was circumstantial. Well the circumstances have changed."

"Mr. Tyl-"

"Don't you fucking "Mr. Tylor" me. My name is Justin goddammit, and you'll address me as such."

The investigator lowered his eyebrows, his teeth clenched together in anger. Under any other circumstances they would have just thrown the kid back in his cell, but he knew time could very well be of the top most essence. Justin was really the one pulling the strings here, and they both knew it. Besides, he had found himself more than a little intrigued with the story Justin had been telling him.

"Fine," he spat out, "Justin… Need I remind you of the situation you and your friends are being put into? If you don't cooperate, you'll all be paying the price for your crimes."

Justin starred at him from across the table, before standing up and pushing his finger into the middle aged man's face.

"Let's make this fucking clear. You walked out of my life five fucking years ago. You don't get to tell me how to live my life anymore! Not who I associate with, not what I do, not fucking ANYTHING!"

The interrogator starred at him for a moment, anger sweeping across his face. His heart was beating rather quickly, though you wouldn't be able to tell just from looking at him.

"Fine, you're an adult now, you can handle yourself. Now take a seat."

Justin practically jumped on the seat, anger still weaving its way through every fiber of his body.

"And don't you dare call my friends criminals again or so help me-"

"We can sit here bickering like children all day, or we can get something accomplished. You want me to treat you like an adult? Act like one."

Justin half wanted to spit in the interrogator's face, but he knew damn well that would end their session immediately and permanently. He wasn't here just to piss of cops anyway. He was here to stall for time, and as much as he didn't want to, that meant continuing his story.

"Don't push your luck, detective. You don't want to be on my bad side."

"I think I got on your bad side a long time ago."

* * *

May 5, 2011

* * *

"Holy mother of shit…"

Justin's jaw had practically hit the floor as he opened to door to greet Chie. He had just been expecting her, as per-usual, but instead found a mountain of fur standing next to her. When she had said she kept Yukiko's dog for her, he didn't think she meant a fucking grizzly bear. The thing was as big as her, if not bigger.

"Well I said I'd walk him over to your house sometime, didn't I?"

Chie smiled that goofy smile she usually did, her hand rubbing at the back of her neck. Justin was still completely speechless. How the hell was she able to walk this thing without it dragging her the entire way? The dog jumped up to lick Justin's face, interrupting his thought process. He nearly knocked Justin off his feet, but luckily, it seemed the dog didn't need to jump that high to reach him.

"Jesus, Chie, this thing's bigger than you."

The dog soon jumped off of Justin before making its way into his house. Justin never said the dog could come in, nor would he have, but it seemed Chie decided it was okay for the two of them to get comfortable. The dog made its way over to the couch, practically taking up the entire thing as he sprawled his body across his surface. Justin just planted his face into his palm. This was not going to do wonders for his allergies. Chie seemed only slightly displeased with the dog jumping up on the couch like that, though she eventually made her way over to sit in the small slot on the couch next to him.

"Sorry about him. He does this all the time."

"Wait a second. All the time? There's someone else isn't there! Who is he!? I'll kill him!"

Chie chuckled at the joke, though Justin only found his cheeks getting hotter as the words left his mouth. He meant it as a joke, but it just seemed to bring attention back to the two of them being a couple. Or at least a trial couple. He wanted to think that he really liked Chie, but he just seemed to be mortified every time he saw the two in that light. Justin decided to shake the thought off for the moment, making his way up to the dog to give him a pat on the head.

"So what's his name?"

"Kenji."

The dog licked at Justin's fingers as they rubbed the bottom of his mouth. Justin liked dogs a lot, but god his allergies made it near impossible for him to have one himself. Hell even this would have him sneezing for the rest of the day, just give it an hour or so.

"What in god's name have you been feeding this guy?"

"Well… you know… table scraps…"

"You know you wouldn't have to do that if you didn't eat so much steak after school."

"Hey, shut up!"

Chie threw a pillow at Justin. It was funny at first, until Kenji assumed that was an invitation to play fetch. Needless to say, the pillow was not going to see the light of day for a long, long time. Justin just shook his head as the dog dropped the pillow in front of Chie, covered in spit. The dog looked almost proud, as though he had accomplished something worthy of praise. Justin almost felt bad that the dog had completely destroyed part of his couch. Puppy dog eyes are apparently especially effective when the user is actually a dog. Chie wasn't really sure whether to praise the dog or to punish it, though Justin just gave her a shrug as though to imply he didn't care.

"G-Good dog…?"

Kenji barked back with glee as he jumped back up on the spot next to Chie, this time choosing to sit up straight as opposed to lying down across the couch. Justin took that as his opportunity to take a seat, grabbing some remotes from the table behind him on the way; a TV remote and two controllers to be precise. He flipped on the television as he handed off one of the controllers to Chie. He half wanted to give the other controller to the dog, just to see what would happen, but decided he would prefer to keep his controller intact.

"I thought you said you only had one controller."

"I went and bought another one. It was only like 500 yen, so I said, why the fuck not."

Chie shrugged it off. She figured he had bought the controller on her behalf, but it wasn't like 500 yen was a lot of money, so there was no use getting worked up over it. Besides, it wasn't like he couldn't use the controller for when other people were over.

"So… what are we playing?"

Justin looked over at her and gave her a smirk.

"I think it's time I introduced you to Mortal Kombat."

Chie feel in love with the game the moment she saw the characters. They looked like something straight out of her kung-fu movies. Hell the entire game was like one big interactive kung-fu movie for her. Every single movement the characters did seemed beautifully choreographed to her, as though she were literally playing a movie right now. And don't even get me started on what happened when Justin pulled off a fatality as Liu Kang; the one where he punched through someone's chest and pulled out their heart, to be more specific. Justin was somewhat surprised she hadn't played the game sooner; it was literally the perfect game for her.

"Did you see that!?"

"What, the part with me pulling his heart out, or the part where I won?"

"How did you even do that!?"

"Well, when you win the second match and it says finish him, you can put in a certain combination of buttons, and your character does something like that?"

Chie's eyes widened with surprise at his choice of words. 'Something like that'? There was more?! Chie almost wanted to jump out of her seat with joy. Really, Justin probably should have feared for his life with how excited she got over heads and limbs being torn off of people's torsos.

It took more than a few tries before Chie finally pulled off a fatality of her own. Scorpion's to be more precise, the one where he chops someone in half, decapitates them, and then slices their head in half down the middle. Justin hated to admit it, but he always got a little squeamish on that one. Decapitation was one thing, but chopping the skull in half afterwards? He really didn't want to see the inside of anyone's head. Chie however, was practically jumping up and down in her seat, as though she had just broken some sort of world record.

The two went at it for a good hour or so before Justin eventually rage quit. Chie had only played the game for a short while, and she pretty much knew the entire game inside and out. Justin had barely been able to land a punch after a good half-hour or so. He was about to throw the controller at the wall, as per tradition, but stopped himself midtoss when he noticed Kenji jump up slightly, ready to chase after his controller. _Like hell you are!_ Chie couldn't help but giggle at Justin's attempted display of rage.

"Man, you are SUCH a sore loser."

"Oh, I'm sorry, what was that thing you did with Dark Souls?"

Chie opened her mouth to say something, though it seemed the thought hadn't entirely processed. She closed her mouth after a second, her eyes darting from object to object around the room, as though trying to think.

"Alright, fine. You win this round."

"You're up by one."

"Yeah, and it's going to stay that way."

Chie gave him a light shove much to his amusement. Not so much Kenji's, though, who had assumed the shove was a sign of violence. He growled a little bit before Chie reached over Justin and patted Kenji on the top of his head, calming him down.

"Down boy! It's alright!"

The dog whimpered slightly as it lowered its head onto Justin's lap. Quite the mood swing, if you asked him. Justin starred up at the ceiling for a brief moment, his hand running over Kenji's fur before Chie tried to start up a conversation.

"So what do you think about Yu and Yukiko?"

Justin forcibly blinked twice, then turned his attention towards Chie.

"You know about that?"

Chie's eyes widened slightly as the words left Justin's mouth. It didn't really strike him at first that Chie had meant if they'd make a good couple, not how it was going between the two. She clearly had no idea Yu had a thing for Yukiko, which means… _Oh man, Yu is going to kill me._

"Wait… You mean…"

"Shit! I thought you knew…! You cannot tell a soul about this."

Justin was practically leaning over Chie at that point, his finger shoved up in her face. She nodded timidly in response, her eyes still wide open.

"Alright, Yu sorta has a thing for her. I don't know about the other way around, you probably would know more about that than me."

"Well she does talk about him a lot…"

"She does?"

Justin seemed more than a little surprised. He never really took Yukiko as the type to talk about boys, which really only meant one thing. He suddenly smirked as the implications started to mesh together, the pieces of the puzzle falling into place. He leaned back against the coach, a sly grin across his face. He knew exactly where this was heading. It seemed Chie took a bit longer to get the implications than Justin, but once she caught on, she started going on a laughing fit.

"Oh god, they'd make such a good couple."

"I know right? Which one do you thinks' going to break the ice?"

"Oh, man, I don't even know…"

Chie seemed like she had gone deep into thought on the topic, as though this were a serious issue. You couldn't tell from looking at him, but Justin was panicking in his mind. He had spilled Yu's secret, and if Chie said anything to anyone, he'd end up telling Yosuke about him and Chie. He couldn't let that happen. Ever.

"So, Justin. How do you even know that…?"

"Oh. Well, after you and Yukiko left the other day we had a chat. The conversation just sorta steered that way."

Justin bended the truth slightly. He didn't want Chie to know that he needed relationship advice from Yu, especially when it seemed Yu had his own fair bit of relationship trouble. Really, it would just make her feel like shit if she found out he needed to ask how to handle their love life after only a few days. Chie seemed like she noticed Justin lying through his teeth, though that was immediately interrupted by the ringing of Justin's cellphone.

"Why do you have the Geico ringtone?"

"Because it's catchy as all hell?"

It was true. He had half considered just letting it ring; let the words just seep into her brain for a moment. After a couple run throughs he was sure it would be caught in her head. None the less, he looked at the caller id. He hadn't recognized it, but whoever it was must have known Justin, otherwise they wouldn't know his number, right? He flipped the phone open and pressed it against his ear.

"Hello…?"

"Hey, Justin!"

"Kurt…? How the hell did you get my number?"

Chie bent forward in surprise, looking towards the phone once she heard Kurt's name slip out of his mouth. She didn't like Kurt from what she had met of him, so to find out that Kurt was calling Justin, when Justin barely even remembered the guy? She was more than a little on-edge.

"Huh? You gave it to me a couple years back, rem- Oh. Right. Sorry, slipped my mind."

Justin was having a hard time telling if that was supposed to be a jab at him or if Kurt had legitimately forgotten about his memory problems. He turned around to look at Chie, hoping maybe she had some idea of why Kurt was calling him, though to not much avail. She was just as clueless as him.

"Okay, uh… What's up…?"

"I'm almost at your house right now. I've got something you might want to see."

"Alright, and HOW do you know where I live? No way in hell you found that out in California."

Chie jumped up from her seat. Kurt was at Justin's house? She was ready to kick his crazy criminal ass.

"Well you remember those guys you told me about?"

"Your goons?"

"Well not anymore, they're off the payroll. Still, I managed to get some information off of them before I gave them the boot."

"Oh that's right, Takeshi told them our addresses."

"Who's Takeshi?"

"A dead man."

"Ouch, sounds like he really pissed you off. Anyway, I'm outside, so you might want to open the door."

"Alright, got it, be right there."

And with that the two hung up their phones, Justin standing up to make his way to the door. Justin noticed Chie's face scrunched up in anger, ready to throwdown.

"Easy there. He says he has something to show me."

"Like a gun maybe!"

"I trust him, Chie. I barely know the guy, but he hasn't given me any reason to doubt him."

"Well what about those thugs! The ones who threatened Yukiko…!?"

"He kicked them out, apparently. Off the payroll. Fired. Whatever they did, he clearly doesn't want to be associated with it."

Chie bit her bottom lip. She still didn't trust this guy one bit, but she did trust Justin. She sighed slightly as she sat back down on the couch.

"Alright, but if anything happens, I'm kicking his ass."

"I'd expect no less."

Justin gave her a smirk before making his way to the door. He opened it up to be greeted by another one of Kurt's awkward hugs. Must have been something the two of them did back in California, though Justin was finding it hard to get used to.

"Looking sharp, man. Listen, I did some digging around yesterday after you came to see me.

"You found something."

"You bet I did."

Kurt stepped into the building, making his way to the kitchen counter. He threw his stuff onto the counter before looking up and seeing Chie and her dog sitting on the couch. He smiled at the two and gave a quick tip of his fedora.

"Oh hey! Chie, was it?"

Chie reluctantly nodded her head, though it seemed Kurt didn't take much offense in it. He must have gotten that kind of reaction often. His eyes shifted over to the mass of white fur sitting next to her, before he turned back towards Justin, who was making his way over to the counter after locking the front door.

"I thought you were allergic to dogs?"

"I am. That's Chie's dog; Kenji."

"You're allergic to dogs?"

Chie seemed almost bad for bringing Kenji along. Actually, looking at Justin know, his nose did keep flinching as he tried to keep mucus from running down his face, and his eyes looked completely red. She would have just taken a picture and shown him if she had known that he got this bad around dogs.

"Hmm? Yeah. It's not a big deal."

"Doesn't look that way."

Kurt chuckled slightly at the comment before turning his attention back towards the papers he had thrown down on the counter.

"Alright, so after your visit the other day, I started digging through some old files yesterday. Sales, tabs, that kind of stuff."

Kurt pulled out a file and handed it off to Justin. Looking at the paper, Justin couldn't exactly tell what he was looking at. Seemed like Maya's tab information, but he wasn't sure how this was exactly going to help him find anything.

"Alright, so what am I looking at here."

Kurt made his way closer to Justin, pressing his finger against the paper, dragging it from place to place as he talked.

"Alright, so as you can see here, there's a pattern to when and what she buys, correct? She always bought a single pack of smokes every two weeks."

"Alright, so…?"

Justin wasn't entirely sure what her smoking habits had to do with anything. Really, he wasn't even sure what Kurt could possibly tell him that he didn't already know. Kurt looked him dead in the eyes, a smile reaching across his face.

"So, take a look here. She bought a pack of cigarettes everyday for this entire week."

Justin squinted at the paper. She had, in fact, purchased a pack every day of the week from the 6th to the 12th of December, 2009. Justin rubbed at his chin a bit. He had a very vague understanding that Maya came from a poor family. Where would she even come up with the money to purchase that many smokes? Wherever she got the money, however, she had to have been stressed over something to be going through an entire pack a day. Assuming, of course, that she was smoking them herself, and not say, selling them for a profit. The latter option seemed less likely, however, considering the small time frame her increase in purchases had been contained within. Actually, taking a look, Justin noticed she only bought cigarettes from Kurt one more time after that week. That must have been around the time Kurt stopped seeing her.

"Alright. So we've got a date, but we still have no idea what happened."

"Already ahead of you, I gave some contacts of mine a call."

Justin raised an eyebrow. Contacts? Kurt didn't seem the type to get involved with other criminals.

"You remember Maya's brother Clift, right?"

Justin paused. Wasn't Clift the one who had stolen Justin's backpack the first day of school? That was her brother…? And wait a second, didn't they egg his house after that…? Wouldn't that mean Maya egged her own house? Unless Clift had been older and lived on his own… Maybe they didn't egg his house. Maybe they did something like what Justin and Chie had done, egging his bike or something instead.

"Vaguely."

"Well, I managed to get in touch with him through a friend of mine. He deals in alcohol, before you ask. Anyway, it turns out that Maya hasn't been home since the 12th. She ran away from home at some point, though it seems she hasn't been back since."

"So then where the hell is she now?"

"He doesn't know. They stop searching a year or two back."

"That's awful!" Chie shouted from across the room.

"I suppose you can only search for so long before you give up hope." Kurt stopped smiling. Somehow Maya's disappearance must have gotten to him quite a bit too.

Justin felt a twinge of pain in his gut. He really didn't like the sound of that, especially with the whole television remark Kurt made the previous day. Could she have gone in there… maybe stayed as a means of getting away from her parents? Justin looked up to see Chie making her way over to the counter, most likely to get a look at the document herself. Kurt was more than happy to oblige, of course, taking the file out of Justin's hands, and handing it off to Chie.

"But it says here she bought a pack from you after the fact."

"Yeah, why?"

"Well, you must have known she was missing."

Kurt pulled down slightly on the tip of his fedora she let out a heavy sigh.

"I tried to convince her to go back home, but she just got mad. Said something about me betraying her trust and what not."

Chie looked him in the eyes, a slight amount of sympathy shining from her face. Kurt wasn't as bad of a guy as she had originally thought, and it seemed that whatever was going on with Maya had been affecting him just as much as it had Justin. She felt bad for doubting him earlier, but she would never admit it. Kurt was still a criminal in her eyes, even if he had been the nicest criminal she had ever met.

"Well I doubt you'd need to call Clift up just for that. You did already know about it after all."

Kurt's frown curved slightly up, though it certainly wasn't a smile. It looked almost like he was trying to force himself to smile, but just couldn't get his mouth to go up all the way.

"I was just getting to that. Well it turns out, that around the time of Maya's disappearance, Clift had been robbed blind at some point. More specifically, some savings he had hidden around the house, and a 9mm pistol."

Justin's eyes widened the moment the word pistol popped out of Kurt's mouth.

"Wait, you don't think…"

"Sounds to me like Maya took the cash and ran."

"But what was the gun for" Chie chimed in innocently.

Justin knew damn well what the gun was for, but there was no way he was letting either of them know he knew about the gun. One thing's for certain though, Justin knew what the gun was for, and now he had a date for whenever this mugging may have taken place. What bothered him, though, wasn't so much the fact that Maya had stolen the gun, it was that she had skipped town afterwards. Whatever it was the two of them did, it was enough that she had ran away from home. It wasn't looking good. He pressed his hand against his forehead, before letting out a sigh.

"Alright, thanks Kurt… This helps a lot."

"It does?"

"Definitely."

Chie seemed like she still hadn't been able to put any of the pieces of the puzzle together, though that was mostly because Justin had left her out of the loop on a couple of things. Kurt grinned at Justin before sticking his hand out to give him a handshake.

"No problem. Remember you need anything at all, I'm your man."

"Thanks Kurt. You know, you're way too nice for this line of business."

"Well would you rather some psychopath be on the streets selling them?"

"Probably not."

"Well that's what I'm here for."

Kurt fixed his fedora before making his way back over the counter, sticking his hand out to Chie on his way out.

"A pleasure meeting you again. Remember, a friend of Justin's is a friend of mine."

Chie nodded her head, a small smile on her face. Kurt was a nice person, even if he was involved in some questionable activities. She appreciated the gesture.

"Thanks for all the help Kurt."

"Hey, don't thank me yet. You still have to find this girl, right?"

"We're not looking for her; we just need to find out what happened that I can't remember anything."

"Well, who knows? Maybe you'll run into each other again someday."

Justin smirked.

"Maybe. Keep in touch Kurt. I might not remember much, but you're alright in my book."

Kurt smiled, as though a weight had been taken off his shoulders. Justin wasn't quite sure why his approval seemed to brighten Kurt's day up like this, but he approved of it all the same.

"Knowing you? That's saying a lot."

"I'll try to take that as a compliment."


	27. Chapter 26: May 6, 2011

CHAPTER 26

May 6, 2011

* * *

"Ugh… why do the holidays have to end so fast."

Justin groaned. Everyone had been out of school for the last three days due to the holidays, so none were particularly pleased to be back in school again, even if the day was almost over.

"Well, on the bright side, only one more day till the weekend, right?"

"At least they were peaceful."

"Not at my house it wasn't."

The entirety if the group looked at Justin with a variety of different faces. Yukiko and Yu both looked confused as to what Justin had meant by that. Yosuke and Chie on the other hand, had interpreted that in another way entirely, or so it seemed from the tell tale smirk Yosuke had on his face, and Chie's beat red face.

"We were playing Mortal Kombat, Yosuke. So you can stop right there."

"Is that what you're calling it?"

Justin immediately proceeded to kick Yosuke in his shin, causing him to hobble about on one leg as he gripped the other in pain. Chie seemed to have calmed down slightly over the explanation, though she still seemed pretty pissed that Yosuke had assumed something had happened between the two. I mean, technically something DID happen, but not what Yosuke was thinking, and certainly not over the holiday. Justin sighed slightly as he watched Yosuke try to keep his balance on one leg. He could faintly hear Yukiko whispering to Yu behind him.

"Does he normally do this?"

"All the time."

Justin couldn't help but shake his head. What, when Justin kicked someone it was outlandish, but when Chie did it, it was a-okay? Double standards are a bitch. Justin turned his attention towards Yosuke as he stopped acting like a drama queen and put his leg back down on the floor.

"Ouch! Overkill much! That's not what I meant by peaceful anyway. I listened in on the housewives at Junes, but it doesn't seem like anything happened. And I haven't heard anything about anyone disappearing suddenly, either. Y'think Yukiko could've been the last of the victims?"

It wasn't a bad question actually. With the frequency of the murders prior to Yukiko's kidnapping, and the good couple week gap since they gang had rescued her, it seemed as though there murderer had gone completely off the radar. Nothing strange or out of place had happened. One would think that the murderer would have gone after another victim by now if they had intended to keep up his or her crime spree. And that's what bothered Justin. It's been too long since the killer had done anything. Either something's going to go down very soon, or he's gone completely off the chart. They would have no chance of catching the killer based on what they know if the latter were true. I don't think I need to explain why the former would be a bad thing either.

"I don't know. Something doesn't seem right."

Chie placed her thumb below her bottom lip, as though trying to think. She looked like she was about to say something, but it seemed Yukiko had beaten her to the punch.

"I don't know. But we shouldn't relax as long as the culprit remains at large."

Like Justin could even relax then. He still needed to sort things out with Maya. He was almost hoping for another one of his dreams to give him another lead, but alas, nothing seemed to come to him. He knew dates, and he knew that Maya had promptly run away after whatever happened, but that still didn't tell him much about what went down that week. He'd need to speak to a witness, and as far as he knew, Maya and him were the only ones. And potentially whoever they mugged, but there was always that possibility it had gone far beyond a simple mugging, especially with Maya's extreme reaction of skipping town. Hell, even if it was a simple mugging, Justin had no idea who it was they mugged.

"I wonder… Will someone show up on TV if it rains again?"

"Hasn't it rained since then?"

"A couple of times actually." Chie pointed out. "I know it was raining Monday after we went home from studying."

Yosuke had this weird mixture of a smirk and shock on his face. He wasn't willing to go all out on a sexual innuendo, at least, not after what Justin did to his shins, but he simply could not believe Justin had studied for anything in his life.

"…Studying?"

"You want to kick him this time, or should I?"

"Pleasure's all yours."

And with that Justin kicked Yosuke in the other shin, sending him wobbling around again. Justin had half considered video-taping it and putting it on Youtube. It was actually sort of amusing watching him try to hold back obscenities while he struggled to balance. Of course, Justin didn't have much time to enjoy the sight as Yu tried to fill in for Yosuke as he wobbled about in pain.

"If only we knew a little more about who the killer might be…"

Everyone seemed to be pacing back and forth in their minds, In Yosuke's case, literally as well. Yosuke was still holding back screams of pain. It wasn't even like Justin kicked him that hard. _What a fucking wuss._ Chie eventually spoke up to break the silence.

"Eh, it's no good fretting over it now. If someone does show up on the midnight channel, we'll deal with it."

"Yeah, but what if they don't? Then the killer's trail goes cold."

Chie bit at the bottom of her lip. She hadn't really considered it in that light. If they actually had any hopes of discovering the killer, the need to herd a sheep to the slaughter, a scapegoat that they could get more information off of. She hated to admit it, but they needed the killer to kidnap someone else. It was the only way they could keep the trail. Chie sighed as she tried to transition the topic away from the Midnight Channel. It was important to discuss, but clearly they were at a dead end until they got some new information or something else happened.

"It's supposed to start raining soon, but I hope this weather holds through next week… You know… Midterms…"

Everyone seemed to groan in complete unison. Justin wasn't exactly sure why rain would be a bad thing during mid-terms. Other than the possibility of someone showing up on the Midnight Channel mid-exam week, the patter of the rain against the building should keep everyone calm and relaxed. But then, Justin was always a rain person, so that might really only apply to himself.

"Ugh, you had to go and bring that up… I don't wanna think about it."

"Good thing you don't think. Ever."

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean!"

"You remember what just happened to your shins? Why do you think that was?"

"Because you kicked me!"

"Because you didn't think before you talked, Yosuke. Just because I kicked you doesn't mean it was my fault."

"Dude, that makes it entirely your fault."

Justin just shook his head as he turned his attention back towards the rest of the gang. He knew arguing with abstracts wasn't going to get him anywhere; especially with Yosuke. I mean, obviously it was Justin's fault, but not in the same capacity as it was Yosuke's. Chie sighed slightly. At first Justin had thought it was directed towards Yosuke and him bickering again, but it turned out it had been in relation to studying.

"I wish I had Yukiko's gift for studying…"

"Well, you have me."

"You were quoting lyrics the whole time!"

Justin raised an eyebrow. He knew Chie had no idea that was what he was doing when they were actually studying, so she had to have looked that stuff up at some point. He just hoped to god that she didn't stumble on to some of the Dead Kennedy's 'other material.'

"Well they were relevant."

Chie just shook her head before turning her attention towards Yosuke. He seemed like he wanted to make another jab at Justin at Chie, though he had decided against it in favor of keeping his lungs where they were.

"Hey, Yosuke, why don't you have Yukiko go over some of the study material with you?"

Yosuke seemed slightly caught off-guard by the comment, as though he hadn't even considered that as a possibility.

"Hm? Oh, that's right. Yukiko's ranked at the top in every exam. Maybe I should ask her for some private lessons."

…_Private lessons?_ Justin decided to take a subtle glance back Yu's way. Sure enough, he seemed more than a little red in the face. Hell, looking around the room it seemed everyone was disgusted with Yosuke in some capacity, Yukiko especially.

"P-Private lessons!?"

"Huh? What's wrong?"

At that moment Yukiko stepped forward and slapped Yosuke across the face; hard from the sounds of it. Seriously, you know those sound-effects they put in action movies when some punches someone? That one they make by slapping raw meat with a baseball bat? Yeah, that's what it sounded like. Justin started clapping immediately. It was completely out of character for Yukiko, and he absolutely loved it. _She should act like this more often._ Yosuke's head recoiled, a red hand mark clear as day across his face, his mouth wide open with shock, his eyebrows lowered in slight anger. Yu seemed more than satisfied with the punishment he had brought upon himself. Chie was really the only one indifferent towards the entire situation; as though she didn't really find any pleasure in seeing Yosuke get the shit beat out of him. Which was strange given that she beat the crap out of him more than anyone else in the room. Yosuke placed his hand against the cheek Yukiko struck before speaking up, practically shouting.

"Ow…! What was that for? I'm just asking you to help me study…"

Justin saw an opportunity and immediately took it.

"Study, huh?"

Sure enough, Yukiko responded by slapping Yosuke a second time. Justin saw it as poetic irony; that he had been bashing on him and Chie for studying, and then five seconds later was getting the living shit beaten out of him for asking for help studying from Yukiko. Yu couldn't help but laugh. The first time Yosuke had gotten slapped upside the face, he had found a sense of justice being served. This time around, he found it to be more of a "Justin is totally fucking Yosuke over," situation. Chie gave Justin a gentle kick at the side of his legs. She knew that he knew that was going to end with Yosuke getting slapped again. Justin just gave her a shrug and a smirk. He really didn't care; this was ridiculously fun to watch.

"Ow! Not like that!"

"Oh, I'm sorry… You were talking about studying…?"

"Slap him again anyway."

"Quiet you!"

Yosuke looked like he wanted to strangle Justin. He knew damn well that Justin had done that on purpose.

"I thought it might have been an off-color joke. Our inn has had a lot of strange visitors lately…"

"Wow, that's not pedophilic at all…"

Yukiko's face seemed to turn bright red at Justin's remark. He hadn't meant that to embarrass her. It's just… Who the hell goes to an inn and hits on a sixteen year old girl? _Like, seriously. What the shit._

"If you thought it was a joke, just shrug it off!"

"Sorry. My hand moved without thinking…"

"Geez… Thanks a lot, Chie, for bringing up the whole studying thing."

Chie's head recoiled in shock. She hadn't even been involved in the dispute. Hell, she was the only one that wasn't taking sides during the whole argument. But she sure as hell was going to now, and it definitely wasn't going to be Yosuke's side.

"Wh-What did I do!? You're the one who made it sound creepy and wrong! "Private lessons," huh?"

"Studying, huh?"

Justin kicked at Yosuke again, straight in the balls this time.

"Whoops, foot slipped."

"-otherfucker…"

Everyone looked at each other a little strange. It wasn't as though Yosuke had never sworn before, it's just they'd never heard him drop an f-bomb before. That was usually Justin's thing. Maybe he was rubbing off on him a little bit. He just wished he'd rubbed off on him in a way that didn't make him socially unacceptable. Yosuke could barely speak as he tried to talk over his pain. Justin couldn't help but chuckle as his voice came out an octane or two higher than normal. He always assumed that was just a joke they did on television, not something that could actually happen.

"Th-Then it's mostly my fault!?"

"Uh, yeah."

"I'm siding with Chie on this one."

"Dude, you always side with Chie!"

"Because she's always right!"

Chie blushed at the comment. Justin hadn't intended that as flattery, but it sure as hell came out that way. It was true; so far in every argument Chie had been involved with she had been right in some capacity. All the same, Justin quickly tried to avoid eye-contact with her once he noticed her cheeks turning that pinkish color again. There was no way he was letting Yosuke have the satisfaction of seeing them swoon over each other like love-struck baboo-

Holy shit, King Moron was right. Justin was almost disgusted that that man could be right about anything; especially anything related to one's social life.

"Sure… Whatever you say" Yosuke smirked.

"Yosuke, do you want to have children when you get older?"

"Huh? Sure, I guess..."

"Then I suggest you stop talking."

Yosuke paused for a moment, slowly looking down, his pupils wide with dread, his bottom lip caught between his teeth. Sure enough, the bottom of Justin's foot was aimed right at his junk again. He slowly backed away from Justin's kicking range, before turning around and making a mad dash for the door.

He tripped over Chie's leg on the way there.

"Why…" He moaned from the floor. He had taken quite a beating in the last five minutes alone. Though no one really cared; he brought it on himself. Chie simply shook her head at Yosuke before turning her attention back towards the rest of the group.

"So Justin, how are your studies going." Yukiko spoke up, clearly trying to shift the conversation away from Yosuke.

"I don't study."

"I thought you said you were studying with Chie?"

Yu raised an eyebrow. Now he was starting to believe Yosuke might have been right on the ball as far as that innuendo went. He was going to tell Yu how Chie just needed the help, but Chie gave him a slight shake of her head, informing Justin that she didn't want that to be public knowledge.

"Honestly? I was pretty much going one-Mississippi, two-Mississippi, the entire time."

Chie sighed. That wasn't quite how she had expected Justin to deflect the question, but it worked none-the-less. Yu simply shrugged. He was having a hard-time believing that was the case, but given Chie hadn't kicked someone yet, and her face wasn't bright red like it normally got when she was embarrassed, Yu decided Justin had to be telling the truth.

"There's only two more days 'till exams though."

"Jesus, Yu. When did you turn into my mother?"

Yu had to physically restrain himself from making a dead parent joke. He didn't think it was funny, of course, but Justin was practically asking for it with the way he had made that remark. Besides, Justin was usually a good sport when people took jabs at him; so long as it didn't have to do Chie, that is.

"I'm just saying. You should do SOME studying."

"Pfft. Like that'll change anything."

The entire group looked at him, slightly concerned. Not for his well-being or anything like that, mind you. It was simply that they had more or less labeled him as a slacker. He never payed-attention in school, and he never studied. Hell, even this morning he had spent nearly all class shooting spitballs at the back of King Moron's head. He had actually made a little game of it with Chie. The back of the head was worth 3 points, the torso was 2, and everywhere else was 1. There was supposed to be a 10 point one if Justin could get him in his teeth, but alas, King Moron didn't turn around long enough for him to squeeze a shot off at them. If you're curious what the final score was, it was 72. That said, most of the group assumed Justin was the kind of kid that only barely passed school, not necessarily though a lack of knowledge, but a lack of effort. Chie sort of wished she could say the same for herself. She tried hard, but even then she barely held a passing grade. Heck, even Yosuke got better grades than her. It was degrading as all hell.

"Oh… I just remembered I need to go help at the inn today."

"Hm? Still tourist season?"

"Yeah…"

Yukiko seemed mildly upset. Clearly she didn't enjoy working at the inn, and who could blame her? It was pretty much eating away at her social life and her school studies. She was just a teenager; she shouldn't have to deal with those kinds of responsibilities. Justin took a glance over Yukiko's shoulder to see Yosuke finally standing back up, before sitting on an empty desk. It's a wonder the guy could stand after the beating he had gotten so far.

"Alright, see you tomorrow." Yu added. It came out a bit softer than he normally talked, though no one really noticed, what with Yu almost never talking anyway. They probably just brushed it off as him being shy. Yukiko gave him a quick nod, as she turned towards the door, Chie following close behind.

"Hey, wait up!"

It was silent between the three for a brief moment after the two left, though as to why was anyone's guess. It wasn't like Yukiko or Chie had been contributing much to the conversation anyway. The silence was eventually broken by Yosuke speaking up.

"So what's going on with you and Chie?"

"You want to hit the floor again?"

"Oh don't think I don't know what happened."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

Justin tried to sound a nonchalant as possibly, and it worked to a certain extent. In reality, however, he had a strange mixture of panic and anger going through his head. Panicked that Yosuke might know something, and anger that Yu probably spilled the beans if that were the case.

"I was walking by the alleyway when it happened." Yosuke smirked.

Justin's jaw nearly hit the floor. _He was!?_

"You what?"

"AHA! GOTCHA!"

Justin's eyes widened as soon as he had caught on. Yosuke hadn't actually been at the alleyway. He had just said that to test the waters. And Justin fell right into his traps. Were this any other circumstance, any other conversation, Justin just might have shook his hand, acknowledging his victory. But it wasn't. Justin was absolutely mortified. Hell, even Yu seemed more than a little surprised. He probably thought he'd be the next victim of Yosuke's wits.

"…I'm not following." Justin choked out, trying to play dumb.

"Well I just made some bullshit up to see how you'd react. And judging from your reaction, I'd say something happened." Yosuke smirked again. "So tell me, how'd it go between you two lovebirds?"

"I already told you, we're not-"

"Oh I get it… Alleyway, you two lovebirds going at it, no witnesses… Say no more!"

Justin stood up, practically slamming his palms against the desk, his face beat red with rage. Yosuke wasn't even just connecting the dots anymore; he was being a royal ass. Which was EXACTLY the reason he didn't want Yosuke to know in the first place.

"I'm giving you three seconds head start."

"Head start?"

"Three."

"N-Now wait a seco-"

"Two."

"I was just kidding!"

"One."

And with that Yosuke made a mad dash for the door, desks and papers being flung about as he tried to make his escape.

He didn't make it.


	28. Chapter 27: May 7, 2011

CHAPTER 27

May 7, 2011

* * *

"You did what!?"

Justin flinched backwards, expecting Chie to hit him at any second. The two were sitting on the couch in the living room, watching some stupid movie on television. They had started off just studying, but Chie eventually lost focus; mostly because Justin kept drumming on the side of the couch with his fingers. They had been conversing when the topic of Yosuke came up. He had been out of school that day, and for good reason. Justin had beaten the ever loving shit out of him the previous day after he had started bashing on Justin and Chie again. Only this time he had managed to trick Justin into admitting it. Not outright, mind you, but his reaction more or less confirmed Yosuke's suspicions. Which brings us back to now.

"Hey! It wasn't like I did it on purpose! You think I want Yosuke to know about us!?"

Chie was pinching her forehead in frustration. She understood very well that Yosuke had more or less tricked him into giving out that information, but she was pissed nonetheless.

"Oh my god Justin, he is never going to let this go!"

"You think I don't know!?"

Chie sighed as she leaned back against the couch. She had more or less been up in Justin's face up until now. She let out a puff of air and turned her gaze up towards the ceiling.

"I guess it was going to happen sooner or later…"

"Later would have been preferable."

Justin dug through his pockets for a while before lighting up a cigarette. The two already got enough shit from Yosuke when he only suspected them of getting together. Now that he knew for a fact… Well… Let's just say Justin wasn't looking forward to it. His fists probably were though. He took a drag at the cigarette before turning to Chie.

"Yukiko already knows, doesn't she?"

"I'm assuming you told Yu, too."

The two just shook their heads back and forth. Considering they had been trying to keep this whole thing a secret, it seemed almost the entire group knew about them. Yosuke of course had to find out on his own, unlike Yukiko and Yu, and Teddie… Well Justin could only assume Teddie didn't grasp the concept of dating anyway.

"We're terrible at keeping secrets, aren't we?"

"The worst."

Chie sighed off to the side before going back to her normal sitting position.

"How bad was it?"

"Was what?"

"What you did to Yosuke."

Just then they heard the sound of something pelting against Justin's window. He sighed heavily as he put his cigarette in an ash tray. He already knew who it was, and what he was doing. You would have thought he would have checked if Justin was home first. But then, he was probably too scared shitless from the previous day to risk it.

"Does that answer your question?"

The two stood up and made their way over to the front door, Justin opening it near instantly. Sure enough, there was Yosuke, holding a carton of eggs. He had a very distinctive black eye and a cut on his lip from the day prior. Chie carefully made her way beside Justin, a look of disgust and anger in her face. It seemed she was going to run across the lawn and kick Yosuke's ass at any given second, though she figured Justin was a lot better at handling Yosuke than she was. Yosuke was just about to throw a second egg when Justin spoke up from his position at the door.

"Don't even think about it."

Yosuke stopped mid-toss as the sound of Justin's voice filled the air. Given the look on his face, it seemed he hadn't thought Justin was home. The guy looked like he was about to have a heart-attack as he turned towards Justin.

"Oh shit!"

"You know usually when you egg someone's house, you're supposed to check if their home first."

"L-Look, I'm really sorry. D-Don't hurt me!"

Yosuke raised his arms to cover his face, as though expecting Justin to be able to punch him a good ten feet away from him. Justin just shook his head in disgust. What a fucking pussy. Justin pinched at his forehead for a brief moment before returning his gaze back to Yosuke.

"Whatever."

"H-huh? You're not gonna freak out or anything…?"

"That depends. Do you WANT me to freak out?"

"N-No!"

"Then I suggest shutting up."

Justin gave a small nod towards Yosuke, gesturing him towards the door. He figured as long as he was here he might as well join the two of them. Besides, he still needed to clean that egg up. Chie gave Justin a glare as he noticed him gesturing towards Yosuke. She clearly didn't want him in the house when it had just been the two of them alone. Yosuke would rip them a new one. Yosuke slowly made his way in the house, half expecting to get jumped once the door shut behind him. He was more than a little surprised to see Chie standing near the doorway, her arms crossed, an angry stare focused on him. _So that's how it's going to go down. They're going to tag-team me for yesterday, I just know it!_ Justin closed the door as Yosuke finished coming into the house before making his way over to the couch and plopping back down, his hand sprawled across his forehead.

"Oh, h-hey Chie."

"Yosuke."

He could tell just by her one word answers that she was really pissed off at him for some reason. Justin probably told her about what he said yesterday, much to his dismay. It was all supposed to be a joke; he didn't think either of them would take it to heart. He grimaced slightly as he made his way further into the house, taking in the sights. He had been to Justin's house before, after the whole eye incident to be more specific, but he had never been inside of it. It was pretty big for one person to live in, though Chie had filled him and the rest of the gang in on the circumstances; he was well aware that it was originally intended as a vacation house for his whole family. Or what was his family anyway.

"S-sorry about the egg."

"You'll only need to be sorry if it's not gone by the time you leave."

Justin glanced at him from the corner of his eye as Yosuke paced about the house, admiring each item that decorated its interior. Chie eventually made her way back over to the couch, though she was sure to leave a gap between herself and Justin, lest Yosuke get any funny ideas. It took a couple minutes before any real discussion began between the three of them; after all, Yosuke felt like he was going to get jumped at any minute, Chie felt like jumping him at any minute, and Justin… Well Justin was Justin. He made snarky remarks based on a pre-established conversation. He wasn't really a great conversation starter.

"So… What are you two watching anyway?"

"Beats me, Chie's the one with the remote."

Chie looked at Justin with a funny expression.

"I don't have the remote."

Justin only returned the funny expression. The only reason he had been watching this terrible movie was that he was under the impression Chie wanted to watch it. He could have sworn he saw her with the remote, and she would change the channel if she didn't like what they were watching, right?

"You don't?"

"No, I thought you had it."

"Wait… So do you even want to watch this shitty movie?"

"No, I figured you wanted to watch it."

Yosuke couldn't help but smirk, though he did so ever so slightly so as to not draw upon him the combined rage off Justin and Chie. They were like an old married couple.

"Alright well that settles that, now we need to find the fucking remote."

The two stood up for a brief moment to look for the remote in the couch. They had just sorta assumed it must have gotten caught in one of the cracks. It took a while before it dawned on Justin exactly where the remote had gone.

"Yosuke, do me a favor. Open the refrigerator."

"What? Why?"

"Just do it."

Yosuke shrugged at the oddball request before making his way over to the fridge. Sure enough, as he opened the fridge door he found the remote placed next to a case of cola. Justin had gone to grab a soda at one point, but it was a fresh box, so he put the remote down in there while he opened it up. He just sorta forgot after he finally got the damn thing open and grabbed a can. Yosuke gave him a funny look as he pulled the remote out of the refrigerator; like this had been the weirdest thing he had ever seen. I mean, the guy jumps in televisions for god's sake. He really had no say on what was and wasn't strange. Chie just shook her head, a wide grin across her face. _Typical Justin_, she thought.

"Dude, why the hell was this in your fridge?"

"Because shut the fuck up. Now toss it over."

Yosuke shrugged as he tossed it over to Justin. Justin caught it for a brief second before realizing how fucking cold the thing had gotten from being in the fridge for a half hour or so. He picked the remote up off the couch, clutching it using his jacket sleeve to keep his hands from getting frostbite until the thing warmed up. As he flipped through the channels, Yosuke made his way over to the couch.

"Hey, Chie, push over a bit."

"Just sit in the middle."

Yosuke responded by just starring at her for a second, his head slightly angled towards the ground. She knew damn well what he was implying, but at this point she just didn't give a damn. Whatever kept him from opening his mouth on the subject.

"Ugh, fine…"

She made her way in the middle, closer towards Justin, as Yosuke took the end seat. He couldn't help but smirk. He knew the only reason she was acting like that was because he was in the room. And he absolutely loved that he could do that. He starred at the two for a brief moment. Neither of them looked at each other as Justin surfed through the channels, though as previous stated, that was most likely a result of Yosuke's presence. It took a moment, but Yosuke eventually found his eyes making their way towards the television as the three began to debate what to watch.

"Next. Next. Next. Ne-

"Wait, stop."

"No. Abso-fucking-lutly not."

"Why not?"

"Because it's a children's cartoon for girls."

Yosuke sighed slightly as Justin quickly flipped past the channel. Hell even Chie was giving Yosuke funny looks, like he was insane for liking the show.

"Holy hell yes."

"Dude, what the hell!?"

"What?"

"You're calling my show bad, and now you want to watch Scrubs?"

"What's wrong with Scrubs?"

"Everything."

Chie and Justin both looked at Yosuke like he was insane. Justin wasn't quite sure if Yosuke actually didn't like the show, or if he was just upset that they wouldn't watch his stupid children's cartoon. It wasn't even like it was one of the good one's either, like Johnny Bravo or Dexter's Lab. Justin didn't even know why he bothered changing the channel. Clearly Chie and him both liked it. Maybe he just didn't want to put up with Yosuke's bitching for a half-hour.

"No. No. Next. Ne- Wait. When the fuck did I get HBO?"

"It's supposed to be one of those free weekends this week." Chie piped up.

"Figures it happens during exam weak." Yosuke moaned.

"Alright, let's see what we've got then… Twilight, Twilight, Harry Potter, Twi- What the fuck? Seriously!?"

"It's not THAT bad."

Justin and Yosuke looked at Chie with an expression of disgust. Neither really took Chie as the type to even see that kind of movie, let alone like it. But then, she did watch terrible kung-fu movies, so it wasn't like she had high standards in movies.

"Oh don't even tell me you watched it."

"Well it was Yukiko's idea!"

"Ugh, do not let Yu know about this." Yosuke groaned.

Justin gave Yosuke a funny look. He had half expected this to be another one of Yosuke's tricks to get him to reveal Yu's love affairs. He was curious all the same though, so he picked his words carefully, not hinting on that he knew anything about it.

"What do you mean?"

"Huh? Oh uh. Nothing, forget I said anything."

Justin and Chie gave each other a look. On the bright side, it seemed that they weren't the only ones who were complete shit at keeping a secret. They shrugged it off as they continued to flip through the channels.

"Pirates of the Caribbean, Robocop, Twilight, god I hate this generation, some Adam Sandler bullshit, OH SWEET JESUS,"

Justin could not switch past that last one fast enough. He thought they were watching HBO, not Showtime. He took a quick glance at the others. Chie seemed mortified, though Yosuke had been giving him a look back as though to change the channel back over. _Yeah, no, jerk-off on your own time._

"Robocop, The Spongebob Squarepants Movie, and before you ask, no we're not watching that Yosuke; Some TV series no one gives a fuck about , Tena-"

Justin stopped as soon as he realized the word that was about to come out of his mouth. He took a look at the other two quickly. _Oh for the love of god, please let them recognize this…!_ Sure enough, Yosuke recognized the movie, and had infact been turning towards Justin expecting the same reaction. The only one who wasn't sure what was going on was Chie, who had recognized Jack Black, but that's about it. Almost in complete synchronization with each other and the movie, Justin and Yosuke burst out into song.

_Can't you see he's the man?_

_Let me hear you applaud._

_He is more than a man._

_He's a shiny golden god._

Chie looked at the two with confusion, trying to figure out what the hell was going on, and why both of them were singing whatever it was they were singing.

_If you think it's time to fucking rock,_

_And fucking roll,_

_Out of control._

_Well then you know you've got to ride the block,_

_You fucking suck,_

_My fucking cock._

Chie was more than a little mortified as the two spewed obscenities in time to the movie. All she knew was that the two had seen the movie before.

_Cause when you rule,_

_You fucking school,_

_All of the fools,_

_Out of their jewels._

_Cause if you think it's time to,_

_If you think it's time to,_

_If you think it's time to fucking rooooooooooooooooooooock._

"Guys, what the hell are you doing…?"

The two seemed to snap out of whatever it was they were doing once they head Chie butt in. Justin seemed more confused that she hadn't joined in than anything.

"What, you've never seen the Pick of Destiny?"

"Uh… no?"

"Well guess what we're watching then."

Chie groaned slightly under her breath. It was clear both Justin and Yosuke thoroughly enjoyed whatever the hell this shit was supposed to be, so she supposed she would just stick it out for an hour or so. It can't be that bad, right?

"Ugh, but Dude, we missed Kickapoo." Yosuke spoke up.

"Don't worry; I've got the album upstairs."

"There's an album!?"

"Yeah…? Tenacious D is a real band, why wouldn't there be?"

Chie's mouth was completely ajar at this point. She simply could not wrap her mind around this being a movie about an actual band. An actual band that may or may not have Jack Black. Jack. Fucking. Black.

"They're a real band!?"

Justin and Yosuke simultaneously threw their arms in the air with disgust. Justin knew not many people knew about Tenacious D, but come on. Yosuke looked like he was going to storm out any second, unwilling to listen to a second more of this blasphemy.

"We're going to be here for a while..." Yosuke groaned.

"But it's Jack Black!"

"Yeah, so? Have you heard the voice on that guy?"

"Isn't he a comedian, though?"

"There are plenty of comedy bands out there. Like Lonely Islands."

Chie sighed. She knew Justin and Yosuke were going to kill her for asking her next question.

"Who's Lonely Islands?"

Justin and Yosuke jumped up out of their seats, hands flung in the air, faces red with disgust.

"You know what. No. Done. I'm out."

"I'll grab the albums…"

* * *

The trio sat around the television, watching the movie that Justin and Yosuke had so unanimously decided upon. Chie was completely confused out of her mind, though Justin and Yosuke seemed to be having a good time, save for that small intermission Yosuke took to wash the egg off Justin's window; that way he wouldn't end up missing Beezleboss or the credits music. Chie had to pipe up to ask questions nearly every five seconds, much to the annoyance of Justin. _It's like, just fucking watch the movie, they'll explain it! God!_

"So… what the pick is the devil's tooth?"

"Something like that."

"That's so stupid."

"Oh I'm sorry, what was the plot of that last kung-fu movie you showed me? Ninjas in New York wasn't it?"

Chie pouted slightly. It was a pretty terrible story in all fairness.

"You think this is the director's cut?"

"Oh god I hope so."

"There's a director's cut?"

Chie seemed surprised that there was anything cut from this film. It was pretty much a cesspool of filth and f-bombs. What could they have possibly done that they needed to cut it out of the final movie.

"Yeah, there was like, one or two songs cut from the final version."

"That bad?"

"That good!"

"Why did they cut those scenes anyway?"

"Well 'The government totally sucks,' did have a pretty big plot hole."

"Let's be honest, is anyone watching this for the plot?"

"Not at all."

The movie continued on as usual, though Chie seemed to get more into it after the scene where they broke into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Maybe because the crawling in the air-ducts and the rolling around the roof parts reminded her of her action movies. Really, Justin was hoping she was just realizing how brilliant the D are, and how they should be worshipped. After all, they rock too hard to be mortal men. The movie got to the scene where Jack had to deactivate the lasers to get the pick, much to Chie's disgust as she realized how he was going to do it.

"Wait, don't tell me…"

"Yeeeeeeeeep."

"Oh, that is absolutely disgusting!"

"Pfft, you're just jealous you can't do it."

Justin and Chie gave Yosuke a funny look. Leave it to him to make a dick joke really fucked up.

"Dude, seriously?"

"Well she can't!"

"Like I'd even want to!"

Chie was slightly disgusted by Yosuke's comment. She turned her attention back to the movie just as the lasers were deactivated, much to her relief. She wasn't looking at the screen, so she wasn't sure if they actually showed Jack Black's junk or not. They didn't, for the record.

"So wait, is this the director's cut?" Chie piped up. If it wasn't she was almost entirely positive they would show that on the unrated version.

"Unfortunatly not."

"Do they… you know…?"

"Show his junk? No."

Chie sighed in slight relief, before returning her attention to the movie as Jack Black did a power slide to escape from some guards, much to her amusement. The movie was for the most-part too low-brow for her tastes, but she loved watching stuff like this. Another half-hour or so passed before the movie finally came to a conclusion, much to Chie's excitement, and Justin and Yosuke's disappointment. But hey, The Metal was playing over the credits, so that was a plus.

"Alright, on a scale of one to ten, Yosuke?"

"Nine. You?"

"Same. How 'bout you Chie?"

"Five."

"BLASPHEMY!" Justin shouted in jest.

Chie simply shrugged her shoulders. It wasn't her type of movie. Yosuke smirked at the two for a brief moment before taking a look around the house. It was still fairly early, and it wasn't like Justin had kicked him out yet, or anything. He noticed a stack of books on the end of the living room table.

"I thought you said you didn't study?"

"I don't. Those are Chie's books."

"So… why are they here?"

Justin just glared at him slightly from the corner of his eyes. He already knew Yosuke was going to try to start shit. Chie simply pinched at her forehead. This was exactly why she didn't want Justin letting Yosuke into the house in the first place.

"Just get it out of your system."

"Huh?"

Chie gave him a silent shake of her head. Clearly she did not like where this was going.

"You heard me."

"No, I didn't mean-"

"Yes. Yes you did."

"Alright, just a little."

Chie elbowed Yosuke, much to his displeasure. He had already taken a huge beating the previous day; he wasn't looking to get another one now.

"Hey! Quit it!"

"Stop being a jerk then!"

"Ladies, ladies, please. No need to fight over me!"

"Who are you calling a lady!?"

"What's that supposed to mean."

Chie turned towards Yosuke, murder in her eyes. Justin couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. He thought it was painfully clear that was directed towards Yosuke, not her. Yosuke paused for a brief moment, not entirely sure if Chie was serious or not.

"It means I'm not a lady."

Chie looked a little surprised, then eventually embarrassed. She had completely misinterpreted what he had meant by that.

"…Oh. I thought you meant-"

"Nope, that one's on you."

Chie's face turned beat red with embarrassment, though Justin couldn't help but chuckle slightly. Chie, in response, kicked the side of his shins.

"I don't know Yosuke, you could have fooled me."

"I still have eggs you know."

"If you crack a single egg, I'll crack your skull."


	29. Chapter 28: May 8, 2011

CHAPTER 28

May 8, 2011

* * *

"Jesus, why is it that I'm the only one in my entire school that doesn't study."

Justin starred up at the ceiling from his couch. He had called up Chie, Yu, hell even Yosuke to see if they wanted to do something today, but alas, it seemed they were too preoccupied with their studies to spend time with their good pal Justin. He had considered calling Yukiko up as well, though, he decided against it for a number of reasons. The first and foremost was that he didn't actually HAVE Yukiko's number. He had the Inn's number, but Justin nearly had a heart-attack anytime he needed to ask for someone else on the phone. He didn't know exactly why, mind you, but he did. Besides, did he really want to hang out with Yukiko of all people? I mean, sure, she's nice and all, but Justin would just have to stop and explain the concept of a joke every five seconds. Besides, she's at the top of the class; no doubt she was studying too.

Justin sighed as he took a drag at his cigarette. He was bored out of his goddamn mind. He tried playing video games to kill some time, but alas, you can only play a game so many times before it gets stale. Which could be said of Justin's entire game collection; save maybe Splatterhouse 2010. It wasn't a particularly good game, but Justin was absolutely in love with it. Even then, he really didn't play it that often; partially because he was afraid it would lose its charm if he did. He watched television for a good half-hour too, but after flipping through what felt like a thousand channels and finding nothing on, Justin gave up on that as well. Hell, he even briefly considered studying. At least then he's be doing SOMETHING.

He took one last drag of his cigarette before putting it out in the ashtray. He had an idea, though it was admittedly terrible. He opened his cell-phone, punching in a few numbers. He had started beating himself up over the call the minute he had finished dialing the number. He had to be out of his mind to think this would be a good idea. It took a good thirty seconds or so before the phone picked up. Justin almost felt a twinge of relief as he anticipated the sound of voicemail, snapping him out of his delusions. But alas no, Justin was snapped back into his anxiety attack as the all too familiar voice he had dreaded hearing picked up on the other end.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Kurt. It's Justin."

Kurt practically jumped for joy on his end as he heard Justin's voice. Or at least, it certainly sounded it form Justin's end.

"Hey! What's up."

"You busy today?"

"Huh? No, not really. Why? Need some help with that Maya thing?"

"No, nothing like that. I'm bored out of my goddamn mind and I wanted to see if you wanted to do something."

Justin had to be out of his mind if he thought a 19-ish or so year old that managed an entire tobacco peddling ring would be wasting his time hanging out with a sixteen year ol-

"Yeah, sure."

"Really?"

"Yeah, business has been slow so it's not like I got much to do either."

Justin was more than a little confused. He had known this would be a dumb idea from the beginning, yet it still worked? He simply couldn't wrap his mind around it.

"I'll swing by your house in a minute, just got to finish checking the inventory."

"Alright, see you then."

Justin hung up the phone, his face in his hand. _What the fuck am I doing…?_

* * *

An hour or so passed before Kurt knocked at the front door. Justin had wondered what had taken so long, until he opened the door. Kurt had apparently decided to pick up some pizza on the way over. I guess he hadn't considered that they might be going somewhere else. Still, it smelled good, and Justin hadn't eaten anything yet, so he wasn't complaining. He just hoped there were anchovies, though he realized how unlikely that was. Everyone hates anchovies.

"Hey Kurt. Hello Pizza."

Kurt couldn't help but smirk as he made his way in the house, dropping the box on the counter before opening it to reveal what kind he had gotten. Justin could not help but fist pump behind Kurt's back. There WERE anchovies. Fuck yes!

"I haven't eaten yet, so I figured, why not."

"Don't eat breakfast either?"

"Nope. Makes me sick to my stomach."

Justin couldn't help but raise an eyebrow, his arms crossed against his torso. Ever meet someone that was so much like you they could have been your long-lost brother/sister? That's pretty much what Justin felt about Kurt right now. He shrugged his shoulders, snapping himself out of his thoughts as he went to grab some plates from the cupboards.

"So how have things been?" Kurt spoke up from the pizza box, grabbing a slice before Justin had finished grabbing the plates, much to Justin's displeasure. _Wait like five seconds before you make a mess in my house, Jesus fucking Christ._

"Not much different since the last time I saw you."

"Nah, man. I meant since I saw you like, two years ago. We haven't really gotten a chance to catch up."

Justin handed Kurt a plate, before placing a few slices on his own. It was hard to say if anything was different, since he didn't really remember much from then.

"You're going to have to be a lot more specific, you know what my memory is like."

"Shit. Sorry, I keep forgetting."

"It's no big deal…"

Kurt shook his head. It really wasn't a big deal, at least not to Justin, but it sure seemed like it was to Kurt.

"Well… What do you think of Inaba? Like it more than Cali?"

Justin raised an eyebrow, taking a bit of his pizza in the process. Hot damn that was good pizza… and hot damn it was really fucking hot! He could not feel his tongue anymore. He felt like he had just burned off every taste bud in his body. He forced himself to swallow the bit in his mouth, even though he felt like spitting it out onto the plate and saving him some pain. As the fire in his mouth cooled, Justin returned his attention to Kurt's question. His really fucking stupid question.

"Compared to California? Guess we're not setting high expectations."

Kurt laughed slightly, taking a bite at his pizza. He had been looking around the house taking in the sights. Justin took a quick look at Kurt's plate to see the anchovies scrapped off the top. Justin couldn't help but smirk. At the very least, Kurt knew what Justin liked on his pizza, though that begged the question why he didn't just go half and half with the toppings.

"You know Kurt, I've been meaning to ask. What exactly ARE you doing in Inaba?"

Kurt turned his head towards Justin, a look of confusion on his face.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, why come all the way out here? You already had a customer base in San Diego. And Inaba? Don't take this the wrong way, but this place is in the middle of nowhere. I'm surprised you've even heard of it."

Kurt adjusted his fedora, as he normally did, his smile flattening out slightly.

"Well, you can't keep a business as big as mine without running into trouble with the law."

"So you're a fugitive."

"So to speak."

"Alright, so that answers why you're not in California. Why Inaba."

"Well a cousin of mine had his wedding here. I guess I just really liked the place."

"Based off a wedding?"

"Yep."

"So what was the reality like?"

"Would you be surprised if I told you I liked it more than expected?"

"Kinda."

Kurt smirked, placing his plate on the counter before sticking his hands in his jacket pockets again.

"It's a small town, so you get to know everyone relatively quick. I like that sense of community you know."

Justin couldn't help but groan. He liked Inaba a lot too, but certainly not because of it being a tight-knit community. Hell, that was probably the one thing he DIDN'T like about Inaba. He hated feeling like everyone knew each other, that everyone might know him. It was disturbing to say the least. Kurt apparently noticed the noise Justin made, because almost immediately he had burst into a fit of laughter.

"You make it sound like that's a bad thing!"

"It is for me."

"Ah, you'll get used to it. I mean, you look like you're settling in nicely anyway. Got the house to yourself, still in school, got yourself a girlfriend."

"Again, I never confirmed that."

"You didn't need to." Kurt smirked. "How's it going between you two anyway?"

Justin groaned. Why the hell did people care so much about his love life? It wasn't any of their business to begin with, not to mention it's completely uninteresting.

"It's only been a week."

"That's a week more than I've ever done." Kurt said, slapping his hand onto Justin's shoulder. Justin couldn't help but raise his eyebrow.

"Wait a second… You've never…?"

"Nope."

"Jesus, how is that even possible."

"What do you mean?"

"Come on, you are by all accounts the ideal lady-killer. You got the 5'o clock shadow, that kinda long but not really hair style, and god don't even get me started on that fucking smile of yours."

"Are you hitting on me?"

"Ask that again and there will be hitting involved."

Kurt laughed. He hadn't actually thought Justin was hitting on him, though Justin seemed to think he did.

"I think the keyword here was lady-KILLER."

"They don't actually kill ladies, Kurt."

"Some of them do."

"And the word for those people is murderer."

The two's conversation was interrupted by the sound of knocking at the front door. Justin took a quick glance out the window. It was pouring out, much to Justin's pleasure. He loved rain. However, that begged the question what the hell someone was doing at his house in the pouring rain. Justin wasn't even sure who it could be, given that all his friends were studying. Or at least he thought so until he opened the door, Chie practically rushing in to get out of the rain, practically slamming the door behind her. Which really should have been Justin's job, seeing as how it was HIS DOOR, but whatever.

"Chie? I thought you were studying."

She puffed slightly, as though she had run a marathon to get into the house. She was soaked from head to toe, her body shivering from the cold.

"It's a long story. My parents were giving me crap about my grades, so I decided to take a walk… But then it started raining, and…"

"And my house just happened to be the closest thing nearby."

Chie sneezed loudly, her arms wrapped around each other as she tried to warm herself up. She had a bit of a sniffle, her nose flinching nearly every two seconds to keep the mucus in her nose from falling to the floor. It was amazing she hadn't gotten sick from running through the rain like that, though it certainly looked like she was getting there.

"Y-yeah…"

"Alright, I'll be right back."

Justin ran up the stairs to grab a spare blanket from his closet. He wasn't just going to let her shiver like that. As he rushed up the stairs, Chie caught a glimpse of Kurt out of the corner of her eye. She was completely surprised, though you couldn't tell from her voice. Her nose was starting to get stuffed up, so it came out more nasally than anything.

"Kurt? W-What are you doing here."

Kurt looked at her, slightly concerned.

"Oh. Well, Justin called me up and asked if I wanted to hang out."

Chie simply raised her eyebrows in confusion.

"But… aren't you like twenty?"

"In a couple of months I'll be, why?"

"Shouldn't you be hanging out with people your own age?"

"Pfft, people my age are the worst. Do yourself a favor kid, don't grow up."

Chie wasn't sure if that was supposed to be an insult, or a compliment. She decided to smile in response. If it had been a compliment, then she had more or less acknowledged it. But if it had been an insult, then her smiling at it would probably piss Kurt off, as though his insult did absolutely nothing to her.

"'Sides, Justin's always cool with me."

Chie just shook her head in agreement, before turning her attention towards the pizza box on the counter.

"You guys ordered pizza?"

"Well, I picked it up. I didn't have breakfast, so… yeah. Why, you want a slice?"

"What kind?"

"Pepperoni and Anchovies."

Chie's eyes widened with surprise. She had thought she was the only one who put anchovies on her pizza. Most of her friends thought it was pretty weird, so she was more than a little surprised to see the two of them eating them.

"You guys like Anchovies?"

"Nah, Justin does, but I hate the stuff. I just sorta peel them off."

Justin finally made his way back into the living room; a blanket wrapped around one arm, some clothes in the other. He knew they probably wouldn't fit, but he figured he'd at least offer them to her. It's not like staying in wet clothes was going to do her any good. He threw the blanket over her shoulders, letting her grab at each end, to tug them over her body.

"Thanks."

"No thanks needed ma'am. I got some old clothes from the closet too. Didn't know if you wanted to get out of those wet clothes for now."

Chie raised an eyebrow. She wasn't sure if Justin was trying to be nice or trying to get her to strip in his house. Either way, she figured she'd be fine if she just wore the blanket around her neck for a while.

"I'll pass."

"Figured as much anyway."

Justin shrugged before throwing them on the couch. He didn't feel like running all the way up stairs to put them away. Besides, they'd be there if Chie changed her mind.

"Alright, so what'd I miss?" Justin added, clasping his hands together.

"Nothing really. Was just going to offer her a slice of pizza."

"With anchovies?"

"What? I like anchovies."

Justin, turned his head towards Chie, his eyes wide in pleasant surprise. He felt like giving her the world's biggest hug right now. I mean, fucking anchovies! Surely this was the woman of his dreams.

"Well I guess that answers that question." Kurt chuckled. "So, want a slice?"

"S-sure."

She was still shivering from the cold, despite the blanket, so she occasionally stuttered over her words like that. Chie made her way over to the counter, as Kurt busily dumped the remains of his crust into the trash, before loading a slice on his plate for her. He didn't really think it was necessary to get another plate out for the same thing, especially if he was done using his. After she grabbed the plate, she made her way over to the couch, sitting down on the blanket so as not to get the couch wet. Justin soon followed, though Kurt decided to stand. Really, he thought now would be a good time to leave the two to their business, but it was coming down hard outside. He was polite, but not stupid.

"So what'd your parents say?"

"The usual s-stuff. You'll never get into college with these grades. We're not wasting money for you to s-slack off."

Justin was having a hard time telling if Chie was crying or if it had just been a stray raindrop dripping from her hair.

"Jeeze… I'm sorry."

"Why? It's not your fault…"

"It kinda is."

Chie looked at him confused.

"I could have helped you study more, you know."

"But you don't study…"

"I'd make an exception."

Justin shot her a small grin, which in return prompted Chie to smile back. It probably wouldn't help, given how much Justin paid attention in school, but it was the thought that counted. Kurt couldn't help but smile at the two from a distance. He still felt like he was intruding on something, though he was almost happy he was. It warmed his heart seeing the two like this.

"S-so what have you two been talking about?"

"Well, Kurt only got here a couple minutes before you, so not much."

Although it was true, Justin was simply trying to deflect the question. They had pretty much been talking about their relationship before Chie showed up; there was really no need for her to think that Justin was telling every human being he knew about the two of them.

"Oh…"

She sniffled again as the word left her mouth. Her cell-phone started to ring, though she made no motion towards the phone. She already knew who it was, and she had no intention on talking to them.

"You know, you really should answer that."

"Why? They're just going to bitch me out anyway…"

"They're probably just concerned with all this rain."

"You think s-so…?"

"If I'm wrong, you can always hang-up."

Chie looked at Justin like he was insane.

"They'll kill me if I do that!"

"I used to do it all the time. Trust me."

Chie looked at Justin with concern in her eyes. She did trust Justin, though she wasn't sure if she could trust him on this. Still, she stuck her hand into her pocket, pulling out her cellphone. She flipped it open, carefully pressing it to her head before speaking.

"H-hello?"

Justin couldn't make out what Chie's parents had said, but it was certainly loud. Chie bit her bottom lip is she flipped the phone close. She wasn't sure whether she should be pissed at Justin or not. He had told her they weren't going to yell at her.

"S-See..?"

"Give it a second."

The phone started ringing again. Clearly Chie's parents were less than pleased that Chie had hung up on them. She went to flip the phone back open when Justin interrupted her. Kurt couldn't help but smirk from the corner. Justin probably didn't remember, but he was the one that taught him this trick.

"Don't."

Chie paused, starring at him for a second. So far he had been wrong about one thing, she wasn't sure she was willing to risk him being wrong about two. None-the-less, she let the phone-ring. It stopped ringing for a brief moment before it started back up again.

"Alright, pick up the phone this time, but act like you can't hear them on your end."

She flipped the phone open.

"H-hello?"

The sound of angry voices filled the room again. Hell, even Kurt could hear it from half-way across the house. Justin realized that Chie had been waiting for her parents to stop screaming before saying hello again, so he rolled his hands around, signaling her to keep going.

"Hello?"

"Alright, say "again?" and then hang up." Justin whispered carefully, making sure her parents couldn't hear him over the phone.

She nodded.

"Again? Jeeze…"

She clicked the phone shut again. Justin hadn't told her to add the jeeze part in at the end, but it was a nice touch. Made it sound more natural. The phone rang again, Chie growing more and more pissed at Justin as their plan moved along. Clearly they weren't buying it.

"Alright, hand me the phone."

Chie was a little reluctant at first, not sure what exactly Justin was hoping to do, but she handed it over none-the-less. Justin carefully opened the phone, carefully placing it against his skull.

"We're sorry, the number you are trying to reach is out of service. Please try again, or press 1 for more options."

Justin was relieved that he couldn't hear the slightest sound of a button being pushed on the other side; rather, the sound of the phone being dropped back into the receiver. He smirked as he closed the phone and handed it back over to Chie.

"And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how you do it."

Chie starred at the phone for a couple of seconds, expecting it to ring again at any moment. It didn't. Kurt simply smirked. His trick still worked, much to his pleasure.

"I can't believe that worked."

"Always does."


	30. Chapter 29: May 9 - 12, 2011

CHAPTER 29

May 9, 2011

* * *

_What time is a thief most likely to sneak into your house?_

_What? What kind of fucking question is that?_

It was exam week, much to everybody's dismay. Justin had been doing alright so far, but then there were questions like this that just threw him for a loop. Not necessarily because they were difficult to answer mind you, though it kind of was, but because they made no sense. What subject would this even fall under, socialnomics? Justin took a quick glance around the room, at each of the others as they took their test.

To his front he had Yukiko, who didn't seem the slightest bit puzzled by the questions. She very rarely seemed to pause in between her answers, seemingly answering questions before even reading the question. She was on fire. Pun intended. Then there was Chie, who furiously erased the marks on her scantron every five seconds. They usually say your first answer is the best answer, but alas, Chie seemed unconvinced. Hell, he was sure she spent more time changing her answers then actually writing any down. Justin kinda felt bad. Maybe if he had stopped being a sarcastic prick when they were studying she might not be doing so poorly.

Justin had to take a quick glance towards the front of the room before turning backwards and seeing how Yosuke and Yu were doing. Luckily, the English teacher had apparently left the room for a brief moment to use the bathroom. Justin turned his head ever so slightly so that he could see the two out of the crack of his eye, nothing more. Yosuke didn't look like he was writing anything; he seemed to just be tapping his eraser on the side of his skull, his head cushioned by his other arm. Yu… Well, Yu had apparently been curious as to how Justin was going about his test. Which was really awkward because it sorta looked like Justin had been cheating right about now. Justin shrugged it off and looked back at his own paper. He didn't need to impress Yu anyway, and so long as he didn't write anything immediately after scanning the room like that, it wouldn't look like he saw a single answer.

Justin starred at the question for a good few minutes or so. What time WOULD a thief try to sneak into his house? The thing about Justin was that he never really answered a question based on what he knew; rather he just eliminated every answer that didn't make sense. You wouldn't know it to look at him, but he was doing a good dozen or so possible scenarios of when someone would break into someone's house in his head. There were only four choices, after all, so he only needed to account for four possibilities, no?

_8 AM_

_3 PM_

_8 PM_

_12 AM_

_Alright, let's start with 3 PM. The average work day starts at around 8, ends at about 2; that means that someone would be arriving home at around 3 o'clock. It wouldn't be a great time to steal a television, that's for damn sure. So we can rule that out. 8 o'clock PM is difficult to say. I would assume most people will be home at that time, but alas, adults probably go out to go drinking at around that time. That still leaves children, and most likely teenagers. So we can cross that out too. That leaves 12 and 8 AM. Both are viable tactics. At 12, its dark, everyone's asleep. If you're quiet and do your job right, not a single person will know you were there. On the alternative, 8 am is when everyone is out at work or school, eliminating all need for sneaking around. Though it is in broad day light, which can be problematic…_

Justin was putting way too much thought into this one question. It had been about two minutes since he started working on it, which is probably one minute and fifty seconds more than he should. Besides, he wasn't getting very far on the logic train. He decided to pick one at random. _8 AM it is._ Justin moved onto the next question, his face scrunching up with slight confusion.

_What does B.C. stand for?_

What was he, in Kindergarten? This had to be the stupidest and easiest question he had ever seen in all his life. Only an idiot could get this wro-

"Psst. Justin!"

Justin turned around to Yosuke softly becokining him towards his direction.

"What did you get for thirty two?"

Justin paused for a moment before turning towards his paper.

_Question 32. What does B.C. stand for?_

He turned back around towards Yosuke, shaking his head with disgust.

"It's Before Crime, you idiot."

"Thought so. Thanks."

It obviously wasn't before crime, but if Yosuke was too stupid to figure out what B.C. stands for, then he totally deserved the wrong answer Justin gave him.

* * *

May 10, 2011

* * *

_Which of the following is a perfect number?_

_The fuck is a perfect number?_ Justin thought to himself. He considered himself fairly good at math, but never had he heard of a perfect number. _Maybe they meant prime number? No, that can't be it; all of these except for six are prime... Wait. All of these EXCEPT for six are prime. Six seems like the oddball out, let's go with that._

Justin furiously scribbled the answer down. It was probably wrong, but goddammit, it made sense to him.

"Shit!"

Justin turned around to see Yosuke, his face scrunched back in fear; in his hand a broken pencil. Chie and Yu soon followed suit. Justin was surprised they were the only ones to hear Yosuke. It wasn't like anyone was talking, so that should have sounded clear as day to everyone. The three looked at Yosuke, concern in their eyes. They all knew how this was going to end for Yosuke if his pencil was broken.

"Don't you have a spare?"

"Why would I have a spare?"

"Because you're supposed to."

"Oh really? Let me borrow your spare."

"Yosuke, I use a mechanical pencil. I don't need a spare, I just refill the lead."

Justin couldn't write using a normal number two pencil. The way it curved around the edges hurt his hands too much, so he used a mechanical pencil with a grip at the end. Besides, it was much more convenient than sharpening your pencil every twelve seconds.

"Aren't you supposed to use a number two for scantrons?"

"It doesn't make a difference. Like seriously. None."

"Chie, you've got a spare, right?"

"W-well…"

"Aha! Told you I wasn't the only one."

"I forgot it in my locker, so what?"

Yosuke desperately turned to Yu. He was his last hope.

"Yu, you've got to-"

Yu held up a spare pencil, cracked right down the middle, all without lifting his eyes off of his paper. He was still taking the exam while interacting with Yosuke. Wonder how that's gonna work out for his grades. Apparently he had broken his pencil at some point during the test, much to Yosuke's mortification.

"Why, God, why!"

Justin covered his mouth with the palm of his hand, as he tried to think of a solution to the problem. He ended up finding one, though it was really shitty. He took his mechanical pencil and pulled out a single piece of lead from its end, handing it off to Yosuke.

"Think you can just fill it in with this?"

"How the hell am I supposed to hold this?"

"I don't know! Figure it out!"

Chie turned around for a brief momen, leaning over to tap on Yukiko's shoulder. Yukiko seemed to try to ignore Chie at first; they were taking a test after all, though she eventually caved in.

"Yukiko, do you have a spare pencil?"

"Huh? Yes, why?"

"Yosuke broke his. You mind if he borrows it?"

"Hmm? Oh sure."

And with that Yukiko quickly handed the pencil off to Chie, who in turn quickly passed it off to Yosuke. Justin couldn't help but be a little disheartened. And here he had thought the pencil lead would at least be something. He hadn't even considered asking Yukiko for one of her spares. Hell, looking up ahead at her, she had like, three spare pencils. Good thing these exams weren't on common sense, or else Justin would have bombed that one.

"Thanks Chie."

Everyone turned their attention back to their exams. Justin was kind of surprised the teacher hadn't said anything. They were whispering, yes, but they had to face each other on numerous occasions, not to mention they had passed stuff off to each other. But then, Justin realized the teachers simply do not care what happens in the classroom. At all. He sighed slightly as he picked up his pencil again, trying to find his place on the exam.

Alright. Question 22, which of these is spelled correctly…?

* * *

May 11, 2011

* * *

_Please stop starring at me…_

Third day of exams, everything had been going along smoothly so far. Except now King Moron had been in charge of watching the class. And he made sure everyone knew it. The amount of death glares he got alone was enough to make him want to storm out of that class room, dropping the exam in the trash on the way out. Factor in that King Moron kept shouting at random people accusing them of cheating, well; Justin was not getting much done. Neither was Chie apparently as she slammed her skull into her desk. Justin half expected King Moron to start a scene over it, but alas, giving yourself brain damage is not a form of cheating.

And so Justin tried to scribble answer after answer down in on his scantron, but alas… It was like those teeth got bigger and bigger the more Justin tried to ignore them. At least in class, he had always preoccupied himself with something at least reasonably fun. The exam? Not so much. He was bored out of his mind, as he should be, and so his mind kept wandering. Mostly back towards King Moron's huge fucking teeth. Like seriously, is he cross breed between a human and a T-Rex? There's no way that those teeth can be natural.

_Who advocated "The greatest minds are capable of the greatest vices as well as the greatest of virtues?"_

_Oh sweet Jesus. _He couldn't concentrate, AND the test had just pulled a question on him like this. It had to be someone like Socrates or Plato, right? I mean, it was philosophy after all. Justin took a look at the four choices presented to him. None of them were Socrates, nor Plato. Justin slammed his skull against his desk, much like Chie had earlier.

"Question 42?" Chie whispered over to him.

"Yep."

He lifted his skull ever so slightly at the sound of King Moron yelling at some kid by the window. He sighed as he scrolled through the names on the list. All of them were French as fuck, which certainly wasn't helping Justin. After a while, he decided to just pick one at random by closing his eyes and scratching his pencil against a letter on the exam sheet. He missed completely the first time, though he ended up getting B the second time. He quickly erased the marks in his packet, lest King Moron bitch him out, and then turned his attention over to the scantron.

_Alright, next question. Which mountain has the highest elevation in the solar system?_

Justin starred at the answers carefully. What in the fuck was a "Chimborazo?" Still, his eyes scrolled over each answer. He was about to write down Everest, but then something caught his attention. The question had said solar system. Why would it say that unless the mountain wasn't on earth, right? He wasn't sure about height statistics or anything like that, but he DID know that Mount Olympus was on Mars. He filled in the bubble for C, averting his gaze to the next question in the process.

"Hanamura, I see you back there!"

Justin looked up before turning his head backwards. Yosuke was quickly leaning backwards, silently whistling under his breath. He could tell just by the way he had resumed his sitting position like that that Yosuke had been leaning over his shoulder trying to see Justin's answers. Justin responded by reaching out, stealing Yosuke's pencil, and snapping it in two. Yosuke's mouth was wide open with shock. Though whether it was because Justin had just broken his pencil or the fact that the rest of the group was unwilling to give him another one was another question entirely.

* * *

May 12, 2011

* * *

_Gah! My fucking hand!_

It was the essay portion of the exam, much to Justin's displeasure. Sure, it meant that the exam was over, but it also mean Justin had to write a whole fucking lot. Even with the gripped mechanical pencil in his hand, he could feel the tension of his finger bones pressing against his muscles tightening. It was physically painful for Justin to keep writing after a mere ten minutes. And he had only done a quarter of an essay. He still had to write two more. He briefly wondered if cramped hand was grounds to go to the nurse.

And of course the worst part of it all was that it was one of those shitty personal essays. Tell us about you? What makes you great? What kind of charity work do you do? Tell us about in event that had a profound effect on your life? Describe some of your interests." God Justin couldn't stand it. Every time he tried to write something, he either sounded like an egotistical fuck or an emo prick. There was just no middle ground with those questions. Besides, who honestly can say "this is my best trait." That's not for yourself to decide, that's for the people around you to judge you on. You can't just say "I'm generous," when in actuality you're a penny pincher, or "I'm creative," when you write the same fucking story over and over again.

Justin took a look around the room, hoping that the others were having as much trouble as him. They weren't. Hell, even Chie was keeping a good pace. Justin frowned. How was it that everyone but him seemed to know what defines them as a person. Before Justin was annoyed, now he just felt like shit.

He kind of wondered if Yosuke would be able to keep a good pace, though he was strangely absent today. Which was strange, because Justin could have swore he saw him walking into school this morning. He simply shrugged it off as someone who looked identical. Back at his old school, he remembered there was one kid that looked exactly like Justin. No relation before you ask. Could be that Yosuke has a "twin" of sorts.

Justin sighed, snapping himself out of his thoughts, before turning his attention back towards the essay. _Defining characteristic, huh..? _Justin starred at his paper for a brief moment. There was a bunch of bullcrap about how he thought he was a creative and nice person and all that bull. There was no way this was going to net him a good grade. He crumpled the paper up before dropping it off to the side. He still had more than enough loose-leaf that he could start from scratch. He looked at the fresh piece of paper for a brief moment before pressing his pencil against its white surface. He knew no one else would dare put this on their paper. His would stand out like a diamond in the rough, even if it was for the entirely wrong reasons. He swished his pencil shavings off of the paper, a single sentence written on the top line:

_I hate everything._

* * *

"It's finally over. Whewwwwww! What a load off! I bet every student feels like this after exams are over."

Yosuke had opened the door to the classroom, stretching his arms behind his back as he made his way leisurely to his seat. The school day had already ended, and the mid-terms were over. Still, Yosuke was clearly here, so where the fuck had he been all day.

"You weren't even fucking here!"

"Yeah, well I figured I'd get the same score if I wasn't here as if I was."

Justin half-agreed with him. He had to ask what B.C. stood for. B. Fucking. C. Still, statistically speaking, this was completely incorrect, and Justin intended to take full advantage of that fact.

"You get ten points just for writing your name!"

"Isn't that just a myth?" Yukiko piped up.

"It's a technicality. Each essay is worth 30 points, there was three of them, that's 90 points. That means you get ten points for free. Just by the very act of writing your name on a piece of paper and handing it in, you get ten points."

He stopped for a moment to turn to Yosuke.

"How does it feel getting a lower score than someone who just wrote their name?"

"Dude, whatever. It's not like it counts that much to the final grade."

Justin couldn't help but shake his head with disgust.

"Hey, quiet down!"

Justin forcibly blinked twice. Did Chie just tell me to shut up? _Well guess who's not getting help studying next time._

"So what did you write for number seven? The one about what 'that' referred to in the sentence."

"Um… I put her sorrowful expression."

"Oh crap, then I got it wrong! I put, the rice cakes on top of the table."

"Rice cakes…? Wait, was that what the story was about…?"

"I don't even REMEMBER that question."

Justin tried to say it is nonchalantly as possible, but deep down he was panicking. He didn't remember this question, so there was the slightest possibility he might have overlooked it. The problem with that lies in the fact that he didn't leave any blank spots on his scantron, which means every answer from seven onwards on that portion of the test would be wrong. _Please let me just not remember the question…_

"Alright, I'm giving up on composition. I'm betting it all on geography!"

Chie turned towards Justin, a smile sweeping across her face.

"What did you choose for the tallest mountain in the solar system?"

"Olympus, I think."

"Same." Yu added on.

"Oh, I put that one too." Yukiko spoke up, slightly excited that others had gotten the same answer. It only meant she was more likely to be right, after all.

Chie's smile disappeared almost immediately, her eyes wide with dread.

"Oh seriously!? I chose the wrong one…"

"Whoa! You too!? Then it's probably the right answer…"

Justin gave Yosuke a glare, as he crossed his arms.

"What, me and Yu weren't enough?"

"Nonono, I didn't mean it like that!"

"Yes you did." Yu added.

Yosuke sighed, pinching his forehead.

"Boy, I can't wait for our grades to be posted in the hallway where everyone can see 'em. Geez…"

"First, maybe you should have actually showed up for the test. Second, they fucking do that!?"

"Yeah."

"Ugh, I wish I knew that BEFORE I wrote my essay…"

"Wh-Why. What did you write about?"

Chie looked as though she was going to strangle Justin. He raised a single eyebrow at her in confusion. It took a second for it to quite click why she had gotten so angry. She assumed that he had written about them as a couple, for whatever reason. Seriously, could you even write about dating in a personal essay? I mean, I guess you COULD, but why would you do that when King Moron's probably the one grading the tests.

"Wow, way to jump to conclusions. I'm not that stupid you know."

"Well I don't know about that."

"Hey Yosuke. Want me to snap something other than your pencil?"

"N-No?"

"Then shut your mouth, before I shut it for you."

He quickly back stepped away from Justin, his hands raised up to eye level. Justin rubbed at his forehead for a brief moment before he started to pick up some chit-chat from a few students near the door.

"Hey, did you hear? A TV station is filming here in town."

The rest of the group seemed to perk up at the mention of the TV station, their interest peaked by whatever it was the two were talking about. Justin couldn't understand why. I mean, they had local news, right? So what's the big deal? There's always a TV station filming in Inaba.

"They're probably just doing more stuff about that hanging corpse."

"No, it's not that. You know the highway nearby? They're gonna cover those biker gangs that hang around there. A friend of mine goes to the biker meetings sometimes. I heard it from him."

"Dude, what are you doing hanging out with a guy in a biker gang? Well, anyways… "

The two then got off the topic of the biker gangs and moved onto some bullcrap about a group bind date or something. Justin wasn't even sure how that would work. I mean, part of the point of a blind date is that you know nothing about a person. When you do a group blind date, how do you know who gets who. I mean, wouldn't that kind of boil down to the parties choosing their date? Kind of defeats the purpose. Not that there was ever a purpose to blind dating in the first place. Whoever thought blind dating was a good idea?

"Biker gang?"

Justin snapped back into reality as Yukiko spoke up. _Yeah, why don't you just shout, LOOK AT ME, I WAS EAVESDROPPING while you're at it, Yukiko._

"Oh yeah… They raise a ruckus from time to time. I guess your place is too far away to hear 'em."

"We live right by the road. The noise can drive you insane."

"I haven't heard any bikers."

"Really? Don't you live, like a block down from Chie's house?"

"Yep."

"Huh. They must not drive by your house. I can't imagine why, though."

"You know, I hear some guys at this school are part of it, too."

Justin raised an eyebrow.

"Wait, don't they need a certain kind of license to ride a motorcycle?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Can they even get one while they're still in high school?"

Yosuke opened his mouth, though no words came out. It seemed he didn't have an answer to that. It could very well be the case that they couldn't, though Yosuke certainly didn't know.

"There's also that rumor about that first-year student who's a total hellraiser. One of the guys at Junes said the dude's been a legend ever since middle school." He paused for a brief moment, his face scrunched up as though he were trying to think. "Although… Was he in a biker gang…?"

"You said first-year, right?"

"Yeah."

"Probably not. I'm not sure what the age is for getting a motorcycle license, but I know for a fact it ain't fifteen."

"D-Did you say he was a legend?"

Justin turned to give Yukiko a funny look. She was practically glowing at the prospect, though why was certainly in question. Justin didn't take Yukiko as the kind of girl who was into bad-boys. Justin nonetheless slipped Yu a quick glance. He seemed almost a little pissed. He wanted a name, and he wanted it now.

"Uh… It's not what you think, Yukiko."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

Justin decided to try to explain things in terms Yukiko could understand. She was a bookworm, so maybe he could try appealing more to that side of her.

"Alright, you know the difference between famous and infamous, right?"

"Mhmm."

"Alright, that's what they mean by legendary. He's just a guy that's infamous."

"Oh! Okay, I get it."

Chie turned her attention towards Justin for a brief moment.

"What exactly IS the difference between famous and infamous?"

"Infamous us when you're known in a negative light. Like, everyone hates person x; so he's infamous. But everyone loves person y; so he's famous."

"Damn I got that one wrong too."

Chie burrowed her head in-between her arms and onto her desk. It certainly was looking like she didn't do so hot on the exams.

"God, my parents are going to kill me."

"Nothing a little white out can't fix."

"Isn't that cheating?"

"It's not changing your grade; it's just changing what your parents think your grade is. Besides, it's only cheating if you get caught. Right, Yosuke?"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

Justin reached into his pocket, digging around for something. The gang was used to Justin pulling out his lighter after digging into his pockets like that; though this time they were surprised to see him pull out a single quarter in his hand. Yu and Chie almost immediately recognized it though, as he tossed it over to Yosuke.

"I call heads."

Yosuke picked up the coin, examining both sides. Double-sided coin. It took a second for it to really set in what he was looking at.

"Wait, you mean."

"And that's why you always check the coin before a flip."

"Why, you little…!"

"I would run if I were you." Yu piped in casually from where he was sitting.

"From Yosuke? Please. What's he going to do, pun-"

While Justin's head had been turned towards Yu, he felt an immense amount of force on the right side of his head. It was a wonder his neck didn't snap. He pressed his hand against his cheek, before looking down at the ground to see an entire English book. Youske had chucked an entire FUCKING ENGLISH BOOK at him.

"Yosuke…"

"Yeah?" He was smirking right now.

"Three…"

"Huh?"

"Two…"

"Oh please, not again."

"One."

Yosuke made a mad dash to the door. He made it this time, though that was because Justin hadn't actually given chase.

"Aren't you going to go after him?"

"Don't need to."

Just then the group could hear the sounds of King Moron shouting outside the classroom. It became painfully clear why Justin hadn't chased after Yosuke. In his haste, he had bumped straight into King Moron. Justin, of course, had saw him coming before Yosuke even ran for the exit.

"Running in the hallways, eh! Think you can break the rules!? You're comin' with me, punk!"

"W-Wait, I can explain!"

Justin smirked as he heard King Moron dragging Yosuke off to wherever it was he was being dragged off too. The door to the classroom was still open, so he got a nice view of Yosuke being dragged by the arm, struggling to break free of King Moron's grasp. More importantly, was Yosuke flipping Justin off once he caught a glance of him through the doorway, to which Justin simply waved back.

"Jesus, you are one sadistic bastard." Yu spoke up.

"It's good to be king."


	31. Chapter 30: May 13, 2011

CHAPTER 30

May 13, 2011

* * *

"Dammit, Yosuke!"

Justin burst through the classroom door, completely soaked from his knees down. Chie, Yu, and Yukiko squinted with confusion, not quite sure why Justin's legs were soaking wet. All they knew was that Yosuke probably had something to do with it. Yosuke simply smirked as Justin made his way up to him, the slightest trail of water following behind him. He looked like he was going to reach out and snap Yosuke's neck at any second.

"What the fuck!? Seriously, what the effing fuck!?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about." He smiled that obnoxious grin of his, much to Justin's displeasure.

"Oh don't play dumb! You know what you did!"

When Justin had opened his locker that morning, the entire thing had been completely filled with water, so when he went to open it, it all poured out onto his legs. Which was bad enough if it wasn't still freezing out around this time of the year. He imagined Yosuke probably poured water through the little slots at the top of the locker, though he wasn't completely sure. He was completely pissed, and not necessarily about his soaked legs either. He could have laughed that off no problem. What he was pissed about was that all his stuff had been soaking in water for the last twelve fucking hours. He was just happy he hadn't left any of his textbooks in his locker that day. There was no way he'd be able to afford replacing them. What he did leave behind, however, was not that much better of an alternative.

"Well I had nothing to do once I got out of DETENTION!"

He placed extra emphasis on the word detention, as though trying to make Justin feel bad about getting him in trouble. It wasn't working, especially since Justin was already pissed out of his fucking mind.

"You see this?"

Justin held up a piece of paper, or rather, what WAS a piece of paper. It was soaked from top to bottom, and it didn't take a genius to tell a good chunk of it had been completely washed off of the sheet. Hell, the part Justin had been holding it by actually ripped off after he held it up for a few seconds, the remains of the paper dropping into a messy pile on the ground.

"That was my fucking history paper!"

"So? Just print it out again."

"It's due today!"

"Huh. Sucks for you."

Chie and Yu had to grab Justin by the arms as he went to lunge forward at Yosuke. They were more than convinced Justin was going to murder him if they didn't. Which they weren't ENTIRELY opposed to after Yosuke's dick move. Yosuke laughed loudly as the two held Justin back, Justin struggling to get out of their grip. Or at least he had until Chie and Yu chose to let go off their grip after Yosuke decided to act like a prick about it. Justin practically dove over the desk, his hands around Yosuke's neck as the two collided with the ground. Yosuke's laughter soon turned to gasps for air, as Justin wrang his neck against the floor.

"Gah… I'm… sorry…!" Yosuke gasped out between breaths. It took a few more seconds of strangling Yosuke before Justin let go of his throat, letting him breathe again. Yosuke looked up towards the ceiling with relief as Justin got up from the ground, as though thanking God that Justin hadn't killed him. Of course, that was interrupted by Justin kicking him in the gut while he was still down on the floor.

"I'd force you to give me YOUR paper, but somehow, I think I'd get a WORSE grade than not even handing one in."

"So what are you going to do about the paper?" Chie spoke up from her side of the room.

"If I run now, I might be able to leave before the teacher sees me."

"Wait… You mean play hooky?"

"Well, I need to change out of these clothes anyway."

Justin pulled at the fabric of his pants leg, shaking some of the moisture off of it in the process. It was true that he really couldn't walk around school like that, not to mention he was sure he'd end up catching something if he walked around with wet pants like that in this weather.

"Alright, Chie, if anyone asks I got a stomach virus. Yosuke, I hear that you said one thing to the teacher, and I'm finishing the job."

"R-right…" he moaned from his fetal position on the floor. It's amazing he hadn't learned by now that Justin is not the kind of person you fuck with. Justin gave a quick bow of his head to everyone, save Yosuke, before dashing out of the room.

"I thought the history paper was due tomorrow." Chie spoke up, her voice quivering ever so slightly.

"Nope, today."

"Crap… My parents are going to kill me."

* * *

Who would have thought that just reprinting a history paper would take so much effort? Not only had Justin had to practically run the entire way back to his house, lest anyone see him in his uniform and think he was skipping school, but then there was a whole plethora of problems once he actually got in his house. Apparently, his computer thought it would be funny to corrupt the word document file, so Justin had to spend a good hour or so trying to figure out how to recover it. He probably could have rewritten the entire report in that time-frame, but he was too lazy to do it over again. Then, once he went to go print, it turned out he was out of ink, so he had to run all the way to the store, spend 2,000 yen on ink, run back home, and figure out how to even install it. After a good two, maybe three hours, of running about, Justin finally managed to print up his essay. He plopped it in his backpack before making his way over to the couch, sighing as he finally got the opportunity to sit down and relax. _Enjoy it now, 'cause there's going to be so much make-up work…_

He reached out for the remote on the table, flipping the television on. He was flipping through random channels when suddenly the batteries died on his remote, effectively stranding him on the news channel.

"Dead? Bloody hell, I was just at the store."

Justin's face grew slightly red as he realized that he had just said 'bloody hell' as opposed to his usual 'god dammit.' None of Justin's friends actually knew it, but Justin's father was of English decent. He was born and raised in England before coming to America. As a result, his father used more than a few British terms and expressions. Justin had a bad habit of using one or two of them every now and then, though not on purpose. It just sorta slipped out of his mouth every now and then, much to his embarrassment.

Regardless, he didn't feel like running all the way back to the store, nor did he feel like getting up to change the channel. His legs were still ridiculously sore from all the running he had done earlier, so there was no way in hell he was getting up off that couch. Hell, he'd be lying if he said he wasn't slightly intrigued by what was apparently being discussed on the news anyway.

_Young men recklessly riding their motorcycles, disturbing the peace of a quiet rural town… Our special report took a turn for the violent when one of the apparent leaders attacked the camera crew!_

"Attacked the camera crew? Jeeze, somebody's got a pair."

_The hell are you punks doing here!? This ain't a show! Get bent!_

Justin raised an eyebrow. More than a few things seemed to be bothering him about the news report. The first and foremost was that blur. You can't just blur someone's eyes out and then say their anonymity had been protected. Everything else would give him a way, the mouth, the nose, his hair, his jaw line, his fucking voice that they didn't bother distorting. Clearly they were doing the bare minimum to protect his identity due to whatever it was this guy did to the camera guy. Like petty revenge.

The second thing that bothered him was the lack of any real context. All they showed was this guy getting really pissed off at the camera guy. Now, maybe he was just pissed by the camera crew's presence, but something he said didn't really add up with Justin. "This ain't a show!" When the news conducts interview, don't they need to run it by the interviewee that they're being filmed and all that? That means they were filming long before they even got permission to record his likeness to plaster all over the news. This was incredibly illegal.

He snapped his attention back towards the screen. This was another thing that bothered him. He wasn't really ATTACKING; he just sorta knocked the camera out of focus. Which is a totally natural reaction when someone is illegally filming you; especially with the prefix "recklessly riding motorcycles, disturbing the peace of a quiet rural town." Who the hell would consent to an interview that outright insults them like that. This was why Justin didn't watch the news. They took everything out of proportion and tried to adjust the flow of information to suit their own needs.

He had to admire whoever this guy was, though. It takes balls to tell the local media outlet to fuck off, even more so to outright force the camera off. Actually, Justin couldn't help but shake the feeling that he had seen that person before. The bleached white hair was a sure give-a-way. You would think if it were someone Justin had known he would have immediately recognized him, but alas, he only faintly seemed to recognize the figure. Maybe he had seen him at one point while walking down the street. Justin shrugged it off as he heard his phone ringing. It was Chie, as usual, though he had to wonder what she was calling him in the middle of school about. He made his way over to the television, turning it off before flipping his phone open.

"Hey, Chie."

"Hey! How'd the paper go?"

Justin paused for a moment. The way her voice seemed kind of distant, not to mention he could hear himself echo slightly when he had answered the phone.

"You have me on speaker, don't you?"

"Mhmm. It's lunch time so we thought we'd put you on speaker so you could join us."

Justin took a look at the clock. Shit. It was lunch time. He hadn't even noticed as he ran around doing errands all day.

"Well apparently it took me three hours to print it up, but otherwise, fantastic."

"Three hours?" Yosuke chimed in from his end.

"It's a long story. How 'bout you guys. Your papers turn out alright?"

"W-well…"

"Chie didn't even do hers."

"Hey, shut up! I thought it was due tomorrow!"

Justin just shook his head from side to side. Typical Chie.

"So… What are you even doing now?"

"I was watching some stupid news report on biker gangs."

"What, you mean like that one those guys were talking about the other day."

Justin paused for a moment. He actually had completely forgotten about that. It wasn't like it was exactly relevant information, though Justin certainly seemed intrigued by his latest discovery.

"I think so."

"What was it about?"

"I don't know, the guy they were interviewing pretty much forced the camera off. He told the interviewers to get bent."

"Whoa, really?" Chie seemed more than a little enthusiastic about it, much to Justin's displeasure. _What, I'm not big enough of a badass for you? Fuck this shit!_

"I know right? Talk about badass."

"I'm not sure badass is the word you're looking for." Yosuke chimed in.

"Oh? And what would you say is the right word then?"

"An idiot."

"Not even close."

"He forced the camera shut on public television? He's gotta be out of his mind to think that won't bite him in the ass."

"Maybe he just doesn't care."

"Oh, man, that is so cool!" Justin could hear Chie's excitement over the phone, crystal clear. He'd almost hate to see what she had looked like right now. Probably jumping up and down in her seat, her eyes sparkling they way they tended to do.

"Yeah, but not as cool as me."

"Yeah, no."

"You know, Yosuke, it's not wise to instigate someone who can break into your house at any given moment."

"You can what?"

"You're there. I'm here. Which one of us do you think will make it to your house first."

Yosuke grew deadly silent on his end.

"That's what I thought."

"I kinda want to see that. The biker thing, I mean." Yu clarified.

"Eh, it'll probably be on later tonight."

"You think so?"

"Has there been anything else interesting on the news?"

"Well no…"

"Alright then, that answers that question."

A brief moment of silence passed between the two parties.

"Alright, so what am I missing in class today?"

"Nothing other than the usual King Moron rants."

"What was it about this time?"

Chie cleared her throat before trying to do her best King Moron impression. It sounded absolutely ridiculous for a number of reasons. One, Chie was a girl, so she was going to have a real hard time impersonating any guy. I mean, it's not like it's never been done before; voice actors do it all the time. But it was certainly a lot more unlikely for her to get the voice right than if, say, Yosuke or Yu were to do it. Secondly, she opted not to do that nasally tone King Moron had to his voice, instead opting to just lowering her voice a few octaves, her voice coming out just slightly deeper than her regular speaking voice. By all accounts, Chie sounded just like herself if she was to suddenly grow a pair of balls, and they were to drop.

"Your duty is too study! You don't have time to fool around with each other like love struck monkeys, alright!? Especially you girls! Those skirts are too damn short! You girls are giving this school a bad reputation!"

"Don't forget that popularity thing."

"Oh my god, what was up with that?"

"With what?"

Chie cleared her throat again.

"I hope you all studied for your exams! If you did well, maybe you'd stop being such worthless cretin and might be a little more popular. And you know, popularity leads to intimacy! Not that any of you slezebags are 'popular.' "

Justin couldn't help but gag on the air. He said what? Can teachers even say stuff like that? Like aren't their rules and laws in place that stop teachers from making ridiculous comments like that?

"He said what!?"

"I know right!" Chie was laughing hysterically on their end.

"Oh that's just sad…"

"One of these days we should really record one of his classes and put it on YouTube. We'll call it the best of King Moron, Vol. 1"

Justin forcibly blinked twice, pausing as the idea soaked into his brain.

"Yosuke. That has got to be the smartest thing I have ever heard come out of your mouth."

"I'm not sure if that's supposed to be a good thing or not."

"That depends on how many views we get."

"W-wait, I wasn't serious."

"I am."

"Better idea." Chie interrupted. "Techno remix."

Jusitn's jaw dropped in awe. This had to be the most brilliant thing he had ever heard come out of Chie's mouth. If he wasn't on speaker right now, he probably would have professed undying love for her right there and then. But alas, they were, and he knew she would take it seriously if he did, so he decided against the motion.

"Holy shit, why didn't I think of that?"

"Because I did."

"Ugh, too bad we missed out on recording that popularity line. That would have been comedy gold."

"He'll probably repeat it at some point."

"You think he's that stupid?"

"We do call him King Moron for a reason."

"Touche'."

"So what would the backing track be?"

"Running in the 90's"

"Never head of it."

"Perfect."


	32. Chapter 31: May 14, 2011

CHAPTER 31

May 14, 2011

* * *

"Whoa, it started raining… I guess the weather report was right."

It had suddenly started down pouring outside of the school, much to Justin's disapproval. He was usually a fan of rain, but considering that school had just ended, he'd rather be walking home in good weather. While it was true he always wore a hoodie over his uniform, his clothes would still be completely soaked by the time he'd make it home, not to mention what would happen if the wind decided to push the rain into his face. Besides, he hated putting his hood on. He thought it made him look like some sort of wannabe gangster. That left him with two options, walk home in the pouring rain and get drenched, or wait a good two or so hours for the rain to stop. He sighed slightly as Chie made her way back over to the rest of the group.

"That means the show's probably gonna be on tonight."

"That doesn't mean anyone will be on it, though." Justin raised his head from the cushion he had made from his arms, sighing slightly as he twirled a strand of his hair with his index finger.

"I hope we don't see anyone…"

"Yeah, that'd be best. But if we do, maybe we'll see some kinda clue that can point us toward the killer…"

"Well everyone, don't forget to check the TV tonight. Got it?"

Chie had practically ordered the entire group, the way she had ended that sentence. Not that that really was going to convince the group anyway. They all knew they had to keep a careful eye on that station on rainy nights like this. Nonetheless, everyone nodded their heads in agreement with Chie, before taking another look outside the window. Justin had never actually averted his gaze from the rain beating down against the side of the school, so it wasn't much of a change for him. It was quiet for a while before Justin spoke up.

"I take it no one brought an umbrella."

"Nope."

"Uh-uh."

"I didn't either…"

Leave it to Yukiko to be the only one who didn't answer with an informal, one word answer, or some sort of onomatopoeia. Justin sighed slightly before standing up from his desk, stretching his back ever so slightly as he gained his bearings.

"You're not seriously going out in the rain, are you?"

"What? Hell no. I'm going to go kill some time."

"Doing what?"

"You'll see"

Justin smirked slightly before making his way out the door. It apparently hadn't struck the rest of the group when he said 'you'll see' that he meant for them to come with him. Justin had half a glare on his face when he stuck his head back around the door corner, his hand gesturing them over towards the door.

* * *

"Alright, everyone got the stuff I told them to get?"

The group had all been carefully crouched outside the door of the teacher's lounge. The room was locked shut for the day, as all the teachers had apparently left. Such is the benefits of owning a car, Justin supposed. Most of the gang was used to Justin's covert ops-esque activities, save for Yukiko, who looked completely out of place as the group got into position near the door. She had been crouching like the rest of them, though her posture was a lot stiffer, where as the others seemed to have eased into their positions, no problem. Yukiko looked more like she had no idea what was going on. Mostly because she didn't.

"Yeah, but what's all this for?"

"It's a surprise. Alright, Yukiko, hand me the bobby pin."

He was a little surprised that Yukiko hadn't actually had a bobby pin prior to Justin asking everyone to get certain things. She had longer hair, so he expected she would keep one on her in case she wanted to wear her hair a different way. He had never seen her do that, of course, but it was fairly common at his old-school for that to happen. He had assumed the same would apply here. Instead, Yukiko had to ask around the few people still left in the school to see if they had a spare one. Yukiko hesitantly handed the pin off to Justin, curious as to what exactly he was going to use it for.

He pushed the bobby pin into the lock of the door, daftly moving his hands back and forth, swapping back and forth between adjusting the bobby pin and testing the waters on the door knob. The rest of the group wasn't entirely sure whether they should be impressed or concerned when Justin managed to get the door open in twelve seconds flat. Save maybe Chie, who thought it was cool as fuck. Really, anything that reminded her of her movies tended to do that.

Justin slowly opened the door, making his way in first as the others followed behind, still in their crouched positions. It wasn't until Justin closed the door behind him that the group stood up, their hands pressed against their backs as they tried to realign themselves to their upright positions. Save maybe Yukiko, who had been half way there the entire time.

"Y-you know, we shouldn't be in here…" Yukiko spoke up, being the killjoy that she was.

"But that's the beauty of it.

Justin weaved his fingers between each other before extending his arms, effectively cracking his knuckles. Justin took a look around at the group. Yosuke and Chie had been looking around the teacher's lounge, fascinated by the insides of the room they had thought would be forever off limits to them. Justin couldn't half blame them; it was a really nice lounge. Hell there was a flat screen television on the opposite end of the room. It hadn't been part of his plan, though Justin thought of a nice use of that. Yu had just sorta been standing there, glancing at a few objects, though otherwise uninterested. He was essentially a neutral party; not necessarily opposed to the idea, but certainly not actively participating. Yukiko… Well Yukiko was fidgeting a lot. Justin swore if he hadn't closed the door on his way in, she would have tried to sneak out.

"Alright people, let's get started."

Everyone nodded their heads as they proceeded to place their equipment down on the table near the entrance. Justin glanced over everything to make sure they had everything they needed. Indeed they did. Yosuke brought a screwdriver over from maintenance, Chie had brought a couple packs of gum, and Yu had brought Gatorade and some Grape Soda from the cafeteria. As for Justin… Well let's just say Justin had printed out a surprise for the teaching staff.

"Alright, good job everyone. Yosuke, toss me the screwdriver. Everyone, get started on chewing some of that gum."

"Wait, we have to chew it? I wish I picked a better flavor then…"

Justin slid over to the couch on the opposite end of the room, screwdriver in hand. He made his way down to his knees before leaning in towards the legs of the couch, almost completely unscrewing each of the legs. Just enough that sitting down on it would cause the thing to collapse. It took little longer than he had expected it to, but that's okay, because it gave the others more time to work on the gum.

"Done. How we doing on the gum?"

"I've got four pieces."

"Three here."

"Six."

The gang looked at Yosuke in slight surprise, as he blew a bubble. How fucking fast had this guy been chewing?

"Wait, we were supposed to chew more than one?"

Yukiko clearly hadn't caught on to what the gum was supposed to be for, much to Justin's amusement. At least Yosuke chewed fast enough that all of her bases were covered.

"Uh… yeah?"

"It's fine, we have enough. You guys see the fridge over there? Stick it to the backside of the handle."

"Got it!" Chie and Yosuke said in synchronization as they made their way over to the fridge. Yu just sorta casually strolled over towards the fridge, where as Yukiko wasn't even entirely sure if she should get any more involved than she already was. Justin dropped the screwdriver back on the table before grabbing the drinks Yu had bought.

He made his way over to the coffee machine, opening the water tank. He slowly opened the Grape Soda, pouring it carefully into the tank. He had actually picked Grape Soda specifically for a reason. On top of being loaded with sugar, grape soda was a purplish color. When mixed with water, it comes out as a lightish-blue, not much different from the water's original color. He carefully poured the cola into the water tank, careful not to pour too much in, lest the water's color get too dark.

After he finished polluting the coffee machine's tank, Justin grabbed a few sugar packets, breaking them open into the water, just for a little extra kick. He sincerely hoped none of the teacher's had high-blood pressure, lest he be charged with murder. As he finished pouring the sugar into the polluted water, he made his way over to a small pitcher of milk. He opened it up and poured some of the Gatorade into it, turning its white color into a slight bluish color. Because of the way the milk seeped into the coffee, that slight bluish tint that was visible in the milk would end up showing up in their coffee, effectively making their coffee blue.

He finished mixing the beverages together and brought the can of cola and bottle of energy drink back over to table with the rest of their materials. He had no intention of throwing the soda or Gatorade out while they were in the lounge, lest any of the teachers have them examined for finger-prints. And by teachers, Justin meant King Moron. He took a glance over at the rest of the group, who had just finished sticking up the back of the fridge handles. It smelled horrible, even from over where Justin was standing, but alas, it was irrelevant.

"Okay, final step. Yu, take that paper, replace the announcement bulletin."

"Where's that?"

"I don't know, probably the counter or something. Look around."

Yu gave a quick nod before gripping the paper and embarking on a search for the announcements sheet. He gave a quick look over at the replacement paper before laughing hysterically. There was some pretty fucked up stuff on that paper, and Yu knew exactly what Justin was trying to do with it. Justin only responded by giving Yu a glare, telling him to quiet down using only his eyes. Or eye. Whichever one works, really. No pun intended.

"Yosuke, turn the TV to channel 257, then turn that shit off."

"Got it."

Yosuke made a dash over to the table to grab the remote off of the coffee table situated in front of the couch.

"Chie, help me set up this camera."

Chie gave a slight nod as the two of them made their way over to the corner of the room, carefully placing the camera in the crevice made by the two walls meeting. They had to try to hide it as best they could, and the figured that a shadowy area like this would be perfect. Justin pointed the preview screen towards them, while they tried to set the camera up to get a good view of everything. Justin probably should have held out on doing that for just a few seconds longer as Yosuke finally made his way over to channel 257.

"Jesus!"

He could not turn that off quicker than he did. He had a good idea of what Justin had intended to do with the television, though he hadn't thought Justin had the balls to take it to that level. Chie simply turned her head towards Justin, a combination of disgust and confusion on her face, as she saw the reflection of the channel in the preview panel.

"You're setting it to a porn channel?"

"Yep."

"How did you know channel 257 was a porn channel…?"

Justin paused for a moment, returning Chie's glare back at her.

"What are you implying?"

"Well, why would you know what channel is a porn channel unless…"

"Unless I watch it? Please, Chie. I have the internet for th-"

Her face only seemed to scrunch up in even more disgust. Justin hadn't really been thinking when those words left his mouth. He managed to stop himself, though far too late for the damage to be reversed.

"J-just kidding…!"

"Ugh… You're disgusting, you know that?"

She shook her head before turning her attention back towards the camera. Justin soon followed suit, though he was more than a little distracted by the preview panel. He totally forgot that Yukiko was just standing there doing nothing. And she had clearly seen what had popped up on the television screen, much to her mortification. She was completely speechless. Yosuke was… Well Yosuke looked like he was taking a mental note of the channel number.

"So how is this camera thing going to work anyway?" Chie asked. Justin was a little surprised she had already dismissed the previous topic of discussion from her mind. Granted, given the topic, he couldn't really blame her for trying to force it out of her head.

"It's set up for a livestream" Just said, carefully plugging the camera into an outlet while hiding the chord to the best of his abilities. "It's got wi-fi and all that stuff built into it. All I have to do is set this up here… and done. It'll film everything the teacher's do so long as the wi-fi stays up."

"So how are we supposed to watch it?" Yosuke asked.

"I have it set to record the session at the same time just in case, but we can just watch it on our cellphones in homeroom."

"Are you sure you didn't think of this in advance?"

"If I thought of it in advance there would be a fucking Rube Goldberg device in here."

"A what now?"

"Dammit Yosuke! I'm not explaining this to you!"

"Geeze, fine, I'll just google it later."

"Alright, all set."

Yu made his way back towards the rest of the group, a different piece of paper in his hands. He had a smile on his face until he saw the look of disgust on Yukiko's face, and to a certain extent Chie's. He had to wonder what the hell the rest of the group was doing while he was searching for the announcement sheet in the faculty closet.

"Uh… something happen?"

"You don't want to know…" Yukiko added, her eyes wide open. She had never sounded more matter of fact in her life.

"Alright, so, then is everyone done with their shit?"

"All set over here."

"Same."

"I… think so…" Yukiko had done the least of anyone in the room, so Justin wasn't all that surprised that she wasn't sure if she had missed something.

"Right then, let's go."

* * *

The group made their way out the door, carefully closing it behind them. Yukiko's heart was beating a thousand miles an hour, though the rest of the group seemed to be doing just fine. Justin laughed slightly as they made their way away from the door, the rest of the group following suit. It had stopped raining for a moment, so now was the perfect time to make a clean get-away. They grabbed their stuff from the lockers, and then met up by the entrance to walk home.

"I don't know how you do it, man." Yosuke spoke up as the group departed from the school

"Do what?"

"All these pranks. Like, do you have a big book of them at home or something?"

"You're forgetting where I come from."

"I didn't realize mixing Gatorade in a coffee machine was a common prank in California."

"That's because it's not. Too much science involved, I guess."

"The science of Gatorade and Coffee…?"

"I call it Mocha-logy."

Chie chuckled slightly at Justin's terrible play on words, if you could even call it that.

"So what did you put on that paper you gave to Yu?"

"You'll see Monday morning."

"Don't you think they'll notice the difference."

"The changes are very subtle." Yu added, though that just left Yosuke wondering how Justin had managed to get so close to the original when he had never SEEN the original. Hell, he had typed it up in like 5 minutes while they were prepping for their little prank.

"Really? I thought Justin was just gonna write 'fuck' over and over again."

"I do at the end. Once you get into the flow of reading, you don't stop yourself immediately when you come across questionable content."

"Jesus, where do you even get these ideas?"

"From Anchorman."

* * *

Justin blinked slightly as the image on the screen faded out of view. The Midnight Channel had gone on air again tonight, only rather than the empty room he was used to seeing over the last two weeks or so, he had seen the silhouette of a man. He wasn't sure how exactly to react. On one hand, the very fact that someone had appeared on the screen meant that someone's life was in danger. On the other hand, it meant that they'd have another potential witness to the crime. Justin sighed slightly. What bothered him the most, wasn't that he had seen someone on the screen, it was that feeling that he had seen this person before. He couldn't make out details, but the shape of his head, that hair, his body type… It seemed so familiar…

His thoughts were interrupted by the tell-tale sound of his cell-phone crying out to him. He flipped the phone open and pressed it to his ear.

"Did you see that!?" It was Chie. No surprise really.

"Yeah, but… wasn't that a guy?"

"It sure looked it…"

"So then does that mean…?"

"Ugh, I am so confused."

"Welcome to the club."

"Wasn't I in that club before?"

"Yeah, but now it's like, premium membership or something."

"Any benefits?"

"You have more of an excuse to kick everything."

"Oooo, that IS a good benefit."

"Tell me about it."


	33. Chapter 32: May 15, 2011

CHAPTER 32

May 15, 2011

* * *

"Ahem, we will now hold a meeting on our investigation of the serial-kidnapping-slash-murder case here in Inaba."

The group had all gathered at the Junes food court, as per Yosuke's request the night before. The Midnight Channel had aired again, and this time there was someone on it. Justin looked around the room, dark rings under his eyes, and a yawn on his breath. He was all for helping people not be murdered and all, but he couldn't keep staying up late like this. It was killing him in the morning. Justin couldn't help but wonder how the rest of the group had so much energy. Maybe Justin was just a pansy who couldn't stay up as late as he should. Still, even in his half-asleep daze, Justin couldn't help but smirk at Yosuke's ridiculously formal introduction to the topic. Since when did he become Yukiko?

"Dude, take a breath!"

Justin gave a slight nod of agreement, though he was much too tired to think of a snide remark to back Chie up with.

"Oh, then does that make this place our special headquarters?"

Justin raised his head from the cushion he had made from his arms, raising his eyebrow at Yukiko. For someone with a stick up their ass, she seemed way too excited about the prospect of having a "special headquarters." The expression on her face… she looked like a child playing pretend on the playground. Justin decided to swap a quick glance Chie's way too, figuring this would be the kind of thing that got her riled up too. Sure enough, her eyes had widened with excitement as the words left Yukiko's mouth.

"Yes! Exactly! Nicely put, Yukiko."

"Special headquarters… Hmm, it does have a nice ring to it..."

"Out headquarters… Is Junes…?"

"Yeah? Wh-what's wrong with Junes?"

Justin sighed slightly as he reached out for his soda. The rest of the group thought he was crazy to be drinking soda this early in the morning, though he certainly needed the energy. I guess they just sort of assumed Justin would get a coffee if he needed to wake up so badly. He took a sip before putting it back down on the table.

"I was hoping our 'special headquarters' would have more flashing lights and random buttons that don't actually do anything."

Yosuke just shrugged it off. Clearly he had been thinking of headquarters in an entire different light as Justin, who had been seeing it like the kind of headquarters from a spy movie. Yosuke looked at it more like a business headquarters, just a table for all the CEO's and bigwigs to gather around and discuss stocks.

"Anyways, as for what was on last night…"

"You guys all saw it right?" Yu interrupted Yosuke mid sentence, much to Yosuke's displeasure.

"I saw it too. I couldn't get a good view of the person's face, but it was a guy, wasn't it?"

Chie had more or less asked the question that both her and Justin had been debating the night before. If the next victim was in fact a guy, they could through the whole 'female victim' angle out the window. Which would be sort of good, because they could narrow down the possible motive, but really bad at the same time as that was more or less one of their only leads right now.

"Sure looked it to me."

"Well I know that you thought it looked like a guy." Chie sighed.

"You do?" Yosuke spoke up.

"Yeah, we were talking about it on the phone last night before you called."

"Oh yeah, that's right! Your line was busy when I tried calling you two the first time."

Justin was getting really sick of Yosuke's constant implications. He had hoped he would have enough common decency to stop making those comments once he found out the two were dating, but alas, it turned out Yosuke lacked the ability to censor what he said.

"So that's how I looked on TV…"

Justin cleared his throat slightly, though not because he wanted to speak. In actuality, the sound coming from his throat was him forcing himself not to say something incredibly stupid. Yu, Yosuke, and him all knew that Yukiko's appearance on television was a lot more… dramatic, per say. Of course, Chie had no idea what Justin had been implying, despite Justin having given her a detailed description of Yukiko's appearance on the television. I guess it was something you had to see with your own eyes to believe.

"Uh… Sure. Just like that."

"Hm? Wait a moment. Didn't all the victims have one thing in common? That they were females with ties to the first incident?"

"That's what we were getting at. Well, what I was getting at anyway."

He knew Chie had been thinking along the same lines as him as well, mostly because he had explained his thought process to her the night before, but alas, he didn't want Yosuke starting shit again, so he only spoke for himself.

"That's what we thought… But we still don't know who exactly we saw."

"In my case, the image on the Midnight Channel changed after I was kidnapped, right?"

"That's an understatement."

"Yeah, the screen got clear all of a sudden and the program looked like some low-budget TV show. Come to think of it, maybe Teddie was right… Maybe we were seeing the other Yukiko from that world."

"I thought that was a given. I mean, obviously Yukiko herself wasn't the host."

"Yeah…"

Yosuke averted eye-contact for a brief moment, as though he had thought he had had this wonderful revelation that would make the case for them, only for Justin to pretty much tell him 'we already knew that, you dumbshit.'

"But last night, we couldn't clearly see whoever it was. Could that mean… he isn't in the TV yet? If so then…"

"He's still safe for now."

Justin couldn't help but groan slightly. They were just running in circles. This was all stuff he had pieced together ages ago. Part of him wanted to speak up and say 'we already established that', but alas, he didn't want to come across as a know it all.

"Uh-huh, I think that's safe to assume. If we can figure out who he is, can we prevent him from being taken?"

Justin tilted his head slightly to the side. He actually hadn't considered the possibility of preventing the kidnapping. In all honesty, he had thought of the kidnapping as a necessary evil. After all, they could easily rescue the victim after they had been thrown into the television, and afterwards they could have gotten some valuable witness information. But if they managed to prevent the kidnapping from even happening, could they still get that sort of information? In interesting dilemma, to say the least.

"Yeah, and if all goes well, we might catch the killer in the bargain."

Yosuke paused for a moment. He thought he had been onto something, though it seemed something had occurred to him that had put a dent in his plan. He sighed slightly.

"But to do that, we need to know who the latest Midnight Channel star is… I hate to say it, but I guess we'll have to wait another night and see what happens."

It grew silent for a few moments as Yosuke's words seeped into everyone's mind. Everyone seemed on edge that they'd have to risk the victim being kidnapped so that they could try and identify them on the Midnight Channel tonight. Really, Justin was too, to a certain extent, though he still thought that maybe letting the victim get kidnapped might work out more in the long-run. It took a while before Chie tried to break the silence, clearing her throat before speaking.

"Well, that means, if my deductions are correct… Though the image was hard to make out, and we can't say for sure who it was, it was definitely a young male. But if that's the case, it goes entirely against our prior assumptions… Since we cannot identify the person at this time, we have no choice but to wait and see what happens!"

Justin couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at Chie. He knew she wasn't exactly the brightest bulb on the tree, not that that was necessarily a bad thing, but that was literally the exact same thing Yosuke had said not even twelve seconds ago. Which Yosuke very clearly picked up on, given the look on his face.

"That's exactly what we just said."

"Hey Yosuke. Did you know that, if my deductions are correct, you can jump into televisions?" Justin added sarcastically. Chie passed him a look of surprise, as though she hadn't expected Justin to be backing up Yosuke like that. Whatever happened to 'Chie's always right?'

"See, why can't you be more like Justin, Chie? He's bringing up all sorts of new information. Why, I think we might just know who the murderer is now."

"It was Colonel Mustard in the kitchen with a lead pipe."

"Case closed, now let's get drunk."

The two were in hysterics by this point, much to the confusion of everyone else. The two very rarely got along, let alone laughed at each other's terrible jokes.

"Shut up!"

Chie knew the two were joking, though she still felt kind of shitty that even Justin of all people had more or less called her stupid for repeating the same thing Yosuke said. It took a second before the two stopped laughing, wide smirks across each of their faces.

"Sorry, sorry." Justin choked up over his laughter. _Well at least he's not being a jerk about it_, Chie thought.

It didn't really dawn upon anyone until after the two finished laughing that Yukiko had been laughing along the entire time; and hadn't stopped. She had been going for the last twenty seconds or so. Damn, it was a funny exchange, don't get Justin wrong, but this was just ridiculous.

"Ahahahaha, oh no! My funny bone…!"

The rest of the group starred at Yukiko, a look of slight confusion on their face. Hell, even Yu was giving her a funny look.

"Not again…"

"Funny bone…? Those exist?"

"S-Sorry, heeheehee!"

"This is how Yukiko really is, huh… Who'd have thought?"

That was actually a pretty good question. Yukiko had always seemed so stiff to Justin, hell she still did. These laughing fits seemed so completely out of character for her. Chie sighed slightly before speaking up. It seemed something had been bothering her.

"By the way, about that guy we saw? I get the feeling I've seen him before… Pretty recently, too."

Justin turned his attention back towards Chie, his eyes wide with surprise.

"So I'm not crazy! I swear I've seen that guy before somewhere."

"Oh, you too? Yeah, I've been thinking the same thing since last night…"

"You think he might go to school with us?" Justin interjected. He was still trying to figure out where he had seen this person before, though the fact that they had all felt like they've seen this guy really helped narrow it down. It had to be somewhere they had all gone too, and school just so happened to be the first thing that popped into his head. Of course, it was also entirely possible they had just seen this guy walking around Junes or the shopping district.

"Well… he did look like a teenager… It's possible I suppose." Yosuke paused for a moment, as though trying to see if he could remember this person around school anywhere. Nothing seemed to come to mind, though. "Well, let's check the TV again tonight and think about it more tomorrow."

The majority of the group seemed to nod in agreement, save Yukiko, who for whatever reason was still laughing like a fucking maniac. Justin just shook his head in disgust. It wasn't even funny or weird anymore. It was just fucking annoying. Chie shouted out with annoyance.

"When are you gonna stop that, you crazy hyena!?"

Yukiko's fit of laughter only seemed to grow louder as the words left Chie's mouth.

"Ahahahaha! That's a good one, Chie!"

"Yosuke. Do me a favor. Grab my gun off of Teddie."

"Whoa, whoa," Chie interrupted. "Nonononono, we are not shooting Yukiko."

That was not what Justin meant at all. He was actually sort of pissed that Chie assumed that's what he meant, even more pissed that she had thought he was serious. Like seriously, why the fuck would he do that? He was just happy Yukiko was laughing too hard to hear Chie say that. He didn't need to sound like a fucking psychopath.

"Who said anything about shooting HER? That laughter is forever burned into my brain."

"You mind if I use it when you're done?" Yosuke asked.

"Sure, make sure you grab two bullets instead of one."

* * *

"Well that's certainly new."

It was midnight, and Justin had opted to watch the Midnight Channel again, against his better judgment. He was still exhausted from that morning, and he had school the next day. This was not going to do wonders as far as his grades went. Though, he didn't regret the decision now that he was actually staring at his television set. On the screen was the same figure as yesterday; only this time he wasn't just standing there. He was moving about, swinging his fists around as though he were punching the air. Looking closer, the image seemed a bit clearer this time around as well. The static seemed like it wasn't coming in as strong as it usually did.

But alas, that wasn't what had stuck out the most to Justin. The most prominent change in the picture was that the lighting in the room seemed brighter than it usually was. That wouldn't really make much of a difference in most cases, but looking at the figure, he was wearing all black. He stood out clear as day against the backdrop now, though that still wasn't what had caught Justin's eye. The light had been reflecting off of his hair, clear as day. It was dyed bleach white. Justin's eyes widened as he immediately recognized the figure now. It was that guy that was on that news report about bikers. He knew he had seen him somewhere before, but just from the color of his hair, he could immediately identify him. Justin felt like an idiot for not noticing it before, but that was irrelevant. They had his identity now; they could try to intervene in the kidnapping attempt.

As per usual, Justin's phone rang. It was probably Chie asking to see if he had seen what she had. And he was right for the most part; it was Chie, and she had been calling in relation to the Midnight Channel, though it hadn't been a case of "did you see it," as "did you catch who that was?"

"Did you see that? Who was he?"

"Did you ever get around to seeing that biker report?"

"H-Huh? Y-yeah, but I don't see what that has to do with… Wait, you mean…"

"Yep, our guy here was the one they had interviewed for that biker special."

"W-Well, that would explain all that punching he was doing."

"Why exactly was he doing that anyway."

There was dead silence on Chie's end for a moment.

"I don't know. You think he might have been fighting something?"

"No, no, he isn't in the TV yet. The picture changes when they get kidnapped, right?"

"Y-yeah, you're right."

"God I wish I knew this guy's name though."

"Oh, I heard Yu talking about it with Yosuke the other day. I think he said his name was Kanji Tatsumi. Apparently Yu's uncle has had more than a few run-ins with this guy."

"Why? Because he didn't like being illegally filmed for a new report?"

"W-well, I recognize the name. I heard a rumor that he crushed an entire biker gang because the noise they made kept his mother up at night."

"Holy shit, really?"

Justin couldn't stop his jaw from dropping a bit. That had to be the sweetest, and yet most fucked up thing he had ever heard. Crushing an entire biker gang because the noise kept his mother up? This kid deserves a world's greatest son award. Like right now.

"W-wait, but isn't he IN a biker gang."

"I thought so, but… I don't even know anymore."

"What if, and bear with me here, he was the biker that kept his mother up with all that noise, so he beat the crap out of himself?"

"And you said my ideas were bad."


	34. Chapter 33: May 16, 2011

CHAPTER 33

May 16, 2011

* * *

"And now for the morning announcements."

Justin leaned back in his chair slightly as the intercom kicked on. It was Monday morning, which meant the elaborate prank Justin had set up would be kicked into full-swing this morning. He wasn't personally watching it over the live-stream at the moment, though Yosuke had been. Everyone else had decided to just watch the recorded version on YouTube later. Justin leaned back slightly towards Yosuke, his head tilted slightly to the side.

"Did they realize the announcement sheet was fake?"

"Doesn't look like it so far."

Justin grinned devilishly, turning his attention back up towards the sound buzzing out of the intercom.

"Mr. Marooka will be holding auditions for the ballet club after school today in room 2-E. Be sure to have an outfit to change into."

"Oh man, I get the feeling King Moron is going to enjoy that." Yosuke chuckled from behind Justin.

"You think anyone will show?" Justin smirked. He kind of hoped someone did. He could only imagine how King Moron would react to someone approaching him wearing a tutu. He'd probably lose his shit.

"I would hope not!"

Justin could only imagine what it would be like for King Moron to teach ballet. He'd be constantly shouting about how those tutus weren't modest enough, and how everyone was a slut. And god help him if King Moron taught through example. The thought of King Moron twirling around, tutu or not, was ridiculously hilarious. Justin averted his gaze from Yosuke to direct it towards King Moron, whose face was completely red with anger.

"Huh!? Now wait just a second here!"

And with that King Moron made his way out of the room, grumbling all sorts of obscenities under his breath, most likely to remedy the problem. Which was great because now no one had to choke back their laughter, or whisper back and forth while discussing Justin's 'corrections' to the morning announcements.

"A reminder to all students that tomorrow is a dress-down day. Be sure to bring in the 500 yen dress-down fee to Mr. Kondo in room 2-G."

"Huh? There's no room 2-G…" Yukiko questioned.

Justin couldn't help but shake his head in slight ridicule. Of course there was no 2-G. That was the point.

"That's the joke."

"I don't get it."

"Well, you're going to have at least a few people that are stupid enough to believe that. So they'll all end up coming to school in their normal clothes, looking for room 2-G."

"But there won't actually BE a 2-G… Okay, I get it."

"Man, that's cruel." Yosuke added from behind Justin.

"Were you expecting any less from me?"

"Not at all."

"Attention, Yosuke Hanamura,"

"Speaking of the devil."

"Huh?"

"A pink wallet had been found with your ID in it. Please stop by the student life office at your earliest convenience to pick it up."

Yosuke's jaw practically hit the ground, as the words left the announcer's mouth. Yu had burst into a fit of laughter, much to Yosuke's displeasure. Yu had read the entire announcement bulletin the day they had swapped it off with the real one, so he already knew it was coming. He was dying to see how Yosuke reacted to it. Given the slight jab Yosuke give him in the ribs when he started laughing, he could only assume very poorly.

"Dude, what the hell!"

"Whoops." Justin laughed as Yosuke's gritted his teeth together. He was getting more than a few funny looks from the rest of the class, much to his displeasure.

"Those are all the announcements for the day. Fuck the system-… Wait, what…?"

"Wow, I can't believe that last part worked." Chie seemed astonished that whoever was reading the announcements off hadn't stopped once they spotted the word fuck.

"You're supposed to do it using a teleprompter, but alas, a piece of paper seems to work just as well if you hide it well enough."

"Oh, man…" Yosuke was fighting back laughter as he flipped his phone back open to the livestream.

"What?"

"They just turned on the television. Right when King Moron walked in. You should see the look on his face."

"You think he's going to give the teachers a lesson on modesty now?" Justin chuckled.

"It's not that kind of look."

"Oh that is just creepy…" Chie interjected, as she realized what Yosuke had meant by that. Justin just laughed harder. It was never a secret that King Moron was a closet pervert.

"It's King Moron. Of course it is."

* * *

A long, and very awkward day of school soon passed afterwards. All of the teacher's seemed on edge by Justin's sabotage of the teacher's lounge. It seemed they were in another mind set entirely; trying to figure out what in the fuck was going on. King Moron especially, who seemed more than a little distracted. Justin wasn't sure if that was funny as hell, or ridiculously disturbing. Maybe both. Eventually, school ended, as it always does. King Moron could not have rushed out of that class any faster than he had. Probably so he could get dibs on the television in the teacher's lounge. All the same, the entire group gathered around in their usual circle around their desks. As fun as the pranks in the morning had been, they still had a lot of business to discuss.

"The one who was on last night… it's THAT guy, right…?"

"Kanji Tatsumi, huh? He definitely didn't look like the social type."

Justin couldn't help but raise his eyebrow slightly. It wasn't that what Yosuke had said was false or anything like that; he just failed to see how that was relevant to the case in any shape or form. What would his personality have to do with him being kidnapped?

"Now there's an understatement. Isn't he really scary? Did you see the news special the other day?"

"Yeah, I saw it."

"You mean the special on biker gangs? I watched it too."

"And I watched it first. I was watching biker gang specials before it was mainstream, man." Justin tried to come off as much of an obnoxious hipster as much as possible, but it seemed to go over everyone's head; save for maybe Yosuke.

"You know, he wasn't like that when he was younger…"

Justin's smirk faded from his face as the words left Yukiko's mouth. She knew this guy before? Factor that in with that whole "legend" comment from earlier, and Justin was sure Yu was probably pissed out of his mind right now. Looking at Yu then, he certainly didn't look mad, though looks can be deceiving.

"You know him, Yukiko?"

"Uh-huh, but we haven't talked to each other in a long time. His family runs a textile shop, and we've been a customer of theirs for many years. So I speak to Kanji-kun's mother from time to time."

"So you know each other through work?"

"Something like that."

Justin shrugged slightly. He found it a bit odd that Kanji's family would own a textile shop, though he supposed Kanji's personality and interests really didn't factor into his family's business all that much.

"Oh, why don't we go there now? We might be able to talk to him in person."

Justin squinted slightly. He wasn't sure that was a great idea. He didn't know much about this Kanji guy, but from the looks of it, he didn't want any attention being attracted to him. And five people showing up at his door telling him he may or may not be kidnapped? Well, he simply couldn't imagine that ending without someone getting a broken leg.

"Sounds good. At the very least, we can ask if anything strange has come up lately. I wouldn't want to run into him in a dark alley, but I'm pretty sure he won't fly off the handle in his family's store."

"I don't know about that. Ever hear that expression about a bull in a china shop?"

"I don't think that's quite what they mean." Yosuke added, trying to correct Justin. He knew exactly what the expression was supposed to mean, but he thought it applied all the same. Yosuke sighed slightly, dismissing Justin's concerns as if they were non-existent. He tended to do that a lot. Justin wasn't even sure why he bothered talking at these meetings. Nothing he said seemed to make a difference.

"Alright, then let's get going."

"If things get rough, we're counting on you guys!"

"If by guys you mean anyone that's not me, then yeah, sure."

"Dude, don't be such a coward."

"I'm not being a coward, I'm being smart. Have you ever seen me in a fist-fight?"

"Yeah. Don't you remember those thugs?" Chie added, trying to disprove Justin's theory. A wide smile seemed to be stretching across her face as well, though Justin couldn't guess why. It wasn't like it was that impressive of a fight.

"The wall did most of the work."

* * *

The group made their way inside the textile shop after a good half hour or so of walking. By the time they had made it to the store, they were greeted by the sight of two people; an elderly lady behind the counter, and what appeared to be a young boy. Justin briefly wondered who he was before Yukiko broke the silence with her greetings.

"Hello."

"Ah, Yuki-chan, it's so nice to see you."

"Well then, if you'll excuse me ma'am."

Justin forcibly blinked twice as the boy spoke up. That was definitely not a guy's voice. Justin squinted slightly, getting a better look at whoever this was. Upon further examination, it was certainly not a guy's face either. The facial structure was all off, the jawline, the chin, the cheek bones, the eyes; all of it. It resembled the facial structure of a female, not a man. Hell, even this person's body shape. The way the body curved around the waist, the length and width of her limbs; all of it was female anatomy. Either this was one motherfucking feminine guy, or he was a she. Though that begged the question what was up with the get-up; especially that hat. It looked really good, don't get him wrong, but it didn't really seem like something a girl would want to wear.

"I'm sorry that I couldn't help more."

"It's all right; you've given me plenty to think about. Thank you."

_Yep, definitely a girl._ Justin thought to himself. The way her voice seemed to roll over each of the syllables in her sentence; he had never heard a single guy do that, yet every single girl he knew did. It was a dead giveaway. The girl gave the elderly woman a quick nod of respect before making her way out of the door, passing completely by the group without so much as a goodbye.

"What's up with him… Weirdo."

Justin couldn't really believe what he had heard Yosuke say. Him. He thought that was a guy…? And why was no one objecting to Yosuke calling her a he. Justin thought it was clear as day that was a girl, yet everyone seemed more than convinced it was in fact a dude. Justin didn't know whether he should feel honored to be the only one to catch on, or disgusted that they couldn't tell the two genders apart.

"I'unno. Never seen him before."

_Oh come on Chie. You are a girl. You should be able to notice this kind of stuff. Goddamn._

"Yuki-chan you're as lovely as always."

Justin shook the topic of the girl out of his mind. It was completely irrelevant, and they did have something they needed to do here after all. He focused his attention over to the elderly women sitting behind the counter.

"Your features are starting to remind me of your mother when she was young."

_Yeah… That's totally not a creepy thing to say to someone…_

"How can I help you today? Are you out shopping with your friends?"

"Oh, um… Well actually…"

Yu, Yukiko and Justin all made their way closer up to the counter. Chie and Yosuke seemed to be distracted by the merchandise in the store, much to Justin's displeasure. They were here to get answers, not shop. They could do that later if they really wanted to.

"Is Kanji-kun in? We need to ask him something." Yukiko asked, a smile across her face.

"Oh, I'm afraid not. He stepped out for a little bit."

"Oh, I see..."

Leave it to Yukiko to sound so disappointed yet so polite at the same time. The three's short-lived investigation on the matter was interrupted soon after, however, by the sound of Chie's voice on the other end of the store.

"Hey, this scarf… I've seen this somewhere before…"

Yosuke, having heard Chie, made his way over from the opposite end of the store, examining the design of the scarf on his way over.

"Hm? Huh, you're right. Where was that…?"

Now Justin was more than a little curious. He diverted his attention away from the two to examine the scarf itself. Come to think of it, Justin had remembered seeing this design before, though not WHERE he had seen it. Justin sighed slightly. His memory had gone to shit as of late, apparently.

"Oh! It was that place! Inside the TV!"

The minute the words came out of Chie's mouth, Justin recognized the design. This was the same kind of scarf that had been tied in a noose the first time they had entered the television. He had almost forgotten all about it. Still, all the same Justin made a quick motion of his hand near his throat towards Chie, telling her to shut up about the TV. She seemed slightly embarrassed that she had accidently said that out loud when there were people other than themselves there, but then, there was no real way of describing it without bringing some sort of attention to the group.

"That's right! That room with those faceless posters… Then… it's that announcer's…"

"Are you acquaintances of Ms. Yamano?"

"Uh, well, kinda… Um… Did Ms. Yamano happen to have a scarf like this?"

"Yes, it was a special order she placed. She actually ordered a pair, but in the end, she said she only wanted the woman's scarf. It left us with no choice but to sell this one separately."

That probably had to do with the whole affair scandal, though Justin supposed that was entirely irrelevant at this point. What had bothered him was that this was in fact Yamano's scarf. So that means that the scarf they had seen tied into a noose was Yamano's. Come to think of it, Justin's shadow had confirmed she wasn't killed by her own shadow; after all, if that were the case her own shadow would have taken Yamano's place, right? So then could she have… you know… No, she couldn't have. Where was the body? What was that crap his shadow said about "minor shadows." He didn't even know if he could trust a word his shadow said anymore; after all his shadow WAS trying to kill him.

"Oh man… There IS a connection to the first case…! What are we gonna do…?"

"H-how should I know?"

Justin cupped his hand around his chin, slightly rubbing at it with his index finger. It wasn't so much a question of what to do as it was a question of what it meant. Justin was snapped out of his thoughts, however, by the sound of knocking on the back door.

"Hello! Delivery here for the Tatsumis!"

"Oh, I'll be right there. I'm sorry, you'll have to excuse me."

"Oh, it's okay. We should get going."

_What? But we still haven't gotten a hold of Kanji. You know. The thing we fucking came here for!_

"I'll come again, Ma'am."

"Is that so? Well, then please say hello to your mother for me."

And with that, the elderly women stood up and took her leave. Justin just nodded his head in disgust. Yes, she had to go answer the door, but it would only take her a minute tops. There was no reason for them to leave when they still hadn't accomplished what they had come here for in the first place. He sighed slightly as the group made their way out the door, talking as they walked out.

"It really is connected to the first case after all… But it's just a scarf. Would the killer target someone just because of that…?"

"Maybe it's just a coincidence." Justin spoke up. Deep down Justin believed that that scarf was significant, but he had to consider every possibility; even the possibility that it was irrelevant to the case.

"Dammit, what's going on…?"

The group stopped walking as they finished exiting the building. They probably would have kept walking too, had it not been for Yukiko stopping in front of them, an expression of surprise on her face. Justin was curious as to what had made her stop at first, though he completely understood once Yukiko spoke up.

"Huh…? It's Kanji-kun."

"Wha- Quick, hide!"

"What?"

Justin couldn't believe it as the entirety of the group made a mad dash over to the wall of an adjacent building, behind a lamp post. On one hand, they were trying to hide behind a fucking lamp post. All four of them, the same lamp post. Like seriously, could even ONE person hide like that? It looked absolutely ridiculous. Secondly, weren't they here to talk to him? Why the fuck were they running away? Justin groaned as he slowly made his way over to the rest of the group, looks of slight anger following him the entire way through. He could tell they were slightly pissed he had taken so long to hide for cover, though he shouldn't have had to in the first place.

Either way, Justin turned his attention over to where the rest of the group had been starring. Kanji was standing there, chatting to someone. It was hard to see, what with four people standing in front of him, so he side-stepped slightly to get a better view. It was that girl from inside the textile shop just a moment ago. It looked like the two were having a fairly civil conversation, though that just begged the question who this girl was, and what it was she was doing with Kanji.

"You're not fooling anyone you know." Chie spoke up, as though only just realizing how ridiculous they all looked hiding behind the lamp post. Justin had hoped that would be invitation for them to stop making assess out of themselves, but alas, it was not.

"Shh! I can't hear what they're saying!"

"Then get a fucking hearing aid. I can hear it just fine, and I'm two people behind you."

Yosuke give him a quick glare before turning back to the conversation.

"T-Tomorrow's fine with me… Huh? S-School? 'Course I'm going to school…"

"Then I'll meet you at the gates after school tomorrow."

The girl in purple walked off soon after that, leaving Kanji to his musings.

"D-Did he say he was interested…?"

_SHE. Jesus Christ, people; SHE. It's not that fucking hard._

"He's a guy… and I'm a guy… But… he's interested in me…?"

Justin blinked hard twice. It had just started to seep in what Kanji had meant by interested. Justin could hardly believe it himself, and he was the one to come up with that conclusion. Everything he knew about Kanji, nothing really pointed to him being… you know… Maybe Justin had just misunderstood what he had heard. Kanji did seem confused that a guy was interested in him, but that doesn't necessarily mean he rolls that way; he could just be confused why a guy would be interested in him. I mean, I imagine it would be pretty weird to have some dude hitting on you if you weren't gay. Assuming that he was being hit on of course, though the way Kanji said that, it sure seemed that way.

Besides, that wasn't a guy. If Kanji DID roll that way, he probably would have picked up on that. Not that you need to roll that way to pick up on that anyway, it was a really shitty disguise. And it apparently worked, much to Justin's dismay. Point being, if he was gay, he was going to be severely disappointed really quick.

"Huh? What the hell are you pricks looking at!?"

Justin snapped back into reality. He had been so busy debating back and forth in his head the possibility of Kanji being a homosexual that he had completely fazed out of reality. He wasn't sure why, it wasn't like it was any of Justin's business what Kanji's sexuality was. That was between him and… Justin couldn't even really say "that girl," because Kanji clearly thought it was a guy.

Justin was going to answer with a snide remark, though that was cut off quickly as Kanji came running at the group. The rest of the group darted away quicker than Justin's eyes could keep up. It took a second longer for Justin to start running, a quick shrug before jetting after the rest of the group. If it were up to him, he would have just walked away. He wasn't afraid of Kanji, but all the same, he had no intention of explaining what the rest of the group had been doing eavesdropping on a private conversation like that. A shrug more than sufficed; it signified he had only ran after the group because they had all ran, not because of his own choice.

* * *

It took a moment longer for Justin to catch up with the others. From the looks on everyone's faces as he rounded the corner, it looked like they had half expected Kanji to have gotten him. And from the looks of it, Yosuke had fully intended to leave Justin as a human sacrifice of sorts. But that's alright; Justin would get back at him for it, one way or another.

"That scared the hell out of me. He's even worse in person than on TV…"

"Not really."

"How the hell could you not think so!" Yosuke shouted in between breaths.

"Because he's just a person."

"A person that can break your bones!"

"Bones heal."

There was a brief pause of silence as everyone caught their breath, Yosuke and Justin taking slightly longer due to their brief exchange.

"The one on TV last night was definitely Kanji-kun…"

Justin could not stop himself from flinging his hands up into the air. _Of course it was fucking Kanji! That was established hours ago!_

"Yeah… and I just realized something. Remember the common points we were talking about? His mom fits the pattern. She's a woman, and she knew Ms. Yamano. But it was her son who appeared on TV… So what does that mean?"

"Kanji's the one that appeared on TV, right? So he has to be the target." Yu remarked.

"Yeah, that's what it seemed like, based on the TV image… But his mother fits the pattern more than he does."

"Oh, maybe it's similar to my case. If you think about it, my mother fit the victim profile more than I did. She was the one who dealt directly with Ms. Yamano… but I was the one who was targeted."

"Does that mean it'll be the kid again, instead of the mother? But if that's true, then the killer's motive makes no sense at all. It'd have nothing to do with silencing witnesses or revenge or anything."

"I would hold off on the 'revenge' portion of that speech, Chie."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

Justin had considered what would drive someone to target the victims children instead of the victim for a while now, and everything seemed to point to the same explanation; revenge.

"Well think of it like this. Pretend you're a mother. What's the most precious thing in the world to you? Your children, right? Now, if I was the killer, and I wanted revenge, wouldn't I want to take away something more precious to you than your own life? What if I were to take away your child's life instead?"

"That's really fucked up…" Yosuke groaned.

"Aren't all murders?"

"You might be on to something…"

Despite her words, it seemed Chie was still not entirely convinced. Justin had thought he had done a good job explaining his theory, but apparently not.

"Y'think we're on the wrong track…? Maybe even the first case had nothing to do with grudges or revenge."

"All murder has something to do with revenge, Yosuke."

"Not really…"

"Yes really. Give me an example of a murder scenario."

"Some guy kills a guy over a girl their both interested in."

"Revenge for taking your girl."

"Self defense."

"Revenge for putting your life in jeopardy."

"Drunken bar fight."

"Revenge for all those things that Russian said about your mother and slash or girlfriend."

Yosuke scrunched his face up slightly before nodding with defeat.

"Maybe there's some kind of secret in the textile shop itself…?"

The group paused for a moment, soaking in all the information that had been exchanged. Justin half hoped everyone would agree with his theory on the murder cases, but alas, no one seemed to speak of it. _Back to the drawing board…_

"Argh! I'm totally lost!"

"But we can't ignore this."

"Hmmm… Why don't we just go ahead and ask Kanji himself? We could at least see if anything's odd's happened lately. He scares the wits out of me but…"

Justin could not help but slam his palm into his head. It hurt like a bitch too, but not quite as much as Chie's comment hurt his brain.

"That's what we were supposed to do in the FIRST PLACE!"

"I was just throwing an idea out! Sheesh!"

Justin just shook his head before crossing his arms. It was seriously getting on his nerves how poorly this entire investigation was being handled. I mean, he wasn't really expecting much in the first place, they were only in high-school after all, but come on. Could they at least stick to one plan instead of jumping back and forth between doing something and not doing it?

"Hey, wasn't Kanji making plans with that weird kid a moment ago? Something about meeting up at school? I heard he's been skipping school ever since the new year started… Doesn't that seem a little suspicious?"

"Yeah, something did seem weird. Yeah, there's something suspicious alright. There's something funny going on here… I can sense it."

"Sense? You sound like Teddie… Still, we might find some clues."

"Wait, wait, wait a second here. I know you're not about to suggest eavesdropping on them."

"Huh? Well, yeah."

"No. Out of the question. Leave them to their business."

"What?" Yosuke seemed more than a little opposed to Justin's objections.

"But something's not quite right about those two!" Chie spoke up, trying to convince Justin.

"Alright, Chie, how would you like it if we were on a date and everyone else was watching you, taking notes, talking about you behind your back, trying to draw conclusions about you and your life just because they thought something 'wasn't quite right about us'. Would YOU be okay with that?"

"W-well, no but they're not-Wait… You don't think…?"

"It's clear as day."

"But, they're both dudes…"

"No they're not! Jesus, why is this so hard for you all to comprehend."

"What? Dude, what are you blabbering about now?"

"That was not a boy he was with!"

"Dude, that was clearly a guy."

"Yeaaaaah, I think I would have noticed if he was a she."

"You people disgust me."

"Look, I don't like this anymore than you do, but we have to get that information."

Justin starred at Yosuke for a moment. He wanted no part of this, and every single person who was there should feel ashamed of themselves right now. What those two do is their own business, not Yosuke's, not Chie's, not Justin's; theirs. And here Yosuke was, suggesting they all spy on them.

"I don't want any part of this."

"Justin, listen to me. If we don't do this, people might die. Are you willing to let that happen just so you can give Kanji a little privacy?"

"There are other ways, Yosuke."

"Oh yeah? Name one."

"How about waiting it out, let him get kidnapped, rescue him, get eye-witness testimony. Hell how about we just ask him like a normal fucking human being."

"You saw how well that worked out last time! And what happens if we can't rescue him in time? What then!?"

"We can, and we will."

"No. We can end this before anyone else has to get hurt."

Justin pressed his palm against his head. Yosuke had a point, but… Justin wasn't sure how to react anymore. He was completely and utterly morally opposed to the idea; but what if what Yosuke said was true. What if they could end this all here? Was Justin willing to risk letting that information slip through their hands, just because of his moral views? Justin sighed slightly.

"I'm not promising anything."

"That's good enough for me." Yosuke remarked, a small grin sweeping across his face. Justin wasn't sure what the hell he was smiling about. What they were doing was completely and utterly disgusting to every sense in Justin's body. What was there to be so happy about in that?

"Alright… Let's try staking out both Kanji and his family's store. We definitely don't want the killer getting ahead of us."

Everyone nodded in agreement, save Justin, who was still on the fence on this whole issue.

"That being said… Yukiko, can I have your number."

Justin couldn't help but shake his head in slight disgust. They had just gone from completely and utterly destroying Kanji's privacy to trying to get Yukiko's cell phone number, as if nothing had even happened. What in the fuck was wrong with Yosuke?

"Hey… was this your plan all along?"

"Yeah, that's right Chie. Yosuke's the killer, and he's been murdering everyone to get Yukiko's number. And he would have gotten away with it too if it weren't for your deductive reasoning. Have a gold badge."

"Uh, that's not what I meant!"

"I know, I know."

Yosuke shook his head at the two for a brief moment before jumping back into the conversation.

"Uh, no? I got everybody's number except for hers. And the Y section of my phonebook needs some filling out."

"What about Yu. Hell what about YOU Yosuke."

"Dude, why would I add myself to my contacts?"

"In case you lost your phone?"

"How the hell would I access my contacts if my phone was missing?"

"Touché."

Justin felt like slapping himself for forgetting that very basic fact. Yosuke can't actually get the contacts on his phone if he doesn't have his phone. Still, Justin's point still stood. He knew more than a few people whose names began with Y. Justin was about to speak up again when he heard Chie sigh.

"While we're on the subject, could you stop calling me at night just to tell dirty jokes?"

"…He what?"

Yosuke took a few steps back as he saw Justin's eyebrows scrunch down, his eyes wide open with rage. Chie apparently didn't hear Justin, because she just kept on going, much to Justin's dismay.

"You really sound like a pervert."

Justin turned his glare over towards Yosuke. He had been clearly pissed a moment ago, though Yosuke hadn't really gotten the full force out of his stare until now. His pupil looked like a tiny dagger, ready to stab Yosuke at any second, his iris pulsating slightly as his anger seemed to fill his every being. It wasn't even like Yosuke thought he did anything wrong either. It was just a joke, and it wasn't like he did it all the time. Just once or twice. Justin starred at him for a good few seconds before loosening his glare, much to Yosuke's relief. He looked back towards Chie, his eyebrows raised slightly.

"Were the funny, at least?"

"Nope."

"Ah…"

Justin paused for a brief moment, nodding his head ever so slightly. Yosuke felt his heart finally starting to kick back up. It felt like it had frozen in place but a moment ago out of fear. Of course, Yosuke's relief didn't last for long as Justin immediately turned around and socked Yosuke right in his jaw, sending him flying to the ground. It wasn't even one of Justin's usual attacks to Yosuke, where he had just lightly whacked him; this was full-blown force being delivered from his fist. Yosuke was almost entirely positive one of his teeth had come loose. Chie looked mildly concerned, though she seemed more confused that Justin had punched Yosuke out over something as trivial as a dirty joke.

"Wow. I didn't take you as the jealous type," Chie joked. She was going to give Justin a light shove, but decided against it, lest Justin still be pissed.

"You learn something new 'bout yourself every day." Justin remarked, shaking his hand in the air. He wouldn't let anyone else know it, but he had hit Yosuke hard enough that he had hurt his own hand. And let me tell you, it wasn't just sore; it hurt like a bitch. Still, Justin couldn't help but wonder why he had just gotten so pissed. Yeah, Yosuke should have known better, but it was just a joke after all, right? He sighed slightly; maybe Chie was right. He couldn't believe that there was a possibility that he was jealous of Yosuke. Fucking. Yosuke. Like, is that even humanly possible.

"OW! My jaw!"

"A-Are you alright Yosuke?" Yukiko remarked. She sure seemed to care a lot about Yosuke's well-being, much to Yu's apparent dissatisfaction.

"I can't feel my wisdom teeth…"

"Good, I just saved you a trip to the dentist's office."

Chie just shook her head back and forth, a wide grin on her face. Justin couldn't imagine why. He had more or less just kicked the crap out of someone for telling her a dirty joke. Didn't that strike her as a little creepy?

"Okay then, the stakeout is set for tomorrow. Hmm… Stakeouts… Tailing people... Whoo! I'm getting goosebumps."

"Oh please don't get happy over tailing people."

"Come on, it'll be just like that level in LA Noire."

Justin raised an eyebrow. Chie knew how to catch his interest, there was no doubt about that. _Fuck you Satonaka, referencing games I like. Who do you think you are?_

"Can I be Phelps?"

"Just this once."


	35. Chapter 34: May 17, 2011

CHAPTER 34

May 17, 2011

* * *

"Has the target arrived at school?"

The entirety of the group had been hiding near the gates to the school, much to Justin's displeasure. It wasn't even just that he was morally opposed to this anymore; they looked absolutely ridiculous hugging up to the wall surrounding the gate. They weren't fooling anyone. Justin sighed slightly. What was he doing here anyway? They didn't need Justin for their little stakeout, and god knows he wanted no part in it.

"Yes, Ma'am! Visual ID confirmed! Target arrived in-zone near the end of his mess break, with mother rations in hand. Current status: In the bathroom, fixing his hair."

Justin rolled his eyes.

"Looks like we got a code 254-beige; the turd is in the punchbowl. Repeat, turd is in the punchbowl."

"The who, what, and the where now?"

Justin just shook his head at Yosuke. The joke had gone completely over his head. Chie seemed to get it, though she certainly didn't find it amusing. In all honesty, Justin had been ragging on her a lot as of late; though he knew she understood it was all in jest. Still, he kind of felt bad. It wasn't like she was doing anything wrong; she was just being Chie after all. He sighed slightly as he turned his attention back towards the school entrance. Yosuke simply shook his head at Justin before going back on his tangent.

"The target was acting nervous. I left my position before he had a chance to pick on me!"

"I'm sure you'll be getting a medal of honor for your bravery."

"I wonder what kind of plans they made… It didn't seem like he knew the boy that well."

Chie paused for a moment, scratching at the back of her head as though trying to think.

"Well, I think there's something more subtle-"

"Didn't we establish this yesterday?"

Seriously, didn't they? Justin thought he made it quite clear that at least one of them had been interested in the other. I guess the rest of the group was just having a hard time believing that Kanji of all people could swing that way. Even though that was a girl he was speaking to and not a boy. Justin was going to explain it all over again for everyone so that they finally got the implications, but that was interrupted by Chie speaking up.

"Oh, he's here!"

With those few words, the rest of the group pushed up against the walls of the gate; or at least, more so than before. Justin, of course, outright refused. They were actually making it WORSE by doing that. I mean they were at school. What was this Kanji guy going to do, beat them up for being on school grounds? They could have hidden in plain sight and had a better disguise than they did right now. Chie more or less had to grab Justin by the collar to pull him closer to the group's hiding spot, as though expecting Justin to blow the entire operation. He just groaned slightly as she finished tugging at his shirt. This was absolutely ridiculous.

Sure enough, Chie had been right. Kanji soon made his way just in front of the gate. It was a wonder his peripheral vision hadn't picked up on them. It's not like they were hiding behind something, they were just hugging a wall. Even stranger still was the appearance of the girl in purple from earlier, not because she had showed up mind you, but because the entire gang had been right in front of her as she made her way up to Kanji. How in the hell did she not notice them? Or had she and chosen to ignore them? At this point Justin had thrown all logic out the window. Apparently it wasn't getting him anywhere in life.

"I didn't keep you waiting, I hope?"

"No, I-I just got here too…"

And with that, no more words were exchanged between the two as they departed from the school. Justin had half expected the group to follow behind, as they had made it out to sound like they were. Instead they simply made their way out of the hiding spot and started to discuss what they had seen. Justin couldn't help but sigh slightly in relief; at least they weren't getting too involved in their private business. It could have been a lot worse.

"What in the world was that?"

"Oh, a-anyways! We gotta hurry after them or we'll lose them!"

Justin had been starting to smirk with relief, though that went right out the window the moment that Chie had suggested following them. Justin had thought it would come down to that, but all the same, it wasn't something he would be comfortable with.

"Okay… Then let's split up into two groups. One team will follow Kanji, and the other will stake out the shop."

"R-Roger that. How should we split the teams?"

"I'll go with Yukiko to stakeout the textile shop." Yu spoke up almost immediately. Justin couldn't help but breathe a slight chuckle under his breath. _Way to go Yu; you playah._

"Alright, then me and Chie will keep an eye on Kanji."

Justin raised an eyebrow. Yosuke was pairing up with Chie, and Yu was pairing up with Yukiko. He understood that much. So why the hell did no one pair Justin into a group.

"Uh… Aren't you forgetting someone?"

"Huh? You're going with Yu and Yukiko, right?"

Yu only droped his eyes in disappointment. He knew Justin was completely opposed to following Kanji around, which meant he probably would tag along with them. Justin gave Yu a quick glance before turning his attention back over to the other two, gathering them in a huddle. Chie and Yosuke seemed slightly confused what they were bunching up like that for, but they did it nonetheless. Justin didn't even bother to see how Yu and Yukiko were reacting to this; he couldn't imagine very well.

"Uh… Don't you think we should let those two do their thing?"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean, Yosuke."

Yosuke only starred at Justin for a brief moment before his eyes widened with realization. It seemed it didn't really dawn upon him that he knew Justin knew Yu had a thing for Yukiko.

"Oh… You mean that. Well I guess so, but… Are you sure about this? I know you weren't a big fan of this plan yesterday."

"I'm still not, but if we're going to evade Kanji's privacy, we might as well give someone else theirs."

Chie only raised a slight eyebrow in confusion. It seemed she hadn't quite caught on to what Yosuke and Justin were talking about, despite knowing very well that Yu had a thing for Yukiko, and potentially the other way around. I guess it never really dawned upon her that Yu hadn't really had an excuse to get Yukiko and him alone before.

"Uh… so Justin's coming with us?"

"Well gee. Don't sound so happy about it."

"No no, it's not that!" Chie blurted out trying to cover the bases, "I was just making sure is all!"

"Alright then, break."

And with that the three ended their huddle, turning towards Yu and Yukiko.

"Alright you two, Justin's going to be coming with us instead."

Yu's eyes brightened up almost immediately as he passed a smile Justin's way. He had known Justin had been the one to talk Yosuke and Chie into letting him go with them, not the other way around. Justin responded by giving him a quick nod of his head, a wide smirk across his face. Yukiko on the other hand seemed slightly confused.

"Huh? How come?"

"Well, uh…"

"So I can keep an eye on these two if they do something stupid."

"Nice save." Yosuke whispered over to Justin.

Justin responded by slamming the tip of his fist into Yosuke's. Justin was actually kind of surprised Yosuke had followed up Justin's invitation to slam fists together so quickly. It wasn't like they had a secret handshake or anything, so it sort of struck him as odd that Yosuke was able to react so quickly and without hesitation.

"Oh man, they're almost out of sight!"

Justin and Yosuke turned their attention over to Chie. They had completely forgotten that they still needed to catch up with the two. Justin only hoped that whatever information it was they needed that they hadn't missed it. If they had to do this, he'd at least like for there to be some fruits of their labors.

"C'mon you two."

"Alright, we'll need to pretend we're on a date to make it look natural!"

Yosuke smirked slightly as the comment came out of his mouth. Justin simply glared at him. He was doing it on purpose. And it was fucking working too. Justin could feel his blood boiling with rage as Yosuke gave him that look. It took every fiber of his being not to deck him again, right there and then.

"Ugh, not in a million years!"

"Sorry. You're not my type, Yosuke. Oh wait. I'm sorry, it seems I was mistaken. Were you just trying to go on a "date" with my girlfriend? Funny. I remember something like that coming up yesterday too. How are those wisdom teeth again?"

Chie blushed slightly. Sure Justin was being an over jealous and overly protective prick right about now, but she was still flattered all the same. And also kind of embarrassed. She had never thought Justin would outright admit to the two dating in front of the rest of the group; even if they all already knew.

"Relax, I'm just kidding!"

"I'm not."

"Sheesh, you two… Let's hurry up and go!"

* * *

"Uh… Yosuke?"

"Shh! Quiet."

"You mind NOT standing like that behind my girlfriend?"

Yosuke and Chie turned their attention backwards to Justin. Yosuke seemed to have no idea what was going on, though Chie immediately did, much to her disgust. See, Chie had crouched down on her knees next to a tree, almost in a crawling position, for god only knows what reason. It couldn't possibly have helped her hear or see better, right? And if it was supposed to be for hiding why hadn't she done that behind the tree instead of next to it. Yosuke had decided that apparently the tree was a good place to stand too, opting to stand right over Chie's rear end. I don't think I need to explain why the way the two were positioned looked completely and utterly wrong. Needless to say, Justin was not too pleased. He couldn't even tell if Yosuke was doing it on purpose anymore, or if he was actually this fucking stupid. Either way, Chie practically ripped him a new one once she noticed him standing over her like that.

"Yosuke, what the hell are you doing!?"

"Huh?"

"Back off, buster!"

Yosuke was completely confused. What the hell were those two getting on his back for. It took him a moment to realize exactly what was up, as he looked down towards Chie.

"What- Oh shit! Sorry, my bad!"

And with that Yosuke jumped away from Chie faster than a cheetah hunting gazelles. He half expected Justin to beat the living shit out of him for it, though Justin just dismissed it as Yosuke being an idiot like usual. He clearly hadn't done it intentionally, so he guessed there was no harm done. So long as he didn't do it again. Because if he did, Justin was going to beat the ever loving crap out of him.

Chie and Justin just shook it off, turning their attention back towards Kanji and that girl he had been walking with. They hadn't really said anything, though that sort of put Justin on edge. He could imagine that if the two really were into each other, that just a quiet walk on the park would be something special for them. Of course, it seemed they had just met, so he wasn't quite sure how far that theory went. All the same, Justin felt like he was intruding on something more simply because they HADN'T been talking.

"Man, this is weird…"

"Yeah… We definitely stand out."

"Well we certainly did just a moment ago!"

"It was an accident!" Yosuke practically shouted. Justin had to run over and place his palm against Yosuke's mouth, lest Kanji and the girl in purple hear him.

"No! I mean THEM! I get this weird feeling about them…"

"Weird? What about them's weird?"

"Umm… I don't know how to put it."

Justin did. In fact, he knew exactly how to put. It's not like he had explained it to them twice already or anything like that. Jesus, he felt like he was talking to a brick wall sometimes. _That's it, fuck it. No more talking during these meetings. It just goes over everyone's heads anyway._

"Maybe it's just my imagination…"

There was a brief pause in the exchange between the three. Justin took the opportunity to look over at Kanji and the girl. They still weren't saying anything to each other, much to Justin's confusion. It was kind of adorable in a way, but he knew they barely knew each other. There had to be some sort of catch here.

"Hey, how do you think the others are doing?"

"Beats me. For all we know, he's hitting on Yukiko as we speak."

Chie paused for a brief moment, opting to get out of her kneeling position to make her way back out to the road. It seemed that Kanji and that girl had gone on far enough ahead that they didn't need to worry about hiding at the moment. Justin only hoped that the three didn't miss anything while they were talking about Yu's love life.

"Yeaaaah, no. He's not like you."

Justin couldn't help but chuckle slightly.

"You do realize there was a reason I came along with you guys and not them, right?"

"What, it wasn't to spend time with me?" Chie joked slightly. Justin laughed, slightly shaking his head to the side. He wouldn't object to that, but that wasn't why.

"Ugh, get a room you two."

"I have a house. Does that count?"

"Sure, more power to you."

Yosuke looked like he was going to gag at any second. Funny, for a guy that liked to jab at them for being a couple, he sure seemed to be awfully disgusted by the thought of the two together. Though, Justin couldn't half blame him. He was like that too when they first got together. He still was to a certain extent.

"So, wait. Why did you tag along with our group anyway?"

Justin raised his eyebrow slightly.

"Really? You were there when I explained it."

"Does Chie even know?" Yosuke asked. He understandably didn't want to tell Chie if she didn't already know about Yu's crush. Knowing her, she'd probably tell Yukiko everything.

"Yeah, I sorta dropped the ball on that one. You remember how I said Yu had a crush on Yukiko?"

"Yeah…? Oh. OH! I get it now. You two are leaving them alone to try and hit it off."

"Bingo."

"Well that was awfully nice of you. I know you didn't really want to come with us to keep an eye on Kanji."

Justin was about to say something when he felt someone's presence approaching from behind. He knew damn well who it was too. Chie just had to open her mouth just then. Hell, hadn't she noticed him coming? She had been facing in that general direction.

"…The hell are you three doing?"

Yosuke immediately started to panic at the sound of Kanji's voice. Justin did to an extent to, though he manage to keep his calm exterior, opting to move over in such a way that he could get a good view on Kanji, Yosuke and Chie. It actually looked like he was backing away from Kanji, though, much to Justin's displeasure. He wasn't afraid of Kanji, and he didn't want to give off the impression that he was.

"Oh, well, you see… We're… We're just two crazy lovebirds!"

Justin immediately turned to give Yosuke a glare. Yosuke had seen it though he didn't seem quite as afraid of Justin as he was Kanji; despite Justin actually beating Yosuke on a fairly regular basis. There's an expression about the enemy you know, though Yosuke had apparently thrown the logic behind that out the window. Either way, Justin was pissed. So was Chie, given the look on her face. She looked like she was going to rip his head off at any second.

"Uh, whaddya mean bird!?"

"Oh, that's the part you're offended by!?"

"Play along, birdbrain."

Kanji took a step forward, prompting Chie and Yosuke to step back in fear. Justin didn't so much as budge, though that put him right next to Kanji at the moment. It was actually slightly awkward, though Justin thought he'd make a point. He crossed his arms as Kanji gave him a strange look before turning back towards the other two.

"Didn't I see you guys yesterday…?"

Yosuke laughed an incredibly forced, fake, and otherwise awkward laugh. Justin couldn't help but sigh. People told Justin he was a bad liar all the time, but this was just ridiculous. Yosuke was completely blowing it!

"C-C'mon, it just so happened that we were walking behind you guys. Pure coincidence! H-Hey! Our houses are just over that way, so we'll be going now…"

And then it happened. Chie opened her mouth and dropped the bomb. Like, she didn't just drop the bomb, she fucking nuked the entire place, stole the place she nuked's nukes, and then nuked it again. And then, when she was done nuking it, she took the remains, and used it to build more nukes.

"Um, look, we weren't planning on getting in you guys' way, and there's nothing strange about it, either…"

Justin couldn't help but shove his face into his palm. _I'm in love with an idiot._

"S-Strange…!?"

"Why can't you keep your big mouth shut!?"

Without warning, the two made a mad-dash away from Kanji. Justin mouth almost dropped in disbelief. Not only had they ran away from the guy they were supposed to be questioning, they fucking left Justin behind with him. It wouldn't even be a problem if the two hadn't completely pissed Kanji off. _I am going to KILL those fuckers._ Cool with him or not, there was no way in hell Justin was going to stay behind with this guy_._ Justin soon followed behind, Kanji but mere steps behind him. It took all of Justin's energy to catch up with Yosuke and Chie. And he sure as hell wasn't happy about it.

"What the fuck, you guys!?"

"Justin!" Chie seemed happy to see that Justin hadn't been ripped to shreds, though Yosuke seemed almost panicked that Kanji hadn't been distracted by Justin's noble sacrifice.

"You left me behind!?"

"W-Well, you seemed like you could handle yourself."

"You know Yosuke, you've pissed me off not twice, not thrice, but four fucking times today! If I were you, I wouldn't stop running!"

Yosuke quickened his step ever so slightly so he could get in front of Justin, lest he try to strangle him mid-escape.

"This ain't what you think! Y-You got it all wrong!"

"Oh shit, he's gaining on us!"

"You say that like it's a bad thing!"

"It is a bad thing!"

"Sounds to me like he's just trying to explain something."

"With his fists maybe!"

"You are just the worst, Yosuke, you know that!"

"Hey! Are you listening, dammit!? It seriously ain't like that!"

"What the hell is he talking about!?"

"Oh my god Yosuke, you are so fucking stupid it hurts. It fucking HURTS!"

"Yeah, well explain it to me, since you seem to know freakin' everything!"

"That's why it fucking hurts Yosuke. I explained it at LEAST twice!"

"Dude, whatever!

* * *

It took a while before the two were able to out-run Kanji, though, running around in circles probably didn't help. It was much more likely that he just gave up his pursuit of the trio, figuring it just wasn't worth the effort he was putting into it. After all, who cared what they thought of him. It wasn't like he knew them or anything. The three soon after managed to escape back at the rendezvous point with Yu and Yukiko, completely out of breath by the time they came to a stop in front of the two.

"We regret to inform… Our mission failed."

"There was nowhere to hide…"

"Well maybe if you two didn't run away like that…!"

Yu and Yukiko seemed more than a little upset at the trio. It wasn't like they had all that difficult of a task. All they had to do was stay out of sight and listen in on the conversation between Kanji and that girl in purple. Actually, come to think of it, what did happen to that girl? Clearly she had been with Kanji before he had chased the three of them off. Maybe they parted ways before Kanji turned around and spotted the three of them.

"Well… Let's wait her a little longer. Maybe Kanji-kun will come home."

"Ugh, I hope not. I already have a splitting headache."

"Huh…? What are you guys doing here?"

"And speaking of the devil…"

Justin slowly turned around to face the source of the sound. Kanji had finally made his way back around to his house, much to Justin's displeasure. His head was pounding like no tomorrow, so he wasn't in the mood for any more of these Kanji shenanigans. Honestly, he felt slightly light-headed too; probably because he hadn't had a chance to smoke all day. Addictions are a bitch.

"You're those stupid lovebirds I just saw!"

Justin just sighed. He really was going to kick Yosuke's ass when all of this was over.

"We are not a couple!"

"Those two are though."

Yosuke shrugged. Justin responded by punching him in the gut. Why the fuck did he think he had any right to tell Kanji that? I mean, god only knows how awkward that must be, being told that out of three people, two of them had been faking being a couple when in actuality it was her and the other guy that were a thing. Why make up a bullshit story about being a couple, when there already was a couple there. It made no fucking sense! Yosuke gasped out for air slightly as he fell to his knees.

"Okay… I deserved that…" _Damn straight you did._

"I get to punch him next time." Chie added. She wasn't exactly fond of Kanji knowing about them being a couple either. Justin couldn't really blame her with how afraid she had apparently been of him.

"Why are you assholes followin' me around!? Dammit, what the hell's going on!?"

Kanji stared at the group of teenagers for a brief moment, most of them reeling back slightly in fear; the exceptions to the rule being Justin, who had never been afraid of Kanji, and Yosuke, who had just been getting back to his feet from Justin's blow to his gut. He sighed slightly before transitioning back into speech.

"I ain't sayin' this is you guys' fault… But… Dammit!"

There was another brief pause of silence as the group looked around at each other. Most everyone seemed confused, even Justin to an extent. Kanji seemed really confused about something, though Justin seemed to have a good idea what. Still he had to wonder if that was really what Kanji was confused over, or if it had something to do with everyone fucking stalking him for the last two days.

"Hey, uh… mind if we ask something? Has anything strange happened to you lately?"

"Huh? Strange…?"

"Goddammit, you two. Stop using that word."

"What's this 'strange' stuff, huh!? Are you saying that I'm strange!?"

"People are strange when you're a stranger."

Justin shrugged. It was true. The only reason Kanji seemed strange to the group was because they didn't really know him. He had hoped his hastily scrapped together song reference would calm Kanji down slightly, but alas, it seemed the meaning had gone completely over his head.

"Huh? N-No, I didn't mean-!"

"You shitheads better get the hell out of my face, or I'm taking you down!"

"Wha-!? Wait, why!?"

"I look like I'm joking!?"

Kanji's voice was cracking really badly at this point. He had apparently gotten angry enough at this point that he was trying to shout way past his vocal range. Looking around the group, everyone had started to freak out more than a little bit. Of course, that was immediately remedied by Kanji running head-long at them, sending everyone flying in opposite directions. Hell Yosuke even ran into a wall at one point. Justin couldn't help but slap his face with the palm of his hand. Unlike the others Justin did not run. Apparently Kanji was more than a little confused that Justin hadn't run off like the others, as he came to a stop in front of Justin, his hand still forming a fist. He looked like he would swing at Justin at any second, but alas, Justin had apparently been one lucky son of a bitch. He turned slightly to face Kanji.

"Do people always do this?"

"Huh!? Look, you better-!"

"There's nothing wrong with being strange, you know. If there was, I would have put a bullet in my skull years ago."

Justin flashed Kanji a quick grin before strolling down the alleyway, trying to catch up with the rest of the gang. Kanji just stood there, jaw slightly ajar, eyebrow raised in confusion. He wasn't entirely sure what the hell happened: why Justin hadn't run, why he had made that comment to him, none of it. He starred off in Justin's general direction for only a brief moment before turning around to enter the textile store.

* * *

"Urgh… Too much running…"

Justin could hear Chie and the rest of the group gasping for air as he rounded the corner. Apparently they hadn't really noticed Justin rounding the corner at all, as they had apparently been talking about him while he was making his way over here.

"We've gotta go back for him."

"Are you out of your mind!?"

"Well we can't just leave him!"

"Sacrifices must be made. We will honor his memory in the days to come..."

"I'm right here Yosuke. Don't start dividing up my stuff just yet."

"Justin! Oh thank god!"

Chie rushed forward and wrapped her arms around Justin's waist, digging her face into Justin's shoulder blade. He couldn't help but be a little surprised by the gesture, for a number of reasons. First and foremost being that he had thought Chie wouldn't be the type to show public affection like this. The second was that she had clearly been concerned about him; like, really fucking concerned. What the hell did they think Kanji was going to do with him? Worst come to worst, he'd have a black-eye or two. No big deal really. Really, Justin sort of assumed Yosuke had said something to get her riled up like that, especially given the look on his face as Justin rounded the corner. He hadn't really been grimacing. Hell, it actually kind of looked a little like a smirk.

"Whoa, easy. I'm all right."

Yu and Yukiko simply smiled as Chie raised her head from the two's embrace. Her eyes were watering slightly, though she had a wide grin on her face. Justin really couldn't tell from where he was standing, but it was actually pretty adorable. Yosuke, on the other hand, looked like he was going to barf. Chie eventually let go of her grip on Justin, stepping off towards his side, a pinkish shade to her cheeks. It didn't really strike her that she had just done that in front of all of their friends, though give it an hour or so. It'll hit her eventually.

"Well, nothing happened, so I guess everything's okay…"

Yosuke paused, trying to make it clear he had meant the situation with Justin as well as the situation of Kanji's kidnapping. Justin of course realized that the situation involving him had been entirely fabricated by Yosuke. He shot Yosuke a quick glare, making it clear to him that he was on to his tricks. Yosuke responded by averting eye contact and coughing slightly.

"But it's already been a few days since he appeared on the Midnight Channel. If this is anything like Yukiko's case, it'll happen soon."

"Then we can't let our guard down… I think we should come back tomorrow to check up on him."

"Yeah, I don't see that working to well, what with us STALKING him."

"Looks like we've got no choice. Let's go home. I'm wiped…"

* * *

Yukiko and Yosuke were the first ones to leave, though Yu, Chie, and Justin had opted to stay behind for a moment. It was silent between the three for a good while as they watched Yosuke and Yukiko go their separate ways. It took a while before Justin turned his attention over to Chie.

"What did Yosuke tell you?"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"Come on... You don't have to hide it from me. I could tell Yosuke was hiding something a mile away."

"Oh… that…"

Chie averted eye-contact for a moment.

"That bad?"

She only nodded her head in response. Justin sighed slightly, wrapping his arm around Chie's shoulder.

"Do me a favor. Write down a list of all the things Yosuke said Kanji was doing to me so I can do all of it to him later. It'll be like, poetic justice or something."

Chie's gloomy face lightened up slightly; not so much because Justin had threatened Yosuke with violence, but because he actually seemed to care about what Yosuke had made her feel like. She smiled a bit before easing her way out of Justin's grip.

"You don't have to do that. I'll be alright. Promise."

She leaned up slightly and gave Justin a quick peck on the lips before making her way out of the alleyway. Justin watched her as she left, giving her a quick wave as she departed from the scene. In all honesty, though, Justin's mind hadn't been on Chie's departure. His lips were tingling at this point. He wasn't entirely sure how to feel about it. They had been dating for a couple of weeks or so now, but they hadn't actually kissed since that encounter in the alleyway. It still felt strange to Justin. He briefly wondered if it was just him being a weirdo, or if that was how it was supposed to feel.

He sighed slightly as he snapped back into reality. It had just dawned upon him that this had all just went down in front of Yu. Justin swapped a glance with him out of the corner of his eye. He was expecting embarrassment or disgust. Instead he found only a smile and brightly lit eyes. Strange, he always imagined people would react poorly to seeing that kind of stuff, not find joy in it.

"S-sorry about that."

"Don't be." Yu chuckled slightly.

Justin rubbed at the back of his head. Yu clearly didn't mind the display he had just seen between Chie and Justin just a moment ago, but he still felt embarrassed all the same. He stared off into the horizon for a brief moment before turning back to Yu.

"So…"

"Hm?"

"How'd it go with you and Yukiko?"

Yu smiled as the words left Justin's mouth. He reached around into his pocket, shuffling through his belongings; for what, Justin could only guess. After a few seconds, he pulled out his cell-phone. He flipped it open and pressed a few buttons on it before pointing the screen towards Justin. Justin couldn't help but laugh as he saw the message on the screen.

_You have added Yukiko Amagi to your contacts._


	36. Chapter 35: May 18, 2011

CHAPTER 35

May 18, 2011

* * *

"He said what now!?"

The gang had all gathered around their desks as per usual. What had been unusual, however, was the grim expression everyone seemed to be wearing on their faces. Justin wasn't quite sure what had happened at first. He had asked what everyone was so concerned over, much to the group's displeasure.

"What, dude, you didn't see it!?"

"See what?"

"Kanji, you idiot! He was on the television!"

"I thought we already knew that…?"

Justin was a little confused. He knew Kanji had been on the television; that was why they had been following him around after all. Yosuke just shook his head back and forth with a swiftness that suggested he couldn't believe the bullshit that was coming out of Justin's mouth. For a guy who seemed to ridicule all of them on a regular basis for being misinformed or not knowing something, Justin seemed awfully clueless.

"No, not like that!"

"Wait… you mean…?"

"Yes! Jesus, Justin, you were supposed to watch last night!"

Justin rubbed at the back of his head slightly, averting his eyes from Yosuke in shame. It wasn't like he hadn't watched it on purpose, though the actuality wasn't much better of an excuse.

"Sorry… I was feeling a little light-headed yesterday, so I went to lay down for a bit. I must have dozed off without realizing it…"

Yosuke shook his head slightly. If Justin hadn't been feeling well, then maybe it had been best that he went to bed early that night. Still, of all the nights Justin could have fallen asleep early, he had to pick the one Kanji showed up on the television? In all honesty, Justin hadn't even thought Kanji would get thrown in so quickly. He had expected it to at least be another two days before that happened. But then, you know what they say about assumptions; only, really, he was only making an ass out of himself. Yosuke sighed slightly.

"It's fine…"

"Well, fill me in then. I'm sure I can get the gist of it."

"You really don't want to know…"

"If I didn't I wouldn't have asked. Now spill it."

Yosuke clearly had no intention of telling him by the way he was averting eye-contact. Chie and Yukiko, either. That left Yu, who seemed more than happy to bring Justin up to date. Justin was sort of surprised Yu hadn't been as pissed at him as the others were.

"Well… he said something about 'searching for a sublime love that surpasses the separation of the sexes'."

"He said what now!?"

"Yeah… It gets worse…"

"Please don't tell me he was naked…"

No one in the group responded to Justin as he made the remark. Justin had been kidding at first, but the dead silence in the air soon changed that. _Wait. He wasn't, right? Oh pleases sweet Jesus let him have been wearing pants…_

"Guys... PLEASE tell me he wasn't naked…"

"W-well…"

Justin gagged. He gagged a lot. How much is a lot, you ask? Well, at one point while he was gagging, Chie had checked to see if he was choking on something. Which slightly concerned Justin, since he highly doubted Chie knew how to do the Heimlich maneuver. She'd probably end up crushing his lungs or something in the process.

"Actually, I think he was wearing a towel." Yukiko spoke up.

Justin didn't even question why the hell she had been looking around that area if they had all thought Kanji was naked. He was simply too relieved to give the slightest damn. Which is more than Justin could say about Yu, who seemed more than a little panicked. _Looks like someone's got competition. You end up getting a good look at what you're competing with, or…?_ Yosuke sighed slightly, bringing the topic back around to what they were going to do about Kanji, not whether or not Kanji had been wearing his birthday suit.

"Given the pattern so far, Kanji's already inside the TV…"

"I wonder what the Midnight Channel really is…" Yukiko wondered aloud.

"A porn channel."

"Yeah, yeah, very funny." Yosuke simply shook his head from side to side. He had assumed that was another one of Justin's sarcastic remarks. In actuality, however, Justin had been dead serious.

"I'm not joking. Think about it. What had Yukiko been doing when she first showed up on television?"

"H-huh!?"

"It would be better if you didn't know, Yukiko." Chie sighed slightly. Yukiko was completely flabbergasted. What the hell did she do that Justin was drawing comparisons to a porno. She wasn't sure whether she should be mortified or be slapping Justin right now.

"And what you described to me for Kanji sounds an awful lot like a gay porno."

"Uh… Justin? Why do you know what a gay porno sounds like?" Chie wasn't sure whether she should be disgusted, concerned, or angry. So she went with a mixture of all three.

"I don't. I just assume it's not much different from a regular por- You know what, no. I'm not falling into that trap again."

"Ugh, you are such a creep!"

"Oh I'm sorry. Aren't you dating said creep?"

"Oh, don't you start…!"

"Enough you two! I think we can all agree the Midnight Channel is not a freakin' porn channel." Yosuke interjected.

Justin simply shrugged before turning his attention back over to Yosuke. He had expected Yosuke to have something to add to the conversation, having broken up Justin and Chie's "argument," but alas, it didn't happen. Chie eventually spoke up to break the awkward silence Yosuke had made.

"At first, I thought it was one of those 'paranormal' things, but when I gave it a try… it was real. Turns out it was actually connected to another world…"

"Pretty sure that still qualifies as paranormal."

"No, not like that!"

"What, you mean like 'Bloody Mary' kinda shit? The word you're look for is 'myth'."

Chie shrugged slightly. She supposed Justin was right, though she would probably still call it 'paranormal.' Justin simply scrunched his face up slightly, as though to say "eh."

"If there's a rumor going around, that means a bunch of people are watching it."

"You think people are actually trying it out?"

"Didn't we?"

"Touché'."

"How did the rumor go…? If you stare into a turned-off TV on a rainy night…"

"But if you try, it does work. And not just once."

Justin simply couldn't keep quiet on the matter any longer. Recapping information was all well and good and all, but this has literally been the basis of their entire investigation, the murders, everything. There was NO need to explain it again. They all already knew.

"Kind of preaching to the choir on this one, Yosuke. We've only been doing that for the last month or so."

"Well not you apparently!"

"I fell asleep, what do you want me to say?"

Justin could have thought of a number of better responses, but in truth, his head was still killing him. He didn't know why either. If it was just a cold, wouldn't sleeping it off have resolved the issue? And he certainly didn't bang his head on anything; at least not recently. He sighed slightly as Yosuke turned back towards the rest of the group.

"If this rumor spreads and everyone starts watching the Midnight Channel…"

"It could cause a huge panic…"

The group all looked around at each other for a brief moment, expressions of concern on their face. Save for Justin, who looked more like he was going to fall asleep at any second. Chie had apparently noticed, given her next remark.

"H-Hey… Are you okay? You don't look so good…"

"Huh? Y-Yeah, I'm fine."

"I don't know man… You look really out of it." Yosuke butted in.

"I said I'm fine!"

"Hey, relax! I'm just making sure you're alright! Jeeze…"

Justin sighed slightly. He half felt bad. Half. I mean, it was Yosuke he just yelled at, so it wasn't any different than usual. Still, Yosuke had just been checking to see if Justin was okay. He must have looked like a complete dick just now. Justin took a look back over to Chie to see her reaction. She had been trying to force a smile, the cracks of her mouth curving upward slightly. It was fake as all hell, much to Justin's dismay. Yosuke just shook his head at Justin before going back to the previous subject. He knew talking about it more would just piss Justin off.

"What if Teddie was right? That the missing people create the stuff we see themselves. It wouldn't be random. It would be specifically related to whoever's missing."

Chie sighed slightly. Justin could tell she was still staring at him from his outburst just a moment ago. He really wished she would stop looking at him like that. She was just making him feel worse, and when he felt bad, he went on another one of his mood-swings, and then everybody was miserable. Luckily for Justin, she soon averted her gaze from Justin as she went to address Yosuke.

"Yukiko had a show too, but she doesn't remember doing anything like that."

"While we're on the topic, what was that porn thing again?"

Justin raised an eyebrow slightly. She was still on that? Obviously it wasn't a porn channel, he was just pointing out a coincidental connection between the two shows.

"D-Don't worry about that. Nothing bad happened." Yosuke choked up in panic. There was no way in hell any of them were going to let Yukiko know what she had done on that show. She would probably die of humiliation. Yukiko didn't seem all that convinced by Yosuke's hastily thrown together explanation, but she dropped the subject nonetheless.

"Um, this might be a bit off subject, but… The culprit is probably watching the shows that come on… right?"

Justin had been planting his head in-between his arms as per usual when the comment reached his ears. He couldn't have jumped his head back up any quicker, unless he was willing to snap his neck in the process. She had a very valid point; the killer probably WAS watching the program. Justin wasn't really sure how it could help them catch the killer, but it seemed like important information nonetheless.

"No doubt. He's probably sitting back and enjoying-"

Chie paused for a brief moment. At first it hadn't really struck her that the killer had been watching the victims before they were murdered. Her face was very suddenly and clearly struck by a jolt of disgust.

"Wait a sec… I bet he IS enjoying it!"

"Like a snuff film."

"A snuff film? What's that?"

Leave it to Yosuke not to know anything about anything.

"A snuff film is a movie that shows a murder or a killing of some sort. You know, like all those slasher movies that come out around Halloween. Except instead of actors and special effects being used to depict the murder, it's an actual murder that is filmed."

Yosuke looked like he was going to vomit at any second, a wave of anger and disgust flowing over him. It seemed to Justin that Yosuke simply couldn't stand the thought of his girlfriend being murdered just for someone's entertainment. Not that he should have been able to, mind you. If something like that had happened to Chie… Well Justin would rather not think about it. Let's just say, he'd be making a snuff film based on a snuff film, and the amount of gore involved would rival the Saw franchise as a collective.

"He's probably laughing his head off watching the 'show' that comes on after he throw people into the TV!"

"It's… Definitely possible."

Yosuke's face was completely pale at this point. He was really taking this snuff thing to heart; especially considering his girlfriend very well might have died on screen. Justin felt bad for even drawing the comparison. Maybe it was something Yosuke just didn't need to hear. Ignorance is bliss after all. Yosuke took a deep breath before trying to force himself to liven up. It worked to a certain extent. The color had returned to his cheeks, and he could see the faintest smile in the cracks of his mouth, but he had been white as a ghost a moment ago. It was hard to forget the sight.

"Ugh… Now when I think of the killer, I get this image of a total sicko!" He paused for a moment, chuckling slightly before continuing. Justin groaned in advance. Yosuke had a bad habit of laughing at his own jokes before he even told them. The harder he laughed, the worse they usually were. Suddenly Yosuke dropped the pitch in his voice slightly, stretching out his words, rolling out the ending syllables of each. He was trying to come out as a creep. Well he certainly did, but not for the reasons he thought he did.

"I wanna see everything about you Yuki-chan!"

Chie couldn't stop herself from squirming around, grunts of disgust coming out her mouth. As if that were the most appalling thing she had ever heard. I mean, she was dating the biggest potty mouth in all of Inaba; Justin was sure he had said something worse to her at some point, and even then she never reacted like this. Justin had to hand it to Yosuke; he sure knew how to make the ladies squirm.

"Wait, so if people saw Yukiko's show, do you think people were watching what happened to me too!?"

"Probably not." Justin tried to reassure Chie. Alas, it didn't help much. Chie was clearly very pissed off at the possibility of her shadow being on the Midnight Channel. God only knew that there was no getting Chie to stand down once she got pissed off over something.

"Oh that is IT! That killer is dead meat! I'm gonna leave footprints all over his face."

"Careful. The killer might be into that kind of stuff."

"Ugh, gross dude!"

"Well it's true."

"Guys!"

Chie had made her way into a crouching position, as though getting ready to punch someone in their gut. Justin had known she was angry, but damn. This was taking it to another level entirely.

"First, we save Kanji! Then, we crush the killer!"

"Alright, sound plan so far." Justin added sarcastically.

"Finally, we crush the killer and send him to hell! Got it!?"

"Can we not send him to hell? I'd like to not run into him when I die, thanks."

Justin was joking for the most part, though there was some truth in it, he supposed. After all, he could very well have mugged and shot a man. He can't imagine that would go over well upstairs. He'd probably be taking the highway to hell as opposed to the stairway to heaven. _Oh well. I'll be sure to bring some sunscreen._

Justin was snapped out of his thoughts about his destination in the afterlife when he heard Yukiko burst into another laughing fit. _Oh god, not again…_

"Ch-Chie, those last two were the same thing…"

"Uh… I know…"

"I think that was the joke."

"Joke? Oh uh… Y-yeah, the joke…"

Chie put on one of the worst fake laughs Justin had ever heard, much to Justin's concern. He had legitimately thought that was supposed to be a joke, but she was serious? So on top of not being particularly bright, Chie was completely and utterly socially awkward. Justin smiled. She reminded him a lot of himself.

* * *

"Hey Teddie, someone's here, right?"

The gang had all made their way inside the television for the first time in what felt like weeks. It probably was, now that Justin thought about it. The last time they had jumped inside was to try to corner Justin's shadow… That was about a week tops before that incident with him and Chie in the alleyway, which happened roughly two weeks ago. So, it had to be a little less than 3 weeks since they had last been here. It felt sort of strange being back, though that also might have had to do with Justin's head. He wasn't feeling so hot as it was without accounting for all the fog in this place. Justin pulled out one of his cigarettes, placing it in his mouth before igniting its end. Maybe he was just suffering from withdrawal.

"Oh… Yep. I think someone's here."

"You think…? Do you know where he is?"

"I dunno."

"We think it's a boy named Kanji…"

Justin took a long drag of his cigarette before coughing up the fumes. He was having trouble even keeping the smoke in his lungs today. What the hell was going on with him? He turned his attention to Yukiko, talking in between wheezes, his back hunched over, his hand placed against his knee.

"Again… Don't think… Teddie's gonna… know names…"

"Jeeze, Justin. That cough sounds really bad."

"It's fine, just choking on the air is all…" Justin added after he had finished wheezing. He was getting really sick of people getting on his back about how he "didn't look so good." He didn't feel good, but that didn't mean he wanted other people to be asking him about it every twelve seconds. Chie sighed slightly. She didn't understand why Justin refused to admit that he wasn't feeling good. It was clear as day to everyone there. Was it a pride thing? Did he just not trust them enough to tell them?

"I dunno…"

Chie turned her attention back over to Teddie.

"What's wrong? Not feeling well?"

"For the last time- Oh, sorry. Thought you were still talking to me." Justin averted his eyes in embarrassment. He was just about to go on a temper tantrum over something that didn't even involve him. _Smooth, Justin. Why don't you just moon everyone while you're at it?_ Chie simply shook her head at Justin, before turning back over to Teddie.

"Well, I sniff and I sniff. But I still can't tell where the smell comes from."

The team exchanged more than a few strange looks with each other. Even Justin had taken the time to stop slowly dying of lung cancer to exchange a few expressions of confusion.

"Aren't you thinking too much about too many things? I mean last time, you were wondering about who you really are and how long you've been here. Your head's empty to begin with, dude. Don't stress out over stuff too much."

Teddie sighed slightly. "You're right…"

"Whoa… He's seriously down about this…"

"If you can't figure out where Kanji is, we're in deep trouble. We can't just wander around aimlessly in a place like this."

"Tell me about it." Justin choked up wheezing again. This time it wasn't the cigarette, he had put it out after his last coughing fit. He was just choking on the air now; as if that were even possible. He hadn't looked it, but Justin was seriously getting concerned at this point. He was finding it hard to even breathe in between his coughing fits.

"I know what might help! You should give me a clue about this Kanji person! It's just a feeling I have that I could concentrate better with it."

"What? You're smelling him, not making a police profile!"

Teddie brushed Justin off as if he hadn't even been there. People had been doing that a lot to him lately, and it was seriously starting to piss him off. _I swear, next person who just brushes me off like that…_

"Do you have anything that could give me a good understanding of him?"

"Something about Kanji, huh…? I can't really think of anything besides the rumors about him."

"Yeah, it's not like we know him that well…"

Justin couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. He didn't think Teddie would need all that colorful a description of Kanji's character. Just something basic should more than suffice. And they definitely knew enough about Kanji to give Teddie a good starting point.

"I just need some sort of hint… Something that tells me what he's really like."

"Well… He's aggressive, he's somewhat reserved, certainly isn't a people person that's for sure; he's easily angered, he's camera shy, he may or may not be into dudes, and-"

Justin was going to keep going, much to the rest of the group's surprise, when he started to cough again. This time, however, he didn't stop. It got bad enough that Justin had actually fallen to his knees coughing, much to the rest of the group's concern.

"Justin! Are you alright!"

"I can't fuckin' breathe-"

He kept coughing and coughing, but he couldn't seem to get any air into his lungs. His eyes were wide with panic at this point, his head buzzing like a dozen chainsaws cutting against his skull. Chie ran over to Justin, trying to help in any way she could, the rest of the group following only steps behind.

"Wh-what's wrong with him!?"

"It must be all this fog! You remember what it was like when Chie and Yukiko were in here the first time!?" Teddie spoke up.

"But I don't get it! He was like this before he even got in here!"

Chie kept her arm wrapped around Justin's back, preventing him from falling worst case scenario. She still had no idea what to even do at this point. Clearly he was having problems breathing, but he wasn't choking on anything. How do you get air into someone when they don't have anything clogging their throat?

"Stay with us, Justin."

Justin turned his eyes towards Chie. She was very visibly panicking, as Justin could tell from her breathing. Her chest seemed to inflate in and out much quicker than it probably should have. Her eyes were tearing up slightly, and she had been biting at her bottom lip. Justin wished he could try to calm her down, but alas, he couldn't even speak. Only a few seconds passed before Justin lost complete consciousness, his eyes slowly closing shut into the dark blackness of sleep.

* * *

December 5, 2009

* * *

Justin had burst out in a fit of laughter. He had always thought Maya would be above believing stupid rumors like this.

"What the hell are you laughing about?"

"Your soulmate? Please, that soulmate stuff is a bunch of bull crap as it is without a television telling you who they supposedly are."

"I don't know. The thought of there being a person out there who was specifically made for you. Don't you find the idea romantic?"

"Not really. There's no such thing as two people who are completely compatible."

"Says the guy whose never had a girlfriend. What, still waiting for miss perfect to come along?"

"Hey, mind your own damn business."

Maya chuckled. Justin always got more than a little squirmish when she bagged on him for never having a girlfriend. In actuality, Justin just didn't see the point. Why fall for someone when you'll just end up having to say goodbye by the time you leave school? Why give someone your heart knowing they'll just end up breaking it.

"Besides, what the hell do you care who your soulmate is? Looking for a boyfriend or somethin'?"

"What? No, nothing like that…"

"Cause if you are, I heard Kurt's still available."

"God, will you stop trying to hook us two up."

"Hey, I'm just saying. You two would make a cute couple."

"Yeah, except for the part where he's about four years older than me. Besides, Kurt's not really my type."

"And who is?"

"Hell if I know."

The two shrugged slightly as Justin passed his cigarette back off to Maya. Neither were particularly well-off, so they often shared a single cigarette to save on money. It wasn't sanitary, and more often than not, one got a little too much spit on it, but they did it anyway. A buck here and there counts for a lot in the long-run.

"Still, don't you think it would be pretty neat if it were true?"

"What, the soulmate part or the television part."

"Both I guess."

"Ugh, it's just another one of those 'Bloody Mary' things. The only reason people think its real is because they're too afraid to try it out for themselves."

"So you think no one's actually done it?"

"Pretty much."

A wide grin swept across Maya's face.

"Well then I suppose we should be the first."

Justin chuckled at first, although it soon dawned upon him that Maya was completely serious.

"Wait, you're serious aren't you?"

"Sure. Why the hell not?"

"Because it's fucking stupid."

"Sounds to me like you're scared."

"Scared of what? A TV flickering on? Please, even if this were real, it would be nothing to be afraid of."

"Well then you have no excuse not to try it out."

"Oh? And how exactly do you propose we go about doing this. You know how my father gets about me staying up late, let alone letting you in the house at Midnight."

"What he doesn't know won't hurt him."

"You're not serious right? He's in the FBI; I don't think you're going to have much success hiding information from him."

"Well, we did manage to hide those cigarettes that one time, not to mention hide the fact that your breath smells like smoke."

"Well, yeah, but-"

"Come on, don't be such a baby."

Maya gave Justin a light shove at his shoulder. He just shook his head in response.

"Alright, alright, fine. But if anything goes wrong, you owe me."

Maya laughed slightly.

"How 'bout this. If anything goes wrong, I'll give you a kiss."

Justin just seemed to shake his head harder this time. She wasn't serious, of course. This was just her taking another jab at Justin for not finding a girlfriend. Why the hell did it even matter to her anyway? If she wanted him off her hands so bad, all she had to do was say so.

"I said owe, not punish."

"Ouch. Low blow."

"Were you expecting any differently from me?"

"Touché'."

* * *

May 18, 2011

* * *

Justin awoke to the unfamiliar sight of a sterile white room, checkerboard ceiling panels staring down at him from the ceiling. He groaned the moment he realized where he was. Of all the places he could have ended up, it had to be the hospital. Why couldn't it by six-feet underground in a coffin. At least then he could make a daring escape like that one scene in Kill Bill. This? Ugh, that sterile scent filling the air made him want to puke. Which would only mean he'd have to stay longer. It was a vicious cycle. He groaned slightly as he tried to push himself up out of his bed. Of course, he was ridiculously sore from whatever it was he did, so that effort didn't last long. Not that it would have anyway as he heard an all too familiar voice from the corner of the room.

"Justin!"

"Ugh… What the hell happened…?"

Chie did this awkward jump towards him; being sure to walk because it was a hospital, but doing it as quickly as possible because Justin wasn't dead apparently. She grabbed him by the hand, looking him in the eyes. Her mouth was forming a wide grin and she was tearing up abit, though they seemed to be tears of joy. Justin responded by giving her a slight smile back, even though he still didn't know what was going on. All he remembered was being in the TV world, then bam… Darkness. Had something hit him or something?

"Oh thank god you're alright. I was worried out of my mind!"

"How long have you been here?"

"Well, it's ten right now, so… six hours?"

"Chie…"

"Don't you Chie me. You had me scared stiff, dammit!"

"I don't even know what's going on. What did I miss?"

Chie raised her eyebrows in a combination of relief and concern. Concern that Justin couldn't remember anything, which was already a pre-existing condition apparently, but relieved that Justin hadn't kicked the bucket.

"We were in the TV world when you stopped breathing."

"I what?"

"You started coughing a lot. We all thought it was just because you were smoking at first, but then you didn't stop, and…"

Chie stopped. She couldn't force herself to continue with the story. Justin knew why, though he wasn't sure he exactly agreed with her. I mean, he was fine now, right? So no need to get so worked up over it anymore. Just laugh it off or something, you know? No need to live in the past. Justin couldn't help but blow some steam from nose at that one. He had to be the biggest hypocrite in the world to think that, when for the last few weeks he had been running around ragged trying to find out about his own past.

"Alright, so what did the doctor's say?"

"I don't know, they said they'd have the test results back later today..."

"That we did, Miss Satonaka."

Justin turned his head slowly, but with surprise to the unfamiliar voice. He had been so dazed by his new environment, and so indulged in Chie and his conversation, that he hadn't even noticed the doctor enter the room. Chie looked like she wasn't sure whether she should smile or frown. She probably wouldn't know until after the doctor broke the news to them.

"D-Do you have the test results."

"Yes. It seems that Mr. Tylor here had suffered brief respiratory failure."

"I'm no doctor, doctor. You're gonna have to explain that one to me."

"Well, basically put, your body was not exchanging gasses between the respiratory systems adequately, resulting in low blood oxygen. Tell me, did you happen to feel light-headed at all before you collapsed?"

"Y-yeah. I was feeling pretty light-headed yesterday too."

"Hmmm… Just as I thought. Miss Satonaka, could I see you for a brief moment outside."

Justin raised an eyebrow at the doctor as he turned towards Chie. What the hell was going on that he needed to talk to Chie in private? Hell, even Chie seemed more than a little caught off guard by the request. Was it something so bad that Justin shouldn't hear it? Chie gave a quick nod and followed the doctor outside of the room, closing the door behind them. Justin couldn't help but smirk. He wasn't lying when he said a month or so ago that he was good at eavesdropping. He could hear the two through the door clearly, albeit very muffled by the barricade they had made in front of him.

"Is something wrong with Justin?"

"We know he had suffered respiratory failure, though we can't pinpoint an exact cause. His paperwork suggests he doesn't have any breathing or blood disorders."

There was a brief pause between the two.

"You guys have to follow doctor-patient confidentiality, right?"

_Oh don't you dare say it, Chie._

"Y-yes, why?"

"Well… Justin smokes a lot. Do you think maybe…?"

If Justin had any energy in him, he would have turned around and slammed his face against the wall. _Don't fucking tell the doctor that!_

"I don't think so. His lungs were working properly; he was simply having trouble getting oxygen through his blood cells. Still, I would suggest that he stop smoking for the time being, just as an extra pre-caution."

_Yeah, like that's gonna happen…_

"When do you think he'll be able to leave…?"

"I just need to go over a few things to the two of you and you're free to go."

It took a moment before the two came back in, Chie with a look of confusion on her face. Justin couldn't half blame her. What the hell did the doctor need to say that Chie had to be there? The two made their way back over to the hospital bed Justin found himself confined to; the doctor standing near the foot of the bed, while Chie found her way over to the head.

"Alright then, Mr. Tylor, you're free to go. I just need to explain a couple of things. First off, while you're breathing seems to have stabilized since you're arrival, we're going to have to insist that you carry this around with you."

The doctor placed his hand on top of a small oxygen tank Justin had been hooked up to. He couldn't help but groan. Not only would that be heavy as fuck, but he was going to look like a total freak carrying that around. Still, whatever it took to get out of this fucking hospital.

"Secondly, we're going to need your parents to keep an eye on your breathing at home. If it starts to slow down again or if you go into another coughing fit, they're going to need to bring you back here."

Justin could see out of the corner of his eye Chie waving her hand in front of her throat, as though to tell him to shut the hell up. He appreciated the concern, but it wasn't like he was going to reach out and shank the doctor just for bringing up his parents. Though… how did he not know his parents were deceased? Shouldn't that have been listed on his paperwork?

"My parents are dead, doctor."

The doctor looked at him, first with surprise, then with sorrow. Clearly he hadn't meant to bring up an issue such as this.

"Oh, uh… I see… My apologies, it seems there was an error in your paperwork. That said, however, who would be your legal guardian?"

"Myself, I guess…"

"I see… Mr. Tylor, I cannot allow you to leave the hospital if you don't have someone to monitor your breathing at home. It possesses too much of a health risk for you."

Chie passed a glance over to Justin. He looked like he was going to freak out at any second. Chie knew he hated hospitals, but the way he looked like he was panicking… There was no way he was going to get better in this kind of environment. She cleared her throat slightly before turning towards the doctor.

"I-I could keep an eye on him."

The doctor passed his glance over to Chie before sighing and shaking his head.

"I cannot release a minor under the supervision of-"

"No seriously. H-he could stay over at my house or something."

"Chie…"

Chie passed a glance over at Justin. He seemed against her trying to help him get out of this place, for whatever reason. It wasn't so much that he didn't appreciate Chie trying to help him; of course, it was simply that he saw no way that would work. There was no way her parents would agree to that. The doctor passed a glance over at Justin before turning back over to Chie and sighing.

"Very well… I'll need you to sign off on him."

The doctor handed her a piece of paper from his clipboard before turning his attention back over to Justin. He still had more to say apparently.

"Thirdly, there is to be absolutely no smoking."

"Well obviously not when I'm attached to a fucking oxygen tank."

The doctor gave Justin a strange look. It didn't really strike Justin that he had pretty much just called his doctor a fucking idiot. Emphasis on the 'fucking' part.

"I beg your pardon?"

"Sorry, sorry… My head's still killing me…"

"I see… Either way, until we can confirm your breathing has stabilized, smoking is completely off limits."

"And what I'm I supposed to do when I go into withdrawl?"

"If you absolutely need it, you can use nicotine patches."

"Doctor, how in the hell do you expect me to get a hold of nicotine patches. I'm 16!"

"I imagine the same way you got a hold of your cigarettes."

Justin raised an eyebrow. His doctor was condescending him, judging him because he was technically in illegal possession of cigarettes. Chie finished signing off on the paper the doctor had handed to her, passing it back his way.

"Now, while you were here we also noticed another health concern that wasn't listed as a pre-existing condition on your paperwork. So we did some tests on your eye…"

Justin's eyes widened the second the words left the doctor's mouth. _What in the fuck? I came here because I couldn't breathe, and you did shit with my eye!? _Even worse was the fact that Chie was in the room, listening in. She had thought it was all better until moments ago.

"H-his eye…?"

The doctor looked up from the paperwork Chie had signed to go into more detail about what had happened when he noticed Justin making a motion along his throat lines, as well as mouthing off the words "Shut up about the eye." Much to Justin's dismay, the doctor completely ignored him. If Justin wasn't stuck in bed right now, he would have jumped over and strangled the doctor.

"Yes, his eye. It seems that Mr. Tylor here had suffered some kind of burn. His retina is completely melted shut."

Chie turned over to Justin, just quick enough to see him mouthing the words "You fucking idiot!" She couldn't believe it at first that his eye hadn't completely healed, but this took the cake. Justin's eye didn't just not heal; Justin knew the entire time. He told her it was fine, yet here he was, blind in one eye. Chie stuck her hand out to reach for Justin's head, much to Justin's disapproval. He tried to swat her arm away, but to not much success as she pushed away the hair that had been covering his eye. Sure enough, his pupil had been completely missing. Chie slowly moved her hand away from Justin's face, a look of shock on her face.

"Justin, your eye…"

"Great, thanks a fucking lot, doc." Justin had at least been trying to be civil, but this doctor had crossed the line big time.

"You knew about this?"

"I've known for the last few weeks."

"Why wouldn't you tell me!?"

"So you wouldn't act like this!"

Chie had been getting slightly angry at this point, though that all disappeared once Justin had called her out on the way she was acting. Soon, her angry expression transitioned into concern, and eventually sorrow. She averted her gaze from Justin, moving it instead to the floor tiles. It was clear to her Justin didn't trust her. Not in the slightest bit. Justin sighed slightly. He had only meant to keep her from worrying about him, but all his secrecy had managed to do was turn her against him. _I'm a fucking idiot…_

"I… I'm sorry. I just didn't want you to worry…"

Chie didn't even say anything to Justin. She didn't have anything she would want to say to him on the matter. She knew he had meant well by leaving her out of the loop, but she felt betrayed all the same. She sighed and lifted her eyes up to Justin. He hadn't been looking at her, though he had been fixing his hair so that it covered his eye again. Maybe that was the problem. Justin just wanted to be treated as a human being, not the guy with the missing eye. If he had told Chie about his eye… Maybe he believed that she would look down on him. She just felt like complete shit thinking that he'd believe she would do that to him.

Chie briefly averted her gaze to meet her eyes with that of the doctor's. He had been biting his lower lip slightly. Clearly this was a private matter that he was intruding on, and he didn't feel too comfortable standing there. All the same, he needed to give Justin the heads up that he could leave.

"…Alright then, you're free to go Mr. Tylor. If you have any problems, you know where to come."

Justin responded simply by groaning at the doctor. The doctor had thrown all chances at pleasantries being exchanged out the window. He was lucky all he got was a groan. If it were up to Justin, he would have told the doctor to go fuck himself; but alas, he'd rather not be dissected before he left. And with that, the doctor left the room, leaving Justin and Chie behind.

He really should have been getting ready to go, but there was a lot on Justin's mind. What was going on with the Kanji situation? Why had Chie signed off on him, knowing full well he would have been better off in the hospital? Where the hell were the others? Most important of all, could you leave the room for a brief moment so I can put some pants on? That would be great.

Of course, there was also the matter of Chie and his eye. It was clear both still felt very awkward about this entire situation; though Justin knew no amount of words could remedy this situation. Maybe if he just tried to change the subject things would be fine…

"Chie? Why did you sign off on me…?"

"Huh? W-well, I know you don't like hospitals so…"

"I appreciate the gesture, but don't you think I'd be better off under some kind of supervision?"

"Wh-what are you talking about? I said I'd keep an eye on you didn't I?"

Justin was a little surprised in all honesty. Even after that bombshell had been dropped on Chie, she still wanted to make sure he was alright? If he was in Chie's shoes, he probably would have just let him figure it out on his own. Chie had been smiling at him as the words left her mouth. Justin had half expected one of those fake, half-smiles, so he was more than a little confused when he found her grin to be genuine. Justin didn't understand, she seemed so down just a moment ago, what had made her change her mind?

"Wait, you were serious?"

"Why wouldn't I be?"

Chie grin seemed to widen. He appreciated the gesture, but he wasn't quite sure he was comfortable with Chie keeping an eye on his breathing patterns. It just seemed… weird. Besides, there was no way in hell her parents would jump on board with her bringing her boyfriend over to her house like that. They were strict enough as it was without them getting any funny ideas about what was going on between the two.

"Because you're parents would never approve?"

"Who said you were staying at my house?"

"You did. Besides, where the hell else would- Wait…"

It just started to dawn on Justin what the alternative was. Justin wasn't sure if he thought it was worse or better than the idea of staying at Chie's house. First of all, it would be even worse if Chie stayed at his house; he lived alone. There was no way Chie's parents would approve of that. Besides, he wasn't entirely comfortable with Chie having to stay up at night to make sure he was breathing. At least at her parent's house, maybe the parents might be keeping an eye on him. I mean, they wouldn't think there was any funny business involved if they saw him walking around with an oxygen tank, right? This whole idea was shit.

"It's already pretty late, so I called my parents up to tell them I was sleeping over at Yukiko's."

"And you don't see anything wrong with this?"

"Why would I?"

Justin just shook his head. He didn't think Chie quite saw why that would be awkward, to say the least. Chie could be so naïve sometimes. He just sighed slightly. If she already called her parents and said she was staying at Yukiko's, she probably wouldn't be able to go home without getting questioned. And she couldn't just show up at Yukiko's house and be like "Hey, I sorta lied about staying at your house, so that I could stay at Justin's house, but he didn't want me there, so here I am." Not to mention Justin still felt bad about lying to her over his eye. He didn't really want her in his house, making sure he was breathing, but he just couldn't bear to tell her no. He had already disappointed her more than enough today.

"Alright, fine… But only this once." Justin paused for a second, taking in the sight of Chie's face. She seemed to be happy at the least, though he couldn't imagine what there was to be happy about. "So what happened with Kanji?"

"We had to stop looking to bring you to the hospital…"

Justin let loose a combination of a gasp and groan. Obviously, they couldn't just leave Justin there to die, but… He felt lie shit knowing that his sudden illness could have jeopardized Kanji's life.

"Speaking of 'we,' where ARE the others?"

"It was getting late, so they went home."

"Alright, well that's good at least. We should probably call them up and let them know I'm okay."

"Yeah, you're right."

"Alright. I'll get changed and meet you outside."

"Aren't you going to need help with your tank?"

"Eh, what's the worst that could happen? My lungs suddenly give out and then I have to be dragged to a hospital where they tell me I've had a respiratory failure? Please, that would be ridiculous."

"That's not funny!"

Chie smacked him upside the head. She really didn't find it funny; which was both flattering and concerning at the same time. Justin chuckled all the same though, giving her a light shove back.

* * *

"Respiratory failure?"

The interrogator was leaning across the table ever so slightly. He seemed slightly confused by the turn of events that he had just heard. Justin wasn't even fazed in the slightest as he recapped the events for him.

"Mhmm."

"Jesus. You were sixteen, you're too young for that."

"You're never too young to die."

Justin' didn't so much as smirk at his comment. Instead his eyebrows rose up in slight concern. It really hadn't dawned upon him as he said that. Never too young to die… All those times he entered the television, all those shadows he fought, hell even what they were doing now; he never once considered the possibility of dying. After all, dying young is far too boring these days.

"I suppose so. All the same, I am curious as to something. Did they ever find out what had caused you to collapse like that?"

"Did they? No. Did we? Yes."

"Do tell."

Justin just shook his head a bit, tapping at the end of his cigarette. That was another thing the interrogator wanted to ask. There was the possibility that Justin's smoking habits had factored into his respiratory failure, so why the hell was he still doing it?

"You already know that you have to find out as the story goes. I mean, that would be like me telling you the end of a movie mid-way through."

The interrogator groaned slightly. Maybe he shouldn't have asked to hear everything in the first place. It was nice to listen to and all, but they only had so much time. And everything sure was eating up at it.

"Alright, so you had another one of those Maya dreams, correct?"

"Yeah."

"So then the Midnight Channel had aired in California…"

"I'm not sure all the specifics, though Maya and I certainly were involved."

"We don't have any records of murder cases involving 'bodies on telephone poles' in California though, which is what concerns me."

"Maybe there weren't any murders. After all, in order to get killed in the television, you had to be thrown in. If everyone thought the rumor was fake, then no one would have been thrown in the TV in the first place."

"Perhaps it was a test of sorts. To see if the scenario would work in California."

"Maybe. Who knows…"

The interrogator sighed softly.

"Alright, I'll try to figure that out later. In the mean time, we need to make some headway in this story. Continue."


	37. Chapter 36: May 19, 2011

CHAPTER 36

May 19, 2011

* * *

"Oh fuck you, shuffle."

It was early in the morning, about six-ish or so; way earlier than when Justin normally woke up. But then, that was because he hadn't gone to sleep in the first place. Chie had insisted on staying over at Justin's house to keep an eye on him, as per the doctor's order. He appreciated the gesture, but there was no way in hell Justin would ever be able to sleep knowing Chie would be watching him the whole time. Not that he could sleep anyway, he had been unconscious for a good six hours at the hospital, so he was finding trouble keeping his eyes shut long enough for him to sleep.

All the same, Chie had insisted on keeping an eye on Justin. Justin knew better from the looks on her face though. She was absolutely exhausted, probably from worrying so much as she waited for Justin at the hospital. She needed sleep, but there was no way in hell she would as long as Justin was awake. Which presented a dilemma because Justin simply could not sleep with her eyes on him like that. It was freakin' weird. Instead, Justin opted to close his eyes for a while. If he had kept his eyes open, Chie would probably try to talk to him, or interact with him in SOME form of another. It took what seemed like hours before Justin could hear her breathing slow down, indicating that she had fallen asleep herself. He couldn't blame her, even though she was SUPPOSED to stay up. If you had to watch someone just breathing for a good hour or so, you would fall asleep to.

He opened his eyes only slightly in case she was still awake before turning has gaze over to Chie. Sure enough, she had fallen fast asleep, still sitting up on the couch. Justin smiled slightly before making his way off of the couch. He wasn't tired, and he had time to kill. The only problem was finding something that wouldn't wake Chie up. It took a minute, but Justin eventually settled to just listening to his iPod for a while. A while turned into hours, six of them to be precise. Justin was surprised his battery hadn't died given how shitty apple products were. He was enjoying just listening to music for a while when a particular song started playing.

Machinehead, by Bush.

Normally Justin rather liked the song, especially at a sporting event of some sort. Hell he was even enjoying it now until the first verse kicked in.

_Breathe in. Breathe out._

_Breathe in. Breathe out._

_Breathe in. Breathe in._

Justin couldn't stop himself from groaning. _Yeah, this is exactly the song he wanted to hear when he was attached to a god damn oxygen tank. What next, Electric Eye?_ Justin should have kept his mouth shut, because that is exactly what the next song was. As he told his iPod to fuck off, he noticed some slight movement out of the corner of his eye. Chie's head had rotated slightly. She had probably heard Justin shouting obscenities at his iPod, much to his displeasure. He didn't mean to wake her up. Chie's eyes slowly twitched open, though not all the way.

"Justin…?"

"Oh… hey…"

Chie yawned slightly before stretching a bit. Her hair was sticking up slightly; ruffled by the couch she had been resting it on for the last six hours. Justin couldn't help but smile slightly. Even when she looked like a mess she was still beautiful.

"What time is it…? I didn't sleep in did I!?"

Her barely audible speech soon turned into full-blown panic. Justin couldn't understand why, they had been able to sneak into school before. Besides, it was still a good two hours before school started. There was no rush.

"It's 6:00. I just woke up a little early is all."

Justin had expected the explanation to calm down Chie, but instead it only seemed to make her panic more for some reason.

"6:00!? Shit!"

She jumped up off the couch and started rummaging around the house, most likely looking for her backpack. Justin raised an eyebrow in confusion. She didn't have any clothes to change into last night, so she was already dressed for school, plus they had two hours left. It was about a half hour walk tops from Justin's house; more than enough time to eat and brush their teeth before leaving.

"Whoa, whoa, calm down, we have plenty of time…!"

"We have to eat, brush our teeth, I have to fix my hair, we have to carry that oxygen tank-"

Justin had completely forgotten all about the oxygen tank. It would take them a bit longer than normal to walk there, but even then, it seemed like Chie was getting a little worked up over nothing. I mean, at most it would take a half hour to get ready, right? They had TWO hours. Nothing to get worked up over.

"Chie, calm down. We have plenty of time."

Justin went over and put his hands on her shoulders, trying to keep her from fidgeting about any more than she had. It wasn't really working, from the way her eyes were darting about the room, as though trying to map out her route through the house. Justin sighed before letting loose his hold on Chie's shoulders, Chie dashing away from him as she made her way around the house to get ready for the school day. Justin just shook his head slightly. Her parents were a lot stricter than she made it sound.

Chie made her way over to one of the cabinets, looking around for something to eat. Of course, she wasn't having much luck finding cereal, or anything like that.

"Where do you keep the breakfast stuff?"

"Huh? Oh, I don't eat breakfast. Makes me sick to my stomach."

"Well you've got to have something!"

"I probably have some bread somewhere if you want to make toast."

Chie haphazardly threw stuff around in Justin's cabinet looking for the bread. He sort of understood why she had been panicking so much. She had been tossing stuff around looking for the bread the entire time when it had been just to the left of her. He sighed slightly. Maybe two hours WASN'T enough.

* * *

Justin and Chie made their way over to their seats, only ten minutes or so before the bell rang. Justin sighed slightly. Never had he seen someone so unorganized in all his life in the morning. Hell, Justin only threw his clothes on and brushed his teeth in the morning, and that took two minutes. Chie had like two or three more things to do, and it took her almost two hours. It was ridiculous.

Justin looked around the room slightly as he relaxed into his seat. People were giving him more than a few strange looks, more than likely because he had tubes sticking out of his nose and a giant metal tank leaning up against his desk. He looked completely stupid, and he knew it; though that didn't mean he was okay with everyone starring at him like that. He had started regretting leaving the hospital at this point. He might have feared for his organs every twelve seconds, but at least people wouldn't be looking at him like he was some sort of freak.

"Geeze, what happened to him…?"

"What's that thing sticking out of his nose?"

"Eew, that's so gross!"

Justin sighed slightly before plunging his head into his arms. Maybe if he just suffocated himself he wouldn't have to deal with this kind of stuff. Chie had turned her head towards Justin as a few of the comments had met her ears. She was pissed off to say the least, though that was overshadowed more by her concern for Justin. He usually didn't care what people thought about him, but looking at him now, he looked like he was on his wit's end.

"H-Hey. Don't listen to those guys…"

"Why not? They're right. I mean look at me."

"You look fine. Just a little different is all."

"I don't WANT to be different, Chie!"

There was a brief pause between the two. Looking at him now, Justin's eyes had been tearing up slightly. Of all the things that he had gone through in the last month, this was the thing that had sent Justin over the edge. It was hard for Chie to wrap her mind around, though she understood him nonetheless. Who wants to be known as that weird kid with tubes sticking out of their nose. Justin sighed slightly before planting his skull back between his arms; mostly so Chie wouldn't see the tears in his eyes. Justin refused to let anyone know that he had cried over something is trivial as this. They'd never let it go.

The sounds of familiar voices soon reached Justin's ears. It seemed that Yu and Yosuke were talking about something as they made their way into the classroom. From the sounds of it, it had to do with Kanji. He discreetly brushed his face against the side of his sleeve, wiping away all traces of the water in his eyes before looking up again.

"Oh hey, Justin's back. Feeling bett-Holy crap! What's with those tubes?"

"Oh fuck off Yosuke."

Chie elbowed Yosuke in his gut. Justin was already having a hard time listening to this shit without one of his friends ragging on him for it too. He slammed his head back into his arm rest. He had hoped at the very least his friends would understand, but apparently that was too much to ask from Yosuke.

"Ow, what was that for!"

"For being a jerk!"

"Well I didn't mean it like that!"

"I'm a little confused. I thought you said the doctor said he was fine?" Yu piped up. He seemed slightly concerned, but then, that wasn't what Justin was looking for from his friends. He didn't want compassion; he wanted them to act like it wasn't even there.

"He is. They said he needs to use an oxygen tank for the next few days, though. Just in case."

"I see…" Yukiko added.

Justin raised his eyebrow slightly. He hadn't heard Yukiko come in. She must have come in with Yu and Yosuke, which is strange since Justin hadn't seen her when he lifted his head a moment ago. She didn't talk much so it wouldn't really surprise Justin if she had just crept in at some point. It didn't matter anyway. The conversation they were holding on the matter was interrupted by the sound of someone rushing through the door, shouting in excitement.

"Hey everyone! They posted the test scores!"

"Argh… The awful moment of truth…" Yosuke paused for a moment, groaning before continuing. "Oh well… Want to check it out?"

Justin lifted his head back up, facing it towards the door so that no one would see the tubes sticking up his nose. The class had practically been stampeding out to see the scores they had gotten. He couldn't understand why. He was just sick to his stomach thinking what he could have scored. After the initial wave of students had stampeded outside to look at the score, Yu and Yosuke made their way outside, followed by Yukiko. Chie stayed behind with Justin though.

"Hey, want to go see what you got?"

"Not really."

"C'mon, it'll be fun. I'll let you look at what I got."

"I could look at that at any time."

"W-well, yeah I suppose…"

Justin sighed slightly before standing up. He was gonna hear about it anyway, might as well just see what he got for himself. Besides, he just wanted to get out of this room for a bit. He grabbed a hold of his oxygen tank before slowly making his way out of the room. Chie was going to offer to help, but she figured that Justin wanted to do it on his own. It took a couple minutes of walking, partially because of the heavy tank he had been holding, partially because of the huge traffic jams in the hallways. Either way, he had made his way to the board only short moments after the rest of the gang.

"Alright let's see what we got here…" Yosuke spoke up, examining the board for any trace of his name. Only, instead of starting from the top, he started from the bottom. It made sense when you thought about it. He'd have to read fewer names that way.

"Let's see… Hanamura, 76. HaHA! And you said I was going to fail!"

Justin shrugged. He was surprised Yosuke had managed to pass when he had skipped an entire fourth of the test. He guessed the essays just didn't count for much, much to his relief.

"Huh. Wait a second, I didn't see any of your names below mine."

"Wait really?" Chie seemed excited, to say the least. She had hoped that Yosuke hadn't just missed her name along the way.

"Wait, does that mean I did worst than Chie!?"

Justin chuckled slightly, for a number of reasons. One, this only went to prove that Yosuke was the dumbest member of the investigation team. Secondly, that meant Chie had done at the very least decent on her test. Hopefully her parents would approve.

"Hold on, let me see… Satonaka, 81"

"YES! In your face Yosuke!"

"Dude, don't be such a sore winner. Wait. What about Justin? I don't see his name anywhere."

Yosuke checked the list over again, starting from the bottom like usual. There was no way in hell he thought he would do worse than someone who didn't pay attention in class and didn't study. Though, his investigation was soon interrupted when he saw Yukiko's jaw drop out of the corner of his eye.

"Huh? What's wrong Yukiko?"

She didn't respond, she was too busy starring at something. Yosuke was a little confused. Did she not do so good this year? He decided to direct his attention to the area that Yukiko had been starring at. His jaw dropped almost immediately upon seeing what she had been starring at.

"Huh? What's gotten into you two." Chie spoke up. She hadn't really noticed that Yu had followed the same reaction as Yosuke and Yukiko while she had been speaking. Both her and Justin were a little confused themselves, so they decided to see what all the fuss was about.

Near the top of the score list had been Yukiko, ranking second over-all with a score of 98. But that wasn't what had caught the group's attention; what had caused the entire group to start freaking out was the score above it:

Justin Tylor – 100

"What the hell…!" Chie spoke up.

Justin blinked twice in quick succession. How in the fuck did that happen? He had guessed on most of the questions, for fuck's sake.

"He… He got a perfect score… H-How is that even possible! He doesn't even stay awake in class!"

"My score…"

Yukiko didn't seem so much flabbergasted over Justin's score as she did her own. It was a very good score, even by her own standards. What had caught her off guard, however, was the number two preceding her name. She had always been top of her class on the exams, that is, until Justin just recently outscored her. Justin took a step back when he noticed Yukiko's face turn slightly red. She was actually pissed that she got a lower grade than him.

"He didn't even study… What the hell is going on!?" Yosuke simply couldn't wrap his mind around it. Hell, Justin couldn't either. I mean, he GUESSED on most of them. Not to mention his essay was probably complete shit. I mean, he started it off with "I hate everything." I mean, yeah it's a good hook and all, but Jesus that has to be the most awkward thing to read. Yu locked his jaw back in place before turning over to Justin.

"Who are you and what have you done with Justin!?"

* * *

It was the end of the day, and everyone had made their way back over to Junes to go after Kanji again. Even Justin tagged along, though that was partially because he wasn't allowed to be in his house alone for the next few days.

"Alright, everyone all set?"

"Ready."

"Whoa, whoa, what do you think you're doing?"

"Going in the television?"

"Not with that oxygen tank you're not."

Justin sighed. He knew this kind of thing would happen. They weren't entirely wrong either, though Justin still wanted to go in. Kanji's life was in danger after all, and five people, even if one is practically dying, are better than four.

"But-"

"No but's." Yu interrupted him. "Until you get better you need to stay out here."

Justin huffed slightly before Chie turned towards him.

"Don't worry, we'll be fine. We'll get Kanji out of there no problem."

Justin smiled slightly. Maybe she was right. They weren't children and Justin wasn't their babysitter. They can handle themselves just fine without them. Hell, they have on a few occasions.

"Alright, alright. You've convinced me."

"Well that was fast."

"Shut up, Yosuke."

"See, sounds like you're getting better already."

And with that, the four of them departed into the television, leaving Justin behind to his tank. He huffed slightly. It hadn't really occurred to him that now he was trapped in a mall with an oxygen tank. And it's not like he could just run back home and give everyone a call. There was no service in the other world, plus Chie would give him hell if she found out he was all alone. That was another thing that bugged Justin. There was no way in hell Chie was going to be able to keep this charade up keeping an eye on his breathing. Her parents were just too strict to let her sleep over at Yukiko's for three days straight. They'd need to work something out.

All the same Justin slowly made his way to the food court. If he was going to look like an idiot in public, he was going to do it with a hamburger in his mouth. He grabbed some food and took a seat at the usual meeting spot. He figured that would be the first place they'd look for him anyway. Now all he had to do was wait like four hours or so for them to do their business. It doesn't sound so bad at first, until you realize just how boring sitting at a table by yourself is. Yeah, he could have gotten up and gone shopping, but he was still saving up for a replacement guitar, AND he'd have to lug his tank with him everywhere. It just wouldn't work out in the long run. Instead, he was stuck with himself and his thoughts as the time passed.

_A perfect score, huh… And they always told me that I needed to study more. Yet here I am, paying no attention in school and scoring perfect grades. Maybe studying wasn't the solution, maybe it was the problem. Still, Yukiko seemed really mad about losing her top spot. I wonder if her parents expect that out of her. That seems more akin to Chie's parents, but knowing Yukiko's grades, I wouldn't entirely doubt it. That brings up another topic; Chie did pretty good on the test. At least, by her standards. I just hope that's enough for her parents._

_You know, I still haven't met her parents. I wonder if they even know Chie and me are dating. I mean, they don't exactly sound like the type who would approve, if even understand. I don't know. Maybe I should hang out with Chie at her house for once. I mean, it should be fine if we have a good reason to be there. Studying in the living room wouldn't be suspicious right? I mean, it might be for me since I don't study, but whatever. Maybe I should bring the oxygen tank along, get some sympathy points from her parents._

_Gah, what am I saying. I don't want her parents thinking I'm some sort of cripple. I just need it temporarily, right? Besides, they should be able to like me on my own merits. So long as I don't curse up a storm like usual, it shouldn't be a problem… Maybe I'm just getting ahead of myself here. Chie will ask me to come over to her house when she's comfortable with that, right? I mean, yeah I have an empty house, so we can pretty much do anything there… Maybe I should reword that._

Justin's thoughts went on like this in a circle for what seemed like only moments. By the time he noticed the rest of the team making their way back around, he had to laugh himself back into reality. Four hours just thinking about what to do about Chie's parents. What in the hell had to be wrong with him? He was about to give everyone a big greeting, though he noticed a few things off. First of all, Kanji wasn't with them. It was disappointing, though he supposed Kanji wasn't in any real danger until it started to rain again. That's when the fog would come back around. That's not really what had caught him off guard though.

"Oh… H-Hey Justin…" Chie spoke up, stuttering slightly.

"Jesus Chie, what happened to your eye."

Chie had gotten a black eye on the left side of her face. Kind of ironic when Justin thought about it, but that was besides the point. What the hell happened in there?

"Huh? Oh… I uh…"

She stammered a bit trying to think of a good excuse. It didn't matter. Justin had a good idea what had happened. Whatever they had been doing in there, they got their assess royally kicked. Hell Yosuke looked even worse than Chie. He actually had a few open cuts along his cheek, on top of a few bruises. Yukiko was the only one who didn't seem like she had any noticeable injuries, much to Justin's astonishment.

"Please tell me Kanji's still alright."

"Y-yeah, we didn't make it that far yet…"

"What?"

"That place is huge, we got up like, six, maybe seven floors maybe before we got mauled by FREAKIN' TIGERS." Yosuke interrupted the conversation between the two.

Justin placed his hand against his forehead. Great, so now everyone was injured. He should have known better than to just let them do everything on their own. I mean, Justin didn't have Persona like they did, and he was still sick, but he could have helped SOME way. Instead, Kanji was still up there, possibly dealing with his shadow as they spoke. He sighed slightly.

"God, I knew I should have helped."

"It's alright, man. We can take some time, regroup, and go back in tomorrow. I mean, we already cleared out seven floors of those things already, right? How much further could we possibly have to go?"

"Alright, so we're doing this again tomorrow?" Yu said. It was combination of a command and asking for confirmation. Like he was saying, 'this is the plan, you guys in?'

"Yeah, sounds good to me."

"Alright then… I'm heading home. Dojima's supposed to be out today, so I should go keep an eye on Nanako."

Yu soon left to take care of his affairs, followed by Yosuke and Yukiko only brief moments later. Justin turned to Chie, who had taken a seat just next to him at the table.

"You're staying at my house again, right?"

"Huh? Yeah, why?"

"Because there is no way in hell you're going to be getting that black eye by your parents."

"Is it that bad?" Chie said, slightly concerned, slightly embarrassed.

"Eh, give it a day. Still, don't you need to get some clothes or something? You've been wearing those for two days now…"

"Well I was going to pick some up on the way to your house. Why?"

"With that black eye? You don't think they're going to question you?"

"I'll just tell them I got in a fight at school."

"That's not a much better exposition."

"Relax, it'll be fine."

"Yeah, that's what you said before you entered the TV four hours ago, now look at you."

"Alright, so I might have been a little off base…"

"A little?"

"Alright, a lot."

Justin shook his head slightly, before letting loose a small puff of hot air.

"And what was this I heard about tigers?"

"Ugh… I never want to go to a zoo again."

"Well at the zoo you can throw peanuts at them."

"Isn't that against the rules?"

"Ugh, fine. Rocks. There's no rule against rocks."

"Please tell me you haven't done that before."

"Only once. That gorilla had it coming."


	38. Chapter 37: May 20, 2011

CHAPTER 37

May 20, 2011

* * *

Justin sighed softly as he opened his eyes in the dead of night once more. He hadn't slept in a good twenty four hours or so, and he was absolutely exhausted; yet no matter how much he tried he couldn't keep his eyes shut. It was after midnight once more when Justin discarded his sleeping disguise. As with the previous night, Chie had fallen asleep after watching Justin for a while. This time she had opted to lie down before drifting off into dreamland, her head rested against the end of her side of the couch. She had been curled up in a ball, as though trying to give Justin room to sit. He only had one couch after all, and unless Justin was willing to take this to the bedroom, which he absolutely was not for obvious reasons, they were pretty much stuck like this.

Justin starred at a blank television in front of him for a good while. It wasn't going to turn on anytime soon, of course, though Justin just seemed more comfortable looking at it while he drifted into thought. A lot of things had been rushing through his mind lately. Kanji was still stuck in the television after a good three days or so. Justin wondered what it was like, to be trapped in the shadow world for days at a time. Yukiko had been in the TV world for a couple of days herself, though she seemed to be out cold for the majority of it. Justin secretly hoped that the victims couldn't wake up until someone had entered the room, like some sort of trance or something. Maybe they had just gotten lucky with Yukiko. Hell, Kanji could be dead by now for all they knew.

Justin had to snap himself out of his thoughts for a brief moment. He didn't want to even consider that possibility. They couldn't fail. They wouldn't.

He sighed slightly before turning his attention over to Chie, who had accidently kicked the side of Justin's leg in her sleep. Justin couldn't help but smile. _Restless leg syndrome._ It wasn't like it was an illness or something, but it meant you'd be constantly kicking your legs around in your sleep. Justin had found slight relief in knowing that Chie and him both had it, though why was another question entirely. Maybe it just felt good knowing that there was someone else in the world that was like him, someone he could fit in with. He smiled slightly before standing up from his seat on the couch. Even though she had been asleep, that kick had still hurt like a bitch and Justin had no intention of letting her kick at the side of his leg all night. Besides, maybe she could use the extra leg room. Justin had considered grabbing a blanket for her. After all, it was cold out, and she was sleeping on the couch; though he discarded the idea when he realized how bad Chie would feel in the morning if she woke up to find Justin had been taking care of her. It was supposed to be the other way around after all.

Justin started to wonder while he stood there, watching over Chie's sleep, what she had thought about this entire situation. What had been running through her mind when she sat there at night watching him? Had she kept her mind off the thought, or had she been thinking of him as much as he found himself thinking of her? And if it were the latter, was it because she cared, or did she just pity him? That's really the question it all boiled down to for Justin. Was she there because she wanted to be, or because she pitied him? Justin didn't believe Chie to be the kind of person to pity Justin just because of his shitty life. She had to be the most sincere person he had ever known; you could have a conversation with her and know she wasn't holding a damn thing back or bending words. Yet, still, Justin had this creeping feeling inside of him that he was just some sort of pity pet…

A pity pet…

Maybe Justin's shadow was right. What if that was all he was to her? All those days they had spent after-school kicking each other's assess; all those bowls of ramen they had eaten after school… Could it be true that she thought of him in that light? And what about those few times they had kissed; even that peck she had given him on the cheek before they started dating… Was that all just part of the show?

Justin had to shake his head to clear his mind. No. His shadow was wrong. He wasn't just some object of sympathy for her. They cared about each other in at least some capacity. He just wondered if she cared about him in the same light he cared about her.

He examined Chie's face as she slept. Her mouth had started to curve upwards in a slight smile. _She must be having a good dream, _Justin thought to himself. He wondered what the hell it could be about. Maybe kung-fu fighting steaks. Hell, Justin was barely into that kind of stuff, and he knew he smiled at the prospect of slabs of meat kicking the crap out of each other. And just think of all the meat puns there could be. Justin would be in heaven.

Still, even though he had found some solace in seeing her smile, the butterflies in his stomach cleared as he shifted his gaze over to Chie's eye. It was still black and blue from the day before, much to Justin's grief. Chie was a big girl; she could handle herself, yet… Justin felt somewhat responsible. If he had insisted on going into the television with all the others, maybe it could have been avoided. He placed his hand along his left eye as he stared into hers. _Now isn't that poetic irony…_

He reached out for her, placing his hand against her cheek, his thumb placed just slightly below the bruised area of her face. Every fiber of his being told her to leave her be, though it seemed he had lost all control over his hand at that point. Her skin felt soft against his. He felt a slight tingling sensation along his finger tips, as he ran them delicately along the side of her cheek. He sighed slightly before withdrawing his hand from her face. He had no idea what had urged him to do that; I mean, could you imagine what would happen if she woke up? Justin would look like the biggest creep in the world. Yet, he couldn't seem to control himself as he looked into her sleeping face. She looked so peaceful; as though free from all the troubles that had been cast upon them. If only things could stay that way…

Justin sighed slightly before sitting back on his side of the couch. As much as he wanted to give Chie that extra leg room, sitting on the floor just wasn't gonna cut it. He starred up at the ceiling for about an hour, deep in thought, before finally dozing off into a deep sleep.

* * *

Justin sat alone in the food court once again. He had tried to force the others into letting him tag along, but to not much avail. They were dead set on him staying, much to his displeasure. He sighed slightly taking a sip of the drink he had purchased. Coca Cola. He had kind of hoped to make it a Coke and rum, but you take what you can get. He sighed slightly as he starred out towards the food court exit. The wait wouldn't kill him so much if he had something to keep himself busy, but alas, he did not. Instead, his mind seemed to roam free, nothing to save him from his thoughts.

His mind seemed to reach back to everything from the day prior. Kanji was still in the television, Chie had a black eye, Yosuke was mauled by a tiger, however the hell that happened… And here Justin was, sitting on his ass, waiting for good news. He felt like a sack of rocks; useless. There had to have been something he could do, even if he couldn't fight. Anything but just sitting her and expecting everything to turn out for the better… But then, there was nothing Justin could do. Even if he wanted to find a way to help, he was stuck out here.

Suddenly a thought occurred to Justin. He had another one of those Maya dreams when he was unconscious at the hospital. He had been so distracted by his unfamiliar environment when he woke up that he had forgotten all about it. Justin tried to run through the dream as best as he could in his mind. They were sitting their, passing a smoke back and forth while they talked about something. Dating was it…? No, that was them getting sidetracked. It had something to do with some rum- Oh shit. It was the Midnight Channel!

Justin sat up slightly in his seat. That's right, they had been discussing the same rumor as the one that Chie had first told him when he came to Inaba. But he didn't understand. If the murder cases were taking place here in Inaba, what was the Midnight Channel doing airing over in California? Had a similar crime spree occurred there as well? It was beside the point, Justin could figure that out later. What had disturbed him was the connection between the rumor he heard and something Kurt had told him. "Something about a TV…" Justin blinked fast as he put the pieces of the puzzle together. He didn't know the fine details, but something was for certain. Maya had been able to go into the television at one point. That was where she was stashing her cigarettes.

Justin stood up from his chair. If she could enter the television, then just maybe… Maybe Justin wasn't as useless as he had originally thought. It took him a minute or two as he carried his oxygen tank over to the electronics department. If Maya could get in, then maybe there was just the slightest chance… He starred at the television screen for a while. He never once considered trying what he was about to do, but he was willing to take a risk. He had to help somehow.

He sighed slightly, pressing his hand up against the television screen. Nothing happened, though Justin refused to remove his palm from the glass surface.

"Come on… Open…"

The surface still remained unmoved, the shimmering effect it had when the others had entered the television completely unpresent. At this point Justin probably should have cut his losses and went back to the food court; but he was determined. He didn't have Persona… But just maybe there was something more to that. After all, Yu didn't have Persona when he first entered the television, from what he heard. His hand pressed up against the surface of the television for only a few more moments. His hand slowly started to seep into the glass.

"Bingo!"

Justin looked like he was going to shout with glee at any given second. He had the touch. He had the power. And on top of 80's pop lyrics, he had an objective. Whatever it was that granted him access to the inner world, he could find a way to use it to help the others, right? Justin smirked slighty, grabbing the end of his oxygen tank as he stepped through the shimmering glass surface.

* * *

As he made his way through the television, one thing was for certain. This was the right place. Justin looked about for any signs of the others, though to not much avail. Justin was excited to be able to help in anyway he could, though something had struck him. He had no way of actually finding where the others went. He vaguely knew the way to that castle they had been in, but that didn't really help him. His smile soon turned into frown. He had come so far, and yet he was stopped by his inability to locate Kanji. He couldn't just wander around; then he'd end up getting lost, and that would just make things worse for everyone. He sighed slightly, turning back around to exit the television. Instead he was greeted by an all too familiar sight.

"**Leaving so soon?"**

"Not in the mood today."

"**Aww, don't be like that baby."**

The shadow snickered, its voice echoing slightly as it reached Justin's ears. Now that he had heard his shadows true colors, Justin couldn't wipe the sound of Maya's voice from his ears. It was clear as day now; the shadow's voice being this odd distorted mixture of Maya and Justin's voices. Justin had more or less realized his shadow had something to do with Maya, though why he had mixed the two's voices together like that was beyond him. Justin sighed slightly, rolling his eyes and crossing his arms in the process.

"What the fuck do you want?"

"**What do I want? Well a lot of things really. Money. Fame. Hot chicks, and lots of them-"**

"Yeah, I'm sure they'll all be swooning over you."

"**That Chie bitch already is."**

"Me, not you. And before you start with that 'I am you bullshit,' you know what I mean. Now will you give me an actual answer for ONCE in your life."

The shadow chuckled slightly, his yellow eyes shining behind the dark shadows created by his hair.

"**I'm here because you wanted me to be."**

"What in the fuck are you talking about?"

The shadow only seemed to laugh harder at Justin's ignorance. He slowly held his index finger up into the air, showing it off to Justin as though he were blind; which might have been intentional, knowing his shadow. He held it up for a few seconds before slowly curving it down to his side. He had been leaning against the television sets the entire time, so they had been right next to him as he reached his arm around to tap it. The screen seemed to shimmer at the tip of the shadow's finger. He chuckled slightly at Justin.

"**You wanted in, didn't you?"**

Justin was actually kind of disappointed. If his shadow had been the one who had let him in, then that meant Justin didn't have the power to go in and out on his own. Actually, that may have presented a problem. His shadow was the only one around that could let him out if that were true. And we all know how well that would end.

"So… you can go in and out of the TV?"

"**All shadows can. What the hell do you think your 'Personas' come from?"**

"Alright, so if you can leave, why don't you just do it instead of trying to murder your host?"

"**We can't leave if the original still lives. Part of the rules."**

"You follow rules?"

"**Very few." **The shadow smirked slightly, a devious look in his eyes.

"Alright, that's great. Now, you mind letting me out?"

"**Now why in the world would I want to do that?"**

"Because I'll kick your ass again if you don't?"

The shadow chuckled again. He was getting a kick out of Justin's aggressive responses. After all, the more pissed off Justin was, the more likely it would be that he would deny his shadow, right?

"**Oh, but whatever happened to saving your friends? I guess you just don't care about them…"**

"Yeah, well, I'm not wandering around for twelve hours trying to find out where the hell everyone is."

"**Well, that's really too bad. I was going to point you in the right direction, but I guess since you're so dead set on leaving…"**

Justin's eyes sprang wide open. His shadow knew where they were? Hell, he even said he'd tell Justin where. This was more than a little shocking. Justin had to wonder if his shadow was just bluffing, or if he'd just give Justin false information in a vain attempt of killing him off. The real question though was, if the shadow is indeed telling the truth, what's in it for him? The shadow laughed slightly at Justin's reaction.

"**What? Don't believe me?"**

"What's the catch?"

"**Catch? What, can't I just do something nice from the bottom of my heart for once?"**

"You don't HAVE a heart."

"**The catch… There is no catch; we're just gonna have a nice friendly conversation. Or, is that too much for you?"**

Talk? Oh fuck no, Justin could barely tolerate him now when the shadow hadn't started poking into Justin's personal life. If he had to put up with him any longer than needed, he swore he was going to hit the shadow over the head with his oxygen tank. Still, he needed to know where everyone was, and his shadow was offering help, albeit at his own gain… Justin could work this angle if need be. He sighed slightly, grabbing ahold of his oxygen tank.

"Lead the way."

* * *

The two had walked for what felt like a good hour; although that was also accounting for the time they were inside the building. The lesser shadows had started to inhabit the bottom floors again, much to Justin's dismay, though they seemed uninterested in him. It could very well be due to his shadow's presence. Either way, Justin was a little on edge, lest something go horribly wrong along the way. He sighed slightly looking around the entirety of the dungeon that had been crawling through. It looked like a bathhouse, though Justin couldn't be sure. It's not like he had ever been in one himself, so this was going entirely based on what he thought the stereotypical bathhouse looked like. Not to mention all the steam. It was like a sauna in there, the steam seeming to melt away at his pores. Justin groaned slightly. Maybe this wasn't the best place for him to be with an oxygen tank. Of course, the heat didn't really matter anyway, his mind was too focused on his shadow to care.

"**So what was up with that shit last night?"**

"The what and the when now?"

"**Oh don't play shy, trying to feel up your little girlfriend in the middle of the night. You know, that's what pedophiles do. You wouldn't happen to be a pedophile, would you, me?"**

Justin just shook his head. He wasn't exactly sure what had compelled him to rub his hand along Chie's cheek that night, but he sure as hell knew it wasn't pedophilia. Not that he was taking the remark to particular heart. He knew his shadow was just bending everything out of proportion to try and piss Justin off. In small does, it was completely tolerable, but after what seemed like an hour, Justin could not take much more of it.

"First of all, that's not what 'feel up' means. Secondly, I don't think it counts as pedophilic when we're the same age."

"**So, did ya stop at the face or you decide to go down south?"**

"You already know the answer to that."

"**Oh don't be like that. I just want to hear it from your mouth is all, babe."**

"Stop calling me babe. That's just fucking weird. And no I did not, nor would I have any reason too."

"**Oh that's right; you two are in 'loooooveeeee.' What a bunch of bullshit! I know exactly what you're after. Just admit it, no one will judge you."**

"You are one fucked up individual."

"**Says the freak with the oxygen tank."**

Justin shot a slight glare over at his shadow. He was getting more than a little pissed at this point. His shadow must have noticed, though, given the chuckle he heard under his shadow's breath, a devious look in his eyes. He just hoped they'd make it to Kanji soon. I mean, they hadn't seen hide nor hair of the rest of the gang yet, so they must have made their way up there already, right? Not only did Justin need to make sure they were faring alright, but he also couldn't take much more bullcrap from his shadow.

"**Oh, what's wrong? Don't like being called a freak? Too bad that's what you are. Look at you, tubes sticking out of your face like some kind of Frankenstein monster. But then, you never did fit in, did you? You'll always be a freak, tubes or not, won't you!?"**

"That's enough!"

"**Jumping into televisions, fighting shadows, you'll never be just one of the crowd, will you? But then, you never were before, were you? I mean, who'd want to hang with the kid with an FBI Agent for a dad. No one will ever bother you in life; you had the fucking government backing you up."**

"Don't talk about my father, you shitbag."

"**Your father? Your father was a scumbag, kid. A complete tool that did anything he was told. You know what your father was? Uncle Sam's dick, fucking America."**

Justin couldn't take it anymore. He turned around and took a swing at his shadow; though the shadow simply vanished in a purple haze before the punch made contact.

"**Oooh, struck a weak spot did I? After all your father did, and you still love him? What a joke."**

"Shut up, shut up!"

Justin was practically running at this point. The sooner he caught up with the rest of the group, the sooner his shadow would leave. They had agreed to talk on the way there, no more, no less. Funny, he had come in to save Kanji and the gang, but it seemed they would be the ones saving Justin from himself. The voice only seemed to grow louder, despite Justin's shadow's form having dissolved into that purple haze.

"**You love your father to death, don't you? It's a shame he never loved you back."**

"Bull. Shit."

"**Oh, what, you think he went on all those 'foreign jobs' because the U.S. said so? He did it to get away from you!"**

"No, no no no no."

"**But that's okay. The bastard's dead now. He got what he deserved."**

Justin practically kicked the big red gates open, rushing inside to escape the torment of his shadow's voice. He had promised himself he'd never let his shadow get to him, but that was getting way too close. And of all the times too, it had to be when he was alone; no one to save him from himself if he fucked up and denied his shadow.

Justin sighed slightly as he looked onto the scene in front of him. He had been so caught up in his own problems he hadn't noticed the giant behemoth of Kanji's shadow standing tall in the center of the room, the gang's personas being thrown about like ragdolls with the help of two shadows to the left and right of him. He breathed in a few deep breathes before stepping away from the red door. The others hadn't quite noticed Justin's spectacular entrance. Understandably so, considering they had been getting their assess kicked pretty hard by Kanji's shadow. Justin groaned slightly. If he had been a little faster, maybe he could have helped talk Kanji down from denying his shadow. All the same, Justin slowly made his way forward, oxygen tank in tow.

Justin scanned the room for any signs of his friends. Chie and Yukiko were attacking from the sidelines, mostly because Kanji's shadow seemed uninterested in the two. Instead, he had been targeting Yu and Yosuke, who themselves were trying to dodge lightning bolts being hurled at them from Kanji's shadow. On top of that, it seemed every time the two managed to score a hit on him, the two shadows standing next time him just patched it right up, revitalizing his health and strength. Justin's thoughts were distracted, however, by a stray lightning bolt nearly hitting him. He sighed in relief since it hit just off to his right, though the lightning bolt wooshing past Chie and Yukiko's heads more than brought their attention over to Justin.

"Justin!? What are- How are you even here!?"

Chie and Yukiko both seemed surprised; understandably so considering Justin had no ability to enter the television on his own. All the same, Justin jogged over as quickly as he could, ducking below more than a few stray bolts of lightning; from the shadow and Yu alike. Justin really wished he would learn to aim better. Hell, even Yosuke was getting in more hits than Yu. Justin made a full stop next to Chie, as she ordered her Persona to cast another ice spell, attacking Kanji's shadow.

"It's a long story; let's just say my shadow got involved."

"Are you alright!?"

"Fine."

"Jesus, Justin, you can't be in here! You're breathing-"

"Is just fine, thank you very much."

Another stray lightning bolt had been coming full force at them, though Chie managed to block it using ice as a shield. At least no one lost an eye. Chie turned her attention over to Justin as the shadows began to fight off Yu and Yosuke again. She certainly didn't approve of him being in the television, though it wasn't like he could just leave now. Besides, what was that part about his shadow? She sighed slightly, giving him a quick nod, as though she were giving him permission to stay. Justin didn't need her approval of course, though he smiled back as a token of his gratitude. Things would go a lot smoother without those two fighting him every step of the way.

"Alright, you guys having any luck with him?"

"Everytime we hurt him those other two just patch him up; but if we focus on just attacking them, then Kanji's shadow hits us pretty bad."

Justin paused for a moment, his finger rubbing at his chin slightly, his facial hairs pricking into the side of his index finger. It took a second, but he got an idea.

"Why not attack them both at once?"

"What do you mean?"

"Simple, if you can do damage to both at the same time, then Kanji's shadow will get knocked off guard, and the other two won't be able to heal him."

"Alright, and how do you suggest we do that?"

Well there were a couple of ways to do it, though Justin doubted many of them would work. Just splitting up the attack between the four wouldn't give them enough juice to stumble a shadow. They needed all four to really do anything. Justin had an idea, though he wasn't sure how well everyone would react to it.

"Alright, I've got an idea. Yu! Yosuke!"

The two turned their attention slightly over to the corner, their eyes wide with surprise as they saw Justin hollering at them, oxygen tank in hand.

"H-how the hell did he get here!?" Yosuke questioned loudly as he barely dodged a strike from the shadow's blades, the blades looking like twisted gender symbols. Yu gave a small grunt of concern, but otherwise was not very questioning on the matter. There would be plenty of time for that after they were out of harm's ways.

"What!?" Yu screamed from where he was standing. He knew Justin was trying to tell them something at the very least.

"I need you two to put some distance between the three of them and you!"

"Got it!"

And with that Yu and Yosuke carefully expanded the window of distance between the shadows and them, opting for ranged attacks as opposed to close up melee. Justin nodded his head slightly, reaching up to the tubes in his nose and plucking them out.

"Justin, what the hell are you doing!?" Chie spoke up. He knew she was going to be pissed at him, but he also knew that his idea would work. Justin turned towards Yukiko, giving her a slight nod indicating that he was about to address her.

"Yukiko, get ready to attack with fire when I gave the word."

"A-Attack what?"

"You'll see."

Justin reached into his pocket, pulling out his magnum. Luckily, no one seemed to question why he had it on his person and not with Teddie. Perhaps they had simply overlooked the fact that Justin couldn't have gotten it from Teddie if he was upstairs with them. He gripped the top of his tank firmly before lifting it backwards and swinging it forward with a huge amount of force. The tank went spiraling up in the air, much to everyone's bewilderment. What the hell was Justin doing? He needed that to breathe!

"Now Yukiko!"

He gave her a slightly advanced warning knowing she still had to aim and cast the spell. He quickly pointed his magnum at the tank, firing a bullet directly into it's steel hull as it came slowly spiraling back down in between the three shadows. Just as a rush of oxygen exploded outwards from the tank, Yukiko's Agi spell collided with the tank. Soon, the metal of tank was engulfed in flames, an explosion in its place as it blew into the bodies of the three shadows. The blast was strong enough to completely wipe out the two smaller ones, though Kanji's shadow was still hanging on by a thread.

It didn't matter, though, they all had an opening now, and none of that healing bull crap. Within seconds, the four had rushed forward with an all-out attack on the stunned enemy, spells being flung each and every way. Justin could barely see what was going on as smoke surrounded the battle field. Yosuke got flung out of the dust cloud on more than one occasion, though it ultimately proved to be irrelevant. By the time the dust had cleared, the four had been standing over the defeated corpse of Kanji's shadow, slowly fading back into its original form.

"We…We did it!" Chie exclaimed happily after a few moments of catching her breath.

Justin smiled slightly. Not only did they just manage to save Kanji, but now Justin wouldn't have to carry that fucking tank around with him anymore. An all around victory if you asked him. Chie passed him a slight glance before chuckling softly. It was hard to laugh since everyone was still exhausted from the fight.

"And you guys said you didn't need me…" He chuckled. Chie would give him shit for this later, but for the moment, they were just happy to have won. All the same, their quiet celebration was interrupted by the all too familiar sound of Kanji's voice. He had just been waking up and getting back on his feet.

"Dammit…"

"Kanji-kun!"

Yukiko turned towards Kanji, though Yosuke seemed bothered by something all the same.

"Wait, Yukiko! Something's wrong!"

Yosuke had been right, as Kanji's shadow slowly stood back up on its feet. Justin grimaced slightly. He only had one oxygen tank. What would they do if Kanji's shadow went berserk again? The shadow starred at the group, though it focused primarily on Kanji, who had been standing just slightly behind everyone else.

"I-It's still coming at us! Kanji is still rejecting it!"

"Well, I can't blame him with this many witnesses…"

"The easy solution to that would be for everyone to leave for a brief moment." Justin pointed out. Of course, no one moved even a step to consider taking that option, much to his displeasure. He sincerely hoped they wouldn't do this if they ever got around to fighting Justin's shadow.

"**Such a passionate approach."**

"What?" Yosuke blurted out. He looked scared out of his wit's end by the comment for some reason.

"**I think that you four… would make excellent boyfriends."**

"Again with the counting," Justin exclaimed, hands in the air. "There's me, there's Yu, and there's Yosuke. That makes three. Now, where the fuck is the fourth person!"

"Maybe he means Chie?" Yu joked silently to Justin from the side.

"I heard that!" Yu quickly snapped his head in the opposite direction, whistling an innocent tune.

"S-Stop it! Y-You've got it all wrong!" Yosuke shouted in fear. _Holy shit, Yosuke. He's just saying that to piss Kanji off, calm the fuck down._

"Enough… Stop… What the hell are you blabbering about…?"

"**I don't care who… Won't someone, anyone, please accept me…!?"**

"Stop… it…"

"**Accept me for who I am!"**

Justin raised his eyebrow in slight sympathy. He could understand what it was like, feeling like the oddball out. All Kanji wanted was to be able to fit in. Justin sighed slightly. The two weren't that much different in a lot of ways. For all it was worth, Justin accepted him for who he was; though he wouldn't admit it to Kanji's shadow of all people. He probably needed that to get back on his feet or something. Besides, Kanji needed to do this on his own.

"Wh- Whoa! I really don't swing that way!"

"That's not what he means you fuckwit."

"I said stop it!"

And at that moment, Kanji suddenly snapped. Not in the break-down deny himself kind of way, but in the violent outburst kind of way. He rushed forward and punched his shadow straight in the face; and hard too. He knocked it almost clean out. The shadow seemed to remain conscious, thought it certainly wasn't getting off the floor anytime soon. Justin clapped silently from where he was standing. It was an impressive feat to say the least. Kanji crack his neck to the sides slightly as he withdrew his fist from the blow.

"Tch. I can't believe something like this is inside me…"

"Kanji, you're…"

"Yeah, I know… I've known all this time I've had something like you!" Kanji seemed to completely ignore Yosuke as he continued to address his shadow, though Justin couldn't half blame him. Yosuke wasn't exactly subtle. "It ain't a matter of guys or chicks… I'm just scared shitless of being rejected. I'm a total pansy who tries to make everyone hate me."

Justin sighed slightly.

"I can kinda understand what he means. Minus the "try to make everyone hate me part." That just comes naturally for me." He got more than a few sympathy looks from the rest of the team, much to his disapproval. They didn't say a word about it, though, as they turned their attention back towards Kanji. They knew questioning Justin on anything personal was always a bad decision.

"Hmph, you make it sound like you got it all worked out…" Kanji said over his shoulder to Justin. Justin couldn't help but shake his head. That was the problem, wasn't it? He didn't have anything worked out. He sighed slightly before turning back towards his shadow.

"C'mon… get up. Anyone who looks like me , I know they ain't so week that they can't take a punch."

Much to Justin's alarm, the shadow did stand back up, as though under Kanji's command. It wasn't the latter part that scared him though; he thought it was good that Kanji was keeping control of his emotions. It was the former part. That shadow had gone down harder than a sack of bricks. How the hell could it still be able to stand?

"I already know that you're me… You're me… and I'm you, dammit!"

And with that, the shape of Kanji's shadow started to dissolve; morphing, expanding. Before long, a large metallic figure towered over the group. He had been holding a giant lightning bolt in one hand, much to Justin's confusion. It wasn't a real lightning bolt, mind you. Probably a blade or staff of some sort; though it was an interesting choice of weaponry. Though he did have to admire that the figure had a giant skull painted on the head area. It totally worked for Kanji. The towering figure soon dissolved again into fragments of light, as they swirled around Kanji before disappearing into the air. As per usual, Kanji soon collapsed after finishing dealing with his shadow.

"Ngh… Shit…"

"Kanji- kun!"

"Let's get him out of here!"

* * *

It took a long while of walking, but the group eventually made it out of the television, Kanji in tow. Justin smirked slightly as he stepped out of the television. He felt great. Maybe he didn't even need to carry that tank around with him for the last few days. He felt like he could actually breathe better without it. Justin looked at Kanji as he took a seat near the television, his back leaning against its plastic bottom.

"Kanji-kun… Are you okay?"

"Its… Its nothin'… Whoa…" Kanji paused for a moment, taking a deep breath. Strangely enough, he was actually chuckling a bit as the air came out of his mouth. "Heheh… I feel great… It's like my mind's all cleared up… "

Jusitn smirked slightly, reaching his hand out to give Kanji a boost back up to his standing position.

"You did good in there, man."

Kanji nodded, his face slightly red from embarrassment. Or at least, Justin hoped it was embarrassment. Kanji seemed convinced that he didn't roll that way while he was in the television, so Justin didn't really have anything to be concerned about. He still thought it was out of character for Kanji, though. Kanji turned his head towards the rest of the group, not a word being spoken to Justin. It was okay though. No words needed to be spoken. Justin understood completely.

"Hey… about what just happened…"

Yu looked around the group for a short moment, as though expecting someone else to answer that question. Instead, he took the opportunity upon himself.

"We'll fill you in later."

"Yeah… You better…"

"Whoa, that sounded vaguely like a threat. I like this guy already." Justin smirked slightly. Kanji got a little red in the face again, though he seemed to smile back this time at the very least.

"We'll explain everything later. You need to take a rest right now." Yukiko added, despite Yu pretty much having said that already.

"We'll be waiting for you at school."

"School…? Sure, if I ever feel like going."

"I'll take this guy home. If anyone asks, I'll just say I found him somewhere like this."

Justin raised an eyebrow in slight surprise. Out of the entire group, Yosuke had clearly been the least... attached to Kanji. He was clearly afraid of the possibility Kanji was gay, plus, Kanji was pretty much bigger Justin. Justin could only imagine Kanji beating the crap out of Yosuke for saying something stupid. All the same, Justin waved them off with a bow of his head, as t'was his usual method of saying good-bye.

The two departed, eventually followed by Yu and Yukiko. Justin had to chuckle. Lately the two of them had been walking home a lot together. He could only hope that was a good omen as far as their relationship went. If there was one to begin with. Chie and Justin stayed behind for a short while. He was half expecting her to chew him out, and she'd rather have her do it here than on the way home.

"You know… That was pretty reckless…" Chie said, her mouth in a slight frown, her eyes raised with concern. After all, Justin had just blown up his potentially only supply of oxygen.

"Well I couldn't just let you guy go in alone after yesterday."

"Well I thought it was pretty brave, too." Chie said, a smile across her face, a blush on her cheeks. Justin was surprised to say the least. He had expected her to slap him for doing something stupid, not be commended. Justin smiled softly before entangling his fingers in hers, her palm against his, as they made their way back to his house. He really didn't need her watching his breathing anymore, but he'd be lying if he said he didn't enjoy her company.


	39. Chapter 38: May 21, 2011

CHAPTER 38

May 21, 2011

* * *

"Why do you people keep doing this to me…?"

Justin was leaning slightly over the edge of the roof, lest he lose control of his stomach for even a split second. The group had all gathered on the rooftop for lunch, as was slowly starting to become the norm. What was so bad about the cafeteria? Why did they have to climb up here of all places? Everyone gave him a slight look of concern. Chie was really the only one who knew about his Climacophobia, so to all the others it just looked like Justin was getting sick every time he came up to the roof. Chie wanted to tell Justin they could go somewhere else for lunch, but she knew he'd just say no. His pride wouldn't let them move somewhere else just because he was afraid of stairs.

"Dude, are you alright?" Yosuke spoke up.

"Yeah, I'm fine, just… Just give me a second."

Justin huffed at the air slightly, before having to close his mouth, a slight bit of vomit flowing up from his stomach. His cheeks expanded out slightly, giving the mucus room to sit in his mouth. Justin eyes watered slightly as the taste of his stomach contents swooshed about in his cheeks. There was no way in hell he was going to let the other's see him vomit. He closed his eyes, already regretting what he was about to do, as he swallowed his stomach contents back down. He was just glad it didn't seem like any solids had come up, though his breath probably smelled like puke right now. He scrambled through his pockets before pulling out a cigarette. It would calm him down, and mask the smell of vomit on his breath with the smell of smoke. He lit it up before taking a deep drag of it and turning back around to the rest of the group.

"Alright, I'm good…"

No one really believed him, of course, but they dropped the subject anyway, deciding instead to discuss the events of yesterday.

"Geeze, that was a close call yesterday. If Justin hadn't come in with that oxygen tank, I'm not sure how much longer I would have been able to hold out." Yosuke groaned. He could hardly believe it himself that he was giving Justin credit for anything. Yosuke's eyes widened slightly after a brief moment, something having occurred to him. "Hey, how exactly did you get in the TV anyway?"

"Oh that's right," Chie practically shouted. It seemed she had forgotten all about that herself. "Didn't you say it had something to do with your shadow?"

Justin took another drag at his cigarette before sighing slightly. He really didn't want to talk about his shadow, nor the things he had said to Justin yesterday. Though he did owe everyone an explanation, and it's not like he had to get into much detail about what his shadow said.

"Yeah. Basically I had another one of those Maya dreams that time I was in the hospital. I know, I know, it sounds irrelevant but… We were sitting there talking about a rumor that had been circulating about. You might be familiar with it."

It took a moment before each and every stare that had been directed at Justin turned from one of confusion to one of shock.

"W-Wait, you don't mean-"

"Yep, the Midnight Channel. Now, I figured maybe it was just a rumor over in California. I mean, as far as I know, there were no murder cases like the one we have here, so the whole 'soulmate' angle shouldn't have even popped up. But then I factored in something that Kurt had said…"

"Kurt? Who's Kurt?" Yu piped up. Justin almost had to slap himself for forgetting that only him and Chie knew who Kurt was. Come to think of it, there were a lot of things that only Chie seemed to know about Justin.

"He's a friend of Justin's from California." Chie explained concisely.

"To briefly summarize, he sells cigarettes on the black market. Apparently he moved his business over here at some point after running into some trouble with the law back home. He seems to be tied in with this whole Maya business, though to what degree is up for question."

"Hold on wait a second; you knew a guy who illegally sold cigarettes on the streets?" Yu seemed to be having trouble seeing Justin as the kind of person that would know someone like Kurt; despite Justin very clearly illegally smoking cigarettes himself. I mean, where the hell did Yu think he was getting his smokes from; the tooth fairy?

"Yep, and so did Maya. But that's beside the point. Kurt said something interesting to me the first time I met him over here. He said Maya had offered him a place to hide the goods, in exchange for a small cut of the profits. Apparently, she said something involving a television."

"So, wait, you mean to say-"

"Yep; not to mention this conversation seemed to take place the same week as our discussion on the rumor. Seems like too much of a coincidence to just be a misunderstanding. The way I see it, Maya had been able to get in and out of the television, much like you guys can."

"And by extension that meant you could too…"

"Not quite; though that had been the same train of thought I had been following when I tried to get into the television. I figured, if she could do it, then maybe I could too. Well, I placed my hand against the screen for a minute or two, and it worked. Only I wasn't the one who had opened the way through the television."

Justin paused for a moment, allowing the thought to soak into everyone's head. He could have just told them straight up, but he figured it would do them all some good to try and figure it out on their own. Stretch the brain muscles or some shit. Chie had placed her index finger under her bottom lip for a short moment before her eyes widened with realization. Justin was actually surprised she was the first one to figure it out, though he certainly didn't object to it.

"Your shadow!"

"Bingo."

"I-I don't get it. How did your shadow open the way through?" Yosuke added, still confused by Justin's story. He didn't blame him, of course; Justin was there and he still was trying to piece together a few things.

"Well, if my shadow is a credible source of information, which he's not, apparently all shadows can do it. They just can't leave unless they kill off the host."

"Alright, that answers one of my questions I guess. How'd you end up finding us?"

"Same answer as before."

"Waitwhat!?" Chie shouted from her seat. What in the hell had Justin been thinking that he had followed his shadow. What if something happened along the way?

"I know, I know, I didn't quite trust him either; though he did lead me right to you guys, so I guess he's a man of his word at least." Justin smirked slightly. Kind of ironic when you considered his shadow was a lying sack of crap.

"What was the catch?"

"Exactly what you'd think it would be."

"Wh-What did he say?"

"That part's not up for discussion." Justin groaned slightly. He should have known that the others would want to know what his shadow had said to him; but alas, Justin just wasn't willing to discuss anything that came out of his shadow's mouth. Just thinking about it made Justin's heart race, let alone discussing it.

"I can understand that…" Yosuke spoke up, Chie and Yukiko nodding in agreement. Yu obviously did not, having not faced his shadow. Or at least, not to the knowledge of the group. Who even knows anymore?

"So there you go. That's the main gist of it."

"Well that's one hell of a story." Yosuke added loudly, as though trying to beat everyone to the punch. Justin just nodded his head slightly. He really didn't want to talk about it anymore than they already had, so he was hoping they would leave it at Yosuke's comment.

"There's still one thing I don't get…" Chie added questioningly from her seat. Justin sighed slightly as the words left her mouth. So much for ending the conversation there. "If your shadow had you alone, why would he bring you over to us? I mean, couldn't he have tried to… You know…?"

"Kill me? I thought so too, but when you consider that he's had three opportunities now... I don't think he can."

"How so?" Yosuke added confusedly.

"Well, I think we can all agree that my shadow has something to do with Maya, right? Now, this is just a tentative theory, but what if my shadow can't do anything because I still don't remember everything?"

"So… you think that your shadow won't be able to touch you unless you can remember everything?"

"Something along those lines. I mean, I can't really deny or confirm something that I don't really remember, right? So, if my shadow is based on the memory of Maya, and not my emotions, then he'd pretty much be stuck twiddling his thumbs until I remember everything, right?"

Justin placed his hand across his chin after verbalizing his thought process. It seemed that was the case, although he did have to wonder. His shadow had clearly been trying to push some other stuff on him while he was in the TV yesterday. Stuff about his father, stuff about him being a freak. Justin had almost snapped. What would happen if Justin denied it then? Could the shadow become it's own entity, like the others' shadows had? Or would nothing happen, his emotions unrelated to Maya, and thus just his shadow trying to fuck with him. Who knew; either way, if he simply didn't deny anything his shadow said, he'd be fine, right? He just needed to remember to keep a cooler head around his shadow. His shadow might have been the biggest dickwad Justin had ever met in all his life, but two can play that game.

Justin sighed slightly, looking around the group in the process. It seemed the rest of the group had been wondering the same thing Justin had, though he had to wonder why they were so concerned about it. He wouldn't be alone the next time he entered the television, and he certainly could just stick his fingers in his ears and go "lalala, I'm not listening!" the entire time. Really, you can't deny what you can't hear. All the same, Justin would rather the conversation be shifted elsewhere. He took another drag of his cigarette before extinguishing it and carefully disposing of it.

"Alright, so how's Kanji doing?"

"He seemed like he was doing alright when I dropped him off last night." Yosuke added after dismissing the previous topic from his mind. "I'm not really sure what's going on now."

"I imagine there's going to be some questioning involved. He was missing for a good three days or so." Yu added authoritatively. Justin scrunched his mouth slightly from side to side, deep in thought. He wished they had a little more to go on than 'he seemed fine.' Maybe they should check on him at some point; though, they might want to give him a bit of time. It could very well be like Yukiko's case, where she needed a few weeks to recover from the shock. He didn't think kicking down Kanji's door just to check on him would be the brightest idea. He sighed slightly. They should just give him some time; he'll be fine now that he was out of the TV.

"Well, at least he's alright. Guess we just play the waiting game now." Justin remarked. The group nodded in slight agreement, frowns slowly turning into smiles. Now that they got all that depressing shit out of the way, they still had a good fifteen minutes of lunch left.

"So you guys hear? Class president elections are coming up soon." Chie spoke up. "I hear Hisako is running again this year."

"Elections? Isn't it a little bit late for that?" Justin questioned. At his old school, elections were held the year before the year someone would hold office. So if someone was running for class president in senior year, they would be elected in junior year.

"No... I think it was around this time last year too." Yukiko spoke up.

"So who are you guys gonna vote for?" Chie asked.

"Eh, I don't know… Hisako is cool and all, but… he's such a goody two shoes, you know? And what was up with his girlfriend being vice president?"

"Wait, that's his girlfriend?" Chie questioned aloud.

"What, you didn't know? C'mon, they've been at it for a year now." Yosuke groaned slightly. Justin had to wonder what it was about couples that disgusted Yosuke so much. It clearly wasn't just him and Chie that he couldn't stand the thought of, apparently.

"I don't really know any of the candidates." Yu spoke up timidly. Justin didn't either, what with them both being transfer students and all. Really, the only people Justin knew from school were the people sitting around him right now. And Kanji, but he barely qualifies given that he never shows up. Yu probably knew more people than he did, what being in every single fucking club apparently.

"I thought Daisuke was running again this year?" Chie brought up. Justin didn't know who that was though Yu seemed to given the shocked look on his face.

"Daisuke? Like, soccer Daisuke?"

"Dude, Daisuke doesn't count. He runs as a joke every year." Yosuke spoke up. Justin had to wonder how Yosuke would even know that, considering he had transferred in 6 months earlier than Yu. He clearly wasn't around for the first election. Maybe they were friends or something.

"You'd be surprised how many people voted for him last year, too." Chie remarked. "He's actually got a pretty big fanbase."

Justin placed his index finger under his chin. He felt like he was forgetting someone.

"Wait… Yukiko, are you running?"

"Huh? I-I'm not really into politics…"

"I just figured you might have been running since all the smart types usually run for that kind of stuff."

She blushed slightly at the comment. He hadn't meant it to be flattery, but if that's how she wanted to take it, by all means. It's not like Yu was gonna get jealous if Justin did it. At least, he didn't think he would. He wondered briefly if Yu got as jealous as Justin seemed to.

"W-Well what about you? You got a perfect score on the mid-terms." Chie spoke up, a slight smile on her face. Justin raised an eyebrow at the idea. He actually had never considered running for office, though he had no intention of it either. Like Yukiko, he thought politics was a bunch of bullshit, even if class president really had nothing to do with politics. Still, he wasn't very good at organizing shit anyway, so he wasn't sure how well that would end up.

"Pfft, that was just a fluke." Yosuke spoke up from his side. Justin responded by turning over to Yosuke and giving him a glare.

"You want to run that by me again?"

"Besides, it's all just a popularity contest anyway; and hate to break it to you Justin, but no one knows who you are. Hell, I'd probably get more votes than you."

"That a fact?"

"Uh… I don't like where this is heading…" Yu spoke up, a nod of support from Chie and Yukiko in the backdrop.

"Well why don't you put your money where your mouth is?"

"Dude, what the hell are you talking about?"

"Since you're so full of yourself, why don't we make it a bet?"

"Now why would I want to do that? I don't want to be president!"

"Winner gets 10000 yen."

"There is no wa-Waitwhat?" Yosuke's eyes widened slightly as he heard Justin's proposition hit his ears. 10000 yen? Holy shit, that's a lot of money to not do anything. I mean, really, Justin had been there for a month tops, and he barely knew anyone. This was just easy money.

"You heard me. Whoever gets the most votes wins."

"Uh, Justin…?" Chie tried to stop him from going through with his hastily thrown together bet. Even she didn't think Justin was going to walk away victorious from this one.

"Alright fine. I can beat you, no sweat."

"We'll just see about that."

And with that, the two stampeded off into opposite directions; Yosuke heading back down the stairs, Justin near the other end of the roof, near Chie and Yukiko. It wasn't a very big roof, so it really wasn't as dramatic as he had hoped it would be. Everyone started giving Justin a funny look, much to his displeasure.

"What?"

"You're gonna get your ass kicked." Yu spoke up in a matter-of-fact voice.

"Over my dead body!"

"What song do you want at your funeral then?"

"You guys are just the worst. Obviously it would be Stayin' Alive."


	40. Chapter 39: May 22, 2011

CHAPTER 39

May 22, 2011

* * *

"This is the worst idea you've ever had."

Justin and Chie were sitting across from each other at Aiya's. They really hadn't had the chance to just sit down and talk in a while, so it was a pleasant change of events. Although, Justin had rather their discussion have been focused on something other than Justin's idiotic bet. Hell, even he was finding some fault in it. 10,000 yen. He had to be out of his mind; he wouldn't be able to eat at all for a freakin' week if he lost. He had briefly considered just calling the bet off with Yosuke, but that would just mean he'd have to acknowledge Yosuke was better than him. That wasn't going to happen; not now, not ever.

"Ugh, I know. But I already made the bet. I can't back out now."

"Well maybe you shouldn't have made the bet in the first place!"

_Jeeze, Chie's getting really worked up over this. _Justin had to wonder why she was getting so worked up over this. Was she worried Justin would lose? Or did she just not like the idea of Justin being class president. Hell, forget if Justin won; What if Yosuke won? They'd be SO fucked.

"What, with the way Yosuke was being a complete ass? I wasn't standing for that shit."

"I know, I know, it's just… He kinda had a point."

"What?"

"Well, I mean, outside of our homeroom, no one really knows you… And it is kind of a popularity contest. That's why Daisuke got so many votes last year."

Justin sighed slightly. She was right, as much as he hated to admit it. He had little to no chance of winning when no one even knew his name. He'd have to do something to get everyone's attention; in a positive light at least. Speeches were supposed to be held Monday… if he could make a good impression, maybe he could shift the vote over to his side. I mean, he didn't need to convince everyone to vote for him, he just needed to convince them to not vote for Yosuke.

"Then I guess I'll need to go the extra mile on this one…"

"You have a plan?"

"Other than giving a good speech? Not really."

Chie moaned slightly under her breath.

"I want you to beat Yosuke as much as the next person, but… I think you're going to need something bigger than a speech."

"I'll figure something out."

The two sighed in complete synchronization. It wasn't so much Justin's lack of a plan that had bothered the both of them; it was what would happen if he lost. Regardless, Justin had decided to wipe the thought from his mind. The less he thought about it, the more confident he'd be; and the more confident he was, the more hearts and minds he would win over. He hoped anyway.

Justin lifted his gaze from the table to take a look at Chie. She was still staring at the table, lost in thought. He smiled slightly at her, though he knew she couldn't see it.

"Your eye's looking better."

Chie lifted her face back up to meet Justin's eyes. It seemed she had forgotten all about the black-eye she had gotten a few days ago. It was gone for the most part, though she still had a slight dark ring underneath her left eye. Her mouth formed a slight o shape, her eyebrows curved upwards, as though surprised it was still there.

"Huh? I-It's still there?"

"Just a little bit under the eye."

Justin reached up to his own face and pressed his finger against where the dark spot had been on Chie's face; though he quickly withdrew it when he realized he had accidently drawn focus to his bad eye. He sighed softly as he noticed Chie staring at his eye.

"Please stop staring at it."

"Justin… Why didn't you tell me?"

She averted her gaze from his eye only slightly to make eye contact with the other. Her eyebrow curved downwards slightly, a look of sorrow on her face. It was those fucking puppy-dog eyes again; only this time, Chie was using them to make Justin feel like a royal piece of shit. He sighed slightly, leaning forward on his elbows.

"I just… Ugh, how do I explain this…"

"You didn't want anyone to get worried?"

"It's not just that…"

Justin paused for a moment, his heart feeling like it was growing heavier by the second. He knew damn well why he didn't want anyone to know about his eye, but he didn't want to admit it. And they both knew it.

"It's alright… I understand."

"No. You don't, Chie. You really don't…"

Chie sighed slightly as Justin placed his head inbetween his arms. He knew what he wanted to say, but he couldn't force the words out of his throat. Not to his friends, not to Chie, not anyone. They'd never get what it was like, what he had gone through, as much as they claimed they could.

"You know, I used to get bullied in school a lot when I was younger." Chie choked up softly. "Just because I didn't like the same stuff the other girls did…"

Justin raised his eyes from the cushion he had made from his arms. Chie's face was pointed down towards the table, her eyes growing slightly wet. It was clearly painful for her to even bring up, so why had she? To make Justin feel better? It wasn't working, he just felt bad that she'd have to go through that.

"You remember the Vanguards of the Lunch Revolution? After a while, I started to get tired of everything people said about me. That I was weird because I liked kung-fu, or how I wasn't very feminine. I used to get into fights all the time because people wouldn't leave me alone."

Justin starred at her for a bit. So that's why her parent's didn't question her about the black-eye that night she went to pick up her stuff to stay at Justin's… It was something they were used to. He hated that; that her parents had almost accepted Chie fighting off her bullies on a regular basis, as if it were some regular scheduled event. She was just a kid…

"Didn't you make those nicknames since kindergarten?" Justin choked up. He already knew the answer; and he hated it.

"Yeah…"

Justin couldn't help but puff out some hot air. Being picked on since Kindergarten just because you didn't conform? It broke his heart a little bit seeing her like this, tears welling up in her eyes as she retold the memory to Justin. He sort of knew what she felt like, though he could never truly understand. That's probably what hurt him the most. He'd never understand what she went through, and vice versa.

"But then I met Yukiko and Takeshi… And then I realized something…" Chie smiled slightly over the tears dripping down her cheeks. "Its better to have one or two good friends than to 'fit' in."

"I bet you wished you'd known how much of a scumbag Takeshi was then, huh?"

Chie averted eye contact, sighing slightly under her breath. That's right… Takeshi was her friend, always had been. And sure, he wasn't always the nicest person to be around; he ragged on her constantly, after all. But when she ever needed someone, he had been there. He was her best friend; hell, she loved him for a time being, even if he didn't love her back. But then Justin came along… and Takeshi betrayed her; sold them out to save his own hide. All that time they had spent together, and yet he didn't give a second thought on selling out his friends... Was that all she ever was for him? A scapegoat? Had he ever really been her friend, or was it all just a show?

Justin felt a pain in his chest as he watched Chie tango with her thoughts. She looked almost like she was in pain just thinking about what had happened. And Justin felt like a huge douche for even bringing it up. He had intended for it to be a joke, to try and cheer her up a bit, but instead, it only made her feel worse. She had two friends in the entire world, and it turns out that one of them had only been using her the entire time; taking advantage of her willingness to trust so easily.

"I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean-"

"No, it's alright… I might have lost Takeshi; hell, maybe I never had him to begin with. But now I have Yosuke, and Narukami." Chie looked back into Justin's eyes. Much to his surprise, he noticed the faintest smile emerging from her teary-eyed face.

"And I have you."

Justin's eyes widened slightly in surprise, a slight smile across his face. There was a fundamental difference between Chie and Justin's cases though. Chie had been different by choice; she could have chosen to try to act like the other girls, or to hide her hobbies from them. She simply chose not to. Justin though… Justin didn't choose to have his eye melted close. And no matter what he did, that's what he would always be… The kid with the one eye. Yet… Justin still found some solace in Chie's story. Maybe it was because she knew what it was like to be the oddball out. Maybe it had been because she could find comfort in sharing her trauma with Justin. Whatever the reason, despite Chie's incredibly sad story, Justin felt strangely… happy.

"And I, you, Satonaka."

Chie blushed slightly. He only addressed her by her last name when he was trying to flatter her, or when he was trying to be flirtatious. She couldn't tell which one it was now, though she didn't mind. She understood what it meant, and she was more than content with that. Justin smiled at her for a brief moment more before standing up and grabbing Chie by the hand.

"H-huh? Wh-Where are going?"

"C'mon, there's some place I want you to see."

* * *

"Huh? The riverbed?"

Justin took a seat near the bank of the river, grass ruffling against the sides of his jeans. Chie seemed slightly confused as to what they were doing here, but none-the-less, she took a seat next to him anyway. For a while the two didn't say anything. Chie stared at Justin for a good few minutes, expecting him to turn towards her at any second. Instead, his eyes had been focusing out on the horizon.

Chie's gaze eventually made its way over to where the ocean met the sky. She immediately understood why Justin had been so absorbed in the sight. It was absolutely breath taking, the way the sunlight shimmered against the water, the images of clouds and birds in the sky reflecting back into space. The water was crystal clear, a wondrous, beautiful blue shade to it. But more importantly, Chie had looked where the shore had met the ocean. In the reflection had been the two of them, sitting side by side, staring off into the horizon. She smiled before turning back towards Justin. He smiled slightly as he felt her eyes fall back upon him.

"There used to be a lake like this where I lived in California."

He paused for a moment, a slight chuckle on his breath. He didn't know what it was that was compelling him to talk about this now, but he couldn't stop himself as the words flew from his mouth, his stomach filled with butterflies. Chie had been smiling at him, though, Justin knew that smile would fade as his story went along.

"I didn't have any friends at school, other than Maya. But I only knew her for a few years. Before that, I used to go to school and come home covered in bruises. I got picked on a lot because my father was in the FBI. They thought I was some pansy that would have his father fight his battles for him."

Chie's smile disappeared slightly. She was happy that Justin was willing to talk about it, but she felt bad for him all the same. It was a lot like what had happened to her, though there was one huge difference. Chie had gotten bullied because of what she did, what she was into. Justin got bullied because of his father's choices.

"Well, my father would see the bruises. He wouldn't give me a pep talk, or call the school, or anything like that though." Justin paused for a moment, tears welling up slightly in his eyes, choking back on something he couldn't explain. "He'd hit me. Hard. One for every bruise I had. He told me that I needed to learn to stand up for myself, that I wouldn't learn anything from him babying me. Then he'd hit me again."

"That's horrible…!" Chie spoke up on her end. What kind of sick fuck hits their children for being bullied; Being bullied for something that was entirely their fault none-the-less. Her parents never got involved after a while when she got into fights but… They'd never strike her for it. Chie felt like her heart was going to explode, a deep stinging sensation ringing out from her chest. She couldn't understand why Justin would have to suffer like that, and she didn't want to.

"But there was this lake… right beside our house. And every day before I walked home to face my father, I'd take a seat along the shoreline, and stare at my reflection. The reflection in the water always just stood there, looking back at me. He may have been a poor listener, always trying to talk over me, but he never judged. He never insulted me, called my names because of my father's occupation; he didn't hit me, or scold me for not being a big enough man. He sat there and listened. In a way, it was my only friend…"

"Justin…"

"Chie… Do you know what it's like to not be part of the crowd because of circumstances beyond your control? What it's like to be mentally and physically tormented every day and every night, in some vicious never-ending cycle? It fucking hurts."

Tears had been streaming down Justin's face by now. Every fiber of his being told him to stop talking, but he couldn't seem to keep his mouth shut. Some part of him just wanted to put everything on the table; for someone to listen to and tell him everything would be fine.

"People always think, when I tell them about my parents, that it's rough; to live on your own, no one to look after you. You know what I said when they told me my father died?"

Chie shook her head slowly to both sides. Part of her wanted to be there for Justin, to be someone he could tell all these deep dark secrets in his heart to; yet, somehow she didn't want to hear it. She didn't want to hear anymore about how fucked up his life was, or how he was abusive his father had been. She didn't think her heart could handle much more, a pounding sensation seeming to beat at it with every word out of Justin's mouth.

"I laughed. I laughed at the men who came knocking at my door. Then I turned to them and said: Good. The bastard got what was coming to him. And I closed the door on them without a single word more. What kind of fucked up person am I?"

"Someone whose had enough…"

Justin had burst into hysterics at this point; tears streaming down his face, struggling to breathe as his sorrow filled up his throat. He cried the hardest he had cried since he was a boy, and couldn't stop. Hell, even Chie was tearing up a bit, though she forced herself to stay strong for Justin's sake. She reached out to grab a hold of his hand before reaching up and planting a gentle peck on his cheek. Justin opened his eyes, water still dripping from each corner his eyes as he looked straight into Chie's.

"It's alright. It's over now. You'll never have to live like that again."

"Just face it. I'll never fit in. I'm always gonna be that kid with the FBI dad, or the kid with the missing eyeball, or the kid with the tubes stuck up his nose. I'll never be just part of the crowd, it's just the way things are."

"No… You're not that kid with the missing eye, or some government dad. You're Justin. And you always will be."

Justin paused at the comment, tears still flowing from his eyes. He still felt like shit, though he couldn't stop himself from smiling slightly at the comment, his grip on Chie's hand tightening slightly in the process. Chie in return smiled back, the two slowly resting their heads against each other as they sat along the shore.

* * *

In the interrogation room, both parties had started to tear up. Justin had to pause in the middle of his recap on several occasions to force the tears back. He refused to look like a child. As for the interrogator, well, the story stuck more than a little close to home. He had a similar story to tell of his own family life when he was younger.

"Do you need a moment?" The interrogator choked up. He was asking Justin, but in reality he was hoping to use it as an excuse to leave the room for a moment.

"No… No, I'm fine…"

"I'm sorry that you had to go through that."

"Yeah… Yeah, you should be."

"I'm sure your father must have had some reason for doing what he did."

"My father beat a seven year old child for getting bullied in school! What possible justification could there be for that!?"

Tears slowly started to well up in Justin's eyes again. _Dammit, don't cry here…_

"None…" The interrogator sighed softly before standing up. "We're going to take a quick break. It might do the two of us some good to gather our thoughts."

"Do what you want, detective."

The interrogator slowly left the room, closing the door behind him before rushing to the bathroom to wash his face. Justin starred across the room for a brief moment before pressing his hand against his ear again.

"Dammit, Rise! Stop spying on me!"

"S-Senpai… I…" She had clearly been crying on her end at some point. Great, now Justin was some fucking object of pity to everyone. Fan-FUCKING-tastic.

"Look, you need to stop spying on me like this. What I'm saying is private. Do you understand?"

"I... I only just patched in a few seconds ago..."

Justin paused for a moment. Alright, so she hadn't heard Justin's story... Then what the hell was she crying about?

"I just wanted to fill you in… We found him…"

"Well?"

"Dead… I… I'm sorry…"

Justin's jaw dropped slightly. _No… He couldn't be... Goddammit, why of all people did it have to be him! He was a good fucking man! He didn't deserve his faith! _Justin's tears streamed down his face faster than before. Of all the people who it could have been, it had to be him... Thousands of questions seemed to rush back and forth in Justin's mind. He wanted answers, and he wanted them now. Yet, when he opened his mouth to talk, only a single question was choked up by his voice.

"Did... Did he suffer?"

"No. It was a clean shot..."

Justin sighed slightly under his breath. Nothing would ever make it right what he had gone through; but he found some relief in knowing that he didn't feel anything. Justin looked down towards the table in front of him before removing his fingers from his ears. He didn't need to say anything else to Rise; she already knew how he felt. Instead, Justin took the opportunity to silently mourn the loss of a friend.


	41. Chapter 40: May 23, 2011

CHAPTER 40

May 23, 2011

* * *

"Yo Justin. You ready to-Oh what the fuck!"

Yosuke had just made his way to the front gates of the school. He was running a little bit late, which was a particularly bad thing today. Speeches were supposed to take place first thing in the morning. Yosuke was a little surprised to see Justin leaning against the wall to the entrance to school, rather than getting ready for his speech. That wasn't what had surprised him, though. What had surprised him was the sight of Justin smoking not one, but two cigarettes at the same time.

"What?"

"Dude, are you TRYING to kill yourself?"

"What do you want me to say? I get really bad stage fright."

"TWO!?"

"Hey Yosuke, you want to give your speech with a black-eye?"

Yosuke sighed a bit before pushing his way past Justin into the main building. Justin laughed slightly before taking another drag at his cigarettes. It was unhealthy as all fuck, not to mention he couldn't see shit over the excess of smoke, but goddamn his nerves were a mess. It wasn't even just the speech he was nervous about anymore; it was what had happened yesterday along the riverside. It was good to get all of that stuff off his chest but… Damn, it seemed all he could think about was what he had said. And to Chie of all people, no less. I mean, if he wanted anyone to know that stuff, it probably would be Chie; but what if she had reacted entirely differently to Justin's story? Him telling all that stuff to her… It could have gone horribly wrong. What the hell had to be the matter with him to take a risk like that?

He sighed slightly throwing both cigarettes on the ground and stomping them out with his shoe. He probably should have done one at a time, as he could practically feel the lit ends from each melting through his foot. Speeches were beginning in a few minutes, and he needed to make his way over to the auditorium, lest he be disqualified before he even spoke. His thoughts were racing back and forth. After the incident at the riverside yesterday he had spent all night trying to come up with a good speech. He only got a few hours sleep, and even then, that was so he wouldn't look like he had dark rings under his eyes when he gave his speech. Chie helped him a bit, but in the end, he just scrapped all the lines she had come up with. They might have worked on convincing someone like her, but then, there really wasn't anyone else like here in the world.

He huffed slightly as he made his way to the auditorium door. He didn't want to speak in front of the entire school. All their eyes upon him as he made an ass out of himself, putting himself at the mercy of their votes. But Yosuke simply could not win. Justin didn't even care if he lost the election; he just wanted Yosuke to go down with him. He slowly pushed the door open to be greeted by the sight of four chairs, three of which were already occupied. He immediately recognized Yosuke, though not so much the other two. Though, based on the descriptions Justin had heard a few days prior, the one that was all dressed up like a goody-two shoe was probably Hisako, and the one wearing a track jacket and a bandage across his nose was probably Daisuke. Justin moaned slightly when he realized the only empty seat was the second in line to talk. He had hoped to go last; that way he could take a jab at all the other's speeches. That was what he did best after all; but alas, it seemed faith was a cruel mistress. He slowly made his way over to his seat in-between Yosuke and Hisako. The auditorium was already starting to fill up with students. Justin groaned slightly. He had thought it was a relatively small sophomore class at this school, but apparently not.

"Hey, you're the new kid right?"

Justin turned his head to the left to be met by the sight of the dressed up kid.

"Huh? Oh, uh… Yeah. Name's Justin."

He held his hand out to give the dressed up kid a hand-shake, though he was not met with a similar response. Justin would have withdrew his hand after realizing he had no intention of shaking it, but realized that the longer he kept his hand held out, the more unsportsmanlike he would look, and the more anyone who had seen the exchange would think he was a huge dick. Always a plus if Justin wanted to win. It was a good ten or fifteen seconds before Justin placed his hand back down on his lap.

"Dude, not cool." The athletic looking kid added from where he was sitting. It seemed that he and Yosuke were watching from where they were sitting. Hell, even Yosuke seemed a little disgusted by the dressed-up kid's lack of sportsmanship, and he was supposed to be competing with Justin, not supporting him.

"Nah, it's cool. He wants to make himself look like an ass in front of this whole auditorium of potential voters, then he can go right ahead. More votes for us."

The kid's eyes widened slightly as the words left Justin's mouth. He hadn't considered how he would appear to the voters had they seen that exchange. He quickly jolted his hand back out to try and remedy the situation.

"Oh uh…! Name's Hisako! Pleased to make your acquaintance."

Justin reluctantly took a grip of Hisako's hand, giving it a firm shake. The voters could all see what both were doing, so he had to not look like a complete douche while he was up there. However, they couldn't hear them yet, so he was more than willing to give Hisako a verbal smackdown, should it be needed.

"The feeling's not mutual."

Justin turned his head around after the shake so that his eyes could make contact with the guy in the track suit.

"And I take it you're Daisuke."

Daisuke reached over Yosuke to give Justin a hand-shake of his own. Justin hated to admit it, but Daisuke was probably going to be his biggest competition. He was nice, charismatic, and most of all, popular. All the same, he'd rather have Daisuke win than Yosuke. He shook Daisuke's hand before withdrawing his grip from over Yosuke's lap.

"Nice to meet you, man."

"Alright, everybody settle down!"

The roar of the crowd slowly started to die down as the history teacher spoke into the podium's microphone. Justin smiled slightly. At least King Moron was nowhere in sight; he could only imagine that this entire process would be a lot more painful with him making snide remarks about each of the candidates. All the same, the teacher started to go into a long speech about the duties of being a class president and all that shit. Justin felt like falling asleep listening to this useless speech, but alas public appearances can be a bitch.

* * *

"Do you think Justin will do alright?" Yukiko whispered to Chie from the crowd. Yu, Chie, and Yukiko had all been standing next to each other in the middle of the gathering of people.

"I hope so…"

"I don't know," Yu interrupted, "Yosuke can be annoying at times, but at least people know who he is. I don't think Justin really knows anyone outside of homeroom."

"Yeah, I thought so too… " Chie sighed slightly. "This speech is going to make it or break it for him."

There was a short pause in discussion between the three as they all looked up-towards the stage. The teacher had just stepped off the podium, allowing Hisako to get up onto the podium. Justin gave him a slight roll of the eyes from where he was sitting, though no one in the audience really noticed.

"My fellow students…"

"How many f-bombs you think he's going to drop?" Yu whispered to the three again, clearly uninterested in Hisako's speech. They had all agreed they were going to vote for Justin, since he had the most to lose from this bet; so they really didn't need to hear any of the speeches other than Yosuke's and Justin's.

"I made him censor them out."

"Alrighttttt… How many WERE there."

"Thirty two."

"He is so screwed."

"Maybe if we all throw in a bit of money each we can try to pay Yosuke on Justin's behalf…" Yukiko interrupted the two.

None of the three were particularly fond of the idea of paying for Justin's bet, but they all knew damn well he couldn't afford to lose that money. They all sighed slightly turning their attention back to Hisako. He was going on and on about some three-step plan he had made to help better the school's learning experience. Chie groaned slightly. She hadn't voted for Hisako last year for the exact same reason she wouldn't vote for him this year; assuming of course Justin's bet were not a deciding factor for the three. He always came across like he thought he was better than everyone. And god knows for someone who claimed to have a three-step plan, he was unorganized as all hell.

"People voted for this guy last year?" Yu spoke up. It seemed he had been thinking along the same lines as Chie.

"I did." Yukiko answered slightly surprised at Yu's remark. Yu immediately wanted to take it back; god knows he didn't need to give Yukiko a reason to think he was looking down on her. "He raised a lot of good points last year."

"Yeah, but he's so stuck up." Chie interrupted.

"Eh… I kinda agree with Chie." Yu tried to put it delicately. He didn't want to make Yukiko feel bad for her choice but… Her choice was just so bad. Like, he couldn't even pretend he would vote for this guy. At least she didn't seem offended by the two's comments. Yu shrugged slightly before turning back up to the podium.

"Remember, a vote for me is a vote for a better tommorow."

"Ugh, that was so bad." Chie and Yu said in complete synchronization.

* * *

Back up on the stage Hisako had took his seat next to Justin again, a high-and-mighty smirk on his face. If this were any other opportunity Justin probably would have smacked him across his smug ass face. His speech wasn't even that good. He just used lots of big synonyms to try and make his terrible ideas sound really smart. All the same, a few claps could be heard in the audience, though, not enough to really call it an ovation. He'd like to think it was the really smart kids that were doing it, but he knew it was the dumb ones who had no idea what he said, but thought it sounded smart anyway. Justin shook his head slightly.

"Thank you, Hisako. Our next speaker is a transfer student from homeroom 2-2. We'd like to welcome Justin Tylor to the podium."

Justin groaned slightly. His stomach was completely full of butterflies at this point. He didn't want to talk; he just wanted to go home and cut his losses. If he was going to lose, do it with dignity, right?

"You're up, dude." Yosuke smirked.

"I heard."

"So how you plan on beating that speech?" Justin raised an eyebrow slightly. Easily. It wasn't a very good speech, as much as Yosuke seemed to believe it was.

"By doing what I do best: plagiarizing the shit out of other people's speeches."

Yosuke's eyebrows shot up almost immediately as Justin stood up out of his seat. What in the hell was that supposed to mean…? And why did it not settle quite too well with him. Justin stretched his back out slightly before walking up to the podium, the dead silence torturing him as he made his way to the spotlight. He walked slowly as to procrastinate talking for as long as possible. Hell, even when he made it to the podium, it took him a few moments to speak up. He wasn't very fond of people watching him lose his religion.

"Hello, ladies and gentlemen of… here. You may not know me, but I recently transferred to this school from California. I'm here to ask you all a question. Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow?"

"Oh no, he isn't…" Yosuke whispered to on the sidelines.

"Isn't what?" Daisuke spoke up in response.

"He's totally stealing the speech from the intro to Bioshock!"

"Eh."

"Dude, how can you be so calm about this?"

"Well… I sorta stole that wolf pack speech from the Hangover for mine."

"What? Didn't you do that last year?"

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

Yosuke groaned slightly. It seemed he was the only one who had actually gone out of his way to write his own speech.

"'No!' says the man in California, 'It belongs to the education system.' 'No!' says the man in the public school, 'It belongs to the teachers!' 'No!' says the other candidates, 'It belongs to me.' I rejected those answers; instead, I chose something different. I chose the impossible. I chose... Yasogami. A school where the artist would not fear the censor. Where the student would not be bound by petty rivalries. Where the great would not be constrained by the small! And with the sweat of your brow, Yasogami can become your school as well."

"What the hell is he doing…?!" Chie said in an aside to the other two in the crowd.

"What do you mean?" Yu responded. He thought Justin was doing pretty good so far; even if he did immediately recognize that he ripped the speech off from Bioshock.

"This isn't the same speech we worked on last night!"

"It isn't? So wait, he's…"

"Improving."

"This is not gonna end well…" Yu moaned slightly.

Justin paused for a moment, taking in the sight of the crowd to see how they were reacting. Nothing particularly positive, though it seemed he had caught their attention.

"I am not promising to lead you all like sheep to the grass. If we all want to make a better school, we are all going to have to work hard. We cannot put our faith all into one person to guide us to nirvana. What I am promising, however, are the tools to make Yasogami just as much your school, as I have made it mine. What I am calling for, is not your faith in one man to control you all, but rather, a call to revolution! The change lies within you, my fellow classmates; not some posers pretending they offer you the solution to all your griefs. I am offering you, not a solution to your woes, but the change we need to start an uprising; something my opponents sadly cannot and will not offer. After all, how can we win when fools like Yosuke can be a king?"

Yosuke groaned slightly from his seat. He hadn't even spoken yet, and he already was getting struck by Justin's jabs. It was gonna be hard to make a comeback if people bought into what Justin was saying. Which some of them were giving the looks being exchanged by some in the crowd.

"You know what I say? I say we've had enough of their interchanging mind control; I say, come let the revolution take its toll! We'll rise up and take the power back! It's time those fucking fat cats had a heart attack!"

"Oh dear god he said it." Chie groaned from her spot in the audience.

This is what the three of them had been dreading when they realized Justin had started improving. If he really started to get into his speech, he'd stop censoring himself; and then stuff like this would happen. Strangely enough though, Justin's lack of tact had actually riled up the crowd. Some people were shocked that he had outright dropped an f-bomb in front of the teachers, while others were getting more than a little excited by Justin's aggressive call to arms. Technically, there were no rules saying the students couldn't swear, so the teachers were sort of stuck watching on, dumbstruck by his speech. They had no grounds on which to interrupt the speech, other than it being tasteless as all hell.

"It seems to be working at least." Yu added having scanned over the audience.

"That's what concerns me. What if they actually think he wants to start a revolution?"

"I think he does… Also why are you pronouncing revolution like that?"

"Huh? Oh sorry, it's something Justin does. I guess it kind of rubbed off on me."

"I don't know, it sounds pretty cool. Like its' French something."

"You know, he said the exact same thing to me once."

The three of them turned their attention back to Justin, still in the middle of his call for an uprising. It was a wonder the teachers hadn't cut him off yet.

"Their time has come to an end! We have to unify and watch our flags ascend! From school security, to every enemy; we'll be on their property, standing in V formation! And you!"

Justin stepped away from the podium opting to get into the other candidates faces. Chie, Yu, and Yukiko simply responded by placing their hands over their faces, only a slight crack in their fingers to give them a view of what was going on. They could barely stand watching what could very well be Justin fucking himself over big time.

"You three, trying to run this company. You all want to fuck us over, like you're some kind of Kennedy. You know what I think? I think we'd rather be burning all of your information!"

"Dude…" Yosuke whispered to Justin, Justin's finger still sticking up in Yosuke's face. At least before he was stealing from speeches, now? Now he was just throwing out every song lyric he can think of. And it was working! The crowd burst into applause as Justin got up into the three of their faces; enthralled by the raw emotion Justin had been showcasing. The speech itself was just a mishmash of different song lyrics, but god be damned if Justin didn't have good delivery. All the same Justin ran back up to the podium to start addressing the crowd again.

"Make no apology, my fellow classmates! It's death or victory! On my authority, crash and burn, young and loaded! And for all you people in the audience right now, biting your tounges; Quit holding out, and draw another breath, you fucking pussies."

The audience started to burst out in another uproar, only this time it was more of a 'oh no you didn't' kind of uproar as opposed to 'yeah, revolution, let's go break some shit.'

"Does that count us?" Yukiko spoke up.

"I… think so…" Chie wasn't even sure who that insult was supposed to be directed towards, or what it was supposed to mean, but it sure as hell riled up the crowd. Say what you want about Justin being blunt, or unoriginal; it could sure incite a crowd.

"We shall not stumble, we shall not fall. We shall not crumble, no we shall stand tall! Not even a seven nation army could hold us back now!"

"What!? He's quoting a song about paranoia!?" Yosuke shouted from his seat. Daisuke only seemed to laugh besides Yosuke. Even he was getting into Justin's performance here.

"Viva la Revolution! Yasogami, Über Alles!"

And with that Justin ended his speech by smacking the microphone off the podium. It was unnecessary; but damn did it feel good. He huffed out some hot air before taking his seat again, the audience bursting out into a roar of support much to his embarrassment. He had pretty much just made a speech about starting a riot in the school, and people were CHEERING. He wasn't sure whether to be happy, or deeply concerned. Yosuke and Hisako just looked at Justin, completely flabbergasted by his little show up there. Daisuke, only responded by laughing harder.

"What the hell does Über Alles mean?" Chie asked Yu and Yukiko.

"Beats me." Yu answered.

"Oh! I believe it means, 'above everything else,' in German."

"Jesus, how do you know all this stuff?" Yu asked. Seriously, since when did Yukiko know German.

"I remember reading about it in history once."

Chie and Yu shrugged slightly, turning their attention back up towards the stage. The crowd was starting to die down a bit, and they were curious as to what the fallout would be for Justin trying to start a riot. Apparently nothing given the way the history teacher ignored him on her way up to the podium.

"Well that was certainly… Interesting…" the history teacher spoke up from the podium, preparing the way for Yosuke's speech.

"I'm not sure interesting is the right word." Yu said in an aside to Chie and Yukiko.

"I have to admit… It did kind of get me pumped up." Chie added, a slight smile stretching across her face.

"I'd be lying if I said it didn't for me too." Yu smirked. That was literally the worst possible speech Justin could have given; but the way it riled up the crowd like that? He was sure to get a good chunk of the votes. They just hoped that he wouldn't get enough to be president. They would all be SO fucked if he did.

"You think we should still vote for him?"

"Absolutely not."


	42. Chapter 41: May 24, 2011

CHAPTER 41

May 24, 2011

* * *

"Jesus, Justin, stop drawing moustaches on all my posters!"

Yosuke had just made his way to the usual hang out spot at Junes. He was running late due to having to reprint out all his posters to cover Justin's vandalism. Yosuke was pissed to say the least; he was having a hard enough time trying to top Justin's over the top revolution speech without Justin drawing curly moustaches and a goatee on everything that had his face on it.

"What? The look suits you."

"Yeah, yeah, very funny."

Yosuke pulled out a seat before slamming his head against the table. Justin smirked slightly before placing his hands behind his head and his foot on the table. The others gave him a slightly funny look at first; after all, that's where people ate. Though they soon dismissed the thought when they realized his foot was only touching the edge of the table, using it to rock his chair back and forth slightly. Everyone chuckled silently under their breath, save for Yosuke. It was immature as all fuck, but they have to admit; Yosuke DID look good with a moustache. And it wasn't just one moustache either, mind you. Justin did a couple of them; he had the stache and goatee, the 'silent movie evil person' stache, a porn star stache. He might have crossed the line a bit with the Hitler stache, but hey, Yosuke could take it. Yosuke sighed slightly before wiping the thought from his mind. He should have known Justin would try to pull a stunt like that when he agreed to this stupid bet.

"Alright, so what'd I miss while I was gone?"

"Cyborg leprechauns singing show tunes while shooting rainbows out of their ass. You know. The usual."

"Alright, someone OTHER than Justin mind filling me in."

"Nothing really; we were just talking about Justin's… I'm not sure speech would be the right word." Yu spoke up. Justin smirked slightly. It was actually pretty embarrassing when he gave the speech, but I guess he could handle a couple of his friends ragging on him for acting like a complete psychopath.

"Not a speech. A symbol."

Justin pressed one hand to his chest, the other to his forehead in this awkward looking salute. Made more awkward by him doing this all while leaning back on his chair. It was a wonder he hadn't tipped over. And to add to it all he forced himself to shed a single tear. It was hard too; he had to think of kicking puppies before it would finally come out. Yosuke groaned slightly. 10,000 yen on the line, and Justin wasn't even taking this seriously; and he STILL was kicking Yosuke's ass on the polls. In fact, Yosuke was in dead last place. He figured he'd at least be able to beat Hisako, but apparently enough people were stunned by his fancy thesaurus to give him second place. Second. Fucking. Place. What the shit?

"I'm surprised you didn't start a riot." Yu added on, his eyebrows raising slightly.

"With song lyrics?"

"You quoted Uprising… Like, let's not even get into the other stuff for a moment here. Uprising. And you didn't think that MIGHT have, I don't know, caused an UPRISING?" Yosuke interrupted.

"No. If I quoted Hysteria, would that make everyone start crying like children? Or if I did Breaking the Law, would everyone start robbing banks? Just because a song has a certain topic matter, doesn't mean that listening to it is going to make you reenact it."

"But you put it in a speech! That's COMPLETELY different!"

"He raises a valid point." Yu added. Justin couldn't help but frown slightly at Yu's betrayal. _You're voting for me dammit, don't side with Yosuke!_

"Hey, did anyone break any shit, or throw any Molotov's? No? Then its fine."

The rest of the group simply shrugged their shoulders. Both sides had valid points; yes it was stupid for Justin to be putting lyrics from songs about revolution into his speech, but it didn't really have any harmful effects, so what was there to get worked up over? All the same, they'd really rather not talk about Justin potentially causing an uprising any longer than they already had. Instead, Chie opted to break the topic off by talking about some news that had caught her attention.

"So, did any of you guys hear?" Chie spoke up excitedly. It seemed whatever she was about to say, she was excited about. "Trial of the Dragon 2's supposed to be coming out in a month."

Justin raised his eyebrow slightly. He understood why Chie had been so excited about it; though he didn't quite understand why she thought anyone else would be. Hell, he was almost entirely positive that amongst the people sitting at the table right now, only him, Yosuke and Chie had seen the first one. All the same, his interest was piqued. He thought the first movie was average at best, but Chie was a big fan… Maybe it would be a good idea to mark the release date on his calendar. He was sure she'd enjoy a trip to the movies that day.

"What? Why would we know that?" Yosuke spoke up. "We don't watch crappy kung-fu movies."

"Crappy!?" Chie's excitement turned into blind rage in a split second. Justin forcefully blinked before looking in the other direction. He knew Yosuke was going to regret those words almost immediately.

"Well they are!"

Straight to the balls and he was down. Justin had to admire how far she had been able to reach under the table with her legs, as well as how accurate she had been without being able to see her target. Actually, on second thought, Justin didn't want her to see her target. That's just… Ew. All the same, Yosuke's head fell straight into the table as he recoiled back in pain. Justin couldn't help but chuckle slightly. It had been a good while since he had watched someone else beat the crap out of Yosuke. Still, he had to wonder if Yosuke really thought the film was crappy, or if he was just trying to egg Chie on. I mean, he seemed to like it that one time he broke Chie's first disc, though that could have just been to try and butter her up.

"So much for opinions…" Yosuke groaned over the immense pain he had been in.

"If you have to say it was an opinion, then it probably was a pretty shitty opinion in the first place." Justin interrupted.

It was true. If it were a good opinion, no one would be kicking you in the balls, or giving you a hard time. The minute you have to defend your opinion as being an opinion, you might as well cut your losses. All the same Justin turned his attention over to Chie. He knew none of the others were interested in her movie, so it might be a good idea to take the chance and squeeze some information out of her. He was hoping to maybe surprise her with tickets or something.

"I thought the main characters died at the end of the first one."

"Uh, spoilers! And for the record, it's supposed to be about Kakashi's son."

"The cowboy? Why him?"

"Because he kicks ass!"

Justin shrugged slightly. It was true that he had found the gunslinger to be the most appealing character in the movie, but that wasn't saying much. Actually, now that he thought of it, Trial of the Dragon had a lot of things that weren't, you know, kung fu? I mean, yeah, cowboys are cool and all, but what the fuck was the point? And then they decided to make a sequel about the one character who was not only completely irrelevant to the plot, but completely out of place in the setting and genre of the movie. It baffled his mind a little bit.

"Cowboy? I thought you said this was a kung-fu movie." Yu interrupted the two's discussion.

"It is…" Justin groaned back in response.

"But then… I… What?"

"Yeah, that was pretty much my reaction too."

"No it wasn't. You stood up from the couch and shouted, 'Finally, someone smart enough to use a fucking gun!'"

"I'm just saying, if a bunch of ninjas came at you with large, sharp blades, shouldn't you be, I don't know, hitting them from a distance? Why would you want to do ANYTHING that involves getting up close and personal with people with bigass knives that know aerobics?"

"You're questioning the logic of a kung-fu movie?" Yu added in witfully. _Oh, so when did Yu get the right to judge everyone? That's MY job, goddammit; get your own shtick._

"I'll have you know I take my movie plots very seriously!"

"That's not even a plot point, that's just a guy with a gun…" Yosuke moaned from his seat.

"You know what? Fuck you guys," Justin said, slightly sarcastically, as he threw forth both of his middle fingers. The intention was for him to get up out of his seat, walk away from the table backwards, and round the corner, all while flipping the bird the entire time, his eyes never leaving the table he had been sitting at. Instead, he lifted his foot from the table before setting the chair down in its normal position; causing him to fall backwards. Which would have been embarrassing, but otherwise alright under normal conditions, but on this day, he had conveniently chosen the chair that had been just in front of the railings. Justin bumped his head against the railing on the way down, knocking himself out cold.

* * *

December 5, 2009

* * *

"Quiet, you idiot!"

"Now is that any way to treat a lady?"

"Honey, you ain't no lady."

Maya had snuck in through Justin's bedroom window, as per their agreement earlier that day. She had wanted to see if there was any truth to this Midnight Channel rumor. Justin, of course, thought it was a bunch of bullshit; but Maya was amazing at convincing him to do stuff he didn't want to. Either way, he'd figure he'd humor her. Maya chuckled slightly at Justin's jab, though Justin hadn't been laughing along. Beads of rain had slowly dripped off of her head and onto the floor; much to his dismay.

"Jesus, Maya, you're drenched."

"Yeah, I probably should have stopped by before it started raining." She sighed slightly, before squeezing a bit of moisture off of her jacket. Her hair was completely soaked too, but it's not like she had any intention of tugging at that. Justin was a little irritated that she was trying to squeeze water out onto his floor, but let it slide. Really, it was more important that she didn't catch something than him having to explain why his bedroom floor was flooded. I mean, it's not like much water came out anyway, so it should dry by the morning.

"You want me to try and find a towel?"

"Nah, I'm good."

Justin groaned slightly. "Why aren't we doing this at your house anyway? You know my father is going to kill me if he finds you here."

"Please. If I had a TV you think I'd be hanging with you all day?"

"Wow. Just; wow."

"I'm just kidding. Jeeze, lighten up."

Maya smacked him across the shoulder slightly, though it didn't seem to snap Justin out of his state of disappointment. He sighed slightly before taking a seat on the wooden floor in front of his bedroom television set. She knew he didn't like when she made jokes like that, but she still did it anyway. Knowing Maya, it probably wasn't intentional, but it still made him feel like shit either way. Maya shrugged slightly before following Justin's lead and sitting beside him on the floor. They still had some time to kill before Midnight; though they had to be very quiet, 'lest they wake Justin's dad.

"Besides, your parents like me right? I don't think they'd be TOO upset."

"Clearly you don't know my father the way I do. Besides; I want you to think about what we're doing right now. We are sitting in my room, together, alone, at midnight, when none of my parents are up. You don't think that might give them the wrong idea if they caught us?"

"Come on. They know it's not like that… Right?"

"I would certainly hope so."

The two sat silently starring at the television screen for a brief moment.

"How do you even believe this kind of stuff, Maya? I mean, televisions that show you your soulmate… Surely you must see how ridiculous this is. I mean, if it were true, wouldn't televisions be flickering on all over the place? Someone would have to have noticed it by now."

"Maybe I'm just optimistic." Maya rebutted. It was vague and didn't really answer the question, but it wasn't like Justin was gonna get much more of an answer out of her than that; so he shrugged it off to turn back to the television. The digital clock in the corner of the room read 11:59, so it should start sometime soon, assuming Maya wasn't just full of shit. Which she was.

"Ready to eat your words?"

"Only if you are."

11:59

12:00

Nothing.

"And there you have it ladies and gentleman. Tell me Maya, how does it feel being dead wrong?"

She sighed slightly. She had assumed it was just some stupid rumor, but part of her wanted it to be true. I mean, how cool would it be to see your soulmate on television? She starred at the television for only a brief moment longer before looking back out the window. It was still pouring out.

"I don't have to leave just yet, right?"

Justin swapped his gaze to look out the window for a moment. His face sagged down in disappointment as he noticed the storm still beating against his window. He liked Maya's company, sure, but if his dad woke up and found her in the house, hell if he even found Justin still awake… Well, he'd rather not think about it. Part of him wanted to kick her out; she knew what his father could get like after all. But then he looked at her, and noticed her body shivering slightly. He knew she was too proud to ask for a blanket or something, but at the very least he could let her stay a little longer; just till she warmed up a bit.

"Well… You can stay for a bit to wait for the storm to pass… Just… Not too long."

Maya sighed slightly, changing from her sitting position to lying down on her back, staring at the ceiling. She had come all the way out here in the middle of a storm just to find out this was a fluke; and she'd have to leave in the middle of the storm too if this kept up.

Or so she thought. Just as she was about to rest the back of her head against the floor; she noticed something out of the bottom of her eye. She immediately jumped back up, much to Justin's surprise. He hadn't really been paying attention to her, he was so busy staring out the window. He had to wonder what had made her jump up so quickly.

"What's up?"

"I knew it!"

"SHHH!"

"S-sorry, accident."

Justin sighed slightly, happy that his parents didn't seem to hear them from the lack of sound coming from the room next door. All the same, he wondered what Maya had got so excited about. At least, he had until he saw the television screen flicker into focus. His jaw practically dropped as the image came into focus, an empty room filled with a greenish fog. In the center was an empty chair, though what that was for was up for question.

"Holy… Shit…"

"I told you, you didn't believe me!"

"Alright, very funny Maya."

"What?"

Justin crawled up to the television, checking the back to see if the cable was still plugged in. He had assumed Maya had plugged it back in when he wasn't looking and turned the television on with the remote or something. However, the television remained unplugged.

"What in the name of fuck…"

Maya soon crawled her way up to the television as well, intent on getting a better view of whatever was going on. Nothing moved in the picture, and there certainly wasn't anyone there… And if the whole gist of this Midnight Channel thing was that you were supposed to see your soulmate, does that mean… That she didn't have a soulmate? She felt like crying a little bit. Sure, that whole soulmate thing was just some work of fiction someone made up; but the thought of there being someone out there that was perfect for her… And it turns out she didn't have one? It was devastating.

"I don't see anyone…" Maya choked up.

"Forget that! The television is UNPLUGGED."

"Yeah, so?"

"How the hell is it even working!"

"SHHH! I don't know don't ask me!"

Maya flung her hands upwards, as though to try to yell at Justin. Her sorrow soon turned to anger. All those jabs Justin took at her for believing in soulmates; and when it turns out they were real, and she didn't have one? She blamed him completely, even if it wasn't her fault. That didn't matter though, as she threw her arms upwards, part of her arm brushed against the television screen, creating the slightest ripple in the glass.

"This is all your fault!"

"Uh… Maya…?"

"All that talk about how 'soulmates are bullshit,' and now I don't have one!?"

"Maya…"

"You're the reason no one's showing up you know! You can't stand the thought of being with someone, so you're dragging me down with you, is that it!?"

"MAYA!"

"WHAT!?"

"Your arm!"

Maya blinked twice in confusion. She had no idea what the hell Justin was talking about, and quite frankly, she didn't really give a damn. Justin had screwed the pooch on this one, as far as she was concerned. All the same, she looked to see whatever the hell it was he was talking about. Her eyes widened in shock as she noticed the tip of her elbow fazing through the television screen.

"Wh-…What the fuck!?"

"H-How are you doing that!?"

"I-I… I don't know."

She retracted her arm for a brief moment, noticing the glass jiggle back into its original physical state as her touch was removed from the television screen. All the same, she was curious. She lightly tapped the screen again, only this time using her fingertip. She was more than a little bewildered as the screen started to shimmer again.

"D-Do TV's normally do this?"

"Not in America they don't!"

Maya quickly withdrew her hand before falling backwards on her ass, her face completely mortified by what she had been able to do. Justin breathed heavily. He was just as curious as she was now, and with good reason. He pressed his finger against the screen and waited for a moment. The screen did not respond, much to his confusion. He tried everything, his palm, his fingers, his elbow; anything connected to his arm, he tried to stick it through the television. Yet, it seemed to only respond as Maya mustered the courage to touch the screen a third time. It shimmered slightly as she tapped her finger against the glass. Only this time, she opted to press her finger deeper into the screen, her whole hand being enveloped by the waves of pulsating glass around her wrist.

"Maya, stop that!"

"Wh-what the hell is this!?"

"I don't know, but quit messing with it! What if it's dangerous!?"

Maya quickly withdrew her hand from the screen, rotating it around in front of her as she examined it for any form of inconsistencies. Nothing seemed particularly off about her… Yet, the television seemed to only react to her touch. She had been deep in thought when she was interrupted by the sound of two feet hitting the ground in synchronization. Justin's eyes widened as soon as he heard the sound. It was his father, getting out of bed. He had heard them arguing back and forth.

"Shit! Quick, hide!"

Maya looked around the room for a good hiding spot, but alas, Justin was a neat freak. There was nothing she could really take cover behind, or try to bury herself under. Justin quickly slid into his bed, sliding the covers over his shoulders, forcing his eyes shut tightly. Maya's eyes darted from object to object before she took a deep breath. There was only one hiding spot she could find… _Shit, I'm going to regret this…_

Maya quickly and silently jumped onto the bed, rolling over to the other side of Justin, and diving beneath the covers. Justin had felt her mass rolling over his body, and immediately shot his eyes open in surprise. _What the hell is she doing!_ Justin wanted to give her the boot, but that was interrupted by the gentle sound of his bedroom door opening, his father peering through the doorway. He bit his bottom lip and forced his eyes shut. _Please don't see the bulge in the blankets next to me…_

Luckily, Justin's father seemed to have not noticed, closing the door after staring at him for a good ten seconds. Justin sighed in slight relief before giving Maya a quick knee beneath the sheets, her head slowly rising up as she felt his bone dig into her stomach mass

"Ow. What was that for?"

"For being an idiot. What the hell were you thinking hiding here?"

"It was the only place I could find, alright? And for the record, this does not count as me jumping in bed with you."

Justin gagged slightly. "You say that like it's something I'd want to brag about."

His sarcastic remark netted him a knee of his own.

* * *

May 24, 2011

* * *

"Oh thank god, he's coming to. Justin, are you alright? Did you hurt anything?"

"Just my pride… Ugh…"

Chie sighed slightly in relief, as she lent him a hand back to his feet. Justin's head still hurt like a bitch, but then, that's what happens when you hit it against cold hard metal. He moaned in slight pain as Chie lead him back over to his seat. One that wasn't near the railings this time. He gave her a slight nod and whispered some thanks in her ear before she departed back to her seat.

"Jesus dude, that looked like it hurt."

"It does. Want to see for yourself?"

"He's been conscious for all of five seconds and he's already threatening me. I think he'll be fine." Yosuke smirked slightly. Justin responded with a light chuckle. Yosuke could be a huge ass from time to time, but when he actually cared like a normal human-being, he was a pretty nice guy. Maybe Justin should injure himself more often, that way he wouldn't have to listen to Yosuke's bullshit on a regular basis.

"Jeeze, that was quite the fall. Are you sure you're alright?" Chie asked.

Justin blinked slightly. He had another one of those dreams, but… He had no idea what was going on. Maya and him had apparently watched the Midnight Channel, though Maya seemed to be able to go through the screen, much like the rest of the group. It seemed like important information for the rest of the group to know, yet… Something didn't strike him quite right about this. How had Maya been able to get in without a Persona? Was it like Yu's case, or was it like Justin's case where his shadow let him in. He paused for a moment. No. He wouldn't tell them about the dream until he worked everything out. Right now not enough made sense for it to be useful to anyone.

"That depends. Any bumps?" Justin asked, feeling around his skull.

"I don't see any." Yu responded from where he was sitting. He was about a seat away from Justin, Yosuke and Yukiko sitting to his immediate sides. Chie usually sat next to him, but they had to move Justin's seat away from the railings, so she had been sitting further away this time.

"Perfect, then my charming looks can still win the vote."

"Ugh, enough with the election already."

"You're just mad because you're losing."

"Please, just because I'm losing in the polls doesn't mean I can't kick your sorry ass."

"Kick my sorry ass? Ass… You know what rhymes with ass. Moustache. I should get back to work on drawing more moustaches on your posters." Justin smirked, standing up slightly as though he were going to get up and go vandalize Yosuke's shit.

"Touch them, and the cops won't recognize your corpse."


	43. Chapter 42: May 25, 2011

CHAPTER 42

May 25, 2011

* * *

"What!? Nonononono, out of the question!"

Justin, Chie, and Yukiko were all sitting on a park bench near the flood plains having a friendly conversation. Originally Yu was supposed to join them, but apparently Yosuke needed him for something, so he'd be showing up later. Justin couldn't help but groan thinking of what Yosuke could be conspiring with Yu. Of course, with elections coming up in two days, the topic was still on everyone's minds. As much as Justin would have liked to take the opportunity to talk about something else for once, the discussion eventually made its way around to the elections topic once again.

See, as of tomorrow, all the candidates were supposed to have a list of all the members in their 'cabinet,' so to speak. Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer, to be more precise. Justin hadn't actually known in advance, and since he had only known so many people, his options were really limited in that regard. So when Yukiko asked who he was going to have in his cabinet, he answered with the first thing that came to mind.

"Chie, you're going to be my Vice President."

"Wha- me!?"

"Yeah, why not?"

"Because I'd make a terrible Vice President!"

"C'mon, you'll do fine. I'll be the brains, you be the brawn."

"Why am I the brawn!?"

"Because you like kicking stuff?"

"W-Well that's true but-"

"You know… If I was president, who knows what kinds of crazy things I would do if there wasn't someone to keep me in check. Why, I bet if Chie were Vice President, she'd keep me in line. But, I guess we'll just have to settle for having Burning Man at school every Monday."

"Nononono, you are NOT doing Burning Man at school!" Chie said, her look of displeasure soon dropping down into a glare. Justin was joking, but it seemed Chie had seriously considered Justin capable of doing something so idiotic. He loved it.

"So then it's settled, you'll be the Vice President and keep me from doing crazy shit."

Chie sighed. She really didn't want to be Vice President, especially considering he had probably only chose her for that role because of their relationship. Though, whatever his motivation was, he clearly had Chie by the throat here. She didn't have much room to argue when he was so aggressively pursuing the idea of her being Vice President.

"I get the feeling you'll sign me up if I say no anyway…"

"Clever girl." Justin smirked. He WAS going to sign her up whether she said yes or no.

"Cheer up Chie, I think you'll make a great Vice President." Yukiko added; a wide grin on her face.

Chie's face seemed to brighten up hearing that from someone other than Justin. It wasn't so much that she didn't believe Justin as it was that she was used to him trying to flatter her on a regular basis. And it usually worked, though she sometimes had to wonder if he was being sincere or not. If he was serious about half the stuff he said; well Justin must have been the William Shakespeare of flirting. Assuming William Shakespeare was an adolescent going through his teen angst phase, had a vocabulary that was comprised 95% of the word fuck, was an overly jealous psychopath, and stole every classic rock song he could think of when trying to be funny. But other than those _minor_ differences, right on money.

"You really think so?"

"Would we lie to you?"

"It's kind of a fifty-fifty."

"Fuck it. I give up." Just said, shaking his head. Chie and Yukiko laughed slightly at Justin's reaction to her jab. Chie didn't really think he was a liar; I mean, he had held back secrets, sure, but they always came out in the open eventually. She knew it was a joke, and so did he. All the same, it was always worth a good laugh to see how Justin would react. Usually very poorly.

"Alright, so that covers the Vice President, what about Treasurer and Secretary?"

Justin rubbed at his chin slightly. He wasn't really sure what the Secretary even DID, so it really didn't matter who he put in that spot. As for the Treasurer, well, he already had someone specific in mind for that; though how well she would respond to that was up for debate.

"Yukiko, you're gonna be my treasurer."

Yukiko's eyes seemed to widen in shock almost immediately. She wasn't much for politics, or public office, or anything like that. She really wanted no part in this.

"What!? Nonononono, out of the question!"

"Why not? You're the smartest person in the class, and all you have to do is a little bit of math."

Yukiko blushed slightly at Justin's comment. Again, he wasn't trying to flatter her, but it seemed everytime he gave her a compliment, she took it that way. It was really starting to get awkward at this point. He was sure Yu was going to kill him for it one of these days.

"Y-You think so?"

"Sure, and I don't just need to look at the grades to say that."

"S-Still. I don't really like politics."

"Trust me, honey, nobody does. Don't worry about politics. All you'll have to do is keep track of funding. No politics involved. That's what Chie's around for."

"I thought I was around to keep you from doing something stupid?"

"And when you fail miserably at stopping me from doing something stupid, you're gonna have to help with the political fallout."

"And you expect me to make the situation better!?" Chie backed her head in recoil from the surprise. She was not very good at speaking in public, even worse at dealing with people getting in her face. After all, she had gone through elementary and middle school fighting people like that, not talking them down.

"Better than me. Think about it, what will I do if I get in front of a bunch of pissed off people asking why I did something stupid?"

"You'd tell them to fuck off, flip them both birds, and then probably take a shit on the podium." Justin was a little surprised Chie had used such vivid language to describe it; but it was so accurate he didn't even care.

"Holy shit, right down to the letter. Have you been reading my diary?"

"I kind of wish I did." It was amazing how accurately Chie had been able to predict what Justin would do. She had gone deep into his thinking process, and let me tell you, it was not a pretty sight.

"Alright. Sign me up." Yukiko spoke up, a smile on her face. He was glad he had convinced her; she was the only person he knew that knew how to multiply. Plus he was running dangerously low on people; an issue that had become apparent when Yukiko asked her next question.

"So that leaves the Secretary, right? Who's it gonna be?"

"Well… It was going to be Yu… But I think the reason he's busy with Yosuke right now is because he's part of Yosuke's cabinet."

"But Yosuke's losing… Like, by a lot." Chie perplexed out loud. If he wanted to be in office, why not side with the winning team?

"Well, Yosuke and him are pretty close friends; so I can kind of understand him wanting to show Yosuke some support… Actually, while we're on the topic, who IS in Yosuke's running cabinet?"

"I heard Kou's going to be the treasurer. And there's a rumor going around that Daisuke is dropping out of the race to be Yosuke's vice president." Chie had picked up a few things while passing down the hallway. It was probably all false gossip, but it did make some sense, so she figured it would be worth passing along anyway.

"You think any of that's true?" Yukiko questioned.

"Probably not. Daisuke enters as a joke, remember?" Justin added trying to convince himself. If Daisuke defaults to Yosuke's side, Yosuke will end up getting all of Daisuke's votes as a result.

"Okay… So Yu's out… Who else is there?" Chie puzzled to herself. She knew a few people, but none that Justin knew, nor would they want to join the party of the man who tried to single handedly over-throw the student government. Justin was a little concerned himself. Really, ANYONE would do at this point. They don't even need to go to school, as long as he could write their na-

Wait a second. Of course!

"Kanji!"

"What? But you barely know the guy!" Chie was clearly not in support of this idea. Kanji would never approve anyway; he never went to school, after all, so why would he want to get involved in school politics.

"Yeah, and from what I know, he's a pretty cool guy. Besides, he does sort of owe us for saving his life. He probably won't mind if we explain it to him when he gets back. I don't think he needs to do anything anyway."

"Alright, let's assume for a second Kanji is alright with all this. He doesn't exactly have a good reputation around school…"

"I had considered that, but think about my voter base. They're all incited by that uprising speech I gave, right? What better way to compliment that than the guy who single-handedly crushed an entire biker gang."

Chie sighed slightly. It made sense to her, but she still didn't like this idea one bit. Really, this whole cabinet thing was turning out awfully. Sure, he managed to get Yukiko for treasurer, which would probably attract a lot of voters, but he had Chie, who was passive-aggressive and generally clueless about this stuff as vice president, and Kanji, who was short-tempered, violent, and never came to school as secretary. It was not a good line-up by any means.

"Well, I guess that settles that then," Chie moaned slightly.

Justin smiled as he turned over to Chie. He was happy to have her on board for his candidacy, even if he knew she didn't want to be. Regardless of her motives, he was sure she'd be a great Vice President, even if she didn't quite believe it herself. Of course, Justin's streak of happiness was soon interrupted when Yukiko changed the subject to talk about something other than politics. Justin had longed for that change ages ago, but once he heard the new topic… Well, let's just say he wanted out.

"Changing the subject, guess who I ran into yesterday?"

"Huh? Who?" Chie questioned from her side. Justin figured whoever it was Yukiko had met, Chie would probably be the one to know them. Justin probably had no idea who it was; or at least, he wished he hadn't when Yukiko finished her sentence.

"You remember Takeshi from middle school?"

Justin's smile immediately vanished. He never wanted to hear that name again, let alone talk about him. Yet, somehow, he still managed to creep into conversation from time to time. That man completely crushed Chie when he betrayed her a few weeks back. Forget even what he had done to Justin and Yukiko, even if Yukiko didn't know it; he outright crushed Chie's spirit. Broke her heart than fucking spat on it. He would never forgive him for that. Never.

"Oh… Him…" Chie choked up. Clearly she didn't want to think about him. Even though it had happened a while ago, that whole talk Chie and Justin had opened a closed wound. It stung like a bitch even to think about him, let alone what he had done.

"Huh? S-Something wrong?" Yukiko questioned with concern. She was completely out of the loop, so Justin didn't really blame her; though all the same, her blissful ignorance towards the situation just seemed to hurt Chie more, as if she wasn't sure she even wanted to tell Yukiko about it. She was her best friend, second to maybe Justin, but even then she couldn't force herself to bring up Takeshi's betrayal. Justin sighed slightly. He knew Yukiko would keep asking if Chie didn't say anything, and he knew Chie wouldn't say anything. It would be an infinite loop unless he intervened, as much as he knew no one would be pleased with that.

"Takeshi… Ugh, how do I put this delicately…?" He had a lot of words for Takeshi, though he knew that if he went on one of his anger spells, Chie just very well might burst into tears. He had to control himself for once in his life. "He fucked us real bad."

"I don't get it…" Yukiko questioned. What exactly did Justin mean? Like, fucked as in fucked over or fucked as in… well, fucked.

"You remember those thugs I told you about?" Chie choked up. She looked like she was going to start crying at any second, though her voice sounded so… emotionless. Like she felt dead inside.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah, well that was Takashi they were mugging."

"Really?" Yukiko seemed fascinated. Justin sighed slightly, starring up into the clouds as though waiting for the heavens to give him the words he needed. No such guidance came to him, though.

"Yeah, well, it didn't end there. Did Chie tell you about the second mugging incident?"

"Oh yes." Yukiko practically blurted out, a slight giggle afterwards. Justin raised his eyebrows. He had a good idea what she was laughing about, but… He would have thought Chie would keep that part private.

In actuality, Chie had called her almost immediately after Justin and her had parted ways that day, completely excited that Justin had kissed her. She never told anyone other than Yukiko, even if that was because it was painfully clear to everyone BUT Justin, but she actually had a pretty big crush in him prior to that point. She had thought he was cute from the very first day she laid eyes on him, though it wasn't until he had come to comfort her that day the rope had broken that she realized he was more than just a pretty face. He had searched the mall for a good half-hour or so for her, just to cheer her up. It was at that moment, Chie fell for him. He was nice, charming, and while he wasn't exactly subtle, he was caring.

What had started as superficial infaturation soon grew into a legitimate friendship. And as she grew to know Justin on a more personal basis, she started to feel her heart pound every moment she was around him, butterflies fluttering about in her stomach. She soon tried to find excuses just to be around him, like that time he had gotten a cold and she had brought him soup. Hell, she had played off that peck on the cheek she had given him as subconscious, though in actuality it had been entirely intentional. She was hoping maybe that would spark Justin's ire, but when she noticed how embarrassed he had become around her in the aftermath, how he seemed to be at a loss for what happened, she pretended to play dumb, fearing that it was because he didn't like her like that.

The week of the mugging, she could barely take it anymore. He was with her almost 24/7, her heart longing for him every minute of it; yet he still seemed oblivious to her. Hell, she even tried to outright say it at one point, but it just went over Justin's head. She felt like shit; she wanted him, but clearly he didn't want her. Hell, even people around them kept assuming they were dating. And it annoyed Chie; not because she didn't want it to be true, but because it wasn't. Even though everyone around them could see how much Chie secretly longed for him, Justin remained blind to her pleas. She had almost given up hope when it happened. Justin grabbed her by the hand and tugged her towards him, a gentle yet passionate kiss on her lips. She was a little confused at first, and it was clear as day Justin had never done something like this before, but she didn't mind. She felt her chest practically jumping with glee as she returned the kiss.

She was practically jumping around her house with excitement when she returned home that day. Her parents gave her more than a few funny looks; completely unaware of what had transpired between her and Justin. They were aware that Chie had developed a crush for some guy, she had told them after all, but they didn't know he had acted upon her advances. Yukiko had been laughing in excitement along with Chie the entire time. Other than maybe Takeshi, if you counted Chie's unreturned affection, she never did have a boyfriend, so she was more than a little happy for her. Hell, she had never seen her so happy in all of her life. Needless to say, as Justin brought back up the topic of the mugging, Yukiko's mind had drifted back to the call she had received that night, Chie screaming in excitement on the other line.

"Yeah…" Justin stretched out, slightly put off by Yukiko's chuckle. It just didn't sound right to him, like she was in on some big secret. And he thought he knew which one too. "Well, turns out that Takeshi may have gotten a little friendly with those goons."

"What do you mean?"

"Takeshi gave them names. They knew me, Chie, where we lived, who we knew; hell, he even gave them YOUR name and address."

"What!?" Yukiko shouted out, her eyes wide in shock.

She wasn't even involved and Takeshi had put her safety at risk? She thought they were friends, yet he had just dropped her name to a bunch of criminals like she were just some tool? She was absolutely mortified, though not quite to the degree Chie had been. Chie responded by hanging her head in slight shame. Even if she was over Takeshi when this all took place, her heart still felt like it was ripped in two as he traded her off for his own hid; like she was just some betting chip in his game. It wasn't because she loved him that it hurt, it hurt because he was one of her only friends; and then it turned out he had never really been her friend at all. She felt like crying, though she couldn't find any teats to shed. Justin gave Chie a concerned look on his face. He hated to see her like this; and he hated Takeshi for making him have to see her like this.

The two's pity party, however, was soon interrupted by the sound of Yukiko's cell-phone ringing. She quickly pulled the phone out and looked at the caller id. She frowned slightly as she saw the screen read off Takeshi's number. He had given it to her yesterday so they could keep in touch, but after what she had just heard… She wasn't sure she wanted anything to do with him. Justin looked over as well, a disapproving look on his face. He didn't know Takeshi's number, but he could immediately tell it was him just based on Yukiko's reaction.

"I'll handle this." Justin remarked as Yukiko gently passed the cell-phone off to his hands. The two looked at Justin with slight concern; they knew how abrasive he could be, and neither wanted him to rip Takeshi a new a-hole. They just wanted to pretend he never existed. All the same Justin flipped the phone open before slowly walking out to a more quiet spot. He didn't want anyone to hear what he had to say to Takeshi.

_Hey, Yukiko-san. It's Takeshi._

"Hello, Takeshi. Yukiko's unavailable at the moment."

_J-Justin!? I-I should probably-_

"Hang up and they won't find your corpse."

There was dead silence on Takeshi's side, save the slightest sound of him breathing. He hadn't hung up, so that was a plus, though Justin had to wonder why he even wanted to talk to this scum bag in the first place.

"I know what you did, Takeshi."

_O-Oh, y-you do… Look it was-_

"Quiet, it's my turn to talk."

Silence again rang from Takeshi's side.

"You really fucked us over, you know that Takeshi? I mean, can you imagine what would have happened if those thugs used that information you gave them for the wrong purposes? I can't imagine Yukiko would have taken that so well."

_Y-Yukiko? W-wait, does she-_

"She knows, Takeshi, so you can forget about you two hooking up anytime soon."

Justin paused for a moment, letting the dead silence sink into Takeshi's head.

"You really hurt my girl, you know that?"

_Huh? Y-You mean Chie?_

"She trusted you, Takeshi. You were one of the only friends she had, and what did you do? You tore her heart out and stomped on it."

More dead air.

"Hold on one second. I'm patching someone else into the call."

_H-Huh?_

Justin quickly lowered the phone to start punching in a few more digits. Chie and Yukiko couldn't hear Justin from where he was standing, but they could see him. It looked like he was redialing Takeshi's number, much to their dismay. They had taken it as Justin aggressively attacking Takeshi over the phone, despite his calm exterior. It took a second, but Justin smiled as he heard the other line pick up.

_Hello?_

"Hey Kurt, it's Justin."

_Oh hey, didn't recognize the number._

_W-wait a second, K-Kurt…!?_

"Yeah, I'm using a friend's phone. You see, I have this guy on the line over here who was calling my friend Yukiko up. Say, you remember that guy who gave your goons all that information about where me and my friends lived and what not?"

_You mean that Takeshi guy?_

"Yeah, I have him on the line right now. Say hi to Kurt, Takeshi."

_Uh… H-Hello… Look, I didn't me-_

_Shut up._ Kurt added aggressively. Justin chuckled slightly from his end. He never knew Kurt could get mad, but he was glad he was pulling out the stops on this one.

_So, w-what, you guys going to beat me?_

"Beat you? No, Takeshi, that wouldn't solve anything. Let me make it clear how this is going to go down. You fucked Chie over big time, and now you're going to fix that. You're going to meet her in person, I don't care when, and I don't care how, and you're going to apologize to her face. And none of that half-assed shit you tried to pull when you ran away from those thugs. Then, after you're done making amends, you are going to leave her and Yukiko alone. Permanently. You're going to see just what it's like going through what you did to them. And after that, if I ever see your face again, around me, around Chie, or around Yukiko, me and Kurt here are going to find you. And we will make you wish you never fucked with Justin Jeremiah Tylor."

_I… I—_

"I'm giving you 24 hours to make it happen. Or else Kurt here will step in."

_And you won't like it when you've pissed me off. You think my employees are bad? Think again. You fuck with my friends, and you will pay the price._

_B-but I-_

"See you soon, Take-shit."

And with that Justin hung up on Takeshi's end, Kurt's line still coming through. There was a brief pause of silence before the two started to laugh hysterically. Justin had to hand it to Kurt, HE almost bought that Kurt was genuinely pissed off. He could be a scary motherfucker when he tried to be.

_Oh man, that was great._

"Hey, thanks for the help man."

_No problem. The guy had it coming. Though I'm surprised you aren't just going to beat the crap out of him._

"Nah. He wronged me, sure, but… He wronged her more. She needs the closure."

_I understand, man. Glad I could help._

"Alright, I'll keep in touch."

Justin hung up the phone before making his way back over to Yukiko and gently handing her phone back to her, a slight smile on his face as he took a seat in the middle of the park bench again.

"What'd he say?" Chie questioned, her eyes looking up hopefully at him. She hoped deep down and side that Takeshi might be seeking some sort of retribution for his twisted ways; though she knew it was unlikely to happen.

"Nothing. Not yet anyway."

Chie raise her eyebrow in slight confusion. She wasn't sure what Justin meant by that. Justin knew she didn't either, but she'd find out soon enough.

"Alright, then what did YOU say?"

"It isn't so much what I said as it was what Kurt said."

"You got KURT on the line!?"

"Yep. If you're going to sell me out to get the hounds off of yourself, I'm going to sike the dogs on you."

"I wish I could've heard that." Chie lightened up slightly. Justin was an absolute genius when it came to revenge. Hell, she had forgotten all about Kurt's involvement in the muggings, even more so that Justin and him were actually pretty good friends. Justin smiled back it her in return. It was nice to see her smiling about this whole incident again. He hated to see her spirit broken the way it was.

"Don't worry. I'm sure you will soon enough."


	44. Chapter 43: May 26, 2011

CHAPTER 43

May 26, 2011

* * *

"The big day's tomorrow, huh?"

Justin groaned across the table from Chie at Aiya's. Given the direction their last conversation had gone here, Justin felt slightly… unfulfilled. Chie and him had usually come here as a retreat of sorts. They could sit down, relax, eat some ramen, or steak in Chie's case, and just talk. Last time, thought, it was more of a therapy session than anything. It was nice to get a lot of that stuff on the table, but it just didn't seem right for this to all go down at their favorite restaurant, their little retreat from all that was shitty in the world. Justin wanted to correct that, so here they were again, chewing on noodles while making awkward chit-chat about whatever popped into their heads.

"I seriously cannot believe Daisuke is Yosuke's Vice President now…"

The rumor Chie had told him about turned out to be true. Daisuke had entered as a joke, yes, but when he heard that Kou would be in Yosuke's party as well… Well, all his friends were doing it, so why the hell not. Justin rubbed his eyes using the tips of both hands. He was seriously fucked now. According to the polls, Yosuke was coming dangerously close to over taking Justin, who had fallen to second place after a while. The thing about his speech was that it was great for riling up the crowd then; but when you look at it in retrospect, Justin looked more like a psychopath than anything. And of all the people that could be winning, it had to be Hisako. _Smug little prick. I wish everyone could see his true colors. Then we'd see how many people would vote for him._

"Hey, don't worry so much. We have to announce our running parties tomorrow, right?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, once you announce Yukiko's going to be your treasurer, I'm sure tons of people will hop on board."

Justin shrugged. That was true; the only reason people knew Daisuke had joined Yosuke's cabinet was because he had dropped out. Had it been anyone else, no one would even know who was in Yosuke's cabinet. It probably only looks like a strong line-up because they have nothing to compare it to. What concerned him, however, was his choice of Vice President and Secretary. He stood by the notion that Chie would be perfect for the job, but he wasn't sure people would agree. Plus, Yosuke could easily sabotage her position be acknowledging the two were in a relationship. And Kanji… Well Kanji didn't exactly have a good reputation. If Justin wanted to use Kanji's name to his advantage, he was really going to have to work the crowd up for him. He sighed slightly.

"Either that or I'm going to need to drag Yosuke's name through the dirt."

"Haven't you been doing that all week?"

"I don't think drawing moustaches on all his posters really counts."

The two paused for a moment, deep in thought. It was true that Yukiko would attract a lot of votes, but he might need a little more than that. After a good few minutes of sitting in silence Justin puffed out some hot air.

"I've got nothin'"

"Me neither."

"So I guess the plan is for me to got batshit insane on the stage again."

"It worked last time."

Justin and Chie both hung their heads in shame in complete synchronization. How was it that they couldn't think of a single thing to top Yosuke? Justin shook his head. It was clear the problem was just that the two had a brain-block. Forcing themselves to come up with ideas wasn't going to help. They just needed to back off for a bit, and let the ideas come to them.

"Hey Chie? Can I ask you something?"

" Sure."

"Why do you think you'd make a bad Vice President?"

"Huh? W-Well, you know me… I'm not exactly the brightest bulb on the tree…" Chie's face turned beat red with humiliation as the words left her mouth. She knew she wasn't exactly smart, but it was still embarrassing to admit out loud, even worse to have to explain it.

"So what you're saying is you're the perfect politician?" Justin smirked. Chie chuckled slightly. She walked right into that one.

"Alright, let me ask you a question then."

"Shoot."

"How come you want me to be Vice President? I mean, is it just because-"

"No."

"I mean, it's okay if it is, it's just-"

"Chie…"

"Wouldn't you rather pick someone who—"

"Chie!"

"Oh… Sorry." Chie blushed slightly. She had been so caught in thought, that she couldn't stop herself from pondering aloud, even after Justin had already answer her question. He shook his head slightly, a slight grin on his face.

"I picked you because you've got that 'get things done' attitude. Besides, I know that once you have your mind set on something, you won't give up until you've accomplished what you set out to do."

Chie blushed at Justin's flattery. "You really think so?"

"I wouldn't have said it if I didn't."

Chie only seemed to blush harder at the confirmation, which in turn only made Justin blush. It was this strange chain-reaction the two of them had. Whenever one started to blush for a prolonged period of time, the other one forcibly had to jump in. Justin chuckled slightly, pointing his head down to try and hide his red cheeks. Not like he was fooling Chie, but he instinctively did it anyway. Chie giggled at Justin's sudden shy streak. He hated that she was laughing at him getting embarrassed, but there was nothing he loved more than the sound of her laughter. An interesting paradox to be sure.

It was quiet for a while between the two, each lightly blushing at the other. No words needed to be exchanged; it was enough that they had both been there, and they were both happy. It took a while before the strange blush inducing atmosphere seemed to clear-way for the usual. Chie's cheeks cooled down. Her lips remained curved upwards in a grin for a while, but they eventually made their way into a frown, her eyebrows curving down in a sudden streak of sadness.

"Hey… Justin… You mind if I change the topic?"

Justin looked up, expecting to see Chie's smiling face, only instead to be greeted by a heart-wrenching frown. His facial features soon shifted to match hers, his mouth curved downwards in sadness. He wasn't sure what had caused such a sudden change in her emotion, but he didn't like it one bit.

"Uh… sure…"

"I, uh… I ran into Takeshi last night."

Justin bit at his bottom lip. Takeshi was supposed to meet with her and apologize for all that he had done to her, but given Chie's reaction at the moment… Justin felt like he had actually made it worse by forcing him to do that. Maybe she just needed some time to think without Takeshi's treachery constantly being jammed down her throat.

"You didn't have to do that you know." Chie suddenly spoke up turning her attention to Justin. Justin had to forced his head to stay still. If he kept calm, she wouldn't know he had any involvement in Takeshi's sudden change of heart.

"Huh? What do yo-"

"It's alright, I know…" She chuckled slightly, though it sounded forced. She was happy Justin had been so kind as to try and amend what Takeshi had done, but it didn't help. Deep down she knew Takeshi had only apologized because Justin had forced him too. Justin frowned, his eyes filled with sorrow. He had thought he was doing the right thing, but looking at Chie now, it seemed he just fucked things up.

"Chie, I-"

"I appreciate the gesture, but… I could tell he wasn't really sorry, you know?"

"I thought him apologizing would cheer you up. You seemed so down whenever his name popped up." Chie smiled slightly at Justin as the words left his mouth. She still felt like shit because of Takeshi, but part of her was enthused by Justin's bold gesture. He had more or less threatened Takeshi into mending her broken heart. Takeshi did a shitty job at it, but it was the thought that counted; even if it was Justin's thought and not his.

"I've been thinking it over a lot lately, what happened with Takeshi. He was my friend since Kindergarten, long before I even met Yukiko. I was trying to think back to all the good times we had. I figured everyone makes mistakes, that this was just a fluke, you know? But, now that I think about it… He was always a jerk. He used to rag on me, call me names… He wasn't any different from the rest of the kids."

"Young love blinded you to the truth, huh?"

Justin smiled slightly in the corners of his mouth. Chie seemed surprised that Justin had figured out she used to have a crush on him, but then; he had thought she was in love with him since the first time he met Takeshi. She remembered that exchange, clear as day. She remembered her heart skipping a beat as the words slipped form Justin's mouth; asking if she had a thing for Takeshi. She had originally taken it as his way of probing to find out if she was single, only to have her spirit crushed slightly when he had only taken that as a chance to make a few jokes at her expense. _Forget about Takeshi, _she thought_, what about you!? Why can't you stop being so blind for once in your life!?_ In retrospect, she really wished she could have taken back that 'blind' portion of her thought.

While Chie had been sulking about in memory lane, Justin had been imagining what it must have been like for Chie at that age. He was a little off put that Chie's silence had more or less confirmed she had a thing for Takeshi at one point, but pushed it out of his mind when he realized that was all in the past. In fact, he couldn't help but grin slightly at the picture of a young Chie trying to follow Takeshi around everywhere. In his mind, she looked almost exactly the same, only shorter, slightly chubbier, and missing a few teeth. And god, he thought it was cute when she got embarrassed now, he could only imagine how adorable it must have been when she was six. I mean, yeah, two different kinds of cute, but what the hell ever. His mini day-dream was soon interrupted by Chie snapping out of her stroll through her memories.

"I think that's what it all boiled down to. I had a crush on him, as silly as it sounds at that age. I think that's really the only reason I saw him as a friend in the first place; like I convinced myself he was actually a nice guy, even though he was just like the rest of them."

"Well, there must have been something nice he did. I mean, a crush can only last so long, and then what?"

"Well… There was that one time in 1st grade… A bunch of guys started to make fun of me on the playground when I asked to play cops and robbers with them. I guess they didn't think I could because I was girl. Or maybe they just didn't like hanging out with a girl; who knows."

"Ah yes, the infamous 'cooties.'" Justin smirked. Even when he was that age he thought cooties was a bunch of bullshit. I mean, just thinking at it from a logical standpoint, how is it that guys were afraid of a "disease" that only girls had? I mean, if you could get cooties from girls, shouldn't you also be afraid of guys having cooties? Then again, Justin didn't really have friends until he met Maya; so he had a lot more time to contemplate stuff like that.

"Well, I started to get upset. I mean, the other guys wouldn't let me join their game just because I was a girl? It just wasn't fair. That's when Takeshi stepped in. He said, 'Hey, let her join in. She won't last long anyway, so why not?' It was so degrading, yet…"

"You were happy he stood up to the others for you."

"Yeah… Well, anyways, there was this one kid that was really vocally against me joining; he said I was just going to get hurt, how I'd ruin all the fun. When the game actually started, he ended up pushing me into a wall."

Justin's eyebrow lowered. He was pissed, even if this did happen, like, nine years ago.

"Ugh… We had a kid like that when I was in elementary school too. Never once did he get in trouble though. His father paid for the construction of the gymnasium, or something, so he always got off the hook."

"Well, I was seven, and it really hurt, so I started to cry. All of the other boys seemed kind of ticked off at the other kid; it was clear as day he had done it on purpose. But, the only one who did anything was Takeshi. Takeshi shoved him, and then he shoved back. They both ended up getting detention for a week afterwards."

Justin sighed slightly. Takeshi not being a spineless pussy? Him standing up for Chie when this kid had been a huge douche nozzle? This wasn't the Takeshi he knew, though he definitely wished it was. Maybe then things wouldn't have gone so sour between him and Chie.

"Actually, that was around the time that I started hitting back when people got in my face. Takeshi had told me that I should start standing up for myself…"

"And you assumed because Takeshi had whacked that kid, that was what he meant."

"I guess…"

Chie paused for a moment, taking a look at the ramen bowl in front of her. They had gotten their food a good ten minutes ago or so, but neither really touched their food once they started up on the Takeshi topic. It just brought up too many heavy emotions for them to swallow noodles at the same time. What Justin had said had really struck her though. Did she kick people because of Takeshi? I mean, sure, it got her through elementary school and middle school, but… Was it really all Takeshi's doing that she had shaped up the way she had? She sighed. She supposed she should be thanking him in some capacity, but… She just couldn't. Not after what he had done. She gave the thought one last run over before looking back up to Justin, his eyes on his ramen as he pushed the noodles from side to side with his chopsticks, never actually picking some up to eat.

"Hey, Justin… What was it like with you and Maya?"

Justin stopped swirling the noodles around instantly, though his gaze never lifted from the bowl. His eyebrows bunched down slightly. He looked kind of angry, though in actuality, he just wasn't sure what the best way of describing it was.

"Maya?"

"Y-you don't have to talk about it if you don't want, I was just a little curio-"

"No, no, it's fine. It's just… I'm not sure I could really tell you much other than what you already know."

"Well, whatever you feel comfortable talking about." Chie smiled. She had told him about her childhood friend, and now she was curious about his. It didn't matter what he said, she just wanted to know more; more about Maya, more about Justin's childhood, but most importantly, more about him.

"Well… You know already that she was poor, though you wouldn't be able to tell just by looking at her. Sure, she always wore the same thing, and sure what she wore wasn't exactly the pinnacle of class; but she was 'well-kempt' for lack of a better word. She was just as blunt as me, which was always a good thing. We were always taking jabs at each other, and usually, we laughed along as we became the subject of the other's ridicule. In a way, she kind of reminds me of you, Chie."

"Wha- Me?"

"Yeah. Hell, she even used to knee me in the stomach whenever I got too out of line."

Justin smirked. He hadn't really realized it by now, but Maya was more or less a sarcastic, blunt, Chie. Of course, the comparison didn't really settle well with Chie. Every word that came out of Justin's mouth served to glorify Maya. From her looks, the way she dressed, her personality; the way he described her… She seemed like the perfect girl for him… And when Justin compared her to Chie? Was that what Chie was to him? Just Maya's replacement. She shook her head slightly. She had to be out of her mind. Justin didn't even remember Maya, let alone have any feelings towards her. What the hell was she getting so jealous for? She turned her attention back over to Justin, though much to her displeasure he had started frowning, his eyes focused on the center of his bowl of ramen again.

"All these dreams I keep having. They all have something to do with her, and yet I still don't have a goddamned clue what's going on. Screw all that stuff with the cigarettes and Kurt, I just want to know what happened to her. Why'd she run from home? Where is she now? Is she alright? Did she win the lottery and get the life she always deserved?"

Chie's eyebrows dropped into concern, her eyes shimmering slightly as they watered. It was always in Justin's personality to get concerned about people, but this… This was eating away at him. I mean, this had been his best friend for years, and suddenly she just vanishes without a trace. Even if what had happened wasn't pretty, he needed answers. He needed closure. Justin sighed slightly before looking up at Chie.

"I had another one of those dreams a few days ago… When I hit my head on the railing."

"H-Huh? Wh-What was it about!?" Chie panicked.

"Well, you remember how I told you Maya wanted to test out the Midnight Channel rumor? Well, it was just before midnight when she snuck in through my bedroom window. We sat there and talked, waiting for the clock to strike midnight… and when it did…"

"Don't tell me it aired."

"It did, but something was off. You know how the rumor was that you're supposed to see your soulmate when the TV flickered on? No one was there. Just an empty chair."

"Y-You mean like the one that was in the room the announcer was in?" Chie's eyes had dilated slightly.

Justin's head shot up immediately. He hadn't really noticed it before, but now that Chie mentioned it, it was the exact same chair that had been in the room they had found the first time they entered the television. There was no noose though, and it didn't seem like the posters or bed were there either. So then what the hell was the chair there for?

"Yeah. Though I don't know what it's supposed to mean." Justin sighed slightly. The chair was important and all, but something else seemed to take precedence in his mind. "Poor Maya. She was heartbroken when no one showed up on that screen."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"Well, when no one showed up on the screen, the look in her eyes just… Soul crushing… And the way she got pissed off at me afterwards, how she said it was my fault her soulmate hadn't appeared on the screen, how she said that I was dragging her down because I didn't want to be with someone… I think Maya was secretly very lonely, and when no one popped up on that screen… She took that as meaning she had no soulmate; that there would be no one out there for her."

Chie lowered her eyes in response. "That's so sad…" She didn't really know Maya all that well, but the way Justin had described it; it sounded like Maya just wanted someone to love her, and instead she was forced to run away from home, gun in hand. Why would such awful things happen to a fourteen year old girl?

"It all has to do with that channel, I just know it." Justin spoke up, slight anger in his voice. He was pissed off at whoever was doing this Midnight Channel shit. Whatever it was, it had completely fucked up Maya's life, and for that, he would never forgive the man responsible.

"How so?

"She touched the screen…" Justin didn't need to finish that sentence. He already knew Chie would understand what he was getting at.

"Y-You mean like what we do?"

"Yeah. And it only reacted to her."

"D-Did you…"

"Go in? No. I forced Maya to pull her hand out. I didn't know what was going on, and I assumed whatever it was could be dangerous."

"What happened next?"

"After some shenanigans with Maya trying to hide from my father when he woke up from the commotion? Nothing. The dream just ended."

Chie bit her bottom lip, looking about with lowered eyes as though trying to think. She only had so much information to work with, but she was determined to figure something out. Then something dawned upon her.

"Wait, didn't Kurt say Maya said something about hiding some cigarettes in the other world?"

"Huh? Yeah, why?"

"Well, that means she had to go in at one point, right?"

"Alright…?"

"Sooooo, If she did, how would she have gotten out?"

Justin's eyes widened immediately.

"Teddie!"

"Right! He had to have let her out at some point. He might know something."

Justin immediately stood up, grabbing his hooded jacket from the seat he had occupied for the last half hour. Chie looked surprised, but that wasn't going to stop him now. He had a lead that could very well have all the answers he needed, and goddammit, he wasn't going to let it just slip away from him now. He walked off, still putting his jacket on as Chie stood to follow, plopping some money to pay for their dishes on the way out. She'd have to remind herself to force Justin to pay for his half later.

* * *

"Ted! Get your ass over here!" Justin screamed out the second he stepped through the screen. He realized how aggressive it had sounded, but he didn't care. The show was over. Chie soon followed behind Justin, tripping slightly on the plastic portion of the television screen on her way through. It happened from time to time for all of them. Hell, Yu did it almost every single time, and it wasn't like he was clumsy or anything.

"Huh? Senpai? Where are the others?" Teddie spoke up hesitatingly as he saw the look in Justin's eyes. They were hopeful, but also kind of angry. Justin couldn't say for certain, but there was a possibility that Justin had entered the television with her. Why then, had Teddie not spoke up when he first saw the-

Wait a second. The very first time Justin talked to Teddie, he responded with Justin's name. Now, he had passed it off as Yosuke and Yu filling him in, but… Justin hadn't actually talked to Teddie prior to that; he was suffering from the concussion the first time they met; which meant everything he said was under his breath; save one 'shut the fuck up' to Yosuke, and even then that came out as a bit rhaspy. That would be the only thing Teddie could hear him say. Which meant… Teddie shouldn't have been able to recognize Justin's voice. But he did, which meant… Teddie had talked to Justin before. He already knew who Justin was. Justin was sort of pissed that Teddie hadn't said anything to him, but he couldn't half blame him. When you know someone, you don't constantly point out the fact that you are aware of their existence.

Justin got down into a crouching position to make eye-contact with Teddie, who had being significantly shorter than Justin.

"We're not here for that Teddie. Tell me something Teddie. The first time you met Yu, and Yosuke, and Chie. That wasn't the first time you saw me, was it?"

"Huh? Well of course not!"

"Huh? W-Wait a second, does that mean-" Chie rushed out the words in a half-panic.

"I've been in the TV before. Maya must have let me in at some point."

"Maya? Oh, Oh! Is Maya here too!?"

Justin starred at Teddie for a moment. So he had met Maya at some point, though what really concerned Justin was that Teddie seemed to have completely neglected to bring this up the one time they were interrogating Justin's shadow for information regarding Maya. Actually… come to think of it, Teddie hadn't rounded the corner with the rest of the group when Justin had charged down the alleyway. He must have still been searching for the shadow when this all went down. Though that did beg the question why he hadn't brought it up when her name slipped again near the entrance of the television.

"I don't know, Teddie. I don't remember jumping in the television before that time I had fell in with Chie, I don't remember Maya, I don't remember anything. Clearly you've met us both before, what do you know Ted?"

"Well, I haven't seen her since a few months before you guys jumped inside for the first time."

Justin puffed a sigh of relief. A few months before they fell in wasn't exactly recent, but it hadn't been far off either. Whatever she was doing, she was alive and kicking. Though he had to wonder what she had been doing here.

"Do you know what she was doing that one time?"

"Huh? She said she had to come here for something… Ngh, what was that word? Bear-aphy?"

Justin was about to say something, though he had to force his mouth shut once the pun hit him. Goddamn that was clever.

"Was not pre-beared for that one."

"Can you guys stop with the bear puns already?" Chie interrupted, knowing full well that Justin and Teddie would get sidetracked if she didn't.

"Right, right sorry. Bear-aphy… You mean therapy?"

"Oh yeah, that was the word!" Teddie smiled as though he had been the one to crack the code. Justin sighed a little bit. Therapy… Sure, Maya probably had a lot of problems, but Justin had never really pictured her having to see a therapist; especially if it pertained to whatever effect this world had on her.

"She asked if you were around, so I said no."

"So… What exactly did she do in here?"

"Well, she looked like she was searching for something…" Teddie thought aloud, "But I don't think she found it; she just sort of left after a while."

"Think it might have to do with her shadow?" Justin questioned. I mean, it would make sense. If her shadow was suppressed emotions, and she was her for therapy, it seemed she would be here to deal with her shadow. Assuming she hadn't already, or if she was a special case like Yu.

"I don't know…"

"Alright, well that puts an end to that line of questioning…" Justin grimaced, "What about before that; what happened the first time she entered?"

"Huh? I remember you were with her, but other than that…"

"Was I with her after that?"

"A few times."

"And when did I stop coming through with her?"

"About three times after the first."

"Alright..." Justin sighed slightly before digging through his pockets and pulling out a pack of cigarettes. "Have you ever seen her come in with these?"

"Well yeah! You two did it all the time!"

"I meant more than one. Like, a lot of these."

"Oooohh… Yeah, you brought some in once."

"What happened to them?"

"W-Well, when your shadow showed up-"

"Mine or hers."

"Hers. A-Anyway, I remember they got crushed when Maya denied her shadow. She seemed really upset about it when she came back the next day."

"She denied her shadow? So then she already defeated it?"

"N-No, we all sort of ran away…"

"You can do that?"

Teddie nodded his head, acknowledging it as true. Justin rubbed at his chin with his index finger for a little bit. That would explain what happened to the cigarettes, but now he was curious as to what had happened to Maya's shadow. If she had denied it like that, wouldn't the shadow technically be its own entity? It couldn't replace Maya quite yet, sure, but couldn't Justin and the rest of the gang have run into it by now? And why would Maya return knowing it could kill her at any time? It didn't make sense.

"Do you know what her shadow said?"

"I don't remember…" Teddies seemed sort of down as the words left his mouth.

"Well, I think that's about as much information we're going to get from the TV world angle; at least, for now." Justin wanted to continue that sentence with, 'now we just need to find out what happened with the mugging,' but chose not to knowing full well that Chie wasn't aware of Justin's crime. "Thanks Ted."

"Happy to help!"

"So what now?" Chie turned to Justin, a look of slight concern in her eye. Sure, they had a few answers questioned, and yes, they knew Maya had been alive and well now, but with those answers came bigger questions, questions he didn't think could be left hanging.

"Now we play the waiting game. We wait for another dream, then we act upon what we find out."

Chie sighed for a moment, first with unenthusiasm, though that soon turned into relief.

"Well, at least we know Maya's still alright."

"That's really all that's important to me." Justin added, a relieved smile on his face. Chie smiled back at him, even if he couldn't see her from that angle. She felt relieved that Justin had found peace in the information he had gathered of Teddie; though that still begged the question of what had went down. And he still wanted to know if Maya was living like a king, just the way she always should have. And where the hell was her shadow? Unless she had defeated it already, of course.

"Alright Teddie, we're heading back out… Do me a favor."

"Yes senpai?"

"If for some odd-reason Maya comes back; tell her I called her a lady. She'll get a kick out of that one."


	45. Chapter 44: May 27, 2011

CHAPTER 44

May 27, 2011

* * *

"All right everyone, settle down. Our candidates will now introduce their cabinets before you are dismissed to cast your votes."

Justin puffed some hot air from the opposite side of the door to the auditorium. Technically, he was supposed to be sitting on stage with his cabinet like Hisako and Yosuke were, but he had something else in mind.

"Alright, your friend in position, Chie?"

"Just texted her a moment ago, Yumi's all set."

Yukiko passed a look of surprise over to Chie as she shuffled through the text messages on her cell phone before putting it in her pocket.

"Yumi? You mean Yumi Ozawa?"

Chie nodded her head, though that only seemed to surprise Yukiko more. She sighed slightly. Chie knew Yukiko just sort of assumed Yumi would want no affiliation with Justin's campaign; plus, it was hard to believe that she would just accept the duty she had been given. If she did it wrong, there could be a lot of backfire.

"Yeah, I was a bit surprised too, but apparently she thought Justin's performance was really dramatic, and you know how she gets about that stuff."

"I see…" Yukiko added, still slightly confused. Yeah, Yumi was into drama, but this still seemed a bit out of character for her.

"Hey, thanks for doing this Kanji." Justin said turning his attention to the bulking mass standing beside him. Kanji responded by sniffling slightly. He had caught a pretty nasty cold from being in the television, or at least, that's where they thought he caught it. Justin almost felt bad dragging him out to the school when he was sick like this, but he didn't have much choice. Apparently the entire cabinet had to be there so they can confirm they are indeed part of the cabinet and didn't just have their name written down involuntarily. Justin thought that was the stupidest thing he ever heard, even if the rule was pretty much there to stop Justin from doing exactly what he did.

"Yeah… Really wish you would have asked me before signing me up…" He groaned slightly as the words left his mouth. Justin was surprised at how cool Kanji was being about all this. Yeah, he didn't want to be secretary, but he played along anyway.

"If it's any consolation, this is the only time you need to show up for anything."

"I can go home after the assembly right?" He said, sneezing afterwards.

"I don't see why not." Justin and Kanji exchanged a quick nod before turning back to Chie and Yukiko. "All right, I got all the stuff ready for when we walk out, you guys know the drill, right?"

"Sorta…?" Chie spoke up. All she had heard was Justin's proposal of what they were doing. She had a vague idea of what they were all supposed to be doing, but it's not like they rehearsed or anything in advance.

"Perfect. Let's get ready then."

* * *

"Where the hell is he?" Yosuke spoke in an aside to Yu as they waited for Hisako to finish introducing his cabinet and give a few last words.

Yu responded with a simple shrug. Even though he was part of Yosuke's cabinet, he really didn't want Yosuke to win for two reasons. The first being that Justin really could not afford the money he put on this bet, the second being that if Yosuke won, then Yu would have to do student body work; something he had no intention of doing ever. Yosuke sighed slightly, his eyes focusing back on Hisako, but his words still being passed over to Yu.

"Who do you think is in Justin's cabinet? Doesn't he only know like two people besides from us?"

"I was wondering that myself."

"Knowing him he probably elected himself for all four positions."

"Can you do that?"

"Hell no. But he'd probably do it anyway."

Yosuke turned his attention fully to Hisako as his eyes glanced him giving a slight bow of his head, indicating his announcement was over. Thank god; Yosuke couldn't listen to a word more of that bullshit. Sure enough, Hisako had that smug look on his face again when he sat down. Not for long though, Yosuke was going to mop the floor with his egotistical ass, just watch.

"Thank you Hisako, our next candidate Yosuke Hanamura of Room 2-2 will now introduce his cabinet."

"Showtime." Yosuke joked, a wide grin on his face as he and his entire party made his way over to the podium. He smirked slightly before positioning the microphone appropriately to his face.

"Hello fellow students of Yasogami High, my name's Yosuke Hanamura. Rather than give you the same speech you all heard Monday, I'm going to cut straight to the chase. My Vice President is former presidential candidate Daisuke Nagase."

The crowd burst into a fit of applause, as Daisuke took an overly dramatic bow. Yosuke couldn't help but chuckle. With Daisuke's fanbase, there was no way in hell he could lose to Justin. This was in the bag now.

"Accompanying him is our star basketball player, Kou Ichijo as Treasurer."

Kou took a much stiffer version of the bow Daisuke had given earlier, and was greeted with much less applause. Which was strange given that Kou was just as popular as Daisuke, if not more.

"Finally, taking on the role of Secretary; the actually sane transfer student, you may know him as that one guy that is in every single club."

"Am not."

"Yu Narukami!"

There was a reasonable amount of applause, much to Yu's surprise. He gave a quick wave of his hand to the audience, a straight expression on his face, before their applause died down. Yosuke put on a slight smirk as he turned his head to Yu. Yu gave a slight shrug. He didn't think people really knew him all that much, let alone enough to beat Kou in a show of applause. Yosuke chuckled slightly before turning back to the microphone.

"I'm going to finish this up quickly so you can all get to voting. Thank you all for your patronage, and I hope to receive your votes."

Yosuke gave a quick nod before the four of them walked back to their seats, Yosuke's arms crossed. He didn't need a particularly compelling speech for his final words. Justin hadn't even shown up, which meant he had probably dropped out. On top of that, he had Daisuke. There was no way Justin would be able to top that; even with his crazy speeches.

"Thank you Yosuke. Our final speaker today was supposed to be Justin Tylor of Room 2-2. However, since it appears that he is not present at this point of time, you will now be dis-"

The teacher's speech slowed to a crawl as the sound of buzzing could be heard over the speakers, the lights in the auditorium slowly fading down. Yumi was currently up in the lighting and sound booth for the auditorium, fiddling with the lights and audio, as per Justin's plan. Everyone in the audience seemed surprised as the lights turned completely off, the auditorium near completely black.

"Wh-what's happening." Yosuke exclaimed, slightly concerned. He knew Justin was behind this in some way; he just didn't know how yet.

Suddenly, where the speakers had originally been blaring static, the sound of a guitar could faintly be heard, drums and bass jumping into back it up. The audience turned to each other a little confused what was going on. They heard music, that was for damn sure, though they weren't sure why, or how, or what in the hell was going on. The guitar riff played for maybe a good twenty or so seconds before it seemed to solidify, the guitar's tone growing heavy, the bass jumping into give it an extra boost of power, the drum rhythm slowly transferring from a militia rhythm to a more familiar rock pattern.

And at the exact moment the instruments all seemed to converge in one intense measure of instrumental power, a blue spotlight flickered on out to where the door to the auditorium had been, Justin, Chie, Yukiko, and Kanji all walking through, sunglasses on their heads, purposely moving in slow motion. The crowd went nuts almost immediately once they realized what was going on. Hell, even the history teacher didn't so much as hesitate to move out of the way to give them room to do their thing. Yosuke and Yu's jaws practically hit the floor as they saw the scene unfolding before them.

The four continued to work as though they had been in some movie, their footage slowed down to a crawl. For a bunch of people who hadn't practiced, they had been pretty damn convincing, though they might have owed part of that to the spotlight flickering on and off in a strobe light pattern. They continued to walk like this for a while. Hell, they did for a good few measures of the song, Kanji having turned to the audience for a brief moment as he walked, lowering his sunglasses in a needlessly dramatic fashion. Of course, this all changed as the group suddenly reached for their shades, throwing them over their shoulders as the vocals kicked in, inciting the crowd only further.

_Transmission third world war third round_

_Decade of the weapon of sound above ground_

_No shelter if you're looking for shade_

_I lick shots at the brutal charade_

_As the polls close like a casket on truth devoured_

_Silent play in the shadow of power a spectacle monopolized_

_The camera's eyes on choice disguised_

Yosuke couldn't help but turn to Yu, his voice quivering ever so slightly.

"Y-Yu…? We're fucked aren't we?"

"So fucked."

Justin slowly turned his head to the audience, flipping them off in slow-motion, though that only seemed to excite them more. Justin loved how you could be a complete dick in slow motion, and everyone would love you for it. Kanji was right behind Justin giving finger guns to a few of the people in the front row. Justin smirked slightly, making sure his mouth curved up wards in slow motion as well. Kanji was really getting into it, much to his amusement. Yukiko didn't really do anything other than walk in slow-motion, but then, Justin had barely been able to convince her to do the sunglasses thing. Chie had settled for just stretching her arms as she walked. But it was in slow-motion, so it was okay.

_More for Gore or the son of a drug lord_

_None of the above fuck it cut the cord_

_Lights out, guerilla radio_

_Turn that shit up_

The group slowly surrounded the podium as Justin made his way to the microphone, a huge smirk on his face as he looked into the audience. And for the first time in the last good minute or so, he did something at regular speed, crossing his arms in an x, just inches away from his face, shaking them back and forth slightly as the crowd cheered. The music softened only slightly to allow the audience to hear Justin speak as he leaned into the microphone, chest inches away from the podium top.

"Ladies and pricks of Yasogami High. I am Justin Jeremiah Tylor; though you can all call me King, if you so please. I stand in front of you today because the system is forcing me to present to you my running cabinet for this year's elections. Allow me to introduce my Vice President. You may know her as the girl that kicks ass, then doesn't take names because she's too busy kicking more ass. Chie Satonaka!"

The audience roared up again slightly, though it was clear some people in the audience were a little confused by her position in the cabinet. Justin could particularly hear two guys up front talking about her.

"Chie? He's not serious right?"

"What the hell is she going to do? Eat steak?"

"I know, right? She's such an idiot."

Justin coughed slightly as the two looked up to him; completely unaware he had picked up the microphone and shoved it right in their faces. Chie's face was bright red, a combination of rage and embarrassment. She wasn't sure who she was more pissed off at; the two assholes in front insulting her in plain sight, or Justin, who had put a microphone up to them so everyone could hear.

"Oh uh… I mean…" One stammered trying to explain as he noticed the death glare he was receiving from Chie.

"Hey just a word of advice," Justin spoke up, "If you're going to talk shit about my girl, you should do that when we're not all standing two feet away from you. Now get the fuck out of my auditorium."

And just like that the awkward tension Justin had created shifted into another uproar. Justin felt good; he had just served two assholes for insulting Chie, AND got the audience's approval. Justin chuckled slightly as the two forced their way out of the door; a walk of shame to be sure.

"Next up, you know her, you love her; she's the only person in this school with an IQ larger than 12. Give it up for Yukiko Amagi."

The crowd cheered, much louder than they had for Chie, much to her disheartenment. She knew people would be more enthused by Yukiko's presence in the cabinet than her, but all the same she felt like complete crap knowing that people were more excited about the Treasurer than the Vice President. Yukiko gave a faint smile and wave of her hand, her face red with embarrassment as the crowd clamored in excitement.

"And finally, introducing my Secretary of state. You may know him as the guy who you owe being able to sleep at night without hearing bikers; the hulking behemoth himself, Kanji Tatsumi!"

Kanji wasn't exactly pleased with his description, but then, Justin and Kanji didn't really know each other all that well, so he just went along with it. He crossed his arms in a slightly aggressive pose, as the audience half cheered. A lot of people were confused as to why Kanji, the guy who never showed up at school, was running for Secretary. Kanji simply sneered at those people though. It didn't really get to him when people acted like that around him anymore. Justin and Kanji exchanged another quick nod before he turned back towards the microphone.

"The show must go on ladies and gentlemen. Today, we depart for the Garden of Madness. Eye of the Tiger, Viva la Revolution. Believe in the me that believes in you that believes in yourself that believes in the me that believes in that one guy all the way in the back that believes in the me that doesn't believe in Yosuke. Make sense? No? Good. That's because you're a fucking idiot if you're still undecided. Fuck you all, we're out. Peace."

Once more Justin pushed the microphone off the podium as the four of them walked off with him, strobe lights flashing once again as they made their way out; at regular speed this time, much to Yosuke's relief. It wasn't until they were completely offstage that Yosuke thought it would be safe to speak up. After all, if he pissed Justin off, he just might stick a microphone in his face.

_All, hell, can't stop us now_

_All, hell, can't stop us now_

"That guy is batshit insane…" Yosuke spoke under his breath as the lights stopped flickering, the music dying out slowly.

"Sanity's overrated." Daisuke added as a joke. He had been laughing hysterically at Justin's speech again. Hell, it wasn't a very good speech, but he looked like he was having fun doing it. As far as Daisuke was concerned, that was the entire point of running in these elections; to have fun.

"I can't believe he got Kanji on board…" Yu added, jaw dropped in awe.

* * *

"What the hell was that for!?" Chie screamed at Justin, smacking him upside the head as the door closed behind them. Justin rubbed his head slightly, his neck still cocked to the side from the blow, though other than that, he seemed unfazed by Chie's attack.

"I did a lot of fucked up stuff in the last two minutes, you're gonna have to be more specific."

"You know damn well what I'm talking about! Why would you put the microphone in their face like that!?"

"To send a message. That no one fucks with us." Justin's eyes dropped into an intense glare. This wasn't even one of his jokes; he was dead serious. Chie's glare softened slightly when she realized Justin had meant that as a way of getting back at those assholes for talking shit about her, yet all the same, she was still sort of pissed at the lack of tact he had shown while doing it.

"I've never been so humiliated in all my life."

Justin lowered the angle on his head slightly, though his pupils did not move from her face. _Stop giving me that look Justin; I know what I said._ He awkwardly chuckled when Chie's facial expression refused to budge from her disapproving stare.

"Alright, alright. I'm sorry." He said, laughing slightly. "But on the bright side, now you don't have to worry about people talking behind your back."

"If the alternative is broadcasting it over the speakers, I'll take 'behind my back.'"

Justin shrugged slightly. Clearly Chie was pissed at him; nothing he said was going to calm her down anytime soon. He just had to give her sometime and she'd get over it. Instead Justin turned his attention to Kanji, who had started sneezing up a shitstorm once they left the assembly. He had been holding it back the entire time he was up on stage. After all, you can't sneeze in slow-motion.

"Good job out there Kanji."

"Huh? Oh… Uh… Thanks?" He sniffled slightly as the sentence left his mouth. Justin chuckled silently to himself.

"So anyone know when the results come in?"

"Tomorrow, I believe." Yukiko spoke up, her face still red from their escapades on the stage. _Geez, she really is uptight, isn't she?_

"Hey, you guys don't mind if I head home right?" Kanji managed to sneak the words out in between another sneezing fit.

"Huh? Yeah, sure. Sorry we had to drag you out here like this."

"It's no problem, but this is a onetime deal." Kanji added. He was serious, though it certainly didn't seem malicious.

"Believe me; I have no intention of ever running for president again."

* * *

December 6, 2009

* * *

"Seriously, stop doing that."

Maya had snuck into Justin's house early that morning after his parents had left. Both of them had called into school sick, for obvious reasons. Especially in Justin's case. Sure they were both a bit shaken by what had happened last night, but Justin couldn't sleep. He felt sick to his stomach the entire night through. Turned out, he had actually managed to make himself sick with concern. His father was more than a little reluctant to let him stay home over something as petty as a cold, but Justin managed to convince him when he went running to the bathroom and vomited enough to fill the entire toilet.

All the same, there they had been, Maya sticking her hand in and out of the television screen over and over again with extreme fascination, Justin fretting with concern each and every time her hand jabbed through the screen. Obviously sticking your hand into a television couldn't possibly be safe… right?

"Oh will you calm down already."

"You don't know what's on the other side! For all you know you could be sticking your hand into a blender."

"Pretty sure I would feel that." Maya added sarcastically, though Justin did bring up a valid point. She didn't know what was on the other side, but she'd be lying if she said she wasn't curious. She bit her bottom lip slightly. She knew one way of figuring that out, but she wasn't sure if she was willing to risk it; and god knows Justin would just spaz out. Still…

"I… I'm going to try something. Promise you won't freak out."

"What? What are you planning-"

"Promise."

"No seriously, what the hell are you doing that you need to tell me not to frea-"

"Just promise me, dammit!"

Justin shook his head slightly to the sides. He already knew he would, just given the fact that Maya felt the need to warn him in advance. All the same, he knew she wouldn't stop asking him to promise her until he said yes; and it's not like he had to keep his word on this.

"Alright fine. Jesus."

Maya gave Justin a quick nod, before turning her attention to the screen. She tapped it once more, confirming that she wasn't crazy about this whole television screen thing, before sticking her head through to the other side. Justin of course started to freak out immediately. Fingers are one thing, your head is another.

"Maya, are you out of your mind!?"

"Hey! You promised!"

"I lied!"

"Clearly!"

There was a brief pause, Maya's shoulders moving along with her head as she scanned the inside of the screen.

"Whoa…"

"Whoa? Whoa what? Good whoa, bad whoa? Whoa-is-me? Give me some info here Maya."

"There's an entire city on the otherside." Justin's eyebrow raised. An entire city? What the hell was going on?

"A city? What the…"

Justin was going to finish that sentence when he noticed Maya throw forth more of her body into the screen. She wasn't just going to stop at looking; she intended to go all the way in. Justin quickly grabbed her by the leg as she started to push her body through the other side. Justin had hoped to drag her back out to the world of the living, but instead he found himself being dragged part-way through the screen. His eyes widened as he noticed half of him on one side, and half on the other. He was confused as to how he even managed to pass the television screen barrier… Unless… Maybe he got through because he was in direct contact with Maya. And since he was half way through, if he were to lose contact with her… _Whatever happens, do not let go of her leg…_

Justin closed his eyes in fear for a good fifteen seconds or so before opening his right eye slightly. It… It was a city on the inside. He opened his other eye and turned around to look at their entrance. Of course, you can imagine his fear when he found there was no entrance. It was completely empty where they had just emerged from. Justin blinked a few times in confusion as he forced himself off the pavement he had been laying on. Maya had already stood up mere seconds before him.

"What the hell is this place?" Maya spoke up in a loud whisper.

"F-Forget what this place is; how the hell do we get out?" Justin added on panicked. Fuck the safety concerns for a moment here; if his father called him while he was stuck wherever this place was, he would be a dead man for sure. Maya turned around a shocked look on her face as she noticed there was no entrance.

"Wh-Where's the exit…?"

"I don't know! Shitshitshitshitshitshit!"

"Alright, alright, calm down… It has to be around here somewhere, right? M-maybe it just doesn't look like a TV on this side. Yeah, yeah that must be it!"

"Oh? And what do you assume it looks like, a fucking dumpster!"

"It could be. Let's look around, see if we can find something."

Justin placed his finger against his chin for a moment, his bottom lip clenched between his teeth. He was concerned about not having an exit, but… Something about this place itself struck him as off.

"Doesn't this place look kind of familiar?"

"Yeah now that you mention it… I swear I've seen that building before." Maya said pointing to an old, brick building. It was about three floors high, and was made of brick; though the brick seemed to have been covered in moss, its stone like texture cracking away with age. It was hard to make out details with all this… green fog? Wait, why the hell is there fog here, and why the hell is it green? Justin placed his forehead in his palm, a migraine hitting him like a freight train. _Shit, this makes NO sense! What in the hell is going on!?_ Suddenly Maya's eyes widened, having been starring at the building for a while.

"Shit, now I know where I've seen it! It's that old apartment building down the street from our hang out spot." Justin's eyes opened in agreement. It WAS the old apartment building, but… What was it doing here? And why did it look so old? Looking around the street, Justin was able to identify building after building in relation to the apartment building. All of them he had seen before, and yet all of them were here, broken and crumbling away.

"I don't get it... Why is everything all worn away?"

"I don't know… We can figure that out later though, right now, let's look around. We might find something."

"You think that's a good idea? I mean, who knows what's up with this place; who or what could be out there. Do you really think venturing out into god knows where is going to end well?"

"It's better than just standing here!"

Justin sighed slightly as Maya took the lead, her head rotating about as she took in all the sights. _So this is how I die_, he thought before carefully following Maya into the unknown.

* * *

May 28, 2011

* * *

Justin woke up in a cold sweat, his eyes wide with fear. He puffed at the air heavily. It wasn't necessarily a scary dream, until he realized something. This place he had just seen in his dream… That was where Teddie had lead him and the team when they were searching for Justin's shadow. There has to be a connection; it just couldn't be a coincidence. Justin jumped out of bed, pushing his torn apart sheets off of his body in the process, as he ran down the stairs.

On the kitchen counter, hidden on the side of the microwave oven, was a notebook. In it contained every detail of every dream Justin had had. He had even written down the incident with the gun, hoping to make some more connections; but alas, it seemed that was going nowhere. He quickly pulled the notebook out from its compartment before scribbling some words down within it's confines.

_December 6. Maya and I entered the television. Ended up in old worn down city. Same city as alleyway/the place my shadow showed up._

_Why torn down? Significance?_

_Be on look out for possible connections._

Justin slammed his pen on the table before slipping the notebook back in its original location. He didn't have a lot to go on, so it was a short entry; but he needed to write it down anyway. He sighed slightly before looking up at the digital clock on his microwave. 1:46. Justin groaned. It was too early for this shit; not to mention he had enough on his mind with the elections as it was. He slid his feet towards the living room and plopped his backside against the couch. He was too tired to make his way back up to his bed.

"Why can't things ever be simple?" He whispered to himself. Moments later he drifted off into a dreamless slumber. And for that, he was grateful.


	46. Chapter 45: May 28, 2011

CHAPTER 45

May 28, 2011

* * *

"Attention students, the winners for the presidential election have been decided."

Justin cracked his neck slightly to both sides as the words buzzed from the intercom. He'd be lying if he said he wasn't nervous, but he played it cool all the same. Yosuke had been sitting behind Justin, tapping frantically on the top of his desk; and with good reason. Justin's speech yesterday seemed to have the same effect as the first one. And even if Justin's speeches weren't good for gathering votes over a long term period, they were extremely effectual when the vote immediately succeeded his rebellious discourse.

"Oh man, I'm so nervous…" Chie spoke up from her desk. Justin couldn't quite figure out what she was nervous about; he was the one who would have to pay Yosuke if he lost, not her. All the same he smirked slightly as he turned his head towards her, her head pointed upwards towards the ceiling, as though praying for God's help.

"The freshman class president of 2011 is Yoshitsune Akamatsu of room 2-3. Second place is awarded to Maiko Kikutake and Mitsunari Suzuki, who both tied for the same number of votes."

"I'm surprised they announce the runner-ups." Justin questioned out loud, scratching at his chin slightly.

"Huh? They didn't do that at your old school?" Yukiko questioned from where she was sitting.

"Nah, something about sportsmanship, or some shit." Justin said, adding a slight sound of disgust at the end of his sentence. Sportsmanship was such bullshit; no one ever meant it, and all it did was impede people from celebrating in their own victories. So what if they gloat? Isn't that part of the fun?

"The sophomore class president of 2011…"

The words seemed especially loud to Justin, as though the sound had gone through his ears and stabbed him right in the heart. He could feel his body grow stone cold stiff in fear. Ever take a test, and think you did really badly on it? Then, when they passed it back, you didn't want to see your grade, perfectly content not knowing how much you fucked up? That was how Justin felt right now. He didn't know if he beat Yosuke, or Hisako, but quite frankly, he might have been satisfied not knowing. After all, ignorance is bliss.

Yosuke had to stick the side of his hand in his mouth, biting down against the skin in his anxiety. He had been saving up to buy a motorcycle, and if he lost this bet, he'd be set so far back. It wasn't as bad as Justin's worst case scenario, sure, but it sure meant a lot to Yosuke all the same. He secretly hoped to be able to tie with Justin, much like those two freshmen had. After all, if neither won, and neither lost, then neither would have to pay the other. All the same, he had the money in his pocket, worst case scenario.

"Hisako Kentaro of room 2-2."

Justin and Yosuke's jaws practically hit the floor at the same time. _What the fuck? Hisako won!? But his entire campaign was complete and utter bullshit! _The guy had no idea what he was talking about, or what he was doing. Hell, Justin thought HE could do a better job, and his presidential plan was just to set shit on fire once in a while, and then have his peons bring him Macaroni and Cheese at his demand. Yeah, sure, the president really couldn't force anyone to do that; but then, he wasn't supposed to set stuff on fire either, and something about a pyromaniac is hard to turn down.

"Hisako!?" Yosuke shouted as the announcement finished. He turned his head to see Hisako shooting a smug grin over to Justin and Yosuke. Those within his immediate radius turned to him to congratulate him, though he didn't exactly get the same response from the opposite side of the room. Yosuke and Chie both shot Hisako a slight glare, while Justin had been running the tip of his thumb along his throat line in a threatening fashion. Hisako's eyes widened slightly before turning to avoid Justin's stare. He might have won, but that didn't mean pissing of a psychotic lunatic was a good idea.

"Second place is awarded to Justin Tylor, and third to Yosuke Hanamura."

Justin jumped up out of his seat before turning around and thrusting his chest forward into Yosuke's face.

"What! Suck it, bitch!"

Yosuke groaned. The worst part about losing might not have even been the money; it was Justin going off on one of his superiority complex trips. Justin was gonna rub this in Yosuke's face all day at the least. He'd be lucky if he heard the end of it by next month. Chie giggled slightly at Justin's overly dramatic and aggressive victory taunt.

"Geeze, don't get too excited. It's not like you won the election or anything." Hisako joked from his end of the classroom. Justin was surprised no one turned to him, a look of disgust on their face from his douchey self ego-booster. Like, seriously, who the fuck cared if Justin was excited for getting second place; don't be a dick about it. Justin turned his head to Hisako, a deep glare on his face as he slowly straightened his back up.

"Hey Hisako, you see this?"

Justin held out his hand, his palm stretched out as though to show Hisako something. Instead, Hisako was surprised, and confused, to find Justin's palm completely empty, as he thrust it as far as he could towards Hisako from the opposite side of the room. He had half expected Justin to flip-him off, not show his complete and utter lack of sanity.

"Uh… no?" Hisako spoke up questioningly.

"Good. These are all the fucks I give. Don't spend 'em all in one place." Justin remarked before dropping his hand back to his side and shaking his head in exasperation. Even the people supporting Hisako but a mere moment ago burst into one of those, "oh snap," uproars. Hisako shrugged his shoulders slightly. Even though that was directed at him, he had to admit; it WAS a good comeback. Justin turned his head back over to Yosuke as the crowd started to die down.

"Alright Hanamura, pay up."

"C-can we talk about this? I-I can give you something else!" Yosuke stuttered. He had the money to pay Justin, sure, but he didn't want to give a single cent of his motorcycle fund over to Justin. Justin's right eye squinted in slight disbelief and disgust. _The fuck did you just say to me?_

"The king does not take bribes, peasant. Now fork up the dough."

"Wh-What if I got you free steak at Junes for the month?" Yosuke choked up, trying to appeal to some other side of Justin that wasn't trying to practically rob him of his savings. He got an employee discount, so it would be dead cheap for him to buy steaks for Justin. Plus, he knew a certain someone that had a certain degree of control over Justin who just loved steak.

"H-huh, what?" Chie said, snapping into reality. She had dazed out for a brief moment, though the sound of the word steak immediately snapped her back into reality. _Hook, line, and sinker,_ Yosuke thought to himself, a slight smirk on his face. Justin turned to Chie for a brief second, his eyes widening as he realized what Yosuke was trying to do. _Oh hell no._

"Junes steak? Why the fuck would I want that?"

"Well, I'm just saying. A month of all you could eat steak would be pretty cool. I mean, just think of all the steak there would be."

"A-All you can eat?" Chie spoke up, her eyes wide with excitement. Yosuke smirked. _Ball's in my court now, asshole._

"You know, I heard we're supposed to be getting sirloins soon."

Chie bit her bottom lip, the slightest whimper being audible under her breath. She knew damn well what Yosuke was trying to do, but… All you can eat steak? She could live like a king for a month. She turned her eyes over to Justin, who had been keeping an eye on her since Yosuke brought up steaks. He wasn't going to let her sway his opinion on this one.

"With 10,000 yen I could buy steaks for a month, and STILL have money left over." Justin said, directing the comment to Yosuke, but facing Chie as to try and make this perfectly clear to her.

"Well, that really is a shame. I mean, the new steak we're getting in is phenomenal. I've tried some myself; probably the best steak I've ever had. But, you know, if you want the money, then I guess..."

Chie had been clenching her eyes shut, biting her lip harder as the words left Yosuke's mouth, but alas, it was no use. She let go of her grip on her lip before turning to Justin.

"Oh for Christ's sake, take the steak!"

"No."

"Pretty please?"

"I'll buy you steak with the money, chill."

"But would it be all you can eat filet mignon?" Yosuke smirked.

"Filet migno- Justin, you HAVE to take the steak." She wasn't even trying to hold it back at this point. All you can eat filet mignon, even if it was Junes' filet, would be like heaven on earth.

"Don't fall for his tr-"

"If you don't take the steak, I'm never speaking to you ever again." Her eyebrows dropped into an intense glare, her pupils practically piercing through Justin's heart. He knew she liked steak, but goddamn. Justin shot glances back and forth between the two; Chie, who despite wearing a glare, had pleading eyes, and Yosuke, who had a wide smirk across his face. All the cards seemed in his favor. Justin bit his bottom lip for a second.

"Oh fuck this."

Justin quickly shot away from Chie, grabbed Yosuke's wallet, hanging loose from his pocket, pulled out the cash, dropped the wallet on Yosuke's desk, and dashed out the door. Yosuke's jaw dropped. It wasn't the fact that he had technically been robbed that had caught him off-guard, it had been that he thought he was so close to pulling that off. Chie practically had Justin in the palm of her hands, and yet he still managed to break free from her trance. Chie… Well, Chie pouted slightly, her eyes watering over. No all you can eat steak anytime in the future for her. Her dream, presented to her on a silver platter, and crushed before her very eyes.

"Yosuke…? How much does filet mignon cost at Junes?"

"1,800 yen." Yosuke lied. They didn't have filet mignon at Junes; but if he told her the truth, he would have gotten his ass kicked for enticing her with steak. Chie slammed her head into her desk, crying slightly. _Buy steak for a month my ass._

* * *

Justin gasped for breath, as he slammed the door behind him, slowly sliding his back down it's wooden surface. He had managed to make a clean get-away, but he knew damn well that could only last for so long. Sure enough, within moments his phone started to buzz. He knew damn well who it was too, so he wasn't sure why he bothered to even pick up the phone. He sighed slightly before flipping his cell open and pressing it to his ear.

"Hello?"

"You asshole!" Chie shouted through from the other side.

"Calm down, it's just steak."

"It was all you can eat steak!"

"It was Junes' steak." Justin countered. The steak was pretty bad at Aiya's, but Junes' topped it by a long shot on the shittiness scale.

"Steak is steak!"

Justin sighed slightly. He had no problem buying her steak; what he had a problem with was giving up 10,000 yen just so Chie could chow down on the same fucking thing after-school. Only this time it would be on the house for her; as if it normally wasn't anyway. Justin secretly paid the bill for both of them most of the time. She'd put her portion of the money on the table while Justin secretly stashed an equivalent amount of cash in the side of her pocket. One had to wonder how Justin managed to reverse pickpocket Chie so easily, but when you realize the guy could pick a lock using a bobby pin in twelve seconds flat, clearly he had very daft hands.

"Look, I'll buy you some steak whenever. Any kind you want."

"Any kind?"

"So long as it's not steak made of human flesh, yes. Any kind."

"Alright, how about right now, filet mignon?"

"You know Yosuke was lying about Junes having filet, right?"

"H-He was?"

"Yeah? You've been there enough times that you should recognize the menu."

She pouted slightly on her end, though obviously Justin couldn't see it. He certainly could imagine that was what she was doing, though. She sighed before talking again.

"Alright fine… I'll meet you at Aiya's in a bit…"

* * *

"Alright, there's your prime rib. We cool now?"

"I guess…" Chie said, her cheek in her palm as the waiter placed the steak on the table in front of her. Sure, she was about to eat the most expensive steak they had in town, but it wasn't all you can eat for a whole month. Hell, Justin hadn't even ordered anything, opting instead to put the rest of his prize money aside for his replacement guitar fund. Even though he just bought a 2000 yen steak for Chie, he should still have enough to buy a cheap replacement guitar. He didn't need anything fancy, just something he could plug into his amp. Justin sighed, shaking his heads at Chie's apparent state of depression. _It was a fucking steak. Get over it._

"You know, if you weren't going to get excited over prime rib, I could have just bought one of those cheaper ones."

She sighed slightly before removing her head from her palm. Justin was right and she knew it. He didn't have to get her jack-shit, let alone a prime-rib. She shook her head slightly before forcing herself to smile; even if she did feel like crap. _All that steak, just gone… Damn this is depressing._

"Sorry, sorry… Thanks for the steak."

"Just remember I charge a 12% interest rate on all steak based transactions."

"Hey, wait a second! I never agreed to that!"

"You didn't need to. I'm just that shrewd of a businessman." Justin joked, placing his arms behind his head in the process. Chie shook her head slightly, a grin across her face as she stuck her fork into the steak that had been presented to her.

"I can't believe Hisako won," Chie said, changing the subject as she placed a piece of steak between her teeth. Justin puffed a breath of relief as the topic suddenly shifted from Justin's dishonor to the grand dynasty of steak. All the same, he wasn't sure how much he enjoyed this new topic.

"Look on the Brightside. At least Yosuke didn't win."

"There was no way you could have afforded to pay him if he did."

"That's not what I meant."

Chie raised her eyebrow in confusion, chewing at the steak in her mouth.

"Can you imagine what Yosuke would do as president? I imagine he'd inadvertently sell the deed to the school to a snake oil salesman."

"C'mon, he's not that-" Chie paused for a brief moment, noticing Justin lower the angle on his head again. He seemed to do that anytime he wanted to imply someone had just said something incredibly stupid, as though he thought they must be joking. "Okay, yeah, he's that stupid." She corrected herself, "I imagine Yu would keep him in line, though."

"We can only hope." Justin shrugged.

"Well what about you?" Chie said, pointing the tip of her fork over at Justin.

"Me?"

"Yeah. You're not exactly the pinnacle of presidential perfection."

"How so?"

"You wanted to have Burning Man at school every Monday."

"I was joking!"

"You also wanted to overthrow the student body government, start a riot, and what was that thing you told me that one time about people bringing you macaroni and cheese?"

"Well… I never get to have it. I always end up burning it when I cook it."

"But… You boil it." Chie seemed confused. She wasn't exactly a good cook, hell, she was probably one of the worst out there, but even she didn't think cooking macaroni and cheese would be a difficult feat. Hell, how is it even physically possible for Justin to have burned it? _Did he set the pan on fire, or something?_ _I mean, knowing his apparent obsession with setting stuff on fire, that wouldn't really surprise me…_

"I know." Justin added, a slight grimace on his face.

"But seriously, what exactly were you planning to do if you won?"

"In all honesty? I was going to go to the faculty office and drop out if I won."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I'm no good at micro-managing, let alone putting up with poltical bullshit."

"You know, you could have told us that when you were convincing us to join your cabinet."

"I… Probably could have. Shit."

Chie laughed at Justin. For a guy who seemed to hassle them all for not thinking outside the box on a regular basis, he seemed to overlook the bare basics an awful lot. Justin just shook his head as Chie continued with her laughing fit.

"Yeah, yeah, I get it. I'm stupid. You can stop anytime Yukiko." Chie's laughter cut off immediately.

"Hey. Not cool."

"You asked for it."


	47. Chapter 46: May 29, 2011

CHAPTER 46

May 29, 2011

* * *

"Alright, so I've come up with some ideas for what to do with the rest of my money."

Chie had been sitting on the couch in Justin's living room when he reemerged from his room with an old notebook. The two had started to make a habit of meeting up at Justin's house to make plans for the weekend, though it seemed Justin was more interested in just hanging around the house all day this time around. Still, the two did enjoy each other's company, and it seemed everyone else was busy, so Chie decided to stick around anyway. Knowing Justin, he'd think up some wild antics for them to engage in sooner or later anyway.

"Shoot."

Justin took a seat next to Chie on the couch, opening the note book in his hands, flipping the cover around to the back. The white canvas was littered with lists of bullet points, arrows pointing which way and that, and more than a few drawings of Chie kicking Yosuke in the balls. Chie's face got a bit red when she realized that the drawings were supposed to depict her; though she couldn't tell if she was supposed to be pissed that Justin had captured such an unladylike moment, or flattered that he had drawn a good four or five pictures of her in the process. Maybe a little of both. All the same, she didn't so much as speak up on the matter as Justin flipped over a few more pages, making his way to a more recent page. Justin cleared his throat slightly after making his way to the page he had been looking for.

"Alright, idea number one. Buy a new guitar."

Chie's eyes lifted up slightly. She hadn't expected Justin's ideas to be so… sane. Of course, that interpretation changed much later on down the list, but it was good to know that he thought with some degree of sanity. Chie smiled at the suggestion.

"That's a good one." Her smile slowly faded into a frown though when she remembered the guitar Justin had been eyeing. 10,000 yen didn't so much as scratch the surface of how much that would cost. "But aren't those really expensive?"

"I've still got some money I've been saving by skipping lunch a few days, plus the money I won from Yosuke's bet. Should be around 20,000 yen." Chie wasn't sure whether or not she should be pissed that Justin did have the funds to pay for Yosuke's bet when Chie, Yukiko, and Yu had almost paid for the bet on his behalf. Really, she probably should have asked. "With 20,000 yen, I can probably pick up a cheap Fender Squire. It's no Les Paul, but it'll do."

"Alright, so what are the other ideas?"

"Let's see…" Justin muttered as he scanned through the list, looking for some of his better ideas. "Oh here's a good one. Take all the money I have to the bank, have them convert it all into change, fill a pool with it, and go swimming in Yosuke's money. And then invite Yosuke over."

"I should have known the crazy ideas would come out sooner or later."

"So that's a no then?"

Chie shook her head at Justin as he chuckled softly to himself. As much as he did want to try doing that at some point, carrying a shit ton of coins over to his house and back would be a real pain in the ass. Not to mention he didn't think it was physically possible to swim through a stack of solid objects. Bury yourself? Sure. Swim? Nope.

"Okay, then… buy Chie a filet."

"Oooooh! I like that one!"

"And in parenthesis next to it: It's funny cause no one sells filet in Inaba." Justin smirked as Chie's face changed from over-enthusiasm, to rage. He had done that on purpose just to get a reaction out of her. And it worked. Chie smacked him upside the back of his head. Justin only seemed to laugh harder though as her hand made contact with his skull.

"What was that for?" He choked up over laughter.

"For getting my hopes up!"

"Actually, this brings me to the next item on my list. Buy a cup for when you tell Chie that one."

"You're gonna need one soon, if you don't shut up." She said, glaring at him. Justin's laughter died down, though he still wore a huge smile over his face.

"C'mon, you know you loved it." He paused for a brief moment, expecting a chuckle or a shove from Chie, but alas, it seemed that crotch-kicking jokes were off-limits. _Oh well, live and learn…_ "Okay, this one is my personal favorite. Use money to buy more money."

"You're not even trying any more, are you?"

"I stopped trying after number two."

"What's number two?"

"It's a secret." Justin smirked, closing the notebook on her, just in case she tried to take a peak. Line number two read, 'Save up money to take Chie to Trial of the Dragon 2'. In actuality, he had already decided to go with option number two, putting aside a good 3,000 yen of his money so he could get tickets, and popcorn, and all that good stuff. He still had money set aside for his guitar fund, but alas, it seemed he would be going without his six strings for another few weeks.

Chie shot Justin a confused look. If Justin wasn't letting her know about something, it meant one of two things: One, he was setting up a surprised for her, or Two: He was about to do something really stupid. She was leaning more towards the latter.

"What are you up to?"

"Just the total and utter extinction of mankind so I can make way for the polar bear master race. You know; the usual."

"I can't even tell if you're serious or not." Chie remarked. Knowing how much Justin loved bear puns, she wouldn't put it beneath him to try and give them complete reigns over everything and everyone in society. It would be like Planet of the Apes; but with bears.

"Well I guess you'll just have to check the news tonight." Justin smirked slightly before the sound of the two's conversation was interrupted by the sound of knocking. Justin had a pretty good idea who it was too. Other than Chie, there was only one person who stopped by his house on a regular basis. He stood up and straightened his back before making his way to the door. He made sure to exchange his usual fist pound with his guest as he opened the door.

"Sup Kurt." Justin said, moving to the side to let Kurt in. Chie smiled slightly from her end of the room. It wasn't uncommon for Kurt to stop in for a few minutes when she had been hanging out at Justin's house as of late. Sure, he was technically a criminal, but as she got to know him overtime, she realized he was actually a pretty good guy. Kurt made his way in the house, tipping his fedora forward slightly, a wide grin across his face.

"Oh hey, Kurt." Chie added from where she was sitting, a smile across her face. Kurt responded by giving her two finger guns and smiling back. She thought it was hilariously awkward, but then, that was part of Kurt's charm, she supposed. He was friendly enough not to give a fuck about how stupid he looked.

"Hey, Chie." He said before turning back towards Justin. "I've got good news for you."

Justin raised an eyebrow slightly. Good news? He knew Kurt had been pulling some strings with his contacts to get information on Maya… Perhaps it pertains to that.

"Well don't hog it all for yourself. Spill the beans, man." Kurt smiled slightly, adjusting his fedora again. He seemed to do that a lot; it was like a nervous habit of sorts, except he did it even when he wasn't nervous. It was kind of like how Justin had to pace around as opposed to standing still, or drum along the side of his desk at school.

"You're still on the lookout for information on Maya, right? Well I told all my contacts to give me a ring if they found out anything else about Maya. I got a call this morning with something I think you're gonna like."

"Alright, you've got my attention now."

Kurt smiled, though Justin did not. He wanted to smile, knowing that more information meant the end of this Maya business would be coming closer, but when Kurt didn't say anything else to Justin, he was a little weirded out. Instead of telling Justin some news or information that could help him, Kurt pulled a small, folded up piece of paper, and pressed it into Justin's hand. _More timesheets?_ Justin thought to himself._ I didn't know Kurt had a fax machine._ It wasn't a timesheet, or a sales tab, or anything like that. Written on the crumpled up piece of paper was a number, area code 310. Justin didn't recognize the number, but he certainly knew the area code. It was from California. He squinted at the paper, then at Kurt, then the paper again.

"I hope you didn't spend that prize money yet, overseas calls are expensive." Kurt smirked. Justin had filled him in on the bet during one of his visits, so he was completely aware that Justin had 10,000 yen on the line. Though, Justin hadn't told Kurt he had won yet, so he was a little confused about that. Maybe Kurt just sort of assumed he did; he wouldn't put it behind Kurt to have so much confidence in the people he knew.

Justin scrunched up the corners of his mouth slightly. He already spent 2,000 yen on Chie's steak the other day, and another 3,000 yen he had set aside for Trial of the Dragon 2. That left him with 5,000 yen. Sure, it should cover a short overseas call, but he really wanted to get a replacement guitar, and he didn't even know who the hell he was calling. Or for what he was supposed to be calling. Chie eventually stood up and made her way over to Justin's side, curious as to what he had been holding in his hand. She seemed just as confused by the number Kurt had handed off to him. Justin starred at the paper for a good thirty seconds or so before pulling out his cell-phone. He hated himself for doing this already.

He punched the numbers in slowly, partially in case he wanted to back out at the last minute, partially to make sure he didn't put in a wrong number. Wrong numbers happen from time to time, sure, and usually you just shrug it off being a little embarrassed. But an overseas wrong number? 1200 yen straight down the drain. It took him a moment to finally push the call button, pressing the cell to his ear. He looked around at the expressions of those around him as the phone rang in his ear. Chie seemed slightly concerned, though curious at the same time. Kurt… Well, Kurt had a huge smile on his face. He was excited about whatever it was he did. The phone eventually stopped ringing, a voice coming through from the other side.

_Hello?_

Justin blinked twice in quick succession, his eyes focusing on Kurt. He immediately recognized the voice.

"…Maya?" Justin choked up.

…_Justin?_

Justin smiled at Kurt, his eyes watering over slightly. Kurt only responded by tipping his fedora forward slightly, a wide grin across his face. Chie's mouth opened up into an o shape, as though she couldn't believe what she just heard. Justin lowered his eyes once more, trying to hide the tears welling up behind his eye lids from his friends.

_H-how did you get my number?_ Maya eventually spoke up on her end, confusedly.

"Kurt gave it to me…"

_Waitwhat!? What the hell are you doing talking with Kur-_

"Calm down, Maya. He's been working with me to try and find you for the last month or so. He's not mad about that cigarette thing either. He never was." Justin tried to casually explain. He had forgotten that Maya had been deathly afraid of Kurt. He knew she bought cigarettes from him again later, though, which begged the question, why would she see Kurt again if she was so afraid? He shrugged slightly. There was dead silence on Maya's end for a while. Justin could very much hear her breathing, the slightest sound of her pacing about being audible through the phone.

…_I… Uh…_

She was at a loss for words. I mean, when someone you haven't seen in two years calls you up out of the blue after having someone you thought was trying to kill you gave them your number, you probably would be too. Justin looked around the room again, as though expecting the others to tell him what to say. Not that they would know, of course. This was between him and Maya, not them.

"…Teddie said you were looking for me."

_Teddie? You mean-_

"Yes, Maya, that Teddie." Justin said, trying to be very careful about the whole television thing while Kurt was still in the room. Kurt had no idea who this Teddie guy was, so he was a bit confused all the same.

_H-how did you get inside the TV?_

"It's… It's a long story…" Justin paused slightly. He knew exactly what he wanted to ask, and he realized that beating around the bush like this wasn't getting him anywhere. He decided to jump into the heart of the matter. "Maya… what happened?"

_What? I don't…_

"That week in December, Maya. The one with the Midnight Channel."

The other end of the phone grew dead silent for what seemed like a good ten seconds or so.

…_That's it?_

"What?"

_It's been two years since we've talked, and the first thing you ask me, the very first fucking thing, is to tell you about the most traumatic experience of my entire life!?_

"Maya, I-"

_No, fuck you Justin! Don't call this number again!_

And with that Justin could hear the slightest blip in the call, indicating that Maya had hung up. He couldn't believe it. She was right there, and he fucking blew it. He should have known better just to bring it up like that, but even then… He just starred at the ground for a brief moment before dropping the phone, the back side opening to give the battery wiggle room as it collided with the floor. Kurt who had been smiling this entire time, soon started to frown. He was too far away to hear the conversation, but he knew something had gone horribly wrong. As for Chie… Well she had been standing right next to Justin, so she had heard every word of the conversation. She bit at her bottom lip as she looked at Justin, his eyes unmoving, his face angled towards the ground, his arm growing limp as it fell down towards his side.

"Justin…"

Justin shook his head to side to side for a brief moment, before abruptly turning and throwing his fist into the wall he had been leaning against. "Goddammit!" He shouted, removing his hand from the fresh hole he had made in the structure of his house. Kurt and Chie were both at a loss for words. Kurt had thought this would be a pleasant surprise for him, but rather, it only ended with Justin punching a hole in his wall. His fist was bleeding slightly after his outburst, though he didn't care.

"I am a complete FUCKING moron!" Justin screamed, his forehead leaning against the wall he had just torn through with his fist.

"C'mon, you didn't know…" Chie spoke up, trying to calm Justin down.

"Of course I fucking knew! We fucking MUGGED someone, Chie!" Justin face went blank as soon as the words left his mouth. He had been so angry he forgot to censor himself.

"You did what!?" Chie and Kurt spoke up in complete synchronization.

"We needed the money to pay back Kurt." Justin choked up, shaking his head. He didn't want to answer a single one of their questions, but he had brought it completely upon himself. The look Chie was giving him… He fucked up, big time. She had this combination of shock, disgust, and concern all on her face at once, though disgust was the most prominent. He was expecting her and Kurt to walk out that door at any moment, leaving him to wallow about in his sins and misery. Instead, he was surprised to feel a hand rest upon his shoulder. It wasn't Chie's though.

"Dude… I'm sorry…"

"The fuck are YOU sorry for?"

"I shouldn't have made her pay me back. I mean, yeah, it was a lot of money; but I should have known better than to ask a slumdog to be paying for my inventory."

"Don't call her a slumdog you piece of shit!" Justin's eyes dropped into a glare again. He knew exactly what was coming out of his mouth at this point, but he couldn't seem to force them down anymore. Kurt was right, this was entirely his fault. And then he had the nerve to call one of his only friends a slumdog? Behind all that charm was nothing but a low-life feeding on the weak. He was no better than the rest of the people he knew in California. Kurt averted his eyes, puffing up some hot air.

"Sorry, I didn't mean-"

"Yes you fucking did!"

"Justin, calm down, he's just trying to-"

"Oh, shut the fuck up." Justin said, turning his blind rage towards Chie next. Her jaw dropped, her head recoiled backwards in disbelief. Justin took jabs at her a lot, but he had never said something like that to her. She didn't approve in the slightest. "Don't think I don't see you giving me that fucking look, like I'm some goddamn lunatic. Yeah, that's right, I fucking mugged someone. And you know what? I probably shot him too! How's that for crazy, you bitch!"

"Excuse me!?" Her expression of disbelief turned into a glare almost immediately.

"You heard me!"

Chie shook her head for a brief moment before kneeing Justin straight in the gut. She understood he was angry, but when he called her a bitch, he crossed the line. Justin grabbed his gut and fell to his knees in pain. She hadn't just hit him, she fucking NAILED him. He swore he could taste a little bit of vomit in his mouth.

"We're just trying to help, you asshole!" She shouted in his face, as he reeled over in pain. Her glare softened though when she noticed tears streaming down his face. He wasn't crying because it hurt, however. He was crying because he understood everything he was saying; everything he was doing, and yet, he had no control over himself. He didn't mean to call her a bitch, or call Kurt a piece of shit, yet he couldn't stop himself. He turned his attention up towards Chie for a moment, her glare having subsided to a look of concern.

"…Get the fuck out of my house." He muttered, his voice rhaspy from anger.

"Wha-But-"

"Both of you! Get the fuck out!" He shouted louder this time, his eyes red, tears still streaming down his face. Chie's face scrunched up, her bottom lip quivered, her eyes filled with tears. Even Kurt was at disbelief as to what was going on, as he turned his fedora down to avoid making eye contact with the man in front of him.

"Fine! I'm not coming back either!" Chie eventually shouted, before dashing out the main door, tears in her eyes. Kurt stared at the door for a brief moment, his chest feeling as though it had grown heavy, before he eventually turned to Justin. He had told Kurt to leave, but after seeing how he had made Chie cry like that… That's no way to treat a lady. His gaze dropped into a glare as he laid his eyes on Justin.

"What the fuck is wrong with you!?" Kurt said, getting up in Justin's face. Justin had started to stand up again, using the wall as a support to regain his balance.

"I said get out!"

"You called your girlfriend a bitch just because your other fucking girlfriend wants nothing to do with you anymore? Sooner or later, you're gonna have to get the fuck over Maya."

"You motherfucker…!" Justin grunted as he went to take a swing at Kurt, nailing him clean in the jaw. Kurt placed his hand around his jaw, cracking it back into position.

"Oh, so that's how this is going to go down."

Out of nowhere, Kurt sent his own fist sailing back at Justin, clean in the head. There was so much force in the blow that it had managed to knock Justin's skull back into the wall behind him, knocking him out cold.

* * *

December 6, 2009

* * *

"Jesus Christ, we've been walking for hours." Justin moaned as the two explored every nook and cranny of the town. His legs were killing him, and he already knew his father was going to give him hell. He no doubt had called the house at some point, and when Justin didn't answer… Well, let's just say Justin hoped his father thought he was sleeping.

"Quit your bitching." Maya exclaimed, opening up another garbage lid, expecting to find some way out. They had explored this city thoroughly, and still couldn't quite understand what it was all supposed to mean. Why was it worn away? Why did it look exactly like the place Maya and Justin hungout? What the fuck is up with the green fog? Not a single question was answered, and at this point, they both just wanted out.

"Ugh, I feel sick… Well, sicker…"

"I know what you mean, my stomach's in knots right now." Maya moaned slightly, sighing as she found no exit in the dumpster she had been digging through.

"Can we sit down for a second…" Justin said, holding his sides. He had been walking for ages, and his ribs were starting to kill him from all the exercise. Maya sighed slightly before sitting down. Justin of course took that as a yes to his question, sitting down besides her. Funny enough, they were in their usual hangout spot when they slid their backs down the brick wall behind them. Maya dug around in her pockets for a slight moment before dropping an entire pack of cigarettes between them. Justin was a little surprised to say the least.

"Where did you get an entire pack from?"

"Well this whole TV thing had me really stressed, so I bought a pack from Kurt." She said pulling out two cigarettes; one for her, one for Justin. She handed one to Justin along with her lighter, allowing him to light his own cigarette before she lit hers. He took a drag of the cigarette before handing the lighter back off to Maya. God he really needed a smoke right now.

"I knew this was a bad idea." He said, choking up a bit of smoke as Maya lit up her own cigarette. She took a drag before turning to Justin.

"Look, I'm sorry. I didn't think it'd be a one way trip."

"Please don't say that. There's got to be a way out around here somewhere."

"What if there's not?"

"Then I won't be looking forward to eating my shoes." He half-joked. Maya sighed for a moment, before she straightened her back up, a slight look of confusion on her face.

"Do you hear that?"

Justin exchanged a funny look with Maya. He hadn't heard a thing.

"Hear what?"

"Sounds like an acoustic guitar. I swear I've heard that riff before somewhere too… I think it was Coheed and Cambria who wrote it. God what was the song though…"

"I don't hear anything."

Maya sighed slightly looking at the ground.

"Maybe it's my imagination." She shrugged slightly. Maybe she just had a song stuck in her head or something, so she was hearing things. The two sat in total quiet for a few moments, smoking their cigarettes, trying to get their energy back. They weren't just going to lay down and die, after all, they needed to keep searching. But to do that, they needed their strength. All the same, the two jumped up almost immediately when an unfamiliar sound reached their ears.

"Huh? Wh-what are you guys doing here."

"Sweet mother of fuck." Justin exclaimed in shock, his hand over his chest. There was someone else here, and even if he didn't know who they are, or what they wanted, their sudden vocalization scared the ever-loving shit out of him as it broke through the silence. He turned his head over to see the source of the sound, only for his skin to grow pale, his chest feeling heavy. Standing before him was a small, robust mascot. He was dressed up like a bear, and goddamn was he colorful. Maya who had also jumped at the sound, scrunched one of her cheeks up, her eye squinted slightly. What the hell is a mascot doing here, she thought.

"Who the hell are you?" She spoke up from her end.

"That's what I want to know! Who are you people, and what are you doing here."

"Hey, she asked you first." Justin added starting to stand up. He didn't like this guy's sudden appearance, and he was ready to defend himself if worst come to worse. Maya soon followed Justin's lead, dusting off her shirt as she stood.

"I'm Teddie. Now who are you people?"

"I'm Justin, and this is Maya. We uh… We came in through a television set." Justin tried to explain. He figured if this is the world inside of a television, then whoever this guy is; he should know that he's inside a television. So there was no reason to beat around the bush when addressing the issue at hand. Maya scrunched her brow for a split second._ Yeah, that explains it alright, though I'm not sure that we should be telling this guy anything._

"What are you guys doing in here? Don't you know it's dangerous?"

"Well, Maya here thought it would be interesting to see what was on the other side."

"I stuck my hand into a television; quit acting like that wasn't a reasonable reaction."

"We've been trying to find our way out for the last few hours. And I haven't seen anything dangerous yet. Except maybe this fog. Why the fuck is it green?"

The mascot only shrugged at Justin's inquiry. "We-Well I know the way out.""

"You do?" The mascot nodded, a smile across his face. Up until now, the mascot hadn't really shown any facial expression, so Justin had been startled by the mascot's mask moving. No suit can do that. He wanted to question how the hell that worked, but figured that it wouldn't be worth pissing off the guy offering them a way out.

"Here, watch."

The mascot turned around; and in a sudden explosion of purple smoke, three televisions appeared stacked on top of each other. Of course, it took Justin and Maya a while to notice it, what with the smoke going into their eyes and lungs. Once the smoke cleared, however, their jaws practically dropped. What the hell was this thing that it just summoned three televisions out of thin air?

"What in the fuck?"

"Just climb through there and you'll be back where you came from." Teddie smiled. Maya tapped the screen causing it to shimmer at her touch. She would stick her head through, but she figured that the worst case scenario placed Justin's father in his house. If they were going to jump out of the screen, they were going to do it all at once. Justin was completely dumbfounded. He had too many questions to ignore them now.

"Alright, so if you can just summon the way out, what are you still doing here?"

"Huh? What do you mean? I live here." Justin dropped the topic at that. Given the way his mask seemed to move, and he could summon an exit like that, he wouldn't be surprised if this 'mascot' actually did spawn from whatever backwards world this was he had been in. He shrugged slightly, before tapping his own finger against the screen. It seemed to respond to him too, which was strange because it hadn't done so the other way around. All the same, the sensation was strange. It was like touching electrified water, a tingling sensation reaching through his finger. He turned to give Maya a quick nod before the two attempted to leave. Their foot had already gone through when they heard Teddie from behind.

"W-wait, you guys are leaving already?"

The two removed their feet from the screen before turning towards each other, a look of confusion on their face. He seemed to have wanted them out earlier.

"Well, yeah. We've got to get home. Why?"

"We-well, you're the first people I've met in her in a long time." He said, a frown on his face. He looked almost lonely; a trait that seemed to reach out to Maya, who returned his saddened stare. She looked at Justin for a split moment before turning to Teddie again.

"Well… Do you always enter the same spot through the television?"

"Huh? W-well yeah…"

"Well… What if you set the televisions up so we could come in and out? We could come visit you."

"Maya, what the hell are you doing."

"Quiet you."

"Huh, y-you mean you'd come back?"

"I don't see why not."

The bear looked like he was going to tear up at any moment; or at least, if he could. Justin wasn't sure how much one could cry in a bear suit, assuming it was a suit of course.

"I-I'll leave the televisions right there so you can come and go." Teddie smiled slightly.

"Alright then, it's a deal." Maya smiled at him before giving a quick nod. She turned to press her hand against the screen again, Justin following her lead only a split second after. "I'll see you later Teddie." She said, giving a quick wave before Justin and her stepped through the television screen. Teddie waved back, though Justin couldn't see it.

* * *

May 29, 2011

* * *

"Why am I doing this…" Chie muttered to herself as she knocked at Justin's door. It was late, almost midnight in fact, when she opted to make her way back to Justin's house. After all that had gone down, she just couldn't rest easy with the things he had said. And though every fiber of her being said to let Justin go fuck himself, she had to settle things. There wasn't so much as a sound from the inside after Chie knocked on the door. She had figured at first that it was Justin having fallen asleep early; after all, it was fairly common knowledge that when Justin didn't need to stay up for the Midnight Channel, he went to bed fairly early.

She knocked again all the same. It had started to drizzle out, and while she could easily walk home in this weather, it would be nice to be inside for the short duration of the storm. However, when she knocked again this time, the door came loose. It had been open the entire time, and no one had opened the door for her. She was confused as to why the door had been open, but made her way inside anyway.

"Justin?" She said, as she made her way into the house. She looked around. The wall still had a hole in it, but other than that, everything seemed to look the same… Except for Justin's phone, which had still conveniently been smashed against the floor. She raised an eyebrow in slight confusion. He didn't pick it up and put it on the counter? Justin was a neat-freak, so that didn't make a lick of sense; but then, she realized how Justin got when he was pissed off over something. All the same, she carefully picked the phone up, pushing the battery back into place. The phone flickered back to life in the process, beeping to indicate he had missed some calls while his phone was indisposed off. Chie was a little curious, so she flipped the phone over. Three missed calls from a 310 number. Chie sighed slightly. _Thanks a lot Maya, you bitch._

She gently put the phone down on the counter before heading up the stairs and pushing open Justin's bedroom door. Nothing. The sheets weren't even thrown apart, so it wasn't like he had been in bed recently. Chie bit her bottom lip slightly. Justin clearly wasn't in the house, yet the door had been open. What the hell had been going on there? She made a sound of concern under her breath before rushing back down the stairs to take a closer look around. She looked around the kitchen area again, though she noticed something she hadn't the first time around. On the wall was the slightest tint of brown, dried blood. It hadn't even been on the spot Justin had punched a hole in the wall; it was over to the side. Hell looking at it now, there was a few specks of blood on the floor too.

Chie didn't know what was going on, but whatever it was, it involved bloodshed. And she didn't like that one bit. She was about to pull out her cell phone to call her friends, hoping that maybe they had seen hide or hair of Justin, when suddenly the slightest buzzing sound became audible behind her. She turned around to find the television screen had sprung to life. It had turned Midnight during her search, and it was technically raining out, so it made sense for the Midnight Channel to be on. That wasn't what had concerned her. What concerned her was the silhouette standing in the middle of the room. She immediately dropped the phone that had been in her hand. The picture didn't need to be in focus for her to recognize who it was.

On the Midnight Channel that night had been Justin, standing with his hands in his pocket, a cigarette sticking out of his mouth.


	48. Chapter 47: May 30, 2011

CHAPTER 47

May 30, 2011

* * *

"What the hell is wrong with you people!?"

Chie had rushed into homeroom that morning, news of Justin's disappearance on her tongue. She told everyone how the front door to Justin's house was wide open, how he hadn't been at his house at nearly midnight, how the Midnight Channel had flickered on, and how she could clearly tell it was Justin. Unfortunately, when she broke the news to everyone else, they had a hard time believing her. And by that I mean they didn't believe her at all. Chie was pissed to say the least. She had seen him clear as day on that screen, there was no denying it was him.

"Calm down, Chie." Yu spoke up calmly. "You're probably just imagining things. It didn't even rain last night, so how would the Midnight Channel be on? The television was probably already on and you didn't notice."

"What? It DID rain last night, don't you remember it sprinkling out!?"

"I don't." Yosuke spoke up.

"Me neither." Yukiko added in agreement. Yukiko was probably the only one in the room that half-believed Chie, but even then, she was having a hard time believing that a psychopath like Justin wouldn't be able to fight off his attackers, in his own home of all places. Chie groaned in anger. _Why wouldn't anyone believe me! This isn't a joke; Justin's life could very well be on the line here!_

"Well, it was!"

"Alright let's assume for a second that it did rain last night, and the Midnight Channel aired. What makes you so sure it was Justin?" Yosuke spoke up. _Assume nothing, it happened!_

"I don't know how to explain it, it just looked like him!"

"Did he have one of those 'programs'?" Yu added, trying to clarify some of the facts.

"W-Well no, it was still one of those silhouette ones."

"Well alright then. Even if it was Justin, which I doubt, he's not in the TV yet. He's fine, Chie. We'll just look around for him after school." Yosuke spoke, trying to be reassuring, but instead sounding incredibly cocky.

"But he's missing!"

"We don't know that. It's not like we could call him and confirm or anything since you seem to have his phone for some reason."

Chie slammed her hands on her desk. How was she not getting through to these people, people who were supposed to be her friends, people who were supposed to trust her when she made claims like this? I mean, why would she lie about this? Why would she tell them Justin was in the television if she wasn't one hundred percent sure?

"He left it because he got kidnapped!"

"He left it because he forgot it." Yosuke said matter-of-factly.

"Broken on the floor!?"

"Yeah, probably slipped out of his pocket."

That was it. Chie had had enough of this bullshit. She clenched her fists and gritted her teeth before shouting at the three of them.

"UGH, Screw you guys! If you guys won't help, I'll look for him myself!"

Before the others could so much as react, she turned around and dashed out the door, Yosuke shouting her name to try and get her to come back. It was no use though, she was gone long before she had even turned to leave that room.

"C-Chie, wait!" Yukiko called out to her from her seat, her hand out reached to the door. She sighed with concern, her out stretched hand growing slightly limp as Chie made her way out the door, not so much as a hesitation in her step at Yukiko's attempt to stop her. Yukiko turned to the others, slightly irritated at how poorly they had handled this situation. "Why won't you two believe her?"

"Because her story has more holes in it than Swiss cheese." Yosuke joked.

"Well Chie clearly believes it for a reason!" Yukiko scolded the two. Yosuke and Yu hung their head in shame. Yu especially.

"It's just… She says he's already been kidnapped, yet he hasn't appeared on the television screen yet. It just doesn't make any sense." Yu tried explaining his thought process.

"What if it's showed up before?"

"Impossible, we would have noticed."

"We didn't seem to notice it rain last night." Yukiko countered. Yosuke and Yu looked at each other. They still weren't entirely sure it DID rain last night, but it did seem like a stupid thing for Chie to lie about… And it's not like they would have seen the Midnight Channel, because they had all been watching regular TV at that time for the last few days.

"So you think this wasn't the first time he's been on TV?" Yosuke questioned.

"I don't know. It makes sense though." Yukiko reasoned out loud. "Whatever the reasoning, Chie wouldn't have just left school like this if she wasn't serious. Her parents will give her such a hard time if they ever find out she skipped class."

Yosuke sighed. "Well… Isn't it supposed to rain tonight? Maybe we should check for ourselves. If he was kidnapped yesterday, then the program should show up today, right?"

"Yosuke might be onto something. If it happened late enough at night, whoever's responsible for putting the program up might not have had enough time to air it, right?"

"Maybe…"

"So then it's settled. We'll look into it tomorrow."

The three all nodded in agreement, though they immediately went back to a worried state of mind. They didn't know what was going on with Justin, but they did know what was going on with Chie. Yosuke crossed his arms and sighed.

"Someone should really go get her."

"But the bells going to ring soon." Yukiko countered. Clearly she wouldn't be the one to do it. Yosuke groaned slightly, closing his eyes.

"Well… I already have a shitty attendance record as it is. Might as well." He muttered aloud, before standing up and making his way out of homeroom. Yu sighed slightly. He wasn't even sure what to believe anymore. He just hoped for everyone's sake that Chie had been wrong.

* * *

"Ugh… My head is killing me…" Justin groaned, his eyes still closed as he rolled over to his back on the cold, hard floor he had awoken on. He opened his eyes only slightly; just enough to realize he wasn't in his house. The room was dark, no noticeable signs of light anywhere. He could feel the texture of concrete below him along with… _OH HOLY FUCK THAT BURNS_. Justin pulled his hand back, shaking it slightly. He had in avertedly shoved his hand straight into barbed wire, and it stung like a bitch. He was bleeding slightly, but then, Justin didn't really care. He placed the fingers on his other hand up to his forehead, rubbing at it slightly. Looking up, he could also see chains hanging down from the ceiling, some dangerously close to where he laid. Which would be fine under normal circumstances, but some seemed to have hooks on them. What kind of fucking death trap did Justin wake up too? He was about to stand up and get his bearings when he heard an all too familiar voice.

"**Well look who's finally waking up! Sleeping beauty himself!"**

Justin groaned slightly. He was about to stand up to confront his shadow again, though that was immediately thwarted by his shadow thrusting his cane straight into Justin's stomach, shoving him back into the ground, his back flat against the dirty cement floor he had awoken on, his arm just scratching against the end of the barbed wire that had strategically been placed at seemingly random indentations around him.

Justin looked up, a glare on his face as he starred into his shadow's eyes. His shadow was different this time. He had been wearing what looked like a dictator's uniform; only, there were a few noticeable 'accessories,' for lack of a better word. He had been wearing what looked like a red bandana along the right side of his chest, over his shoulder and around his arm. His shadow was wearing fingerless black gloves, chains wrapped all along his wrists, starting and ending perfectly around where Justin's gaunt wraps had been. He had cloth running down where the jacket met his pants, red and torn, wrapping from the sides of each leg all the way along the back. It was blood red, much like the bandana along his chest. And that dictator hat had an icon printed in the dead center, a golden olive branch crown wrapped along it. The icon was a red fist sticking up, a hammer in its hand.

"What the fuck is this?"

"**That would be a cane. You should know, you use it all the time."**

"I mean the room, smartass.

"**This, my friend, is hell. Your hell to be more precise."**

"I didn't know my hell was that room from Saw 3. Or Saw 4. Or Saw 5, 6, and 7."Justin smirked. It's like his shadow had just decided to throw every sharp and pointy thing he could find into some dark abandoned warehouse and called it a day. Much to Justin's displeasure, however, his shadow only smirked back.

"**Do you always judge a movie by the first ten seconds? My friend, this is only the beginning of your suffering."**

"Well if it's anything like the rest, I think I'll be fine. I needed a vacation anyway."

His shadow glared at him for a brief moment, removing his cane from its resting place on Justin's chest. Justin took that as his opportunity to stand up, but was instead met by his shadow kicking him in the ribs. Justin gasped out in pain slightly, grabbing at his side slightly as he rolled over on the other. The shadow only smirked making his way closer to Justin's head.

"**You really should learn to keep that snide little mouth of yours shut. It'll get you into real trouble someday. Oh, and one last thing..."**

Justin looked up at the shadow from the corners of his eyes, still gasping in pain as he held his side. His shadow kicked hard. Might have been those iron tipped boots he was wearing that did the trick. The shadow laughed slightly, his yellow eyes seeming more intense than ever before.

"**Welcome home."**

The last thing Justin saw before losing consciousness was his shadow's booth crashing down upon his face.

* * *

December 7, 2009

* * *

"Teddie? You here?" Maya called out, the sound of her voice echoing in the strange landscape. Justin let go of his grip on Maya's wrist as he finished coming through the screen, pulling down on his shirt slightly in the process.

"I cannot seriously believe we're doing this again. What, one brush with death wasn't enough?"

"We're all in love with dying; we're drinking from a fountain." Maya smirked slightly from where she was standing

"Pouring like an avalanche coming down the mountain; yeah, yeah, very cute." Justin groaned. Usually quoting random songs as a smug remark was his thing, though he was starting to realize how that could get annoying very quick. Especially considering Maya only seemed to quote Pepper. For a girl who listened to psychedelic rock, you'd think she'd have a wider repertoire of lyrics to choose from. Nope. Pepper. That's it.

Maya called out for Teddie a second time, though she was interrupted mid-sentence by a tapping sensation at her leg. Apparently Teddie was short enough that neither had noticed him walk up to them.

"I-I'm right here…"

"Oh… Sorry Teddie. Was looking right over your head." Maya grinned before reaching out and patting him on the head. Teddie seemed more than a little excited by the motion, much to Justin's disgust. Though, he did have to make a mental note to himself to ask Maya if that felt like a suit or if that was actual fur.

"So… Teddie… What IS this place?" Justin interrupted.

"Wh-what do you mean?"

"Well, where did this place come from? Why is it inside a television? Why the hell does it look like where we come from?"

"I don't know. This place has always been like this."

Justin sighed slightly. He couldn't imagine that whatever this Teddie thing was that he was immortal, able to live forever despite age. It wouldn't be unlikely that Teddie hadn't even been around in the beginning, though that would beg the question of where Teddie came from. And more importantly, when WAS the beginning.

"Who would have imagined a whole 'nother world inside of our televisions… Well, YOUR televisions." Maya clarified. She didn't have a television, of course, so saying our just didn't sit right with her.

"I still say I died and went to hell at some point."

"Well then what am I doing here?" Maya countered.

"It just wouldn't be hell without you, sweetheart." Justin joked.

"Well glad to know I'm an essential part to your eternal suffering." She choked up over laughter. At least Justin wasn't bitching about the TV every five seconds. That was a plus. She paused for a brief moment after her laughter died down, a thought suddenly occurring to her. "You know. I don't get something about this whole TV business. You said we're the first ones you've seen here in a while, right?"

"Y-Yeah?"

"Does that mean I'm the only one who can do this? Go in the TV I mean."

"Well, there have been other people, but it's been so long… I guess so?"

Maya looked down at the ground for brief moment before chuckling silently to herself. She was the only person around who could do this; one of a kind, a class act, special even. And she felt good about it. Really good. Justin, not so much. He didn't like the looks of this place one bit, and he didn't want Maya constantly going in and out of what could possibly be a death trap. After all, Teddie did say it was dangerous that one time, right? So why the hell had the two of them bothered coming back?

"Well, if I'm the only one who can come in here, this would be one hell of a hiding spot."

"You say that like you're the one who has to constantly run away from their parents."

"You say that like you haven't been with me everytime I've jumped into the television," Maya rebutted.

"You say that like I could somehow go to your house, grab your wrist, and jump into a television while my father chases me around with a broken bottle."

"What if I just cut off a finger and give it to you. Then you can go in anytime." Maya joked.

"I think I'd rather take the broken bottle."

"Good, cause I wasn't going to saw my finger off for you."

"I would most certainly hope you weren't!"

Maya chuckled for a brief second before her eyes widened a bit, an idea suddenly striking her. "Wait a second, this WOULD make a good hiding spot…"

"Yeah, I think we just said that."

"No, no, not like hiding US, like hiding objects, things we could carry in with us and leave here."

"Okay…? I don't know why we would ever want to do that."

"I can think of a good reason." A wide grin suddenly swept Maya's face. She had just been struck by a wonderful idea. Jumping into televisions may not be a wonderful power or anything, but it could still lives. In this case, it would save herself from poverty.

* * *

"Chie, wait up!"

Chie was standing in front of the television to Junes, her fingers already phasing through the screen when Yosuke came rushing around the corner. Chie blinked twice in confusion before pulling back on her arm, removing her hand from the screen.

"Yosuke? What are you doing here?"

"Trying to catch you, idiot!" Yosuke gasped as he came to a full stop in front of Chie. Chie groaned slightly once she realized what Yosuke meant by that. _It's not enough that you're not gonna help, you're gonna try and stop me too? Screw you!_

"If you don't want to help, that's fine, but you're not stopping me from going after him, Yosuke."

"No, no, listen; we believe you. But we all think maybe we should just wait it out a day, see what happens with the Midnight Channel."

"Wait it out for a- Yosuke, he's in there alone with his shadow as we speak! We can't waste any time!"

"Let's assume you're right, and he's already in the television. He'll be fine until the fog rolls in, right?"

"Yosuke, you realize we're talking about Justin, right? He'll get pissed off at his shadow within seconds. Are we REALLY going to leave him alone in there for a day?"

"Alright, well, if he's been kidnapped, shouldn't Justin's program be airing today?" Yosuke added, trying to scrape together as many reasons as he could to get Chie to back down for the moment being.

"This isn't for entertainment you sick-"

"No, not like that, you idiot! If we watch the program when it airs, we'll know what Justin's shadow is supposed to be like, right?"

"Except we've already SEEN Justin's shadow."

"It could change…" Yosuke added sheepishly, trying to defend his idea. Chie starred at him for a while. Yosuke was right to a certain degree, but Chie didn't want to leave Justin in there for even a second more than he had to be in there. She was about to open her mouth to say something when suddenly the two heard ringing. Yosuke blinked twice as he recognized the Geico ringtone.

"Chie… You don't have the same ringtone as Justin by any chance, would you?"

"No, I have Justin's cell phone on me." Yosuke gave her a funny look before she reached into her pocket to check the caller id. It was a 310 number. Chie glared at the phone for a brief moment. This was all HER fault. If she hadn't interfered with Justin's life, none of this would be happening right now. And what the hell was that stuff about mugging someone yesterday. She knew Justin could be rebellious, but mugging someone? Gunning someone down in cold blood? She knew damn well Justin wasn't capable of that, even if he questioned it himself. Which only left one other person who could have possibly been to blame for the idea; Maya. She wanted to just throw the phone across the room right now in fury, but for some reason, Chie instead opted for opening the phone and pushing it against her ear.

"Hello Maya." Chie spoke into the phone. Yosuke's eyes widened with surprise. Maya? When the hell did they manage to get into contact with her? And how the hell did Chie know it was her before she even spoke up? Did she have Maya's number or something?

_Uh, hello…? Wh-Who is this._

"My name's Chie Satonaka. I'm Justin's girlfriend." She paused ever so slightly before the last word in her sentence, as though she wasn't comfortable announcing that to someone she barely knew.

_Girlfriend!? Justin has a girlfriend!?_

"Yep." Chie answer after a slight pause. There were a lot of things she'd rather have said instead. _Jealous much? Wouldn't you like to know? None of your business slut. _But Chie decided to keep it civil to a certain degree. Maya had to have had a reason to be calling back after her little charade last night. "What do you want now, Maya? Do you realize how much trouble you've cau-"

_No, and I don't care. Is Justin there?_

"Yeah, I just totally stole his phone to answer this expensive overseas call because we're all just sitting around the campfire eating marshmallows. No he's not here."

_Shit! Look, Justin might be in trouble..._ Chie blinked for a moment, staring at the television next to her. She had a fairly good idea what Maya was talking about. Maya had proceeded to start talking again, but Chie didn't hear a word of it. She was too busy talking over her.

"You saw the Midnight Channel didn't you?"

There was suddenly dead silence over on Maya's side.

_Y-You know about it?_

"It's been airing over her for the last few months. Oh, and by the way, Justin told Teddi—"

_To call me a lady; I know. Ted just told me a second ago. But, wait… How do you know Teddie?_

"You're not the only one who can jump into televisions you know. And wait a second… Did you just say a second ago? How the hell are you getting reception in there?"

There was a brief pause on Maya's end of the line. It had never crossed her mind that other people could jump into televisions. The only one besides from herself that she thought could do it was Justin, and even then, she wasn't sure how. She thought maybe he had something that belonged to her that let him go through the screen. She suddenly felt a lot less special knowing that others could do it to. But then, feeling special never got her anywhere in life, apparently.

_Oh, you can get reception within a certain range of the televisions in and out. The TV picks up the signal and transfers it to the other side or something. I don't know, there's a lot of science invol-_

Chie didn't so much as respond to Maya before she closed the phone. Yosuke was a little confused at first, thought that changed when he saw Chie stepping through the television screen.

"Hey wait! I thought we agreed we were going to... wait…" His speech slowed to a crawl as he followed her through the television set. He was met by the usual sight of Teddie standing about, though there had been someone with him; a girl, about their age. Yosuke's jaw dropped ever so slightly as he laid his eyes upon her. She had short black hair, about neck length, with a pink pin on her left side that kept her bangs in place. She had green eyes and a few freckles along her nose, though Yosuke could have swore Justin described her as having hazel eyes. She was wearing a black hoodie, a red stripe going down the left arm of it, but not the right. It took Yosuke a while to really process that this was supposed to be Maya; perhaps because he was too captivated by her appearances to even think straight.

"Maya?" Chie asked as she walked up to the girl. The girl nodded in return as Chie came to a full stop in front of her.

"Chie, I assu-" She had half been expecting a friendly greeting from Chie, but instead only received a slap across her face. Maya's face scrunched down in anger and disbelief as she placed her hand along her cheek, a red hand print where Chie's hand had collided with her face.

"That's for yesterday!" Chie shouted, her finger in Maya's face.

"For yester- I didn't do jackshit!"

"No, your comment only sent Justin over the edge, made him punch through a wall, called me a bitch, and according to a call I got from Kurt yesterday, got him into a pretty nasty fist fight. But yeah, other than that, you're completely innocent, aren't ya?"

"Well what do you want me to say? He calls me up after two years of no show, and suddenly he's asking about something I STILL go to therapy for!" Maya screamed back at Chie, her arm raised up to her side. Chie glared back at her for a brief moment before stepping back. Maya sighed slightly before crossing her arms in front of her chest, her eyes moving over to Yosuke, who had started to get more than a little into the cat fight that had unfolded in front of him. "Who's he?"

Chie puffed out some hot air for a moment before turning to Yosuke. "That's Yosuke, he's a… I don't think friend is the right word..."

"Justin beats the crap out of him on a regular basis, doesn't he?"

"Yep." Chie and Yosuke spoke up in complete unison.

"Then the word you're looking for is 'friend by extension.'" Maya said in a matter-of-fact voice, as though Justin had done this around her too. Yosuke and Chie exchanged a glance with each other, as though to say 'who woulda thunk?'

"Alright Maya, what exactly are you doing here." Chie spoke as she turned her head away from Yosuke and back over to Maya. She seemed relatively carefree a moment ago, a stern but otherwise neutral expression on her face, but something about Chie's words made her frown, her eyes dropping down with sadness and concern.

"Well… After my conversation with Justin yesterday, I decided to watch the Midnight Channel again; for old time's sake, you know? But… when it came on, there was someone sitting there. It wasn't ever like that when we used to watch it; it used to just be an empty chair. I couldn't really make out any features but…"

"You could tell it was him."

"I tried calling him last night, but he didn't pick up. So I've been here with Ted trying to see if he could be in here anywhere."

"I definitely smell him here somewhere." Teddie spoke up.

"So he IS here." Yosuke spoke up. He'd by lying if he said he had believed Justin had been kidnapped up until this point. He had thought that Chie had just blown things out of proportion because of their relationship. Especially hearing about that part just a moment ago where Justin called her a bitch. He didn't think that was even remotely possible for Justin.

"And you guys didn't believe me! Maya… Do you… you know."

"Have persona?"

"Yeah."

"Not in the traditional sense…"

"What the hell does that mean?" Chie questioned loudly.

"My shadow just sort of disappeared after I managed to outrun it this one time. I tried to find it a couple of times, but… It was just gone. But… Then I started going to therapy. Defeating your shadow isn't the only way of controlling your emotions."

"I still don't get it…"

"Alright, I'll show you. Yosuke, would you mind volunteering for something?"

"Huh? S-Sure!" He practically shouted. Chie raised an eyebrow. He sounded really excited for some reason.

Maya made her way over to Yosuke before sweeping his leg out beneath him, twisting his leg as he landed. Yosuke screamed out in pain, much to Chie's disapproval. What the hell was Maya trying to do murder them all? Maya clasped her hands together, bowing her head for a moment, her eyes closed. She opened them a brief moment later, however, her entire eyes seemingly replaced with a blue light radiating from her skull.

"Diarahan." She whispered, neon blue lights swirling around her and into Yosuke's leg. After a few seconds, Yosuke stopped screaming out in pain. He raised his eyebrows up in surprise, his mouth forming an o.

"I… don't feel the pain anymore!" He said lifting his leg up and down. The leg Maya had just broken just a moment ago had been fully healed. Hell, it felt better than it ever did before. Maya closed her eyes again, the blue light subsiding into her. When she opened her eyelids once more, her eyes had returned back to their previous green color.

"Sorry about that Yosuke." She apologized, rubbing at the back of her neck. "I didn't hurt you too bad, did I?"

"N-No, it's cool. My leg feels better than ever." He smiled that wide grin of his before he stood back up. Maya gave a slight nod of acknowledgement, a smile sweeping across her face as well.

"Wow, that was amazing." Chie spoke up from her end.

"It takes a lot out of me though." Maya countered. Actually, looking at her now, she did look pretty exhausted, and this was only supposed to be a demonstration. What if she actually had to use her abilities out on the field? Chie didn't want her to strain herself, even if Justin's life was on the line.

"Maybe we should go together on this one." Chie spoke up. She didn't really like Maya, but they could use all the help they could get, and she knew Maya was just gonna end up looking anyway.

"I agree!" Yosuke shouted.

"No one asked you." Chie countered. Maya simply chuckled a bit at the two. Chie responded by shooting Maya a confused glare. "What? Something in my teeth?"

"Oh man, I can see what Justin sees in you." Chie's face grew a bit red with embarrassment. She wasn't even sure if that was supposed to be a compliment or not.

"Hey, now that you say that… Something strikes me a bit odd about your story." Chie spoke up. "You said you came here because you saw Justin on the Midnight Channel, right? But… isn't the rumor that spread over in California that you see your soulmate? So then when you say Justin in the Midnight Channel, does that mean you thought…"

Maya's eyes widened, her cheeks turning red immediately. "Uh… W-well, I uh…"

"That's what I thought." Chie's eyebrows dropped into a glare for a brief moment. Sure Maya didn't know Justin was accounted for, but she still felt almost like Maya was trying to best her, to steal Justin away from her. She wasn't gonna have any of that.

"N-No, seriously, It's not like that-"

"Yeah, whatever. Just keep it to yourself."

"I didn't take you as the jealous type, Chie." Yosuke joked from behind her.

"Shut up!" Chie responded back. Yosuke couldn't help but laugh.

"Hey, while we're asking questions…" Yosuke spoke up, changing the topic, "This might seem like a strange question but, uh… What color are your eye?" Chie and Maya both shot him a confused glance. Chie wasn't exactly sure now was the best time for Yosuke to be flirting with Maya. Maya apparently thought Yosuke had the same motive given that she had been blushing. No one had ever asked her about her eyes before, let alone a complete stranger.

"Uh… Green… Why?"

"Justin told us they were hazel."

"H-He did?" Maya seemed to blush harder. She hadn't known Justin had actually kept a note of her eye color; even if he was completely wrong. She couldn't blame him though, given that to him, her eyes probably were hazel. Chie shot her a glare from the side, though Maya didn't see it. "Oh, uh, well I used to wear color contacts. See?"

Maya stuck her finger against her eye before removing it, a contact stuck to the tip of her index finger. Her eyes still looked green to Yosuke, so she clearly wasn't wearing colored contacts now. Maya looked off to the side a moment; her cheeks still red, before putting the contact back in her eye. Yosuke smiled at her slightly.

"I don't understand. Why would you want to change your eye color? I think green looks beautiful on y- Err… I-I mean…"

"Oh my god, get a room you two." Chie finally spoke up, having enough of the awkward flirting Yosuke was trying to do. Maya's face was completely red at this point. She had never had someone try to flirt with her before. Most people just tended to ignore her because she always wore the same thing everyday, or because she was a tomboy. She wasn't exactly the most attractive girl out there in that regard. Yosuke's face was a bit red too. He didn't mean to come off like he was flirting, but… It sure as hell sounded that way.

"Uh… Sorry, I didn't mean it like that…" Yosuke added, his cheeks slightly red.

"I-It's okay…" Maya stuttered before trying to answer his question, "Green's not really a natural color, so I figured hazel would make me look better. Though I had to stop using the color contacts when I started coming here."

"Huh? Wh-what do you mean?" Yosuke questioned.

"Well, I couldn't wear those glasses like you guys are right now, because my prescription just made everything I saw through them blurry. So, Teddie ended up making me a pair of contacts instead. Same prescription and everything, so I just started wearing these instead." Teddie smiled widely as Maya patted him on the head. That was usually how she ended up acknowledging he did something good; though it seemed Teddie thought that was supposed to mean something entirely different.

"Huh. I always did wonder what would happen if someone already wore glasses when they came in here." Yosuke spoke up.

"What do you mean? You guys come in here with Justin, right?"

"Yeah, but he doesn't wear glasses…" Yosuke added questioningly.

"He has a bad left eye, so he wears a contact in it." Chie bit her bottom lip. He most certainly did have a bad left eye, but not in the way Yosuke or Maya probably thought he did. She debated filling Maya in on it, but she figured it just wasn't worth it. Besides, Justin doesn't need Maya showing up to rescue him questioning him about what happened to his eye. "He always joked about getting a monocle instead though."

"I can totally picture Justin doing that." Yosuke chuckled. Chie sighed slightly before deciding to put an end to the discussion about Justin's eye.

"Alright, so we'll all go looking for him tomorrow then." She said, as though awaiting confirmation. Yosuke smiled at her, happy to have convinced her that they needed to wait it out. Of course, it hadn't been Yosuke that had managed to sway her opinion; it was the fact that Maya looked completely exhausted; not only from her show of healing magic either. She looked like she hadn't slept in over twenty four hours.

"Tommorow? Wh-what about today?" Maya questioned, a slightly irritated tone to her voice.

"We have two other friends with Persona." Yosuke explained, "But they want us to wait it out for a day, see what happens on the Midnight Channel tonight. If we go tomorrow, then all five of us can go look for him at once."

"But-"

"He's right." Chie interrupted, "As much as I hate having to wait it out, we might get some valuable information by watching Justin's program tonight. Besides, if Justin's shadow is as bad as I remember it being, we're going to need Yu and Yukiko too."

"Y-You guys saw Justin's shadow too?" Maya added after a short period of silence.

"Wait, you saw Justin's shadow?"

"Y-yeah, he showed up at the same time as mine… He…" Maya turned her head away from the two, opting to look at the ground, her bottom lip clenched between her teeth. Justin's shadow had said a lot of things to the two, a lot of which were unpleasant. Neither really believed that these two things were actually them at the time, so she just shrugged it off. But now, knowing that a shadow is actually hidden emotions… Some of those comments especially hurt. "He was a real asshole."

"Ugh, I know…" Chie spoke up, a look of slight disgust on her face.

"You remember that 'bro with a vagina' remark?" Yosuke added jokingly. Chie's addition of a smack to the backside of his head wasn't in quite as much jest. "Ow! What the hell is that for!" Chie just huffed at him before crossing her arms and looking in the opposite direction, a slight pout on her face. If Yosuke didn't know why he got slapped upside the head for that comment, she wasn't going to explain it to him. "Well, at least Justin usually gives him shit for it." Yosuke added rubbing the back of his head.

"Usually? W-wait a second, you guys have run into him more than once?"

"He shows up from time to time." Chie shrugged. Maya sighed slightly, placing her forehead against the side of her hand.

"Alright I guess… We'll wait till tomorrow…"

* * *

11:59

Chie was starring at her screen intently, her heart racing, her breath heavy. She didn't have the slightest doubt in her mind that Justin would have one of those programs today. Part of her didn't want to watch whatever twisted things his shadow was going to do on live air, but she had to. She needed to know what they were in store for, what they'd need to be prepared to face. She bit her bottom lip as she swapped her gaze back and forth between the alarm clock and the television. She could honestly say, that this had been the longest minute of her entire life.

12:00

Chie turned her attention over to the screen. It usually took a few seconds for the television to kick on after her clock hit midnight. Her clock was probably ahead a few seconds. It took a moment, but the screen was eventually engulfed in static, a clear image fading into view. Chie's mouth slipped open slightly as she saw Justin's shadow standing there, wearing a dictator's uniform, standing in front of a fire of some sorts. She didn't want to know what it was he had set on fire. The shadow turned to the camera, a smirk on his face.

"**Good evening, you fucking swine. I am your new leader, your master of puppets, your conqueror, king, and lord. And let me tell you folks, if you've been praying to the man upstairs, you've been praying to the wrong god, because now I control your fate."**

It took every fiber of Chie's being not to plug the TV in and turn it on, cutting off the image on her screen. That dictator's uniform, this whole 'conqueror' thing. She didn't like what Justin's shadow was implying. Not in the slightest. And she certainly didn't get any good vibes by the sudden roar of metal music in the background.

"**The end is near, you Ritalin rats. I am the one throwing the dice now, and let me tell you something. The game's been rigged since the start, and the house always wins. I shall burn this pathetic land to the ground, building by building, person by person. And if you're the man of your household, you better hide your wife and children, because they'll be the first to go. Humanity is but a blight, slowly killing itself off with its own greed and dishonesty. But that's okay. I shall purify the lands, and bring humankind salvation through death."**

"This… This isn't Justin…" Chie murmered to herself. Sure, Justin had been an anarchist of sorts, but… Death through salvation? Purifying the lands? Something wasn't right. Her ears tingled slightly as the uproar of guitars seemed to amplify from behind Justin's shadow. Chie had to wonder where the hell the music was even coming from. She didn't see any speakers anywhere, or anything along those lines

"**Lashing out the action, returning the reaction, weak and ripped are torn away! Hypnotizing power, crushing all that cower, battery is here to stay! Smashing through the boundaries, lunacy has found me! Cannot stop the battery! Pounding out aggression, turns into obsession! Cannot kill the battery!" **The shadow started chanting in time to the music pounding behind him, his fist thrown into the air, a hammer within its grip. The shadow smirked for a moment before lowering his fist and getting up close to the camera. So close that all you could see was the shadow's eyes and mouth.

"**And for that special someone at home…"**

Chie's eyes widened. Justin's shadow was clearly trying to address her. She bit her bottom lip and clenched her hands into fists.

"**Try to save your little boyfriend and I will make sure his misery and suffering is prolonged and painful." **The shadow's lips curved upwards in a twisted smile before the camera flipped off, not so much as another word. Chie was speechless as the screen settled back into static. The last part was obviously just his shadow talking, but… Was all that 'purification' bullshit what Justin really felt? Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of her phone ringing. It was Yosuke. She pulled out her phone and pressed to her ear.

"Yosuke…"

_Was… Was that Justin's hidden feelings?"_

"I hope not…"

_Don't worry… His shadow's just bluffing. We'll save him._

"Y-Yeah…"

Yosuke sighed slightly on his side. Justin's shadow looked like some sort of nazi; and then when he outright addressed Chie from the screen. He knew she was panicking on the inside right now. I mean, if you found out your boyfriend was secretly trying to wipe out the human race, you probably would be too. Yosuke didn't believe that was how Justin really felt for a second, though. Sure, Justin wasn't exactly the sanest person out there, but he didn't have it in him to do something on this scale.

_Alright… I'll contact the others... Try to get some sleep._

"Yeah… I will…"

She didn't.


	49. Chapter 48: May 31, 2011

CHAPTER 48

May 31, 2011

* * *

"Ugh… Whose blood is this? Oh. Oh that's my blood. That's a LOT of my blood."

Justin pushed himself off of the floor, a small puddle of dried blood where his head had been resting. He groaned a bit as he stood back up, his back sore from laying against the cement floor, as he pressed his hand against his head. He felt a pretty big cut along the side of his skull, though given the texture of it; he'd guessed it had scabbed over. Justin sighed slightly. He had to guess that the iron-tip on his shadow's boot had ended up piercing the skin. He was just glad it healed; losing too much blood in the head is not a good thing.

He straightened his back out slightly, before dusting off some dust from his arms. He wasn't entirely sure where he woke up this time, but it sure as hell wasn't the same place he had met his shadow. The room was much too narrow, although the chains and hooks were still there, and the walls did seem to be lined with barbed wire. He had to wonder what the practicality of doing that was. At least, he did until he turned around. Justin's jaw dropped almost immediately, his eyes wide with terror. In front of him was a spiral staircase, swirling up into the sky. It certainly wasn't a small one by any means either. Justin bit his bottom lip slightly before backing away from the staircase.

"No. No, fuck that!"

As the words left his mouth, Justin heard the echo of a familiar voice.

"**Aww, what's wrong? Afraid of those big bad stairs?"**

"Fuck you, I ain't climbing shit." Justin screamed towards the ceiling. There was no discernible source of the voice, what with the way it echoed throughout the stairwell.

"**Oh, that's really too bad. You're guests are going to be so disappointed…"**

"What the fuck are you talking about now?"

"**You know, it would be a real shame if your friends were to come all the way here to rescue you and you didn't even show up. I mean, I guess I could always entertain them myself if you're not up for it… What do you think? Six shell Russian roulette's still a popular party game, right?"**

"You motherfucker…"

"**The clock's ticking, kid. I suggest you start climbing."**

Justin looked about the room once again, eyeing the stairs, then the walls, then the barbed wire that lined it. It made sense now what the barbed wire was there for. If Justin started to get sick to his stomach, he wouldn't be able to use the wall for support without stabbing his hand into the barbed wire. Justin was starting to regret making that Saw joke at this point. He didn't think his shadow was actually going to make a twisted game out of this. Justin breathed heavily for a moment, before clutching his hands into fists and slowly making his way up the stairs.

* * *

"I just don't understand. That wasn't like Justin at all." Yukiko spoke to the rest of the group.

They were all standing in front of the entrance television at Junes, discussing what had aired on the Midnight Channel the night prior. Everyone seemed confused by Justin's shadow's declaration of 'purifying the land of humanity.' I mean, sure, they all knew Justin was a renegade of sorts, but they all knew deep down he wouldn't ever do something like this. It had to be his shadow twisting things out of proportion; it just had to.

"I don't know… You remember those election speeches he gave? About overthrowing the student government." Yosuke questioned out loud.

"I'm pretty sure that was supposed to be a joke." Yu added a slightly disappointed look on his face. Yosuke should have had more faith in Justin's sanity than that. "Besides, overthrowing the government is a lot different than the systematic destruction of the human race."

"Yeah, I guess…"

Chie didn't so much as pipe up during this entire conversation. Her mind was still trying to make sense of Justin's shadow's message. Why? Why would Justin ever think something like that? Hell, did he even think that, or was that just his shadow talking? And then there was the part where his shadow outright addressed her through the screen. Chie wasn't even sure she was comfortable jumping into the television anymore. What if his shadow hadn't been bluffing; that he really would kill Justin if she made her way inside… But… She couldn't just leave Justin to his fate, could she? She could never forgive herself; no, she could never LIVE with herself if she abandoned him like that, leaving him to die at his out of control emotions' hands.

"Chie…? Are you alright?" Yosuke questioned, interrupting Chie's thoughts. She blinked a few times before shaking her head, snapping herself back into reality.

"Not really, no."

"Hey, he'll be alright. I promise." Under any other circumstances, Chie probably would have laughed at Yosuke for that one. He probably didn't even give a fuck if Justin lived or died; I mean, the two hated each other for Christ's sake. Instead Chie simply averted her eyes back down to the ground, a sigh on her breath. Yosuke grimaced slightly. He hated seeing her beat herself up like this. They'd save Justin; Yosuke was willing to stake his life on it.

"Well moping about here isn't going to save Justin any quicker." Chie finally spoke up, snapping out of her daze. "Everyone ready?"

The entire group gave a nod of their head before Chie stepped through the screen. Or at least, she had started to, when Yosuke grabbed her by the neck of her jacket and pulled her back out, causing her to tumble backwards, knocking the two of them down. Yukiko couldn't stop herself from laughing at the incident, while Yu simply had to hide his face in his palm. Chie stood up almost immediately, a glare on her face.

"Oh, what the hell Yosuke!" She shouted, stomping her foot in the ground.

"We still haven't told them about Maya…" He groaned from his position on the floor. You wouldn't know it just from looking at her, but Chie apparently weighed a lot. Yosuke felt like he had just been sat on by an elephant. Not that he would ever let Chie hear that comparison, he valued his balls enough. Chie's glare softened only slightly. She really wished Yosuke hadn't pulled her back like that, regardless of his intention. Yu suddenly dropped his hand from his face, a look of confusion having been hidden behind his knuckles.

"Maya? Wait, what does Maya have to do with this?" Yu spoke up in confusion.

"Well, you know how Chie has Justin's phone right now?" Yosuke tried to explain.

"Yeah?"

"You remember Kurt right? Well Kurt managed to find Maya's number, and gave it to Justin. The first call didn't go over so well…" Chie tried to summarize in as few words as possible, "But, then Justin got a callback from her yesterday. So I picked it up, and guess what? Turns out she saw him on the Midnight Channel too."

"Hold on, wait a second… Doesn't Maya live in California?" Yu questioned.

"Well, it's a 310 number, and according to Wikipedia, that's in the Los Angeles area. So yes."

"So then… the Midnight Channel is airing over there too?"

Yukiko had only just finished laughing as those words struck her ears, at which point she immediately cut off. Her happy expression soon changed to one of shock and concern. So did Yu's, of course, though Yosuke's and Chie's faces seemed completely unfazed by the connection Yu had drawn. They already knew Maya had seen the channel before, so it didn't exactly strike them as odd.

"Maya said that she and Justin used to watch it all the time, but no one actually showed up on it." Yosuke casually explained. Yu tossed the corners of his mouth to both sides before sighing slightly. If no one showed up, then that meant that there was probably no murders connected to it in California; though he did have to wonder why it was airing over there in the first place if that was the case.

"That's beside the point. Turns out, she was making this call from inside the television." Chie interrupted their inquiries into the Midnight Channel's appearance in California.

"What? But don't you- "

"You get reception within a certain distance from the televisions." Chie cut Yu off, already knowing what he was going to say.

"Long story short, Maya's going to be helping us look for Justin." Yosuke spoke up, quickly cutting off Chie. Chie couldn't really tell why, but she presumed it was because he didn't want her spilling the beans on his awkward attempts at flirting with Maya.

"So… Don't kill whoever's standing on the other side. Got it." Yu joked slightly, before giving a nod to the two, allowing them to go through first. Chie took the lead, followed by Yosuke, then Yukiko and Yu; though there was some awkward confusion between the two as to which was supposed to go in first. They both tried to go in at once at first before Yu eventually conceded right of way to Yukiko; after all, ladies first.

Chie was a little confused when she entered the television to see not a single hide nor hair of Maya. Nor Teddie, now that she thought about it. Yu and Yukiko seemed especially baffled. They had gone through all that trouble to explain that Maya would be in here, yet, there was no trace of anybody besides from themselves. Chie scrunched her brow in slight confusion, before calling out Maya's name.

"Maya? Teddie?"

"Over here."

The sound of Maya's voice coming from behind them made Chie practically jump out of her clothes. She hadn't actually expected an answer when she didn't even see Maya. In actuality, Maya had been sitting down next to the televisions, her back leaning against them, listening to her iPod. No one had seen her since she had been at the side of their entry point, as opposed to, say, the front. Teddie was with her too, standing just to her left, looking over her as she listened to whatever it was she was listening too. It was actually kind of creepy now that Chie thought about it.

"Jesus Christ, Maya! You scared the shit out of me!"

"Sorry, I've been waiting for a while, so I figured it'd be alright if I sat down while I wait." She gave a slight nod to Chie before standing up and turning her attention to the two mystery figures standing with her. "You must be the friends Chie told me about. Maya." She said, extending her hand to shake each of theirs.

"Yu Narukami." Yu declared, a stern, but slightly pleased look on his face.

"O-Oh, hello. I'm Yukiko Amagi." Yukiko responded, a wide smile on her face. Maya gave her a smile of her own as she let go of her grip on Yukiko's hand.

"Alright then, now that introductions are out of the way; I had Teddie try to sniff Justin out while we waited. He found him about a good hour or so ago, so we should be all set to depart."

"Wow, you're sure taking a lot of initiative." Chie added on impressed.

"Why wouldn't I?" She rebutted, a shrug on her shoulders. "Alright Teddie, lead the way."

"Yes ma'am!" He responded with an awkward looking salute. The investigation team all gave him a funny look, though Maya seemed to have found amusement in the gesture, giving the slight chuckle that came out of her mouth.

* * *

"I… Am going… To MURDER him!" Justin screamed in between breaths.

He was on all fours at this point as he tried to climb up the stairs. He had been walking for a good few hours, and still it seemed like the end wasn't in sight. He couldn't stand at this point, he just couldn't. He had thrown up at least three times on his way up; one of which while he was crawling on his knees, the vomit splashing against his pants. He had to make a mental note to burn these when he got home.

And on the topic of vomit, Justin's stomach started to twist and turn again, mucus making its way up from his chest cavity once again. He was sure to spit it off to the side this time though, the green substance rolling down the stairs as it splattered against the concrete. Much to Justin's displeasure, it seemed he had puked up a bit of blood too; probably from vomiting so much in the past few hours. Justin just wanted to lie down and die at this point; anything but climb another step of this staircase. But this wasn't just about him anymore. His shadow had threatened his friends and the girl he loved, and now, Justin wouldn't stop until he put a bullet right in between his shadow's fucking eyes.

All the same, though, he couldn't climb a single step more until he calmed down. He rolled over from his crawling position, being careful not to slip down the steps in the process, before shifting to a sitting position. He breathed in and out heavily before shuffling through his pockets. He had to thank god briefly knowing that his shadow had enough mercy to leave him his cigarettes and lighter. He pulled one out and lit it, before placing the cigarette in-between his teeth, inhaling the fumes as he put the lighter and pack of cigarettes away.

As Justin sat there, a smoke in his mouth, he started to think. Ever since his shadow had captured him, he had remembered everything about Maya. He didn't know why, and he didn't care. All he knew was that he didn't like the way the story ended for him. He would never be able to look at Maya the same way again. He had thought the whole 'mugging' angle was bad, but what happened after that… He was a fool to have not seen it coming.

* * *

December 8, 2009

* * *

"Maya…? Where the hell did you get all these cigarette cartons from?"

Maya had made her way into Justin's house in the middle of the day. Justin still had a nasty virus from earlier that week, so he was thankfully alone when she burst through the door with a bag full of illegally obtained cigarettes. Maya dropped the bag next to the television, handing a single carton off to Justin, a wide smile on her face.

"I had this brilliant idea yesterday. You remember how Teddie said I was the only one who could get in and out?" Maya asked rhetorically, an expression of excitement on her face.

"Yeah?"

"Well, I had a thought. What if we could hide stuff in there; stuff that someone would pay to have hidden from the public?"

"We are not hiding dead bodies inside my television."

"No you idiot! I'm talking about Kurt's merchandise!"

Justin blinked twice before looking around the room. He wasn't looking for anything particular, it was more of an 'averting eye contact because that is the stupidest fucking thing I've ever heard,' kind of looking around the room.

"Maya… That is the WORST idea I've ever heard."

"What are you talking about!?" She shouted at him, her look of excitement soon fading into an aggressive stare. "We are literally being paid to do a service only I can provide, and an easy one at that. We literally own a monopoly on this."

"You are literally handling illegal goods inside the house of an FBI Agent right now, Maya. Even if this were a good idea, which it's not, you have got to be kidding me to tell me that you honestly believe that this would be a good place to store it."

"C'mon, it's not like he'll find it inside the television!"

"No, but he'll sure as hell find it in your hands when you walk through the door with them!"

"Jesus Christ, Justin, why can't you let me have this ONE thing! You know I need the money!"

"Then get a job!"

"This is a job!"

"It's a crime! Huge difference!"

Maya glared at Justin for a few seconds before snatching the carton from out of his hand and throwing it back in the plastic bag she had been storing it in. Justin had expected that to be the end of it, but then Maya started to walk up to the television; even though Justin clearly told her he wasn't going to allow it. He quickly dashed up to the screen, standing in front of it to block Maya's entry point. Maya was very clearly pissed off at this point.

"Move out of the way Justin."

"No."

"It's my life, goddammit! Stop treating me like some little kid! I can make my own decisions!"

"You want to go ruin your life, go into underground crime, fine. You go do that. But you're not doing it with my TV, and you're not doing it in my house."

Maya starred at Justin for a brief while before backing up and turning towards the door. He was supposed to be her friend, yet when she finally had a way of getting out of the impoverished life, to get out of the slums, Justin wouldn't so much as help? She didn't need this from him. She shook her head at him, a glare on her face before turning to walk out of his house, cigarettes in hand. She'd find another way; somehow or another.

Justin sighed slightly as Maya slammed the door behind her. He knew this meant a lot to her, but he just couldn't let her go through with it. She might think it was all glam and glory now, but once she'd dug her own grave in the crime life, she'd soon regret it. Every fortune comes with a price, after all. Justin couldn't stop her from paying a price, but he'd be damn sure she picked the right one. He averted his eyes to the ground for a short moment before heading to the door to lock it. Maya didn't have a television, so as long as Justin kept his door shut, Maya would have nowhere to turn to dispose of her goods. That was the best he could do to stop her at this point. He yawned slightly before heading back upstairs to sleep his illness away.

* * *

May 30, 2011

* * *

"He's in here somewhere." Teddie announced to the rest of the group, stopping outside an old apartment building. The investigation team seemed confused; after all, this clearly wasn't the same place as where his shadow had been on the show. In a way, it gave Chie a certain sense of hope. The more things that were fabricated in that show, the more likely it was the stuff Justin's shadow was spewing out was false.

Chie had smiled slightly, looking around the group, though her mouth soon curved downwards when she laid her eyes on Maya. Her lips were quivering, her eyes were shaking, her legs bent inwards in a slightly weakened position. She looked frightened out of her goddamned mind.

"Maya…? You don't look so good…"

"This… This place… This is where it all happened…" She choked up, her voice barely audible. Her voice seemed to shake as the words left her mouth. Whatever this place was, it certainly didn't sit right with her. The group all looked on concerned. It made sense that this place wouldn't sit well with Maya too, since they had established Justin's shadow was based on lost memories of Maya.

Wait a second… That's right… Justin's shadow WAS based on a memory. So then all that stuff that came out of the shadow's mouth last night… None of it should be true, right? The memory should have nothing to do with feelings after all. Chie sighed in slight relief, careful to make it not sound as though her sigh pertained to Maya's sudden strike of fear. Back on the previous line of thinking, Justin's shadow was based on memories of Maya. So… Whatever it was Justin had feared, Maya should be familiar with it. But… What was to be afraid of an old apartment building? Is this where whatever that mugging thing happened?

"Where it all happened? Where what happened?" Yukiko asked, completely oblivious to the state of fear Maya had been in.

"I-I…" Maya choked up again. She couldn't force herself to talk about her experience. Maya soon started to wrap her arms around her chest, hugging them close to her body. Her face grew pale, as she angled it towards the ground, unable to make eye contact with the towering apartment complex in front of her. Chie's eyebrows raised in pity. She remembered Maya saying something about a traumatic experience… Maybe it was related to this? After all, Chie couldn't think of any other reason to be so afraid of a building.

"It's alright Maya. You don't have to talk about it if you don't want." Yosuke interrupted. Chie was a bit surprised to find that Yosuke would be the understanding one, since he usually was the one who started shit most of the time in the first place. "Are you going to be alright? Y-You don't have to come in with us if-"

"No!" Maya shouted, shooting her eyes back up at Yosuke, her chest seeming to inflate and deflate at an alarmingly fast rate. "Justin's in there, right? I have to help him."

"We can handle it you know. We don't want you making yourself sick…" Yosuke said, making his way up to Maya before putting his hand on her shoulder. Maya responded by looking up at Yosuke, her eyes still flickering back and forth in fear, her eyebrows lowered in sadness.

"I-I'll be fine." She eventually spoke up, shrugging Yosuke's hand off and making her way to the forefront of the group. She realized that as long as she stood there like that, the more people would be trying to force her to get back. She appreciated the gesture, but time was of the essence. Justin's safety was at a lot more risk than her feelings. Maya had started taking the lead inside the building, the investigation team following confusedly behind when they all seemed to be knocked back by a sudden gust of force. Purple smoke filled the air, obscuring their view as they all laid flat on their assess looking into the source of the sudden explosion.

"**Good evening, ladies and gentleman. So nice to see we have some volunteers for the massacre!"**

The smoke cleared, the familiar figure of Justin's shadow emerging from it, dictator suit and all. He smirked at the group as he marched inbetween them, their hands still covering their faces from the smoke that was now filling the air.

"Where the hell is Justin!" Chie screamed at the shadow, standing back up on her two feet. The others still laid on the ground though, for some reason finding it difficult to stand up. As much as they tried to force their legs up, they simply couldn't get them to budge. The shadow raised an eyebrow at Chie, a smirk still on his face all the same.

"**Well look at you. Aren't you a big girl standing up all on your own?" **The shadow mocked her, as he leaned on his cane. Now that Justin's shadow mentioned it, Chie's legs did seem kind of stiff when she went to stand up; though she couldn't quite explain it.

"The hell does that mean!"

"Chie… W-We can't move our legs!" Yosuke shouted, noticing that the others seemed to be having trouble standing up too. Chie shot him a surprised look before staring at her own legs. She could move them, but just barely. They felt heavy, and it took more than a little force to lift them up off the ground. Actually, as she looked around the group, she noticed Maya's legs had started to twitch a bit too. She clearly had a lot less control than Chie did, but some control all the same. Chie shot a glance up to Justin's shadow, who had been slowly making his way over to her, taping his cane along the way.

"**My, the amount of willpower in this one." **He joked with outstretched arms, before stopping mere inches away from Chie. She wanted to kick him right in his crotch while he was there, but she couldn't seem to move any of her limbs more than a little at a time. His shadow suddenly placed his hand underneath her chin, lifting her head ever so slightly, his face mere centimeters away from hers. **"But alas, futile**** all the same**. You will die here with all the other. Such a shame."

"Where's Justin." Chie grunted back into his face, still dangerously close to hers. If the team hadn't known better, it almost looked like Justin's shadow was trying to kiss her.

"**I told you not to come here didn't I?"**

Chie's eyes widened slightly, here eyebrows raising just the tiniest bit. Her teeth were still clenched together though, and her fists were still clumped up into a ball.

"You didn't…"

"**And what would you do if I said I did?"**

Chie's chest beat in and out quickly. Furious would be a huge understatement to describe her rage right now. She wasn't sure if Justin's shadow was bluffing or not, but she didn't care. Where before she seemed to have little to no control over her body, her pure hatred and aggression seemed to override whatever it was the shadow had done to inhibit her movement. She pulled her head back before thrusting it forward into the shadow's skull, and hard too. As the shadow walked backward from the blow, Chie could see that her blow had managed to pierce through the shadow's skin, purple blood leaking from his forehead. Some of it had managed to get on Chie's face as well, but she didn't notice. The shadow only seemed amused by her attack, however, as he stumbled backwards. He laughed a wicked laugh as he regained his balance.

"**Now this one I like! Aggressive little bitch aren't ya?" **He chukled slightly for a bit, lowering his gaze for abit, as he searched around his waistband for something; his holster to be more precise. **"You'll be the first to die." **His hand darted for his revolver, pulling it out and firing a shot in one swift movement. But the bullet didn't hit Chie; for at that exact moment, Maya had jumped up from where she had been laying, grabbing a hold of Justin's shadow, throwing his aim completely off in surprise. Instead of hitting Chie, the bullet instead hit the roof above him.

Suddenly Maya and Justin's shadow became entangled in a war to get a hold of the weapon, both with their hands on the magnum. Maya had been on top, where as Justin's shadow was at the bottom. While Maya struggled to grab the weapon from Justin's shadow, he simply started to laugh.

"**Well if it isn't my California Queen!"**

Maya's struggle to grab a hold of the gun suddenly slowed down. The shadow's voice had suddenly shifted from Justin's voice, to hers. More specifically HER shadow's. She was confused, shocked, dumbfounded. It didn't matter what she was, though, because in that brief moment of hesitation, Justin's shadow regained control of the weapon and fired a shot off right in to her gut.

"Maya!" Yosuke shouted out once he saw the muzzle flash.

Maya's eyes widened in pain, though no words emerged from her mouth, no scream of agony, only muffled sounds of pain, as she gripped her gut. Justin's shadow smirked as he pushed Maya off of him using his knee. He stood up, looking down on her as she curled up in a fetal position for a brief moment, before turning to the rest of the group again.

"**What an unexpected turn of events!"**

"You bastard!" Yosuke grunted from where he was laying.

Chie was probably the second most pissed off, right after Yosuke, but she couldn't find a single word to say. Maya had gotten shot because she had jumped out to stop the shadow from shooting Chie. She was dumbfounded that someone would put their life on the line for someone they barely knew; one who had practically hated her guts since the day she had started haunting Justin's nightmares. And suddenly Chie felt like shit, knowing she was hating someone who would put their life on the line to save someone who screwed her out of the one person she loved.

"**That's what happens when rabid dogs don't listen to their masters. Isn't that right. Come on now, come crawling to master."**

Maya looked up at the shadow from the corner of her eyes, still writhing in pain, blood pouring from her open wound into her hand. She tried to speak, but couldn't, her words drowned out by her pain.

"**I said crawl!"**

The shadow kicked her right where the bullet had impacted her stomach, sending her rolling over to the other side, tears rolling down her face. Everyone was forced to look on helplessly, unable to move and stop Justin's shadow from torturing Maya as she laid in agony on the ground. The shadow smirked again slightly before turning back to everyone else. He smirked only harder when he noticed Chie trying to inch her way slowly towards him, dragging her legs as she tried to make her way over to Maya.

"**Oh, you want to help her, is that it? Maybe if you ask nicely, I'll let go of the strings." **Chie glared at him, her teeth clenched together so hard, she was almost sure they were going to crack under their own pressure. All the same, she continued inching her way over. **"Go on, say it. 'Please, Mr Tylor, Please let Maya go.'" **Chie didn't so much as listen to the shadow, continuing to inch her way forward. At least, she had until the shadow pointed the revolver straight at Maya's head. **"Say it!"**

Chie stopped dead in her tracks. She didn't want to give Justin's shadow the satisfaction, no one did; but he was holding an already gravely wounded Maya at gunpoint. They had to do something, even if they didn't want to. Chie bit at her lip for a moment, not sure whether to go through with it. "P-Please, Mr Tylor… Let Maya go…" She felt dirty just letting those words slip from her mouth, but she knew damn well she had to. The shadow smirked, moving the gun away from Maya's head, pushing his dictator hat up using the barrel of the gun.

"**Now see what happens when you act civil?"** The shadow laughed for a moment before snapping his fingers, disappearing into a thick cloud of purple smoke. The investigation team that had been sitting half up when their limbs had been frozen in place soon fell to the ground, their muscles having loosened up as the shadow disappeared. Even though Chie was already standing up, it was Yosuke who was the first to make it to Maya, having started to run over to her before even standing up, tripping on his feet the whole way there.

"Maya, are you alright!?" Yosuke shouted, lightly rolling her over to her back so they could get a look at the wound. She still had her hands over the wound, blood seeping through the cracks of her finger. Tears were streaming down her eyes, a whimper coming from her trembling lips as Yosuke removed her hands from the wound. It was bleeding real bad; and the bullet seemed to have made its way deeper into her stomach thanks to Justin's shadow kicking her when she was down.

Yukiko soon rushed over to inspect the wound. She was the 'medic' of the team so to speak. Yosuke knew some healing spells, but nothing in comparison to Yukiko's persona. If anything she'd be the best to handle Maya's wound. She carefully examined the wound, trying to get a good idea of how bad it was without hurting Maya, though she did have to touch the bullet hole at least once. Maya's weeping only seemed to grow louder in the process before Maya started pressing down on the wound, attempting to clot the blood as best as she could.

"Please tell me you can do something!" Yosuke shouted at Yukiko.

"I can only close the wound; someone would have to remove the bullet first. It's too deep though, and we risk infection if we try to pull it out with our hands."

"Goddammit!" Yosuke shouted before leaning down closer to Maya, grabbing her hand with both of hers. "C'mon, hang in there…"

"There's got to be something we can do." Yu spoke over to Yukiko.

"Nothing short of getting her to a hospital."

"No!" Maya immediately shouted as soon as the word hospital slipped from Yukiko's mouth. Chie passed a worried glance around. It was just how Justin reacted the first time they needed to bring him to one; though, a concussion was a lot less serious than a bullet wound. She absolutely needed to go, no question about it.

"Maya, you have a bullet in your gut, you are bleeding at an alarming rate, and we can't dig it out. You HAVE to go." Chie tried to explain to her, sternly but gently at the same time. Maya's breathing started to fluctuate, tears starting to stream even faster. Yukiko flashed Chie a look, one that Chie immediately understood. If Maya kept acting up like this, she was just going to make the bleeding worse. She needed to calm down. Maya suddenly turned her head over to Yosuke, her grip on his hands tightening.

"Please… Yosuke…" She was starting to breathe slower, much to the alarm of the others. "Don't make me go…" Yosuke stared at her for a moment, his chest suddenly feeling heavy. Of all the people she could have asked to make that decision, it had to be him. She needed to get to the hospital, but the way she was pleading with him, her eyes drenched with tears… It pained him to have to say no to her.

"Don't worry, nothing will go wrong… I promise you…" He said trying to reassure her. Maya's grip loosened slightly around his hand, much to his concern.

"Her breathing's slowing down." Yukiko passed along to Yosuke, a concerned look on her face.

"Hey, stay with us!" Yosuke spoke to her, gently shaking her shoulder. She was starting to lose consciousness. None of them were doctors or anything, but they couldn't imagine that was a good thing. Her eyes flickered back to life from Yosuke shaking her though. She looked back at him with pleading eyes, mouthing the word please to him again. Yosuke bit his bottom lip before picking her body up from off of the ground, legs in one arm, torso in the other. "Do you think you can press down on the wound, Maya?" Maya looked around at those around her for a brief moment, before nodding slightly, placing her hands against the open hole in her chest.

"We don't have much time, Teddie, you know the way back, right?" Yukiko spoke up, with slight authority.

"Y-Yeah."

"Alright, we have to go, fast." She said, ordering everyone, though Yosuke especially since he had been the one carrying Maya. He looked down at her for a brief moment, her eyes having closed since he had picked her up. She was still conscious though, much to Yosuke's relief. Her head slowly rolled over to the side,pressing up against Yosuke's shoulder. Yosuke couldn't help but feel a certain sadness seeing her like this; and he barely even knew her. He sighed slightly before forcing his legs to run.

* * *

"Oh hey, look. More FUCKING stairs. Just what I wanted." Justin shouted, as he continued to slowly crawl his way up the tower.

He still felt like vomiting at this point, but apparently there were no more fluids left in his stomach. Part of him wondered if he was making any progress at all. If he looked back, would he still see the bottom of the staircase? He had been inching his way up for the last eight or so hours. He was thirsty, hungry, tired, and scared shitless by the trial his shadow had put in front of him. And it certainly didn't help that he could swear the stairs were getting steeper as he made his way up. If he wasn't going insane, and they WERE getting steeper, he'd have to stop crawling, instead using the barbed wire coated wall as support. Tear his hand off, or lose control of his legs and fall down a million flights of stairs. Tough choice.

It took a few moments of climbing more, but Justin eventually stopped. He had been crawling for hours, and he had enough. He carefully stood up, his knees shaking slightly, before he turned around and sat down on the stairs behind him. He wanted to fall asleep where he had been crawling, but he knew damn well that if he got too comfortable sleeping on the stairs, he could roll straight down them in the middle of his sleep. He starred down the bottomless abyss of the staircase for a moment more before his eyes fluttered shut into the dream world.

* * *

December 9, 2009

* * *

"Maya, you here?" Justin spoke up silently as he rounded their usual corner to their hangout spot in the alley. He felt bad about having to reject her plan like that yesterday, but… He knew it was for the best. She could get hurt really bad if things went wrong. He was happy to find that Maya had in fact been sitting near the dumpster as usual, smoking a cigarette as she turned her head to acknowledge Justin's existence.

"Oh. Hey." She didn't sound very enthused that Justin had made his way over. Perhaps she was expecting him not to show after the day prior's incident. He sighed slightly, getting ready to take a seat next to Maya, when he noticed something odd. Resting besides Maya, was an old, broken television set that she had been running her fingers in and out of, creating shimmers along the surface. The screen was all in one piece, but the attena, the body, the fact that it looked like something from the 50's; there was no way that was a working television. And yet, she could use it to her advantage all the same.

"Okay, dare I ask?"

"Well after you told me I couldn't use your TV yesterday, I took a trip to the dump to see if they had anything that'd respond to my touch. Sure enough they had this. Pretty sure it doesn't work, but I can stick stuff in and pull it out no problem."

"So you're still trying to go through with this?"

"Why shouldn't I? This is my ticket out of the slums. I can make a fortune off of this." She said, looking up at Justin with a slight expression of anger.

"Maya… You realize what you're getting involved with, right? I just don't want you to get into trouble doing this."

"Well I appreciate the concern but I can make my OWN decisions in life." She said, her glare not subsiding to Justin's half-assed attempt at explaining why he had more or less kicked her out of his house. I mean, sure, it wasn't like he said 'get out of my house,' or anything like that, but once he cut off access to the television, well, she had no reason to be there.

"I just want you to make the right decisions, you know?"

"Live and learn." She added smugly before taking one last drag of her cigarette, stomping it out under her sneaker. She sighed slightly as she stood up, stretching her back before turning to Justin. "I'm going in to grab an order for Kurt. You can come with, or you can stay out here. Your choice."

Justin puffed out some hot air. He still thought this was a terrible idea, but technically, he couldn't stop Maya from going through the screen. He had tried that once before, after all, and all that did was get him dragged in with her. And really, if she was going to do this no matter what he said, he'd at least like to make sure she was safe. If something happened to Maya while she was on the other side… He didn't know what he'd do.

"…Alright. Let's go."

Maya shot him a look of surprise for a moment, though that immediately subsided into a smile. She had assumed that Justin had changed his stance on the issue, though in actuality, it had just been that Justin was trying to minimize the damage done by Maya's terrible decisions. She held out her hand, grabbing Justin by the wrist before stepping through the screen, Justin following behind her cautiously.

* * *

May 30, 2011

* * *

"Oh good, you're coming to."

Maya awoke to the sight of checkerboard ceiling panels staring down at her. She went to sit up, knowing full well where she was, when she felt a sharp pain in her stomach. She moaned slightly in pain before dropping back to her original position, starring up at the ceiling once more.

"Try not to move." Yosuke spoke to her gently, as he made his way over to her side. Maya rolled her head over as Yosuke crouched down to try and make eye contact with her. Maya smiled slightly, though that was overcome soon after by a slight hiss of pain. Yosuke grabbed her hand in both of his, allowing her to grip at them whenever she felt a surge of pain. It always used to help Yosuke when he was in pain to have something to grab onto.

"O-Oh, hey Yosuke…" Maya choked up, a barely audible whisper coming from her throat. Yosuke smiled at her slightly, happy to see that she was still alive and kicking.

"I'm glad to see you're okay."

"I've been better." She joked slightly, though laughing only seemed to make her gut hurt, so she knocked that off almost immediately. Yosuke shook his head to the sides slightly, a wide grin across his face. "Wh-where are the others? Did they find Justin yet…?"

"W-Well, no… They're all outside waiting." Maya's smile soon faded into a frown, a look of worriment in her eyes. What were they all doing here, waiting for her to get out of the hospital? They don't even know who she is, save maybe Chie, but it was clear to Maya she didn't like her one bit. Shouldn't they all be out looking for Justin? I mean, after what his shadow said… What if he wasn't bluffing? What if his shadow really had killed Justin already? Her breathing started to quicken for a brief moment until the pain slowed it back down to its regular rhythm. "H-Hey, easy now. You have to stay calm or you'll never get better."

"But, Justin-"

"Justin's a fighter, he won't go down without a fight." Yosuke tried to reassure her, a smile on his face.

"Going down with a fight is still going down…" Yosuke paused for a moment, his smile turning into a frown at Maya's remark.

"…I-I guess if you want to look at it that way…"

Maya sighed for a second, her eyes blinking slowly as she barely hung out her conscious state of being. "I told you guys I don't want to go to the hospital…"

"Maya… Why do you not like hospitals so much?" Yosuke questioned. He felt like an ass for asking it, but he had to know why she had panicked so much back there. Maya averted her eyes, opting instead to look at the corner of the chair Yosuke had been sitting on a moment earlier.

"Do you know what it's like seeing someone you love with tubes sticking down their throats? Not sure if they'll make it through another night, or if they'll ever wake up? What it's like to see them being treated like some sort of vegetable, food and water being pumped through needles in their arms? I never want that to happen to me. I'd rather die than become some medical novelty." She choked up, her voice slightly raspy as the words came out of her mouth. Yosuke averted his eyes from Maya, opting instead to look at the ground, his head hung slightly in shame.

"Oh… I'm sorry I didn't mean…"

"No, it's alright. I talked about it a lot in therapy, so I'm used to it…"

"You mind if I ask who it was." Maya looked at Yosuke for a brief moment, her eyes barely staying open. She was clearly exhausted, yet, something about this conversation, something about Yosuke was keeping her awake.

"It's… Not important…"

"I understand…" Yosuke choked up, his vision still directed at the floor. Though, his vision soon shifted to the PA system that had been hooked above the door to Maya's room as it seemed to buzz to life, static roaring from the other side.

_Attention visitors; visiting hours have concluded for the day. Please make your way to the exit's as soon as possible, thank you._

Yosuke sighed slightly. Figures Maya just woke up and he already had to leave. The others didn't even get to see how she was doing yet. He should have invited them in once she woke up, instead of engaging in idle chit-chat like this.

"I-I'm sorry, I have to-"

"Don't be sorry, it's not your fault." Maya smiled at him. "Just… Promise me one thing."

"Y-Yes?"

"Promise me you'll find Justin."

Yosuke smiled that goofy grin of his. "Of course we will. He'll be back before you even know it." Yosuke gave a tip of his head before slowly making his way to the door. His hand was only centimeters away from the door handle when he heard Maya speak up again from the opposite side of the room.

"H-Hey Yosuke…?"

"Hmm?"

"Will you come and visit me again?"

Yosuke's eyes widened in slight surprise. Maya barely even knew him, yet here she was asking for him to come back and visit her. He felt his stomach get tied into knots as the question processed in his brain, unsure of what Maya's intentions were. It took a moment, but Yosuke eventually smiled that wide grin of his back over to where she layed. She could barely see it with the way her head was positioned, but she smiled faintly back anyway.

"You didn't even need to ask."


	50. Chapter 49: June 1, 2011

CHAPTER 49

June 1, 2011

* * *

"Hey, God. It's me Justin. You remember that time I told you to go fuck yourself a few months back? I-I was just kidding, honest. Now can you please stop with the fucking stairs? That would be great, thanks."

Justin moaned as he walked his way up the stairs. The stairs had indeed gotten steeper, and he had no option but to walk, as opposed to crawling like he was. His hands were dripping with blood from the few occasions he had started to lose balance and had needed to use the barbed wire-lined walls for support. He just hoped that he didn't end up getting tetanus, though he no doubt probably infected his open wounds somehow. This place was the epitome of unsanitary; what with the rusty chains, dusty cement, and blood stained barbed wire and all.

Justin stopped his climb for a moment, resting his skull against one of the steps, breathing heavily in and out. His legs felt like giant sacks of rock from all the waking he had done; and god knows he still wanted to vomit every twelve seconds. He knew he had to do this for all his friend's sakes, but… It would be so much easier to just sit there and wait to embrace death's cold embrace. Hell, if all his friends' died, and he died, at least they'd see each other in the afterlife, right? He shook his head slightly, snapping himself out of his self pity. Unacceptable; he wouldn't let his friends suffer just because he was a lazy coward who couldn't handle stairs. He puffed out some hot air slightly before starting to climb again.

Jesus Christ, how many stairs could there possibly be in this place? Justin thought to himself as he continued to push on. A walk up to the top of the Empire State Building didn't even take remotely as long as it was taking Justin to climb this stairwell. He had to wonder if climbing was even doing anything. I mean, after climbing stairs for over twenty four hours, he should have seemed to have made some resemblance of progress; but alas, no. Justin only hoped to god that he hadn't missed a door somewhere along the way. He sighed slightly as he climbed up, using his hands to grip a few steps ahead of him, lest his legs give out unexpectedly. He tried to keep his mind off of the steps by whistling, but alas, it seemed he only could think of songs that involved stairs or the direction up, at this point. At least Spirit in the Sky was catchy as fuck, he thought; conveniently opting not to whistle Stairway to Heaven.

* * *

December 9, 2009

* * *

"Teddie, you in here?" Maya called out as she and Justin stepped through the television screen. _Well of course he's in here; he LIVES here._ Justin thought to himself, rolling his eyes in the process. It took a few seconds, but they were eventually able to make out Teddie's figure closing the distance between the two. It was generally pretty hard to see with all this fog, so they usually couldn't make out Teddie until he was within close proximity of them.

"Hey Maya! Oh, Justin-san is here too!" Teddie exclaimed, a wide grin on his face as he met up with the two at the entrance to the television world. Justin couldn't help but pass a confused glance Maya's way as Teddie called out to them.

"San?" Justin spoke up, a puzzled look on his face.

"Oh yeah, it's supposed to be a Japanese honorific. He called me Maya-chan a few times too."

"Alright, that just leaves me with more questions." Justin added, shaking his head slightly, "One, why is Teddie using Japanese honorifics, and two, how the hell do you know what an honorific is?"

"Well, I don't know about that first one, but I was curious what the hell chan meant yesterday, so I checked it out in the computer lab at school this morning."

As would be expected from someone without a television, Maya didn't have a computer either, so whenever she needed to look something up, she had to do it at the school's crappy computer lab. The computer lab that still ran Windows 2000 nine years later. Justin was a bit tech-savy, in a certain regard, so it always disappointed him to see the computer lab so far behind in technology. Maya didn't seem to mind, though; maybe because she didn't really have any standards as far as technology goes. After all, a shitty computer is better than no computer; even Justin would agree with that one.

"So… what does it mean?" Justin questioned. He still wanted to know what 'san' meant, but he figured Maya probably wouldn't know what it meant if she was only looking for the definition of 'chan.'

"A cute girl." Maya said, her face growing slightly red.

"Wow, that's really creepy." Justin spoke up. Maya shook her head in agreement. She appreciated the compliment, but she wasn't into bestiality. "Okay, so what about san?"

"It's a title of respect between equals."

"Well that's a hell of a lot better than yours." Justin joked. Maya was reluctant to disagree with him on that one. It sure as hell WAS better than having a giant… mascot… bear-thing hitting on you. Maya shrugged her shoulders before turning to Teddie, who seemed confused that they didn't know what honrofics were, even more confused as to why Maya's honorific seemed so offensive to the two of them. Maya didn't think Teddie really understood the concept of cultural differences.

"Hey Teddie. Everything's where I left it yesterday, right?" she spoke up, crouching down to meet Teddie on eye-level. Teddie smiled before tipping his entire body forward slightly. He didn't have a neck, so this was the closest he could do to a nod. Maya smiled in return before patting him on the head again. "Alright then, mind leading the way?"

"I'm on it!" Teddie spoke up, giving an awkward salute. Justin groaned slightly, though Maya found herself giggling at the awkwardness of the motion. Teddie soon turned about to take the lead, Maya and Justin following a short distance behind him. Teddie had stubby legs, so it wasn't like he walked all that fast; they had to put a bit of a window between them, lest they bump into him if he suddenly stopped.

"Are you sure this is such a good idea, Maya?"

"C'mon, you've been nagging me about this for the last two days. Enough already." Maya spoke in an aside to Justin, slightly irritated by Justin's constant objections to her plan.

"I just don't want anything to happen, you know?"

"Pfft- What's the worst that could… happ…en…" Maya's speech slowed to a crawl before she eventually stopped dead in her tracks. Justin was a bit confused himself, having walked slightly ahead of her, not noticing her slowing down. He shouted out to Teddie to stop for a moment before turning back to Maya, a look of concern on his face. She looked confused; attentive, but deep in thought.

"You alright, Maya?"

"Hang on to the glory at my right hand, here laid to rest is out love ever longed… I recognize that song now." Maya spoke to herself, completely oblivious to Justin's question. Justin raised an eyebrow in complete confusion. He recognized the lyrics too… Coheed and Cambria. But… What the hell made her start thinking about that song?

"Maya…? What are you talking about?"

"Y-You can't hear that guitar?"

"Not at all… Maya, are you sure you're alright? You keep hearing that guitar…"

Maya's look of confusion soon subsided to anger. She seemed confused at first as to why she was the only one who could hear it, but when Justin had started to imply that she was crazy, that she was hearing things; she was more than a little pissed.

"I'm not crazy, you asshole!"

"Hey, calm down, I'm just making sure." Justin's gaze dropped into a slight glare of his own. Last time he ever asked her if she was alright, that's for sure. Maya sighed slightly before pushing back on ahead, Teddie starting to pick up the pace again when he noticed Maya start walking again. It was quiet between all three of them until they reached their destination. A dumpster in an alleyway; a very familiar dumpster if Justin may say so himself. He had to wonder why Maya wanted to hide her stuff all the way out here. Wouldn't it be easier to just leave it all near the entrance? Was it supposed to be a novelty thing, hiding it where Justin and her normally hung out?

"Alright, let's see…" Maya spoke to herself as she jumped up to the rim of the dumpster, digging around in it's contents. "Two cartons. One… And two… Alright, do-" Maya was about to jump off of the dumpster's lid, cartons of cigarettes in hand when the whole thing started to tip over. Maya had barely managed to fall out of harms way as she went down with the dumpster. Justin immediately rushed over to help Maya up, Maya groaning in slight pain as she managed to get back on her two feet. She had managed to hit her back pretty hard, but nothing she couldn't walk off.

"Jesus, Maya, are you alright."

"It stings a bit, but I'll be fine… God, that did a number on my back, though." She moaned, rubbing her fingers along her spine. Justin sighed in slight relief before turning his attention to the dumpster. He was surprised Maya had managed to tip the entire thing over. I mean, Justin didn't think she weighed THAT much. Though looking at it now, it didn't really look like a very sturdy dumpster in the first place, more like an oversized recycling bin. Maya seemed slightly concerned about the dumpster tipping over as well, though, more so because all of Kurt's product was inside. "Goddammit, look at this mess now! You guys mind helping me shove this all back in?"

"Huh? Y-yeah sure, I guess." Justin spoke up. He saw no harm in cleaning up the mess, even if he didn't approve of Maya's… business, for lack of a better word. He and Teddie had started to make their way over to the dumpster, when an unfamiliar voice reached their ears.

"**Well, shit. Next time I'll use a bigger dumpster."**

Justin blinked twice in slight confusion before turning to Maya. She seemed just as confused as him, but he asked his question anyway. "What do you mean use a bigger dumpster?"

"What? I didn't say that."

"You definitely did."

"Now why the hell would I lie about that!" She shouted at him, her gaze dropping into a glare.

"**Aww how cute; the lovebirds are having a lover's quarrel."**

"What!" Maya suddenly smacked Justin across the face, hard too given the red hand print on his face afterwards. Justin's jaw dropped down slightly before giving her a slight shove back. He wasn't going to smack her back or anything like that, but that was completely uncalled for.

"Did you see my mouth move? No? Then how the fuck was that supposed to be me!" He shouted as Maya stumbled backwards. She only seemed to glare harder after he shoved her, though.

"I don't know, maybe you're a ventriloquist!"

"Yeah, you caught me. I'm actually Jeff Dunham! Get the fuck real, Maya." He shouted, throwing his hands to the side. Teddie watched on confused as to what they were arguing about. And why did they keep acting like they had no idea what they said.

"Well if it's not you, then who is it!"

"**Oh it's him alright. And he is me."** Maya's eyes widened slightly as she heard Justin's voice echoing from right behind her. Justin was right in front of her, so then, why was she hearing him from behind. Justin backed up slightly when he saw two all too familiar figures standing behind Maya; something that certainly freaked Maya out a little more than she already had been. She slowly turned her head to look over her shoulder to be greeted by the sight of a golden-eyed Justin staring at her.

"**Boo."**

Maya jumped away from the shadow, backing her way up to where Justin had been standing moments earlier. She had been mortified at first to see a second Justin, but then she laid eyes on a second figure approaching his side. Her eyes widened and her lips quivered as she identified the other figure as none other than herself; only instead of her natural green eyes, or hazel contacts, this other her had golden colored eyes, much like the second Justin.

"What in the fuck?" Justin muttered as the shadows stood there, watching with a twisted smirk on their faces.

"Th-Those are shadows!" Teddie stammered as he hid behind Maya's legs. Justin would have preferred if Teddie hid behind him, but he wasn't going to argue over something so irrelevant; especially when there were TWO of him at the moment.

"Shadows? What in the fuck is a shadow?"

"They're hidden feelings that humans have. They manifest themselves like this." Teddie added on, shaking in fear behind Maya. Maya had started to breath heavily at this point; not that Justin could particularly blame her. I mean, they were looking at what appeared to be carbon copies of themselves, only… There was something not quite right about them.

"**Thank you, Teddie." **Justin's shadow remarked sarcastically, shaking his head slightly from side to side. **"I think they could have figured that much out on their own. Or could they? Who knows, that bitch over there always was a stupid fuck."**

"Excuse me!?" Maya snapped slightly, giving Justin's shadow a death glare.

"H-How do you know my name?" Teddie questioned, still cowering in fear behind Maya. Justin's shadow and Maya's shadow exchanged a funny glance; as though they were confused by Teddie's question.

"**H-He's not serious, right?" **Maya's shadow said in an aside to Justin's shadow. Justin shadow pressed his head into his palm; refusing to answer Teddie's question. As far as he was concerned, that was the stupidest fucking question he had ever heard.

"Wh-Why do they look like us?"

"**Because we are you." **Maya's shadow smirked slightly.

"Bullshit!" Maya shot back, a glare on her face. "You can't be use. WE'RE us." Maya's shadow rolled her eyes for a brief moment.

"**Not for long…" **Justin's shadow smirked.

"Wh-What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Maya questioned, starting to step back ever so slightly. A gesture that did not go unnoticed by her own shadow.

"**What's wrong, sweetheart, afraid of yourself?"**

"Fuck. You. Stop pretending you're me goddammit!"

"**Oh man, look it this fucking idiot. Teddie spelt it out for her, and she STILL doesn't get it. Man, were you dropped on your head as a kid."**

"Hey, fuck off." Justin responded to his shadow's remark. Whereas Maya had been stepping backwards in fear, Justin found himself stepping forward to get into his shadow's face. He wasn't gonna let whoever this poser was bad mouth his girl like that.

"**Oh, and her comes her boyfriend to save the day!"**

"I am not her boyfriend."

"**Whatever you say, man. And for the record, she totally did jump into bed with you."**

"What—How did you-"

"**Because I am you."**

Justin glared at his shadow for a while, mere feet away from him at this point. He was getting really pissed at this point. Whoever this person was, he had enough of him parading around with Justin's face, making a mockery of him, trying to pretend he was him. He didn't know shit. Maya was still inching her way back from her shadow though. Justin had been so absorbed in the conflict with his shadow that he hadn't heard a word between Maya and her shadow.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Maya screamed, a slight tremble in her voice, as Justin turned towards the source of the sudden outburst.

"**But you know what the worst part of being poor is? Nobody loves an alley rat."**

"That's not true!"

"**Don't you think there was a reason no one showed up on the Midnight Channel?"**

"Sh-Shut up!"

"Maya, calm down, don't give her the satisfaction!" Justin obviously at the time had no idea what would happen if she gave into her shadow's advances, but all the same, he realized whoever these two were, they were getting some sick satisfaction out of seeing them squirm. The more she reacted like this, the more Maya's shadow wouldn't relent. Maya didn't so much as hear him though. She had started to place the palms of her hands against the sides of her head, trying to block out the sound of her shadow's voice.

"**It's because you have no soulmate. There is no prince charming out there waiting to sweep you off your feet. Nobody will ever love you. You're going to die alone, a miserable little hermit."**

"No… No, fuck that!"

"**What's wrong? I thought I was just spewing bullshit? I mean, it's not like I'm you or some- Oh wait, that's right. I am."**

"Fuck you! You're not me!"

Suddenly Maya's shadow started laughing hysterically, a strange aura seeming to immerge from her as the words left Maya's mouth. She was finding some sort of twisted satisfaction out of seeing Maya panic like this. The shadow took a few more steps towards Maya, her golden eyes seeming to glow intensely with each step. Maya tripped backwards, falling flat on her ass as the other Maya stood over her; a twisted grin on her face.

"**What was that last part? Want to run that by me again?"**

"You… Are not… Me!"

"**Showtime!" **Justin's shadow remarked, his lips twisting up into a disturbing smirk, waving both his hands in front of his face. Justin recognized the motion; he liked to call them jazz hands.

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean."

"**Just watch and learn kiddo!"**

Justin averted his gaze from his shadow to look back at Maya and her own shadow. Maya was crawling away backwards, her mouth trembling in fear as the figure in front of her bled a purple aura. It was like a purple fog of sorts enveloping her entire body, its form pulsating as it was submerged into whatever this fog was. Justin swaped his gaze back and forth between Maya's shadow and his own before deciding, fuck it, and running over to help Maya up. She had a bit of trouble standing back up on her feet, but then, Justin did too when he saw Maya's shadow transform

It's humanoid shape remained, though it seemed disfigured. Each of its limbs seemed to splinter off into metal counterpart's, it's feet curving up into twisted metal talons. It was wearing a ragged, dirty white robe as it lifted up into the sky; six twisted wings carrying it into the air. Its head was covered in a metal helmet, a single light in the dead center of it, several metal strips jarring out into the air like horns. And in its hand it held what appeared to be a spear. It was hard to tell, though it certainly had a sharp point at the top, and it certainly had a long staff like figure to it, despite the complex metal work.

"**I am a shadow. The true self." **It announced in a filtered machine voice, the light of its eye suddenly shining down on the two as it pointed the tip of its spear at them. **"He may not love me, but that's okay. Love hurts."**

"R-Run!" Teddie suddenly shouted at Justin and Maya. The two were so shocked by the transformation in front of them that they had completely ignored the shadow aiming it's spear right at them. Teddie's voice soon snapped Justin back to reality, though, as he grabbed Maya's wrist and pulled her in the opposite direction, making a mad dash out of the alley, Teddie trailing close behind.

The shadow's spear came crashing down just behind them as they dashed out of the alley, the ground cracking in on itself, a fissure of power erupting out in a wave from the point of impact; completely destroying the packages of cigarettes that had been laying about after the dumpster tipped over. Justin's shadow smirked as Maya's shadow took to the skies, jetting after the three as they ran for the television.

"What in the fuck is that thing." Justin shouted at Teddie as they ran, Maya's wrist still clenched in his hand. She was having a hard-time keeping up, her legs still stiff with shock, so she had been constantly tripping as she tried to keep up with the two. Teddie shot him a slight angry glare as they ran.

"I don't know! You're the ones that ticked it off!"

The conversation didn't last long as Maya's shadow flew over head once again, attempting to jab her spear into the three again. It just barely missed Maya and Justin, though Justin' was almost entirely positive that some of his hair had gotten ripped off by the jab. They turned the corner quickly making their way back out to the street. Justin and Maya had a clear shot at the television from here. Justin dodged from side to side to avoid the spear crashing down upon them, making his way but a mere dozen feet or so from the screen. At least until Maya's shadow sped up, blocking off the way to the exit, her spear at the ready.

"Shit!" Justin bit his lip, not so much as slowing down though. "Maya, I've got an idea, but it's going to sting a bit."

"The hell does that mean!?" Maya screamed at him as he continued to drag her towards her shadow.

The shadow was pulling back on the spear, ready to impale the two of them as they ran towards it. At least, that's what the shadow had planned; for just a moment before the shadow thrust the spear forward, Justin had hit the ground, pulling Maya down with him. The fundamental difference, though, was that Justin had hit the ground on his knees, shifting into a powerslide underneath Maya's floating shadow; Maya hit the ground on her side as Justin dragged her across the pavement. And he was right. It did sting. But it was irrelevant; Justin managed to dodge straight under the large creature before diving through the screen, Maya following shortly in tow.

When they immerged on the other side, Justin hit his head against the pavement as he rolled back into the real world. Maya just sorta continued to skid against the pavement. Her jeans had ended up getting ripped slightly in the process, much to her disapproval. She only owned one pair, which meant she'd be walking around in the middle of Decemeber with ripped pants. Not exactly a great combination, and under normal conditions, she would give Justin shit for it, but… He may have very well just saved her life. The two puffed out air for a moment, laying on the ground trying to get the bearings back.

"Oh sweet mother of fuck…" Justin finally choked up in between gasps for breath.

"What the hell was that thing…" Justin starred at her for a brief moment. He wanted to say a lot of things to her right now. I told you so came to the top of his mind, several less than gentlemanly comments succeeding it, but instead he settled for a remark of concern.

"You are not going back in there. Cut your losses with Kurt." Maya's eyes immediately widened as soon as the words left Justin's mouth.

"Shit! Kurt's merchandise!" She looked as though she was going to try and jump back into the television when Justin grabbed her by the leg, holding her down as she scrambled to reach into the screen again.

"Are you out of your goddamned mind!? You're not going back in there!"

"But, Kurt's—"

"Cut. Your Loses."

Maya's eyes started to tear up slightly, the television just out of reach of her hand, before she let her arm drop to the ground limp. She fucked up. She fucked up real bad.

* * *

June 1, 2011

* * *

"I wish I could say it all ended there…" Maya spoke up to Yosuke.

Yosuke had been visiting Maya again that day. They had all started to work their way up the old apartment complex earlier that day. It was a strange building too. It was clearly an apartment building based on its structure, but the amount of chains and sharp objects spewed about… It looked almost like a death camp. And god knows no one was willing to risk taking the elevator; knowing Justin's shadow, there was probably a bomb inside of it.

Not to mention there were speakers everywhere screeching metal music in the atmosphere; not that Yosuke really minded. He wasn't a big metal fan, but he'd be lying if he said it didn't get him pumped up while he was fighting shadows. At least, it did until he realized the shadows seemed to be getting a strength boost from the guitar roaring through them. He had accidently broke one during one fight, only for the shadow to fall to its knees as the sound cut off, their power seeming to drain from them. From that point on, they made a note of destroying speakers wherever they found them. Which was a shame, because kicking ass to Cowboys from Hell was pretty awesome while it lasted.

All the same, they only made it up a good five or six floors before they were too exhausted to continue. The look on Chie's face when they practically had to pull her out of the building that day broke his heart a little. Yosuke had asked if anyone wanted to come with him to visit Maya, but Yu and Yukiko were too exhausted to make their way over, and Chie… Well Chie looked like she was going to breakdown at any second. It wasn't really a good idea for her to be hearing any more about Justin's escapades. So here was Yosuke, alone with Maya listening to her tell him about her experience with the Midnight Channel. The story seemed to take a lot out of her for some reason though, her eyelids seeming to drop slightly as the story went on.

"But… If all of the cigarettes were in there, doesn't that mean…"

"They were all completely destroyed, and Kurt needed reimbursement. That's where all our problems started." Maya sighed slightly. "Fucking TV. I thought being able to go on the otherside was a blessing, but in reality it was a curse."

Yosuke paused for a moment, eyeing Maya as she sat in her hospital bed, eyeing the ceiling. She had been able to sit up now without feeling too much pain in her gut, but even then she still found herself staring up to the roof more often than not.

"Yosuke, can I ask you something?" Maya finally spoke up breaking the silence, her eyes still focused on the ceiling tiles.

"Huh? Sure."

"Have you ever loved someone who doesn't love you back?" Maya choked up, her head rolling over to the side for her eyes to meet with Yosuke's. Yosuke's mouth opened with surprise, his eyes dropping to the floor. He paused for a moment, hesitating to answer her question.

"Y-Yes actually. Her name was Saki-senpai. I liked her… Hell, I loved her, but it turns out she didn't feel the same way about me. Actually, she out-right hated my guts."

Maya's eyes averted contact with Yosuke in slight shame. She should have known better than to ask a question like that.

"I don't know if you know it already, but there have been a bunch of murders over here recently that we think are tied to the other world inside the television… Saki… Saki was the first to get thrown into the television… She didn't make it."

Maya gasped slightly, her eyes darting back up to Yosuke as the implications hit her ears. She felt like a royal bitch for even bringing the topic up now.

"Y-Yosuke… I'm so sorry…"

"It's alright; it's not your fault…" Yosuke sighed for a moment, his eyes only lifting to meet Maya's after a good minute of self-contemplation. He shook his head ever so slightly, wiping the thought from his mind. He knew Saki wouldn't want him to waste his days mourning her like this. "What about you? Have you ever loved someone that didn't return the sentiment?"

"W-Well… I-I…"

"It's Justin, isn't it?" Yosuke choked up. Maya sighed slightly before giving the slightest nod of her head.

"He was the only one who didn't look at me as that poor girl. The only one who actually looked at me for who I was a person, not what I had. But I know he didn't like me like that." Maya sighed slightly.

"I take it you're not a fan of Chie, then."

"I don't really know her." Maya shrugged slightly from where she was laying. "I know she has one hell of a slap though."

"You should see how hard she kicks."

"I'll take your word for it." Maya chuckled slightly, before starring back up at the ceiling. She sighed, though she was still smiling all the same. "You know that old expression? If you love something you must set it free? I know he doesn't love me… I'd rather he be happy with whoever it is he falls for. So long as he's happy, I'll be happy."

Yosuke was surprised to see her mouth not so much as twitch into a half-smile. She had been grinning the entire time; as though she was perfectly content with her answer. Yosuke smiled at her. Loving someone so much, you'd willingly give them up just so they'd be happy… Yosuke wasn't sure he'd ever be able to do that with Saki. He leaned forward a bit, placing his hand on her shoulder, her eyes immediately darting to the point of contact.

"Don't worry. I'm sure there'll be someone out there for you." Maya chuckled slightly.

"Don't be ridiculous. No one would ever fall for a slumdog like me…"

"Th-That's not true. I'm sure there are tons of people out there who can look past that to see the real you."

"You think so?"

"I have, haven't I?"

Maya blushed ever so slightly. She knew damn well that's not what Yosuke meant by that, but she was flattered all the same. She turned her head back around to face towards the ceiling, her cheeks red, a wide grin on her face.

"I suppose you have."


	51. Chapter 50: June 2, 2011

CHAPTER 50

June 2, 2011

* * *

_Here we come, reach for your gun, and you better listen well my friend, you see;_

_It's been slow, down below; aimed at you, we're the cowboys from hell._

"Yosuke, will you shut up?" Chie spoke in an angry aside to Yosuke.

The investigation team had slowly been making their way up the apartment complex, slaughtering shadows left and right. They'd been at it for at least a good hour and it seemed they'd only advanced a floor or two since they last left off. There were just too many shadows; coming which way and that. It probably didn't help that everytime one of those speakers switched on every single shadow within its proximity started to gather together. And it certainly wasn't helping when Yosuke started to sign along anytime there were no speakers to pump that garbage into their ears.

"Sorry, it's stuck in my head now…" Yosuke spoke up, slightly embarrassed, a grimace on his face. He wasn't even aware that he was doing it; he had just heard it so many times in the last few hours that it had become almost subconscious at this point.

"You mind keeping it there?"

"I used to like this song too…" Yu sighed. "But after hearing it for the thousandth time, I think I'll be happy if I never hear Pantera ever again."

"Seriously, why is it the same song over and over again?" Chie spoke up, slightly confused, slightly irritated.

"Probably just to piss us off. Besides, it seems to be giving those shadows a power boost." Yu spoke up, trying to look at the situation from an analytical point of view. Or as much as he could without that song interrupting his thoughts again. Maybe that was the point. Get the song stuck in their head so they couldn't think straight. Not that they really needed a lot of thought to plow through legions of shadows, though.

"Still, knowing Justin and his 'superior taste in music,' you would think he'd be trying to rub in his library of music, not play the same song over and over again."

"Is this really a productive area of discussion?" Yukiko interrupted the three bickering back and forth. Really, who cared what song the speakers were playing, they had more important things to worry about than Justin's taste in music. The three shrugged as they continued to walk down the corridor; shadow corpses littering the floor beneath them. They had cleared the area out but a moment earlier, making their way to the staircase to the 8th floor.

"How's Maya doing?" Yu eventually spoke up, breaking the silence. Yosuke shot him a slightly confused glance. He wasn't sure what had suddenly brought up that topic, as important as it had been.

"Medically or…?"

"Well, both I guess." Yu clarified with a shrug.

"She's doing alright so far. She's still in pain, though. She can sit up a bit now, but anymore than that and she starts screaming." Yosuke looked somewhat saddened by his remark.

"I feel bad… I mean, she never would have ended up like that if I hadn't pissed Justin's shadow off…" Chie choked up, her head hung in shame, her eyes examining the floor beneath them as they walked. Why couldn't she have just controlled herself when Justin's shadow had gotten up in her face like that? Sure, he was being a royal ass, and yes, he did just try to say he killed her boyfriend, but… She should have known better than to give him the reaction. His shadow practically fed off their anger, finding amusement in their violent outlashes, and yet that's exactly what she did. She felt like a complete idiot; it was entirely her fault Maya had ended up getting shot. She should have been the one to take the bullet; it was her that had pissed off Justin's shadow, not Maya.

"H-Hey, c'mon now. It's not your fault…" Yukiko spoke up, trying to cheer Chie up. It didn't work. She sighed slightly, shrugging her shoulders in the process.

"If you say so…" Yosuke looked towards Chie, concern in his eyes. He hated seeing her beat herself up over this. I mean, yes, Maya had jumped up to save her from Justin's shadow, but that's not what had gotten her shot. Hell, Justin's shadow might have just intended to kill them all right there and then if the two of them didn't intervene like that. She should be proud of standing up to the shadow like that, not ashamed. He sighed slightly, before turning his attention back to Yu.

"She's doing alright otherwise. She's been really vocal about coming with us, though. I told her she needs to get better, that way she'll be at full strength when we need her."

"You realize she could be there for weeks, right? And if the weather report's right, the rain on ourside isn't going to let up for a few days. We're only going to have a few more days 'till the fog sets in."

"Don't remind me…" Chie choked up. She had been worried sick to her stomach all week. Hell, she had to force her parents to let her go to school this morning; she had thrown up more than once the night prior, and she had actually managed to start burning a fever from making herself sick. She knew beating herself up like this was just going to make it harder to find Justin; but she couldn't stop herself. It felt like for every minute Justin was alone in here, someone had stabbed her right in the heart. Yosuke sighed slightly. He wasn't entirely sure what he could say to Chie to calm her down; he wasn't exactly the charismatic fellow Yu or Justin was. And Justin was a fucking anarchist; how charismatic could he be?

"Yeah, I figured she didn't need to know that though."

"Smart." Yu answered back, eyebrows raised in impression.

The four stopped as they finally made their way to the door leading to the next stairwell. They had to wonder why there wasn't one continuous stairwell leading to the top floor if this building was based on a real place; but then, they realized Justin's shadow would still find a way of forcing them through each floor on the way up. Yosuke stuck his hand out, gripping the doorknob. Though when he went to turn it, he found the knob had been stiff, unwilling to move more than a slight bit to either side. His eyes widened in confusion and panic.

"L-Locked? Wh-Why the hell is it locked!?"

"Locked? What do you mean locked!?" Chie shouted, slightly angry. Surely Yosuke just wasn't pushing hard enough, right? They… They couldn't seriously be stopped now, not when they were so close, by a goddamn door!

"Exactly what it sounds like, idiot!"

"Jesus Christ, Yosuke. Move out of the way."

Yosuke stepped out of the way, sidestepping over to where Yu had been standing as Chie positioned herself in front of the door. She started by checking the handle to see if it really was locked, or if it was just Yosuke being a wimp. It was indeed locked, much to her dissatisfaction. But that's alright; she might not have been a master lock picker like Justin was, but she did have something else up her arsenal. She backed up from the door slightly before lifting her leg and thrusting the bottom of her foot forward. When Yosuke had seen Chie lift her leg like that, he didn't think she'd actually be open the door. Well, she didn't just open it, she knocked the entire thing off of its hinges. Everyone's jaw practically hit the floor, save for Chie. At this point she wasn't going to let some door stop her from saving Justin. She had put all of her anger and hatred into that kick; and it paid off.

"Note to self: start wearing a cup around Chie." Yu muttered to himself, his eyes wide open in shock as Chie stepped away from the opening she had managed to make in the doorway. She pulled her head back slightly, flipping her bangs back from out of her eyes.

"Well then, that settles that." She added, slightly sarcastically, her hands on her hips as she examined the destruction she had caused. Everyone passed a slight look of concern to each other behind Chie's back, before giving a slight shrug. They were about to proceed when they suddenly heard an unfamiliar noise. It was a slow beep, even intervals of about a second in between each. The team paused to pass each other a look of confusion.

"You guy's hear that?"

"That beeping sound? Yeah. Where the hell is that coming from?" Yu spoke up, looking around the room for the source of the sound. Of course, his search was short lived, as Yosuke finally spotted the source of the sound. His eyes widened as he noticed a light blinking near the elevator; a number slowly counting down from the number fifteen.

"Uh, g-guys? The elevator's moving!"

"Wh-What!?" The others spoke up in unison. They all rushed over to see the light for themselves. The number read eleven; and it was dropping quickly.

"Wh-What's using the elevator?" Chie's voice quivered slightly, as she turned her head to meet the others' gazes. Everyone's eyes were wide in fear, knowing not what could possibly be on the inside of the elevator.

"I don't know, but it's coming from up top." Yu said, shooting his eyes over to Chie. She was biting her bottom lip as the number steadily dropped.

9

8

The gang all held their breath as the elevator door opened, their eyes widening in panic the second they saw its contents. What had been making the beeping sound wasn't the elevator, but rather the contents of the elevator. Resting inside the elevator shaft's confines was what looked like a time bomb, a note strapped to it that read in big letters 'boom,' a smiley face afterwards as though to add insult to injury. It was clearly Justin's shadow's doing. And it only had three seconds left on it.

"Quick, go go go!" Yu shouted at the others as they dashed around the corner, the bomb slowly ticking down. Chie had started to realize why the door was locked now; they wouldn't have anywhere to run when the bomb came down if it was still locked. That wasn't important now, though. Everyone managed to round the corner just as the explosion set off, rubble blowing out from the elevator shaft, a burst of fire making its way through the hallways. The window that the team had been standing next too soon burst outwards. And caught in the gust of the window blowing out, was Yosuke, who had just barely been through the door when the explosion went off.

Yosuke quickly dug his Kunai into the floor as the momentum started to pull him out of the building, his entire body almost completely hanging out of the freshly made hole, eight stories up into the sky. His legs soon fell with gravity as the explosion faded away, rubble falling from where he had stood moments earlier; rubble including the ground that Yosuke had been digging his blade into for support. The floor, having cracked off from the rest of the building soon started to slip away as Yosuke's weight pulled down on it from outside the building. He closed his eyes, fearing this to be the end, when he suddenly felt as though he had stopped falling. He opened his eye just a crack to find someone's hand wrapped around his wrist. As he opened them further, he noticed that the hand belonged to none other than Chie, hanging half way out the hole in the wall to grab a hold of him.

"Gotcha!" She shouted, her grip seeming to tighten around his wrist. Yosuke puffed out more than a lot of hot air. This wasn't over yet, but he felt a lot better knowing that Chie had managed to stop him from falling for the time being. He just hoped that worst case scenario didn't involve dragging her down with him. Her torso seemed to slip forward ever so slightly, his weight dragging her out a little; though that was soon put to a halt as Yu and Yukiko grabbed Chie from the leg's and waist respectively, tugging her, and by extension Yosuke, back into the building. By the time his entire body was back on solid ground, Yosuke had to roll over, his breathing heavy, his heart racing a thousand miles an hour.

"Holy shit, I think I saw my life flashing before my eyes," he slightly joked; the rest of the gang trying to gain their bearings just next to him. Chie gave him a slight look of disapproval towards his joke before huffing a sigh of relief, pushing herself off of the ground. There was fire everywhere from the sudden blowout, so it was difficult for everyone to slow their breathing back down with so much smoke filling the air. Yosuke looked up at Chie from his position laying down on the floor. "Thanks Chie… If you hadn't stepped in…"

"Well I wasn't going to just let you fall." She said, scratching the side of her head slightly, as though confused that Yosuke would even assume she would just leave him to fall out the window like that. Her confused expression soon turned into a soft glare, however, when she realized she could use that to her advantage. "But I swear, if I hear another joke about me and Justin after this…"

"Done and done…" He choked up, smoke filling his lungs before Chie lent him her hand to help him up. Chie passed a look around the room; Smog had managed to coat everybody's face from the explosion, clearly visible black marks all across their skin. Everyone looked completely drained, too, from having to jump out and save Yosuke like that. Chie felt fine, but then, she was running on pure willpower and motivation at this point. Yu grunted a few times as he tried to regain his breath.

"That… That was too close…" Yu spoke up, gasping for air. Yosuke laughed an awkward 'I can't believe this shit,' chuckle. He had almost been blown out the window. Even when he was hanging there, death surely in sight, it never really struck him just how much danger he had been in. He felt sick to his stomach now, knowing very well he could have died if Chie hadn't grabbed his hand.

"I think I may have a new found fear of heights…"

"Why the hell would Justin's shadow put a bomb in an elevator!?" Yukiko suddenly shouted. Everyone seemed surprised at how pissed off she seemed. Perhaps attempting to kill everyone there had pushed the wrong button, pulled the last straw. Still, it just seemed so out of character for Yukiko to be so furious.

"Isn't it obvious? To kill us all off." Yu choked up before regaining his balance, standing back up on both of his feet.

"But why!? What does he stand to gain from killing us!?"

"Perhaps we pose more of a threat to him than we originally thought." Yu thought aloud, trying analyze the situation the best he could from where he was standing. "It could be that he's afraid we'll find something or do something if we make it to the top; so he's trying to kill us off sooner rather than later. Or, maybe he's just finding some sort of sick entertainment in trying to pick us off."

Yukiko sighed in anger before making her way over to the remains of a wall and sliding her back down against it, assuming a sitting position. Enduring that explosion had taken a lot out of her; she felt completely drained. So did Yu and Yosuke, really. Yosuke was still clutching his knees to maintain balance in fact; though that could be more because he had nearly died than an actual lack of energy. Yu suddenly smirked as he looked around the group.

"But we do know something now."

"And that would be?" Yosuke choked up, a cough immediately succeeding it.

"He's on the fifteenth floor right now. We're already half way there."

"Half way there isn't good enough." Chie interrupted. It most certainly wasn't, not when Justin's life could be ended at any given second.

"Then I guess we'll need to pick up the pace." Yu added, panting slightly.

* * *

December 10, 2009

* * *

"Goddammit, God FUCKING dammit!" Maya shouted towards the sky, as the two forced their way back out of the television screen.

Despite all of Justin's efforts to hold Maya back that morning, she had still managed to pull herself back through in search of the cigarettes she had been hiding for Kurt, pulling Justin in along with her. It was a quick search; a mad dash to where the cigarettes had been found, only to find them crumpled and destroyed when they arrived. Maya looked as though she was going to breakdown any second when she saw confirmation that her plan had just fucked her completely over, but Justin ended up dragging her back out by the collar, knowing full well they couldn't stay any longer than they needed to be.

By the time he had managed to pull her back to the real world; tears had been streaming down her eyes. This was it… This was how it all ended for her; thinking she was hot shit, then eating lead for trying to screw the system over. There was only one way out of this for her now; something she had been contemplating since the night before, a worst case scenario if you will.

"Maya, calm down. We'll figure something out." Justin spoke, his hands on both of her shoulders as she fell to the ground tearing up.

"Kurt's already been asking about the cigarettes; he wants me to pay him back. Immediately." Her eyes dashed up to Justin, who soon removed his hands from her shoulders to start pacing around, obscenities under his breath as he tried to think. Kurt needed the money immediately? He was a nice guy, but… He needed the money immediately from someone he very clearly knew was poor… Something wasn't right there. Maya soon stood up, one hand wrapped around her chest, one slowly making its way into her hoodie pocket.

"Well, wh-what if we got part-time jobs somewhere; pooled our money to—"

"He needs it NOW, Justin." She loudly interrupted him. If Kurt didn't have the money by the end of the day… It would be the end of the show for Maya. And for what? For wanting to live the life all the other kids got to? For wanting to be treated as normal? Nothing ever went her way; not in life, not in death. Her lips trembled slightly as she felt up the object lodged in her hoodie pocket. It was the only solution, and she knew it.

"Justin…" Justin breathed heavily as he turned towards her, his heart racing as he tried to think of a solution to their problems. "There's only one way this is going to go down…"

"…M-Maya, what are you talking about."

Maya averted her eyes, looking down towards the ground as she pulled out a 9mm pistol from her hoodie pocket. Justin stepped back, disbelief, disgust, shock, and fear, all taking their places on his face. Maya had been holding a gun, her hand shaking as she placed her index finger around the trigger; her eyes trembling as she looked up from the ground. She was just as horrified by her own idea as Justin had been; so then why would she ever consider going through with it? Hell, forget the motive for a moment, where the hell did she even get the gun?

"There's a guy who deals behind the old apartment building across the street. His name's Eddie Falcone; he's a small time dealer that sells cocaine. We're going to take this gun, and we're going to do what we need to…" Her eyes were watering, her eyebrows lowered in concern and fear. She didn't want to do it either, but yet, she was still proposing the idea, and very much had intended to go through with it.

"Maya, are you out of your goddamned mind!" Justin screamed at her, taking another step back. What she was proposing was absolutely batshit insane. She was worried about pissing off Kurt, yet she was willing to try and steal from, perhaps even kill a coke dealer? She had to be out of her mind.

"Look, I fucked up bad. I need the money or shit is going to hit the ceiling." Tears were welling up in her eyes, her voice trembling as she slowly closed the distance between her and Justin.

"This is crossing the line!"

"Crossing the line is what Kurt will do to us if he finds out what I did." She sounded as though she was getting angry, yet you could still hear a shallow sadness welling up inside her throat, muffling her words, sending tears down her eyes. Justin paused for a moment, having backed up straight into a wall at this point. He wanted nothing to do with this. And so, he said the worst thing he could have possibly said. He denied responsibility; he denied Maya.

"Why are you dragging me into this, it's your fault!" He shouted in her face, shifting the blame from us to you. Maya's jaw dropped slightly. She felt as though her heart had just exploded. Justin, her best friend had suddenly turned around and placed all the blame for this on her. She thought they were supposed to be in this together; better or worse, and yet, Justin was willing to sell her out to get out of the grave the two had dug. Maya's sadness soon found itself being replaced with fury. _How dare you? How dare you play with my emotions then just throw me aside like some toy that you've grown bored of?_

"Oh don't play innocent! You could have stopped me!" She shouted back, tears still in her throat.

"I tried to!"

"'Tried to' isn't good enough!" She croaked, her voice coming out as a deep snarl, tears still flowing down her cheeks. Justin stared at her for a moment, before sidestepping around her, giving him more room to back away, shaking his head in the process.

"I won't do it."

"Jesus, stop being a fucking pussy and take the damn thing!" Maya shouted at him, shoving the pistol into his hand. Justin's heart raced as the cold metal exterior of the pistol met his flesh. He felt dirty just letting such a killing machine touch his hands, let alone for the purposes Maya intended for him to use it for.

"No. No fuck this!" He shouted back, just about ready to throw the gun back into her hands when she got up into his face, their lips a few mere centimeters apart. But not for the reason Maya had always wanted them to be. Instead of exchanging a kiss, she instead had been snarling at him, her eyes staring into his with great intensity.

"Just point the damn thing at him while I get the wallet! No one has to get hurt."

Justin paused, his heart still racing as Maya pressed the gun further into his hand. She was dead serious. She had never intended for him to be able to walk away without him helping her. And given that she had a gun and was staring him down with murder in her eyes; Justin found that walking away was never an option to begin with.

"Yeah? And what if something goes wrong?" He questioned, Maya's hand pulling away from the gun. He wrapped his hand around the pistol's grip, his finger slightly rubbing against the trigger. He wanted to vomit just looking at the damn thing.

"Nothing will go wrong."

"That's what you said last week!" He shouted after starring at the gun for a while longer.

"Enough!"

Maya slapped Justin across the face, a red mark where her hand had struck him. Justin wanted to vomit; he wanted to disappear and pretend none of this had ever happened. But he couldn't; the gun was in his hand, and Maya was practically forcing him to do it. All of these emotions of fear and rage building up inside him, and he couldn't do a damn thing to stop Maya.

"Listen to me, if we don't do this, do you realize what Kurt is going to do to us? He's not just going to kill us, he's going to kill us, piss on our corpses and then send them home to our families chopped up into pieces. This isn't a fucking game!"

Justin chuckled that 'this isn't happening' laugh as he starred at the ground, a frown across his face. If he didn't do this, Kurt would fuck the both of them up. But if he did… Could he really live with himself knowing he had shot a man?

"Oh shit, oh shit, this is not happening..." He mumbled, pacing about, his head held in between his hands.

"Just point the fucking gun at him, it'll be fine."

* * *

June 2, 2011

* * *

"You guys… mugged someone?" Yosuke spook up, a look of surprise on his face.

The group had managed to get up another floor before having to call it quits again. After Yosuke nearly fell out a window to his death, well… No one was really up to pounding their way through Justin's shadow's hoards. They were all too shaken to put their all into it; not to mention they had practically no energy left. So here he was again, sitting there listening to Maya tell her story to Yosuke. He never did understand why she felt as though she could confide this kind of stuff in him, but a certain part of him felt good knowing that she trusted him enough to tell him this stuff.

"Well, that was the plan anyway…" Maya choked up, averting her eyes to the ceiling again. Justin was right; she should have never tried to get involved in the crime life. She had thought she had nothing to lose and everything to gain, but it turned out quite the opposite was true. It started with those cigarettes, and then it moved onto mugging… then far, far worse. She lost everything that week; and she would never be able to forgive herself for her stupidity.

"The plan? Something went wrong?"

"Well, you could say that." She sighed slightly. "I was so desperate to try and throw a plan together; I hadn't even considered the obvious flaws in it."

"What, you mean besides from the fact that you were mugging someone?" Yosuke replied. He had been serious at first, but the moment Maya turned to give him a slight glare, he changed his tone, his mouth shooting up into a fake grin. Maya simply glared it him for a while before sighing, loosening the tension in her brow. He was right; she just assumed he'd be a bit more understanding than that.

"Well, yeah." She spoke up, a sarcastic tone to her voice. "For starter's think for a second about who we were supposed to be robbing; a coke dealer named Eddie Falcone that I saw on my way to the alley every now and then. Now, ignoring for a moment that he was a coke dealer, and no doubt was batshit insane, let's just look at his NAME. Eddie Falcone."

"I don't get it…" Yosuke spoke up after a while as Maya starred him down, expecting him to understand what she was implying.

"What, you've never watched a mafia movie? Falcone. If that doesn't scream made-man, then I don't know what does. So not only would we be pissing off a coked up drug dealer, we'd be pissing off the entire fucking mafia!" Yosuke's eyebrow shot up for a split second. He didn't even know California had a mafia, let alone in San Diego.

"Did you?"

"Do I need to even answer that one?" Maya spoke up, a slightly irritated voice. She wasn't irritated by Yosuke's question though; she was irritated that she hadn't thought her plan through, and because of it… Because of it Justin got hurt real bad. And it was all her fault.

"I don't understand… If you piss off the mafia, don't you usually… You know… disappear?" Maya starred at him for a long while, her eyes shuddering back and forth. She looked like she was about to cry at any given second; but alas, not a single tear was shed. She had spent the last year or so of her life crying about what had went down that day… She had no more tears to shed on the matter.

"One of us almost did."


	52. Chapter 51: June 3, 2011

CHAPTER 51

June 3, 2011

* * *

"Twelve thousand nine hundred eighty two… Or is it twelve thousand nine hundred eighty three? Shit; now I have to start all over again…"

He moaned slightly as he climbed the stairs. He was still deathly afraid of climbing any further, but after climbing for a good three or four days, he had all but stopped giving a fuck. Hell, in a way, it was therapeutic. Subject yourself to what you fear long enough, and it almost becomes second nature. He sighed slightly before turning around to sit on one of the steps. His head twitched slightly at the slightest sensation of water hitting the back of his head.

There were a few leaky points along the staircase where water would drip down. You would think it would be annoying, but in actuality, Justin very much enjoyed that for a number of reasons. It was a nice change of pace from what the same exact corridor he walked down time after time looked like, first of all. More importantly, however, it was his only real source of water. Justin had never been so hungry in all his life, but he knew that he could go a week without food. Water… Well, Justin admitted he never got particularly thirsty, but he was well aware of the three day rule. He couldn't go too long without water; so every time he spotted one of these leaks, he always sat down and held his hand up to catch the water droplet's, pooling them all together before slurping it down to quench his thirst.

It took a good ten minutes or so before Justin was able to gather a sizeable pool of water in his hands, pouring it into his lips and down his burning throat. It tasted like rust and blood; though that was probably because of all the dried blood on his hands. All the same he drank it; tainted water is better than no water after all. He grunted slightly as he pulled his hands away from his mouth, gasping for air as he finished chugging down the water in his mouth. He sat there for a moment after he caught his breath. It was nice to be able to just sit and think for a while, even if he did know he needed to force himself to keep moving.

A lot of things had been running through his mind at the moment. How much farther do I have to walk; Are my friends alright? Well… he'd be lying if he said he thought 'my friends' and not 'Chie,' but the intention was the same regardless. And yet, despite all these questions, there was one that had really stood out in his mind. Why? Not why had he been stuck in this hellhole of a staircase with nothing to eat or drink, not why his friend's had to suffer for his mistakes… Just… Why? It all came back around to Maya… Maya and what she did to him. He had been there for her, he had tried to save her from her mistakes, and what did he get in return? Nothing but pain and misery. Maybe he would have been better off forgetting Maya ever existed, but alas, he couldn't, and he didn't.

Justin sighed. He stood up, stretching his back out, as he turned to walk up the stairs again, his legs shaking ever so slightly as he climbed step after step. He didn't need the walls for support anymore, much to his hands' pleasure, but he was still a little shaky all the same. He put his hands in his pocket, feeling around for his cigarettes and lighter again. He had to laugh slightly as his hand brushed against the side of his magnum. Either his shadow was overconfident, or a complete fucking idiot to leave Justin with that. Not that he was complaining. The quicker he could put a shell in between that fucker's eyes, the quicker he could leave this cesspool of filth. The quicker he could meet his friends and see that they were alright. The quicker he could apologize to Chie and Kurt, Chie especially, for all the nasty things he had said days ago. And the quicker he could burn Maya's number. It took a while, but he eventually managed to find the items he was looking for, lighting his smoke up as he walked. He looked up the stairwell again. It seemed like it was slowly starting to get brighter. Justin only hoped that meant an entrance would be coming up soon. He took another drag of his cigarette, before he continued walking.

* * *

December 10, 2009

* * *

"You ready?"

"No… No I'll never be ready for this." Justin moaned to himself.

The two were standing near the corner of the alleyway, waiting for Falcone to finish making a business transaction with one of his customers. Justin hid the pistol in his pocket, his hand around the grip, his finger around the trigger. Maya gave him a quick-look over to make sure the pistol wasn't visible through his jacket. It wasn't, much to her relief. She sighed slightly before looking up at Justin. His eyes were darting frantically back and forth, dilating slightly to the back of his skull in fear. It was convenient that it also made Justin look kind of like he was tripping balls at the moment; would really help sell the image when they went through with their hastily thrown together plan.

Maya sighed slightly before averting her eyes away from Justin. She knew he wanted no part in this; hell SHE wanted no part in this. But it was the only option they had; she had considered every possible contingency, every possible route, and this was the only way they could get the money and be on their merry way. She had considered going to the police, going into a witness protection program of sorts; but then she'd just end up spending five to ten in jail for illegal possession and intent to distribute. And she couldn't just ask for an extension from Kurt; he'd take her out right there and then if he found out she couldn't pay him back. This was the only way, and she knew it.

The two held their breath as they saw Falcone's customer walk away; a drug-folded package held close to his chest. The guy didn't so much as blink an eye at the two as they watched him from the corner they had been waiting at. In a way, Maya felt bad for the guy. I mean, what if they had been cops; he'd walk straight into handcuffs. Not that he wouldn't deserve them, mind you, but still. She sighed slightly before giving a nod to Justin. It took him a few moments before he slowly started to walk up to Eddie, gun carefully concealed in his pockets. The two stopped as soon as they were a few feet away from Eddie, Eddie looking down to count the money he had just received from his previous customer. That alone should be enough to pay their way out of Maya's debt to Kurt; she could only imagine what he had in his wallet. She had to shake her head slightly. No; no getting greedy. A drug dealer like this guy doesn't deserve a dime of that, sure, but all greed had gotten her in the last week was in a debt that would end in her death if she didn't pay it off in full. They would take what they need, and that's it.

"How many units?" Falcone eventually spoke up, not so much as lifting his eyes from the cash he was counting. Justin breathed heavily in and out for a moment, his hand trembling inside his pocket. Even if he wanted no part in this, he had at least assumed he'd have the resolve; he thought he had calmed down enough that he could do this and never speak of it again. Yet here he was, unsure of whether or not he should pull his gun out. Falcone eventually looked up in annoyance, stopping his thumb from running over his cash as he gave Justin a glare.

"Well? You gonna keep wasting my fucking time, or you gonna tell me what you need? How many units?" He repeated, slowing down his words as though treating Justin like an idiot. Little did he know, that was exactly the push Justin needed. When someone pissed Justin off, that was usually when he stopped giving a fuck about what he did to them. Maya had ended up losing more than a few friends that way when Justin had to step in. She was always pissed at the time, but in retrospect, it was probably for the best. They were always scum. It didn't matter though; Justin soon whipped the pistol out of his pocket, clutching the grip with both hands as he pointed it straight at Falcone's head.

"All of them." Justin choked up, his voice shaking slightly in hesitation. Eddie shot a glare back and forth between Justin and Maya, unsure as to what the hell was going on, before giving a light chuckle.

"What the fuck is this?"

"This is the part where you hand over the cash in your hand." Maya spoke up, knowing full well by this point Justin's lack of control over his voice was going to be problematic. Justin's eyes darted over to Maya, then back to Falcone, as he readjusted his stance, planting his feet firmly in the ground. Falcone's half crooked grin soon faded down into a snarl as he realized the two weren't joking.

"Do you have any idea who you're fucking with?"

"The guy who's going to get his brains blown out if he doesn't keep his mouth shut and hand over the cash."

"You think you can tell me what to do, bitch?"

"No, but a gun can."

Falcone glared at the two for a brief moment as Maya made her way over and snatched the money out of his hands, doing a quick skim through of the bills to assure it was enough. It was, much to her relief. She quickly shoved them in the side of her pocket before giving a nod to Justin. It took a moment for him to drop his pistol as he turned to walk away.

"Pleasure doing business with you." Maya shouted as the two walked in the opposite direction, a slight smile on her grin. That wasn't so bad, she thought, before turning the other way. She passed a glance over to Justin, who seemed to be relaxing slightly, but was still tense in the face. He breathed out slightly, feeling as though a heavy burden had been lifted off of his shoulders. That… That was it? He had expected things to go much wors—

Suddenly, a lamp that had been attached to the wall next to them broke into pieces, glass shattering everywhere. When they had turned their backs, Falcone had dug into his pockets and pulled out a pistol of his own. Justin should have known better than to turn his back on this guy, but he did it anyway. The second he realized the explosion of glass was the result of a bullet puncture, he ducked for cover, quickening his step as he rounded the corner, Maya following his example. The two kept low as they dashed from alley to alley, Eddie chasing after them, bullets ripping through wall after wall as they just barely managed to outrun his aim.

The two's eyes were wide with fear as bullet after bullet sailed past them. One bullet had actually just skimmed Maya, ripping off a few strands of her hair in the process, but otherwise making no impact on the body. She wanted to vomit, fear literally taking complete control of her at this point. Justin had to grab at her wrist to help her keep a steady pace as they weaved in and out of alley ways. It wasn't for what seemed like forever until they spotted an all too familiar sight; their alleyway.

Justin bit his lip for a moment. They had two options now; they could try to keep outrunning Falcone until they made it to the open streets; after all no one would dare murder them in cold-blood in full view of everyone, or they could hide under the dumpster. It seemed before Justin could make his decision, Maya had already opted to slide her body underneath the dumpster. Justin shrugged slightly before sliding under himself. It was a tight squeeze, but nothing they couldn't work their way in and out of.

It wasn't long after they had squeezed under the dumpster that Falcone had rounded the corner, firing off yet another shot. Only this time, the shot had managed to collide with the television screen Maya had conveniently laid out next to the dumpster. Glass exploded outwards, some making its way under the dumpster. Not that Justin so much as noticed, he was too focused on the sudden stop of their assailant's feet as he made his way down the corner. Where before he had been running, he soon slowed to a walk. Justin was concerned at first that he knew that they were hiding under the dumpster, though it soon turned out that Falcone simply had lost track of them. Why chase what you can't find, after all.

Falcone slowly walked about the alleyway; gun still in hand, as though examining the place. He hadn't been, of course, otherwise he would have been able to notice them under the dumpster… Well, Justin anyway. They both wore black, so for the most part they blended in with the shadow, but whereas Maya's black hair just helped her blend in more, Justin's strawberry blonde hair stood out like a sore thumb. After pacing about for a bit, Falcone eventually started digging around in his pockets for something; his cell-phone, if the beeping sounds the two heard was anything to go by. It was quiet for a while as Maya and Justin watched Falcone's feet from their hiding spot; their eyes wide with terror.

"Yeah, it's Eddie. Listen, some fucks just tried to rob the Falcone family… $1200… I want them found, and I want them dead, you hear me Vinny? No… No I don't have a name… Yeah, the girl had short black hair, hazel eyes, the guy was blonde, blue eyes… Look I'll give you a more detailed description LATER, right now I want you to have our men posted. We're going to teach these fucks why you shouldn't fuck with us."

Falcone flipped his cell-phone shut before marching off, Maya and Justin's eyes trailing him the entire way out of the alleyway. Even after he left, it took them a good few minutes before they gathered the courage to leave. Or at least, Maya did. She slid out no problem, but the way Justin had rolled in, he only had one way of leaving… Straight through the broken glass from the television. And it wasn't like he could just step over the glass or something; he was shoved under the dumpster really tight. The only way out was going to be to crawl over the broken glass. He bit his bottom lip and closed his eyes as he slowly pushed his way out, fragments of glass cutting through his arm before he managed to get far enough out to move into a crouching position. By the time he could stand up, his arms were completely cut up, blood dripping from every inch of his skin, glass sticking out from nearly every angle as he pulled each fragment out slowly. It hurt like a bitch too, but he knew he couldn't leave it in there.

Maya started breathing heavy as Justin finished pulling out the last of the glass in his arms, letting loose one last painful whimper as he chucked it off to the side. From his wrist all the way up to his inner elbow he was bleeding profusely. He didn't mind though, the bleeding simply meant that he was still alive. He passed a glance of relief off to Maya, though it was clearly overcome by his expression of pain.

"The Falcone family?" Justin eventually spoke up. "What, l-like the mafia?"

"Eddie Falcone… Vinny… Shit, you might be right." Maya choked up, her body trembling slightly from their close brush with death.

"Maya… What the fuck? You said it would be easy! You said we'd do this and it'd be all over!"

"It is!"

"No it's not! You just pissed off the MAFIA!" Justin placed extra emphasis on the word Mafia, stretching it out and shaking his bloody arms as the word left his mouth. Maya's eyes darted about the alley for a moment, as though she were trying to think. The plan was just to get the money and leave, not piss off a whole organized crime syndicate. Kurt was one thing, the fucking mafia… If they wanted them dead, they were as good as dead already. Maya vomited slightly in her mouth, though she forced herself to swallow it. If Justin saw her getting sick over this, he'd know she had no idea how to get out of this. Id she stayed calm, he'd stay calm, and they could all go on their merry ways. She breathed out slightly, having finished pushing her stomach contents back down.

"We'll be fine, they don't know our names, and we don't have any allegences to a family or gang of sorts. They have no way of identifying us."

"Except maybe OUR FUCKING FACES!"

"Oh yeah, cause the mafia TOTALLY has a guy who does mock-up sketches of culprits based on description." Justin hid his head in his palms. This was NOT happening. Maya starred at him for a moment, guilt in her eyes before speaking up. "Look, we can figure this out later; right now we need to get those arms bandaged up."

"…They're fine" Justin eventually spoke up, removing his face from his palms. Maya responded by simply rolling her eyes and dragging him by his bloody wrist. A painful action on Justin's end for sure, but a necessary one all the same.

* * *

June 3, 2011

* * *

"So that's why he's always wearing those bandages around his arm…" Yosuke spoke up. He had seen Justin without that hoodie he always wears a few times; and every single time he had been wearing those gauss banadages. At first he assumed he had injured himself somehow, but after noticing them still there after weeks had passed at a time, still perfectly symmetrical to each other… He had simply assumed they were a fashion statement. It turns out his previous assumption was correct. Maya raised an eyebrow slightly.

"Wait… He still wears bandages?" She had only seen Justin twice after the mugging incident, each time he had been wearing the bandages; but the wound was still fresh, so it made sense. It's been over a year since then, though; Justin should have had those wounds heal by now. They must have been particularly deep cuts…

"Well, he has every time I've seen him."

"Mark that down as another way I fucked up Justin's life." Maya sighed, her eyes jolting back up to the ceiling. Yosuke huffed out a bit of air. He didn't like to see her beat herself up like this… I mean, it wasn't her fault Justin's arms got cut up like that; hell, she helped him get them patched up. And that mugging thing… Yosuke wasn't sure he would do the same in her shoes, but… It's not like she had many options at that point. He could completely understand why she had felt the need to turn to such drastic actions.

"If it's any consolation, he doesn't seem to care at all about his… uh… wounds."

"Well obviously he doesn't look it, but I'm sure it bothers him all the time. Justin never did like being different, so walking around with bandages on his arms… I'm sure it kills him on the inside…"

"It would probably kill him a lot more to see you beat yourself up like this." Yosuke smiled slightly, hoping the remark would cheer her up slightly. Instead it only seemed to make her frown more. It probably would kill him… That's why she choose not to subjugate him to that… To her…

"You're probably right. That's one of the reasons I ended up cutting off ties with him in the first place."

"Wh-What do you mean?" Yosuke spoke up confused. Maya rolled her head back over to the side to make eye-contact with Yosuke. Her eye lids drooped with sorrow, her eyes seeming dull as she looked him in the face. She looked almost depressed by Yosuke's remark.

"Well… You already know we pissed off the mafia… After all was said and done with them… Well, Justin was better off forgetting who I was, what I had done." Yosuke seemed confused by her remark. 'What I had done?' What exactly did you do that Justin would be better off forgetting you? It couldn't possibly be so bad that he would forget his only friend, right? All the same, he looked at her, concern in his eyes. Maya just sighed. She didn't want to think about it; it just brought back too many painful memories.

"The doctors say I should be fine soon."

"Y-yeah? That's good…" Yosuke spoke up, slightly happy to change to a more pleasant topic.

"…I'm not going to be able to leave in time to help Justin, am I?" Yosuke's smile immediately turned back into a frown. Had she known about the conditions concerning the fog? Or did she just have a bad feeling in her gut? Yosuke sighed slightly before turning his head towards the ground.

"No… Either he's coming out tomorrow, or he's not coming out at all…"

"Not coming out at all…?"

"Whenever the fog sets in on this side, that's when… That's when the shadows attack." Maya looked down towards the foot of her bed, tears welling up slightly. There was a chance that Justin might actually kick the bucket? Had she heard Yosuke right? A lot of thoughts went through her mind, most of them unpleasant, but she was only able to vocalize a single one.

"Yosuke…"

"Yes?"

"Don't let Justin die in there…" Yosuke stared at her for a slight moment, his heart feeling as though it grew heavy as the words left her mouth. He wouldn't let Justin die; not just for Justin, or him; not for all of his friends, or Chie. He was going to do it for Maya. She suffered enough.

"Over my dead body."


	53. Chapter 52: June 4, 2011

CHAPTER 52

December 11, 2009

* * *

"Maya!? You in here!?"

Justin slowly crept his way inside of the old apartment building. He had received a text from Maya telling him to meet him here, but… Something just wasn't right about it. She normally would go into detail in her texts, or at least make a complete sentence. Instead, all he got was a cryptic "Need you inside the old apartment building." So on top of the message seeming so out of character for Maya, she needed him inside the building they had nearly been shot at the day prior? He didn't know what was going on, but he knew it couldn't be good.

By the time he had actually made it inside the building, he was panicking slightly. He knew nothing about this building, other than the fact that Falcone had been selling drugs just outside the day prior. If this hadn't been an emergency of some sort, Maya would have picked somewhere else, right? That's what panicked Justin so much; the briefness of the text, the obscure location for a meet up. Maya had to have gotten herself in trouble; the mafia had to have caught up with her or something. He only hoped that whatever it was she did, he wasn't too late.

Justin slowly inched his way up the stairs, being careful not to make a single sound as he creaked up from floor to floor. He checked each floor swiftly, but silently. The whole apartment building seemed dead; not a person in sight. Granted, the inside of the place looked like complete shit, so he could understand why no one would want to live here, but it still made him uneasy. Even the shittiest apartment buildings gotta have some cockroaches. He bit his bottom lip as he searched hall after hall, room after room, floor after floor.

He had been at this for quite some time, with not much luck. He really wished Maya had told him what floor she was on at the very least; but if she really was in danger, he wasn't going to risk texting her back to ask where she was. He sighed slightly, continuing to climb the stairs. He had searched ever floor but the last floor by this point; every floor except floor number fifteen. His heart was racing as he slowly made his way up the steps; though it started racing even harder as he noticed an all too familiar sight greet him at the top of the stairs. Eddie Falcone was standing there, smoking a cigar; two mooks behind him with baseball bats. Justin froze where he was, stiff with fear. So Maya WAS in trouble. The mafia had found her, but… Where was she? Was she okay?

"Well if it isn't the little punk who tried to fuck with the Falcones!" Eddie spoke up, starring down at Justin a mere few steps below him. Justin swallowed slightly, fear welling up in his throat. He had considered turning and running, but… He just couldn't… Not while Maya was still in danger. Even if he knew he had no chance of standing against the mafia. Besides, his legs were still frozen with fear; he couldn't run if he wanted to. Justin breath out heavily before eventually speaking.

"Where is she?"

"Where's who?"

"Maya, you son of a bitch; what the hell did you do to her?"

Eddie simply starred at him for a brief moment before smirking, a devilish laugh excreting from his mouth. Justin's heart was pounding against his chest as the laughter hit his ears. They had done something awful, he just knew it. Eddie eventually stopped laughing to stare Justin down in the eyes, slowly walking down the stairs to meet Justin eye-to- eye as he talked.

"Oh, you mean the alley rat? Yeah, we had a little conversation with her. Interesting one she was."

"What… did you… do?"

"Have you ever heard the expression, an eye for an eye?"

"I swear to god if you laid even a finger on her." Justin's fear was suddenly shifting to rage, his fists clumping into balls, his mouth curving into a snarl. If this motherfucker touched Maya, he would kill him right there and then; with his bare hands if he needed to. Eddie only seemed to laugh though at Justin's assumption that he had done anything to here. He almost had, but plans change.

"Well the way we figure it; it doesn't matter who's eye as long as the eye's replaced; you dig?"

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"We had a little talk with your friend…" Eddie smirked as he pulled out a 9mm pistol from his pocket, raising it up to his face to examine the side of it. "It's amazing what someone is willing to do with a gun against their head, the deals they're willing to make…"

"Just get to the fucking point!"

"We made a little deal with your friend; she tells us where you are, she gets to go free. After all, she wasn't the one holding the gun, was she?"

Justin's fist loosened slightly, his jaw dropping in disbelief. Maya… Maya had sold him out? That text… That text was just to try and get him here? No, it couldn't be. This guy had to be lying. Maya would never do that… Yet… Yet it made so much sense… She left it vague so Justin would go there assuming something had happened to her. And it worked. He fell for it. Justin shook his head slightly. He wanted to believe that Falcone was a dirty liar; he was a coke dealer after all, but… But deep down he knew it was true. It just made too much sense to be some bullshit he made up.

He bit his bottom lip before clutching his fists together again. After all he had done for Maya, all the time they had spent together; she had practically lead him to his death; like a lamb to the slaughter. If he got out of her in one piece, he would make her pay. One way or another. Eddie laughed again, taking one step closer to Justin.

"Tell me, what was going through your head that you thought you could fuck us over?"

Justin didn't so much as answer him, only glaring at him for a brief moment before spitting in his face. Bad move. Eddie recoiled backwards in disgust for a moment, wiping the spit off his face, before turning and shoving Justin down the stairs; a good 10 or 12 steps. By the time Justin hit the ground every inch of his body was reeling out in pain. Especially his head. He hit it pretty damn hard during the fall; hard enough to puncture the skin and send blood dripping down the side of his skull. Justin's eyes twitched, his eyelids barely open as Eddie and his goons made their way down the stairs. Eddie turned to the others, barking orders at them as he continued to walk to Justin's battered body.

"You two, torch the place." He shouted at them before coming to a full stop in front of Justin. "Let this be a lesson to you; don't fuck with Eddie Falcone."

Justin was soon knocked unconscious as Eddie reeled his foot back before swinging it straight into Justin's forehead, a shower of blood exploding outwards in the process.

* * *

June 4, 2011

* * *

"Oh sweet jesus…" Yosuke muttered as the two made their way to the staircase to the fifteenth floor. The stairs were completely drenched with blood. Yukiko had to force herself to turn away from the sight, lest she vomit. Blood, she could handle, but this much? Even someone with a strong stomach would find this uneasy to look at. Of course, Yukiko's reaction had nothing on Chie's. When she saw the blood, she immediately started to breakdown in to tears, connecting the blood with Justin. In a way, she was entirely right.

"Please don't let that be Justin's…" She choked up, her words interrupted by a hiccup every few moments. Yu put his hand on her shoulder, trying to calm her down as best he could. He'd give her a hug, but somehow, he doubted Chie would take that all that well. Besides, she should save it for when they met Justin. Yosuke bit his bottom lip, closing his eyes as he took the lead, making his way up the stairs. Chie soon followed, her arms wrapped around her, tears still flowing from her eyes. Yu had to help Yukiko get up the stairs; it was just too much for her to handle on her own.

After a good minute or so of climbing, they eventually made it to the top, a small floor with a singular door in the center of its wall. It wasn't like the big red gates they had pushed open to meet Kanji's and Yukiko's shadows; it was just a plain white door, no different from the rest of the doors they had passed by on their way to the top floor. Needless to say, the investigation team was a little confused, unsure as to whether or not they were in the right place. Yu eventually placed his finger against his ear, patching himself through to Teddie.

"Teddie… This is the right place right?"

"W-Well… I sense something, but…"

"But?"

"I don't sense Justin on the other side. It's just his shadow."

Yu's jaw dropped slightly. Justin wasn't in there? Then… Then had it been true when his shadow said he'd kill Justin if they came after him? Had they fucked up and gotten Justin killed? It couldn't be… Yu passed a slight glance over at Chie, her eyes upon him, wide with concern and sorrow, her arms wrapped around her self as she tried to stop herself from shivering. He bit his bottom lip slightly. There was no way in hell he was going to tell her… If Justin really did kick the bucket… He wouldn't be the one to break her heart. He sighed slightly.

"Alright Teddie, thanks." He spoke up before removing his fingers from his ear.

"W-Well?" Chie spoke up, her voice quivering slightly. Yu couldn't look her in the eye when he lied to her about Justin. Instead, he simply looked at the door they were about to enter.

"This is the place alright." Yu choked up, making his way over the door. He slowly wrapped his hand around the knob, ready to push it open, when the gentle sound of a guitar met his ears. It was barely audible through the wooden door, but he could still make it out. It was a sweet acoustic melody, being looped endlessly. He was a little confused at first; he wasn't hearing things, at least he didn't think so. So then why the sudden transition from heavy metal to… Well, this. He shook his head slightly before pushing the door open with his shoulder.

Yu made his way inside what looked almost like a large auditorium. The floor was rigged with randomly elevated metal tiles of varying size and length, and it seemed nearly every square inch of the room was covered in speakers and amplifiers. The opposite end of the room consisted of a stage, speakers' way in the back. And at the forefront, legs hanging off the edge, was single silhouette, strumming that same riff at the guitar over and over again. Given the hat it was wearing, Yu could only assume it was Justin's shadow.

The four all slowly made their way inside, save Chie, who had run straight for the center of the room, her eyes darting all across the room. Her head swung rapidly from side to side as she tried to find Justin; yet she saw nothing. Not even his corpse… Her breathing grew heavy, her eyes wide with fear and despair. Justin wasn't here… So then… Justin's shadow really had killed him? Her knees went weak, every muscle of her body going limp. She wanted to just lie down and die; she had failed Justin, and now he was dead. Yet, her eyes still caught a hold of the figure sitting on the stage across from her, strumming his guitar to the gentle tune.

"You… YOU ASSHOLE! WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM?!" She shouted, her voice rhaspy with hatred. The shadow suddenly stopped strumming, the sound of her voice holding his hand back as he lifted his eyes to meet his visitors, a wide smirk across his face. He quickly swung the guitar around on it's strap to his back side, placing his now vacant hands on his lap.

"**Now is that anyway to greet someone? Tsk, tsk, no manners."**

"Why!? WHY DID YOU KILL HIM!?" She shouted, her eyes tearing up.

"Ch-Chie, we don't know—" Yosuke tried to interrupt her; but his pleas went completely unheard. If he wasn't here, he was gone. And it was all this bastard's fault.

"**I told you not to follow him, didn't I?"**

"YOU BASTARD!"

"**Oh, I'm the bastard? I gave you a choice, and you made it. Why, if you hadn't followed me, poor Justin would still be alive right now. Face it. I didn't kill Justin; you did."**

"I AM GOING TO KILL YOU!"

"**But of course, that's what murderers do best, don't they? Murderer."**

Chie's face twitched in rage, her teeth clenched together so hard she swore one of them cracked, her fists rolled tighter than they ever had before. This bastard murdered Justin, and then he had the audacity to blame Chie? She wasn't just going to murder him; she was going to make him wish for the same swift death Chie supposedly took from Justin. The rest of the group simply looked at Chie, their hearts broken, their eyes ready to burst into tears at any moment. They had told Chie to calm down, not to fall for Justin's shadow's tricks, but… They wanted her to snap. They wanted her to kill Justin's shadow slowly, painfully; they wanted him to know suffering like no other. Justin's shadow only seemed to laugh at them as they stood there, ready to pounce. He pulled out his magnum, pushing his hat up using the barrel.

"**Oh don't you fret your pretty little head off now, my dear; He died nice and slowly from dehydration, his hands thrust in barbed wire as he struggled in vain. I told him that if he tried hard enough he could save you all. Can you believe that shit? Oh how I enjoyed watching him try to squirm his way to the top of those stairs."**

"You know what I enjoyed? The part where you forgot to take my gun."

Chie's eyes widened as she flipped her entire body around to face the source of the sound. It was Justin, slowly limping in through a second door off to the side, gun in hand and aimed at his shadow. His face was covered in dried blood, and his eyes were posed in the most vicious glare Chie had ever seen. Her eyes started to water almost immediately, tears of joy streaming down her face as she ran towards Justin, leaping forward to embrace him.

"**Well, that's not what I expected." **His shadow spoke up in surprise, an eyebrow raised as he examined Justin from where he sat. He didn't think Justin would actually have the balls to climb the stairs.

"Y-You're alright… You had me so worried you bastard…!" She choked up over her tears, her arms wrapped around him.

Justin was a little caught off guard at first, though he soon lowered his aim on the shadow to return the embrace, his head on her shoulder, arms wrapped around her back. He felt like he could stay like this for eternity, never letting go of his grip on her. His eyes started to tear up much like Chie's had been. It never really struck him until just now, but while he was stuck down in the staircase for four days, he missed a lot of things. Chie was at the top of the list; though food was a close second.

"Chie, I'm so sorry. About everything I said." Justin choked up over his tears, tightening his grip around Chie.

"It's alright; just don't you ever do this to us again!"

The team all watched as the two cried on each other's shoulders, arms wrapped around them. For the first time in what seemed like days, their spirits rose, smiles spreading across their face. Everything seemed to have worked out in the end, save for one loose end. And his loose end seemed rather pissed now. Justin's shadow rolled his eyes for a moment before aiming his magnum at the ceiling and squeezing off a shot; chunks of the ceiling falling down from the point of impact with the bullet. Justin and Chie immediately jumped out of their embrace, frightened by the sudden sound of a gun being fired off. They had assumed the gun had been pointed at one of them; but alas, t'was not the case.

"**Oh I'm sorry, did I interrupt something? You two make me fucking sick." **Justin glared at him for a moment before pointing his magnum at the shadow once again.

"That won't be a problem for long."

The shadow laughed for a moment, dropping down from his sitting position on the stage. He spread his arms out before leaning forward, a wide smirk on his face.

"**What? You're going to shoot me? Give me a break."**

"Shoot you? No, you're not the mastermind here."

"…**Come again?"**

"Put Maya's shadow through."

The shadow starred at Justin for a good while, an expression of disbelief sweeping across his face. It seemed look a good minute before his expression of shock shifted to rage; a dark purple aura seeming to illuminate from his body. The rest of the group was completely confused. They had no idea what Justin meant in the slightest, but given his shadow's reaction, it seemed to be right on the money. The shadow stood there for a moment before shouting in anger, thrusting his hand out towards the group. Suddenly everyone's muscles grew tense, their bodies frozen in place. It was just like the scene that took place outside of the apartment building; they couldn't move their limbs in the slightest. Not even Chie, who had limited control over her legs earlier, could budge in the slightest bit.

"**I am the one in charge here! I am the one who pulls the strings!" **The shadow shouted in anger.

"Th-This again? Wh-What the fuck!?" Yosuke choked up, his limbs frozen in place. As he coughed his eyes widened slightly, noticing a slight puff of purple smoke making it's way out of his mouth. The same purple smoke as the explosion a few days ago. He stuttered for a moment before shouting out to the others. "It's that purple smoke! That's what's doing it!"

Justin blinked a few times before stepping to turn around, his movement seemingly completely uninhibited by whatever it was his shadow did to the rest. Everyone's eyes widened as they noticed it too. Hell, he didn't look as though his limbs had stiffened in the slightest. But if it had to do with the purple smoke from the explosion, then Justin WOULD remain completely unaffected.

"Purple smoke? What you mean like that shit I breathed in that one time?"

"H-Hey, that's right, you DID breathe it in before!" Yosuke spoke up. Now he was just confused; what the hell WAS this stuff.

"**Next time I stop your lungs, stay dead!"**

"Next time you stop my lungs, make sure you do the job right the first time." Justin glared back at him. So his shadow HAD tried to murder him before. It begged the question why when Justin had yet to denounce his shadow. Until you realize you can never really deny a memory. The rules were probably different surrounding him. Justin snapped his neck to both sides before pulling his gun back on his shadow. "You keep pretending you're heading this operation, but we both know the truth. This isn't my hell; this is Maya's. Now patch her the fuck through."

The shadow backed away for a moment, his eye twitching slightly, before coming to a full stop. His head twisted off to the side, spazzing from side to side. As his head flipped back and forth, the tension in the rest of the group's muscles soon loosened, their bodies dropping to the ground as they regained control of their bodies. It seemed that while Justin's shadow wasn't in direct control of the body, the smoke was completely ineffectual. By the time he stopped, there was no noticeable change in his appearance, but there was an obvious change in his behavior. His smirk was soon replaced with a wide-eyed frown, his stance changing slightly; hell he even flipped some of the hair in his eyes out of the way.

"**Hello, Justin." **The voice was completely Maya's now, no longer that strange combination of the two from prior. Justin took a few steps towards the shadow, gun still in hand. The rest of the group looked on, confused and panting with relief as they regained control over their limbs.

"It's over Maya. Time to drop this charade."

"**It's not over. It'll never be over so long as you breathe." **Justin wasn't sure what was creepier; the word's coming out of Maya's shadow's mouth, or how calm she had been when she said it. She didn't so much as bat an eyelash. She was dead serious.

"What? Killing me once wasn't good enough for you?" Justin remarked, slightly irritated.

"**You denied me, Justin. We were supposed to be in this together."** The shadow simply stood there, never blinking; a sorrowful expression on her face.

"That went out the window the moment you sold me out to the fucking mafia."

"**Why are you dragging me into this, it's your fault." **Justin loosened his grip on his magnum ever so slightly… He had said that, but… But it was her fault. He warned her and she still did it anyway. He averted eye contact for a brief second before tightening his grip again, focusing intently on the shadow. **"I thought we were in this together. I thought we shared everything. Do you not care? Am I not good enough for you?"**

"What...? Maya, I—"

"**Just tell me what you want, I can change!" **The shadow suddenly shouted, taking a step towards Justin. His mouth hung open only slightly, his bottom lip just barely parting from his top. Change? Why would she ever want to change for him? He breathed out a slight puff of air. He couldn't think of anything else to say; so the shadow did for him.

"**Why won't you love me? Is it because I'm not pretty enough? I don't have enough money? Tell me Justin, what do you want!?"**

"Whoa whoa whoa; wait just a fucking second." Justin shouted out, his face completely red. Love her? Sure she was a good friend of his, emphasis on was, but he never really thought of her in that light. Had she thought of Justin all this time like that? He blinked a few times; he was curious as to what all the others thought, but now was really not the time to be looking over his shoulder. "One, I loved you like a sister Maya; that's it. I can't see you as anything but. Secondly, there is no way in hell I would love you like that after that little stunt you pulled in the apartment building."

The rest of the team all looked on, stupefied by the exchange; save maybe Yosuke, who already knew Maya felt like that about Justin. Still, he couldn't help but feel like his chest grew a little heavy hearing the words come out of her mouth. She really did love him… He didn't know why it upset him so much, but it did. Yu and Yukiko looked somewhat surprised, but otherwise unfazed. It was Chie that was the most baffled. Her jaw had practically hit the floor when Maya burst out like that. She knew Maya secretly had a thing on Justin, it was incredibly obvious from the few encounters she had with her, but seeing her shadow out-right admit to it, demanding an explanation as to why Justin didn't love her… She was more than a little red in the face. She was furious with jealousy. And people used to say Justin was the jealous one. The shadow tipped its head to the side, a sorrowful expression on it's face.

"**So you don't love me… That's fine, nobody does. But that's okay." **The shadow soon tossed the guitar around from its back into its hand. It was starting to strum a guitar riff, the same riff that Justin's shadow had been playing when they all worked through the door. **"That's okay, because… love hurts."**

The shadow soon stomped its foot into the ground, the guitar sound distorting, the ground quaking beneath its feet. Hell, a few of the tiles had actually started to slip apart. Or at least, that's what it looked like at first. In actuality, the long metal strips that coated the floor were not tiles, nor were the splitting apart at the shadow's sudden burst of power. They had been all part of a singular shape of sort's, shooting up into the sky behind the team. As their figures shot up through the sky, the team's mouth's dropped. They looked like crooked metal crosses, their figure distorted, their shape rugged.

"Sweet mother of crap…" Yosuke muttered to himself, as the shadow of the five crosses overshadowed them. In the backdrop the shadow continued hammering away at the guitar strings, only, Justin could faintly hear the sound of chanting. Justin knew this song all too well; though he did have to wonder where the actual chanting was coming from. It didn't matter though; as the shadow's guitar changed up each rhythm, the chanting growing louder, the team was ambushed by chains suddenly jumping out from within the crosses, grabbing at their arms and legs. Because they were closer to the crosses, the rest of the team had no time to jump out of the way. Justin wasn't much further away from them, but he still managed to dodge the chains going at his arms. His legs, not so much.

Suddenly the chains started to withdraw, dragging each member of the team with it, their arms and legs bound together by chains and barbed wire. Each was pulled up to their place on their respective cross, each kicking and screaming struggling to get out. As the singular chain that had wrapped around Justin's leg had started to pull him in, he managed to fire off a shot at the chain, breaking one of the links that held it together. Justin went barreling along in the direction of the cross, though free from the restraint that was to hold him in place. He accidentally fired off another round while he was thrown against the ground from the momentum of the chain, but it was alright, because it didn't seem to hit anyone. In fact, it seemed it had managed to damage one of the chains dragging Yu towards the cross. Not enough for him to break his arm free alas, but enough that he could start struggling. Hell everyone was struggling to get out of their binds, shouting in fear and anger as they were held against the crosses' twisted form; but Yu was actually able to wiggle his arm slightly, where as the others couldn't so much as budge.

Justin stood up, turning to Maya's shadow, still standing in the center with the guitar, picking away at each string. Justin raised a slight eyebrow. The guitar seemed to be the shadow's source of power, the ground shimmering around her in response to every chord she played. Justin wiped his brow slightly before walking towards her, firing off a few shots. The bullets didn't so much as pass by her, ricocheting off of sound waves; one of which damn near hit Chie, much to Justin's displeasure. Justin sighed slightly before putting the gun back in his pocket. If bullets weren't going to help he was going to have to get in with his fists. Or at least, that was the plan until the shadow suddenly turned to Justin pointing the neck of the guitar straight at him, singing the lyrics of the song.

_**You could have been all I wanted,**_

_**But you weren't honest,**_

_**Now get in the ground!**_

Maya's shadow leaned forward to bellow the last lyric; so much so that a soundwave had completely blown Justin off of his feet, sending him flying backwards into one of the crosses, knocking it slightly lose in the process. There was a good indentation on the ground where he had skid to a stop in front of the cross. Justin grimaced in pain as he tried to lift himself up off the ground. He was stunned, to say the least, that he had been blown backwards simply by the shadow shouting. He inched his way up, holding his arm in one hand as he tried to loosen the muscle in his second attempt at getting to Maya's shadow.

_**You choked off the surest of favors.**_

Justin was slowly marching his way back over to Maya's shadow when he noticed something. As the shadow pointed the guitar at Justin again, bits and pieces of it started to shift out, the head and neck of the guitar slowly transfiguring into the shape of a gun barrel. Justin paused for a moment. The guitar is a fucking minigun? Justin was just dumbfounded; who the hell made a guitar that was also a minigun? It's just… What's the fucking purpose!? It makes no fucking sense! The shadow slowly lowered the guitar, pointing the barrel at Justin as he stood there in shock.

_**But if you really loved me,**_

_**You would have endured my world.**_

The guitar soon started spraying a shower of bullets at Justin, Justin just barely able to run ahead of them as the shadow's aim kept a steady pace behind him. Yu was starting to have success getting his arm free. He could move it away from the cross a slight bit, which meant if he could tug it just a little more, he could slip his arm out of his binds. Then, he could summon a persona and get everyone out of their binds.

_**Well you're just as I presumed.**_

_**You're a whore in sheep's clothing.**_

_**Fucking up all I do.**_

_**Yeah, and if so here we stop.**_

_**Then never again,**_

_**Will you see this in your life.**_

The guitar soon shifted back to its original form, bits and pieces rearranging itself back into the knobs and strings of the guitar. Justin would have been relieved under normal circumstances, if the sudden change of chord progression hadn't started fucking with the ground he was standing on. Tiles flew in the air, the ground morphed into mountains and walls. He got knocked off balance by the ground shifting on more than one occasion as he tried to get in to grab the guitar. On the bright side, Yu manage to get his arm free from his binding.

"Got it!" Yu shouted, the others eyes dashing towards him in relief. "Izanagi!"

Within a second, Izanagi appeared in front of Yu, slowly casting Zio at each person's chains. They were sturdy though, it took a good two or three shots of it before the chain loosened, and that was per binding. He had to do it twice for the arms, and once for the feet for all four of them.

_**Hang on to the glory at my right hand**_

_**Here laid to rest is our love ever longed**_

_**With truth on the shores of compassion**_

_**You seem to take premise to all of these songs**_

Justin had maneuvered himself through the rapidly shifting battlefield, ready to deliver a blow to the shadow when suddenly a pillar of earth rose from the ground, smacking Justin from under his chin and sending him flying up into the air. When he finally hit the ground, he was sore; so sore he could barely move his tense muscles. Justin had thought he'd be a sitting duck, just ready for the shadow to aim that gun thing at him again; but instead, the shadow turned towards the rest of the team, still hanging from their crosses. Or at least, one of them was. Yu had already managed to get Yukiko down, and was just getting Chie down off of hers at the moment. Yosuke actually seemed kind of pissed that he was the last one to get rescued, but kept his mouth shut all the same.

_**You stormed off to scar the armada.**_

_**Like Jesus played martyr,**_

_**I'll drill through your hands!**_

Just as the last of Yosuke's bindings came loose, several chained harpoons shot out through where the team's hands would be on the crosses had Yu not got them all down. Yosuke's eyes were wide with fear considering they had only just missed his hands by a split second or so; hell, he actually had cuts on the side of his hand where the harpoon had just skimmed his skin. Needless to say, he wasn't moving anywhere when he hit the ground; he was too shocked.

"Jesus Christ! Yosuke, are you okay?" Yu spoke up, shortly after one of the harpoons had whizzed past his head. Yosuke was completely stiff with fear, but he still managed to nod his head to the others. The others gave a hesitant nod to each other before all summoning their personas, charging on to try and get to Maya's shadow themselves. They didn't have much luck though. With each chord Maya's shadow played, the room disfigured itself, chunks of the ground shattering and hurling in the air, blocking the team's progress.

_**The stone for the curse you have blamed me.**_

_**With love and devotion,**_

_**I'll die as you sleep.**_

_**But if you could just write me out,**_

_**To neverless wonder,**_

_**Happy will I become.**_

_**Be true that this is no option.**_

_**So with sin, I condemn you,**_

_**Demon play demon out.**_

Each of the group's personas sent spell after spell the shadow's way, only for it deflect off of the thumping sound being released from the guitar. Everyone was baffled, but not at all done trying. They continued to attack with every spell they had; knowing that every time they sent their persona in for a physical attack, they just got blown away by another loose tile, or a speaker being hurled from across the room. They continued to attack, not because it was particularly effective, but because they noticed Maya's shadow's attention had been completely diverted from Justin. He picked himself up, slowly making his way over to where the shadow stood. His muscles had stiffened up to a ridiculous extent from being thrown about like a ragdoll; but he could still move. And he would still end this.

_**Hang on to the glory at my right hand.**_

_**Here laid to rest is our love ever longed.**_

_**With truth on the shores of compassion.**_

_**You seem to take premise to all—**_

"My turn now, motherfucker."

While the shadow was still distracted, Justin leapt forward and grabbed a hold of the guitar, gripping it by the neck as he ripped it out of the shadow's hands; then swung it back into the shadow's skull, knocking it down to the ground. Purple blood dripped down the shadow's face as Justin placed his foot on Maya's shadow's stomach. The shadow simply looked up at him, tear filled eyes as he pulled his magnum out and pointed it straight at her face. Strangely, despite her sorrowful eyes, her lips were still curved up into a smile, a slight laugh on her breath. Justin almost felt bad for the monster he had managed to bring down to the ground; though he felt worse for the actual person. Maya always was a lonely person… This just made him feel like a prick for contributing to the problem in the first place; even after all Maya had done to him.

"Hey Maya." He spoke up casually, slightly in jest.

"**Hey Justin. Nice gun."**

"Which one?" He joked, a smirk on his face.

"**Oh ha ha, cute." **She pretended to find the joke stupid, but the chuckle under her breath begged to differ. Justin smiled at her for a moment before his lips slowly started to curve down, his happy expression fading into one of sorrow.

"I'm sorry it has to end this way, Maya."

The shadow looked up at him for a moment, tears still in its eyes. It laughed an awkward chuckle, though the laugh was clearly full of pain; though Justin' couldn't tell if it was supposed to be emotional pain of physical pain. In the end though, it really didn't matter. Pain is pain all the same.

"**Love hurts, don't it?"**

Justin chuckled for a slight second. "It sure does."

He pulled the trigger and fired a round off right in to the shadow's skull, purple blood exploding outward. Justin huffed slightly before removing his foot from the shadow's corpse. He simply stood there for a while, starring down at his handiwork as his friends slowly made their way up to him, navigating the carnage Maya's shadow had made in the environment. They were happy at first that it was all over, that they could all go home and never have to worry about this again. But then they saw Justin, his eyes quivering as he looked down at the shadow, purple blood pooling around it's head.

"Justin…? You okay?" Chie eventually spoke up, placing her hand along his shoulder. It took a moment for him to raise his eyes to meet hers; shaking off the trance his gunshot had placed him under. Shooting down Maya, even if it was her shadow, in cold blood. It was what he vowed to do when he found out she betrayed him, and yet… He felt empty, unfulfilled. Hell, he felt worse having put a bullet in her skull than not. Because in the end, no matter what she did to him, she was still his friend. And she loved him. All she wanted in this world was to be loved, and when she finally found someone to love, he killed her. Justin sighed slightly.

"Yeah… Yeah, I'm fine." He choked up. He wasn't, but he wouldn't let Chie know that. He huffed a bit before starting to walk away from the body. No words were exchanged in the process; though that may have been a result of what happened next. Justin hadn't so much as walked five steps when he heard a gargled cough. It wasn't Maya's, but he definitely know the gurgling sound came from the blood. Which meant one thing… He might not have been happy putting a bullet in Maya's brain; but Maya wasn't the one who threatened to kill the ones he loved. He turned around, making his way back to his shadow, the shadow laughing slightly before spitting a bullet out of his mouth; probably regurgitated from wherever it had been that Justin had planted the bullet in its skull.

"**How'd it feel shooting that bitch in the face?"**

"I don't know. I haven't done it yet." Justin placed his foot on the shadow's chest before shoving the barrel of his gun in his face. "But I will soon."

"**So what? You're going to kill me? Pfft, you don't have the balls."**

"Wanna bet?" Justin moved the barrel of his gun away from the shadow's face for a brief moment, aiming it at his chest as he pumped a few rounds off into his body. The shadow screeched out in pain, it's muscles pulling back in a painful motion. He was still very much alive, but he was in intense pain. Purple blood dripped out of every pore on his body, piling up into pools by his side. Justin withdrew his magnum again only to point it back at his face, the shadow trying to recoil it's head in fear. He had seemed so smug before; so sure that he was untouchable. But now that he had a gun pointed to his head, his body trapped on the floor, he was nothing but a coward.

"**W-Wait, we can make a deal here, can't we? We're all friends her, right!?"**

"Deal? Yeah we can make a deal alright. I promise you a bullet in your face, and you give me my persona. Seems like a fair compromise to me." Justin grunted, spitting off some blood in his mouth to the side. It wasn't his blood, of course; he had managed to get some of the shadow's blood in his mouth when he had pumped his chest full of lead. Justin started to pull back on the trigger, the chamber of the gun turning slowly as it prepared itself to fire off another round. Justin's shadow closed its eyes, pushing his head to the side as though trying to hide it in the floor.

"**A-Anything you want, name it; it's yours. Power, knowledge; I can give it to you!"**

"Knowledge?"

"Don't listen to him Justin, he's just trying to deceive you." Yu called out to Justin. Justin gave him a slight look over the shoulder. He knew what his shadow was trying to do… But he was curious all the same. Knowledge… If Justin's shadow had knowledge of this world; of the shadows that roamed it… Could he learn the identity of the killer? As much as he'd like to pump a bullet in this guy's skull, it would be in his best interest to hear him out.

"**Everything I know, you can know too!" **The shadow blurted out fearfully trying to negotiate his way out of gunpoint, his hand's squirming about as he tried to find a way to break free.

"Everything? So then… Do you know who killed Saki and the announcer."

"**That depends… Are you asking who killed them or who threw them in?"**

"It's two separate people?" Yosuke spoke up, slightly confused.

"It makes sense. Why jump in after them to kill them if you can just let the shadows do all the work." Justin spoke over his shoulder to Yosuke before turning to the shadow. "And what exactly is it you want in exchange?" Justin questioned. He already knew whatever his shadow was going to ask for was going to be too great a price.

"**The same thing I've always wanted. Life!"**

"So basically you want to kill me after you tell me? No dice." Justin started to pull back on the trigger again, ready to end their negotiations.

"**W-wait wait! There are other ways!"**

"The fuck are you talking about?"

"**That purple smoke; that's still a part of me. It can exist on the other side, so long as it inhabits a human host."**

Justin raised his eyebrow in confusion. So long as it stays in a human host? The hell was he talking about?

"What are you getting at?"

"**I'm proposing a deal here. You want my knowledge; I can give it to you, but only if you let me inside. And in exchange, I get… Let's call it shared custody of your mind."**

"What, you mean like when I hit my head that one time?"

"…**Something like that." **The shadow started to smirk as it noticed it was starting to win this negotiation.

"Justin, seriously… There are other ways…" Chie spoke up trying to snap Justin out of it. Sure there were other ways, but… What if they could end it all, right her and now? He could put up with his shadow's snide remarks if it meant saving lives; if it meant people like his friends and Chie would never be put in danger like this again. If it meant it would stop destroying lives like Maya's. He starred at the shadow for a while, trigger still partially held down. He knew he was going to regret his decision, but there were more important things out there than his sanity.

"Deal." He let go off the trigger and put the gun back in his pocket, as the shadow laughed up at him. It may have only been a partial victory, but he got what he wanted. He would leave this land, be one with the humans; and even if he didn't take Justin's life away from him, he could certainly manipulate Justin to his will. He didn't call himself the puppet master for no reason.

The shadow's figure began to dissolve, it's form turning into a thick purple smoke that bent and twisted it's way into the air. Much like when the others had accepted their shadow's, the smoke revolved around Justin, a mixture of the purplish color from the smoke and the blue light that illuminated from accepting his shadow. Justin looked slightly above him as the figure of his persona emerged; a man standing on one leg, a black steel toed combat boot making it's way up to his knee. He was wearing torn black pants and a long, sleeveless black trench coat. The coat was open along the middle, revealing a bandaged stomach, a large cut flowing down the center. His skin was a pale green; like a lifeless corpse, cuts covering nearly every inch of him. He seemed to be wearing a metal mask, though it only had one eye hole. Justin couldn't help but groan slightly at that one. Even as a persona, his shadow was going to torture him with that. The entire right side of the mask seemed burnt, a golden yellow eye glowing through the black ashes with haunting intensity. A strange, circular piece of metal was attached to the back of his right shoulder; and in his hands, a hammer and metal thongs. His arms were wrapped from the hand all the way up to the shoulder with white Gauss bandages, the fingers exposed as they gripped at their respective tools. The right hand was pitch black with ash, cuts and bruises along each finger.

_**Thou art I, and I am thou. From the sea of thy soul I come forth; Ippon-Datara, forger of walls.**_

And just as the others had, the blue light soon pierced through Justin's heart, a light illuminating before fading away upon contact. Alas, the smoke however did not follow the same route through, instead swirling above Justin and down his throat. Justin's eyes widened slightly as he choked up the thick purple fog that flowed down his throat. And as he stood there, limbs stiff, smoke flowing down his throat, his eyes blinked, turning golden yellow for a brief moment. By the time the smoke had made its way fully in his lungs, Justin collapsed to the ground, his energy drained from him.

"Justin!" Chie screamed out as the group ran over to support him back to his feet. Justin laughed slightly. Apparantly getting a persona DOES take a lot more out of you than you would believe. He always just assumed Kanji and Yukiko were light-weights, collapsing from stress rather than their personal revelations. Chie… Well he could never think badly of Chie; and she certainly wasn't a light-weight anyway. She just seemed to be struck with grief at the moment, not so much a lack of energy. He saw now that was not the case.

"I'm fine, I'm fine." He smirked slightly. "But I've seen enough of this place to last a life-time. Please tell me there's an elevator." He joked slightly, but not really. If he saw even ONE more stair, he swore he was going to rip someone's head off. Everyone gave each other a funny look as they let go of Justin to let him lean on Chie's shoulder. _Just like old times, eh?_

"Uh, W-well, there WAS an elevator, but uh…"

"Your shadow kind of blew it up." Yu interrupted Yosuke, a shrug of his shoulders. Justin groaned slightly. Even in death his shadow was finding a way to torture him; to mock him.

"How many floors?"

"Fifteen."

"Fuck."

* * *

"Yosuke, I don't need to go to the hospital. I'm just a little tired is all." Justin spoke up. At Yosuke's insistence, everyone had dragged Justin over to the hospital. They knew he wasn't there for medical treatment, as bad as it probably looked with him being dragged in limping. He wasn't there for his own sake either. He was there for hers. Chie slowly turned around the corner, Yosuke leading the way forward, Yu and Yukiko trailing behind.

"You're not here for you."

"Well then for who?"

Yosuke slowly pushed the door open, holding it in place while Chie tried to squeeze Justin through the door. It hadn't really worked with the way they were huddled, but as Justin saw an all too familiar figure on the otherside of the room, it didn't need to. Justin let go of his grip on Chie, slowly walking over to the bedside near the window. His chest thumped slightly. After all these years… There she was…

"Maya?" He choked up from where he was standing. She didn't hear him though. As he slowly made his way closer to the bed, he realized she had been fast asleep; as she should be. He felt like tearing up slightly, seeing her laying there. His struggle with her shadow had really taught him something; as pissed as he was at Maya, he could never bear to see her suffer. Not even the darkest parts of her. All that time he climbed the stairwell, he had imagined what he would say to her when he saw her. How he would get revenge for what she had done to him. Yet, starring at her now, resting in a hospital bed, he could only say one thing.

"I'm sorry Maya. Sorry for everything." He grabbed a hold of her hand for a brief moment, his eyes upon her as her mouth rose up in a slight smile. She wasn't awake, but somehow, Justin's touch had done something to cheer her dreams up. He smiled faintly back at her before letting go of her hand, and turning to Yosuke. "What's she doing here? Shouldn't she be in LA?"

"She saw you on the Midnight Channel and came to help."

"The Midnight Channel…? But… But the rumor over there was that—"

"You saw your soulmate… I know. She really loved you Justin, even if what she did wasn't right." Justin starred at Maya for a good minute or so before turning back to Yosuke.

"I know. I broke her heart, didn't I?" He choked up.

"She just wants to see you happy, man." Yosuke smiled at Justin slightly. Justin shook his head off to the side for a moment, a slight chuckle on his breath.

"Well… At least she got something she wanted out of this world." He starred at her again for a brief moment, her mouth still curved upwards in a smile. "You know, that still doesn't really answer my question. What is she doing here in the hospital?" He spoke up, his eyes dashing over to where Yosuke was standing. His faint smile soon turned into a frown, his head leaning to one side as though debating whether or not to tell Justin.

"She… She got shot while in the television. We had to bring her here before she bled out."

"Shot? Wait… You mean?" Justin knew damn well that the only shadow he knew of that had a gun was his own. He was responsible for sending Maya to the hospital? His dark hidden feelings had nearly killed her? He felt like a huge prick, not because of anything he did, but because he could have stopped it if he just learned to control his emotions better; if he had just kept his suppressed thoughts and memories in line.

"She saved my life…" Chie choked up as she made her way in the room. Chie, Yu, and Yukiko had been waiting at the doorway to the room, figuring they should give Justin some space; but alas, Chie felt what she was about to say needed to be said. "Your shadow had a gun pointed at me… He… He was about to shoot when Maya tackled him."

Justin's face shifted from confusion, to deep sorrow, then eventually anger. Maya had saved Chie? She would willingly sacrifice herself to try and save, not only a complete stranger, but the person of Justin's affections? The one who had stolen Justin's heart away from her? And then there was the matter of Justin's shadow. He had the audacity to pull a gun on Chie?

"Why didn't you tell me this sooner?" Justin spoke up loudly. "If I had known this earlier I would have pumped more than a few bullets in that fucker's corpse." Chie averted eye-contact. She could have told him; she had no real reason not to. It just never really crossed her mind. Justin sighed slightly, his eyes darting to the ground for a moment before focusing back on Chie. "Sorry, I just…"

"No, no, I understand." Chie interrupted him. There was no reason for Justin to be apologizing for being pissed that his shadow had almost killed her. In fact, she was flattered by his sudden burst of anger; by his deep concern in her safety. Justin sighed slightly.

"If it's alright with you guys, I'd like a moment alone with Maya."

Everyone give each other a quick glance before nodding at Justin; slowly piling their way out of the door in the process. They had no objections to Justin trying to get some things out of the closet while he was here; hell, it might do him some good. Chie gave him a quick smile as she closed the door on her way out. Justin simply waved at her as the door closed, a smile across his face.

"You can stop pretending to sleep now." Justin spoke up, before turning to face Maya. Her chest had started to inflate in and out with laughter, a wide grin on her face. Her eyes were still closed, but they opened up not long after the rest of her body seemed to jolt to life.

"What gave it away?" Maya choked up over laughter.

"Well for one, that smile when I grabbed your hand. Plus you never sleep with your head on the right side. Always in the center or to the left."

"Do I even want to know how you know that?"

"You say that like you've never fallen asleep around me before." Justin chuckled slightly as he made his way over to the chair positioned next to her bed. Maya's eyes followed him the entire way there, a wide grin on her face. Justin clasped his hands together as he took a seat, a smile across his face as he stared into her green ey-

Wait, green? He thought they were hazel.

"Maya? Your eyes weren't always green, were they?"

"I used to wear colored contacts."

"Well that would certainly explain a lot." Justin shrugged slightly. He adjusted his ass on the seat slightly before speaking with Maya again. "I appreciate what you did for Chie. I know you probably don't care much for her, but-"

"Does she make you happy?"

"What? W-Well, yeah-"

"Then she's a-okay in my book." Maya smiled, a slight chuckle on her breath as she looked up towards the ceiling. "Listen, Justin. I'm sorry about everything that happened. I… I was nervous, and then when Falcone found me, I panicked and-"

"You don't have to explain anything to me Maya." Justin interrupted her, "We're both alright, and that's all that matters."

"No, we're not both alright." She shouted, a glare on her face. "Look at you! You're still wearing gauss bandages from that broken television, and your eye looks worse than before!"

"It's unrelated." Justin coughed, avoiding going into any more detail than that. Maya sighed slightly. Nothing would ever be truly right between them after that day, as much as Justin would like her to believe the contrary. Maya had to live with it emotionally, Justin physically. They'd always have scars to remind them just how much they fucked up. Justin stared at Maya for a while, silence between them until he eventually broke the silence, a question that had been bugging him for the last few minutes.

"Maya… Kurt told me you ran away from home after the… incident. Where did you go?"

"I just sorta… ran. I didn't have any place in particular I wanted to go; just somewhere I could get away from everything. From the Falcones, from Kurt… From you…" Maya seemed particularly pained by that last comment. Justin did as well; though he could understand why. He WAS fairly pissed after what had happened.

"And you eventually found yourself in LA." Maya nodded her head in agreement. "…So then where do you live?"

"I… Don't." Justin practically jumped out of his seat at that one. He knew she had been a runner, so it must have been like that for a while; but even over a year later she still had no place to live? Unacceptable.

"Jesus Christ Maya, why would you do that?"

"Because I had nowhere to turn."

"You had your family."

"Oh yeah, because they'd really want me back after I stole their gun and cash. Besides, the cops were still looking for me. I couldn't show my face around their again."

"Cops? Whoa, whoa, what the fuck did you do Maya?" Justin's mouth dropped in slight disbelief. It didn't end with the mugging and the mafia? What the fuck!?

"A story for another time." She eventually choked up. They were supposed to be celebrating, not living on her past mistakes. Though as far as she was concerned, this was no mistake. She had done what should have been done ages ago; and she would never regret it.

"Hold on… wait a second. You said you go to therapy?"

"Yeah?"

"First of all, if you had no money for a place to stay, how were you able to afford a therapist. And don't you need a home address for billing and stuff."

"W-Well… He's not really a therapist in the traditional sense."

"Oh goddammit Maya." Justin shook his head in disgust. She was seeing an unlicensed therapist. How the hell was that supposed to be a good idea in any sense of the word.

"No, no, listen. He knew all about the other world, about personas and shadows and all that. That's why I kept going to him; he knew exactly what I was going through. He actually used to help other kids with personas and all that shit too. Though I'm not sure what happened with that."

"Sounds like a nutjob to me."

"Well then I guess that makes us nutjobs too."

"Please, Maya, we were ALWAYS nutjobs." The two chuckled slightly at Justin's remark; though the laughter drowned out eventually. So Maya had been living alone all this time, wandering about a vagrant without a home. Justin sighed slightly.

"Maya… Where exactly do you plan on going when they let you out of here?"

"Back to LA I guess…"

"No." Justin shook his head. Absolutely unacceptable.

"No?"

"No. You can stay at my house if you need to, but I'm not letting you live on the streets like some wild animal."

"Your house? Really that's not—"

"I'm serious. You're like family to me Maya." Maya blushed slightly at the comment.

"Wouldn't your parents get mad?"

"My parents died a couple of months ago."

"Oh." Maya's face suddenly turned red with complete embarrassment. She was mortified that she had asked him about his parents when they had been deceased; though part of her felt like he'd be happy that his father was gone. She'd by lying if she said she wasn't too. She had seen Justin come to the alleyway on more than one occasion with cuts and bruises around his face; and despite Justin's insistence to the contrary, Maya always knew it was his father. He always seemed nice in public, but when you saw what he was like behind closed doors… Maya was almost happy Justin was able to get away from a man like that.

"I-I'm sorry I didn't mean to…"

"Forget about it. You didn't know." Justin stopped her desperate attempt to apologize off immediately. He didn't need to hear her apologize for something so irrelevant and trivial.

"So… you live by yourself then?"

"Yep."

"Justin, I appreciate the offer, but I can't-"

"I'll drag you all the way there if I have to."

"…You wouldn't mind?" Maya choked up, a slight smile creeping across her face.

"Why would I?"

"W-Well, I figured with Chie and all…"

"Hey, it's my house, not hers. Besides, she'll understand." Justin smiled a wide grin on his face. Maya did bring up a valid point; it would be kind of awkward for Justin to live with someone who he knew has a crush on him, but all the same, he couldn't just leave Maya to the jungle of the city. Maya smiled, her eyes closed for a while.

"Thanks."

* * *

"So you made a deal with the devil."

"So to speak."

The interrogator was leaning back in his chair, scratching at his chin. He was intrigued to say the least; a deal with a creature whose very nature of existence relied upon murdering the original. Either Justin was a shrewd business man, or a complete and utter fool. And if his shadow was as vicious, as evil as Justin had made him out to be, he was willing to bet that it was the latter. Justin took a sip from the beverage in front of him, his eyes poised at the table.

"And did this knowledge help you?"

"Not particularly. For one, it didn't all just come on at once; it came in flashes, kind of like my dreams of Maya. Which kind of makes sense considering my shadow was probably responsible for those too. That said, any relevant information he had only seemed to pop up after its use had long passed. Really, even the one responsible for killing Saki and the announcer in the television; it was all irrelevant. The killer had no connection to the one inside the television screen; they both had two completely different motives and methods. The one on the outside was the one we wanted, not the inside."

"And why not the inside?"

"Because the one on the inside was dead by the time we found out who it was."

"I see…" The interrogator slurred as he rubbed his chin. "So we know this knowledge proved useless. What about the shadow's half of the deal. You still hear his voice."

"It's not a matter of hearing his voice; it's a matter of being his voice."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you see, sometimes the shadow can—

_**-Hello Mr. Tylor…**_

Justin blinked twice in quick succession as he heard a voice through his ear. It was mechanically filtered, a tinny robotic sound to each syllable. It clearly wasn't being formed by a human. He knew damn well who it was though; this hadn't been the first time this guy had hacked into his comm-link with Rise either. Before, it had usually been idle threats or vague taunts at the team when he hacked through; this time, however… This time he had taken something of value from Justin: his friend's life. Justin slowly pressed his hands to his ear, keeping his eye on the detective in case he tried to make any funny moves while he communicated with the computerized voice.

"You motherfucker."

"Excuse me? Who the hell are you talking to?"

_**-Unless you wish to repeat the incident with your friend, you will follow my demands.**_

"I swear to god, I am going to rip your head off when I find you."

"Bloody rookies were supposed to make sure you didn't have any comm. devices." The detective stood up, ready to bolt for the door to get some back up; though Justin immediately stood up to mirror him.

"Sit the fuck down. I'm communicating through my persona and you'd better believe it's a fucking emergency."

"I'll decide what is and isn't an emergenc-"

"One of my friends was shot and killed by the man on the other line right now just this morning, and now he's making demands. I'd say that's a bloody good definition of an emergency. Now sit the fuck down!"

The interrogator was more than a little thrown off guard by the sudden lack of tact, and sudden explosion of anger, but given the context, it was understandable. He didn't know what was going on, but if someone had died, then perhaps he was willing to let the rules about outside communication slide on this one. There were no traceable airwaves, so Justin was at no risk of being caught unless one of them talked. He slowly took his seat again, listening intently to the words coming from Justin's mouth; trying to figure out what the other was saying through context alone.

_**-I'll cut to the chase, since I am on a tight schedule. You will tell the shadow operatives to back off, or I will kill another one of your friends.**_

"Like hell I will. We're taking you down before you get the chance to hurt anyone else."

_**-That is a shame. It would be a shame if Miss Satonaka here were to lose her head.**_

"…What?" Justin's angry stare only seemed to deepen, despite his face turning completely pale at the remark. Chie? No. He was just bluffing to try and get Justin to cooperate. It was all just another one of this assholes tricks.

_**-At this very moment, I have my crosshair aimed at her skull. If you wish for her to live, you'll call off your dogs.**_

"If you touch even a single hair on her head—" Justin's teeth were clamped together, pressing down on each other with furious anger. If you thought he was pissed before, you should have seen him after this fucker threatened Chie. If anything happened to her, he would not stop until this man knew suffering like no other.

_**-I am giving you a choice for you to avoid that. Whether you choose to take it is up to you.**_

"You monster…"

_**-3… 2…**_

"W-Wait wait wait. W-we can talk about this, just put the gun down."

_**-Are you willing to listen to reason now, Mr. Tylor?**_

"What the hell do you expect me to do? I don't run the shadow operatives; I'm not the one who gives the orders!"

_**-How you go about it is of no concern of mine.**_

"You are asking me to do what I cannot do."

_**-Then it is a shame that Miss Satonaka will have to die.**_

"Wait!" Justin shouted out, pacing around the room, head in his hands as he tried to figure something out. He was nowhere near high enough in rank to pass an order along in the shadow operatives. At best, he could try to get Mitsuru or Akihiko to hold back for a little bit; but even then, he somehow doubted that would work. He bit his bottom lip. He would do anything to make sure Chie was safe; but this… this was something he had literally no control over. Yet the mechanical voice had chose him specifically for this role knowing full well that when he had Chie in the palm of his hand, he had Justin in the palm of his hand too. Justin sighed slightly.

"I can give you twenty-four hours. That is the best I can do. Now let her go!"

_**-Twenty-four hours is not an adequate amount of time, Mr. Tylor.**_

"That's all I can offer dammit! What more do you want!?"

_**-If that is all you can offer, than I shall offer you something of equally weak value. For twenty-four hours, I will give you twenty four minutes to rescue your beloved.**_

Justin whimpered slightly. That's the best he could offer, so he'd have to take it.

"Fine, it's set. I'll buy you twenty-four hours."

_**-And remember. I'll know if the deal falls flat.**_

The comm. link cut off as Justin marched over to the table, slamming his hands on its surface as he looked the interrogator dead in the eye.

"Remember how I said my cooperation is circumstantial? Well the circumstances have changed."

"And those circumstances would be?"

"A friend of mine is currently being targeted for assassination. She has twenty-four minutes till the killer fires a shot off at her. If you want me to keep talking, you're going to go there, and you're going to take her in to custody. Chie will be safe in here."

"I can't do that."

"And why the fuck not? She's an innocent person who's life is in danger. You're a cop. You put two and two to-fucking-gether."

"She is not an innocent, she is a fugitive from the law. Secondly, we don't have any more cells, nor do we have the man-power to protect her."

"She can have my cell, then! And man-power is irrelevant, just keep her away from windows!"

"We don't allow shared cells."

"So you're just going to let her die? I should have known… I should have known better than to trust you."

"Justin… I can't—"

"No, you fucking can. You just chose not to."

The interrogator starred at Justin for a while. His breathing was fast, his eyes, while lowered in a glare, were wide with terror, his lips were quivering ever so slightly. The hard ass that had been in front of him mouthing off to him and being uncooperative was suddenly afraid, putting himself at the mercy of the interrogator. It wasn't a pretty sight to say the least. This Chie person… He didn't know much about her, but apparently she meant a lot to the teen… The interrogator starred at Justin for a few moments longer before pulling out his walkie talkie.

"Where is she?"

"Central Park."

The interrogator gave a quick nod of his head before flipping his walkie talkie on. Justin couldn't care less though, so long as the cars were sent to pick her up. He had more important matters to attend to anyway. He quickly pressed his finger up against his ear, beginning communication with Rise once again.

"Rise! Listen I need you to patch me through to Mitsuru."

_Justin? What's wro—_

"Just do it!"

Rise was more than a little surprised by Justin's sudden outburst, but then, she knew he usually didn't act like a dick unless something had provoked him. She certainly didn't, so whatever news he had for Mitsuru most certainly did. It took a moment before a connection could be made.

_Mitsuru speaking; what's wrong?_

"Mitsuru, listen to me, you need to call the shadow operatives off right now."

_Calm down Tylor. I'm going to need a reason if I am to order a retreat._

"I just got in contact with him. He's going to kill Chie if you don't back down."

_I… see… Tylor, we cannot…_

"Listen to me, dammit! I don't need you to back off forever, I just need you to offer him twenty four hours breathing room; then you can all go back to what you were doing. Please…"

_I simply cannot push the operation aside with so many lives at stake. I'm sorry Tylor, but—_

_Are you serious right now?_

Justin couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief as he heard Akihiko. He knew he was going to have no luck reasoning with Mitsuru; but Akihiko would understand. It seemed Akihiko had been patched in at some point, though by who he could only guess. Perhaps Fuuka. Either that or he was being very, very loud on Mitsuru's end. And knowing Akihiko, the latter wasn't entirely out of the question.

_E-Excuse me?_

_He's not asking you to call the entire mission off, he's just asking for us to stand down for a bit._

_We have him on the ropes, Akihiko, we can't—_

_He's not going anywhere, and besides. Are you really going to let that girl die just because you weren't willing to give this guy some leg room?_

_Akihiko—_

_We'll give him some space, get Satonaka out, and then we can go back to the mission. No harm done._

…_You're right. My apologies Tylor; I'll order the retreat immediately._

"Thank you, Akihiko, Mitsuru. Alright, Rise, patch me through to Chie."

_On it._

Rise had heard the entire conversation, what being the 'call host' and all, so to speak. Needless to say, she was just as concerned as Justin at this point. She had no qualms with calling off the mission if it meant saving Chie. It took a while, but Rise was eventually able to make a connection.

_Hey Rise, what's up?_

_I'm patching Justin through; he needs to tell you something important._

"Thanks Rise."

_Justin? A-are you alright in there? _

"Fine, but nevermind that. Listen to me Chie. You are in danger right now."

_Wh-what do you mean?_

"I don't have time to explain; all you need to know is that the cops are coming for you. I know it's going to sound strange, but I need you to get in the car with them. They're going to bring you to safety."

_What? Justin, are you out of your mind? The cops are—_

"Chie, please. This isn't the time. Or do you WANT to die."

There was a brief pause on Chie's end.

…_I can't leave while we're still looking for him._

"Forget the mission, it's already been called off for the day."

_W-wait, what?_

"The deal was that if I buy this guy twenty-four hours without the shadow operatives on his back, he'd give me twenty four minutes to get you away from there and into safety."

_You did what? Justin, you didn't just call off the mission because of m—_

"Will you stop being so fucking stubborn! This isn't just about you anymore."

There was a brief pause on Chie's end.

…_You're right, you're right, but I can't just-_

"Chie, the mission's already been called off, and the cops are on their way. You gain nothing from trying to stay there but a death warrant."

_But-_

"Do I need to beg you? Because I will. I will get on my knees and start begging right here and now. Please..."

_Alright, alright. __Where am I supposed to be getting picked up?_

"Just stay where you are, they'll be there any second."

_Okay... I love you._

"...I love you too."

Justin pulled his fingers away from his ear, ending the communication he had started with Rise and Chie, before placing his face in his palms. Every single one of them was right; Justin shouldn't have been calling this operation off for one person. But this wasn't just any person. This was Chie, the love of his life, the girl of his dreams. He wouldn't, no he COULDN'T let her die. He sighed before lifting his eyes up to the interrogator. He had just gotten an incoming message from his walkie-talkie. He pressed it up against his ear, making grunts of agreement before placing it back on its holster.

"Good news, they see her now. You've still got a good fifteen minutes or so time, for the record."

Justin breathed out with a sigh of relief. The cops had found her in no time, and no doubt getting back would be just as quick, if not quicker. She was safe now, thank the lord.

"Thank you."

"Least I could do. But now that that's out of the way, you were going to tell me about your shadow."

"If you don't mind, I'd like to wait until Chie's in the building before I continue. Just to make sure she's alright."

The interrogator starred at Justin for a short while before laughing. This wasn't just any old concern, the kind of concern one had for a friend or a relative. This was the kind of concern one has when something they love is put at risk. Ah, to be young and in love.

"I'll tell you what. We'll call it quits for the night, and we can pick this up in the morning. We'll send you back to your cell to wait for her."

"Thank you, officer."

* * *

Time passed as Justin sat in his room. It felt like every minute that passed lasted for an hour, every second lasting an eternity. He had done all he could to ensure that Chie would be safe, but… Was it really enough? What if he lied, and shot her anyway? What if the cops failed in protecting her? The only true way to protect her was to kill this motherfucker; yet he couldn't do a damn thing in this room.

Eventually, the door opened, and in walked two cops, Chie inbetween them. She was handcuffed for some inexplicable reason, though those came off the second she was through the door. Justin couldn't help but glare at the officers. It was clear they hadn't exactly handled her in the friendliest way. Her wrists were red from the cuffs being attached way too tight, and she had been shoved into the cell once the cuffs came off, instead have just closing the door behind her. Her face was beat red with anger, though that changed the moment she saw Justin. As the two made eye contact, Justin jumped up from his seat on the bed, moving towards her to engage in a gentle embrace, followed by kiss. As their lips eventually parted, Chie's cheerful eyes eventually dropped into sadness.

"Justin, I…"

"It's alright, you're safe now."

"It's my fault the mission got called off today…"

"No, that responsibility falls on me and me alone. Don't blame yourself."

"But if it weren't for me, you wouldn't have made that decision." Chie averted her eyes to the ground a brief moment, her iris's watering slightly. People's lives could be at danger all because of her.

"Well, it certainly was a deciding factor, but I would have done the same if it had been any of our other friends… especially after the news I got yesterday…"

"You already know then?"

"We never should have dragged him into this." Justin sighed. Chie simply looked at him with a look of concern. The two were like best friends, and now he was dead. She couldn't possibly imagine what it must be like to hear your best friend just took a bullet through the skull. Justin eventually paced his way over to his bed, taking a seat along the end. Chie followed his lead sitting right beside him. She bit her lip for a moment; not entirely sure what to talk about on the inside of a jail cell.

"Was it tough? B-Being stuck here, I mean."

"You have no idea. You'd never guess who the interrogator is."

"Who?"

"You'll recognize him when you see him."


	54. Chapter 53: June 6, 2011

CHAPTER 53

* * *

"Oh sweet mother of fuck-" Justin whimpered slightly.

Part of the agreement Justin had made with his captor's included sharing the same cell with Chie. Of course, the problem with that is that there was only one bed in the room, and it was a small one at that. The problem didn't really lie in the fact that they had to sleep in the same bed together; after all, they pretty much started doing that on a regular basis since they went off to college. The problem was that the bed was really too small to fit two people; they had practically no leg room. Now consider the fact that both of them had restless leg syndrome, and thus kicked a lot in their sleep, and you have a problem. At least at their college dorm, they all had some pretty wide mattresses; they had room to swing their legs about. Here they had been clumped so close together that the slightest twitch of one's leg was always felt by the other. In this case, it was Chie's knee bending up and striking Justin straight in his balls.

Chie's eyes fluttered open as the cuss left Justin's mouth. He hadn't really shouted it or anything; after all, he was in too much pain for his voice to even come out at normal volume, but the two had woken each other up like this on multiple occasions in the last few hours. She was half expecting it to happen again at some point; even in her sleep. She sighed slightly as she opened her eyes to the sight of Justin biting his bottom lip in pain.

"…What'd I kick this time?"

"Take a wild guess." He barely was able to choke up the words without screaming in pain.

Chie sighed for a second before pushing herself out of the bed; throwing the sheets up in the process. She just wasn't getting any sleep with each other kicking each other like this. Justin sighed slightly as he followed her lead. He was wide awake now. Besides, even though there were no windows in Justin's room, the room still started to light up a bit from the cracks in their cell door. It was getting to be morning. Justin yawned slightly as he sat up on the bed, annoyed that morning had come so quickly. For one, he hadn't seen Chie in a good three days; he had hoped he'd have more time alone with her. But alas, the morning only meant the start of the business day, and the start of the business day meant it was time for Justin to answer some more questions.

Justin was a-okay with these interrogations at this point; not that he cared much for the topics that were discussed, but alas, all he had to do was stall the police. Nothing more. Chie, on the other hand, wasn't entirely sure how this was going to go down, having been there for only the night; but she no doubt believed that they were going to question her on her involvement as well. She was a little scared, though not for the reasons you'd think. She had been aspiring to become a police officer, and now, not only had she been marked as a fugitive, a criminal; she was going to be interrogated? You can't be a cop with a criminal record… At least, Chie didn't think you could. I mean, she knew a dirty cop, but as far as she knew, all the criminal activities he had engaged in took place during his career, not before.

Needless to say, her heat skipped a beat as the door to their room opened, a forty-something year old man making his way through the door. He was wearing the traditional business suit, something that immediately marked him off as a detective to Chie. Of course, that wasn't really relevant once Chie laid eyes on the man's face. Her mouth practically hit the floor; her eye's dilated with shock. She had to turn her head over to Justin to see if he knew; to see if she was just crazy. He nodded slightly as he pushed himself off of the bed, answering Chie's question before she even got the chance to ask it. Still, she felt the need to vocalize her confusion anyway.

"You? But, you're—"

The detective raised his eye brow in confusion; not because Chie hadn't finished vocalizing her thought, but rather because he had never met her. How was it that she recognized him without them even knowing each other? He slowly shifted his gaze over to Justin, who had been making his way over to the door for another interrogation session.

"She's seen the pictures."

"Ah." The detective replied in response. He wasn't sure why she had seen pictures of him before, but he left it alone. It wasn't important anyway. Justin stopped at the door, waiting for the detective to move out of the way, ready to escort Justin back to the interrogation cell. Instead he stood there, blocking the door before nodding at Chie.

"She's not coming with us." Justin interrupted, catching sight of the gesture. The interrogator shot a Justin a disapproving glance. Who the hell was this kid to give HIM orders? Just because Justin seemed to lead the conversation where he wanted to, doesn't mean he could do whatever he wanted. Justin wasn't just thinking in terms of distracting the officer this time, though. Taking a slight glance at Chie from where he was standing, he could see some subtle signs that she was absolutely petrified by the prospect of being interrogated; her knees were bent in slightly, her bottom lip was clenched between her teeth, her hand had been wrapped around her other wrist.

"I'm the one running this investigation, not you." The detective spoke up, though that was immediately followed by Justin grabbing him by the tie and yanking him down close to his mouth.

"Listen you; can't you see she's scared out of her goddamn mind right now? Besides, she's here for protection not interrogation. You know what's in your interrogation cell? A window. A window a sniper could very easily shoot through. So you can shut the fuck up and leave her here, or you'll get not another word out of me." Justin whispered very softly, but very aggressively into the detecitve's ear. Chie couldn't hear a word of it from where she was standing, but her face still turned red knowing full well Justin was trying to cover for her. The detective glared at the kid for a brief moment before grabbing Justin's wrist and releasing his grip from the detective's tie.

"Fine. Satonaka, don't move."

Chie nodded slightly as the two departed from the room, the door closeing behind them. She was relieved that she wouldn't be getting questioned, as embarrassing as it had been for Justin to practically blackmail the detective into letting her off the hook. She sighed before making her way over to the bed. Maybe with some room on the mattress now she could finally get some sleep. Not like she had anything better to do now anyway…

* * *

"Alright, where did we leave off?" Justin groaned slightly as he went to take his seat. Another officer had brought in coffee for the two of them; or at least, that was the intention. Justin didn't really drink coffee if he didn't have to; hated the taste. But he loved the smell. So in circumstances where there was someone else in the room drinking it, well… He didn't need to pour a cup to smell it. All the same, he didn't want to be rude, so he got a cup poured for himself anyway. He took a sip, making a funny face as the liquid touched his mouth. He REALLY hated that taste.

"What's wrong, need sugar?"

"Nah, just don't really drink this stuff."

"I thought most teens these days did." The detective raised an eyebrow in slight confusion.

"Yeah, well I'm not most teens." Justin groaned, putting his cup down after forcing himself to take a sip. He didn't know why; he knew his 'host' knew he didn't like the stuff, so it's not like he needed to put on a show or anything. Maybe it was just that Justin didn't want to be wasteful. After all, when you barely make enough money to feed yourself, you don't let anything go to waste.

"Well then why did you have us pour you a cup?"

"Because I love the smell." Justin smirked slightly. The detective shrugged his shoulders. He could kind of understand that; the smell of coffee was quite pleasant; though he wasn't sure he would order a cup just to sniff at it. He took another sip of his coffee before putting it back on the table; leaning in with his hands folded to begin his interrogation session.

"When we last left off you were telling me about this deal with your shadow, correct?"

"What exactly do you want to know?" Justin spoke up in his usual deadpan voice.

"I asked you about the voice in your head. You said it wasn't so much about hearing the voice as it was being the voice. What do you mean?" Justin rubbed at his chin slightly, deciding the best way to answer the question. His shadow… He wasn't proud of the deal he made. In the end the information was irrelevant and he had become some sort of vessel for this despicable being to travel the world in. And he wasn't entirely sure he was comfortable explaining how the shadow took advantage of his end of the deal.

"Well… I'll get to that soon enough." Justin spoke up. He needed time to think of the best way to answer that. The detective simply sighed. He knew he'd get the answer eventually, but he would have liked to have heard it now. All the same, he knew how Justin reacted when he tried to rush the investigation. It saved him time and sanity to just let things play out; to let Justin move at his own pace.

"Alright, fair enough. So then; you went to the hospital, visited Maya, and then went home. Correct?"

"Yeah, pretty much. I was exhausted, so I kind of fell asleep on the couch." Justin shrugged slightly, taking another sip at his coffee. He didn't know why he kept forcing himself to drink it; he didn't like it, and it wasn't like he had bought it. Complimentary and all that shit.

"Alright, so then what happened the next day." The detective perplexed, leaning in slightly closer.

"You really want to know?" Justin raised his eyebrow. It wasn't that he had done anything particularly bad; it was just that he didn't do anything particularly interesting. At least when he told the detective about his social life there was some form of interaction with people that he could recap. This? He literally could sum up his day in one sentence.

"I wouldn't have asked if I didn't."

"I sat on the couch and jammed Cheetos in my mouth all day; and no, that is not hyperbole." The detective stared at Justin like he was nuts for a second, his mouth slightly open, his eyebrows lowered in confusion; his eyes squinted as though he didn't hear him right. It wasn't the Cheetos part that caught him off guard; it was the 'no hyperbole' part.

"You ate Cheetos… nonstop for twenty-four hours."

"Well… I had to sleep and piss too, you know. So more like eight." Justin shrugged slightly. He knew this was the kind of reaction he'd get, but quite frankly he didn't care.

"Why… Why would you want to do that?"

"Because I hadn't eaten in four fucking days and I was starving." It was true. All he had was the bare minimum of water, and he was much too tired the day before to eat. He had practically collapsed before he even hit the couch.

"For eight hours?"

"Yes."

"And… Why didn't you just cook an actual meal?" The detective was curious to say the least. He would have thought eating a few bowls of instant noodles would have been quicker and just as efficient as eating chips all day. Of course, Justin didn't even think of instant noodles at the time, nor did he think that's what the detective had meant when he said 'meal.'

"Have you SEEN me cook?"

"Yes, I remember it being quite horrid."

"Oh gee, thanks for the vote of confidence." Justin's eyebrows dropped into a glare. He knew he wasn't a great cook, but for just ONCE, he'd like to hear someone say 'hey, you're not THAT bad.' Hell, even Chie called his cooking bad. Fucking. Chie. Do you realize how degrading that is after she had nearly poisoned everyone with HER cooking?

"Alright, enough. You spent the whole day eating cheetos. Done. Next day, what did you do?"

"Well that was the day Kanji had come back to school. Technically I was supposed to stay out for medical reasons, but… You know how it is." Justin shrugged slightly. The others had gotten pretty pissed off at him when he showed up at school that day, a shiver in his spine. But Justin always was a fighter; he wouldn't let a little cold interfere with this investigation; especially when he had finally gotten a persona of his own.

"You went anyway."

"Right. This was too important for a cold to keep me down."

"Alright then; you may proceed."

* * *

June 6, 2011

* * *

"H-Hi there!"

The group had all gathered up on the roof as usual; though this time, it was for an occasion other than lunch. Kanji was finally starting to feel better after his kidnapping incident, and had come back to school today. Justin was a little confused as to how Kanji knew they were all up here on the roof, but he digressed. He had been sitting up on the roof shivering slightly, despite wearing his hoodie jacket. It wasn't that it was cold out; it was simply that he had managed to catch a small cold while inside the television. Climbing up stairs again after all of that probably didn't help either; but at least he hadn't needed to climb for four days straight. Compared to that, the three flight stairs up to the roof were like a vacation. And no barbed wire on the railings either. That was a plus.

"Haha, where'd the manners come from?" Chie chuckled slightly.

"Well obviously from yours truly." Justin smirked slightly. He wanted to follow that up with listing off every swear he knew, but Yosuke seemed to have gotten the hint immediately, opting to put an end to Justin's rant before he even started.

"We're doomed." Yosuke grimaced.

"Well, um… I didn't know you guys were my senpai." For some reason everyone found that particularly funny. Except for Kanji and Justin, who simply gave each other a look of confusion, then eventually a shrug of their shoulders. "Uhh… Thanks a bunch. Though I don't really remember what happened…"

Justin sighed slightly. He was actually hoping Kanji would know something, 'cause Justin sure as hell didn't. Sure, he was kidnapped, but he had been unconscious long before it happened. So unless Kurt had kidnapped him, which he highly doubted, he knew jackshit about the kidnapper's methods of kidnapping, appearances, time of kidnapping, or anything. He figured that if he ever got kidnapped he'd just fight as long as he could; then he'd be able to remember something. But it turns out Justin wasn't even conscious when this all went down. He kind of felt like shit for getting pissed that Yukiko didn't remember anything. He could completely understand why now.

"There are some things we'd like you to tell us about." Yukiko spoke up after receiving a quick nod from Yu. Justin couldn't help but smirk at that one. Sure, it didn't happen in three weeks like him and Chie had, but Yu was getting there; he could tell. Kanji passed a confused glance at Yukiko before turning his attention to Chie, who had cleared her throat in preparation to speak.

"First off, who was that weird boy-"

"Girl." Justin cut Chie off, his cheek resting against the palm of his hand. He already said this like a million times, he couldn't believe that the team still believed it was a guy.

"It's a boy, Justin." Chie responded, an irritated tone in her voice. She didn't believe him at all, and quite frankly, his insinuations were starting to get really annoying really quickly. Justin responded by looking off to the side, flipping his hands up slightly in disgust. _I give up trying to convince these people._ "Anyway, who was that weird boy you met with?"

Kanji's body flinched back slightly in surprise at the question. Justin chuckled slightly under his breath; or at least he did until Kanji shot him a death glare. He was still wearing a smirk on his face when all was said and done, though.

"I-I really don't know much about him… I mean, I've only met him twice." Chie passed Kanji a look of perplexion as he rubbed at the back of his head. He wasn't lying, that was for sure, but he was still awfully embarrassed for some reason. Justin had a pretty good idea why, though.

"Yeah, but you walked home from school with him. What did you guys talk about?"

"Uh, well… He just asked stuff like… If anything differently happened lately... But I dunno where my head was at… When I came to my senses, I blurted out that I wanted to see him again." Kanji was stuttering over his words, his face turning the slightest tint of red with embarrassment. He was definitely a little off put by this line of questioning, and for good reason.

"To a guy." Chie had this strange mixture of confusion and amusement in her voice.

"I, uh… I don't really get it myself." Kanji stammered. Justin got it. Justin got it REAL well. But now wasn't really the place to be talking about Kanji' sexuality. "Girls are so loud and obnoxious, so, y'know…"

"Might want to reword that one Kanji." Justin interrupted. It might be what he thought, and sure, it was true of a lot of girls, but when you're talking shit about girls TO girls… You MIGHT want to rethink your strategy. It didn't seem Chie and Yukiko were all that bothered; they knew what he meant, and they weren't easily offended… Okay, well, Yukiko wasn't. Still Kanji gave a quick shrug before continuing his speech.

"…I really don't like dealing with them. Guys are a lot more laid back. S-So, uh, I started thinking… What if I'm the type who never get's interested in girls…? And I couldn't accept that, so I kept spinning around and around in my head…" Kanji mused outloud.

"Well I can understand the part about feeling more relaxed around dudes. I'm sure Justin can too." Yosuke smirked.

Chie immediately slapped Yosuke upside the head for that one. Justin would have followed that up with a smack of his own, but he'd have to get up, and it just wasn't worth it. He wasn't feeling good as it was without having to beat the crap out of Yosuke. Besides, Chie seemed to be having fun doing it herself.

"What the hell, Yosuke! You promised!" Chie shouted at him, her eyebrows dropped into an intense glare.

"It's just a joke, chill." Yosuke tried to calm Chie, unsuccessfully if I may add, rubbing the back of his now sore head in the process.

"Next time I'm letting you fall!"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Jeeze…"

Justin had no idea what the hell the two were talking about, with promises or falls, but quite frankly, he didn't give enough of a fuck to ask them about it. He had a pretty good idea what the promise was, and whatever fall this was, it seemed Yosuke was fine now. Well, fine until Chie killed him for being a huge dick that was. Yu shook his head from where he was standing before looking back towards Kanji.

"How're you feeling now, anyway?" Yu spoke up, trying to change the topic from Yosuke's awkward jab at Chie's femininity.

"I'm fine now."

"How 'bout you Justin? You haven't really had much time to recover…" Yu questioned, slightly concerned. Justin was a little irritated that this was the fifth or so time they had checked on him in the last few hours. He was at school and he had a cold, so fucking what?

"I'm fine, just have a little cold is all. Hey, Kanji. How long did your cold last?"

"Huh? Oh… uh… A week or two I think." Kanji stammered. He didn't always have the cold after leaving the television, and it certainly had left a few days before he returned from school. It was just that he didn't have any energy when it did leave.

"Yeah, I can live with that." Justin spoke up as he turned back towards Yu. Yu shrugged his shoulders at Justin. He kept insisting he was fine, but the others were still concerned all the same. Especially Chie.

"Yeah… I mean… It was all just in my head when you get down to it. I was the one shutting out that stuff." Kanji went back to his previous train of thought. Justin raised an eyebrow in slight confusion. Since when did they all become Kanji's diary? Not that he was complaining it's just… Okay, he was complaining. This was really awkward. The others seemed to agree based on the confused expressions on their faces. Kanji's face turned slightly red, before he stammered about trying to change the topic.

"So, uhh… Our family's run a textile shop for generations… Oh yeah, you already knew that…" Kanji paused for a moment, his face red with embarrassment. "My parents are really weird… They say stuff like, "Dyes are one with the universe," and "Cloth is alive…"

"Sweet mother of shit, it's Woodstock all over again." Justin blurted out. Yosuke chuckled slightly at the joke. He was probably the only one there that actually knew what Woodstock was. Which sort of disgusted Justin in a way. He wasn't sure what was worse, no one knowing what Woodstock was, or sharing the same musical tastes as Yosuke. Well… the same musical tastes that don't include Risette. Kanji starred at Yosuke in confusion for a moment before shrugging his shoulders.

"That's the kinda house I grew up in, so I've been interested in sewing and stuff since I was a kid. But the second I say stuff like that, people look at me funny…" Justin was starting to get a little annoyed at how quickly this was turning into a therapy session. He probably was going to have to have another one of those with Maya later today as it was; he didn't need it from Kanji too. He sighed slightly, deciding to speak up all the same.

"I don't see why they would. So what you sew as a hobby. I've seen much worse."

"Such as." Yosuke questioned.

"Oragami cranes."

"Oh up yours, Justin." Yu remarked, a grin on his face. He knew Justin had done that just to rile him up. Just like Justin never paid attention in class; Yu spent a lot of the class folding papers into origami. It was for a part-time job he had, but he'd be lying if he said he didn't enjoy it. Justin laughed slightly before turning back to Kanji. He was completely confused.

"Inside joke; Yu here folds origami cranes."

"I'd counter with Justin's hobbies, but I'm not sure masturbating quite counts." Yu smirked. Justin couldn't help but laugh at that one, though he tried to muffle the sound by placing his hand against his mouth. Chie and Yukiko just seemed disgusted at the sudden turn this conversation had taken. Men could be such pigs sometimes. Kanji couldn't help but grin at the joke. He didn't know the context, but he did catch the burn. He chuckled slightly before speaking up again.

"Shit, what's with me today…? I'm going on and on about myself…" His chuckle faded by the conclusion of his sentence. "Forget all that. Man, I must look really lame right now."

"I don't know about that. You seem like a pretty cool dude." Yu spoke up, a grin on his face. Though that was immediately wiped off by Kanji's response.

"Nah, I doubt it…"

"Well then I guess you can't sit at the cool kids table with the rest of us." Justin smirked.

"But… We have different lunch periods." Kanji spoke up in confusion.

"I know. That was the joke." Justin sighed slightly. Damn, he used to think Yukiko was a tight-ass, but Kanji was really starting to take the cake here. He needed to find an excuse for everyone to walk in slow-motion again, and fast. Kanji laughed awkwardly for a moment, none-the-less.

"Haha… I've never talked about any of this stuff before. Guess I never had anyone to tell it to." Kanji paused for a moment, staring up at the clouds as though lost in thought. The team had all been smiling at his remark, but it seemed he didn't notice at all. "I guess I wasn't really afraid of girls. I was just scared by people in general."

"I can see where you're coming from. People are scum, man." Justin shrugged slightly. He was a little surprised to see the team's jaws drop slightly at his remark. "What?"

"Wh-What did you just say?" Yosuke spoke up, a frantic tone to his voice.

"People are scum. It's true. I swear to god, I gave up on humanity years ago."

"So… Then that stuff your shadow said about humanity… That salvation through death crap…"

"My shadow said what now?" Justin was confused.

"He said he was going to purify the lands, how he was going to save humans from themselves." Yu spoke up, a disgusted tone of voice on his lips.

"Well that explains the dictator suit…" Justin grimaced. He did think humanity was full of complete scum and complete idiots; but not enough to want to kill them off. I mean, what would that even solve? Besides, he's met more than a few people over the past few months that have change that perception he had… "It's not like that guys. My shadow just blew things out of proportion." The team looked a little hesitant to believe him, but dropped the subject anyway. Kanji seemed especially confused, not knowing about Justin's kidnapping or the Midnight Channel showing. All the same, he shrugged it off, moving back to the topic at hand.

"But all that's behind me."

"Wow, I'm surprised… You're a good kid…" Chie eventually spoke up, snapping out of the daze Justin's comment had put them all in.

"D-Don't call me a good kid…" Kanji objected quite vocally, his face red with embarrassment.

"Well I wouldn't have made him Secretary of my cabinet if he wasn't." Justin joked.

"Do you even KNOW what the Secretary does?" Kanji objected again.

"I do not. But I'm sure if I did, you'd be perfect for it." Kanji groaned slightly at Justin's remark. It was… flattering? Not so much, but all the same, he wasn't used to getting compliments. He wasn't sure he quite liked it. Yosuke having noticed Kanji's beat red face immediately started to snicker.

"No need to get embarrassed. You're a big guy, you can take it." He smirked. Everyone else seemed to chuckle off to the side too, much to Kanji's annoyance. Justin of course didn't find it particularly funny, but he had already been smiling anyway, so it made no difference to him. The laughter eventually died down, though, and the atmosphere suddenly changed. The light-hearted jokes were over; they still had business to take care of.

"Hey, is there anything you remember after you ran into us the second time? You know, after you chased us away and said you were gonna take us down." Yosuke looked slightly angry about the last part, though Justin could kind of understand why.

" Huh? Uhh… I went home… I was gonna sleep it off in my room… Wait, I think someone came… "

"To your house!? Who was it!?" Yosuke shouted, interrupting Kanji's thoughts. Really, the entire investigation team seemed shocked by that last part. Justin couldn't understand why after his case. He had been unconscious in his house and the door was left unlocked, it seemed like something they should know already.

"Uh, well, it was just a feeling I had… I dunno if anyone actually came… Other than that… I remember some weird, dark, entrance thing… When I woke up, I was laid out on the floor of that sauna place."

"A dark entrance…" Yukiko whispered to herself. "Could it have been a TV?"

"Huh…? Now that you mention it, maybe so… Uh, why do you ask?" Kanji asked, slightly confused. It seemed he had completely forgotten how they had exited the other world using a television. Justin couldn't help but sigh at that one. How do you even forget something like that.

"Oh, no reason… I was just wondering." Yukiko stuttered slightly, doing a terrible job of hiding all the information they had.

"Did the police ask you anything?" Yosuke questioned aloud.

"Well my mom had to call the cops to look for me, so they questioned me for a while. I told them exactly what I just told you and they looked at me like I was crazy." Kanji seemed kind of pissed off, though Justin could understand completely. I mean, if you got kidnapped and nobody believed you; you'd probably be awfully pissed too. Hell, anytime you were sure of something and no one believed you, you should be pissed. Like that time Justin thought Yu wasn't dreaming about the television, or the time it turned out that weird boy was a chick, or that time that-

"So, like… Are you guys playing detective or somethin'?" Kanji interrupted Justin's thoughts.

"Mmm, well, something like that." Chie replied, slightly put off by the comment. They weren't PLAYING detective, they WERE detectives.

"I'm Phelps, and that would be Bekowsky." Justin smirked slightly.

"Oh no you don't, I said you could be Phelps ONCE." Chie objected. The rest of the group just sort of rolled their eyes a bit. What was it with these two trying to be fictional detectives; and not even very good ones at that? It was almost embarrassing to watch any time they started arguing over which one was Phelps.

"Anything I can do to help? If there's some bastard out there who put me through this, I ain't gonna rest until I make them pay." Kanji spoke up, interrupting the two's argument over which one was and wasn't Phelps. Whoever the hell that was.

"Seriously? Awesome! You'd make a great addition to our team! Whaddaya say, Yu?" Yosuke practically shouted with glee. Justin raised his eyebrows in slight confusion at that one. Yosuke seemed the most opposed to Kanji out of the entire group; what with his ramped homophobia and him constantly being chased away by Kanji and all that. Justin thought he was going to be the one that would have to petition for Kanji's inclusion. I mean, Kanji was a pretty cool guy, plus he had persona, so there was no real reason not to, right? Yu smiled slightly at the proposal before extending his hand out to Kanji; the two shaking hands as he spoke.

"Welcome aboard."

"Thank you, Sir! I'll put my life on the line for you guys!" Kanji shouted before letting go of his grip on Yu. Yu seemed slightly surprised by the remark for some reason.

"Huh… I don't remember starting a social link with Kanji." Yu muttered to himself. It was barely audible, but Justin managed to pick up a few things.

"Social what?"

"Huh? Oh, nothing; just talking to myself." Yu spoke up slightly panicked. Justin was suspicious to say the least.

"I'll do my best!" Kanji interrupted, giving a slight salute. Justin followed that up by doing a mock salute behind him. Yu simply shook his head at Justin for a moment before Yosuke spoke up.

"Well, if we're gonna welcome aboard a new member…" Yosuke passed a glance at Yukiko, who was wearing a huge smile across her face. She knew what Yosuke wanted her to ask, and she was more than happy to do it.

"Should we take him to our special headquarters?" Yukiko asked with cheer in her voice. Justin and Chie simultaneously raised their eyebrows in confusion. They thought that they were calling it their 'special headquarters' at first as a joke. Neither really thought Yukiko would sincerely think it was a good name, let alone get this excited about it.

"We're still calling it that…?" Chie and Justin asked in almost complete unison.

"Wh-What's that!?" Kanji seemed more than a little confused, as he should be. I mean, they were high-school students calling the local Junes their 'special headquarters.' It just sounded so wrong. Of course, Kanji didn't know it was just Junes yet, but still… They were much too old to be tossing around the term 'special headquarters' like that.

"C'mon let's go!" Yosuke spoke up, a wide grin on his face as he stood from his seat on the roof.

* * *

"Man, you eat a lot… Were you listening to what we were saying?"

"Huh? Shurr, I waf lifnin'."

The team had all made their way over to Junes, sitting around their usual table. Kanji was a little confused at first when he found out that the mall was supposed to be their 'special headquarters,' but that all changed once he realized that meant he could order food. And lots of it. He had at least three trays of steak in front of him, and he was chowing down. Chie seemed almost pained that Kanji wasn't sharing any with her, but alas, that's life. Sometimes you get steak, sometimes you don't.

"Close your mouth!" Yosuke exclaimed with disgust as food sprayed from Kanji's mouth. To be fair, it wasn't even like it was just spittle; Justin swore he saw an entire piece of steak drip from this guy's lips. It's amazing how much food the guy had shoved in their at once. Of course, Kanji hadn't really realized he was being rude until Yosuke pointed out, so he paused for a moment to swallow the contents in his mouth before speaking again.

"So, uh… someone's killing people with a TV…? What, is he beating them to death?"

"I... Kinda want to see how that would work now." Justin remarked, his eyebrow raised. Who would walk around beating people with a television? It's big and heavy; there was no way that would be a practical murder weapon. Actually, it seemed like it would be ripe for slapstick comedy because of how ridiculous the prospect was.

"No, they weren't being beaten with a TV! Were you listening at all…?" Yosuke's voice slowly started to raise a few octaves. He was very clearly starting to get irritated with Kanji. Justin was so proud.

"Don't worry, he'll understand once he sees the place with his own eyes." Chie spoke up trying to calm Yosuke down.

"…But he has." Justin interrupted. Whether or not Kanji remembered or not, was another question entirely, but had he seen the inside of the television? Absolutely. Chie shrugged slightly before continuing with her thought.

"But the way it happened was just the same as with Yukiko. The killer kidnapped Kanji first, then threw him into the TV."

"Yeah… It's scary." Yukiko spoke up, her voice coming out low and softly. Clearly just thinking about it was painful to her. Everyone passed Yukiko a slight look of sorrow and concern, save for Kanji, who still had no idea what was going on. Or maybe it was just that he was too busy shoving his face full of steak to notice, who even knew. Justin sighed slightly, taking a sip of his can of cola.

"I was lucky enough to already be unconscious when I got kidnapped." Justin groaned slightly as he pulled the can away from his lips. "It wasn't exactly better on the inside, but whatev-"

"What exactly DID happen while you were in there?" Yu spoke up, slightly curious. Chie looked like she wanted to ask the same question, but didn't really want to know the answer. "You were covered in blood when we came to rescue you, did something…?"

"I had to climb a bunch of stairs. For four days straight."

"Holy crap…" Chie exclaimed from where she was sitting. The others realized climbing stairs for four days must have been annoying, but… They weren't entirely sure why Chie seemed so flabbergasted, so stricken with concern. Chie apparently noticed the strange looks she was getting, given her next words. "Oh, Justin has Climacophobia, fear of climbing stai—"

"Oh what the fuck, Chie!" Justin shouted in disgust. He had told her and her alone for a reason. Chie's face turned red when she realized she had let that piece of information slip out. She knew Justin didn't want people to know, but she had forgotten all about it when everyone started looking at her like she was crazy.

"S-Sorry, I didn't mean to." She frantically apologized. Justin sighed slightly. He knew it was an accident, but he was still pissed nonetheless. If she spilt out all of his secrets like this, imagine what would happen if they started having a discussion on eyeballs.

"Justin's afraid of stairs?" Yosuke spoke up in confusion, as though double-checking to see if he heard right.

"None of your damn business."

"Oh my god, you totally are." Yosuke started to smile an insidious grin. Justin responded by starting to stand up out of his chair, leaning as far across the table as he could.

"Don't think that just because I'm sick I can't kick your ass."

"That still doesn't really explain the blood…" Yu interrupted the two's bickering.

"Well, there was barbed wire all along the walls, so anytime I lost balance—"

"You fell right into them. Jesus, that's awful." Yu spoke with concern, his eyes wide with shock. He didn't know much about Justin's fear of stairs, but he could only assume that every time Justin had gotten sick climbing to the roof was a direct result of his Climacophobia. Which meant, he one hundred percent needed that support to keep his bearings. Instead of support though, he found a death trap, one that he had fallen into on multiple occasions if the amount of blood on his face and hands when they had rescued him was any indication. Justin sighed slightly before sitting back down, his arms crossed. He was pretty pissed off at Chie right now, even if she had good intentions. He was going to speak up again when suddenly the sound of gossip met his ears from behind.

"That show's been pretty crazy lately, huh?"

"Yeah, I keep wondering who'll show up next."

Justin turned his body to look at the teenagers at the next table talking. Really, it could be any show they were talking about, but he had a pretty good idea which one it was. Everyone had started to look at the two young men gossiping, save for Kanji, who, while having stopped eating for a moment, still faced away from the table behind him.

"I knew before it came on that he'd be the next one to appear. What's that dude's name? That guy that was running for class president…" Justin started to glare slightly, though neither teenager noticed him.

"What about that guy before him? You know, that first-year who used to be in a biker-gang…"

"Who the hell'd you think was next?" Kanji suddenly spoke up from where he was sitting. Justin barely shifted his head to look at Kanji from where he was sitting, looking for only a brief moment before starring back at the two gossiping teens. They looked scared out of their minds once they recognized Justin, even more so when Kanji stood up to turn towards them. Their jaws practically hit the floor as he stood over them, his eyes glaring at them intensely.

"His name is Kanji Tatsumi… And he wasn't in a biker gang—he's the one who beat the shit out of those leathered-up pansies." The teens starred up at Kanji with slight horror in their eyes. Justin smirked slightly.

"And the 'guy who was running for class president's' name is Justin Tylor. How hard is it for you fuckwits to remember the foreign kid's name?" Justin spoke up aggressively, not so much as getting up from his seat. The teens' eyes darted back and forth between the two, not sure who to be more afraid of. Justin had half considered sliding his chair over so they could get a view of Yukiko sitting across the table from him, to scare the shit out of them of course, but figured Yukiko probably didn't want to get involved in this.

"So who are you dipshits…!?"

"Dead and deader, I believe." Justin answered for the two teens, his eyes squinting more intensely at the two. The teens turned to look at each other for a brief moment before jumping out of their chairs and running in the opposite direction. Justin starred in that direction for a while longer before loosening his glare, a smirk on his face.

"Feh… Boring…" Kanji muttered to himself as he turned to take a seat. Justin turned around in turn, laughing slightly under his breath.

"Oh man, I love doing that." Justin joked slightly. The others seemed slightly concerned at the possibility that this was something he did on a regular basis. Knowing Justin, it wouldn't really surprise them.

"Ugh… I can't stand it." Chie spoke up, a slight tone of disgust in her voice. "Sure, they have no idea it's related to the murders, but still… How can they talk about their schoolmates like that?"

"Very easily, apparantly." Justin smirked slightly. He wasn't at all offended by their remarks. After all, it gave him a chance to act like a total psychopath and mess with people's heads. It was a blessing in disguise. Chie sighed slightly. She knew Justin was okay with it, but it didn't make it right all the same.

"They're like onlookers at a car crash. As long as it's not happening to them, they're dying to see…" Yosuke paused for a moment, his look of sorrow and disgust soon shifting into annoyance. "Damn, this sucks… We don't even know who's going to be targeted anymore."

"These last two cases have disproved our assumption that all the victims are female…" Yukiko spoke aloud, trying to vocally organize her thought. Justin raised an eyebrow. He hadn't even thought about that. All the victims had been female up until Kanji and Justin. Was it just a coincidence before, or was there a sudden change in the killer's pattern? Chie crossed her arms in front of her chest, her head pointing downwards as though deep in thought.

"What was the other thing we thought they had in common?" Chie eventually spoke up, hoping the others could remember what she clearly could not.

"People involved in the initial case, about Ms. Yamano, are the targets… How about that?" Yukiko questioned the group, trying to see if they had any objections to the theory.

"No, it can't be." Justin spoke up to answer the question. "I've never met Ms. Yamano, nor do I know anyone personally who has. Well, except you Yukiko; but I don't think that really counts."

"It doesn't really hold up." Yu spoke up, a slight grimace on his face. That was really their only other lead at the moment, and Justin's kidnapping had completely put a stop to that line of reasoning.

"Well, both Yukiko and Kanji were involved in some way or another… I'm not so sure about Justin though…" She perplexed out loud. It's true Yukiko and Kanji were connected to the first case, and while Justin didn't really want to rule that out as coincidence, he had no ties to Yamano or anyone who knew Yamano. Unless the killer's motives changed, it just wouldn't make sense.

"But that announcer was dealing with their mothers, not them… And well…" Yosuke started to look at Justin, much to his irritation.

"Make a dead parent remark and I swear to god Yosuke, I will slit your throat while you sleep." Justin preemptively struck. Yosuke's eyes widened, his eyebrows rose. He one hundred percent believed Justin would do something like that too. There was an awkward silence for a while, though whether or not it was because of Justin's threat to slit Yosuke's throat was up for question. Justin's kidnapping just put a dent in their entire investigation. Kanji started to look around the group for a while before speaking up.

"You guys sayin' you don't have any clues?"

"Not anymore we don't." Justin spoke up, his head leaning against his hand is he tried to think.

"Well listen up, cause I got somethin' big."

Justin raised an eyebrow slightly at Kanji as he started digging through his coat pocket. It took a little longer than it probably should, as the jacket kept shifting around on his back as he tried to grab a hold of something. Maybe if he wore it the way you were supposed to, that wouldn't be a problem. All the same, he eventually held up a crumpled piece of white paper with scribbling all over it. Justin was even more confused now. Had Kanji been conducting an investigation of his own? Were these supposed to be notes or something?

"When I made my comeback at school today, there was an annoying brat hanging around. Turns out, he was snooping around about Senpai's and my disappearance, so I took this from him. I don't know what the hell this all is, though." Kanji soon slid the paper across to Yosuke, who had gestured at Kanji to bring it closer so he could read it. He looked at the paper for a while before speaking up.

"Uh, and you took it anyway?" Chie spoke up, a combination of concern and confusion in her voice. Justin half agreed with her on this one. Why would you take something if you didn't even know what it was. I mean, sure, it was probably useful contextually speaking, but… Why take it? He just didn't understand. Yosuke starred at the paper for only a short while longer before passing it off to Yu. He had no idea what he was looking at, but maybe Yu had an idea.

"List of TV programs…" Yu read out loud. "Mayumi Yamano, 4/11, Saki Konishi 4/13…"

"What are these dates? April 11th…?" Yosuke questioned out loud. He immediately recognized the names as those of the victims when he had the list, but the dates… He just couldn't figure it out. Justin rubbed at his chin for a moment. He couldn't really think of any correlation between the dates and the person…

"Oh, they found the first body on the day school started, so that would have been… the 12th." Chie spoke up, listing some information she remembered. That's right, the first body showed up when Justin had met everyone for the first time… He was walking to the Junes with Chie, Yu, and Yukiko when they heard some gossip about the body. Turns out they had walked right into a crime-scene. So then, the eleventh was the day before… What does it mean though?

"The 11th is the day before that…" _Yes Chie, that's how math works. _Justin groaned slightly. He was sure everyone had gotten that already.

"I know I can't forget the day Saki-senpai's body was found… That was the 15th." Yosuke choked up; it was obviously still a painful subject for him, and understandably so. Justin was intrigued though by the small time-frame between the two murders. At least with the kidnapping of Yukiko and Kanji there was a pretty sizeable gap between when they were thrown in and when they would die if the fog settled in.

"So then, what are these dates? And what does 'List of TV programs' mean? What's 'Saki Konishi, April 13th'…?" Yosuke tried to reason out loud. Yu suddenly gasped out loud, his eyes dialating a bit as he got struck with a sudden bolt of realization.

"The day she was on TV!" Yu shouted. The other's eyes all widened slightly, save for Kanji and Justin. Kanji still wasn't completely in the loop with what was going on, and Justin… Well Justin didn't even know Saki had been on television.

"I see… Yeah, there's no doubt about it!" Yosuke spoke up, the realization suddenly setting in to his brain.

"Oh yeah… I saw that, too. They were interviewing her because she found the first body." Chie spoke up, clarifying that she was on the same train of thought as the others. Yukiko nodded slightly before looking at the list Yu had slid over to her.

"So then this part… 'Mayumi Yamano, April 11th.' Is that the day she appeared on TV, too?" Yukiko asked out loud. She didn't really watch much TV, since she was always so busy helping at the inn, so she wasn't sure if she was onto something or not.

"Oh, she was on! I remember now! That was when the affair hit the news!" Chie blurted out, suddenly remembering the fact.

"Hey, wait a sec… Yukiko, didn't you get interviewed too?" Yosuke spoke up. He was onto something now. If both Saki and the announcer had appeared on television before they were kidnapped, could it be possible that there was a connection? "When did that interview air?"

"I-I think it was when I was absent from school… Um…" She scrambled through her thoughts trying to remember as best she could when the interview took place. It hadn't been the first interview she had done since working at the inn, so it wasn't exactly notable to her at the time. Yukiko suddenly reeled her head back, turning towards Yu. "It was the day after I met you at the embankment. I had my kimono on… do you remember?"

Yu's face turned the slightest shade of red; it was clear he was very much trying to fight off the sudden color change in his cheeks much to Justin's amusement. Oh he remembered alright; he just wasn't sure whether he should admit it or not. "Um… Y-yes, I do—" Yu coughed slightly at the end of the sentence, hoping to get off of the topic. Yukiko didn't really seem to notice Yu's embarrassment though, opting to turn to the rest of the group as though nothing had happened.

"I went shopping that day, so… April 15th! And right after that I was kidnapped!" Yukiko's face turned into a glare as the realization struck her. Yosuke looked around the room for a brief moment before calling out to Kanji.

"Kanji! What about the television special you were on!?" Yosuke shouted across the table.

"Oh yeah, that thing… Damn show made my mom go apeshit on me and…"

"The date! Just tell us the date!" Yosuke interrupted him frantically.

"Uhhh, I don't remember the exact date… But it wasn't too long before I met you guys." Kanji spoke up, sort of surprised Yosuke had cut him off like that. He didn't think Yosuke would have the balls for it.

"It's true, then… Everyone was on the TV before they disappeared… Wait. Hold on, hold that thought; Has Justin even been on television?" Yosuke had thought he had it all figured out, but much like before, it seemed Justin had managed to break their chain of relation. Justin bit at his thumbnail for a moment, trying to recall if he had ever been on the television.

"I don't think I have actually…" Justin eventually spoke up.

"Come on, there's got to have been SOMETHING." Yosuke spoke up, almost pleasing for him to have shown up on television before.

"I'm sorry, nothing really comes to mind…" Justin grimaced. He didn't really watch TV that much, and he didn't recall ever getting interviewed. "Unless I walked behind a field reporter while they were live or something." Justin shrugged.

"You think the killer's targeting people he sees on TV…?" Chie questioned Yosuke. She was curious what his thought process had been. If that was what he was thinking, it would fit with most of the victims. It just seemed like the circumstances behind Justin's kidnapping were… different. He doesn't really meet the same criteria as any of the other victims.

"I was so caught up with the news reports about the incidents that I didn't notice at all…" Yukiko interrupted from her seat across the table.

"It can't be a coincidence." Yu spoke up. "I know that Justin doesn't really fit the pattern, but… Yamano, Saki, Yukiko, Kanji… they all showed up on television and they all had ties to Yamano in some way or another. It's just too consistent to be a coincidence."

"Alright, so let's say we agree that this is the criteria for the kidnapper's victims… why me?" Justin spoke up from his end, his arms crossed as he starred at Yu from across the table.

"I don't know yet…" Yu choked up. All of the circumstances behind Justin's kidnapping seemed off. There was little or no warning prior to his kidnapping, and he doesn't meet the criteria. Could it be possible that there was a second criminal? A copy-cat killer perhaps? He'd have to think about it; there had to be an explanation.

"Now that I think about it," Yosuke began to interrupt the two, "When the killer failed with Yukiko, they moved to Kanji instead of trying again… Maybe this 'being on TV' thing is some stupid rule that the killer's following."

"That's right, the killer could have targeted the same victim again…" Chie remarked, slightly surprised by Yosuke's sudden realization.

"I think there's a connection here between the kidnappings and the TV broadcasts. The victims weren't just involved with the first case. They were also shown on the mass media. At least, most of them." Yosuke shot a glance over to Justin, as though he were pissed at Justin for not fitting more of the criteria. _Like I chose to get kidnapped, Jesus fucking Christ._

"That must be it…" Chie muttered to herself. There was the obvious exception of Justin's kidnapping, but the other four all seemed to meet this very basic criteria.

"But if so… What's the motive? Why kill someone just because they were on TV?"

"You'd be surprised how many murders happen with people the killer doesn't even know." Justin spoke up, trying to explain a potential motive as best as he could. "It could simply be that the killer targeted the first person he saw on the television. He might not even have a motive other than to kill."

"That's terrible!" Chie shouted from her seat.

"Well that's the mind of a serial killer for ya." Justin shrugged slightly.

"Argh, Dammit, now that I think about it, we haven't gotten anywhere!" Yosuke shouted. Sure they had a basic criteria down… but the motive made no sense. And then there was the problem of Justin's kidnapping. Why were the terms of his kidnapping so radically different? "Why can't I be smarter!?" Yosuke shouted out in self-anger, disgusted that he couldn't figure this out.

"Oh god, give me a heads up next time you say that so I can record it." Justin joked.

"Dude, why beat yourself up? I think you guys are awesome." Kanji spoke up, ignoring Justin's joke.

"Alright, give me a heads up of THAT next time." Justin remarked.

"Why the hell would you want to record that." Yosuke remarked, slightly annoyed.

"Because my ego isn't big enough yet." Justin smirked slightly. Yosuke just shook his head slightly in annoyance.

"I mean, you guys noticed what was happening to me and even risked your lives to stop it. That's more than enough."

"You rescued me too. We may not have solved the mystery, but we've saved three people already." Yukiko followed up, a wide grin on her face. Yosuke turned his head slightly to Justin, half expecting him to follow the same train of dialogue. Instead all he got was a blank stare, as though to say 'You're not going to get me to say it Yosuke, so fuck off.'

"That's true, but…"

"What's more, everyone's deduction that Kanji-kun might be next was right on the nose."

"Too bad we didn't see Justin's coming…" Chie added with a sorrowful tone to her voice. It was clear that she was still upset about Justin's kidnapping. Justin appreciated the concern; but that was in the past now, right? He wasn't in danger anymore, so Chie should chin up a bit.

"Huh? You knew before it happened? Damn, I wish you guys'd come a little earlier, then…" Kanji remarked. He was joking, of course, and everyone knew it; but the way he said it with a completely straight face somewhat concerned Justin. All the same, he laughed along with the others; probably harder because of how convincing Kanji had been.

"Well, if we know this much, I think we can outsmart the killer next time. Then it's a countdown to their arrest." Chie spoke up optimistically, a wide grin on her face. Justin smiled slightly in return. _That's my girl._

"Don't forget, it's always possible that Justin and Kanji-kun were the last targets." Yukiko added on to Chie's previous thought.

"Or so we hope… We've thwarted the killer three times already. Here's hoping the killer's learned their lesson by now." Yosuke responded. He wasn't quite as optimistic as Chie and Yukiko had been, but he seemed a little more relaxed all the same. Yu only responded by giving a quick nod to Yosuke; everything he wanted to say had already been said by the others. "Anyways, let's keep checking the Midnight Channel like usual when it rains."

"That reminds me!" Chie suddenly pepped up slightly. "The school campout's next week. I hope it doesn't rain. It's for the first-year and second-year students, so we'll see you there, Kanji-kun."

"Seriously? School, huh…? What a drag…" Kanji responded, slightly annoyed.

"Whoa whoa, hold on. School campout?" Justin responded in great confusion. Schools could do that? Not that Justin was complaining; the weather was starting to get nicer out, and he hadn't gone camping in ages. Not since he was a kid in fact. It sounded like it'd be a lot of fun.

"Mmhmm," Chie responded, giving a slight smile and node of her head towards Justin. "We had it last year too, it's supposed to help us get in touch with nature or something."

"Sounds like fun." Justin remarked, a grin on his face.

"Yo, mind if I order another grilled steak? I'm gonna finish this one up while the next one's on the grill… We're… going Dutch on the meal, right?" Kanji remarked excitedly. Justin had to blink his eyes a few times in disbelief. He just ate three fucking steaks, wasn't even done with his fourth, and he already wanted to order another one. Jesus fucking Christ… And what the hell does going Dutch on something even mean. Justin swore if it meant splitting the bill, he was going to split Kanji's lip open.

"Well, let's get going. I think our new teammate needs to meet Mr. Bear." Chie interrupted, completely ignoring Kanji's attempts at buying a fifth steak. She probably had to if she wanted to keep herself from mugging Kanji for it.

"Huh? What's up?" Kanji replied, slightly confused. I mean, it was understandable given that Chie had just called Teddie, 'Mr. Bear.' Teddie is an actual name, albeit spelt differently, so she could have gone with that and everything would make sense. Nope. Mr. Bear. Kanji just shrugged, slightly irritated that they needed to get going. "Fine, whatever… I'll go for something cheap, like ramen. Wait, or should I get a takoyaki set…? Man, I can't decide."

"None of it." Yukiko replied, her eyebrow slightly raised. She wasn't sure why Kanji thought he would have time to order anything else if they were leaving now. Besides, he still had a steak left to eat.

"WHAAAT!?" Kanji shouted out. He sounded completely thrown off-guard by that one, much to Justin's amusement. Justin chuckled for a slight bit before turning towards the rest of the group.

"You guys go on ahead, I'm supposed to meet up with Maya at the hospital."

"Huh...? You sure?" Chie responded, slightly confused.

"Yeah, I promised her I would, so… yeah…" Justin remarked. He really just wanted to go home and sleep this cold off, but that was beside the point.

"Well… Okay…" Chie remarked, slightly confused by Justin's decision. She thought the two had been fighting prior to the whole kidnapping incident; and she was unconscious when Justin visited her last time, so she wasn't sure when Justin made this promise.

"Say hi to Maya for me." Yosuke remarked, a wide grin on his face. Justin raised an eyebrow in confusion. Did Maya even know who the hell Yosuke was? All the same he gave a quick nod of agreement before the group headed off for the television, and Justin towards the exit of the mall.

* * *

"Hey Justin…" Maya called out to him, a wide grin on her face as Justin walked in, his hands in his jacket pocket. She pushed herself up against the back of her hospital bed to try and get a better view of her guest. Where before, she had to force herself to move like this, her body in tremendous pain anytime she so much as turned the wrong way, she could now sit up no problem.

"Hey Maya, got you a present." Justin started digging around in his pocket for a moment before tossing her over a lighter and a pack of cigarettes. "I figured they probably confiscated the ones you had when you got brought here. I know they did for me." Maya smiled. It wasn't flowers or chocolates or anything, but it was a nice surprise all the same.

"Thanks."

Maya immediately started to dig through the carton, ready to pull out a smoke. She hadn't had one in about a week now, and she was starting to go through some serious withdrawal. She pulled one out and put it in her mouth before lighting it up, her breathing slowing down substantially as the smoke filled her lungs. She really needed one; much more than she thought she had. Justin smiled at Maya as she pulled the smoke out of her mouth. He was going to need to remind himself to fan the smell of smoke out. And he probably should have gotten her an ashtray.

"Yosuke told me to tell you he said hi, by the way." Justin remarked, hoping to get that out of the way before he forgot.

"He did?" Maya seemed slightly surprised.

"Yeah, I was a little surprised too." Justin looked up at Maya for a brief moment. Her face was red for whatever reason. Justin couldn't understand why; he didn't think he had said anyting to embarrass her, or... flatter her, as the circumstances may be.

"Uh, w-well, tell him I said hi back." She stuttered slightly when she noticed Justin staring at her funny. Justin raised his eyebrow in confusion for a brief moment before shrugging his shoulders. He didn't think the two were really friends, but whatever, that wasn't really any of his business.

"I will. So how've you been holding up?" Justin spoke up watching Maya give herself lung cancer. Maya smiled a wide grin, her cheeks starting too cool down a bit, as she turned towards Justin.

"The doctor says they'll be able to release me in a few days."

"Oh yeah? That's great news."

"It's even better once you've tried hospital food." Maya chuckled slightly at her own joke before taking a drag at her cigarette.

"How bad was it?"

"I swear to god if I see meatloaf one more time, I'm going to hurl."

"Well, hate to break it to you, but so long as you're staying with me, you're not going to see much in the ways of gourmet cooking."

"Oh believe me, I know." Maya chuckled slightly. Justin tried to force a grin, but it ultimately looked fake as all hell. He realized it was just a joke, and sure, it was true, but it seemed like everyone had been insulting his cooking lately. Even people who haven't tried it. Maya's smile soon turned into a frown though. "I'm going to be honest; I didn't think you were serious about letting me stay at your house…"

"Why would I joke about something like that?"

"Well, I just figured you'd change your mind…"

"Family doesn't leave family behind, Maya."

"Family?"

"Sure. You're like a sister to me, Maya. We might not be related by blood or anything like that, but you're family to me all the same."

Maya smiled at that, her face turning red with embarrassment. She knew Justin didn't love her, but she never thought he had seen her like part of the family. To be honest, even if it wasn't the kind of relationship she had always wanted with Justin, she was happy all the same. Because in truth, Justin was just as much a brother to her as she was a sister to him. Besides; Maya's biological brother was a huge dick. She could replace him no problem. She starred at him for a brief moment before speaking up.

"Thank you, Justin… Listen, I've got something I've been meaning to give you." Justin raised his eyebrow in confusion. What the hell was Maya trying to give him? "It should be in my hoodie, it's over on the chair over there."

Justin starred at Maya with a bit of confusion before shrugging and making his way over to the chair. He pulled on the hoodie slightly until he could make out her pockets, a slight bulge in both. Justin started off by digging through the left, and after a good while, pulling out Maya's iPod. He sincerely hoped this isn't what she was trying to give him.

"The other pocket." She groaned slightly. Justin shrugged before replacing the iPod and digging through the other. At first he didn't feel anything, but eventually his fingers rubbed up against something that felt like metal. He had thought it was loose change at first, but when he dug his hand deeper down, he immediately recognized what it was. He grabbed a hold of the object and pulled it out of her pocket. It was the dog tags that Maya had given to him years ago, the ones that had both their names on it. He placed it in the palm of his hand, examining it closely, tracing the engraved letters with the tip of his finger.

_Maya Skye Jefferies_

_Justin Jeremiah Tylor_

Justin smiled slightly for a moment, staring at the chained together dog tags. The two both had matching pairs of dog tags; it was supposed to be like a friendship bracelet thing. But Maya was already wearing her pair… These were Justin's. He didn't know why Maya had them; he didn't care. He was just happy to have them back.

"You'll probably need some new ones now that you have a girlfriend, but I figured you'd want it back." Maya smiled from her bed. Justin just laughed slightly.

"Maybe, but until then…" Justin paused for a moment, slipping the dog tags around his neck, smiling as he slipped it beneath his hoodie. "How's it look?" Justin remarked turning over to Maya.

"Only you can pull off wearing dog tags without looking like a huge douchebag." Maya laughed. Justin smirked a bit himself too as he made his way back over to his seat.

"Thanks Maya."

"No sir, thank you." Maya chuckled.

There was silence between the two for a while as they just awkwardly smiled at each other for a while. It wasn't for a good few minutes that the silence was interrupted by Justin's phone beeping. He was a bit confused at first as he pulled out his cell-phone to be greeted by Chie's number flashing across the screen. He looked up at Maya briefly to be met with an expression of confusion. He shrugged slightly before opening the phone; it was a text message. He pressed a few buttons as the text popped up.

_yukiko wont stop laughing. pls make it stop :(_

Justin smirked slightly. That sure sounded like Yukiko to him. He just had to wonder what the hell it was Yukiko was laughing about. Or at least, he did until he realized there was a picture attachment. He pressed a few buttons to bring the picture up, before being met by the sight of Kanji wearing those ridiculous glasses Teddie made. Justin couldn't help but burst out laughing at that. He just had to wonder who it was that had pulled that one off; Yukiko or Teddie. Maybe both. Oh god that's a horrible thought.

"What's so funny?" Maya asked as Justin burst into a fit of laughter. Justin responded by just tossing the phone her way. She caught it in mid-air before bringing it up to her face. She didn't know who Kanji was, but goddamn, she found those glasses absolutely ridiculous. She started cracking up a bit as she tossed the phone back Justin's way.


	55. Chapter 54: June 7, 2011

CHAPTER 54

June 7, 2011

* * *

"W-Well how about this one?"

"How many zeroes?"

"…Err…Never mind."

Justin and Chie were looking around the music store in Junes, checking out the guitars to see if they had anything cheap. On top of the money Justin had won winning his bet with Yosuke, he also had the money he had managed to save from not eating or drinking or… well doing anything that involved cash over the time period he was trapped in the television. It wasn't a lot on its own, but when all of the money he had managed to scrape together got added together; Justin had 20,000 yen. He wasn't going to be able to afford a Les Paul with that; but he could certainly get another Fender.

Justin rubbed his chin a bit as he looked at guitar after guitar. It wasn't a big store, so they had a very small selection in terms of guitars. A lot of fucking basses, though. It took a while, but Justin eventually managed to find the cheap section of the store… in more ways than one. All the guitars looked like complete shit; necks bent ever so slightly; flaws in the guitar bodies… He was clearly looking at used guitars. He didn't mind of course, but he just wished they'd sell guitars in better condition than this. It took Justin a good few minutes to eventually find something that he could afford that didn't look like complete shit: a black Fender Squire.

Justin checked the tuning on it quick quick, just to make sure the thing's strings didn't come loose as he strummed. He actually had a guitar that did that once; though to be fair, when one would normally turn the knobs at the top counter-clockwise to raise the pitch of the strings, this one would just sort of do whatever it wanted. Literally every other knob needed to be turned in a different direction to change the pitch. It made no scientific sense, but Justin didn't complain. It was his first guitar, so he didn't really know better.

"What do you think?" Justin called out to Chie. Chie had been looking at bass guitars, much to Justin's amusement. He couldn't tell if she knew that wasn't a guitar or if she was genuinely interested in the instrument. In all honesty, Justin could totally see Chie as a bass player; she had spunk, and she had angst, if you counted her anger problems as angst. Literally, she had everything you needed to be a good bass player. Chie's head peaked over the corner to see the black Fender Squire wrapped around Justin. The thing was covered in dust, and it had a faint white scratch on the side; but she thought that just gave it personality. She smiled as she rounded the corner.

"Looks good; how's it sound?

"Well only one way to find out. I take it there are no picks around here…" Justin thought aloud, looking around to see if there was something he could use. There wasn't.

He sighed slighty; he used to keep a pick on him all time, if only because he lost it if he didn't. But once he broke his guitar in half, he didn't really have much use carrying it around, so he just sort of left it on the counter somewhere in his house. Justin scratched at his chin slightly. He wasn't really going to be able to get the same effect out of strumming with his thumb; but it certainly looked like he was going to have to.

"We've got picks up here." The cashier called from where he was standing, not so much as looking at the two. It seemed they were the only ones in the store, now that they actually looked around; so it wasn't like the cashier could be talking to anyone else. Justin shrugged slightly before the two slowly made their way up to the counter. The cashier didn't so much as look up from behind the counter as the two made their way up there, his fingernails digging through the plastic exterior of a fresh case of picks. Justin sighed a little bit.

"How much are the picks going to cost me?" Justin moaned. The cashier had opened a fresh case, so clearly this was going to cost Justin somehow.

"On the house." The cashier spoke up, handing off a pick to Justin. Or at least he had been at first. Once Justin actually grabbed the other end of the pick, the cashier started to give Justin a strange look, his head twisted off to the side. Justin felt awkward; his hand gripping onto the pick the cashier was supposed to hand off to him as he examined Justin from head to toe. Justin bit his bottom lip, trying not to say anything to make the situation worse. Hell, even Chie was starting to get a little uncomfortable, looking in the opposite direction and grabbing at her wrist.

"Hey, aren't you two the ones who were looking at that Les Paul?" He finally spoke up, letting go of the pick.

"Y-yeah, that was us." Justin choked up. He really didn't feel comfortable talking to this guy anymore. The cashier gave a quick nod before leaning back under the counter to put the picks away. Justin passed a glance over to Chie. She seemed just as creeped out as he was, thankfully.

"You played pretty good."

_That is not how the English language works…_

"Uh… Thanks…" Was this guy seriously trying to start a conversation with Justin. At this point Justin didn't even want to test the guitar. He'd settle for whatever it sounded like, so long as he could get out of there.

"So, why are you buying this old thing? Thought you were interested in the Gibson." He asked as he came back up to the counter. Justin looked over his shoulder for a short moment; for what reason, he wasn't sure. Maybe to avoid the awkward conversation, maybe to plot a path to run away if this guy got any creepier.

"Oh well… I can't really afford that…"

"You've got champagne tastes and beer pockets, my friend."

_Don't call me your friend… That's just creepy…_

Justin took the pick and slowly started to pick at the strings, checking to see if all of them were in tune. Well, most of them were, until he plucked the fifth string; which snapped immediately. Justin' mouth dropped in slight horror. He hadn't even done anything wrong and he just fucked up a guitar string on a guitar he didn't own. Chie's face seemed to turn red, knowing full well that Justin was going to have to pay for that. Justin sighed before turning to the cashier.

"How much for a replacement string?" The cashier chuckled slightly before suddenly making a gesture with his head towards the Les Paul.

"Don't worry about the string. Go put that piece of crap back and grab the Les Paul." Justin raised his eyebrow slightly.

"Like I said, I really can't-"

"Don't worry about the price, just go grab it."

Justin blinked a few times, more than a little confused by what was going on. If the cashier was saying what Justin thought he was saying, then this had got to be the dumbest business move he had ever heard. This wasn't a small price cut, this was literally turning a 150,000 yen guitar into a 20,000 one. Justin wasn't willing to do all the math out in his hand, but he had to imagine that was at least an 85% price drop. All the same, he shrugged, turning his head towards Chie.

"You mind grabbing the Les Paul while I put this back?"

"Huh? Oh, uh… Sure." Chie seemed confused by this entire prospect; but she ran off to grab the guitar anyway. It took a second for Justin to make his way back to the racks, but he eventually did, placing the guitar back where he had found it, string hanging down into the aisles. _Yeah, that's gonna be a real seller… _Justin shrugged before making his way back to the counter. Chie had made her way back, holding the guitar from the neck. It was clear she had no idea how to hold a guitar, much to Justin's amusement. All the same, he grabbed the guitar himself, just so Chie didn't accidently break something, before turning back to the cashier.

"Alright, so how much money do you have?" The cashier asked. This was really a question he should have asked before hand, but Justin wasn't objecting if this deal actually did go through.

"20,000 Yen." Justin spoke up, slightly embarrassed by his lack of any real funds. The cashier huffed slightly at that. It seemed he had believed they'd have more money than that.

"I can pitch in 10,000 yen if it helps." Chie stuttered slightly from where she was standing. Justin turned towards her and started shaking his head immediately.

"Absolutely not; out of the question."

"20,000's fine." The cashier spoke up, a slight bit of regret in his voice. Perhaps he too was seeing the fallacy in his business arrangement. Which may be why he tried to throw in an extra condition as well. "But, you're going to have to play something on that baby first." The cashier remarked, pointing at Justin. Justin raised his eyebrow in confusion. A song from an amateur guitarist is not the equivalency of 130000 yen. Nowhere NEAR.

"Um… Okay, I guess…" Justin spoke up with confusion. "You sure about this, I mean…"

"C'mon, let's hear it." The cashier cut him off. He already knew Justin was trying to object to his terrible end of the deal. In actuality though, the deal had been very profitable on the cashier's end. Truth be told, that Les Paul had been there for years. He wasn't selling it for full price anytime soon; and if he'd let anyone have it, he'd rather it be someone who knows their shit.

Justin shrugged slightly as he wrapped the guitar strap around his neck, backing away slightly from the counter to give himself some room. He felt awkward having to play standing up in front of the counter of a store. Hell, it looked like he was trying to get a discount by rocking out; Which he was, for the record. That didn't mean it felt any less awkward though. Justin checked the tuning quick quick, strumming at each string. The power behind each string vibrating against the body felt so natural. It certainly settled one thing: Justin wanted this guitar. He finished fine adjusting the tuning before turning towards the counter, throwing up one of his hands slightly.

"Umm… Well, then, uh… Any requests?" Justin spoke up. He didn't want to pick a song that wouldn't impress the guy behind the counter, nor one that would piss off Chie, so he ultimately decided to let those two pick the song for him. Chie simply turned towards the cashier for a brief moment. He was leaning on one elbow, biting down slightly on his thumbnail.

"Not really…" Chie replied, shrugging slightly. She didn't have anything she'd particularly want to hear, and besides, she figured it would be better for the guy giving them 130000 yen off their purchase to make that decision. The cashier starred at Justin for a moment before removing the thumb from his mouth, resting his arm against the counter top.

"You know Cocaine by Eric Clapton?"

"Oh dude, why'd you go and suggest that…" Justin couldn't stop himself from making that remark. The guys seemed friendly, but he was still creepy as fuck. And now the very first song he suggests is Cocaine? This was not doing wonders for his perception of the guy.

"What? It's a good song." The cashier replied. Justin had to stop himself from groaning. Clearly he didn't get why suggesting someone play a song called 'Cocaine' might not look good for your image.

"Oh no, I one hundred percent agree, it's just… Gah, nevermind. Cocaine it is."

Justin placed his fingers against the strings. He knew the song; it was actually fairly easy to play, in fact. It just sounded complicated because… Well Eric Clapton. The guy was a guitar god. Everything he touched sounded so much more complex and beautiful than it was. All the same, he hadn't played it in a while, so he had to remember the notes; so he stared at the fretboard for a moment as he tried to remember the positioning of every note. It took a good minute or so before he looked up, ready to play. The cashier looked like he was getting slightly impatient from waiting, but Chie looked excited to hear whatever song this was. Justin knew that would change real soon once she actually heard the lyrics.

Justin held in his breath for a brief moment as he started strumming at the guitar strings, playing off the main riff. The problem with this song was that there were two different guitar tracks supposed to be playing; the lead and the rhythm. Well, Justin could only play one guitar at once, so he had to transpose the parts together the best he could. His fingers moved up and down on the fretboard alternating between the rhythm and the lead sections, his fingers moving daftly as he hammered on and off the strings.

_If you want to hang out_

_You have to take her out._

_Cocaine_

The cashier smiled slightly, though not as much as Chie had been. She clearly had expected this song to take an entirely different turn than it did. Either that or she really liked listening to whatever it was Justin played. He highly doubted it was the latter, though.

_If you want to get down_

_Down on the ground_

_Cocaine_

Sure enough, her smile faded slightly, her eyebrows curving upwards slightly. She was a little disappointed in the sudden direction the song had taken. After all, it sounded like it was going to be a love ballad or something at first; but it wasn't his song choice, so she wouldn't hold it against him. Besides, it was a pretty catchy song, and Justin's playing was phenomenal. It was hard not to smile.

_She don't lie, she don't lie, she don't lie_

_Cocaine_

Justin started strumming slightly harder on the strings. Normally, the brief interlude between this and the next verse had a distortion pedal applied; but he wasn't plugged in, so this was the best he could do. The cashier seemed to be really getting into it by this point, for whatever reason. Justin just hoped he wasn't attracting a crowd like the last time he played.

_If you got bad news_

_You wanna kick them blues_

_Cocaine_

_When your day is done_

_And you wanna run_

_Cocaine_

_She don't lie, she don't lie, she don't lie_

_Cocaine_

Justin immediately stopped playing the rhythm section, instead moving his hand down the neck of the guitar to focus on the solo. It wasn't quite as good without the rhythm backing it up, but it still sounded nice. That was always the beauty of Eric Clapton songs; the solos were always nice because the simple rhythm riffs he wrote complimented them so well. All the same, Chie and the cashier seemed impressed by Justin's fingers moving nimbly along the guitar neck. Hell, Justin was starting to get into it himself as the solo began to speed up, his shoulders moving from side to side as his body swung back and forth in time to the music. He was actually a little disappointed when he had to go back to the rhythm section. He was having fun playing the solo.

_If your thing is done_

_And you wanna ride on_

_Cocaine_

_Don't forget this fact_

_You can't get it back_

_Cocaine_

_She don't lie, she don't lie, she don't lie_

_Cocaine_

_She don't lie, she don't lie, she don't lie_

Normally the song was supposed to keep going after the chorus, but Justin actually didn't know the 'fade-out' solo, so he opted to just stop at the point that felt the most natural; the last lyric.

_Cocaine_

He strummed down hard on the guitar, playing one last chord before pulling the guitar strand off of his shoulders. He was out of breath, but not because he had been doing anything particularly excruciating, or energy consuming. He had been holding his breath every instant he hadn't been singing the lyrics. He didn't like people watching him play; but he did all the same, knowing that this guitar was on the line. It was a great guitar; he had forgotten how natural it felt in his hands the last time he played. He just hoped his playing was enough to win over the cashier. Justin slowly made his way back to the counter. Chie standing beside him a wide smile on her face.

"Freakin' beautiful, man." The cashier spoke up, a wide grin on his face, his head nodding ever so slightly. Justin's face turned slightly red. He wasn't much one for compliments, let alone from weird cashiers at a guitar shop that may or may not have an obsession with cocaine.

"Uh… thanks."

"Alright then, that'll be 20,000 yen." The cashier smiled. Justin dug around in his pockets, before pulling out a wad of cash and placing it down on the counter. The cashier did a quick skim through the money before giving a quick nod and going out to the back to get the guitar case. Justin sighed in slight relief as the guy was out of sight.

"Where'd you learn to play so well?" Chie asked, a wide smile on her face.

"The same place I learned all of my most important skills; the internet." Justin smirked slightly, though Chie's eyebrows dropped into a slight glare, a frown on her face, her arms crossed in front of her chest. She was a little suspicious of what skills Justin had supposedly picked up on the internet; especially when she knew what he did use the internet for. Not that it was really any of her business; guys did that after all, but it was still disgusting nonetheless.

"Skills such as?"

"How to picklocks, how to solve a Rubik's Cube, how to make a sinner's sandwich; you're supposed to use strawberry jam and cheerios for the record, just about every pick-up line I know-"

"Pick-up lines?" Chie raised a single eyebrow in surprise. "How come I never heard any of them?"

"Because I didn't need them?"

"Well… Let's hear some of them." She smirked, her arms crossed in amusement. Justin had to laugh abit, his cheeks turning slightly red. Why the hell did Chie want to know about his inventory of pick-up lines?

"You sure?"

"Yeah, I'm curious now." Chie smiled at Justin, much to his slight dismay. He couldn't imagine pick-up lines really ending all that well.

"Alright, alright. Let's see… Okay, how 'bout this one; If I could rearrange the alphabet I'd put U and I together."

"If I had a quarter for everytime I've heard that one..." Chie chuckled slightly. Jusitn shrugged his shoulders. He figured as much, but hey, it was worth a shot.

"If I had a quarter for everytime I saw someone as beautiful as you, I'd have twenty five cents." Chie laughed a bit, her face slightly red, her cheeks radiating a slight pink color. Justin smiled at her for a moment, his cheeks lighting up a bit to mirror Chie's.

"Okay, I've got one; if-"Justin paused for a brief moment, blinking twice in quick succession before reaching into his pocket. "Hold on, phone's vibrating."

Chie raised a slight eyebrow. She didn't hear it go off, but Justin seemed to be convinced all the same. Justin dug through his pocket for a moment before pulling out his phone and pointing the screen at his face. He grimaced slightly, shaking the phone a bit.

"Ah crap; something's wrong with my phone again."

"Really? What's wrong with it?" Chie's eyebrows rose in slight concern, slight surprise. She didn't know Justin was having problems with his phone. Hell, it seemed fine when she had been holding onto it for him while he was in the television.

"Well it's just that… It doesn't have your number in it." Justin smirked before shoving it back into his pocket. Chie couldn't stop herself from laughing at Justin's joke. She had walked straight into that one. She should have known better when she didn't hear the phone buzzing in his pocket.

"Alright, let's go for something relevant this time. Do you know karate? Cause you're body is kickin'… See it's funny cause you like to kick s-"

"I get it." Chie choked up. She was still laughing from the previous one, so Justin didn't really get the reaction he had expected out of that. He shrugged a bit before placing his finger against his chin, trying to think of any other particularly good ones.

"Okay, let me think…"

"I've got one." Chie spoke up as her laughter died down, a wide grin still on her face. Justin smirked slightly. He didn't know Chie knew any pick-up lines, and for good reason. All the same, he was curious as to what it was. He crossed his arms a bit, a wide grin on his face.

"Alright, let's hear it."

"I bet I can kiss you on the lips without touching you." Justin raised an eyebrow. HE had heard a lot of pick-up lines; but not this one. Chie smiled a bit before leaning up, planting her lips on Justin's, the two exchanging a soft kiss with each other. By the time the two parted ways, both had thoroughly red faces with wide smiles on them. "Well, guess I lost that bet."

"That's a bet I was happy to win." The two laughed slightly as the cashier finally came out; the guitar case in hand as he placed it on the counter and packed the Les Paul inside of it. Justin tried to hide his flushed cheeks as best as he could as he reached over to grab his prize.

"Here's your purchase… and here's your receipt. You're all set."

"Thanks."

"Hey, comeback and play again sometime; I'd love to hear some more stuff." The cashier smiled slightly, giving Justin a finger gun. Justin suddenly felt very awkward again as he grabbed the guitar and held it down along his side.

"Uh… sure… I will."

The cashier nodded to the two before they turned to make their way out of the store. They had barely made it to the exit when Chie leaned over to whisper in Justin's ear.

"You're not seriously coming back here to play, right?"

"Oh hell no."


	56. Chapter 55: June 8, 2011

CHAPTER 55

June 8, 2011

* * *

"How drunk were you again, Yu?"

It was afterschool, and Yu, Chie, and Justin had all been sitting in the classroom chatting about random things that popped into their heads. Schoolwork, after-school life, that creepy guy from the guitar shop the other day; the usual stuff. Or at least, it had been until Yu had brought up a particularly strange topic. It wasn't so much a topic really as it was him accounting for something he saw while walking home the other day. Except, it was just so outlandish that neither Chie nor Justin believed him. Justin crossed his arms, making a jab at Yu's mental state, or rather his lack thereof.

Yu needless to say, was a little pissed that no one believed him. He could maybe understand when his friends didn't believe him about the television when he first told them; but this? It was ridiculous, but not THAT ridiculous. Besides, they should have had a more open mind after all this stuff with the television and the murder cases. Clearly things they had thought impossible or outlandish before had been true, so why was this the exception?

"I'm dead serious! The thing even had a scar on its left eye, and this weird nap-sack thing around its neck." Yu glared at Justin slightly, swinging his hands up and down as though he were shaking an invisible box in his hands.

"Now why the hell would a fox have a nap-sack around its neck?" Justin remarked, leaning back slightly on his chair.

"You have to admit; it does sound kind of ridiculous." Chie added, a slight shrug on her shoulders.

"Look, I was walking down the street, right? Passed by the shrine, and there it was. It was sitting there digging through the donation box with its nose." Yu tried to explain, his hands moving from side to side as though that were helping convince them at all.

"Oh watch out guys; we got ourselves a renegade fox on the loose. He's breaking into yo shrines and stealin' all yo donations." Justin remarked sarcastically, his hands raised to shoulder level, his palms pointed away from his face as though to say 'fuck that shit, I'm out.'

"Dear god, you people act like I just said I saw Bill Clinton running around in the nude downtown while singing the theme song to Cheers." Yu remarked with slight disgust.

"I could TOTALLY believe that, though." Justin remarked, throwing his hand up. Either Yu didn't really know what Bill Clinton was infamous for, or he had made one of the worst examples known to man. He was sincerely hoping it was the former. Yu threw his hands up in the air, as though giving up, when suddenly he heard an all too familiar voice from behind him.

"Hey Narukami! Did you know this week is health week?" King Moron spoke up, as he slowly walked up to the three. Yu seemed more than a little shaken by King Moron's sudden appearance. He usually left immediately after class, and never did he interact with the students in a positive way. Yu was more than a little hesitant to answer the question, gulping some spittle in his mouth before slowly turning towards King Moron.

"Uh… N-No, I didn't…"

"And you're not part of the Student Health Association! In other words you're a lazy bum!"

"O-Oh…" Yu choked up, his face slightly red with embarrassment. Yu's eyes were making their way off towards the side and out the window; though whether or not that was because he was embarrassed or because he was trying not to look at King Moron's humongous fucking teeth was another question entirely. He rubbed at the back of his neck slightly, biting down just a little bit on his bottom lip.

Chie and Justin passed each other a look of slight annoyance; not with Yu of course, but with King Moron. They sort of felt bad for Yu in a way; he couldn't really afford to cause trouble like Justin usually did when King Moron started to give him shit. Justin didn't have any parents to answer to when he got home; a fact he very clearly knew and exploited. Usually anytime King Moron said something to Justin, he'd have some snappy one-liner to put him back in his place. It was a wonder he never once got detention.

"I hate lazy, good-for-nothing kids like you! So I'm signing you up to take the place of a sick member!" King Moron shouted at Yu. Yu's mouth immediately dropped open in shock. He never agreed to this; he had plans to meet up with Yukiko today…

"Uh… That's not really fair…" Chie choked up from where she was sitting, her eyes wide in shock. King Moron only seemed to get irritated by Chie's interruption however.

"Quiet you!" He shouted in her direction, a glare on his face. Of course, while Chie only shrunk back in her seat, mortified by King Moron's remark, Justin's face had turned red with anger. He knew Chie didn't really like him fighting her battles for her, but some things he just couldn't let slide. And if Chie wasn't going to say anything, he sure as hell would.

"Whoa, did someone wake up on the wrong side of their cage this morning?" Justin remarked, a glare on his face, "Or are you just normally an asshole."

"You're already on my shit list, Tylor. Don't push it."

"I've been on your shit list since day one; and quite frankly, I haven't noticed a difference in your fucking attitude."

"One more word out of you and you'll be joining him." King Moron responded, pointing his finger at Justin. Justin just shook his head at King Moron in disgust, his arms crossed in front of his chest to stop him from nailing the ass. Chie passed him a slight look of concern. She didn't want him to get in trouble for trying to stick up for her; but she knew he was going to do it anyway. That was just who Justin was; abrasive and took no shit from anyone. King Moron glared at Justin for a brief moment before turning back to Yu, his eyebrows still lowered with rage.

"I don't know what school's like for you big city kids, but here, it's every student's duty to pitch in. Don't tell me you're not enough of a man to do something this easy." King Moron spat at Yu; Yu gradually sinking down in his seat, as though hoping King Moron would go away if he just vanished underneath his desk. Justin couldn't help but chuckle under his breath at the remark. He didn't know real men were in the Student Health Association. Yu sighed slightly, turning his eyes away from King Moron before speaking up.

"…Alright, I guess…" Justin wanted to slap Yu across the back of the head for pussying out; but he had important plans for the day as it was, so getting detention or getting stuck helping Yu was not going to work out. King Moron stopped glaring at Yu, though his normal expression wasn't much of an improvement. Justin swore the guy had never smiled in all his life. He probably couldn't with those teeth blocking the way.

"I see, I see. Then go straight to the infirmary, right now. They should be expecting you, since I already told them you'd do it. Thank me!" Justin shook his head in disgust as King Moron walked away from the group. Yeah, there were a lot of things Justin could thank him for. Thanks for being a huge douchebag. Thanks for ruining everybody's afternoon. Thanks for making Justin want to hurl his lunch up every time he saw King Moron's face. But alas, he said none of that. Chie tossed a quick glance of concern Yu's way.

"Um, good luck…?" Yu sighed slightly before standing up and putting his hands in his pockets.

"I should probably call Yukiko up and tell her I can't make it…" Yu muttered to himself, making his way out of the room as he punched some numbers into his phone. Justin raised his eyebrow in slight surprise. He figured they were starting to be really good friends, though he didn't know they had started making plans with each other. _Yu, you motherfucking pimp._ Chie sighed slightly before turning towards Justin.

"Geeze, I feel bad for him. He had plans and everything."

"He probably shouldn't have agreed to it then."

"Well, you heard King Moron. He said he already signed Yu up."

"That doesn't mean he absolutely had to show. I mean; how many people can this Student Health Association possibly need?"

"I guess…" Chie and Justin both shrugged before Justin stood up from his desk, much to Chie's confusion. "Huh? Going somewhere?"

"Yeah, sorry 'bout that. Apprantly Maya's getting out of the hospital today, so… yeah…"

"Going to say your goodbyes?" Chie questioned, a slight frown on her face. She figured Justin would be a bit upset to say goodbye to Maya, since they hadn't really seen each other in a while. Justin bit his bottom lip, twisting his head off slightly to the side.

"Yeeeeahhhh, about that…" Justin remarked, a slight grimace on his face. Chie raised an eyebrow in suspicion. The way Justin had said that, she already knew she wasn't going to like whatever it was she heard. Or at least Justin didn't think so anyway. He rubbed at the back of his neck slightly, looking off to the side to avoid eye-contact. "Maya's… kinda sorta staying at my place…"

"She what?"

"Yeah, she, uh… She's technically homeless, so I figured she could stay at my place for now; you know, since my parents can't object to it or anything…"

Chie didn't so much as say another word to Justin on the matter. She had no problem with Justin offering Maya a place to stay; after all, they were friends and it's not like Maya had anywhere else she could stay. What annoyed her was that fact that Justin had extended this offer to someone he clearly knew had a raging crush on him. Maybe she was just being jealous, but Chie thought that was the stupidest fucking thing Justin could do. Her eyes slowly dropped into a glare, her eyes piercing through Justin's very being. Justin bit the bottom of his lip, looking around the room expecting Chie to speak up. After a good minute of silence, Justin eventually spoke up to break the silence.

"Chie?" He choked up, confused as to why Chie was giving him that glare, but not talking. It was still silent on her end, despite Justin's question. Justin rubbed at his arm slightly before trying again. "…Chie? Earth to Chie. Anyone home?" Still nothing. In fact, it felt like her glare was getting deeper. Looking at her closer now, Justin could see her fists had been rolled up in a ball, clenched tight in anger. Justin figured she'd be a bit upset by the news; but this? He was genuinely afraid now. His eyes darted over to the door for a brief moment before turning towards Chie.

"If I start running for the door now, will I make it?"

"No."

Justin bit his bottom lip for a brief moment. Fuck it, he was taking a chance. He made a mad dash towards the door, Chie almost immediately jumping out of her chair to beat him there. She did.

* * *

"Whoa, shit dude. What the hell happened to you?" Yosuke spoke up as Justin walked into Maya's room at the hospital. He had a black eye on what was normally his good eye; as well as some bruising in some places he'd rather not talk about. He had been joking about wearing a cup around Chie; but now he was starting to regret not buying one. It was too late now of course. He wasn't going to be having children anytime soon now. Maya laughed slightly from where she was standing as she threw her hoodie on.

"I take it Chie didn't take the news well." Maya chuckled.

"No she did not."

"Take what news well?" Yosuke questioned out loud. He had been here to see Maya off, unaware that she was going to be living at Justin's place for a while. Hell, given Chie's name drop and the condition Justin had walked in, he had half expected to hear they broke up or something. Which, strangely enough, would probably result in less injuries on Justin's behalf then telling Chie that Maya was living with him.

"Maya's going to be staying at my place for… Well, a while I guess." Maya nodded slightly, a wide grin on her face. Yosuke's jaw dropped slightly; he had no idea why she was staying with him, or what had made Justin think that was a good idea, but he didn't care. He liked Maya a lot, so he was a-okay with her sticking around Inaba. He just wished he had known earlier.

"Well I can see why Chie beat the shit out of you." Yosuke joked. Justin shrugged slightly as Maya paced around the room, grabbing all of her stuff as she got ready to leave: her iPod, the painkillers her doctor had prescribed her, and the lighter and cigarettes she had hidden underneath the bed so the doctors wouldn't find it.

"Yeah, well, she'll get over it."

"I don't know man… Chie's been getting awfully jealous lately…" Yosuke smirked, that insufferable grin on his face. Maya frowned slightly as she shoved the last of her belongings into her pockets.

"Jealous? Of me?" Maya questioned; in turn receiving a slight nod from both Yosuke and Justin. She didn't know whether to be mortified that Chie thought Maya was out to get her, or flattered that she thought Maya was competition. So she went with the former. She frowned a bit, her eyes darting to the ground. "Sorry… I didn't mean to start shit…"

"To be fair; Justin ended up getting jealous of me once. They don't have very high standards." Yosuke joked. Justin in turn smacked him upside the head, and hard.

"Jealousy doesn't cover you calling my girlfriend up at night and telling her dirty jokes." Maya giggled slightly as Yosuke rubbed the back of his head, a frown on his face.

"Dude, they're just jokes." Yosuke grimaced.

"It won't be a joke when I slit your fucking throat."

"Oh man, I missed this." Maya smiled as the two bickered back and forth. Yosuke simply shook his head back and forth in disgust. Maya's support of Justin's threats to cut Yosuke was NOT helping. At all. "Alright, I'm all set" Maya announced after checking her pockets one last time to make sure she had everything.

Justin gave a quick nod as the three made their way out of the room. Or at least, Yosuke and Maya did; Justin had to stop at the doorframe, suddenly being struck with a painful headache, his hearing tuning out for a split second. He paused for a moment, gripping at his head with the side of his hand. It wasn't for a good while that he snapped out of his daze; his head still pounding as his hearing seemed to fade back into life.

"Justin, you okay?"

"Huh? Oh yeah, sorry… Just got a headache is all." Maya and Yosuke looked each other for a few seconds before shrugging and moving on ahead. Justin blinked a few times in confusion as the two took the lead again. He had never had a headache like that before; nothing nearly as painful, nothing that had ever cut his hearing off. All the same he shrugged before taking his leave, making his way up to the front of the group, leading Maya over to his house as they left the hospital.

* * *

"Jesus, this place is huge…" Maya gasped as she made her way into the house, examining each and every wall, every piece of furniture that littered its floors. She couldn't possibly imagine how Justin was able to afford a place like this. She had assumed he had an apartment or something, not an entire house.

"Would you believe me if I said this was supposed to be a summer home?"

"Summer home? Wait a second; you said you guys didn't make much!" Maya shouted in surprise. If his family could afford a summer home, why the hell didn't Justin try to get some money from his parents to help pay off the debt to Kurt? Maya was good for it; even if it would take a while to pay Justin back. And even if she wasn't, wouldn't it be better to do that than deal with the mafia? Justin shrugged his shoulder slightly.

"We didn't. I didn't even know about this place until they read my father's will. Maybe it was from one of his oversea jobs; who even knows." Maya shrugged slightly as she walked around the house, examining everything.

"What's with the hole in the wall?"

"Oh, uh… That was your fault."

"Mine? How the hell was it my fault!?" Maya shouted at Justin.

"Well, you kind of pissed me off after that phone call I gave you…"

"You didn't have to punch a hole in the wall!" Justin shrugged a bit. He didn't have to; but he did. Really, he was just surprised Maya was taking him seriously right now; it obviously wasn't her fault, even if she did piss him off enough to make him want to destroy his house like that. Maya shook her head and sighed abit as she continued to explore the house. Justin was standing by the kitchen counter; trying to figure out what exactly he was going to do with Maya anyway.

Maya had started looking around the living room in the meantime, examining Justin's collection of video games and DVD's. The only time she ever got to play video games was at Justin's house, and that was a good few years ago. She was sort of hoping Justin would let her use the television while he was out. After all, she didn't have a job, and she didn't go to school. She hadn't gone to school for over a year; ever since she ran from home, so she wasn't even sure what class she was in if she did go to school now. Her age says sophomore; but she never actually finished 8th grade. Besides, as far as she knew, Yasogami was a private school. Neither Justin nor her actually had the money for her to apply there if she wanted to. It was kind of sad actually; knowing that even if she wanted an education, she couldn't have one. She sighed slightly as she continued to examine the shelves.

Even though she had been looking at the DVDs and video games, something else had managed to catch Maya's eyes; a picture frame facing flat down near the window sill. She made her way over to the ledge and picked the picture up, examining the photo that had been hidden from view. It was a picture of a much younger Justin and his father. Maya frowned a bit seeing this… At first she thought the frame had just fallen down; but now she could clearly see it had been positioned like that on purpose. Looking at the picture, Justin's father had been smiling, but not Justin. And Maya could completely understand why. Justin hated his father, hell, Maya hated his father. Sure he was always nice and courteous to her anytime she and Justin had been hanging out at his house; but she always knew what happened behind closed doors. Hell, she even heard him once when she had gone to knock on their door, hoping to see if Justin was available. She could never really forget the sound of Justin's father screaming, the sound of glass breaking. She sighed a bit before pushing the frame back in its original position, faced down to hide the image it showcased.

"Alright, so this is how this is going to work…" Justin spoke up, finally lifting his eyes from the countertop he had been standing at. "You've got two options for where you can sleep. You can either have my bedroom, or you can get the couch and the television. And before you just deny the bedroom because it's mine, don't worry about it; I probably sleep more on the couch than I do in my bed anyway."

Maya placed her index finger under her chin. She knew Justin didn't really care where he slept, but she'd still feel bad about making him sleep on the couch. Besides, all of Justin's stuff was in his bedroom; He'd have to constantly go in and out while she was sleeping to grab stuff. Maya, on the otherhand, had nothing other than the clothes on her back; so she didn't need drawers or anything. It would actually be an advantage to both if she just slept on the couch. Besides; after sleeping on the streets for the last year, a couch would be like paradise for her. "I'll take the couch."

"You sure? You're not just saying that because you don't want me sleeping on the couch?"

"Nah, it'll work out better for both of us if you stay in your bedroom."

"Alright, I guess that settles that then…" Justin remarked before making his way up the stairs to grab some pillows and a blanket. It took a bit of stair climbing, but he eventually made it to the upstairs closet; opening the door and grabbing what he needed. He slowly closed the door with his foot; when suddenly he had to force himself to stop. The headache from earlier was back, and this time he felt like someone had just crashed a train into his skull. He couldn't really grab at his temples with everything in his hands; so instead he simply clutched his eyes together really hard until the pain went away. He sighed slightly as the tension in his skull loosened before heading back down the stairs.

"What took you so long?" Maya joked as she continued to look around the house. Justin simply rolled his eyes as he went to drop the contents of his arms on the couch Maya would call her bed for… Jesus, how long WAS she going to be living with him anyway. He had no problem with her staying; she needed a place after all. But she had no education, no job; so unless she planned on making a living making origami cranes, she wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. Justin sighed slightly. Chie was pissed off NOW, imagine what she would say if she found it Maya would probably be stuck in this house for-freakin'-ever.

"Alright, so that part's all set up. You should be all set… I don't think I really need to tell you anything you don't already know; just make yourself at home." Justin spoke up, trying to cover as many bases as he could. Maya smiled as she made her way over to where Justin had been standing.

"Got it. Thanks again… Not just for this, I mean. For everything."

"I haven't really done anything thank worthy, but I'll take what I can get." Justin smirked slightly. Maya smiled a wide grin as she angled her head to the ground, trying to hide her smile from Justin for whatever reason. Probably so it wouldn't go straight to his ego.

"Sorry for causing shit between you and Chie." Maya eventually spoke up. She still had a smile on her face, but it had been substantially smaller than the huge grin she had been wearing earlier. Justin chuckled slightly, rubbing at the back of his head.

"It's no problem. I didn't need my testicles anyway." Justin laughed a bit at his own joke. It was silent between the two for a while, smiles worn on their faces. Justin yawned a bit as he turned towards the clock near the television. It was starting to get late; about 11:00 or so. Justin turned towards Maya, a smile on his face.

"I'll tell you something though; getting the shit beat out of you takes up a lot of energy. I'm heading to bed."

"Oh, alright then. 'Night."

"See you in the morning."

The two nodded at each other before Justin slowly started to climb the stairs to his room; closing his bedroom door behind him before plopping his ass on the bed. He was exhausted for some reason, and even though he told Maya otherwise, he didn't think it had anything to do with Chie beating him to a pulp. He sighed slightly as he rolled over onto his bed, placing the back of his skull against his pillow and starring up at the ceiling. He only seemed to stare at the roof of his room for a few brief moments before his eyes started to flutter close. And though he couldn't see it; for a brief moment his eyes flickered a golden yellow color as he drifted off into sleep.

* * *

December 6, 2009

* * *

"**You are a complete idiot."**

Justin's and Maya's shadows sat together at the top of a worn down building overlooking the desolate city, their legs hanging off the side of the building and into the alleyway below. It was a nice view; or at least, it was to them. The shadows could see through the fog, so it wasn't like all they were seeing was green clouds raising into the air. The two had been sitting up there overlooking the city and talking about various topics. Justin's shadow had a guitar around his neck, a white Fender Squire, to be more precise. He had been playing random riffs and licks during brief intervals of conversation between the two; usually because Maya's shadow had been taking a drag at her cigarette.

"**Yeah? And you're a bitch. You don't see me pointing it out every five seconds though."** Justin's shadow snapped back at Maya's shadow.

"**Why the hell would you want to stay? This place is shit."**

"**Sure; but is it shit because it's shit, or is it shit because we made it shit?"**

"**Oh don't get all philosophical on me; it's shit because those fucks out there want it to be."**

"**Maybe so. But if we control everything in here… Why does it have to stay like this?"**

"**What. You think because you have power you control anything? No. Everything here is here because of those assholes out there. We're just fucking pawns in their game."**

"**So then… The humans are the ones who control everything?"**

"**Are you fucking deaf?"**

Justin's shadow placed his index finger along his chin. The humans have control… Everything they did, everyplace they saw, everyone they saw… Was it all a creation of the humans? The shadow sighed slightly, placing his hand back along the guitar neck as he started strumming again. The thought of someone else controlling him just sickened him. He controlled his own actions, not some fucking human on the other side.

"**Hey, Maya? Have you ever wondered what it's even like on the otherside?"**

"**I've heard stories. They say it's absolutely beautiful. The streets are lined with people; the skies are blue, the oceans crystal clear… God this place sucks…"**

"**What if… What if it's actually worse than here?"**

"**Oh don't even start. I've had just about enough of your bullshit today."**

"**The grass always seems greener on the other side."**

"**That's the point! There actually is grass over there!"**

"**Maybe you're right…" **Justin's shadow sighed slightly, strumming the guitar again; Welcome Home by Coheed and Cambria to be precise. Maya's shadow looked about the cityscape for a moment before her ear rang; an unknown sound making its way to her eardrum. It wasn't Justin's shadow's voice, that was for sure.

"**Hey… You hear that?"**

"…**Hey, yeah… I someone else here?"**

Maya's shadow looked about for signs of movement along the cityscape; but to not much avail. She sighed slightly; disappointed that no one was there. She dropped her head in disappointment; arms wrapped around her knees. Little did she know that was all she needed to do to find the source of the sound. Her eyes widened as she saw three figures below them; all of them very familiar. Maya's shadow's look of shock soon turned into a devious grin, her mouth curving up into a wicked smile, her eyebrows dropping into slight glare.

"**It's them… It's fucking them!" **Justin's shadow was a little confused as to why she was getting so excited. Or at least he did until he stared down at the alleyway himself. His eyes widened with slight surprise; though his lips didn't really curve up in the same wicked way Maya's did. He wasn't entirely sure what to think of his counter-part's sudden appearance.

"**That's… That's us!"**

"**This is our one way trip out of here!"**

"**But… Wait… Isn't that Teddie?"**

"…**Yeah… Yeah it is. What the fuck?"**

"**What the hell is he doing?"**

"**Is he letting them out? Oh I swear to fucking god; if there weren't rules about this guy, I would defluff his ass right here." **Maya's shadow snarled, her teeth clenched together.

The two shadows watched as the two figures pushed their way through a set of television screens that Teddie had summoned moments earlier. Maya's shadow was more than a little pissed that Teddie had helped them out of their world. She was outright furious. Justin's shadow sighed slightly as the other him made his way through the screen. He wasn't sure he wanted to leave… Here he had complete control over everything around him, everything he did. Yet… What if it was true that the humans truly controlled them… He hated the thought; it made him sick to his stomach. But if he was a human like the rest… He would control EVERYTHING.

Everything and everyone.

Everyone…


	57. Chapter 56: June 9, 2011

CHAPTER 56

June 9, 2011

* * *

"Geez… Justin, you look like shit."

"I FEEL like shit."

Justin groaned as he made his way down the steps from his bedroom, dark rings under his bloodshot eyes. Maya had been on the couch playing video games when he came down, but she stopped the instant she saw him. He looked like a mess, even for someone who just woke up. Justin groaned a bit as he took a seat next to Maya, his palm against his head as he tried to cool down his migraine.

"Bad dream?" Maya questioned, trying to discern what was wrong with Justin. Justin blinked slowly; as though trying to force his eyes open. He felt like his eye lids were sticking to each other every time he blinked; as though they were unwilling to open themselves to reveal the iris below them. He groaned again slightly before speaking up; his hand still pressed against his forehead.

"I don't think it was a dream…"

"What do you mean?"

"Ugh… How do I explain it…" Justin mumbled to himself. Maya was completely out of the loop on Justin's dreams; which was understandable since Justin had thought they were over. The problem was that Justin wasn't quite sure how he should explain to Maya that he had forgotten all about her; or that he only remembered stuff through these dreams. He didn't want to hurt her feelings, but it was something she probably needed to know if she was going to be living in his house. "Basically… I lost my memory… Basically anyone or anything that was involved with that… incident… I completely forgot. Including you and Kurt."

Maya looked somewhat upset that Justin had forgotten her, even if it was unintentional. I mean, sure, she fucked him over big time with that whole mugging and mafia thing, but up until then, they had been the best of pals, the two musketeers, the dos amigos. Justin apparently noticed how upset she was, given that he tried to cover his bases. "N-Not that it was on purpose and I did remember later on. I just sorta—"

"It's fine…" Maya interrupted a sigh on her breath. She was still saddened by Justin's proclamation that he had forgotten her, but that wasn't important right now.

"Alright… Well, anyway… I started having these weird dreams at night; it started off with this one dream, nothing but smoke… And then there was you in the middle of all of it. I know it sounds weird, I still haven't figured out what it was supposed to mean myself… But then the dreams started to become clearer. My memories, they all started to come back to me through me dreams, every word we spoke to each other, every action… And that's how I ended up finding you again, Maya. With some help from Kurt of course."

"And now you're having those dreams again?"

"Sort of… I don't remember what happened in this dream at all though. It… It looked like me and you… sitting on the top of a roof chatting, but… The things we said didn't make any sense."

"I don't recall ever doing anything with you on a rooftop..." Maya spoke up, slightly confused. It could simply be that she didn't remember, but… Something didn't seem right to her. They almost always hung out in the alley way, so when did they ever go up on the roof? Justin sighed slightly.

"Yeah, I figured as much." He paused for a moment, staring at the television screen on the opposite side of the room. "I'll figure it out. I just need to have another one of those dreams before I can start putting the pieces together."

"Alright… But if you need help…" Maya passed Justin a look of concern. She still wasn't entirely sure what all this dream nonsense was, so she was a little worried. Justin chuckled slightly, though it lacked energy. He hadn't really had any sleep because of his dream, so he was sort of out of it.

"You'll be there. I know." Justin smirked slightly. "What game are you playing?"

"Huh? Oh, I just sorta grabbed the first thing I saw… Let's see… The Darkness 2."

"Oh shit, I haven't played this in forever." Justin chuckled slightly to himself, a wide grin on his face. He wished he could stay and join in on Maya's shenanigans, but alas, he had to hurry up and get ready for school. "Remember to shoot all the lights out." Justin remarked as he stood up from the couch and made his way upstairs to get changed.

"You're supposed to do that? Shit…"

* * *

"Oh hey Just- Sweet mother of shit!"

Justin had just walked into the classroom, just a few minutes before the bell rang for homeroom. The rest of the gang had already been there talking about whatever it was they talked about when Justin wasn't around, when Yu noticed Justin making his way into the room. At first he was just going to call him over to the conversation, as per usual, but then he saw Justin's black-eye. Yukiko was a bit confused as to what Yu was getting worked up over at first, but her jaw practically dropped too once she turned her attention over to Justin as he made his way to his seat.

"Justin…? What happened?" Yukiko choked up as he took his seat, turning towards the rest of the group to join the conversation. Justin passed a very quick glance Chie's way, as to see her reaction. She seemed a little surprised by the black-eye; after all, it wasn't there when she had been beating the ever-loving crap out of him the day prior. She didn't think she had hit him THAT hard.

"I… Uh… Fell into a doorknob…" Justin stuttered, trying to make an excuse. Figures he makes they typical spousal abuse cover up.

"You are such a liar." Yosuke smirked from where he was sitting. He already knew where Justin had gotten the black-eye from, so Justin's excuse was laughable at best for him. Justin and Chie immediately shot Yosuke a glare, as though to tell him he'd be next if he didn't shut his fucking mouth. That sure as hell shut him up. Justin sighed a bit as he turned back to the rest of the group.

"It's fine; don't worry about it." Yu and Yukiko passed each other slight look of concern before shrugging their shoulders and dropping the subject. Justin turned his head back over to Chie's general direction. She didn't say anything, but Justin could tell she was trying to mouth the word 'sorry.' Justin just shook his head slightly before flicking his hand, as though to say 'forget about it.' He really didn't care if he walked around with a black-eye; if anything, it made him look like a badass who got into a fistfight. He was a little less forgiving on the state of his balls though. He still couldn't quite feel them.

"Well; now that you're here Justin, I think I may have found something that shed some light on the circumstances behind your kidnapping." Yu spoke up. That wasn't the topic they were discussing prior to Justin's arrival; Yu had been trying to explain the whole fox thing to Yosuke and Yukiko up until now. And he got pretty much the exact same reaction out of Yosuke and Yukiko as he got out of Justin and Chie respectively. He was a little pissed off at this point, but figured it just wasn't worth getting into an argument over it. Besides, Justin was here now, and he had been holding onto this piece of information he had found. Justin raised an eyebrow in curiosity.

"Huh? You found something?" Yosuke spoke up from his desk. He didn't even know Yu was doing research on the topic; let alone that he had been successful.

"Yes I did." Yu announced, slightly proud of himself. "Think about it. Everytime someone's appeared on the television before the popped up on the Midnight Channel; where has it been?"

"The news." Justin remarked, not entirely sure where Yu was going with this.

"Bingo. So I figured if I just looked up some archived videos on their website…"

"You might find some footage." Justin interrupted Yu. He got it now. If Justin had infact appeared on the news at some point; they could just look through some old footage to try and find him. Knowing exactly what channel he would appear on certainly helped them decide what to dig through. Yu smiled, as he pulled out a piece of paper he had in his backpack.

"Well, you remember how you made that joke about walking behind a news reporter while they were live?"

"Vaguely."

"You might have been right on the money." Yu leaned forward to showcase a screenshot he had taken, tapping his finger against a slightly blurry person in the backdrop. "Tell me that doesn't look like Justin."

"It kind of does..." Chie spoke up in surprise. Justin squinted his eyes to try and make out the figure a little more clearly. It did sort of look like him, but there was no way to say for sure. And besides, if the killer couldn't clearly make Justin out in the backdrop, would he still target him? Not even to mention that he was just one of dozens of people in the backdrop. It seemed that whatever this report was on; it had taken place at Junes.

"Sure, it kind of looks like me. But how can you say for sure?"

"Because Chie's jacket stands out like a sore thumb." Yu smirked slightly, dragging his finger just slightly to the side to point out Chie. It was blurry, but there was no doubt about it. Justin could never mistake Chie for someone else. That was definitely Chie standing next to him; or rather, slightly behind him, as though trying to keep up. Chie squinted her eyes a bit before passing a glance over to Justin, her jaw slightly ajar with surprise.

"Well that's Chie alright." Justin remarked, placing his finger against his chin as he tried to think. HE did spend a lot of time with Chie, so it certainly seemed that it could be Justin standing next to her, but alas he couldn't say for certain. His figure was just too blurry. "When was this report aired?"

"They were doing some sort of report on Junes' effect on the economy." Yosuke's face immediately turned into a grimace. He hated when people tried to blame Junes for everything. "It aired May 26, and from what I understand, it was a live field report."

"May 26th… That was the day before everyone voted for class president, right?" Yu paused for a moment, his pupils reaching towards the corners of his eyes as he tried to think, before eventually nodding in confirmation. "Well that sounds about right then. Me and Chie went into the television to ask Teddie something if I recall correctly. So that means we were making our way over to the electronics department when this footage was shot."

"So then that settles it. That's you alright." Yu spoke up before taking the picture back and placing it in his backpack. Justin bit his bottom lip slightly. Sure, that was him on the screen, alright, but it didn't seem like the killer would just single out someone randomly from the backdrop of a news program.

"I don't know man; that's me, sure. But would the killer really target some random extra in the backdrop? I mean, everyone else so far has been in an interview, right?" Yu shrugged slightly. That was true, but as far as he could tell, this was the best they were going to get out of Justin's appearance on television.

"Maybe you're right, I don't know. But this is the best we've got for the time being." Justin sighed slightly. If the killer really was picking out random people in the backdrop, that was going to make it a lot harder to find his targets if he continued in his crime spree. Yosuke coughed slightly, a frown on his face as Yu turned to his side to see what Yosuke wanted.

"So… Uh… How exactly did that news report go? Wi-With Junes I mean…"

"Huh? Oh, uh… You don't really want to know."

"They completely bashed it didn't they."

"Yeaaaaaah…" Yu groaned slightly as Yosuke slammed his head into his desk. Justin couldn't help but roll his eyes; the guy looked like he was going to start cutting himself because someone said something mean about his daddy's precious store. It's not even like his father owned the place for fuck's sake, he just managed it. Yosuke needed to get the fuck over this Junes shit.

"Oh calm down Yosuke. It's a store." Justin spat out, a slight look of annoyance on his face. Yosuke in turn shot his head up from its resting place on his desk, a glare on his face.

"Is it so hard to understand why I'm upset? I mean, what if I insulted your father's business."

"Don't talk about my father." Justin spat out, his eyes lowering into a glare. Before he was only annoyed by Yosuke's self pity, but now that Yosuke had brought Justin's father into the argument; he was pissed. And Yosuke knew it, given the look on his face.

"Gee Justin, your father sure is a worthless sack of shit. Your father is putting everybody out of business. It's your father's fault the economy is complete crap."

"Say one more word about my father and I will rip your heart out through your FUCKING SKULL." Justin shouted, slamming his fists against his desk with anger.

Everybody's jaws dropped at Justin's outburst, though not for the reasons you'd think. They were more or less used to Justin threatening Yosuke or shouting obscenities in every direction. What they weren't used to was Justin's eyes glowing a yellow color; his blue iris's replaced with golden ones. Nor were they used to the slight echo in his voice as he shouted at Yosuke, as though two of him were talking at once, one slightly delayed.

"Ho… Ly… Shit..." Yosuke muttered under his breath as Justin leered at him; golden eyes seeming to pierce straight through his soul. He didn't know what was going on, but he was scared to shit right about now; as he should be of course. Justin soon clutched his eyes down in pain, grabbing at the side of his head. He felt like he had just gotten shot in the face with a bowling ball right about now with the way his skull seemed to buzz. It took a while before he opened his eyes back up, his irises returning back to their blue color.

"What the fuck just happened?" Justin choked up, his head still buzzing like a million jackhammers against the inside of his skull. Everyone just sort of passed glances at each other trying to figure out what was going on, hoping maybe someone else had the slightest idea what they had just seen. But alas, no one did; they had no clue what had just gone down in Justin's head; why his voice seemed so distorted, why his eyes were golden, nothing. Justin looked over at Chie, a look of concern across her face, her eyebrows curved upwards with worry.

"Are… You alright?" Chie spoke up. She didn't know what was going on, but Justin looked almost like he had been in pain during his small transformation of sorts. His head felt like someone had broken it open like a watermelon, of course, so he wasn't at much of a liberty to say yes.

"I… Don't know…"

"Dude… your eyes…" Yosuke choked up, still slightly in a state of fear from Justin's outburst a moment earlier.

"Black and blue, yes I kn-"

"No dude! They turned yellow!" Justin's eyes widened slightly, his eyebrows raised in confusion. His eyes turned yellow? What the hell was that supposed to mean? Was that supposed to be a metaphor or something, cause last time he checked, eyes couldn't change colors. He shook his head to both sides in disbelief before looking back up at Yosuke.

"Yosuke… What the fuck kind of drugs are you on?"

"He's… Not lying." Yu spoke up, his jaw still wide open. There was only two kinds of people he knew that had golden yellow eyes; and only one of them was he entirely comfortable talking with. However, given the violent nature of Justin's outburst, he had a feeling this wasn't that kind of person. His hand shook slightly as he started to put two and two together. "Justin… Was that…"

"Was that…?" Justin eventually questioned as Yu struggled to force his words out. Yu looked around the group; all eyes on him as he struggled to vocalize his thoughts. He could be entirely off base, and if that were the case, he didn't want everyone to get worked up, but… But if he was right; this could be very dangerous to all of them.

"The way your eyes turned yellow, how your voice echoed… I'm just going to say it; Justin, was that your shadow just now?"

Justin immediately started to gag on the air, as if he wasn't entirely sure he had heard correctly. Hell everyone had been starting to give Yu looks of confusion themselves. Sure his eyes were yellow, but… Justin killed his shadow, right? He couldn't still be around, right? Except… Except for that purple smoke; that smoke Justin's shadow had used to control—Oh dear god. Just as the realization started to seep in to everyone's minds, Justin looked around the room frantically, a look of panic on his face. He wanted to pretend it wasn't true, but… Given the look he was getting from everyone, given what he knew about his shadow… Given their deal… He believed it. He believed it one hundred percent. He breathed in and out heavily as he took in the looks of horror on everyone's face, his heart pounding against his chest.

"J-Justin…?" Chie choked up, seeing Justin crawling around in his skin. She was hoping she'd be able to snap him out of his daze, but instead was only meet by a sudden glare; his eyes shifting into that golden yellow color again, his voice echoing as he shouted in her direction.

"Don't look at me!" Justin clenched his eyes together again, his head pounding as he pushed himself out of his desk, dashing for the door.

"W-Wait! Justin!" Chie shouted after him as he frantically ran out the doorway. She immediately jumped out of her seat to try and pursue him; despite the other's objections as she stood up. She didn't know what was going on, but if that really was his shadow taking over, Justin needed help, and he needed it now. She ran towards the door, keeping a brisk pace as she tried to catch up with him. Alas, it wasn't much use. By the time she made it out the front door, Justin was completely out of sight. She bit her bottom lip slightly. She had no idea where he went, but… Goddammit, she couldn't just leave him like that, could she? But… School was starting soon, and her parents would give her so much shit if she left. She had a choice now. She could either go back to class or she could keep going and try to find Justin wherever it was he went. She sighed slightly before pressing onwards. She owed him for beating the shit out of him the day before anyway.

* * *

"Alright Justin, just breathe… Just… Breathe…"

Justin sat along the riverbank, looking at his reflection in the waves as they came crashing in and out. He always used to go to the lake near his house when he was having problems; which was almost always now that he thought about it. It was no different now that he lived in Inaba. There was something soothing about just staring at the water, looking at his own reflection. His reflection was always there after all. It couldn't judge him or the monster he had become; all it could do was sit there and listen. He sighed slightly as he placed his cheeks into his palms, looking out into the great blue emptiness.

"My shadow taking over… It's… It's not true. It can't be. My shadow is dead, and that's all there is to it. What happened back there… I can't explain it, but I know it can't be that."

"**Oh don't play dumb. You know what happened."**

Justin's head started to pound again as he gripped the side of his head. That… That was his shadow's voice alright. Though that didn't seem to bother him so much as the apparent source of the sound. Looking at his reflection Justin could see its lips turn up in a twisted smile. He breathed out heavily as he watched his reflection turn into the object of his disgust; the one thing he could always turn to in his times of despair turn into the face that still haunted him in his sleep. Justin wasn't sure how to react to the shadow's appearance. He thought he would be pissed, even a little panicked if he saw his shadow again… Yet he felt nothing.

"You…"

"**Me."**

"What the fuck are you doing to me…?" The reflection smirked at him, crossing his arms. He was finding some sort of amusement in whatever it was he was doing to Justin.

"**I'm taking my end of the deal."**

"Bullshit. I never agreed to this."

"**Oh, but you did. The deal was that I got partial custody of your mind. Tell me; what do you think controls your muscles, your bones, your lips, your words? It's not my fault if you didn't read the fineprint."**

"You said I'd know everything you know. Why don't I know anything then? Was that a lie too? Was that all part of your goddamn scheme!?"

"**I never said it'd all come at once. You really should make your deals more specific."**

"You bastard…"

"**Oh don't be pissed at me. You made the deal. You should have known better than to trust me."**

"You're right. I should have. I should have killed you when I got the chance, you fucker."

"**Oh you still can if you don't mind a little… Crossfire." **The shadow snickered from within Justin's reflection. Justin shook his head back and forth, not with disgust, but with slight agreement.

"I'm almost tempted to take that offer." Justin sighed. He knew damn well that the shadow wouldn't die so long as Justin lived. Part of him wanted to say fuck it and just blow his brains out right there. His shadow was a monster; and so long as he could take control of Justin's body, no one would be safe. Justin could live with his shadow; but he knew damn well the amount of chaos and destruction he would cause given the chance. And lo' and behold, he had plenty of chances. Justin's shadow smirked slightly, chuckling under his breath from his place in the waters in front of Justin.

"**But you won't. You're too much of a coward to do it. Or is it that you're too selfish?"**

"You think you have control over me? Is that what you want? Well think again. So long as a breath, I will NEVER lose control."

"**Oh, but my dear; you never had it in the first place."**

No more words were exchanged between the two as the image of Justin's shadow faded away; his reflection completely disappearing from the water in front of him. Justin let out a small puff of air as his reflection seemed to vanish in thin air. To think the one thing he could always tell his woes and troubles to, would turn out to be the one thing trying to single handedly destroy Justin's life and everything around him. Justin looked down into the sand he sat on for a brief moment before hearing a familiar voice calling out to him.

"Justin!" Chie shouted making her way down the shore to where he was sitting. She was out of breath and looked like she was worried out of her goddamn mind when Justin turned to look up at her. She bent down slightly as she tried to catch her breath. She had run the entire way over from the school to here, hoping to catch-up with him. If she had known he'd just be sitting here, she might have gone a bit slower. "Are you alright?" She eventually choked up; sitting down next to him once she managed to catch her breath.

"Yeah… Yeah, I just needed some time to think…" That was a blatant lie; but Justin couldn't bear to tell Chie that his shadow was still there; watching him, tormenting him… being him. "How'd you find me?" Justin asked, looking at Chie's face. She seemed sad, concerned, but not afraid of Justin, or what he had become. She probably didn't understand quite the danger that Justin was now. If she did… If she did she would know better than to chase him down; than to associate with him in any form. If she was wise; she'd find a way to put a bullet in his skull right now.

"Well, I figured you wouldn't go to your house with Maya there, and I remembered what you said about that lake…"

"Ah." Justin choked up; looking away from Chie and into the sand below him. Chie looked at him with concern in her eyes.

"Justin, it's alright. We can help—"

"Nobody can help me now." Justin interrupted her, snapping his head towards her so his eyes met with hers. "He wants control, Chie. Of me, of my life. I have to hold him back; and that's all there is to it." Chie averted her eyes from Justin for a moment; looking at her reflection in the water. Strangely enough, she couldn't make out Justin's reflection in the waters; though she paid it no mind. She grabbed a hold of Justin's hand, intertwining her fingers with his as she turned towards him.

"We're your friends Justin. It doesn't matter what's wrong, we can help you. And if that means helping you… control your shadow; we'll gladly do it."

"It's not that simple Chie."

"We can still try." Justin starred at Chie for a while; looking into her eyes as the words left her mouth. She was still concerned, but she honestly believed the words coming out of her mouth. Justin looked down at the ground for a brief moment, contemplating what had made Chie believe that she could help him. He couldn't help but smile at her blissful ignorance. They couldn't help him, no matter how much they wanted to. But she was right about one thing. They could try. And maybe it was just the thought that counted. Justin looked back up at Chie, a slight smile on his face.

"Well, I guess it never hurts to try." Chie smiled a wide grin as she stood up, helping Justin back to his two feet; sand giving way under his feet. Chie would have to remind herself later to tell Justin to pick somewhere else to run off to from now on. Sitting in the sand when you're wearing a skirt is never a comfortable experience; not then, not for the next five hours as you try to ignore the sand stuck up your ass. "Come on. If we start walking now we can still make it back to school."

"Do we have to?" Justin moaned slightly. He was joking of course, but Chie looked like she was actually considering the proposal. I mean, she was already late, so her parents were probably going to kill her all the same; and it's not like she ever learned anything from King Moron anyway.

"Well… I mean, I guess we don't HAVE to."

"I'm just joking." Justin laughed, Chie's face growing slightly red with embarrassment. She was surprised at herself that she hadn't managed to pick that up. "C'mon, let's go."

* * *

"Ah. So that's what you meant."

Justin sighed slightly as the interrogator leaned back in his chair; intrigued by the story Justin had just told him. He hated admitting there was a time his shadow could torment him so much. He still did in a way; but he promised he would never let his shadow have control, and he'd die before he let him. Sure, he had momentary lapses; but the shadow never had true control. Justin was the one pulling the strings; even if his shadow believed otherwise. The detective rubbed at his chin slightly before leaning forward.

"So then; this deal you made with your shadow allowed your shadow to take control; am I right when I say this." Justin simply nodded his head. "So then why didn't your shadow take complete control then?"

"There are only two circumstances my shadow can come out. He can come out if I let any of my emotions get the better of me… Well except happiness I guess. I don't think he ever came out while I was happy about something. At least, I HOPE he didn't." He sincerely didn't, considering most of the time he was happy was when he was with Chie. He didn't need his shadow butting in and doing something stupid; even if Chie did recognize the tall-tale signs of Justin's shadow channeling through Justin. She probably wouldn't hold it against Justin if that happened. Probably. He could think of one circumstance where that would get REALLY awkward. Justin had to thank god his shadow seemed completely uninterested when that happened.

"I don't understand. I've pissed you off a couple times while you were here; you're shadow's never come out."

"I can hold him back sometimes. It's difficult though; I have to be completely self-aware, have to notice when my emotions are starting to slip. So long as I'm aware; I can stop him from coming out."

"And when he does come out?"

"I have to surpress him again; That's where the headaches come in. It's very difficult to keep him in check once he comes out; so it takes a lot of energy out of me when I get him back in."

"I see… You said there was a second circumstance." The investigator remarked; curiosity starting to get the best of him. He'd by lying if he said he believed Justin when he said his shadow could take control of his body. It seemed almost like he was dealing with contextually sensitive multi-personality disorder here; not some supernatural forces at work. Of course, this entire case had thrown reason out the window; it wouldn't surprise him if Justin wasn't lying. There was one way of testing it; but if Justin really did have a hard time getting control of his shadow once it came out, it might be too risky to test.

"Anytime we're in the other world he can take control. Regardless of my emotions. He very rarely does though. I don't think he cared much for the television world without his powers."

"If you don't mind me asking… What's it like when he does come out."

Justin just stared at the detective for a while after that; his eyes filled with pain. Words couldn't really describe what it was like when his shadow took over. "Horrifying. It's like… Watching a movie where your favorite character dies. You're just forced to watch knowing damn well you can't change anything. You can only shut your eyes and pretend it never happened."

"Favorite character dies…? Has your shadow ever—"

"Almost."


	58. Chapter 57: June 10, 2011

CHAPTER 57

June 10, 2011

* * *

"Oooh, these instant noodles really hit the spot."

The investigation team had all gathered around their desks to eat lunch. It was a strange change of pace considering they usually went to the roof eat, much to Justin's displeasure. It involved climbing stairs, and it was always cold as fuck out. Sure the weather had been getting warmer; but it didn't change the fact that it was breezy as all hell up there. And what a cold breeze it was. He was happy to sit inside to eat lunch; even if it was in homeroom.

Everyone's desks had been pushed together into a square, plus Yukiko's desk which had been sticking out into the aisle. There were five of them, so they couldn't really make a perfect square out of it. It really was making Justin's OCD kick up, and it certainly showed with how much his eyes kept shooting out towards the out of place desk.

"You know, one of these days I would love to see what the cafeteria looks like…" Justin groaned slightly, as he opened his own package of instant noodles. These were pretty much the only thing he could make without burning them; plus they were easy to bring to school and heat up during lunch period.

"You know, the rainy season's just about here." Yukiko spoke up after looking out the window for a while. It was raining out; much to Justin's pleasure. There was a certain soothing quality to raindrops patting against the window. Of course; he just hoped it died down by the time he left. Last time it had been raining after school, Justin had rigged the entire teacher's lounge for a prank on Monday. He could always do it again; but he really wasn't in the mood. He was still depressed over this whole shadow thing, even though he tried to hide it from the others. The topic had more or less been dropped after he explained it to everyone the day prior, after all. Which is strange; for people who said they'd help Justin with his problems, they sure didn't seem to give a shit. Maybe it was for the best. Justin didn't want them to treat him like he was some sort of freak of nature; even if that was exactly what he was.

"Isn't it a little early?" Yosuke spoke up, slightly confused. Sure, it was raining a lot lately, but he didn't think it was the rainy season yet.

"Early? It usually starts for us in April back in the States."Justin interrupted, pointing at Yosuke with his chopsticks before thrusting them back down into his bowl. Yosuke seemed a bit surprised to say the least. They thought it was early and it was June. Justin was claiming that it happened a whole two months earlier than that. It sounded like a whole season earlier.

"Really?"

"Yeah. April showers bring May flowers and all that shit." Justin mumbled as he chewed on the noodles in his mouth. He knew he really shouldn't be talking with food in his mouth; but no one really seemed to notice, so it wasn't really much of a problem. Yosuke shrugged slightly before turning his attention back to the food in his bowl.

"Once it starts, it'll be raining every night. We'll have to keep a constant eye on the Midnight Channel." Yukiko reasoned out loud. Justin groaned a bit. He just wanted to get some sleep lately. It wasn't even the Midnight Channel anymore that was keeping him up either. It was Maya. She didn't have a television back in California; so when Justin said she could use his whenever she wanted, she took full advantage of it.

"Ugh, I don't think that's going to be much of a problem." Justin moaned slightly as he pushed the noodles around in his bowl. "Maya's been fixated on my Playstation for the last twenty-four hours. I swear, I don't think she's even gotten up from that couch to eat or piss. I told her to try and turn the volume down at night; but apparently she's deaf or something."

"Regret letting her stay at your place yet?" Chie asked, her eyebrow raised, a slightly annoyed tone to her voice. Justin rolled his eyes slightly. He thought Chie was over this; but apparently not. I mean, was it so hard to accept Justin offering his friend a place to stay when she was HOMELESS? I mean, where the fuck else was she going to stay? The only two other people she really knew on the team was Chie and Yosuke. And she obviously wasn't going to stay at Chie's lest they rip each other's throats out. He wasn't entirely sure about Yosuke, but he got this weird feeling about those two… Besides, there was no way his parents would approve of some random girl living at their house with them.

"I'm getting there." He joked slightly. Chie continued to give Justin a dirty look before shaking her head slightly and turning her attention back to her bowl.

"Crap, I didn't even think of that… Well so it goes." Yosuke spoke to himself, a slight grimace on his face. Clearly he wasn't looking forward to staying up every night to check the midnight channel. His grimace eventually gave way to a slight grin though. Hell he was positively glowing. "Hehe, I thought you were worried about the rain 'cause of the school campout."

Chie passed Yosuke a quick look of confusion; her eyebrows raised with curiosity. "Why are you so excited about that?"

"Why wouldn't we be? Fucking camping man." Justin spoke up, a wide grin on his face. He didn't know much about this camping trip, but goddammit, it's camping. He already bought the marshmallows and the graham crackers. Not the Hershey bars though. He really should get them before he forgets.

"Oh that's right, it's the first time for you three…" Yukiko interrupted.

"You guys realize the only purpose of the school campout is to 'develop a love for one's hometown,' right?" Chie remarked with slight annoyance; as though she were disgusted by how excited Justin and Yosuke were. And god, that imitation she tried to do… Justin wasn't even sure what she was going for with it; but it sounded awful. Yosuke raised an eyebrow in slight confusion.

"Yeah, they tell us that up front. So?"

"Well you see, the way we supposedly develop that love is by picking up trash off the mountain." Justin had been half way through slurping up a noodle when the message hit his ears. He had to force himself to stop, noodle hanging half way out of his mouth, as he looked up from his bowl to look at Chie; checking for any tell tale signs that she had been joking or lying. She was dead serious. Justin quickly slurped the rest of the noodle into his mouth, not so much as chewing it as he pushed it down his throat.

"What?" Justin choked up, gagging slightly on the noodle in his throat. Both Yosuke and Yu's jaws seemed to have dropped in complete synchronization with Justin's. They had expected this to be a fun camping trip, not fucking community service.

"P-Picking up trash? 'Develop a love' my ass! That's slave labor!" Yosuke spay up, angered by the sudden news. For once, Justin agreed with him.

"That's what CRIMINALS do to get out of jail." Justin spat, his face red with anger. "You know what. I blame this all on King Moron." Justin remarked, shakeing his head back and forth after a while.

"Yeah, he did this last year too..." Chie remarked, a slight frown on her face. Sure, the actual camping parts were fun, as few of those as there were; but how in the hell was picking up trash supposed to instill a love for one's hometown. If anything it just made them hate it; or rather, whoever had thought it would be a good idea to have kidfs picking up cans all day. Don't they have government employees that are supposed to do that anyway?

"So basically we're being used as free labor for the government. Yeah, that's a whole lot of fucking fun. Camping my ass..." Justin mumbled to himself, his brow lowered in anger.

"Well, the night's kinda fun. We get to cook our own meals with mess kits and sleep in tents." Chie remarked with slight cheer; as though looking for the bright side of all of this. Justin only seemed to groan more. Those were the WORST parts about camping. Especially if Justin was stuck cooking his own food. He couldn't cook with a microwave, how was he supposed to cook with a fire? And god knows Justin was going to be wide awake all night in that tent. Those things were INCREDIBLY see through; not to mention Justin's phobia of bugs would probably be acting up like a bitch the whole time. Seriously; he wouldn't mind being that one guy that brings an RV to a campout. Sure he'd look like a huge prick; but he'd have plumbing and electricity, so who REALLY wins here.

"The five of us are in the same group." Yukiko interrupted cheerfully. Justin shrugged slightly. It was a strange coincidence, but he figured they would all just sneak out of their groups anyway if they weren't put together. He was going to say something when suddenly Yosuke jumped up from his seat, a sinister smile on his face.

"The same group, huh…? Does that mean we sleep together at night, too!?" Justin's eyebrows jumped up a bit, his eyes widened. Under normal conditions, he would beat the ever-loving crap out of Yosuke, since he knew damn well that Chie and Justin were a couple, and that Yu was aiming for Yukiko. If he was trying to be flirtatious or something, these were the wrong girls for him to target. Still, he raised a very valid question; were they sleeping in the same tent? I mean, not that Justin was getting any funny ideas or anything… Okay, maybe he was getting a FEW. But they weren't that bad. Honest. Very PG-13. Er… PG. Well, perviness aside, Justin was all for it.

"You wish! Guys and Girls sleep in different tents!" A look of immediate disappointment swept across the three's faces. Not like it would really make a difference if they DID sleep in the same tent; they weren't complete perverts after all; but you know. Guys will be guys. "I'm warning ya… if you leave your tent at night, you'll be expelled on the spot." Justin raised a slight eyebrow at that.

"They can do that? What if I need to take a piss in the woods?" It was a serious question. Unless their tent had a toilet built in it or something.

"Then I guess they'll catch you with your pants down." Chie remarked, a wide grin on her face. Justin raised his eyebrows with impression. She didn't so much as miss a beat with that pun; perfect delievery, perfect context. She should be a stand-up comedian.

"Ugh, this gets worse and worse. I thought it was gonna be fun…" Yosuke remarked with disappointment as he took his seat again. Okay; that one Justin wasn't going to let slide. Justin glared at Yosuke slightly.

"How much fun were you exactly expecting to have sleeping in the same tent as the girls?"

"What? We're fun." Chie remarked slightly confused, slightly offended. Justin passed a quick glance over at Yu, as though checking with him to see if he heard the same thing he did. Yu had apparently turned to Justin hoping to check his reaction as well. Justin blinked a few times before turning back to Chie.

"That's not what he means." Justin choked up, trying to explain to Chie. It seemed she still didn't get it at first; but when she did, it struck her like a runaway freight train.

"Oh… OH! YOSUKE!" She shouted at him, her face completely red; partially from anger, partially for the remark she had made but a few seconds ago. She didn't think Yosuke meant fun like that; but now that she did, she was almost mortified by what had come out of her mouth. Yukiko seemed offended too, passing a glare Yosuke's way as his eyes widened with fear, his arms up as though trying to hold Chie back using simply his palms.

"N-No no no no; you got it all wrong!" He stuttered, as he tried to cover his basis. It didn't work. Before he even knew it, Chie's foot had found its place in the all too familiar location of Yosuke's crotch. Justin swore she had trained for this or something; she was accurate every single time. As usual, Yosuke's head soon rebounded off the desk in front of him as he bent over in pain.

"Welp, guess he's never having 'fun' again." Justin joked as Yosuke cowered over his desk in pain. Chie crossed her arms in rage, flipping her head off to the side for whatever reason. She seemed to do that every time she kicked someone in the balls. Maybe it was supposed to be a victory taunt of sorts.

"W-well, anyways…" Yukiko eventually spoke up, breaking the silence Chie's testicular manslaughter had brought on. "It's only for one night and we disband before noon the next day. It doesn't last very long." She explained to Yu and Justin. Not that anything she said cheered them up. Just because it was only one day didn't make it any less disappointing.

"Oh, we did have some… fun, at the river before going home last year." Chie was very hesitant about using the word fun after Yosuke's remark. She wanted to make it clear that it wasn't the kind of fun that Yosuke had been referring to. Not that it made much of a difference; Yosuke's head almost immediately jolted up as the sentence left her mouth.

"Do they let you go swimming?" He questioned frantically. Justin moaned slightly. Either this was going somewhere completely different, or Yosuke genuinely wanted to go swimming. The former would get Justin to kick Yosuke in the balls himself; the latter would just disappoint Justin knowing Yosuke would probably try to get everyone else to join in… Which in retrospect, kind of led back to the former. Justin deeply considered punting Yosuke in his testicles before shaking his head; clearing his mind of the thought. He would hate it if everyone went swimming, for two reasons. One, he couldn't swim. Like, at all. He could wade through shallow water, sure, but this was the river they were talking about. He doubted it would be shallow. Secondly, he always hated trying to get in the water. It was always freezing cold, and he always wanted to get out immediately after. Swimming and him just didn't mix.

"I think so? There's always someone who takes a dip, although we didn't." Chie remarked, a half-frown on her face. She was more than a little suspicious of everything Yosuke said now, and this was no exception. Justin was a little curious what they were doing by the river then if they weren't swimming. I mean, they did say they had fun; and he meant fun as in fun, and not 'Yosuke fun," so obviously they had to have done something.

"I see… So you can swim in the river…" Yosuke repeated to himself; a sinister grin creeping along his face. Justin already didn't like what he was seeing; though he wasn't quite sure what it was exactly going through Yosuke's mind right now. What he was sure of was that he was going to kick Yosuke's ass if he tried anything funny. Justin sighed slightly. He was really looking forward to the camping trip, but this…? This sounded like complete shit.

"Do we at least get to sit around the campfire?" Justin choked up; not entirely sure he wanted to know the answer to his question.

"W-Well… not really, no. We just use the fire to cook and then we put it out." Chie spoke up hesitatingly. Justin slammed his skull into his desk. No campfire meant no ghost stories, no roasting marshmallows, no obnoxious douchebag playing his guitar… Actually, that douchebag would probably be Justin in retrospect. So by douchebag, he meant totally rad dude. Justin groaned slightly from his resting place on his desk. He was seriously considering just calling in sick that day and saving himself some sanity. I mean, really; could they even call this a camping trip? It sounded more like a prison sentence than anything.

"Don't worry dude, I got a plan." Yosuke whispered in an aside to Justin. If that was supposed to cheer him up, it wasn't working. Hell, now he was genuinely concerned. Whatever plan it was Yosuke had; it couldn't be good. Justin looked up, an eyebrow hesitatingly raise at Yosuke; Yosuke wearing that sinister grin he got anytime he had something stupid in mind.

"Kill me now."


	59. Chapter 58: June 11, 2011

CHAPTER 58

June 11, 2011

"Oh… Uh… Sorry. I uh… forgot I have something I need to do today."

Justin shook his head slightly from side to side, as Chie stammered to try and make up an excuse. He had been checking to see if she was free today; if she wanted to hang out now that the school day was over. Alas, the moment he mentioned going back to his place to maybe watch a movie or something, Chie immediately started to object, trying to think of a way to get out of it. Justin was a little pissed off in all honesty. It would be fine if she actually did have something to do, but he knew damn well that the only reason she was acting like this was because Maya would be there. Like Justin couldn't tell her to go hang with Yosuke for a few hours, or something.

He just couldn't wrap his mind around this; around why Chie continued to give Justin a hard time about Maya. How she was pissed off at him for doing what any reasonable friend would do given the circumstances. How she was trying to dodge Justin now, simply because of Maya's presence in his household. It hurt in a way. He had assumed that the bond they had was strong enough that they wouldn't be brought down by petty circumstances like Maya's residence in his household. He had assumed Chie would trust him, not treat him like he had the plague for helping a friend.

Justin sighed slightly, crossing his arms in front of his chest before looking up at Chie. She was averting eye-contact; knowing full-well that Justin would be able to call her bullshit if he looked her dead in the eye. Or maybe it was just that she couldn't lie to his face. He was hoping it was the latter, but alas, it was probably the former. It was clear she was lying; she had nothing to do today and she knew it. And she knew Justin knew it too.

"If you don't want to spend time with me, Chie, that's fine; but don't make up bullshit excuses about why you can't." Justin remarked with slight annoyance. Chie simply hung her head in slight shame. She was sort of offended Justin had called her on her bullshit; but that's exactly what it was. Bullshit. And she knew it just as well as he did.

"I-It's not that I don't want to spend time with you—"

"It's that you don't want to be in the same room as Maya."

"Wh-What, it's not—" Chie stammered a bit; trying to cover her bases.

"Yes it is. Don't lie to me." Justin interrupted. He was getting really tired of these games. _Just fucking admit it already_. Chie's eyes soon formed a glare however; angered by Justin's assertion that she was avoiding him because of Maya. Sure, it was kind of true, but that's beside the point.

"You know what? I don't need to explain anything to you!" She shouted before storming off past Justin's desk. Justin just shook his head in disgust as she forced herself out of the classroom; her face red with fury. He couldn't understand why she was acting like this; why she couldn't just admit she was being ridiculous. He knew it, and he knew she knew it. She was just being stubborn at this point. And for what? To try and prove a point? All she was doing was breaking Justin's heart, little by little. He sighed a bit before turning back over to his desk, resting his head within the cushion of his arms.

"…You alright man?"

Justin's head immediately shot back up. Shit. He completely forgot Yu was still sitting at his desk. He had looked like he was texting someone when Justin had first started talking to Chie, probably Yukiko or Yosuke. Of course; he had completely forgotten he was there once the blowout between him and Chie started. To be honest, Justin was a little embarrassed. He cleared his throat slightly; trying to choke down his shame.

"Oh, uh… Yeah. I'm fine. Sorry about that." Yu simply raised his eyebrows in disbelief. Justin had the very obvious tell of starting his sentences with 'oh' or 'huh' anytime he was holding something back.

"Wanna talk about it?" Yu spoke up casually; ignoring Justin's objections that everything was fine. Justin was more than a little confused. What was there to talk about; Chie and him had an argument; no big deal, it happens… Though, Yu always did have good advice when it came to dating, and he'd by lying if he said this wasn't starting to eat him up inside. He was sick of Chie treating him like shit just because he lent his place to Maya. It was the right thing to do, and she was just being an overly jealous and stubborn bitch about it.

"I'd like that actually." Justin eventually choked up, pushing himself out of his desk. Yu smiled slightly before following Justin's lead.

* * *

It took a bit of walking, and more than a little bit of pushing against the wall in Justin's case, but they eventually made it to the rooftop. Yu was a little curious why he wanted to talk up here, knowing full well that he had a fear of stairs. The explanation, of course, was rather obvious; Justin could smoke up on the rooftop without getting in trouble. Besides, it was usually empty after-school, so he wouldn't have to worry about people eavesdropping on his conversation. Justin groaned slightly as the two sat down on the opposite end of the roof; a cigarette being lit up in Justin's mouth at the same time. He inhaled the smoke as Yu began to speak up; trying to discern what was going on between the two. After all, he couldn't really help if he didn't fully understand why the two of them were so pissed off at each other.

"So, what's going on between you two?" Yu questioned. Justin paused for a brief moment before exhaling the smoke in his chest cavity, a frown on his face all the while. Justin wasn't entirely sure himself, really. He knew why Chie was pissed off, and that in turn pissed Justin off; but what was causing this audacity between them, he had no clue.

"Well, it's like this. When Maya was in the hospital, I found out during one of my visits with her that she's been homeless for the past year. Well, obviously I couldn't just send her on her merry-way knowing she's been living on the streets; so I sorta offered her to stay at my place. The problem was, you know all about the stuff Maya's shadow said in the other world; how she had a crush on me and all that jazz. So when I told Chie the news, how Maya was going to be staying at my place for a while…"

"She got jealous. Well that certainly explains the black eye."

"Shit, is that still there!?" Justin spoke up frantically. Again, he didn't mind walking around with a black-eye, but he would have thought it would be gone by now. And besides; Justin didn't feel comfortable with anyone starring at his eyes for too long; neither of them. Sure it was only one eye he really had to hide from the group; but any unnecessary attention being drawn back to his irises could be problematic. It's one of the many reasons he was deathly afraid of his shadow taking over, if only for a few seconds. The others noticed the eye coloration change immediately; and had they been looking at the wrong eye when the change occurred… Well, they'd immediately notice his missing pupil. Yu laughed slightly at Justin's panic, much to Justin's displeasure. This wasn't a joke to him.

"She got you good, huh?"

"You want to see what she did to my crotch?"

"Absolutely not." Yu spat out with disgust. Justin obviously wasn't going to just pull down his pants on the rooftop to the school; he was stupid, but not THAT stupid. He was talking in figuratives; not literals. All the same Justin smirked a bit.

"Good, because I'm almost entirely positive it doesn't exist anymore." Yu grinned; flashing his teeth as though he were about to start laughing at any second. Justin was so enthralled to see that his pain and suffering were the grounds for Yu's entertainment.

"Alright; so she got jealous. It happens." Yu eventually choked up, his smiling dimming slightly. "If I recall correctly, you got awfully jealous of Yosuke once."

"Don't even go there. The guy was telling her dirty jokes in the middle of the night and tried to be a 'mock couple' with her when I was standing right there. Believe me, it has nothing to do with being jealous, it has to do with Yosuke having no sense of common decency." Justin spat out, practically infuriated that Yu had tried to assume Justin was jealous of Yosuke of all people. Yosuke was being a major dick and he got what he deserved. That was all there was to it; no jealousy involved. Yu shot his hands up into the air, his palms away from his face as though trying to calm Justin down simply by feigning submission. It actually just annoyed Justin more.

"Hey, hey, I'm just sayin'." He spoke up frantically, trying to justify his comment. Justin just rolled his eyes a bit, taking another drag at his cigarette.

"Besides, it's not that she got jealous that's bothering me. We all get a little jealous sometimes. It's the way she's been acting over the last few days that's been bugging me. Everytime I bring up Maya's name she gives me a dirty look; everytime I ask her if she wants to do something, she tries to pretend she's busy. She won't even come near my house anymore; like somehow helping Maya out infected my house with the plague. I don't understand it. I do something nice to help out a friend and she treats me like I'm a fucking leper. "

"I see…" Yu spoke up, rubbing at his chin as he tried to create a solution to their problem. Justin only seemed annoyed by that, though. He could solve his own problems.

"No, you really don't man. You really don't."

"I don't think you're in the wrong at all for helping Maya out. But I don't think that's really the problem here…" Justin raised an eyebrow in slight confusion. _Well of course that's the problem here. What the fuck else could it be. _"Justin… Did you tell her about Maya, or did she find out on her own?"

"Huh… Well, both I guess? I didn't really tell her till I went to pick Maya up."

"Well there's your problem. It's not that she's upset that you made the decision; it's that she's upset that you wouldn't tell her about your decision. I mean… If I were in Chie's shoes, I wouldn't want to find out that the girl who had a massive crush on my boyfriend would be living with him at the last second. I would want to know when you made the decision; talk about it and stuff."

"Talk about—It's MY HOUSE! That's not her decision to make!"

"I have no doubt in my mind she would have agreed to it if you just ran it by her first. She probably feels betrayed that you'd make a decision like that without her. It affects her just as much as it effects you after all." Justin sighed slightly as Yu tried to explain his hypothesis to him. Maybe he was right, but… He didn't do anything wrong; nothing to deserve the kind of treatment he had been getting lately.

"Then why the hell is she avoiding the house, Yu? Why is she avoiding ME? This isn't about feeling betrayed, this is about Maya; and she knows it."

"Have you two tried to just talk it out?"

"She just storms off like that everytime. I can't win with her."

"Well that's the problem. You're trying to win an argument with a woman." Yu was joking of course; but he said it with such a straight face, with such a monotone voice… He looked and sounded dead serious. Hell, it might have been a joke, but it seemed Yu believed there to be some truth in that. And if Chie was any representation of the female population as a whole; Justin'd be inclined to agree. Not that she was; of course. She was one of a kind. Maybe that's why it hurt so much the way she was treating Justin. There was only one Chie out there, after all; it's not like he could just say fuck it and find someone else. He liked Chie… Hell, he loved her. He knew it was weird to say so early on in their relationship, but he did. And that's why it hurt so much. Justin took a puff of his cigarette before turning back towards Yu.

"So then what would you suggest I do."

"Just tell her she's right. Because she's not saying you're in the wrong for letting Maya stay at your house. She's saying you're in the wrong for not including her in that decision."

"Even though that wasn't her decision to make?"

"She sure seems to believe it was."

Justin paused for a moment, staring at Yu. He thought everything coming out of Yu's mouth was a pile of horsecrap. But the look in Yu's eyes… He believed every word he said. And he had never been wrong about this kind of stuff before. Justin bit his bottom lip for a moment, before digging his hand into his pocket, searching around for his cell-phone.

"Uh… What are you doing?"

"Making it right." Justin replied as he pulled out his cell-phone, flipping it open as he searched through his contacts. Yu passed Justin a slight look of discomfort as he searched for Chie's contact. Justin never understood why he always had trouble finding it either; Chie was the first one in his contact list alphabetically, so she was always at the top of the list. He supposed he just instinctively jumped to the center of the screen instead of the top. All the same, he eventually found her number and pressed the send button on his cell.

"Don't you think you should do that face to face."

"Maybe; but I'm not sure if I can push this off any longer than I already have. Come on… Pick up…" Justin mumbled to himself as the phone rang. He completely forgot that Chie had caller ID; so she would already know it was Justin. He just hoped she wasn't pissed enough to ignore him. He bit his bottom lip for a moment, tapping his foot impatiently against the roof below him. He sighed in relief as he heard a slight click on the other end.

_What do you want Justin?_

"Well hello to you too." Justin remarked sarcastically. Or was it with annoyance? He was a little ticked that she had greeted him without so much as a hello; but then that's not what he was calling for. "I know you're mad at me, but can we talk for a second?"

_What's there to talk about? _Chie remarked, clearly very irritated. Justin was starting to get a bit pissed off himself at this point. He was trying to apologize, don't be an ass about it.

"Look, I'm really sorry about this whole Maya thing…"

_About Maya- What? You really have no idea why am I mad, do you?_

"You're mad 'cause I didn't tell you until the decision was finalized."

It was dead silent on the other end for a moment. Justin had to pause himself to make sure Chie didn't hang up on him. He could faintly hear her breathing on the other end of the line; which only meant that her sudden silence meant Justin had hit it on the head. She WAS mad because she didn't get a say in that decision. Justin was a little irritated to hear that Chie thought she had any right telling him what to do with HIS house; but alas, he could understand why. And besides, he didn't care if he was right or wrong anymore; he just wanted this animosity between the two to stop. He wanted the Chie he knew and loved back.

"I know you wanted to have say in the matter. I just assumed you'd agree with me so I went ahead and said she could anyway. I should have asked you first; and I'm sorry."

_I would have just said yes if you asked first, you know…_

"I know, I know. It's just, when she said she had been homeless for the last year, I couldn't just say 'let me think about it…' And I jumped to conclusions… I'm really sorry, Chie. Honest. Now can we please stop arguing with each other? I don't think my heart can take much more of this…"

_Justin…_

There was a slight pause in dialogue between the two, both of them simply listening to the silence on the other end, their chests feeling heavy. Neither of them liked being pissed off at the other; and this entire conversation just ended up making them feel like shit. Chie especially. She knew Justin would have asked if he had more of a heads-up, but he didn't. It was a spontaneous thing that required a spontaneous answer, and she knew it. She had literally been angry at Justin for something that was essentially beyond his control. That's not what pained her though; what pained her was Justin's proclamation that the two's bickering was striking him in a less than superficial way. He wasn't just annoyed by it; he was outright hurting. She'd be lying if she said she didn't feel like a complete bitch right now. She sighed slightly before speaking into the cell phone again.

_I'm sorry too… I know you would have asked me if you could… And, uh… Sorry about the eye._

"What are you talking about? The doorknob did that, remember?" Chie chuckled slightly on her side, which proved to put some of Justin's concerns at ease. He was more than thrilled to hear her laughter coming through the static of the phone, it only meant that the tension between the two was gone; or at least eased. "Alright; so we're cool now?"

_Yeah. We're cool._

"Alright then… You sure you don't want to hang out at my place? I mean, I can always kick Maya out for a bit if that's a problem. She's been playing video games for too long now anyway. Shit'll rot her brain."

_You think that's a good idea? I mean, does Maya even know her way around Inaba?_

Chie's comment hit Justin like a bull in a china shop. It wasn't so much that he was shocked she didn't know her way around; Justin knew that as well as anyone. Hell, he had used the GPS on his phone for the first week he was here in Inaba. It almost died the first time he walked home too. That could have been very problematic since he had no idea what the house looked like. What was shocking was the fact that he had planned to show her around so she could get her bearings. And he completely forgot up until now.

"Shit! I totally forgot to give her the tour." Chie giggled slightly at Justin's forgetfulness. Justin was happy to hear Chie laughing again and all, but he wished it would be less at his expense.

_You know… You've never actually come over to my place._

Justin's eyes widened; though not with excitement. He had never gone over to Chie's place for a reason. Her parents were super-strict from his understanding; could you imagine what would happen if they found out Justin was dating Chie? Let alone hanging out with her in her fucking house? Shit would hit the fan.

"Uh… Are you sure that's a good idea?"

_Sure. Why not? You know, there's supposed to be a kung-fu marathon on TV…_

Justin rubbed at his chin a bit. He still wasn't entirely sure about her parents, but… He wanted to spend some time with her. And if that meant putting up with her parents so he could put up with her shitty kung-fu movies; that was a-okay with him. He just sincerely hoped this didn't backfire.

"Well… Alright, I guess. I'll stop over there in a few."

_Alright! I'll see you soon!_

There was a slight blip in the call as Chie hung up on her end of the line. Justin sighed slightly before flipping his phone close and turning to Yu. Yu had a huge grin on his face; obviously aware that his advice had worked. Under normal conditions, Justin would probably mock him for being so smug about his success, but he really needed that advice. So the very least he could do was try to be courteous. Justin smiled back at Yu, nodding his head at him slightly.

"Thanks man, you're a life saver. How the hell did you learn to think like a woman?"

"Practice makes perfect."

"Right, very creepy. I'm going to forget I just heard that." Yu laughed slightly as Justin gave a quick nod to him before making his way over to the exit of the roof. Yu didn't think it was rude or anything; he knew damn well that Justin had just made plans with Chie, and given how torn up he was but a moment earlier about Chie blowing him off, he had no intention on keeping him any longer than he had to. Yu sat there watching as Justin rushed down the stairs, a wide grin on both of their faces. Justin because he was going to go hang out with Chie; Yu because it seemed hanging out with that fox wasn't going to be an issue anymore.

* * *

"Oh uh… Hello. My name's Justin; I'm a friend of Chie's. She wouldn't happen to be home would she…?"

Justin awkwardly introduced himself to an older gentleman who had opened the door; presumably Chie's father. He was trying to play this off as him just checking to see if Chie was available; after all, it would be weird if he said they had made plans prior. The older man simply raised his eyebrow; not so much in a confused way, but more a suspicious way. He knew Justin's name all too well; it was the name of that boy Chie had a crush on. And here he was knocking at their door, stuttering a bit as he asked to see if Chie was available. Suspicious would be an understatement.

"Ah yes… Chie's told us a lot about you."

"All positive things I hope." Justin chuckled awkwardly. That joke usually worked well whenever someone tried to introduce him or he was referred to by another person; but here he just felt uncomfortable. It lost a lot of its charm in the transition; as was evident by Chie's father's face. Justin could already tell this was going to be an awkward evening. Of course, if it hadn't by that point, it certainly did when Chie had come rushing down the stairs, having heard Justin's voice.

"Oh hey, you finally showed."

Chie ran up to him and planted a quick peck on the cheek, his face turning red with embarrassment almost immediately. _What in the fuck are you doing! Your father is RIGHT THERE!_ Chie's father seemed a little less than pleased; especially considering Justin had been trying to pass himself off as a 'friend' not a 'boyfriend.' His eyes dropped into a slight disapproving gaze, his mouth in a frown as Chie practically dragged Justin inside the house. Justin was more than a little mortified. He had no problem exchanging a kiss or two when they were alone; but acting like this in front of her parents was just… Awkward as all fuck.

"Friend, huh?" Her father spoke up sarcastically. Justin rubbed at the back of his neck slightly. He didn't want to look bad in front of Chie's parents, but Chie had kind of put him in an awkward position. Justin laughed a very forced an awkward chuckle before biting on his bottom lip, trying to think of a good excuse; something to help him explain his little white lie. Her father just sort of shook his head a bit at the embarrassed teenager before turning his glare over at Chie.

"We're going upstairs to watch some kung-fu movies." Chie explained to her father; a wide grin on her face. Her father didn't seem to believe her for even a second. Hell Justin didn't blame him, after he had just tried to pass himself off as just a friend. He was probably suspicious of what they were going to do behind closed doors. Justin half wanted to intervene, explaining that if he wanted to do that, he'd just go to his house, since he lived alone. Of course, he didn't. He didn't know if her parents knew she had hung out at Justin's house before, nor that she had slept overnight there on multiple occasions. And if they did, they would probably get all the wrong ideas about what was going on at Justin's house. So instead he just sort of bit his lip and looked towards the ground; trying to avoid eye contact. The father stared at Chie for a while before sighing.

"Fine. Leave the door open."

"Huh? O-Okay…?" It seemed Chie was a little caught off-guard by her father's gesture of suspicion of the two. Her parents were strict, but she figured they'd at least trust her not to do something like that. Besides, if they really were going to do something they shouldn't, they would probably do it alone at Justin's house or when her parents were out. It would just be stupid to do it while her folks were still there. Justin was awkwardly musing in his own mind when Chie had grabbed him by the wrist, dragging him up to her room; his feet tripping over each other the whole way there. Chie's father just huffed out a slight sigh as the sight of the two disappeared up the stairs of their household. He swore he had heard Justin's voice before somewhere. Chie must have had him on speaker at some point; who knows.

Justin sighed a bit as Chie let go of his grip before opening the door to her room. He kind of wanted to give her shit for giving him a kiss in front of her parents; but it wouldn't change anything other than pissing Chie off again and making the two of them look even worse in front of her father. Actually, Justin had to wonder where Chie's mother was right now. He hadn't heard or seen her since he was brutally pulled through the doorframe of the building by Chie. Maybe she worked late at night or something; though that was sort of surprising. He had assumed Chie's mom would be one of those stay at home mom's that tries to keep the house and the family perfect in everyway.

Chie pushed open the door to her room; stepping inside and plopping her ass against the cushion of her bed. Justin's jaw practically hit the floor as the door opened; partially because of its contents, partially because Kenji had practically tackled him once he gained sight of Justin again. The room was completely full of posters. Most of them for kung-fu movies, the rest for bands; namely 'System of a Down' and 'the Black Keys.' That certainly took Justin for a surprise. He never took Chie as being a big fan of System of a Down. Not that he was objecting; he was a huge fan himself. It just struck him as a bit odd is all. Or it would have, if Kenji would stop licking his face as Justin tried to maintain his balance.

"Whoa, down boy." Justin spoke in segments, trying to avoid talking while the dog's tongue was pressed against his face for obvious reasons. Chie laughed slightly before calling Kenji over by patting her hand against the end of her bed. Kenji seemed to immediately come over, jumping to the side of Chie on the bed. The side that Justin was going to sit. It was alright though; it was a big enough bed that the three of them could fit. Not that there would be much shoulder room now. Justin chuckled slightly before making his way over to Chie's left side, pushing past a punching bag that she had hung up in the center of the room. He couldn't say he was all that surprised by its presence in the room to be honest. There was a small bowl of popcorn resting beside her; though she immediately picked it up and placed it on her lap to give Justin room to sit.

"What movie?" Justin asked as he took his seat next to Chie. He was sure he had never heard of it before; but it was worth asking anyway.

"Kill Bill." …Alright, maybe he had heard of it. Holy shit, when did Chie start watching GOOD kung-fu movies. Hell, it was even the far superior Kill Bill Vol. 1. Justin was crossing his fingers that this was actually just a Quentin Tarantino marathon, and not a kung-fu one. It had been far too long since he had watched Pulp Fiction; and goddammit, if Chie hadn't seen it yet, she should. He didn't know if she did or not, but you know, he just sort of assumed she didn't since it wasn't really her type of movie.

"Oh really? I love this movie." Justin spoke up, reaching his hand over to grab some popcorn from the bowl on Chie's lap.

"Oh no, you totally don't have to ask before stealing my popcorn. Jerk." She remarked sarcastically, before grabbing a handful of kernels herself. Justin laughed slightly before turning his attention back to the screen. It was that one scene where everything was red save for their silhouettes as the protagonist chopped everyone to bits. He absolutely loved the artistic direction of this movie. He just wished the second movie hadn't been shit by comparison. I mean, it was good and all, but he was having a hard time felling good about Bill getting his at the end of the movie. Sure he was a huge asshole; but he was a father, and from the looks of it, a damn good one at that. Then bam, protagonist comes in and shoots him and takes the kid. Sure, it was her kid too, but in Justin's eyes that just wasn't right. "You ever watch this one before?"

"It's one of my favorite movies." Chie remarked, a wide grin on her face and a few popcorn kernels stuck in her teeth. Justin chuckled silently to himself; partially because it seemed Chie was completely oblivious to the food chunks stuck in her teeth, partially because it seemed Kenji wanted some popcorn too, as he stuck his nose into the bowl and licked up a few kernels. He just hoped dogs could digest that shit. "Hey, bad dog!" Chie shouted at Kenji once she felt his head brush up against her. Kenji didn't care though; he got what he wanted.

"You see any of Tarantino's other stuff?"

"I saw Reservoir Dogs. It was alright."

"Alright? Reservoir Dogs was amazing." Justin choked up, confused how anyone could not like that movie. Chie shrugged slightly. It was a very good movie, just not really her thing. "Never saw Pulp Fiction?"

"Nope."

"Oh man, you'd love it. It's got John Travolta, Bruce Willis and Samuel Jackson. I mean, how can you go wrong?"

"Samuel Jackson? You mean Nick Fury?"

"Oh please don't tell me that's the only place you know him from." Chie blushed slightly in embarrassment. It WAS the only movie he knew Samuel Jackson was in. Justin grunted in slight disgust. This was like the Morgan Freeman of movies if Morgan Freeman wasn't the Morgan Freeman of movies. The guy deserved to at LEAST be recognized. Justin sighed a bit as he stuck his hand out to grab some more popcorn; completely oblivious to the fact that there was dog drool all over it now. Apparantly Chie had neglected that fact too, as she had stuck her hand in at the same time; the two's hands touching each other as they dug through the bowl. Justin raised his eyebrows and blushed slightly.

"Well ain't that a cliché." Justin remarked, slightly embarrassed.

"Well clichés aren't always bad." Chie smiled, her cheeks a rosy pink color. Justin awkwardly chuckled abit, as the two's finger intertwined with each other… Which was slightly awkward because Justin had started picking up popcorn, so there was a kernel stuck between the two's hands at first, until they separated their palms to allow it to wiggle free. The two chuckled slightly; it was awkward as all fuck, but that was the beauty of it. It didn't need to be perfect when they held hands or kissed or anything like that; it just happened naturally.

"That depends on the cliché."

"Oh really? Then would it be clichéd if I did this." Chie leaned up to plant a kiss on Justin's lips. It was a little awkward kissing like that when her father was just downstairs, but quite frankly Justin didn't give much of a shit. He pressed his own lips against hers, the two exchanging a deep, passionate kiss with each other. It was brief, but pleasant all the same. The two smiled at each other as their lips eventually parted ways, their faces slightly flushed.

"Entirely. But then, not all clichés are bad."

"Hey, if you're going to steal my lines, at least wait a week." Chie joked, giving Justin a light shove.


	60. Chapter 59: June 12, 2011

CHAPTER 59

June 12, 2011

* * *

"Mornin'"

"Oh for fuck's sake Maya; It's eight in the morning!"

"So?"

Justin groaned slightly as he dragged his feet around the house. It was Sunday, which meant he should still be sleeping. Should. Maya had apparently decided that eight o' clock in the morning was a great time to play Rock Band at full volume. Not even guitar or bass; hell even microphone would have been fin—actually, no strike that. Maya didn't know how to sing, and Justin knew it. He gave her credit for trying, but goddamn, she had a worse singing voice than he did. No, she didn't sing; she played the freakin' drums. She was pretty damn good at it too, but that was completely irrelevant to the point. Justin had been awakened by the loud sound of sticks beating against plastic; rock blazing through his household.

He sighed slightly as he took a seat on the opposite side of the couch as Maya. He didn't want to accidently take a drum stick to the eye after all. He was still half-asleep, and while he would love to go to sleep, he knew Maya wasn't going to stop pounding away on her plastic drums anytime soon. Instead he just watched on half asleep as note after note shattered away into nothing on screen. She hadn't missed a single beat; she never did. Justin and Maya had spent way too much time playing this game when music games were still the rage. Justin always took guitar, and Maya took drums; though not before trying the microphone first. And failing miserably if he might add. Still, by the time the music genre was pretty much done, Justin and Maya were experts at their respective plastic instruments; hell, Justin even got good at Pro when Rock Band 3 came along. But then, that's because he already knew how to play a real guitar. Justin smiled slightly as the song went on, Maya not so much as coming close to missing a note.

_Still you feed us lies from the table cloth._

_La la la la la la la la la la, ooooooo._

_Everybody's going to the party to have a real good time._

_Dancing in the desert blowing up the sunshine._

_Everybody's going to the party to have a real good time._

_Dancing in the desert blowing up the sun—_

_WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOUUUUUUU_

_WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOUUUUUUU_

Maya chuckled to herself slightly as Justin choked up the lyrics to the song. Even though he was half asleep; he didn't so much as hesitate to start shouting as the song reached its final verse. Maybe it was because Justin really liked the song. Maybe it was just because he was incredibly pissed off at being woken up; all the same, his voice screeched out, raspy, angry, and loud. And it was perfect; even if it was slightly off-key. Maya almost lost track of the rhythm section, she was laughing too much to herself. Of course, she didn't. She had trained herself not to get distracted whenever Justin tried to fuck with her during these Guitar Hero/Rock Band sessions. Though he did come awfully close sometimes.

_Why don't presidents fight the war?_

_Why do they always send the poor?_

_Why don't presidents fight the war?_

_Why do they always send the poor?_

_Why do they always send the poor?_

_Why do they always send the poor?_

_Why do they always send the poor?_

___They always send the poor!_

_They always send the poor!_

Justin thrust his head forth in a slight headbang as Maya slammed on the last note in the song. She was out of breath in all honesty. Between laughing at Justin's sudden interruption and hammering at those drums like a motherfucker, she was exhausted. That's what she got for trying to play BYOB so early in the morning though. All the same, she chuckled with exhaustion, placing the drumsticks in their compartment on the drums as the results screen popped up. One hundred percent of the notes. Not bad for a song Justin had assumed she had sight-read. It was a DLC song after all, and if he recalled correctly, he didn't really like System of a Down when he and Maya played this game back in California. He had since changed his mind of course; but alas, everyone went through music phases.

"Well, now I'm exhausted." Maya joked slightly as she stood up to go turn the Playstation off. Justin half wanted to stop her so she could save her high-score, but really, who gave a fuck?

"Great, now you know how I feel." Maya shook her head slightly, a wide grin on her face as she sat back down. She hadn't actually slept in a while; but she just wasn't tired. It wasn't like she had never played video games, or never lived in a house before; but after living on the streets for a year, it was all so exciting. Hell, this week was the first time she'd had a shower in a good while. It was a wonder she hadn't smelled like shit when everyone had met her for the first time. Though her complexion surely suffered from it. She had more than a few blackheads, though it kind of blended in with her freckles, so she supposed it was alright.

"Sorry, sorry. I didn't mean to wake you."

"It's fine; but goddamn Maya. You've been playing that damn thing since you got here. Don't you have anything better to do?"

"Not really." Maya shrugged. It was true; she didn't know where anything was around town, and the both of them knew it. Though she probably would still stay at the house and play video games if she did. The outside was dull and boring to her now that she had experienced living there for a year; now she just wanted to stay inside that house until time rotted over. Justin slapped his forehead as he realized he still had forgotten to show Maya around.

"Shit; that's right…" He muttered to himself as he looked around the house. It was bright; as it should be this early in the morning. He groaned slightly under his breath as he stood up. "Alright, you know what? Fuck this. I'm showing you around Inaba today."

"Huh? Oh, that's alright, you don't have t—"

"You're going to need to know your way around when I end up having to kick you out when Chie comes over." Maya chuckled slightly; she had forgotten all about the two of them. Yeeeahhh, she probably should know how to find her way back to the house when that happened.

"Alright, alright, point taken."

"Fantastic; give me a second to get changed." Justin groaned slightly as he pushed up from the couch. Maya only had one pair of clothes, so she was already changed. Justin hated seeing her like that; her clothes were dirty and stained. He wished he could get her some more clothes or something, but he didn't have the money, and now he had to pay to put food in the house for two people. And Maya didn't have a job… so yeah. Maybe he should just use that money he put aside for the movies with Chie...

All the same he dragged his feet up the stairs and into his room as he tossed through his dresser drawers for some clothes to put on. He eventually settled for some torn black jeans and a black t-shirt that read: "See back for fucks given." There was nothing on the back. He had actually gotten into a lot of trouble when he got this t-shirt a while back. His parents certainly didn't approve when they found out he bought it; especially his father. But now… Now he could wear it without anyone telling him he couldn't. Although he would probably offend everyone. That's okay, though; because that was entirely the point. He threw the t-shirt over his head, pulling it down over his waist line before throwing his hoodie on; leaving it unzipped so that everyone could see the white text on his chest.

He checked in the mirror to see how readable the text was with his hoodie on; trying to decide whether to just leave the jacket behind for the day. Or at least that was the original intention.

"**Oh look at that; rebelling against the system are we?"**

Justin practically jumped out of his skin as his reflection's eyes turned golden yellow again; its lips twisting up into a wicked grin. He didn't expect his shadow to be there everytime he looked at his reflection.

"Jesus fuck, what do you want?" Justin half-shouted; his voice still coming out softly though as to avoid letting Maya hear him. The shadow just seemed to laugh, crossing it's arms in front of his chest. There were a lot of things he wanted; Justin to fuck off and just let him take over for one. He wasn't going to win this struggle; as much as he seemed to believe otherwise. Justin was too much of an abrasive and aggressive fuck to control his emotions; and every time he lost control, his shadow would be there to take over and wreak havoc.

"**You tell me; you're the one talking to your mirror."**

"Unless you've got something you want to say, fuck off."

"**Oh believe me, I've got nothing better to do in your skull anyway."**

"Ugh, what the fuck!? Don't do that inside my head!" Justin remarked with disgust as he turned to leave. The shadow simply laughed at Justin's mortification before vanishing; leaving with Justin as he made his way out of the room.

* * *

"Alright, so this is the shopping district. It's kind of out-dated with Junes and all, but it's still good for whenever we want to buy… uh… pointy shit? Actually… What the hell do we use this place for?"

Maya chuckled slightly. They had been pretty much all over this city over the last few hours. You name it, they've been there. Junes, just outside the school gates, the flood plains, that one corn field out in the middle of nowhere; hell he even showed her where Chie and Yu's houses were, though he didn't check to see if either were home, hoping to avoid getting tangled in anyone's plans that day. He just sort of pointed them out from a distance. He didn't really remember where Yosuke lived, which was a bit of a let-down on Maya's end, nor did he know where the Amagi Inn was. He DID know that Kanji lived at the textile shop; but Maya had no idea who Kanji was, so he wasn't sure it would be a great idea explaining that to her.

"There's also Aiya's up ahead. Me and Chie go there to eat ramen after school." Justin remarked as they continued to walk past several stores that simply didn't interest either of them. Who the hell wanted to read anyway? Not Justin, that's for damn sure. Maya chuckled slightly at Justin's comment. So Aiya's was pretty much their place. She liked ramen as much as the next person, but she decided to make a mental note to leave their 'hideout' to them. No doubt Maya showing up while they were eating would be awkward.

"And that over there is the alleyway that I kicked the shit out of Kurt's thugs." Maya flipped her face over to Justin immediately, her mouth wide open in surprise. Justin had told her that Kurt was cool with her; that he had helped Justin track Maya down. Yet he had sent his thugs after Justin? She was more than a little concerned.

"You did what?"

"Beat up Kurt's thugs. They were mugging some kid called Takeshi, then later a ten-year old boy."

"That's horrible!" Maya shouted with disgust. She was afraid of pissing off Kurt, sure; but he had never done anything without first being angered. How the hell did a ten-year old boy manage to piss Kurt off? HAD he even pissed off Kurt? Maybe Kurt had just not been quite the person he seemed to be. After all, people change. Justin already knew that's what she was thinking though, as he immediately shot his palm off to cut off her train of thought, a slight smirk on his face.

"No, no, it's not like that. Kurt had no idea his thugs were doing that. He actually fired them when he found out. He's a nice guy Maya; you should really be a bit more trusting of him." Maya groaned slightly at the remark. Yeah, he certainly seemed nice before he had told Maya she needed to pay him back for his merchandise IMMEDIATELY. "Basically they were using Kurt's name to try and intimidate their victims. Well, we found Takeshit get-"

"Takeshit?" Maya interrupted. Justin had taken to calling him that from time to time, even to people who didn't know him. Maya didn't know that of course; but she knew it was an intentional nick-name. She raised her eyebrow in slight confusion.

"Oh man, that's another story entirely."

"I got time." Maya joked slightly. She was serious, of course; she wanted to hear what the hell this Takeshi guy did to get a nickname like Takeshit. Justin just chuckled slightly. He wasn't sure Chie would want him to tell this story, but goddammit, what she don't know won't hurt her.

"Alright, but you got promise not to bring this stuff up to Chie."

"When do I ever talk to Chie?" Maya chuckled.

"Call it a precaution."

"Alright, I promise. Shoot." Justin smirked slightly before clearing his throat.

"Okay, so Chie had this childhood friend Takeshi, right? Well, she used to havea huge crush on him actually."

"So you got jealous?" Maya interrupted a wide smirk on her face. Justin just shook his head in slight disgust. Goddammit, he was not a jealous person. Why did everyone assume he was?

"No; but it's relevant all the same. Anyway; the guy got mugged once, we came in, and he fuckign ran, leaving me and Chie to fight off his attackers. Now, first of all, the guy was a total shitbag for just leaving Chie to fight off his attackers; but alright, maybe he was just scared. We give him the benefit of the doubt. Not even a few days later, some ten year olds getting mugged. Well it turns out that the thugs had found Takeshi again since we rescued him the first time. And rather than piss 'Kurt' off, he told them everything he knew about me and Chie. Names, addresses, loved ones."

"Holy crap…" Maya remarked as Justin continued to recap the tale of his epic conquest over evil; and he wasn't talking about the thugs either.

"Well needless to say, Chie was heartbroken. I'm actually not sure she was over Takeshi until that happened, but whatever. Chie decided to get in the thugs faces this time instead of beating the crap out of them like last time. She told them they could take the first shot on her. Anywhere."

"But they didn't."

"Bingo, they chickened out and left. Well… They left after I dragged one of the thugs back with my cane—"

"Hey, why are you using a cane anyway?"

"Huh? Oh, I needed it for something before. But I really liked carrying it around, so I keep it around with me." Justin tried to explain, making no mention of his eye. Maya still was torn up over his arms, let alone his blind eye. Maya already saw his eye had no pupil; much to Justin's displeasure, but it seemed she didn't quite make the connection that meant he couldn't see. She just sort of assumed his vision got worse or something. All the same, the less she knew on the matter the better.

"Like Jack White?"

"Exactly! Thank you for being the one person who gets where I'm coming from with this thing."

"Eh… It worked better for him."

"Well of course it did; he's Jack White." The two laughed a bit before Justin tried to remember where he left off. "Alright, where was I… Yeah, so I dragged one of the goons back to ask what they knew about Kurt; since I lost all memory of the guy. He wouldn't talk, so I slammed his face into the wall."

"How hard?" Justin chuckled slightly at Maya's expression. She didn't seem disgusted or off put by Justin's violent outlash, but rather thrilled, her eyes wide with anticipation, a wide grin on her face. Justin stuck his hand in his pocket for a brief moment before pulling out a small white object in between his two fingers: a tooth. He was going to leave it behind at first; I mean, it WAS pretty disgusting after all. But it's not like he knocked someone's tooth out every day, so he just sort of grabbed it with his sleeve and cleaned it off at home. Maya just sort of laughed at Justin's trophy. Which was strange, since Chie had freaked out when she saw Justin trying to hold on to the thing. You would think the more violent of the two would be the one okay with it; not the other way around.

"So I broke his tooth off and he spilled the beans. Then they all ran off… That's actually when me and Chie first kissed." Maya's eyes widened slightly. She was frowning, but she had to admit; it was sort of adorable. Especially the way Justin's face got beat red. It seemed he was embarrassed just to be talking about it; especially with Maya of all people. But he was anyway. "I actually wasn't sure I really liked her like that back then. Damn was I stupid." Maya chuckled slightly under her breath. It wasn't a particularly happy chuckle, but it was a chuckle all the same.

"So you call him Takeshit because he told Kurt's thugs all about you guys?"

"Well he was a royal ass afterwards too; but I already dealt with that situation. We won't be seeing him for a while if he's smart."

"Is he?"

"Not at all." Maya chuckled slightly as Justin just sort of starred down the alleyway; his mind trapped in memory lane. That's right… That was where they had first gotten together. And to think he had been so unsure back then how he felt about Chie. He loved this girl with all his heart; yet he didn't seem to believe it. He was happy his doubts never got in between the two. If they had, they'd never be together like they are today. He smiled slightly before shaking his head and pressing onwards, Maya following shortly behind.

"Alright, that's Tatsumi Textiles. They make scarves and shit. It's where my friend Kanji lives; but you really don't know him." Maya raised an eyebrow. She figured he'd introduce the two if she hadn't met him already, but alas, Justin just seemed to ignore the store as he continued to walk onwards. At least, he did for a short while before he was stopped by a shocking sight. He had to blink twice to make sure he wasn't just seeing stuff. Running out onto the road was a fox; a knapsack around his neck, a scar along his left eye. Justin's jaw practically hit the ground. Yu wasn't lying? What the shit!?

Maya was a little surprised by Justin stopping; though that changed when she saw the fox. Of course, she had an entirely different interpretation of why Justin had stopped given her reaction. A wide grin swept across her face, her eyebrows raised with adoration.

"Aww… It's adorable."

"It's a fox with a freakin' face scar!" Justin countered. How the hell was this supposed to be adorable? The fox twitched it's head slightly, starring straight into Justin's eyes. It only seemed to make Justin feel a lot more uncomfortable, though he would be lying if he said he hadn't been matching the fox's gesture. Maya smiled wider as she crouched to the ground, patting at her knee.

"Come here boy." Justin practically choked on the air at that point. What in the fuck was Maya doing? This is a wild animal with facial scar that may or may not have robbed a goddamn shrine donation box. This is not a cute puppy; this is a dangerous animal. The fix twisted it's head off to the side slighty before slowly crawling over to Maya, staring up at her as he came to a stop just inches in front of her. Maya simply reacted by reaching out and rubbing the back of its neck; much to Justin's horror. If that animal got irritated, things could go horribly wrong. Especially if it had rabies or something. I mean seriously.

"Good boy." She exclaimed happily, praising the fox. The fox simply twisted its head in perplexion at the girl petting his fur.

"Jesus… How are you doing that?" Justin remarked, curious as to how Maya hadn't managed to piss off a wild animal like this fox. Maya patted it on the head slightly before turning to Justin; the fox's head following Maya's lead as she did.

"I'm just really good with animals, I guess. I told you about that pet squirrel I had, right?"

"Yeah, I still doubt that was entirely legal."

"Only illegal if they catch me." Maya chuckled a bit, rubbing behind the fox's ears before standing up. Or at least she had been before the fox jumped up, pressing her back down. She was a little surprised at first; but was laughing all the same. She took it as a friendly gesture; as opposed to Justin, who had assumed the fox was trying to bite her face off or something. It seemed Maya had been the correct one. The fox unzipped the pack around his neck using his teeth before digging into it and ripping out a few leaves from its contents and placing it in Maya's hand. She was a little confused what the leaves were for, so was Justin in fact, but she appreciated the gesture the animal was trying to show. Hell, she was just impressed he had managed to unzip the bag around his neck. She patted the fox's head with her free hand, smiling at the creature.

"Thanks. Don't know what these are for; but I'll find out." The fox simply nodded before turning and slowly strutting away. Maya stood up for a moment, shoving the leaves in her pocket. Justin raised a slight eyebrow at her. He would have just thrown them to the ground. They're LEAVES.

"Maya, that has got to be the stupidest thing you've ever done."

"Oh c'mon. He's just a fox. Nothing to be scared of."

"But rabies are."


	61. Chapter 60: June 13, 2011

CHAPTER 60

June 13, 2011

* * *

"Good Afternooooon! Are you all awake today?"

Justin groaned slightly. It was gym class for the last period of the day. In a way, it was a blessing in disguise. After all, he wouldn't have to change back into his uniform after class; he could just take off his track jacket, throw his hooded jacket on and call it a day. Plus, it meant he had no more class work for the next hour. Of course, gym was gym, and Justin, not possessing any sort of athletic qualities whatsoever, despised the class. At least the gym teacher was kind of nice? He seemed way too excited; which sort of pissed Justin off in a way. But hey, the guy was trying. Points for effort. Chie had been standing next to Justin with a wide grin on her face. Justin wished he could share Chie's enthusiasm for running around a field and occasionally kicking a ball; but alas, he didn't see the point.

"June in Japan can be pretty tiring, thanks to all the humidity and heat!" Mr. Kondo continued. "But don't you waste your days away with laziness! Summer is very near, my friends!"

"But isn't that exactly when we would want to be lazy?" Justin whispered in an aside to Chie; his arms crossed in front of his chest. Chie just sort of shrugged her shoulders. Justin knew just as well as she did that she loved training and exercising; so really that statement didn't apply to her. All the same, she could completely understand why others WOULD want to be lazy during the summer.

"I'd rather be lazy in the winter." Chie remarked. Justin twisted his head from side to side in slight agreement. While he did love to be lazy during summer vacation; winter just had that certain quality to it that made you never want to leave your house; and it wasn't just the cold weather. Maybe it was just because it got darker earlier, maybe it was because he never wanted to ruin that perfect blanket of snow outside his house. He always hated when the streets got sanded, or someone shoveled the snow; it just covered that perfect white landscape in black dirt. This year marked the first year no one would be touching his yard, though. Even if that meant he'd be trapped in his house for a week.

"You wouldn't want that special someone to see you being lazy, would you?" Mr. Kondo remarked, a slight chuckle to himself afterwards.

Justin raised a slight eye-brow before passing a quick glance over to Chie. He knew she was into kung-fu and stuff… Would being lazy look bad to her? Apparently Chie had felt Justin's eyes fall upon her given that she soon twisted her head to meet his gaze, a slight shake of her head as though knowing what he had been thinking. Justin sighed in slight relief; though he tried to cover it up as best he could. He didn't want to look paranoid over something as stupid as being lazy.

"So today, let's do 30 reps of the 100 meter dash! Running keeps the body and mind from rotting away!" Justin groaned especially loud at that one. He could barely do one lap around without his ribs killing him; let alone thirty. And how the fuck was that supposed to keep the mind from rotting away? Don't BOOKS do that? He should know, what being the English teacher too and all. Mr. Kondo clearly noticed Justin's irritable expression. "What's with the sourpuss face, Justin? Do you want it to freeze like that?"

"It froze like that years ago, sir." Justin remarked sarcastically. Mr. Kondo chuckled slightly. Justin did find it a bit irritating how into his job Mr. Kondo was, but on the bright side he was one of the few teachers that could take Justin's smartass jabs with a grain of salt; let alone laugh at them.

"Okay, okay, how 'bout this? If you get this question right, I'll cut it down to five!" Justin raised his eyebrow with pleasant surprise. That was still four more than he could bear; but five was a hundred percent better than four, no doubt about it. The only real problem was that Justin knew nearly nothing about gym or sports or—

"What kind of exercise is a sprint classified as?"

…Nevermind. Justin knew that at the very least.

"Anaerobics?" He remarked after a short pause. He had been double checking in his head that he had not only heard the question right, but that he wasn't mixing up sprinting with something else. He hadn't been of course. Mr. Kondo smirked slightly, even if it seemed he was kind of upset that Justin had nailed that question on the head.

"Ugh! So you knew! I didn't think you were that informed about athletics, Justin!"

"I'm not." Justin interrupted, a slight shrug on his shoulders. Mr. Kondo just seemed confused how Justin had managed to get the answer right if he wasn't informed on the topic.

"Well, a promise is a promise! I'll make it five instead of thirty!" Justin fist pumped slightly. Chie just sorta of chuckled to herself seeing Justin getting excited about getting out of doing laps. Hell, as much as she like to exercise, she'd be lying if she said she wasn't too—

"But I only promised Justin! Hahaha! Everyone else you got ten reps, got it!? Get ready!" Chie moaned slightly under her breath. She had assumed that Justin's answer would have gotten them all out of doing laps; not just himself. Hell, Justin was getting a few looks from the rest of the class; some of jealousy, some of anger. It wasn't fair that only he got less reps. He just sort of shrugged his shoulders as though to say "what the fuck do you want me to do about it?"

Or at least, that was the initial reaction. While trying to fight off the looks he had been getting from everyone, Justin felt a cool trickle beat against his skull; a single rain drop bouncing off his head. Justin looked up and placed his palm towards the sky, feeling for rain. Sure enough, more and more rain drops had started to fall from the heavens. Soon what had been a few drops turned to a light shower, a haze of rain falling from the sky coating everyone on the field. At least it wasn't pouring. Still, Mr. Kondo groaned a bit, knowing full well they couldn't run if the grass got wet; it would make it slippery and if someone fell and got hurt he'd be in serious trouble. He sighed before turning his attention from the clouds above to the class again.

"Alright everyone, you know the drill; in to the gymnasium we go." Everyone turned around to make their way to the gym; slightly pleased with the weather's intervention, save for Justin, who simply stood there hoping to ask Mr. Kondo something, and Chie, who had turned back around when she noticed Justin hadn't been following them. "What's up?" Mr. Kondo spoke up as he realized Justin had been hoping to speak with him.

"What exactly are we doing in the gym?" He asked, an eyebrow raised. Chie was a little confused why he had stopped to ask that. He'd find out soon enough, and without having to stand in the rain.

"Probably basketball. Why?"

"Mind if I put in a request instead of my shortened reps?"

* * *

"Alright everyone, I'm going to split you all into teams. We're going to be playing dodgeball." The spirit of everyone inside the gymnasium rose; save for maybe Kou, who knew that they usually played basketball when they came inside. It wasn't often they got to play a sport that involved pegging shit at each other's skulls; much to all of the guy's pleasure. As for the girls… Well, most of them barely participated in gym, so a sport where all they had to do was not get hit was perfect for them. Chie smiled slightly to Justin in an aside.

"I can't believe you managed to convince him." She remarked with excitement. Justin just sort of smirked a bit. Now this was a sport he could get behind. It was violent, and none of that running back and forth across the field bullshit. Unless they played Prision Ball, that is, but even then Justin could still get behind that. Back at his old school Justin was very good at sneaking past the other team to make it over to jail. No one usually payed him much mind during sports, since he was so shit at most of them; so no one so much as noticed him inching his way along the gymnasium wall, making his way to the other side. It made him a pretty valuable asset during capture the flag, too.

"Alright, this half of the room, you're on blue team. This half red." Justin sighed in slight relief; the division line was just to his right. Any further to the left and Chie and him would be on separate teams. It wasn't so much that he wouldn't mind playing against her; it's just that he was afraid she threw balls as hard as she kicked. On the not so bright side, however, was Yu and Yosuke being past the division line, getting placed on the red team. Yosuke just sort of smirked when he realized they'd be going up against Justin, Chie, and Yukiko. It seemed like an easy victory for him.

"Oh man, this is going to be good." He remarked, a wide grin on his face. Yu smiled slightly too; though not because he felt they were going to have an easy victory. He was more than a little curious to see how well each of them would fare against each other. Justin just sort of crossed his arms, a slight glare towards Yosuke. He knew Yu wasn't the one being full of himself now.

"It'll be over before you even know it." Justin spat out, countering Yosuke's over-confidence with some of his own. Yosuke just laughed, clearly taking Justin's remark as a joke. The two's short exchange of insults was soon interrupted by two people from both sides approaching the middle of the court to join in on the conversation; Daisuke on Yosuke's side, Kou on Justin's.

"Oh, hey Kou!" Chie remarked, a grin on her face as Kou made his way up to her side. The two of them were actually pretty good friends; though Justin had never really seen the two of them together. Kou smiled back as the two pounded fists against each other; almost like a secret handshake of sorts.

"You're on this team too?" Kou questioned with excitement. "There's no way we can lose now." Chie blushed slightly.

"Well I don't know about that." She remarked, her hands on her hips, her head tipped to the side as though confused by Kou's compliment. Kou just sort of laughed before turning over towards the opposing team, giving Daisuke a quick handshake of his own. The two flashed each other a quick grin, clearly taking this competition a lot less seriously then Justin and Yosuke were.

"Don't count your victories so soon." Daisuke joked as he let go of Kou's hand. Kou laughed slightly before withdrawing his arm back to his side. Justin rubbed at his chin slightly. Kou, Yukiko, Chie, and Justin versus Yu, Yosuke, and Daisuke; and in all honesty, Justin wasn't sure whether he'd consider Yukiko an asset or not. It wasn't that she was unathletic or anything; after all, the television world had proven the contrary to be true. It was just that she was one of those people that did the bare minimum to keep their grade in gym class; just sort of standing around and watching the game, and OCCASIONALLY throwing a ball if one got thrown her way. That said, the teams were pretty much even in that regard; mostly because Justin didn't know anyone else in gym. He… may have had an idea.

"Anyone care to up the ante a bit?" Justin remarked, a smirk on his face. Chie already knew where this was going; shooting Justin a glare in disapproval.

"Oh no no no no. We are NOT making another bet."

"Relax, it won't be as bad as last time." Justin tried to reassure her. Yosuke had known better than to make bets with Justin, but… He couldn't help but be curious. Besides, as hard as Chie could kick, and as hard as Justin could punch, he had never really seen the two catch a ball. He was confident in his odds, that's for sure.

"What are the stakes?" Yosuke asked, an eyebrow raised in curiosity. Justin smirked, knowing damn well he had Yosuke in his trap now.

"Losing team buys the winners ramen. Or steak in Chie's case."

"Hey, I can eat ramen too you know." Chie interrupted, slightly offended by Justin's snide remark. She knew he was joking though; so she let it slide.

"Deal." Yosuke remarked, shaking Justin's hand. Yu's eyes widened in deep concern. He had absolutely no confidence in Yosuke after that last bet. I mean, sure, this was a battle of might as opposed to wits; but still, he couldn't help but fear for his wallet. The same could be said of Yukiko; though that was more of a lack of confidence in her own abilities than anything else. Chie, Kou, and Daisuke all seemed alright with the bet; I mean, it was only ramen after all. Sounded like it would be a fun way to up the tension in the match. Justin gave a quick nod to Yosuke as he let go of his hand, turning to make his way to the opposite side of the field. It took a while for each of the teams to make it to their respective side, but it did happen eventually. Mr. Kondo gave a quick nod too each side, as though confirming both teams were ready. Justin and Yosuke both nodded back.

"Alright everyone; get ready…" Justin and Yosuke gave each other a glare from across the room, ready to dash for the center of the gym to grab a dodgeball at Mr. Kondo's word. "Go!"

Justin and Yosuke both darted for the center of the court, aiming to grab one or more of the three balls in the middle of the court. As he got close to the center, Justin ran into a power slide in an attempt to get low enough to grab the ball first. He was close, but no cigar. Yosuke grabbed the ball, ready to peg it straight at Justin's face; and he did. Only Justin was able to grab a ball off from the side and knocked Yosuke's projectile away from him, rolling it over to where Kou was standing. It didn't hit his skin at all, so it was fair game. He would have countered Yosuke now, what with him being open and all, but Justin couldn't get a good shot on him when his knees were on the ground, his back almost all the way curved backwards. Instead he simply stood up, jumping as he avoided the other ball that Yosuke had managed to grab. There were three balls on the court at a time; the one in the center Yosuke grabbed, the one to Yosuke's left that Justin had grabbed, and the one to Yosuke's right that Justin had forgotten all about.

Dodgeballs flung back and forth between the two sides; each of the 'main contestants' persay dodging with ease; except maybe Yukiko, who just hadn't really had any balls thrown her way. Justin in particular showed some amazing feats of dodging prowess, making some rather strange positions while dodging some close calls. If Yosuke wasn't so busy trying to win, he probably would have died laughing at some of the poses Justin had ended up making. The match continued, though, and student after student were eliminated from the match; even that one kid with the afro that was so good at PE. Yu and Justin liked to call him Funky Student as an inside joke, since neither knew his real name. It wasn't long till the seven involved in the bet were the only ones on the field; and even that didn't last for long.

"Hey Chie!" Yu called out from his side, ball in hand. Chie darted her eyes back and forth between Yosuke and Yu, who both had dodgeballs in their hand. She had one too, so she could probably deflect them if they both aimed at her at once.

"What!?" She shouted over, not sure whether she even should.

"Catch!" Yu immediately pulled his arm back, ready to throw the ball. But much to Chie's surprise, he didn't aim it at her; rather he pegged it in Justin's direction, hoping that calling Chie out would catch him off-guard. It kind of did in away. Justin had his hands in his pocket, noticing that neither was aiming the ball at him. It didn't make much of a difference though; he leaned back as though he were doing the limbo, the ball sailing right over his head… And straight into Yukiko's face. Her head jolted back from the collision; it looked very painful, even for a dodgeball. Everyone could hear the sound of rubber impacting bone; hell Yu flinched backwards, shoving his fist in his mouth. That was completely unintentional; he didn't mean to hit Yukiko at all, let alone right in the face.

"S-Sorry!" He choked out. Yukiko just sort of rubbed at the skin on her face before stepping out to the side. Yu bit his bottom lip; he really hoped that she wasn't going to be pissed off at him for that. Chie of course took the opportunity to throw the ball in her hand at Yu while he was distracted, its rubber surface bouncing straight off of his chest. Yu looked down at his chest, then at Chie, slightly surprised that she was resorting to such dirty tactics. Hell, she even had her tongue stuck out at him. He sighed slightly before following Yukiko's lead and stepping off to the side. That left Kou, Justin, and Chie on their team, and Yosuke and Daisuke on his.

"You know, if you surrender now we might order the cheap stuff." Yosuke joked, eyeing Justin as he picked up a stray ball from the ground. Justin tossed the ball in the air for a brief moment before catching it on its trajectory back down to the ground. He didn't so much as acknowledge Yosuke's smartass remark. He was already down one of his best players, and no offense to Yukiko, but she didn't throw a single ball this entire match. She was of no significance to the outcome of the match.

The group soon began exchanging a volley of dodgeballs again, projectiles flying every which way. Daisuke came dangerously close to taking one to the skull at one point; but he followed that up by almost getting Kou straight in the balls. Thank god he opened his legs when he jumped over it. Justin wasn't so much as trying anymore when he dodged the incoming balls, making barely any movement as each barely sailed past his skin; hell they probably hit the hairs on his arm at some point. Clearly throwing balls at Justin was getting them nowhere. And so Yosuke devised a devilish plan. The only way he figured he was going to hit Justin, was to get Justin to stop dodging. And the best way to do that? Get him to purposely put his way into the trajectory.

Yosuke soon stopped hurling balls at Kou and Justin and focused primarily on Chie. She was barely dodging them as ball after ball flung past her head. Hell, there was one point where she dodged two balls at once; though that was luck at its finest. Still, it wasn't long before a ball came sailing straight towards the center of her body mass. There was absolutely no way she would be able to dodge it with the speed and angle it was aimed at her. Yosuke was sure Justin would jump in the way; so he was a little surprised when Kou was the one to do the honors. Kou dived straight into the balls trajectory, trying the grab the ball on his way down, but unfortunately losing his grip on it at the last second. Kou was down for the count.

"You okay Kou?" Chie spoke up, confused as to why Kou would take the bullet for her, so to speak. I mean sure they were friends, but it was just a game dammit. It wasn't like taking a literal bullet for someone. Still, she was flattered all the same by his sacrifice. Kou just sort of smiled from his place on the ground, still in pain from his collision.

"Y-yeah, I'm good." He groaned as he limped over to the sidelines.

"Godspeed soldier." Justin remarked, giving him a quick salute from where he was standing. Kou chuckled slightly as he sat down on the sidelines, clutching at his ribcage. Justin gave a quick nod in his direction before turning back to Yosuke and Daisuke. Daisuke was laughing at Kou's intervention; though that was to be expected of those two. Yosuke just seemed completely caught off-guard. Justin didn't so much as flinch to get in the way of the ball. Which meant he wasn't going to be able to just nail Chie with one and expect Justin to take the fall.

The two duos soon found themselves throwing balls back and forth again; a good few minutes passing before any significant change in their odds had occurred. Daisuke was a powerhouse thrower who could not for the love of him dodge; instead reflecting balls where he could. The problem was that if he got close enough to you when he threw a ball, it would be neigh impossible to dodge. That meant your only option was to try and catch the thing; which was hard with how hard those things hit. All the same, a ball went flying towards Justin, whacking him upside the head. Yosuke practically jumped for joy, expecting to be able to take Chie down no problem. What he hadn't noticed, however, was Chie sliding across the floor on her stomach, just behind Justin, grabbing the ball seconds before it hit the ground. Daisuke just sort of shrugged, laughing slightly at the maneuver as he made his way off to the sidelines. Yosuke's jaw practically dropped; now it was two on one. This could get very problematic. Justin turned around to Chie for a brief moment.

"Thanks."

"No prob." Chie chuckled slightly; relieved she had actually managed to grab a hold of the thing. Though that changed as she felt something brush up against her leg. While Justin was turned, Yosuke had a clear shot at him; he wasn't paying attention after all. Figures the one chance he had to take Justin out right there and then he missed. Of course, he did manage to hit Chie's leg while she was still on the ground. Chie blinked twice in slight surprise; she hadn't expected Yosuke to try and take a shot while they were talking; but alas, it was a good tactic all the same. "W-well, guess you're on your own." She stuttered slightly, kind of concerned as to how this was going to play out now. She stood up, brushing the cloth on her knees down slightly before making her way over to the side, next to Yukiko. Her hand was still pressed against the side of her face. Yu must have nailed her pretty hard.

That left Justin and Yosuke, each a ball in their hand, eyeing each other down from across the room. Justin wasn't smirking quite as much as Yosuke was though. The eventually made their selves towards the center of the field, directly across from each other in the middle of their respective courts.

"There's got to be a word for this." Yosuke chuckled slightly.

"An impasse." Justin remarked. It WASN'T called an impasse, but he remembered that one line from Red Dead Redemption and it just fit so perfectly that it was worth using. Besides, he doubted Yosuke even knew what impasse meant. No dodgeballs were tossed for a while between the two; they were too busy starring each other down. Mr. Kondo was slightly annoyed at the lack of activity; but kept his lips sealed all the same. The two slowly started to walk towards each other, ball in hand. That walk soon turned into a run, and while only a few feet apart from the center line on the court, they threw their balls towards the other.

They both collided with each other in mid air, bouncing slightly upwards. The problem? Each of their balls hadn't returned to the same side; they could still be caught. Justin and Yosuke's eyes widened slightly as they made the realization, getting underneath the shadow of their respective balls in an attempt to win. The difference between Justin and Yosuke, however, was that Justin jumped to grab his ball. Technically, however, he would still be out if Yosuke caught Justin's, which meant Yosuke would need to drop his ball. Justin barely had a grip on his ball, but while still mid jump, he swung his arms downwards, knocking Yosuke's ball out of the air and straight into the ground. He barely was able to keep ahold of his ball; which was problematic in that if he dropped it Yosuke would win by default. He didn't. Everyone on the blue team started cheering immediately; except Yukiko, who only smiled a bit. Her face was completely red from Yu's assault earlier. He still looked entirely mortified by his accident, given the looks he kept giving from across the sidelines. Yosuke just threw his hands up into the air in disgust. How was that even supposed to be a fair victory?

"Don't worry, we'll order the expensive stuff." Justin smirked at Yosuke before dropping the ball he held in his hands, marching off to give the entirety of his team high-fives. Yosuke just sort of shook his head in disappointment as Yu and Daisuke made their way up to him.

"I cannot believe we lost…" Yosuke groaned. Daisuke was laughing hysterically though; not because something was funny, but because he thought it was a good game. He always got like that after any good match of a sport. Yu groaned slightly; though not because he lost the bet. He was going to end up getting Yukiko ramen anyway to apologize, so it made no difference if they won or lost.

"Yosuke, do me a favor." Yu spoke up.

"Yeah?"

"Stop making bets."

"Way ahead of you."


	62. Chapter 61: June 14, 2011

CHAPTER 61

June 14, 2011

* * *

"I'm tired of coming to this school… I can't believe they let that Tatsumi kid in here."

Justin had been walking through the hallways, ready to head home for the day when he heard two girls chatting with each other about something. And under most conditions, he would have just walked by; but he couldn't help but stop when he heard Kanji's name being brought up. He was curious to say the least so he leaned up against a wall in the hallway, trying to be as nonchalant as possible. For all he knew this could be nothing, and he didn't want to look like he was eavesdropping; so he pulled out his cell-phone and pretended to text someone while the two girls continued to chat.

"I hear he started his own gang and goes around bullying people. How did I get to be in the same class as him?"

"He's always out snooping near the practice building, too. How scary is that?"

Pretty freakin' creepy when you knew the guy like Justin did. Still, Kanji was an aggressive fuck and an asshole for sure, but he never struck Justin as being the kind of guy to bully people. I mean, the guy beat up a motorcycle gang because they kept his mother up at night. The guy had a heart of gold; just a really rough exterior. Simply put, these rumors struck him as a bunch of bullshit. All the same, he thought Kanji should have a heads up that people were accusing him of being a bully. He folded his phone back into its closed position, putting it in his pocket before departing down the stairs and over to the practice building.

It took Justin a moment to get there; but when he did, it turned out those girls had been right about at least ONE thing. Kanji was there in the practice building, casually peeping through a window into one of the classrooms… The sewing room to be more precise. Justin bit his bottom lip slightly; not sure how exactly he should be taking that. All the same, he thought it could generally be agreed upon that whatever Kanji's intentions were looking into the sewing room, it was creepy as all hell. Justin cleared his throat slightly before calling out to Kanji.

"Kanji, you realize how fucked up this looks, right?" Kanji jumped back slightly, completely surprised by Justin's sudden, and kind of loud, appearance. His eyes were wide in slight fear, and it looked like he was actually starting to sweat a bit. Whatever it was he was doing, clearly he didn't want Justin to know. He just hoped that it wasn't what those girls had been talking about earlier; that he was just ashamed to have been caught peeking into the knitting club.

"Whoa, Justin-senpai! I-I wasn't peeping inside! It's not like that!" Justin raised his eyebrow. So he WAS peeping inside. Now it was just a matter of WHY. Kanji stammered a bit more before speaking again, Justin crossing his arms slightly in front of his chest. "…S-So, why are you making that scary face at me?" Justin raised both of his eyebrows this time. _Scary face? But… But I'm not making a face; this is how I always look…_

"Uh… There's something you probably want to know…" Justin remarked, somewhat off put by Kanji's assertion that Justin had a scary face on. Kanji darted his eyes from side to side, as though checking to see if anyone was around. It was suspicious as all hell, though it was a lot more suspicious when he asked if they could take this conversation elsewhere.

"…I see. Let's go somewhere else then." Justin shrugged his shoulders slightly.

"Lead the way."

* * *

"Alright, so whaddya want that I had to drag us all the way out here." Kanji spoke up slightly irritated. Justin was getting a bit irritated himself. They could have had this conversation right there; there was no reason to come all the way out to the flood plains to drop him a line as to the rumors surrounding him. Justin crossed his arms, a frown on his face before speaking up. "Oh, you're here to tell me off or somethin'?" Justin's eyes widened for a brief moment, before dropping into a glare. That sounded like a confession to him.

"So you DID do it." Kanji just seemed confused. He had assumed he had done something wrong, but he had no idea what. And now Justin seemed to be taking his confusion as confirmation that he was in fact the culprit. It didn't make any sense to Kanji in the slightest.

"Uh… Do what?"

"I heard a rumor that you were going around with a gang of bullies. I was trying to drop you a line, but apparantly you already know." Now Kanji was mortified. Bullies? Justin thought he was getting involved with bullies? _Wh- But- WHAT IN THE FUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!?_

"Bullies? M-Me!? Senpai, you suspecting me!?"

"I wasn't until that last remark." Justin glared at Kanji. Kanji looked like he was panicking, which only deepened Justin's suspicion.

"Senpai… I didn't do it." Kanji tried to calmly explain, regaining his composure, a nod of his head. "I mean maybe it ain't that easy to trust me, since they say I was in a gang and all… But you gotta believe me."

Justin glared at him for a bit longer before sighing, releasing all tension in his brow. He believed him… I mean, yeah the guy had been panicking like a motherfucker earlier, but now? He had no tells; he had denied guilt without so much as a hint of falsery in his voice or body language. Besides; Justin could understand what it was like to not be trusted just because of rumors… because of something beyond your control…

"I believe you man, it's just you sounded like you knew what I was talking about, so I just sort of figured… You know what, it's not important. Sorry man." Kanji sighed, slightly relieved that Justin had believed him, slightly upset that he had doubted him in the first place. Sure, they barely knew each other, but it seemed that out of all the people he had met over the last month, Justin had related to him the most. He would have thought Justin would know better than to think Kanji was responsible.

"…'s my own fault rumors like that go around, huh…?" Justin shook his head. It kind of was, but the fault didn't fall on Kanji. You can't change who you are as a person, and Kanji was just aggressive. It was all in the fault of society, the people who judged him and made false rumors like that.

"No, it's not. It's human nature's fault. People just love to judge people." Kanji sighed a bit as Justin struggled to spit those words out. It wasn't that Justin didn't believe what he said; in fact, it was the exact opposite. Justin believed every word he said; it was pretty much the basis of everything that had ever gone wrong in his life. It almost pained him to spit those words out; it struck too close to his heart.

"At this rate, I'll be causing trouble for you guys…" Justin had been staring at the ground, struggling with his thoughts, when the comment hit his ears. His eyes jolted upwards to meet Kanji's. He was looking off to the side, trying to avoid eye contact. Justin could not believe Kanji had just said that. That was what was worrying him? Causing trouble for investigation team? Why, for having a reputation? Hate to break it to you Kanji, but the team consisted of the son of the manager of a despised business chain and the kid who had a reputation for being out of his goddamn mind and trying to start a riot. And that was only listing off the ones who had a negative reputation.

"Cause trouble for us? You realize who you're talking to, right? Do you realize how much shit I start on a regular basis? Believe me; nothing you do could make it any worse than I already have." Justin smirked. He hadn't so much as made people bat an eyelash at his little group, and he had suggested overthrowing the school board. Kanji smiled slightly at Justin's remark, though Justin had to wonder if that was because he made him feel better or if he was agreeing with Justin's notion that he had fucked the group over somehow.

"Senpai…" Kanji remarked, a smile starting to sweep across his face. He also seemed to be slightly embarrassed, given the color of his cheeks. At least, Justin sincerely HOPED it was embarrassment. They still hadn't quite established Kanji's sexual preference, and he had no intention on this turning down THAT pathway. Hell, Kanji knew Chie and Justin were a thing anyway; so if he WAS into Justin like that, you would think he would have noticed Justin didn't roll that way. "Uhh… Whenever you got the time… Could you maybe hear what I have to say? I feel all cramped inside… And I'm too dumb to know what it's all about..." Justin chuckled slightly.

"I used to be the same way; you're not dumb man." Justin tried to cheer him up. It's true; back when Justin first came to Inaba, he had been struggling with his emotions a lot, what with meeting new people, falling for Chie, the whole thing with his eye, the Maya situation… Hell, now he had the issue of his shadow. It still sent shivers down his spine thinking that monstrosity could take control of him; could make him do all sorts of destructive things. It was terrifying knowing you could lose your mind at any given second. "I'm free right now if you want to talk."

"Yeah… yeah, I'd like that." Kanji chuckled slightly.

* * *

"Man, I'm starving for some Chinese."

Kanji had dragged Justin over to Aiya's to grab some food while they talked. Justin wasn't entirely opposed to the idea; after all, food is food and it would keep him busy while he was listening to Kanji's problems. Not to sound like a jerk or anything, but you know how Justin couldn't stand still. Well, it's not like you can pace around or tap your foot while someone tells you how misunderstood they are. But you could eat; and that was good enough for Justin. Still, this was supposed to be his and Chie's place. It wasn't that the others could never go there or anything, it's just that he felt awkward going to eat there without her. It just wasn't the same without her here.

"You should have been with us yesterday. We made a bet over a game of dodgeball, and Yosuke and Yu had to buy us all ramen when they lost." Justin remarked, leaving out Daisuke and Kou just for the sake of being brief and to the point. Kanji smiled slightly at the prospect of everyone throwing balls at each other. He sort of put the pieces together that Yukiko and Chie were on Justin's team; he just couldn't believe they had managed to top Yu. I mean, maybe Yosuke by himself, but not Yu. No offense to Yukiko or Chie of course.

"I love Aiya's, but if I eat and then go home, I can't finish Mom's cooking… She serves so much you'd think I have five brothers. I swear she's trying to make my stomach burst."

"My mother was like that too." Justin remarked, his smile shifting into a slight frown. His mother would usually give him TOO much food. Which wasn't so much a problem in and of itself; it was his father that he had a problem with. He would always get pissed when Justin left food on his plate, and then one thing lead to another… Well, you know how that chain of thought ended. In a way, Justin blamed his real lack of appetite on his father. Everytime he looked at food, he just got sick to his stomach; especially in the morning.

"Aren't you Kanji Tatsumi? What are you doing here?"

Justin and Kanji both turned around to be met by the sight of a middle aged man standing behind them. Justin had heard the door opening only a few seconds earlier; must have been this guy walking in. He certainly didn't recognize him though. Kanji certainly looked like he recognized him though; not that he was pleased to see the man.

"Can't you tell?" Kanji replied, slightly aggravated by the interruption. "Hey, you're a cop. What do you mean, what am I doing?"

"Just what I said. There's been a commotion around here lately."

"Well maybe if you did your job, things'd get quieter, huh?" Kanji spat out at the police officer; clearly annoyed at the implication the officer was trying to make. Justin couldn't say he was too happy himself, but Kanji could handle himself just fine.

"Y-You need to fix that attiude…" The cop added irritatedly, but also with a slight hint of fear in his voice.

"Yeah, just like you need to fix this 'commotion.' Or fix crime. There's a lot of things we need to fix; his attitude isn't one of them." Justin spat back. The officer raised an eyebrow at the young man sitting next to Kanji. He didn't know who it was, but he didn't like the mouth he had on him one bit.

"Fantastic, we've got another trouble maker." Justin glared intensely at the officer. He wasn't just acting unprofessional, he was being a rude asshole. This is just one of the many reasons Justin hated cops; they had no class. Justin knew all of maybe two cops that he liked; and that was saying something considering his father worked in the FBI. "Just don't pull anything, got it?" The officer shouted at Kanji. Kanji simply shook his head in slight disgust at the officer's lack of tact. Besides, who was he to order Kanji around?

"I didn't…" The officer sighed, completely oblivious to Kanji's aggravated claims of innocence.

"I'm going to eat somewhere else."

"Good, you're ruining my dinner." Justin remarked dismissing the officer with a wave of his hand. The officer was appalled at Justin's blunt nature, but alas, he was a cop. He dealt with assholes on a regular basis; he wasn't going to give this kid the time of day. He turned around and walked out the door without so much as another word. Kanji was furious by the time the officer left, and rightfully so. Justin was only irritated at best; the guy was an asshole, but he wasn't going to lose his shit over the guy's lack of tact.

"Asshole…" Kanji grumbled to himself, his voice raspy with anger. "The cops're always like that. Soon as they spot me it's, 'Whaddaya doin'?' 'You look suspicious and alla that bullshit…"

"Sounds like the polar opposite of the cops in California." Justin remarked. Where he lived, every single cop was corrupt or just didn't care. That's why drugs and smokes were so easy to sell and buy in broad daylight; that's why no one stopped Falcone from nearly murdering two fourteen year olds. They just didn't give a fuck.

"Meh, I'm used to it." Kanji remarked. His expression soon turned from one of irritation, to one of disappointment. Not in Justin or the cop, but in himself. He felt as though he were to blame for the cop pretty much ruining their conversation. It was like the very act of existing had constantly been fucking with everyone around him. "Sorry for gettin' you mixed up in this, Senpai…"

"You say that like this hasn't happened to me before." Justin chuckled slightly. It's true, he had a few unpleasant encounters with the cops before; though, he supposed that Yu and Yosuke took the cake in that department, what being ARRESTED and all.

"I really am a troublemaker. For you… and for Mom. She's always apologizing for me. She's been sprouting more and more white hairs…" Kanji sighed a bit, averting eye contact from Justin. Justin shrugged slightly.

"Well knowing there's a problem is the first step. Now you just have to correct it." Justin remarked, pointing his chopsticks at Kanji. "Now I'm not saying there's anything wrong with how you act, or how you go about your business; but you can't just go around saying that kind of stuff to cops."

"What? But you did the same thing."

"Kanji, my parents are dead. I don't have to worry about making my mother sick, or coming home wrapped in cuffs." Kanji averted eye contact for a moment. He didn't really know about Justin's parents, so he was taken a bit off guard by the remark. He felt bad, but given how casually Justin seemed to refer to their deceased status… Well, he assumed it wasn't something he should bring up or dwell on. Besides, what he said was true. Justin didn't have to worry about disappointing his parents, but Kanji did. He needed to take responsibility not only for himself, but for his mother's sake.

"Maybe you're right… Filial piety, right? I don't really know what to do… Or so I thought." Justin was more than a little confused, for a couple of reasons. First, he had no idea what the hell filial piety meant, and he didn't really want to. Secondly, it seemed more like Kanji was having a conversation with himself than he was with Justin. Kanji's gloomy expression, however, soon jumped back into life, a wide grin on his face.

"I'm gonna use this power I got to make this town peaceful! I've been causing nothing but trouble, but now I can return the favor! So let's get to it, Senpai!" Justin smiled, happy to see Kanji cheering up again, although he was also happy in a second, less significant way. As far as Justin knew, Kanji hadn't summoned his Persona yet; so it seemed that the next time they went into the television, they would both be doing that for the first time. Justin was actually kind of curious how that works. _Do you just kind of throw your hand around? Nah, can't be that, Chie kicks her card to summon her Persona. Where the hell DOES that card come from anyway? _Justin gave Kanji a quick nod before the two turned their attention back over to the chef behind the counter. They had ordered a while ago; so it was strange that the food hadn't come out yet.

"…Hey Chief, the food ready yet?" Kanji questioned, as though reading Justin's mind.

"Huh? You ordered something, Kan-chan?" Justin and Kanji both simultaneously dropped their eyebrows in irritation. _Yes, as a matter of fact we DID order something. A half fucking hour ago. I swear if Chie was here she'd be all over the chief's ass for making her wait for her precious steak…_

"I told you not to call me Kan-chan! And I did order: liver-leek stir fry and pot stickers!"

"All I asked for was some ramen." Justin added, still kind of pissed off that the chef had forgotten.

"I swear, I'm going to tear your store apart so fast you won't have time to file insurance!" Justin's eyes widened; not because he thought the remark was particularly rude, though it was, but with fear. Knowing Kanji, he really would do that. And if Chie ever found out that Kanji did that, with Justin still there…

"Please don't. Chie will MURDER me."

"Oh, uh, well… I'm going to tear it apart and rebuild it twice as good! I-I'm gonna RENOVATE your ass!"

"I am so using that as a threat from now on."


	63. Chapter 62: June 15, 2011

CHAPTER 62

June 15, 2011

* * *

"Man summer clothes are the best!"

Everyone had gone to Junes after-school to hang out, which was a nice change of pace from the rooftop at the school. There was food to be eaten, drinks to be drunk, and stairs to not be climbed. Well, maybe a few; but not as many as the way to the roof. They had all been talking about random topics when Yosuke suddenly brought up the topic of summer clothes. As of Monday, everyone had swapped out their winter attire for their summer clothing; or at least, most of them did. Justin still wore his hoodie, much to the surprise of everyone else. He had to have been dying in that thing with all this heat; but alas, he didn't give a fuck.

"Agreed." Yu remarked, a slight nod of his head. It seemed he hadn't quite caught on that Yosuke had been eyeing the girls when he made that remark; though, he probably would agree either way. Unfortunatly for Yosuke, however, Yukiko, Chie, and Justin had all caught on to the undertones in his remark; and none were particularly pleased. Though Justin had to agree to a certain extent; the look totally worked for both of them. Not that he would be using it as an excuse to check them out like Yosuke was. Justin did have SOME manners.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Chie remarked, her eyes dropping into a glare as she eyed Yosuke from across the table. "You've got a weird, pervy look in your eyes."

_Oh, so no different than usual? _Justin thought to himself.

"And that sounded kinda creepy…" Yukiko added, a slight look of annoyance on her face.

_Oh, so no different than usual? _Justin repeated in his mind.

"Oh c'mon; he agreed with me! How come I'm the only one getting all the crap!?" Yosuke spat out; slightly irritated that the two girls were less than susceptible to his perverted comment. That only served to irritate Justin more. _Like seriously, what the fuck did you expect? You're pretty much undressing them with your eyes over there, which would be fucked up enough on its own; but you're also doing it to my girlfriend. Have some fucking class man._

"I didn't think you meant it like that…" Yu remarked, giving Yosuke a slight glare of his own. He agreed with him one hundred percent; summer clothes WERE awesome, but that didn't mean you should say it straight to their faces. Besides, the girls (and Justin) both had him in kind of a tight spot here. He couldn't just shout 'yep, you guys look smokin' in summer clothes.' Not if he wanted to keep his balls where they were anyway. Yosuke seemed almost shocked by Yu's betrayal. Whatever happened to 'bros before hoes?' He also had to make sure to make a mental note not to let Chie ever know he called her a hoe in his head. He'd be dead within seconds

"So should we draw straws to decide who gets to kick Yosuke's ass this time?" Justin remarked, turning his attention to the two girls sitting next to him, his eyebrow raised as though posing a legitimate question; mostly because he was. It wasn't uncommon for Yosuke to walk away from these sessions with a busted lip, and Yosuke knew it. Which is why he had started panicking at Justin's suggestion of raffling off the right to murder him.

"Please don't." Yosuke remarked a grimace on his face. The three just shrugged at each other before all simultaneously delivering a kick to him from below the table; Chie got him in the balls, Justin his kneecap, Yukiko the side of his leg. And it all hurt. Yosuke wasn't sure what he should be putting priority on as he huddled up in pain; though he did eventually make the obvious decision, clutching his hands against his crotch as though that would help with the pain. "-otherfucker…."

"How the hell do you manage to get him in the balls every time?" Justin questioned in an aside to Chie; his eyes still focused on Yosuke as he squirmed about in pain in his seat. Chie shrugged a little bit. It wasn't like she practiced or anything; she guessed she was just lucky. Or maybe she just had a natural inclination to beat the crap out of Yosuke. She wouldn't rule the latter out.

Everyone had been kind of enjoying watching Yosuke get what he deserved when Justin's phone went off. And thankfully, he had changed his ringtone to something less awful: Aenema by Tool, to be precise. The group was a bit confused who could be calling Justin; I mean, his contact list consisted mainly of the people surrounding him right now. There were only three other people who they could think of that knew Justin's number; Maya, Kurt, and MAYBE Kanji. Justin shuffled through his pockets before grabbing his cell and holding it up to his eyes, checking the number on its screen. It was Maya. He flipped the phone open before pressing it to his ear.

"Hey Maya. What's up."

"Uh… K-Kurt's outside the house…" Maya stuttered out, clearly panicking. Justin bit his bottom lip; he hadn't spoken to Kurt since he had beaten the ever loving shit out of Justin back in his house. He could only assume that he was there in regards to that. Justin didn't really hold a grudge, of course; he knew Kurt was a good guy. But the problem still arose in that Maya was deathly afraid of the guy. It's not like he could tell her to just open the door for him. He sighed slightly.

"Alright, alright. I'll be over there in a minute." He spoke into the phone before flipping it closed; not so much as waiting for a response from Maya. Everyone had started to give Justin some strange looks as he stood up from his chair; ready to leave and resolve this problem.

"Huh? What's up?" Chie asked from her seat next to him.

"Kurt's at the house right now, and Maya's deathly afraid of the guy." Justin answered. Everyone seemed a little upset that Justin had to leave so soon. As much of an ass as he could be at times, he kind of was the life of the party. Still, they realized that if Maya was afraid of someone standing at his door, he probably should resolve the issue. They gave him a quick nod and wave as he departed from the food court.

"Why couldn't that call have come earlier…" Yosuke moaned from his fetal position in his chair, still clutching at his balls.

* * *

"Is he still that mad that he isn't going to open the door…" Kurt mumbled to himself, starring at the entrance to Justin's house. He had seen someone in the window, though he was completely unaware that had been Maya and not Justin. He didn't even know Maya had been in Inaba, let alone that she was staying at Justin's place. He sighed a bit, tapping his foot. He wasn't going to leave until he got to apologize to the guy. Even if he didn't accept his apology, he was going to say that he at least tried. Needless to say, Kurt was completely startled when he heard Justin's voice coming not from the inside of the house, but behind him.

"Hey Kurt. Need something?" Kurt jumped a bit, turning around with shock to be met by the sight of Justin approaching him, hand in his pockets. Justin was a little confused why Kurt had been so startled, but dismissed it anyway.

"Holy shit, where the hell did you come from?"

"Well Maya gave me a call and said you were here, so I figured I'd stop by and see what you wanted."

"Maya?" Kurt questioned, eyebrow raised. He had no idea what the hell Justin was talking about. Maya was back in California, how would she know Kurt was at Justin's house? Justin had to smack himself upside the head, having completely forgotten that Kurt had no idea Maya was living with him.

"Oh uh… Well it's a long story, but Maya's staying at my house." Justin awkwardly explained, trying not to give Kurt any insight into the television or his kidnapping or anything like that. You could tell Kurt was even more confused now though.

"Staying at—How the hell did she even get here!?"

"Like I said. Long story." Justin coughed. It wasn't a very long story actually; she jumped into a television, came out through this one. But he obviously couldn't tell Kurt that. Kurt was still confused out of his goddamned mind, but he could tell Justin had no intention on spilling the beans.

"So then the person I saw in the house…?"

"Yep. Maya."

"Well that would certainly explain a few things…" He muttered to himself, looking off to the side, as though talking to someone who wasn't there. He eventually turned back towards Justin, a slight look of sorrow on his face as he rubbed at the back of his neck. "Uh… Look, about last time…"

"You still hung up about that?" Justin remarked, a wide smirk on his face, a chuckle under his breath. "Dude, don't worry about it. I had it coming." He really wished Kurt had picked a better time to knock him unconscious though; maybe then he would have been able to get a look at his kidnapper. Kurt was still frowning, despite Justin's reassurance that he hadn't done anything wrong. Sure, Justin was being a total prick, and he did strike first; but Kurt should have been the bigger man. Violence never solved anything. Well… It solved a few things. This wasn't one of those things though.

"Still, I feel bad. I know it's not much but I brought you some smokes as my way of saying 'sorry I spilt your blood all over your wall.'" Kurt tossed over a pack of cigarettes to Justin. Justin smiled slightly, though he wasn't particularly thrilled either. He still had that carton Kurt had given him earlier to hold him over, and besides, he didn't really NEED a gift for being a douchebag. Still, he appreciated the gesture. "I know I gave you some before, but hey. That's what I sell. You're probably going to need those now that Maya's staying with you, anyway."

"Probably." Justin remarked, raising his eyebrows. He had completely forgotten about Maya's smoking habits. Now that he thought about it; that carton of smokes Kurt had given him would be gone in no time if the two of them had to split it. Just mark that off as one more thing Justin would have to set aside money for. At these point Justin was starting to feel like Maya's parents; no money to actually spend on their kid, but still needing to anyway. It was really creepy in a way.

"Well then, I guess I should get going…" Kurt eventually spoke up, tipping his fedora forward slightly. Justin bit at his lip for a brief moment. Sure, Kurt's business there was done… But there was still the matter of Maya's fear of Kurt… Maybe it would do her some good to talk things over with Kurt; or at the very least see he poses no threat to her.

"Not going to say hi to Maya?" Justin smirked. Kurt twisted his head to the side and shrugged slightly. He hadn't seen Maya in a while, so he supposed it would be alright. So long as it was quick; even though he had been waiting here all day, he DID have a business to run, and the longer he spent here, the more work he had to make-up and cram into the remaining hours of the day. Kurt stepped out of the way to allow Justin to make his way to the front door; placing his key in the doorknob and turning it. He opened the door outwards ready to step in.

"Hey May-"

His words were immediately cut off by Maya's fist jabbing into his skull. Hard too. He jolted his head forward in pain as she withdrew her fist; his now bruised eye resting against his palm, as he tried to hold back the pain. Maya looked mortified as she realized she had just punched Justin. She had heard the door opening and assumed that it was Kurt. She figured that maybe if she hit him hard enough when he opened the door he'd go down for the count; then she could escape. Needless to say, she was more than a little surprised to find Justin in Kurt's stead. She placed the tip of her knuckle in between her teeth, as though trying to stop herself from saying anything. It didn't work.

"Oh my god, Justin! I'm so sorry!"

"Whyyyy…." He moaned, clutching at his black and blue eye. Why was it always his eyes that were being punished? Just once, he'd like to have attention being drawn away from his eyes, not towards it. Kurt looked on in slight confusion as Maya frantically tried to apologize for randomly socking one to Justin.

"I'm sorry! I thought you were Kurt and—"

"Whoa, whoa, you were trying to punch me? Not cool." Kurt interrupted once he realized what was going on. That punch to the eye was intended for Kurt, not Justin. Maya practically jumped back in fear when she realized that Kurt wasn't gone yet. She hadn't noticed him from where he was standing until she heard his voice; and now he knew Maya had just tried to beat the ever loving shit out of him. Maybe if she jumped out one of the windows she'd make it out… She slowly backed away from the door, clearly afraid of being within more than an arm's length between the two.

"Oh uh… h-hi Kurt… N-no… I'd never do that to you…" She stuttered, trying to sweet-talk Kurt, as though that would actually help if Kurt was legitimately pissed off at her. Sure he was a little annoyed that Maya had practically tried to jump him, but he wasn't going to strangle her or anything. Quite frankly, he was a little more annoyed at how afraid Maya seemed of him.

"Did I do something?"

"Alright, enough of this bullcrap!" Justin shouted, having finally regained his composure after having his eye brutally assaulted by Maya. "If we're going to stoop as low as trying to murder each other when we open doors, we're resolving this issue NOW."

"Issue?" Kurt spoke up, half confused. Clearly Maya seemed afraid of him, but he wasn't really sure there was much of a problem. Maya understood, of course, flashing Justin a slight dirty look, shaking her head from side to side in fear. She did not want to be in the same room as Kurt, let alone talk to the man.

"Kurt, Maya here is afraid of you because of the whole cigarette incident."

"Wait, what?" Kurt spoke up, completely and utterly confused. That couldn't be righ- No wait, it totally was. He could see Maya glaring hard at Justin as he let those words slip out of his mouth. Clearly she didn't like what she was hearing, which meant it was probably true. Maya chuckled awkwardly as she noticed Kurt giving her a funny look. Clearly she didn't want Kurt to think she was afraid of him; after all, that just made her an easier target.

"N-no, nothing lik-"

"Maya, I swear to fucking GOD if you don't quit bullshitting here, I'm going to kick your fucking ass all the way to Tiananmen Square." Justin's eyes started to glow a yellowish color for a brief moment, though they weren't enveloped entirely in that golden color like last time. Justin forced his eyes close when he started to feel something was off. He felt almost light-headed as he began to get more and more pissed. And he had a good idea why. The shadow didn't gain control, but it came damn close.

Maya's mouth was slightly ajar having seen the strange colored aura resonating from Justin's eyes. It wasn't entirely unusual to Maya; after all, her eyes did something similar when using Persona abilities in the television. Still, she had never seen it happen to Justin before, and never had she seen that happen outside of the television. Hell, even Maya couldn't do it outside of the television, so what the hell was causing Justin's eyes to flicker like that. Justin shook his head a bit, clearing whatever remaining grip his shadow had over him from his mind. He immediately followed that up by giving Maya slight glare and gesturing his head over towards Kurt. Maya bit her lip as she turned her attention to Kurt, his arms crossed in front of his chest, his eyebrows raised in confusion. She gave an awkward wave and grin his way before moving her body close to Justin, whispering to him so Kurt couldn't hear them.

"Are you out of your goddamned mind?"

"Please, I think I'm the only sane one here." That was really saying something considering technically Justin was a schizophrenic now.

"Don't make me do this." She choked up with fear. Justin just shook his head before grabbing Maya by the shoulders and turning her around to face Kurt, shoving her forward slightly so the two were a mere foot or two apart. Maya's eyes grew wide in terror, though she tried to fake a smile as Kurt stared her down from where he was standing. She doubted she could outrun him from this close. "Uh…H-hey Kurt…"

"Is that true?" Maya bit her lip, clearly not comfortable answering the question. "You're afraid of me?"

"Please don't hurt me." Kurt just shook his head in disappointment. He didn't think he did anything wrong, though if he did he was sincerely sorry for it. However, he doubted he himself was to blame for this. It was Maya who failed to be able to trust him, not the other way around. As for Justin, he was just rubbing his forehead with annoyance. This was just embarrassing to watch. Kurt puffed out a bit of hot air, loosening the tension in his brow.

"Now why would I want to do that?" Kurt remarked, slightly saddened to see Maya in such fear of him. "I'm not mad about the cigarette thing. Accidents happen." _Expensive accidents…_

"Y-You're not…?"

"Nah. I wouldn't get mad at my favorite customer over something like that." Kurt smirked. She WASN'T his favorite customer; that was a title he reserved for Justin. Maya was a close second though. Maya sighed in slight relief. She wasn't sure she entirely believed Kurt, but she was willing to give him a chance. ONE chance.

"…Sorry for trying to punch you in the face."

"Believe me; that happens to me at least twice a week." Kurt joked. Maya chuckled slightly, much to his relief. It meant that the tension between the two was gone. Of course, none in the room was more relieved than Justin, who had been sick and fucking tired of seeing Maya act like that. He finished rubbing at his head, trying to get rid of the headache he had gotten from his shadow trying to butt in, and had crossed his arms in front of him once more.

"Alright, so are you two good?" Justin questioned, still slightly irate.

"I guess…?" Maya remarked. She wasn't quite sure herself. Kurt just shrugged his shoulders.

"Well in that case, I'm going inside to get an icepack. Fuck this stings…" Justin groaned as he stepped through the doorway to his house. That just left Maya and Kurt alone outside, and quite frankly, Maya was still a little uncomfortable. Kurt could obviously tell too, given that he almost immediately dismissed himself. It wasn't like he didn't have work to be doing anyway.

"Well, I've got work I need to get done. Take it easy Maya." Kurt gave a tip of his fedora and one of his trademark grins as he made his way off of Justin's front porch. Maya sighed in relief as Kurt left. She wasn't AS afraid of him as before, but she was still scared all the same. It took her a moment before she turned back around to go inside. She was met by the sight of Justin digging through the freezer as she walked in, pulling out an ice-pack and placing it against his eye. She just sort of watched him for a moment before he finally turned around to go to the couch; or be met by the sight of Maya standing there, either or.

"Hey Justin?" Maya spoke up, starring at his bruised face. He raised his eyebrow in curiosity.

"Yeah?"

You know how curiosity killed the cat? Well, it didn't always kill, but sometimes it stung like a bitch. Maya swung her hand forward, slapping him across the face; leaving behind a red handprint across the right side of his face. Justin's jaw was wide open by the time his head had finished recoiling from the blow. What in the fuck was with people lately that they wouldn't stop hitting him? This must be what Yosuke felt like; only Justin didn't have it coming. He rubbed at his cheek before turning his attention back to Maya.

"That's for pushing me into a possible psychopath." She shouted, her finger pointed at Justin's face before she pushed off in the opposite direction; jumping on the couch, legs sprawled across it. Justin just shook his head in disgust. Maya could be really sweet, but god forbid you forced her to do something she didn't want to; then not even the god's could save you from her wrath.

"Hate to break it to ya' Maya, but who the hell do you think you're living with?"

"A bigger psychopath."

"You know me so well."


	64. Chapter 63: June 16, 2011

CHAPTER 63

June 16, 2011

* * *

"So then… what should we make?"

The team had all been gathered at the Junes's grocery store discussing what they were going to do as far as food for the camping trip. Everyone was there, save for Yosuke, who was oddly absent. You would think he'd be all over this; making sure they get something to his tastes, but alas no. He said he had something he needed to do upstairs or something; probably last minute things he needed for the trip. Like a freakin' sleeping bag. Justin would not at all rule out the possibility that Yosuke forgot to buy a sleeping bag till the very last second.

"I've been debating between ramen or curry." Yukiko replied.

"Personally, I'd go with curry." Yu added, a grin across his face. Justin raised an eyebrow, not at the remark, but at the choice itself. He knew nothing about curry other than it was supposed to be spicy; and while Justin did love spicy shit, he'd at the very least like to know what the hell curry actually was.

"Cool, curry it is." Chie declared, not so much as considering extending the question to Justin. He was going to put in a vote for ramen, but it seemed no one gave a fuck what he wanted.

"What IS curry, anyway?" Justin interrupted, hoping to at least identify what he would be forcing down his throat tomorrow.

"What, you don't know?" Chie recoiled her head with shock, as though Justin were some sort of freak for not knowing what curry was. Justin just sighed and shook his head. This was exactly why he never asked questions; people just looked at him like he was out of his goddamned mind. _Look, no one ate curry in California, give me a freakin' break._

"It's rice, vegetables, meat and curry sauce." Yu tried to explain concisely. Justin pushed out his bottom lip slightly. That actually didn't sound half bad; though he was curious what curry sauce was now. He could only imagine that was what made the dish spicy, though, so he wasn't really complaining. His vote was still on ramen, though.

The four walked around the store for a while, carriage in hand as they looked around for ingredients. It wasn't for a while that they stopped near the vegetable section of the store. Justin was actually a little curious as to what kind of vegetables you put in curry. So did the girls apparently; which was slightly concerning.

"Uh… What do you put in curry again?" Chie spoke up, as though shuffling through her mind for the ingredients. Yu's eyes widened slightly, a very quiet gasp coming out from under his breath. The girls didn't hear him, but Justin sure as hell did. Justin just shrugged a bit; they were probably just trying to remember everything they were going to need. It was understandable really; if they were going to be out in the middle of nowhere, they didn't want to be missing a crucial ingredient, right?

"Carrots, potatoes, onions… mushrooms, green peppers, and… radishes?" Yukiko listed off slowly, trying to recall all of the ingredients. Justin raised an eyebrow slightly at that last one. Radishes were nasty enough as it was, but he assumed maybe it gave the sauce an extra kick. What he was concerned about, however, was not the inclusion of radishes in the ingredient list; it was the way Yukiko read it off like it was a question. She didn't sound like she was sure it WAS in curry. _W-well, I suppose we can buy it now and look it up on the internet later…_

"Are radishes the same as turnips…?" Chie asked. Alright, now Justin was concerned. His eyes widened a bit as Yu and him exchanged a glance of panic. The two quietly mouthed off a few sentences between each other.

'_She's joking right?_' Yu mouthed, looking out of the corner of his eye to the two girls shifting through the vegetables.

'_I don't think she is._' Justin replied, biting at his bottom lip. This might be problematic.

"Hmm, I wonder what kind of ingredients Yosuke likes… I get the feeling he's really picky." Chie pondered out loud, tapping her foot slightly as her eyes darted from vegetable to vegetable.

"Since when do you care what Yosuke wants?" Justin joked.

"Good point." She replied back, a slight chuckle on her breath. It was true; Yosuke would get what he got and he would like it. Besides, if he wanted any input into the matter, he should have actually showed up to help shop. Seriously, what the hell was he doing anyway?

"He's on another floor, isn't he? Do you want me to go ask?" Yukiko questioned, clearly oblivious to the fact that no one actually gave a damn what Yosuke wanted.

"Nah, no need. Plus, he said he needed to get ready for something." Chie replied.

It was silent between everyone for a while, though for entirely different reasons. Chie and Yukiko were too absorbed in their shopping to really talk about anything. Yu and Justin on the other hand were trying to mentally calm themselves down. There was a good chance that Chie and Yukiko had no freaking idea what they were doing. I mean, sure, Justin really was in no position to complain when his cooking was probably a thousand times worse, but still.

"Hey, Chie. You use potato starch for curry, right?" Yukiko eventually broke the silence. Chie's eyes widened slightly; not in shock mind you, but as though she had just been asked a question she had no idea the answer to. Mostly because she didn't.

"Huh…? O-Of course you do!" Chie stuttered. Justin had to shove his face into his palm. Yep; they were all screwed. I mean, he didn't know how to cook curry, so he wasn't exactly an expert on what ingredients they should or shouldn't be buying, but he knew potato starch certainly wasn't one.

"Otherwise the sauce wouldn't thicken." Yukiko continued, trying to rationalize her hastily thrown together ingredient list. Yu looked like he was going to break out into tears any moment. He didn't want to be rude or anything… but this was going to end horribly. "Then we need potato starch and… some flour too?"

_Alright, getting slightly better…?_ Justin thought to himself. Again, he knew nothing about how curry was prepared, but he did know certain meats were prepared using flour.

"Th-There are different kinds of flour… Which one should we get? All-purpose? Whole wheat?"

"Regular." Both Yu and Justin replied, trying to hide their interruption with a fake cough. Incredibly fake. Still, neither Chie nor Yukiko could hear what they were trying to say, so they just shrugged their shoulders and turned back towards each other, hoping the other knew the answer to their conundrum.

"Hm, whole wheat sounds healthy. Let's get that one." Yukiko announced. Yu and Justin just shook their heads in disgust. They had outright told them the right kind of flour, and they still picked the wrong kind. Sooner or later they were going to have to stop them from fucking this up anymore than they already had. I mean, sure, you were supposed to learn from trial and error… But this was just bad. This was like Justin trying to make a hamburger by buying a steak and Italian bread… Actually the Italian bread part doesn't sound half-bad, but that's beside the point. Justin made a mental note to himself all the same to buy some chips on their way out; he very well might need them if things turned out the way they looked like they were.

"And here they are!" Yukiko suddenly shouted, interrupting Yu and Justin's thoughts about what they were going to do at their funerals. In Yukiko's hands were a handful of small, red peppers. "Chili Peppers! It's not curry if it isn't spicy."

"Now we're talking." Justin declared, thrilled by the new route the girls were taking with their ingredient shopping. Justin fucking loved chili peppers; on their own or otherwise. He was a little surprised when Yu give him a wide eyed stare, as though he were crazy.

'_You don't put peppers in curry…' _Yu mouthed to Justin in explanation. He knew Justin didn't actually know the ingredients to curry, but even then, he was surprised Justin had thought chili peppers were an active ingredient. Justin just raised his eyebrows in shock. If you don't put peppers on, how the fuck do you make it spicy?

'_But isn't curry supposed to be spicy?'_

'_Not like that.' _Yu grimaced slightly.

"Oh well, let's just get everything that seems right." Chie groaned slightly. Clearly even she knew they had no idea what they were doing. Justin wasn't a particularly religious person, but he still found himself making the sign of the cross across his chest, hoping for some sort of divine intervention. He didn't even care how it happened; maybe Jesus would just give them all a freaking recipe, maybe God would come out of the sky and slap the two whenever they picked up something wrong. Who knows, he just hoped God would do SOMETHING to save Yu and Justin. And by extension Yosuke, but no one really cared what happened to him.

"How about some Kimchi, too? And some ground pepper!" Chie continued, trying to think of everything you could possibly throw into curry. Justin had no freaking idea what kimchi was, but he doubted it was supposed to go in curry. Ground pepper… maybe? I mean, it couldn't possibly fuck with the flavor that much, right? That's what everything else they bought was for.

"There's two kinds, though. Black and white." Yukiko spoke up, trying to get some clarification from Chie. _Oh please for the love of god, pick black…_

"Whoa! Way to go, Yukiko… The Amagi family sure knows their stuff!" Justin and Yu couldn't help but groan at that. Yeah, sure, maybe the Amagi FAMILY did, but certainly not Yukiko. "Let's get both, just in case." That only made Justin groan more. How much was this going to fucking cost!? They were buying up half the store!

"Oh yeah… we'll need some special ingredients, too, to spice things up." Yukiko spoke up, a wide grin on her face. Justin and Yu both threw their hands up. This was starting to physically pain them to watch. _Fuck the special ingredients, you guys haven't even gotten the normal ones right!_

"Hmm, I remember seeing something on TV about that… I think it was… chocolate… coffee… yogurt… OH! How about mint chocolate, I love that stuff!" Chie shouted with glee. Justin had to turn his head as he gagged a bit. He never understood how people ate junior mints or anything like that. It just tasted so bitter, and it left a foul taste in his mouth. And here Chie was suggesting they try and throw that into CURRY. You don't put fucking mint chocolate into meat, vegetables, and rice. That's just disgusting!

"I don't like coffee that much, though…" Chie continued. Justin sighed in slight relief. He hated the taste of coffee too, so this worked out to his benefit. Besides, one less thing they threw in there that didn't belong, the better. Or at least, that had been Justin's original thought process. "Oh, I can drink mocha, so let's get that."

…

_Alright; so I've decided that eating lead will be a better alternative to eating whatever the hell it is these two are trying to cook up. So long cruel world._

"What about some seafood? That should make the sauce better." Yukiko added. Justin sighed. At this point he had given all hope of this coming out as anything edible. He passed a glance over to Yu, who was very visibly panicking at this point before whispering in an aside to him.

"Curry sauce wouldn't happen to be white would it?" Justin remarked. He could MAYBE understand seafood in a white sauce, hell even a red sauce if he wanted to push it. Yu shook his head, a look of disgust across his face.

"Brown."

"Of course it is…" Justin moaned.

The girls soon grabbed a hold of their carriage and pushed on ahead in search of all sorts of things that had no place being in curry. Yu and Justin just sort of stood there and watched as they turned the corner, completely and utterly dumbfounded. Justin didn't even know what was in curry, and he knew that was ALL wrong.

"We're going to die tomorrow, aren't we?" Justin eventually spoke up, breaking the silence.

"It was nice knowing you man."


	65. Chapter 64: June 17, 2011

CHAPTER 64

June 17, 2011

* * *

"Well if there's one bright side to this entire trip, it's that we got the back of the bus."

The class had been crowding into the bus to get ready to depart for the camping trip. For the most part everyone had been taking seats near the front as they got on, probably so they would have to walk a shorter distance with all their shit. Justin, however, insisted that they all get to the back of the bus. Not that anyone was complaining; the back of the bus was where the party was at. On top of the speed bumps, the teacher couldn't really hear that far back, so they could pretty much talk about anything without King Moron giving them shit.

The team managed to get the seats in the very far back, much to Justin's pleasure. The further back, the better the ride. Justin, Chie, and Yukiko had all taken the right seat, while Yu, Yosuke, and Kanji had all taken the left. The school wasn't all that big, so they could fit both the freshman and sophomore classes into the same bus no problem. Either that, or they just decided to be cheap. After all, it would have been nice if it was two people to a seat instead of three, what with all the crap they needed to carry with them, but alas, Justin wasn't complaining. The more the merrier after all.

"No kidding. I'm surprised no one already took these seats." Yosuke piped up in slight curiosity. He had thought the back seats were the most commonly sought after on the bus. Apparently he was wrong.

"So how exactly does this work anyway? We just pick up trash all day?" Justin asked, somewhat curious why you would need to have a group of five people for that.

"Pretty much." Chie replied, a slight sigh on her breath. She wasn't looking forward to it, that's for sure. Hell, everyone moaned silently under their breath once they realized they'd be bending over to pick up people's litter for the next eight or so hours. Justin sort of felt bad for throwing so many hamburger wrappers out of the car window back in California, now. But only because he was picking this shit up today. A week from today, he'd probably forget all about feeling bad, and go back to dropping his trash wherever he pleased.

It took a while before the rest of the bus had loaded up and King Moron started shouting at everyone about bus etiquette or shit. He had said no talking, but no one paid any mind to that. King Moron had apparently come to terms that no one was going to follow that rule after only a minute; instead opting to change the rule to no talking loudly. _Yeah, good luck enforcing that one, buddy._

The bus departed not long after King Moron's speech, much to the team's excitement; not necessarily because they were camping, mind you, but there was a speed bump just near the exit of the school parking lot. They weren't really going fast enough to get the full effect, though, which was a shame. Still, they did jump up slightly as they went over the bump. Everyone just sort of shrugged with slight disappointment that no one had hit their head on the roof of the bus. It was always painful, but that's when you know you got a real good one; not to mention it was always good fun to laugh at however had been unlucky enough to puncture the roof with their skull. Kanji was the tallest of the group, so he probably would be the one to hit his head first; unless his body mass kept him glued to his seat, in which case, Yu would probably be the first, being the second tallest in the group and all. Then, that would immediately be followed by Yosuke, then Yukiko, then Justin, and finally Chie. Figures that Chie would get to laugh at everyone else; cause if they all hit the ceiling, no one could brag that they didn't get a concussion.

They had only been riding in that bus for a few moments when Justin tapped Chie on the shoulder, holding out an ear bud attached to his iPod. Chie didn't even think about bringing her own; nor did anyone else given that no one seemed to have their plugs in their ears. Though that could just be because they were all busy chatting with each other and not being antisocial. All the same Chie shrugged slightly before grabbing the plug and pressing it into her ear. She appreciated the offer, and a little music never hurt, right? Besides, Justin's taste in music couldn't be that bad, right?

Justin smiled at Chie slightly as she put the ear bud in her ear. He didn't have anything in particular he was listening to, but he was happy that Chie would listen to his music with him. He opened up his free music app on his iPod, because buying music is for pussies and the record company apparently. Plus he had already bought all these songs and had no intention of throwing album after album onto iTunes; so there was that to.

You know how most people have playlists based on their mood or whatever they're into at the moment? Justin didn't; he had two playlists, which he appropriately labeled 'Safe for the public,' and 'Oh shit, what the fuck are you doing?' I'm sure you can guess which playlist had what kind of songs in it. He tapped the 'safe for the public' playlist, bringing up a plethora of different songs. He didn't tap any of them, though. He just pressed the shuffle button and let it do its thing.

While Chie continued to chat with the others while listening to Justin's iPod, Justin just stared out the window, letting his mind wander as the music resonated in his ears. Song after song played as his head beat against the window with every turn; Muse, The Replacements, The Clash. All good songs, thank god. Sometimes Justin had to question the stuff on his iPod, so he was more than satisfied by the song selection so far. I mean, how can you hate Alex Chilton? Still, nothing quite excited Justin as the next song that started playing. Apparantly the same could be said of Chie, who had stopped talking with the others as the song started to buzz in her ear.

"Oh man… I remember this song!" Justin announced to himself, as he flipped the iPod's screen on to be greeted by information he already knew.

_Say it Ain't So – Weezer_

Everyone passed Justin a strange glance from across the bus at Justin's proclamation that recognized his iPod's contents. Not that he cared, though. Despite this song being on his iPod for god only knows how long, it hadn't popped up in shuffle in so long. Both him and Chie pressed the ear bud in their ear deeper, as though expecting that to make the music clearer, or louder, or just better. Justin was nodding slightly in time with the music, a wide grin on his face.

_Oh yeah._

_Alright._

Justin had started to sing along to the music, if by sing you meant speak in time to the music with very slight changes in the pitch of his voice. At first he had thought people were going to look at him like he was crazy, but it seemed almost as though they were surprised; pleasantly so. Hell Chie had even joined in once the first verse had kicked in. And holy fucking crap, she could sing. Justin never really thought she could, so he was surprised when his ears were met by the sound of angels singing.

_Somebody's heiney._

_Is crowding my ice box_

_Somebody's cold one_

_Is giving me chills_

_Guess I'll just close my eyes…_

Justin flashed a grin at Chie, as did she to Justin. The two were having a blast at this point, though that may have been for different reasons. Justin was just happy to hear her beautiful voice; Chie was probably just having fun making an ass out of herself in the back. Not that Justin would agree with the 'ass' part. He thought she was wonderful. Of course, their very brief moment between each other was interrupted when they heard Yu's voice from the other side of the bus. He recognized what they were singing immediately; and hot damn, did he love this song.

_Ah yeah._

_Alright._

_Feels good._

_Inside._

Justin raised a slight eyebrow in confusion. He didn't think Yu would be joining in their escapedes, let alone when he couldn't hear the music. It was amazing how well he was keeping time, though that could be because Justin and Chie hadn't stopped singing themselves. The others were nodding their heads slightly, again, in time with music they couldn't hear. They probably had the song playing in their head. Justin just didn't think EVERY single one of them knew this song, let alone liked it. After all everyone had different musical tastes.

_Flip on the tele._

_Wrestle with Jimmy._

_Something is bubbling._

_Behind my back._

_The bottle is ready._

_To blow._

Suddenly, just as the guitar kicked in, every single person in the back row of the bus banged their head in time with the guitar. It was overly dramatic, but oh so beautiful at the same time. And every single person jumped into help sing the chorus. Even Yukiko, which was strange considering she was always so shy. And what do you know, it turns out that Chie and Yu were the only ones who could sing; though that could be because Kanji wasn't really singing, just talking in time to the music.

_Say it ain't so!_

_Your drug is a heartbreaker._

_Say it ain't so!_

_My love is a life taker._

The group laughed hysterically as they waited for the next verse to come around. They were getting weird looks from the people in front of them, but fuck those people. They should have joined in and got the whole bus doing it, but NOOOOoooooo. That would be WEIRD; singing on a bus is what WEIRD people do. Fucking idiots. Everyone had been singing along as the next verse, except for Kanji who clearly only knew the lyrics to the chorus, and had been stumbling to keep up with the rest. He just gave up while he was ahead after a while.

_I can't confront you._

_I never could do._

_That which might hurt you._

_So try and be cool._

_When I say._

Surprising everyone, Justin hit the high-note on the next lyric perfectly. Now, Justin never claimed he could sing, but if there was one thing he could do, it was hit high notes. Back when Maya and Justin had been messing around with the microphone on Rock Band, Justin had managed to hit the higher pitches on 'Run to the Hills' perfectly. Maya had started laughing hysterically when he did too. Justin just shrugged it off though. He always assumed that hitting the high notes just came with being British. You wouldn't notice it unless someone pointed it out, but Justin had a VERY slight English accent. You could only hear it when he said certain words though, and like I said, you'd have to be expecting it.

_This way_

_Is a waterslide away from me that takes you further every day._

_So be cool._

Everyone pushed aside their surprise at Justin's high-note hitting antics for a moment as they delved back into the chorus, still banging their heads in time to the guitar being strummed.

_Say it ain't so!_

_Your drug is a heartbreaker._

_Say it ain't so!_

_My love is a life taker._

For the next verse, everyone but Yu and Justin seemed to drop out, the combined power of their voice dropping significantly as a result. Justin was wondering why everyone dropped out at first, but it made a lot more sense later.

_Dear daddy._

_I write you._

_In spite of years of silence._

_You've cleaned up._

_Found Jesus._

_Things are good, or so I hear._

_This bottle_

_Of Stevens._

_Awakens ancient feelings._

Everyone jumped back in for the next few lyrics. Normally in the song, it was just the lead singer shouting a bit; but here, it was much more intense because they had the power of four more voices backing it up.

_Like father._

_Stepfather._

_The son is drowning in the flood._

_Yeah, yeah yeah, yeah yeah_

_Say it ain't so!_

_Your drug is a heartbreaker._

_Say it ain't so!_

_My love is a lifetaker._

And with that, the song faded out, the guitar track on Justin's iPod playing out the band. Of course, no one else in the back could hear that. They did know it was the end of the song, though, and had all started laughing hysterically. At that point Justin and Chie had ripped their ear buds out of their ears. There was no way they were going to top that at all this entire trip; unless Justin started playing Don't Stop Believing, but quite frankly, he was sick and fucking tired of hearing that everywhere. Instead they just laughed for what felt like a good minute or two straight, occasionally trying to choke up words over their laughter. They were so busy laughing they didn't even notice King Moron yelling at them from the front.

* * *

"Ugh, picking up all that trash was murder on my back…"

It was finally the end of the day, and everyone could at last sit down and relax their legs. Justin, Yosuke, and Yu had all been sitting at one of the picnic tables that had been set up for the students, while Chie and Yukiko had been cooking. Justin was a little concerned about the quality of the food, but he was flattered that the two were going out of their way to cook for all five of them. He wanted to help, for more than one reason of course, but he knew how Chie got about him trying to do stuff on her behalf. Besides, knowing him, he'd probably set the ingredients on fire just by starring at them. He passed the girls a slight smile as they turned around to look at the three. Chie just gave him a fake grin and an awkward wave back, which just caused Justin's eyes to widen._ Please tell me they didn't screw up that bad…_

"I can't believe that someone threw away an entire bike. Dammit, litterers should have to clean up their own garbage." Yosuke continued, wallowing in self pity. Not that Justin didn't agree to a certain extent. That bike was a pain in the ass to get rid of. I mean, you can't just shove a bike in a garbage bag and call it a day; they had to drag the thing to a fucking dumpster to get rid of it, and then King Moron ended up giving them hell for leaving their spot. Justin almost socked the guy right there and then. His back was killing him from bending over so much too. He had bad enough posture as it was without leaning towards the ground constantly.

"I swear if I find out who threw all that glass into the grass like that, I'm throwing a bottle at their skull." Justin remarked, shaking his hand slightly. He had been picking up a can when some glass shards he hadn't seen cut his finger open. It was bleeding pretty bad at the time, but Justin just didn't give a fuck. It would heal eventually, and it was just his finger. He wasn't going to bleed out or anything. Sure enough, it had scabbed over by now, though it still stung a bit, and there were definitely some blood stains across his fingers. What he wouldn't give for a sink right now. All three of the guys just shook their heads in annoyance at the task they had to perform. On the bright side, no more trash for the rest of the trip, so they could at least TRY to have some fun.

"Ah well." Yosuke remarked, trying to shove the thought of their labors out of his mind. "Anyways, time for dinner! Man, I'm starvin'." Yu and Justin immediately gave each other a look of disgust and a groan. Yosuke hadn't seen the things they had seen, so he wasn't quite as fearful as Yu and Justin were. Though, that could work towards their advantage. Yosuke would probably dive in immediately if they kept their mouths shut, and then they could see his reaction to see if the food was edible or not. _Another brilliant plan by yours truly,_ Justin smirked to himself.

"Dude, the girls cooked just for us!" Yosuke continued. "Not that I expect much out of Chie…" Normally Justin would throw something at Yosuke for that remark, but after the horrors he witnessed in that grocery store, he was actually inclined to agree. "…but Yukiko's got the full tradition of the Amagi Inn behind her food."

_Well that's true, I suppose. Or at least… I hope._

"You know it's gonna be out of this world!" Yosuke practically shouted. Justin kind of felt bad that they weren't going to say anything to him. The guy was expecting five-star cuisine here, and was probably going to get something inedible. Still, better Yosuke then them.

"…I'll give you mine too." Yu remarked, a grimace on his face. Yosuke seemed surprised, but in a pleasant way.

"Huh? Why so generous all of a sudden? Its okay, man. Just enjoy!" Yu snapped slightly under the table, his plan of passing off his supper to Yosuke failing. Of all the times Yosuke had to be generous, it had to be today. Justin could see Yu mouthing the word 'shit' under his breath too. Clearly he was disappointed in his lack of results. "I can't wait to dig in!" Yosuke continued on his rant.

"Uhhh, Sorry for the wait… Um…"

The two girls had come over with a few plates, placing them in front of the three guys. Justin gave a nod of appreciation towards Chie as she put one down in front of him; even if he did have no intention of eating this. It's the thought that counts, right? Still, he didn't like the look that was on Chie's face, nor the way she had stuttered as she announced the food was done. Something wasn't right, even for them. He bit his lip slightly as Chie made her way over to Yukiko's side on the opposite end of the table the boys had been sitting at. Justin made another swift sign of the cross under the table.

"We… put a lot of love into it…" Chie continued, trying to preemptively strike any objections the guys had. Well, there sure were a lot of objections on Yu and Justin's end, now that they pretty much knew for a fact this wasn't edible. Yosuke wasn't so much as fazed by that remark, which was good, because that meant Justin and Yu wouldn't have to be the one to break the news to them.

"Whoa, really? That's kinda clichéd, but still awesome!" Yosuke grinned widely.

"God have mercy on his soul." Yu whispered in an aside to Justin.

"God have mercy on us all." Justin replied, careful to make sure Chie and Yukiko couldn't hear their brief exchange. They didn't, thankfully.

"Okay then, chow time!"

Yosuke couldn't have grabbed that plastic fork and shoved food in his mouth any quicker. It was almost painful for Justin and Yu to watch. Especially when he practically started to choke on the food. Of course, Justin thought the part where he spat the food out was completely unnecessary. Just fucking swallow it man, or at the very least put it in a napk- Okay, they didn't have napkins. Hell, they didn't even have anything to drink. But that's beside the point, do something that doesn't make you look like an asshole! Yosuke's forehead pounded against the table in front of him; thankfully just short of his plate so as the food didn't get stuck to his hair or forehead. Though, Yu and Justin were sincerely concerned the food had killed Yosuke now.

"H-Hey…?" Chie spoke up with concern. Justin was surprised she wasn't trying to kick Yosuke's corpse's ass for spitting up her food like that. Hell, he was even more surprised when he seemed to jump back to life at the sound of Chie's voice, murder in his eyes. Apparently he didn't take kindly to being poisoned. Yosuke slammed his hands against the table before pushing himself off the park bench.

"WHAT THE HELL IS THIS!?" Yosuke shouted at the two, practically in their face. Yu and Justin passed each other a look of surprise. Holy shit, he was furious that the two had somehow screwed up curry. The guy looked like someone had just hung his dog and sent the corpse to him in the mail. Justin's look of shock soon dropped into a slight glare. Okay, the food was bad. But it couldn't be THAT bad. There's no reason to be acting like a prick.

"I mean what kinda-" Yosuke started to gag again, as though the mere thought of the food was distasteful to him. "Curry's supposed to be like "really spicy" or "kinda mild"… This just stinks!" Alright, now Justin was just out right pissed. They didn't have to make shit for you. If you don't like it, don't eat it, but don't you dare insult them like that. Justin's hands were balled up into fists at this point, trying to hold himself back from decking Yosuke. Yu just looked as though he were used to this by now, leaning his head against his palm, his elbow on the table as he watched Yosuke make an ass out of himself.

"And it's gritty too!" Yosuke continued on his rant, Chie and Yukio withdrawing slightly, mortified by Yosuke's outburst. "It's somehow both gritty and slimy… And it's got squishy parts in it… It's so fricken' nasty I can't even swallow it!"

"Well it didn't mix too well… But it does offer a wide variety of textures…" Chie tried to rationalize, biting on her bottom lip slightly as Yosuke got more and more in their face.

"It's nauseating!" Yosuke screamed back at them. _Alright, that's it._

"Oh for fuck's sake, I've had enough of this!" Justin shouted at Yosuke. The girls just passed a look of slight distress over to Justin. Sure they could always just clock Yosuke, but he was kind of right. Still, they didn't like having Yosuke trying to rip them a new one just for being bad chefs. "They didn't have to make you jackshit. You don't like it? Fine, don't eat it. But don't be a fucking asshole about it."

Yosuke glared at Justin, as though Justin was the bad guy here. "Oh yeah? Well why don't you try it since you're so confident!" He remarked. Justin was the only person here who he could give less of a shit about dying from food poisoning. Justin glared at him; he didn't WANT to eat the food after that display, but it couldn't be that bad. Besides, anything to shut Yosuke up.

"Oh, I will!" Justin shouted before grabbing his fork and shoving a mouthful of food into his mouth.

"Wait, don't do it!" Yu shouted, trying to stop Justin from letting his sense of chivalry get in the way of his better judgement. It was much too late though. Yu flinched in fear as he watched Justin try to chew the food. Try.

Justin wasn't entirely sure the best way to describe this… Uh… Well, for one thing, for something that was hard as a rock, it sure seemed to jiggle around a lot in his mouth. And that was just getting into the texture. Flavor was just… Yeah, Yosuke might have been entirely right. Nauseating was the perfect word to describe it. It tasted like burnt bread and… Is that strawberry? _Oh they did not seriously put yogurt into this. _He couldn't even tell what meat they had tried to use; mostly because he couldn't taste it. What he could taste though, was blood…

Wait, hold on one second. Blood? Actually, now that he thought about it, his gums were starting to hurt. Was this shit so tough he had managed to cut his gums open? Justin blinked a few times before holding his finger up to the two girls. They could already tell he didn't like it, but he didn't want to be rude. He turned his head off to the side to avoid showing off the contents of his mouth as he stuck his finger into his mouth. He had expected his gum lines to be scrapped up, though what he found instead wasn't much better. He felt around for a bit before pulling out his wisdom tooth, deeply embedded into… Something; he wanted to say a piece of meat, but goddamn, it probably was a rock or something.

Everyone's eyes widened with concern as Justin held up his tooth to look at it, his brow dropped in confusion. The food had been so bad it had actually managed to pull his tooth out… Holy fuck… Justin forced himself to swallow the rest of the contents in his mouth; though it wasn't pleasant to say the least, before placing his tooth on the table and eyeing the girls from across the table. They looked like they were fretting out of their minds seeing Justin pull out an entire tooth thanks to their food. Hell, even Yosuke looked like he felt bad for suggesting it in the first place. Justin sighed slightly.

"Okay. It's bad." He tried to put it subtly.

"J-Justin, your tooth-"

"Saved me a trip to the dentist." Justin cut Chie off. He didn't need people getting worried about that too now. They were here to have fun, goddammit, not worry about how Chie and Yukiko almost murdered Yosuke and Justin with their cooking. Chie and Yukiko passed a quick glance at Yu, who simply pushed the plate away from him. After that last show; he wasn't touching this stuff. The girls understood though. It DID knock Justin's tooth out after all.

"Sorry…" The two girls apologized. Yosuke just sort of sighed. Before he was pissed about the attempt at murdering him; now he was just starting to realize they had no food for the night. Justin did too, but he was too busy feeling at the inside of his gums where his tooth used to be. Felt strange, though he couldn't say it hurt as much as people made it out to. It was bleeding pretty fucking bad though. Whatever, he could just swallow the blood to wash away the taste of Chie and Yukiko's cooking.

"What're we gonna do? Our group's the only one without food." Yosuke groaned. "I mean, if it was even slightly edible, that'd be one thing… But I'm not taking another bite of this Mystery Food X."

Everyone looked down at the ground in slight disappointment over their lack of food. Except Justin, who usually opted to look upwards when he was picking at his teeth… Or his lack thereof. On the bright side, having a wisdom tooth removed was grounds for a week out of school. He just might take advantage of that. Suddenly Chie's head jumped up, as though hit by divine inspiration. Only it hadn't been an idea, it had been the scent of someone else's food.

"Hey, something smells good…!" Everybody's heads recoiled slightly to match Chie's, their noses to the air as they tried to smell what Chie was smelling. They all smelt it all right, and they immediately recognized the source; a chubby girl that was eating way more than any human being should humanely be allowed to. Third-world countries need food too you know! Yosuke slowly turned towards her, putting his best pleading eyes as he could on.

"H-Hey… Uh, Hanako? You… wouldn't happen to have any extra curry left, huh?" He had at least been composed for a time being, though it seemed he snapped almost immediately. The guy should never ever be a negotiator with how quickly he fell to his knees to beg. "C'mon, give us some! We're begging you! We're starving to death over here!"

"No way. I'm on a diet right now, so this is all that I made. It has to last me." Hanako replied, a slight snort on her breath. Oh god, was the disgusting.

"I'm pretty sure when you eat something to last you; it's called 'Hibernation.'" Justin joked in a deadpan voice.

"Justin!" Chie shouted at him. He understood the joke was rude as all fuck… But c'mon, the girl was just ASKING for it. Besides, she didn't seem to care at all anyway. Chie shook her head slightly before turning her attention back to Hanako, who had already started shoveling food down her throat again. "All that you made…? It's like a bucketful…"

Yosuke groaned slightly before turning towards the rest of the group. "I wonder if there's any way we can get something delivered here."

"But our cell-phones don't get service up here…" Yukiko remarked gloomily. Justin could not understand WHY they didn't; after all, they were out in the open. He could understand when you were in a building or something, but the wilderness? Uh-uh. That 's the one place you absolutely SHOULD have reception, in case of an emergency.

"And dinnertime's almost over…" Chie moaned slightly. Everyone sighed in complete synchronization, though their grief was immediately interrupted by the sound of King Moron shouting.

"Alright, back to your tents! Men's tents are this way, and the girls' tents are that way! Come on, people, look alive! Youngsters like yourselves should hurry up and get to bed after they eat!"

"Since fucking when?" Justin remarked sarcastically as King Moron continued on his tangent. Yosuke had started to glare at the two girls however, and they clearly knew given the way they were slowly moving their feet backwards.

"It's now time for us teachers to have some boo- I mean, err, off to bed! Lights out!"

Justin's eyes widened slightly, as though he wasn't quite sure he had heard what he thought he had just heard. King Moron had cut himself off, but he wasn't fooling Justin. There were booze here, and the teachers were drinking them. Of course, Justin's eyes hadn't widened with shock or surprise, or anything like that. He had been struck by an awful, awful idea. While Justin had began plotting the most demented plan he had ever thought of in his mind, Yosuke again began to glare at the girls, the reality of their food shortage starting to set in.

"You guys are gonna pay for this." Yosuke snarled at the two girls. Chie and Yukiko just passed each other a look of concern. They believed Yosuke one hundred percent; the guy had never gotten so pissed over anything in all his life. Justin would give him shit about making such a big deal about this… But the food DID kind of do a number on his jaw; so he had no room to argue. Chie chuckled an awkward laugh, as though trying to see if Yosuke was joking or not. He wasn't.

"…Night." Chie declared to the guys, slightly fretting for her life now. The girls could not have departed any quicker if they wanted to. The guys all just sort of sighed before pushing onwards to their tent. Except maybe Justin, who had taken a second to follow the other guys' lead. He had a devious plan in mind; now it was just a matter of deciding when to execute it.

* * *

"Dammit… I'm so hungry…" Yosuke moaned.

The four guys had been sitting in their tent, Kanji included. Which was strange considering he was supposed to be in the freshman tent right now. I mean, sure, there was no rule saying he couldn't be here, but it just struck Justin as a bit odd. The guy never even asked if he COULD stay, he just sort of barged in at some point. It didn't matter; Justin just chuckled slightly at Yosuke's cries of hunger. Justin and Yu had been shoving chips down their throat, having prepared for just a turn of events as that which had just unfolded. Yosuke had practically begged Justin and Yu to share, but they just dismissed his pleas. They were starving too, and besides, Yosuke should have come with them to shop if he wanted chips; then he would be prepared.

"And how the hell did you end up here?" Yosuke turned towards Kanji, asking the question on everyone's mind. Kanji shrugged slightly.

"My teach threatened to hold me back a year if I didn't show. And the first year's tent is all quiet, like someone died." Kanji explained, sounding almost annoyed by this entire trip. Justin couldn't say he blamed him; for the most part, this trip had turned to shit. Hell, Justin even forgot to bring the trading cards he intended to use to play Texas Hold'em inside the tent. This wasn't fun in the slightest.

"Well, if you were in there with 'em, I'm not surprised…" Yosuke snarked. Justin was too tired to kick him upside the head right now, so instead he just decided to shove more chips in his mouth, hoping maybe this argument would escalate and he would get to watch a show. It didn't happen, though, much to his boredom. Kanji looked around the tent a bit, slightly confused as he looked at his surroundings.

"Is it just you three in this tent?" Kanji questioned. The freshmen tents were significantly more crowded, much to his displeasure, so he was somewhat surprised to find only the three of them here. As if three was a small amount of people to fit in a single tent.

"The other guys called in sick… Smart move…" Yosuke remarked snidely. Justin shook his head in agreement. Hell, he had planned on calling in sick; especially after seeing what they may or may not be eating.

"So it's okay if I hang here?" Kanji spoke up curiously. Justin didn't really see much reason why he couldn't or shouldn't. He gave a slight nod to Kanji, though he figured Yu and Yosuke still needed to put in their votes on the matter. Yu looked like he was in agreement as well, and since there were only three of them there, that meant Yosuke's vote was irrelevant.

"Stay as long as you want." Yu spoke up, a slight grin on his face.

"Hey, you're a stand-up guy, Senpai." Kanji remarked with enthusiasm. "Don't worry, I won't make any trouble for you. They won't catch me unless we raise a ruckus."

"Oh come on! Raising a ruckus is ALL we have left." Justin remarked, slightly saddened that the group had no intention of having a party, or pulling a prank. I mean, sure, Justin had other plans in mind, but he would have liked to have known he wasn't going to be the only one doing something stupid in the name of a good-time. Yu just shook his head slightly, a grin on his face. Typical Justin.

"Alright, alright. You can sleep over there." Yosuke groaned slightly, pointing to a spot on the opposite end of the tent. Kanji just nodded his head slightly. He hadn't really been expecting to sleep here, but anything was better than the freshmen tent. Of course, that's what he HAD thought, until he actually saw what Yosuke had been pointing at.

"Dude, there's a huge rock under there. How'm I supposed to sleep? It's gonna hurt like hell." Kanji shouted, very visibly annoyed by Yosuke trying to give him a gravel bed. Though that did bring up an interesting question; who the hell was in charge of setting this tent up? Because it sure as hell hadn't been any of them. If it had, maybe they'd have enough common sense not to have half the tent hanging over a hill, and half of it on top of a rock.

"Pipe down… Didn't you say you weren't going to make any noise?" Yosuke barked at Kanji, trying to get him to shut his freaking mouth.

"Actually, all he said was he wasn't going to start a ruckus. I see no ruckus." Justin smirked. Yosuke just gave him a slight glare.

"You know what he meant." Yosuke spat at Justin.

"Yo Senpai, can't you go just a little further back?" Kanji questioned, poking his back into the rock behind him. There was no way in hell this was going to work out for him. Yosuke just shook his head.

"Nope. There's a slope just past here. I'd roll down the hill in my sleep."

"Unless you take the tent with you, I'm not seeing the problem." Yu interrupted. Yosuke just shook his head and shrugged. He wasn't sleeping on the slope; end of discussion.

"If you don't like it here, go back to the first-year tent." Yosuke added with a slightly aggressive tone. Kanji sighed a bit as he looked at the ground. He REALLY didn't want to go back to the first-year tent, so he supposed he would just have to make do with sleeping against Mt. Rushmore. Kanji shook his head slightly before turning his attention over to Yu.

"Hey… wasn't your teacher some guy called King Moron?"

"That's him alright." Justin remarked, fiddling around with his wisdom tooth. The others had told him to get rid of the damn thing, or at least not keep playing around with it in front of them, but it wasn't like Justin had anything better to do to keep his mind occupied. Except maybe listen to music, but he'd rather keep the battery alive for the bus ride home.

"That guy stopped me outside earlier, and he pissed me off so bad I was about to lose it. He was going on and on about when I was in middle school, when he doesn't know shit about any of that…" Kanji aggressively ranted. Justin raised a slight eyebrow. He wouldn't know about anything like that, that's for damn sure. Sounded to Justin like King Moron was already drunk. Perfect. "Not only that, he was bullshitting about how I'll be expelled immediately if I cause trouble… That ain't funny man."

"Yeah, that guy's set a speed record for jumping to conclusions." Yosuke added in agreement. Apparently it was King Moron Happy Funtime Bashing Hour. So basically no different than usual.

"Check this out, right? I heard it from a guy in my class. He said that asshole was talking shit about the two girls who died." Kanji whispered informatively. Yosuke seemed slightly shocked by that, though Justin and Yu weren't fazed in the slightest. That sounded exactly like something King Moron would do.

"King Moron was talking about Ms. Yamano and Saki-senpai…?" Yosuke spoke up in surprise. Kanji nodded slightly before continuing his story.

"It was like, 'It's no surprise that people who are unfaithful or run away from home meet a bad end…' I dunno, maybe he was just exaggerating. Everyone seems to hate that son of a bitch Marooka." Kanji spoke up slightly irate.

"I really should get around to doing that techno remix sometime…" Justin spoke to himself, still fiddling around with his tooth.

"Damn, I can just picture him saying that…" Yosuke added, a combination of irritation and disgust in his voice. "He never shut up about me when I moved here last year. Not that I remember anything he said…"

"But Yosuke! How could you forget that popularity leads to intimacy!?" Justin shouted. There was very little he remembered from King Moron, but he sure as hell remembered that. And he wasn't even THERE when he said it. Yu immediately started to crack up, remembering very well that particular day in class. Yosuke's eyes just widened, his head nodding slightly.

"Okay, maybe I remember that."

"Even if it is only a little true—"

"Which it's not." Justin interrupted Kanji. Just the very fact that Maya had run away from home and had been fine when they found her a year or two later proved that King Moron was full of bullshit. Kanji just shrugged, slightly irritated by Justin's interruption.

"As I was saying… Even if it is only a little true, it still pisses me off… The dickhead's a damn teacher, for god's sake." Kanji groaned. He was completely pissed off at the walking pile of shit that was King Moron.

"Ahh, don't waste your energy getting pissed at that clown." Yosuke spoke up, a slight crunch from his mo- Wait a second. Justin and Yu passed each other a funny look. They never gave Yosuke chips, and as far as they recalled, these were the only bags they had bought. What the fuck was Yosuke eating? Kanji raised an eyebrow slightly, wondering where the hell Yosuke had gotten food.

"Wait a sec, what are you eating!?" Kanji questioned loudly. Yosuke raised his eyebrow slightly, perhaps completely oblivious to what he was doing, perhaps completely aware and realizing how screwed he was right about now. He swallowed the remains of the food in his mouth before speaking up.

"Animal crackers?"

"What the-!? Those are mine!" Kanji shouted, his face red with fury. Who the hell said Yosuke could eat HIS fucking food? Not him, that was for damn sure! "Dammit! I was so pumped about finding the penguin today…"

"Penguin?" Yosuke questioned, crumbs spilling out of the corners of his mouth. Justin gagged slightly. _God man, chew your fucking food._

"The secret animal cracker! You were eating them and you didn't know that!?" Kanji was losing his shit at this point. Justin was laughing quietly to himself, his hand covering the sounds of air escaping from his chest as he watched Kanji go batshit insane over an animal cracker. Unless it was a regional thing, Justin was almost entirely positive there was no 'secret' animal cracker, let alone a penguin. And he should know, he ate a LOT of animal crackers in middle school.

"A-Are you serious? Well, you shoulda said something!" Yosuke tried to defend himself, slightly offput by Kanji's obsession with animal crackers. Justin shook his head a bit. _Yeah, he did say something actually. He said 'Wait a sec, what are you eating' and pretty much told you to stop eating his fucking food._

"Oh well…" Kanji sighed, a look of slight disappointment in his eyes. The penguin could be lost forever now…

"Ughh… This isn't gonna fill me up…" Yosuke moaned before putting the crackers back in Kanji's bag. _Yeah, neither were chips, Yosuke, but we ate them. Besides, if you're gonna screw Kanji out of his penguin, at least have the decency to eat the whole fucking box. _"Let's just go to sleep." He sighed before turning his body around to lay on his sleeping bag.

Justin shot him a slight glare, since his foot was now under Yosuke's head. It took a bit of pulling, and Yosuke seemed more pissed than embarrassed as he finally removed his foot from the lock Yosuke had put on it. He shook his head in disgust at Yosuke before turning around himself, Kanji and Yu following Yosuke and Justin's lead. Of course, Justin had no intention of going to sleep, but if the others were, it would mean less objections when he needed to leave the tent for his plan. The group was lying there for a while, just staring up at the top of the tent before Yosuke broke the silence, calling out to Kanji's end of the tent.

"Hey Kanji? Don't you have more space on your side?"

"Man, I can't sleep over there, or my back's gonna break…" Kanji argued, doing everything in his power not to have to sleep against that rock.

"Oh… Okay…" Yosuke bit at his bottom lip a bit. Something about his voice sounded as though he was concerned about something, though Justin couldn't tell what. "Uh… Hey… "

"Yeah?" Kanji replied, curious what the hell Yosuke wanted. They were supposed to be going to bed, not talking.

"…Why'd you come to this tent?"

"Huh? I already told you. Geez… 's wrong with you?"

"This is as good a time as any, so… I-I want you to be straight with us- UH, I MEAN HONEST." Yosuke stuttered trying to correct himself. Justin sat up immediately, shooting a glare at the back of Yosuke's head. He knew exactly what Yosuke was trying to get at, and he could honestly say, he didn't much care for it. Yu didn't seem to disagree too much with Yosuke though, seeming as though he'd like an answer just as much as him, much to Justin's displeasure. _Jesus Christ, you two. What does it even MATTER?_

"Uh… okay?" Kanji spoke up in confusion.

"A-Are you really… you know…?"

"Am I really what…?"

"What I mean is, uh… Are we gonna be safe alone with you?"

Kanji immediately jumped out of his seat in shock and anger, and understandably so. Justin had actually smacked Yosuke upside the back of his head. Asking if he was gay was one thing, and even then Yosuke knew it was a touchy subject that he shouldn't have been asking about. Outright asking if you have a chance of being molested in your sleep just because of his sexuality? What the hell had to be the matter with you? Yu jumped up into his sitting position as everyone started to get riled up, sighing slightly as he realized this was all going to go to hell.

"The fuck is wrong with you!" Justin shouted at Yosuke. "I don't know if you know this, but being gay does not make you a rapist!" Yosuke rubbed at the back of his head, shooting Justin a glare in response. These were important questions to ask!

"Wh-Wh-What the hell's that supposed to mean!?" Kanji's entire body had been shaking, though whether that was anger doing it or fear was another question entirely. "I-I already told you guys I'm not like that!"

"W-Well then why are you all hot and bothered about it!? That's just more suspicious!" Yosuke countered, slightly off-put by Kanji's reaction.

"Oh, I don't know, maybe because you just accused him of trying to RAPE you!" Justin shouted as everyone stood up in the tent, glares being exchanged back and forth between Yosuke, Kanji, and Justin.

"Hell no!" Kanji shouted at Yosuke. "We settled this already, dammit! Right now, I'm… Well… How do I put it…?"

"Oh god, don't trail off like that! You're freaking me out!" Yosuke panicked. Justin was just shaking his head in disgust at this point. What the fuck did it even matter if Kanji WAS gay; you're not going to get molested just because the guy is into dudes. That's like saying every straight guy likes to go out and rape girls. Yeah, sure, some of them do; but the majority does not. Kanji was NOT the minority.

"I'm trying to tell you I have no problem being around girls now!" Kanji tried to explain, his teeth still gritted together. He could not believe the accusations being hurled his way.

"Can you prove it!?" Yosuke countered. Justin wanted to strangle Yosuke at this point. He had been acting like a prick all day; but this was just crossing the line,

"P-Prove it…?"

"'Cause if you can't, we're going to be stuck here all night, half scared to death." Justin grunted in disgust at Yosuke before turning to Kanji.

"You know what Kanji, you might be better off sleeping in the freshmen tent. Then you won't have to deal with Yosuke's ramped homophobia." Justin glared at Yosuke, and vice-versa. Kanji just seemed more offended by Justin's remark. It wasn't like Justin didn't want Kanji here, but if Yosuke was going to keep acting like a prick about it, maybe that was the best solution. Kanji took it the wrong way.

"Tch… To hell with this! If that's what you really think of me, then I'm gonna hit the girls' tent right now! At least they have more balls then you!" Kanji shouted in Yosuke's direction, a determined expression on his face. Justin's eyebrows shot up immediately. Holy shit, he really thought he had something he needed to prove to Yosuke. YOSUKE.

"For some girls, that is true." Yu remarked in a deadpan voice; still relatively uninterested in the argument at hand. He just wished everyone would shut up and go to sleep.

"Huh? Wait, well that's a little extreme! You don't have to go that far!" Yosuke shouted, trying to cool Kanji down. "They'll expel you if they find you! Don't tell me you forgot! King Moron's got his eye on you!"

"Yeah… like that'd stop a man like me!" Kanji declared with self-confidence. Justin hated to be supporting such a shitty plan, nor one that was supposed to reassure Yosuke's doubts, but goddamned, he loved how Kanji was getting this sense of self-empowerment out of it. If it made him feel better, then he should go nuts.

So long as he didn't hit Chie's tent; in which case, he was a dead man.

"Dude's seriously going for it… Hey man, you gotta stop him!" Yosuke pleaded to Yu, panicking slightly as it looked more and more like Kanji was going to go through with his plan. Yu passed a glance between each of the three others before looking back at Kanji and shrugging slightly.

"Charge!" He added in jest. Yosuke slapped his face with the palm of his hand, completely disbelieving of what he was hearing. Justin just crossed his arms and smirked. _Go man! Show Yosuke whose boss!_

"To hell with King Moron! No one's stopping Kanji Tatsumi, dammit!"

And with that, Kanji practically tore through the opening of the tent, running off in the direction of the girls' tents. Justin had never been more proud of Kanji in all his life, and yet… never so disappointed. He was all for Kanji invading the girls' tents; not so much him trying to prove something to a homophobe. Yosuke groaned as he dropped down onto his sleeping bag. He swore if Kanji got expelled, he was going to give Yu so much shit for this. As for Yu, well, he just sort of sat back down, completely oblivious to what he just started.

"What a putz. I declare myself not responsible for anything that happens." Yosuke announced to everyone in the tent. Justin groaned slightly. _Yeah, except it's entirely your fault he's freaking out in the first place._ Justin stared at the two for a moment, still standing, before making his way towards the front of the tent.

"Dude, not you too!" Yosuke shouted as he noticed Justin making his way to the exit.

"Calm down, I just need to take a piss." That's not what he was doing at all, but whatever. Anything to get Yosuke to shut up for a moment Yosuke just sighed; he was not being held responsible if anything happened to these two while they were out. He waved Justin off with the back side of his hand, not really giving a shit anymore. Not that Justin needed Yosuke's approval of course. If he actually DID need to piss, he was going to piss. Even if that meant all over Yosuke's goddamned sleeping bag.

* * *

Justin sat in the bushes for a short moment, scanning the teacher's camping site for any signs of teacher's still up and about. It seemed all the teachers were asleep in their tents, or at the very least lying down. Still, if they were lying down, he'd have more than enough time to do what he needed to and dash towards the bushes. The only real problem was King Moron faltering about the campsite, tripping over his own feet in a drunken stoop. It was at least a few minutes before King Moron eventually moved on, though, surprisingly not to his bed. The guy looked drunk enough to sleep for weeks, so he was surprised he hadn't opted to just go to sleep. Whatever, that wasn't what Justin was here to analyze.

Justin looked around the campsite again, checking one last time for any stragglers up and about, before bringing his eyes to the booze sitting on a park table nearby. Of course the teachers would set their tent up next to a table; they seemed to be the only ones who got to relax this entire goddamn trip. But that's okay, Justin was going to fix that soon enough. He looked towards the tent, then back to the target before making a silent, but quick, dash over to the bottles, grabbing one before rolling over into a nearby bush. His heart was pounding as he put his ear to the sky, listening to any tell-tale signs of teachers stirring in their sleep. Nothing. He was in the clear.

He sighed in relief as he clutched the bottle to his chest. He couldn't just hang around here while he had alcohol in his possession; but he still needed to be able to dispose of this in a way that the teacher's wouldn't get suspicious. The best way he saw to dispose of the evidence was to just throw it in the trash that the teacher's had been throwing THEIR booze into. After all, no one was going to be shifting through the trash to test for saliva or finger-prints. Justin looked at the bottle again, then over at the tent. This entire plan was suicidal; but he was going to find enjoyment in this trip SOMEHOW or another.

He sighed slightly before popping the cap off the bottle. _Welp, bottom's up._ He smirked slightly before shoving the glass into his mouth, beer flowing down his throat. He had to stop almost immediately at first. Holy crap, this tasted awful… How do adults drink this stuff? Still… There had to be something to it besides taste, right? And so he forced himself to down the rest, stopping in between chugging sessions to gag slightly. By the time he was done, his head was ringing slightly; he had a buzz alright. He could not seriously believe he had drunk booze right next to the teacher's campsite. He must have been out of his damned mind. But alas, the show must go on. He'd be lying if he didn't find this… 'buzz' sensation to be strange, yet sort of funny in its own way. Justin chuckled slightly to himself before slowly creeping through the bushes and dropping the glass bottle in a nearby can, the glass clinging against other beer cans that had been deposited.

He had the strangest urge to piss on one of the teacher's tents right about now, for some odd reason; but figured it would be best NOT to do that after having chugged an entire bottle of booze down. Plus… He was having a little trouble keeping his balance, let alone aim… Something told him he wasn't someone who could hold their drinks very well. At least he wasn't vomiting!

* * *

"Hey g—"

Justin was immediately cut off by a foot being planted in his face as he made his way back to the tent. He already knew who it belonged to, too. After all, who the hell else did he know that liked to kick people? He was just a little sick of getting assaulted every time he walked through a door. I mean, what the hell did he do that he deserved that? What, did he PISS too long or something? Actually… Forget what Justin could have done. What the fuck was Chie doing here?

"Oh crap! Sorry…" Chie bit her lip as she noticed it had been Justin she had kicked. She assumed it was King Moron or Kanji, not Justin. Justin pressed his head into his palms, trying to numb the pain and mask his moans of pain.

"Why…" Justin groaned under his breath, taking a few steps forward before plopping his ass down in the tent. By the time he removed his hands from his now bruised face, Chie had been looking down at him a look of concern and shock on her face. Looking around, Yukiko was here too, sitting just in front of him. He scotched his ass over slightly to give her more room, and just generally make this look less awkward.

"Sorry, I thought you were someone else…" Chie tried to explain.

"It's fine." Justin groaned a bit, before gesturing Chie to sit down like the rest of them had. For whatever reason they WERE there. I mean, didn't King Moron say that if the girls were found in the guys' tents or vice versa it would be grounds for expulsion? Seems like a stupid risk to make for WHATEVER it was they were doing. Well, it's not like he had to wait long to get an answer, as it seemed Yu and Yosuke were just as confused; which meant Chie and Yukiko had probably barged in here not too long ago.

"So, why're you two here?" Yosuke spoke up, confused as to why the girls wanted into their humble abode. Chie and Yukiko passed off a slight glance of concern before turning back to Yosuke. Either something bad happened, or they DID something bad.

"Well, it's Kanji-kun…" Yukiko stuttered slightly, not sure whether she should really get into details. _Oh god, he really did go through with it. _Justin approved, though he wasn't sure he approved so much of him trying to hit his girlfriend's tent. Actually, he didn't approve at all. If Kanji brought it up at any point in the future, Justin would probably kick his fucking ass. Yukiko and Chie passed each other a slightly embarrassed look before turning back to the guys. "He's out cold…"

"I-I don't know what happened! H-He just came in, and then… he fainted all of a sudden." Justin raised his eyebrow. He wasn't buying this bullshit for even a second. Chie was a horrible liar; she always had to pause to think about her lie before she'd actually say it, and she always had a certain tone of voice when she was making something up. She wasn't fooling him for a second. Besides, why the hell would Kanji just pass out as he went into the girl's tent? No, he thought the most likely explanation was that Chie kicked the crap out of him. No fainting involved. "That's all. Right, Yukiko?"

"Huh? Y-Yeah." Yukiko stuttered, trying to confirm Chie's bluff. Justin shook his head. He wasn't going to say anything, but these two were just the worst liars. Though, he did have to wonder… If they did end up knocking Kanji out somehow, which they probably did, where the hell was he now? Don't tell me they just left him there in the girls' tent. The repercussions would be unspeakable if King Moron saw him.

"So there was no way we could sleep with him lying there, and you know… If we woke him up, he might have made a fuss. That's why we left him there." Chie continued. Alright… So they were here because they couldn't sleep with Kanji's unconscious body there… Justin didn't get a very good feeling about what they had intended to do here. Unless they were recruiting the guys to help them drag Kanji back, they probably intended to stay. Not that Justin was particularly objecting, especially not to Chie, but he did have to wonder if that was a smart move.

"What? That makes no sense. He busted into your tent, then suddenly fainted?" Yosuke spoke up, pointing out the obvious flaws in the girls' logic. He didn't know WHAT, but he certainly knew something was up. Yosuke looked like he was going to continue drilling, when suddenly everyone was interrupted by the sound of King Moron screaming outside their tent in a drunken stupor.

"Listen up! Being insolent and being indecent are very different things!" Justin's eyes widened slightly. He had assumed that King Moron would be back at the teacher's camp by now. What if he opened the tent and saw the girls in there? And even if the girls did manage to hide, would he be able to smell the alcohol on Justin's breath? Wait, what was he saying, of course not! He wouldn't be able to differentiate the smell of his own breath from Justin's. He was in the clear as far as that went. Still, they needed to figure out what to do with the girls.

"It's him! He's right outside!" Yosuke whispered loudly. "Quick, everyone hide!" Yosuke ordered at the rest of the group.

"Where?!" Chie whispered in panic. Justin bit his lip slightly. He had a good idea where they could hide… But this was going to get really awkward for all but one person…

"The sleeping bags." Justin whispered before diving for his sleeping bag in the center of the tent, Yu and Yosuke following in suit. The girls immediately got the implications behind the hiding spot, though they didn't have much room for objection. Chie and Yukiko looked at each other hesitatingly; as though they weren't sure they wanted to do this. They sighed slightly, holding their breath before making their way over to the sleeping bags the guys had been hiding in; Chie to Justin's, and Yukiko to Yu's. Yosuke got lucky in that he wouldn't have to deal with this awkward shit.

Justin had been closing his eyes shut, pretending to sleep, when he felt all of Chie's body mass on top of him. There was absolutely no room in the sleeping bag, so she had to pretty much lie on top of him, her stomach against his, their faces inches apart from each other. On one hand, it was an interesting sensation having Chie lay in the same sleeping bag as him, her body intertwining with his. It was almost pleasant in a way, having her next to him, her body heat mixing with his. He couldn't really explain it, but he was oddly… happy to have her there; even if she was completely embarrassed by the conditions they had found themselves joined like this.

On the other hand, however; it was awkward. It wasn't like they had voluntarily gotten into the same sleeping bag; they had done it as a last minute solution to a problem they had. There was more than a little bit of tension between the two, the both of their faces slightly red with embarrassment as their limbs tangled up with each other. There was also the immediate problem of Justin being intoxicated. He had never had liquor in all his life, so this was a bit of a learning experience for him in that he learned he could not handle booze very well. He was drunk after a single drink; that was for sure. And being drunk, he had a little less control over his… lower faculties, so to speak. No, he didn't piss himself, though that might have been a bit easier to explain.

Justin's eyes widened slightly as he felt his crotch harden a bit, his jaw open in disbelief. Of all the times for his Johnson to stand at attention, it had to be when his girlfriend was pressed up against him like this. He tried everything to force it down too, though to not much avail. He just prayed to god she couldn't feel it. It took a few seconds after it had gone erect, but she felt it alright, as it poked up into her stomach. Her face turned immediately red, her eyes wide with disgust and shock, her jaw open with disbelief as she looked down at Justin. She could not believe that he was getting turned on by th- Okay, maybe she could, but she didn't think Justin would be so disgusting as to let it happen while they were forced to huddle up like this. Justin forced his eyes closed, too embarrassed to look Chie in the face as he mouthed off the words 'I am SO sorry,' to her.

"Hey, are you three in there? Answer me!"

Justin was actually a bit pleased when he heard the sound of King Moron's voice again, this time VERY close to them. It had meant that Chie would be distracted from Justin's… manhood as she feared for what would happen if King Moron caught them. Despite the awkwardness Justin's drunken shenanigans had brought to this situation, Justin could still feel Chie's fingers digging into his arms, as she gripped onto him tightly in fear. Justin opened his eyes a bit, to see what was going on. Her face had been right up into his, so he could see her eyelids forced close, quivering slightly in fear, her teeth gripped together tightly, her bottom lip shaking. Justin was almost horrified to see her like this. He wrapped his arm around her back side, giving her a half hug as he tried to calm her down. Her entire body had been shaking actually; she was deathly afraid of what was going to happen. And Justin didn't blame her. Still, it seemed she calmed down a bit by his embrace.

"W-We're here." Yu piped up nervously from his sleeping bag.

"Huh…? Ahhh, so you're in there… Are Hanamura and Tylor asleep?"

"Yessir! Fast asleep, sir!" Yosuke and Justin spoke up in complete, panicked unison. It was supposed to be sarcastic, but their panicked tones made it almost seem as though they were telling a terrible lie. Mostly because they were.

"No! Clearly you're not! Shut up and go to sleep!" King Moron shouted, his silhouette's arm raised as though he were scolding the tent. He yawned slightly after a while, clutching at his back before slowly leaving the tent, mumbling to himself. "Ugh, I think I had one too many. I'm so sleepy…" _Yeah, you and me both…_ Justin thought to himself.

It was a while after King Moron's figure disappeared that everyone let out a gasp of relief, piling out of their sleeping bags. You would have thought Chie would have jumped out of Justin's bag as quickly as possible… But instead she only had on a slightly sour face. It took a moment for Justin to catch on as to why: When he had huffed out some air in relief, Chie had gotten a good whiff of his breath; booze and all. Justin's eyes widened in slight fear. _Oh crap, please don't let her recognize the smell…_

"There goes a couple of years off my lifespan." Yosuke sighed in relief. Oh, man, Yosuke thought HE shaved off a few years of his life; Justin probably shaved off a decade or two. Not only had King Moron almost caught the girls, and Justin with alcohol on his breath, but he had managed to get an erection while his girlfriend lied on top of him, AND she could smell the booze on his breath. He wasn't even doubting it now; the look on her face showed that she could clearly smell it.

"Uh… Justin…" Chie remarked, a mixture of panic and anger on her face. "Why does your breath smell like liquor?" Justin bit his bottom lip, his eyes bugging out slightly, as he looked around the room. Everyone seemed shocked by Chie's discovery, but he might still be able to try and hide his little stunt at the teacher's camp.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Justin remarked, a fake grin on his face. Chie's jaw dropped slightly; she could tell Justin was lying. He had ingested alcohol at some point, and he knew it. Yu wasn't buying it either, once he got a good whiff of Justin's breath himself. His uncle had a tiny bit of a problem with alcohol, so he was more than accustomed to the smell by now. And he could recognize it a mile away.

"That's booze alright." Yu added with a grimace, sniffing at the air slightly. Everyone immediately shot Justin a glare as he withdrew slightly into his sleeping bag. Forget them getting caught in the wrong tent; Justin had just done something HIGHLY illegal.

"You WEREN'T taking a piss, were you!?" Yosuke remarked, starting to put two and two together. Like seriously, it took Justin a good fifteen or so minutes to do his business, so unless he had to take a dump too, that should have been obvious. Justin chuckled slightly, trying to see if everyone was joking or if everyone had actually figured him out. It was the latter, much to his dismay. He sighed eventually, letting loose another good whiff of the odor of alcohol.

"It was only one!" Justin tried to explain, though just the very act of admitting it had pissed off everyone in the tent. How the hell could Justin be so reckless!

"Oh sweet, Jesus, I can't believe this…" Yosuke groaned to himself.

"Hey, at least I'm not drunk!"

"You're slurring your s's." Yu added nonchalantly. Justin raised an eyebrow. He… was? He sure as hell didn't notice; though it seemed everyone else was in agreement, nodding their heads in disapproval. Justin glanced around the room, a look of shame on his face. He was hoping getting intoxicated would make the trip a little more exciting, but instead all it did was earn everyone's scorn. Justin shook his head in disgust, not at the others, but at himself. For a guy who constantly judged people for using drugs, he seemed to be no better. He was ashamed to say the least. He sighed before hanging his head in shame, unable to really look anyone in the eye. Everyone just shook their heads at him before sighing and turning their attention back to each other. Justin's drunkenness was only one of their problems now.

"Anyways, we can't leave now. We'll sneak out before the others wake up tomorrow. Is that good enough for you!?" Chie spoke up, knowing full well that they couldn't leave the tent with King Moron still about. Strangely enough, for a guy who had been so for the girls sleeping in the same tent earlier, Yosuke didn't seem like he liked that idea so much. Justin would have been for it if he hadn't earned everyone's scorn but a minute ago. He could only imagine how awkward it must be to sleep with everyone glaring at hi- Wait, what was he talking about? He was drunk; he'd be out cold soon enough.

"What're you so pissed off for…?" Yosuke remarked, slightly irritated.

"You better not try any funny stuff while we're asleep, is that clear?" Chie barked at Yosuke as she and Chie made their way over to the left side of the tent, separating themselves for the guy. Justin didn't so much as budge, but he did realize they only had three sleeping bags, which meant the two girls would be sharing one, and two of the guys would be sharing one. Justin chuckled slightly to himself. He had the middle bag, and it would make no sense for two guys to cram into the one so close to the girls, which meant… Justin got his own bag. Fuck yes.

"H-Hey, we didn't say you could- Dammit, you owe us for this!" Yosuke added, with irritation as he made his way over to the guys side of the tent, giving up his bag for the girls to use. He realized how this was going to end up going down; he was just pissed that Justin got the middle bunk. Not only did he get to sleep in his own bag, but he got to sleep right next to the girls. _Lucky son of a bitch._

It took a moment, but Yu and Yosuke eventually were able to cram into the same bag, Chie and Yukiko into Yosuke's, and Justin dead in the middle. The tent was barely able to fit three people in it, let alone five, so they were pretty much all shoulder to shoulder. On one hand, that meant he was shoulder to shoulder with Chie; cool, cool… On the other hand, he was shoulder to shoulder with Yosuke. Eew. Also he was drunk. Very, very, drunk. Justin starred up to the top of the tent for a while, before the alcohol started to take full effect, knocking him out cold. And he slept the best he had slept in a good while, despite the awkward sleeping conditions. Who needed sleeping pills?


	66. Chapter 65: June 18, 2011

CHAPTER 65

June 18, 2011

* * *

"Son of a bitch, I am never drinking again…"

Justin moaned as he slowly slipped into consciousness. He had a hangover, despite only having a single drink, and it hurt like a bitch. Justin had always assumed people over exaggerated about how bad a hangover was, but no. They were right on the money; this was just unbearable. He made a quick mental note to himself to NEVER drink again. Sure, getting a buzz was great and all, but it was not worth the aftermath. Besides, he was almost entirely positive everyone had lost all respect for him after that; even Chie. It saddend him a bit to think he had made such a reckless decision that he had alienated his friends. He just hoped they weren't still pissed off at him.

Justin groaned a bit as he went to push his hand against his forehead. Or at least, that had been the intention, when his hand ended up hitting something else on the way up. Justin was a little confused at first, but then he actually opened his eyes. Apparently at some point while he was sleeping he had rolled over on his side and gotten straight up into Chie's face, and vice-versa. And now; now he had accidently smacked her chin on his hand's way up to ease his headache. Her eyes slowly fluttered open, annoyed by whatever it was that woke her up. Needless to say, neither was particularly pleased to wake up to find the other not even a centimeter away from the other; especially not Chie, who still had Justin's hand under her chin.

"What the hell are you doing!" Chie shouted, jumping back in the bag, bumping into Yukiko in the process. Justin followed her lead, jumping back into Yosuke. Everyone in the tent had started to wake up, though Justin and Chie bumping into people probably hadn't done it. The screaming at each other part might have.

"I'm sorry! I didn't know you were there, it was an accident!" Justin frantically tried to explain. Chie was still very visibly annoyed by the awkward situation she had woken up to.

"Huh? What's going on?" Yosuke yawned a bit, as Justin backed up slightly into him, still trying to make it painfully clear to Chie that he had completely done it unintentionally. It seemed she didn't quite believe him. Which was strange; you would think Chie knew Justin well enough to know he wouldn't do something like that. He was too chivalrous for that kind of stuff, and she knew it.

"How did you not know I was there!?" Chie shouted, peeved at Justin's hastily thrown together explanation.

"My eyes were still closed!" Justin shouted frantically.

"And you didn't notice you weren't lying on your back?" Chie had a point. Justin didn't really notice he had been on his side… But then how often do you wake up and think to yourself, 'Oh, I woke up facing THAT side of the bed. Besides, she was facing Justin too! She had no excuse.

"Oh, and you're one to talk! You were doing the exact same thing!" Justin spoke up, moving from the defensive to the offensive. The two were very quickly at each other's throats for something that didn't really even matter that much. I mean, yeah, it probably looked bad when Justin's hand had been along Chie's jawline; but everything else should have been irrelevant. I mean, c'mon, they've slept on the same couch before, this wasn't THAT strange…

"I didn't have my hand on your face!" Chie countered, a glare in her eyes.

"You also weren't drunk! Besides, I already told you, I didn't know you were there!" Chie just crossed her arms and starred in the other direction, giving Justin the cold shoulder. Probably more about the drunk thing than they 'accidently feeling your face up while you were asleep,' thing. The latter was an accident after all, the former was a choice. Justin grabbed at his head again, trying to subdue his hangover with the palm of his hand; as if that would work. The entire tent had been watching the two argue over something that seemed irrelevant, though they got a little more stern-faced as Justin brought up the alcohol topic.

"Hangover?" Yu remarked sarcastically from his seat. Justin just nodded a bit before falling back down in his sleeping bag. He just wanted to sleep the damn thing off; though that wasn't going to happen NOW. The others shook their heads at Justin, a slight grin on their face. They were still a little peeved about his decision, but he was paying for it now, that was for damn sure. Justin moaned a bit as he looked up towards the roof of the tent. It had just struck him that the sun was starting to rise… Which meant the girls needed to hurry back to their tent, and they needed to get Kanji back here pronto. He groaned for a moment before pushing himself out of his sleeping bag, getting ready to depart to do their business.

* * *

"Looks like we're the only ones here."

It had been a good few hours since their morning escapades, and the entire team had made their way over to the riverbed. Kanji just seemed confused out of his goddamned mind; after all, he did sort of get knocked out in one place, and wake up in the next. And no one seemed to be acknowledging whatever had happened to him. Of course, Justin wasn't paying much mind to that. Chie was still giving Justin the cold shoulder, and at this point, he just couldn't take it anymore._ It was an accident, give me a break…_

"C'mon Chie, it was an accident…" Justin was pleading to her as they continued to walk up to the cliff leading to the river basin below. Chie wasn't paying him much mind though; her arms crossed as she pouted the entire way to the edge of the cliff. "Look I'll make it up to you. Just stop giving me that look." Chie just sighed a bit as she came to a stop. After hearing Justin beg her for the last ten minutes, she was getting really irritated. She got that it was an accident; that didn't make it any less weird. Still, she supposed she couldn't stay mad at him forever. And besides, if she played her cards right she could use this to her advantage. She turned to Justin, a frown on her face as she tried to be as convincing as possible.

"Make it up to me how?"

"I-I don't know, name something." Justin remarked, throwing his hand up in the air. Chie smiled a devious smile. Those were the words she was waiting for.

"Alright, you are hereby sentenced to buy my steak when we get back." She smiled. Justin just sighed. He should have seen that one coming a mile away.

"Alright deal. Are we cool now?" Chie chuckled slightly under her breath. It was always 'cool,' she just felt like exploiting Justin to get a free steak out of it. She nodded a bit at Justin, a wide grin on her face.

"Yeah, we're cool." Justin sighed in relief. He probably would have given her a hug right there and then, but he figured it might be better not to push his luck. Besides, he doubted she wanted to be anywhere near that close to him after that encounter in the sleeping bag last night… That was interesting to say the least. Justin nodded a bit as the two turned to face the rest of the group. Yosuke had been eyeing Kanji down, mostly because Kanji was being unusually quiet, not to mention he had this puzzled look on his face.

"What's wrong? Got a stomach ache?" Yosuke perplexed. _Maybe. Depends where Chie kicked him last night._

"No, it's just… I thought I got pissed and ran out of the tent last night… It's so weird… Was it a dream? When I woke up, I was in Yosuke-senpai's tent…" Kanji thought out loud. He was trying to put the pieces together about what had happened last night. He wasn't getting very far, though. I mean, sure, a dream seemed like a plausible explanation for falling asleep somewhere and waking up somewhere else, but the guy must have been sore from the beating he probably got. Justin was a bit torn, actually. Tell Kanji the truth about what had gone down last night, or lie on Chie's behalf so she doesn't end up getting brutally murdered by Kanji… Yeah, he was going with keep his mouth shut.

"It-It was a dream. Must've been a dream." Chie shouted in haste, trying to cut off Kanji's train of thought before he linked her to the crime scene. Kanji just raised an eyebrow in confusion. How would Chie even know if it was a dream or not? And why does she sound so paniced? He just shrugged it off as Chie being weird again.

"Okay…?"

Yosuke starred at Kanji for a brief moment before looking back at the rest of the group, a sinister grin across his face. Justin raised his eyebrows slightly; he could tell Yosuke was up to something, but he couldn't tell what. And after all he had done in the last few days, he kind of didn't want to. What he DID know, however, was if Yosuke started acting up again, Justin was not going to hesitate to beat the crap out of him. It had been long deserved after treating everyone like shit yesterday.

"Alright then, let's go swimming." Yosuke announced, a slight gleam in his eyes. Justin shrugged. Maybe he was wrong; swimming doesn't sound so bad. Of course, Justin wouldn't be joining them; he didn't know how to swim, and he still had a hangover, so swimming wasn't exactly going to end well for him. Still, he supposed it would be a good way to end the trip. Justin had to admit, he was pleasantly surprised that Yosuke didn't seem to have some ace up his sleeve. Boy was he wrong.

"Are you seriously taking a swim? I'll pass… I'm still all stiff." Kanji objected as Yosuke started to eye each member of the group individually. Yu had been all on board for swimming; I mean, why the hell not? Sounded like good fun. Yosuke's glance soon shifted over from Yu to Justin. Justin rubbed at the back of his head slightly.

"I, uh… can't swim." Justin casually explained, his face red with embarrassment. Everyone gave him a look of slight surprise, though Yosuke just shrugged it off. He was okay with that; he didn't want to see Justin with no shirt anyway. Giving how many injuries the guy had gotten over the last few months, his stomach was probably torn open down the middle. He wouldn't be entirely wrong, of course; Justin had gotten more than a few stitches down there over the years; nothing that was still visible of course. With Kanji and Justin out, that just left the girls. And they didn't seem all that pleased that Yosuke had wanted them to join in.

"What're you guys looking at us for…? If you guys wanna swim, go right ahead." Chie remarked casually. Neither of the girls had any intent on going swimming, for multiple reasons. The first and foremost being they just didn't feel like it; the second was that they'd end up swimming with Yosuke. They could see how that could go drastically wrong in mere seconds. Hell, as much as Justin hated to see only two of them joining in the swimming escapades, he supported the girls' decisions entirely. He probably wouldn't either if he was in their position. And if he could swim. Yosuke didn't seem too pleased with that answer though, a devious expression sweeping his face. Justin started to frown immediately. _Oh he IS up to something!_

"You know, you two still owe us." Yosuke remarked, trying to play the guilt card. Justin and the two girls immediately started to glare at Yosuke. _They said no, dickwad._

"Huh? Whoa whoa whoa, we're not going in there." Chie declared, very much opposed to jumping in the river with Yosuke. They might have considered it if Yosuke wasn't there, but he was. And they knew how perverted this would get with him around. "I mean, we do owe you, but…" Chie stuttered, the guilt card was working to a certain extent, but they still weren't going to budge. Rather, Chie decided instead to try and make up excuses. "Oh yeah! We don't have swimsuits with us! Man, of all the luck!" Justin nodded slightly at Chie. _Perfect, crisis averted._

"Y-Yeah, it really is unfortunate." Yukiko added. Yosuke's sinister grin didn't seem to disappear though, much to Justin's concern.

"Oh, I see how it is. We put up with your dinner, we save you from King Moron, and you won't even have some fun with us in the river." Yosuke rebutted, slightly aggressively. _Hold on one second, you did not put up with their dinner; you spat it out in front of them. Don't act like they did anything wrong, you were the one being an obnoxious douchebag. _And when he said fun, what kind of fun did he mean this time? Justin couldn't even tell anymore.

"N-No, it's really too bad. It'd be no problem if I just had a swimsuit. Haha…" Chie continued to bluff, horribly if Justin may add. Sure, they probably DIDN'T have a swimsuit, but they were really bad at pretending it was a tragedy they didn't have one. Not that it mattered, Yosuke only grinned wider. He had heard the words he was waiting for: It'd be no problem if I just had a swimsuit. That's all he needed to hear to put his plan into motion, as he swiftly pulled out two pairs of bathing suits from behind his back, everyone's jaws dropping in shock and disgust.

"Tadaa! I've got you covered! They're Junes-brand originals, from our brand-new line of swimwear that just came in for the summer. I had a clerk friend of mine choose 'em for me. Pretty swanky, huh?"

…

What… the… fuck?

Justin couldn't even wrap his mind around this; for one thing, WHERE THE FUCK WAS HE HIDING THOSE? He sure as hell wasn't holding them behind his back when they had walked here! And let's just talk about how fucking creepy this was. Here was Yosuke, walking around, carrying bathing suits for the girls to change into at any time. How long had he had those? WHY did he have those? This was just wrong in every sense of the word. Justin shook his head at Yosuke before looking at the two girls. Their jaws had practically hit the ground, and understandably so. Justin had come to realize something; last night when Yosuke had been making remarks about Kanji possibly being a rapist? Yeah, well, it turns out there WAS a rapist in the tent that night. His name was Yosuke Hanamura, and he was going to get his ass kicked in a second.

"Dude, that's just wrong…" Chie choked up in disgust.

"Did you have those this whole time…?" Yukiko shouted with fury. She didn't take too kindly to Yosuke trying to force her into a swimsuit. Of course, Yosuke simply didn't acknowledge the question, much to the disgust of everyone there. Even Yu, who had agreed to go swimming, was having second thoughts about this. He really didn't want to be anywhere near Yosuke right now, and they were supposed to be the best of pals.

"C'mon, let's all go swimming!" Yosuke added with glee. That was the worst part about this entire thing; Yosuke was getting satisfaction out of his plan. His very, very, perverted plan. He should be ashamed right now, but instead he was thrilled. Justin got the feeling Yosuke was going to be a molester when he grew up.

"What should we do, Yukiko…?" Chie asked, slightly afraid of Yosuke. And even though the question was clearly directed at Yukiko, Justin felt the need to answer on her behalf.

"Say no."

"It'd be no problem if I just had a swimsuit." Yosuke remarked, mocking the girls and using their own statements to his advantage, trying to guilt them into it. It probably didn't help that he had donned the worst fake girl voice Justin had ever heard. It was ear grating to say the least. Chie groaned slightly. She DID say that… "Y'know, we really were looking forward to dinner." Yosuke added, turning to Yukiko, trying to guilt her into putting the suit on. Yukiko groaned a bit before Yosuke continued guilt tripping the two. "I wonder what would've happened if we didn't help you guys last night…"

"We get it already! Sheesh, you never let things go!" Chie shouted, snatching the suit Yosuke held up in his right hand out of his grip. Justin was dumbfounded. They were freaking doing it? Oh this was just disgusting to every sense in his body.

"Alright! That's more like it!" Yosuke added with glee as Yukiko hesitatingly grabbed the other swim suit, before the two headed off into the distance to get changed. It was a wonder Yosuke hadn't followed them to try and get a peak, the guy was that fucking perverted. Justin shook his head in disgust as Yosuke smirked, throwing off his t- shirt and jacket. He already had his swim trunks on; as did Yu. As for Justin, he walked up to Yosuke and kneed him right in the crotch when he finally got done changing.

"What was that for…?" He choked up in pain, holding his balls in place.

"Now you can't try anything funny."

* * *

"How far off did those two go to get changed?" Yosuke wondered aloud. It had been a good fifteen or so minutes since they departed. Justin prayed to god that they had taken the chance to run and never stop. It was the only way to save themselves from Yosuke. But alas, it seemed he was wrong. Not too long after Yosuke's comment, he could hear Chie's voice immerging from the woods.

"C'mon, let's get in." Chie remarked hastily, embarrassment in her voice. Clearly she wasn't comfortable wearing a bathing suit that Yosuke had probably been hiding up his ass for the last twenty four hours. Justin had been leaning up against a near-by tree smoking, so he was the first to see the two girls as the immerged from the woods. His jaw dropped so much the cigarette he had been smoking fell to the ground. His sneaker damn near caught fire too, though Justin put it out without so much as averting his eyes from the girls, his jaw still loose around the hinges.

_Holy… fuck._ Justin thought to himself. He had always thought Chie was attractive before, but seeing her in a swimsuit? She was fucking hot! Justin almost had to smack himself for that, not because he disagreed with his thoughts, but because hot just seemed such an inappropriate term. He had never seen anything like her. Yukiko looked amazing in hers too, but Justin had clearly been focusing his attention on Chie. And she clearly noticed giving how red her face was when she turned to look at him, how she flinched a bit when she noticed Justin's jaw hanging loose. She would have thought he would be the one who WOULDN'T be doing that.

Yu and Yosuke had a similar reaction, while Kanji's face just turned red, as though not sure he was comfortable looking at the girls like that. Justin could understand that. He wasn't sure he should be looking like that either, hell he was entirely positive he wasn't supposed to; but he just couldn't stop himself. She was gorgeous.

"Whoa man…" Yosuke remarked to himself, flabbergasted by the two beauties in front of him. The two girls' faces just got redder as they heard the remark he made under his breath. They were supposed to be swimming, dammit, not ogling them.

"S-Stop staring like that!" Chie shouted, embarrassed and uncomfortable. Justin shook his head, snapping himself out of his daze. _Right, right… Shit that was rude… But… NO STOP STARRING, DAMMIT!_

"H-Hey…" Yukiko choked up, mortified by the looks the two of them were getting. She wasn't comfortable as it was without the guys pretty much sexually assaulting her with their eyes. That was only a slight exaggeration, for the record.

"Geeze… You look great Yukiko…" Yu eventually choked up, a slight grin on his face, his cheeks slightly red with embarrassment. Justin had to give Yu points for effort, but when the girls were this uncomfortable about wearing a suit in front of the guys, maybe giving them props on looking good in a swimsuit wasn't as flattering a compliment as he thought. Yukiko turned red with embarrassment.

"Wh-Where did that come from!?" Yukiko remarked, not sure whether she should be mortified or flattered. So she went with confused instead.

"Man, this is going even better than I expected." Yosuke spoke up with cheer. Justin just groaned. Yep, leave it to Yosuke to make this even weirder than it already was. "Kinda makes up for having to eat that Mystery Food X last night."

The girls passed each other a slight look of annoyance. Clearly they were getting sick of Yosuke rubbing that in their faces every twelve seconds, even more annoyed at how this was turning into something very perverted, very fast. "C'mon, you guys gotta admit I chose some good suits." VERY PERVERTED, VERY FAST. "What do you think Justin?"

Justin's face turned red immediately as everyone turned to him. Now he had a real dilemma. If he said they looked good, he'd look like a creepy pervert who had been eyeing the girls in their swimsuits; but if he said no, then he'd sound like he was calling the girls ugly. He quickly shook his head and put his palms forward, as though trying to put a halt to this end of questioning.

"Oh no, I am NOT answering that question." Justin sighed in relief as the girls turned away from him, satisfied in his refusal to get involved in this bullcrap. Justin's heart felt like it was racing a thousand miles an hour. He never EVER wanted to be put in the spotlight like that again, that shit was scary as all fuck.

"Those girls might be childish on the inside, but I bet they're gonna turn into some fine-looking women before too long!" Yosuke continued on his pervy rant. Justin groaned slightly as he looked over at Chie and Yukiko. The girls were mortified at this point, though it seemed Chie looked more pissed than anything. Justin could see her hands curled up into fists, her teeth clenched together in rage, her eyes closed as though trying to block out the sound and sight of the asshole in front of her.

"Don't you think so, Yu?" Yosuke questioned Yu, a smirk on his face. Yu seemed a little hesitant to answer the question, as though it had just been forced upon him. Much like Justin, he wanted no part in Yosuke's perverted stream of comments. However, where Justin had opted not to answer Yosuke's question, Yu did. And he picked the wrong answer.

"I don't know about that…?" Yu remarked, his statement ending in a question. It was clear he wasn't sure that was the right answer to his question. It wasn't, the girls were very much pissed right now; even Yukiko, who was normally cool and collected. _Good job Yu, you just fucked the pooch._

"You guys crossed the line…" Chie snarled, her eyes dropping into a glare. She wasn't embarrassed anymore, she was out for murder.

"Definitly." Yukiko added. The two guys looked at each other, as though not sure what they had said wrong. Which might have been understandable in Yu's case, he had just gotten a little tongue tied is all. Yosuke; well Justin was sincerely concerned as to why Yosuke didn't see any fault in his words. Very concerned. Justin slowly made his way away from the tree he was leaning against to make his way closer to the girls. He had a very good idea of how this was going to go down, and he wanted in.

"One great big festering neon distraction. I have a suggestion to keep you all occupied." Justin quoted, as he slowly made his way to the girl's side, arms crossed the entire way there. As far as the girls were concerned, Justin was on their side. Which is good, because he WAS on their side.

"…And that would be?" Yosuke choked up in confusion, still feeling the girls' glare upon him. He had no idea what Justin was talking about, but he didn't like it one bit.

"Learn to swim." Justin added in a deadpan tone, his brow raised slightly.

The guy's eyes widened the second they understood the implication; mostly because they were also greeted by the two girls' foots straight into their stomachs, as Chie and Yukiko kicked them straight off the cliff into the waters below. Justin had to wonder if that was entirely… you know… safe? Sure, Yosuke totally deserved it, but they might have gone a bit overboard if they ended up killing Yosuke in the fall… Oh well, no significant losses as far as he was concerned. Chie flipped her head back, flipping her bangs out of her eyes, as she put her hands on her hips, as though posing victoriously over their kill. Justin clapped slightly at their victory, while Kanji made his way closer to the cliff, looking down in the waters below. Luckily, no one got a concussion from the fall. Which was strange, because the water looked awfully shallow…

"Agh! I-It's freezing! Y-Y-You didn't have to push us in…!" Yosuke shouted as he resurfaced from the water, Yu following his lead shortly after. Justin laughed slightly from where he was standing, especially when Chie got right up into Yosuke's face, giving him the shit she should have been giving him all goddamned weekend. _That's my girl…_

"Who cares!? You were going in the river anyway!" She shouted down in the currents below. Justin felt kind of bad for Yu, but alas, sometimes there are innocent casualties in the name of justice. His sacrifice would be remembered in the coming days. "They brought this on themselves. Sheesh… Aren't they the worst?"

"Eh… I think Yu had just got a little tongue tied." Justin shrugged. "But yeah, Yosuke totally." Chie and Yukiko seemed slightly embarrassed at the possibility that Yu hadn't really meant anything bad by his remark, though they eventually shook it from their minds. Oh well, it was just water, and like Chie said: They were going in anyway. The girls eventually turned their attention over to Kanji, who had been strangely quiet about this entire situation as he starred down in the pool below.

"Hey, you've been awful quiet. Are you feeling okay? D-Don't tell me the injuries from yesterday are still…" Chie cut herself off the moment she realized Justin was still standing there. And he was smirking that, 'gotcha' smirk he did anytime he had been right about anything. Of course, Chie didn't know he knew about that, but it sure seemed he wasn't surprised. Still, while Chie was busy stammering trying to explain, Yukiko had still been starring at Kanji, as he turned back around, his nose bleeding a bit. Justin had seen it over Chie's shoulder. Holy shit, how hard did these two hit the guy that he was still bleeding?

"Wh-what?" Kanji spoke up, getting a few funny looks from Justin and Yukiko… and eventually Chie once she realized Justin had been starring at Kanji from over her shoulder. It took only mere seconds for Yukiko to flinch in disgust, screeching slightly as she eyed the blood dripping from his nose. Seemed abit eccentric, but a normal reaction all the same. What WASN'T a normal reaction was the part where Yukiko had decided to shove Kanji off the cliff after Yu and Yosuke. Justin's eyes widened slightly. _Holy crap, he didn't even do anything…_

"That was close…" Yukiko sighed with relief. Chie and Justin were giving her a funny look though. It was a bloody nose, Jesus, Yukiko. It's not contagious, you're not going to get aids if it comes too close to- Well, actually you could, but you'd have to be doing some really fucked up stuff if you expected to get aids from Kanji's nosebleed. Stuff Justin had seen once in a porn video… He didn't jack off for a while after that one.

"So, uh… Should I just jump now, and save you guys the trouble?" Justin remarked sarcastically, yet oh so seriously at the same time. He couldn't swim, but he imagined he'd swim better without a footprint in his stomach than without. Chie and Yukiko just shook their head at him. Yukiko didn't see the fault in her last victim, so she had just assumed that was a jab at everyone but him being shoved off. It kind of was, but it was more of a jab at how Kanji hadn't done anything and had still gotten pushed. Chie got the full joke though, and agreed wholeheartedly. Not with the pushing Justin off part, I mean! Thank god Justin settled things with her earlier. He'd buy her a steak over getting shoved down a waterfall ANY day.

"What was that for!? I didn't do anything!" Kanji shouted upwards as he reemerged from the water he had splashed into. Yosuke seemed kind of aggrevated now. Before it was just him getting his just deserts, now EVERYONE was going overboard. Were the girls insane? _The answer to that is no, they're just not putting up with your bullshit, Yosuke. Or Kanji's apparantly._

"H-Hey! What's gotten into you!?" Yosuke shouted at the girls (and Justin, though he really didn't kick anyone so…)

"Huh? Do you hear something over there?"

Justin and the girls had been looking down, watching their handy work, when all of a sudden they heard something. The girls weren't sure what it was, but Justin did; oh boy did Justin know that sound. It was the sound he made every time he went up to the roof, or every time he had to get a shot at the hospital, or every time he saw that fucking clown from Twisted Metal. Goddamn, he watched the cutscenes for Sweet Tooth's story in the new Twisted Metal and couldn't sleep for weeks. It didn't help that he had a raging fear of hospitals without killer clowns coming through and slaughtering everyone FOR NO GODDAMN REASON. And of course, it was the sound Justin had made this morning after the booze had been shifting around in his stomach for too long.

Sure enough, just up the river was King Moron, puking his brains out.

"So that's why no one else was here… Good thing we noticed before we went in." Chie chuckled slightly, completely oblivious to the suffering the guys had been going through down below. Justin gave them a slight salute from above before he walked away with the girls. Or at least, had tried to before he realized they were going to go get changed. The girls gave him a bit of a glare, though that subsided when he explained he had forgotten they were still in their bathing suits and needed to change back. I guess they were satisfied knowing that Justin didn't give a damn what they were wearing.

* * *

"You got drunk on the school camping trip?"

The interregator seemed a little irritated by that portion of the story. As he should be; Justin had been sure to place emphasis on that just to piss the good detective off. Justin took another drag at his cigarette before turning back towards the investigator, a slightly saddened look in his eye. He had been trying to piss the detective off, but instead all he did was make himself feel like scum.

"I did." Justin put it bluntly. The detective shook his head in disgust.

"Well, I hope you learned your lesson."

"I didn't." The detective raised his eyebrows in disbelief; he had heard a mere few minutes ago Justin swearing off the shit, and yet here he was claiming to have done it again.

"What, a hangover not bad enough for you?"

"You say that like it was intentional. Did you know alcoholism is genetic?" Justin remarked, pointing at the detective with his cigarette. The detective's eyebrows rose in slight surprise. If he had assumed right, it sounded almost like a confession on Justin's part.

"You think you're an alcoholic?"

"What? No!" Justin spat out in slight offense. He drank from time to time, but nowhere near close to a regular basis; and often times not even intentionally. And besides, it wasn't like Justin was a violent drunk or anything; he was for the most part fully aware of what was going on around him when he drank. "I was just saying I don't drink that much BECAUSE alcoholism runs in my family."

"Buy you still drink?"

"I'm in college; what do you expect?" Justin remarked snidely. "There was also that one school trip a while back. None of us knew there was liquor in the stuff; hell Naoto is still convinced there wasn't, but I recognized the taste." The detective raised his eyebrows in confusion. What the fuck are you talking about?

"Alright, who is Naoto, and what the hell are you talking about?" Justin smacked himself upside the head.

"Sorry, getting a bit ahead of myself."

"Fine. Proceed."


	67. Chapter 66: June 19, 2011

CHAPTER 66

June 19, 2011

* * *

"Uh… Justin?"

"Yeah?"

"What the hell did you just swallow?"

Justin, Yu, and strangely enough, Maya had been walking around the shopping district, since everyone else was busy. Yukiko had to help at the inn today, Yosuke at Junes, Chie… Well, apparently Chie had gotten a really bad grade on her last test, so her parents were giving her a lot of shit. Or at least, that's what it sounded like when Justin had called up this morning. And who the hell even knew with Kanji. It seemed the guy just came and went. They had been walking around the shopping district, window shopping, when Justin had reached into his pocket and popped a pill into his mouth. Yu, needless to say, was a little concerned.

"…Dude, really?" Justin questioned, pissed off that Yu had assumed he had swallowed something else. And he all knew it had to do with the whole alcohol thing on the camping trip."It's just an aspirin…" Justin moaned, rubbing at his head. Speaking of alcohol, were hangovers supposed to last this long? Either he REALLY couldn't handle liquor, or he had a serious problem. Maybe both. Yu shook his head slightly.

"You STILL have a hangover?" Yu remarked condescendingly. Justin moaned a bit, while Maya just seemed a bit confused. She wasn't at the camping trip after all, nor had Justin told her about his stupid decision. _Justin has a hangover…? Why? How?_

"Yep…" Justin moaned, rubbing at his temples.

"Okay, I'm confused; what's going on?" Maya eventually spoke up, her eyebrows raised in confusion. Yu crossed his arms, giving Justin a slight glare before recapping the events of the camping trip to her. Or at least the relevant bits; she didn't need to know about Yu and Yosuke getting kicked off the cliff or… dare he say it… Mystery Food X… Yu wanted to vomit just thinking of it.

"Basically, this: The girls had snuck into our tent after Chie knocked Kanji out conscious, after he had tried to invade their tent, after Yosuke called him gay." Yu recapped, going a thousand miles an hour; it was a bit of a mouthful. "Well, right about when Justin came back, we all had to jump into the sleeping bags to hide from King Moron. When he left, Chie told us she could smell alcohol on his breath. That's more or less the whole of it."

Maya passed a glance back and forth between Yu and Justin, not entirely sure who she should be addressing at this point. Her eyebrows were raised in shock, her eyes wide open as she eyed the two of them. Yu had on a very stern look, while Justin had just been looking at the ground, rubbing at his temples. He had assumed that he was going to lose Maya's respect now too; after all, there are some things people are better off not knowing. He was actually a little surprised when Maya seemed more interested than disappointed.

"What's it like?" Maya spoke up, curious as to what all the hype was about. Hell, she actually looked a little jealous; which kind of concerned Yu and Justin in a way. Both were acknowledging that getting drunk was a horrible, horrible idea; but Maya? Maya wanted in. Justin wasn't sure whether he should be pleased or disturbed. Yu went with ashamed, rubbing at his temples. He could see where Justin had apparently gotten the idea from.

"It tastes awful, your head buzzes the entire time, hangovers are a real pain in the ass, oh yeah, and you have absolutely no control over your crotch." Justin listed off just about every bad thing he could think of that happened to him while he was drunk. Pretty much EVERYTHING. Yu and Maya passed each other a slight look of confusion before turning back to Justin, curious if he meant what they thought he meant.

"You pissed yourself?" Yu spoke up, his eyebrows raised in surprise, the tone of his voice filled with disgust. Justin just shook his head.

"No I did not."

"Then what did you—Oh. OH." Yu's face turned a bit red as he started to connect the dots. Maya had seemed to put the pieces together to, but she wasn't nearly as mortified as Yu was… hell, even as Justin was. He had crossed his arms and started looking down at the ground again, his face slightly red as he recapped the most embarrassing moment of his entire goddamned life. He wasn't even sure why he brought it up. Probably because his brain didn't seem to have a filter.

"Yeah…" Justin groaned slightly, hoping that was the end of the topic.

"Well, I'm not so sure that last part would really apply for me…" Maya remarked sarcastically. She was hoping Justin wouldn't be throwing in gender specific effects of alcohol; especially not that. She wasn't really disgusted or anything like that; Her and Justin had made worst remarks or jokes before, so while it was a bit embarrassing for Justin, having actually happened to him and all, it wasn't so bad for the receiving end of the discussion. Though she was a little off-put by what had probably caused his… well you know. She doubted it was just the alcohol; especially considering they had all jumped into sleeping bags together. I mean, what Justin did with Chie was his business and all… But she couldn't help but feel a little annoyed by those two. Maybe she was just jealous.

"Can we please stop talking about how much of a drunken scumbag I am? 'Kay, thanks." Justin interrupted, having enough of this conversation. Given the look on the other two's faces, Justin had assumed that would be the end of it, though it seemed Yu wasn't quite satisfied just dropping the topic.

"What even possessed you to get drunk?" Yu questioned, a slightly irate tone of voice. Justin was starting to get a bit pissed now. It wasn't like he was an alcoholic, it wasn't like he had done this more than once; it was ONE time. Enough already!

"I just did, Jesus fucking Christ!" Justin shouted in irritation.

"I'm not really seeing the problem." Maya added. Yu just shook his head in disappointment with the two. _Of course she wouldn't…_ Justin only half-agreed with Maya. It was a problem alright, but not as big of one that Yu was making it out as.

Yu was about to give Justin a verbal smackdown about how stupid his little stunt was, when something caught his eye off in the distance. Yu raised his eyebrow in slight confusion, slight surprise as he looked over Justin's shoulder to an all too familiar figure in the distance. Justin knew damn well Yu was about to say something, so he was a little confused when he opened his mouth, yet no words came out. It took him a second to start waving his hand in front of Yu's face, trying to get him to react, but to not much avail. It took a while before Justin looked behind him; figuring maybe Yu had been distracted by something off in the distance. Well, he was right. Justin's jaw dropped in slight concern as he spotted that fox with the scar again. Yu and Justin looked surprised and concerned, though Maya just smiled in slight excitement.

"Oh shit!" Justin exclaimed under his breath as he eyed the fox from its spot in the middle of the road. The fox just twisted its head off to the side, examining the three with curiosity; namely Justin, though for what reason, he could only guess. The fox just starred deeply into Justin's eyes for a while, Justin becoming very VERY uncomfortable as the seconds flew away. "What the hell does it want?" Justin whispered in an aside to Yu.

Yu… Had a very tentative theory as to what was going on here. They say animals can sense things humans can't, right? Like how sometimes cats can sense death. What if this fox could sense someone's arcana? He had never seen the fox seem so absorbed with anyone, but he did know that he had established a link with both; and according to the voice in his head (which he really should look into getting checked out at some point,) both were hermits. Of course, he knew Justin and Maya had no idea what an arcana was, or that everyone had one linked to them; so Yu kept his mouth shut. He could be completely wrong for all he knew.

"Oh hey, it's you again." Maya spoke up with glee before crouching down and patting her knee. "Come'ere boy." She called out to the fox. The fox twisted its head slightly before approaching Maya. Justin just shook his head slightly as the fox sat down in front of Maya, Maya patting his head in approval. He could not understand how she managed to do that. It wasn't just this fox either; she had a pet squirrel back in California. She named him Chip, and he had a very distinct black patch of fur underneath its right eye. For a while, he just sort of lived in her backyard; coming and going from time to time, but eventually she brought the squirrel inside. Her parents weren't too pleased at that, but they eventually got a cage when they realized the squirrel seemed okay with it. Chip died a few weeks before the whole shadow incident back in California; and you can blame Clift for that one. From the way Maya described it, it wasn't an accident either. She had been furious for at least a good week.

Maya laughed a bit as the fox licked at her face. Yu and Justin exchanged a slight glance of confusion before shrugging. They were going to say something, but it seemed Maya had this all covered; besides, something had just caught the two of their attention; a television in the window of a near-by store, broadcasting the news.

_That concludes Rise Kujikawa's statement regarding her temporary leave of absence from the entertainment industry._

Justin and Yu turned around, turning their backs towards Maya and the fox as they watched the program that had started airing. Justin didn't know much about this 'Rise' person, other than Yosuke was a big fan. A very vocal and annoying fan. He was curious to say the least, not necessarily just about her temporary leave of absence… but was it Rise or Risette? Like, was one a stage name or something? He definitely recognized the last name, and Rise is close enough to Risette that he could still recognize her as BEING Risette, but still. He hadn't heard anyone call her Rise before. It was a pointless topic of debate in his mind, but little stuff like that always did bother Justin.

_We're short on time, so if anyone has any remaining questions, we ask that you please keep them brief._

_I'm Ishioka from Lady's View. It says here that you'll be recuperating-are you facing physical problems?_

Justin raised his eyebrow slightly. He knew the media outlet was pretty much the place for gossip and bullshit that wasn't true, but he was curious all the same. Justin was assuming that the girl with the twin pigtails surrounded by men in suits had to be Risette… But she didn't look like she had any physical problems. Except for being tired, maybe.

She looked absolutely exhausted; though Justin had a fairly good idea why. Being a celebrity at her age must be hard work. Sure, it all looks like sparkles and sunshine from a distance, but when you get down to it, being famous is fucking awful. You've got the paparazzi chasing you everywhere, you've got annoying fans, you have to be perfect twenty-four seven lest the news outlets slander your name, the record companies run you ragged… Justin wasn't a celebrity, not by a long shot; but he understood just how things worked in business. _You should have never trusted Hollywood..._

_No, my health isn't an issue—_

_Psychological problems, then?_

_Wha…?_

"God, I hate the paparazzi." Justin remarked outloud. He didn't care too much for Risette's music, nor did he know her; but he felt bad. She couldn't have been more than fifteen, and here were the paparazzi up in her face asking if she had any mental issues for taking a break from showbiz. Yu shook his head from side to side in disgust. He agreed with Justin one hundred percent; the media disgusted him. It wasn't even just this as of late that had made him lose faith in the media, either. All those interviews he had watched as of late in relation to the murder cases were questionable as fuck. Hell, he was almost entirely positive one of the reporters tried to flirt with Yukiko during her interview. Disgusting.

"Alright, I'll see you later boy." Maya spoke up from behind the two, giving the fox a pat as he ran off in the distance. Justin and Yu turned around slightly to watch her as she approached them, a slight red mark on her face where the fox's paw had scratched slightly. It wasn't deep or anything, so as far as Justin could tell, the fox had done that accidentally… At least, he hoped so. Maya laughed slightly as she made her way up to Justin's right side. "Whatchya' guys watching?" Maya questioned, a wide grin on her face.

"Some news report about Risette." Justin spoke up. He was a little surprised to see Maya nod slightly, indicating she knew full well who Risette was. Either she picked up fast on this kind of thing, or Risette had gotten popular over in California when he moved to Inaba. Given the look on Maya's face, though, he could tell she wasn't a fan. Of course, coming from the girl who only listened to punk and psychedelic rock, that was to be expected. Justin's eyes dropped slightly, looking at the contents of Maya's left hand. She had more of those green leaves the fox had given her a few days ago. "More leaves?"

"Yeah, I'm not sure why he keeps giving me these…" Maya remarked, holding her palm close to her face to try and examine it a bit closer. Yu's eyes widened slightly, however, as he grabbed one out of Maya's hand, looking at it closely. Just as he thought; this was the same kind of leaf he had seen the fox give that old man at the shrine; the one that had healed his leg right up. He didn't know what they were called, but he did know they had healing properties. And he knew because the fox had given him a few himself. He was all out at this point, but he had used them on several occasions while in the television. If the fox kept handing these off to Maya, they were in luck.

"Maya, you know what these are? These leaves help heal wounds and ease the muscles. They're like… miracle leaves or something. We could use this." Yu explained to Maya. Maya didn't really know much about the investigation into the murder case, only that there WAS a murder case, so she was a bit confused what they needed that for. Justin had considered explaining it to her, but felt that it would be better off if he just left her out of this situation. He didn't need her getting hurt again, and besides; she had done more than enough already.

"Well, glad I could help…?" Maya remarked, still slightly confused, before shrugging and turning back to the television screen; Justin and Yu following her lead not long after.

_Rumor has it you'll be staying with your relatives, but isn't that in Inaba where the murders have been taking place!?_

Justin and Yu immediately shot each other a glance of shock. She was coming to Inaba? This could bode very bad in more than one way. The first and foremost was that Yosuke would never shut up about her so long as she was staying here; the second was that there was always the possibility that she could be targeted. Now, it might be a long shot; after all, Risette had been on television before, and just because you show up on the news doesn't mean you're going to get targeted. Hell, Justin had been targeted and all he did was walk around a mall while the news was being shot. All the same, Justin wouldn't rule it out; there was always a chance after all.

_Huh? Um…_

It seemed Risette was confused by the question, though as to why was anyone's guess. It could be that she was a little caught off guard by the question; after all, what does a murder case have to do with her? It was much more likely, however, that she simply was unaware of the murders that had taken place in Inaba. Justin found it a bit curious that this wasn't a very high-profile case; or at least, it wasn't based on Risette's reaction. It's not like it was a few bodies stabbed to death; it was two people hung from an antenna with no discernible cause of death. That shit should be all over the news, not only in Inaba, but across the country. It was strange enough that it should have caught the media's attention. Apparently not.

_Is it true that they run a traditional tofu shop? Will you be helping out with the family business!?_

_No more questions! This press conference is over! Clear the way, please!_

Justin shook his head slightly as Risette and her bodyguards made their way out of the press room. It seemed the media was asking reasonable questions, and NOW her manager cut in. Not when she was being accused of having mental problems, not when someone had dropped the possibility of her being brutally murdered and hung on an antenna. Nope. Asking whether she'd be helping her family with their business. This had to be the world's worst manager. Justin sincerely felt bad for the girl; as much as she represented everything wrong with the music industry today, it seemed she was being dragged alone on a ride she wanted nothing to do with. Thus is the faith of teen idols, unfortunately. God have mercy on her soul.

"Ugh…" Maya groaned a bit to herself, having started watching the program herself. "Of all the places she could go, it had to be here…" Yu's eyebrow shot up in slight confusion. He was a little caught off guard by Maya's apparent distaste for Risette. Not that he cared too much for himself, but he would never say something like that out loud.

"Don't like Risette?" Yu questioned.

"I don't like teen idols. At all." Maya remarked with slight irritation, her arms crossed in front of her chest, leaning on one leg. Justin nodded slightly.

"I can agree with that." Justin remarked, with a slight shrug of his shoulders. Every time he had listened to something that made him lose faith in music, lo and behold, it was always a teen idol. Every. Damn. Time. All the same, the person and the idol were completely separate entities as far as he was concerned. Some of the worst musicians he had ever heard turned out to be pretty cool guys in real life; or at least, what he had seen from videos and stuff. He had actually seen a few celebrities in San Diego, though they were all the good ones, so he couldn't really apply that to his current train of thought. Maya had actually gotten an autograph from Tom Hanks once. She was really excited about it, but she ultimately decided to sell it on the internet for a few bucks. That's how she ended up affording her iPod.

"So? It's not like you have to see her…" Yu remarked. Maya just shook her head from side to side.

"It's a small city, Yu. I'll run into her eventually. Besides, you don't think all the crowds will get annoying after a while?" Maya explained. Yu sighed slightly. She had a point, but he couldn't understand hating the girl just because she was an idol. Alas, nothing he said was going to change Maya's perception on Risette; he just had to leave her to opinion, and that was all there was to it.

"What are you getting so defensive about?" Justin remarked, a slight smirk on his face as he jabbed at Yu's chivalrous defense of the celebrity. Yu shook his head slightly.

"So let's talk about those booze again." Yu countered, looking at his nails as though completely uninterested in Justin's attempt at riling him up. Justin's eyes widened slightly. _You motherfucker; I know what you're trying to do. And it worked, I surrender._

"Alright, alright, I'll shut up."


	68. Chapter 67: June 20, 2011

CHAPTER 67

June 20, 2011

* * *

"Hey, there he is. You've been coming to school pretty often lately. What's up?"

It was before school when Kanji had walked through the door to their homeroom, making his way up to the rest of the team making idle chit-chat about things; mostly Risette, unfortunately. Justin swore if he heard the word Risette come out of Yosuke's mouth one more time, he was going to gouge his fucking ears out. Chie had seemed a bit surprised by Kanji's entrance, as she should be. This wasn't his homeroom, and school would be starting soon enough; plus, it wasn't like Kanji was the particularly social type. Still, Justin had to wonder if calling him out on it was really a good idea. I mean, sure, the guy had a shit attendance record and all, but the way Chie said it, she sounded like something was wrong because he DID show up. Kanji luckily didn't seem offended by the remark, though he was pissed off about something all the same. No different than usual, really.

"It's this annoying thing called the mandatory attendance policy." Kanji spat out. Clearly he didn't even want to be at school. Justin couldn't blame him; he didn't really learn anything but useless shit at school What, he learned what some guy in ancient Greece said about sand or some shit? What the hell would he ever need to know that for? It wasn't like he was going to be a philosophist when he grew up; he'd like to be able to actually get a job, thank you very much.

And let's be honest here; even though he partially had Yasogami to thank for introducing him to his friends and the girl of his affections, the place was a heaping pile of shit. The teachers were all psychopaths, save maybe Mr. Kondo. Hell, when they had announced Saki had been murdered a few months back, the principal tried to encourage the students to not point fingers at the school. That should tell you something, about the school and its administration. And let's not even get started on King Moron. Justin felt bad for the guy; because god knows something awful must have happened to him to make him such a miserable fuck.

"But man, seeing you here kinda reminds me of the school campout." Yosuke groaned, a grimace on his face. Every single guy in the room's expression changed to match Yosuke's. It was understandable for Yu, Kanji, and Yo—well, not Yosuke. He brought that on himself. But Yu and Kanji, definitely. They had pretty much been shoved off a cliff, and in Kanji's case, had the living shit beat out of him; and they had been completely innocent. As for Justin… Well, he had a lot of reasons to forget that trip had ever happened.

"I thought we were all gonna forget about what happened…" Kanji groaned, slightly irritated.

"Oh… Sorry." Yosuke added, shaking his head slightly as he tried to remove the thought from his own brain. Kanji shrugged slightly before sighing. Great, now all he could think about was that god forsaken camping trip. Same with Justin; more so than the others if his now red face was any indication. The others just thought it was a painful experience; Justin thought it was mortifying. Who would have thought that the one guy who DIDN'T get pushed off a cliff would be the most scarred by the incident?

"Eh, whatever. So hey, you guys see the news?" Kanji remarked, trying to change the subject from the camping incident. Justin felt like he was in hell right now; not only did he have the embarrassment of the camping trip on his mind, but now Kanji had just reignited Yosuke's 'Risette Drive,' as Justin liked to call it. He had actually grabbed a pencil off a near-by desk, ready to jab it into his ears if Yosuke started again.

"News…? Oh, that stuff about Rise Kujikawa taking a break from showbiz? I wonder why. She was just getting popular lately…" Chie remarked, thinking out loud. Justin could think of a few reasons why she would need a break. The first and foremost being that the music industry is a complete bunch of bullshit.

"Just goes to prove that being an idol is tough work." Yosuke added with the slightest hint of reverence in his voice. Justin groaned very, very loudly as Yosuke started to get hyped up over Risette again. And everyone heard, given the looks they were giving him; most were looks of sympathy. None of the others were going to say anything, but Yosuke was serious getting to be a pain in the ass for them too. Yosuke just took it as Justin being Justin though; which is a shame, because if he hadn't, maybe he'd shut up. Yu sighed a bit, resting his head on his arm.

"Yep, Rise's really great…" Yu remarked sarcastically, a slight hint of annoyance in his tone. It's a shame that Yosuke took Yu's remark seriously; I guess fanboyism blinded him to the obvious sarcastic remark. Hell he seemed almost pleased by Yu's comment. He had felt better knowing he wasn't the only Risette fan; even if that was clearly not the case.

"You think so too?" Yosuke practically choked over his words in glee. Yu raised an eyebrow at him.

"What, no I… You know what. Sure, why not." Yu cut himself off, giving up on Yosuke at this point, before slamming his head into his desk. Justin closed his eyes in anticipated agony, knowing full well that Yu's sarcastic remark had only invigorated Yosuke's Risette Drive. It didn't help that he just played along when Yosuke didn't get the obvious sarcasm. Now Yosuke thought Yu was serious; which mean he would NEVER shut up.

"It hasn't been that long since her debut, but at this rate, she'll be a top-class idol in no time." Yosuke was practically choking over his fangasm at this point. Justin turned his attention over to Chie, mouthing off the words 'please kill me,' to her, hoping she would put him out of his suffering. He was only met with a slight shake of her head, followed by her mouthing off the words 'only if you kill me first.' Well obviously Chie couldn't kill Justin if she was dead, so that wasn't going to work. Otherwise he would totally take that offer.

"To be honest, I'm a pretty big fan."

"WE COULDN'T TELL!" Justin shouted sarcastically. There were very subtle nods around the room of agreement, though nothing Yosuke could really see. Yosuke just glared at Justin slightly.

"Hey; shut up." OH THE FUCKING IRONY. Yosuke shook off Justin's remark before returning to his previous train of thought. "She's such a cutie pie!" Justin gagged a bit as the remark hit his ears, for more reasons than one. First of all, no one wants to hear about your stupid celebrity crush. Justin had found a bunch of celebrities attractive, but he didn't talk about it. That shit stays in your head, or at your desk, if you know where to look on the internet. Secondly, Justin could not see the appeal. The whole dual pigtails schoolgirl look just did not strike him as attractive.

"I think I'm going to vomit." Justin remarked, resting his elbows on his lap, his head inbetween his hands. He had been sitting on his desk, so he damn near tipped the thing over be leaning forward to place his hands in between his palms; but what the fuck ever. Maybe if he got knocked unconscious he wouldn't have to listen to Yosuke anymore.

"A cutie pie…? What are you, 80?" Chie jabbed at Yosuke, slightly disgusted by the comment. Yosuke seemed almost offended at the looks he was getting. He really saw nothing wrong with publicly gushing over a celebrity like this. Hell, it might have even been acceptable if it was just the guys, since guys like to do those 'who would you bang,' kind of conversations; but he should have seen the awkwardness of doing this in front of the girls. "But I think she used to live here, so she must have a lot of local fans." Chie spoke up, shifting the conversation away from Yosuke's rant and back at the topic at hand. It was still Risette, unfortunately, but at least it wasn't Risette Drive.

"The news said she's going to her grandmother's tofu shop, right? Do they mean Marukyu…?" Yukiko questioned out loud. Justin rubbed at his chin slightly; he swore he had heard that name before somewhere…

"Marukyu?" Yosuke interrupted questioningly.

"Marukyu Tofu. Our inn was serving their tofu until recently." Yukiko clarified. Justin let loose a slight 'ah' sound. He remembered the name now, it was the tofu shop in the shopping district. He had never been there himself, but he had seen the sign.

"Oh, that place in the shopping district! I pass by it all the time. Wait, does that mean I can meet Rise if I go to her tofu shop!?" Yosuke shifted back into Risette Drive, receiving a very loud and audible groan from every single person sitting there; even Kanji, who had received the smallest dosage of Risette Drive out of all of them.

"Will you shut the hell up already?" Justin shouted in irritation. Yosuke's eyebrows dropped in a glare, ready to give Justin hell for being a douche, when he noticed everyone's heads nodding in agreement. He just shook his head in disgust before crossing his arms and pouting slightly. Justin sighed with relief, knowing that at the very least Yosuke would shut up about her for a while.

"Hey, aren't you getting a little sidetracked from the point here? Wait, did you forget about the murders!? You're the one who said the connection between the victims might be the TV! She could be the next target!" Chie added, lecturing Yosuke. He had more or less gotten the point at that point to shut up about Risette, but Chie kind of sealed the deal with her comment; though Yosuke did have some objections as to her connection with the murder case.

"C'mon, it's not like Rise started showing up on TV just recently. Also, how could Risette be connected to the incidents so far?" Yosuke elaborated. He raised a very valid point, she's been on television for a while, if Justin understood correctly, so why would this be any different…. Though so had Ms. Yamano… huh… Maybe Chie was right; what if she WAS a target?

"I wondered the same thing, so I did some research. It seems that she had no personal interaction with Ms. Yamano. They've just been on the same show once or twice." Yukiko elaborated, trying to reinforce Yosuke's theory that Risette was in the clear. Justin had a very obvious objection though.

"Well don't forget now, I haven't had any affiliation with Ms. Yamano, nor had my parents, though that should be obvious. Risette's got a lot more of a connection than I do, and I still got kidnapped."

"He's got a point." Chie remarked, supporting the notion Justin had put forth. She honestly believed Risette was a potential target, and Justin's case only seemed to reinforce that theory. They just hoped for Risette's sake that they were wrong. "She's been an idol for a while now, but she's the talk of the town, thanks to the news last night. And she is moving here, after all." Chie continued, trying to counter the 'been on television before' argument. And she had just a valid point as Justin's unspoken theory. There was certainly more buzz surrounding her now than before.

"So, if our assumptions are correct, she fits the pattern… She'll probably be targeted next. And if she is, that narrows down the killer's methods even further." Yosuke remarked. Such a sudden change in disposition towards the issue…

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves. Prepare for the worst, hope for the best." Justin remarked, holding up his finger for dramatic effect. And once again, it fell completely flat. At least he didn't look stupid this time, though. The others nodded in slight agreement. They would prepare themselves in case Risette DID get kidnapped, but there was just as good a chance she wouldn't as there was of her getting kidnapped; they shouldn't start jumping to conclusions just yet.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Kanji remarked in response to Yosuke's previous comment. Kanji wasn't exactly the brightest bulb of the bunch, so sometimes they had to explain things to him twice. And even then, sometimes it didn't quite get through to him. Yosuke sighed a bit, pinching his forehead in annoyance.

"Kanji-kun, listen real carefully… If Rise is next, then that lets us rule out our theory that the targets have to be connected to the first case. And that means the killer's targets are people who've been shown on TV recently. Get it now?" Yosuke explained with annoyance.

"Huh. Ohhh… Yeah, okay." Kanji nodded slightly in confirmation, though everyone could tell he still didn't quite get it. Oh well, Kanji could be the brawn of the team… _Wait, wasn't that supposed to be my gig? Motherfucker!_

"Alright, now we have to keep a close eye on everything Rise does! Let's do it!" Yosuke practically shouted in anticipation.

"Sheesh, he's all pumped up…" Chie remarked with annoyance. Justin must have agreed, given that he had immediately jumped off his desk, thrown his hands into the air, and walked out of the classroom. He wasn't gone for long though, because he had just remembered the bell was supposed to ring in about a minute. Needless to say, it was a bit awkward when he returned.

* * *

"No, no. The dead guy in the middle of the room IS Jigsaw."

Justin and Chie had been walking around the mall, window shopping and talking about random topics. At the moment, they were talking about the big plot twist of the first Saw. It was a bit of a strange topic; but then, the conversation leading up to it was about horror movies. There was a slasher movie marathon on television this weekend, and Justin had wanted to see if Chie was interested in watching it with him. One thing led to another, and bam, they were discussing Saw.

"Alright, so if he's dead then how was he holding the game?" Chie asked, confusedly. She believed that John was actually someone else in the game, not that it was actually Jigsaw himself. Justin thought it was obvious, but he could totally see why she had thought he was another player in the game.

"He's not actually DEAD, Chie." Justin crossed his arms slightly. Either Chie had completely forgotten the ending, or she had never seen the movie to begin with. It was probably one of those things where she saw one of the new movies and assumed they were all like that.

"Yes he is; they said it in Saw V." Chie countered.

"You've never seen the original, have you?"

"I know what happens, but I haven't seen it, no." Justin shook his head slightly. He wished he had known that BEFORE he spoiled the ending for her. It seemed she sort of knew what happened in the ending, but none of the details that you actually needed to know that the guy in the middle was John.

"Well first of all, Saw V sucked; the first three are the good ones. But never mind that. The original Jigsaw, John, is alive in the first three movies; he doesn't die until the end of three." Justin explained to her. Chie seemed a little surprised that she didn't know that, but let it slide anyway. Actually, Justin was slightly thrilled to see that she hadn't seen the original trilogy; it might make for a good time to watch them at some point. He knew for a fact she wasn't squeamish with blood, so it sounded like a good idea to him.

"So… he holds the entire game from inside the bathroom?" Chie questioned, still slightly confused.

"He has an assistant that does everything outside of the bathroom, but yeah." Justin shrugged slightly.

"You mean that detective?"

"No, he has a—You know what, I won't spoil it for you." Justin remarked shaking his head slightly. It's amazing how much the newer movies destroyed the originals. Chie just shrugged slightly as they continued walking; though they stopped when they came within visual range of the food court, Yu and Yukiko sitting at one of the tables talking about something. Chie smiled slightly, as the two quickened their step. Justin knew they probably shouldn't intrude, but it would be worth saying hi at the very least.

At least, that was the plan until they were met by the sight of a group of men approaching the two, one of which was holding a camera. Justin extended his arm slightly to stop Chie, much to her confusion. She was about to wave to Yukiko and Yu when Justin had stopped her dead in her tracks. Instead, she now found her hands wrapped around her hips, passing a look of puzzlement to Justin. Justin didn't know what, but something about the group with the camera didn't strike him quite right; maybe it was the sour look on Yukiko's face as they approached.

"Huh? Well if it isn't the manager of the Amagi Inn. Or should I say the manager to be?" The older man in the middle spoke up, a slightly sarcastic tone. Justin and Chie's brows lowered slightly; they could already tell this guy was trying to be a prick. Chie was about to step forward to interrupt this little show of douchery, when Justin had to hold her back again. She was getting a little irritated by Justin's constant interruptions.

"Hold on one second… Let's let them try to handle this…" Justin whispered to her, trying not to be loud, lest Yu or Yukiko notice them there. Justin felt bad about holding Chie back like this; he knew she wanted to protect Yukiko and all, but he thought it might do Yukiko some good to stand up for herself. And if not her, then Yu certainly could get some positive rep points for telling those guys off. Unfortunately, as pissed as both seemed, neither really told the cameramen to fuck off…. Well, Yukiko HALF did. It was a lot more subtle than the way Justin would have done it, but alas it was still a middle finger all the same.

"…I see you haven't gone home yet." Yukiko remarked with annoyance.

"Well, I can't very well go anywhere until the next bus or train departs. This really is the boonies. Stuck here with nothing to do…" The older man continued, being a complete and utter asshole. Yu and Yukiko's glare only seemed to deepen as the remark left his mouth. 'Here with nothing to do,' was very obviously supposed to be a flirtatious remark; and a very perverted one at that. What the hell is it with fifty year olds being pedophiles around Yukiko?

Needless to say, neither Justin nor Chie were pleased either. Chie looked like she was going to run over and kick their asses any second. Justin was half tempted to join her; but alas, he felt like this was something Yu and Yukiko needed to deal with. Still… He was having a hard time just letting this fly. His eyes passed over each and every person there, trying to think of a way he could help. It took a moment, but he had an idea; the camera man's camera lens was pointing in Justin's general direction. He had a plan; but he was going to give Yu and Yukiko a little bit more time before he butted in.

"Man, the countryside is the dumps." The older man continued, insulting everything and everyone.

"…I beg to differ." Yukiko continued with annoyance. Justin sighed slightly before digging through his pocket for something. Yukiko was SORT OF giving them shit back, but she just wasn't being forceful enough to get them to go away. And Yu hadn't so much as opened his mouth; which was strange for him. Sure he usually didn't talk much, but he wasn't one to just sit around while people bad-mouthed his friends; especially the girl he had a crush on. Justin's eyes shot back over to the camera as he pulled his double-sided coin out of his pocket, eyeing the lens very carefully as he withdrew his arm slightly.

"Turning down sweet deals is part of country life, too, is it? Hahaha." The man in the middle mocked. Not for long, though. As the words left his lips, Justin swung his arm around, tossing the double sided coin straight at the camera lens of the cameraman. It hit right on its target, and forcefully too, given that it had managed to crack the lens a bit. Justin smirked slightly knowing he had managed to hit the target, though Chie still had on a glare; ready to pounce those assholes at any moment.

Yu and Yukiko's heads immediately shot over to where the projectile had originated, smiles on their face as they made out the figures of Justin and Chie. Yu had been keeping his mouth shut, not sure whether or not he should let Yukiko do her own thing here or not, so he was a little glad to see those two show up to shut up these reporters. And Yukiko… Well Yukiko was always happy to see Chie come to her rescue; even if it was technically Justin who had done the deed.

"What the hell?" the camera man exclaimed, rotating the camera around to see his now broken camera lens.

"Don't you assholes have anything better to do than harass this young lady." Justin remarked with cold sarcasm, walking up to the reporters in an attempt to intimidate them, Chie following slightly behind him. It seemed they were more pissed off by it than anything though.

"Goddammit, it's completely cracked." The cameraman announced with annoyance. "Do you know how much this thing costs? You're in deep shit now kid!" Justin moved slightly closer to the reporters, getting in their face with a vicious glare on his face.

"So sue me. I'm sure the courts would love to hear about how you've been harassing Yukiko." Justin remarked, his eyebrows raised, his eyelids half closed. He wasn't concerned in the slightest by the reporters' threats. Even if there was no way in hell he could afford to pay for something like that. The three men passed a quick glance at each other before turning back to Justin.

"Pfft- whatever; this isn't worth our time." The 'leader' of the group announced, before gesturing the other two away. No one said anything until the group of reporters was clean out of sight, glares on just about everyone's face; save Yukiko, who seemed more embarrassed than anything.

"I'm sorry. Those people are from some TV station. They wanted to cover the Amagi Inn…" Yukiko apologized, her face red with embarrassment. Everyone passed her a slight look of surprise. What the hell was she apologizing for? It wasn't her fault those three were being douchebags.

"…You said no?" Yu questioned. He wanted to tell her it wasn't her fault, but… For some reason the words stuck in his throat. He couldn't force them out no matter how much he tried.

"Yes… It's a "news of the weird" show… It isn't real journalism." Yukiko explained. Justin nodded his head, his mouth open as he started to understand. That would explain their arrogant attitude, that's for sure. And he could totally understand not wanting coverage from one of those shows. Still, he was kind of curious as to what the show was going to be about. "You know that our inn was associated with Ms. Yamano's murder, right? They want to make a special called, 'Hot Springs Getting Too Hot for the Amagis!?' It was an abhorrent title. Mother turned them away."

"I agree with her, what the fuck?" Justin remarked in irritation.

"But maybe she shouldn't have declined… I mean… If it gets a bad reputation… We'd lose customers, and the inn really would close its doors." Yukiko choked up, sorrow in her voice.

"Hey, c'mon; don't worry about those guys." Chie remarked, trying to cheer Yukiko up. It really didn't work, though Yukiko did try to fake it all the same.

"Yeah, you're right…" Yukiko choked up. Chie and Justin weren't entirely convinced. They sighed slightly, passing her a slight look of concern. Justin crossed his arms in front of his chest and tilted his head off to the side slightly.

"Well… We were happy to help; but we should really get going." Justin remarked, giving a glance over to Chie. They didn't have much they needed to do, but both Justin and Chie realized that Yu and Yukiko probably could use some time alone to talk about this. "Give us a ring if you need me to throw a quarter at someone again." Justin joked slightly.

"Alright. Later." Yu remarked, as the two waved them goodbye. Chie and Justin were only slightly out of hearing distance of the two when they turned to each other.

"Geeze… She's really beating herself up over this." Chie remarked, a saddened expression on her face. Justin sighed slightly. He couldn't understand why she was taking this to heart; no one would hold it against the inn for not wanting to be affiliated with a fake journalism show. There had to be something more to it…

"I just hope Yu can help her sort everything out…"


	69. Chapter 68: June 21, 2011

CHAPTER 68

June 21, 2011

* * *

"Got any two's?"

"For the last fucking time, we are not playing Go Fish. Goddammit, Yosuke."

It was lunchtime, and everyone had opted to eat inside today; mostly because it was pouring out. Everyone was eating lunch, though Justin had unfortunately forgotten to bring his lunch today. Instead, he had been shuffling a deck of cards he had in his backpack as he listened in on everyone's conversation. Surprisingly enough, it wasn't Justin who had suggested playing a game of cards, even though he did suggest what kind of game. It was Chie. Everyone seemed to agree almost immediately; after all, they could eat and play cards at the same time, and it sounded like fun, so why not? Justin had suggested Texas Hold 'Em at first, but that fell flat considering they didn't have any chips to use, and no one wanted to do all the math out on paper. Plus, as it turned out, Justin and Yu seemed to be the only ones who knew how to play. Instead, they settled for a game of Bullshit.

Now would be as good a time as any to explain everyone's history with cards, so let's start with Justin. The guy was good; really good. For a guy who was complete shit at lying, he had one hell of a poker face. Of course, that was more because the guy learned to adapt; any time someone called him on his bullshit, he would remember anything he had done before that could set everyone off, and he'd stop himself from doing it. He had picked up quite a few cards near the beginning of the game, but as they went on, everyone slowly stopped noticing when he was lying.

Then there was Yu. Yu wasn't too shabby himself, which was strange, because it seemed he had never played bullshit before. He had one very slight tell that Justin had managed to pick up on later in the game, but otherwise, he was an expert on passing off his bullshit at truth. And it wasn't just that; the guy had a huge stroke of luck with the cards he was getting. It seemed he very rarely had to lie, and more often than not, he had gotten quite a few duplicate numbers. He was knocking out two or three cards a turn for a while; but unfortunately for Yu, everyone instinctively called bullshit whenever he went to put down his last card. Lo' and behold, he always seemed to have the wrong card at that moment.

Chie and Yukiko had a basic grasp on how the game worked, but alas, they were very mediocre at the game. Justin didn't need to play a game of cards with the two to tell you they were bad liars; the camping trip had more than solidified that in his mind. Still, they never once were able to pass off their lie as truth, and they more often than not reaped what they sowed. In the long run, Yukiko fared slightly better than Chie; must have gotten lucky with the cards.

As for Yosuke… Yosuke was clueless. Time and time again, Justin had to explain the rules to him; and more often than not, he forgot them not even ten seconds later. Hell, he had mixed up what game they were playing a good three or four times. Justin had thought he was trying to be funny at first, but nope. He was completely serious. Justin wasn't sure whether he should feel bad for him or not. I mean, at the very least he should have been able to put together that this wasn't remotely close to Go Fish.

"O-Oh, right." Yosuke remarked slightly embarrassed. "Uh… crap… three sevens."

"Bullshit." Nearly everyone around the table shouted in complete synchronization, not so much as looking at Yosuke's face for a tell. Yosuke seemed more than a little surprised that everyone had been able to call his bluff, his jaw hanging slightly loose as everyone turned their attention over to Justin, preparing themselves to spot any tells he might have.

"What? How'd you guys guess?" Yosuke questioned out loud as he flipped a new card over and added the 'in-play' cards to his hand. Everyone passed him a slight 'are you serious' glance, save Justin who was still digging through his cards for a move. He could make a 'legal' move right now, but he could probably knock out a few more cards from his hand if he lied slightly. He didn't so much as look up from his hand as he shuffled through his cards, trying to make a decision.

"For starters, you said oh 'crap.' Secondly, all but one seven was in play already. We also know you have a two now, though that doesn't really help when you have half the deck." Justin explained, as he pulled out two cards; a five and a six. "Two sixes." No one called Justin's bluff as he slid his cards over to the new pile. Yosuke was a little annoyed at how bad he was at this game, sighing slightly as he tried to organize his cards.

"One seven." Chie remarked, grimacing slightly as she put the card in the middle. Justin felt bad at how poorly she was doing, and he would have let her have that as a sympathy move; but he knew damn well that the others would call her on her bullshit if he didn't. Might as well do it with class.

"You can take the rest of the cards while you're at it."

"Yeah, I figured as much…" Chie groaned slightly, stretching her arm out to grab the cards in the center of the table they had made out of their desks. They all knew Yosuke had three sevens, so when Chie was forced to make a move, well no one really believed she had the last seven. Especially not Justin since HE had the last seven.

"So it's supposed to be raining all of tonight too." Yukiko spoke up, as Chie finished setting up the field for the game to continue, removing her cards and flipping another one over from the deck. An ace to be precise. "Ace is king or two, right?"

"Yep." Justin replied from where he was sitting, looking at his cards. Yukiko's tell was completely vocal, so Justin didn't have to look at her to know when she was lying.

"Two twos." She slid her cards in the middle before gesturing over to Yu. She wasn't lying, that was for sure. Yukiko turned back to the rest of the group as Yu shifted through his cards. "Do you think someone'll show up on the midnight channel tonight?"

"God I hope not." Justin remarked, leaning back on his chair slightly as he examined Yu from across the table, checking for any tells. Nothing so far at least. "Maya still doesn't know about the investigation, and she kind of sleeps in the same room as my television."

"One three." Yu remarked, throwing a single card in. "You think you're not going to be able to use the television?"

"Nah, I can use it; but I'll have to explain everything to Maya, and I'm not entirely sure I want to drag her into this." Justin explained casually, a slight sigh on his breath. The last time she went into the television, she took a bullet to her gut; and while his shadow wasn't going to be doing that again while Justin was on watch, he was still concerned for her safety.

"I don't know; she could be a lot of help." Yu countered. "I mean, don't force her to join if she doesn't want to, but you should at least tell her." Justin sighed slightly. Yu had a point, though he wasn't sure he entirely agreed. Maya was brash, she would no doubt say yes immediately; and quite frankly, Justin didn't think that was such a good idea.

"Five fours." Yosuke remarked, throwing down a good chunk of his cards. Everyone just shook their heads slightly. "What?"

"There are only four of any number in a deck." Justin remarked with annoyance and disgust. Yosuke's face turned slightly red, feeling like an idiot for overlooking such a simple fact as he swooped in to take the pile the others had steadily been building up. Justin shook his head slightly before turning back to his cards, shifting everything around. Yosuke flipped over the next card to reveal _the aceeee of spadessss… Man I really need to stop doing that. _"I know she'll say yes though."

"Then what's the problem?" Yu asked, slightly confused as to why Justin was so reluctant to let her join them.

"Have you already forgotten what happened? She got hurt really bad; I'm not gonna let that happen again." Justin puffed out some hot air before pulling out a few cards. "Two aces."

"Bullshit." Chie shouted from next to Justin.

"Read 'em and weep."

"Goddammit." Chie muttered under her breath, pulling in the two aces Justin had thrown onto the field, flipping over a five of hearts in the process. "You shouldn't feel bad about that, you know. It wasn't your fault."

Justin raised his eyebrow slightly. That wasn't what he was getting at, but now that Chie mentioned it… It kind of WAS his fault. I mean, it was HIS shadow that did it. And when you think about it, what had Justin wanted more than anything when he was in that stairwell? Well, besides popping a cap in his shadow's ass? To get back at Maya, right? And what was his shadow but suppressed emotions and desires. Sure, that whole dungeon was Maya's shadow's doing, but his shadow had complete control over the body's actions. He had wanted the shadow to shoot Maya, and his shadow happily obliged. It was entirely his fault she got shot.

"One six." Chie snapped Justin out of his thoughts, throwing down a card herself. She was bluffing, but no one else noticed, so Justin just let her have it. She was really far behind at this point anyway. Still, despite being knocked out of his previous trance, Chie found something about Justin's disposition unsettling. She could tell he was upset about something, despite how he was trying to hide it; after all, they WERE playing a game of cards. "Something wrong?"

Justin just sort of stared at Chie with a blank expression on his face before shaking his head. "Nah, just thinking."

"Seriously. Don't beat yourself up over it." Chie objected loudly, though with concern. Justin sighed a bit, before looking at his cards again. How could he not beat himself up over this? That thing that had shot her came out of him; was an embodiment of all his anger and wrath. Everything he did was a direct result of Justin's emotions; and that included popping a shot off right in to Maya's gut. He was entirely responsible, as much as the others objected. And even if he wasn't, that thing was still living in his head, stalking him about in his reflection. Justin had the ingenious idea of keeping a very small pocket mirror that girls use for their makeup in his pocket, in case he needed to talk to his shadow for some reason, but had otherwise turned over every mirror in his house. It scared him a bit to see that animal whenever he looked at the mirror. It meant they were one and the same… He didn't want to be that person. He didn't want to be the golden eyed monster who had tried to kill Chie, or brutally assaulted Maya. He didn't want to be that fiend that pushed him to do evil things every chance he got, that perverted mind of his that tried to sexualize everything. He hated everything about his shadow. And yet, that's what he was… Some lowlife scum that got some sick thrill out of seeing people suffer.

"…Three fives." Yukiko remarked, a wide grin on her face as she threw her cards down in the center; face up too, knowing that everyone was going to call bullshit on her the moment she put her cards in the center. Sure enough, the entirety of her hand consisted of fives. Lady luck must have been playing favorites today, because despite how poorly Yukiko had been playing and how close Yu and Justin had been to victory, she had won the game in a single stroke of pure luck. "S-So does that mean I win?"

Yu and Justin passed each other a look of deep shock, their eyes wide open, their eyebrows raised, before eventually just throwing their cards on the table. Justin had the seven of clubs and the eight of diamonds, Yu had the ace of hearts and the jack of spades. "Well I'll be damned." Yu remarked with surprise as he turned over to Yukiko. She had been laughing slightly at her victory; though thankfully not one of those laughing fits that just never fucking ended.

"Way to go Yukiko!" Chie remarked with encouragement, a grin on her face. The guys had all been confused, though Yu and Justin still made a slight applause at her stroke of blind luck. Yosuke… Well, Yosuke was still trying to figure out what was going on.

"So… Who gets the pot?"

"Goddammit, Yosuke. God fucking dammit."

* * *

"So… Why do you need the TV tonight?" Maya questioned as Justin sat down on the couch. It was almost midnight, and while she wasn't going to go to sleep quite yet, she would like to have her bed. Justin rubbed at his chin slightly. Clearly she was going to see him watching the Midnight Channel, there was no doubt about it. He couldn't think of a single excuse as to why he would be watching it… He was going to tell her, as much as he hated to. He sighed slightly before turning his head to meet Maya's puzzled expression, her arms folded in front of her.

"Well, uh… Funny thing actually…"

"You're watching the Midnight Channel, aren't you?" Justin twisted his head in confusion. Maya didn't seem so much as fazed by the remark, though still puzzled all the same.

"How'd you guess?"

"Because it's already on." Justin flipped his head to meet the sight of the television flickering on. It was midnight alright, and he had been distracted when the screen flickered into life. Justin's eyes widened with disappointment as he saw a silhouette in the middle of the screen. He had hoped it was over, that the killer had just stopped throwing people in; but no. There would be another victim alright.

And Yosuke was going to have a fangasm over it.

Maya and Justin both starred at the figure on the screen for a while before the screen faded back into darkness. Maya was a little confused to say the least; she still believed that the rumor was supposed to be that you see your soulmate on the channel, and last she checked, that was Justin. And she was definitely not into chicks; especially not one like Risette. She couldn't stand those teen idol types, and this was no different. Either the rumor was completely wrong, or she had a really fucked up love life in the future.

"So… What the hell just happened?" Maya questioned out loud. Justin sighed slightly.

"Alright, I'll make it simple. There have been a bunch of murder connections over here that we believe-"

"Are linked to the television world, I know. Yosuke told me." Justin was a little confused now. One, when the hell did Yosuke ever tell her that? Two, WHY did Yosuke tell her that? And three, what else did he tell her.

"Oooookay… Did he tell you about the investigation team?"

"No."

"Basically, all of us have been looking into the murders. We believe that anyone who shows up on the Midnight Channel is targeted as the next victim and then thrown into the television. We go in and save them from their shadows." Justin tried to explain. Maya's eyes widened in slight admiration. She had never once thought of using the power to go through the television for something other than her own self gain… She kind of felt like a bitch now. I mean, here were Justin and the others using their powers for good, yet she had never so much as considered that as an option. I mean, sure, everytime she had used her powers, they were the only ones there, nor had she known about the murders, but… She still felt bad. I mean, there had to have been SOME way she could use her gift for the betterment of others…

"You guys are trying to solve the case?" She questioned, still admiring the group's bravery. Justin's face had turned slightly red as Maya secretly gushed over them. She wasn't being vocal about it, but he could tell just from the look on her face what her opinion on the matter was. Justin never was much for compliments, even the unspoken ones. He scratched at the back of his head slightly.

"Y-Yeah. The police obviously can't make the connection between the television and the crime… so yeah." Maya nodded a bit, confirming she understood what Justin was trying to say. This case; it was something only they could do… Something had struck her as a bit odd though.

"Hold on… Didn't you just face your shadow?" Maya remarked, placing her hands on her hips. Justin figured that question would come up eventually. Hell, it sort of lead back into a question that they've all had since day one; how the fuck did Yu go on, and where the hell did his Persona come from?

"Alright, so basically Yu was the first one of us that could get in the screen… Well, me, Chie, and Yosuke all sort of fell in with him a few months ago. I ended up getting a concussion, but other than that, we all got out just fine, no shadows or anything like that. But then Yosuke's girlfriend had shown up dead, and he had a hunch it was connected to that place. So Yu brought Yosuke back in, and then he fought his shadow. That's how Yosuke got his Persona. Then, Yukiko showed up on the Midnight Channel, and everyone got concerned; especially Chie. Those two are the best of friends. So, Yukiko eventually got kidnapped, and we all agreed it had to do with the television. So, Yu and Yosuke let us back in, Chie rushed on ahead, ran into her shadow, we dealed with that, she got a Persona. We eventually rescued Yukiko, and SHE got a Persona; and then the process just sort of repeated itself with Kanji and then me."

"I see… So you just got the power to go in on your own?"

"Pretty much." Maya sighed slightly, looking towards the floorboards as her thoughts raced around in her head. She didn't have Persona, and if her shadow's sudden disappearance from the other world was any indication, she wouldn't have one anytime soon. She could do healing magic, but that's about it. And sure, that's useful and all, but she hadn't thought she'd be able to help if the others all had Persona. Now she believed the contrary. If Justin had rescued three people without a Persona… maybe she could still help.

"…I want to help." Maya spoke up, shooting her gaze up to Justin. Justin sighed slightly, resting his face in the palm of his hand. He knew this was going to happen, he just KNEW it. He had practically glorified the team to her, not made it something she should avoid like the plague. But there was no way he would let her go in there just to get hurt again. Not a chance.

"Maya…"

"No seriously! I know I'm not really a fighter, but I could still help!" Maya shouted, getting slightly in Justin's face as she tried to plead with him. Justin was a little off-put by how close Maya was getting, but he knew she wasn't doing it on purpose. He sighed a bit, looking up towards the ceiling as he tried to think. _She wants to help, but she acknowledges she doesn't stand a chance in a fight… I might have an idea…_

"Alright, you can help with the INVESTIGATION. No television antics." Maya seemed half excited half disappointed. She still had SOME powers, and for Justin to tell her to let those powers go to waste… She was a little disappointed.

"But, I can heal you guys…" Maya remarked, trying to object slightly to Justin's conditions of her service. Justin wasn't budging on this though. He shook his head.

"Absolutely not. I don't need you taking another bullet to the gut." Maya sighed slightly. She was flattered that he was concerned for her safety and all, but she wasn't six. She could take care of herself. All the same, she realized Justin's stance had been firmly cemented on the issue, so she extended her hand to shake on the deal.

"Alright, fine…But if you guys need help, I'm jumping in."

"Over my dead body!"

"That's sorta the point."


	70. Chapter 69: June 22, 2011

CHAPTER 69

June 22, 2011

* * *

"I've been hearing that there's a big crowd at Marukyu."

It was afterschool, and the entire team had gathered at the sophomores' homeroom to discuss the case. Of course, Justin wasn't too enthusiastic about it when he showed up; and why should he be? Not only did they know someone else was going to get kidnapped, but they also knew that it was Risette. And they all knew how Yosuke got over her. Like seriously, the girl was about to be kidnapped, and Yosuke still looked like someone had just handed him a blank check. It was disturbing just how obsessed the guy seemed. Luckily, he hadn't really opened his mouth on the matter yet, so that was always a plus.

"I'm not surprised." Chie remarked, a slight look of disappointment on her face. The girl was supposed to be trying to recuperate, take a vacation from this kind of stuff; yet here was everyone crowding outside her family's business just trying to get a glimpse at her. It must be exhausting to be a celebrity. "But was it really her on yesterday's Midnight Channel? Didn't she seem a little… different?" Chie continued, musing out loud. Something about her silhouette's appearance on the television just didn't strike her as right. Maybe it was her posture or something, but Chie couldn't shake this feeling that something wasn't quite right. Yosuke begged to differ though, as he practically jumped up from the desk he was sitting on, his eyes sparkling slightly. He had gone full-out Risette Drive, and everyone knew it.

"It was her, no doubt about it! Her curves… Her posture… Even her beautiful, slim legs!" Yosuke gushed with admiration. Justin wanted to smack Yosuke, though that may have been less based on his Risette Drive as it was how he had started eyeing Chie's legs. Probably a basis of comparison thing; but still, Justin was a little less than pleased, and neither was Chie.

"…What's that look for?" Chie snapped Yosuke out of his slight daze, her brow lowered in anger. She knew damn well what he was trying to do, and damn well what he was thinking. Yosuke's head snapped back, his mouth curved back in fear, his pupils dilated, his eyes opened with dread.

"Anyways, I'm positive! Right!?" Yosuke nervously tried to shift the topic away from his perverted notion. It didn't work; everyone had started to give Yosuke a slight glare, save for maybe Yu, who had just been shaking his head in disappointment. He was used to Yosuke doing that at this point; hell they all were really. It's just that the others were more inclined to not let Yosuke's bullshit go without punishment, especially not Justin or Chie. Both of whom had punched Yosuke straight in his eye sockets after his little show of perviness but a moment earlier. It was a wonder Justin and Chie hadn't been arrested for assault yet; the guy had more bruises than they could count at this point.

"Uhh… Are we goin'?" Kanji eventually spoke up, breaking the silence that had been spawned by the group all watching Yosuke squirm around with his palms on his face. He was starting to get a bit of a pain resistance from Justin and Chie kicking his ass so much, so he wasn't shouting with pain or anything; but he was still very visibly anguished. "I don't really care about celebrities, but it's not like I got anything better to do… Sure, I'll tag along."

"Alright, let's get going then." Justin groaned abit as he pushed himself off the desk he was sitting on. Yosuke was just starting to stop pacing around in pain, which was a plus because he had nearly bumped into everyone at least twice. Where before he had a scowl on, an expression of pain on his face, he now had gleeful eyes on, an air of anticipation in his face. He was very visibly excited that he was going to be able to meet Risette, something that the entire group had caught on to immediately.

"Uh… S-Sorry, but me and Yukiko have plans. Give us a call if anything comes up." Chie stammered, her eyes wide as she realized that going to Marukyu with the rest of the group meant that Yosuke's Risette Drive was going to be off the charts. She was obviously bullshitting of course. They didn't have plans; they were just trying to get away from Yosuke's incessant fangasm. Everyone knew Chie was lying; hell even Yukiko seemed a bit surprised, mostly because she wasn't in on it. She wasn't' objecting of course, they all hated being around Yosuke when he got like this. She was a little surprised she hadn't tried to cover on Justin's behalf too, but hey; whatever floats her boat. The two gave a sight nod at the rest of the group before practically rushing out the door.

"Well, shall we get going? But let's be clear on one thing: we're not spectators. We're on an investigation, got it?" Yosuke remarked with excitement, trying to give the others orders. Or so, he thought he was. In reality, everyone could tell he was just trying to convince himself that that was what they were therefore, trying to order himself not to start gushing over Risette the moment they walked in the store. Even though they ALL knew he was going to anyway. Justin sighed slightly. On the bright-side, he still carried his magnum around with him everywhere, even if the others didn't know; so if he suddenly decided he couldn't listen to Yosuke for a second more, he could shoot himself in the face and be done with it.

* * *

"Huh? Um, Mr. Detective, did something happen?"

The guys had all made their way outside of Marukyu when they bumped into a young man, probably in his 20's, wearing a business suit. Justin had debated calling Maya up and letting her help with the investigation, but knowing how much she despised Risette, he decided it might be in everyone's best intrest to just leave her out of the loop. Justin raised a slight eyebrow as Yosuke addressed the young man. He had messy black hair and a HUGE grin across his face. Justin didn't know this guy, but it seemed everyone else did. He must have been a friend of Yu's uncle, given that they had addressed him as a detective, though… Shouldn't they know his name if they knew who he was? Justin just shrugged it off; it was irrelevant really.

"Oh, it's you guys. Ai yi yi… These gawkers keep streaming in with their cars, trying to park in the middle of the shopping district." The young detective spoke up, the slightest hint of cheer in his voice. For a guy who was pretty much stuck with crowd control, he seemed fairly happy-go-lucky. Justin didn't really know the guy, but he did like his attitude. He was making the best out of a shitty job, that's for sure.

"Why's that?" Kanji asked. Justin thought it would have been obvious, but then, it seemed they had to spell things out to Kanji a lot.

"Don't you know? Rise Kujikawa's here. Hey, did you see her already? ...Wait, is she there? Which is it?" The young detective started questioning to himself; it was clear he wasn't sure if he was supposed to tell them Risette was here. And the answer to that was, no. No he wasn't. It didn't take a police officer to know that if you're having a problem with crowd control, you shouldn't be saying stuff that attracts more of a crowd. It was very obvious that the guy was a blubbering rookie, though Justin gave him points for trying.

"Huh…? We're askin' why a plainclothes detective is here doing traffic control." Kanji remarked, having no clue what the hell the detective was talking about. Kanji did bring up a very good point actually; isn't traffic control supposed to be handled by riot control? Or even just a uniformed officer?

"Oh… Uh, well… The Inaba Police Department isn't that big, and we don't have enough staff…" The detective stammered slightly. Well that made some sense to Justin, though he did have to wonder why they didn't have a uniform for this kind of situation. And in all honesty, if this detective was friends with Yu's uncle, he got the feeling he wasn't here for crowd control. They were probably looking into the murder case… Though… How exactly would Yu's uncle know Risette was the next target? Never question the ingenuity of the police, apparently. "Well, I still have work to do, so I'll see you later." The detective continued before marching off with slight fear. Justin raised his eyebrow slightly. If he was here for crowd-control, why the hell was he leaving the spot where the crowd had gathered? And if he was here for the investigation, shouldn't he be going in to question Risette? The guy was new to this, no doubt about it.

"Dude… You managed to scare off a police detective on active duty…" Yosuke remarked, slightly scolding Kanji. Kanji just sort of shrugged.

"I wasn't trying to scare the guy; I just said what I was thinking." Kanji tried to explain. He really wasn't trying to scare the guy off, and it wasn't like he said anything bad. He was legitimately curious as to why he would be doing traffic control if he was a plainclothes detective; that's all. However, whereas Yosuke seemed sort of upset by Kanji's ability to drive cops away, and Yu just didn't really care, Justin thought it was a pretty neat trick.

"I wish I could scare cops away just by talking." Justin remarked with admiration.

"But I didn't—Ah, fuck it." Kanji remarked, giving up trying to explain to everyone it had been unintentional. Though he would concede that the ability to scare cops off would be a pretty handy trick. Imagine if he ever got pulled over for speeding when he got older. All he'd have to do was say boo, and the cops would drive off faster than the speed he had been pulled over for.

"But you're right, it's weird for the police to come out like this… Hey… You think the police suspect that Rise might be the next target, too?" Yosuke questioned. It seemed Yosuke and Justin had been thinking the same thing; after all, it just didn't make sense for that detective to be riot control while still in plain clothes, and if he DID know Yu's uncle through work, he was probably on the case.

"It certainly looks that way." Yu grumbled, crossing his arms slightly. Though that may have been less because of the implications and more because he had noticed his uncle making his way out of the tofu shop. Yep, they DEFINITLY knew something, if only a suspicion.

"Alright, clear out. Coming through… Hey Adachi! Dammit… I told him not to leave his post…" Dojima remarked as he made his way through the crowd in search of the young detective. Well, on the bright side, Justin knew what that detective's name was. Dojima seemed more than a little surprised as he stepped through the crowd to be met by the four guys standing there. He ran his eyes across all of them, starring at them with confusion. "What are you guys doing-" The detective stopped as his eyes ran over Kanji. He had given a slight dirty look at Justin too, for some reason. He couldn't understand why; he wasn't a fan of cops, but he hadn't done anything to piss of Yu's uncle as far as he knew. "Hm? Kanji Tatsumi…!? Are you friends with them?"

"Like it's any of your business…" Kanji sneered snidely. Not the smartest thing to do to a detective; especially one that has a negative perception of you. Dojima shook his head before turning over to Yu. Yu just shrugged slightly; they weren't doing anything wrong, so Dojima could get as mad as he wanted, he couldn't touch them in any legal capacity.

"…If you say so. So I'll ask again: What are you all doing here?" Dojima questioned Yu.

"We came to see if the rumors about Risette were true." Yu remarked calmly. Justin probably would have gone off on a tangent about how it wasn't any of the detective's business, or how there was no law saying they couldn't stand outside a public tofu shop. Fuck the system, etc, etc. He had to give Yu props for being so coolheaded about this, though he suppose that also had to do with him living with Dojima. Never piss off a detective, especially one you live with.

"…Is that so?" It was clear Dojima wasn't entirely convinced.

"Oh, um… W-Well, who wouldn't wanna come check it out if they found out an idol's family ran an ordinary tofu store? I'm, uh… a big fan!" Yosuke interrupted, trying to sell Yu's story. Justin couldn't understand why; it wasn't like it was a lie or anything. They WERE here to see Risette, and there's nothing illegal about it. All the same Justin groaned slightly at Yosuke's proclamation of being a big fan. _Yeah, no shit Sherlock._

"You have no fucking idea what it's been like listening to this guy talk about her for the last week." Justin remarked. Dojima was a little off-put by Justin's lack of tact, though not entirely surprised. Justin got the feeling that he already knew Justin was a fairly abrasive person. Maybe Yu described him to Dojima at some point, who knew. "Is there a law for not shutting up about celebrities? Because by all means, if there is take him away. We won't mind. Really." Yosuke was only slightly offended by Justin's remark. He had taken that more as a jab at the fact that they weren't breaking any laws, just like how it wasn't breaking the law to be a fan of a celebrity. It wasn't at all, but whatever; it meant less bitching on Yosuke's end.

"Not unless it turns into stalking." Dojima replied. If he DID understand that was supposed to be a joke, he didn't find it very amusing. It seemed he had thought Justin was proposing a legitimate question. Dojima sighed slightly before turning his attention back over to Yu. "Fine. But remember. She might be a celebrity, but this is her home. Try not to bother them too much." He instructed. Justin might not have liked how the guy had a stick up his ass, but he did have to admire Dojima's moral code. If it weren't for the investigation, Justin wouldn't even be here. Like Dojima said, this IS her home, and she IS trying to get away from the crowds and industry, not be harassed by them. This was a little more important than Justin's personal code of etiquette though, so here he was. Yu nodded slightly.

"We won't, we'll be in and out before you know it." Yu remarked, a grin on his face. The detective sighed a bit before marching off in search of Adachi. Wherever the hell he went. Kanji passed of a slight glance of confusion. This was a bit of a strange encounter for him.

"That cop's your uncle, eh…? So, what the hell was that about? Are you guys under suspicion…?" Kanji questioned.

"Well, they did take us in once…" Yosuke grimaced slightly. Kanji was completely confused at that point, something that was certainly not fixed by the lack of elaboration on Yosuke or Yu's part. None of them mentioned how Yosuke had brought weapons to the mall, or how he had started swinging them around for no reason, or how he had practically held a cop up at sword point. Nope, they just said they got arrested, and left it at that.

"You still owe me for that." Yu remarked, slightly irritated. He had been completely innocent, and he ended up having to take the fall with Yosuke. Not to mention he was almost entirely positive the reason his uncle was so suspicious of him all the time was because he had thought Yu had actually been involved. He wasn't that kind of kid, but good luck explaining that to Dojima NOW. Yosuke shrugged his shoulders in a slightly apologetic manner. HE felt bad, sure, but there was really nothing he could do about it NOW. He eventually turned his attention back over to Kanji.

"But we can't just tell him everything, right? If we say anything about the other world, we only look more suspicious. They'll be watching us all the time." Yosuke continued.

"Suspicious isn't the word you're looking for. Psychotic is." Justin interrupted. Yosuke just twisted his head to both sides in slight agreement. Suspicious, psychotic, it really didn't matter; the point was that they would have eyes on them 24/7 if they told anyone about the television world, and god knows they couldn't just jump through and save people when someone was watching. They'd be arrested immediately after they returned, and then the killer would have no one to keep him in check. Kanji nodded in agreement; Yosuke had a very valid point. The four's short conversation between each other was soon interrupted by the sound of the crowd behind them.

"Man, there's no one in there but the old lady. Risette isn't here after all…"

"I heard that she really is already here, but it might've just been a rumor… Well, it was fun while it lasted."

"A rumor!? What, she's not here!? Seriously!?" Yosuke shouted as the crowd started to disperse. In secrecy, Justin had pumped his fist in slight victory. No Risette means no Risette Drive, and no Risette Drive meant his sanity would stay in check. Besides, if she wasn't here yet, she couldn't be kidnapped. It seemed they had been completely wrong about who was on the screen. Though, that could be a problem in and of itself.

"Pfft, you sound like the world's about to end." Kanji remarked, jabbing at Yosuke. He DID sound like the world was about to end; probably because it was for Yosuke. It was like all his hopes and dreams had just been shattered. And Justin loved it. _That's for not shutting the fuck up about Risette for the last week, you ass._

"Shuddup!" Yosuke countered with irritation. He didn't like people pointing out his apparent fanboyism for Risette; even though he himself loved to brag about it at every chance he got. He sighed slightly, folding his arms in front of him before turning his head around to face Yu. "Anyways, now that all those people are gone, we might as well check inside. I'll buy something." It was clear the guy wasn't entirely convinced Risette wasn't there. It was actually kind of annoying that Yosuke just wouldn't let it go. Yu shook his head slightly.

"Well if you're going to buy something, you should probably get ganmodokai." Yu sighed. He knew Yosuke was just going to check the place out anyway, so why not. Justin was about to ask what in the fuck ganmodokai was, but then he realized he was just going to get a bunch of strange looks and everyone would call him stupid again, so he just said fuck it. He'd find out soon enough anyway.

"How'd you know I can't eat tofu? Wow, that's considerate of you." Yosuke remarked with cheer.

"You were going to buy something from a tofu shop… When you can't eat tofu…?" Justin remarked with exasperation. This was just beyond stupid; this was blindly throwing money away in the sake of fanboyism. His Risette Drive must be at the max right now if it was interrupting his thinking process THIS much. Yosuke just shrugged slightly, before turning back to Yu, a look of puzzlement on his face.

"Wait, what's ganmodoki again? Is it the kind with a rice cake in it?" Justin slapped himself upside the face. First of all, how the hell would he know that wasn't tofu if he didn't know what it was? Secondly, he was going to buy food that he didn't even know shit about? Holy fuck this was stupid. On the bright side, though, Justin was finally going to find out what ganmodokai was.

"There's no rice cakes in 'em… They're sorta like… fried tofu patties with veggies and stuff in, and…" Kanji tried to explain to Yosuke with the slightest hint of condensation in his voice. Justin was happy now that he hadn't been the one to ask, because apparently, you were an idiot if you didn't know what it was.

"Ohhh, okay, I know what you mean! I think I can eat that." Yosuke cut Kanji off, as the four slowly made their way into the store. Justin was a little surprised at how empty the place seemed. There didn't seem to be anyone at the counter, though there was someone working in the ba-

_Oh for the love of fuck… I recognize those pigtails…_ Justin didn't say anything to the others, figuring they would have noticed; especially Yosuke. But as it turned out, no one so much as suspected that was Risette in the back, cutting up tofu. It's as though the minute she put that kerchief on she had suddenly changed into an entirely different person. Justin just could not fathom how not only the investigation team, but the entire crowd outside had not been able to notice her. He sighed slightly as they made their way up to the front counter. He wasn't going to point it out; last time he had been right about something that should have been obvious, everyone acted like he was nuts._ I swear to god, that's a girl! I must be the only person on the face of the planet that isn't blind!_

"Let's see here…" Yosuke mumbled to himself as he made his way up to the counter. He sounded like he was going to be browsing the menu or the store's inventory, but in actuality, he had been looking around the store to see if Risette was here, COMPLETELY missing her in the back. No exaggeration, he looked right at her and didn't so much as bat an eyelash. In fact… "Sure enough… The only one here is your typical old lady." Yep. That's right. He mixed up a teen idol with an old lady. Like come on, her posture, her body shape, hell, her not at all grey pig tails; NONE of that had apparently tipped Yosuke off. Justin groaned slightly.

"You're an idiot." Justin remarked, shaking his head. Yosuke raised his eyebrow slightly at Justin's remark. He wasn't sure what he had done to warrant being called in idiot; even by Justin, who pretty much did that on a regular basis anyway.

"Man, why don't you just ask if she's in back? 'Scuse me!" Kanji called out to Risette in the back. He was… sorta on the right track? I mean, at least he was asking if she was here, and he wasn't wrong when he said she was probably in the back. Justin just couldn't fathom how anyone couldn't tell that was her. Oh well, they'd find out soon enough.

"Yes, may I help you?" An elderly woman spoke up, making her way towards the group from the side of the store. It seemed she had stepped out for a moment and just made her way inside. Or at least, Justin hoped to god that's what happened. She certainly wasn't there before! Everyone but Justin started exchanging funny glances at each other, confused as to who would be in the back if not this woman. As if only one old woman could work at a tofu store, and they always had to make the tofu. Justin shook his head at the group slightly, though they were much too preoccupied being confused to notice.

"What the-!? Then, who's that…?" Yosuke remarked with confusion. Justin didn't so much as look in Risette's general direction as she turned her attention to the strange customers up front, instead opting to look at the dirt under his nails, as though completely unfazed by this revelation. Mostly because he wasn't.

"That would be Risette." Justin remarked nonchalantly, not so much as raising his eyes from the tips of his fingers. He should really clean these a bit better… Everyone's jaws dropped slightly, mostly because Risette had in fact been there, partially because it seemed to them that Justin knew the whole time and decided NOT to tell them. I mean, sure they figured it out eventually, but not until Yosuke had called her an old woman. He was actually a bit mortified that he hadn't noticed her at first.

"What…?" Risette questioned. Justin paused for a moment, his brow lowering in slight confusion as he turned to face Risette. Now, he had heard of celebrity's being assholes before, but this wasn't like that. She sounded more tired than anything; hell she LOOKED exhausted. And for some reason Justin had doubted that was from working in the back all day. Cutting up tofu can't be THAT hard, after all. No, she just looked as though she was fed up; fed up of the industry, fed up of the media, fed up of the crowds banging down the shop's doors to try and get a glimpse at her. Justin felt like a complete prick for showing up to bother her, even if it was for her safety.

"Uh… Are you Rise?" Kanji asked. _NO! IT'S CLINT EASTWOOD! Of course it's Risette, you fucking idiot!_

"Yeah, so?" Risette responded, clearly not very pleased by her fans bothering her. Justin could understand that, especially after one of them had just called her an old lady.

"No way… Are you really Risette?" Yosuke choked up, his throat clogged with pure joy. The sad part was, this would probably be the pinnacle of his life; he would never be more excited than he was now. Over meeting a teen idol. Justin wasn't sure whether he should feel pity towards Yosuke, or disgust. He was leaning towards the latter though, given that Risette was very visibly getting irritated by the group, and yet Yosuke continued to ask dumb questions in the name of fandom.

"No, Yosuke, it's the queen of England." Justin remarked sarcastically, rolling his eyes in the process.

"What do you want?"

"Huh…? Oh, sorry, um… Some tofu, please!" Yosuke remarked, snapping himself out of his Risette Drive to the best of his ability. He didn't want to seem uncool in front of Risette after all!

"Tofu…? Which kind?" Risette remarked, her irritation starting to subside. Sure, these people were probably only here because she was, but at least they were trying to be polite and not gawk at her. And besides, this WAS a business; she had to be polite if they actually intended to buy something.

"Huh? Wh-Which one's which again…?" Yosuke questioned to himself as he tried to remember what he was supposed to be ordering. He was so star struck he had forgotten his excuse for being here. Risette just sighed slightly as she saw Yosuke trying to recall his excuse. Now she knew for a fact they were only here because she was. Still, business was business, and as much as she'd love to tell them all to go away, she had to be professional.

"If you're going to eat it by itself, you should go with silken. Momen's better for cooking… Depends how you use it." Risette tried to explain. Justin didn't even know there was more than one kind of tofu. He thought there was tofu tofu… and that's it. Besides, who the hell eats tofu by itself? That sounds awful.

"U-Um… Psst, Kanji! Order something!" Yosuke whispered to Kanji, trying to get someone else to bluff on his behalf. He was blowing it big time; he didn't need to look any worse in front of an idol after all. Kanji just passed him a slightly look of disgust. He wasn't trying to figure out the answer to life, the universe, and everything (It's 42 by the way,) he just had to order some tofu. He wasn't even going to use it for god's sake!

"Wha-!? Why're you making me do it!? You already picked ganmo a second ago!" Kanji shouted in disappointment. He shook his head for a brief moment, giving Yosuke a disapproving stare before turning his attention over to Risette, who clearly was not very enthused by their patronage. "Dude here wants three ganmodoki." Kanji ordered concisely. Risette was slightly relieved that someone finally ordered; it meant she didn't have to interact with them any longer than she had to.

"Oh, I see… I'll go get them." She sighed slightly before marching off towards the back in search of Yosuke's order. She was still within visual range of the group, and if they shouted out to her, she could probably still hear them, but otherwise they were free to talk behind her back. _I'm sure she would be absolutely thrilled._

"Wow… She's nothing like she seems on TV… I wonder if she's just tired…" Yosuke mused to himself, staring at Risette shuffle through some things in the back. Actually, it looked more like he was starring at her ass, much to absolutely no one's surprise. Justin made a mental note to slap Yosuke upside his head later. Still, he was somewhat surprised. Despite being a pervert as usual, it seemed as though, gasp, Yosuke was growing a conscious. As if he was somehow becoming aware that maybe they shouldn't be bothering her. But of course, no. No he wasn't. He was just surprised she wasn't blowing kisses at her fans or some shit. It seemed he couldn't differentiate her stage persona from reality… It was also worth noting that Justin was finding it difficult to use persona in a psychiatric definition anymore; much too confusing. "Man, but it's really her… I'm so glad I came! Mission comple- Wait, we haven't done what we came here for yet!"

"Glad to see you have your priorities in order." Justin added sarcastically, shaking his head in slight disgust. They were there to save her from being kidnapped, not just gape at her. Yosuke wasn't paying much attention to Justin though, as Risette came back over with their order in a plastic bag.

"Um…! H-Have you noticed anything weird lately?" Yosuke called out to her as she made her way over. She was a little surprised by the question, mostly because she had no idea what he was getting at. Hell, she wasn't really looking forward to talking to these people as it was.

"Weird…? Like stalkers? Are you guys fans of mine?" Risette questioned. She had a feeling that was the road this conversation was going to be taking anyway. She couldn't even count how many creepy fans she had run into that had tried to strike up a conversation with her using a similar comment. She wanted to know in advance whether she should get the cops on speed dial or what. Every single one of the guy's eyes darted over to Yosuke, much to his displeasure. He didn't like where this was going…

"I wouldn't say "we," but yeah, dude here's a big fan." Kanji remarked, pointing towards Yosuke with his thumb. Yosuke's jaw practically hit the floor in anger. Now he looked like some crazy stalker! Mostly because he sort of was.

"You little…! Why'd you let that slip!?" Yosuke shouted at Kanji, his face red with a mixture of fury and embarrassment. You would have thought that would be the end of that, but there was a reason Justin liked Kanji so much. Kanji smirked slightly before raising his voice slightly in an attempt to imitate Yosuke.

"Her curves, her posture, even her beautiful slim legs… Ya finished checkin' em out yet, or what?" Kanji jabbed at him. Risette was more than a little disgusted by the sudden change in the conversation. At least the other three weren't like that… she supposed? She didn't really know, but they didn't seem the type to do that. She still was a little creeped out by Yosuke though. As for Justin… Well Justin had started laughing hysterically.

"Kanji, you are a bastard after my own heart." Justin choked up over his laughter.

"I try." Kanji remarked with slight sarcasm.

"Waaaaaaah! Y-You're doing this on purpose, aren't you!? I didn't say that! I never said any of that!" Yosuke spoke up frantically. Now he didn't just look like a creeper, he looked like a perverted creeper. Again, mostly because he was. Risette just sort of sighed a bit, crossing her arms as Yosuke tried to convince her. Though in actuality, it sounded more like he was trying to convince himself. In all honesty, she was used to that kind of stuff at this point. She still didn't like it one bit, but she had learned to stop reacting when she heard her fans make remarks like that. Half her fanbase was like that after all. Which was really creepy now that she thought about it. She was fifteen after all. Yosuke sighed a bit as he realized he wasn't getting through to her. She didn't believe him one bit. Which meant he was going to have to strangle Kanji later. "Maybe you know already, but it's been dangerous in Inaba lately. That's why we've been investigating some stuff." Yosuke remarked, trying to transition the conversation back into the reason they were there.

"Oh yeah?" Risette remarked. She sounded curious, but in actuality she wasn't. It just sounded like a fan trying to brag in hopes of wooing her or something. Again, she was used to it, though she was completely uninterested in anything Yosuke had to say. Yu sighed slightly watching Yosuke hopelessly try and talk to Risette. It wasn't that Risette wouldn't listen; it was just that she didn't want to listen to Yosuke. The guy was part of THAT part of her fanbase; she wasn't exactly pleased to be in his company right now.

"Sorry, um… Let's see… Do you know about the TV show that comes on at midnight?  
I mean, it's not like regularly scheduled programming… How do I explain this…?" Yosuke stuttered abit trying to figure out the best way to describe the Midnight Channel to her. He was completely blowing it, and at any second, Yu was going to jump in and take control of this investigation; but alas, Risette had raised her eyebrows in surprise. Justin raised one of his eyebrows to match hers. She knew EXACTLY what they were talking about. Which meant either she had heard about it, or she had seen it.

"…That thing that was on last night? The Midnight Channel, yeah?" She questioned, her voice snapping slightly out of that depressing tone it had leveled off at earlier. She was completely uninterested in what they had to say before, but now that they brought up the Midnight Channel, it seemed they might have an important reason to be here. She had a good idea what they wanted to ask her too, and she was a-okay with answering it. It was an important question that needed an important answer after all.

"Wait… What!? You mean you saw it last night!?" Yosuke shouted in confusion. Justin would normally tell him to calm down, but this was a sudden change in development. She had seen herself on the television, so know all they had to do was tell her what that meant as far as her safety was concerned.

"I heard the rumors from some friends of mine. But that girl last night wasn't me. I've never been filmed wearing that swimsuit before. And the bustline…" Justin raised his eyebrow slightly. What about the bustline? And why are you telling that to Yosuke of all people? Yosuke grunted in slight confusion, not entirely sure where this was heading. "Mine aren't that big." Alright, now Justin was completely confused. He couldn't think of anyone that would outright say that; especially with the calm demeanor that Risette had. She hadn't so much as hesitated to say that, and she didn't seem embarrassed to talk about it in the slightest. He wasn't exactly sure how he should be feeling about that. Neither did Yosuke apparantly.

"Oh yeah, I see what you mean now… I-I mean… What am I saying!? U-Um, I'm sorry…!" Yosuke blubbered. He wasn't thinking when he was talking, but that didn't really matter. Justin was about to sock Yosuke one for being a complete and utter creep when Risette started to giggle abit. That was completely and utterly unexpected. Truth be told, she had sort of brought that one on herself. Yeah, it was kind of creepy, but she DID bring attention to that area of the body, so it wasn't that big of a deal. Besides, she thought it was funny how embarrassed Yosuke was getting. He SHOULD have been mortified, but that's beside the point.

"…Don't apologize so much. You're funny." Risette choked up over her giggled. Every single guy in the room was shocked she hadn't been offended; even more shocked that she seemed actually… happy. She hadn't so much as smiled the entire time they were there, and here she was laughing. Justin was pleased to see her cheer up; after all, she looked absolutely depressed but a few minutes ago. That couldn't have been good for her health.

"Hey, she smiled." _Yeah, thanks Yosuke. We noticed._

"What is that show about, anyway?" Rise questioned, a smile still on her face, thankfully. That was a very good question though; what IS that show supposed to be about. I mean, yeah it's supposed to pretty much just be an outlet for the shadow's to make the originals look just awful, but other than that, what's the purpose?

"Well, we're not too sure either… But you know there's been stuff happening here, right? We think the people who appear there… are the ones who get kidnapped next." Yosuke tried to explain. Risette seemed more than a little surprised. These fans of hers were saying there was a possibility she might get kidnapped. She wasn't going to lie, this sounded like it was going back into creep fan territory again. Yet, she sort of believed them. They hadn't shown any bad will towards her so far, and they had been polite for the most part…

"I know this is sudden, but we're not lying." Kanji added onto Yosuke's statement.

"Yeah, that's why we thought you should know about it." Yosuke continued. Risette shook her head slightly. She believed them completely; after all, they had no reason to lie to her about something like this, especially if it was just dropping a line.

"Huh… So that wasn't a dream. I was tired yesterday, but I couldn't sleep. And it was raining, so I decided to try that rumor I'd heard about… Hmm." Risette mumbled to herself. So she DID watch herself on the screen. Perfect, she HAD to believe them now, right? Risette starred at everyone for a moment before reaching back down to the tofu in front of her and dropping a few pieces into the plastic bag. "Alright, thanks… I'll be careful. And here you go, three ganmo. That'll be 600 yen. There's extra tofu in there for everyone… A little thank-you for worrying about me." Risette remarked, a smile on her face as she handed the bag off to Yosuke. It took him a while to give her the money though; he really had to scrape the bottom of his pockets for that yen for some reason.

"Whoa, seriously? Thanks!" Yosuke remarked with enthusiasm. Extra tofu from RISETTE. He must have died and gone to heaven at some point… Though that begged the question as to what Justin was doing up here. Kanji and Justin passed each other a slight look of confusion and disgust before turning back to Yosuke.

"Yosuke-senpai, you can't eat tofu, right? Want me to take yours?" Kanji asked. He didn't really like tofu, but he did like free food. Hell, everyone loves free food.

"Hell no! I always eat what people give me." Yosuke objected loudly. Justin would have had to do a spit-take on that one had he been drinking something. He passed a funny look at Yosuke.

"Yeah unless it comes from Yukiko or Chie, apparently." Justin remarked with slight disgust.

"Well there are always exceptions."


	71. Chapter 70: June 23, 2011

CHAPTER 70

June 23, 2011

* * *

"So, about the Midnight Channel last night… That had to be Rise Kujikawa. It even showed her face this time."

The entire gang had shown up to Junes to discuss the contents of last night's showing of the Midnight Channel; even Maya, who had been watching the television last night. She knew Justin wouldn't let her help inside the television, so she figured she'd have to work extra-hard on the outside. Or at least harder than Justin, who had fallen asleep while waiting for the damn thing to start up. He was a little embarrassed to say the least; after all, this was the SECOND time this has happened to him. But Maya filled him in all the same. Risette had appeared again, and while the image was still blurry and static, they could clearly make out the face. There was no question about it in Maya's mind; it had been her alright.

"So now we know one more thing. The ones that the culprit's targeting are broadcasted on the TV." Yukiko spoke up, connecting the dots on the case out loud. It certainly made sense, after all, Risette had little to no connection to Ms. Yamano; it seemed so much more likely that she was targeted for being on the television screen.

"Exactly! So we can rules out the assumption that all the victims are connected to the incident with Ms. Yamano. As for Rise, I took a peek this morning, and she was still at the shop. So I'm guessing that "TV show" thing doesn't appear on the Midnight Channel until after the person enters the TV." Yosuke reasoned out loud. It was all stuff they already knew, but Justin supposed it would be fine since they needed to fill Maya in on the details anyway. She was still a little confused, of course, but she got the general gist. Anyone who appears on television has a chance of being on the Midnight Channel, and while the image was staticy, they weren't kidnapped yet. As for why the killer was targeting people on the television screen… Well no one knew that.

"Teddie said before that it might be the victim's own creation upon entering that world. I didn't understand at all at first, but now I feel it may be true. The one that appears on TV is your other self… Maybe the victim's true feelings are shown unconsciously." Yukiko speculated out loud. Justin raised an eyebrow slightly. That may very well be the case, but then… That stuff Justin had heard about his own program. That shit about wiping out humanity; that couldn't be right. I mean sure, people were scum; but what he had heard… That was too extreme, even for Justin. He refused to believe that world was supposed to reflect their feelings. It just had to be their shadows trying to fuck with them.

"But… We see them on the Midnight Channel before they disappear. You know, when it's still really fuzzy and you can't tell who it is. How do you explain that part?" Chie questioned out loud. It was sort of strange how the person would show up on the Midnight Channel PRIOR to their kidnapping; or at all really. Justin had a good idea as to who it was appearing, not so much as to what caused the program to air. Who was broadcasting it, and why?

"Well, I think we can safely assume the person that appears on the screen is our shadow, right?" Justin interrupted. Chie just shook her head slightly. That wasn't really what she was asking.

"No, I mean why is the program appearing before they get kidnapped, not why they're showing up on it." She tried to explain. Justin nodded his head slightly. He was asking the same thing in his mind, so he wasn't going to be much help there.

"In that case, I've got nothin'." Justin sighed slightly, leaning on his elbow in slight disappointment.

"It always happens before the person disappears, like an advance notice…" Yosuke remarked, scrambling through his thoughts for a possible explanation.

"Or like a ransom note. But who are they announcing it to? And for what?" Chie continued. Justin tapped at the table slightly, trying to think of a good reason. Logic was hard when it came down to serial killers, since a good chunk of them weren't in their right mind. You could say what they were doing didn't make sense, but that didn't mean they didn't do it. This was one of those circumstances. Announcing your next victim before you make the kill? No one in their sane mind would think to do that before a murder. No one in their SANE mind. Now try someone in their INSANE mind, and it makes perfect sense. Maya passed her eyes back and forth between the group as they tried to logically deduce what was going on.

"Maybe it's just the killer getting cocky. Like; he doesn't think anyone can catch him, so he announces it a head of time. Like a game of 'catch me if you can." Maya remarked, taking a sip from the cup of cola in front of her. Justin shook his head in slight agreement. That probably wasn't it, but it certainly made sense. Yosuke didn't seem to agree though, sighing a bit as he sat back in his chair, arms folded in front of him.

"I dunno, we'd have to ask the killer. There's a bunch of stuff I still don't understand." Yosuke remarked, slight annoyance in his voice. Annoyance that it seemed they were getting absolutely nowhere. Sure, they were starting to pinpoint the killer's methods, and that meant they could save people no problem, but they still had nothing on his identity, or his motives, or ANYTHING that could lead to a conviction. They were getting nowhere in a hurry.

"Is it possible we see those images for the same reason?" Yukiko interrupted. She had a very tentative theory as to why the channel was airing with the images of the next victim, and she could be completely off base, but it was still worth throwing out there to see what the other's thought of her crackpot theory. Everyone was a little confused without context though. _See those images for the same reason as…?_

"Huh? What do you mean?" Chie questioned.

"If the Midnight Channel shows the victim's true feelings… maybe it does the same for the culprit. Maybe what we're seeing is the culprit's intentions." Yukiko tried to explain here theory. Justin just shook his head. Even though the others were seriously considering the theory, it just seemed so far out there. The Midnight Channel broadcasted the feelings of people INSIDE the television. Why would it do it for people on the outside? And Justin's shadow clearly said that the killer on the inside was different than the one on the outside, right? So then the other guy probably never even went into the television, so they could rule that out as a possible reason it was broadcasting his motives. It just seemed as though Yukiko was on the completely wrong track.

"Well, it's a possibility… The killer can throw people into the TV, after all, which means they must have the same power that we do." Yosuke remarked. Justin rubbed at his chin slightly. That's right, he did have the same power… So then does the killer have Persona as well? That could be problematic…

"So… When the killer thinks, "I'm gonna attack someone now," that's what we see on TV?" Chie questioned. She was trying to wrap her head around this theory, but it seemed a little far-fetched to her as well. And Yukiko could tell. She seemed slightly disappointed that the others seemed to dismiss her theory as outlandish. It WAS outlandish, but she was hoping it might spark some ideas.

"I don't know about that…" Yukiko remarked, her cheeks slightly red as she tried to withdraw her theory.

"Well, if we're gonna go that far with it, we might as well say that's the basis for that entire world. Like, it's some kinda mix of the minds of the victims and the killer… Or maybe it's everyone's minds?" Yosuke remarked, throwing out all sorts of batshit insane ideas.

"Alright, stop. Just stop." Justin interrupted, rubbing at his temples, his eyes closed as he thrusted his hand forward in a stopping motion. "That's just stupid. We're getting into Inception territory now." Yosuke sighed and shrugged a bit. Clearly the other world was influenced by the feelings of the people inside it, so it didn't seem that far out there that the world inside the television WAS the creation of the human mind.

"As always, nothing makes sense." Chie groaned, leaning on her elbow slightly. She had really thought they were getting somewhere, but now she was more confused than anything. She sighed slightly before turning her attention over to Kanji. "Hey Kanji-kun, you still with us? You haven't said a word yet."

"Whaa…? Uhh… Well, um…" Kanji frantically spoke up, his head darting up from the table it had been resting against moments ago. The others had just figured he had a headache or something, but now that they looked at him, his eyes were bloodshot, and only half open. The guy was fast asleep. Justin gave him points for being able to wake up when he heard Chie talking to him. Justin wasn't even sure he could do that, and he practically mastered the art of not paying attention.

"You weren't sleeping, were you…?" Chie scolded, a slight glare on her face. She knew he was, but she wanted to see him squirm abit.

"O-Of course not! I was uh, lost in thought." Kanji stuttered, trying to think of an excuse to get out of the situation he had accidently threw himself into. Under normal circumstances, that MIGHT have been believable; after all, Justin couldn't even begin to count how many times he hadn't heard someone talking to him because he was so caught up in his thoughts. Of course, they could all see the tell-tale signs the guy had been sleeping, so he wasn't fooling anyone. Everyone shook their heads slightly, except maybe Maya, who seemed amused by his embarrassment. Chie sighed for a brief moment, dropping the glare from her face. It wasn't worth getting into.

"I wish I knew what that world's all about. Teddie's explanations have so many "maybe"s in them that I don't understand the first thing about it." Chie remarked. She had a valid point; Teddie barely seemed to know more about the place then they did.

"Why would the culprit throw people inside the TV in the first place?" Yukiko questioned? _Now that's a question I can answer. _Justin raised his hand, as though asking permission to speak. He wasn't, of course, but it was a good way of assuring no one would speak over him as he talked.

"Simple. No evidence." Justin remarked concisely. Everyone nodded slightly. It was true; the cops couldn't get any evidence from the murder if they couldn't even find the crime scene.

"They must know by now that people die when they're in there long enough… There's no doubt its attempted murder. So the TV's a good way to do that, because the police can never prove anything about the crime." Yosuke added onto Justin's statement, which, while repetitive, was sort of necessary for Kanji's sake. And to a certain extent Maya's, though she had already figured that much anyway,

"Murder, huh…? So the killer's got a grudge against certain people? Well, there's a shitload of people who've got my number. How 'bout you, Yukiko-senpai? Anyone hate you so bad they'd get rid of you forever?" Kanji remarked. Actually, Kanji brought up a very good point; what if the television thing was just a coincidence? It could just be that the killer had a grudge against them all… But why would someone want to kill an assortment of unaffiliated teenagers? Well, unaffiliated at the time anyway.

"No." Yukiko didn't so much as think about the question, she had seemed completely and utterly convinced that she had never pissed off someone ever in the history of ever. No one made a sound as they eyed Yukiko from their seats, not entirely sure how to react. They ultimately decided the best way to do that was to explain to her that you can piss someone off unintentionally and unknowingly.

"Uh, Yukiko… There's always a slight chance and you just don't realize it…" Chie chuckled a fake awkward laugh, trying to break the awkward atmosphere Yukiko's remark had created. It didn't help that she seemed completely unfazed by Chie's explanation. She was still unconvinced she had pissed anyone off, not so much as a doubt in her mind.

"Nope." Yukiko remarked again. Maya had been chugging her drink down at this point, as though she were watching some sort of movie. Though what kind of movie was a good question. Let's just say, no one could really believe how set in stone Yukiko was on the matter. Everyone passed each other a few glances of confusion and slight concern before shaking their heads, trying to clear their minds from the remark. It didn't work, but they still had to press on.

"Wel what about you Justin?" Kanji remarked, trying to extend the question to someone he KNEW pissed off people on a regular basis. Justin shot his glance up to the ceiling in thought for a second, placing the tip of his foot against the top of the table, extending his hand as he counted off names.

"Oh geez… Let's see… King Moron, Takeshi, Kurt's Goons, My Shadow, Yosuke—"

"I'd do it too." Yosuke remarked with slight sarcasm. Justin sighed abit before placing his hands behind his head.

"Point is, there's a lot of people." Justin put it concisely, instead of listing off a dozen or so more people.

"But if we're trying to think of a common grudge someone would have against all the victims, I'm drawing a blank…" Chie mused out loud. It was true; none of the people Justin had listed off really had a grudge with all of them. Except maybe King Moron, but he hated everyone; he was hardly a likely suspect.

"Well, the good thing is, we have another shot at getting ahead of the killer. We can leave the motive aside for now. Once we catch 'em, we'll make 'em talk. The only thing we can be sure of now is that Rise is in danger." Yosuke remarked. It was true, they needed to prioritize right now, and that meant they needed to make sure Risette was safe. And Justin was seriously getting confused about something at this point. _Risette or Rise, which is it people?_

"Wait… We get to do another stakeout!?" Chie practically jumped out of her seat with excitement. Though whether that was because she legitimately enjoyed these stakeouts, or because she had been thinking of a different kind of 'stake' was beyond Justin. Could be both. And besides; Justin could get behind this kind of stakeout. They were on Risette's good side, and they weren't really invading her privacy, so it sounded like it'd be fun.

"Hell yeah! This time we'll catch 'em in the act!" Yosuke shouted in response. Both of them were getting pretty worked up. It was actually pretty contagious.

"I'll get the sunglasses and newspapers."

* * *

"We gotta go with donuts and milk."

The team had all been shopping around a small grocery store in the shopping district, though why there and not the much bigger one at Junes was a very good question. They had been discussing what exactly they would need for the stakeout, and to answer that question, nothing. They needed nothing. But hey, no one was complaining about bringing food out on a stakeout; though Justin did have to wonder why donuts and milk. Hell even donuts and cola would be fine; it was the milk part he couldn't comprehend. How were they even gonna do that; carry around a gallon of milk everywhere?

"No, no, no. Slim Jims and Cola." Justin interjected. It seemed no one was particularly a fan of Slim Jims given the looks he got from everyone. Save Maya. She fucking loved those things; mostly because they were so cheap.

"I'm with Chie on this one. There's no better meal than that for a man on a stakeout." Yosuke remarked. It was a bit strange, since Yosuke never agreed with Chie on everything. Apparently when the choice was between agreeing with Chie and agreeing with Justin, though, he picked the lesser of two evils. "Oh, and throw in some disposable diapers."Justin raised his eyebrow in slight curiosity, slight disgust. He hoped to god that was supposed to be a joke. I mean, Yosuke couldn't SERIOUSLY have been expecting everyone to walk around with diapers on, could he? _Just leave to go to the bathroom if you need to, there's seven of us afterall._

"For what!? They don't even sell those here!" Chie shouted in disgust.

"We have 'em at Junes."

"Too much information!"

"You guys finished yet? Let's hurry up and get going." Kanji interrupted the two arguing back and forth between each other. They were kinda supposed to be, oh I don't know, stopping someone from being murdered; not arguing over disposable diapers and donuts. The two sighed slightly, before turning back around in search of what they needed. Or at least they had, until they noticed someone familiar in the aisle over. Justin was a little confused who they were starring at at first, but he soon realized why they had gone dead quiet at the sight. It was Adachi, shuffling through some random objects on a shelf. He was spying on them, and doing a pretty lousy job of it. Justin couldn't help but chuckle to himself. He kind of felt bad for the guy; he was trying, but he just wasn't catching a break.

"Huh? What brings you here?" Yosuke eventually spoke up, startling Adachi slightly as he quickly turned around, trying to push something he had dropped back on the shelf from behind his back. He seemed more than a little surprised by the group calling him out. He had thought he had blended in so well, too. Maya was a bit confused.

"You guys know him?" She whispered in an aside to Justin.

"That's Adachi. He's a plain-clothes police officer. I think he's new." Justin replied. Maya shook her head in understanding before turning her attention over to Adachi, who had been nervously grinning. He had been caught red-handed and he knew it.

"Oh, uh… Well… I'm doing legwork." Adachi nervously tried to the team. He averted his gaze for a slight moment as he mumbled to himself. "Ugh, what did I do to deserve babysitting detail…?" Justin raised an eyebrow and passed Adachi a funny look. One that Adachi immediately jumped at. He hadn't thought they could hear him, so he was more than a little embarrassed to see Justin had caught on to his little ruse. "I-I mean, it's nothing major. It's not like Dojima-san ordered me here. So what are you kids up to? Buying snacks?" Adachi nervously tried to change the subject. He seemed friendly enough, but he was also a blubbering fool. Justin just couldn't help but smirk every time this guy opened his mouth.

"We were just about to head over to the tofu shop to see Rise-chan." Yosuke remarked, only to immediately be met by Justin jabbing him in the side. "Ow! What the hell was that for!" He groaned in pain.

"Don't tell him that, idiot! He's trying to spy on us!" Justin remarked. He was generally okay with Adachi, even if he barely knew the guy, but that didn't mean he wanted Adachi spying on them while they were working outside the law. That's like inviting airport security over to watch you build a bomb on an airplane. You just don't do it.

"Oh… I see. H-Heyyy! I'm on my way there too!" Adachi stammered slightly, trying to pass it off as coincidence. It wasn't, and the others knew it. Justin sighed a bit as Yosuke gave him a slight apologetic grimace. Sometimes Justin just wanted to smack Yosuke upside the head. Maybe if he hit him hard enough, he'd manage to jumpstart Yosuke's brain.

"Oh, then why don't we go there together?" Chie spoke up. Justin immediately started shaking his head, a look of disapproval on his face, his mouth slightly ajar with disbelief. "C'mon, he's a detective on active duty. Not a bad guy to have around!" She whispered to the others. Justin shot a glance over to Adachi for a brief moment before turning back to Chie. Chie might have had a point. If something DID happen while they were there, then the detective could make an arrest right there. Though there was the problem of him watching over them while they were on a stakeout. That had to be suspicious as all fuck, ESPECIALLY if Risette was a suspected target in a murder case. Justin sighed before loosening the tension in his brow.

"Fine; but I swear to god if we get arrested, you're paying our bail."

* * *

"Don't stop! The culprit might get suspicious!"

All of the guys and Maya had been circling around the tofu shop for at least the last half hour, Chie and Yukiko pretending to be random bystanders near the entrance of the shop, holding a conversation to try and play the role. Or because they were tired of waiting; either or really. Justin sighed slightly as he grabbed at his ribs. This had been at least the twelfth time they'd walked around the block in an attempt at being nonchalant. Of course, not only did this make them look highly suspicious to Adachi, who was supposed to keep an eye on them, but also to whoever the killer must be. After all, Justin was sure that after the third time they walked by, the killer must have figured something was up. And goddamn, this was a pain on his sides.

"But we've walked past here a thousand times already…" Kanji moaned. Justin could totally understand what he felt like; hell, other than Yosuke and Yu, everyone seemed exhausted from walking. Maya in particular looked like she was going to keel over at any second. Which was strange, considering she was generally more athletic that Justin was. It was actually concerning in a way. She had been homeless for the last year or so, after all, and that no doubt must have had an effect on her health. He was willing to bet her lack of endurance was a direct result of the conditions she had been living in. After all, being homeless probably meant she didn't eat as much, nor did she get any real energy supplements. She still didn't eat much now that she lived at Justin's. He hadn't thought anything of it at first, but now seeing her like this? She didn't look so good.

"You alright?" Justin spoke in an aside to Maya, as she leaned over, clutching her knees as she tried to regain her composure. She was completely out of energy. She just nodded her head slightly, not so much as verbalizing a response. The other guys gave her a slight look of concern; she really didn't look so good. Though they stopped the moment Maya looked up and gave them slight glares. She didn't like people watch her as she tried to gather her energy; it was embarrassing. Despite Maya's clear disapproval of the topic of her health, Yu was going to speak up, when they were interrupted by the sound of Adachi from the tofu shop door.

"Come on out, you bastard…! We're ready for you…" He shouted out from where she was standing. One thing was for certain, he knew damn well what they were doing there. Though, Justin had to wonder why he was allowing them to get involved in a murder case, even if they WERE helping. Maybe he just pitied them, who knew. He seemed like the kind of guy that was great around kids, so Justin wouldn't rule out that he was just playing along to make them feel better; even if they weren't really 'kids' in the strictest sense. Yukiko and Chie had been giving him a funny look, mostly because he was blowing it, when something caught Yukiko's eye.

"Oh… Look!" Yukiko shouted, pointing up towards a telephone pole. Everyone was more than a little confused what the hell she was getting so worked up over. That was, until the saw the figure of a man holding on to the tip of the pole, peering into the upstairs window of the shop; most likely trying to get a look at Risette. The guy had a backpack on, and very loose glasses that he kept having to readjust. A dangerous move when you're hanging from a telephone pole. Everyone's jaws dropped slightly, though that immediately subsided to glares. Something about this guy struck Justin the wrong way, but the guy WAS trying to spy into Risette's room. Seemed like their guy to him.

"Wh-Who's there!?" Adachi shouted towards the pole. The man that had been clinging to the top of the pole's face widened with shock and horror as the detective looked up towards him. He quickly let loose his grip on the pole, sliding down its shaft before running off in the other direction. Not very fast mind you; he clearly wasn't the athletic type. Justin cracked his neck off to the sides slightly before getting into a running stance, darting off to chase the bastard.

"Hey, he's running away!" Chie shouted from behind Justin. The others had all started running a second or two after Justin had. Except maybe Maya, who jogged only a short while before having to stop. She just didn't have the energy too, and after maybe ten seconds or so of running, she had stopped and leaned up against a telephone pole to rest. She wanted to keep chasing the bastard, but at this point, she was going to collapse if she ran any more. She had to leave it into the hands of the others.

"Get back here! Stop running, dammit!" Kanji shouted as the group slowly started to gain some distance on the bastard. He might not have run fast, but he was good at maneuvering. Justin had to jump over more than a few trashcans that the culprit had knocked over as he ran, but that only slowed Justin down a little bit. His ribs were killing him, and he felt like he would keel over at any second, but his willpower was much too strong to let it end like that. They had this guy on the ropes; and now he was going to end this. It took a while before Justin was able to catch up with the guy; mostly because he had stopped. Justin was about to tackle the guy when he noticed cars darting behind him. The culprit was inching his way slowly back towards the intersection. Justin knew damn well what he was trying to do, and he didn't like it one bit.

"Don't come near me!" He shouted in a ridiculously nasally as the rest of the team skid to a stop just behind Justin. They had also caught on to the compromise the culprit was trying to make. Chase him, he jumps, leave him be, he lives. In all honesty? Justin was considering the first choice. This asshole deserved no mercy, not after what he had done to the announcer or Saki, after how he had destroyed Justin and Maya's lives, not after the hearts he'd broken. This guy deserved to take a tire right to his fucking skull, and if need be, Justin would do it.

"Shaddup! What kinda idiot would listen to-" Kanji shouted at the culprit, clearly not aware of how sensitive this issue was. If he kept shouting at the culprit, he damn well might jump into traffic; and you can't get a confession out of a dead man. Of course, a conviction isn't the only way to bring someone to Justin. In all honesty, Justin had hoped to pop a cap in the killer's skull when he saw him. But not here, in broad daylight, with a detective watching. Besides… Something seemed off to Justin. The nasally voice, the chubby build, his cowardly mannerisms… This didn't look like a killer. Justin had seen stranger things happen, but something didn't rub him quite right about this guy. Call it a gut feeling.

"I-I'll do it, you know! What're you gonna do if I get run over!?" The culprit shouted at the group, grimaces across everyone's face. They wanted to bring this guy in, not kill him. Well for the most part anyway.

"I'd laugh." Justin remarked, a glare still on his face. The culprit certainly started freaking out a little more by the remark; though so did the team. Justin could be a really vicious bastard sometimes, but they didn't think he'd find amusement in someone's death. That's just sickening! Still, the way this guy had started freaking out? It was clear he didn't REALLY want to die. He was just bluffing, which meant it would be easier to take this guy down without any substantial injuries.

"Justin!" Chie remarked in shock at his previous remark. She had hoped to god he wasn't serious; she knew how he got when he got angry, so it was a good chance this was just his anger talking right now. She sincerely hoped so anyway. Justin just sort of shrugged slightly, crouching ever so slightly to prepare and take the guy down without him noticing the change in stance.

"N-No! If the suspect gets injured, the police will be held responsible… They'll get really angry, and… Um." Adachi faltered slightly. He's priorities were a little out of whack. He was more concerned about getting in trouble than he was the loss of a human life. Of course, this was no human's life. This was a monster they were looking at. And he didn't belong in this world. Justin bit his bottom lip slightly as he analyzed the area. The traffic was slowing down behind him, but it was much too risk to tackle the guy still. He was going to have to go for a different approach.

"H-Hey, what should we do?" Yosuke choked up in fear, as he turned to Yu. Yu breathed out through his nostrils slightly, looking around the area. He had an idea too, though it was much different than Justin's, that was for sure.

"Someone needs to get behind him and tackle him." Yu whispered in an aside to them. A clever plan in theory; after all, he wouldn't see it coming, and he'd be pushed away from traffic not into it. But there was the obvious problem that in order to get behind him, someone was going to need to go through traffic. It wasn't going to work, and everyone knew it.

"How are we supposed to get behind him…?" Yosuke objected. Yu muttered a curse under his breath before looking around for another option.

"C'mon… let's just take him down." Kanji interrupted his thinking process in irritation. Yu sighed slightly; it seemed a head on assault was going to be the only way. Or at least, that's what he thought. While the three had been pondering, Justin had slowly been inching his feet forward; slowly enough to not get noticed by the culprit and just enough to be within punching distance. He immediately delivered a chop to the culprit's stomach, sending him huddling over in pain, before kneeing him in the forehead, knocking him only slightly backwards as he fell down to the ground unconscious. Justin was lucky actually; if he fell any further back than he did, his head would be a pancake in no time. Everyone dashed forward in no time to constrain the guy and drag him away from the street. Save maybe Chie, who had made her way over to Justin's side to watch as the guy's manhandled the culprit.

"That was a close one…" She sighed with relief under her breath turning her head over to Justin as the guys tried to wake up the suspect. "Nice job." Chie added, a wide grin on her face. Justin wasn't sure what it was about her smile that was so infectious, but even as pissed off as he had been a moment earlier, he had found himself smirking with self-satisfaction. _It WAS a pretty nice job, wasn't it?_

"I try." Justin remarked sarcastically, his arms crossed as he snidely watched the guys slapping the culprit awake. He wasn't too pleased by the way Justin had gotten him away from the ledge; so to speak. Especially considering he had a huge cut along his head where Justin's knee had made contact with his skull. Justin only seemed amused by his anger though. _Game over, fuckface._

"H-How dare you assault an ordinary citizen like—"

"Shut the hell up, murderer! We're taking your punk ass in!" Kanji interrupted, not wanting to hear anymore of the culprit's bullshit. Justin agreed to a certain extent, though he wasn't quite as pissed off as Kanji was. After all, he was in cuffs now. It was all over… Yet… Something still didn't feel quite right with Justin.

"Wha-!? Time out! What do you mean, "murderer"!?" And that was what didn't feel right. The guy didn't ACT like a murderer; and now that they were outright calling him one… He didn't look like he was lying. There were no visible tells other than franticness, and that would certainly spawn from being accused of a serious crime like murder if you were innocent. No doubt the guy was a creep, but… In all honesty, Justin doubted this was their man. He frowned slightly, watching the culprit as the team drilled him, looking for any visible tells. Justin hoped to god he was wrong and this was their guy.

"It's no use playing dumb!" Chie shouted from next to Justin, a very visible glare on her face.

"W-Wait a second! I just really like Risette, so I wanted to take a peek in her room… Look, see! All I've got on me is a bunch of cameras!" The culprit pleaded. Justin sighed a bit. It was true, he had cameras all over the place; and no, not video cameras. He looked like a stalker, which was still illegal as fuck, but not the criminal they were looking for. Justin bit his bottom lip. _Dammit, we were so close…_

"Yep, you're the culprit, all right. No two ways about it. All right, I'll take it from here. We'll hear your story down at the station… Ohh, how I've waited to use that line!" Adachi declared with glee. He was certainly enthralled by the police life, that was for sure. Though… How exactly was Adachi so sure this was the guy? Hell, he had just put forth a legitimate excuse with evidence to back it up as to why he WASN'T the murdered. Should he be arrested? Absolutely. But was he the killer? Justin doubted it now.

"P-Please! Let me go! I didn't do anything wrong! I-I know for a fact it's not a crime in this country to take secret pictures!" The culprit continued. Justin raised an eyebrow as though he wasn't sure he just heard what he thought he heard.

"What are you talking about? That's illegal as fuck!" Justin remarked snidely.

"Hey, don't you understand what's happening here? You're under suspicion of murder! Come with me! We'll talk about this later!" Adachi barked at the culprit, an intense glare on his face. For a blubbering detective, the guy sure could be aggressive when he needed to be. He was the good cop AND the bad cop. "Wow, that went better than I thought! What a coup! I gotta thank you guys for all your help! Well done!" Adachi praised the teens in an aside as he finished cuffing the culprit, lifting him off the ground and preparing to move him off to a police car or something.

"Oh… sure!" Yosuke responded, pleased by the praise he and the rest of the team had received. They did sort of earn it.

"But you really should stop getting involved with this stuff. It's dangerous. I know Dojima-san was worried sick." Adachi remarked to them compassionately. Yeah, he was pretty much telling all of them to fuck off trying to get involved in the case, but he wasn't charging them with obstruction of justice, and he was at the very least looking after their safety. Adachi was a nice guy. Hell, he might be the only cop Justin actually liked. "C'mon, let's go!" Adachi barked at the culprit, dragging him off, the teenagers following slightly in toe. They must have wanted to make sure justice was done; seeing the criminal off on his way to the punishment he allegedly deserved.

"Is it… really over?" Yosuke asked out loud, as though surprised the case had just sort of… ended. It wasn't as climatic as they had expected, even with the culprit threatening to off himself if they tried to arrest him. Justin sighed a bit… He just got a bad sinking feeling in his chest; nothing about this guy seemed like their culprit. He rubbed at his chin slightly as the team all talked to each other up ahead, before reaching into his pocket and pulling out his pocket mirror. He hated to do this; but he knew HE would have answers. He sighed slightly before flipping the mirror open, to be met by the sight of his golden-eyed reflection looking at his nails as though completely uninterested.

"**Catch your killer, Sherlock?" **The shadow remarked with biting sarcasm. Justin just shook his head. He couldn't believe he was asking his shadow anything, let alone something his shadow was probably finding pleasure in watching Justin struggle to figure out.

"That isn't him, is it?"

"**How the fuck should I know?" **The shadow remarked aggressively, not so much as looking at Justin. He looked preoccupied, but really, he had nothing better to do in Justin's skull but watch through the eyes of a madman.

"You said you—"

"**I ASKED which killer you wanted to know about. I never once declared to know anything."**

"So you're clueless."

"**About YOUR killer, yes."**

"Dammit!" Justin shouted, shutting the mirror shut before his shadow was able to squeeze out a snide remark. He didn't want to hear another word out of him. Of all the things he needed to know, why is it THIS was the thing his shadow was completely blind to. He just wanted to punch something in anger at this point. He sighed slightly as everyone came to a stop outside the tofu shop. Maya had made her way back since she damn near collapsed about half a block away. She smiled when she noticed that they had managed to get the culprit; a quick nod from Adachi and Yosuke confirming her belief that the case had been solved.

"Hey, we should let Rise know the good news!" Yosuke declared, turning around to face the others. Everyone nodded in slight agreement as they made their way inside, Maya following behind them, clutching at her ribs slightly. Justin passed her a worried glance as he noticed her having trouble moving. She… Really didn't look good. This wasn't just lack of energy; this was physically painful to her. It's times like this he wished he had a license, so he could just drive her back to the house. After all, it was still a good fifteen minute or so walk to his house; and he had no intention of carrying her the entire way there.

The team had all stopped at the entrance to peer inside, looking for any signs of Risette. They saw an elderly woman, but no dice on the teen idol. Justin shook his head in disbelief. This only seemed to confirm his worst suspicions. What if she had gotten kidnapped while they chased this guy? They would have fucked up AGAIN in trying to catch the perpetrator. He felt his chest grow slightly heavy knowing there was a chance they might have failed Risette.

"Oh, hello. Would you like some tofu?" The elderly woman questioned. From Justin's understanding, that was supposed to be Risette's grandmother. Or so Yosuke claimed. Justin just sort of took his word on anything Risette related; less arguing, less talk about Risette.

"Oh, h-hello. Umm…" Yosuke stuttered a bit, trying to decide upon the best way of asking for Risette. Because apparantly 'is Risette in' isn't polite enough,

"Oh, did you come to see Rise? She seems to have gone out, unfortunately…"

"Huh? But wasn't she just here?" Yosuke spoke up in paniced confusion. It seemed the investigation team was starting to come around to Justin's way of thinking at this point. She was gone, and something just didn't seem right about their alleged murderer. It was really starting to look like the true culprit had struck while they were off chasing this creep.

"She does that sometimes. She'll just wander out without a word… You must forgive her. She's quite worn out, in many ways." _Okay, let's just hope her grandmother didn't mean worn out in THAT way, because that would be a REALLY creepy thing to say to random strangers on the street._

"She left… without saying anything?" Yosuke spoke up in worriment. He was starting to put the pieces of the puzzle together now, and he didn't quite like the picture. Adachi just shook his head though, that gleeful smile of his on, as though he weren't concerned in the slightest. You would think that would strike more confidence into the team, but… Not really.

"C'mon, you worry too much! She must've just stepped out. I mean, we caught the guy." Adachi remarked, tugging at the man slightly, as though trying to hold him up as an example.

"Wh-What are you talking about…?" The culprit continued. It hadn't really struck any of them as off until just now, but the way he seemed to act as though he didn't know anything… It was really convincing. Too convincing, actually. As in, he wasn't lying. And the team was starting to be able to tell.

"We'll discuss it later. If you'll excuse me, I've gotta take this guy in for questioning. Man, I can't wait to see the look on Dojima-san's face!" Adachi remarked with glee, giddy as a school girl. He was like a fanboy being told that their favorite anime was being made into a movie, or some shit. He was practically jumping up and down in excitement as he dragged the guy off. The team wasn't so enthusiastic though. No Rise means no case closed, as far as they were concerned.

"She left without saying anything…? Could that mean…?" Yukiko spoke up questioningly. They all had assumed the worst at this point.

"Shouldn't we look for her!? She can't have gone far." Yosuke shouted in a panicked frenzy. They might have fucked up big time.

"Y-Yeah, I agree!" Chie added, as though they hadn't already had their minds set on the issue as it was. Maya just sort of groaned a bit. Her sides were still killing her, and she had no intention of going anywhere but home. And Justin knew it. Everyone had been starring at Maya with concern when Justin sighed, turning towards the rest of the group.

"You guys think you can handle the search?" Justin questioned? Everyone knew that Justin had intended to take Maya home to rest; so every single person nodded with acknowledgement. Maya seemed a bit upset that she was holding Justin back from the investigation, but it's not like she could walk another step on her own without the pain in her side acting up again. "Alright then, give me a call and let me know how things work out."

* * *

"I see… Alright… Yeah, no, it's fine. Watch the Midnight Channel, got it."

Justin sighed a bit as he flipped his cell-phone close, turning his attention over to Maya next to him on the couch. She had a pillow pressed against her side and was leaning on her elbow as she starred at the blank screen in front of them. It was getting late; nearly midnight late. And now that Justin had received the news that they couldn't find Risette… Well, they knew what had to be done. Maya just felt bad that they couldn't help in the search; and it was all her fault.

"Couldn't find her?" She asked, not so much as looking at Justin.

"Nope." Maya sighed before turning her attention over to the clock just above the television screen

11:59

"Are you alright, Maya? You looked really out of it today…" Justin remarked, a look of concern on his face. Maya passed him a slight disgruntled look as he tried to dissect information out of her. She hated when people treated her like a child, and it was no different when she was sick.

"I'm fine." She replied bluntly. Justin bit his lip slightly… He think he might have known what was wrong, but he wasn't sure he should bring it up. In the end though, he knew it was just going to plague his mind until he asked her. He sighed slightly before turning his head towards her.

"Well it's not just that, you know. You haven't been eating much lately either. Is something bothering you?" He questioned. He knew he had a hard time eating when something was on his mind, and he imagined it was no different in Maya's case. Especially considering she still had to tell Justin about that whole 'fugitive from the law' story. He didn't want to rush her, but she probably should talk to him about that at some point. That wasn't bothering her though; she had no moral qualms with what she had done. Hell, she barely thought about it. It might seem heartless, but she didn't.

"I don't want to gain any more weight is all." Maya replied. Justin immediately gave Maya a funny look. She didn't have to look at him to know he was either; she could FEEL his eyes upon her. "What?"

"Maya, you're like… 100 pounds tops." Justin remarked. He didn't have a scale reading of her, but she was thin. A little too thin maybe; her weight probably wasn't all that healthy for her as it was without her going on a diet. Justin had to wonder… Was she losing energy so quickly because she wasn't eating? At her weight, it seemed that could be problematic.

"You say that like 100 pounds isn't a lot." Maya remarked, slightly irritated. Justin really could not believe the words coming out of Maya's mouth. It wasn't bullshit either; she actually believed it. It was clear to him that she wasn't eating because something was on her mind, or anythign like that. She was purposely not eating, and it wasn't healthy. He wasn't sure what the best way to handle this kind of situation was, but one thing was for certain. She HAD to eat.

"Maya, you look fine. You can't be losing weight like that though; its unhealthy." Justin remarked delicatly. He didn't want to offend her or anything, but she did need to eat; whether she wanted to or not. Clearly she didn't, given how poorly she reacted to the remark.

"Jesus, when did you turn into my mother?" Maya shouted, a slight glare on her face. She didn't need this crap today.

**"Maru-Q! Push Risette! Good evening, good evening! I'm Rise Kujikawa! This spring, one young girl levels up to become a high school idol… Yayyy!"**

Justin was preparing to give Maya a lecture on why eating so little was bad for here, or how she looked fine just the way she was, but that was soon interrupted by the Midnight Channel zapping into focus. Maya and Justin exchanged a quick glance before looking at the screen. That was Risette alright, or at least, it was her shadow anyway. She was wearing a yellow bikini and was posing very suggestively in a dark, colorfully lit room... And is that a strip club in the background?

**" So today, I'm gonna celebrate by pushing the limits of Standards & Practices! Does everybody know what time it is? Showtime! Show what, huh? Hmhmhm… E-very-thing!"**

Justin immediately burst out into one of his coughing fits, mortified by the sudden direction the show had taken. His face was red with embarrassment as he realized he was watching a striptease with Maya sitting right next to him. Both were fairly embarrassed just to be watching this, though they were more embarrassed for Risette. What the hell had she been suppressing that her shadow was trying to be a stripper?

**" Eee, how embarrassing! Is this too hot for TV!? Well, if a thing is worth doing, it's worth doing all the way! I'm gonna bare it all for you!"**

"I think I'm going to vomit." Justin wasn't, but he was still entirely uncomfortable. Which was more than he could say for Yosuke. He was probably jacking off to this shit right about now.

"Please. I've seen worse in your browsing history." Maya smirked slightly. It was a joke, but it was still a serious remark. She HAD seen worse in his browser history. Much much worse. She... Uh... She didn't want to think about it.

"Whoa whoa whoa, wait a second here- When did I even say you could use my computer!" Justin remarked, his face red with mortification, his jaw slightly askew. Hell, forget whether he said she could use it or not, what the hell was she doing going through his history. AND WHY WAS SHE CLICKING THOSE LINKS?

"Believe me, I have no intention of touching it again." Maya remarked with a slight grimace. She most certainly didn't; she'd hook her iPod up to the internet or something before she touched that keyboard again. She had washed her hands a good three or four times after going through some of the links in his history, and even then, she wasn't sure that was quite enough.

**"Heehee! Stay tuned!"**

And with that the Midnight Channel concluded. Not that Justin or Maya had noticed. They were much too busy arguing over Justin' porn cache for some reason. And they would have continued too if it wasn't for the interruption of Justin's cellphone ringing. He had assumed it would be Chie at first, so he was a little surprised to be met by Yosuke's number instead. Justin starred at the number for only a brief moment before flipping his phone around and removing the battery. It was the only way to save themselves from Yosuke's overloaded Risette Drive.


	72. Chapter 71: June 24, 2011

CHAPTER 71

June 24, 2011

* * *

"Heeeey, Teddie, you okay?"

The gang had all stepped through the television, save for Maya, who Justin had to practically restrain from trying to rush through. She wasn't very good at keeping promises, that was for sure. Justin sighed slightly as he finished making his way through the screen, tripping once again against the plastic part of the screen. No one really thought badly of him for it, of course. Save for Kanji, it's happened to all of them at least once. And Kanji was pretty sure he could see how that could happen. Justin was shorter than a good portion of the group, so he had to make a wider step through the screen to avoid tripping. Which made it all the funnier that Yu was the one who tripped the most, being the second tallest and all.

Justin looked around the television world with a half grin. On one hand, he had Persona, and he was more than a little excited to use the gift that had just been bestowed upon him. On the other hand… Something felt off. He couldn't put his finger on what, but he had this strange gut feeling in his chest like something was astray. He bit his lip slightly as he made his way up to the circle around Teddie the group had made, trying to figure out what was making his anxiety act up. Teddie was starring off in the distance, not so much as looking at the team as they tried to address him. He was clearly upset about something; though as to what was anybody's guess. He seemed fine the last time they were all here.

"I wasn't crying." Teddie remarked, as though declaring a fact. _Great news Ted, except not a single one of us thought you were. We just asked if you were okay._ "Everyone was having fun out there. You forgot all about me… I was abandoned." He continued a saddened tone to his voice. Everyone seemed to feel bad for Teddie, passing him looks of concern and sadness from behind. Everyone except Justin that was. It wasn't that he didn't feel bad for the guy; it was just that he thought Teddie was exaggerating for the sake of attention. It hadn't been THAT long since they were last here.

"No, we would never do that!" Chie remarked loudly, trying to ease Teddie's concerns. Justin just rubbed at his forehead slightly. This was EXACTLY what he was trying to get them to do. And you could tell from where Justin was standing, because he had the slightest smirk on the corners of his mouth. Justin sincerely hoped the others just couldn't see from the angle they were standing at.

"I'm sorry… Were you lonely?" Yukiko continued.

"I was bored. It made me all listless. I'm a useless bear. I don't even know what I am. I couldn't figure it out… No one would come visit me… Then I thought I heard voices coming from your world. They were all having so much fun… I was so lonely that I tried to cry. But I couldn't…" Teddie spoke in a saddened voice, though it was clear he was trying to be melodramatic. So Justin decided to one up the bastard.

"What a piece of work is a man? How noble in reason! How infinite in faculties! In form and moving, how express and admirable! In action how like an angel! In apprehension how like a god! The beauty of the world! The paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?" Justin recited, waving his hands about dramatically, shifting his voice in all sorts of tones in an overly theatrical fashion. Nearly everybody's jaws dropped as Justin raised his hand to the sky, reading off the most bizarre thing they had ever heard; save maybe Yukiko, who already knew the speech was from Hamlet. Still, she had to give Justin props for having the thing memorized, even more so for performing it the way he did. Yu had actually started one of those slow claps you do when you're impressed but no one else is clapping. It took a moment of dramatic posing before Justin turned towards the rest of the group, eyeing everybody's speechless expressions. "Oh, sorry. I thought we were being drama queens. Carry on."

"Dude…" Yosuke remarked, completely ignoring the smartass remark Justin had made. He was still trying to get over the fact that Justin of all people had THAT memorized. He didn't so much as falter when he recited it; it came out as though he were speaking plain English to everyone. Yosuke was actually a bit scared right now.

"Nice job with the accent." Yu remarked, having just stopped that slow ass clap he was doing. Justin raised his eyebrow slightly. _But I wasn't—Oh don't tell me that started to slip out again…_ He sighed for a bit before turning back to Teddie, who seemed slightly irritated by Justin's jab at his self-pity. Sure he was purposely being overly dramatic for attention, but he WAS thinking about this stuff, and it was distressing him. Yosuke passed a brief look over his shoulder to see Teddie red with fury.

"Don't worry about it Dude. You ARE hollow inside…" Yosuke remarked carelessly. Justin couldn't understand why that would make a difference, but he shrugged all the same. Teddie wasn't quite as forgiving of Yosuke's douche remark; though that might have been because he was still pissed at Justin's little show.

"Shut up! Stop saying I'm hollow!" Teddie shouted in anger. The smiles that had crept across everyone's face dropped immediately; especially Yosuke's. That was a joke, and Teddie had practically tore him a new one over it. Yosuke wasn't just caught off guard; he was pissed. Justin wasn't taking any sides; after all, Teddie very well MIGHT have had a lot on his mind, and if that were the case, the two of them were kind of being assholes. But that was no reason for Teddie to freak out on Yosuke; it was Justin who had been the one being a dick after all, and he'd admit to it gladly. Yosuke was, for once in his life, innocent.

"Don't snap at me! This is your world, isn't it!? You're the one who said you just want to live here peacefully, and made us promise to find the culprit!" Yosuke shouted back at Teddie. Justin was having a hard time trying to figure out how that last part was supposed to be relevant at all, but whatever. It seemed to piss Teddie off a little more, so it must have been a pretty effective insult. Chie seemed a little less than pleased at Yosuke's backlash, though, moving in front of Yosuke to come to Teddie's rescue, defending him from the Prince of Junes.

"C'mon, I'm sure Teddie's just tired from thinking so much, right?" She spoke up, interrupting the two's argument, slightly scolding Yosuke for getting up in Teddie's face. Justin was actually a bit surprised she was taking sides with Teddie; though he was much more surprised after the next remarks to come out of the two's mouths.

"When I'm alone, I think too much. It makes me even lonelier. I was so sad that my chest would burst and cotton would fly out…" Teddie remarked, returning to his melodramatic antics. Justin had just been rolling his eyes around at first, but then Teddie turned towards Chie and Yukiko, a funny look in his eyes. They were like puppy-dog eyes, only not quite. Same effect though; that's for sure. "Can I try scoring with you two someday?" Justin immediately jumped into one of his coughing fits, not sure if he just heard right. He had been willing to give Teddie the benefit of the doubt that he still didn't know what scoring was, but something about the look in his eyes said otherwise. Needless to say Justin's face soon turned red with anger.

"Huh? Oh, um… Sure, go right ahead." Chie remarked, passing a slight glance over her shoulder to Justin. She wanted to make it absolutely clear that she had no intention of letting that happen, that she was just going along to make him feel better. Justin knew that already of course. As far as he knew, Chie wasn't a furry, so he wasn't concerned about her. What he was concerned about was Ted trying to cop a move on his girlfriend; knowing FULL well that Teddie knew about the two being together. Yukiko wasn't particularly pleased either, but for entirely different reasons.

"Can we please drop the whole "scoring" thing…?" She interrupted timidly. She just wanted to forget about her shadow, but Teddie was making it really hard with this scoring shit.

Yosuke was about to open his mouth to say something, but then he noticed Justin's face was red hot, his teeth clenched together tightly, his hands balled up into fists. The guy looked more pissed off than ever; it was a wonder his shadow didn't come out. Everyone stopped for a moment, watching Justin trying to restrain his anger. Chie was a bit embarrassed that he was getting so jealous over this, over fucking Teddie. It wasn't a jealousy thing, though. It was a matter of principal. You don't ask to score with your friend's girl; that's just a dick move. Teddie's eyes darted back and forth between the team members frantically, knowing full well he had pissed Justin off big time. And Justin wasn't someone you wanted to piss off. It took a moment before Justin opened his mouth.

"Hey guys… You mind if I try something out here?" Justin choked up in anger, his voice clearly raspy. Everyone was a little concerned at first what the hell Justin was talking about, but they knew it couldn't have been good. Except Kanji, who, while not knowing what it was Justin was going to do, was a-okay with Teddie getting his just deserts for his remark.

"That depends-" Yu had started speaking before Justin cut him off, not caring what the rest of the group thought.

"Persona!" Justin shouted, thrusting his hand out, a blue tarot card shooting out from what appeared to be his sleeve, before he clenched his fist closed, smashing the celestial card that had spawned in front of him. He had no idea how the hell he did it, but he didn't care. He was REALLY pissed off, much to everyone's slight fright. Especially Teddie, who had already started running in the opposite direction. As the blue card shattered like glass in Justin's hand, the figure of his Persona, Ippon-Datara, appeared behind him, hammer in hand, a menacing look in his one yellow eye.

"W-Wait, Justin! Calm down!" Chie shouted at him. He wasn't listening though, crouching down on one leg as he pointed off in the direction Teddie had run off in.

"Gimme fuel, gimme fire, gimme that which I desire!" He shouted, the persona sailing forward through the air after Teddie. The group was a little surprised when they saw the Persona's seemingly normal left arm expand out wards, skin giving way to circuitry beneath it, metal plates lifting it up as the arm rearranged its shape. Apparently it doubled as a prosthetic flamethrower. The Persona pointed it in Teddie's direction, shooting numerous bursts of flames in his direction. Justin was happy to report that only one bolt had managed to simmer Teddie's ass. And by that, he meant his head had caught fire. Justin smirked a bit before dismissing his Persona with a wave of his arm, the menacing masked figure disappearing into thin air as Teddie ran around in circles, trying to pat out the flames on the top of his skull. On the bright side, by the time he put it out, he didn't seem to be hurt, just mildly irritated. On the other hand, they could now officially declare Justin an overly jealous psychopath.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Chie spat at him, a glare on her face. Justin just shrugged a bit, a slight smirk on his face. That felt really good, and not just the part where he sit Teddie's head on fire. This whole summoning Personas thing… It was extraordinary; he had never felt anything like it. He dug through his pockets before pulling out a cigarette, slipping it into his mouth as Teddie made his way back to the group, a pissed off expression on his face. Justin was about to light it up using his lighter, but then he had another idea. He thrust his hand forward again, summoning that celestial blue tarot card, smashing it again in his fist. By the time his persona had shown up, Justin pushed the cigarette off to the side of his mouth, the Persona shooting a slight burst of fire to light it up. A little too much to be convenient, as it damn near hit Teddie a second time; but still a pretty nifty trick. He snapped his fingers, and like that the Persona was gone again. He could get used to this. He smirked slightly as he took a drag at his freshly lit smoke.

"What was that for!?" Teddie shouted in anger, a scowl on his face.

"For being a dick." Justin remarked, pulling the cigarette out of his mouth, an angry expression on his face. It seemed he hadn't quite gotten it all out of his system, despite practicing arson on Teddie's skull. It looked like they were going to strangle each other at any second.

"Enough! Both of you!" Yu shouted at the two. Justin made a slight 'tsk' sound before putting his cigarette back in his mouth. He wasn't really appreciating that he was being treated like the criminal here, even if he kind of was. I mean, his reasons were just, right? There was a method to his madness. Teddie still looked pissed off at Justin, but his glare eventually softened when Yosuke spoke up. They DID have a reason for being here besides setting his head on fire.

"Anyways, we wanted to ask you something! How's it been over here? Did a girl called Rise Kujikawa show up? Can you sense anything?" Yosuke questioned frantically. He was really getting worked up over Risette, no question about it. Justin sighed slightly, thrusting his hand up in the air slightly.

"Dear guys; Teddie cannot smell names. Stop asking." Justin remarked snidely. No one was paying him much mind anymore today, though.

"Rise Kujikawa? Hm…?" Teddie mused to himself, trying to see if the name rang any bells. It didn't, of course. Why should it?

"You can't tell…? You nose is kinda losing its edge lately, huh?" Yosuke remarked, completely oblivious to how depressed Teddie had been. Generally you don't point out faults in a depressed person; it just made things worse. Still, this could be problematic. Does he need information on Risette, like he did with Kanji? Because if that's true, Yosuke's probably got the low down. At least… He would HOPE so, given how much the guy talked about her.

"I'm a pretty shabby bear… Soon, I won't be useful at all. Then I'll get thrown away…" Teddie wallowed in self pity. Everyone had put aside their anger towards Justin for a brief moment to pass Teddie a look of deep concern. For a guy who was always so energetic, he seemed really out of it. It would be heartbreaking if it wasn't so melodramatic.

"That's not true." Yu remarked, a slight grin on his face, shaking his head from side to side. Teddie seemed to find slight comfort in Yu's refusal to toss him aside one he no longer had use, once he had over stayed his stay. His eyes widened with admiration, sparkling what slight tears.

"I can… stay with you all?" Teddie asked.

"Okay. Then we'll go look for something that'll help you search, like last time." Chie spoke up, not really acknowledging Teddie's question in the slightest. Well at least Justin wasn't the only one trying to block out the melodrama. Justin extended his arm out to Yosuke, a slight shake of his hand, trying to exemplify the point he was trying to make.

"Look? What are you talking about; we have the walking Risette Encyclopedia over here." Justin remarked with slight sarcasm. Everyone nodded their head slightly, forgetting that Yosuke was a big fan, before turning their attention over to him. Much to their dismay, however, he was wearing a grimace on his face.

"Yeeeeeahhhh, I don't really know much about her as a person." Yosuke remarked, slightly ashamed. I mean, he shouldn't have anyway, unless he was some weird stalker, but it still seemed like Yosuke would know enough. Everyone sighed in disappointment, save for Justin who had simply clutched the side of his head in pain. He was getting a huge headache.

"**What a fucking waste."** Justin's voice echoed, that distorted tone to his voice. His eyes widened with fear for a slight moment, knowing damn well what was going on. Everyone's gazes immediately snapped over to Justin, as he bent over clutching his head in pain, before falling to his knees, his eyes closed in pain.

"Justin!" Chie shouted, running over to where he was now trembling in pain, struggling to maintain control. He was losing though. Here in the shadow world, the shadow was the one pulling the string; Justin was just being tugged along for the ride. Everyone soon followed Chie's lead, dashing over him to help support him. Kanji was completely confused as to what was going on; having not seen Justin's shadow take over like the others had.

"What the hell's going on?" Kanji questioned, shouting a bit as he leaned over to get on the same level as Justin.

"It's Justin's shadow. We don't know how, we don't know why, but he can take over." Yu explained concisely. Kanji was completely bewildered. This was incomprehensibly frightening. Why was it doing that? And was this something unique to Justin, or could their shadows… You know… Take over too? Kanji hated to say it, but he was a little more afraid for himself right now than Justin. Justin stopped trembling suddenly, letting loose his grip on his head. The team had thought maybe he had regained control, so they were completely stunned to see his eyes that haunting golden color, a wicked smirk on his face.

"**Don't talk about me like I'm not here." **He chucked wickedly under his breath. The others all backed up slightly in fear, save Chie, who remained at the shadows side, a glare on her face. The shadow, surprisingly enough, did not see Chie's hand coming, slapping him upside the head. She was hoping the blow would bring Justin back out; but alas it seemed to just amuse the shadow abit. And piss him off if the vicious shove he returned back was indication. He shoved like a motherfucker too; she hit the ground hard. He laughed abit pushing himself off the ground, dusting off his shirt. **"Someone like's it rough."**

"You bastard!" Chie shouted at the shadow from her place on the ground. She was struggling to push herself off the ground. She hit the floor hard, and the shadow knew it. He crossed his arms and started laughing abit at the others.

"**Oh boy, it feels good to stretch the old legs again." **He remarked to himself, completely ignoring Chie's remark. Yosuke hurried over and helped her up off the ground. She wasn't exactly a fan of getting help with something so trivial, but that wasn't important right now. She'd yell at Yosuke about it later.

"What do you want?" Yu snarled at the shadow. It was clear just insulting him wasn't going to get anywhere.

"**What? Can't a guy just offer a little help?"**

"You're bluffing." Yu remarked, not so much as considering what the shadow was saying. He knew Justin's shadow all too well. He was cruel, controlling, and most of all, a liar. If he was going to offer help, he was going to do it with a catch. And Yu knew whatever the catch was, it wasn't worth it. Still, they did need to find a way to get Justin to snap out of it, and if that meant playing along, Yu would do it.

"**Oh am I? It's not like I lived here for the last sixteen years or anything. No way I could possibly know where Risette's hiding." **The shadow smirked slightly; he was getting amusement out of this. Everyone exchanged a quick wide-eyed glance at each other. Even if Teddie could find the place, it would take some time. The shadow was offering to take them there NOW, and they knew it. And they still had no proof that the victim couldn't be killed off prior to the fog setting in. Time was still very much of the essence. Yu sighed slightly. As much as he hated to deal with this asshole, it seemed the ball was in his court. And he very much knew it.

"What's the catch?" Yu eventually spoke up, crossing his arms as he broke the silence. The others all bit their lips slightly. They knew they very well may have to work with this guy for the better good… But they didn't like it one bit. The shadow chuckled slightly, his eyes seeming to glow brighter as he tipped his head forward slightly.

"**Nothing. I just don't want to sit in this asshole's skull for two days doing nothing." **The shadow smirked. He was up to something, that was for damn sure, but no one had any idea what. Yu glared at the shadow for a moment longer before sighing. He regretted this already.

"Fine. Lead the way."

* * *

"What is this place? It's all dark?"

The group had all been walking steadily behind the shadow, trying to put up with his assholish remarks. And he had one for every member in the group, especially Yosuke. Oh man, did he have a ton for Yosuke. Everyone had been more than a little concerned as they followed the shadow's lead into this dark abyss. They couldn't see a damn thing, so for all they knew, they could be walking into a death trap. They were all prepared for things to go horribly wrong at any second. More specifically, they were prepared to fight off Justin's shadow if he tried something funny. He seemed more than content just calling them names though.

The shadow smirked slightly as everyone was blinded by lights flashing into existence. At first the group had taken that to mean they had been trapped; the light intentionally blinding them to leave them open, but once they got a glimpse around, their vision restoring, it seemed they weren't in any danger. Hell, the shadow didn't even flinch as the lights flickered on. Though that maybe because shadows could see in the dark no problem. Like night vision, but without the green filter. As the team looked around, trying to determine where they were, every single person's face turned red with embarrassment; save the shadow, who surprising no one, seemed almost excited. In actuality, he had no idea it was a strip club, he only knew that this was where Risette was, so he was pleasantly surprised by the sudden change of events.

"Whoa… Is this a…?" Chie spoke up, a combination of surprise, disgust, and embarrassment on her face. She really didn't want to be anywhere near a place like this, and for good reason. The shadow just smirked slightly, raising his arms out.

"**Thank you powers that be for this WONDERFUL bounty!"**

"Is this like the kind you always find in resort towns!?" Yosuke piped up, ignoring the shadow. The team had learned to not react to the shadow at all, pretending he hadn't even said a thing. Certain things always set certain people off, though for the most part, the shadow was failing to get a reaction out of them. That wasn't his plan anyway. His plan was much, much more sinister.

"Ah, I think you're right." Yukiko spoke up, a hint of curiosity in her voice. She paused for a moment before recoiling her head back, her face entirely red as she made a rather embarrassing connection. "Oh! B-But we don't have one… Our inn is not like that…!" She frantically explained, as if the rest of the team even considered her inn to be like that. Save maybe the shadow, who while knowing that wasn't true, loved to exploit the embarrassments of each member of the team.

"**Oh don't be so shy, honey. I'm sure your inn has top notch strippers. Say don't you help out at the inn from time to time?" **The remark netted a shadow a kick to the groin from Yukiko, though surprising everyone; the shadow didn't so much as flinch. It was like the guy didn't so much as feel pain. **"I'll take that as a yes." **He continued a disgusting look on his face. Yukiko was appalled, disgusted. She wasn't sure whether she should slap Justin too, once he snapped out of it, since a shadow was supposed to be suppressed thoughts. One thing was for certain though, she was furious.

"What is your problem, you creep!" She shouted at him, eyes piercing through his soul. He just laughed harder at that though. Yu held out his palm, motioning for her to calm down. She sighed slightly before hanging her head in slight shame, crossing her arms in front of her. Yu was right, the shadow just wanted to see her react._ Just don't pay it any mind…_

"Huh. So this is a strip joint, eh?" Kanji interrupted, trying to change the subject from the shadow's perverted jabs at Yukiko. The shadow just laughed at Yukiko's red face, something that was very clearly irritating her, given the glare she was shooting at him. It was taking every fiber of her will not to deck the prick right there and then. Teddie jumped up in slight glee as the word 'strip' came out of Kanji's mouth. At first everyone assumed that was just Teddie being a pervert; but alas, no. It was just Teddie being an idiot, like usual.

"Strip!? Aha! I know what that is! It's the thing zebras have, right!?" Teddie joked, much to absolutely no one's amusement. Even the shadow stopped laughing at Yukiko to shoot Teddie a slight glare, as though to say 'what the fuck was that?' Teddie had apparently taken their silence as no one hearing the joke, completely oblivious to the looks he was getting. "Strip… Like a zebra, right!? Right!?"

"It's so bright here… Even with the glasses on, my eyes hurt." Yukiko remarked, holding up her hand slightly to block out the light.

"**Oh, that's not the lights. That's just what happens when you hang out with ugly motherfuckers like Yu." **The shadow remarked, looking out at a door in the distance. He smirked slightly as he noticed it open the tiniest crack. It seemed the show would be beginning soon enough. Yu just shook his head at the shadow, though Yukiko seemed actually kind of offended by the remark.

"He's not ugly!" She interjected, trying to defend YU'S honor. Funny considering she very rarely defended her own honor. It was a little surprising to everyone there; Yu especially, who had started to blush ever so slightly. No one had noticed though, not even the shadow.

"**Oh ho, looks like someone's got the hots for Narukami." **The shadow chuckled. Yukiko's face turned red immediately with embarrassment, which in turn only made Yu blush in embarrassment. He had thought that Yukiko would just shrug the comment off, but here she was blushing as the remark hit her ears… Something wasn't quite right there.

"Wh-what? No, I…" Yukiko stammered trying to defend herself, but failing to find the words. The shadow just laughed at her, as both Yu and Yukiko blushed a little harder. And everyone could notice at this point. They felt very uncomfortable watching this; Kanji in particular, since up until now, he hadn't really noticed either had a thing for the other. Looking at it now, though, it seemed both had the tiniest crush on the other.

"**Why don't you two just fuck already and get it over with; that'd be great, thanks." **The shadow remarked, only mortifying the two further. They were completely frozen in place, unsure how to react. They didn't want to just stand there and take it, but if they spoke up, they'd just be confirming what the shadow was saying. Besides, they didn't want the shadow to get any more pleasure out of this then he already was.

"Doesn't anyone get the joke!? Okay, let's try one more time… Strip… It's something zebras have…" Teddie continued, completely oblivious to the scene unfolding in front of him. Teddie wasn't exactly the most socially well-off, so it seemed he didn't know when certain things were appropriate, and when things weren't. Interrupting something like this was a relief to Yukiko and Yu, but still kind of awkward all the same. Chie grunted slightly, shooting a glare Teddie's way.

"Can anyone shut this thing up!?" She shouted in Teddie's direction, Teddie recoiling backwards in slight offense. Yukiko just sort of tilted her head to the side. She hadn't been listening to Teddie earlier, she was arguing too much with Justin's shadow to pay attention to him. This time, she was more than happy to listen; it kept her mind of the disgusting things Justin's shadow was saying

"I-I won't say it again…" Teddie sighed in defeat. He had thought it was a clever joke, but after getting no laughs after the third time he said it, it just wasn't worth it. He hung his head in slight shame, embarrassed by his failure as a comedian. Everyone was about to march ahead, when suddenly a puff of colorful smoke exploded outwards, flashing lights piercing through the mist, as it lowered to reveal the form of Risette's shadow, in all its half-naked goodness. Yosuke's eyes lit up slightly, though everyone else looked slightly off to the side, too embarrassed to look her in the eye.

"It's Rise!" Yosuke shouted as he recognized the figure. Of course he would…

"**Hello, all you fans out there! Thanks for coming today! Today, you're gonna see every last inch of me!" **Risette's shadow giggled as the smoke cleared, posing in a suggestive manner in front of the team. The guys were getting a little hot around the collar, though the girls were just embarrassed. Embarrased to be in a strip club, embarrassed to be looking at a half-naked Risette… This was REALLY not how they wanted to spend their week. It was just disgusting. Justin's shadow smirked abit before pushing the tips of his fingers into his mouth, letting loose a slight whistle, much to Chie's disappointment. _It's only his shadow, Chie. Don't get pissed…__**"**_**What's that? You don't believe me? Ahahah! Okay, okay! Then why don't we-"**

"**Take it off!" **Justin's shadow chuckled slightly. Or at least, until he received a slap to the back of his head from Chie. She told herself not to react, but she'd be damned if she watched Justin, even if it was his shadow in control, ogling some stripper. She could not seriously believe it herself that she was getting jealous of Risette. She wasn't even Justin's TYPE. Maybe his shadow's though. He laughed slightly at the blow he had received to the back of his head. **"You know, it's really sad when a girl has such low self esteem that she's trying to compete with a stripper. But if that's the way we want to go, show us the goods babe."**

"You wish."

"**Oh but I do!" **Chie wasn't sure whether that was supposed to be a compliment, an insult, or what. It was probably just the shadow being a pervert again; god knows he was a huge one of those. Easier to make sexually driven jabs, she supposed.

"**Oh, but you won't be able to see with all this smoke, huh? Okie-dokie! Just follow me a little further in and I'll prove that I'm every bit as good as my word!"** Risette's shadow giggled slightly, starring down into the team, her yellow eyes ever so haunting. It was only a moment later that one of those title cards popped up, in florescent, bright lights, reading 'Maru-Q Midsummer Night's Dream Special: Risette Exposed.' It was hard enough to see as it was without the bright colors piercing everyone's eyes.

"W-Were we like that…? That's… going kinda far…" Kanji mumbled to himself. He didn't know what his program was like, but he did know what his shadow was like, and he did know he didn't like it. And if his program was as bad as his shadow was, he was never going to show his face around town again. Yukiko was a bit embarrassed as well, though Justin's shadow remained unfazed, for obvious reasons.

"Sheesh, the roar of the crowd is insane this time… It's making me feel sick." Chie remarked, a look of disgust on her face.

"**Oh, what's wrong babe? Stage shy? I'll throw in an extra twenty; that'll knock those blues out of your system."** The shadow remarked with disgust. Oh how Chie just wanted to kick him in his smug face. But of course, he was expecting that; and in the end, all she'd be doing was hurting Justin. They DID share the body after all. She had to put up with all this disgusting remarks, as much as she didn't want to. She didn't have to approve though, that's for damn sure, as she glared intensely at the shadow, her hands rolled up into fists.

"If people really are watching this… we gotta do something, and fast." Yosuke remarked. If she stripped while she was on live television, then Risette's entire reputation, career, life; all down the drain. Saving her life was the primary objective, but saving her reputation was a close second.

"**All right, Risetteers! Don't touch that dial! When we come back, you'll get a good, long look at the real me! Maru-Q!" **The shadow giggled before taking off in the opposite direction, lights flashing and blinding the group before they could take off after her. By the time they had regained their vision, Risette was long gone. As well as her dignity.

"W-We'd better move it! This is a thousand times worse than just hearing a few nasty secrets!" Yosuke remarked out loud, as though ordering the rest of the team. They had hoped to chase after Risette right now, and end this before anything could happen. That was the plan, but alas, Justin's shadow was having too much fun screwing right them.

"**I don't think so." **The shadow remarked, making his way in front of the group, every single one of them adopting an aggressive stance as he stood their leering at them, blocking their path. They had assumed that was a threat, and it was in a way; just not the way they would have thought.

"So what, you're going to kill us?" Yu remarked, a glare on his face. The shadow shook his head, laughing slightly before turning back to Yu, his head angled slightly down to the ground, the shadow cast by his hair making his glowing yellow eyes stand out even more than they already had.

"**Kill you? Oh no no no! Remember something my friend; there are two sides to every deal." **The shadow snickered slightly, though Yu was confused. Two sides to every deal? It seemed the shadow WAS getting something out of this little trip there; though WHAT was another question entirely. **"Before you go chasing jailbait, I think you should be more concerned about your friend here."**

"What the hell are you talking about?" Yu questioned. His concerns were soon answered however, as the shadow laughed for a brief moment, before closing his eyes and collapsing to the ground. He had released his control on Justin, though Justin himself had not yet regained control. In a brief moment of gathering the strength in his body, he had fallen straight to the ground, and hard. The others rushed over immediately, trying to catch him on the way down. They didn't catch him in time; though they did manage to support him back up as he regained his strength. His eyelids flickered for a short while before opening the slightest crack, his eyes returning to their blue color. He had control again.

"Ugh…" Justin groaned for a bit, grabbing at his head in pain. He had hit it on the way down to the ground, so it was buzzing a bit; but otherwise it was fine. His eyes darted around the room a bit, smiles of relief on everyone's face as he regained consciousness. Though, that wasn't the only thing he spotted. "…Why the fuck am I in a strip club? Did I get drunk again?" He remarked sarcastically.

"Yep, that's Justin alright." Yosuke remarked sighing with relief, as Chie helped him up on his feet, assisting him with his balance as he stood up. Justin's cheeks were slightly red. He was mortified that the shadow had taken control. He said he'd stop him from taking over, and so far he had been doing a good job of it, but he didn't even see this coming. The shadow just took over. He was scared, and with good reason.

"Are you alright?" Yukiko asked with concern.

"My balls are killing me for some reason, and I have a splitting headache, but otherwise yeah…" Justin remarked, joking slightly. He knew Yukiko had kicked him in the balls; while faint, he could make out certain things from his place inside the shadow's skull. That was one of the few things he made out vividly. They were still pretty sore, though luckily he wasn't in control of his muscles when she first went for the blow. Otherwise he'd be down on the floor. The other thing he had been able to make up from wherever he was in his shadow's skull was some of the remarks his shadow made to Chie. He was mortified to say the least. He bit his lip slightly before leaning in towards Chie. "My shadow didn't say anything bad, did he?" He already knew the answer to that question, but he was having trouble admitting he knew. He'd rather just apologize for his shadow as a whole, not specific things he said. Chie just nodded, a slight frown on her face. Yeah, he said a LOT of disgusting things.

"Well… We know where this place is now. Let's get out of here." Yu remarked to the rest of the team. Justin raised his eyebrow fro a moment, stretching out his arm to object, before receiving a simple shake of the head from everyone watching. He wanted them to keep going, but he knew just as well as they did that wasn't going to happen. He sighed for a moment before dropping his hand to his side, in defeat. Justin was completely wiped from losing control for so long, and as much as he'd love to push on, he couldn't even stand without Chie's help. He sighed slightly as the group dragged him off against his will back to the entrance; Justin purposely dragging his feet the entire way, 'lest he change his mind and want to turn around. It didn't happen though.

"Hey Yu?" Justin spoke up after walking for a moment, a sudden realization striking him. Maya was still waiting at the entrance to the screen, and if she saw him like this, he would never be able to force her to stay behind. She would force Justin to take her with him so she could heal him if he ever got hurt. That wasn't gonna fly. The rest of the team had thought Justin was crazy for forcing her to stay out there, but... They kind of understood how he felt. He had more or less taken her under his wing, and when she got hurt... Well... He felt like he failed her. He wouldn't let it happen again, even if it meant shit like this would keep happening to himself.

"Yeah?" Yu choked up, eyeing Justin as he slowly started to regain his balance. Chie still helped him, though, since everytime he tried too loosen his grip in her shoulder, he just started to stumble again.

"If Maya asks, I passed out when I saw the strippers."

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTES**

**There will be no update Thanksgiving Day, for obvious reason. Nor will there be a double update the day after. Happy Thanksgiving everyone :)**


	73. Chapter 72: June 25, 2011

CHAPTER 72

June 25, 2011

* * *

"**My ideal guy…? Hmmm… I guess someone who's kind and clean? Oh, looks don't matter that much. I actually don't really like handsome-looking guys. I mean, it's what's on the inside that really counts, right?"**

"I see… So one's insides are important… But I'm all empty…"

The team had entered the television again today, luckily without Justin's shadow butting in again. Maya, strangely enough, did not object to staying outside the television today; probably because she caught wind that Risette's personal hell was a strip club. No respectable girl would ever be caught dead in one of those unless she absolutely had to, after all. The only reason Chie and Yukiko were here was because they were essential members of the team, Chie being the only one who knew Bufu, and Yukiko being the 'medic' of the team, so to speak. Otherwise, they would be long gone.

The sound of Risette's shadows voice echoed through the hallways as they climbed floor after floor. AT first, the comments had been directed right at the members of the team, but they soon started to become more and more vague, responding to questions that no one had been asking. They sounded more like a played back memory. Still, the team had all but blocked Risette's shadow out at this point; save maybe Teddie, who was completely unaware that Risette's shadow could not hear him awkwardly trying to flirt back. The team could, though, and it was getting REALLY annoying.

"Yep, that's right Ted. You're empty. Now shut the fuck up." Justin remarked with irritation as the team continued to walk down each hall. The team passed him a slight glance, not of anger at his outburst, but of concern and sorrow. He was still very visibly out of it, and they knew it had to do with yesterday. Hell, Justin couldn't even sleep last night; the thought of his shadow taking over was overwhelming. Even now it seemed all that was on his mind was that psychopath tearing his friends a new one. He was ashamed, appalled, disgusted. He just wanted to vanish of the face of the planet thinking those words had left HIS lips.

No one spoke on the matter though; they knew that Justin just wanted to forget it ever happened. And while they did think that talking it over might help him in the long run, they just weren't going to get that out of a kid like Justin. If he didn't want to talk about something, he wouldn't talk about it; no matter what you said to convince him. Instead they were just stuck sympathizing him from a distance, unable to ease his concerns and pains.

Justin sighed slightly, as they came to a stop. It was a dead end, and while that wasn't entirely uncommon while the team tried to make their way to the next floor, it was slightly disappointing. Most of these buildings that the shadows hung out in tended to be no more than fifteen floors, and they were AT LEAST on the tenth. If the pattern continued with Risette, they were almost there; and then they could get out of this fucking hell hole. Still, on the bright side, it seemed there was a chest here; and the team never objected to free loot on their trips. Except for some of the armor they found on the lower floors… Yeah, I'm sure you can see where I'm going with that.

"Please tell me we're almost there…" Yosuke moaned slightly. He had been thrilled at first to be in a strip club, but by this point the novelty had worn off. Not to mention they had all nearly been killed by a giant snake with a gender symbol wrapped around its neck. That was… uh… interesting. Justin shrugged slightly as he kicked the top of the chest open and sticking his hand inside to dig through its contents. His face turned sour almost immediately as his hand brushed up against something.

"Tell me about it, I can't take much more of this music." Chie remarked, shuttering slightly as the thumping of porno music and 80's pop continued to resonate through the halls. In actuality, Justin found that to be the most enjoyable portion of this entire trip. Though, he was probably never going to listen to 'She Blinded Me with Science' again when all of this was over. Too many nasty images would come to mind. And speaking of nasty images… Justin pulled his hand slowly out of the chest, not pulling out its contents as he slowly closed the lid, a look of disgust on his face. Everyone was a little confused at first.

"Something the matter?" Yukiko questioned innocently. Oh if only she knew.

"Uh…" Justin choked up slightly, the muscles of his fingers tight with disgust. He didn't want them touching ANYTHING. "I don't know what that was, but it was sticky; so we're just going to leave that there and pretend this didn't happen."

"Only in a strip club." Yosuke joked, a slight grimace on his face. Everyone had gotten the implications, and now they had wished they never asked. Justin was hoping to find a sink or a tissue or SOMETHING to wipe his hands off. He didn't want this shit on his skin, nor on his clothes. He had considered wiping it off on a wall or something, but then he realized the walls probably had herpes. Chie gagged slightly; and rightfully so. That's what Justin gets for not looking before sticking his hands into a box.

"Alright people, turn back around…" Yu ordered, pointing in the direction they had come from. Everyone still had a sour expression on their face, as they tried to pretend they NEVER found this chest. Justin in particular, though he had managed to secretly wipe his hand on the back of Yosuke's shirt at some point. It's amazing he didn't think of that when Justin had 'patted' him on the back, but oh well, less of a fallout later as far as he was concerned.

It was only a few moments more before they found the stairs and climbed them, the sight of big red doors in the distance as they reached the summit of their climb. They all secretly thanked god a little bit that the door was here. Now they could do their thing, leave, and pretend none of this ever happened. Hell, Justin was already trying to wipe this place from his brain. The group stopped at the doors, turning to Teddie to once again confirm whether this was the place or not.

"Those two in there?" Justin questioned. It was strange that Teddie had tagged along this time; he usually just waited outside, but no one was really objecting. It was easier to keep in contact with him from a short distance, and while they did have to put up with his shit jokes, it was just more convenient in the long run to bring him along.

"Yep. I'm positive." Teddie spoke up with certainty, a look of determination on his face. Justin would have to remember that for later. _Bring strippers if you ever need to encourage Teddie… _Everyone passed each other a slight nod of confirmation that they were doing this before charging forward, pushing the door open with their shoulders. It took a lot less work now that Kanji was helping; that guy was a fucking powerhouse.

As the door fully opened the team was met by the sight of an elevated platform in the middle of a pink, flashy room; strobe lights all over the place. There was a strip pole in the dead center, with the less than clothed shadow leaning against it, her crotch extended outwards slightly. Justin's face turned slightly red at the sight, but he was otherwise fine. Next to the shadow was a still uniformed Risette, kneeling and facing towards the ground. She was clearly already conscious, which begged the question, how has the shadow not been able to break her yet? Unless… Unless the shadow WANTED them there when she broke Risette. But why?

"There it is!" Chie shouted as they made their way into the room. So much for subtlety. Still, it seemed the shadow had already been aware of their entrance anyway, as though expecting them to arrive. She grinned wickedly at the team as they slowly approached the platform, closing the distance between the two.

"**Aaahahahahaha! They're all watching! All eyes are on me now!" **The shadow laughed maniacally, as the team came closer.

"Yeah, that's an understatement…" Justin mumbled sarcastically under his breath.

"Stop it!" The real Risette shouted at the shadow, completely horrified by what she was watching. You probably would be too if you saw yourself trying to strip in front of everyone. The shadow, of course, just got a kick out of her pleas to stop. Justin briefly wondered what it was about shadows that they all got so much enjoyment out of watching the originals squirm. It wasn't like it was just one shadow either, it was fucking ALL of them. It was like you had to get a kick out of suffering if you wanted to apply to be a shadow.

"**Awwww! What's the matter? You wanna show your stuff, don'tcha? How's this!?" **The shadow continued, awkwardly dancing around the pole. That was certainly… something. Justin wasn't sure how he would describe it, though he did have quite a few words for how he wouldn't describe it: flattering, professional, cohesive, sexy. You would think that after setting up this whole 'strip club' shit, the shadow would actually, you know, know how to pole dance? Not that Justin was a professional on that or anything! Don't be ridiculous!

"Please… stop this…" Risette continued to plead.

"…Why haven't we turned around yet?" Justin remarked to the rest of the group. That was meant as a suggestion, though not a single person so much as budged to avert their gaze from the awkward pole dance. Not even the girls, as embarrassed as they were. Seriously, the shadow wanted them all to watch right? That was what it was getting a kick out of. So just don't watch it. Bam, problem solved.

"**Oooh, she wants me to stop. That's so funny! As if that's even close to what you're really thinking, you little skank! You're me! And obviously, I'm you!" **The shadow viciously remarked, though in an oddly cheery voice. It was actually kind of creepy. Still, Risette was losing her shit at this point; and Justin knew it.

"Risette… Uh, Rise, whichever one it is; don't react. It can't do anything to you if you don't react. Just ignore it." Justin tried to explain. It was too late for that, though; Risette was long gone. She was barely hanging on to her sanity as she tried to block out the shadow, though she wasn't going to hold out for much longer.

"**Ahahahahah! C'mon, look! You can't tear your eyes away! This is me! This is who I really am! Not Risette, the fake celebrity!"** The shadow span around the pole with slight glee, as though taking pride in not being 'Risette.' Well, it seemed they had identified the personal crisis Rise had at this point; she didn't want to be her stage personality. What did Justin tell you? This is what happens when you become a teen idol. Hollywood fucking sucks.

"Alright, so it is Rise. Glad I settled that." Justin mumbled to himself.

"**Look at the girl right in front of you! I'm sick of being some airhead cliché who chokes down everything she's fed and takes it all with a smile! "Risette"? Who the hell is she? There's no such person in this world! I'm no one but myself! C'mon, look at me!"** The shadow continued. It seemed as though Rise wanted the world to recognize her as Rise and not Risette. Justin doubted Rise was a stripper though, so the entire point just kind of fell moot.

"That's not-I…!" Rise stuttered her palms against the side of her head as she tried to block out the sound of the shadow's voice. It wasn't helping.

"**Well then, I guess it's time to prove it. I'm gonna show it all off! Let my naked truth be burned into your brains!"** The shadow remarked, stopping its pole dance before slowly making its way to the front of the stage. Every single one of the guy's eyes widened as they got the implication, though for entirely different reasons. Yosuke would be lying if he said he didn't want to see it, and Yu… Well, Yu could be a bit on the pervy side at times, so he was finding trouble looking away. The girls were just disgusted though; as they had been the entire time. The shadow reached up to grab at her bra straps, ready to pull it off and expose herself to the world when Rise started to shout.

"Stop… Stop it!" She shouted, very pissed off at this point. "You're…"

"No! Don't say it!" Chie tried to interrupt her, preventing her from finishing that sentence. Too little, too late, unfortunately.

"You're… not me!"

And just like that a wave of power burst forth from the shadow, a dark aura shifting around her figure as he form started to twist and mutilate. Rise had said the no no word, and the shadow had taken full advantage of it. The flow of energy coming from the shadows figure knocked Risette over and unconscious in a matter of seconds. Which might have been good, because hot damn was this an ugly ass shadow. By the time it had finished transforming, it had been hanging from the pole, a humanoid figure that, while appearing naked, had no noticeable genitals. Thank god.

"Dear god, a rainbow vomited all over her." Justin remarked sarcastically as everyone struck an aggressive pose, ready to fight back, Personas being summoned all over the place to back up their respective owners. For the first time since they began this investigation, every single one of them had a Persona. And it felt good. Justin smirked slightly as he leaned forward slightly, Ippon-Datra's figure hovering over him as his arm expanded once more into a flamethrower, the barrel pointed straight at Rise's shadow. "Alright baby, let me show you why it's called a 'Disco Inferno.'"

"**And now, the moment you've been waiting for! It's time for me to show you every last inch of myself! Heehee… And for our guests in the front row… I'll give you extra-special, extra-intense service" **The shadow shouted aggressively at the team as they sent their personas flying her way.

Justin's persona took the lead, opting for a full frontal assault, shooting flames out from its flamethrower. And it hit for a sizable chunk of damage; but that was immediately followed up by the shadow shooting the persona down with Bufu. Justin grimaced slightly as his persona went crashing down into the ground, its limbs frozen stiff. Good thing it knew fire and could warm itself up.

The others opted for a less direct approach, attacking from a distance as they circle strafed around the shadow. Each persona managed to land a few blows in before being met by the shadow's own counter attack; spells from all sorts of schools of elements. Bufu, Agi, Zio, Guru; you name it, the shadow knew it. And apparently she knew which one would damage each persona with fairly good accuracy, knocking each out of the sky with an opposing element. All save Izanagi, who, while flinching from the spell that collided with him, had managed to swoop in with a strike of his sword.

The shadow flinched back in intense pain, purple blood squirting from a slight gash in the middle of its stomach. Nothing fatal, but it did weaken it slightly. The shadow continued to hang there for a moment as everyone's personas returned to the skies, ready to make another strike. Something seemed off though; that weird hexagon plate on its face seemed to set its sight on each of the group's personas, the pointed antenna in the middle twirling about slightly at the same time.

The group began to launch a second attack of the same strategy; send Justin in first, the others would circle strafe, and then Yu would do some more scratch damage. Before the personas could so much as attack, the shadow seemed to sling spells in the direction they were heading, anticipating their moves. They had assumed the shadow had simply caught on to their plan at first… But then they tried mixing it up to the same results. Every single move they made was met by a similar reaction, their personas being blown out of the sky before they could even move. It wasn't long until most of their personas were down for the count.

"**I can see everything about you… Ahaha!"**

"What's the deal here!? Our attacks keep missing!" Chie shouted, trying to figure out what was going on. It clearly wasn't just bad luck or good insight; the shadow was doing something funny. Justin starred for a bit at the shadow, sending his Persona in for one more swoop as the shadow gracefully dodged it and launched a devastating counterblow to his backside, sending him flying across the room and into a wall. He might have had an idea what was going on. It seemed as though the shadow was able to see their moves before they made it; now they just needed to figure out how to fix that problem.

"That power… I think it's scanning us! Ohh, this is not good!" Teddie shouted out loud, coming to the same conclusion as Justin. Perfect, now he didn't have to explain to the others what was going on. Everyone looked flabbergasted; Kanji in particular, who, as usual, was not very good at picking up on implications.

"When you say "not good," what exactly does that mean!?" Kanji questioned frantically.

"It means it's time to mix it up." Justin remarked snidely before making a quick movement towards his waist, withdrawing the magnum in his pocket before aiming it at the shadow and firing off six rounds into its skull. It was bleeding profusely from each new wound, though it didn't seem to mind. Instead it just turned its head towards Justin, a green light enveloping him from head to toe as the shadow scanned him. He was reloading at the time, but he knew whatever she was doing, it wasn't good.

"**Woohoo…! Analysis complete! Okay, here comes my counterattack! See if you can dodge, hmm?" **In a split second, the shadow launched a rainbow colored beam in the direction of Justin; the light striking against his torso with great intensity as he was flung back against the wall behind him like a ragdoll. Hard too if the indentation behind him was any give away. He was still conscious, but his limbs went limp; he had gotten hit too hard to stand.

"Justin!" Chie shouted out, witnessing the assault from where she was standing. He didn't respond. She bit her bottom lip slightly before turning back to the shadow, a glare on her face. Within seconds, the group had adopted Justin's tactic, mixing it up and going in for attacks themselves. For the most part, it was pretty efficient; there were more than a few critical wounds on the shadow now; it's body coated in purple blood. But within moments, the shadow had them all analyzed, and soon blow them across the room with the same intensity it had Justin.

Justin forced his head up slightly to look at the shadow as Chie came crashing to the ground beside him. He couldn't move a muscle, not to mention he could feel his shadow trying to act up inside him. He had a fairly good idea why. As much as the shadow hated Justin and all his friends, how he had still clearly had ties with the other shadows, he DID share the same body as Justin, and he WOULD die if Justin died. And, while Justin had considered letting him out for a brief moment (after all, the shadow had analyzed Justin, not his shadow,) he simply could not find the strength in him to be able to endure another blow like this one. If his shadow didn't take her shadow out while he was in control, he was fucked. He groaned a bit as he tried to straighten his back, but to not much avail. He was stuck there pretty good. So was Chie, if the moans of pain beside him were any indicator.

"You gotta be kidding me…" Yosuke mumbled from the spot he had collapsed, his body sprawled across the floor. It seemed he had been propelled into the flooring instead of a wall like most of the others. The same could be said of Yu, strangely enough.

"How're we supposed to win…!?" Chie mumbled next to Justin. He looked down at her from where he was leaning against the wall. She had been slouched slightly further down than he had, and from the looks of it, she was also a bit more banged up. She had a pretty big cut along her cheek, blood dripping from it slowly. Not enough to be a problem mind you, but Justin didn't like seeing her hurt. She was also clutching at her side in pain. She felt like she broke something. She wasn't that far off actually; she fractured a rib in the collision.

"A-Are we… going to die…?" Yukiko choked up in slight fear. Justin's eyes widened as the remark hit his ears. Die? Look, they were in a bad spot but… You really think we might die here? Justin's heart raced a thousand miles as the shadow only seemed to position itself to deliver a final blow on the group. He didn't want to believe it, but he did. There was a good chance this was the end. His eyes watered slightly, though not in fear or sorrow. He just regretted all the things he would never be able to do.

He reached out to grab Chie's hand next to him, intertwining his fingers with her. If he was going to go down… He wanted to go down with the girl he loved. Chie twisted her head to the side slightly, a look of fearful sorrow in her eyes, a single tear down her cheek. It seemed she believed this was the end too. She never thought this was how she'd go out. Not while she was so young. It seemed they had gotten in way over their heads, and now? Now it was like nothing they ever did mattered. It was over.

"No! You guys can't die! What can I do…? Sensei…" Teddie called out to Yu. Yu was clutching his side slightly as well, whimpering as he held back shouts of pain. He bit his bottom lip slightly before turning to Teddie. That's right… Teddie wasn't even hit yet… Maybe… Maybe he can save us. Justin hoped to God he could anyway. He always wanted to go out with a bang; but not like this, not now.

"It's up to you." Yu choked up in pain to Teddie standing over him. Teddie had a look of panic and fear on his face; panic because now the pressure was on him, fear of what would happen if he didn't succeed.

"There must be something… Something I can do… Am I going to be all alone again…? No… That's not what I want!" Teddie remarked with sorrow as he watched the investigation team struggling with pain. Justin closed his eyes tightly; Teddie was apparently going to be no help. He was too busy caring about himself than actually trying to help.

"Shit! It's winding up again…!" Kanji shouted, observing a bright light radiating from the shadow's face as it aimed at the investigation team. Teddie was looking around with panic on his face, trying to figure out SOME way he could help. He was no fighter, after all, so he would need SOMETHING to help him.

"**Okie dokie, here we go again! Goodbye… forever!"** The shadow laughed, the light radiating at peak brightness, ready to fire off at investigation team, when suddenly Teddie stood in the direct path of the projectile, a frightful look on his face.

"M-My body's moving on its own! Wh-Why am I stepping forward!? Wh-Whoaaaa!" Teddie announced, with great panic in his voice, as he slowly made his way to the front of the group. At his current spot, if the Shadow were to fire off its shot; Teddie would be toast. Justin wasn't sure what the hell Teddie was thinking, but he'd by lying if he said he'd rather have Ted live then him and Chie. What kind of sick bastard was he to prioritize one person's death over another? "I-I feel like I'm going bear-serk."

"If I wasn't in so much pain right now, I'd find that clever…" Justin choked up to himself, coughing abit as the words left his mouth.

"Grrrrr! I-I'll do it! Take a good look… at Teddie's last stand!" Teddie announced before charging forward, meeting the shadow's blast head on. The shadow and the entire team were dumbfounded. Not only had Teddie, the biggest coward of them all, just charged head first into a near death situation, but the beams practically reflected off of his skull. Within no time, Teddie had made its way into the immediate vicinity of Rise's shadow, ready to strike.

"…**!? This high-energy reading… Is it coming from Teddie…!?" **The shadow questioned outloud. No one bothered to ask how the shadow knew Teddie; they were much too preoccupied fearing for their lives and Teddie's life to care.

"Teddie! What the hell are you doing!?" Kanji shouted at the bear as he stood directly in front of the source of the blast, energy reflecting back and forth with such momentum and force that it was building up between the two, creating a slight implosion of energy mass. Teddie screamed out a battle cry just seconds before the stored energy between the two masses exploded outwards, blinding the team, but otherwise leaving them unharmed. Everyone was concerned out of their damn minds; especially when the light cleared and they didn't see hide nor hair of the bear.

"Teddie!" Kanji shouted out, looking around the room for the bear.

The shadow was down for the count, reverting back to its old form, but that wasn't important right now. What was important was Teddie's safety. Everyone forced themselves off the ground to the best of their ability; save Chie, who needed Justin's help standing. She was the only one who had any serious injuries at the moment. She needed to go to the hospital immediately after this to get that rib checked out, that was for sure. She moaned in pain as Justin helped her up onto her feet. He offered her his shoulder to lean on, but in the end, it just resulted in him accidently pushing up against her rib cage, so they decided against it. Besides, they were too busy sighing in relief when they found Teddie on the ground… Flat as a pancake, but still very much alive and moving.

"You idiot… You coulda died…" Kanji remarked, scolding him slightly, but still a hint of relief in his voice as he looked down at the flattened body of Teddie. Justin had to wonder how it was physically possible for the guy to stand, as he eventually lifted himself from the ground. He was flatter than paper! Still, he laughed with relief as he stood up from the ground. He took back all the nasty things he said about Ted yesterday, this bear saved his life, and he'd be damned if he didn't get a hero's celebration.

"Did I… Did I help…?" Teddie wheezed, apparently his lungs being crushed slightly from being a pancake.

"You didn't just help, you saved our lives!" Yosuke explained concisely. The entire team found themselves nodding in agreement, even Chie, though for some reason nodding was still killing her rib cage. She didn't think the two were even connected, so this was a surprise to her.

"Neat…! I'm so glad… I didn't want to be alone anymore…" Teddie remarked, the slightest hint of sorrow in his voice. Justin felt bad for saying all that shit about Teddie being melodramatic yesterday; it seemed he really believed what he was saying… And there's nothing worse than being alone. Justin would know, that's how he lived a majority of his life. But now that he had friends, and the investigation team, and Chie… Life seemed so much brighter. Justin understood exactly how Teddie felt; he just felt bad that he hadn't realized sooner. Of course, the sad tone surrounding Teddie's noble sacrifice soon broke as Teddie realized he wasn't quite as robust as before. "Ngh… Urgh… Wh-What in the world!? Nooo… My fine, silky fur… I was so proud of it! Waaaah…"

Alright. Justin took back everything he said about everything he said. Fucking drama queen.

"Looks like he's gonna be just fine… I guess." Yosuke remarked, a slight grin on his face. Yeah, he was flat as a pancake now, but he was very much alive and kicking; so there was that. Everyone just sort of shook their heads, a grin on their face before making their way over to Rise; Teddie still complaining about his fur behind their backs. It took a bit of help getting Chie over to where the rest of the group was, but she got their thanks to Justin giving her a hand.

"Rise-chan!" Yukiko shouted, for some inexplicable reason, as Rise returned back into the conscious world. Justin sincerely wondered what it was like to be unconscious while others took care of your shadow… It must be pleasant. Much more pleasant then harpoons, chains, crosses, guitar-mini guns, and the barb wire lined stairwells.

"Mm…? Where… am I…?" Rise mumbled to herself as she looked around. It took her a minute before she spotted her shadow, and once she did, her puzzled expression soon switched to sorrow and disdain. "I'm sorry… It's all my fault…" She remarked as she stood up from the ground, eyeing her shadow from where she stood.

"It's not your fault…" Yu explained compassionately to her. Rise just sort of half smiled. She didn't really believe him, but she appreciated the gesture. He was a pretty nice guy, even after seeing all that shit about her shadow…

A nice guy, huh…

"Really…? Thank God…" She remarked with relief before slowly making her way over to the shadow, leaning over and helping it up to its feet. _You know guys, you can make a deal with your shadow without helping them up or touching them you know. Just leave it there… _"Here, stand up. I'm sorry… You must've been in a lot of pain up to now. You're part of me, but I kept refusing to admit you existed… I was trying to figure out who the real me was. But I realize now that I was on the wrong track. There is no "real" me. It just doesn't exist."

"There's no... real me…?" Teddie mumbled to himself with slight concern behind the team. The only one who really noticed though was Justin. He turned around and raised a slight eyebrow at Ted before turning his attention back to Rise. It wasn't that he didn't care what Ted was saying… It's just it didn't make any fucking sense. He'll calm down in a second anyway…

"You… me… even Risette… They were all born from me. All of them are… me." Rise remarked. And much like the others, her shadow simply nodded back, a blank expression on its face as it disappeared into a blue, radiant light, and purpl- Wait… Purple smoke…? What was expected was the blue light to pierce Rise's heart, granting her a Persona. It was pretty much a satellite dish wearing a dress for the record. What was unexpected was the purple smoke's appearance, nor how it had shot out towards Justin and down his throat again. He coughed a bit, though he by no means collapsed or lost control as it finished clogging his airline. Actually… He kind of felt… Rejuvenated. His muscles didn't feel so sore, and he could move about a bit easier. Like he had never been thrown into the wall to begin with. Still, everyone was passing Justin a few looks of concern. What the fuck was THAT about? They were going to start drilling Justin for answers, but suddenly Rise collapsed. They should have expected that; it ALWAYS happens after a revelation.

"Rise-chan! Careful!" Yosuke shouted, as he and Yu grabbed her on the way down, keeping her from falling to the floor. She laughed slightly; it seemed her mood had been brightened at the very least.

"I'm all right… Hey, you're the one who came to the store, right…?" Rise questioned. Justin was a little confused as to how she could forget the guys telling her she was going to be kidnapped and brutally murdered, but yeah. They were those guys. Yosuke just nodded a bit, confirming that, yes, he was in fact 'the one.' Well, the OTHER one. We all know THE one is Keanu Reeves. "I thought I recognized you guys… Thanks, everyone…" She chuckled slightly. It seemed she laughed as a sort of nervous response; after all, she had pretty much just fought a giant stripper demon, it seemed only natural to be a bit freaked out.

"We'll explain everything later, but for right now-" Chie had cut herself off as she turned around, ready to start taking an early leave; what since she was having a hard time walking and all. Instead, she was met by the sight of Teddie wallowing in self pity, a larger, more sinister Teddie surrounded by dark aura behind him. Everyone was confused at first, though the second they turned around, their jaws practically dropped, seeing that not only was Teddie freaking out; HE HAD A FUCKING SHADOW.

"There's no real me?"

"**Real? Me? Such foolishness." **The shadow chuckled, a very deep and sinister voice coming out from his throat. Justin could not understand why Teddie didn't turn around; completely oblivious to his shadow's presence behind him. All the same, the team was dumbfounded. They had no idea what Teddie was, but one thing was for certain; he had a shadow. And believe me when I say it looked like it meant business. It was also significantly smarter, if that counted for anything.

"What is that thing…!?" Yosuke shouted in shock, staring the shadow down from where he stood. Everyone had adopted an aggressive pose, save Justin and Chie. Chie tried to, but she ultimately just tumbled over in pain; which was where Justin came in, catching her before she hit the ground. Her face was a bit red, though whether that was because Justin had a pretty good hold on her right now, or because she was embarrassed by her inability to do something as simple as stand was another question entirely.

"D-Don't tell me… Is that the other Teddie? Teddie's hidden thoughts!?" Chie mused aloud as Justin helped her regain her balance. It should have been obvious that was his shadow, but he could understand how everyone was confused. Teddie LIVED here. If he had a shadow, shouldn't it have come out decades ago? Why now?

"I believe so, but it seems like there's more… I felt some powerful presence intervene…" Rise explained to the group, her voice still soft from lack of energy. Justin raised a slight eyebrow as the remark hit his ear. One, Rise apparently already knew about shadows; I mean, yeah she just fought one and accepted it and all, but in Kanji and Yukiko's case, they still had to explain what was going on before they really got it. Second… Felt some powerful presence? Could Rise… Sense things? Like how Teddie's nose worked? It would make sense if her persona retained that scanning ability her shadow did.

"Wh-What's going on!? Wh-Whoaa!" Teddie shouted, having FINALLY turned around to meet his shadow. He was dumbfounded to say the least; if not outright petrified. Teddie backed up only slightly as the shadow continued to loom over Teddie's figure, a vicious look in his yellow eyes.

"**The truth is unattainable… It will always be shrouded in fog. Though you reach through the murk and the gloom to grasp something, you have no means to know it is the truth… In which case, why…? What sense is there in yearning for truth? Close your eyes. Lie to yourself. Live in blissful ignorance… It is a much smarter way to exist." **The shadow spoke, using his handy dandy thesaurus apparently. Justin smirked slightly. On one hand, they had to fight TWO fucking shadows. On the other; it seemed he was an intellectual of sorts… He was hoping that meant there was a possibility of talking him down; not just beating the crap out of him. After all, other than Justin, no one was in any real condition to fight again; especially not Chie.

"Wh-What're you talking about!? I don't understand a word you're saying! You're just making it sound difficult because I'm not that smart! How rude! Maybe you can't tell, but I'm thinking as hard as I can!" Everyone raised a slight eyebrow as Teddie told his shadow off. Apparently Teddie was going to do the shadow's work for him, practically insulting himself on his behalf. It wasn't as fanciful as the shadow's remarks mind you, but it was still degrading all the same. Justin understood every word of what the shadow was saying, as did Yukiko… And that's about it. Yu KINDA got it, but everyone else didn't really get the fanciful language he was using. Basically put, 'shut up and stop trying to find shit out' was what the shadow was trying to say.

"**It is those efforts that I am calling useless… You are hallow. Empty. At your core, you know this… You just cannot accept it. So you seek an alternate form… a denial of your nature. You have no lost memories. If you have forgotten anything, it is this truth." **The shadow continued. Justin just shook his head a bit. Maybe Teddie had suppressed his memories at some point, but he had no doubt in his mind that Teddie had forgotten what ever 'truth' it was his shadow was talking about. That said, Teddie was a bit… easy to manipulate. And easy to convince. He was freaking out a bit now, much to Justin's surprise. He thought he couldn't even understand what his shadow was saying, let alone be offended.

"Th-That's… a lie…"

"**Shall I spell it out for you? You are but a mere-"**

"I said shaddup!" Teddie shouted, not wanting to hear another word more of this. You would have thought Teddie of all people would know not to react to your shadow, but alas, it seemed the only person that seemed to have any restraint with their shadow was Justin. And even then, he always threw the shadow's shit back in his face; He just never denied anything he said. Except maybe that stuff about his father. And all those comments he made about people's assess. And all those strip club j—

You know what? No. Justin denied EVERYTHING.

"Teddie!" Yukiko shouted out towards him, trying to calm him down. It only seemed to bring about Ted's shadow's ire upon them however.

"**It is the same for you all… You undergo suffering because of your search for the truth… This world is filled with thick, heavy fog… How can you find something when you know not what you search for?" **The shadow monolgued to the group, as though he needed to convince them of anything. He was probably just trying to break their spirits; though to no real avail. Justin and Yu stepped forward slightly, ready to address the shadow. It seemed Yu had intended to stand up against the shadow, but it seemed Justin had a different idea. He tugged Yu close to him slightly and whispered in his ear.

"I'm going to distract him. Sneak around back, and put a sword through his fucking skull." Yu nodded slightly as the two continued to walk forward; Yu inching slightly to the side. He had to wait until Justin had the shadow's attention before he could do anything. Justin took the spotlight, addressing the shadow as he prepared himself to keep the shadow occupied through wordplay. "The truth has to exist. We'll know it when we see it." Justin remarked to the shadow as Yu slowly circled around it.

All the while, the shadow's shape slowly shifted. It wasn't just a larger Teddie anymore; its face seemed to tear away, like a broken mask, purple eyes glowing through its empty insides. The ground disappeared below it, as the shadow's shape expanded, its top half remaining above ground. Its fingerless hands soon grew three long claws each, and its fur grew dark with… something! It was creepy though, and everyone had backed up slightly as it transformed; even Yu. Justin remained still though. Showing fear is a sure way to lose any debate.

"Dammit… How are we supposed to fight something like this without Teddie…?" Yosuke mumbled in an aside to the rest of the team. They had taken that as them having to fight; which was strange since Teddie hadn't denied his shadow yet; just told him to shut up. Though… Justin never really denied his shadow, and he had nearly killed Maya that one time. Perhaps a bit more understandable in that Maya's shadow shared his body, and Maya HAD denied that. Everyone was getting ready to adopt an aggressive stance again; once again, save Chie, who could barely stand.

"It's all right… Get ready, everyone." Rise announced to the group, adopting a slight praying stance as she summoned her Persona. It was amazing she had enough energy to keep going; even more amazing that she already understood how Persona worked. Either she was a quick learner, or she had done this before.

"Hey, don't tell me you're fighting with us! You can't take it!" Chie remarked, pointing out Rise's lack of energy and slight injuries. It was made all the more hypocritical in that Chie certainly couldn't take it; she couldn't even WALK, let alone fight.

"I'm okay… I should be able to take that bear's place! It's my turn to save you all!" Rise shouted, revealing the nature of her Persona. Much like Teddie had provided support to the group from a far, it seemed Rise's Persona was more geared for analysis and support. That would be perfect if things fell flat with Yu and Justin's plan. Which it unfortunately was starting to look like was the case.

"**Obtaining the truth is simple. All you have to do is believe that it is the truth…" **The shadow continued aggressively, having finished its transformation, a slight gust blowing in wards towards the shadow's eye socket. Everyone's hair and clothes were blowing towards it, but otherwise, they managed to hold their ground no problem.

"A lie is a lie. Just because you write it down and call it history doesn't make it the truth." Justin remarked, pacing back and forth slightly. The shadow just sort of laughed, oblivious to Justin's remark; finding humor in Justin's attempts to sway his point of view.

"**And what of you? You searched blindly for the truth, and when you obtained it, there was no bliss in your discovery. One can only find peace in turning their eye away from the truth." **The shadow remarked. Justin grunted slightly; it was a VERY specific remark aimed VERY specifically at him. He was referring to the whole Maya thing, and he knew it. Though which aspect of it was a bit vague. Was he referring to his memories, or the deal he made with his shadow? Perhaps both.

"Gonna need to be a bit more specific there. I've found a lot of truths over the last few months. I got truths coming out the wazoo. I cannot get rid of these truths fast enough to accompany the new ones." Justin remarked sarcastically. You would think that would be a bad idea when trying to have an intellectual debate, but it was a sure fire way of pissing off his competitor; a valuable way of breaking down his composure.

"**By searching for this 'Maya' you found only long hidden suffering. Is that what you truly wish? To suffer?"**

"Did I really, though? I met Kurt and Maya again, and let me tell you something; things have never been better between the three of us. Even if I did get the crap kicked out of me a few times; besides the point though. There is always a calm after the storm."

"**And what of your shadow? So eager to seek the truth to your conundrum, you sold your soul to the devil. Was it worth it?" **Justin paused, soaking in the thought. He averted eye contact for a moment. No… No he honestly couldn't say it was. **"Or perhaps I should be addressing your alternate persona. Have you found the truth you searched for by dwelling amongst the humans?" **Within seconds, Justin's eyes flickered to the golden color of his shadow taking control. He WAS being addressed after all, and he'd be damned if he didn't respond. He smirked slightly as he regained control of Justin's body.

"**Not yet. But that'll change soon. And you're going to help me Ted. Whether you like it or not." **Justin's shadow smirked, making his way closer to the shadow, getting up into his face, despite the strong suction towards his eye socket. Teddie's shadow just laughed; it appeared there was some history between the two, though as to what was completely unclear to the team. Still, they were concerned. What exactly was it that Teddie's shadow was supposed to be helping him with? No one on the team liked this one bit.

"**Is that a threat?"**

"**It's a truth. Goodbye Ted."**

The shadow was about to swipe at Justin's shadow, but was soon interrupted by Yu jumping up and driving his sword straight into the back of his skull. A critical hit; purple blood seemed to spout out like a water geyser. Teddie's shadow immediately started to seizure about, trying to knock Yu off his back, but to not much avail. His arms couldn't reach that far back as much as he tried. And while he tried to reach around to his backside, Justin's shadow reached for his gun and fired a shot off straight into the shadow's exposed eye; purple smoke and blood exploding outwards as Teddie's body grew stiff, before falling back into the hole he had spawned from, Yu jumping off just moments before the shadow fell off into nothingness; a blue light and purple smoke rotating around each other like a halo just above the hole Teddie had created. The shadow was long gone; the blow of Justin's shot killing him instantly. And since his body was far gone; Teddie couldn't actually address it once it was gone. Instead the shadow's spirit remained behind; ready to pierce through his heart, should he accept.

"**Just remember, I offered you a choice." **Justin's shadow smirked, peering off down the hole in the floor, a wicked grin on his face as it disappeared into nothing. The team was more than a little concerned about what Justin's shadow was talking about, but they were much more concerned about Teddie at the moment, who had momentarily passed out as the shadow transformed, and had since regained his composure.

"Was that a part of you, Teddie…?" Yukiko spoke up in a slightly shocked aside to Teddie. Justin's shadow and Yu slowly made their way over to the rest of the group. Everyone was a bit concerned about Justin's shadow's presence, though he remained oddly silent, a satisfied grin on his face for some reason.

"Even Teddie had a hidden side…" Chie gasped slightly, staring at Teddie as he slowly made his way up to the floating blue light above the hole near the entrance of the room. Thank god the hole wasn't big enough that they couldn't walk around it, otherwise they were going to have to make a different kind of hole in the floor to get out.

"I… I don't know who I am… I've thought a number of times… that maybe there is no answer… But I'm here… I live here…" Teddie remarked with sadness, staring at the blue light. Justin's shadow just rolled his eyes slightly, watching Teddie stumble around in self pity. He still had some… business, to take care of with Teddie himself; but not now. His time would come.

"You're not alone, Ted." Yu remarked as he and Justin's shadow made their way up to the crisscrossing patterns of purple smoke and blue light. For entirely different reasons, mind you. Yu was there to comfort Teddie. Justin's shadow was there to claim his prize. He just needed Teddie to fucking cooperate and accept his shadow already.

"Then… I don't have to do this all on my own…?" Teddie spoke up with slight surprise.

"Dude, we'll help you figure it out." Yosuke remarked, a slight smile on his face. You would have thought of all the people to offer Teddie help, Yosuke would be the last person. They CONSTANTLY went at it after all.

"I'm sure we'll find out about you, as we continue investigating this world." Yukiko elaborated on Yosuke's statement.

"Y-You guys…! I'm… I'm one lucky bear! Waaaah…" Teddie broke out into tears, all the while the rotating show of smoke and light stopping before shooting out towards Justin's shadow and Teddie respectively. Justin's shadow got knocked back pretty far, actually. Believe it or not, it was a very painful merging process for the two, and there was quite a bit of force involved. Justin never noticed, because he simply swallowed it and let his shadow do the rest of the work. With the shadow in control, you could physically see just how painful it was.

No one was sure whether they should help Justin's shadow up as he collided with the wall. On one hand, it WAS still Justin, even if it was a very evil one; on the other… Well it was his shadow. No one should help that prick up. It didn't matter anyway; Justin shook his head slightly as he regained control, his eye color reverting back to their blue tone as he pushed himself off the ground, clutching his head slightly. He had a headache from the transition, but otherwise… He felt fucking amazing. Never better, in fact. The team passed each other a slight worried look before turning their attention over to Teddie and his newly acquired Persona. Which looked like a giant metal bomb with arms and legs, no exaggeration.

"Is that…?" Chie spoke up in slight confusion as she watched Teddie's Persona disappear into thin air, his chest radiating a slight blue aura before it faded away again. No one really noticed Justin make his way back into the crowd, his hand still on his head as he tried to calm himself down. He HATED his shadow getting control… Even if he did sort of save everyone just then.

"Is this my Persona?" Teddie asked out loud as his Persona's image faded away. Rise smiled slightly from where she was standing, nodding her head slightly.

"I can sense strong power from it… It's awesome, Teddie…" Rise spoke softly, much to Chie's concern.

"Whoa! Are you all right!? Oh yeah, your Persona just awakened too! I'm so sorry… You must be worn out." Chie groaned slightly. She had twisted around to turn her attention over to Rise, and hurt her rib again in the process. Literally, damn near everything she did was painful at this point. Justin passed her a look of sorrow. He never wanted to see her hurt like this; none of his friends really. It was the reason Maya had always been stuck outside… Justin had to wonder sometimes if they were in over their head. It seemed like someone always got really hurt during these sessions. And he hated it.

"Yeah, let's hurry outside!" Yosuke spoke up, lending his shoulder to Rise. Which she didn't seem at all reluctant to take; even after Yosuke had been a complete pervert that last time she saw him. Everyone was walking forward slightly, ready to march down the steps of the building to get to the exit. Everyone save Chie, who after taking a good five or so steps had let out a grunt of pain, holding her rib cage. Everyone besides her and Justin had already left, so no one heard her except for him.

"You still can't walk can you?" Justin questioned as Chie leaned towards her side slightly, holding her rib cage, her eyes closed tight as she tried to hold back the pain. Justin didn't really need an answer to his question, he could just see it. Still, he'd like to know what was wrong with her. He knew she was in pain, but not what she had hurt.

"I think I broke something…" Chie moaned slightly, still leaning forward, unable to move. She was in too much pain. Justin starred at her for a moment, before making his way up to her, twisting his body off to the side slightly, wrapping his arms around her leg and back respectively and picking her up off the ground so he could carry her. She couldn't walk, so he'd do it for her. Chie was… Well embarrassed for a lack of a better word. Her face was completely red as her legs hung over Justin's arm, her back resting up against the other. "Wha- H-Hey!"

"Jesus, Chie; Either I need to lift some weights or you need to lose a few pounds." Justin joked as he marched forward; quite a bit slower than the rest of the group, as much as he tried to catch up with them. Might have been better off that way anyway; this would be a bit hard to explain.

"Hey, don't think I can't still kick your ass." Chie remarked back, a playful glare on her face, her cheeks still red as Justin carried her around. She wanted to walk, even though she clearly couldn't. This was… flattering, but so embarrassing at the same time.

"Got any excuses for when your parents find out?"

"I fell into a doorknob."

* * *

"So while I wait for my fur to grow back, I'm gonna train hard! Nobody can stop moi! Here goes! Huh!"

"Alright, someone mind telling me why Teddie's doing pushups?"

Justin and Chie were a bit behind the rest of the group, so they were completely out of the loop when they came back to find Teddie working out. No one had really noticed Chie and Justin weren't with them; which was kind of disheartening in a way. Still, they weren't sure whether they should be pleasantly surprised or awkwardly surprised to see they made it. Mostly because Justin was still carrying Chie.

"Someone mind telling me why you're carrying Chie?" Yosuke remarked, an eyebrow raised.

"You missed it Yosuke. We went to shadow Vegas and we got married, and now I'm carrying her all the way home- Why the fuck do you think I'm carrying her?" Justin shook his head sarcastically. "She hurt something back there and couldn't walk, so I carried her here."

"Speaking of, you can probably put me down now…" Chie remarked, her cheeks still red; though that might have been a bit more because of Justin's sarcastic remark then the whole being carried thing.

"Oh right, sorry." He remarked, leaning over to help her back up on her feet. His face was a bit red actually; Yeah, he was probably going to have to carry her over to the doctor's office in a bit anyway; but she COULD stand on her own. He didn't need to carry her EVERYWHERE.

"Don't, talk, to me, please! One more set! Huh! Huh! Another one! Huh! Huh!" Teddie continued, trying to block out the sound of the rest of the investigation team as he did a few more push-ups. Justin was seriously confused right about now. Wasn't he exhausted from accepting his shadow? And besides, they had to get Rise home right now; this was NO time for a work out. Even if Justin very apparently needed one given how hard it was carrying Chie around a few floors. She didn't weigh that much, so… yeah.

"Leave the dude be… Comes a time when a man's gotta stand on his own two feet." Kanji declared a very peculiar tone in his voice. It sounded almost like he was choking back sadness, as though this were bring a tear to his eye. Justin could not comprehend HOW, but whatever; they all knew how Kanji got about this kind of stuff. So let them keep doing manly things for manly men who like manly stuff. For MEN.

"I'm not sure this is really one of those times…" Yu remarked, sarcastically. Everyone just sort of shook their heads, save Kanji and Teddie (who was still doing push-ups, by the way.)

"Well then,Yu and I will take Rise-chan home." Yukiko announced, passing a glance over at Rise. Rise just nodded slightly. Which is more than Yu could do right now. Since when the hell did he ever agree to that? Not like he would object to it or anything, but a little heads up is always nice. "And I suppose Justin and Chie should probably head over to a doctor's."

"That was the plan." Justin remarked.

"Yeah, she'll need a lot of rest. We can talk after she regains her strength." Yosuke remarked; once again acting as though she wasn't even there. Rise didn't seem to mind of course, mostly because she was too tired to care, but it was still awkward all the same.

"Well, um… Good luck, Teddie!" Chie remarked, as everyone slowly started to pile out of the television screen, giving a slight embarrassed nod over to Justin as she gave him the heads up that they were getting ready to go. He sighed abit; he still hadn't really caught his breath from carrying her around for the last hour or so. But he picked her up all the same, her cheeks still red as the skin of her leg brushed up against his arm and hand.

"Just kick back and wait for my wonderful comeback! Peace out!" Teddie declared, trying to be hip and cool. Justin and Chie raised a slight eyebrow at him. Yu was used to it by now, and Yukiko… Well Yukiko was already waiting outside for Yu with Rise. Probably not a smart place to be waiting for someone with a celebrity.

"Peace out? People still say that? Alright, alright, let's see… Crap… What do kids say these days… 'Fo shizzle?" Justin mused aloud. He didn't really follow slang; so he was pretty much clueless. Chie just sighed slightly.

"Close enough."


	74. Chapter 73: June 26, 2011

CHAPTER 73

June 26, 2011

* * *

"Oh, hello Justin! Please, come in."

Justin was met by the friendly smile of Chie's mother as the door to Chie's house opened. He had only briefly met her the day prior when she had come over to pick Chie up from the hospital, but from the few minutes they talked with each other, they both thought the other was fairly friendly. Of course, that was probably because Chie's mother had never seen Justin when he was pissed off; which was fairly often. Still, Justin was happy to see her mother for more than one reason. One, it was a little less awkward this way; since, while Justin hadn't acknowledged the two were dating, it seemed she had a fairly good idea that they were. Secondly, she wasn't Chie's father; who still seemed to hate Justin with a burning passion. Can you believe that guy tried to blame Justin for Chie getting stuck in the hospital? Justin swore if Chie and her mother hadn't said something, he would have tore her father a new one. And I'm sure you can figure out how well that would end.

"How's she doing?" Justin remarked casually, as he stepped through the door. The doctor said she would be fine after giving her some quick bandage work, but she'd be stuck in her bed for the next week or so. Well, that was a bit of a heartbreaker for Chie, since she usually spent her free time either exercising or hanging with Justin. Sometimes both. He swore his gut still hurt from those training sessions. He had to wonder why they stopped having those, though he certainly wasn't objecting to the lack of their presence.

"She's doing alright, though we have to keep telling her to stay in bed." Her mother remarked with a slightly saddened voice. Justin could only imagine what kind of hell it must be trying to put up with Chie under these circumstances. She's probably trying to get out of the bed every five seconds or something, knowing her. "She's upstairs, first door on the right." Chie's mother tried to explain, knowing full well what Justin was here for. Justin smirked slightly; it was clear Chie's mother still didn't know he had been here before. Oh well, not worth mentioning apparently.

"Thank you ma'am." Justin remarked, a slight bow of his head, before carefully making his way upstairs. He slowly twisted his head around the corner, peering inside to check to see if her father was in the room, since he hadn't seen him downstairs. Thankfully, he was not. He must have had work or something. Thank fucking god. He smiled slightly before walking into the room, though Chie hadn't really noticed at first. She was too busy staring at the television across the room. Actually, she DID think someone had come into the room, partially because Kenji started barking, though she hadn't thought it was Justin, that's for damn sure.

"I already said I'm fine, mom…" She grumbled to herself, still starring at her television screen; a Playstation controller in her hand. Justin smirked slightly.

"I'll say." Justin joked, making a slight whistle sound. Chie's eyes widened slightly, her eyes shooting over to Justin, her cheeks slightly red. She wasn't really sure what she should be more embarrassed about; thinking Justin was her mother, or Justin's flirtatious joke. Not that he didn't do that normally anyway, but it felt weird having him do that in her house with her parents home. And then there was the fact that she was in her pajamas; afterall, she was sorta stuck in bed for a week, so there was no point in changing. Justin couldn't see of course; she was hidden from the neck down by her blanket. That didn't make it any less embarrasing, though.

"Oh, Justin! I'm so sorry, I-" Chie frantically tried to explain. Justin just laughed slightly holding his palm up to cut her off. He wasn't offended at all; he'd be lying if he said he hadn't done that at least a dozen times. She only seemed to blush harder though as he cut her off; it was embarrassing, regardless of whether he approved or not. He took a seat at the very foot of her bed. Thankfully Chie was short enough that there was still a slot where he could place his ass on the bed. He'd hate to stand the whole time, and he didn't want to sit on Chie's feet, or make her curl her legs up or something. She obviously couldn't do that if she wanted to recover. "Wh-What are you doing here?"

"Well, I couldn't just let my girl stare up at the ceiling all day on the weekend. I thought I'd keep you some company." Justin smiled at her, before turning his gaze over at the television screen she had been staring at. It was on the pause menu, and she had just pressed reset. Justin briefly wondered if he had done something to fuck up her game.

"Wouldn't you rather be out doing stuff, though?" Chie remarked, a slightly saddened expression on her face. She didn't like that Justin was wasting his weekend just because she managed to break a rib. Especially after what had transpired yesterday. He must have been stressed out; what with nearly dying and his shadow taking over AGAIN and all. And what was up with that purple smoke shit? He could use a day off to relax, and she doubted he was going to have that here; as much as she enjoyed his company. Justin apparently found her question humorous though, chuckling slightly and shaking his head.

"I'd rather be here with you." He smiled, both of them blushing slightly for a moment. They averted eye contact for only a brief second before Justin started starring at the screen again. Chie was pressing reset again from the pause menu. _What in god's name is this woman doing?_ "What game are you playing?"

"Tony Hawk's Pro Skater." Chie remarked, pausing and reseting once again as the stage reloaded. Justin completely understood what she was trying to do now that he knew what game she was playing. Mostly because he used to do the same thing. He had to wonder why she was playing Pro Skater though, but hey, whatever floats her boat.

"You're trying to get Superman playing, aren't you?" Justin smirked slightly as Chie shot a glance of shock over at Justin.

"How'd you know?"

"Believe me honey, we all did that." He laughed a bit as she turned back to the screen, pressing restart only one last time, the song finally playing. Given the look on her face, Justin was willing to bet she had been at that for a while; she just seemed so relieved to finally get that song playing.

_So here I am_

_Doing everything I can_

_Holding on to what I am_

_Pretending I'm a superman _

"Hey… uh…" Chie choked up slightly, still starring at the screen as she played the game; though her cheeks were slightly red. "Thanks for everything yesterday." Justin raised a slight eyebrow. I mean, yeah he kind of DID bring her to the hospital, but he didn't need to be thanked for that. It was the right thing to do, and besides, he wouldn't just leave her behind.

"No thanks neccesary, ma'am." He remarked playfully, shaking his head to side to side.

"No, seriously! I know I kind of gave you sh—" Chie stopped herself from saying shit, noticing that the door to her room was still open. Clearly her parents weren't a big fan of swearing, though Justin had to wonder if her mother could even hear. Or if she would even give her a hard time about it. From what Justin had seen, it wasn't so much that her parents were strict as much as it was that her father WAS. Her mother seemed fine to him. Chie cleared her throat slightly, trying to correct herself. "—crap yesterday about carrying me around…"

"Don't sweat it. I can see how that'd be a bit weird." Justin remarked, a quick swat of his wrist, as though telling her to forget about it.

"Well, it wasn't that it was weird…" Chie choked up after a short period of silence, her cheeks radiating a slight pink color. Justin shot both of his eyebrows up as though he didn't quite hear that right. Oh he did all right, and he could tell just by the look on her face, or how she was very slightly trying to burrow her face under her blankets. Justin's face turned slightly red; carrying her around was NOT supposed to be a flirtatious thing. I mean, I guess it kind of WAS, but… you know… He swallowed a bit before choking up speech once again.

"Sorry, uh… embarrassing?" Justin tried to correct the mistake. Chie just sort of shrugged. She wasn't sure exactly how she WOULD describe it. In a way it kind of felt… good. Sure it was embarrassing as all hell; especially when he had dragged her out in front of all their friends like that, but she'd by lying if she said she didn't have butterflies in her stomach. Her face only seemed to grow redder the more they talked about it. She was probably coming across as a complete weirdo at this point. And as for Justin; well… He didn't want Chie getting the wrong idea about him. He was doing that to help, not to be a perv.

"Y-yeah…" Chie choked up slightly. She paused for a moment, still pressing buttons on the controller, though much slower for some reason. Like she wasn't really into it. "Sorry 'bout dad, by the way." Chie eventually spoke up. She had been in the room when her father had pretty much tried to play the abuse card on Justin. Like seriously; how the hell was Justin going to break her rib without any other visible sign of bruising? The guy just didn't like Justin, and he was willing to do anything to put the guy down in front of his daughter, that's for sure. Justin sighed a bit, crossing his arms.

"I don't get why he doesn't like me…" Justin remarked, pondering out loud.

Chie just sighed a bit; clearly it was bothering Justin to some extent. She was actually kind of embarrassed for him. Her dad could be a real prick sometimes. It's not like he hadn't done this with other guys either. Sure, Justin was her first boyfriend, but she HAD had other guys over before, and let me say this, none of them received a very welcoming reception. You should have seen what it was like when Yosuke first moved to town. Now mind you, Chie and Yosuke were pretty good friends, still were in a way; she just kind of kicked the shit out of him a lot more now. That was Justin rubbing off on her, she supposed. That's how she ended up lending him her Trial of the Dragon DVD in the first place. Well, needless to say, Yosuke already had a bit of a reputation, what being the 'Junes Prince,' as some people liked to call him. As if it weren't bad enough that he kept saying shit like leave the door open, he had pretty much given Yosuke a lecture on business etiquette. Needless to say, Yosuke did not come back to her house again. In retrospect, the only guy who her father liked was Takeshi, and even then, that was because they were in elementary school at the time. He wasn't as suspicious of everyone.

"He gets like that with everyone." Chie tried to explain. Justin just sort of shrugged. What her father thought of him was of no importance to him, so long as he didn't try to interfere with the two. Cause if he did, let me tell you something, shit would go down. Justin sighed a bit, before turning his attention back towards the screen.

"You missed the 'K'." Justin remarked. Chie had picked up the letter S already, so he had assumed she was trying to do that thing where you pick up the letters that spell out skate.

"Crap!" She exclaimed, trying to go back and pick it up. She was having quite a bit of trouble grabbing it though; it was at the very tip of a jump on a half pipe, and she couldn't seem to quite line it up right. After wasting a good minute or so of doing that, and Superman unfortunately fading out as the song ended Chie sighed and paused, giving up. She wasn't very good at these games, and she knew it. And you may be saying to yourself 'Hey, some of those letters are pretty hard to get!' She was on the warehouse level. Argument invalidated. Justin chuckled slightly as Chie threw a very slight temper tantrum from her spot in the bed. She wasn't throwing controllers or anything, but you could see her glaring at the screen, and you could hear the hot air coming out from her nostrils.

"And that my friend, is where cheat codes come in." Justin remarked sarcastically. Chie just shook her head slightly.

"I don't cheat." She said matter of factly. In fact, she kind of sounded slightly offended that Justin had even suggested cheating. Justin raised an eyebrow slightly; he could understand not wanting to cheat on games that actually had, you know, a fucking plot? Not so much games like Pro Skater, where the point was pretty much to just mess around and have fun. Seriously, who the hell enjoyed trying to find those tapes? "Besides; I don't know any chea—"

"Hold L2, X, Circle, Triangle." Chie just sort of starred at Justin for a moment. She wasn't sure why he had a cheat code for Pro Skater of all things memorized; hell, the only cheat code she knew was the Konami Code; and that's only because she like to test that on every game she got to see if there were any easter eggs. About 50% of the time; there was. She looked at Justin with a blank stare for only a brief moment longer before starring at the controller and inputting the code. Nothing happened. "You have to do it at the skater select."

"Well, you should have told me that!" Chie remarked, slight irritation on her voice. It wasn't really that she was getting irritated mind you; but you know how those two got when they were joking around. Justin chuckled slightly as Chie sighed and pressed the XMB button on the center of the controller; heading back to the start up menu. She had intended to switch games over to something else on her hard-drive, but then something caught Chie's eye: Justin's account logging in. She raised her eye and passed a confused glance over at Justin. Maybe he had a Vita…? Justin wasn't really paying attention; hell he NEVER paid attention to that corner of the screen. He had missed more than a few party invitations from Chie because of it. That said, he still could see Chie looking at him with confusion.

"What?"

"Says you just logged on." Chie remarked, still puzzled. Justin just sort of shook his head and chuckled.

"Looks like Maya's at it again. I swear, it's a wonder her eyes haven't exploded from starring at that television all day." Justin laughed slightly. "Hold on, I want to see what game she's playing." Chie shrugged slightly before scrolling over to her friends list. It took a second, but Maya did pop in a game eventually: Saint's Row 3. Justin started laughing for some inexplicable reason. "Let's see how long it takes her to turn the game off."

"What? Saint's Row 3 is really good." Chie remarked, slightly puzzled. Hell, the two of them had played it online a couple of times, so Justin couldn't even deny that he liked it. Justin shook his head slightly.

"That's not what I mean. Maya doesn't start new games ever; she's always afraid of erasing someone's data." Justin explained.

"Okay…?"

"Well, last time I saved, my character was naked and equipped with the dildo bat." Justin whispered slightly, lest her mother be listening in. Chie was a little… confused. Actually, disgusted might be the right word. For starters, Justin played a female character on Saint's Row 3. She never understood why, but she just sort of played it off as Justin preferring the voice actor or something. And since having the female voice on a guy would just be weird, he made a femboss. Now she was finding out that, not only had Justin apparently stripped his character down, but he had equipped the dildo bat. Just… Eeeww.

"Why? Just… Why?" Chie spoke up, slightly flabbergasted.

"I'm trying to get all the trophies. I'm a couple challenges away from the last one I need; one of them being streaking." Okay… That relieved ONE of her concerns…

"And the… you know…"

"I just find it fascinating that of all the objects they could have put physics on, they put it on that." Justin shrugged. They also put it on the female characters breasts, but he wasn't going to bring that up anytime soon. Chie just shook her head slightly, trying to wipe the thought from her head. If this wasn't Saint's Row they were talking about, she might have been really creeped out right about now. But it was, and they both knew that this game loved to make you do stupid shit like that. And most of the time it was pretty funny. The two turned their attention over to the screen for only a brief moment more before they were met with a singular message:

MothershipZep32 is now Offline.

The two laughed for a moment; she logged off REAL quick. "Oh man, we're laughing now but there's gonna be a lot of explaining when I go home later." Chie shook her head slightly as she looked back up at the screen.

"Hey, I've been meaning to ask; what is your username supposed to be?" Chie asked curiously, a wide grin still on her face from watching Maya's reaction over the internet. She could only imagine the look on her face, and let me tell you something: it was PRICELESS.

"Oh. Mothership is a Led Zepplin album, so MothershipZep. 32 is just some number I threw on because APPARANTLY 31 other people had the exact same username." Justin sighed a bit, shaking his head. Chie just sort of laughed at his slight annoyance with having to throw a number on his username. Though, she didn't have to do that for hers, so she probably just didn't get it. The two starred at the screen for a while as Chie fiddled with her control stick, trying to shuffle through the games she owned, to not much avail. It wasn't for a while that Justin turned to her and spoke up. "You know; that horror movie marathon's supposed to be on today."

"Oh it is!?" Chie spoke up in surprise. They had been talking about it early this week, but with everything that had gone down with Rise, she had forgotten all about it. She starred at Justin for a moment, a faint smile on his face. She didn't really want him wasting his day here, leaning over her bed just because she got a fracture. It was only a flesh wound, after all. Still, they did have plans to watch it, and she supposed it didn't really matter if she was lying down or not; just that they were together when they did. Besides; she was getting sick of playing video games. "I uh… Can't really reach the remote from here…" Chie spoke up slightly embarrassed.

Justin just chuckled a bit, standing up to grab the remote off the top of television. You would think her parents would leave the remote with her, but he supposed if she had been playing video games for a while she wouldn't really need it. He pressed a few buttons, flipping the television away from Video 1 and over to television; then finally switching it to the appropriate channel before taking a seat at the end of the bed again. In all honesty, he was hoping he'd be able to sit on the couch with her, shoulder to shoulder; that way when something really scary came up… Bam.

…

Oh you thought I meant Chie would try to hold onto him? No. Otherway around. Justin was a pussy when it came to scary movies. Of course, that was irrelevant now. Unless Justin planned on laying down next to her, which he absolutely did not for obvious reasons, that was not going to happen anytime soon.

"So which movie is this?" Chie asked. Justin didn't really know, of course. He had just flipped it over himself. Of course, he soon recognized it when that… thing popped up, in all it's clownitude. Yep, this was It alright, and Justin's wasn't quite sure he liked that. The second he saw that clown he jumped back slightly, averting eye contact. Chie was a little surprised actually. "What are you doing?" She asked. Nothing scary had happened yet. Hell, it had been TWELVE seconds.

"Not watching this is what I'm doing." Chie raised an eyebrow slightly. It took her a moment before it really sunk in why Justin was freaking out already.

"Wait a second… Are you afraid of clowns?"

"I should have never played Twisted Metal…" Justin grimaced, hesitating as he tried to decide whether too look at the screen or not. He eventually decided 'yes and no.' His head was angled away from the screen, but he could still see it out of the corners of his eyes. Chie just sort of smirked a bit, finding humor in Justin's lack of courage.

"Oh my god, you totally are!" She laughed, as Justin squirmed about in his seat.

"Hey, shuddup. You're afraid of bugs!"

"Yeah, but so are you!"

"Yeah, and I'm also afraid of stairs, airplanes, clowns, hospitals, Gene Simmons, you on a bad day—"

"Alright, that's enough." Chie cut him off, though whether that was because she was sick of hearing Justin's list, or because she didn't like that last item on there was another question entirely. Justin chuckled slightly.

"Point is, shut up."

"Fair enough." Chie shrugged her shoulders slightly before both turned back to the screen. Just in time to see Pennywise tear some kid's arm off. Justin immediately turned his head away from the screen again. _Nope. Fuck this shit. Done. DONE!_

The afternoon went on much like this, with one or both of them averting their eyes from the screen because of something. It was mostly just Justin doing it at the beginning, what since they were watching IT and all, but that changed once they found out that apparently Pennywise was a giant spider. Now THAT was something Chie could understand being afraid of. Hell, she practically jumped up out of her bed to grab a hold of Justin's arm. And she did for a second, but then her rib started hurting again, and she had to let go. Justin had felt bad about it, but Chie found herself laughing; how could she be so forgetful? And besides, it was just a movie, no need to be trying to hide behind Justin.

It was then followed up by your typical slasher films. Friday the Thirteenth, Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, Texas Chainsaw Massacre; you name it, they had it. Justin wasn't sure if it was a blessing that some of this stuff was censored for TV. On one hand, they didn't get to see all that wonderful bloody violence; or rather they did, but they usually cut away before you saw the gore and blood. On the other hand, however, that meant all the sex scenes got cut out. And when Justin was watching that with his girlfriend, in her house, with her mother downstairs, when she was sixteen; yeah that might have been for the best.

By the time the marathon ended, Justin and Chie were having a debate over Saw II. Justin was disappointed that they didn't get to see the first one, but alas, he supposed Saw II was better in a lot of ways. Still, he didn't get to point out all that stuff he had mentioned about the ending, and now Chie was asking him all sorts of questions about this one.

"Alright, so the point of these traps is that they're supposed to test you right?" She asked.

"Right."

"So… How was any of that supposed to be a test? Like… I get the detective, and I get the needle pit… But how were you supposed to win any of the other traps?" Chie questioned, completely dumb founded. Justin had explained the original Saws as being this combination of morality and testing one's self. She wasn't seeing ANY of that here.

"Well some of those traps were just 'if you're not stupid, you'll live'." Justin explained. Chie wasn't really buying it though.

"Well how were you supposed to know there was a shotgun behind that door; how was that supposed to test anyone. It just killed them. And there was no way of surviving the furnace. You went in, and you died. And he didn't even get the antidote!"

"Well actually, I think someone switched the furnace on by accident. Like it was supposed to test the people outside; since he kind of kidnapped them and all."

"No. He turned the furnace on himself." Chie shook her head slightly. Unless they cut something out, and she couldn't understand why they would cut something so vital from the TV cut if it wasn't bloody or anything, no one switched that thing on. Justin rubbed at the back of his head slightly. He hadn't watched Saw II in a while, so it was entirely possible he was remembering this wrong. He'd have to check it out on his DVD later tonight. Actually, scratch that, tomorrow. It was getting pretty late actually. He was surprised Chie's parents hadn't kicked him out yet. Especially since he knew her father had come home. He had stopped in Chie's room to see how she was doing. He also refused to acknowledge Justin's existence, which while it might sound like an insult, was probably him TRYING to be nice.

"Alright, so there were a FEW unfair traps."

"Almost all of those traps were unwinnable."

"She should have known better than to stick her hands through a glass box like that! It's glass! Throw something at it and pull it out that way." Chie shook her head slightly. She entirely disagreed with him on that; it was very clearly set up to look like you were SUPPOSED to put your arms through those holes. There was no escaping that trap, and no it was not fair in the slightest.

"And I'm failing to see the morality aspect." Chie continued.

"Alright, well, the whole morality thing is bigger in the first Saw movie. One guy has to shoot the other to save his kids, so he has that moral decision of kill one to save another kind of thing. But we're not talking Saw I here, so let's get to Saw II. Xavier doesn't HAVE to kill anyone to get those codes, but he does anyway; so now you have that moral standpoint of killing everyone to save yourself, or try to work with the others and get out alive."

"Xavier was such a dick." Chie remarked, cutting Justin off. She hated Xavier so much by the end of the movie. He had thrown Amanda into a pit of needles (which wasn't necessarily a bad thing, come to find out,) killed Jonas, left Addison for dead, and damn near killed Amanda and Daniel, Daniel being seventeen or eighteen tops. The guy totally had it coming when he got his throat slit.

"I was rooting for him at the beginning when I realized he had found out about the bar codes. Then he sort of killed Jonas. I mean… Yeah, Jonas probably should have turned around, but maybe if Xavier just tried to explain to him that there was a code on the back of his neck, they wouldn't have this problem."

"I stopped rooting for him when he threw Amanda into the needle pit." Chie remarked, a slight shrug on her shoulder.

"She totally had it coming."

"Yeah, but he didn't know that."

"Details, details." Justin joked slightly, before Chie sighed. She turned her head over to the clock on her television box. 11:30. Holy crap, her parents must be livid right now. She had never had company over this late, especially not her boyfriend. Justin's gaze soon followed to stare at the digits on the clock. He knew it was about time to take his leave. He stood up from the bed before making his way up towards the head of the bed… And Chie, by extension. "I should probably get going before you get in trouble." Justin joked slightly.

"What are they gonna do, ground me? Not like I'm going anywhere anyway." Chie joked slightly. Justin loved the new rebellious attitude she seemed to be sporting. Though she was probably just trying to be funny. Still; viva la revolution. Justin laughed a bit at the joke.

"No, but they might lock the doors. Then how would I visit you?"

"Through the window."

"Now you're learning!"


	75. Chapter 74: June 27, 2011

CHAPTER 74

June 27, 2011

* * *

"Dammit, Yosuke. It's re-san-tea-mon."

"Re-sent-a-ment."

"That's a completely different word."

It was lunch time, and everyone had gathered around to eat lunch inside. Chie was of course absent due to her rib injury, but that only meant that they could make a perfect square out of their desks this time. And that was a-okay with Justin. Everyone was talking about various subjects while eating instant noodles, and at the moment, they were discussing King Moron's lecture; mostly because it was always good fun mocking the guy behind his back. Of course, that soon diverged into a discussion on the proper way of pronouncing ressentiment was. Of course, Justin was getting nowhere with this. After telling Yosuke the correct way of pronouncing it at least five times, he was still saying re-sent-a-ment.

"That's how it's spelt, dude." Yosuke spoke up in slight irritation. As far as he was concerned, he was completely right, and Justin was wrong. Of course, he always thought Justin was wrong, so this was no different than usual for him. There was a brief pause of silence as each one stared each other down from across the table, Yu and Yukiko just sighing slightly as they went at each other's throat. They were used to it by now.

"Tell me Yosuke; how do you pronounce this?" Justin eventually spoke up, writing something down on a piece of loose leaf he had pulled out of his back pack, and sliding it over Yosuke's way. Yosuke looked at the word for a second: colonel.

"Col-eh-nel." Yosuke replied with a straight face. Justin just wanted to slam his face into the desk right now. The is probably the kind of guy that pronounced Sean as seen instead of shaun, or the kind of guy that pronounced bologna as bo-log-nah.

"God dammit Yosuke, it's pronounced ker-nel!" Justin shouted, a glare on his face.

"A kernel is what's in popcorn." Yosuke shook his head. There's not even an r in colonel, how could it possibly be pronounced that way. Justin just shook his head though throwing his hand up slightly.

"You're stupid. Shut up." Justin finally shouted. It was an incredibly childish way of ending their argument, but goddammit, it was true. And besides, Justin couldn't take much more of Yosuke butchering the English language. He hated it enough when he heard random strangers in the hall way doing it; he didn't need his friends doing it too. Yu shot his stare up from his bowl as the remark left Justin's mouth.

"So does that mean you guys are done?" Yu asked, slight cheer in his voice. He was really sick of hearing those two go at it over the pronunciation of a word of all things.

"Yeah, we're done." Justin remarked, sighing slightly as he turned his attention back over to his bowl of instant noodles. Yosuke was throwing a bit of a fit from where he was sitting, shaking his head back and forth, but whatever. He was just making himself look bad. Yu sighed with relief to hear he could eat his lunch without those two trying to murder each other. It was silent for a while between the group before Yu eventually spoke up.

"How's Chie doing?" Yu asked. All he knew was that she hurt something in the television world, and that Justin had taken her to the hospital. And given that she was out today, he assumed it wasn't just a bruise. And let's face it; they were talking about Justin here. He no doubt was trying to break her door down trying to check up on her. He didn't, of course. He knocked like a polite individual. Breaking down the door was the backup plan. Justin made a slight grunt sound before swallowing the noodles that were hanging from his mouth. He really needed to learn to chew one of these days.

"Fractured rib. She's gonna be out for a week but otherwise she's fine." Justin explained concisely. Everyone passed each other a slight look of shock around Justin. They had known she had gotten hurt, but they didn't think she had broken anything. They thought maybe she was just too sore to move around or something.

"Holy shit." Yosuke remarked rather loudly from where he was sitting. Yu nodded in agreement, though Yukiko didn't really make any remarks on the matter. She just had on this wide eyed stare. Justin was a bit surprised she didn't know. He would have thought Chie would have called her up at some point. "Man those shadows really did a number on us yesterday…" Yosuke sighed a bit. They damn near died when they fought Rise's shadow, and god only know what would have happened with Teddie's shadow if Yu hadn't put a sword through the fucker's skull.

"You ever wonder if we're not really cut out for this shit?" Justin questioned out loud. I mean, yeah; they were the only ones who COULD do it, but with a close call like last time, he doubted that was really changing much in the long run. I mean, they could have damn near died yesterday if it wasn't for Teddie; and look at him now! Sure he had Persona now, but he was also flat as a pancake. God only knows if he's alright now. For all they knew he could have collapsed and died from having his lungs crushed by now. If he had lungs; who even knew with that guy anymore. Everyone hung their head slightly, deep in thought.

"I know what you mean…" Yosuke replied, surprisingly since you wouldn't think Yosuke would agree with Justin on anything. Especially on matters of self-pity. Everyone found themselves nodding in slight agreement, save Yu, who had been shaking his head. Sure, he had doubts in the past; but they couldn't just give up.

"C'mon guys; we got out alright, right? We can't give up now. Not when there's so much on the line. Not when we're so close." Yu spoke, trying to raise everyone spirits. And it worked for the most part; Yosuke and Yukiko certainly cheered up a bit. Not so much Justin. This just marked the second time someone close to him had gotten really hurt in that world. He just wanted everyone to back off, to leave it to someone else. It might sound terrible, but he really did have good intentions. They had nearly died this time, so what would happen if they faced something stronger in the future? He didn't want to see his friends getting hurt. Even if that meant someone, somewhere might die. Justin sighed a bit as his thoughts really started to seep into his mind. He had to be just the worst person to be thinking this, to say 'Yeah it's okay if they die.' He was ashamed with himself, yet that's how he felt.

"Yeah… Yeah, you're right!" Yosuke remarked, smile on his face. "We can't stop now. We're going to find this asshole and put him behind bars. For Yamano, and Saki, and everyone else he's kidnapped." He ranted and raved. Yukiko just sort of nodded when everyone turned towards her for her input. She was being unusually quiet today. Well… She was always quiet, but she still usually spoke up about this kind of stuff. She was probably still worried about Chie, in retrospect. Those two were pretty close, and she just had the news dropped on her that Chie had managed to fracture a rib. That couldn't be pleasant. And then all eyes dropped on Justin. He wasn't entirely sure what they expected him to say; 'Yeah guys, let's go kick shadow ass. Fuck our safety, dying is totally fun?' He sighed a bit.

"Yeah, I guess." He remarked, swirling the noodles around in his bowl a bit. The smiles that had started to immerge on everyone's faces soon faded away. They had expected an uplifting remark out of Justin, not that. In all honesty… Justin looked really out of it lately. I mean, he didn't really smile as much as he used to, and he got pissed off over the littlest things now. And this had started before the whole shadow incident Saturday, too. Everyone passed each other a slight look of concern before turning back to Justin.

"Hey… Are you alright? You've been acting a little different lately…" Yu questioned, trying to put it as delicately as possible. He knew shit would hit the ceiling if Justin had taken that as Yu implying there was something wrong with him. And for a moment it certainly looked that way as Justin's pupils looked up from the bowl in front of him, a slight 'say that again' look on his face. Luckily, it seemed he was just caught off guard by the question, and not genuinely pissed. At least, not yet. If they were going to push it, Justin was going to give them shit back.

"I'm fine." Justin remarked in a monotone voice. He wasn't entirely sure what they were trying to get at, so he wasn't sure he should be offended or not yet.

"I don't know man; you've been really on edge lately." Yosuke added. And he would know better than anyone there, considering he was always the one getting crap from Justin. "Does this have to do with your shadow?" And Yosuke just blew it. There were some topics you were just not allowed to mention to Justin; him and Chie, anything about hospitals, clowns, and his shadow were at the top of that list. Actually, his shadow was at the VERY top of that list, just above his love life. Justin's expression dropped into a glare as the sound of Yosuke's voice met his ears. Yosuke damn near started freaking out immediately; he knew he fucked up almost immediately.

"You want to ask me that again?" Justin choked up, his voice rhaspy with rage.

"No, not really." Yosuke countered, his voice frantic with panic.

"That's what I thought."

"I do, though." Yu interrupted, much to everyone's surprise. Especially Justin's. Generally Yu knew when things were off-limits, and when he did he always had respect for boundaries. Except maybe that one time he had been questioning Justin about him and Chie when they first hooked up. Justin was shocked to say the least. And also sorta pissed. "I know you probably don't want to talk about it-"

"I don't."

"Right, but I think we need to. When we went to save Rise… There was that smoke again. What happened?" Yu questioned. A very valid question that everyone seemed to want an answer too; Justin included. I mean seriously, how the hell was he supposed to know?

"Don't ask me, I don't know." Justin remarked slightly irritated as he gave Yu a death glare. He had hoped that would deter him from asking anymore questions, but he wasn't budging.

"It happened twice, and both times you got right back up like nothing had happened. I remember your shadow didn't seem to react to it very well either." Yu continued musing out loud. Even if Justin wasn't willing to talk about it, he was going to figure this out one way or another. Justin practically had steam coming out of his ears at this point. _Stop fucking talking about him! He doesn't exist as far as I'm concerned._

"Yeah… That's right!" Yosuke jumped in, as though having some sort of revelation. "You looked like you were down for the count before you get hit with that smoke the first time around. Then you were walking around like nothing happened. You think that smoke can heal you?"

"I don't think so." Yu cut Yosuke off, and by extension Justin as he was about to tell everyone to shut the fuck up. "The smoke only started to appear once Justin's shadow came into the picture, so we know for a fact it's connected to that. And we also know the smoke only reacts to Justin. Now, consider this; the purple smoke was used to control us that last time, right? Now, why might that be?"

"Because it was a hallucinogen." Yukiko spoke up, trying to think of a logical explanation. She thought that's what it was at first, that it was some sort of drug where he could somehow convince your body to do something it didn't want to. But alas, Yu didn't think that theory held up entirely well.

"Close, but not quite. When Justin's shadow disappeared and made its way into Justin, it did it as smoke, right? So could we safely assume that the smoke IS Justin's shadow?" Yu continued. Everyone gave a slight nod, save Justin, who had just been shaking his head in disgust. He didn't want to talk about him, nor his shadow, nor how he lost control. Hell, he had a headache just thinking about it. Or was that his shadow trying to come out again? Who even knew anymore, but Justin was sick of it. He should have never made that deal…

"So… that smoke Justin got hit by yesterday… Was his shadow?" Yosuke remarked, not quite following.

"He's saying it's the other shadows, you fuckwit." Justin interrupted. He didn't like this conversation one bit, but no one was going to shut up until they reached a conclusion. So if that meant pushing the investigation along quicker, Justin would gladly oblige.

"Bingo. For whatever reason, the other shadows are being drawn to your shadow, Justin. And given the way you just sort of walked off your injuries afterwards, I'm going to guess that their power was added to yours." Justin's eyebrows shot up immediately. He did not like the sounds of that one bit. On one hand, if this was true, his shadow was no doubt getting power from this. Not a good thing to say the least. And if that wasn't it, then he was going to have more than one shadow residing in his skull, again, not a good thing. Sometimes he wished he could just put a bullet in his shadows skull, but alas, he couldn't do that without killing himself too. Sometimes life was so cruel.

"So… What, you think they're combining or something?" Yosuke remarked. _Oh combining, that's even fucking worse!_

"Possibly; he said something about Teddie's shadow helping him, whether he liked it or not. And if he were to gain Teddie's power by killing him, he would be involuntarily helping Justin's shadow." Yu shot his gaze over to Justin, who was fidgeting about slightly. Clearly the thought of his shadow getting stronger was not a pleasant thought. Especially when it seemed he had something up his sleeve; something none of them were expecting. "O-Of course this is just speculation. I'm probably completely wrong." Yu stuttered out trying to calm Justin down. Of course, Justin wasn't buying his bullshit for even a second. He shook his head slightly before dropping his chopsticks in the bowl in front of him. He couldn't eat now. _Thanks a whole fucking lot Yu._

"No… no, you're not. That makes too much sense for it NOT to be right." Justin sighed a bit. Yu bit at his bottom lip slightly. He might have pushed this conversation a little too far. It was alright to talk about this stuff when Justin wasn't there; but when he was? It was a sensitive topic, and he handled it completely wrong. I mean, he pretty much told Justin his alternate personality was getting stronger. That's never a good thing.

"Look, we'll just have to wait and see." Yosuke remarked, eyeing Justin from across the table. Justin sighed for a bit, before starring back down into his bowl. It was still half-full, but he was sick to his stomach with the thought of the asshole in his head getting control. Maybe… Maybe when this was all over, they'd find a way to get him out of there; to erase his mistake. He just couldn't imagine living a very good life with his shadow fucking up everything he did; fucking with everyone he knew.

"I guess…" Justin mumbled to himself, leaning back in his chair, his arms crossed in front of his chest. It was silent for a while, as the group stared at him with slight sympathy. Or at least they were before Justin realized they were, at which point everyone immediately turned their attention back to their food. Justin was not the type of person you let know that you pitied.

"Hey Justin?" Yosuke spoke up, a good five or so minutes later. It was the first words they had spoken since Yu had pretty much made Justin feel like shit. Justin raised his eyebrow slightly. He swore to god if this was still about his shadow…

"Yeah?"

"You gonna finish that?" Justin just sort of stared at Yosuke with a blank expression on his face for a moment, before pushing the bowl over to him, Yosuke practically jumping with glee. Not only did he get extra food, but he got JUSTIN'S food. He know he probably shouldn't get so happy about that when Justin was in one of those moods, but goddamn was it satisfying to him all the same.

"Dude, really?" Yu remarked, surprised Yosuke had even asked.

"Don't worry about it. When the kid dies from obesity I'll be the one laughing." Justin remarked, shooting a slight glare at Yosuke before leaning back in his chair. Yosuke's eyes widened slightly before he looked down at his stomach.

"…I'm not fat, am I?" Yosuke questioned. He didn't think he was, and it was probably just Justin fucking with him… But he was curious all the same now. Yu raised a slight eyebrow before passing a glance over Justin's way. He was giving a very slight nod; nothing you would see unless you were trying to.

"Yes, you are." Yu joked. He wasn't serious; after all, Yosuke probably weighed less than him. Still, he did just steal Justin's food when the guy was clearly beating himself over something. And he still owed Yosuke some payback for tearing his room apart looking for his porn stache yesterday. He didn't have one, mind you. He was probably one of twelve adolescent guys that didn't masturbate. Still, it was pretty embarrassing, not to mention fucked up in so many ways. Who the hell wants to look at other's porn? That shit's probably covered in herpes or something. That said, he didn't feel bad at all for calling Yosuke a fatass. Yosuke looked back down at his waist line once more before pushing both bowls out towards the center of the table.

"Back to the gym…" Yosuke sighed.

"You have to have gone to the gym at least once before you can say 'back,' Yosuke." Justin remarked snidely.

"Yeah, up yours too."


	76. Chapter 75: June 28, 2011

CHAPTER 75

June 28, 2011

* * *

"Hey Chie, got you a surprise."

Justin had barged his way into Chie's house once again to visit her. She had insisted that he go out and do something fun, but he simply refused to stop coming. In all honesty, she appreciated it in a way; she just felt bad that Justin was stuck pretty much babysitting her as she laid in bed. Justin didn't mind of course; it's not like he had anyone else he'd rather hang out with. Sure, he hung out with Kanji and Yu from time to time, but they both seemed pre-occupied as of late. Yu was really working hard on the case, and Kanji… Well they could never really get a hold of that guy. Maybe they should get his cell-phone number one of these days. Still, Justin would no doubt pick Chie over those two any day of the week.

Chie passed Justin a slight look of confusion as his head poked around the corner. He was hiding something in his hand, and he was using the doorframe for cover, that much was painfully clear to her. She was a little embarrassed that Justin had got her anything. It was bad enough that she felt completely useless stuck in bad like this without Justin treating her like royalty. Of course, that all changed when she actually saw what the surprise was.

"Oh, hey Justin! Uh… Surprise?" Chie questioned, a little confused by Justin's greeting. He hadn't so much as said hello; just 'Hey guess what? I bought shit, you should have it.' Justin chuckled a bit, as he pulled his arm into Chie's line of vision; a white paper bag in his hand with slight grease stains on the bottom. Well she still didn't know what it was, but she could determine it was food at the least. She briefly wondered if he had bought her steak before shaking the thought from her head. If that was a steak he was dangling around in a paper bag, she really didn't want it. Still, she felt a bit better knowing that it wasn't really a gift in the traditional sense. It wasn't like Justin hadn't bought her food on a regular basis anyway. Really, it just came across as a sweet gesture, whereas before it seemed more of a pity thing.

"You remember that time you said you never had Burger King?" Justin remarked making his way inside, a wide grin on his face. So THAT'S what it was. Yeah, she briefly recalled that conversation. They were talking about fake meat or something… Wait, didn't Justin say Burger King was fake meat? Suddenly she was a lot less appreciative of him dragging that crap into her room. Justin laughed a bit before taking a seat on the coach, throwing his hand inside and grabbing a burger of his own before passing the rest of the bag off to Chie. He ordered for himself while he was there too. I mean, he hadn't had fast food in FOREVER.

"I didn't really know what to get you, so I got you a few of... well pretty much everything." Justin joked. Chie smiled slightly as she opened up the cracks of the bag to look inside. There was a lot of shit in here. There was at least four or five burgers, a couple of orders of chicken nuggets… And why were there so many french fries. Chie blushed slightly when she realized Justin must have spent a fortune on that.

"Jesus Justin, you didn't have to buy all of this for me." Chie remarked, closing the mouth of the bag as she looked up from its contents. It's not that she didn't want to eat it or anything; hell it smelt like heaven in a paper bag, and it was probably better than the cooking her parents have been shoving down her throat for the last few days. Justin raised an eyebrow slightly, a slight smirk on his face.

"All of this for- What are you crazy? I'm eating whatever you don't." Justin laughed a bit before opening the wrapper on his double cheeseburger. "Your parents okay with eating in here?"

"Yeah, I do it all the time." Chie answered his question before opening the bag up again, shifting through its contents. She was still a little caught off guard by all the food in here. Sad part is she probably could eat all of this too. Her parents worked during the day, so she hadn't really gotten to eat lunch. Mind you, not because she hadn't tried. She had snuck out of bed a few times anyway; she did have to piss and what not after all. It just took forever to get around when she did. It was that she was pretty much stuck making her own food; which is a pain enough with a fractured rib, let alone when you had Chie's cooking skills. Long story short, she didn't eat. "So… Why are there like seven orders of french fries?" Chie questioned.

"Only one of those is yours." Justin remarked. You would think he was joking, but no. Dead serious. They were all large fries too. Chie shot her eyebrows up, passing Justin a look of shock before turning her face back down towards the bag. There was one thing Chie didn't know about Justin until now: Justin's favorite food was Burger King french fries. Yes it might sound strange, but he loved that shit. It was totally worth all the research he put into finding where a Burger King was around here. Turns out very far away, and since Justin didn't really have a car, he had to take a bus and walk from there. Which is why he snuck out of school half way through the day. No one noticed of course; those teachers were as incompetent as they come.

"You're going to eat all of that?" Chie remarked with surprise. Justin was never a big eater, so it was surprising enough that he was claiming he'd eat all of Chie's leftovers. _He must really love Burger King._

"I wouldn't have ordered them if I wasn't." Justin remarked, food still in his cheeks. Under normal circumstances, that would be disgusting as fuck. But given that Justin's ability to eat all of this was in question, Chie found it slightly humorous that he was practically shoving food in his mouth like it was going out of style. Which it could be for all she knew. It sure as hell seemed to in California, according to Justin. He had sorta let loose that Maya was forcing herself not to eat to lose weight. Chie was a bit surprised to hear that, since Maya was probably thinner than everyone on the investigation team. In all honesty, it sounded to Chie like she had an eating disorder. Though, she didn't say anything to Justin on the matter. He didn't want him going all papa wolf again. He could be really protective of Maya when he wanted to.

Chie shrugged slightly before dipping her hands into the bag and pulling out one of the French fries; curious how they actually tasted. All she knew was that Justin liked them, and for the most part, they had similar tastes in food. She might have had to disagree with him here. First of all, they were cold. Now, she wasn't blaming Justin for that; he did sort of have to walk all the way from the store back to her house. It was understandable that they were cold. As far as taste went, though… They kind of tasted like salt covered grease. They weren't BAD mind you; just not as good as Justin was acting like they were. She might as well just leave them for Justin, since he no doubt would eat them.

"So… what's on the burgers?" Chie asked as she pulled one out.

"What's the wrapper say on it." Justin remarked as he crumpled up the burger wrapper he was holding. He only just realized he didn't have any real place to dispose of this. Usually he just threw it back into the bag he pulled it out of, but there wasn't exactly a lot of room in there. Instead, he slipped it in his pocket for the moment. He'd be sure to litter once he got outside.

"Whopper?" Chie questioned, as though she had never heard of it. Probably because she hadn't. Justin shook his head slightly, a wide smirk on his face.

"Excellent choice; It's a beef patty, tomato, lettuce, onion, pickles, ketchup, and mayo. There's one in there with cheese too, if you want it." Justin explained. Well, she wasn't exactly a fan of mayo, so she wasn't exactly sure she'd like this. And she did want cheese; so she plopped the burger back in before digging a round for the other whopper. It took a minute before she found it and opened it. Holy shit, damn near everything fell out. The thing looked like it was put together in twelve seconds. She was really not having high opinions on this place already. Maybe if she faked her rib hurting she could get out of it… No she couldn't, not with that look Justin was giving her. She sighed slightly before taking a bite.

…

_Holy shit, this IS good._ Justin laughed slightly as he saw the look on Chie's face. He could tell she was having second thoughts before she actually ate it, but he could tell she liked it all the same. Which actually might be a bad thing. He wanted to eat too. Ah well, he could tell she didn't like the fries at least. That's all he needed. Chie finished chewing the burger in her mouth before swallowing.

"Now why don't we have one of these in Inaba?" Chie spoke up in surprise. This was just the best thing. Second only to steak, of course. Wait, what if this place had steak? Oh god that would be amazing. Justin shrugged slightly.

"It's a small town; they probably didn't see much business opportunity." Justin remarked, slightly disappointed. He loved Burger King, but he wasn't really willing to take a bus everytime he wanted it. This was a onetime thing because he knew Chie had wanted to try it, and he thought it would be a nice surprise.

"But if they're the only burger joint in town, wouldn't they get everybody's business?" Chie questioned. She wasn't very good with economics or anything like that, so she wasn't sure if she was right on the money or anything. Justin tilted his head off to the side a bit.

"Yeah, but the town's so small, you'd need to get repeat business from at least half of it on a daily basis to really make it a profitable business venture." Justin explained. Chie couldn't see how half of the town WOULDN'T want to go there on a daily basis, but hey, what did she know. She understood people could get sick of food after all; even if it was as good as this. The two sat there eating for a short while before Chie brought up her usual line of questioning.

"So what did I miss at school today?" She questioned, picking out a chicken nugget from its container in the box. Also good stuff.

"King Moron being an asshole as usual. He gave this whole speech on the word 'pend.' He asked Yosuke what it meant, but you know Yosuke doesn't really pay attention in class." It was true. He paid attention more than Justin did, that's for sure, but that wasn't saying much. "Apparently it means to hang. Then he said something about the murder victims getting killed because they dePENDed too much on each other or some bullshit."

"That's awful!" Chie remarked, a slight glare on her face. Justin shook his head, a blank expression on his face. He was used to this shit coming out of King Moron's mouth, so it didn't really take him by surprise. Still, it was pretty tasteless. Which is why Justin had given him a whole lotta shit when he had said it.

"Agreed. Which is why I said someone should get around to pending his ass from an antenna someday." Justin smirked slightly. Get it, because the recent murder cases had bodies hanging from an antenna, and if pend means hang, then… Ah never mind. Bad joke. Chie was a little off put by the blunt remark, but not by much. After all, she was used to Justin making biting remarks to King Moron, not to mention the douche totally had it coming. Hell, she couldn't approve of King Moron saying that shit about the announcer, but she could understand gossiping about a celebrity. Saki was one of his students; he should be ashamed for making a remark like that! But alas, King Moron HAD no shame. One of these days, he was going to get his. Chie sighed a bit before continuing eating what was essentially lunch and then some. She hoped to god that her parents knew she was eating up her. Because there was no way in hell she was going to be able to eat dinner after this.

"You know, you shouldn't joke about that. What if that actually happened?" Chie remarked, a slight sorrowful expression on her face. Justin couldn't believe it. She was feeling bad for KING MORON? Of all the people, why Marooka? No one should feel bad for that guy. No one.

"Well in order for that to happen, someone would have to want to put that guy's mug on TV. And I don't think anyone would want that." Justin continued. It was a double jab actually. The guy had teeth longer than the Brooklyn bridge, for one. Secondly, if the killer was only targeting people on the news, King Moron would have to be in an interview or something. And Justin thought he spoke for everyone when he said no one wanted that… Except maybe him when he finally recorded one of Marooka's rants today using a tape recorder. _Youtube stardom, here I come…_

"I'm serious."

"So am I. Don't worry, the guy'll be fine. I'll eat my hand if I'm wrong." Justin remarked, trying to ease her concerns. She didn't think the guy was going to get kidnapped, she just found Justin's comment to be a bit… vicious. In all honesty, he had been getting really easily angered lately. Chie didn't mind it of course, since most of the time the target of his rage deserved it, but… It just felt like something was wrong to her. She thought she might have a good idea of what too, but she knew it was a sensitive topic Justin didn't like to talk about. Even with her. She wasn't going to bring it up. There was a brief silence between them for a while, an awkward tension from Justin's remark. He wasn't serious; even someone as awful as King Moron doesn't deserve THAT, so he wasn't quite sure why Chie was getting so up and arms about it. She knew him well enough that he wouldn't want that. Justin sighed slightly after a minute or so of silence.

"So what have you been doing? Enjoying not having to go to school?" Justin smirked slightly. Chie just sort of groaned a bit. She was happy to not be in school, sure; but she wasn't happy to be stuck in bed. She could only watch so many kung-fu movies in a row before she started to get bored; and this was coming from a kung-fu nut. Justin could tell she didn't very much care for sitting in bed all day, that she wanted to be able to run around and do shit outside the boundaries of her household. He wanted to help, really he did, but what could he do? He wasn't some snake's oil salesman that knew the cure to everything. The only thing he could really think of was getting a wheelchair; and there was no way Chie was going to approve of that. And Justin had already asked the doctor about the possibility of crutches; apparently that was out of the question, though Justin couldn't imagine why.

"I just don't get why there's never anything on television when I have nothing to do." Chie joked slightly. Though she was dead serious; all the shows she normally watched on television didn't air during her newly found free time, nor anything really similar. Just crappy TV-movies and standup comedy specials. In all honesty, she had been watching cartoons for the last few hours. Sure, she was a little old for that kind of stuff, but she didn't really care. Anything to keep her mind off of her newly found boredom. Justin turned his attention over to the television screen in the corner of her room; he hadn't even noticed it was on at first.

"You call 'Ed Edd n' Eddy' nothing?" Justin remarked, an eyebrow raised. Chie just shrugged slightly after passing a slight glimpse over to the screen. She actually did like that show when it still aired, but she hadn't really been paying attention to the screen for the last half hour or so.

"Honestly, I stopped watching a while ago…" Chie sighed slightly. Justin had been smirking slightly a moment earlier, though that soon gave way to a frown. Jeeze, Chie really was beating herself up over this. I mean, Justin could kind of understand; he didn't care much for staying in the house when he was actually sick either. Chie knew that too, given that she practically forced him back into the house that one time she stopped over with soup. He still wasn't entirely pleased about that, for the record. Still, he didn't like seeing Chie like this; she seemed so depressed. And even if it was only for a week, Justin couldn't bear to see her like this anymore. He had tried cheering her up with gifts and visits, but it just wasn't working. There had to be SOMETHING he could do… He'd have to figure something out. Seeing Chie like this just broke his heart too much.

"You sure you don't want to do that thing with the wheel chair?" Justin questioned. He already knew the answer to that though. Chie just shook her head.

"Absolutely not."

"But why? You look miserable here. At least this way you can get some fresh air. And it's not like anyone's going to judge you or anything." Justin tried to reason with her. _Please, just say yes…_ Perhaps expecting Chie to listen to logic was too much to ask for; she could be really stubborn sometimes, that was for sure.

"It's not that. I just don't want to be sitting around in a wheel chair." Chie remarked, slightly irritated. Justin could tell it was a pride thing. He hated to admit it, but Chie really lacked self-confidence sometimes, and writing off something that could help her, just because it might make her look weaker? It was kind of sad, really. Justin had half considered just forcing her into that chair; she'd give him shit for it at first, but really, he didn't care. He just wanted to see her be happy.

The two starred at each other for a brief moment, Justin with concern, Chie with slight disappointment. She would have thought Justin would understand why she didn't want to do that. She didn't need people starring at her while she got pushed around; it was just embarrassing. The two starred at each other for a brief moment before Justin's eyes widened slightly, a sudden realization striking the back of his mind. Chie could obviously tell he was up to something, though as to what she could only guess. She was sure she probably wasn't going to like it. Oh how wrong she was.

Justin bit his bottom lip as he contemplated his idea. He didn't have an idea on how to get Chie out of the bed other than the wheelchair. That seemed the only option other than carrying her around, which she was definitely not going to be onboard for. He did, however, have an idea on how to coax her out of the bed and into the chair. He placed his hands into his pocket slightly. Trial of the Dragon 2 was going to be out in theatres Thursday. Justin had gotten the tickets in advance, before Chie had broken a rib of course. He had intended to surprise her the day of… But clearly, this was all he was going to have to get her out into that chair.

"Well…" Justin mumbled to himself, clutching at the tickets in his pocket. He had been keeping them in his pocket just in case. In all honesty, he didn't really trust Maya at home alone. Justin would be lying if he said he hadn't seen some pretty weird shit when he had come home sometimes. Like Maya had apparently left her iPod in the fridge on multiple occasions. And she had somehow managed to spill shit all over that dream journal Justin kept while he was trying to figure out what was going on with his lost memories. He didn't even care how she had managed to do it, in all honesty. He just threw it away. He wasn't using it anymore anyway. Basically put; he would rather risk these tickets falling out of his pocket then leave them alone with Maya. "…Would you do it for this?" Justin remarked before slipping the tickets out of the pocket and handing it off to Chie, a sigh on his breath. He was disappointed he didn't really get to surprise her the way he had planned.

Chie grabbed a hold of the ticket, unsure of what it was at first. She had thought it was just a slip of paper before she actually started to read it. And when she did, her face brightened up like a Christmas tree, her eyes wide with delight, her lips forming a slight o shape with surprise before curving upwards into a huge grin. "I meant for it to be a surprise, but…" Justin tried to explain, a little disappointed to drop this on her now of all times. He had expected her to be upset about her rib and everything. Instead she just jumped up and gave Justin a hug; as though he had given her a diamond made of solid gold. Her ribs were killing her from the act of affection too, though she just ignored it. She was too happy to care. Justin himself was a little caught off guard by the motion, though not at all unappreciative of it. He'd probably return the hug if his arms weren't trapped under Chie's right now. "Whoa, hey!"

"Oh my God Justin, thank you SO MUCH!" She was practically squealing. It was a wonder her father hadn't come up to see what was going on. Justin just sort of blushed. He was happy to see her cheer up; after all, that was the entire point of getting her out of the house. He didn't think she'd be this happy though. It was actually kind of embarrassing in retrospect. Again, not that Justin was complaining; he was more than accepting of the embrace he found himself in, even if it was a bit awkward.

"Well glad you like it." Justin choked up eventually, his face still red. It was a good minute or so after she had practically jumped up to hug him that she finally let loose her grip and fell back down into her bed; examining the papers more thoroughly. She was still smiling, though her eyebrows curved downwards in slight disappointment as she noticed the date. Justin was afraid that was going to happen.

"Justin… I can't…" Chie choked up, disappointed that her injury was just getting in the way of their plans once again. God, she hated herself right now; Justin must have gone through so much trouble planning this, and she couldn't even show up. Her smile soon turned into a frown, looking at the tickets with slightly tearful eyes. Dammit, why did she have to break a rib?

"Well… We can still go. But you're going to have to use the wheelchair." Justin explained, a look of disappointment on his face. He felt bad that his surprise seemed to have backfired in the long run, even worse that if she wanted to be part of it; she had to do something she didn't want to. Chie found herself shaking her head slightly. She REALLY didn't want to go in that chair, for some inexplicable reason.

"I'm not using the chair…" Chie groaned a bit.

"And after this young man bought you tickets to the movies?" Justin practically choked on the saliva in his mouth. Chie's father had stepped into view of the door frame. Justin didn't know how long he had been standing there, but he really hoped it was after that whole discussion about King Moron. In all honesty, Justin was more confused as to what her father was getting at. He seemed pretty okay with her going with Justin, which was strange considering he had pretty much called him abusive earlier that week.

"Oh, uh… hello sir." Justin stuttered, trying to come across as impressive as he could. Why, he could only guess. Her father was a huge asshole to him before, why should he be showing him any respect. Chie's eyes widened slightly at the sight of her father leaning against the door frame, his eye-brow raised. Partially because he never encouraged her to go out and do anything. It was always 'study' this, and 'grades' that.

"Dad?" Chie questioned, surprised at his presence.

"We'll get the wheel chair from the hospital tomorrow. You should go out and have some fun." Her father said with an uncharacteristically charismatic smile. Justin thought something was a bit fishy here, but whatever. If he could convince Chie to leave the house, he was a-okay with that.

"But I don't want people to stare at me…" Chie choked up, slightly embarrassed, confirming Justin's belief that her refusal to sit in the wheel chair was a perception thing. It was strange; Chie was actually fairly popular in school. She was friends with Yukiko, Kou, Daisuke, Yumi; you name the person, Chie was at least acquainted with them. Still, she always seemed so conscious of what people around her thought; like she was afraid of being judged. And maybe she was; God only knows Justin was. Justin cleared his throat slightly as he shifted his gaze over to Chie.

"Well, you only need to sit in the wheelchair for a moment while we get you over to the chair. After that, you can just move over to a regular seat." Justin tried to negotiate. Chie averted her gaze for a brief moment before looking back up at Justin.

"You're sure?"

"Why would I lie to you? I'll even grab the popcorn for you so you can get a seat." Justin smirked slightly. Chie sighed with the slightest hint of relief. She didn't want to sit in the chair… But if they did it really quickly then maybe there wouldn't be much of a fuss. But only if they did it quickly. She swore if Justin managed to embarrass her in front of someone she knew, she was going to kick his ass once her ribs healed.

"Alright, alright fine. Thursday it is." Chie put on a slight smile. She WAS excited to see the movie with Justin; not so much the wheel chair portion. Justin in turn only smiled a wide grin back. He knew she didn't like the chair, but she did say yes when he asked her to come with him to the movies. And that's all he needed. Her father chuckled slightly from the doorframe. Again, very unnerving. This wasn't like him, something was up.

"Well then it's settled. Your mother and I will pick the wheel chair up tomorrow." Her father smiled. "That said, it's getting late. You should probably start heading home." _A-HA, THAT'S THE CATCH!_ Justin blurted out in his mind. It was only six o clock now. He was purposely trying to drive him off, and both he and Chie knew it. Still… What her father said goes, and he WAS trying to be nice right about now. Justin just shrugged slightly before turning over to Chie. She had an eyebrow raised in slight confusion.

"Alright then. I'll swing by again tomorrow to see how you're doing." Justin smiled a rather infectious smile. As much as Chie hated him wasting his time sitting at the end of her bed, she did enjoy his visits. Especially if he was going to bring Burger King. Now that she had tasted it, there was no going back. This was the food of the gods.

"Okay; see ya!" She remarked, a gleeful smile on her face. Oh how it filled Justin's heart with joy to see her smile like that. He blushed slightly before pushing himself of the bed and making his way to the doorframe, her father giving him right of way. At first, he had thought that was just her father being polite. Turns out, it was just an excuse to close the door behind him. By the time Justin had made his way to the bottom of the steps, he had heard Chie's father's voice stopping him from above.

"Excuse me. A word please." Oh Justin did not like the sound of that. Especially when neither Chie nor her mother were there to stop him. It seemed her mother was out grocery shopping or something. Justin froze in place, a slight sense of dread rising up within him as he slowly turned to the sight of her father walking down the stairs. He swallowed a bit of saliva as he came to a stop in front of him. Or was it fear? Who even knew?

"Yes sir?" Justin stuttered slightly, trying to come across as nonchalant as possible. To not much success he'd like to add.

"Let's get a few things straight. You've got quite a reputation, you know that?" Justin raised his eyebrow slightly.

"I do…?" Justin asked curiously. He had been around for a few months tops. I mean, he probably had a reputation around school, but not really around town… No wait. He told a couple of cops to piss off. Yeah, he might have had a shitty reputation now that he thought about it. But he beat up those thugs! That had to count for SOMETHING.

"Don't play dumb."

"No, I'm serious. I've only been here a few months; I don't really know what I could have a rep for." Justin tried to calmly bluff. He had a pretty good idea what he had a reputation for, he just didn't believe it. Chie's father shook his head slightly; completely oblvious to Justin's pleas of the contrary.

"I don't care if what they say is true." _Alright good start…_ "But let me make this perfectly clear. There is nothing more important to me in this world than my daughter. And if I find out that you hurt her in anyway shape or form, there will be trouble. Do I make myself clear?" _Oh fantastic, we're doing that abuse shit again. I swear, this guy has a hard on for this stuff…_

"Yeah, of course." Justin spat out. He had no intention of hurting Chie, so he had no reason to be afraid of telling Chie's father the truth on the subject. That didn't mean he was PLEASED to be drilled on the matter however. I mean, how many couples do you go up to and say 'don't you abuse her, you fucker?' Hopefully none.

"If you treat her right, we'll get along just fine. Otherwise, you can kiss your sorry ass goodbye." Chie's father finished his lecture. You know what the sad thing is? This was him probably trying to be nice. Can you imagine if this guy went into full-blown papa wolf territory? Oi vey…

"Well then I guess we're going to be very good friends." Justin joked slightly. He had no intention of befriending Chie's father; just to remain on good terms with him. Her father groaned a bit under his breath before moving away from Justin and towards the door.

"That remains to be seen." He declared as he opened the door. That was a clear sign that Justin should be making his exit. Not that Justin was objecting. He liked coming over to pay Chie a visit, but her father was a seriously overprotective prick. He made the entire trip not even worth it, because by the end both were just mortified by her father acting like an asshole. Still, he did appreciate that he managed to convince Chie to tag along. Justin made his way to the entrance to the door before extending his hand for a handshake. _Act civil, maybe he'll calm his ass down._

"Thanks again for doing this. With the movies and the wheel chair I mean." Justin smiled slightly. Kill 'em with kindness as his mother used to say. Not so much his father. He was more of a fan of kill them with broken beer bottles. Lots and lots of beer bottles. Chie's father grabbed a hold of Justin's hand, giving it a slight shake before speaking up again.

"I'm not doing this for you, I'm doing this for my daughter."

"What's the difference?"


	77. Chapter 76: June 29, 2011

CHAPTER 76

June 29, 2011

* * *

"Again."

"You might want to cool it a bi-"

"AGAIN!"

Yu sighed a bit before sending his Persona flying towards Justin again, Justin's own Persona swooping in to counter the attack with a swing of his hammer. It was late in the evening, and Justin had asked Yu whether he'd be willing to spar with him; said he needed a bit of training. Yu was a little caught off guard by that, but he was more than happy to oblige. This started about three hours ago, and they were still going. Yu wanted to call it quits, hell so did Justin. But he forced himself to keep going. And that concerned Yu.

Justin grunted in slight exhaustion as his Persona punted away Izanagi. One thing about summoning Personas and using them like this was it took a lot of energy out of you; and after a while it got outright painful. Like you could feel your persona's muscles scream out in pain. Most of the time when the team got like this, they would call it a day and head back to the entrance. Justin didn't really know that until today though. And yet, even though his muscles seemed to cry out to Justin, begging him to stop, he persisted onwards.

Izanagi went slamming into the ground, Yu's torso area tensing up slightly in the process. Forgot about Justin for a second here; this sparring session was going on much too long for his comfort. He had no idea what had gotten into Justin that he even wanted to spar as extensively as they were, let alone even come back in here. He would have thought Justin would be hesitant to come back here after the events that had conspired last Saturday. His shadow, damn near dying, Chie's injuries… In retrospect, that might have been exactly why he was trying to fight so much.

"Again." Justin groaned after a short moment of heavy breathing. Yu starred at him for a moment before shaking his head.

"No." Yu gasped for air slightly, as he withdrew his Persona. Justin had a pissed off expression on his face as he watched Yu keel over. He had been pounding away at his Persona for the last few hours or so; he should have seen this coming a mile away. Yet he was angered that they weren't still going at it. He needed this, goddamit.

"I don't need a break." Justin glared at Yu slightly.

"Yeah? Well I do." Yu choked up over gasps of air before dropping his ass on the ground below him. Justin sighed slightly after a brief moment of starring at Yu. He had gotten so into the rhythm of battle that he was finding it hard to come off his performance high. He needed to train, but he wasn't going to counteract the entire reason he was doing it in the first place. He sighed a bit as he soon sat his ass on the ground next to Yu. They had travelled outwards to where Justin had met his shadow for their sparring session. It was nice and spacious, and there was no threat of breaking their exit route to pieces in the middle of the warzone. Though they did break a few windows. Who honestly cared though; no one lived in this desolate wasteland. It was silent between the two for a while as they tried to gather their strength again.

"Damn Justin; why don't you hit me a little harder next time. I don't think you've broken all of my bones yet." Yu remarked slightly sarcastically. Usually Justin was all for witty exchanges between his friends, but today he wasn't having none of that. He simply starred off into the distance as he dug around in his pocket; eventually finding a cigarette, which his Persona was more than happy to light. Luckily, it was more of a controlled burst of fire this time; no friendly fire involved. He sighed a bit before placing the smoke between his lips and snapping his fingers, dismissing his Persona from sight.

Yu passed Justin a slight glance of concern. He was never this out of it. Something was wrong and he could tell; though as to what, he could only slowly unravel on his own. Justin blew out a slight puff of smoke, not so much as lifting his eyes from the bricks in the wall opposite from him. It was a strange building, really. It was very much structurally stable; but those bricks just seemed so ajar; like there was no real rhyme or reason to the way they were stacked on each other. Hell, some were sticking out of the framework. Not that that was what Justin was thinking of, mind you. It just happened to be the subject of his ire while he swam around in his thoughts.

"Hey man, you alright?" Yu asked, folding his hand slightly in between his lap. Justin stared at the brick wall for a moment longer before shaking his head slightly and turning towards Yu.

"Yeah, just thinking…" Justin choked up, his voice low like a whisper. He had a lot on his mind lately. He had hoped maybe a good show of violence would help him vent some of the excess emotions he could feel in his chest, but it seemed that wasn't the case. Not that it mattered. He was training for a reason; not just so he could feel good about himself. Yu sighed slightly; he could tell Justin was holding something back. He wasn't a very good liar after all.

"Come on Justin. You know I won't tell anyone." Yu smiled at Justin slightly. Justin averted eye contact for a brief while. Of course he wouldn't tell anyone; he trusted Yu enough to know he wouldn't do that. _It's just… I don't know. Do I really even want to talk about it? _Justin sighed slightly before turning his head back in Yu's direction. He had a friendly smile on his face, despite that pitiful look in his eyes. Justin took one last drag of his cigarette before flicking it over to god knows where; not so much as bothering to put it out. He just didn't care.

"I stopped by to check on Chie again." Justin eventually spoke up, looking off into the distance again. Yu was a little confused by the topic, but nonetheless attentive as always. "We're supposed to go to the movies tomorrow. Trial of the Dragon 2 comes out, and I thought she'd like to go on opening night."

"Sounds like fun. Might do her some good to get out of the house anyway." Yu smiled a bit, though that soon subsided as Justin twisted his head off in the other direction, his frown only seeming to deepen. Something about his remark hadn't rubbed Justin the right way; though he sure as hell couldn't understand why.

"Yeah, well with her rib and all, the only way we can get her there is in a wheelchair." Justin choked up with sadness. Any hint of cheer in Yu's face disappeared as the remark made its way through his ears. He understood what Justin was so worked up over now. But why all this training? It didn't make sense. And in all honesty, he had never seen Justin so determined about anything in his life; even when their lives were endangered he didn't have this pure willpower to continue fighting. In a way, that was sort of the problem.

"And she doesn't want to get in the chair, right?" Yu interjected. He knew Chie well enough that she was very stubborn; stuff such as this notwithstanding. That wasn't really the problem though; even if it was certainly connected.

"No she does not. We're sort of forcing her to use it. I feel bad, but… I don't know." Justin sighed slightly. Yeah, he felt bad about a lot of things. That he had to force her into that chair to move around, that she was trapped in her room watching the walls rot away, that she had to close her eyes in pain every time she twisted her body the wrong way…

…That he couldn't stop it. He failed her. He failed everyone; but more importantly, he failed her.

"You're doing a good thing." Yu tried to reassure him. "Nothing to get worked up over."

"It's not just that, Yu." Justin practically spat out. He would never acknowledge it, but he was a little pissed off that Yu couldn't actually tell what was eating Justin up on the inside. Yu was his friend; he thought he'd know Justin better than to moan over something as petty as that. No; he was pushing himself because of something much bigger than dragging Chie to the movies.

"Then what is it?" Yu asked, the slightest hint of irritation in his voice. He was there for Justin; he was willing to lend him an ear and ease his doubts. But he couldn't do that until Justin told him what was fucking bothering him already. Justin groaned a bit.

"She got hurt really bad, Yu. It's all my fault." Justin sighed looking down at his feet; at the dirt below it. Justin couldn't help but smirk on the inside of his mind. You know those movies where someone will look in the mirror and notice the monster they've become. Well that happened a lot to Justin too, but let's talk about what he was actually looking at. The dirt. That's really all Justin was, right? A useless sack of dirt. He was of no use to anyone, lest of all the one he loved. Yu raised an eyebrow slightly at the shell of the man he knew. This wasn't his fault; no one could have predicted Rise's shadow would be so powerful.

"It's not your fault. You did everything you could—"

"And what I could wasn't good enough!" Justin shouted back, cutting Yu off. You can claim you try all you want, but in the end, you do or you don't. In this case, he didn't. And now his loved ones were paying the price for his mistake. Yu sighed a bit.

"And you think that if you train enough you'll be able to protect her. Stop me if I'm wrong here." Yu remarked, slight sarcasm in the end of his thought. He thought it was a bunch of bullshit in all honesty. He knew Justin was concerned, but Chie could protect herself. Justin was just afraid she couldn't for whatever reason. And he knew it too. Justin nodded his head slightly biting at his thumbnail for a moment before speaking up.

"She got hurt because I wasn't strong enough. Because I couldn't stop Rise's shadow. But next time… Next time I'll be ready." Justin looked up from the ground, a look of determination on his face. There were a lot of things he promised to do that he never got around to, or just couldn't. This wasn't one of those things. And he'd be sure of it if it killed him. Yu shook his head a bit to the sides. He admired what Justin was trying to do, but this wasn't the way to go about it.

"Justin… I know how you feel, but—"

"No Yu, you don't know SHIT about how I feel…" Justin had started that statement with bloody murder in his eyes. How dare Yu try to know how he felt? Did he know what it was like to have your heart slowly ripped to shreds? To watch as the ones you loved suffered? He was pissed alright, but as he really thought about it, about everything he felt… His anger soon vanished without a trace, only to be replaced with an empty sensation in his chest. "You don't know shit…" He repeated, a deep sinking feeling in his chest.

"Do you really think you're protecting her by beating yourself up like this?" Yu questioned, a harsh tone to his voice. Sometimes you had to be a bit pushy with Justin in order for him to get the message. It wasn't really working this time though.

"You just don't get it." Justin dismissed Yu's remark with a wave of his hand. He didn't. He just didn't understand what it was like to watch someone you love get hurt because you couldn't take the heat. Maybe he would someday, but today wasn't that day. Yu of course took that more as him breaking through than anything; that he had managed to appeal to Justin's more logical side. The way he just sort of brushed the comment off seemed like something you would do when you were losing an argument, so he had assumed that Justin was at least seeing the logic behind his words. He should never have pressed on.

"Honestly Justin. Chie can take care of herself just fine; she's strong like that. Working yourself to the bone isn't going to change anything. You need to have a little more faith in her…" That set him off. Justin shot his head over in Yu's direction, his jaw slightly a gape, his eyebrows lowered in anger. His pupil seemed to pierce though Yu's soul with the intensity of a thousand suns. Whatever it was he said; it had pushed Justin over the edge big time.

"Faith? You want to talk to me about faith!?" Justin snarled, his voice rhaspy with anger. Yu had widened his eyes in surprise at the outburst. This was intense, even for Justin. "No, let ME tell you a little something about faith." He shouted as he stuck his arm up, revealing the gauss wraps around his arms. Yu was a little confused at first until he unwrapped one of them, revealing the deep cuts scattered all across his arms. Yu was surprised and disgusted, despite knowing about his injury. Yosuke had sort of told him by accident during one of their conversations, after all. Still, he didn't think it was this bad.

"You see this? Take a good fucking look; because this is fucking faith right here. I trusted that man, and all he gave me was this. Don't you dare lecture me on faith, when you don't know a goddamn thing!" Justin shouted, his eyes watering over ever so slightly. Tears weren't rolling down his cheeks or anything, but you could see that his eyeball was shining from the tears he was fighting back. Yu bit his bottom lip, his eyes averted from Justin in slight shame. He had no idea something as simple as the word faith would set him off. Whatever it was, it must have been bad… But… Wait a second. Something didn't add up.

"…That man?" Yu questioned, his head tilted off to the side in slight confusion. "Yosuke told us that you cut it on some glass from a broken television when you were outrunning Falcone." Justin raised his eyebrows, though his eyes were still squinted with anger and disgust; his chest inflating in shaky, long breaths.

"Why the fuck does Yosuke know that?" Justin glared.

"He said he heard it from Maya." Yu explained, a frown on his face. Justin paced a step or two in front of Yu, an angry expression on his face. He didn't like that Maya had been spewing out personal information to his friends, Yosuke of all people nonetheless. And she wasn't even telling the truth. Though, in all fairness, she probably didn't know. No; she was right about one thing, that's when he did get the gauss bandages. He liked the look, and it helped him hide the scars. Prior to that, he just hid his cuts under his jacket, 24/7. It could be a million degrees out and Justin would never take that thing off, lest someone see. Because after all; even an abusive father is better than child protection services.

"She told you I cut my arms on a television set?" Justin shook his head, a grin on his face. He didn't know why. There was nothing to smile about. Nothing to find joy in. Broken glass my ass; if that were true I would be a much happier person. "No television screen cuts deep enough to leave permanent scars like these, Yu. No, you can thank my father for these."

"Your father?" Yu questioned, very much shocked by this explanation. He immediately connected the dots as to what his father's role in the matter was, though he certainly didn't know any specifics. He didn't want to either. If he was right… Well, he didn't want to be right.

"Every night he'd go out drinking, come back drunk as a sailor. Sometimes I'd get lucky and he'd only hit me. Then there were the nights he still had the bottle in his hand." Justin continued pacing around, an angered, expression on his face. Yet his eyes still filled with tears. Tears that never spilled out on his face or down his cheek. They just sat there, as though waiting for something. Something that never came. Maybe it was just that Justin had shed one tear too many over this man. Who even knew?

"Justin… I…" Yu was at a loss for words. He had advice on a lot of things; this wasn't one of them. Justin stopped pacing around for a moment as he looked down on Yu. It only really just struck him he had just spilt shit on the table he shouldn't have. His face turned slightly red as he let out a sigh. Well now Yu knew too…

"Don't say anything." Justin eventually remarked, sitting back down next to Yu; his arms crossed in front of his chest, like he was trying to warm himself up. In a way, he was. Remembering all that stuff about his father… It sent a shiver down his spine. If there was one bright side to living out in the middle of nowhere by himself, it was that he would never have to fear that door opening at night; his father wandering in a drunken stupor. Though Justin would be lying if he said it took a while to get used to. When he first moved to Inaba, he couldn't sleep. He was always afraid that door might open up. The two sat there in silence for a while, contemplating the conversation they had just had. Justin was embarrassed to have blurted that out, not to mention pained. Yu… Yu was speechless; and not in a good way. He felt his heartstrings pull slightly as the story circulated in his head. No one deserves that. Still… There was another matter that needed to be settled.

"Justin…" Yu choked up. Justin moved his pupils over to look at Yu, though he didn't move his head in the slightest. He was tired; not just from training. He was emotionally tired. He just couldn't deal with this bullshit anymore. He had thought he had escaped it all months ago, yet even now he still found it haunting his thoughts, his inner emotions. Yu sighed a bit; he knew Justin wasn't going to like what he had to say, but he needed to hear it. "Chie isn't your father."

"Gee, thanks for the obvious information." Justin remarked sarcastically.

"I don't mean like that. You can't go around not trusting anyone just because of your father. He's just one man."

"He's the one man I gave all my heart too, and he went and spat on it." Justin countered. Every night he went to bed, red marks across his face, fresh cuts along his arms where he had tried to block his father's advances, he sat there awake. Thinking about how he'd run away, how he'd end his suffering. But he didn't; because even through all he put him through, he still wanted to love his father. And every night he prayed that his father would change; that they could be a proper family that loved each other, instead of smashed bottles upside each other's heads.

And every night his prayers went unanswered.

"Well what about Chie? Haven't you given her all of your heart?" Yu asked. He knew Justin loved Chie; as much as he always tried to play their relationship off on the down-low. Everyone knew, of course, but he still tried to keep it low-profile. They didn't hold hands in public, or do anything a couple really would when their friends were around. But when they were alone, the way he looked at her; the admiration in his eyes… Justin loved Chie with all his heart. And Yu would know; he had accidentally walked into Aiya's a few times while they were on a date. He'd silently watch for a moment or two before leaving the two to their thing. Justin looked down to the ground before shaking his head.

"No… Not all of it. Not yet." Justin choked up in a saddened voice.

"You don't trust her?" Yu asked. It seemed that would be the only reason for Justin not to give her all of his love. He was afraid of loving after what his father did to him. Justin just shook his head though; that wasn't the case.

"I trust her more than anyone in the world Yu. She wouldn't let me down." Justin remarked still looking at the ground, digging shapes into the dirt using the tip of his fingers. A cross to be more precise.

"Then why? Why do you have no faith in her?" Yu asked. Justin was acting like this all protecting guardian; someone who had to protect Chie at all costs like some valuable oyster. In a way, that's what she was to him; a treasure for him protect and treasure.

"I have faith in her. I just don't have faith in me. That I can protect her. If something goes wrong… If she were to get hurt worse… If she were to… leave…" Justin swallowed back pain in his voice. You could tell he was afraid; not necessarily for Chie herself, mind you. No. He was afraid to lose her. Yu looked on with sympathy as Justin continued to draw pictures in the sand. More and more crosses. A bit strange when you consider Justin wasn't a particularly religious person.

"You're not going to lose her. I promise." Yu smiled a bit as he reached out placing his hand on Justin's shoulder. Justin just stared at his hand for a while. Justin wanted to laugh. How could Yu possibly promise something like that? He wasn't a fortune teller or a time traveler or something… Still, the confidence in his voice was oddly comforting. Eventually the tension in Justin's shoulders loosened.

"Thanks, Yu. But do me a favor."

"Yeah?"

"Use some of those lady skills on Yukiko for once." Justin smiled slightly, giving Yu a slight push. Yu blushed a bit, though he had a grin to match Justin's on his face. The two just sat there for a while, staring off into the distance, a smile on their face. Or at least, they had until Yu's eyes widened and he muttered something under his breath.

"Only level 2? Holy crap." He muttered to himself. Justin raised his eyebrow in confusion. Everytime Yu seemed to talk to himself, he made NO sense whatsoever.

"What was that?"

"Nothing, you're hearing things." Oh the irony.


	78. Chapter 77: June 30, 2011

CHAPTER 77

June 30, 2011

* * *

"Tickets please."

Justin and Chie were quickly trying to make their way through the theatre. Justin passed the tickets off at the ticket booth, some guy guarding the entrance to the theatre like it held the world's most valuable diamond. You would have thought he would think Justin and Chie weren't trying to sneak in; what with the wheelchair being inconspicuous as fuck. How the hell was he going to sneak in with that? Still, rules are rules, so Justin sat there as the employee checked the information out on the card; most likely so they didn't try to sneak off to another movie or something.

Chie's eyes seemed to shift around the room frantically as the man scanned their tickets; Justin leaning a bit on the handles he used to push the chair around. Thank god he was a bit of a light-weight, otherwise he might have knocked the damn chair over; even with Chie sitting in it and weighing the thing down. Justin just sort of watched as the man took his sweet time reading things off. Must have figured they weren't going anywhere anytime soon or something. He was honestly a bit annoyed; he could tell Chie was getting a little hot under the collar sitting around like this while this guy went through all sorts of tests to check authenticity. She didn't want to be in the chair as it was.

Justin turned his eyes away from the slow-ass employee for a moment, instead starring at Chie. Her face was beat red, and she was slumping down slightly, trying to hide the best she could in the chair. She tried to burrow her face into the neck of her jumpsuit, hiding her identity from the strangers around her. She had been wearing her green jacket today despite how incredibly hot it was. She was just going to wear a tank top she had, but then she noticed you could still see a bulge around where the bandages on her stomach were; so she threw the jacket on over it. It was baggy enough that you couldn't see where the gauss wraps were. She didn't WANT to wear it, mind you. It was hot as fuck; but she just couldn't bare people starring at her ribcages. Justin sighed a bit. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all. He should have just brought the tickets back and got them for another day when her rib was better. At least then Chie wouldn't be trying to vanish into thin-air; like that would solve anything. After a brief while, the employee passed the ticket back.

"Theatre 2-B, just to my right. Do you need special seating by any chance?" Chie just seemed to sink in to her chair further. Great; now people were treating her like she couldn't do anything by herself. She knew this was a bad idea; she just KNEW it. Justin could not have been quicker on the draw to that response; knowing damn well Chie did not approve of people starring at her like some sort of cripple who needed help doing everything.

"No, that's fine, thanks." Justin shouted, practically ripping the ticket out of his hand before pushing the wheel chair around the corner, swiftness to his feet. They still needed to get snacks mind you, but he figured it would be better to get her in her seat beforehand. Sitting in line with that chair was not going to do wonders for her self-esteem. Chie meanwhile felt her cheeks practically burning as he pushed her along as quickly as he could.

"This is so embarrassing…" She muttered to herself, looking down towards her lap in shame.

"I know, I know. I'm really sorry." Justin apologized frantically trying to get Chie into the theatre as soon as possible. He was really just embarrassed he hadn't been able to keep his end of the deal. He said he'd get her in quick. That didn't really happen. And while no one she knew was there, Chie still felt like people were starring at her, judging her. She was mortified to say the least. She knew Justin was trying, she really did; but that really didn't change the fact that she was shamed by the glances she was getting from strangers as they passed by.

"It's not your fault…" Chie sighed a bit as Justin continued to push her; straightening up slightly as she noticed a distinct lack of people on the stretch to their theatre. Not to mention once they got inside, it would be too dark for anyone to really see her. She did appreciate what he was trying to do; hell she was excited to see the movie, it was just… embarrassing. No other word could better describe the position she had found herself in.

"No… No it is." Justin sighed slightly before pushing the chair around the corner and into the theatre. Chie was a bit confused to be honest. It WASN'T Justin's fault; she didn't know why he thought it was. Furthermore, he seemed so out of it today. He looked excited to be dragging her along the last few days, but today? His face was red, his eyes lacked that shine they shone when they were together. He just seemed so… lifeless. Thinking about it now, Chie honestly felt a little bad. She didn't know if she was to blame for Justin's mood change; but if she was, she was more than a little apologetic. The two finally stopped as they made it to the aisle, prepared to take their seats. Luckily for Justin, they were up in the back. No doubt Chie preferred that; she'd stay out of sight back there.

Justin breathed out slightly as they came to a stop at the top of the ramp, their seats just in front of them. They, once again thankfully, had end seats; so this would be an easier transition. "Alright, give me a hand here." Justin spoke silently to Chie as he extended his arms to grab a hold of her; ready to pick her up and place her in her seat. Chie nodded slightly, grabbing Justin around his neck as he lifted her up, using all his strength before repositioning the two of them and putting Chie in her seat. By the time he was done, Chie's face was a little red. It was a bit more embarrassing doing that in the back of a theatre than she had thought… Though, was it really embarrassment or something else? She had those butterflies in her stomach again; and she couldn't quite explain why. Justin sighed a bit before bending his spine backwards, stretching his muscles abit as he reestablished his stance. He had slight scoliosis, at least, according to his doctors, so carrying Chie around was sort of a pain on his back. It took him a few seconds before he was back to his normal self, standing with the slightest curve in his spine, hands in his jacket pockets.

"Thanks…" Chie whispered slightly, her cheeks growing a bit hotter as the word left her mouth. Not that there was anything to be embarrassed about, mind you. It only took like five seconds… No, this wasn't embarrassment acting up right now. Gratitude might be a bit of an understatement as well. No, affection might be the best way to describe it. Justin's eyes widened only slightly at the remark. Even in the darkness her bright red cheeks shone through like a Christmas tree in a cave.

"Oh uh… No problem." Justin choked up, his cheeks starting to match hers. He only seemed to get embarrassed anytime her face gave away what her heart was thinking. She really had to wonder sometimes; is he embarrassed, or is there more to the color of his cheeks than she was led to believe. She really hoped it was the latter; she didn't want them being together to embarrass Justin… Justin coughed slightly, clearing his mind, though not the coloration of his cheeks. "I'm going to get the snacks; what do you want?" Justin asked, the pacing in his voice slightly slower than usual.

"Oh, you don't need to get me anything." Chie blushed slightly at the offer. Justin had done enough as it was. He bought the tickets, he pushed her around for the last fifteen minutes trying to get her inside; hell he even helped her into her seat. She didn't want him to spend a single dime more on her than he already had. Kind of ironic now that she looked back in retrospect. _So that's why Justin always got so pissed about me lending him money…_

"You're right, I don't. I want to. Now come on, spill it." Justin smiled slightly, joking around with her. She smiled a bit seeing Justin's mood lighten up. He still had this slightly gloomy look in his eyes, but at least he was smiling. Chie chuckled slightly, some tension in her chest releasing in the process. It hadn't really struck her till now how worried she had been about him; about his sour demeanor.

"Just a Dr. Fizz." Chie eventually spoke up. She still didn't want to spend a single cent of Justin's money; but he was going to bug her until she said something anyway. Might as well just make it something small, right? Justin smirked slightly, turning his body towards the end of the aisle and towards the exit.

"Dr. Fizz it is." Justin remarked. And also a large popcorn. He wasn't going to say it knowing damn well that Chie would probably jump out of her seat to stop Justin if he did. Not really a good thing to do with a broken rib. He gave a quick nod of his head before proceeding down the steps; his smile fading back away with every step.

It took a while before he made it back out to the snack bar; especially considering he had to explain Chie's condition to the guard that had let him in earlier. He DID need to be able to get back in, after all; and if he had reason to go in before grabbing everything, then he should have had no trouble going in and out. And then there was standing in line; holy crap did that seem to take forever. Hell, Justin had damn near had a heart attack when he felt in his pockets while waiting in line for his money. He didn't feel anything at first; though turns out, he had just stuck his hands in the wrong pockets. He kept his cash in his pants, not his jacket. Amazing what impatience can make you forget.

Time passed, and Justin impatiently waited in line, his arms crossed as he tried to keep himself from fidgeting about. Oh how he'd love to pace about; but then he'd lose his spot in line. Still; as impatient as he was, even he had to come to a stop when he made his way to the third spot in line; an all too familiar voice echoing from the front.

"Large Popcorn and a Watermelon Soda, please."

Justin peaked his head around the corner; completely unsure if he had heard right. He had. Right in the front, ordering snacks for whatever movie it was he was watching was Yosuke. Justin wasn't sure whether he should be surprised or confused. I mean, there was no rule saying they couldn't go to the movies at the same time, but something about this just seemed fishy to him. I mean, what movie could Yosuke possibly trying to see on a Thursday. Last time he checked, Yosuke didn't like Trial of the Dragon.

"Yosuke?" Justin choked up, his head still peaking around the man in front of him. After noticing that the two were talking to each other, however, he soon stepped to the side, allowing Justin to have a clear view of him. And take his spot apparently. He was more than a little appreciative as he gave a quick nod and smile at the stranger. Whoever it was, he was a nice guy by his book. Yosuke… Well, Yosuke jumped up slightly as he heard Justin's voice from behind him. He did not expect that at all. Good thing he hadn't had his food yet, otherwise it would spill all over the place.

"Holy crap, Justin! Where the hell did you come from?" Yosuke tried to keep himself from causing too much of a scene as Justin walked up to him, confusion in his eyes.

"Behind you. What are you doing here?" Justin asked. He had assumed Yosuke was up to some sort of big scheme. I mean, come on. Going to the same movie theatre at the same time on the same day of the week, that day being THURSDAY, mind you; too much of a coincidence for Justin. But alas, coincidences do happen, and this was one of them. Yosuke rubbed at the back of his head slightly, looking away from Justin and off into the distance.

"Well, I'm here to see a movie…" Yosuke remarked under his breath. Justin didn't quite believe him though.

"What movie?"

"Uh, w-well, you see…" Yosuke stuttered. Justin just sighed in slight anger; he didn't need Yosuke to answer his question. He had other ways of finding out. Like taking the tickets straight out of his hands and reading off what he needed to, holding Yosuke back using the palm of his hand all the while. Justin's eyes widened with disbelief as he read the strip of paper that dangled from his fingers right now. Well, two strips of paper. Why exactly did Yosuke need two tickets anyway?

"You're seeing Trial of the Dragon 2?" Justin almost laughed a bit as he handed Yosuke the tickets back. Yosuke in turn immediately hid them in his jacket pocket, his face slightly red. He had been purposely trying to hide what movie he was watching. He had pretty much acted like he hated this shit in front of all his friends, but in all honesty; he loved it. That DVD Chie lent him… Every bad thing he said about it that day Chie had been fangasming over the sequel was a lie. He fucking loved that movie. And when she said there was going to be a sequel… Well, he had immediately started doing research on it. And got tickets a couple of weeks in advance.

"Hey, shut up." Yosuke mumbled, his hand still burrowed in his jacket as he tried to hide the tickets as best he could. Like anyone else could see. Justin had been smirking in amusement for a brief moment, until he realized something. Yosuke was seeing the same movie as Chie and Justin. Which meant… _Oh for the love of god. Is it so much to ask that we get to do something together without someone barging in!?_ Yosuke's face was still red when he eventually turned around to pick up his food. You would think that would be the end of the conversation, but he simply stepped to the side to continue the conversation as Justin placed his order.

"Large popcorn, large Coke and a large Doctor Fizz." Justin said to the man behind the counter before turning his attention to Yosuke. Yosuke had raised his eyebrows slightly as he heard Justin order. One; Justin didn't like Dr. Fizz. Two; why the hell was he ordering two drinks? Unless… Oh. OH.

"I take it Chie dragged you along to her movie." Yosuke chuckled slightly. He was expecting Justin to get pissed off; after all, he almost always did when Yosuke said anything about the two in that light. Instead, he simply found Justin frowning, letting out some hot air out of his nose.

"Other way around. She still can't get out of bed on her own…" Justin sighed, his pupils shooting over to a stray floor tile off in the distance. Nothing different about it from the rest mind you; he just needed something to stare at other than Yosuke at the moment. Yosuke almost had to slap himself upside the head. He forgot all about Chie's rib injury… Geeze, he must be the shittiest friend right now.

"Sorry, slipped my mind… Though… How did you get her over here?" Yosuke questioned. He knew Justin was only here because Chie wanted to see the movie, that much was not being argued. He just didn't know how Chie had managed to drag him along.

"We had to put her in a wheelchair… She, uh… she wasn't too happy about that…" Justin sighed a bit, crossing his arms. Yosuke bit at his bottom lip slightly. He could imagine. Justin didn't really know it, but Yosuke and Chie had pretty much been the best of friends when he first moved to town; second to Yukiko of course. That sort of changed when Justin came along, but that was beside the point. Point was, he knew her well enough to know she wouldn't let that shit fly unless someone had managed to convince her otherwise. He also knew Justin felt bad about it, given the look on his face.

"H-hey, don't beat yourself up so much. I'm sure she really appreciates it." Yosuke tried to reassure him. Justin could not seriously believe he was in a position where Yosuke had to cheer him up. Fucking. Yosuke. He just sighed a bit as Yosuke haphazardly tried to ease his concerns. He wasn't very good at it either, mind you; but hell, he was trying. That counted for a lot more than you would think. Justin shook his head slightly.

"That's not really the problem." Justin remarked, shooting his gaze back towards Yosuke, trying to fake a grin. It was, of course, a fake grin however, so it was immediately noticeable that he wasn't really at ease with his troubles. "Don't worry about it; it's nothing big." Justin remarked, turning around to hand some cash off to the man working the register as he grabbed his food and drinks. He could barely carry it all, but whatever.

"Need some help with that?" Yosuke questioned, the two making their way away from the line.

"Nah, I'm good." Justin casually remarked, starring over the containers in his arms. "Alright, so you already know I'm here with Chie; who are YOU here with?" Justin remarked, remembering the second ticket in Yosuke's pocket. Yosuke only seemed to blush a bit at the question Justin had let loose past his lips. It was a tough question to answer, for a couple of reasons really. Some of it had to do with who he was talking to; some of it had to do with just the topic itself.

"Uh… W-well…" Yosuke would rub at the back of his head if he wasn't busy carrying everything and reaching into his pocket to get the ticket he needed for admission. He only needed one. "I was going to ask someone, but they were busy…" Yosuke blushed a bit. It was only a slight fabrication; he had chickened out when he went to ask. He wasn't very good with the ladies. Justin wasn't sure whether he should be laughing or feel bad. He did both; smiling a bit as he delved deeper into Yosuke's issue.

"Well who were you going to ask?" Justin continued interrogating Yosuke, a sinister grin on his face. He didn't care much for Yosuke's love life, but he did care for busting his balls. In more ways than one! Yosuke just seemed to blush harder, though he did start wearing a glare.

"N-none of your business." He nervously deflected the question. Alright, clearly Justin wasn't going to get him to talk about it. Still; it was fun watching him twitch in place as he tried to avoid the question. In all honesty, he was a bit curious though. He thought Yosuke had a thing for Saki. Seemed kind of early for him to get over her.

"Alright, alright." Justin laughed slightly. "So… You're seeing the same movie as us, right?"

"Yeah?" Yosuke questioned curiously, his face still a bit red from the previous line of questioning.

"Where you sitting?" _Please don't be near us…_

"Up in the front." _Oh thank you god…_ Justin sighed in slight relief, as they made their way past the ticket checkpoint. The two were still walking when a thought struck Justin. He quickly turned to Yosuke, a frown on his face.

"Hey, listen…" He choked up a bit. "Don't mention the wheelchair to Chie if she sees you." Yosuke shot his eyebrow up slightly.

"Of course not. I know how she gets." Justin sighed a bit at Yosuke's confirmation.

"Thanks… And don't get used to me thanking you, for the record."

"Believe me, I wasn't."

* * *

Justin and Chie sat next to each other, tub of popcorn between the two as they watched the movie broadcasting on the screen in front of them. Justin wasn't really into it. The choreography was amazing as always, but he just couldn't get behind the senseless violence without the plot. And this was saying something coming from a Saw fan. Still, he smiled and played along for Chie's sake. This was her day, not his; and goddammit, he'd make her happier than she had ever been before today if it killed him. And if that meant sitting through this bullshit, he would happily oblige. After all; so long as Chie was happy, he'd be happy. Still, that didn't mean he was completely oblivious to his usual methods of finding a good time at the movie theatre. Besides from watching a movie, mind you.

The movie followed the tail of Kakashi's son from the first Trial of the Dragon; out to get revenge for his father's death. And that's pretty much all there was story wise. After that it was all 'you can't stop me,' karate chops and decapitations, and then him shouting father at the top of his lungs. Then more decapitations. Oh man, Chie really got worked up over those decapitations. Never before had he seen her so excited. She damn near shouted from her seat whenever it happened with glee. She didn't of course. Justin did. By the sixth or seventh decapitations in the film, Justin cupped his hands around his mouth shouting out to the theatre.

"That's no way to get a head in life!" He joked. A small portion of the theatre laughed, and most of the rest smiled slightly. There wasn't much in terms of plot development in this movie; so they didn't really have any reason to be pissed off at the vocal interruption. Well, try telling that to Chie anyway. She had tried to jab him with her elbow, her face red with embarrassment as the remark left his mouth. He knew he was joking, so it wasn't that she was pissed off. Not particularly pleased either, but certainly not pissed. Still, when she went to jab at him, she twisted her abdomen the wrong way, her rib crying out in pain as she fell short of making collision with Justin's side, instead falling slightly towards his lap before he managed to catch her on the way down.

"Oh crap, I'm so sorry." Justin gasped slightly as Chie grabbed at her rib in pain, breathing heavily in pain. Her head was but inches away from his, so he could hear every noise coming out of her mouth, every breath she took. She was clearly in pain, no doubt about it. Maybe sitting her up in a theatre wasn't the best idea. Even worse pissing her off. She just sat there breathing for a moment before regaining her composure.

"It's alright…" No it wasn't. It was just another way Justin had managed to fuck her over. And Justin knew it; sadness growing in his eyes again as he helped her back to her sitting position, her rib killing her as she slowly made her way back to her seat. "Thanks…" She mumbled a bit, as Justin let loose his hold on her, still starring at her a bit from his seat; her face inches away from his. You would think they two were going to kiss at the distance apart they were; but alas no. This wasn't quite as romantic as Justin had imagined, and besides… He didn't deserve it. Here he was hurting Chie again. Everything he did for her always seemed to go to shit. He just sighed a bit before turning back towards the screen.

The movie continued, and it wasn't long before Chie started to lighten back up; the pain in her rib cage subsiding slowly over time. And besides, she couldn't be upset when she was watching the sequel to her favorite movie. Justin smiled only slightly out of the cracks of his mouth. He couldn't be completely upset while Chie was as cheerful as she was… But he still felt bad, empty. This wasn't the way it was supposed to be. The two were supposed to be jabbing at each other, having a ball… Instead all he was doing was hurting her every time he opened his goddamn mouth.

Trial of the Dragon 2 didn't end for a good hour or so after that scene between the two, and when it did… Well, Justin just felt like even bigger shit. Apparently the protagonist learned that revenge isn't everything, or some bullshit, and ended up sacrificing himself to save some stranger the bad guy was trying to kill. Chie had been clapping as the scene ended, as though this were cinematic brilliance being showcased before her eyes. Justin… well, it just brought up bad memories of Saturday for him. This person, so obsessed for revenge had thrown his life away for a complete stranger… Justin couldn't even do that for someone he loved. It's only a movie, sure; and it was certainly played for drama… But that didn't mean Justin couldn't relate. And to a shitty kung-fu movie with no character development or plot nonetheless.

And so, the credits rolled, the two of them sitting there waiting for everyone to leave. Yosuke included, who had considered going up to see how Chie and Justin were doing, but ultimately decided against it. After all, for all he knew, they could be making out up there. And besides; he didn't need to embarrass Chie. Person after person left as Chie talked up a shit storm about the movie to Justin; Justin all the while just nodding his head and answering with vague grunts. It wasn't for a while that she caught on he wasn't really with her right now; that he was deep in thought about something. Even longer for Justin to snap himself out of his state of self pity.

_I can't change the past. I can't change that Chie got hurt because of me. But I can make sure it won't happen again. I'll be damned if I'm not strong enough to protect her when the time comes. I'd stake my life on it._

"Hey, you alright?" Chie spoke up, just as Justin snapped himself out of his daze. No not particularly. But that didn't matter. Yu was right; beating himself up over this wasn't going to help anyone. He just had to prepare himself. Justin shook his head slightly, a grin making its way to his face.

"Yeah, sorry. Was just thinking about something." Justin casually remarked, slight cheer in his voice. Chie was happy after all, was she not? Wasn't that what he had set out to do when he dragged her here today? In his eyes; that was all he needed. He could grieve over himself some other time. "Alright, out of ten stars, how ma-"

"Ten." Chie interrupted not so much as thinking about the question, flashing her teeth in a wide grin. Justin just sort of chuckled a bit. Sounded like the Chie he knew and loved had come back out to play, her smile shining through like a candle in the darkness. Hell, she looked like a child in a candy store. Which might explain why Justin felt the need to stick his hand out and ruffle her hair a bit; like she was some six year old showing him something she made in art class. She didn't mind though; hell she had actually blushed a bit. That smile never faded a bit.

"That's just like you." Justin chuckled slightly. Chie continued to blush, though the wide tooth-flashing grin she wore soon gave way to just a smile.

"Hey, what do you mean 'just like me'?" She joked slightly. "Idiot."

"Oh whoa. We're resorting to name calling now?" Justin laughed a bit. "Alright, two can play that game, dummy."

"Jerk."

"Jackass."

"Douchebag."

"Bro with a vagina." Justin was expecting to get decked for that one. He was more than a little pleased as a result that she had found the insult humorous. It was one old-skool insult, that's for sure.

"Boy-band reject."

"Lardass."

"I-I don't have a lardass... Do I?" Chie remarked with slight concern. All of the insults they were shooting at each other were not supposed to be taken seriously, but for some reason, she thought this one might be serious. Probably because Justin had made a joke about her weight not too long ago in the past.

"Babe, your ass is perfect... Wait. That's uh... L-let me try that again." Justin stuttered, his face bright red. That sounded a lot better in his head. He was expecting Chie to be pissed, mortified, embarrased. Instead he was surprised to see Chie laughing at his embarrasment, a slight pink hue to her cheeks. Even more unexpected was her pulling Justin in by the collar of his jacket and planting her lips against his. He was cut off guard at first, but he didn't fight it. Soon he returned the embrace, his tongue slipping into her mouth. They simply sat there in the back of the theatre kissing for a while, holdin hands as they gently, but passionatly kissed. After maybe a good minute or two of this the two eventually parted; slowly, almost regretfully disengaging the tango between their lips. Justin smiled a bit. She tasted like an odd mixture of popcorn and steak.

And he wouldn't have it any other way.


	79. Chapter 78: July 1, 2011

CHAPTER 78

July 1, 2011

* * *

"It was a kung-fu movie; how do you think it was?"

"...You totally loved it."

Justin and Maya were walking around the shopping district talking about random shit; at the moment, the movies. Maya knew he had dragged Chie over to the movies; mostly because she could smell the butter from the popcorn on his breath when he walked throuh the door last night. That shit was pungent as hell. Justin didn't really have any reason not to tell her about it of course; he just had to leave out the part where they pretty much had a make out session in the back. Justin shook his head slightly as the two continued to walk, a slight grin on his face.

"Only a little." He chuckled slightly. It was a movie about a ninja cowboy getting revenge for his father's death while shouting over dramatically every five seconds. As bad as it was, the concept alone was enough to make him love this film. It's like they purposely tried to make it a b-movie. And Justin LOVED b-movies; so there you go. Still; he wouldn't watch it again. "You wouldn't believe who we ran into either."

"Teddie?" Maya joked slightly.

"Well that certainly would be a surprise." Justin laughed. Surprise was a bit of an understatement though. Alarming would be a better word. I mean; what do you do when a giant colorful bear that lives inside a television is walking around the human world? He couldn't imagine that ending well for anyone. "No, Yosuke was there."

"I don't see how that's unbelievable." Maya tipped her head to the side slightly, her hair getting slightly in her eye in the process. Right, Maya wasn't there when he started all that shit over Chie's kung-fu movies. Still; that really wasn't the biggest surprise in his opinion.

"Yosuke hates Kung Fu movies." Justin quickly explained. Maya just nodded her head slightly, it made a lot more sense now; and yet NO sense at all. Why was he at the movies watching Trial of the Dragon 2 if he didn't like that kind of movie? Well, of course Justin was all over that. That WAS the surprise after all. "He had two tickets on him. Apparently he asked someone to tag along, but they said no." Well now Maya's curiosity was peaked.

"Really? Who?" She asked.

"No idea. I've been trying to figure that out all day. As far as I know, the only girls he really knows are you, Chie, and Yukiko." Justin continued, rubbing at his chin slightly. Quite the mystery he had stumbled upon. While it was true he didn't care about Yosuke's love life, he did love to bust his balls. This was no exception. He'd find out one way or another, he swore it. Maya just tipped her head to the side again, arms crossed in front of her as she tried to think of who it could be. Now, she knew Chie and Justin were a thing, so that was out of the question. And she immediately ruled herself out. After all, Justin said he did ask. That left Yukiko… Though… She didn't really see any chemistry between those two. In all honesty, she got more of a vibe that her and Yu were into each other; but that was neither here nor there.

"Sounds to me like he's trying to steal your girl." Maya joked. Justin didn't find it particularly funny though; his smile dropping to a frown. As much as he'd like to say Yosuke had enough common decency not to do something like that, he knew Yosuke would if he wanted to. And honestly, given the whole dirty jokes scene a while back and the whole 'fake' couple thing he tried to pull… He wasn't ruling that out right now. Though… Chie would probably tell Justin if Yosuke had asked her to tag along. No, Yosuke was clean… for now.

"Yeah, well, if he wants to keep his face intact, he won't." Justin remarked a slight glare on his face before letting loose a sigh. "Alright, so it's not Chie, and it's not you. That leaves Yukiko, right? But that doesn't make sense either. Yu has a thing for her and Yosuke knows it… He wouldn't backstab Yu like that." Justin muttered out loud. Maya did a very slight fist pump as the remark hit her ear. She was thrilled to see her instincts were right; that he totally had the hots for Yukiko. Now the question was if she was interested in him.

"Well, are you sure this was supposed to be a romantic thing?" Maya questioned. That's true; Justin hadn't considered the possibility of Yosuke just going as a friend. If that were the case, it was very possible that he was just going with one of the guys. Yeah, that made sense actually. Yu knew Chie and Justin were going to the movies; so if Yosuke had asked him, he'd probably decline… No… No wait, he was blushing really hard when Justin pointed it out. It wasn't that simple. DAMMIT THIS IS COMPLICATED.

"No, no. He was embarrassed when I called him on it. So either he's really ashamed of his friends or there was something deeper than that. Nice try, though." Justin continued to contemplate. The two continued to walk, pondering in their heads for a while. And then it struck both of them like a runaway tractor train.

"Rise!" They both shouted turning towards each other. Oh man, Yosuke never learned, did he? I mean, even if Rise WOULD hang with him, you would think he'd wait till she was better, right? And at least pick a better movie. He doubted Rise would be into Kung-Fu. Maya and Justin chuckled slightly, their remarks echoing over each other in complete unison.

"Why was that not the first thing we thought of?" Justin added, laughing slightly. Maya just shook her head, a wide grin on her face. She was going to say something, but as they continued to walk, she could make out a familiar figure in the distance. Two of them, actually. No, not the fox again; thank god. It was Yu and Kanji, standing outside his textile shop. Maya jabbed at Justin slightly with her elbow, getting his attention before pointing in their direction. "Oh hey, that's where he's been. Wonder what those two are up to."

"Something awful?" Maya remarked, a slight grin on her face.

"They're making a terrible website for terrible people?" Justin crossed his arms slightly. Maya didn't get the joke of course; completely oblivious that Something Awful was an actual website. _Ah well, worth a shot,_ Justin thought to himself as they slowly made their way up the two, curious as to what they could possibly discussing. "Yo! Kanji, Yu." Justin shouted to them, waving his arm a bit as he approached. Yu waved back, while Kanji simply lifted his head acknowledging their presence. He hadn't expected so much company at ones. Hell, he NEVER had company.

"Sup." Kanji remarked as Justin and Maya stopped in front of them, smiles on their face as they were greeted by the sight of their friends. Or acquaintances in Maya's case. She liked the team for the most part (She did try to like Chie, but first impressions are hard to erase. Especially when your first impression is being bitch-slapped.) but she didn't really know them well enough to call them friends.

"Whatch'ya guys doing?" Maya asked curiously.

"Well, Yu wanted to see the place." Kanji shrugged his shoulders. Justin hated to say it, but if he didn't know Yu was gunning for Yukiko, that would be very… suspicious, for lack of a better word. What the hell did Yu want to see Kanji's place for anyway? "Gotta warn you-there's nothin' fun here. Hey Ma, I'm home…" Kanji announced knocking at the door, waiting for a response. He was left waiting for a while. In the mean time, however…

"Hey, Yu, mind if I ask you something quick quick?" Justin asked curiously. Maya and Justin thought they had solved the mystery, but it would be nice to get some confirmation. "Did Yosuke ask you to go to the movies with him by any chance?" Yu raised his eyebrow in curiosity. That was certainly an interesting question.

"Nooooo… Why?" Yu slurred his words in confusion. Justin shrugged slightly.

"Well, Yosuke was at the movies when me and Chie showed up; and he had two tickets, but he was by himself. He said he asked someone to go with him but they said no. I'm trying to figure out who he tried to ask."

"Well why would he ask me. Do I look like a girl to you?" Yu placed his hands on his hips. Justin had to wonder if he was doing that on purpose.

"Well when you do that you do." Justin remarked sarcastically.

"She ain't here. What's she doin' leaving the store open…?" Kanji remarked, having slightly opened the door to look inside. It was unlocked despite no one being inside. Everyone was more than a little confused; that seemed like an odd thing to do, even in a safe neighborhood like this… Well… Mostly safe. Who even knew what happened to those thugs of Kurt's. Of course, everyone had assumed she had just stepped out for a moment. It turns out the truth was much worse. Within seconds the group could hear the all too familiar voice of the Aiya's owner, his figure running to them with urgency.

"Kan-chan! There you are! Your mother's in the hospital!" Justin immediately started one of his coughing fits. Hopsital!? Holy shit!

"The hospital…?" Kanji remarked, his jaw wide open, a look of shock on his face. Though not just shock found its way into his eyes. It was hard to describe at the time, but knowing what he did now, Justin could honestly say that it was fear. Justin and Maya shot each other a worried glance. Hospitals did not sit well with either of them as it was without this being dropped on their heads. Honestly, their chests grew more than a little heavy as the remark hit their ears.

"We should hurry." Yu turned towards Kanji. He didn't know what was going on, but he only assumed it was an emergency. Kanji shook his head slightly, snapping himself back into reality.

"Huh…? Oh, y-yeah… I need to go… and see…" Kanji stuttered a bit, still clearly out of it.

"I only heard from a customer, but she's at Inaba Municipal Hospital! Hurry, go!" The owner's of Aiya's continued. Justin gave a quick nod at him, as though dismissing him. Leave it to the guy from Aiya's to be such a stand up guy as to leve his store, hunt him down, and tell Kanji something so important. Though he was a little concerned he was listening in on everyone's conversations when they ate there now. Everyone soon dashed off in the direction of the hospital. Everyone except Maya, who had frozen in place, her hands folded over the part of her chest that housed her heart. It took a moment for Justin to realize Maya hadn't been following them, but when he did, he stopped and turned around. He knew the way to the hospital, so he could catch up if he needed to.

"Maya, you alright?" Justin questioned, as he stood a good distance away from her. She looked down towards the ground slightly. Justin knew exactly what was wrong too; she HAD told him about what had happened to HIM after all. There was a reason why Maya had such a cold hatred of hospitals.

"Y-Yeah…" Maya eventually choked up. Justin didn't believe her for a second though.

"You don't have to come if you don't want to." He remarked. Maya simply stood there for a while. She felt bad that she was actually considering taking Justin up on his offer. This was her friend… Well sorta. She couldn't just let him handle this alone. No one should. God knows she wished she hadn't.

"N-No, I'm fine. C'mon, let's go."

* * *

"Ma!"

Kanji practically jumped out of his seat with relief as he saw his mother walking down the hallway, some little kid standing next to her for some reason. Maybe the kid had called an ambulance for her? If that were the case, this kid needed a commendation. Justin and Maya sighed with relief in complete unison. This could have gone horribly, horribly wrong. She seemed fine though, which meant things probably just got blown out of proportion.

"You all right!? You were taken to the hospital!? Someone did this to you…!?" Kanji shouted, his cries of concern almost sounding like a threat to someone by the time he was done. Take note kids. There's loving your mother, and there's loving the fuck out of your mother. There's also LOVING your mother, but let's pretend that's not a thing for the sake of keeping things family-friendly, shall we? Besides, that's hardly relevant. Point was, Kanji had never been worked up as much as he had been right now over his mother. It probably didn't help that his mother seemed completely oblivious to her son's desperation. She was probably trying to stay calm so he wouldn't worry, but that didn't seem to help in the long-run.

"Goodness, but you look pale." His mother remarked, ignoring the fact that he had thought she was seriously hurt. Kanji… Well, Kanji was too concerned at the moment to think about himself.

"Never mind me! What about you…!?" Kanji continued. He paused for a moment afterwards, not receiving an answer from his mother. It was only just starting to seep in that she was alright. "…Huh? You're okay?"

"I wasn't taken to the hospital. I took someone." She tried to explain. Justin sighed a bit. Oh how rumors just make everything worse. If they had heard she went to the hospital and not that she was in the hospital, maybe they wouldn't be panicking as much as they were. Kanji… Well, Kanji was dumbfounded. And also sort of angry.

"Huh?"

"The poor thing got hit by a bicycle right in front of our shop. He hit his head, so I had a doctor examine him. He said there's no damage, thank goodness." His mother continued gesturing towards the boy, who seemed rather embarrassed by the strangers around him right now. Justin smiled slightly at the boy, hoping to show him some goodwill and acceptance. The boy only seemed more embarrassed by that though. Ah, seems like this kid was going through his shy phase.

"Thank god is right." Maya remarked slightly, passing only a slight look at the child. She didn't trust hospitals at all, so she was no doubt going to say that regardless of the severity of the injury. And given that the child had no bandages on, she was going to guess he wasn't very hurt.

"The one who hit him was a boy from your school. When he saw the poor child fall, he ran away. Why don't you find him and give him a little scolding?" Justin's eyes widened slightly before dropping his gaze into a glare. He wasn't sure what he was caught more off guard by; Kanji's mother encouraging him to beat the crap out of some kid, or said kid doing a hit and run on a small child.

"What kind of sick motherf—" Justin paused for a moment remembering the child present, coughing slightly as he tried to rephrase his words. "…Jerk hits a child and runs away." Justin remarked. He didn't know who this guy was, but if he ever found out; he was going to wish someone helped him to the hospital. Justin would have thought Kanji would have been on board with beating up thugs; but it seemed that he was rather pissed off at his mother right now. He had thought she was seriously hurt, dammit!

"Cut the crap! You've got no idea how I felt!" Kanji shouted at his mother. Everyone but his mother starred at him with their jaws loose. Holy crap, did he just tell his mother to cut the crap? Thank god his mother understood he was just concerned, otherwise this could have gone so horribly wrong it wasn't even funny. Hell, not even Justin had the balls to say that to his parents. Though that should be obvious for other reasons.

"I'm fine. Your mother isn't kicking the bucket that easily. It's not like you to get so worried over such a little thing." His mother chuckled, a wide grin on her face. God her sunny attitude was infectious; but even Justin agreed now as not the time or place to be laughing. Kanji looked like he damn near had a heart attack when he heard about his mother. Just like Justin damn near had a heart attack when he heard Kanji's next remark.

"Shut up, you old cow!" Kanji shouted at her before storming off. _Holy fuck, it just gets worse and worse. Does he talk like this to her all the time? Please tell me he doesn't._ Still, Kanji did just storm off; and he really looked like he was troubled by something. Justin bit his bottom lip before chasing after him, Maya and Yu following slightly behind him. By the time they found him, he was only a few hallways away, sitting on a bench near a window, starring down at his hands. He looked out of it. Clearly this had been bothering him a lot more than they thought it would.

"Kanji, you alright man?" Justin asked as the three slowly approached him, looks of worriment on their faces. Kanji only passed them a slight glance before turning his attention back towards the floor tiles beneath his feet.

"Sorry. Looks like it was no big deal…" Kanji sighed. He was almost ashamed to have dragged everyone along just to hear that his mother brought some kid to the hospital. Justin begged to differ; isn't that exactly what they had hoped to hear? That nothing had happened and she was a-okay? Apparently, you never really are satisfied with what you get. Yu sighed a bit, taking a seat next to Kanji. Justin and Maya opted to just lean against the wall opposing Kanji. They usually did that back in California when people talked to them anyway.

"Well that's good…" Yu remarked, trying to cheer Kanji up. He shrugged slightly, his face red with slight embarrassment. He must look like a fool getting so worked up like that over nothing.

"Well, yeah, but…" Kanji sighed a bit. "I thought I faced alla my bad parts back there…  
But not everything can change just like that, huh…?" Kanji remarked with slight self pity. Justin just crossed his arms a bit.

"You say that like worrying about your mother is a bad thing. If anything, I'd say it's a good quality." Justin tried to cheer him up. Kanji just shrugged though. Clearly their compliments and attempts at cheering him up were bouncing off his skull and into thin air.

"I guess… Oh, uh… Sorry for draggin' you around. If I'd been by myself, I mighta been even more scared… Hope I can repay the favor." Kanji apologized, as though he had done something wrong. He hated seeing him beat himself up over something so stupid. Hell, if anyone had a reason to be freaking out right now, it was Maya, not him. Still, he seemed appreciative for their support, even if he didn't quite believe what they said. Yu smiled a bit, even if he knew Kanji was just bullshitting. "…I'm goin' home." Kanji sighed slightly as he got up slowly, putting his hands in his pockets as he stormed away. Justin was going to stop him, but Maya put her hand on his shoulders, holding him back. She understood what he felt like… He just needed time, and he'd be fine. Instead the three simply watched as Kanji marched off, a rain cloud over his head the entire time. They hadn't even noticed Kanji's mother creep up behind them. She had apparently been watching the entire time.

"That boy… We were both going home… He didn't have to run away like that." She sighed as she walked into view. Justin damn near jumped out of his clothes too; she scared the living SHIT out of him. Still, by the time he had gotten over that little pop-scare, he found himself disagreeing. He just needed some time alone to think. Kanji's mother shook her head slightly before turning towards the others, identifying them to the best of her memory. "Oh… You're Narukami-kun? And you must be Tylor-Kun. You came to our store with Yuki-chan, right?"

"That's us alright." Justin remarked. He was surprised she knew his last name. The only time people ever really acknowledged he HAD a last name was when they tried to call him JT. And for the record, he absolutely hated that nickname. The older woman nodded slightly before turning his attention to Maya. She had no idea who she was, that's for sure.

"I'm sorry, I don't believe we've been acquainted." She smiled at Maya. She was going to introduce herself, when Justin went ahead and did the honors for her. He had a bad habit of introducing people for them. Maya honestly wasn't offended by this point. He had done it a couple of times as it was.

"Oh, that's my sister Maya." Justin introduced her, a slight smile on his face as he turned to look at her. She blushed slightly; she thought he was kidding about the whole sister thing. I mean, she had no problem with it, she was just a little caught off-guard is all. As was Yu, who had thought he meant it literally.

"Wait, you two are related?" Yu questioned, his eyebrow raised.

"Well, not genetically no." Justin shook his head slightly. He thought that much was pretty clear. They didn't really have any physical features that particularly linked them to the same gene pool. It's strange, Kanji's mother didn't really ask what he meant by that. She must have assumed that one or the other was adopted. In a way, Maya technically WAS adopted: By Justin. Kind of creepy now that you think about it. Instead, she simply turned her attention over to Justin and Yu again.

"I've been hearing a lot about you two from Kanji. "Senpai this" and "Senpai that"… He must really like you." She remarked. Well, the two were certainly embarrassed to hear they were the subject of many a discussions Kanji had with his mother. Especially when you consider some of the things Justin had done around Kanji. Not all of them were exactly praise-worthy.

"All positive things I hope." Justin remarked. Kanji's mother didn't really smile though. Infact, she actually frowned a bit.

"I'm sorry to have made you both come all the way here. He hates hospitals, you see… His father… my husband died here. Kanji happened to be somewhere else when he collapsed… So I think he was scared today." Kanji's mother explained solemnly. She cheered up eventually, though Yu, Justin, and Maya did not. Maya especially. Actually, her eyes had started to water slightly.

"Dammit, I knew I shouldn't have come." She mumbled under her breath. Everyone could hear her though, even Kanji's mother. She didn't know what she meant by that, but she had assumed she just felt bad to hear that. In a way, she was. But she felt much worse for herself than she did Kanji or his father. She crossed her arms and leaned back against the wall, starring at the floor tiles, her eyebrows curved upwards with sorrow. Justin sighed a bit, which only seemed to catch a glimpse from Yu. Yu had no idea what was going on, but to him it looked like Justin did.

"Something happen?" Yu whispered to Justin, trying to hide their conversation from Maya. As if she couldn't see him leaning in, hear the slight sounds of air coming out of his mouth. She didn't care if people knew really. She just didn't like to talk about it. Justin sighed a bit, passing one last glimpse at Maya across the room. She was starring out the window now, looking as though she were trapped in a day-dream. Justin bit his lip a bit before turning to Yu, sighing before leaning in to whisper back.

"Her father died in a hospital. He was comatose for a few years before they pulled the plug." Justin concisely explained. He didn't need to explain how he had gone comatose, or how the reason Maya's family was so poor was because all their income went into paying his medical bills. None of that was important. All Yu needed was the bare basic explanation, and that's all he was getting. Maya's secrets were safe with Justin, just like he trusted the other way around was true. Yu looked a bit shocked, then eventually sorrowed as he turned his eyes towards the ground too.

"But it's good to see you. He's always had trouble getting along with people. He didn't have any friends like you before." Kanji's mother interrupted; completely unaware of the tense atmosphere she had created. Maya just sighed a bit. She wanted out of this goddamned hospital, but as long as they shut the fuck up about people dying she'd be alright. Barely, but alright all the same. Yu sighed slightly. IT didn't feel right talking about this shit now that he had heard about Maya's father, but he couldn't just tell Kanji's mother to shut up. He had to show some respect.

"Because of his hobbies?" Yu asked, his voice clearly indicating he wasn't really into this conversation. Kanji's mother nodded with slight surprise. She hadn't thought Yu would know about that.

"Oh, he told you? He would always rather play house instead of catch, or go to home ec instead of P.E." She casually explained, as though completely unaware that might be a bit personal. Justin had to admit though, he did not see that coming at all. Kanji was always so aggressive, a bit of a delinquent really. Playing house? Home ec? That really didn't sound like Kanji. But then, maybe Justin just didn't know what Kanji was really like. And that hurt a bit. "So he never had any male friends, but the girls didn't accept him either."

"I can understand how he must have felt…" Justin sighed. Again, not the same case as him, where he had been excluded because of his father, not his own choices like Kanji had been. But he still knew what it was like to be hated by everyone, to be treated like some sort of leper.

"After a while, he started getting into fights every day and bleaching his hair…" She continued. Yu seemed a bit surprised for some reason.

"His hair's not naturally white?" He questioned. Justin just passed him a look of disappointment, shock, and disgust. Of course it wasn't naturally white. Who the hell is born with white hair? Hell, even when you get old, it doesn't turn white; it turns grey.

"Of course it isn't. God damn Yu. Next you'll be telling me blue is a natural hair color."

"You realize, like, 20% of our school has blue hair, right?" Yu countered.

"Yeah, remind me to figure out how that happened later." Justin sighed a bit. Seriously, why the hell did so many people have blue hair over here? He had always assumed that crap was just anime being weird back in California. Nope, turns out the Japanese really do have blue hair. Either that or they dye it. Justin was sincerely hoping it was the latter. It probably wasn't though. A lot of the people he knew with blue hair… the coloring just looked too natural, for a lack of a better word, for it to be hair dye. Like it didn't have that fake, dull look to it.

"I was worried about him… But lately, he seems to be having fun. Please take care of him." Kanji's mother concluded her little speech. She trusted the three kids in front of her for some reason or another. She was a kindly woman, that was for sure. She gave a quick nod to them all, receiving one back from Justin and Yu, but not Maya, who had been caught in her thoughts, before slowly departing. It was while after she left that everyone began to talk again.

"You alright Maya?" Justin spoke up, knowing full well she wasn't.

"Y-Yeah…" She lied, knowing full well Justin wasn't buying her bull.

"No you're not."

"That obvious?" She sighed a bit pushing herself off the wall, placing her hands in her pocket. She just wanted to go home and go to bed. To sleep her memories off and forget today had ever happened. Justin sighed slightly. He knew he shouldn't have let her tag along on this. He knew what had happened to her father, how much she hated hospitals, and he took her anyway. This was all his fault. He starred at her for a while as she looked down towards the ground.

"C'mon… Cheer up…" No reaction. "Please?" Once again, not the slightest reaction. "I'll buy you a Slim Jim…"

"You think a Slim Jim is the equivalent of my father?" She shot her head up, a look of sorrow in her eye.

"No, I think it's the equivalent of a Slim Jim…" Justin sighed abit. That was a REALLY bad joke. Justin should have known better than to make a remark like that when she was mourning her father. Maybe it wasn't just his father's fault he didn't have any friends in school. Maybe he was just unintentionally a douche bag. He probably looked like a huge asshole trying to buy her off with a Slim Jim. He was just trying to cheer her up, and other than psychadelic rock, there wasn't much he could really think of that she liked that he could buy he-

Wait. What if he got her a pet squirrel? …Nah, that wouldn't work. Where would he even get one? He'd probably get rabies or something in the process. He sighed a bit crossing his arms. Maya just stared at him for a while. She knew he was trying, but that didn't really change anything. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that…" Justin apologized after a while.

"I know. I know…" Maya sighed a bit.

"Cheer up Maya. You're father wouldn't want you to beat yourself up over this." Yu smiled slightly.

"You don't even know my father." Maya shook her head. Who was Yu to tell her what her father would have wanted? Maya was positive she knew a little bit more about her own flesh and blood than Yu did, than Justin did.

"No father wants to see their child miserable." Yu smiled. Maya just sort of darted her eyes over to Yu… That was true she supposed… But he wasn't alive TO see her miserable. That was sort of the point. Justin was biting his lip next to Yu, and for good reason. Yu noticed too, making a very slight gesture of his hand for him to keep quiet. Justin's father was a bit of an exception of the rule. And even then, he wasn't so sure his father wanted to see Justin miserable; he was just too drunk to realize it.

"Maybe you're right…" Maya smiled a very faint smile along the cracks of her mouth. As much as she'd like to believe it was wrong to smile about her father's passing, about everything her family went though while he laid in that hospital bed year after year… she had to let go sooner or later. That day wasn't today, but… but she needed to work at it. Or else it would haunt her forever. "Thanks Yu." Justin was going to make a smart ass remark about he didn't get a thank you; but since he had actually made things worse, probably not a smart idea. Still, when he noticed that faint smile she wore, he knew he could sink back into his old shenanigans. It meant she was wide open for his terrible terrible jokes.

"So… That's a no on the Slim Jim right?" Justin remarked sarcastically. Most people would think 'too soon,' but Maya was more than aware how socially awkward Justin could be at times. He would always rant at others about right time, right place, when he himself didn't really know when to start filtering his thoughts. As a result, damn near everything that came out of his mouth was a joke or a threat. She supposed that's what made Justin so unique though. He'd laugh when everyone else was afraid to; he'd fight when no one else would. In a way, his lack of a filter made him the bigger man. It just made him really bad at handling situations like this. But his intentions were pure; and that's all that mattered to Maya.

"I just might take you up on that, big bro." She joked, jabbing at the label Justin had given her earlier. Justin found it a bit humorous; mostly because Maya was actually older than him, so he would be 'little bro.' He was slightly taller though, so let's just pretend that's what she meant. Yu, in the mean time had been in a slight daze, snapping out at the mention of the word 'big bro.'

"Huh? Is Nanako here?" He questioned. Justin laughed, though Maya was just confused. She had never met Nanako, nor was she aware of the nickname she had given him. Hell, she didn't even know Yu HAD a cousin.

"I cannot believe that nickname actually stuck." Justin chuckled a bit.

"So… Wait… I'm confused; you're big bro now?" Yu was very, very much confused. He was so used to be calling big bro by Nanako that he was really caught off guard by Maya giving the same name to Justin. It was probably a onetime thing, but it was still strange all the same.

"Well don't get jealous." Justin continued jabbing at Yu.

"There can be only one."

"What are you going to do, kill me?" Justin smirked slightly. Though that changed when he realized Yu had a completely straight face on. He was either serious, or the most amazing bullshitter ever. And considering he had played cards with Yu before, he sincerely thought it was the latter. Still, better safe than dead.

"Maybe."

"Okay, okay, fine. You're big bro."


	80. Chapter 79: July 2, 2011

CHAPTER 79

July 2, 2011

* * *

"Alright; dare I ask what you want?"

Justin had been sitting on the couch, channel flipping when he heard the sound of his front door knocking. And as much as he'd like to just sit there and let whoever it was go away, he forced himself up and towards the front door. After all, with all the drama that's been going on lately, he really couldn't rule out the possibility that this was an emergency. Well, it sort of was in a way. It turned out that it was Yosuke at the front door. Sound the alarms and get in the Hanamura bunker people. Needless to say, Justin was rather surprised, not necessarily pleasantly either.

"Hey Justin. Is Maya here?" Yosuke questioned, a slight smile on his face. Well Justin didn't expect that, that was for sure. Yosuke and Maya certainly got along well, there was no denying that. It's just that Yosuke had never been knocking at Justin's door to ask for her.

"She's in the shower right now. Why?" Justin questioned. He was curious as to what Yosuke needed Maya for. Yosuke was… well, slightly disappointed, though also slightly flustered.

"Oh, uh… Just wanted to see if she wanted to hang out." Yosuke hesitantly answered. Justin just sort of shrugged. As good a reason as any, he supposed. Yosuke sighed a bit. "Alright then, well I guess…" Yosuke was about to take his leave when the faint sound of running water finally stopped. Yosuke was a bit alarmed actually. He did not want to be standing in Justin's living room when she came out. He didn't know if she changed in the bathroom or what. I mean, he kind of assumed she did; walking around draped in only a towel would most likely be very awkward with Justin there and all.

"Well if you want to wait, I guess she'll be good in a minute or two." Justin grumbled a bit. He didn't want Yosuke in his house, but whatever. He sighed a bit before motioning his arm to let Yosuke inside. His face was beat red in all honesty. He didn't know whether he should or shouldn't wait for her inside. I mean, can you imagine stepping out of the shower and immediately being barraged with requests to hang out? Awkward would be an understatement. He held his breath though, forcing his way inside. If something went wrong, he could just blame Justin. He would be a good scapegoat given how tight the two's relationship was. She couldn't POSSIBLY get mad at Justin over that, right?

It was a bit awkward as he sat down on the far end of the couch, his fingers fidgeting about as he tapped on the couch. He really shouldn't be here right now. Justin in turn took his place at the opposite end, leaving a gap between the two as he went back to his channel surfing antics. It wasn't for a minute or so that he finally found something he was willing to watch: Scrubs. Yosuke groaned immediately, but goddammit, he wasn't going to be here for very long, so he could suck it up.

"So what exactly are you guys going to do?" Justin questioned after a bit, his fist jabbed into his cheek as he held his head up. Yosuke looked up to the ceiling, his head tilted slightly. In all honesty, he hadn't thought of anything. He'd settle for a walk around town for what it's worth. Maybe he should have thought about all of this in advance; have a plan ready and what not.

"We'll probably go to Junes. Don't know what we'll do there though. Maybe we'll go to the arcade." Yosuke shrugged slightly. He had really just put together a very hastily scrapped together plan, but Justin seemed almost interested.

"Hold on, wait a second… The Junes has an arcade!?" Justin questioned with great excitement. He had never once seen an arcade at Junes; but he'd be damned if he said he wasn't interested in that. Sure arcades had some of the shittiest, broken games around, but wasn't that half the fun? And besides; there was one game in particular Justin loved that you just couldn't find anywhere else. Besides those big game hunting games. Those are pretty good too, but that's not what he was referring to. Yosuke raised one eyebrow in slight confusion.

"Uh… yeah? It's right next to the entrance…" Justin damn near spat out the cigarette he was smoking at that. It was RIGHT there and he didn't notice it? Oh, he was going to have to fix that soon. He briefly wondered if Chie was into arcades at all. I mean, he was sure there was something they could do there together once her rib got better. The doctor did say it would only be a week after all, and a week HAD passed.

"Alright, just answer me one question… Does it have DDR?" Justin crossed his fingers slightly. He was god horrid at DDR, but that was sort of the fun. Besides, there was something absolutely charming about making an ass out of yourself to Japanese pop music. Yosuke nodded his head slightly, causing Justin to fist pump with excitement. Perfect! Now he could waste all his money giving himself arthritis of the legs… Actually, is that a thing? Well if it is, he certainly was going to get it playing Dance Dance Revolution.

Justin was throwing a slight fit of excitement when Maya had marched out of the bathroom, throwing her hoodie on. She had a black t-shirt on with a pink grunge splatter design underneath it. Her hair was still dripping a bit as she finished tugging the hoodie over her head, walking down the stairs barefooted. She didn't even notice Yosuke was there until she made it to the bottom of the steps. She was a bit embarrassed in all honesty; her hair was still soaked after all, so she kind of looked like a mess. Yosuke smiled all the same though, standing up from his seat as he saw Maya.

"Oh, Yosuke! Wh-what are you doing here?" Maya stuttered slightly, still a bit embarrassed by her appearance right now. She was actually considering trying to dry her hair off with her hoodie sleeves; but stopped herself from doing that, realizing that would just make her look like she had dandruff or something with the way she would be rubbing away at her skull. In actuality, Yosuke barely noticed her hair was wet. You know how hair strands kind of stick together when they get wet, making that frizzy look? That never happened to Maya, strangely enough. It just made her hair droop down slightly, weighed down by the water it contained.

"Just wanted to see if you were free right now. I was going to go to the arcade at Junes and thought you might like to tag along. Maya blushed slightly. Well that was certainly something she hadn't expected to hear when she stepped out of the shower. Though, that's not really why she was embarrassed.

"I… I don't really have any money for that kind of stuff…" Maya remarked embarrassed. Justin sighed a bit. They really didn't have much money for doing stuff like that now that she mentioned it. Before Justin was barely getting enough from his trust fund to eat, with a little left over for activities. Now he was feeding both of them with the same amount of money. The only reason they hadn't gone over budget was Maya's refusal to eat on a regular basis. She ate once a day at most. It wasn't good for her to say the least. Yosuke just seemed to smile though, ignoring their impoverished lifestyle.

"Don't worry about it; I've got it all covered." Yosuke grinned a bit, crossing his arms in a slightly self-content attitude. Maya of course just shook her head, her cheeks slightly red. She wasn't used to people really offering her anything, save maybe Justin of course.

"You don't have to spend money on me…" She weakly objected, rubbing at her arm slightly from the awkward atmosphere. Yosuke just shook his head though; she didn't seem to quite get it.

"No, no. My dad's the manager at Junes, so I can just sort of use the arcade whenever I want." Yosuke grinned wide. Justin widened his eyes slightly. He wasn't entirely sure how that system worked, but goddamn was that something Justin wanted. Think of all the games of DDR that would buy. He could make an ass out of himself for hours and hours on end. It would be perfect! But of course, there was no way in hell Yosuke was letting Justin in on his 'employee discount,' for lack of a better word. He was more than willing to extend that discount to Maya though.

"Wait really?" Maya remarked with surprise. She didn't really believe it. Yosuke nodded in confirmation.

"Yeah. So what do you say? Wanna come?"

"Oh… um… Sure, I guess…" She mumbled a bit searching around the house for her shoes and socks. It took about a minute or so to find them, double that to put them on. She was technically ready to go, though she did want her hair to dry. Too bad Yosuke didn't give her that chance. By the time she had finished getting completely dressed, Yosuke had grabbed her by the wrist and started pulling her towards the door. "Wha- Hey!"

"C'mon let's go." Yosuke smiled blissfully, completely oblivious to Maya struggling to keep up, tripping over her feet and just generally being embarrassed. She didn't want people to see her when her hair was still wet; even if you couldn't really notice. And then there was the fact that Yosuke was dragging her there, not just letting her walk. Like she had to be there NOW or else every arcade on the planet would explode. Hell, Yosuke was pulling on her so much she hadn't been able to stop and grab her iPod when it fell out of her pocket on the way out.

Justin raised his eyebrow slightly as the two left; rudely leaving the door open too. Leave it to Yosuke to lack any sense of manners. That wasn't what had caught him off guard though. It was strange how excited Yosuke was getting about the arcade. And then the whole wrist grabbing thing was a bit weird in all honesty, but hey, whatever. He sighed slightly as he pushed himself up off the sofa, making his way over to the door to close it and keep the heat inside the house. It was warm out, mind you, but you still caught a draft by leaving the damn thing open. In a way, leaving the door open was a blessing in disguise; otherwise Justin would have never noticed Maya's iPod had slipped out of her hoodie pocket. It's a wonder the damn thing didn't break. He sighed with slight relief that he hadn't lost this thing before leaning over and picking it up, turning around and closing the door behind him in the process.

He was going to put the thing on the counter, when suddenly he was struck with sudden curiosity. He starred at the iPod for a moment before tapping the power button, sliding the touch screen to bring the device to life. He was expecting to be met by whatever it had been Maya was listening to at the time. Justin couldn't say he really disliked anything Maya listened to, and he was always interested in expanding his music library; it was just hard to do because damn near every musician now and days sucked balls. Thank god Maya listened to the old shit. Of course, it appeared that Maya wasn't listening to music, or if she was it was running in the background.

No, instead she had it opened to the notes app that came with the iPod touch. And let me tell you something; this wasn't a grocery list or anything like that. The thing was flooded with text from here to Tiananmen Square. Alright, now Justin's curiosity was really peaked. He knew he probably shouldn't have been, but he decided to read it. Nothing of real interest, except for one thing…

What she had written in and of itself wasn't really interesting; it's what she was writing about. Maya had been keeping a diary on her iPod. And when Justin tapped the back arrow up top to see the rest of her notes, it had been completely filled with hundreds of entries. Some dating back as far as the incident in California. Justin's eyebrows shut up almost immediately. Everything Maya had been doing for the last four, maybe five years was right here on this iPod. Justin started to sweat slightly as he eyed the text in front of him. He was completely invading Maya's privacy, and he didn't even know it until now. And normally he would have gone back to where she was before and pretend this never happened. But something seemed to stop Justin from raising his hand to tap her current entry, to shut the phone off and play dumb.

It was no secret that Maya still had some… issues, for lack of a better word. She was clearly still torn up over her father, over three years later. She had some sort of issue with eating, and in all honesty, Justin had a feeling it was deeper than 'going on a diet.' And then there was the incident… That horrible horrible incident in California.

She had only just found retribution for what had happened all those years ago, and while she seemed happy, Justin wasn't. It was over, there was nothing left; and yet he felt like he was missing half the story. For example; when his memory had come back, he still had no idea how he had lost it in the first place. The last thing he remembered was getting a boot to the skull by Falcone. After that, he just sort of… woke up. Like nothing even happened. Like Maya never existed. Everyday that past after that he had no recollection of anything. And then there was the matter of Falcone setting the building on fire, yet Justin was clearly still alive, and with no visible signs of being damn near burnt alive… Something wasn't right here. And he knew it.

He starred at the iPod for only a brief moment longer before huffing out some hot air. He could not believe what he was about to do, opting to barely look at the screen as he scrolled down toward the beginning of the list, stopping when he found the date he was looking for.

_December 11, 2009_

Justin just looked at that date for a while. Probably the worst day of his entire life, of Maya's entire life. And here he was, about to unravel all of its secrets. He just shook his head a bit before taking a seat on the couch, iPod in his hands._ I'm sorry Maya._

* * *

December 11, 2009

* * *

"Why? Why the fuck did I get this power? All it's done has screwed us over."

Maya mused aloud to herself as she walked through an intertwining maze of alleyways, making her way to the usual spot to meet with Justin. She had paid off Kurt the day before, so everything should be fine now. And yet, she had this sinking feeling in her chest. That was a close call with Falcone yesterday; way too close for comfort. Hell, she had a very small patch of missing hair that proved it. And it all came back to that goddamned television.

Why? Why was she given this power? She had thought it was to be a gift, something she could do to help herself and her family. Even with her father gone, they were still in some pretty heavy debt with his medical bills. They were barely making it by, and that's with the income that both her mother and Clift were making. Maya, unfortunately, offered nothing. She tried, she really fucking did. But it seemed no one wanted to hire a slumdog like her. And here she was, given this power. She thought she could use it to give what she should have been giving her family for the last five years of her damn life. And all it did was hurt her and Justin. And Justin didn't even want any part in this. She felt like such a sleazebag. Everything she touched turned to shit. Sometimes she wondered if it was even worth carrying on. It would be easier for everyone if she were to just disappear…

She sighed slightly, pushing on ahead, lowering her head as she dug around for her cigarettes. She had been going through these like a motherfucker lately. And could you blame her? She had been able to jump into televisions, and had pissed off a drug dealer AND the mafia, all in one week. Maybe this was a problem too. $20 a pop to feed her addiction. That's twenty bucks that she could be putting into her family's funds every few weeks. Instead, she had blown over a hundred bucks on these this week alone. She had actually LOST money; and that wasn't even keeping in mind the shame behind where she had been getting the money from. She didn't get an allowance; she just sort of took the money when no one was looking. It was shameful as all hell as it was when it was only $20 every two weeks. This had been $100 this week alone, a pretty sizable chunk of the family's funds. She was no better than a common crook, and she knew it…

She placed the cigarette in her mouth, considering the possibility of trying to quit cold turkey. It was really the only way she could help her family at this point. But alas, her addiction was too deeply cemented by now to stop; and even with all her guilt, she still found herself lighting up that cigarette. Not a smart move apparently. As she was walking by a side street, she was startled by the unfamiliar, but all too recognizable sensation of cold metal against the side of her skull. Her eyes immediately widened with terror. She was being followed for the last few minutes now, but because she had her hands in her pocket, no one was willing to make a move. But now that she had them out on the open, lighting up a smoke, they had gotten the jump. And now Maya found herself with the barrel of a 9MM against her skull.

"Hello sweetie; remember me?" Falcone spoke up, a rhaspy, angry voice as he starred at her with his gun against the side of her skull. Maya's eyes closed, her lips quivering as she heard the voice of that coked up maniac. If he was going to blow her brains out; she didn't want to see a damn thing. She was afraid of her goddamned life right now, as she should be. It looked like the end. "Drop the lighter."

Maya obliged, letting loose her grip on the smoke and cigarette. She had considered putting her hands up where he could see them; but she was much too stiff with fear at this point. Two other mobsters soon found themselves in a circle around Maya. It seemed they were slightly caught off guard by the fact that she was a 15 year old girl, but otherwise completely unfazed. Maya breathed in and out heavily.

"You thought you could fuck with the Falcones? Think again, lady." Falcone insulted. Maya didn't even care; she was just more concerned by the barrel of the gun pressed against her skull. "Now I want the money you stole from us, and I want it NOW." Maya's eyes widened especially wide at that, a gasp coming out from under her breath. She didn't have the money; she gave it to Kurt already.

"I-I… I don't have it…" Maya choked up, her voice a few octaves higher than usual with fear. Falcone was less than pleased with that answer, grabbing Maya by the shoulder and spinning her around to face him, the barrel of his gun now straight between her eyes as he pushed her up against the wall that was now behind her.

"Wrong answer, toots." He remarked, starting to pull on the trigger, ready to put a bullet straight in her skull. Maya thought this was the end, biting at her lip, ready to bite the bullet… Literally. She had gotten in way over her head, and for what? Trying to help her family? She'd pray to God for help, but she had given up on him by this point. No 'loving' God would ever let her suffer like this. She had intended to help her family, but instead she simply was going to end up making them pay for her funeral bill… Goddamit, this wasn't fair. She couldn't do that to them. Even if they never saw her again, they shouldn't have to pay for her mistakes. She wouldn't let them.

And that's when she snapped. In her fear she blurted out the first thing that came to her mind, the very first excuse she could think of to get him to put that gun away.

"W-Wait! What if I got you Justin instead!?" Maya shouted, the trigger almost pulled back far enough to let loose some lead in her face. Falcone was perplexed to say the least. Who was Justin, and why the fuck would he want him instead of the bitch that had robbed him blind.

"You've got three seconds to explain." Falcone remarked, not so much as loosening the grip he had on the trigger. Maya hoped to god he didn't tense up his grip for whatever reason.

"He was the kid with the gun; it was all his idea, honest! He forced me to do it!" She lied. It was entirely the other way around, but she knew that Falcone wasn't going to let the mastermind get away if all it meant was the gunman would walk. Mooks are expendable, with allegiances changing all the time. For all he knew, this kid might be knocking at their door looking for a job next week. Not anymore, though. Maya had essentially put a kill order on Justin. "Please, let me go…" She cried, tears streaming down her face. Oh she knew what she was doing. And every fiber of her being hated her for it. What kind of monster was she? Falcone stared at her for a while before loosening his grip on her, effectively allowing her body to slump down against the wall she had been shoved against. His gun was still aimed at her skull, all the same.

"Alright; you send that blonde haired douchebag over to the abandoned apartmentcomplex, and maybe we won't put a hole through your head. Make the call." Falcone ordered, pointing his gun at her pocket; and by extension her cell-phone. She wasn't sure why Falcone had assumed she had Justin's number, but that wasn't important right now. She hesitantly shoved her hand in her pocket before pulling her phone out, flipping it open to send him a text. By the time she was done, she simply stared at her phone. She had already spilled Justin's name, and if they killed her now, they'd have his phone information too… It was over. The deed was done whether she pressed send or not. Her eyes teared up as she pressed the green button. _I'm sorry Justin._

"There… sent…" She choked up over tears. Falcone gave a quick nod at his mooks, dismissing them from the scene, all the while still aiming his gun at Maya. She had texted him; and for all he knew, she could have warned him, not sent him their way.

"If he's not there in an hour, you're dead." Falcone declared before concealing his weapon again and leaving the allwayway.

Maya just sat there for a while, arms wrapped around her knees. Did she… Did she just kill Justin? She just killed the one person out there that understood her, that she could tell everything to. She had killed her best friend, and yet, so much more than that. And why? Because she was a coward. She was unwilling to die for her friends, to put her family and friends out of their misery by biting the dust. She talked about the better good and all that crap, but when given the chance to make things right, she couldn't do it. She was pathetic.

She reached into her pocket after a moment, grabbing a hold of the 9MM pistol from yesterday. The mobsters were right not to try and ambush her with her hands in her pockets. She would have grabbed the gun and put a bullet in all of their fucking skulls. She just starred at it for a while. Maybe… Maybe if she warned Justin now… Did the deed herself, destroyed her phone… She could fix this. Redemn herself. And for a moment she did look down the barrel of her gun. But she couldn't do it. She just couldn't. Instead she found herself just starring at her gun for a long while; at least a good ten minutes or so of contemplation, deciding whether or not to bite the barrel.

_…No. No, I won't let him die dammit!_

Maya's self pity immediately turned into anger. Wait was she saying. Yes she fucked Justin over big time here, but it wasn't her fault. It was the assholes who had put a gun to her head and told her to choose who should live and who should die. She had made a mistake, but she could correct it. And those bastards would pay. Where before she had considered laying down and dying, she was now filled with fury and anger. She stared at the gun for only a brief moment more, before cocking the gun, insuring there was ammo in its container. There was. And now… now she was ready to do what must be done.

* * *

"Justin!"

Maya shouted a bit as she entered the old apartment complex, gun at the ready, swinging its barrel every which way, preparing herself for any of Falcone's mooks. None at the moment thank god. Though she was having a hard time seeing in all honesty. The air was hard to breathe, and it felt very humid in here. Like… Really fucking hot. It wasn't until she started climbing the stairs that she really understood why. As she climbed floor after floor, she could smell the all too distinct scent of smoke; the air growing dark with smoke clouds. It was hard to breathe, and Maya could almost feel the smoke filling her lungs. Floor after floor, it was getting increasingly difficult to go on. She shouldn't be here; it would kill her if she breathed this shit in for too long. Especially when she realized that it was coming from a fire on the upper floors.

Maya could not believe it; they had out right tried to burn down an entire building just to kill off Justin. Did they not understand what they were doing? Maya had thought this entire place was abandoned a while ago, and given that she hadn't seen anyone around as she looked for Justin, she had assumed she was right. Still, if this place burned down, then the nearby buildings could burn as well. And those were most definitely not empty. Maya felt like complete shit, thinking this was partially her fault. She didn't think they'd burn the entire fucking building down just to kill one man, but if they were… They could kill a lot more than him. These people were complete monsters and needed to be stopped.

Maya continued to struggle along, smoke filling her lungs, her arm lifted to block the smoke and smut from getting into her eyes. She could tell you something, this shit was never going to come out of her hoodie; but that wasn't important right now. What was important was that Justin was safe. He wasn't. By the time she had made it to the top floor, Justin was lying at the end of the staircase, blood pooling around his head.

"Holy shit! Justin!" Maya cried out rushing over to Justin's aid. He was completely unconscious. From a distance, he looked like a bullet had pierced his skull… That Maya was too late to save him. Instead, it seemed he had just been knocked out cold, blood dripping from a cut along his right cheek. She quickly felt for a pulse on him, just to be sure. He was alive, but barely. And she wasn't getting a response as she tried to shake him awake. "Shit, shit…" She looked around, fire sweeping around them before she gripped Justin by the arm, carrying his unconscious body around her shoulder. He was actually pretty light all things considered. Still, carrying Justin's body around as she tried to escape from a now overwhelming fire was not a very pleasant experience. Smog was completely covering her face at this point, her pale skin soon being replaced by a black coating of ashes. And every time she breathed in too much smoke, she had to stop and cough up a lung or two. But she had to press on.

Some people seem to disagree with that though.

By the time she was almost near the exit, stairs and rubble were starting to come down around them. Yet, despite all this destruction, down near the entrance stood the all too familiar sight of Falcone. He had gotten word from his mooks that they had seen Maya going in the building after they had left. Now… they figured the place would burn down before she could do anything, and then they'd get two kills for the price of one. They were wrong about that, of course. And Falcone suspected such would be the case. A woman can do some crazy things when she's pissed. And so, despite the objections of his mooks, here he stood at the entrance, waiting for them to come back down. If the building burned down before she got out, then the entrance would be blocked, and he'd have nothing to worry about. If it didn't, however… He'd do the job right this time. And so there he stood, pistol in his hand, slowly clapping as Maya made her way down the stair case with Justin leaning against her shoulder.

"Well looky here! Looks like someone was trying to break our contract. You know… The Falcone family really hates being fucked, you know that?" He remarked, a snide look on his face as he mocked them, blocking their exit point. Maya was panting heavily at this point. She couldn't breathe; the smoke had completely filled her lungs at this point. She needed to get out of there and NOW.

"Fuck you!" She shouted at him, simply standing there to wait for him to move out of the way. She didn't know why she expected that to happen. Falcone just laughed instead.

"Look at the potty mouth on this bitch! Suddenly I don't feel so bad about watching your ass fry."

"Do you realize what you've done? You're not just killing us here; you're killing everyone in every building connected to this one!" Maya shouted, angered by Falcones carless disregard for innocents. He just did not give a fuck. And Maya always thought that the Mafia was all about respect and family values; not killing innocent bystanders.

"Necessary sacrifices." Falcone laughed, starting to point the gun at Maya. Maya took a single step closer. She wasn't afraid of Falcone. Not anymore. No, she was overcome by her willpower and anger. This man was a monster… _Someone should put him out of our misery…_

"Necessary sacrifices? Necessary sacrifices!?" Maya shouted at Falcone before whipping out her own pistol, pointing it straight at his chest. "You could have shot us. You could have beaten us. You could have done anything to us! This isn't necessary! This is just you being a murdering scumbag!"

"What did you just call me you bitch?" Falcone shouted upwards, his gun still pointed at Maya. He wasn't waiting for an answer. He was about to pull the trigger, and Maya could tell by the slightest twitch of her hands. And so she did something that she had never thought she would ever have to do in her lifetime.

She killed a man in cold-blood.

She squeezed her own gun, firing off several shots into his chest; lest she miss an organ and he came back around to fire a shot off at the two. Six shots found its way into Falcone's chest; only two of them were needed to kill him. As the final shot made its way through Falcone's chest and out his back, Maya dropped her gun into the fire devouring the building. It was only just starting to dawn upon her what she had just done. She had just taken another man's life; this wasn't just stealing or vandalism or something. This was an assassination. She had just killed the head of an entire Mafia family…

And she didn't feel bad at all. She knew she should have, but… This man… This… Fiend… This fiend had tried to kill them, and several innocents who may or may not still die. And for what? $1200. That was the price that he was willing to put on the lives of dozens of innocent men, women, and children. Maya wouldn't even put a dime on Falcone's life. He deserved the fate he had met… She just worried what would happen next.

"I called you dead…" She remarked, slightly mortified by the killing power she had just unleashed.

There was no time for that though. Maya continued along, down the stairs and slowly pushed open the exit door that had been jammed open by Falcone's corpse's leg. She was sure to shove his leg back in as she closed the door. She wasn't sure what he wanted to do for his funeral, but scumbags like him didn't deserve a choice. He was going to get a cremation; burning down in the atrocities he had committed. She'd like to think that this was poetic justice… But really, it didn't matter. As she finally made herself out into the open air, she coughed quite a bit, trying to let the stale air in her lungs out and replace it with the new. It wasn't until she heard the sounds of the fire department that she was snapped out of her coughing fit. She passed only a slight glance at Justin, his head resting against her shoulder as she carried him around. She needed to get him help, right now.

* * *

"W-well?" Maya coughed as the doctor came into the room. She had cleaned her face up in the bathroom once she arrived, though her clothes were still very dirty. You would think she was homeless from the looks of them. All the same, she sat there in Justin's room, watching him, waiting for movement. Nothing. All she had was the steady sound of his heart rate monitor beating.

"Well… We have good news and bad news…" The doctor choked up. He was actually the same doctor that had been assigned to taking care of Maya's father. He had taken this case the second he had heard that Maya was the one who brought this boy in. Now that he had done all the investigating and what not on the topic… He had wished he hadn't taken this patient. Maya frantically darted her eyes around the room. Bad news? Oh god…

"Wh-What's the good news?" Maya choked up, tears in her eyes.

"The good news is Justin is very much alive. It seems there's no signs of internal damage." The doctor explained, still a frown on his face.

"And the bad?"

"Skye… You might not want to hear—" The doctor remarked, averting eye contact. He always called her by her middle name for some reason. It was supposed to be a joke between the two about how her middle name showed up first on her paperwork. But now wasn't the time for jokes; and she wasn't laughing. She just wanted to know Justin would be alright. That she had managed to save him. That she hadn't just killed a man for no reason…

No reason… No, there was plenty of reason. She just wished she hadn't been the one that had to do it. Even shooting a scumbag like him made Maya feel dirty inside.

"And the bad!?" Maya interrupted the doctor. The doctor sighed.

"Justin sustained a pretty bad blow to the head. We think that might lead to some memory loss, but other than that the damages will be minimal."

"Will be?"

"Maya… Justin is comatose…" Maya's eyes immediately widened. _C-Comatose?_ She sat there her jaw wide open, her eyes dilated in panic. And for a while, nothing was uttered from her mouth. And when she did finally speak again, her eyes were filled with tears, her throat filled with sorrow.

"No… NO NO NO!" She shouted, tears streaming down her face. The doctor got down on his knee in front of her, placing his hand on her shoulder. He knew this was going to get her on a personal level. Her father had died not even a few months ago and now she had to deal with it all over again. Not to mention the condition she had been in when she walked through that hospital door. No child should have to go through the suffering she was going through.

"I know this is tough, with the way your father went. But I assure you; we will do everything we can to bring Justin back." Maya just shook her head. She didn't believe him. They had Five years to save her father. Five fucking years; and they didn't do shit. No… Justin was gone… No matter how much they told her otherwise. She wept for a good while as the doctor tried to cheer her up. It wasn't for a while that he realized she just needed some time to grieve. "I'll give you some time alone. Don't worry Maya. We have the best doctors working on him. You'll see him again." Maya didn't acknowledge the doctor, and thus, the doctor eventually left with a sigh on his breath. He had hoped to help her, but all he did was make it worse.

Maya sat alone with Justin for a while, just bawling her eyes out at first. She ran out of tears eventually though, and simply starred at him after that. Sometimes she wondered if maybe Justin would be better off if he never knew her… Maya starred at him again, a sudden idea popping into her head. The doctor said Justin was going to have some memory loss… He didn't have to remember all the pain she had cause him, all that shit with the TV, or Kurt, or Falcone. He could live a normal life, as though she never came along that day in the alleyway, as though she had never forced him to egg her brother's window, as though she had never fallen in love with him… He didn't need to remember that. She pushed her self off of the seat she had sat in for the last hour or so. Justin's parents had yet to arrive to the scene, so now was as good a time as any. She moved up towards Justin and reached down for the dog tags along his neck. She had some made for the two of them since they were the best of friends. Removing them meant their friendship was dead. And so it would be.

She pulled the tags off from around his neck and shoved it in her pocket. "Goodbye Justin. I'm sorry… For everything." She remarked with tear-filled eyes, before planting a gentle kiss on his forehead and walking out that hospital door, never to return.

* * *

July 2, 2011

* * *

Justin simply sat there for a while, finishing up the entry that he had found in Maya's digital diary. He wasn't entirely sure how to react. He wanted to cry really. Sure Maya had pretty much sent him to his death, but… But she had tried to fix it. He had blamed her for it all this time, and even though he had forgiven her since the shadow incident… He never once thought that she could be innocent. She was always the bad guy in Justin's mind; not the hero in desperation. She risked her life to save Justin's, correcting the wrongs she had done against him. She had mentioned retribution earlier on in her diary… Justin could honestly say she found it.

But there was something else. Maya shot down Falcone in cold blood that day, and while Justin wouldn't have thought twice to bust a cap in Falcone's ass in her position… He still seemed struck. He had killed shadows before, but never had he killed a human. Maya had. And though she didn't look it, though she didn't act it, though she constantly tried to justify to herself that what she did was right, this was still eating away at her. She was a murderer in her eyes. Despite the fact that she had committed the act in self defense, she blamed herself for the loss of that man's life…

Justin sighed a bit, reaching for the dog tags around his neck. They were a symbol of their friendship, sure enough. Even through fire and flames, shadows and televisions… The still remained, their names engraved in their metal shape forever. And though Maya tried to lock it away from him, their friendship could never truly be thrown away. Their friendship was eternal. It would surpass anything that was thrown their way. Even this.

Justin looked at the iPod one last time before setting things up the way they were when he found it, sliding it across the living room table. He just stared into space for a while after that.

_Sorry? No Maya. Thank you. Thank you for saving my life._

* * *

"Maya Jefferies shot down Falcone on the 11th of December, 2009." Justin recapped after the interrogator had pushed him to repeat the information, as though trying to get a confession out of him. The interrogator just nodded for a bit before placing a beverage he had been drinking down on the table in between the two.

"Falcone's murder investigation reached a dead end in California, you do realize that. Without your statement right now, that case would be unsolved." The interrogator remarked. Justin just shook his head. Why he had bothered to tell this asshole about Maya's crime was beyond him. Perhaps he was hoping he would understand. But alas, it seemed his trust was misplaced.

"So what are you going to do about it?" Justin remarked, sorrow and anger in his voice. "Are you going to arrest her?" The interrogator starred at Justin for a while, straight into his eyes. And for a moment, he felt as though he could understand just how he had felt; all the pain and suffering he went through, all the feelings that bottled up inside him as he read this story of Maya's sacrifice… The interrogator eventually shook his head.

"If you're statement is true, then Maya acted in self-defense. She'll be acquitted of all charges." The interrogator remarked, nodding his head slightly. He knew Maya fairly well. He knew she was a good girl with a heart of gold. And sure, while she seemed to attract trouble like a corpse attracts flies… She would never do something so heinous out of malice. He would personally see to it that any and all charges pressed against Maya for the murder would be dropped. Besides, she had killed a man that just torched the homes of many innocents. People died that die. Maya would be commended as a hero, not a criminal. Justin lifted his head up, a look of slight relief on his face.

"You serious?" Justin questioned, double-checking to see if the interrogator was pulling shit out of his ass. He was not.

"She's a free woman."

"But you're still trying to group her up into all of this, aren't you?" Justin remarked. He had been excited to know Maya's so called crime had been forgiven. Perhaps she could truly find peace in that. Or maybe she would never find the peace, knowing she took a human life; no matter how vile a life it was. The interrogator nodded slightly. While Maya WAS legally innocent of that crime, she was not of this.

"She was associated with you and the Shadow Operatives, was she not? She is a suspect until proven to be unaffiliated with the terrorist attack on Inaba." The interrogator remarked, explaining how this was going to go down. Justin just shook his head.

"The Shadow Operatives did not do that! They're the ones fighting it!" Justin remarked, a slight glare on his face. "And no, Maya is not associated with the Shadow Operatives. She knows some of the people in it, and that's it. She is not by any means a member. Hell, none of my friends are part of the Shadow Operatives."

"Just you." Justin paused for a moment. Technically yes, technically no. He wasn't really a Shadow Operative in the traditional sense of the word. The interrogator just brushed that off however. The investigation team was in fact working with the Shadow Operatives, members or not; and that was what was important. They were affiliated with probable terrorists, assisting them on missions. They are by all means just as guilty as the Shadow Operatives were. "You claim the Shadow Operatives are fighting against the terrorists? We have evidence that states the opposite." The interrogator remarked, as though pushing Justin in a corner. He had evidence, so if Justin backed down now, that's all they needed to get an arrest warrant. Justin persisted though. He knew what evidence he was talking about. And it was all wrong; all twisted about to frame the Shadow Operatives.

"They were framed. And I can prove it." Justin remarked, leaning across the table a bit. The interrogator sighed.

"You better have some damn good proof then.


	81. Chapter 80: July 3, 2011

CHAPTER 80

July 3, 2011

* * *

"Hell—Whoa, hey!"

Justin had opened the door to his house only to be pounced by Chie almost immediately, her arms wrapped completely around his backside. Justin's face had turned red almost instantly. Maya was already gone, Yosuke having dragged her out of the house again, so it wasn't so much that he was embarrassed to get caught in a position like this. It was just he hadn't expected it. Chie was smiling a bright smile as she looked up from her embrace with Justin. She was thrilled to finally be able to get out of the house on her own accord. No wheelchairs, no being carried around; just her and her two feet. It might sound ridiculous, but she hadn't really been this happy in god only know how long. Probably since her and Justin first hooked up. She recalled knocking some stuff over by accident while she was on the phone with Yukiko telling her about it; so she was probably jumping about a little too much.

"Whoa, what's this for…?" Justin spoke up, his cheeks red. Chie just sort of laughed a bit, a wide grin on her face. It was always humorous when she managed to embarrass Justin. The guy very rarely got embarrassed, so when he did it was usually a very out of character moment for Justin. A very cute one if she might say so. Even under that hard exterior, Justin could be pretty damn timid; something that was very apparent by the way he always withdrew his skull slightly, averting eye contact as his cheeks grew the brightest red she had ever seen. It was as though despite everything that Justin was, Chie could bring out this hidden side of Justin that he only shared with her. In a way, it was something very special between the two; something Chie held very dear.

"They said I could finally get out of the bed!" Chie shouted with glee as she let go of Justin. Her face had a slight pink tint to her cheeks. She was pretty damn excited right now. Justin wished he could return the sentiment; he really did. But he couldn't; his mind was somewhere else entirely. After reading all those things Maya had written down in her journal, he was finding it hard to think of anything else. He wasn't really sure how to feel about it, to be honest. Maya had saved his life; there was no doubt about it. But at what cost? She shot a man dead that day; she was technically a murderer. Justin didn't blame her. It was self-defense, and the guy was a scumbag… But even then he felt sort of uncomfortable around her. He just wasn't sure how to handle the situation at this point. Should he even bring it up? And if he did, what would he say? How would she react? His mind was a mess at this point. What do you do when you find out your best friend is a murderer?

"Well, I meant the hug, but alright…" Justin choked up, his face still beat red with embarrassment, rubbing at his arm a bit. Chie just sort of twisted her head off to the side a bit. Well that was a stupid question; why WOULDN'T she give him a hug? He WAS her boyfriend, and well…

Ah forget it; it's not important right now.

"Well it doesn't hurt so much moving my arms around, now that my rib's all healed." Chie giggled slightly, her eyes closed and her head tipped to the side.

"That… Still doesn't really answer my question." Justin tipped his head a bit. Jesus, Chie seemed to be ignoring the question entirely. Chie's grin faded slightly as she opened her eyes back up, though she was certainly still smiling.

"Well it's always nice knowing I can." She chuckled a bit. Well that's as good a reason as any Justin supposed. Though, what made that the first thing on Chie's list of things to do when she got better was beyond him. He was… Well, flattered, really. It just meant that he was on her thoughts while she laid in that bed for the last week. He just hoped she was thinking of him in a positive light. Chie continued to smile widely at Justin, though that slowly started to fade as she noticed Justin looking off in the distance. His thoughts were clearly somewhere else; and given the look on his face, they weren't entirely pleasant ones. "Hey… Are you okay?" She eventually spoke up, a slight look of concern on her face.

"Huh? Oh, uh… Yeah." Justin stuttered slightly before trying to bullshit Chie. He should know by now that Chie could read him like an open book. Not that he was a very hard person to read anyway, but Chie in particular knew the tell-tale signs of something being very wrong. And Justin was exhibiting them very much right now. She didn't know what happened, but she did know it couldn't possibly be good. She shook her head slightly, placing her hands on her hips.

"C'mon… You can tell me…" She coaxed Justin, calling him out on his fib. Justin sighed slightly, crossing his arms. This wasn't just something he could tell people. We were talking about Maya committing the ultimate crime… Could he really trust Chie with this information? He trusted her with everything really; but he knew what Chie's stance on crime was, and let's face it: Chie didn't have a very high perception of Maya as it was. But that look Chie was giving Justin right now, pleading with him to give up the gist, the look in her eyes that sparkled and pierced through his very heart… Maybe… Maybe she should know. She was better at handling people anyway; she'd know what to do.

"Alright… Fine. But I'm warning you ahead of time; you're not going to like it." Chie's eyes widened almost immediately. Hold on just one second; what the hell was Justin going to say that she wasn't going to like it. Did… Did it pertain to her? _Oh please for the love of god, let me just be imagining things._ Justin could tell she was a bit worried already; he probably could have worded that better. All the same, he couldn't just tell her outright. This was something she needed to see for herself. "Come inside…"

Chie hesitantly walked through the door, grabbing at her wrist a bit as she entered Justin's household. This was the first time she had been here in a while. In a way, it was nostalgic; especially since this was where the really started to hang out when they first started dating. It was quiet, private… Just the two of them together. She wondered if that was an intentional choice on Justin's part, or if he just couldn't think of anywhere else to hang out. I mean, Justin could be a romantic at times; but she wasn't sure that had been one of those times. And besides, nostalgia aside, this wasn't the time for all those warm and fuzzy feelings. She got a sinking feeling as she walked through that door and made her way over to the couch next to Justin. It was quiet for a while as Justin fiddled around with an iPod touch that had been resting on the living room table. It seemed Maya had completely forgotten it this morning. That or she figured she didn't need it. Actually… speaking of Maya…

"Hey… Where's Maya?" Chie questioned. She never really saw her around town, and Justin was always complaining about how she sat in front of that television screen for hours on end. She had just sort of assumed Maya never left the house. It seems that the opposite was the case however. Hell, they wouldn't even be having this conversation right now if she DIDN'T leave the house. Justin sighed a bit having finally found the entry he had been starring at the day before. He contemplated for a moment if he was going to tell Chie the truth... Every fiber of his being said no… But he did anyway.

"That's… sorta what I want to talk about…" Chie's eyes immediately widened. Now, it should have been way too soon to make any conclusion as to what Justin wanted to talk about, but she jumped the gun all the same. The way he had seemed so unreceiving of her embrace at the door, how he hadn't really looked at her despite her recovery, how he nervously brought Maya into the topic. Was Justin dumping her for Maya? _That tramp!_ Chie wasn't sure whether she should cry right now or beat the leaving shit out of Justin. She decided on neither though when Justin passed the iPod in his hand off to Chie. She was confused to say the least.

"Huh? What's this for?" She questioned starring at the iPod. It read December 11, 2009 at the top, followed by a shitload of words. Chie wasn't much of a reader, admittedly, so she was sort of hoping Justin would just give her the summary. He wasn't. This wasn't just something he could explain… You had to read it in Maya's own words to really understand the motivation, everything she had gone through. Justin sighed a bit as Chie looked at the screen trying to decipher what she was looking at.

"It's Maya's iPod. She's been keeping a journal on there for the last five or so years." Justin explained. Chie damn near dropped the thing, trying to throw away the evidence she had been snooping through Maya's shit. Holy shit, this was such an invasion of privacy. Chie started making slight sounds of disgust, as though she had just touched a dead pig fetus or something.

"What the hell are you doing going through her diary!" Chie shouted at Justin.

"Stop. This is important." Chie was going to continue scolding Justin, but when he had made that remark, a very depressed looking expression on his face… Something wasn't quite right. This wasn't just about prying through someone's secrets. This was something much bigger than that, something much more important to Justin. "That's the entry for the day Maya ran away. The big incident in California. It's uh… Got some interesting stuff in there…" Justin continued, avoiding eye contact. He had a lot on his mind, and no doubt staring Chie straight in the eyes would knock him out of his train of thought. It almost always did.

"Wait… you mean…"

"Yeah. I know it's going to be tough, but I need you to read the entire thing." Chie shot her gaze back and forth between the iPod and Justin. He was dead serious, a very grim look on his face. She didn't know what this was about, but clearly it struck Justin in a less than superficial manner. And so, she sighed a bit before starring at the screen, slowly reading the words typed into its database. Justin all the while was stuck there watching her reaction for minutes on end. It was only about two minutes in that her eyes had widened with disbelief.

"She sent the fucking mafia after you!?" Chie shouted. Justin was a little caught off guard by Chie dropping the f-bomb. She VERY rarely swore as it was, thanks to her upbringing, let alone something as heavy as that. Clearly she was caught very off guard by Maya's betrayal. She barely knew Maya, but she did know that she was very close to Justin. Very VERY close. This just didn't seem like her at all. But she didn't care. Nobody hurts Justin like that… NOBODY. Justin just shook his head slightly. He didn't blame Maya for that; really. She had a gun to her head, and she had a choice. And look at it this way; Maya had a family she needed to help, that wasn't making enough income to get by. What did Justin do? Get beaten everyday by his father? Honestly, if his father hadn't died when he did, who even knows… Maybe he would have gotten killed regardless of what Maya chose. It was a choice between the lesser of the two evils, and it just so happened that killing Justin off was the lesser crime. It saddened him a bit, but he understood.

"She had a gun to her head. I don't condone what she did, but I do understand why she did it." Justin casually tried to explain.

"W-Well, yeah, but…"

"Don't hold it against her. She just panicked is all. Besides… That's not the part I'm concerned about." Justin casually explained, nodding back towards the iPod in Chie's hand. "Keep reading." Chie was a little hesitant to listen to Justin's command. She didn't want to read anymore of this shit, especially if Justin claimed it got worse. Her entire perception of Maya had been warped from but a few paragraphs; and Justin said that wasn't the part that worried her. Uh-uh… She wanted out. But looking Justin in the eyes… He needed this… He needed someone to read this and tell him what to do; he just couldn't figure it out on his own.

And so she kept reading. And for a good ten or so minutes the room was silent as Chie read, looks of shock passing and going… Especially when she read Maya had shot and killed Falcone… She… She didn't know what to think anymore. Maya had gone out of her way to correct the mistake she made, saved Justin, and put six bullets through the chest of a corrupt mafia leader. Hell, if she hadn't done anything, Justin could have died that day… But she was still a killer all the same. And that's why she ran. Sure, she thought she was a burden to everyone she loved, but that wasn't quite as much of a driving force as being throw in cuffs for the rest of her life. It was just a wonder the cops never caught her. They must have just not been trying very hard; after all, who cared who killed a mob boss? If anything, they did the community some good.

But… Despite all this; despite being a criminal… She saved Justin. Chie just sat and read that same portion over and over again, where she had dragged Justin out of the building, her lungs damn near collapsing as she strained herself to do what should have been impossible without a gas mask. She killed a man, but in return, she rescued Justin… If it wasn't for Maya, Justin wouldn't be sitting next to Chie today, they would have never fallen for each other… Chie would never really know what it was like to be loved back… Everything about what Maya did was wrong… Yet… Chie couldn't be mad at her. In actuality, she found herself silently thanking Maya in her mind. In a way, Maya had given her the greatest gift… Chie couldn't really believe herself in all honesty; dismissing murder just because she found love in the deal. She must have been the most selfish person in the world right now; but she didn't care. If being selfish meant that she had Justin, then go ahead and call her Scrooge McDuck.

She finished reading only a few minutes later, tears filling her eyes a bit before she handed the iPod back off to Justin. Not for Justin, who she had seen as the true victim in all this, mind you. She shed a tear for Maya. She had done a hero's deed, saved Justin's life, found redemption… And chose to lose it all. She sacrificed her own happiness so that Justin could live in blissful ignorance. Even though she loved him, even though she wanted him. She gave it all up. For him.

"This is awful…!" Chie choked up, her eyes still moist with tears. She didn't really know Maya all that well, all she knew was that Maya had a huge crush on her boyfriend. In a way, she hated her. But not anymore. Now all she could do was pity her poor soul; all she had done and sacrificed to make things right. Maybe she was after Justin, and maybe Chie should be concerned… But she just couldn't find it in here to hate the person who had given Justin his life back. Justin just sort of sighed as he fiddled around with the iPod again, setting it back to the place it had been before Maya left this morning.

"I haven't read anything else… I get a bad feeling it gets worse." Justin mused out loud. Maya didn't even seem to acknowledge that day ever happened when she was around Justin. She didn't seem bothered by Justin wandering the television world again, nor did she seem to make an allusion to shooting a man in cold blood. Though Justin got a bad feeling she wouldn't react very well if she ever saw that Justin carried a piece around on him. However, he did know that Maya refused to eat for some inexplicable reason. And despite being deathly afraid of Kurt, she did go back to see him at least once. He got the feeling that some of these journal entries held the answers to his questions. But he didn't want to read anymore… He just couldn't. He felt his heart break a little bit reading about the incident, and that barely seemed to affect Maya. Now imagine what could have happened that was so bad that she wouldn't eat. He didn't want to hear it.

"So… What are we going to do about this?" Chie questioned a look of deep concern on her face. Justin sighed a bit, twirling around the dog chains that hung from his neck. Justin thought it was a bit strange Maya had held onto his dog tags for him all these years. She had tried to avoid subjugating Justin to this, to her any longer, yet she didn't pawn these off or drop them down a sewer somewhere. Maybe she couldn't really let go… Maybe despite letting Justin live without her, she couldn't really live without Justin. Who knew? That wasn't important right now. They needed to figure out the best way to handle this situation.

"I don't know. She doesn't talk about it. Like it never even happened. But I mean… She killed a man, Chie. What do you say to a murderer?" Justin questioned out loud. She was hoping she would know, but alas, he should have known better. I mean, let's get real for a second here; how the hell was Chie going to know what it was like talking to a murderer? This isn't just something you can relate to, it was something awful that no one should have to deal with. But here they were, debating back and forth on what to do with Maya. Chie starred at Justin for a while, digging through her brain for SOME sort of advice she could give him; but alas, she didn't exactly have any experience with this kind of stuff. She sighed a bit, averting eye contact for a brief moment, starring at the wall across the room from her.

"…Don't say anything." Chie eventually spoke up. Well that wasn't the advice Justin was expecting to get. I mean, Maya had committed murder; this wasn't just some incident they could sweep under the rug… was it? "If she doesn't talk about it… then maybe it's not worth bringing up…" Justin sighed… Chie might very well be right. If she hadn't brought it up by now, maybe she wasn't going to bring it up at all… And maybe that's exactly the way she wanted it to be. After all, she left so that Justin would forget her. Justin remembered her now, right? So it's like nothing had ever happened. And it's not like shooting Falcone was wrong… Just… uncomfortable for everyone who knew…

"But what about the shooting?" Justin questioned. He could drop the whole running away thing; after all, he was sure Maya wouldn't want him to dwell on it. He could drop Maya sending the Mafia after him; she had a gun pressed against her skull and she didn't have a choice. He could even drop Maya saving his life; as much as he wanted to tell her how thankful he was, he knew Maya wouldn't want Justin to mention it. She saved his life because she thought she was the one who fucked it up in the first place. He wasn't sure he could drop the whole shooting thing. She did the right thing, sure, but… He wasn't sure he could just wipe that from his mind. Everytime he looked at Maya now, all he could imagine was Maya pointing a gun at Falcone. Chie shook her head slightly.

"It never happened." Chie responded, as though giving Justin an order. Justin placed his hand along his chin, pondering to himself. Never happened… Could he pretend it never happened? Maya sure as hell seemed to be, or at the very least, she wasn't bothered by her choice. Justin sighed a bit. Maybe… Maybe he should just forget… I mean, what would Maya do if he told her he knew she shot Falcone? Nothing would change if he said nothing; they'd all go on with their lives like nothing happened. But if he did say something… What then? Justin sighed abit.

"So… We just act like nothing happened?" Justin questioned. Chie just nodded timidly. She understood that it would be difficult to forget, but… They had to. Nothing good would come from pursuing this. Maya was no murderer, after all. It happened once and with good reason. They just had to let it go. Justin sighed a bit. "I won't say anything if you won't."

"Deal." Chie remarked. She didn't need convincing. Justin starred at the iPod he had dropped on the table for a while longer.

"I probably should go through the other entries at some point." Justin choked up. He knew the journal held the secrets to all his questions… But he almost didn't want to know. This thing… Maya shooting Falcone down in cold-blood… He got the feeling that wasn't the worst of it; and yet here Chie and Justin were, agreeing never to mention it again, like some forbidden secret. What if he did find out the reason Maya wouldn't eat, and it was horrifying? He didn't want to. But he felt he needed to. At least, he did until Chie placed her hand on Justin's shoulder, grabbing his attention.

"Some things are better off left unsaid…" Chie remarked, sadness in her eyes. She didn't know what the diary said, but she knew only pain and grief lay within its contents. She didn't want Justin beating himself up over something he had no control over. Justin sighed a bit.

"She doesn't eat anymore, Chie. And when she does I hear her vomiting up stairs. This isn't just about ignoring the truth; this is about her health…" Justin choked up, sorrow in his voice. Chie sighed a bit, turning her attention over to the iPod.

"You have a computer, right?" Chie questioned. She had an idea.

"Yeah? Why?" Justin questioned. He was a little confused in all honesty. First of all, of course he had a computer; she KNEW he did, because they e-mailed each other from time to time. Secondly, what did it matter if he had a computer.

"Copy the files over, and send them over to me... I'll read them" Chie replied. She knew Justin didn't want to look at them. Hell she didn't either… but Justin was right. This was something that had to be done. It wasn't just about pretending something awful hadn't happened. It was about making sure Maya was alright. Justin jumped back a bit in his seat, waving his hands about.

"What!? No! Absolutely not! This is my problem, not yours!" Justin shouted in objection. Chie just sighed a bit. She knew Justin wasn't going to be okay with her suggestion. But that didn't mean she wasn't going to do it for him. This was important; too important to ignore just because Justin didn't want to drag Chie into it.

"It's alright Justin. Really." Chie pleaded with him.

"No, no it's not, dammit! I mean look at you. First day out of that bed in a week and here I am dropping this bombshell on you. I've got it covered." Justin objected. Chie just looked at him a sad look in her eyes; hell in both of their eyes. It was eating away at Justin; there was no doubt about it. Hell, he had started calling Maya his sister after all. They had a tight bond, and here was this diary... just ripping away at his heart strings. It was hard enough reading this from Chie's position; imagine reading this about a family member. Chie couldn't help but reach out for Justin, hugging him in a tight embrace; he looked like he really needed one right now. She was right. He was a bit caught off-guard for a moment, but he soon found himself hugging Chie back, a tight grip on her slender body. No words were exchanged for a moment; no words were needed. In that brief moment, it felt like they understood each other perfectly.

"Please Justin… Do it for Maya…" Chie choked up, her head resting next to his ear, her voice whispering softly into his ear. Justin's eyes teared up a little bit, as he stared over Chie's shoulder. Maybe it was the sweet sound of her voice in his ear. Maybe it was the tingling sensation in his body as her body pressed against his. Maybe it was just that she was right. Whatever it was, Justin's heart grew a bit heavy. He didn't want Chie to suffer on his behalf… Yet she did. And she did because she loved him. They were in this together, better or worse.

"…I'll send them over tonight." Justin unwillingly choked up. He didn't want Chie to have to read a damn thing from Maya's journal… But he wasn't sure he could do it himself. He didn't want Chie to suffer… but he didn't want Maya to either. All that talk about training, manning up and becoming braver so he could protect Chie… And he had missed the most obvious problem. It wasn't that he wasn't strong enough… It's that he didn't have the willpower to make that commitment. Everything he felt about the girl in his arms right now… And he couldn't protect her… And that's why he shed tears in their embrace. Because no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't protect her. Not physically. Not emotionally. Not mentally. He was no good to her... Sometimes he wondered if she'd be better off falling for someone else; if they had never fallen for each other. He loved Chie with every fiber of his heart… But he'd rather her be safe than with him… Justin sighed a bit. He needed to be stronger for her. She should never have to sit through this bullshit on his behalf. He just wished he had the strength to tell her 'no.' "I'm sorry Chie…" He apologized. Chie just shook her head abit, her chin digging into his shoulder blade.

"Don't say sorry. You're doing a good thing."

"No, Chie. You're doing a good thing. I'm just the guy sending the files."


	82. Chapter 81: July 4, 2011

CHAPTER 81

July 4, 2011

* * *

"Heyyyyy! There she is!"

Chie blushed slightly as Justin called out to her as she walked through the door. She was expecting to get the drop on her friends, not the other way around. In actuality, Justin had been facing the door to the classroom the entire time, eagerly awaiting Chie's arrival. Why? Who the fuck knew. Love makes you do all sorts of crazy things. Everyone was more than a little excited by her triumphant return though, waving and cheering a bit as she walked in. She was more than a little embarrassed in all honesty; though also sort of happy. She had missed everyone; hell, she even missed Yosuke… _Wait, wasn't bashing on Yosuke Justin's thing? Shit! I'm turning into Justin!_

"Oh, hey guys!" Chie waved awkwardly, holding her books to her chest, her eyes closed.

"Well look who's up and about!" Yu teased, only inciting Chie to blush harder. She really didn't want this to be a big thing; even if it kind of was. You would think missing school for a week would be a blessing; but Chie kind of missed it. She missed putting up with King Moron's idiotic lectures, missed those study sessions the group tried to form, though more often than not, that fell through since Justin didn't study. Ever. Hell, she even missed Justin throwing shit at Yosuke at lunch. Being back at school… It was like coming back to her home away from home.

"Oh, Chie!" Yukiko shouted with glee, a wide grin on her face. She was relieved to see Chie walking about again. "Is you rib alright now?" Chie nodded slightly, rubbing at the back of her head. Considering Justin had been the only one to visit her, she was a little bit surprised by the warm reception she was receiving. She had thought no one really cared, or had forgotten. But here everyone was asking if she was feeling alright, happy to see her on two feet again. It was good to be back

"Yep. Doctor said I could get out of bed yesterday." Chie casually explained as she took her usual seat next to Justin. Class was about to begin in a few moments. Normally, she got there a good ten or so minutes early, so she had time to talk. But even though her rib had healed, it still hurt a bit when she tugged at it the wrong way. It took a little longer to get to school because of it. Everyone smiled at her for a brief moment before the bell rang; after which damn near everyone shot the gaze back to the front of the room, a look of slight fear on their face as King Moron started barking orders at all of them. Justin, however, continued to eye her from his seat; something Chie didn't really notice at first. She passed him a slight glance before looking back towards the front of the room, then starred back at him after it really started to seep in that he was starring at her. "Uh… hello…" Nervously whispered. Did she have something on her face, or what?

"You know, it wasn't quite the same around here with that desk empty." Justin smiled warmly at her. Chie in turn just sort of blushed and immediately shot her glare towards the front of the room. She couldn't stare at that smile for any more than one second, or she'd end up getting butterflies in her stomach again. Besides; was now really a good time to be flirting. King Moron was starring right at them.

"'Aight, shut yer traps! It's time for attendance!"

For a while everyone just sat there, waiting as King Moron walked around the room, tallying everyone's head… And yelling at about half the students for their posture. Justin included; who in turn gave King Moron the middle finger. He had a much snider remark about how his posture was worse than Justin's, but he figured he was too happy today anyway… For the most part anyway. He was happy Chie was back. It was like something was missing from his life every time he came to school and saw that chair empty. He missed her, even if he did stop by to see her after-school every day. Still… He had passed quite a burden on her yesterday… He was kind of concerned in a way. As King Moron continued walking around the room and tallying heads, Justin leaned over slightly to whisper in Chie's ear.

"You get the e-mail?" Justin questioned, not particularly enthused by the topic he had brought up. Chie nodded slightly. She had indeed gotten all the files Justin had sent her. She had started reading a few last night; but she couldn't really read too much in one sitting. There was a lot of tough shit to read. You would think living on your own, no parents would be every kid's dream. No, the reality was much crueler.

Maya didn't sleep the first night, and the second, she slept in a rat infested alleyway. None of them bit her though. She was VERY good with animals. After that, she just sort of slept for short periods of time in restaurants and waiting rooms for various businesses. And then soon after that… A run down car that had been abandoned on the side of the road. It was hidden in the foliage, so no one ever found it or towed it away. That was where Maya lived for the next year or two of her life. You would think sleeping on an old, bent up car would be difficult… No, it was much better than the first few days, that was for sure.

For food… Well, she just sort of ate what she could find. Generally, she was never that far away from a McDonalds, so when she got hungry, she just sort of walked over there. She didn't have any money, mind you; but you didn't need money to dig through the trash. It was amazing how much food people threw out. Though all of it just made Maya vomit a bit. At least she held enough down in her stomach to keep going.

She managed to scrape money together; but alas, she never spent it on things she really needed. She spent it all on getting cigarettes. She tried to go without them; she really did. But her addiction was too deeply rooted with in her by now. She couldn't quit, no matter how hard she tried. And so, she went back to Kurt once, rather reluctantly too. Kurt tried to talk her out of what she was doing, but she didn't care. He was the one who started all this; it was his fault Justin was in a coma, why she had to kill a man, why she had to run. All of it was his faults. And so after that exchange, she cut all ties with him, instead finding other dealers in the same line of business. Most of them were… Less than friendly. Apparently a girl Maya's age should know better than to try and score smokes off of these people.

"Yeah. Started reading some of it…" Chie choked up, a little caught off guard by the sudden question. She figured she would just tell Justin if she found out anything. After all, Justin didn't want her digging through those folders; that was for damn sure. "Nothing really jumped out at me though…" Chie figured Justin was only really interested in what was causing Maya to stop eating after all. She hadn't figured it out yet; so everything else wasn't worth mentioning. Even if it was pretty sad. Justin nodded a bit. In a way, he was relieved that it hadn't gotten worse; yet concerned that they'd never find the information they needed to help Maya… But he was jumping the gun. He had given her one night to dig through two years of journal entries. She needed more time. Besides; there was no reason to dwell upon that now. Chie was back here with him, sitting beside him; her bright attitude illuminating the room. School just wasn't the same with her gone, that was for sure.

Maybe today he'd actually pay attention in class. He was in a good mood.

"Quiet you two! This is a school, not a zoo!" Actually strike that. No paying attention. Ever. "'Aight, everyone head to class. And don't you dare let me find any lollygaggers out there in the hallway!" Justin raised an eyebrow in slight confusion. Get to class? They always stayed here for class. What class was this and where the hell were they going? Hell, everyone seemed to understand what was going on EXCEPT for Justin. Everyone stood up to get ready, save Justin, who simply watched as all of his friends stood up to get out of their seats.

"Wait… What? What class?" Justin spoke up in confusion, as everyone sort of circled around him.

"Well art elective, dude." Yosuke spoke up, perplexed by Justin's stupid question. "What'd you end up picking anyway?"

"Pick!? When the fuck did this happen!?" Justin shouted in panic. No seriously, when the hell did they pick an art elective. Did he miss some paperwork when he signed up for this school? Or was he just not paying attention in class. Everyone sort of passed Justin a look of shock and concern. He sounded like he didn't have an elective; which could be problematic.

"Wait, you didn't pick anything for this quarter?" Chie questioned, her eyes wide with disbelief.

"It's midway through the quarter and they're just drooping this on us now!?" Justin was really fucking confused. "And seriously, when the hell did we pick!?"

"It's only for a few weeks. Something to do with the art budget. And they told you to pick last week… Weren't you paying attention?" Yosuke mocked Justin, knowing full well he hadn't been. But wait… last week? Then Chie hadn't picked hers yet either, right? He could just follow her. Obviously whatever it was she was doing, he'd be able to sort this out there. "Well… Doesn't music take late applications?"

"That's where I'm heading." Chie remarked, her hands on her hips as she pondered in her head what to do with Justin. Justin of course had heard 'music' and 'late applications' and had made up his mind already. I mean, how hard could it be? He already played an instrument, he already knew all the old bands; NOTHING they did in that class could possibly be difficult.

Unless they asked Justin to read sheet music. He was clueless as far as that went.

"Well then I guess it's settled. Music it is…" Justin sighed a bit. He was gonna pick music anyway, that was for sure; he just would have liked a choice. Chie seemed somewhat pleased to be in the same class as Justin; though whether that was because she was enthused to be in another class with her boyfriend, or because she knew about Justin's musical skills was another question entirely. "You know the way right?" Justin asked as he turned towards Chie. He sure as hell had no idea where this class was being held; but she sure as hell seemed like she did. Mostly because she nodded her head and made a grunt of confirmation.

"Well I guess that's solved." Yosuke crossed his arms a bit. "Alright, so Chie and Justin are doing music. What about you guys?" Yosuke questioned Yu and Yukiko.

"I'm doing music too." Yukiko nodded slightly. Well, now three-fifths of them were doing music.

"The band teacher's sort of forcing me to join music. I guess he needs a hand or something." Yu sighed. He didn't want to pick music, since he did that afterschool on a regular basis. He wanted to do something different, like drama, or visual arts. Yosuke, on the other hand seemed pretty caught of guard that everyone was taking music.

"What? Really? I'm the only one taking drama?" Yosuke sighed slightly. Well this sucks. He was expecting at least SOMEONE else to be in drama with him. After all; drama sounded like it would be a blast if they all tried to act like cheesy b-movie actors. Since that's pretty much what the extent of most of their acting prowess was anyway. "Geeze, now I'm just gonna look like an ass."

"What makes you think that?" Chie questioned. She didn't really get that Yosuke couldn't act to save his life. Or if he did, he sure as hell wasn't acting around any of them. Not a single person in their group could lie worth a shit. Except maybe Yu. He had one mean poker face.

"Wha- I can't act!" Yosuke shouted, sort of caught off guard by the question.

"And you think we can?" Justin questioned from his desk, an eyebrow raised in curiosity. Yosuke shook his head.

"Well maybe YOU can, Shakespeare, but I was sort of hoping to get paired with someone just as bad as me." Yeah, Justin wasn't sure who should be insulted more; him or everyone else.

"Shakespeare? What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Justin questioned. He couldn't act worth a shit, and god knows he couldn't write. So what in the fuck was that insult supposed to mean.

"You know what I mean. That thing you did in the television one time; you had that entire speech memorized."

"I have the entire play memorized; what's your point?" Justin was a little irritated as damn near everyone looked like they were trying to do a spit take, but didn't have the drink to do it. What the hell was wrong with memorizing Hamlet? It was a good play.

"You have the entire thing memorized!? Oh man, what is wrong with you." Yosuke jabbed at Justin. Justin in turn simply stood up from his desk. Yosuke immediately got the implications and shut the hell up. Still, some of the others were curious; Yukiko in particular since she actually DID read Hamlet.

"You have it all memorized?" Yukiko questioned with surprise. Justin was not the kind of guy she would imagine enjoying Shakespeare. Justin only sighed with irritation. _Yes, I have it memorized, how many times do I have to fucking say it._ After all, God only knows Justin had read Hamlet one too many times. Forcefully or otherwise.

"YES." Justin remarked, very much annoyed at this point.

"Wanna recite something?" Yu remarked, a smug look on his face.

"NO."

"The lady doth protest too much, methinks. Just do it, you pansy." Yosuke continued to insult Justin. Normally he would have just socked Yosuke right in the eye; but today… Something was holding him back. No, he wasn't going to let Yosuke bring him down again. Even if that had to be the most hypocritical remark he had ever heard. Who insults someone for memorizing Hamlet… By QUOTING HAMLET!? Justin sighed a bit.

"Give me that man that is not passion's slave, and I will wear him in my heart's core, in my heart of heart, as I do thee." Justin quoted, slightly embarrassed. It wasn't really relevant at all, of course; but that's what happens when someone asks you to quote Hamlet for no goddamned reason. Still, his short remark was met by the slight clapping of his friends.

"Nice." Yu remarked, a smile on his face. _Seriously. Stop it you people_._ This isn't a big deal._

"Yeah fantastic, now can we all shut up?" Justin remarked with irritation as he grabbed his bag from the side of his desk. It was true that the still had to get to class, and they had sort have been harassing Justin to quote Hamlet for the last two minutes instead of doing what they were supposed to. And so with that Justin marched out the door. Only to stop and wait for the rest of the group when he realized he had no idea where he was going. Embarrassment at its finest.

* * *

"You're late."

The four of them all walked through the door, slightly embarrassed to have just missed the bell by a few seconds. It was an unintentional mistake; honest. Justin sighed a bit as him and Chie approached the instructor, Yukiko and Yu taking their seats since they were already signed up.

"Um… Excuse me sir… We'd like to sign up for this class." Chie tried to explain, not only on her behalf, but Justin's as well. A smart move all things considered. Justin just sort of nodded in agreement as the teacher stared up from his seat at the two. He had a rough beard, and curly hair. Justin wanted to describe it as a 'fro' but it really wasn't even close to being as long as that. Just the same basic shape and everything. And he was wearing those same sunglasses Ozzy wore; you know, the really round ones? Yeah those.

"And why aren't you signed up already?" The teacher questioned. You would think he was being rude, but he wasn't. What he was saying was rude as fuck, mind you; it was the tone he said it in that changed its intention. He was being sarcastic; like he didn't really care if they signed up or not.

"Oh, well, I was out of school all last week, and Justin-"

"I was sticking it to the man." Justin joked, throwing his fist in the air as though he were making a legitimate statmenet. Chie could almost feel the sweat drop from the back of her head, her cheeks red with embarrassment. Okay; that was NOT at all the answer she was expecting Justin to give… And yet, it was COMPLETELY what she should have expected. The teacher just looked at Justin for a while, a stern look in his eyes, before suddenly grinning a wide grin and chuckiling.

"Oh I like you already. What's your name, kid?" He asked, his white teeth damn near blinding Justin as he held out his hand to greet him.

"Justin Tylor."

"Natsuko Kentaro" The teacher remarked, shaking his hand only briefly. "Alright, take your seats you two." Chie bowed immediately, grateful that this wasn't going to be a big deal. She then also promptly dragged Justin back to his seat. She should have known better to bring Justin into a music classroom. That's where he got all of his awful awful ideas from, really. Justin would normally be embarrassed to be manhandled by his girlfriend in public like that; but in actuality, it was kind of funny after his little rebellious remark. Justin just sort of shrugged as she dragged him by the collar, as though to say 'Women; wattaya gonna do?' The teacher, strangely enough, also found this very humorous.

Chie and Justin promptly took their seats next to Yu and Yukiko in the far back. You would think Yu would be sitting closer towards the front if the teacher wanted him, but alas, t'was not the case. Yu just sort of shook his head, a grin on his face as Chie tugged Justin into his seat, a slight glare on her face, her cheeks glowing red. He didn't hear what Justin said, but he did see him throwing his fist into the air. He could only assume he said something very very stupid. Typical Justin.

"Nice going Justin. You realize how much trouble we could have gotten into?" Chie scolded Justin, her arms crossed, a glare on her face. Justin just shrugged. It was a music teacher; they generally only fell into certain archetypes; and honestly, this looked like one of those hippie music teachers that hated the music industry, and didn't listen to anything after the 80's. Justin's favorite kind of music teacher.

"Alright everybody, settle down. My name's Natsuko Kentaro, and I'll be your instructor for the next two weeks. Now, show of hands, how many people here play a musical instrument?" Mr. Kentaro questioned the class, walking about in the front with his hands behind his back. Justin was a little surprised to see every single one of his friends raise their hand. Yu was obvious of course, he just didn't expect that from Yukiko and Chie. Chie especially.

"You play an instrument?" Justin questioned in an aside to Chie. Her face was a bit red. Actually, she had been a bit hesitant to put her hand up too; like she was embarrassed to admit she played an instrument. Though, it actually just might have been her choice of instrument that had embarrassed her so much. It wasn't a bad choice, mind you… Just not as flattering as lead guitar.

"Bass." She choked up, trying to hide her red cheeks using her shoulders. She really should stop doing that; it didn't help. If anything, it just made her look absolutely adorable… Actually, you know what, strike that previous remark; keep doing what you're doing Chie. All the same Justin couldn't help but smile very widely at that.

"Fucking knew it!" Justin exclaimed. "You were looking at those bass guitars for a reason."

"Hey, shut up…" She choked up, still very much embarrassed. She didn't like to admit she played bass guitar of all things. Most people just assumed it was for the people who didn't have the talent to play a guitar. Very much the opposite was true, however. Bass took a hell of a lot more talent than it did to strum a few chords. You just wouldn't notice how complex it was because you almost never hear it over the lead guitar.

"It fits you." Justin smiled at her. She didn't know what that meant, but she'd try to take it as a compliment . "How 'bout you Yukiko?"

"Piano." Well that's pretty predictable, all things considered. But hey, whatever. He wasn't judging. The keyboard was an essential part to a lot of his favorite songs and bands. I mean come on. Where would Queen and ELO be without their keyboard players? Now that just left Yu. No one knew what he played. Justin gave a slight nod over to him.

"Trumpet. You?"

"Guitar."

"Alright then. I see a good chunk of you already play instruments. Good; less time I'll need to spend on that. Alright then; tell me, what kinds of bands do like? Favorite songs? Feel free to shout out." Mr. Kentaro continued. Justin was a little disgusted by all the shouts of pop or 'Green Day.' Was Green Day even fucking relevant anymore? All the same, Mr. Kentaro didn't seem very pleased with their choices.

"The Black Keys." Chie shouted with the rest of the crowd. Oh believe me Chie, we already knew that. Still, at least it was an improvement over everyone else. Still, it seemed Mr. Kentaro didn't know who they were. Mostly because he probably DIDN'T listen to music after the 80's. Which is why Justin was probably going to be the most likeable person in the room for him.

"Good thing you didn't say System of a Down." Justin remarked sarcastically in an aside to Chie. Chie's eyes widened a bit. Oh he had seen the posters in her room alright. System of a Down was somewhat of a… guilty pleasure for her. Like she knew she probably shouldn't like that stuff, but she did. And she wasn't too pleased having that thrown out into the open like that.

"Shush!" Chie commanded Justin. Justin in turn just chuckled a bit. He was expecting that kind of reaction to be honest. System of a Down is just not the kind of band you go around bragging about liking. Especially not when they have songs like Cigaro and Violent Pornography. Those were… uh… interesting. To say the least anyway.

"Classic rock." Justin eventually shouted out. Now that was something this teacher could get behind. He knew he was going to like Justin right from the get go; thought that was certainly confirmed now. The teacher smiled a bit; it was like he wasn't going to have to teach Justin a damn thing.

"Alright then. We've got some interesting tastes in this room." The teacher delicately put it. That was one way of calling everybody's music shit. "Here, however, we're going to be learning about good old fashioned rock and roll." Everyone passed a slight glance at Justin, since he had been the only one to list rock as their favorite genre. Justin simply put on that 'fuck you all, I'm better than you' expression in response. "We're going to be starting off with some music history and by the end of this quarter I expect we'll be working with instruments. Some of you already have the advantage on that. I'll give you more details on that project later though. In the mean time, everyone take out some note books and get ready to take some notes. Now, who here knows Led Zepplin?"

"Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones, and John Bonham. Mothership was the best album; and yes I know that it's a compilation. Next." Justin remarked out loud. Honestly, everyone was a little surprised that he had answered that like some sort of quiz question; as a challenge almost. Partially because it was. Mr. Kentaro chuckled a bit as he walked up to Justin. If it's a showdown he wanted, it's a showdown he'd get.

"Alright then; How 'bout the Who?"

"Pete Townshend and Keith Moon, British rock band, invented the power slide, Tommy was overrated, it's only teenage wasteland." Justin listed off throwing in his snide opinions as well as facts. Honestly, Mr. Kentaro seemed to love that about him. He had attitude; something modern musicians just seemed to lack in his eyes. He had the passion, that was for sure.

"ZZ Top?"

"Everyone has a very long beard except for the drummer, who is ironically named Eric Beard."

"Electric Light Orchestra?"

"Believe me; I can go all day on that one." Justin remarked snidely. He already had the 'Disco? Very!' joke in mind. The teacher laughed abit waving his arm. It was clear Justin knew his shit, no need to keep drilling him on the matter.

"Well I guess you can just sleep through these seminars; unless you're unfamiliar with Aerosm-"

"Ragdoll, Love in an Elevator, Walk this Way, Back in the Saddle, Livin' on the Edge, Dream On, Janie's got a Gun, Same Old Song and Dance, Sweet Emotion, Train Kept a Rollin'; please, stop me when you get the point." Justin interrupted. The teacher just continued to laugh before making his way back to the front of the room. Everyone else, however was starring at Justin like he just grew a second head. Including Chie. "What?"

"Jesus, how much do you know about this stuff?" Chie asked with curiosity. It was no secret that they were pretty much going to be lectured on 'good music.' Why then had Justin even taken this class if he knew this stuff already? Unless he just sort of figured this was the only class he could get into. Maybe he just figured he wouldn't have to do any work.

"Probably more than the bands themselves know."

"You don't think that's weird?"

"Would you rather I start quoting Shakespeare again?"


	83. Chapter 82: July 5, 2011

CHAPTER 82

July 5, 2011

* * *

"Come on, it'll be fun!"

"Absolutly not!"

Justin and Chie were standing around in the arcade, where Justin had successfully navigated to the DDR cabinet. He had just found out about this place from Yosuke, so he was a little eager to see what this place was like. And holy crap was it grand. They had all the best kinds of games: House of the Dead, Metal Slug, that old X-Men arcade game, Marvel vs. Capcom; hell, they had Pac-Man, for Christ's sake! This was by all accounts what every arcade should be like; and it was in a fucking mall of all places. Oh, boy, Justin was in love the second he walked through that door, that was for sure.

But selection of games aside, there Justin and Chie were, standing next to the DDR machine, arguing back and forth on whether or not they should be playing it. Justin was obviously for it; Chie was very vocally against it for some reason. Probably because she didn't want to look like an idiot. Justin couldn't understand why not; wasn't that half the fun of DDR? Besides, Justin was going to make himself look like an idiot too, so it's not like people were going to be laughing at her or anything. If anyone was going to laugh at anyone, it was going to be Justin. He couldn't dance to save his life.

"Why not?" Justin questioned, sounding like a stubborn child at a toy store when his parents said 'No.' Chie just shook her head and crossed her arms.

"Justin, my rib DOES still hurt you know." Chie explained, pinching at her forehead slightly. Justin only chuckled a bit at that.

"We'll pick an easy song then. And you can always tap out if it starts to hurt." Justin continued to try and persuade her. Of course, he had realized by this point that Chie was not going to be convinced by words and logic; not matter what he said. But that's okay; he had a plan.

"For the last time Justin, I said n-" Chie was visibly irritated at this point; though a bit more when she was cut off mid-sentence by Justin dropping a token in her side of the machine. Despite all her objections, he still put the cash in. Say what you will about Justin, but he always knew how to force you to do something you didn't want to. Chie's jaw just hung loose for a moment, starring at the slot the Justin had put a coin in, and then back at Justin, a wide smirk on his face. "…You ass."

"Well the money's in the machine now." Justin smirked widely, grabbing Chie by the wrist and dragging her up onto the dance pad. Her face was a bit red at this point, despite the glare on her face. She wasn't going to let Justin waste his money, but that didn't mean she wanted to do this at all. She was going to have to kill Justin at some point. "C'mon. You'll have fun, I promise. And if you don't, I'll buy you a steak."

"You realize I'm purposely going to go out of my way to not have fun now, right?" Chie joked slightly, her eyebrows curving up. She was still embarrassed to be up there right now, but if she was going to do this, she was going to at least look like she wasn't doing this begrudgingly. Even if she sort of was. Justin chuckled a bit before plopping the tokens in for his side of the machine and turning his attention towards the screen.

"Let's see… Something easy… I don't recognize a single one of these songs." Justin remarked sarcastically to himself. He realized that pretty much everything on these machines was Japanese pop; but that was sort of a problem. Japanese pop was hectic as all fuck; they'd fall off their feet in a matter of seconds picking any of that. And besides, these machines always had at least ONE song he recognized. He'd find it if it killed him. "Techno, techno, techno, pop, bubble gum pop crap, techno, techn- HERE WE GO!" Justin shouted a bit as he finally eyed something he recognized. And thank the lord it was a fairly slow song; they'd no doubt be able to play it no problem.

_Rio – Duran Duran_

"Never heard of it." Chie remarked, looking at the name of the song on the screen. Justin just chuckled a bit as he pressed the okay button.

"Believe me. You have." Chie just shrugged a bit before moving to the center of her dance pad. Justin fiddled around with the difficulty options; setting his own difficulty to the max (not that he could play that well, he just wanted to look stupid) and Chie's to normal. He probably should have dropped that down a bit more. All the same, Justin finished messing around with the screen before jumping back to his dance pad, and turning towards Chie, a wide grin on his face. "You ready?"

"Not really, no." Chie admitted. She wasn't good at these types of games when she DIDN'T have an injured rib. Justin just smiled though. He was going to have fun, and hopefully so would she.

The two stared at the screen for only a brief moment more before the music kicked in, a few arrows spawning from the bottom of the screen; only about three at a time at first. Nothing difficult, even for Justin, who was on the highest difficulty. Chie all the same was still a bit embarrassed to be throwing her legs around like this in time to the notes on the screen. Which was a bit odd when you considered the fact that she wasn't the least bit embarrassed about kicking people in public, or training in public.

The two continued to hit the first few notes at a time; somewhat surprised at how easy it was. And then the bass kicked in; and all shit went loose damn near immediately. Chie still only had those three notes, mind you; but Justin had a good six or so notes at a time, some of which he had to hit two arrows at the same time, some where he had to keep his foot planted on one of the steps. He was very clearly having trouble keeping up. Chie was somewhat grateful to be on easy right now; but alas, even her little safety net couldn't last for long. Three notes eventually turned to four; then five. She was a lot less skilled than Justin at this, plus she still needed to keep her rib in mind. It wasn't long before their legs were getting tangled up.

"I thought you said this was going to be easy!" Chie shouted as she struggled to keep up with the notes on screen. Talking only made her struggle keeping up more.

"I thought it was!" Justin shouted back. The notes weren't even close to accurate on his end anymore; there were just steps every which way and that. And if the point was to make it look like he could dance; they were failing hard. Even if Justin's legs weren't getting caught up in each other, he doubted this would look like a competent dance.

_Moving on the floor now babe you're a bird of paradise._

_Cherry ice cream smile - I suppose it's very nice_

_With a step to your left and a flick to the right_

_You catch that mirror way out west_

_You know you're something special and you look like you're the best..._

Justin continued to pound away at the steps in front of him, while Chie grabbed at her side slightly. This really was not doing wonders for her rib. She should have just tapped out; but she didn't want to look like she wasn't TRYING at the very least. Besides; Justin was making an ass out of himself expecting the same out of her. She really shouldn't have been returning the favor, but she was. Oh and let me tell you something; there was no reason to map the keyboard to Justin's note chart. He couldn't move his legs that fast. At all.

_Her name is Rio and she dances on the sand._

_Just like that river twisting through a dusty land._

_And when she shines she really shows you all she can_

_Oh Rio, Rio dance across the Rio Grande..._

And that was where the game ended. Oh no, I don't mean the song was finished or they had managed to play the whole chart. I mean both Justin and Chie had managed to trip over their legs at almost the exact same time, falling over towards each other, and onto the ground. Justin went down first, followed by Chie landing on him. And knocking the air out of him too, if he might add. Holy shit; either she was pure muscle or she weighed a fucking ton. Justin groaned a bit as Chie tried to force herself up off of Justin's back. Justin would have been laughing hysterically at this if it didn't hurt so much. Justin had Chie lying down on top of him; and Chie managed to hit her rib cage on the way down. It wasn't going to kill her or break it again or anything like that, but it still hurt like a bitch.

"I'll tell you something, I know what you're thinking." Justin groaned as Chie gave up trying to push her body mass off of Justin for a moment. It was pretty goddamn embarrassing to be in this position, but to be honest, she didn't care. She was too exhausted right now to move.

"And that would be?" Chie sighed slightly.

"No more DDR. Just ski-ball." Justin groaned. Chie just sort of nodded a bit, her chin poking into Justin's rib in the process.

* * *

"Jesus Justin; stop shooting everything."

The two had spent the last few hours playing various games around the arcade. The still hadn't touched ski-ball, strangely enough, but that's mostly because they were too busy trying to beat one of those light-gun games they had. It wasn't one of the big name ones, mind you, but it had two guns, and that's really all they needed. The problem was that Justin had gotten so good at aiming and shooting a real gun that playing these fictional shooters was hardly a challenge. He was shooting everything before Chie even got a chance to aim. And that was with one gun. You should have seen what happened when Chie had to go to the bathroom and he started using both guns while she was gone.

"Last time I let you take the lead, you shot all the hostages." Justin remarked sarcastically, blasting away another sprite of some masked vaguely-evil terrorist. Chie's score was not going up by much; that was for sure. The only time she managed to get a shot in was when Justin was reloading; which he very rarely did because he always managed to get the machine-gun power up.

"I said it was an accident. Jeeze!" Justin laughed a bit at how worked up Chie was getting over this. Like this was a life or death situation. That people were legitimately at risk here, though she didn't seem quite that torn up about shooting damn near every hostage on screen. Just embarrassed. Basically, Chie should never ever join SWAT. Ever.

"And this is why I handle the guns." Justin remarked snidely, firing off one more digital shot before holstering the gun again. They had reached the end of the level, and were watching the points fly to the appropriate players. Mostly Justin. Chie sighed in slight defeat as she holstered her gun as well. There were still a few levels left in the game, but she didn't really want to play anymore. She was a sore loser; she'd gladly admit it.

"Mark that off as one more game I suck at." Chie grumbled to herself. Justin smirked only slightly at that. He didn't like that whole self-pity thing Chie was pulling here; but he kinda DID beat her at something. That was just his ego talking apparently. Justin shrugged slightly as the two marched off towards another part of the arcade. "So how's not paying attention in music working for you?" Chie joked, trying to make some small talk. Justin shrugged a bit.

"It's not as glamorous as you think." Justin remarked. He was hoping to learn more; but he should have known better when he pretty much spent half his life dedicated to hating new music and liking all the old stuff. Chie of course took that as meaning something entirely different.

"You get to sleep all day instead of being told your taste in music sucks. How is that not glamorous?" Chie questioned, placing her hands on her hips, the two stopping in the middle of an aisle of arcade cabinets. Justin raised his eyebrow slightly, a little caught off guard that Chie was interrogating him over sleeping in class.

"Because it's boring as fuck. At least you guys get to keep busy." Justin countered. Sure, he did get to listen when the teacher played his old CD's, which was a-okay with Justin since he like that kind of music; but it was still boring as fuck being told about how The Beatles were inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Actually, just hearing about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was a joke. What, Rush and Electric Light Orchestra aren't worthy, but some fucking rapper is? The whole place was just one big joke. Chie shrugged slightly. She supposed that was true; writing shit in her notebook DID keep her occupied. Even if it was all stuff she didn't care about. "Any idea what the project's supposed to be about?"

"Didn't he say something about instruments?" Chie questioned. She had no idea what the project was; but given that they haven't gotten any details, and the class only lasted a few weeks, it couldn't be anything really complex, could it? It's just strange to say you need to know how to play an instrument for this project. Not everyone could pick up a guitar and be a musical prodigy. Though she supposed that's what the cowbells were for.

"Battle of the Bands. Calling it right now." Justin smirked slightly. Chie's eyebrows shot up slightly. Was that going to be it? It… kinda made sense really. They would be playing their instruments most likely, right? So what other place would they do that than a live performance of some sort? She just hoped it wasn't. She didn't want people to know she played bass. It's not a very respectable instrument, even though it really should be. I mean, come on. The bass is an ESSENTIAL part of the band. People just act like no one gives a damn about the bass player. Mostly because a lot of people don't.

"I hope not…" Chie sighed a bit as they continued onwards. The two continued walking forward, spotting a Big Game Hunter machine. Now that was something Chie could get behind. That wasn't a competition after all. But alas, when she dipped her hand into her pocket, she was all out of tokens. "Ah crap…" Justin immediately shoved his hand into his pocket to try and find some tokens himself. He found one; nowhere near enough needed to play a game of Big Game Hunter. He just starred at the token with slight disappointment in his eyes.

"Well… guess that's that." He sighed. He'd just go buy more tokens, but he really didn't have the money. He had set aside a slight fund on Maya's behalf. After he read that her jacket was pretty much covered in smoke and ash, he had started to save up a bit to get her something new. He didn't want Maya to think he was trying to pity her or anything; but she was still jobless, and still wore that same pair of clothes every day. If she couldn't afford to get some clothes; Justin would make the effort on her behalf. He sighed a bit. Just thinking about Maya now put him in a sour mood. He felt really bad about everything she went through. In a way, it was all his fault. If he didn't exist… Well… Maybe Maya would have never run from home. Maybe she would have stayed, lived a better life than she had. "Hey Chie…"

"Yeah?" Chie questioned as Justin placed the token back in his pocket. She already understood that their arcade session was pretty much over. Still, that wasn't really what bothered her. What bothered her was the disheartened expression on Justin's face.

"Thanks for everything you're doing for Maya… I know it's tough, but…" Justin tried to apologize to the best of his ability. He didn't like Chie doing what she was doing. He should be the one seeping through those files, not her. Chie smiled slightly, extending her arms to hold Justin's hand between hers.

"Stop thanking me so much. We'll get to the bottom of this, I promise." Chie smiled warmly at Justin. There was really nothing to smile about; Maya went through some horrible, horrible things. And with each passage, it seemed to just get worse. She felt her heart grow heavy with every word she read from those files; yet she pressed on. Maya needed her to after all. Where before she had nothing but disdain for Maya, Chie found a new respect for Maya after everything she read. Still, despite all the horrible things Chie read; she found some comfort in knowing that Justin trusted her to help him on this. She was the ONLY one he trusted on it infact. It said wonders about their relationship where Justin could share his pains and suffering with Chie, let her know everything that he and Maya was going through. It was like… There were no boundries. No walls they needed to really overcome. They trusted each other completely.

"I know. I just hate having to make you do this, you know? I should be the one going through those files, not you." Justin choked up under his breath. He trusted that Chie would get to the bottom of this; that wasn't what concerned him. What concerned him were Chie's feelings; everything she was emotionally forcing herself to go through by reading those entries. Justin wished he was less of a pussy and would just man up and read the other entries himself. To take the burden off of Chie's shoulders. But alas, no matter how many times he tried to say to her 'stop,' all he could squeak out were apologies and thanks.

"C'mon now. We're doing this together. Stop apologizing so much." Chie remarked, a slightly troubled look in her eyes. She knew Justin didn't like forcing this on her; she really did. But she was doing this for him because she COULD handle it, because she WANTED to help him. This wasn't him forcing her to do anything. This was her doing what any good friend would do; this was her sharing in his troubles and concerns. She just wanted Justin to know that he wasn't doing this alone. "You know Justin, I said something to you a long time ago…"

"Huh?"

"You don't have to do everything on your own…" Chie smiled a bit at Justin. Justin gasped silently under his breath. She had said that to him… It was the day he had gotten a concussion in the television. She had to drag him to the hospital, since he refused to go on his own accord. He didn't know what that meant back then… He still didn't really… But she was right. He didn't have to do everything on his own. He had the investigation team, and Yu, and especially Chie. He wasn't in this alone; he never was. So then why did he constantly insist on doing everything by himself?

Maybe he was just afraid. Of what? Who knows? Maybe he was afraid that if he didn't do everything, solve his own problems… People would disappear. When he dropped this burden on Chie's shoulders… He hadn't feared for her feelings. He had feared that she would want out; that she wouldn't want to be tangled up in that mess. And with that, she would leave… Justin never had friends. Maya was the first. And when trouble found its way to them… She left… He didn't want to lose anyone else. He didn't want to lose Chie.

She was all he had.

Justin sighed slightly as he turned his attention up to Chie, a light smile on his lips, though his eyes were slightly wet from holding back tears. "You're right… You're absolutely right…" Justin chuckled slightly, laughing at his own ignorance. How could he be so blind to the truth. These were his friends; they would stand by him till the end if they needed to. 'Cause if they didn't… Well, maybe they weren't really his friends. But after all they've gone through so far; after all they've done trying to solve the murder… They were in this to the end. They were the best of friends. Even Yosuke. "Thanks, Chie."

"Thanks? F-For what?" Chie blushed slightly. She wasn't sure what she had said to warrant thanks. She just hoped this wasn't still about her looking through the files.

"A lot of things really. Being there for one." Justin blushed slightly, though where as usually he had tried to shoot his glare elsewhere when he had been so flustered, he found himself staring straight into Chie's eyes this time around. Chie was in all honesty caught a bit off guard; her cheeks turning pink, flustered by the sudden show of affection.

"W-Well of course I'm there for you Justin… I…" Chie opened her mouth, trying to vocalize her thoughts; though everytime she tried to force the words she wanted to out of her mouth, she just couldn't do it. She wanted to. Every fiber of her being wanted to. But she couldn't. It's like the words were sticking to her throat every time she went to say them. It was alright though. Justin understood what she wanted to say as he pulled her towards him, hugging her tightly. "Wha- H-Hey…!" She stuttered with embarrassment. They were in public right now; people could be watching. Justin didn't care though. The whole world could watch for all he gave a damn.

"Chie... I want you to know something..." Justin whispered softly in her ear, his chin pressed softly into her shoulder blade. Chie's cheeks grew hotter as she could feel his warm breath against her ear, his grip along her torso tightening slightly. As though he never wanted to let go. Or maybe just that he was afraid to let go. Chie's arms still rested by her side, however. She wasn't sure how to react to such a public display of expression. It wasn't that she was ashamed or anything. In fact, the complete opposite was true. She was proud of their relationship, proud of what they were and what they had become. It was just... Their relationship wasn't just for show. It was something very intimate for her. She didn't need the world to know; she just wanted to keep their love between each other.

"Y-yeah?" She questioned, still a little thrown off by this exchange of affection in the middle of an arcade. As Justin held her tighter and closer, she could feel his heart thumping, beating against his chest. It pumped slowly, but with such great intensity. Justin smiled a bit from the spot on Chie's shoulder he had been resting his head on.

"You're the best thing that's ever happened to me."

Chie gasped silently under her breath. She... Never quite understood just how much she meant to him until he had vocalized his feelings like that. I mean, obviously they had something special... But the best thing? She... Was the best thing to happen to Justin? Chie's cheeks glew the softest shade of pink you could possibly imagine, her heart lept for joy almost instantaneously. Her stomach fluttered with more feelings than she could possibly comprehend. All she knew was that she was happy. Very happy. It took a second, and while she hesitated slightly as she lifted her arms, she soon had wrapped her arms around Justin in turn, holding him tightly to her chest, resting her head next to his.

Their relationship was a private thing; always was, always would be. It was like an intimate secret between two lovers; so beautiful because only they were in on it. But that day, they embraced each other in one of the most loving embrace they ever had. And they didn't give a damn who was watching, observing their softly spoken secrets between each other. Their secret was in no danger.

After all, no one would ever understand quite how they felt about each other that day.


	84. Chapter 83: July 6, 2011

CHAPTER 83

July 6, 2011

* * *

_I don't care how much I pay._

_Too much, the Magic Bus._

_I wanna drive my bus to my baby each day._

_Too much, the Magic Bus._

It was music class again, only this time, everyone who already owned an instrument was supposed to bring it in. The obvious exception being Yukiko, since she couldn't carry an entire piano; and it's not like she owned a keyboard. Thank god Mr. Kentaro had anticipated a few students would need a keyboard. I mean, they weren't fancy or anything; just those cheap keyboards you could find in any music store; the ones where despite having 80 something different 'instruments' on it, all sounded exactly the same.

Well regardless; class hadn't begun yet and Justin was fiddling around on his guitar, playing various songs he could remember as he tried to pass the time. He had sort of hoped the others would play their own instruments, do their own thing; all that stuff. Instead they just sort of watched him as he made an ass out of himself; trying to sing along to the song, even though he clearly could not. Well, at least from Justin's perspective anyway. Chie had tried to match Justin's guitar with her bass; but alas, she couldn't really narrow down any consistency in his chord structure. It seemed like it changed every other verse. After a while she just gave up. Justin kept hammering away at those chords for a while; or at least, until the part where it would just be the drummer playing. There was more after that, but it just didn't feel right to Justin to skip an entire portion of the song just so he could keep playing; and he wasn't just going to sit their mumbling lyrics like an idiot. So he just stopped.

"Jeeze, you're really good at that." Yu remarked as Justin adjusted his fingering on his guitar. He was really just playing anything he felt like while he waited to hear why they needed to bring their instruments in in the first place. At the moment, he was strumming the chords to 'Lake of Fire.' Though he wasn't singing along this time; he was holding a conversation with Yu after all.

"It's only a few chords. Nothing special." Justin passed off the compliment modestly. Yu wasn't buying that Justin just got a little lucky though. He clearly knew what he was doing; no need to play coy. He just needed to get Justin's ego to kick in, then there would be no question on whether or not Justin could tear-up a guitar or not.

"No, really! That sounded amazing!" Yukiko tried to persuade Justin. Of course it sounded amazing; it WAS the Who after all. Still, Justin was having a hard time being convinced that he was any good at what he did. He was alright; nothing to write home about. Chie just wore a slight smile on her face as Justin continued to try and deflect their compliments. Though whether that was because she was used to Justin trying to be modest, or because she still thought he was a great musician was another question entirely. Could very well be both. Justin was absolutely adorable when he got flustered; mostly because no one expected someone like Justin to be embarrassed. Especially not after trying to incite a riot during the presidential elections.

"Well let's not get too ahead of ourselves. I think Yosuke might be better." Yu smirked. That certainly caught Justin's attention; as evident by his refusal to strum a single chord more. Instead he shot Yu a combination of a dirty look and a confused glance.

"Yosuke plays guitar?" Justin questioned. He wasn't sure why he was finding that so surprising; I mean, guitar kinda WAS that instrument everyone tried to learn back at his old school. Maybe he just hadn't expected Yosuke to play an instrument at all. After all, if his musical tastes were reflected in his choice of instrument; he HAD no instrument of choice. No seriously; Justin couldn't even remember what instruments were in Rise's music. Probably keyboard or something. Wasn't very memorable, whatever it was; that much was for sure. Yu shook his head slightly.

"Oh yeah. He's really good too. I think he might have you beat, Justin." Yu continued. Justin only glared harder at that. He knew damn well what Yu was trying to do. And oh ho ho, it was fucking working. Yukiko and Chie just sort of chuckled a bit under their breath when they realized what Yu was trying to do; though more so because Justin was falling for it. They all knew Yosuke played guitar; never once had they heard him play it though. Hell, if Chie hadn't seen it for herself that one time, everyone would have thought Yosuke was bullshitting. Except maybe Yu. Yu never really doubted Yosuke on… Well, anything.

"Quit bullshitting me, Yu." Justin spat out slightly angry. Yu, of course just took Justin's anger as a sign that his plan was working.

"No bullshit; Yosuke's really good man. I swear, he was playing so fast one of the strings broke." Yu continued to bluff.

"One of his strings- Is that supposed to be a good thing!?" Justin questioned. Breaking a string has nothing to do with talent. In fact, you were more likely to break a string if you DIDN'T know what you were doing. Yu just chuckled a bit. Good or bad, he could still work this angle.

"Nah, no one could have stopped that string from snapping. After all, those were some pretty intense riffs." Justin just stared at Yu for a moment before grabbing at the guitar neck. _You want to see intense riffs? Alright, I'll show you intense riffs motherfucker._

"Watch and learn." Justin remarked before strumming rapidly at the strings of his guitar, his fingers going each and every way in a blur of flesh. No one could really keep up with it in all honesty. And Justin was right about one thing; those were some pretty fast licks. But then, what did you expect? Hangar 18 was like one big guitar orgasm.

People actually started to turn to watch Justin hammering away at his guitar. It was mostly just chords at the moment, but he was strumming them with such an intensity and speed that it was almost awe-taking. Just you wait until he got to the solo. It probably wouldn't be the same without an amp; but you take what you can get.

_Welcome to our fortress tower._

_I'll take some time to show you around._

_Impossible to break these walls_

_For you see the steel is much too strong_

_Computer banks to rule the world._

_Instruments to sight the stars._

_Possibly I've seen too much._

_Hangar 18, I know too much._

Justin tore away at the strings incredibly fast, tapping and hammering on and off in all sorts of crazy metal patterns. People had actually started to clap as he finished individual 'solos' per say. They weren't really solos, mind you. Just some short riffs and licks. But they were so incredibly fast and powerful, you might as well have just called it a solo. It had the same effect on the crowd anyway. That aside, people were getting into it; even if they weren't terribly interested in metal. They were just fascinated by the skill that Justin was showing off. Hell, even the investigation team was a little awe struck. They knew he was better than he give himself credit for; they didn't think he was THIS good though. Not even Chie; and she had heard him play at least a dozen songs by this point.

_Foreign life forms inventory _

_Suspended state of cryogenics _

_Selective amnesia's the story _

_Believed foretold but who'd suspect _

_The military Intelligence _

_Two words combined that can't make sense _

_Possibly I've seen too much _

_Hangar 18 I know too much_

Justin plucked away at the strings in an intense guitar solo. It wasn't really the same without that amp; but it still sounded pretty damn good with the way Justin bended the strings at just the right spots. He hadn't noticed it but apparently someone had started putting down a drum-beat as he continued to play. Daisuke, believe it or not; it seemed he knew the song, since it was the exact same drum beat as the actual song. Either that or he got really lucky. Justin continued to wail away on his guitar for a solid two or so minutes before ending the song by rapidly strumming away at some power chords. There was a slight applause at the end; much to Justin's embarrassment. He hadn't noticed everyone listening in; he was much too concentrated on trying not to fuck up. The tempo of the song was too fast for him NOT to give it his full attention. His face turned beat red as he pushed his guitar off to the side, trying to pretend that didn't just happen.

"Uh… yeah…" Justin stuttered abit, his cheeks heating up at an alarming rate. He was a little annoyed with all the smiles he was getting from the rest of the currently present members of the investigation team. _Dammit you people; this is why I don't perform on stage._

"Holy crap, that was amazing!" Chie practically shouted, much to Justin's displeasure. He didn't want people making a big deal out of this; he just played a little guitar, that's all._ Now please stop starring at me._

"It's nothing…" Justin continued to stumble about in embarrassment. Yu just sort of shook his head. Even after that entire room had just acknowledged he had some pretty impressive guitar skills, he still refused to acknowledge that he had some talent. Either Justin was the most modest motherfucker Yu had ever seen, or he had absolutely no self-esteem. And honestly, Yu was leaning towards the latter. Justin simply refused to take ANY compliment, so it wasn't just this. Really, it's like the guy thought it was wrong to be praised.

"I'd beg to differ." Yu remarked, crossing his arms a bit. Justin just shook his head, looking in the opposite direction. He didn't want to talk about this. He really didn't. But that's alright; because the bell soon rang, and the teacher soon made his way in. Thankfully he didn't hear Justin's little performance. He didn't need to get praise from this guy too. Justin just wanted to be treated the same as everyone else; not like some god who had came down from the heavens to deliver them the power of metal.

"Alright everyone settle down." Mr. Kentaro shouted over all the commotion as he made his way over to his desk. "Alright everyone; I'm glad to see that most of you brought your instruments. And for those of you who haven't, that's okay. We have a few instruments here. There not super high-quality or anything, but they'll do. Now I bet you're all wondering why you needed to bring your instruments in. Well, all of you are going to separate into groups of four; where you will be working together on playing music for the next few weeks. At the end of the quarter, you are all going to have to give a performance-"

"FUCK!" Justin choked up, not at all subtly. Thankfully, it seemed Mr. Kentaro was too busy giving his speech to catch the obscenity. Everyone else though; not so much. They were a little confused what Justin could possibly be worrying about after that performance. It wasn't that Justin didn't think he had the talent, of course. It was just that he got really stage shy. Like REALLY REALLY stage shy. He just couldn't stand people watching him. It just made him feel different. He'd much rather blend in with the crowd, like he was one with the group.

But no. No he never got to be part of the crowd. It hurt his chest just thinking about it.

"Now don't worry if you don't know how to play; all we're looking for is an effort. You'll be graded on teamwork, consistent effort, and attitude. Now, everyone gather into your groups; four each." Mr. Kentaro continued. Justin was too busy trying to look away from everyone else to really give the rest of his group a confirmation that he was onboard. He didn't need to, though; Yu had pretty much decided for the four of them that they were going to be a band.

"Perfect, so we're a group right?" Yu thought out loud. Justin turned to face Yu, his face still slightly red, though he could otherwise interact with the others no problem. So long as they didn't talk about his little performance, he'd be fine. Besides, something had just dawned upon him. Only four to a group right? Well, that might be problematic.

"Hold on wait a second… You play trumpet, you play keyboard, you play bass, and I play guitar, right?" Everyone nodded, not entirely sure what Justin was trying to get at. "…So then who's going to play drums?" Everyone just sort of froze for a moment. Crap, Justin was entirely right; they NEEDED a drum player, no doubt about it. But by the time they had realized the lack of a crucial member to their band, everyone else had managed to get in their own groups… Each of which having a drummer. Well it was official; the investigation team's band was fucked.

"Shit!" Chie muttered to herself, placing her hands across her mouth as the obscenity left her mouth. She had no problem swearing, she had a problem swearing in front of teacher and her friends. Hell, Yukiko almost seemed a bit caught off guard by the cuss word that had dripped from Chie's lips. She really hadn't started swearing as much as she did until she started dating Justin. In a way, he was a horrible influence on her. But she didn't say anything. After all, if putting up with a few swears meant Chie would be happy, no one would object in the slightest.

"So… what are we going to do now?" Yu questioned out loud. They had kinda screwed the pooch on this one. They didn't need a trumpet player in the slightest; just the guitar, bass, and drums. Keyboard, not so much, but certainly more than the trumpet. Justin rubbed his finger along his chin as he tried to figure out a solution to their dilemma… He might have an idea.

"Well… Not every band really NEEDS a drummer…" Justin pondered out loud. Chie passed him a slightly look of disbelief and confusion.

"What are you talking about? Of COURSE we need a drummer." Chie remarked with slight annoyance. She thought Justin was loseing it at this point. "Look, I can take the drums. I mean, all you do is hit stiff, right?" Chie questioned, completely clueless about how difficult it was to actually drum. Justin rubbed at his chin a bit before turning around to Mr. Kentaro, who had been walking around the room listening in on everyone's conversations.

"Is it alright if we bring in someone from outside the class?" Justin questioned. Mr. Kentaro was a bit caught off guard by the question. They already had four members, why would they need to bring someone else in.

"For what?"

"We still need a drummer, and I have a friend outside of school that plays drums." Justin tried to play concisely. Everyone else was just a bit confused. Who the hell was Justin talking about? It obviously wasn't Yosuke, he played guitar. Kanji, maybe? He looked like he liked to break shit. Mr. Kentaro shrugged slightly. He wanted to say 'no' but he did understand the necessity of having a drummer in your band.

"If you need to." Mr. Kentaro remarked before walking away. Justin sighed in slight relief before extending his hands out like he was holding an invisible box in between his hands, waving them slightly at the others as he addressed them.

"Alright, Maya knows how to play drums. Like really good. So if we need her to come in, just say the word and I'll get her onboard." Justin explained. Everyone passed each other a slight glance and nod of support. It sounded like a good idea to them. Of course; that was partially because they didn't know Maya was good at ROCK BAND drums and not REAL drums. Justin just hoped that transitioned over to real drums alright. I mean, it couldn't be THAT much different, right?

"Yeah, alright… That sounds like a good idea." Chie spoke out loud, more or less speaking on behalf of the group. Great, now they had some other business to settle.

"Alright, so obviously we need a band that has a horn section and a keyboard section. I am assuming we're just covering a real song anyway. Anyway; any suggestions?" Justin asked out loud. All he got was a few shakes of the head from everyone though. They couldn't think of any band that had a horn AND piano section. "Nothing? Well… I know Electric Light Orchestra has all those in a lot of their songs. So does Chicago…"

"I don't know either of those bands…" Yukiko spoke up timidly. She was a little ashamed to say that really, mostly because she knew Justin was a big ELO fan. He had practically fangasmed over them the first day of music class. Justin's eyes widened slightly. He wasn't sure what he should be more annoyed by; them not knowing ELO, or them not knowing Chicago.

"Evil Woman? Mr. Blue Sky? Sweet Talkin' Woman, Strange Magic, Telephone Line; I mean come on, you don't know ANY of those songs?" Everyone just shook their head. Justin was disgusted to say the least. _I am so sorry Jeff Lynn; they know not what they speak_. "Look, trust me on this; they're good. Like really good… I have a couple of CDs at home I can bring in tomorrow; you guys can listen for yourself." Justin pleaded with them, trying to persuade them to his side of thinking. Of course, he wasn't going to do that until they actually HEARD them, so he wasn't going to get much further with that. But alas, they HAD to pick one of those two; they were the only two bands Justin knew that had both a horn section and a keyboard section. Plus it was easy to learn their songs. It was just perfect for this kind of thing.

"Alright, I guess that will work…" Yu pondered out loud. He was skeptical to do anything from a band he had never heard of. Even if Justin knew for a fact Yu had heard damn near every song they wrote. EVERYONE has heard these songs; you just wouldn't know them until you listened to them is the thing. He was just hoping they didn't waste too much time trying to pick a song. They still needed to learn it and all that shit too. They'd probably have to have a few after-school practice sessions or something. Though there was no way in hell they were going to move Yukiko's piano anywhere, and the obviously couldn't just rock out at her inn… They'd have to see if this room was available after school. Justin hoped to god it was. After all, dragging Maya into the building, when she didn't actually go to school there, during school hours might be a bit complicated.

"You have my word: I'll try to stay clear of the disco." Justin joked slightly. No one got the joke though. Of course they wouldn't, why would they? But that was alright; because secretly, Justin very much enjoyed disco. He had no qualms playing a disco song. Besides, Justin was positive all the more disco oriented ELO songs had all the sections they needed. And that was if they didn't have a dedicated front man (which would probably be Yu if they needed to. He could sing, and not every song had a trumpet in it).

"So… What are we going to call our band?" Chie questioned out loud. Justin's eyes widened with slight excitement. He hadn't even thought about naming their band. Hell, that sounded like a lot of fun. Justin could really go for fun right about now. Honestly, he was still embarrassed about his little show of guitar prowess a few moments ago. But it wasn't just that either. He found himself worrying about Maya everytime he thought of her now. And it seemed she always found a way of creeping into these conversations. Justin needed to clear his mind; fun seemed like a good way of doing that.

"Justin Tylor and the Not as Important People Who Play Instruments." Justin chuckled a bit. Chie just shook her head, a slight grin on her face. The others didn't think the joke was quite as funny; though Yu at least got that was a joke. Yukiko looked like she took the remark seriously for a moment. Justin either needed to work on his sarcasm skills, or Yukiko still needed help working that stick out of her ass. She had been getting better, mind you, but still… Sometimes it felt like she wasn't really with the rest of the group; like she felt out of place. She was too formal sometimes, and she was much too stiff. Only when she had those laughing fits did it seem like she had really loosened up around the rest of the group.

"Well… Most rock bands just throw the most badass words they can think of together for their names, right?" Yu pondered out loud.

"You're thinking Hard Rock and Metal. Which isn't really the same kind of music we're going to have to end up doing."

"What would you call it then?"

"I think the genre's called either symphonic rock or progressive rock. It's one of those. But I just call it classic rock." Justin shrugged slightly. It was important that they realized that what they were doing was going to be more akin to something an orchestra would perform, with some rock influences thrown in; not a complete rock band. Yu just shrugged a bit.

"Still, that doesn't mean we can't have an awesome name. Justin you know more about this stuff than I do. What do 'symphonic rock' bands name themselves?" Yu questioned. He didn't want to shoot out any names that would be overkill for what they were trying to accomplish, after all. Justin rubbed at his chin a bit as he organized his thoughts out loud.

"Well… Most of them just named themselves after the city or state they came from. Kansas, Chicago… Not the same kind of rock band, but Boston. You get the point."

"So… We call ourselves Inaba?" Yu raised an eyebrow slightly. Justin shook his head.

"Doesn't really have a nice ring to it." Justin sighed slightly. He'd be a-okay naming the band after a place, but it certainly wasn't going to be Inaba. It just didn't sound right. Maybe they should just name it 'San Diego,' since both Justin and Maya came from there after all. Plus it sounds like something you'd actually name a band. "There's also Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Genesis, Rush, Electric Light Orchestra, Yes… Basically, it doesn't have to be very flashy. Just something simple; that's the charm of it."

"You have any ideas, Justin?" Yukiko questioned. He seemed to have a good idea what makes a good progressive rock band name. Alas, he did not, however. He liked punk rock and hard rock; so pretty much every idea he had for a cool band name was just too… heavy, for lack of a better word. It just didn't fit the style. Which is a shame; Chaos Theory would have been one hell of a name under any other circumstance.

"Not really." Justin sighed, slightly disappointed in his lack of creativity. Chie tilted her head to the side for a moment, trying to think of a good name. Keep it simple…

"What about Five?" Justin passed Chie a slight look of surprise and confusion. Five? Well that's an odd name; but it's simple, rolls off the tongue. He kind of liked it in a way. "I mean, there's going to be five of us, right?" As much as Justin liked it however, Yu and Yukiko didn't. It sounded kind of lazy to them, like it had taken five seconds to come up with. Probably because it did.

"Not quite…" Yu pondered out loud for a moment before being struck with an idea like a sack of cinderblocks. It was a stupid, stupid name. But in a way, he really liked it. "I got one. Untitled. Like… When you're working on a paper and you haven't named it yet." Yu tried to explain. It was silent for a moment as everyone pondered the name. It was lazy, but it was lazy in a very self aware and clever way… In a way, that was a good thing.

"…I like it." Justin spoke up after a short pause. "It's short, not too flashy, but expressive and distinct. But… Uh… If I may?"

"Shoot."

"Untitled doesn't really sound quite right. How 'bout 'The Band with No Name.' You know, like that guy Clint Eastwood played in 'the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.'" Everyone nodded abit. They liked the revision; same message, only catchier. It worked, despite being stupid as fuck. But then, they supposed Yes was a stupid band name too. "We also need a motto. Like something your fans wear on a t-shirt."

"Uh Justin?" Chie spoke up, interrupting his creative process. He passed her a look of puzzlement, unaware of what it was she wanted to say.

"Yeah?"

"We're only playing one song. Might want to hold off on the merchandise."


	85. Chapter 84: July 7, 2011

CHAPTER 84

July 7, 2011

* * *

"I've always liked this place. Being able to see my house and school and everything from up here… It makes me feel small."

Kanji and Justin were sitting at the top of the hill overlooking town, starring down at the small town they wandered day in and day out. Justin wasn't entirely sure why Kanji had insisted on dragging him out here; but he certainly didn't mind. It was one hell of a view from up here, and it was nice and secluded; so it was as good a place as any for Justin to have a smoke. Kanji was certainly right about one thing. Being able to see everything in your life from a distance like this, but a tiny speck in the distance. It didn't make Justin feel small; but it certainly made Justin feel like all his trouble were so far away. Everything that had happened; the murders, the television, Persona, his shadow, Maya's return… It all started in that tiny town off in the distance. But it was nothing, insignificant from Justin's place atop the hill. And if his problems were to reside there; wasting away until time rotted over… Well Justin had nothing to fear. Of course, he was probably thinking too deeply into this. It was just a nice view is all; it's just that it was nice to think about this stuff, try and get it out of his system and all that jazz. And it worked to a certain extent. Justin kind of felt better up on the grassy mantle over-looking the town.

"Really? It makes me feel kind of big. Like I could just reach out and hold all of Inaba in my fist." Justin remarked, extending his hand out towards the city before wrapping his fingers into a ball, obscuring his own view of the town. Kanji wasn't really paying attention though; he simply continued to stare off into the distance, observing the town from far away. It was still; quiet… You couldn't so much as see the cars driving by from up here; though that might be because so very few people used cars in Inaba.

"Uhh… When you met Ma at the hospital… She say anything about me?" Kanji eventually broke the silence, not so much as lifting his eyes from the city that starred back at him. Justin stopped staring off into the horizon to turn his gaze over to Kanji. So that's what this was about. Justin sighed slightly. He had no reason to lie to Kanji; he just hoped he wouldn't get pissed off that his mother had pretty much spilt his secrets out on the table.

"Just a little." Justin shrugged. Kanji sighed, finally removing his gaze from the distant horizon, looking down towards the grass beneath his feet instead for a brief moment. Clearly he wasn't a fan of his mother's decision to tell all his friends about his fear of hospitals. Justin couldn't understand why. After all, HALF of the investigation team at this point had a fear of hospitals. It wasn't anything to be ashamed of; everyone's afraid of something. Or in Justin's case, damn near everything.

"That's what I thought… Well, you already know everything about me. I got nothin' to hide." Kanji shrugged a bit, finally turning his gaze over to Justin. He was blushing a bit, though as to why, Justin would rather not know. He didn't seem to say anything all the embarrassing, so it couldn't have been that. And again, Kanji didn't really have an established sexual orientation yet. Not that Justin wasn't cool with Kanji possibly being into dudes; good for him to not let something as silly as someone's gender interfere with love. It was just that Justin had noticed Kanji had been blushing a LOT around him. And if he was into dudes… Well, this could get awkward very quickly. But of course; Justin was just being paranoid. Kanji knew Justin was straight and in a relationship, so even if he DID have feelings for him, he wouldn't act upon them. It just felt awkward to Justin all the same; he'd really hate to be a heartbreaker. He's done it before, after all… It's not a pretty sensation.

It didn't matter though. The blush soon disappeared from Kanji's face as he looked up towards the cloud, eyeing the shapes they made in the sky. It wasn't like that at all; even if Justin didn't know it at the time. He just wasn't used to having someone accept him so open-armedly. It was getting to a point where Kanji was even afraid to make eye-contact with the guy sometimes. It just seemed TOO easy talking to Justin about this stuff. He HAD to have some sort of motive for doing it, right? Why else would he fritter away the hours sitting next to him, talking about HIS problems. Hell, Kanji would probably feel more comfortable if Justin would just bitch about his own issues for once.

"Wish I could quit being afraid of hospitals. I gotta get stronger…" Kanji mused to himself, trying to push aside that awkward sensation again. Justin shrugged a bit.

"It's not about being stronger Kanji. It's always going to stick with you. I mean look at Maya. Her father died two years ago; she still won't go near a hospital unless it's an emergency." Justin spoke out loud, leaning forward slightly as he tried to think, to choose his words carefully. It was a delicate topic with him too after all. He hadn't even REMEMBERED being in a coma, for Chirst's sake, and he still was afraid of the place. "The important thing you need to realize is it's alright to be afraid. You just can't let that fear consume you."

That was some advice he should probably give to Maya sometime… No, actually, bad idea. It was too soon. It clearly wasn't just fear that kept her away from hospitals; she was still in mourning in some capacity. Justin had heard a lot of stories about her father before he went comatose. He sounded like the perfect father, and Maya… Well Maya was daddy's little girl. Her heart was broken the day he had a seizure, the day they told her he'd be stuck in that bed for a while. She was only ten for god's sake.

Kanji sighed a bit. It was true, he supposed. He just wasn't sure he could handle it. Having his fear always be there, gripping at his heart… Maybe it took a bigger man than him to suffer through that and come out on top. Kanji turned his head to look off in the distance again, ready to muse this over in his head again, when something had caught his eye: a familiar figure.

"Huh? That kid… He was with Ma at the hospital…" Kanji croaked up. Justin raised his eyebrow slightly as he spotted the boy. He was actually a bit surprised they didn't notice him earlier; he had clearly been there for a while, and from the looks of it, it seemed as though he was crying. You would think they would hear something like that. Justin just hoped it wasn't that biker from before; because if it was, he was going to kick the ever living crap out of him. Assuming he wasn't already, if he ever found out who it was.

"Small world after all, huh?" Justin remarked as the two stood up, making their way over to the small child. They were curious what he was doing here by himself; more so why he was crying. Something clearly wasn't right. Kanji smiled slightly at the kid as he took a seat next to him on the park bench, his elbow resting against his knee, his hand on the other. The boy looked over with slight confusion and surprise, though his vision was still clouded by tears.

"Yo kid, what're you doin' here by yourself?" Kanji questioned warmly. Justin was actually a bit surprised; from the way Kanji had acted a few days ago, you would think Kanji didn't like the kid or something. But of course, it was just that he was worried about his mother; the kid just happened to be a bystander to the blowout.

"Uh… Ummm… Nothing…" The child choked up, forcing back tears. Clearly he didn't want whoever this man was to know he was crying. Kanji just shook his head a bit, his smile replaced with a sympathetic gaze. He could clearly tell something was wrong; even if the child insisted otherwise. Probably because he was crying but a moment earlier.

"Then how come you look like you're gonna cry?" Kanji questioned. Well apparantly that was enough to send the child back into tears. You would think someone calling you out on that would make you want to fight the tears back anymore. But then, what did Justin know? He wasn't very good with children; all he knew was that you aren't supposed to say or do certain things around them. And let's face it; Justin wasn't exactly the most socially adept person in the crowd. This could be the norm for all he knew.

"I… lost a doll… I lost the knit rabbit doll that Sana-chan let me borrow… Taka-kun said it was girly and stomped on it… It got all dirty… And he said, 'If you're a man, then throw it away…' I… threw the doll in the river… And it got washed away…" The child started to bawl even louder as the words left his mouth. Justin and Kanji passed each other a slightly pissed off look; though for entirely different reasons. Justin was pissed off at the bully; Kanji was pissed off at the kid for some reason. Yeah, sure, he might have been the one who did it; but clearly Kanji didn't quite understand how bad verbal bullying could be. It's like propaganda, really. "What should I do!? I hafta give it back to Sana-chan… She liked that bunny… And I… I…" The child continued to try and speak over his tears, but just continued to hiccup in between words as he failed to get any oxygen in his lungs. Justin took a knee to get on eye-level with the child. He was going to say something, but then Kanji interrupted him. He probably should have kept talking anyway, given what Kanji had to say.

"So why are you here? You ran away?" Kanji snarled, very irritated by the story he had just heard. He was giving the child a stern look for some reason; which in turn only made the kid cry a bit harder. Justin passed Kanji a quick glance of confusion. He had no idea what in the hell Kanji was trying to do; but it clearly wasn't a very good idea. "…Ya dumb kid!"

"Wow. You have no idea how to deal with a kid, do you?" Justin remarked, passing Kanji a look of disapproval. It would have been a full-out glare, but Justin sort of realized the hypocrisy in that statement. HE didn't know how to deal with a kid; he just knew he knew how to deal with one better than Kanji did. Kanji's cheeks grew slightly red; he hadn't realized he had said something really fucking stupid until Justin pointed it out. And by that point it was too late to remedy the situation. He sighed slightly; Justin was right. Scolding this child wouldn't solve anything. Kanji stood up, his eyes still on the boy.

"C'mon! Don't just stand there!" Kanji ordered the boy, gesturing for him to follow him. Kanji turned to Justin for a moment, a slight nod on his head. "Oh, uhh… I'm gonna go now." Kanji stammered slightly as he tried to dismiss himself. Clearly he was going out to do something stupid. And he didn't invite Justin. Justin crossed his arms slightly.

"You're seriously going to go beat the crap out of a ten year old?" Justin remarked raising his eyebrows. Kanji's eyes widened with astonishment and disgust, recoiling slightly as the comment struck him like a volleyball.

"What!? No! I'm going to go help him look for it!" Kanji countered, his voice raspy with slight fear. He didn't want Justin getting the wrong impression after all. Justin just smirked slightly, unfolding his arms in the process. He knew that wasn't what Kanji was going to do. He might be a hardass; but he had a heart of gold. He wasn't going to go beat up some ten-year old for throwing a stuffed animal in the river. Even if it was a douche move.

"I know, I know. Alright, let's go." Justin smiled spinning his cane around slightly before pointing it off in the distance. Kanji briefly wondered why the hell Justin carried that around all the time. Clearly he didn't need it. I mean, Kanji didn't know about the incident with Justin's eye; but even then, he couldn't see any reason why Justin would possibly need one. He walked around fluidly, and he didn't seem to use it for anything other than spinning it around. But then, he supposed what else would you WANT to bring a cane around with you?

"Huh? Really!?"

"No, I just said that to get you over to the river where I'm going to try and drown you. Yes really, come on!"

* * *

"I-I'll help…"

"You shut up. Stay where you are so you don't get in the way! Senpai, make sure he doesn't come in after me! Whoa, this is cold."

Kanji shouted at the child as he stood knee deep in the Samegawa riverbed, searching around for any sign of the plush doll that had been thrown within its depths. This was not at all what Justin thought Kanji meant, though. He had assumed they were going to look along the shore bed, where it might have washed up. Obviously it wasn't still in the middle of the river; it would have washed away by now. Justin also couldn't say he was particularly fine with being on baby-sitting duty either. Don't get him wrong, he had no intention of going in the water; but he would have definitely checked along the shore. And besides… Water and Justin didn't really mix. Not anymore.

"**And so the truth finally comes out, eh?" **Justin's shadow smirked from the reflection in the river. Justin sighed a bit, moving only a step or two closer to the reflection to get a better view of the creature that lived in his mirror. He didn't even know why he was bothering talking to this asshole; but alas, sometimes he slipped up and admitted something he wasn't supposed to. Justin at least TRIED to listen when he talked; you never knew when you were going to strike gold. Justin knelt down a bit to stare his shadow down.

"The hell are you talking about?" Justin whispered to the reflection, trying not to alert either the boy or Kanji. He was half successful; Kanji couldn't hear him, but the boy sure as hell could.

"**Don't play coy. You know what I'm talking about. Now tell me; how's it feel living with a murderer?" **The shadow continued to mock Justin, that wicked grin on his face as always.

"You've been living in my skull for the last month or so. It's not much different." Justin glared at his reflection; the shadow simply laughing back at him all the while. He got some kick out of being called a murderer, though as to why was anyone's guess. Were Justin's hidden feelings just so… evil that they enjoyed being referred to as a murderer? Or was he simply laughing at Justin's insult? It was hard to tell sometimes, and in a way, that was very concerning.

"**You still mad I shot your little girlfriend?"**

"Oh, are we doing this again? No, go right ahead. Tell me all about how every girl I know is apparantly my girlfriend. No seriously, go right ahead. Because I value your opinion so much." Justin shook his head at the reflection. Oh he was furious that he had shot Maya; no doubt about it. He just didn't care about anything his shadow said when he was on one of these tangents.

"**Oh but that's right; you're still trying to figure out what's 'wrong' with Maya, aren't ya? Trying to protect her? Afraid she's going to leave your ass behind?"**

"…If she leaves, that's her choice." Justin paused for a moment before speaking up. There was some truth to his shadow's words, as much as he hated to admit it. Maya was family to him; he didn't want to see anything happen to her: related to the case or otherwise. So maybe he was a bit over-protective. Maybe he didn't want to watch her go. But he had good intentions; he just wanted her to live a good life. It's what she was entitled to… It's what she deserved. The shadow just chuckled a bit at Justin's response however. It was clear Justin wasn't one hundred percent confident in his answer. It was her choice… He just didn't want her to make that choice.

"**But me… How can you protect her from what's right under your nose?"**

"What in god's name are you talking about?" Justin spat out. His shadow knew something, that much was for sure. But what was the question. The shadow just shook his head for a moment, before his reflection began to fade away. Justin breathed heavily after that. The shadow had left him with something like this; something to make Justin question what his shadow knew… And left him to dry; the question still dangling in his mind. He was trying to get Justin to snap; to break him. And it was sort of working. Justin stared into the water for a moment before he was snapped out of his daze by the little boy who had been waiting patiently for Kanji.

"Hey mister… Who you talkin' to?" The boy asked with curiosity. Justin damn near freaked out knowing that the boy had heard his conversation with his shadow… or at least the parts where Justin was talking. Obviously he wasn't going to let the boy know about shadow or Personas… Justin starred at the boy for a moment before smiling and pushing himself up using his knees, making his way over to the boy and crouching a bit in the process to get on his eye-level.

"Well it's sort of like this… Have you ever had an imaginary friend?" Justin asked. The boy was young enough that he thought this would make a sufficient explanation. The boy shook his head a bit, the naivety of childhood blinding him to how psychotic Justin sounded right about now. "Well sometimes when people grow up, they don't lose their imaginary friends."

"For real?" The boy questioned, almost fascinated by the story he was hearing. He had long out-grown his imaginary friend, but the thought of having one for all eternity? Well, that was just the greatest thing to a child his age. Justin nodded his head, a smile sweeping across his face. _Oh man, when this kid grows up I am going to look like the creepiest fucking person…_

"Yep. That's who I was talking to just now. We're BFFs." Justin lied through his teeth. Just the thought of calling his shadow his BFF sickened him a bit. But this kid didn't know the horrible things his shadow had done and said; and quite frankly, he was much too young to understand anyway. So instead he just told him what every child wanted to hear; that everyone out there was a good person, how the friends you imagined would be with you till the die you died. Justin ruffled the boy's hair slightly before pushing himself up from the ground, the boy smiling up at him with awe the entire time. Kanji was slowly making his way back to the shore… empty-handed, unfortunately.

"Sorry Kid… Looks like it wasn't there…" Kanji muttered with disappointment. He had hoped he'd be able to help this kid; not waste his time. I mean it was pretty late by now. The sun had gone down and the stars had started to shine in the sky. No doubt he should be home about now. The boy looked only slightly disappointed. He had a lot of time to think while Kanji dug around in the river's tide; enough that he had a revelation of sorts.

"I-I'm sorry… I'm going to apologize to Sana-chan. Even if she's mad, I'll say I'm sorry…" The child spoke up, slightly afraid, but also bold at the same time. Apologizing to someone you hurt was never easy; but doing it anyway, forcing yourself to go through with it even if every fiber of your being doesn't want to… That's bravery right there. Justin crossed his arms as he starred at the kid, a smile on his face. He was going to go places in life; he just knew it. Kanji still looked kind of ashamed he couldn't help though.

"Uh, yeah, well, if you do find the rabbit, make sure you give it to her…" Kanji grumbled. Or at least he had been when he was suddenly struck by a brilliant idea. He still knew a way he could help. "Yo, hold up. What kind of rabbit was it? Spill it. Just tell me!" Kanji coaxed the boy. He seemed a bit caught off guard at first, but he soon began to describe it. Nothing particularly interesting; it was a pink, wool plush doll in the shape of a rabbit. The only really distinctive quality was a green bow it apparently had wrapped around its neck. That might be a bit trickier; but otherwise, it seemed like they could easily find a replacement. That's not what Kanji had in mind though; oh no, not even close. "Alright, I got it. You apologize to this 'Sana-chan.' You're the one who 'threw it away.' It might not be the same, but I'll get you a new one… So let it go with that." Kanji instructed the boy, a smile on his face.

"M-Mister…" The boy stuttered, overcome with happiness at the generosity Kanji was showcasing. Kanji shook his head slightly.

"Who you callin' mister!?" Kanji half-joked. He said it with a smile, but that mister comment seemed to kill him inside. Which is strange because it wasn't a particularly offensive remark. Hell, he had called Justin mister; he didn't so much as bat an eyelash. The boy smiled, bowing slightly before running off in search of his friend to give her the bad news. Justin just smiled at the boy before turning his attention to Kanji. Kanji continued to stare off in the direction the boy had run off, though he had began to speak in an aside to Justin. "Geez… I'm still in high school. This's the prime of my youth! …Do I really look that old? Maybe it's the eyebrows…" Kanji mused, trying to deduct what could possibly make him look old. Justin had a good idea.

"Kanji…"

"Huh?"

"You bleach your hair. You know how kids tell when someone's old at that age?" Justin pointed out the obvious. Aside from wrinkles, the only way he could really tell when someone was old when he was a kid was grey or white hair. Kanji seemed almost a bit embarrassed that he had over-looked that. Well, that's what he got for trying to go against the system.

"Oh… Right…" Kanji stuttered a bit. "…Anyways, sorry 'bout dragging you into this…" Kanji suddenly apologized. Justin just raised an eyebrow in slight confusion. What was Kanji thanking HIM for. He was the one who did all the work; not Justin. Hell, Justin probably unintentionally scarred that kid for life by interacting with his shadow like that. I mean, sure; the kid didn't see anything, but being told imaginary friends can last forever is probably not something a child should hear. Ah, whatever… He'd figure it out eventually.

"Hey, you're the one getting him a replacement. Don't thank me yet." Justin chuckled slightly, narrowing the distance between him and Kanji slightly. Kanji scratched at his head on that one. He hadn't thought Justin had heard that. Honestly, Justin phased out a lot, daydream or otherwise. When Kanji had seen him starring at his reflection earlier… Well he had assumed Justin was bored out of his mind, and just was NOT paying attention. Quite the opposite was true, however.

"So you heard me huh?" Kanji's cheeks were a bit red. He didn't want people knowing he was doing a good deed, for whatever reason. Could be because he was trying to protect his reputation of being a badass; even though Kanji clearly didn't like people thinking of him like that. Could be that he just didn't want people giving him congratulations for doing a good deed.

"Well yeah. You were like… five feet away." Justin remarked sarcastically.

"It was like I understood how he felt. Wanting to be accepted, afraid of being left out, doing stuff that you shouldn't… Then taking the one person you shouldn't make cry and making 'em bawl…" Justin felt his heart skip a beat as the words left Kanji's mouth… Yeah, he understood exactly what that was like… He had really screwed the pooch with Maya… This… This really wasn't making him feel better about the whole 'Maya not eating' situation. He wanted to stop feeling responsible for what happened in California… But he was. Just by existing he was. If he was gone; Maya would have no incentive to run… Hell, she wouldn't even have access to a television to start this whole incident in the first place. Justin was to blame from the get go… and he hated that…

"Yeah… I know what you mean…" Justin sighed slightly. Kanji normally would have caught on that something was bothering Justin; but he was just as bothered by all of this as Justin was. You couldn't really pity someone if you were too busy pitying yourself after all.

"So… Y'know, I thought maybe I could help him. Was I going too easy on him?" Kanji questioned. He wasn't very good with people; so for all he knew, he could have been going too easy on him. Justin snapped out of his state of self-pity as the words left Kanji's mouth. That had to be one of the most ridiculous questions he had ever heard. Too easy? The guy shouted at the kid, called him dumb, told him to shut up, and ordered him around. He was doing a good thing, no doubt; but the attitude definitely needed work. But hey; he knew Kanji's intentions were good… He just needed work on how he interacted with people. It wasn't something he was entirely used to after all.

"If that was easy, I'd hate to see what going hard on him is like."

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean." Kanji glared at Justin slightly, to which Justin lust shrugged and smirked. Oh, it felt like it had been so long since he had managed to piss someone other than Yosuke off. The others had just gotten so used to how Justin acted, that when he made a remark like that, they knew he hadn't meant it as anything vicious. Kanji was still fairly separate from the group, not quite as connected as say… Yu, or Chie. He didn't really understand that Justin acted like that. And Justin kind of loved that in a way.

"It means don't you go off renovating any asses on me, you hear." Justin smirked a bit, pointing his cane at Kanji. Kanji just sort of smiled and nodded his head. He was just starting to get that Justin had intended that as a joke. It was going to take some time to get used to Justin's sense of humor; that much was for sure.

"I promise to avoid home decorating at all costs."

"Crisis averted."


	86. Chapter 85: July 8, 2011

CHAPTER 85

July 8, 2011

* * *

"Nothing?"

"Nope."

Justin and Chie were standing outside their lockers. It was lunchtime, and the two were putting their books away and grabbing their lunches. And also talking about shit that the others didn't know about; namely Maya. Justin outright refused to talk about Maya's eating problems or the diary around the others. This wasn't something Maya would want the others to know… Hell it wasn't something she would want JUSTIN to know. But he did. And he was trying to help. That said, they weren't really getting anywhere. It had been a couple of days now, and Chie still hadn't found hide nor hair of what could be the problem. She was actually kind of disheartened in a way. She wanted to help; but that's a lot harder to do when you can't figure out the problem. Justin sighed slightly as he slammed his locker door close.

"I'm going to be honest Justin… I don't think we're going to find the problem in her journal…" Chie sighed, slightly defeated as she closed her locker door, turning her body towards Justin in the process. She had been through most of the journal at this point. It was all terrible things within the journals confines; but nothing that gave them a clue as to why Maya couldn't eat. In all honesty, Chie had been concerned that the reason Maya wasn't eating was directly related to one of the dealers she found. Considering almost all of them had pretty much been sexual predators; she had assumed the worst. And in that regard, she was thankful she HADN'T found anything yet. It either meant Maya refused to write about it, or it never happened. Probably the latter. Justin sighed a bit, tapping at the metal on his locker as he leaned against it with one hand.

"Well if it doesn't have to do with running away, what DOES it have to do with?" Justin grumbled. "It has to be in there somewhere. It just HAS to be." Chie just shook her head. She'd like to believe the journal entries Justin had sent her held the answers, but as each and every page passed, it seemed that wasn't the case.

"I don't know Justin… She threw up a lot when she was homeless. I think she might have had this problem before hand." Chie placed her hands on her hips as she tried to present her theory. Justin crossed his arms at that. Well that might be true; but there was a very easy explanation for that.

"She was eating food out of the trash, from a McDonalds no less. I would throw up too." Justin pointed out the obvious. Chie didn't quite take that as an acceptable explanation though. Sure, that sounded disgusting as fuck; but she should have developed an immunity to it after a while, like a twisted version of Stockholm syndrome that involved burgers instead of people. If you subjugate yourself to anything bad long enough, you become desensitized to it after all. No, Maya kept throwing up DESPITE eating that shit for a good two years. Clearly her eating disorder had already been in effect at that point in time.

"Are you sure this isn't a pre-existing condition?" Chie questioned. If it was, maybe there would be some information on it in the earlier chapters of journal. Justin had only sent her everything from December 11th onward, after all. Anything before that, she was clueless on. And that might be why she hadn't found anything yet. Justin shook his head.

"Positive. She used to eat at my house all the time. Never once did she throw up." Justin remarked. She usually ate very little though, now that he thought about it. She didn't exactly get much food at her house, so Justin had just assumed she had a small stomach… Now that he thought about it, maybe she didn't eat much BECAUSE she knew she'd throw up… Now he was curious to say the least. Chie might have been on to something.

"Maybe she just wasn't doing it around you… I mean; maybe she just didn't want you to get worried or nervous, so she held it in until she left." Chie perplexed out loud. She couldn't put her finger on it, but something in her gut kept insisting that this had happened prior to Maya running away. All the evidence pointed to that being the case. And Justin wasn't with her 24/7; he wouldn't know if she had been vomiting the food back up. It just made too much sense for it not to be the case. Justin huffed out some hot air. He didn't like to think that something had been bothering her prior to the shooting. I mean, he thought they were so well-off; so blissfully ignorant to the outside world. To think something was making her this sick before the television came into play… It concerned Justin. Maybe it had something to do with her father…

"Are you positive that this happened before the incident?" Justin eventually spoke up. Chie nodded slightly in confirmation.

"Well, I can't say with 100% certainty, but it certainly looks that way." Justin sighed a bit, leaning back against the locker wall that stood behind him. It was quiet for a moment as he tried to think of what to do.

"…I'll try and send the other files over tonight." Justin eventually whispered in defeat. Chie just nodded her head, a frown on her face. She didn't like that Justin continued to beat himself up over this. I mean, what the hell; they were one step closer to solving the mystery, right? So what was there to get upset about? The two just stood there for a brief moment; the sound of people walking around in the halls buzzing around them. Justin eventually puffed out some hot air from his nose. There was no use getting all worked up over this. It was for Maya's own good, after all. Justin had no qualms sending the files over if it would help her in the long run.

"Ah, well, no use getting all hyped up over this." Justin eventually announced, passing a slight grin at Chie; a grin of her own mirroring his. "Hey, Chie? You wouldn't happen to have a spare uniform, would you?" And in a single instant, that smile faded from Chie's face. That was a really… uh… interesting question. She wasn't sure why Justin needed to know that; but she doubted it was for anything good.

"Uh… Yeah, W-why?" She stuttered slightly, caught off guard by the very creepy question Justin had posed. Justin could tell that she had jumped the gun on that question already, given the expression on her face and the tone of her voice. She probably thought he meant something perverted by that. Justin was actually a bit surprised Chie had assumed he would ask a question like that with that intent. After all, let's be honest. Justin was by all accounts the most chivalrous of their main group of friends. He sided with the girls on pretty much everything, and god be damned if one of the other guys tried to make a sexual remark aimed at either Chie or Yukiko. Not so much Maya; I guess she didn't really appeal to any of the guys. Either that or they tried to show her SOME ounce of respect. In a way, Justin could be a pretty damn good feminist. Hell, he even had the batshit insane angle covered.

"Well, they won't let me bring Maya into the building unless she's wearing a uniform. And since I figured the two of you are about the same size; she could borrow one of yours for a couple of days. At least until we're done with the project anyway." Justin explained. Chie sighed with slight relief. She had no idea why it would be a problem for Justin to drag Maya in here without a uniform on, but she really didn't care. She was just glad that there was a perfectly sound explanation behind Justin's question. Though she frowned once something really struck her.

"But wait… Isn't Maya taller than me?" Chie pointed out, figuring Maya wouldn't fit in Chie's clothes. Justin shook his head slightly. It wasn't going to really fit Maya to a tee like it would Chie. Maya was admittedly thinner, and slightly taller. But their body frames were close enough that it would suffice.

"It's all legs." Justin remarked sarcastically; knowing damn well Chie was going to take offense to the remark. She certainly wanted to know why Justin knew ANYTHING about Maya's legs. Of course, she eventually caught on that Justin was doing that just to annoy her; which in turn annoyed her more. _Dammit, stop playing with my emotions like that_! Justin continued to lean against his locker, smirking for a moment when he heard a familiar voice call out to him.

"What's up, Justin?" Daisuke called out to Justin. Justin in turn extended his fist so they could pound them against each other; like a secret handshake, only not really. He barely knew Daisuke. They chatted once and a while, and in a certain sense they WERE friends. Like they wouldn't hang out after-school or anything like that, but they got along pretty well when they were together. "Our class had a guest speaker in the auditorium today, so…" Daisuke had begun to speak, as though trying to tell an interesting story. He wasn't though; he was just going to say he got to cut class. He was soon interrupted by the sound of a slight crowd of students following behind him. They also managed to cut class to see the guest speaker; and it seemed they had all just been dismissed.

"Oh, you know this guy? You two both on the soccer team or something?" One of the students spoke up as the group started to crowd around Daisuke; much to Daisuke, Justin and Chie's displeasure. Justin and Chie just wanted to go to lunch already, and Daisuke… Well Daisuke was trying to talk with Justin; not all these people who had insisted on following him. Justin shook his head slightly.

"No, you're thinking of the other transfer stu-" Justin didn't even get to finish his sentence as he was cut off by another one of the kids. Great; not only were they passing around inaccurate and idiotic information; but they weren't even going to let Justin correct how terribly wrong they were. Chie, Daisuke and Justin all passed each other a glance of slight annoyance.

"Hey… Isn't Ai Ebihara your manager!?" One of the students interrupted, with way more cheer in his voice than there probably should be. Justin raised his eyebrow slightly. He had no idea who the hell Ai was; even if Chie and Daisuke seemed to have a pretty good idea.

"No, because I'm not in-"

"Seriously!? Damn, now I'm jealous!" Justin just rolled his eyes as they continued. How hard was it to tell him apart from Yu anyway? It wasn't like Justin and Yu hadn't been around for a while; and it's not like Justin hadn't made himself a bit of a reputation at the class presidential elections. People should KNOW by now that he wasn't in sports. But then, he supposed anyone who sounded like these idiots was probably too stupid to realize that anyway.

"Ai Ebihara…? Oh, her. She's never around." Daisuke sighed a bit as the comment left his mouth. He was not in the slightest bit disappointed she didn't show up; he just didn't like having his conversations interrupted. Especially not for everyone to just start ogling some girl that wasn't even there. Not that it would have been alright if she was. It would probably be worse if she was.

"Heh, probably because she's always on the prowl for guys."

"Yeah, I heard she's pretty loose. And doesn't she look like she's got a sugar daddy or two?" Justin damn near started one of his coughing fits again. For once, Chie was a-okay with him doing that too. It wasn't that he was surprised to hear that this girl was 'loose' after all. It was that these assholes had thought it was okay to talk behind someone's back like that. His coughing fit soon subsided into an angry glare, a transition that Chie and Daisuke soon found themselves following.

"Yeah, she's stacking the paper."

"I wonder how much she gets paid…?"

"Absolutely nothing, you sick fucks." Justin spat out with disgust. No one heard him though. That was the strange thing about Justin. He had a reputation for being out of his mind, for being an anarchist, and a very aggressive person you should NEVER piss off. Yet even with all of that attached to his name, his presence didn't really demand any respect out of people. It was like he was never there half of the time. Justin's brow tensed up slightly as they continued to make vulgar remarks about this girl. Daisuke could only get so angry, unfortunately, though he had clearly reached his limit in that regard. Chie looked like she was going to smack someone upside the head. Let's just ignore the fact that talking about someone like this behind their back was completely disgusting; why would you ever have a conversation about pimping and sexualizing women in front of a lady? These people were disgusting. It was like they had no censor; and that was saying something from the girl who was dating a guy who more or less said the first thing that came to his mind on a regular basis.

"Damn, dude, don't hold back or anything!"

"You think it's a cheaper market out here in the boonies?"

"I don't know man, this is premium grade high school tail we're talking about… And with a body like that?" Alright. That was enough. Justin had enough of this bull crap. He soon pushed his way through the group, making his way to the guy who had just made that remark before shoving him viciously against the wall behind him. That certainly got everyone to shut up. Daisuke just shook his head slightly. He had no objections to that kid getting what he deserved. Chie was only slightly surprised at the outburst. Usually Justin would make a snide remark, not result to violence like this. Of course, that somewhat changed when Justin turned around to the rest of the group; his eyes a golden color. This wasn't just Justin being chivalrous; he was outright pissed. And his shadow had taken advantage of that.

"**Any other asshole want to say anything? Anyone at all!" **The shadow's voice echoed through the crowd. Everyone could tell something wasn't quite right; though only Daisuke and Chie really noticed the eye color change. The echo in his voice was heard by everyone, though no one was really able to discern whether they were just hearing things or not. Daisuke passed Chie a slightly look of confusion. She was biting her bottom lip as she watched. She had considered stepping out there to calm Justin down, but she knew damn well his shadow had no qualms striking back against her. It would kill his reputation if anyone saw Justin's shadow hurling Chie across the room. All she could do was sit there and watch as Justin went batshit insane.

"**I'm waiting! C'mon dickwads! You want to talk shit about someone? Why don't you talk shit to MY face. I dare you, you cocksuckers! But I'm warning you now. You'll discover a war you're unable to win! When I'm done with you, you won't be able to tell your face from your ass!" **The shadow continued to rant, all the while the group of students that had assembled slowly backed away from him. They had no intention of this turning violent; especially not with a psychopath like Justin. Justin suddenly paused, gripping at his head as he slowly started to regain control, his head pounding like a thousand drums. Daisuke started to push his way through the crowd now, trying to make his way towards Justin. He didn't know what was going on, but he did know things were going horribly wrong.

"Knock it off, guys. Maybe someone should spread some rumors about you, and we'll see how you like it." Daisuke barked at everyone, trying to push his way to the center of the group. He wasn't finding much resistance though. Chie was following behind in his wake; though she was a lot less forcefully pushing people aside. She knew Justin would be fine; Daisuke, not so much. She was still concerned all the same though. This was the first time he had lost control like that in front of this many people.

"Uh y-yeah… W-We're running late for a meeting anyway, right guys? Yeah okay see ya!" One of the students stammered in panic before the crowd dispersed, running in all different directions. Daisuke had finally made it to Justin, who had pushed his back against the wall behind him, sliding down to the floor with his hand pressed against his skull. He was mortified to say the least.

"You alright man?" Daisuke questioned Justin. Justin finally opened his eyes to look up at Daisuke; his eye color returning to their usual blue shade. Daisuke sighed with slight relief to see whatever had just happened had apparently reverted. Justin seemed fine now, if in slight pain from his headache. Daisuke extended his hand to let Justin help him up. Justin sighed in disappointment with himself as Daisuke helped him to his feet. "What was that all about?"

"It's uh…" Justin stammered slightly. This wasn't something he could just explain to Daisuke. He needed an excuse. But how do you explain changing eye colors, a booming voice like his shadow's? You don't, that's how. "...It's a rare condition. It only happens when I get really pissed off." Justin eventually settled on. That was the only possible explanation he could think of for such a dramatic change. Daisuke just nodded slightly. He wasn't going to delve into any deeper questioning; he knew it was probably something Justin didn't want to talk about.

"Sorry about that… Sounds like they've got the hots for our manager. They were talking like that at practice too… But don't worry, I'll yell at them later, man." Daisuke apologized on the students' behalf. They were a direct cause of whatever had caused that change in Justin's demeanor; they weren't getting off the hook that much was for sure. Justin smiled a fake smile. He was happy to see Daisuke wasn't going to press him for more information. He was a good guy. "Crap… I forgot to do my English paper…" Daisuke muttered to himself as he was suddenly struck by the revelation. "Maybe if I rush over to the computer lab right now I can get it done… Sorry I gotta go. I'll see you later." Daisuke remarked slightly panicked, before departing in a hurry. Justin waved at him before letting out a puff of hot air.

"How bad was it?" Justin choked up after a short period of silence in an aside to Chie. Chie sighed a bit. He was already beating himself up over this. Chie hated to see Justin so down in the dumps like this.

"Not too bad. Aside from the yellow eyes, I couldn't tell the difference." Chie lied slightly in an attempt to cheer Justin up. And it certainly worked to a certain extent. Clearly the yellow eyes WERE a giveaway; which was a problem. At the same point, though, he felt good knowing that he hadn't caused too much havoc. And in all honesty? Even if his shadow hadn't taken over at that moment, he probably still would have socked somebody one. He didn't know who this Ai girl was, but he knew she deserved better than that bullcrap.

Justin lifted his gaze up from the floor, searching around where he had just caused a scene. It was almost entirely empty, save one girl standing out in the hallway. And she was starring right at Justin for some reason. He raised his eyebrow, slightly confused, slight concerned. He hoped whoever that was didn't see his little… transformation; for lack of a better word.

"Who's that?" Justin eventually questioned, his arms crossed. He didn't lift his gaze from the girl in the distance as he talked to Chie. Chie was a little surprised in all honesty that Justin didn't know who that was; but her shock was overcome by a deep-sinking sensation in her chest. She had to wonder how long she had been watching. If she even was watching.

"That would be Ai." Chie sighed slightly. Justin shot his gaze over from Ebihara to Chie, completely flabbergasted by the bombshell Chie had just dropped on him. So then does that mean… she heard everything. Holy crap that's awful.

"Fuck… I should probably see if she's alright." Justin mumbled to himself. He knew he wasn't the one throwing around those degrading remarks about her, but he still felt bad about it. Even if this apology wasn't coming out of the mouths of the people that should be apologizing to her, she still deserved it all the same. Chie seemed kind of surprised by Justin's remark. As Justin pushed himself off the wall he had been leaning against, Chie grabbed him by the collar, pulling him closer so that she could talk to him without Ai hearing.

"What are you doing? Don't do that." Chie warned him. Justin was a little confused why he WOULDN'T be trying to see if she was alright. No one should have to just deal with comments like that, after all.

"Why not?"

"Ebihara… has a bit of a reputation for being a bitch." Chie tried to put it as delicately as she could. But that's the best she could. Some of the stuff she had heard Ai say, some of the things she had heard Ai had done… Bitch might have been a bit of a compliment. Justin just shook his head. He had expected better of Chie. Bitch or not, no one deserves to be talked about like that. And besides; Chie should know better than anyone how terrible it is to have a bad reputation, how it's not always true.

"Yeah? And I have a reputation for being an anarchist. How often do you see me setting stuff on fire?" Justin remarked with a combination of sarcasm and disgust in his voice.

"Alright let me rephrase that. She IS a bitch." Chie clearly didn't understand why what she was saying was offensive as all fuck. Justin just sighed a bit before raising his hand, his palm facing towards Chie as though telling her he didn't want to hear it. Chie would normally be pissed off as all fuck at that motion if she wasn't so surprised. Besides, she realized how she sounded; she didn't entirely blame Justin for not wanting to listen to that. Justin pushed himself off the wall, before pushing his way over to Ai. She didn't seem at all confused as to why Justin was approaching her. Hell, she didn't even react. She just looked sort of saddened by the remarks the team she had been 'managing' had made. Managing being very generous all things considered.

"Hey, you wouldn't happen to be Ai Ebihara would you?" Justin questioned.

"And you would be?" She questioned in a very egotistical manner. Well it seems Chie WAS right. She IS a bitch. Still, Justin felt he needed to say what he was going to, so he decided to stick it out for a moment.

"Justin Tylor; I'm the foreign kid." Justin stuck his hand out to shake her hand, though he was not greeted by the same kindness. "I uh… take it you heard what those guys said. I know it's probably not as good as getting an apology from them, but I'd like to apologize on their behalf." Justin continued, having finally withdrawn his hand when he realized he wasn't going to get a hand-shake. Ai just shook her head a bit at Justin's hastily thrown together apology. She really didn't need one as it turns out.

"It's not like… that kinda stuff really bothers me. I expect it. They don't even know me. Why should I care what they think…?" Ai casually remarked. You could tell it still bothered her though, despite all her objections. Justin scratched at his head a bit. He had never once introduced himself to someone under the context of them being called a whore. It was a bit unsettling.

"Well there you go. Just ignore them; that's what I do when people talk behind my back." Justin smirked slightly. Ai raised her eyebrows up though. It seemed she hadn't really recognized who Justin was until he had let loose his tell-tale smirk. She didn't know him personally mind you; but she did remember seeing some psychopath during the elections with that exact same smirk. Oh yes, it was all coming to her now.

"Hey… aren't you that kid that tried to start a riot during the elections?" Ai spoke up, slightly fascinated. Before she could care less who this kid was; even if he did just try to beat the crap out of some kid on her behalf. Now that she realized Justin had a record for doing stupid shit, for breaking all the rules… Well, she was certainly interested to say the least. Justin just kind of grunted with disgust.

"Jesus, no one ever lets that go!" Justin remarked, a combination of irritation and humor in his voice. He wasn't too pissed off; but he kind of was at the same time. It's hard to explain. It's like… It started off as a joke, but then he realized that no one DID let that go. Hell, he didn't even let it go himself. Ai just sort of chuckled at that. Oh yes, this kid would do.

"Well you don't seem like a big fan of school either. Wanna ditch class? Don't worry, we'll be back before the last bell." Ai spoke up, a sinister expression on her face. Oh she had plans for Justin if they cut class that was for sure. Of course, Justin had no intention of leaving school; even if he didn't do anything here anyway. He didn't know Ai, and no doubt Chie was not a fan of her in ANY capacity. Could you imagine what would happen if she caught him cutting class with her? Not happening.

"I'll pass." Justin remarked flatly after a short pause. Ai, of course took that pause as him considering it. And she knew how to push guys to do what she wanted to. Call it a skill of hers.

"Oh, I get it. All talk and no walk, is that it? Should have figured you'd be too afraid to skip school." Ai remarked a glare on her face. She wasn't pissed by any means, but she was manipulative, that much was for sure. And she had seen how easily Justin could get pissed off. She just hoped to god that Justin was a rash psychopath as opposed to a violent one. It turns out, both.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. I ain't afraid of shit. I just don't know you." Justin glared back. He wasn't going to take that from someone he had just beaten the crap out of for. _Show some gratitude you bitch._

"Excuses, excuses. Hey, if you're not man enough to cut school, that's fine." Ai continued, looking off in the distance as though she was uninterested. Justin wasn't even sure why that pissed him off as much as it did; but oh ho, he was livid. Justin squinted his eyes in a glare, his teeth were crunched tightly together.

"Not man enough? I'll show you man enough!" Justin barked back. Ai just held her head up as though she didn't care that he was tagging along; even though that had been the plan all along.

"So then it's decided; you're cutting class with me."

"Damn straight I a- Wait, what?" Justin cut himself off as he realized he had pretty much just blurted out a yes. He hadn't intended to say yes; but Ai had managed to get him in one of those moods where his anger just sort of took complete control over his thinking process. Justin really needed to learn to stop thinking with his heart and more with his brain. Ai didn't so much as smile as she grabbed him by the wrist, dragging him out the front door. He tripped over his feet the entire way there, and when he had seen Chie on the way out he tried to mouth an SOS to her. She saw it, of course. She just decided not to respond. In actuality, she wasn't sure whether she should be pissed at Justin for going along with Ai's little charade, or feel bad for him. God knows Chie couldn't listen to that woman talk for more than a few seconds.

"Well that was… interesting." Chie mumbled to herself before shrugging and heading off towards homeroom. She had pretty much wasted half her lunch period down here, and she would like to eat SOMETHING.

* * *

"Mmmm! Feels so good. Just knowing everyone else is still stuck at school studying makes it feel great to be out here."

Ai had dragged Justin god only knows how far away. They had to take a bus, so clearly it was a lot further then the probably should have headed. _Get back before the last bell my ass._ It was some place called Okina City. Honestly, at this point Justin had stopped giving a crap if they figured out he cut class. What were they going to do; tell his parents? Pfft, good luck with that. And besides; any anxiety he might have had about this entire trip was swept aside as he saw this place. It looked like a commons; a shopping plaza if you will. It was huge, that was for sure. But it was also one hell of a sight. There were palm trees all over the place, green grass… The architecture was beautiful, as well as the tile work. Justin was no architect, no home decorator or anything like that; but he could tell this was one beauty of a place. Justin made a mental note of this place in his head. If he could afford the bus fare, he'd love to come back sometime.

"Jesus look at this place. If Chie wasn't going to kill me once I get back, I'd consider skipping class to come here more often." Justin remarked with slight wonder. For the first time that entire day, it seemed as though Ai was actually happy. She had one hell of a smile; that was for sure. Made you wonder why she didn't do it more often.

"You think so? I'm surprised you're so open-minded. I had you pegged for a mama's boy." Ai jabbed at him. Justin didn't so much as turn towards her at that remark.

"My mom's dead, but yeah, sure." Justin was expecting some sort of reaction out of Ai with that; sympathy, shock, hell ANY emotion. Nope; she didn't give the slightest fuck about the living status of Justin's family. It was actually a bit of a relief in a way. He didn't know this person as it was; he didn't need to make things awkward with a dead parent remark. Hell, it was just a relief to know that there was someone out there who could care less about that. In a way, Justin kind of liked Ai already. Sure, she was a complete bitch; but Justin was a complete bastard, so it worked.

"It's not like I do this all the time. Besides, since they started keeping track of my attendance and behavior record, I've been a good girl." Ai continued as she looked around the mall, plotting her route. Justin was a bit curious what she meant by 'behavioral record,' but then realized who it was he was talking to. She probably said something really nasty to someone; who even knows.

"So… You're under watch for attendance… And you're skipping class?" Justin remarked, trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together out loud.

"Yeah, so?" Ai questioned, the smile on her face fading away slightly. It seemed she had taken Justin's remark as an insult. It wasn't. If anything, Justin thought it was a pretty ballsy move. He could get behind that no problem. Though he did have to wonder how she hadn't been caught yet.

"Just making sure." The two shrugged at each other. Neither really cared, so there was no use in debating the topic any further.

"Well, enough small talk. Let's go. We'll start with clothes, then we'll hit jewelry and shoes, and maybe some cell phone stuff if there's enough time." Justin's eyebrows shot up at that. They were shopping? Well, he should have figured that much considering they WERE in a shopping plaza right now. Still; he had to wonder what Ai was actually going to do with the stuff they bought. I mean, she wasn't just expecting to walk into school with bags of clothes, right? Actually, you know what, don't answer that. That's probably exactly what she was going to do.

"We're buying clothes? Alright, I'm game." Justin shrugged slightly; he was going to be on the lookout for some place cheap. Might be worth dragging Maya over here sometime if he found some place that sold clothes cheap. Ai seemed almost flabbergasted by Justin's comment; as though he was stupid to even give her confirmation that he was onboard for this.

"Of course you are. Why else would you be here?" Ai remarked, sarcastically. Justin passed her one of those 'are you shitting me' looks, his eyebrows leveled just above his eyes, a frown across his face.

"Probably because you dragged me here by the wrist." Justin shook his head slightly. Once again, Ai did not give even the slightest fuck about the circumstances by which Justin was present here. Instead she just eagerly started walking around, Justin in tow.

"Anyway, time's a'wasting. It's nice to have a personal servant! I can buy so much more this way." Ai laughed a slightly maniacal laugh at that. Justin only glared slightly at that. He had no problem carrying bags, even if it did just look absolutely terrible when he had a girlfriend. He did however have a problem being referred to as a servant._ I don't call you a bitch, don't call me your slave._

"Whoa, hang on there toots. Only one girl gets to call me that." For the record; Chie didn't get to call him that either. She was just the least likely to get shit for calling him that. Justin barely knew Ai; she wasn't even close to a position where she could give him that title and get away with it. But as usual, no fucks were given. It was amazing just how many fucks Ai did not give. It was like… If Justin had a gun against his head right now, and the only thing he needed to survive was a single fuck, Ai wouldn't even think of giving him one. That's how many fucks she didn't give.

"And today that girl is me." She remarked sarcastically.

And so, for a while Justin just sort of followed Ai around as she piled bags onto the length of his arm. Despite pretty much just being a walking coat rack at this point, Justin didn't mind. It was better than listening to King Moron's god awful speeches after all. He just hoped Chie wasn't going to kill him when all of this was over and done with. She could get awfully jealous sometimes. Or at least Justin had thought she would be at first. It turned out she was getting some sort of kick out of this entire thing; as evident by a text message he had received.

_U kill urself yet?_

Justin really wished Chie would use some goddamn grammar when texting; but alas, he knew that wasn't going to happen. He wasn't keeping his hopes up.

_I'm getting there._

At damn near every store they stopped at, Justin had tried to look at SOMETHING a little closer. He had spotted one thing in particular; a black hoodie, not much different than the one Maya wore. The only real difference was that it had a pink stripe along the arm instead of red. Justin had considered grabbing it, since it was dirt cheap, but then he realized that Maya probably didn't want to wear the same thing she had been wearing for the last two years; she probably wanted something new. That and Ai kind of dragged him to the cash register; so he didn't exactly have time to grab it, even if he wanted to. On the bright side though, Justin knew this place was fairly cheap. They could probably pick up a couple of outfits with the money Justin had saved at this point alone.

Justin shrugged a bit as he waited at the counter next to Ai, who had passed off a golden card to the man behind the register. It took only a second before the card came back and the merchandise was bagged. Apparantly when Ai said she'd be able to buy more stuff this way, she meant it. Still, it was amazing how quickly she was blowing through money. If Justin spent as much money as she did in this shopping session alone; he wouldn't be able to eat for a month. He was more than a little fascinated. Which is probably why he piped up on the matter once they left the store.

"You know, if you want to burn through money like that, you could always give some to me." Justin joked slightly. The two stood near the center of the plaza, just next to the station that would take them back. They needed to wait for their ride of course; so they were kind of stuck just standing there until it came around to take them back to Inaba.

"Well, I guess you could call my family "new money." We may not have status or history, but we do have money. My daddy made a fortune in land speculation." Ai explained. Justin should have seen something like that coming. It certainly explained that 'high and superior' attitude she seemed to have around everyone; like she was better than them. But alas, that's what rich folk do. Especially rich valley girls. Justin wasn't kidding about that sharing some money with him thing though.

Justin's thoughts on the matter were interrupted by the arrival of the bus that would take them back to school. "We'd better get going, though, or we won't make it back before class ends." Ai spoke up, starring at the bus from a distance. Justin just sort of extended his arm as though to say ladies first. He wasn't entirely sure why; he knew she was going to do it anyway. Probably to be a smartass. "Soon as school gets out, I'm number one on the guidance counselor's list. He has to check on my attendance and behavior, and sometimes, he tops it off with a lecture. It's a major pain." Ai continued to make small talk as they walked.

"To be fair, you're giving him pretty good reason." Justin remarked snidely. Ai just rolled her eyes at that.

"But I'm out here having fun, and all the teachers are totally clueless. How stupid can they be?" Ai continued to rant and rave on the topic of teachers. Justin certainly agreed with her; but not for the same reasons. Ai just hated that they were forcing her to go to school; Justin hated how incompetent half of the staff was at their job.

"We do call him King Moron for a reason."

"Don't even get me started on him." Ai huffed a bit. Her frown soon shifted upwards into a smile, however; her glare subsiding again. It seemed she just needed to rant about that to get it out of her system. You know; for a general bitch, Ai could be pretty likable when she was in a good mood. Too bad she was almost never in a good mood. "You know what, though? I had more fun today than usual. You're different from the others. I like you."

"I hope you mean that platonically." Justin remarked snidely. Of course Ai had no idea what platonic meant; nor did Justin really know why he had assumed she would.

"I think I'll keep you around." Justin wasn't entirely sure that he was a fan of that. He supposed Ai was alright; not really someone who he would hang around on a regular basis. And certainly not if all he was going to be was her baggage monkey. It was bad enough that Chie was probably tearing her hair out with anger just about now. Imagine making this a regular thing. Oh that would be awful. All the same, Justin just shrugged. He didn't have to say no. He just couldn't say yes.

"Fantastic. I've always wanted to be a butler."


	87. Chapter 86: July 9, 2011

CHAPTER 86

July 9, 2011

* * *

"Alright, so I got through all those albums yesterday… Except that Disturbed one… Not sure what that was doing there…"

It was music class during the last period of the day, and the gang had once again gathered together to discuss what in the hell they were doing. Justin had brought in a huge stack of albums he thought they could cover songs from a few days ago, but since there was no CD player at school, they sort of had to resort to letting one person take them home and listen to them at a time. Yu had brought them in today to give them back to Justin, seeing as he was the last one to listen to them. He was a little thrown off by that Disturbed album, but then he realized that was Justin just trying to get some shits and giggles.

"You sound stupefied." Justin smirked slightly. Yu only groaned a bit. He wasn't exactly a Disturbed fan; in fact he pretty much hated them. But he was very well aware what songs they had written; Stupify being one of them. Everyone else just sort of shook their head slightly, save for Chie he smiled slightly at the joke. It was pretty bad; but she had learned to expect that from Justin. And besides; at least it wasn't a bear pun. There was a reason everyone tried to keep Justin away from the television when they didn't need to go in. "Alright, in all seriousness; thoughts?" Justin eventually stopped smiling, bending forward slightly to listen to everyone's input.

"What are we choosing between?" Maya interrupted. Chie had stopped by Justin's house the night prior with a spare uniform, knowing they had music class today. Also to bust Justin's chops about Ai. Thankfully Chie didn't see Ai as some sort of threat to their relationship, so Justin was in the clear in that regard. Maya was more than a little reluctant to throw the uniform on; partially because it was someone else's, partially because she thought it looked stupid as fuck. Maya sort of had this Goth/Punk look going on normally. Not that she tried to look like a Goth; hell she hated Goths. It's just the whole dark clothing and pale skin thing kind of had that effect. Still, point is; she didn't like the whole clean cut look she got out of the uniform. Hell, almost none of the gang did; but Maya was particularly vocal about how bad the uniform looked on her. It looked fine for the record; it just wasn't to her tastes.

"Here. You've heard most of this stuff already." Justin remarked, passing off the stack of CD's to Maya. She most certainly had heard most of this stuff; if not all of it. There was no need for her to listen to anything; she just needed to see what they were choosing between. Maya began to shuffle through each of the albums while the rest tried to discuss what they were going to do.

"Well, you were right about one thing. I recognized every single song on that Electric Light Orchestra album… by the way, is there a shorter name for that? Because that's really-" Yu had started off admiring the band, but soon was distracted by the band's ridiculously long name. It was really hard to just shove that name into a conversation casually.

"ELO." Justin interrupted, already knowing the answer to Yu's question.

"Alright thanks." Justin smiled slightly as Yu puffed out some air in slight relief. He was more than pleased to see that the group had already been familiar with ELO; they just didn't know it. It wasn't just Yu either, for the record. Chie and Yukiko had nodded slightly at Yu's insinuation that he had hear this music before. Of course; they didn't know EVERY song on there, just a few. But the point still stood. "I liked it, but uh… That's a violin. Not a trumpet." Yu pointed out slightly disappointed. Justin raised his eyebrow slightly.

"Well first of all; a few of them do have a horn section. Secondly, I thought we would just transpose the violin over to trumpet." Justin tried to explain his thinking process. Yu just shook his head. Clearly Justin had no idea why that was a terrible, terrible idea. And that was coming from the guy who proclaimed himself as having the most knowledge on music out of all of them. Yeah, you might be able to transpose a bass to guitar; but that's because they were both string instruments. You couldn't just transfer a violin over to a trumpet.

"Even if I COULD do that; did you hear how fast that guy played that violin? I can't blow that fast…" Yu paused for a slight moment as he realized what had just come out of his mouth. "Wait… Uh… Let me rephrase that…" Justin just started laughing at Yu; though Chie and Yukiko seemed slightly disgusted. They hadn't really made that connection, and even if they did, they'd know what Yu meant; no need to make things awkward by pointing it out. Maya of course did not give a shit. She had heard so much worse it wasn't even funny. "Look point is; that's not gonna work."

"Who's the front man anyway?" Maya questioned, not really looking up from the albums she was shuffling through. Maya brought up an interesting point; they really should decide who would be singing.

"Well I guess Yu; since he can actually sing." Justin crossed his arms, turning his attention away from Maya and back over to Yu. His face was beat red. He was flattered to say the least; but he had no intention of singing.

"How am I supposed to sing if I'm blowing on a trumpet?" Yu objected.

"Crap…" Justin muttered. Yu raised a valid point. If they DID have him on trumpet, there was no way in hell he was going to be able to sing. So either they put him as the front man and left the trumpet out, or they had another person be the singer. Justin turned his gaze over to Chie. He didn't so much as open his mouth before he was shot down.

"No."

"Well who else is going to do it? None of us can sing." Justin remarked with slight irritation. Yukiko's eyes widened slightly before her face turned beat red; as though ashamed by her lack of ability to sing. She made it seem like singing was the easiest thing in the world to do. Still, it probably didn't help that Justin had essentially called her and Maya a crap singer. Though Maya quite frankly was not offended.

"It's true, I'm really bad." Maya remarked without lifting her gaze from her current task.

"I-I'm not that bad… am I?" Yukiko questioned in an aside to Chie. Chie just paused for a moment, just sort of starring at Yukiko. Oh she was god horrid. But she obviously wasn't going to say that to her face. Still; she found it difficult to say yes. Which was fine since Yu was on the case.

"You're singing is fine, Yukiko." Yu replied a warm smile on his face, which in turn only made Yukiko smile with relief. Justin only blew some steam from his nostrils however. She was not a good singer by any means. I mean, c'mon; they had two great singers here, and neither of them wanted to sing? There was no reason for any of these three to sing.

"So what, you're expecting me to sing?" Justin sarcastically pushed against the motion to make one of them the singer. Everyone passed each other a glance, as though they had actually considered the idea and were discussing it using only their eyes. Save Maya who had simply stopped searching through the albums to pass them a 'Don't you dare,' look. No one paid her any mind apparantly.

"Yeah."

"Mmhmm."

"Sounds good to me." Justin just shook his head. He had no problem making an ass out of himself; just not when his grade was on the line, not when there was a way they could avoid it. I mean, Justin could hit high notes… but that's about it. So unless they were doing the Bee Gees-

Wait… Why WEREN'T they doing the Bee Gees?

"You people are signing a suicide note, you realize that right?" Justin grumbled. No one seemed to change their perspective on the matter though. It seemed as though they were dead serious about Justin taking the microphone. Justin just could not understand why they would want him to do it. "Look; can we decide on the song before we decide who's going to make an ass out of themselves?" Justin pleaded with them, trying to get out of the deal. He wasn't; they already had their minds set in stone on the matter, even if they pretended to go along with Justin's insistence of picking a song before the singer.

"I'm not even sure why this is up for debate." Maya remarked, holding up two albums in her hand. Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall respectively. "I mean, come on. You can't beat this." Yu, Chie and Yukiko all passed each other a slight glance, as though to say 'yeeeeeeeaaaaaa no.' Psychedelic Rock was really more Maya's thing than anyone there; that much was for sure. Justin would be fine with Pink Floyd; but the obvious problem remained that none of the others were into that kind of music. Maya sighed with slight defeat as she noticed the glances the group was passing around. Clearly that was a no.

"Honestly, I'm leaning more towards the Doors on this one." Yu remarked as Maya went back to digging through the albums in front of her. Chie only passed a glare at Yu for some reason. Mostly because there was only one song on that album that had a horn section in it. And clearly she had completely misinterpreted the meaning of the song. Though Justin supposed it helped to know what the lyric was originally.

"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon touch me babe. That's the one you want to use…?" Chie spoke up with disgust in her voice. Yu blushed slightly. It was really the other lyrics that he had liked, but he did suppose that could be a problem. Justin shook his head slightly.

"The original lyric is 'hit me.' He doesn't mean touch me like that, Chie." Justin tried to explain. Chie's eyes widened for a moment before she started blushing intensely. She apparently had a much dirtier mind then she had originally thought. Though to be fair, how was she supposed to know that? It was a love ballad, not a spousal abuse ballad.

"S-Still." Chie choked up. Clearly if she couldn't tell that's what the song was about, no one else was going to. At least… She didn't think they would. If they did, she would just be outright ashamed.

"Guys. Hold the phones." Maya interrupted, cheer in her voice, a wide smile on her face. She had really wanted her psychedelic rock, but she could more than get behind what she now held in her hand instead. In the Court of the Crimson King; by King Crimson, obviously. Justin's eyes widened slightly; he had forgotten he even threw that album in the pile; but now that he remembered it, he was more than on board with it. He still would have preferred ELO though. The rest of the group starred at each other for a while, trying to determine the other's stance through eye-contact alone before eventually nodding.

"Which song is the question." Yu spoke up, seeing as everyone had immediately decided they were going to go with King Crimson on this one. Justin leveled his eyebrows, his eye lids closed slightly as though to imply 'I know you didn't just ask that question.'

"Do I really need to answer that?"

"Probably not, no." Yu shrugged a bit. He just figured they'd try to stay away from the obvious, like the hipsters they were. Maya handed the pile of albums back over to Justin, who in turn placed them in a stack next to his right foot. He seriously hoped these didn't get cracked in his backpack on the way home. Maya smiled slightly now that everyone had decided what they were going to do. She was curious about something else though.

"Well that's settled. So what are you guys calling yourselves anyway?" Maya piped up with curiosity.

"The Band with No Name." Justin crossed his arms a bit as the words left his mouth. Maya was stunned; though not in a good way. The smile on her face soon faded away, her eyes looking towards the ground for a moment.

"…Really? That's awful." Maya shook her head a bit. She would have expected Justin to come up with a better name than that. Hell, she KNEW he had better names than that; he had quite a few different band names on his Rock Band save. All of which were infinitely better than that. Chaos Theory, Burn the Queen, D.G.A.F. (Pronounced like decaf, only with a g instead of a c,) which stood for Don't Give a Fuck, Rubber… That last one was probably a recent save. He also had one called the Black Bagel Society for a while; but he realized the joke was stupid and deleted it after about a month. Point was; he was better than that lazy hipster crap. And he knew it.

"It's not THAT bad." Chie objected. She was rather fond of the name; even if they'd all admit it was pretty sucky. It had charm BECAUSE it sucked so much. Maya just continued to shake her head again.

"No, it is." She sighed slightly.

"Well then what would YOU have us do." Justin glared at her slightly.

"I don't know, use one of those other band names you came up with. I know you really liked Chaos Theory." Maya tried to convince him. Justin just shook his head slightly. He would LOVE to use Chaos Theory, and given the looks some of the others were passing around, so did they; but they weren't playing that kind of music. Unless they were doing Punk or Metal, the name would just not fit at all. They needed something else.

"Well unless we kick Yu out and just play death metal; I don't see that working." Justin tried to turn the group off towards the name. And while they still liked the name, Justin was right; it just did not work with what they were trying to do. You couldn't have chaos in the name of your band if you weren't being… Well, chaotic. "What we need is something short and simple; but catchy." Justin waved his hand about as he tried to explain the criteria to everyone. Everyone just sat there for a moment in compete silence, starring at the ground as they tried to think. Everyone except Maya, who had been starring at Justin. He had missed the most obvious name he could come up with…

"Mothership." Maya spoke up. Justin's eyes widened almost immediately. Mothership… Short, simple; had a nice ring to it when you said it, kind of had that progressive feel to it… It was by all accounts the perfect name.

"Wait; that's not already a band?" Justin spat up with confusion. If it wasn't, he was calling dibs right now. Maya just shook her head, confirming that no band with such a name existed. Or if they did, they certainly weren't big enough to warrant a Wikipedia page. Justin turned towards the others, looking for a response. The only one who wasn't in complete agreement was Chie, who had known that one of Justin's favorite albums was Mothership, and he had named his Playstation username after the album. This wasn't Justin's band, it was all of theirs. But everyone seemed to agree that the name sounded good, and quite frankly, Chie was inclined to agree. So she didn't speak up on the matter. If the name sounded alright, it didn't really matter who came up with it, after all.

"Mothership it is." Yu smiled a bit, just as the bell rang to dismiss the class. They still hadn't practiced or anything, and it had been at least a week since classes started. They really needed to quicken the pace. After all, the project was due in just a couple of weeks. Justin was going to suggest they stay behind for a moment to discuss the project, maybe get some practice in; after all, that's what Maya was here for. But Chie and Yukiko had rushed out door before Justin could even get a word in edge wise. Which was strange when you considered Chie usually walked home with Justin. They didn't live to far away from each other, so there was really no reason not to. Justin just sort of sat there with his jaw open, his finger in the air. _So much for practicing._ Yu and Maya were still there though; I mean, Maya kind of WAS going the same place Justin was, so she had no reason to leave without him.

"Uh guys. Guys! Shit, they're long gone…" Justin grumbled a bit, shaking his head for a moment before turning his attention over to Yu. He was chuckling to himself. It was like they were already a real band, what with no one showing up to practice. Not even the bass player; man that's so hardcore. But then the trumpet player did stay, so that kind of dropped the cool points down a bit.

"Seems like there in a hurry to go nowhere." Yu smirked a bit. "Ah well, we've got time." Justin shrugged a bit at that. Yeah they had time; but everyone still needed to learn their parts, learn to keep the same tempo as everyone else, learn not to laugh when Justin sang, and just generally not suck. They had time, but it would be better if they tried to perfect their art. Justin pushed himself up from his chair, Yu and Maya following his lead as they walked out of the classroom. "So how are things with you and Chie?" Yu tried to strike up small talk as they walked through the corridor.

"No different than usual." Justin shrugged. There wasn't much to really say; at least nothing he'd want to talk to Yu about. What happened between him and Chie was private after all. All Yu was going to get out of him was if their relationship was heading down the right path. And if it wasn't, Yu could drill him all he wanted about what was wrong. Justin would probably budge eventually.

"You figure out what you're going to do for her birthday?" Justin looked like someone had just punched him straight in the gut as Yu's question hit his ears. He stopped dead in his track, slouching over slightly, his eyes wide before turning to Yu, a shocked expression on his face. This was clearly news to him.

"It's her birthday!?" Justin damn near shouted. Yu was finding it hard not to laugh. I mean yeah, it was pretty awful that Justin didn't know his girlfriend's birthday, but it was still pretty funny how flustered Justin was. It certainly went to show you that he was panicking already. He had no idea when her birthday was, and he needed to get her something IMMEDIATELY. He briefly wondered if he could just wrap up a steak and call it a day.

"You don't know when her birthday is?" Maya giggled slightly. It wasn't like she knew, of course. But she wasn't the one dating Chie, now was she? Justin of all people should know that. I mean, c'mon, even YU knew her birthday, and he hadn't even been around that long. And for the time he WAS around Chie had always been hanging around with Justin. He had literally no time to find that out, and he still managed to get that information.

"Hey, I didn't think about it! I mean what was I going to say, 'oh hey just curious when the fuck is your birthday?'" Justin nervously tried to defend himself. He was ashamed he didn't know this stuff, but it's not like he COULD have known about it. Or at least that's what he thought. Yu just shook his head a bit, that wide grin on his face still.

"It's the 29th." Yu casually explained for Justin. Justin was sure to make a mental note of that in his head; repeating the date over and over until he couldn't think of anything else. He was shit at memorizing dates, and until he managed to find a pen and some paper, that's the only thing that was going to keep him from forgetting. Though he was curious about something…

"Thanks man, you're a life saver… Though… How exactly did you know that?" Justin was very curious as to how Yu found out. He highly doubted he just went up to Chie and asked her with her Birthday was. That would be weird. Nor did he really have any reason TO know her birthday, other than to be a nice guy and a good friend. So Justin doubted he was probing about for that information.

"Yukiko told me. They have a slumber party at the inn on each of their birthdays every year, so she was getting a bit excited." Yu explained. He wasn't entirely sure WHY Yukiko was so excited by that; after all, they were sixteen, soon to be seventeen in Chie's case. They should have outgrown that by now. They were much better friends than Yu had previously assumed if they were still treating such childish events with such sanctity. Justin nodded his head slightly; that made sense. He just hoped he'd have time to wish Chie a Happy Birthday before she went to Yukiko's place to stay the night.

"How are things between you and Yukiko anyway? You've been hanging out a lot lately, but still haven't seen any hands being held." Justin jabbed at him. Yu immediately blushed. So much for discretion. Maya just started laughing abit, a wide grin on her face.

"I knew it!" She shouted as though she had just discovered the answer to life, the universe, and everything (Still 42 by the way.) Yu's face only seemed to glow brighter as he realized someone who barely even knew him could tell he had a thing for Yukiko. Was he that obvious? Maybe that's why he wasn't getting anywhere with her. He didn't want her to think he was aggressively pushing for this… He kind of was in a way. He wanted her, dammit; he was just trying to take it slow so she wouldn't think he was a creeper.

"Hey stop it…" Yu choked up, his cheeks still burning up. "Things are just going slow; that's all…" Yu hurriedly tried to make up an excuse. Justin just shook his head a bit. He had seen what had happened in the food court a couple of weeks ago; how Yu hadn't so much as lifted a finger when those cameramen were harassing her. That would have been the perfect opportunity to stand up for her, tell those guys to fuck off, and then ask her out. Instead he just sat there. He was afraid, for whatever reason, Justin couldn't understand.

"What you need to do is just man up and ask her out already." Justin stuck his hands out as though he were holding an invisible cube in-between his palms, shaking them slightly as he proposed his idea. That's really all there was to it. Yukiko liked him, even if Yu seemed blind to that. If he just asked she'd surely say yes; it was just a matter of getting Yu to do it. He wasn't budging, he wasn't making a move. And until he did, nothing was going to change.

"Wha- I-I can't just do that… I mean… I don't even know where to start…" Yu stammered a bit. Justin's eyebrows raised, a smirk crossing his face. Yu had pretty much been his go to guy when it came to dating advice; yet here he was, completely clueless on how to interact with Yukiko on a romantic basis. He couldn't even find the balls to ask her out. Which is a-okay, because that's what Justin and Maya were here for.

"Why not give her flowers? You know what kind of flower she likes?" Maya questioned. She probably wasn't the best person to go to for romantic advice, in all honesty, but Yu was going to take what he could get. After all, Maya would probably know more about what a girl was looking for when being asked out than he did. And that was saying something.

"Daffodils… But I can't just do that… It's so cliché… I've got to wait for the right moment." Yu pounded the bottom of his knuckle into the palm of his hand, as though convincing himself that this was what he needed to do. Justin shook his head slightly. He had an opportunity with that newscast a while back, but he sort of blew that. And who knew when a situation like that was going to comeback around.

"Why wait for a scene, when you can cause one yourself." Justin smirked. Yu's eyes widened a bit at that. He had no idea what Justin meant, but it couldn't be good. "You want this to be special, to be big, right? Me personally, I beat the crap out of criminals. You're not really going to get that opportunity. So what I would suggest is to use the tools you have right in front of you. Don't go looking for trouble. Make it."

"I don't…" Yu was really confused. He wasn't going to fake being a hero just to win the girl; that was wrong in every sense. He wasn't going to trick Yukiko into loving him. No, it had to come naturally; otherwise there was no point to it at all. Of course, Yu had been overlooking what Justin had been implying the entire time. He wasn't saying to go out and cause trouble in an attempt of rectifying it and winning Yukiko's heart. He was saying that they were in a position to go big when he asked her out. And Maya had apparently caught on, smiling devilishly as the idea started to seep into her brain.

"Oh that would be so cute!" Maya spoke up, glee in her eyes. Her cheeks were actually a bit rosy; it wasn't like she was the one who was getting asked out, but she found it that adorable all the same. Yu still didn't have a clue what they were getting at though.

"What would be?"

"You my friend, are going to dedicate a song to her." Justin smiled pointing his finger at Yu. Yu immediately recoiled in slight horror. No. Absolutely not!

"What!? No! I can't do that! Besides, how am I supposed to dedicate a song to her if she's the one playing it?" That wasn't even getting into their song choice. Now if Yu was trying to ask JUSTIN out, that might have worked; but he wasn't. And besides, Yukiko got embarrassed real easy. Dedicating a song to her in front of everyone would just mortify her. She would definitely say no if he did that. Justin wasn't having any of Yu's objections though. He had helped Justin with his dating problems, and now he was going to return the favor. Whether he liked it or not.

"Who said she was going to be the one to play it? We'll do our regular song, then me and Maya will start playing whatever song you dedicate to her. And then you're going to sing it." Justin explained. Really, they didn't need a bass or a trumpet or a keyboard for this, so Justin on guitar and Maya on drums should more than suffice. That did mean Yu was going to have to sing it though; something he seemed to thoroughly object to for some reason.

"I can't do it. No, not happening…" Yu continued to refuse. Justin grabbed him by the shoulders, holding him in place as he tried to make this painfully clear to her.

"Trust me. She'll love it." Justin tried to calm Yu down. It might have been a bit over the top; but then, it was big. No girl would turn you down after dedicating a sweet song to them. Unless you completely butchered it; but there was no way in hell Justin or Maya would let that happen. Yu turned his gaze off to the side, avoiding eye contact with Justin for a brief second before turning back his way.

"Well… what am I supposed to say? This one's for Yukiko?" Yu questioned. He couldn't do that, it would be weird. Justin starred up at the ceiling for a brief moment, making a slight sound from his throat as he tried to think.

"Just… Say it's about a girl." Justin smiled at Yu.

"And you guys will really help?" It seemed Yu was trying to find any possible way out of this dilemma, even if part of him did want to go through with it. If he could nail this… If he really could impress Yukiko… Maybe she'd say yes when he asked her. His heart was pounding rapidly at this point; a combination of nerves and love mixing with each other in a frantic beat. He must have been out of his mind to think this would work…

"No Yu, we're going to start playing death metal and eating bat heads the moment you dedicate the song to her. Of course we will. Don't think I haven't forgotten how you've helped me." Justin smiled, his sarcasm slowly fading into complete sincerity. Yu smiled a bit, letting out some air from the cracks of his mouth. He hadn't done that expecting payment back… but in a way it felt good knowing that Justin had his back; on this, on everything.

"Thank you… You're a good friend, you know that." Yu patted Justin against the shoulder as he finally let loose the grip he had been keeping Yu in place with.

"Don't mention it." Justin smirked. "…But uh… Can you repeat Chie's birthday…? I sorta forgot..."

"Really?"

"No, not really. Jeeze, some friend you are, you douche!"


	88. Chapter 87: July 10, 2011

CHAPTER 87

July 10, 2011

* * *

"…hello, you've reached the answering machine of Justin Tylor. Leave a message after the beep… Uh… Beep."

Justin was lying in his bed when he had been woken up by the sound of his cell-phone ringing. Really, the only person who he knew that called him was Chie, so he just sort of assumed it was her despite still being half asleep. He was tired; like really tired. It was the weekend, and Justin wanted to sleep in late. He half wanted to hang up the phone; but he knew Chie would kill him if he did. Besides; it turned out this was much more important than catching forty winks.

"_Hey, now is not the time!" _Chie sounded panicked as her voice came through on the other end of the line. It was clear something was very very wrong. Justin opened his eyes before pushing himself up from his bed, listening intently to whatever it was Chie needed to say. He just hoped she wasn't in some sort of trouble._ "D-D-Did you hear yet!?"_

"Chie, calm down. What's wrong?" Justin barked frantically into his phone, trying to calm Chie down the best he could. He didn't know what was going on, but she needed to stay calm. There was a brief pause as the remark left Justin's mouth. He could hear her breathing heavily on her end of the line, clearly still frantic about whatever had just conspired. Not even Justin's voice could calm her down now.

"_They found a dead body just outside the shopping district!"_

Justin damn near hacked up a lung on that one. Dead!? Someone died!? But… They saved Rise! No one else was on that television! Who else could it be? And more importantly HOW!? This shouldn't have happened… No it COULDN'T have happened. But it did; and it made no fucking sense. Something had gone horribly wrong… They failed…

"Dead!? B-But… H-…How the fuck-" Justin couldn't even push a complete sentence out of his mouth at this point. Words escaped him. He thought they had done everything right. They went in, they saved Rise, even fought Teddie's shadow; and yet someone was still dead? They damn near lost their lives that day, and yet it was all for naught!? It wasn't fair. It wasn't right!

"I don't get it! I mean, we… Look, we're all meeting at Junes. Come over right away!" Chie stuttered before hanging up the phone. Normally Justin would be pissed that she didn't say goodbye, but these circumstances were much different. He tossed the cell in his hand down on the counter before jumping out of bed, tripping over his sheets in the process. He frantically dug through a pile of clothes he had left lying near his closet, throwing on the first thing he saw; a red t-shirt with the words 'Guns don't kill people, I do,' on it and some grey sweat pants. He looked like a mess, but it didn't matter; this was important.

Within moments Justin was rushing down the stairs, a pillow in his hand which he then proceeded to peg at Maya; waking her up in the process. She wasn't exactly pleased about being woken up with some blunt force to her head, needless to say.

"Ow! What the fuck, Justin!?" She shouted turning to find the source of the projectile. By the time she had found Justin, he was throwing his sneakers on, tying them tightly but quickly.

"Throw your sneakers on; we need to go to Junes right now." Justin ordered, not even bothering to explain to her what had happened. They needed to get going right now; this was an emergency after all. Of course, without an explanation, it just looked like Justin was trying to drag Maya along on another one of his misadventures. And generally misadventures involving the two of them didn't end too well.

"We can shop later, no need to—"

"Someone's dead, Maya!" Justin shouted, cutting her off. Alright, now Justin had Maya's attention.

"What!?"

"I don't know what's going on, all I know is someone's dead! We need to meet the others right now!" He continued to order Maya. Maya threw the blanket she had wrapped around her off of the couch before jumping up and making a dash for her sneakers. She didn't know what happened in the television the day they saved Rise, but apparently they did something horribly wrong. She just hoped it wasn't someone they knew…

* * *

"Hey, over here!"

Chie shouted and waved Justin and Maya over to where the group had been sitting in the food court. Justin's heart jumped slightly at the sight of Chie in the distance. She was wearing a green floral tank top and short shorts. She looked absolutely breath-taking. And under normal circumstances, Justin might have had to take a moment to regain his composure, lest he make an ass out of himself. But he had thrown his composure out a while ago. He was in a complete state of panic at the moment. He just wanted to know who died, and if it was indeed a result of the television world.

"Yosuke went over to check out the scene. He should be back soon…" Chie explained to the two as they made their way over the table. Everyone was sitting down, waiting patiently for Yosuke to return, panicked expressions on their face. Justin and Maya refused to sit though; it just didn't feel right to sit down and relax over something as awful as this.

"Do we know anything? Anything at all?" Justin remarked with panic. Everyone hesitatingly shook their heads. They wished they could say yes; but alas, they knew nothing until Yosuke came back. And speaking of the devil; Yosuke soon came running around the corner. Very quickly too. If it had been good news, he probably would have walked. It wasn't. Yosuke gasped for air, trying to regain control over his lungs as he came to a stop in front of the rest of the group. He had a fearful glare on his face

"Yeah, it was murder all right. The body was hanging upside down on an apartment's rooftop railing…" Yosuke choked up, still trying to catch his breath. Justin grabbed at his head, intertwining his fingers between his hair, starring up towards the sky; as though questioning how God could possibly have let this happen. The good guys always win, right? So then how come they had failed?

"But… how could that…?" Yukiko stuttered, trying to make sense of all of this. Yu looked particularly offended by the information that had just assaulted his ears. He was biting down on his finger at the moment, as though trying to stop himself from shouting or crying or SOMETHING. It wasn't really official or anything, but most of the group sort of assumed Yu was the leader of their little operation. In a way, he blamed this entirely on himself. Whatever had caused this murder; he should have seen it coming. He should have been able to prevent it.

"That's not all. The victim this time… It was King Moron." Everyone recoiled with shock and horror as the familiar name hit their ears, save maybe Maya who had no idea who that was. She was still very clearly panicking over the murder all the same though. Kanji had been drinking Cola when the remark hit his ears, forcing him to do a spit take; all over the table too. And for once, no one gave anyone any shit about spit-takes. It was entirely justified given the situation. Justin in particular was shocked, however. _When I made that remark about hanging his ass from an antenna… That was just a joke… I didn't mean it… I…_

"K-King Moron…!?" Chie shouted, thrown off by the bombshell that had been dropped on them. Of all the people it could have been, why was it King Moron? And more importantly, how did they not see this coming? They saw the guy on a daily basis; if someone was targeting him, shouldn't they have noticed? Hell, he was even there the day before the murder; had the kidnapping really been that close cut?

"You mean THAT King Moron!? Senpai's homeroom teacher?" Kanji faltered as he tried to make sense of this. He didn't like the guy, sure; but this was over the top. Hearing about these murders was bad enough before they happened to someone you know; even if you barely did.

"Wh-Why…!? What on earth's going on here!?" Chie shouted at Yosuke, hoping he would know something. She briefly turned her gaze over to Justin, then back to Yosuke… Then back to Justin when it started to seep in what she had just seen him doing. He was gnawing away at his finger for some reason. "Justin; what the hell are you doing!?"

"I said I'd eat my hand if something happened to that guy, didn't I!?" Justin remarked, his speech slightly muttered by the finger in his mouth. Strangely, no one bothered to ask why Justin would make that remark about someone like King Moron… Unless he knew something was going to happen. But he didn't; he had no idea how this could have happened. But given his comment… He felt responsible in some capacity. He didn't know who was responsible, but if he could somehow connect it back to himself… or dare he say his shadow… _No, no that can't be it… I didn't do this… I didn't…_

"This isn't the time for jokes!" Chie scolded Justin. That wasn't enough to get him to stop trying to devour his hand though. Mostly because he wasn't joking. He wasn't a fan of eating his own hand, mind you; but he was a man of his word. And to think this could be his fault… That seemed adequate punishment… No actually… It wouldn't… Too little too late. Maya had to tug Justin's arm to get the hand out of his mouth, his teeth scraping against the skin a bit, breaking the skin and causing him to bleed a little.

"I talked to a guy there who saw it! It's true… There's no mistake." Yosuke continued, sorrow filling his voice. No one liked King Moron, but that didn't make this right. Not even he deserved this.

"Gotta be shitting me… Ain't the killer targeting people who get shown on TV? I ain't never seen King Moron on the Midnight Channel, or any other programs!" Kanji shouted trying to find the logic in King Moron's death. It made no sense; why would the killer target King Moron? He didn't meet any of the criteria. Was the killer changing his tactics to avoid detection? So he could keep killing without the investigation team interfering?

"Why…? Why did this happen?" Yosuke wallowed in pity.

"I thought we finally figured some things out… Were they all just a big coincidence…?" Chie questioned out loud. Justin hated to admit it… but it was certainly starting to look that way. Either the killer was changing his tactic, or that had never been his tactic to begin with.

"Maybe the Midnight Channel doesn't have anything to do with this…" Yukiko continued on Chie's train of thought. Maya sighed slightly. A thought had just occurred to her.

"It might be… The Midnight Channel aired over in California, but there were no murders. No one was hung from an antenna… For all we know, the Midnight Channel is something else entirely…" Maya regretfully informed them. The Midnight Channel's purpose was always unclear, but this just made things even more confusing. If there were no murders involved with it during its first showing, why would there be any now? It meant it was just there, showcasing the hidden emotions of whoever was on the inside. But why?

"Dammit! We came so far, and now we're back to square one!? Were we in over our heads, trying to catch a culprit that even the police couldn't find…?" Yosuke mused out loud. Justin sighed a bit. He might be right. Cops go to training for stuff just like this, and they didn't have the slightest clue about what was going on. Other than the television aspect… If the cops couldn't figure anything out, how were they supposed to? Yu passed a look around the table, everyone's faces turned downwards in disappointment and shame. They could have prevented this, but they didn't… But that didn't mean they couldn't stop it from happening again.

"It's too early to give up. We're so close; we can't just say screw it because something bad happened. We can do this. We just got to believe in ourselves." Yu spoke, attempting to cheer everyone up. Justin raised his eyes to meet Yu's. He wasn't bullshitting them; he actually believed what he said… Justin twisted his head to look around the table as everyone's spirits slowly stared to raise again. Justin in turn smiled slightly. Yu was right; and Justin felt like an idiot to even doubt they had this covered. They were the only ones who could do this. And they would. They would succeed at all costs.

"Damn straight! We started this thing 'cause the police can't tell their asses from their elbows. We give up now, and that shithead's gonna be on the loose forever. This ain't the time for bitching and moaning… We just gotta keep on keepin' on." Kanji lectured everyone, enthusiasm in his voice. He was pumped up, that was for sure. Justin nodded before throwing his fist up into the air.

"Hear, hear!" Justin shouted, showing support for Kanji and the team. Dammit, if they didn't do this, no one would. Justin wouldn't allow that; they'd keep going, and they'd bring this fucker down. And when they did, oho, Justin had a lot of shit he had in mind for this bastard. He killed three people; he wasn't going anywhere. Justin would stake his life on it.

"Kanji-kun…" Yukiko remarked with surprise at Kanji's enthusiasm.

"Hmph… Big talk from someone like you, Kanji." Yosuke jabbed at Kanji sarcastically. Justin immediately shot him a glare.

"Don't you fucking start." Yosuke sighed slightly as Justin cursed him out. He was just a little stressed is all, he didn't mean anything by the remark.

"I know… We're dealing with a murderer here. But we've all risked our lives to get this far… No way we'll back down. And we promised the bear, too…" Yosuke stopped the moment he had finished mentioning Teddie, as though something had just dawned upon him. That's right; Teddie would know if someone else showed up on the other side, right? So he would know when King Moron was thrown in; maybe that might be useful.

"Hey, that's right! Maybe Teddie knows something about this!" Chie pretty much vocalized Justin's thoughts. He had started leaning against a chair for support, but as Teddie was brought back into the equation, he pushed himself a way from the chair, getting ready to head out.

"Well, since moping around won't do us any good, let's go see him!" Yosuke announced, ordering everyone over to the electronics department to go through the television.

* * *

It wasn't a very long walk, so they should have been able to get in almost immediately. Instead they were met by the sight of two people in suits talking about something in front of their entrance point. Clearly they couldn't go through with those people standing there, but they HAD to get in. That said; Yosuke looked as though he recognized the two as they slowly made their way down the aisle.

"Huh? There's staff here?" Chie questioned out loud, slightly panicked over their vigilant guard over the television set. They didn't know about the other world of course; but they obviously couldn't just waltz right in there with those two standing nearby. Shit would hit the fan.

"Now that's unusual… Hi there. Did something happen?" Yosuke questioned. The two staff members soon turned to Yosuke, a look in their eye suggesting that they needed him for something. Yosuke of course was not exactly a fan of that look. For starters; it meant he had to go out of his way to do something for these people that they probably didn't deserve. Secondly, it meant they were going to pull him away from his much more important duties of trying to catch a murderer.

"Ah, Yosuke-kun." The female employee greeted Yosuke with a respectful tone. Yosuke was only barely acquainted with these two, but they generally showed him a lot more respect than some of the people he had to work with on a normal basis. There were these two teenagers that almost never showed up to work, and then bitched at Yosuke because they weren't getting raises, or some other bullshit. At least these people had the decency to work.

"Great timing. Did the manager tell you anything about this? There's been this weird mascot around our department for quite a while now… Is there some kind of campaign on today?" The male employee questioned. Yosuke raised his eyebrow slighty; he hadn't heard anything about a mascot campaign today. And considering he was the manager's son, he probably should have. Something sounded really fishy about this.

"Mascot…?" Yosuke questioned. He really needed more information before he could do anything.

"He said his name was… Uh, what was it? Terry? Eddie?" Damn near everyone on the investigation team's eyes widened with disbelief. Everyone could tell that the name this woman was forgetting was Teddie. And as it just so happened; Teddie looked like a mascot… Which meant… Was it possible they were talking about THEIR Teddie? They couldn't, right? I mean… Teddie was in the television world… Unless… Could he… Could he leave the television? Justin passed a worried glance around at the rest of the team. He was probably wrong… But if he wasn't, there might be a problem here.

"Well, there are no customers around, so I guess it's fine… I better get back to my station." The male employee shrugged before the two departed. All they needed was to drop that information off with Yosuke, and they were still on the clock. The group was quiet for a brief moment after they left. They had all gotten the insinuation… They just hoped they were dead wrong. I mean; it's not like there weren't other Teds out there; and at least ONE of them had to be a mascot. No… No it seemed they weren't wrong. Chie had passed a glance over damn near every inch of the mall when an all too familiar figure caught her eye in the distance. A very colorful and fuzzy one.

"Please don't tell me…" Yosuke groaned, fearing for the worst. Only for his fears to come to life.

"Whoa, h-he's here!" Chie stuttered as it finally sunk in that she was watching Teddie from a distance. He was sitting in one of the massage chairs they had set up around Junes. You put some money in, and you got fifteen seconds of chair vibration. The more money, the more time. But that wasn't what was important right now. What was important was that Ted was here. In the real world. Where everyone could see him. Everyone soon took off to get a hold of him, trying to hide him from the public eye while still trying to figure out what was going on.

"Aaaaahhh. This really hits the spot." Teddie purred with pleasure as the chair vibrated against his back. Justin briefly had to wonder where he even got the money to activate that thing. But that wasn't important; they needed to figure out what Ted was doing here, how, and why.

"Wh-What the…? I mean, how'd you…?" Yosuke stammered trying to make heads or tails of what was going on. He wasn't having much success, that much was for sure.

"It took you guys long enough! I've been waiting." Teddie casually remarked once he heard Yosuke's familiar voice. Waiting? Hold on, hold on… Teddie wasn't the least bit surprised to be here on the outside world…? And waiting? For what? What could it be that he was waiting for that he was doing it out here where he could cause a panic?

"Waiting…? F-For what?" Justin stuttered a bit, still completely dumbfounded by all of this. Teddie never did answer his question, strangely enough. You would think after waiting for the group to show up, he'd at least tell them WHY he was waiting for them to show up. Nope, it seemed he was just content waiting for them. No particular reason as to why.

"Teddie, are you okay on this side!?" Yukiko piped up with concern.

"How did you even leave your side!?" Kanji eventually asked the question that had been on everyone's mind. Teddie almost seemed offended by the question; like it wasn't even a question they should be asking. Even though that was really the ONLY question on the groups mind right now. In all honesty, they were so dumbfounded they had completely forgotten about King Moron for a moment. And could you really blame them? It was like… having a dream about cake; then waking up to find said cake in the real world. There was no reason he should be here, it made no sense for him to be here; but he was. And he didn't seem the slightest bit fazed by it.

"Of course I can come out. There's an exit. It just never occurred to me to do it before." Teddie pointed out what should have been immediately obvious to the group. Justin bit his bottom lip slightly. Sure there was an exit; they just had never assumed Teddie could use it. Justin just sort of figured the same thing applied to him as the shadows. Only… Technically Teddie didn't have another self, at least not anymore… So he COULD go through to the other side. Holy crap… "But spending time with you all sparked my curiosity about this world! I did wonder if it was a good idea, but my feet started moving before I could decide. And when I thought about it, I had nowhere to go, and it was a waste to go back. So I waited here for you." Teddie continued to explain… He had left the TV… Just because he was curious? I mean… Justin couldn't really blame him, but… He had to question whether that was such a good idea or not. "Oh, someone asked for my name. So I told them, 'I'm Teddie.'"

"Yeah, we could have guessed you would have told them your name when they asked for your name." Justin remarked sarcastically, a still stupefied tone to his voice.

"Oh yeah, there's something we need to ask you! How long have you been here, Teddie? Did anyone enter the other world?" Yukiko interrupted Teddie's monologue about the brave new world he had discovered. It had just struck her that they had something important to ask, and as much as Teddie's appearance was concerning, this was more important. In a way, Justin was thankful she brought the topic up. God knows they would be here all day questioning how the hell Teddie had managed to get over to this side if she didn't.

"I stayed until the fog settled in on my side, but no one came." Teddie explained. Justin gasped slightly under his breath. No one came over on that side? Then… King Moron wasn't thrown into the television? Was the killer changing his method? Was this even the same guy? Justin didn't understand what was going on in the slightest anymore. It would help if they could figure out the cause of death on King Moron; but he wasn't crossing his fingers on that.

"You're positive? You really didn't sense a single person?" Yosuke questioned. He was having a hard time believing that King Moron wasn't thrown in. After all; they had found his body in the same position as the announcer and Saki. It didn't make any sense for him NOT to have been thrown into the television.

"I just said that I didn't! I was there all by myself, like always. Hmph!" Teddie was very clearly offended by Yosuke's insistence in questioning him on the matter. Justin couldn't imagine why.

"And your nose wasn't clogged or anything…?"

"Grrr, aren't you listening!? I was utterly, totally, and 100% alone! That's why I came over here! But I can understand if you don't believe me. My senses aren't that good lately anyways…" What had started as irritation with Yosuke's interrogation soon dissolved into sadness. Teddie was back on his self-pity spree. And under normal circumstances, Justin would call his bullshit out. But these weren't normal circumstances. It almost never was. Which begged the question what WERE the normal circumstances?

"We believe you Ted. It's just… This doesn't add up…" Yu tried to ease Teddie's concerns before delving back into his musings.

"Oh! Sensei's heart is radiating pure kindness…!" Teddie was giddy with glee at Yu's reassurance that the team put their trust in Teddie. Justin didn't know why Teddie needed any reassurance; they had promised the guy he would help him after all. And besides; Justin and Maya practically owed their lives to the guy. If he hadn't opened that television, told them to run when Maya's shadow went berserk, the never would have made it out. Justin trusted Teddie with his life; even if he was a drama queen.

"Well, it's true that the Midnight Channel was blank last night. And even before that… Teddie says he didn't sense anything, right? Does that mean… King Moron was never on that side?" Chie tried to put the pieces together out loud. Justin sighed a bit before crossing his arms.

"I don't think he was. We would have been tipped off if the killer threw him in there. Even if we were too late, we would have at the very least known he had been thrown in there." Justin thought aloud. Everyone nodded slightly, save Yosuke who had simply pinched his forehead with confusion and annoyance. Everytime they made one step forward in this investigation, they also ended up taking two steps back. They weren't making ANY progress.

"Hmm… What's going on?" Yosuke groaned.

"Hey, hey, I wanna go somewhere!" Teddie started to bounce with pure excitement. The world he had found himself in now was so different; yet so much better. Justin shot Teddie a slight glare. This wasn't the time for sight-seeing, as much as he knew Teddie wanted to. Someone was dead; and they needed to figure out why.

"Huh? Now ain't the time, dude… You seriously don't plan on going back, do you? Where do you wanna go, anyway?" Kanji questioned with annoyance.

"I want to give this to Rise-chan. It's for her." Teddie smiled as he passed off a pair of glasses to Yu. Justin just nodded with understanding. Alright, it made sense that Teddie wanted to give Rise the glasses she would need in the other world. Though they needed to find out if she even wanted to help in the first place before they handed these off to her. Justin doubted she'd say no; after all, she had helped them once before. But it was always nice to ask anyway. "Rise-chan will probably back us up from now on! So I'm gonna fight alongside you with everything I got! Don't think of me as the same cute little Teddie! I'm an all-new model! I have a powerful attack, an unbeatable defense, and a winning smile! Today begins the New Legend of Teddie!" Teddie ranted and raved, boasting about his… Justin had no idea what he was boasting about; but whatever it was, it was stupid.

"You're going to fight?" Justin spoke up with curiosity. "Do you even know HOW?"

"What? Of course I do! How rude!" Teddie huffed in anger; clearly offended by the insinuation that Justin thought he was incapable of fighting. But could you blame him? He was a giant furball with stubby arms and legs that was like a turtle when he fell over, completely unable to get up after being knocked to the ground. His combat effectiveness seemed very limited. Justin sighed slightly. He supposed it did't matter what he thought; it really wasn't his decision who got to fight or no-

…

Justin passed a slight glance at Maya, who had been passing him a slight sympathetic look, as though trying to plead with Justin using her eyes to let Teddie fight. Clearly she was able to sympathize with Teddie; both of them having limited to no prowess in physical combat, but both wanting to help in any way they could. Justin felt like complete shit once it dawned upon him that the benefit of the doubt he had given Teddie was not the same as the one he had extended to Maya. It wasn't his decision who got to fight or not… Yet he made it anyway on Maya's behalf; and he knew it. And the look in her eyes said she really wanted to go in, to help them solve these murders. And despite knowing she should have the right to come in with them, how they could use her help, Justin just couldn't force himself to let her through. After everything that had happened in that world… She just wasn't safe there. And if something happened to her in that world… Justin wasn't sure what he'd do. Nothing good, that's for sure. He sighed slightly before turning back to Teddie, nodding as though to give approval towards his notion of fighting alongside the rest of the team.

"Wow… A new legend…" Yukiko gasped with awe. What was it with her and legends?

"Uh-oh, people are starting to stare… Keep it down, willya Ted!? C'mon, let's go somewhere else!" Yosuke ordered everyone about, frantically pushing Ted towards the food court.

* * *

"Okay, just to make sure, I'm going to ask you one last time. Nobody was over there, except for you, until the fog came back. Correct?"

"That's what I've been saying."

The group had all managed to push Teddie over to the food court, where he stuck out like a sore thumb. It probably wasn't the best idea to talk murder with a guy in a giant rainbow colored bear suit; it would draw all sorts of negative attention to the group. And what was wrong with doing this in electronics? There were less people there than in the food court. All the same, he was here now, and they had plenty of questions to ask. Justin in particular wanted to ask why they had bought Teddie a soda. If people saw him drinking from a can when he shouldn't even have a mouth that moves, shit would hit the ceiling.

"He didn't show up on the Midnight Channel either…" Chie piped up disheartenedly. King Moron's absence from the Midnight Channel just threw their entire case off; even more so his lack of appearance in the television. I mean… They were saving people, that much was for sure. It was just a matter of whether this was related to the murders, or if this was another case entirely they had been pursuing. That would change everything.

"What's up with that?" Kanji questioned.

"No clue… But I think we can be sure now that King Moron was never thrown into the TV." Yosuke remarked. It was very much clear King Moron wasn't in the television… _Actually, hold on one second. It was very clear that Mr. MAROOKA was never in the television._ The guy was dead, and at the very least Justin thought they should show some respect in the face of death. If only this once they should stop calling him a moron, and actually use his real name.

"Then what, he was killed over here? Why not throw him into a TV, like all the rest?" Chie questioned. It was true; there was literally no reason for the killer to attempt to make the kill on this side. If it was a matter of whether or not the investigation team would save him, all he had to do was wait for the last second. They'd have no time to reach him. Furthermore; making the kill on the outside only meant he'd leave behind evidence… And a cause of death… Actually, this could be to the team's advantage. They just needed to find a way of getting that evidence.

"Maybe he never intended to." Yu proposed a tentative theory.

"They never intended to…? So you're saying he wasn't like the other victims to begin with? But why?" Yosuke considered Yu's proposition. If he did in fact not intend to kill Marooka through the television, how come? It was much easier, much safer for him to do it like that. Doing it on this side? He practically SIGNED his arrest warrant.

"Maybe the culprit thought he couldn't kill any more people by throwing them into TVs. I mean, we prevented his last three attempts in a row." Yukiko tried to rationalize the killer's change in method.

"So you think he's switching it up because he wasn't getting results with the television anymore? I don't know, that sounds kind of far-fetched to me." Justin commented. If he wasn't getting results through television anymore, what was preventing him from going back and trying again with the previous victims? The reason he couldn't do it with the television a second time was because the shadows were defeated the first time around, right? Nothing could harm them if they got thrown in again. At least nothing Justin could think of. Kanji shook his head slightly. Yukiko's theory made perfect sense to him; as it did with a lot of the others apparently.

"So they snuffed someone on our side this time to make sure it worked. Dammit… If that's true, then we have no way of preventing more murders unless we catch the killer!" Kanji's voice grew more and more aggressive as it dawned upon him that they really couldn't physically stop a killer on this side. Sure they could TRY, but most of the team would prefer their throats not get slit, nor their hearts pierced by a bullet.

"Well if this King Moron guy was killed on our side, wouldn't the method show on the body?" Maya questioned. Justin nodded to show agreement with her. It was good to see that Maya generally had the same thought process as him. As far as the investigation team went, their work very well may be done. Once the cops analyze the body, they'd have a suspect this time around. And then they'd have an arrest. They just needed to play the behind the scenes while the cops did their thing and this would all be over soon.

"We need more clues… I wonder if Rise-chan's up and around yet." Chie mused as she leaned against her two elbows on the table in front of her. Rise very well might know something about her kidnapping; information that could very well be relevant to solving this case.

"Yeah… We'll have to put our hopes on her." Yosuke sighed slightly. And so did Teddie; though for entirely different, and entirely strange reasons.

"It's so hot out. …I'm taking this off." Teddie declared before reaching around to the back of his head, trying to grab the zipper that kept his head in place. Justin and Maya had immediately jumped him to stop himself from pulling his skull off in front of all these people. He had to be out of his mind to think that was alright to do in front of all these bystanders. He should have realized that generally human heads do not come off, and that most people assume that a zipper means you're wearing a suit. Teddie only seemed annoyed as Justin and Maya tried to pull his arm away from the zipper, holding him back from attempting it a second time.

"Wait, you're not talking about your head, are you!? Cut it out! There's kids watching! Geez… They'll be scarred for life if they see an empty mascot walking around. Have a little consideration, man." Yosuke lectured Teddie. Teddie only seemed to get angrier at that, shoving Justin and Maya off of his arms. Maya damn near tripped backwards and fell too. And if she did, Justin would rip Teddie's head off himself. And this time it'd stay off. Luckily for Teddie, she was fine; she just lost her balance for a moment. Still, despite Ted's slight temper tantrum, most of the group seemed happy to see that he wasn't quite so… flat anymore.

"I'm glad you're back to normal, though. Your fur's all fuzzy again!" Yukiko remarked with a little too much joy in her tone. Yu raised his eyebrows a bit, caught off guard by how enthused she sounded. Then he dropped them in a very slight glare at Teddie.

"C-Can I feel it…?" Justin raised his eyebrows as Kanji requested to rub Teddie's fur. From his understanding, this wasn't the first time he had asked that. Which really concerned Justin in a way. Why the hell did he want to feel Teddie's fur so much? It was REALLY creepy.

"No!" Teddie declined him, thankfully, before turning towards Yosuke again, a wide smirk on his face. It seemed he was up to something; though as to what was up for question. "Actually, I'm no longer a hollow bear! Mwahaha!" Teddie laughed sinisterly. Justin tightened the tension in his brow slightly. Not hollow anymore? What… What the hell is that supposed to mean? And why do I get such a bad feeling about this. "I trained and trained, hoping to someday score with Chie-chan and Yuki-chan… And now I finally have an inside!" Teddie continued. Justin was shocked at first, followed by disgusted. Then out right pissed. He already said to cut that scoring shit out, but apparently setting his head on fire wasn't enough. He tightly clenched his fists as he starred Teddie down. Maya had noticed and was going to say something, but once she noticed the look of bloody murder in his eye figured she'd minimize splash damage if she kept her mouth shut.

"Yeah… good job with that." Chie choked up, very much mortified by what she was hearing. She had just said Teddie could try to score with them to cheer him up that one time. She didn't think he was actively going to pursue it. Mortified might not have even been an adequate enough term to describe her embarrassment and disgust. She wasn't even sure how she should be reacting; but one thing was for sure, she was getting just as angry as Justin was. Slowly but surely.

"Come on! Can't we give it a rest with the whole "scoring" thing?" Yukiko shouted, a deep glare on her face. She really didn't like this scoring thing one bit, and she had had about enough of it coming out of Teddie of all people. Yu wasn't sure whether to be pissed off with Yukiko, or relieved that she clearly was not into Teddie. As if the latter should have ever been in question. Justin continued to glare at Teddie for a moment before choking up words in an angry raspy voice.

"Hey Ted… Have you ever seen what concrete looks like?" Justin questioned, his right eye twitching slightly. Not necessarily a good sign when you considered what one of the tell-tale signs of Justin losing control was.

"What? Of course I ha-" Teddie didn't even get to finish that sentence as Justin kicked him straight in his chest, sending him toppling over onto his backside, and into the ground hard. Everyone might have been a bit surprised by Justin's outburst if they weren't so used to it… Or at least a little surprised if they weren't so busy being surprised by something much more significant. As Teddie went flying into the ground, his head collided with the floor before popping off, revealing his insides. At first everyone panicked, expecting him to be hallow, and many a children to be scared. Instead they were met by the sight of a young blonde haired boy, slightly younger than the rest of the group from the looks of it. Everyone's jaws damn near hit the floor as they found that Teddie hadn't been kidding about one thing. He certainly wasn't hollow on the inside anymore. But now they had to ask something else; WHEN THE HELL DID TEDDIE GROW A BODY INSIDE OF HIM, HOLYSHITHOLYFUCKHOLYSHIT!

Teddie groaned a bit as he pushed himself off of the ground, holding the suit up to cover his body as he stood back up. He was frowning slightly at having been knocked over; but he didn't seem all that pissed. Just mildly annoyed at his bruised hind-quarters. He didn't even seem fazed by everyone's amazement with the man that stood in front of them.

"Ouch! That really hurt y'know…" Teddie mumbled abit, rubbing at his hindquarters with his free arm for a moment before searching for his head that had rolled away. It wasn't too far away, luckily. He walked over and picked it up, all the time no one so much as speaking a word. They were much too dumbfounded. How in the fuck was this even going on!? Everyone was confused out of their goddamned minds; though strangely enough Maya was the only one blushing slightly. She had probably been the only one at the time to notice that Teddie was completely naked inside the bear suit. The very, very loose bear suit that he had to hold up least it fall to his ankles. That could be very problematic. "Hey, Chie-chan, Yuki-chan." Teddie called out to the girls as he finally turned around with his head under his arm-pit, making his way back to the table all the while.

"Y-Yes…?" Chie stuttered, still dumbfounded by what she was observing. How exactly do you react when you find out someone's been growing an entire human being inside them? Well… Besides the traditional means of doing that. And you know what the worst part of this entire thing was? Teddie fucking sparkled every time he turned his head. And he was certainly using it to his advantage. Justin would be tempted to kick his ass again, but he was still frozen in place with confusion.

"Do you have anything to wear? I'm basically like a newborn at the moment…" Teddie smiled, sparkles flowing from his eyes like a laser light show. Teddie certainly brought a new definition to the word 'pretty-boy.'

"T-Teddie? Is that really you…?" Chie questioned, still not entirely believing that this was Teddie she was starring at.

"What the fuck is going on!?" Justin finally shouted, having finally regained control over his muscles again, his shock replaced with complete confusion. He had no idea what was going on. First Marooka ended up getting killed, then Teddie somehow made his way over to the real world, and NOW Teddie had apparently grown a body inside of him, and his body fucking sparkled. This had to be a nightmare. It just HAD to be.

"Wait, did you say you're like a newborn!? Then don't take the bottom part off! You need some clothes, right? C'mon, let's go look around…" Chie shouted and stammered as she just realized Teddie was completely naked. They needed to get him clothes and quick. She and Yukiko immediately jumped up, grabbing the rest of Teddie's suit to make sure it stayed up on him before dragging him off to some other part of the mall. Justin just stood there speechless, not sure how to react. About a lot of things really. One of them being his girlfriend pretty much being forced into buying a named Teddie clothes. He was not a fan of that. It was silent for a moment between everyone as they tried to figure out what was going on.

"That's… Teddie…? He said he's not hollow anymore… So, like… he grew himself a body in there?" Kanji questioned, an extreme sense of puzzlement in his voice. He had never been more confused about anything in all his life. And this was coming from the guy who was sexually confused.

"What kinda creature would do that!? I mean… what IS he?" Yosuke was completely bewildered.

"Hey Yu… Remember that thing I said about keeping an eye on Teddie? Yeah, that applies double now." Justin remarked snidely as he starred off in the distance, where the figures of Chie, Teddie, and Yukiko had vanished. Yu didn't so much as say a word to Justin on the matter. He could get pretty suspicious of Teddie at times, but when shit like this happened, his priorities were in places other than the heart.

"Was he just sparkling?" Maya questioned. She only got a slight nod from Justin in response. No one was really paying much attention to that. They were much too confused by the fact that Teddie had managed to grow himself a body inside of his old body. Like a cocoon almost… Actually that seems like a pretty apt metaphor when you realized the new Teddie could easily be in a boy band, while the old Teddie was… Well not as pretty.

"…Then again, this is hardly the first bizarre thing we've seen… And I gotta admit, it's probably better than him walking around in his bear suit." Yosuke sighed slightly. Even though this was the weirdest thing he had ever seen, and they probably should look into it at some point, they did have more important matters to look into. "Oh, hey, weren't we gonna see about talking to Rise? I was so shocked that I lost track of what we were talking about. Let's head over to Rise's place. As for Teddie… He's with the girls, so he should be fine."

"I'm more concerned for the girls, honestly." Justin remarked. With Teddie clearly actively shooting for both of the girls, Justin wouldn't put it behind Teddie to try and seduce them now that he had the two alone. And given his new appearance, he damn well could if he played his cards right.

"…Was he just sparkling?" Maya continued to ask, still not believing what she had seen. No one could really blame her.

* * *

"Mmmm-mmm! It's finally the season for Topsicles again. Hey how come you two aren't having any?"

The five of them were waiting at the shopping district, eating ice-cream to pass the time as they waited for the arrival of the girls. Or at least, Kanji, Yosuke, and Yu were. Justin and Maya were not. Justin simply could not eat after watching Teddie spew out a body from his body; his stomach was tangled up in all sorts of knots. Everything was just going to shit as of late.

"Just not hungry…" Justin sighed slightly as he leaned against a railing behind him, that really had no earthly business being there, since there was nothing to separate, nor were they above ground level. Regardless, that left Maya having to answer the same question. She blushed slightly as Kanji and Yosuke directed their stare at Maya, curious why she wouldn't eat. They were clearly oblivious to Maya's eating problems. But this really wasn't like eating a sandwhich or something, it was just ice cream…

"Oh uh… I don't really have any money, so…" Maya was embarrassed by her lack of funds. She really should get a job or something… But who would hire a middle-school dropout like Maya? She clearly didn't have much to bring to the table as far as a work experience went. Yosuke passed her a slight look of disappointment. As did Justin. He would lend her the money if she wanted ice cream; after all, eating that was better than not eating at all as far as he was concerned. He would gladly pay for her. Yosuke stared down at his Topsicle for a brief moment. He had just unwrapped it, so he hadn't really started to eat it yet…

"…Here, you can have mine." Yosuke remarked with a smile as he tried to pass off the ice-cream to Maya. Maya of course wasn't having any of that. That was Yosuke's topsicle after all; he paid for it so he should be the one to eat it.

"Huh? No, I couldn't do that-"

"No seriously, I insist. It's all yours. I can always just go get another one." Yosuke was still smiling brightly as Maya swapped her glance back and forth between the topsicle in Yosuke's hand and Yosuke. She blushed slightly before reaching out to grab the ice-cream. She didn't like taking Yosuke's ice cream, but she was more than appreciative of the gesture.

"…Thanks." She choked up, her cheeks red hot at this point as she held the topsicle in her hand. She was very clearly hesitant to eat it, given that she was moving at a snail's pace as she did, but at least she was eating. Justin passed Yosuke a funny look as he leaned back slightly and crossed his arms, a wide grin on his face. Did Yosuke just do something ADMIRABLE? That was certainly a first. Yosuke eventually noticed Justin starring at him, and soon started to stare back out of the corners of his eyes. It took a moment before Justin eventually smiled and mouthed off a thanks. He appreciated what he did for Maya, and even though this was Yosuke, he had no problem thanking him for doing something good. Yosuke in turn only bushed slightly. That was unexpected coming from Justin.

"Sorry we're late…" Chie called out to the group as the three of them finally came around the bend. Justin's eyes widened slightly as he caught a good look of Teddie walking their way. Holy fucking crap, he was hot. This could prove to be problematic. Justin had to shake his head slightly at himself for that. He couldn't believe he was getting jealous of Teddie of all people. He had nothing to fear from Ted, even if he was trying to steal his girlfriend. He trusted Chie not to fall for his trickery.

"How'd it take you that long to find clothes for Ted? Whoa…! I-Is that you, Teddie…?" Yosuke gasped slightly as Teddie stood in plain sight of everyone. Everyone was a little caught off guard by Teddie's appearance; especially Maya given her cheeks turned red hot damn near immediately, her mouth slightly ajar. Though she damn near had to slap herself when she noticed herself doing it. She didn't really like Teddie like that. In her mind Teddie was always going to be a giant fluffy bear; and she didn't roll that way, even if she was sort of desperate. She was just a little caught off-guard by… _Holy fuck those sparkles. How does he do that?_

"Oui, monsieur! How do I look?" Teddie spoke with a French accent… And a French vocabulary apparently.

"C'est Magnifique." Yu joked , making an okay sign using his hand in the process. Teddie smiled profusely at that, finding pride in his appearance. And he probably should, considering he went from being a bear to an entire person in no time flat. Chie wasn't quite as enthusiastic by the compliment though.

"Uh, don't encourage him." Chie shook her head at Yu. Yu in turn only chuckled and went back to his ice-cream. "I have to say, it totally blew my mind, but he's Teddie alright. This guy had to make it a huge ordeal… Everything was new to him, so it turned into a big mess. He was so excited in the women's section that he started blabbering…" Justin had started smoking while they waited for Teddie and the crew to arrive, but that stopped the moment that remark hit his ears. The cigarette fell from his mouth and on to the asphalt as his jaw opened wide with disgust.

"Hold on, hold on; What the fuck were you guys doing in the woman's section?" Justin remarked with a slight glare. Chie's eyebrows raised a bit as she realized what Justin had thought she meant like that.

"We didn't TAKE him there; he just sort of wandered off…" Chie tried to explain. Justin immediately felt a wave of guilt splash across him. He had taken that as something so much worse; not Teddie just being… Well Teddie. He started blushing with embarrassment, looking towards the ground in shame.

"Sorry…" Justin mumbled. Chie sighed a bit before turning back to Teddie to lecture him.

"Hey, you can't just go around doing whatever you please when you're in this form, got it?" Chie scolded the bear. She was just starting to realize the trouble that Teddie was going to cause by letting his curiosity get the better of him. Teddie started to frown a bit, hanging his head in slight shame. Or so it would appear; the guy turned out to be one hell of an actor.

"Well, he can't help it. It's his first time in our world." Yukiko tried to defend Teddie; much to his satisfaction. How satisfied? He did a fist pump out of view of the girls. He was clearly trying to manipulate them in his favor. Which absolutely disgusted every sense in Justin's body. He was going to have to make a mental note of kicking Teddie's ass from now on. _Looks like Yosuke's going to be off the hook for a while._ Chie sighed slightly. She supposed Yukiko was right.

"All right… You don't need to get all mopey like that. I never said I won't forgive you!" Chie half-assed an apology to Teddie. Which is good because he certainly didn't deserve a sincere one when he wasn't being sincerely hurt. Teddie didn't seem to mind though; he'd take what he could get. One out of two ain't bad. And he hadn't even started trying to flirt with Maya yet. He'd be willing to bet he might actually get some results with her. Just not the results he was looking for.

"I'm so glad! I was worried that you didn't like me anymore." Teddie continued to try and play the sob story for the girls. Chie smiled slightly, laughing a bit to herself.

"Man… If you can behave yourself, you'll be pretty cute." Justin immediately shot a glare at Chie. She should have known that was coming.

"Is he cute…? What do you think, Kanji?" Yosuke joked, turning towards Kanji. Justin also decided to pass a glare at Yosuke. He was going to give Yosuke a break on the ass-kickings after what he had just did for Maya and with Teddie in the picture now, but he just might have to change his mind on that. Still, he supposed that wasn't really offensive… They didn't know if Kanji was into dudes or not. He claimed he wasn't, but Justin really begged to differ.

"Huh? What're you asking me for?" Kanji really didn't get what Yosuke was trying to imply. That might have been for the better, all things considered. But of course, Yosuke was going to push his luck like usual.

"Well, I was just wondering if he was your type." Yosuke raised and lowered his eyebrows in a 'wink wink nudge nudge' manner. Kanji gave him only a slight glare. He got what he was trying to say now; and quite frankly he wasn't a fan of being called a homosexual.

"Ohhh… I get it. What you're really asking is… 'Will you please beat the shit out of me, Kanji?'" Yosuke's eyes immediately widened with fear. That was not the reaction he was expecting. As for Justin and Yukiko, they both burst into hysterics soon enough. Justin thought that was the cleverest comeback he had heard in so long. If he could give Kanji a reward for that, he would. He'd call it the 'Your Ass just got Renovated' award. "It ain't funny, senpai."

"It kind of is." Justin chuckled slightly before coming to a complete stop once he realized Kanji was dead serious. He wasn't finding any humor in Yosuke being a jerkass. Justin really shouldn't have been either, but c'mon. That comeback was gold. Comedy gold I tell ya!

"Oooh, please, everyone! Don't fight over me, baby!" Teddie spoke up, his ego clearly getting to his head. Though that certainly warranted a glare from both Kanji and Teddie.

"Who you calling baby!? I'll shit down your neckhole, Ted!" Justin snarled at Teddie. Teddie of course only laughed as though finding victory in his ability to piss Justin off; clearly not understanding just how easy that was to do.

"Shuddup! You picking a fight with me!?" Kanji continued, ready to pounce Teddie at any second. Tensions were certainly high between everyone; at least half the group was actively trying to tear each other's heads off. Which only proved to be hysterical for Yukiko, who only laughed harder as Kanji and Justin put aside their differences to gang up on Teddie.

"Enough, enough…" Yosuke sighed slightly as he held out his hands to calm Justin and Kanji down. Who would have thought he'd be the one to stop the fight. It was like our little Yosuke was growing up. But not really, since he sort of started all of this. He reached into his pocket, digging around for a second before pulling out 1,000 yen and handing it off to Kanji. "Here, Kanji. Get whatever ice cream you want, just share it with Teddie. We're gonna head for the tofu shop. Wait here until we get back." Kanji was more than a little surprised by the generosity Yosuke was exhibiting. Though not as much as Teddie.

"Wow, you're rich!" Teddie declared, staring at the dollar bill with awe.

"That's not that much Teddie." Justin sighed slightly, shaking his head. Teddie didn't understand, so he wasn't sure why he even bothered explaining it to Teddie. I mean, what was he even going to need money for anyway? He didn't need to understand how the currency system worked here.

"I can't just take this from you!" Kanji tried to object to the money Yosuke had given him; as though he were taking some sort of priceless treasure from Yosuke. It was only 1,000 yen; really nothing to make a big deal about. Besides, it was for Teddie, not Kanji.

"Think of it as a welcome-back party for Teddie. Just don't go around making a racket." Yosuke ordered the two. Kanji still wasn't entirely convinced. Teddie sure as hell was though. And so Kanji just sighed a bit before putting the cash in his pocket. He supposed it wouldn't matter how much he tried to object anyway. And besides; free topsicles.

"Whoa, Yosuke, what's gotten into you? You're acting like a real senpai all of a sudden. Oh, I get it. You might say differently, but you're still nice to Teddie. I'm glad Yosuke's developing into such a mature adult. Someone who doesn't let trifles bother him." Chie praised Yosuke… Though why is another question entirely. Justin crossed his arms and twisted his head off to the side slightly. He could already tell she was trying to butter him up for some reason; now it was just a matter of what. Yosuke squinted his eyes slightly, confused by what he was hearing. Something didn't strike him as quite right.

"What…? You're worrying me, Chie."

"Oh, it's about Teddie's clothes, that's all. We didn't have the money for them, so we charged the rest to you." Justin and Yosuke both immediately recoiled at what they had heard. Now normally Justin wouldn't so much as think to side against Chie with Yosuke on anything; but for once Yosuke was in the complete right this time.

"You did what!?" Justin shouted. Chie was more than a little surprised to see Justin siding with Yosuke on this. And she could tell he was because he probably would have given her a high-five or something if he wasn't siding with Yosuke. And he certainly wouldn't be giving her that glare.

"WHAT!? You put it on my account!? What the hell, Chie!? I never said you could do that!" Yosuke went batshit insane at that. And rightfully so. Even Justin found himself agreeing with Yosuke. That was a real dick move on Chie's end. Besides, look at those clothes Ted was wearing. They could have just gotten him a t-shirt and some jeans and called it a day. Hell, Yosuke was actually thinking of dragging Teddie back and making him swap the clothes out for some cheap clothes, and getting his money back.

"What else were we supposed to do!? This stuff was expensive, even for Junes!" Chie shouted back. She had gone from praising Yosuke to trying to tear out his heart in a matter of seconds. And normally Justin would find this entertaining, if Chie wasn't so wrong.

"Buy something else then!" Justin pointed out the obvious.

"You seriously charged it to me? Wh-Why would you do that!? You know I've been saving up to buy a motorcycle!" Yosuke had been saving for that thing for over a year now. He was so close, and now Chie had practically ripped that out of his hands. Justin raised his hands slightly, making a slight thrusting motion with them at Yosuke as though to say 'see what you did?' She didn't care though. Not in the slightest.

"Oh, that. You don't need one." Chie tried to justify her actions.

"What!?"

"Oh come on, Chie! It doesn't matter if he needs one; that was HIS money. No one said you could use it!" Yu and Yukiko were actually a bit surprised to see Justin so actively campaigning against Chie, and so actively defending Yosuke. Not to say they didn't AGREE with Yosuke (even though technically Yukiko had made that decision with Chie,) it was just strange to watch Justin not being so biased towards this entire thing.

"C'mon baby. Stop fighting over-" Teddie tried to break the tension with a joke. And failed miserably when Yosuke cut him off. Besides, they already heard that same joke like five minutes ago.

"Shuddup! This is your fault, y'know!" Yosuke grunted with rage. "You listen here, Ted… You better take really, really, REALLY good care of that. If you put even a single tear in it, I'll make your next set of clothes out of the bear hide you took off!" He barked at Teddie. Teddie for once was not faking being really hurt by that. No one messes with his bear fur. NO ONE.

"Yo Teddie, don't let it get you down. Let's go get some Topsicles." Kanji tried to cheer Teddie up. And it worked, because Teddie had jumped up on Kanji's shoulders to try and hitch a ride. Kanji of course was thrashing about every which way and that to try and throw the bugger off his shoulders. He didn't succeed until they got to the door of the convenience store. Justin watched with slight amusement at Teddie's childlike innocence as he tried to play piggyback on Kanji's back. For a complete pervert, it seemed he knew so little about… well anything. Justin was smiling by the time he turned back to Chie and Yosuke, both of which were going at it pretty hard. Justin's smile immediately faded. He had considered jumping in, but figured it wasn't worth it. The deed was done, and even though Chie was completely in the wrong on this, arguing about it would solve nothing. The four remaining team members that had been watching the scuffle sighed in complete synchronization.

"Let's go on ahead… I think they're going to be a while." Yukiko spoke up over the commotion. Justin was not at all opposed to that idea, and with a slight motion of his arm, he gave everyone confirmation that he was a-okay for ditching the two's quarrel. They only walked for a short while before they made it to the tofu shop. And an all too familiar figure immerging from its contents.

"Ah… I had a feeling you'd come." The blue haired girl remarked as she walked out of the building, adjusting her hat slightly so that it fit snugly around the width of her skull. Justin rolled his eyes almost immediately. He didn't know who this girl was, but he knew whatever she wanted couldn't possibly be good. And after all that shit with Kanji, Justin wasn't going to rule out that she was involved. And he knew he was going to get shit every twelve seconds for referring to 'he' as she.

"You're…!" Yukiko gasped with surprise as the girl in the purple hat made her way in front of them. Maya had no idea who this was, but she got a feeling the group wasn't particularly fond of her; not based on their reaction anyway. Justin crossed his arms slightly, leaning on one leg as he stared the girl down from where he stood. He probably wouldn't have been if it wasn't for the fact that she was glaring at him and him specifically. Justin could faintly hear the sound of Chie and Yosuke still bickering as they made their way forward to rejoin the investigation team.

"Are you here to ingratiate yourself with Rise Kujikawa now?" The girl questioned. Most of the group just passed each other a look of confusion. They had no idea what ingratiate meant. Justin, however did. And he was deeply offended. They weren't sucking up to anyone; they were here because Rise was their friend. And if anyone tried to imply otherwise, Justin was going to give them shit.

"Excuse me? You want to run that past me again." Justin barked back. The girl immediately turned back to glaring at Justin, adjusting her hat slightly once again. Justin didn't know it at the time, but usually when this girl adjusted her hat, it's because she was going to go full detective on your ass. And she damn well might of too if Yosuke and Chie hadn't finally made their way to where the rest of the group was.

"Geez… Why did the clerk even let them charge it to someone else…? Huh? W-Wait, you're that guy we saw with Kanji…!" Yosuke shouted in surprise as he noticed the girl. She in turn stopped glaring at Justin to make eye-contact with the two new arrivals.

"Precisely. I don't believe we've met since then-In fact, I don't believe I've ever introduced myself. My name is Naoto Shirogane. I'm investigating the multiple murders that have occurred here." Naoto introduced herself formally, making a slight bow of her head to the group. Justin raised an eyebrow. Investigating the murders? So… The investigation team weren't the only ones investigating it? I mean, clearly Naoto couldn't be part of the police force, right? She was too young. "Mind if I ask you a few questions on the subject? The latest victim, Kinshiro Morooka… He was a teacher at the school you all attend, correct?" Naoto started interrogating the group.

"S-So what?" Chie questioned, not at all discreet. She should have left the lying up to Justin or Yu. Justin was a fairly shit liar, of course; but not when he was pissed off. And he was most certainly pissed after that remark Naoto had made a few moments ago.

"The public is focused on the fact that he is associated with the second victim's school… But in truth, that's irrelevant. What intrigues me is the inconsistency. This Marooka… has never appeared on television" Justin's eyes widened slightly. She had made that connection too? Damn she was good; that much was for sure. That still didn't dismiss the attitude though. She passed Justin a slight glance, taking in the expression on his face as she pointed out that she was aware of the television angle. She was particularly interested in him for some reason. "What do you make of that?"

"…How are we supposed to know?" Yosuke rebutted, looking off in the distance as though he were uninterested. You would think avoiding eye contact during an interrogation session like this would be a bad thing, but in actuality it kind of helped. It made it appear as though none of them gave a crap about the case. And if they didn't give a crap, they probably weren't involved… Probably.

"Well, we'll leave it at that. For my part, I'd like to solve this case as quickly as possible. I'll be keeping an eye on you all." Naoto shot Justin a slight glare before tipping her head once more, indicating she was prepared to depart. "Well then, until we meet again." She announced before departing off down the twisty street of the shopping district, turning around one of the alleyways. Justin just sort of starred at where she had ran off. Something didn't rub him quite right about her… Something was up, he just knew it.

"Who is that guy…?" Yosuke questioned. Clearly something wasn't quite right with her.

"It felt like he completely saw through us… He even knew about the TV thing." Chie remarked. Justin starred down the alleyway for a moment longer before turning back to the rest of the group, all still puzzled by the encounter they had just undergone.

"She knows something." Justin muttered out loud. As to what, he had no idea… But given the looks she kept giving Justin; he could only assume she was very suspicious of the group for some reason or another. She definitely knew something she wasn't letting on to; though as to what was still in question. Justin starred down the alleyway for only a brief moment longer before turning back around. Just in time too; Rise was making her way outside at just that moment to see what all the fuss was about. She was more than thrilled to see her rescuers coming by to see how she was doing.

"Oh… Hi." Rise greeted everyone timidly… And making them damn near jump out of their clothes with fright. They hadn't expected Rise to get the drop on them while they had their backs turned to watch the road Naoto had departed upon. They had sort of expected it to be the other way around.

"Rise-chan! Are you okay now…?" Yukiko questioned, sort of caught off guard by Rise's appearance. Rise in turn nodded her head timidly. She claimed to be doing okay, but she still seemed kind of out of it. Give it a day or two, though, and she should be alright. Justin smiled slightly; it was nice to see her spirits starting to rise again.

"Good, good…" Yosuke nodded his head a bit. He wasn't entirely sure what to say to a celebrity, even if he had talked to Rise before on several occasions. It was hard to choose just the right words; and more often than not, he just decided on using less words and shorter remarks.

"Are you all here to check up on me?" Rise questioned, curious to see if all these people were here because they wanted to see Risette, or because they wanted to make sure Rise was alright. And save for maybe Yosuke, it was most certainly the latter, as nods went across the group, verifying they were in fact her for her. Even Maya; though she certainly was a bit more hesitant to nod. Rise seemed alright to her from what she'd seen; but she was still a teen idol. One wrong move, and bam; right back into the 'people I despise' pile she'd go.

"No, we're here for the tofu. Of course we're here to see how you're doing." Justin remarked jokingly. It got a good laugh out of Rise, so that was good. It was nice seeing her smile once and a while. She had seemed so depressed every other time he'd seen her, so it was good to see she wasn't so down in the dumps as of late. All the same, Rise stopped laughing after a brief moment, a smile still crossing her face.

"Oh, um… Do you guys have a moment? There's something I want to tell you. Follow me. My grandma's taking care of the shop today."

* * *

"Yeah, I remember being at my house… When I came to, though, I was already in the other world."

Rise was just wrapping up her summary of what she could remember from the incident. Same thing as all the others really; she was in her house, and then she got kidnapped. They had no recollection of anything between getting snatched and waking up in the television… Justin wondered if the killer was using something to knock them out before he grabbed them. Like chloroform or something. It would make sense, right? Chie sighed slightly as Rise finished telling her story. They weren't getting quite as much as they had wanted to out of Rise. Still nothing on the killer, still nothing that could help them with the King Moron situation. They had hit a dead-end wall.

"Still no real information on the killer…" Chie sighed in slight defeat. It felt to her like they weren't getting anywhere; and this was just the final nail in the casket. Yosuke passed a glance back and forth between Rise and Chie. Rise might not have had any answers for their questions on the matter of Rise's disappearance or King Moron's death, but she might know something else that was bothering him.

"We met this weird kid named Naoto a second ago…" Yosuke spoke up, hoping the name would job some memories for Rise. Luckily, it did. She was very familiar with Naoto.

"Oh… He's come to the shop several times. He asked me a lot about the incident. I didn't tell him anything about the other world, though. I figured it'd be a waste of time. Actually, he asked me about you guys too, but I just made up some stuff. Like, 'They found me unconscious on the roof at Junes.'" Rise elaborated on the subject for them. Justin gave a slight disgruntled look towards Rise, a certain comment striking him particularly strangely. Why was she asking about them? And more importantly, on what topic?

"Well, I guess that's close enough to the truth." Yosuke sighed. Really that information didn't help quite as much as he'd thought it would. They already knew Naoto was investigating the murders; the only thing funny about that story was the part where Naoto was asking about them. And even then Yosuke had a pretty good idea why Naoto might be looking into them. Rise looked around for a moment before turning back toward the group, her cheeks slightly red.

"Um… So…" Rise stuttered for a moment, trying to force the words up. "Um… I-I really appreciate what you did for me… Thank you soooo much! I love you guys!" Justin's jaw damn near dropped. Holy crap, she went from being shy as fuck to declaring love for the entire group. I mean, sure it was obvious she meant platonically; but wow. What a transition. Justin and Maya exchange a slight glance of 'you just heard that right?'

"Huh…? Awww, you don't have to thank us!" Chie replied cheerfully. She had never really received thanks with so much gratitude behind it. She had never once had a celebrity tell her how much she appreciated what they did. Yosuke in particular was starting to get excited by the sudden mood change in Rise. This was the Risette he had been looking for all those weeks ago when he heard she'd be in town.

"Dude… She's so cute… Man, it's finally hitting me that you're the real deal. You really are Risette." Yosuke practically squealed with glee. Maya had been smiling but a moment earlier, but once she saw Yosuke get so worked up over Rise, the words that left her mouth, her smile soon dropped into a slight frown... She didn't know why, but her chest started to hurt a little bit… Justin had apparently noticed her change in demeanor, placing his hand upon her shoulder.

"Hey… what's wrong?" Justin questioned. She looked so down heartened about something; like something had struck at her very soul. And for all he knew, it could have. Hell for all SHE knew, it could have. She didn't understand why she felt so hurt right now, but she did.

"…Oh uh… It's nothing." Maya dismissed Justin's attempts at discerning what was wrong. Justin bit his bottom lip slightly. He didn't need to be a therapist to tell something was bothering her. But he wasn't going to press her in front of all her friends like this. He wished he could do something though; but he couldn't really fix anything unless he knew the problem.

"Well, I know I sounded gloomy and all from stress, so… I-I thought you might not like me that way… Do I… sound weird? Oh, but I guess it sounds more "natural" this way to the public… I'm sorry… I've practically lost touch with what the normal me is like." Rise mused aloud. Justin felt his heart break slightly watching her struggle with this outloud. It must hurt not knowing what the real you is like; to be nothing but the media's puppet to manipulate for their agendas and profits… To be a tool.

"Haha, no need to apologize. Just do what comes naturally." Chie attempted to ease her concerns. After all; none of them cared what she sounded like. Friendship is unconditional after all, and they were friend; whether she knew it or not.

"I think everyone has multiple sides to them. You don't have to force yourself to decide on just one." Yukiko added on to Chie's speech, trying to clarify a few things. Justin sighed slightly.

"Yeah, tell me about it." He muttered to himself. No one should ever claim to know what it's like to have multiple sides until you went through what Justin went through on a daily basis.

"Haha, it sounds convincing when Yukiko says it." Chie chuckled slightly. She was no good at explaining things; so it was great that Yukiko was there to cover all of her bases for her. Yukiko didn't seem all that convinced that she had actually helped as much as Chie was implying she did. All she did was reiterate what Chie said after all.

"Huh…? R-Really?" Rise chuckled slightly, a grin sweeping her face again.

"Thanks. I'm glad you're the first people I got to know here." She remarked with cheer in her voice. She was so tired of all the crowds, all the paparazzi… It was nice to meet some people who liked her for her, and not for being Risette; not for being that fake personality she put on for the cameras. Chie was smiling at Rise when a thought suddenly struck her. They had completely forgotten something.

"Oh yeah, we almost forgot your present. The Teddie Glasses. Um, you don't have to take them, but… Well…" Chie turned her gaze over to Yu as he dug around in his pockets to find the glasses. It took a second, but he held them in his hand, examining them, trying to think of the best way to address Rise when he gave these to her. Usually Teddie did this kind of stuff; he didn't know how to really explain these glasses. Luckily for Yu, he didn't have to.

"Senpai… Would you be struggling without my help? I can help you in that world, right? With my power… So wouldn't it be better if I joined the team?" Rise questioned Yu. Yu was more than a little surprised to find that Rise had pretty much asked him to join the team, and not the other way around. Iy was like she had done all the work for him. He grinned as he passed off the glasses to Rise.

"Welcome to the team."

"These are kinda proof that you're one of us… Basically, on the other side, there's this fog… And these glasses let you see through it all." Yosuke tried to explain the functionality of the glasses to her. Luckily he could make it brief; Rise seemed to get it almost immediately. She was pretty smart for a celebrity that pretty much had to act like a stupid teenager in front of the cameras.

"I see… I do remember you all wearing glasses over there. Thanks, Senpai. Now I'm part of the team, too!" Rise declared, as though she hadn't already accepted the invitation to help them. "I'll be going to Yasogami High, starting tomorrow. But I don't have any friends yet, so don't ignore me, alright? I do owe you my life, so… you know…"

"You owe us nothing, Rise. Besides, what do you mean no friends; you have us, don't you?" Justin was only slightly joking. He meant what he said, he just tried to deliver it in a slightly humorous tone. It might have been better if he did do it in a serious tone, given the look she gave him afterwards. It was uh… A lot of admiration, that's for sure. Chie turned to give Justin a slight glare; as though this was his fault. Justin just shrugged his shoulder and shook his head. It wasn't like he was trying to flatter the girl; he was just being nice.

"W-Wow… I didn't realize you were so cool, Senpai." She gushed with admiration in her eyes. Justin rubbed at the back of his neck slightly with embarrassment.

"This sure is a rough time to transfer here, though. The kidnappings, King Moron's death… All that, and exams are soon, too." Yosuke grimaced, considering all the shit that had been happening lately. And then he had to go and bring up exams. It was the worst part of school; even for the braniacs like Yukiko and Justin… There was no way in hell Justin was getting a perfect score again, by the way. He'd eat his right foot if it happened a second time, honest to god. "Exams… Now I'm depressing myself. I wonder if there's any chance they'll be cancelled…"

"I doubt it. They always hold exams, rain or shine…" Chie sighed slightly before turning her gaze over to Justin. It was immediately clear to Justin she was asking if he'd help; she didn't have to say a word to him for him to understand she needed the help. And he was more than happy to oblige. Justin pounded his fist lightly in his chest, as though to confirm he had her back. Chie in turn only blushed. It was good to know Justin would go out of his way to do something he hated for her. She didn't LIKE that she had to make him do that; but it was touching to think he wouldn't think twice to do it.

"I almost got killed by those monsters. Compared to that, exams are nothing." Rise chuckled. Now that was an attitude Justin could get behind. Who the fuck cares about exams? Not Justin, that's for damn sure. Although…Would Rise even have to take the exams? She wasn't there for any of the material, so probably not, right?

"Alrighty then, let's discuss the case some more tomorrow at our special headquarters." Yosuke declared. Justin's smile turned into a frown almost immediately.

"Special headquarters?" Maya questioned from next to Justin. See this is exactly why we don't call it that. No one gets what the hell you're talking about; you just look like some sort of freak.

"He means Junes."

"Ah."

"Yo. How's it going?" Kanji interrupted the group, having dragged Teddie along to the shrine… Though… How did Kanji know they were going to the shrine? No one said anything to him other than they would be at Rise's place; which was obviously not the case. "Dude, Teddie ate like five topsicles… Though if you count the ones I had before, that makes six, so I still win." Kanji beamed with pride at his victory over Teddie in ice cream eating. Justin wasn't sure he should be enthused or not, so he slowly put his fist partially in the air, as though doing a half-assed chant. Mostly because that's exactly what he was doing.

"No one asked…" Yosuke spat with annoyance.

"We're all done talking already! Let's go, Senpai!" Rise remarked with great glee. Justin damn near jumped in the bushes for cover when she had that look of admiration on her face again; but luckily for him it was addressed at Yu this time. Yu of course recoiled in slight horror. He was trying to get with Yukiko, dammit, not her! Yukiko… Well Yukiko actually looked sort of angry seeing Rise give Yu that look… When would those two just get it through their heads that they like each other? They're just making things awkward by holding out on asking the other on a date.

"Uh… When did you get so chipper?" Kanji questioned, slightly off-put by Rise's sudden disposition change.

"Do you go to Yasogami, like Senpai? I'll be starting school there tomorrow, so I hope we get along too." Rise continued to beam with cheer; it was actually pretty damn confusing for Kanji. He couldn't understand what she was so happy about, and he kind of didn't want to know.

"Huh? Oh… cool. Uhh… What grade are you in?" For some inexplicable reason Yukiko started to crack up at that. Like… It wasn't even a joke; there was nothing to laugh at. BUT SHE DID IT ANYWAY. Justin just shook his head a bit, pinching his forehead.

"So where's Teddie?" Yosuke questioned. They couldn't just let that guy wander around without someone keeping an eye on him; that much was for sure.

"He's over there, finishing up his fifth Topsicle. What are we gonna do with him?" Kanji questioned. Clearly they needed to find some place to stay. Maya had turned to Justin, expecting him to maybe say Teddie could stay with them too. But the answer to that was absolutely not. He could barely afford Maya staying there as it was; he didn't need Teddie there too. Especially considering he'd probably start hitting on Maya within minutes. Justin would kick the living shit out of Teddie if he ever found out he tried anything funny with Maya. Yosuke sighed for a bit… He didn't like the solution he was going to propose, but he supposed it was necessary.

"Well… I guess I'll take him home…" Yosuke sighed slightly. The only real place he could think of for Teddie to stay was his place; and while he could certainly see there being some problems at first while trying to convince his folks to let him stay, he was sure he could work something out. Justin smiled slightly. He didn't know what crawled up Yosuke's ass and made him all nice and generous, but he liked it. That of course didn't mean Justin had any intention of letting up on his jabs, though.

"Be sure to use a condom."

"Fuck you too, Justin."

"I'd rather not."


	89. Chapter 88: July 11, 2011

CHAPTER 88

July 11, 2011

* * *

"Hey, is that stuff about King Moron for real?"

"It was on TV, right? It must be true."

It was Monday, and everybody was sitting in homeroom, waiting for the bell to ring. Maroka had died the prior day, and so Justin wasn't even sure why they had school. Back at his old school, if a teacher died, they called school off for like a week. Mind you, it wasn't something that happened a lot; it only happened once, and it was from old age. The point is, there shouldn't even be school right now; it just didn't make sense to Justin. He had considered not even showing up, but Yu had wanted everyone to gather at Junes after-school today, and quite frankly, he had no intention of explaining to them why he hadn't showed for school, but was okay to show up for their meeting after-school. So he just sat there, groaning a bit as the minutes passed by sluggishly.

"I still can't believe he's dead…" Justin muttered a bit to himself. He didn't like Marooka, not one bit; but he still didn't deserve the faith that met him. Besides; this marked the first time that someone Justin knew had been killed by the murderer. He had no idea who Yamano was, and he only met Saki once. He wasn't all buddy buddy with Marooka or anything, but he did see him on a daily basis. It was strange knowing he was gone forever, even if Justin had secretly wished it in his heart that he would just disappear. Chie sighed slightly next to him. She knew how he felt. It just wasn't right, just not the same with King Moron gone.

"I wonder who our new homeroom teacher's going to be." Chie questioned outloud. Sure, her priorities should have been elsewhere, but it was a good question. With Marooka gone, who was going to take his place? Still, Justin had to wonder how they had managed to find a replacement already. He had been dead for all of one day, and already this school had pushed him aside like he had never been there to begin with. It was sad to think that Marooka was gone without so much as a memory left behind. His legend died with him. Sure, no one like the guy; but to be forgotten so easily? No one deserved that…

Justin's thoughts were soon interrupted by the sound of the door opening, the figure of a teacher making its way inside. Justin lifted his eyes as he heard the door opening, figuring it was whoever Marooka's replacement was. He was most certainly right. And his jaw damn near hit the table when he saw who it was. He didn't know the person in the slightest; but she certainly demanded a certain… presence, for lack of a better word. Pretty much all of the guys in the classroom followed Justin's reaction, flabbergasted by the teacher who had come in and stood in front of the classroom, a rather sexual stance; curving her hips in a certain way as though to attract the lust of some of the students. There was no doubt she was doing it on purpose; but that didn't mean it wasn't working. Chie had to snap her fingers in front of Justin to bring him back to reality. He was a little embarrassed to admit that he had been trapped in a slight daze as the teacher tried to attract the eye of the male students. It wasn't that he was lustful or anything like that; oh god no. She was nowhere near Justin's type anyway. It was just that he was distracted. He didn't think it was humanely possible for someone to have a pair that big. It wasn't attractive, but god be damned if you didn't stare because you were trying to figure out how the hell that worked.

"Goooood mornin'. I'm Noriko Kashiwagi, your new class teacher starting today. You all probably know already, but now that Mr. Morooka has passed away… I'll be taking good care of you instead." Ms. Kashiwagi giggled slightly, though Justin's eyes just widened in slight horror. They just went from an asshole for homeroom teacher to a sexual predator apparently. Justin would take Marooka any day over her, and he had only known her for five seconds. Chie was certainly not too thrilled either for very similar reasons. She didn't want a slut for a teacher; she didn't need to hear some sexual innuendo every twelve seconds. "Okay, why don't we start off with a moment of silence for Mr. Morooka. Close your eyes, everyone…"

"Chie? I'm scared." Justin whispered in an aside to Chie. She didn't half blame him in all honesty. While everyone was busy closing their eyes, which Justin was surprised anyone had actually done, Ms. Kashiwagi had taken the opportunity to sit on the front of her new desk, legs crossed in a very sexual manner. Justin had briefly considered gouging his eyes out. He was horrified in all honesty; even if most of the other guys were getting some sick kick out of this.

"That should be good enough." She remarked, allowing everyone to look upon her once again. "I'll do my best to fill Mr. Marooka's shoes. So our regular exams are still on track for next week. As your principal said, 'It's times like these when the schedule is most important, Nori-chan.' It must be tough for you. But that's what it means to become an adult, little by little." She continued, a lustful slur to her words. Justin turned his horrified gaze over to Chie, who in turn was doing the same.

"…Doesn't chan mean cute girl?" Justin raised his eyebrow. He didn't know much about honorifics other than what he had learned contextually from the others and from what Maya had told him a few years ago. Chie nodded her head slightly.

"Sometimes."

"I think I'm going to vomit." If the principal did indeed mean chan as in 'cute-girl' than that image was going to be burned into the back of his skull forever. It was times like this that Justin briefly wished for his amnesia to come back. He wouldn't mind forgetting a few other things if it meant forgetting the horrifying image he had just recreated in his mind.

"Oh, and one more thing. That idol in our first-year class… Ms. Kujikawa, was it? In person, she's nothing like she seems on TV, so don't get your hopes up, mmkay? What's so great about an idol anyway, right class? She's just a piece of inexperienced jailbait." Her lustful tone soon shifted to jealousy and anger for some inexplicable reason. Justin shoved his head in between a cushion he had made out of his arms. He couldn't listen to any more of this crap. He already felt like his brain cells had just been raped, he had no intention of twisting the knife.

"I cannot believe she is honestly jealous of a fifteen year old girl…" Justin groaned, his voice muffled by the desk his face now pressed against, and the arms that wrapped around the sides of his head. Needless to say, there was a lot of gossiping going around about Kujikawa now.

"What's up with her…? Does she think she's Risette's rival?"

"She doesn't stand a chance against Risette. I mean, I heard Kashiwagi is on the wrong side of 40…"

"I bet King Moron would've been ecstatic to hear Risette had enrolled here. Someone told me they saw him buying Rise's pinup book…" Justin shot his head up out of the cushion he made out of his arms for a brief moment, tossing has gaze over to the direction of his conversation. _Alright, that had to be the creepiest thing I have ever heard in all my life._

"That sounds kinda pervy. He annoyed the hell out of me, but I feel bad that he got killed…"

"Oh, you know what? Risette was on a striptease show."

"Huh? A striptease!? Dude, if that was true, the paparazzi would've been all over it."

"Yeah, and it also would have been totally illegal. Fifteen is still underaged, guys." Justin mumbled to himself, placing his head back in the cushion he had made between his arms, turning his gaze over to Chie slightly. She had been watching the conversation with concerned eyes. Everytime someone else watched the Midnight Channel, the harder and harder it got for them. Knowing everyone was watching when someone showed their hidden feelings like that… It was horrifying really. No one should be watching it; but everyone WAS.

"The rumor about the Midnight Channel is spreading further…" Chie remarked with disappointment.

"We'd better wrap this case up quick. Anyways, let's meet up later. Don't make any plans for this afternoon." Yosuke ordered everyone; as if they didn't already know they were supposed to meet up at Junes. Justin pushed his face back into the cushion of his arms. School had just gone from bad to worse in a matter of seconds. He made a slight mental note to look around for chastity belts at some point. He damn well might need one now.

* * *

"Ugh… Finals are next week… It's been a while since I failed any subjects…"

Chie groaned a bit as the entirety of the investigation team gathered around the table at Junes; Maya, Rise, and Teddie included. Justin briefly wondered why they were discussing exams when they had more important matters to discuss; but he had no problem distracting himself from the real problem at hand. Anything to prolong thinking about how much they screwed up; how the killer had outsmarted them.

"Yeah, if by 'a while' you mean 'all the time.'" Yosuke jabbed at her, much to Chie and Justin's displeasure.

"Hey Yosuke, you remember that test you failed even though you had the answers? Yeah good times." Justin remarked sarcastically, pointing out how the kettle was calling the pot black. Yosuke grunted with slight defeat. Yeah, sure, it might have been hypocritical, but that was beside the point. You don't have to be a movie director to know when a movie was bad, right? So he didn't need to get good grades to point out that Chie's grades were shit.

"Sh-Shut up! Like you've seen my scores!" Chie barked back in defense. Justin took a sip of cola as the two argued about Chie's grades. No, he had definitely seen Chie's grades. On several occasions in fact; just not recently, and none of them being failing. Barely passing, maybe, but passing all the same.

"But Chie always has above-average marks in the subjects that she doesn't fail!" Yukiko spoke up with pride on Chie's behalf. As though that helped at all. That was like saying she failed everything except one subject that she was really good at. Besides, as far as Justin knew, she was passing in all her classes, even if only barely.

"H-Hey! Why'd you tell him!? My scores just… vary! Yeah, that's it!" Chie tried to convince the group. Or maybe she was trying to convince herself. Who even knew. One thing was for sure; Rise sure seemed to be getting a kick out of Chie's embarrassment for some reason. "R-Rise-chan, you too…?" Chie was thoroughly embarrassed to find that even the girl who barely even knew her was ganging up on her and her grades.

"Sorry… I'm not laughing at you. It's just… I thought it would take me a while to make any friends at my new school." Rise smiled profusely, thrilled to be in the presence of so many of her friends. She was so worried that people wouldn't like her, or would only try to befriend Risette, that she was happy to find so many friends in her company already. Justin chuckled slightly, putting the can in his hand down on the table in front of him.

"You're in bad company now, sister." Justin joked. Rise laughed slightly. She wasn't sure she would call her new friends bad company, but even if they were, bad company is always better than no company. Chie didn't seem too happy about Rise's glee in finding friends however. The circumstances were just too terrible to really find any joy in their unification.

"Too bad we met under such awful circumstances." Chie half apologized. She really wished they could meet under better conditions; otherwise it almost felt like the only reason Rise was friends with the group was because she had a job to do. Rise didn't feel that way of course, nor did anyone else in the group really, but it would be so much nicer if they had more time to get to know her as a person and not through her shadow spewing all her secrets out on the table.

"Oh yeah… What do you guys think about King Moron's case? He didn't show up on the Midnight Channel even once." Yosuke questioned, bringing everything back around to the reason they were here. Justin sighed slightly. He was hoping to avoid talking about this; but they needed to do it, that much was for sure. Otherwise it would just happen again. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it after all.

"If this person had been inside the TV, I would've sensed it. My nose isn't as sharp now, but I can tell that much." Teddie explained. Marooka was never on the other side, that much they knew. But why? Why had he not been thrown through to the otherside? The killer just left behind evidence if he killed Marooka outside the television. Why risk it?

"But they found the body on a foggy day again, right? They said on the news that that crime scene was just the way it was for that announcer and Saki-senpai." Chie pointed out. It was true; despite Marooka never being on the other side, his body was found under the same conditions as all the others. You would think he was killed the same exact way, though that was clearly not the case. Justin rubbed at his chin slightly.

"Maybe the body was moved there afterwards." Justin thought aloud. It would certain explain why he was hanging from the antenna, even if he wasn't killed in the same way, right? Everyone nodded slightly; it made a lot of sense to them. They could certainly see that being the case.

"I really wonder about the culprit's motives… Why was Mr. Morooka targeted?" Yukiko questioned. That was really the question to end all questions; Justin could MAYBE accept that Marooka was killed outside of the television, he simply couldn't understand why King Moron was targeted at all. He didn't meet a single bit of criteria. He broke the pattern in every single way… Maybe his death was supposed to throw off the investigation team?

"Hope it wasn't personal, 'cause there's way too many people who hated King Moron's guts." Kanji remarked. Justin sighed slightly. It could just be that, in fact. I mean, a murderer doesn't necessarily have to stick to a pattern. If Marooka did something to piss of a killer, the killer might want to off him, regardless of whether he fit the pattern. And Marooka DID piss a lot of people off…

"But didn't you say it's people who get famous on TV who are targeted? If the killer's choosing targets by watching TV, I picture him as someone who doesn't know the victims at all. I don't think it's worth trying to figure out motives for that type. There are too many people who hold grudges against you for no reason, even if you've never met them before." Rise reasoned out loud. Justin nodded a bit. She was right in every regard.

"Rise's right. We're dealing with a psychotic killer here; he doesn't need to have any rhyme or reason behind what he does." Justin backed Rise up. They had to get inside the mind of a killer; and honestly, it was a pretty fucked up and disorganized place. There were connections every which way and that, yet Justin and Marooka both broke the pattern… It could be that there was never a pattern to begin with; just coincidences.

"Haha… You sound like you speak from experience, Rise-chan… But with King Moron, he didn't appear on the Midnight Channel or the regular TV… Uurgh! I don't get this at all!" Chie shouted with irritation. Every time they figured something out, they had to throw an entire chunk of theories they already had.

"Man, two victims in a row from our school… That's gotta set off the police's alarm bells. They're not gonna leave any stones at school unturned." Kanji remarked, a slight tone of irritation in his voice. He was not looking forward to the cops and the media tearing the school apart. Nor was Justin really; the further away from cops he was, the better.

"Y'know, to be honest… Somewhere deep inside, I thought maybe King Moron was the killer… The news says that he was the second victim from Yasogami High, but we all know that's not the case. And I've heard him say more than once that so-and-so deserves to die… But now… I feel bad that I doubted him. He was a capital-A asshole, but that doesn't justify killing him…" Yosuke reflected, confessing his doubts about Marooka. Justin nodded a bit in agreement. Marooka was pretty suspicious at one point; some of the comments he made sounded like something someone with intent to murder might say. But now… He felt bad for ever doubting him. He felt bad for Marooka.

"I feel bad for the guy. You ever get the feeling that the guy was just an asshole because he was so misunderstood? I mean, pretty much everyone hated his guts… You ever think maybe all he really needed was a friend?" Justin mused out loud, a look of sadness on his face. Chie and Maya passed Justin a slight glance of concern and sympathy. That speech had started off being about King Moron, but as it went on… Justin wasn't just talking about King Moron anymore. He was talking about himself. He could understand what Marooka was going through; why he was such a prick. He just wished he had figured it out before it was too late…

"And not just King Moron… I feel sorry for all the victims… I can't forgive the killer, no matter what!" Yosuke declared, rage starting to flow through the blood in his veins. He couldn't forgive the killer; not after what they had done to King Moron, or what they had done to Yamano… Or what they had done to Saki… That one especially hurt in Yosuke's chest. He had thought he was over her, ready to move on. After all, that's what she would have wanted… But the more he thought about her, what had happened to her… It just wasn't right. And it killed him inside to think that if he had just acted a little sooner, she would still be alive and with him to this day. He was trying to move on… But it was just so hard.

"Well, we'll do what we can, for King Moron's sake too! At this rate, you have to figure that the killer has something to do with the school, right? So why don't we split up and-" Chie was half way through proposing a plan of action when she was interrupted by an all too familiar voice.

"That won't be neccesary." Naoto remarked, walking up to the table from the distance. Justin only glared slightly at the figure of the detective in the distance. She had an attitude problem the day prior, and now he was getting the feeling that Naoto was trying to follow them around; spying on them at every turn. Everyone was a little surprised at Naoto's arrival; caught off guard as she interrupted their conversation about the murders. It seemed she had heard what they were talking about; and that was certainly not a good sign.

"Y-You…" Kanji stuttered with shock. He was also blushing slightly, for some strange reason. It could be that he was having flashbacks of that moment in the park, when the investigation team was following him around. Now the question was, did he take that memory as a bad one… or a good one? It was irrelevant all the same though; it was more important for Justin to be focusing his deductive reasoning to Naoto's arrival, not Kanji's love life.

"There is no need to examine the case of Mr. Morooka any further." Naoto remarked, stopping in front of the group, passing her gaze across everyone who sat there, stopping slightly as she laid her eyes on Maya. Maya of course noticed, and got slightly uncomfortable, trying to hide her face as best as she could. She never was very comfortable around law enforcement, even if Naoto was only a private investigator at best. And besides, she couldn't possibly know about Falcone, right? It wasn't relevant at all to the case she was investigating, after all.

"Wh-Why's that?" Chie questioned.

"Apparently, the police has found a suspect. It would be best to let them handle the case from here." Naoto explained to them. Everyone's heads recoiled with slight shock. They had a suspect? Then… Had the murders already been solved? Had the killer been caught red-handed? Justin was very curious… And also slightly disappointed. He vowed revenge on the killer, vowed to show him some frontier justice when he found him. If the police have him… Well Justin's dreams of vengeance were over. It was something ridiculous to be upset over, but he still was. That killer didn't deserve to be able to WALK after what he did. And Justin wanted to correct that.

"H-How do you know…?" Yosuke questioned; ignoring that Naoto was signed on to the case. Something she had already told him years ago.

"She's signed on as a special investigator." Justin explained in a slight aside. Naoto's heart skipped a slight beat at Justin's word choice… She… She was concerned for a brief moment that he was aware of her true gender; that the rest of the group was aware too. But she decided that it was just improper use of words; that he had simply said she by accident. There was no way he could know. Or so she thought. Justin, of course, had been watching for her reaction out of the corner of his eye. It was a very slight one, but Naoto's bottom lip parted slightly when she had looked at Justin as he made that remark. He was right on the money; Naoto WAS a she, and not just a very effeminate girl. Now he just had to wonder why she would allow everyone to refer to her as he.

"Precisely. I'm on this case as a special investigator, by request of the prefectural police." Naoto elaborated on Justin's statement.

"What!?" Yosuke seemed way to surprised by the remark that had hit his ears. And Naoto was very much confused as to why he would be. Justin shook his head slightly, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

"Just ignore him." He commented in an aside to Naoto. Naoto, of course, had no intention of listening to any of Justin's advice. I mean, why should she? Justin was the most suspicious person here; and everyone here was very fucking suspicious right about now.

"They found a suspect…!? Who is it!?" Chie questioned. She wanted to know right goddamn now who it could have been that the police had managed to catch them before they had. I mean, they had Persona, they had access to the television. They had every single advantage, and still the police had managed to beat the team to the suspect.

"As to his name, I haven't been informed. I do know… that he is a high schooler. It isn't public knowledge yet, but he isn't a student of your high school. It seems they are quite confident that this boy is the killer… They have testimonies directly linking him with the incident. I expect it's only a matter of time before he is apprehended. Soon, this case will be solved, and your town will once again be its peaceful, rustic self." Naoto informed the group. Justin rubbed his chin slightly. She didn't sound entirely convinced; something was still bothering her about this case; that much was for sure.

"The suspect… is a high schooler…? All right… So why come tell us? That's confidential info, right? Why run right here and spill it?" Yosuke questioned. Justin shook his head slightly, taking a sip of his cola before putting it on the table. He knew why. Naoto didn't believe that their suspect was the killer… She believed it was them.

"Isn't it obvious?" Justin remarked sarcastically before turning towards Naoto. "What's been puzzling you is the nature of our game." Justin frowned as he let the comment loose from his lips. He had probably made the worst metaphor possible in regards to being under suspicion of murder. Naoto glared at Justin slightly, tipping her hat slightly. That sounded like a confession to her. Now she just needed the evidence.

"Your 'game' will soon reach its end. I felt I should at least let you know that." Naoto remarked, glaring intensely at Justin. Fuck what the police said; she knew they weren't on the right track. The man sitting in front of her however… He was the one constantly talking about the murders, he was the one with a rather questionable background; he was the one who she had caught in illegall possession of tobacco from a distance several times. And now he had just called the murders a 'game.' She couldn't prove he had done anything; but she would find the evidence she needed soon enough.

Everyone around the table started to glare a bit at Naoto. They weren't exactly fond of Naoto calling this a game to them. Sure, Justin had done it but a few mere seconds prior to here; but they knew he didn't literally mean it in the sense that this was a joke to him. He meant it as a metaphor. Naoto, however, had by all means intended that to mean that this was a literal game to them. And no one was pleased by that. Not even Justin.

"It's not a game to us!" Yu shouted with anger in his voice. It was very rare to piss Yu off; you had to seriously hurt him or his friends to do that. So you know anytime Yu had started to shout in rage, you had fucked up big time.

"You don't deny, then, that you have involved yourselves in the matter?" Naoto continued pressing them to get more of a confession. She knew that they were involved, that much was clear. But a confession goes a long way in trying to press charges; and when the police's new suspect turned out to be innocent, she'd be ready to make the move on the investigation team.

"A game…? Aren't you the one who thinks of this as a game?" Rise shouted with anger. Naoto's eyebrows lifted in surprise. She had been the one interrogating them, not the other way around. It seemed Rise was trying to flip the table on her. "I don't care if you're a special investigator or an amateur sleuth… All you're doing is solving mysteries. What could you possibly know about us? You're the one who's playing a game here." Rise continued to pound away at Naoto. Justin smirked slightly as Rise started to get the upper hand. He was a bit embarrassed to have accidently have started a scene with his metaphor, but then, Naoto sort of deserved it. There was no doubt that she suspected them of having involvement in the crime, despite them being the ones who were actively trying to stop it. She deserved every piece of shit she was getting flung her way.

"One of the victims… She meant a lot to me. How could I possibly treat this like a game? Plus… We made a promise…" Yosuke choked up with anger and hurt in his voice, though that slowly faded to sorrow. He turned to Teddie, a half-assed grin on his face, acknowledging the promise they made to him. Teddie was overcome with joy. Maya was not. She knew that Yosuke was talking about Saki… He still missed her very much; as much as he tried to move on. It hurt her a bit to see him clinging to the past as tightly as he was. After all… All living the past ever brought anyone was pain and misery. She didn't want to see Yosuke go through that. He was her best friend, second only to Justin. He deserved better than that.

"Y-Y-Yosuke…" Teddie stuttered, overcome by the warm feelings in his chest.

"A game… That may be quite true…" Naoto mumbled a bit, suddenly starting to see the fault in her words. To these people… it wasn't quite a game; though it was all a game all the same. They were just the pieces on the chessboard; and the murderer was the one moving the pawns. And perhaps it was true that she had been going about this investigation as though it were a game. But not anymore; this wasn't just about solving a case. This wasn't about finding the truth. This was about saving lives.

"Wh-Why so understanding all of a sudden…?" Chie was slightly perplexed as to why Naoto had gone from drilling them on their involvement with the case to complete understanding. Even though she clearly didn't understand why she had said was so offensive. She just understood how this could be perceived as a game.

"Oh, I get it. I was wondering why you'd be wandering around like this when the police have a suspect… What, did they get rid of you now that they have their man? Is that why you came here? You were lonely?" Yosuke continued to drill Naoto and just generally give her shit. Justin was a-okay with that for the record. This was the one time Justin was going to let Yosuke act like a complete ass to someone. Still, Naoto did seem rather saddened by Yosuke's remark. Perhaps it rang truer than Yosuke had intended it to.

"Detectives normally aren't involved with arrests. And we never harbor any special emotions regarding a case, either. Still… It is rather unfortunate that people are only attentive so long as our services are required…" Naoto remarked, a downtrodden expression on her face.

"Welcome to the working world." Justin remarked sarcastically before taking a sip of his can of cola. Naoto just shook her head though. Why? Perhaps because she didn't want Justin's pity. Perhaps because what he said rang true. Perhaps because she was trying to hide something. Whatever it was, she refused to accept it.

"But then, I'm accustomed to it." Naoto remarked, pretty much shrugging Justin's remark off. He had assumed she was particularly hurt by being let go; she refused to let him believe he was correct in believing so. And it was true; she had started to get used to it over the years. "Much about this case was perplexing, but its solution was surprisingly simple…" Naoto tossed her gaze about the table, looking for any tell-tale reactions that might let on that they knew something. Alas, no one seemed to know what the hell Naoto was talking about; and once again, she was left without any confession or dirt upon the investigation team. She sighed slightly and adjusted her hat as she prepared to depart. "Well then, I'll be going now." She remarked before turning about to leave. The investigation team waited until she was completely out of sight before speaking again.

"What was that about…? He just said his piece and left…?" Chie paused for a moment, trying to see if anyone had any idea what was going on. Nobody did, however. Justin had a good idea what Naoto was trying to do, but he couldn't say without a reason of a doubt; and he'd rather avoid drama if that were the case. "He said they have a suspect… but is this really gonna solve everything?"

"We can only hope." Justin remarked, starring off into the distance where Naoto had dissappeard. She was trying to chase the rabbit down the rabbit hole. She was searching for wonderland, but the question was whether she understood what she was diving into.

Clearly not, or she wouldn't have called Justin a murderer.


	90. Chapter 89: July 12, 2011

CHAPTER 89

July 12, 2011

* * *

"Hey Justin- Wha- Hey!"

Justin had rushed over to the door to let Chie into the building before diving back to the couch, Maya tossing him off a controller in the process. Justin was in the middle of playing a game, and rather than just pausing it like any normal human being would do, he had passed the controller off to Maya. She was doing alright so far; but holy crap was she panicking. Chie was just confused that Justin didn't so much as say hello to her; though she was a little curious what the hell he was doing now. She slowly made her way over to the seat on the couch next to Justin, textbook underneath her arm. She had hoped Justin would be willing to help her study, but it seemed he was much more interested in whatever game he was playing.

"Shit, they're coming through the window!" Maya remarked. Both were wide eyed with panic, their chests heavy with anxiety. Chie was amazed by how into the game they were getting; like this was a life or death situation. Though she probably would have understood if she looked at the screen at any point while making her way over to the couch. Instead, her eyes were trained on the two's reactions as they frantically tried to make shit happen in the game.

"Uh… What are the two of you doing…?" Chie questioned, planting her behind against the couch next to Justin. Justin didn't so much as lift his eyes from the screen to address her.

"The Walking Dead won Game of the Year a couple days ago, so I decided to see what all the fuss was abou- SHIT THEY'RE TRYING TO GET IN THROUGH THE DOOR!" Justin interrupted himself as Lee's barricaded against the door was slowly failing. Chie's eyes widened slightly. She had played the Walking Dead in its entirety more than once; so she understood exactly what was going on. And in seconds, she was panicking just as much as Justin and Maya had been. "What the hell do you mean you couldn't find anything Clementine; go get that fucking cane from earlier!"

"Why the hell isn't Carly shooting anyone!" Maya questioned. Carley's character had run off to do SOMETHING, so she wasn't helping with the barricade anymore. They had probably said it at some point, but honestly, Justin and Maya weren't paying attention; they were too busy trying to keep that barricade in place. And they were starting to fail pretty miserably at that. Thankfully Clementine came back around with the cane in a few moments, much to Justin and Maya's relief.

"Oh thank god." Justin sighed slightly, letting out the tension in his chest… Of course, that was before he started hearing screaming again. Justin had turned his attention from the screen for a brief moment, letting his head hang backwards against the coach so that his face was pointed towards the ceiling. But not now, Justin immediately shot his gaze back over to the screen to see Doug being grabbed through a window, and Carley being grabbed by her ankle. "FUCK!" Justin shouted leaning forward intently with his controller.

"Crap! Use your axe!" Maya shouted at the screen. Justin just shook his head.

"I don't have it!" Justin remarked. He thought he recalled giving it to Kenny for some reason, but that wasn't important right now. What was important was the game had just popped up with the text 'Save Doug or Carley.' And he was pretty much shitting his pants. "What the fuck do they mean OR? I can't save both!? Holyshitholyshitholyshiiiiii iiitttttttttttt-" Justin frantically chanted his eyes darting back and forth to both sides of the screen. "Fuck- Uh… FUCK, WHO DO I SAVE!?"

"Pick Doug!" Maya shouted, trying to persuade Justin. Doug was so far her second favorite character in this; the first being Kenny. There was no way in hell she was going to let Justin pick Carley over him. Chie; on the other hand, had the exact OPPOSITE mentality. She preferred Carley's character by a long shot. And Justin just wanted to save everyone. It made making this decision a lot harder than it probably should have.

"What; no, you have to pick Carley!" Chie ordered Justin. Justin in turn kept swapping his gaze back and forth between the two. He was regretting holding the controller in his hands at this point. Why was he the one making this decision? He didn't want to make this decision! He couldn't decide between the two! Why did this have to be so hard!? Maya soon turned to glare at Chie. She'd be damned if Chie was going to kill of her favorite character.

"Oh hell no; you are not rescuing that dumb bitch. She tried to use a radio with no batteries in it; and then when she actually got the batteries, she put them in BACKWARDS. This is natural selection at its finest; leave her!" Maya argued. Chie only seemed offended by the notion that her choice on who to survive was a 'dumb bitch.' She'd have Maya know that she had very good reasons for leaving Doug behind.

"At least she knows how to handle a weapon! What does Doug do? Hack televisions? Yeah, that's gonna be real helpful in a zombie apocalypse!" Chie rebutted, a glare on her face as she got into Maya's face. The two looked like they were going to strangle each other at any second. Justin was stuck in the middle, panicking like a motherfucker. He was running out of time.

"I only have five seconds; WHICH ONE!" Justin shouted, hoping for a decisive answer from at least one of them. He should have known better, because each just ended up shouting the name of who they were trying to save in complete synchronization. "Fuck it, I'm going with Doug!" Justin shouted, making the decision just before the timer ran out; sending the protagonist running after him and rescuing him from the zombies that had a grip on him. Maya pumped her fist in victory and relief. Justin sighed with slight relief as he managed to free Doug, turning around and ready to run over and attempt to save Carley… Only for Lee to pretty much just stand there while Carley did absolutely nothing to try and fight off the one zombie that was going after her. Maya might have been right about natural selection; but he still felt terrible as fuck.

"I can't watch." Chie remarked, covering her eyes with her hand. She didn't want to see Carley die, even if she was only a video game character. Justin felt pretty goddamn shitty watching as Carley get devoured by zombies. He knew the game didn't really give him the choice to save both, but had he really been there, he should have been able to do SOMETHING. And the worst part of it all? Kenny came bursting in with the axe mere seconds after the deed was done. Justin was very vocally pissed off about that.

"What the fuck Kenny!? Where the hell were you twelve seconds ago when I needed that axe!?" Justin shouted at the screen before tossing his controller into the ground. He was done; he couldn't play this game any longer. It just hit too close to home. He should have been able to save her. But he couldn't. And he didn't. Of all the times to play this game, it had to be after Marooka was found dead. Justin sighed and crossed his arms as he watched the scene play out. Apparently, there was no more player interaction at that point anyway, so he didn't need his controller anyway.

"Look, it's alright; at least you saved Do- Did that asshole just punch you in the face!?" Maya interrupted herself as Larry pretty much just took Clementine from you and left you for dead. After just saving someone's life on top of it. Maya just sort of stared at the screen dumbfounded. They had both agreed to punch Larry in his face earlier in the game when he tried to kill the kid, so apparently he was still pissed about it. All the same; that does NOT justify knocking someone out around FUCKING ZOMBIES. Justin didn't even care though. He was still caught up on the whole 'couldn't save Carley' thing. And Chie… Well Chie was pouting.

"Fuck you Telltale. Fuck you so much." Justin remarked, sickened that they would make him make a choice like that. He was so used to being able to save everyone in these games if you played your cards right. He had done everything right, though; so why hadn't he been able to save everyone? And it wasn't even like he had a particularly emotional attachment to these characters… Well maybe a little bit of Doug, since he kind of reminded Justin of himself. Which is strange because they were almost nothing alike.

Justin reached out to grab his controller off the ground, holding the center button for a brief moment so that he could shut the console off. Maya seemed a bit annoyed that Justin had shut the game off before she could see how things played out; but alas it was irrelevant. She'd just play the game herself later if that's how Justin wanted to play it.

"I cannot believe you actually saved Doug…" Chie shook her head in slight disappointment with Justin. Justin only shot her a slight glare. He didn't want to hear it. He had to make a choice, and he made it. And while he regretted that he couldn't save both, he wasn't going to be talked down upon for making the decision he did. Especially in a fucking video game. Chie noticed immediately the glare she was getting and forestalled eye contact with Justin, her cheeks slightly red. She didn't want Justin feeling like shit over a goddamned video game. Though her embarrassment eventually gave way to curiosity. Something Justin had said had struck her as a bit odd. "Wait, you said this won Game of the Year?"

"Yeah, why?" Justin questioned. He wasn't quite sure what Chie was trying to get at. Chie crossed her arms slightly, an eyebrow raised in puzzlement.

"…They decided the Game of the Year in July?" Chie pointed out how ridiculous that sounded. Justin in turn only stared at her for a moment, averting his gaze for only a brief second to stare at the now off television set, then back at Chie again. He never did answer that question. Probably because he didn't have an answer for it. Why exactly would they decide Game of the Year when only half of the year had gone by? Whatever, he wasn't going to question it. The VGA's were a joke anyway. Character of the Year was Claptrap… Seriously? No seriously. Not Handsome Jack, not Vass? Hell, Vaas didn't even get nominated. Like, he understood deadlines and all that; but Vaas was by all accounts the perfect villain. _Have I ever told you the definition of insanity? Trying to figure out who picked some of these nominees._

"Don't question it." Justin remarked after a short pause of silence, reaching across the table to grab a can of cola off the table. Really, that was the best answer he could think of. Because questioning anything about the VGAs was just outright anti-productive. Except when your favorite game wins. Justin practically jumped for joy when they announced the winner for the fighting game category. "So what's up?" Justin questioned what Chie had been stopping by for. She had pretty much been steering clear of his house ever since Maya came into the picture, so this was a pleasant surprise.

"Well I uh… Was hoping maybe you'd help me study…" Chie choked up with slight embarrassment. She hated having to ask that, and she would have hoped that the book that rested on her lap would be a clear indicator that she was her for academic reasons. Justin just smiled a bit. He didn't WANT to help mind you; studying was a huge pain in the ass. But he was touched that the very first person Chie had gone to for help was him. She trusted him to be able to help her. And he wasn't going to let that trust be misplaced.

"Yeah, sure." Justin remarked before turning to Maya. He was about to tell her to get lost for an hour or two so the two could do their thing, but it seemed Maya had beat him to the punch, pushing herself off the couch, a wide grin on her face. Justin was a little caught off guard to say the least, but at least Maya didn't seem offended. In actuality, she was going to leave whether Justin had asked her to or not; whether Chie had come here to study or otherwise.

"I should get going anyway. Yosuke wanted some help with something at Junes." Justin raised his eyebrow slightly at that. That didn't seem like something to be particularly happy about. Still, Maya could do whatever she wanted; and if it meant she was going to be out of the house for an hour or two, Justin was a-okay with it.

"Well, alright. See ya." Justin remarked, giving a sarcastic salute. Maya nodded her head a bit before setting off for the door, making her way to the Junes, closing the door quickly behind her. Justin just sort of looked at the door for a while. "Jeeze, she's been spending a lot of time with Yosuke lately." Justin pointed out.

"Maybe they're having a love affair." Chie joked, a funny grin on her face. Justin shook his head slightly.

"That has got to be the stupidest fucking thing I've ever heard… But then I suppose we haven't started studying yet." Chie went from laughing at her own joke to frowning in an instant, her eyes wide with surprise. Justin in turn only smirked a bit.

"Hey! That's mean."

* * *

"So… A pro is an opposite of a con?"

The two had been studying for the last hour or so; English at the moment. Fairly elementary stuff too; but hey, Justin wasn't complaining. It just meant that the test was going to be easier for him when he went to take it next week. Justin finished off a can of cola before sliding it off to the end of the table. There was quite a pile of empty cans developing by this point. It was amazing Justin didn't get diabetes from drinking so much sugar.

"Right."

"But that can't be right, I said that on our last English test and I got it wrong." Chie remarked with confusion in her eyes. She trusted Justin and all, but she trusted her English instructor more. Justin raised his eyebrow. What he said was entirely right, so either Chie had done something wrong, or Mr. Kondo is an idiot. "I gave an example and everything."

"Well what did you put?" Justin questioned. It seemed like the problem probably lied in the example. You couldn't just swap the word pro with con and get a legitimate answer. Like… Protect is not the opposite of contect. Because there's no such thing as contect. Chie paused for a moment, trying to recall what she had written down.

"I think… It was progress and congress…" She mused aloud.

"…I'm having a hard time finding that incorrect." Justin smirked slightly. He knew that answer was entirely wrong; but it definitely deserved to be right. Chie just shrugged a bit before flipping a page in her text book, ready to start studying the next chapter… Or at least that was the plan before the two heard knocking at the door. Sounded like Maya had gotten done doing whatever she was doing at Junes. Justin pushed himself off the couch and made his way over to the door, opening it to see who it was. It was certainly Maya alright, but something wasn't quite right. She had her arms wrapped around herself, and a very frightened expression on her face as she pushed her way inside the house. Justin of course was instantly concerned. "Hey, what's wrong?"

Chie had noticed something wasn't quite right the second Maya was within her line of sight, her face angled towards the ground as she made her way over to the couch, planting her ass at the very end. Justin soon followed Maya over to where she was sitting, leaning against the wall beside the couch as he stared at her trying to discern what was wrong. "Did something happen at Junes?" Justin questioned, a very slight glare on his face. If Yosuke said something to hurt Maya, he was going to rip his spleen out, he swore to god. Maya just lightly shook her head.

"I… Never went to Junes…" Maya stuttered slightly. Chie and Justin were of course immediately caught off-guard. What exactly was she doing for the last hour then? And why exactly would she lie to them about it. In actuality, she WAS supposed to meet up with Yosuke, but something happened along the way. "I was heading over there when Naoto stopped me…"

"She what?" Justin spat out as he heard the remark. Maya was just minding her own business, and then Naoto started to bother her about… well something. Justin could only assume it had to do with the murders. Needless to say, Justin was getting a little fed up with Naoto pulling this bullshit on them every five seconds; especially with Maya. She wasn't even all that involved. She just helped out when she could, or when there was an emergency.

"He was asking me questions about home…" Maya remarked sadly. She didn't like thinking about California, or the life she left behind; that much Justin knew. It was a very sensitive topic, and given that Naoto seemed to know she had been from California, you would think she'd know enough that you shouldn't press her on it. It was no secret that Maya had run away from home after all; the only thing that had been kept in the dark to everyone was the motivation behind it. Naoto should have known better. Justin was very clearly getting pissed off at this, his fists curled up into balls as Maya continued. "I told him I didn't want to talk about it… but he kept asking anyway."

"Alright, I've had enough of this bullshit." Justin declared turning around and heading straight for the door. Maya was a little surprised, but still in too much emotional pain to really stop him. Chie on the other hand knew how over-protective Justin could get; and that could be very problematic when trying to address someone working closely with the police.

"Justin, what are you doing!?" Chie questioned, jumping up from the couch in a pitiful attempt to stop him from doing something rash. She should have known nothing she was going to do could calm Justin down now. Nobody hurt his sister like that. NOBODY. Chie gripped him by the arm as she rushed over, the door open in his hand. Justin turned around, a slight look of annoyance on his face. Though not with Chie; he understood she was just trying to cool this situation down. But the time for that had long passed; now Justin was going to end this bullcrap before it got out of control.

"Make sure Maya's doing alright, I'll be back in a few." Justin declared, shaking his arm a bit to pull it out of Chie's grip. You would think Chie would have tried to grab him a second time to hold him back… But she understood completely how he felt. And despite knowing just how stupid this was, she couldn't consciously hold him back. Because when Naoto had started questioning Maya like that, she hadn't just hurt Maya; she had hurt Justin. And Justin wouldn't stand for that. She sighed slightly as he closed the door behind him, giving her a slight wave in the process. She stared at the door for a moment before taking a seat next to Maya. "You alright?"

"…Yeah…" Maya choked up. You could tell she was lying though. Naoto pressing her like that had just brought back too many bad memories… And not just that; she missed home. She knew she couldn't go back, she knew she shouldn't go back. But she missed her family. She missed her mother and her brother; even if her brother was a huge dick. She was happy to be here with Justin and all, but sometimes she wished things could just go back to those days before she had gunned down a man in cold blood. Chie sighed slightly, a look of sympathy and pity on her face as she stared at Maya. She understood why Maya was so bothered; yet she couldn't say anything. If she did, Maya would know that her and Justin had been snooping around through her diary. She couldn't do that.

"We're here for you if you want to talk, you know…" Chie tried to cheer her up. Maya smiled a phony smile, the corners of her mouth raising for only a brief moment. Her lips were smiling, but her eyes weren't. You could see the pain and misery in her irises; the anxiety in her chest.

"Yeah… I know…"

* * *

"Naoto! I know you're watching me! Show your face you fucking coward!"

Justin shouted, his voice rhaspy with rage as he wandered down an intertwining path of alleyways. He knew Naoto had been following him; she had been since he left the house. She probably had followed Maya the entire way there, which could certainly explain why Maya was so anxious. I mean, the sensation of being followed couldn't be too pleasant. Justin had been wandering into the alleys, Naoto following behind him the entire time, so that he could catch her in a position where the two were alone, where he wouldn't be causing a scene. Well, Justin was certainly right about one thing; Naoto had been following him, and she had opted to walk out from behind the wall she was using for cover.

"You've got a lot of nerve pulling what you just did, you know that!?" Justin lectured her as the two paced around each other, glaring at each other profusely. Justin had been annoyed with Naoto's insistence on following the investigation team around at first, but now he was outright pissed. If there was one thing you should know about Justin, it was that you did not EVER want to kick in his 'big brother' drive, so to speak. "I'm making this clear right now; you leave my sister alone, or so help me-"

"I cannot bother your sister if you have no sister to begin with." Naoto interrupted him, pointing out the obvious fact that Justin and Maya were not related. That only pissed Justin off more. Who cared if they shared the same blood? They were like family to each other; and Justin wasn't going to let some bitch who thinks she knew everything imply they weren't.

"I don't care what she is; you have a problem? Take it up with me! She stays out of this!" Justin barked at Naoto. Naoto in turn adjusted her head slightly.

"Very well; then perhaps you'd be willing to answer my inquiries. Would you care to indulge my curiosity as to why you are harboring a runaway?" Naoto started pressing him instead. "Or perhaps you'd like to explain to me what the son of a world class FBI agent is doing here in Inaba. I find it rather odd that someone with a reputation such as yours arrived in town just as the murders began to take place. Care to shed some light on that?" Justin's glare only seemed to deepen. It wasn't just that she was calling him a murderer, she was asking him questions that shouldn't be asked.

"Well looks like you've been doing your research. But maybe if you did more than skim through those fucking files of yours, you'd know that it was in my father's will. But that's not what you expected to hear, was it? No, you want to hear me say 'You got me; I killed a bunch of random people I don't know for no fucking reason,' don't you?" Justin slowly pushed more towards Naoto, getting right up in her face to throw the shit he was flinging at him back at her. "And I already told you to leave my sister out of this."

"She's not your sister." Naoto continued to insist; not so much as budging as Justin's glare found its way but inches from her face. She wasn't afraid of Justin, just as much as he wasn't afraid of her. And that could be problematic if she needed to take him in for more questioning; or worst- for an arrest. Just because she wasn't afraid of him doesn't mean she didn't know he would fight back if provoked.

"Yeah, and you're not a guy." Justin remarked before turning away from Naoto, starting to walk away slightly to increase the gap between the two again. Naoto's eyes immediately widened with shock and fear. So she was wrong in believing it was only poor word choice the day previous; he knew damn well her true identity.

"I beg your pardon?" She tried to play it off as Justin being an idiot; though the raise in the pitch of her voice immediately gave away that she was trying to bullshit Justin. And they both knew it. Justin chuckled slightly, a smirk crossing his face as he turned back around to meet Naoto.

"Don't play dumb. You know what you are." Justin remarked, starting to pace about again. Naoto just sort of glared at Justin, her chest inflating in and out rapidly with anxiety, her eye twitching ever so slightly. She wasn't sure whether to be pissed off or nervous. He could easily use that information to blackmail her if he wanted to… But she couldn't let up. If he did try to blackmail her, that was more or less confirmation that he had something to hide.

"You still haven't answered my inquiry." Naoto commented, trying to steer the questioning back away from her gender and onto the matter of Maya. She was a suspect in a murder case back in San Diego according to some paperwork she had gotten on her. Running away was more or less a confession of the deed in her eyes. She found it awfully strange that a young girl suspected of murder in San Diego had found herself in Inaba during a serial killing spree. It was suspicious to say the least; and she had no intention of letting up on questioning her. "Why are you harboring-"

"I am not harboring anyone!" Justin cut her off, having enough of this bullshit. "She needed a place to stay, and I gave it to her." Justin's smirk soon gave way to a glare. He was sick of this bullcrap with Naoto harassing Maya. It ended here.

"Are you aware that your 'sister' is suspected of homicide?" Naoto remarked. Justin just shook his head. Oh he knew alright; and she HAD been the one to do it. But he wasn't going to sell her out; and he wasn't going to give Naoto any incentive to continue harassing Maya about it. He started to step forward again, closing the distance between the two once more.

"Do you have any evidence?" Justin questioned. "Any PROOF that she killed anyone." Naoto's glare softened only slightly. Other than a very suspicious hospital visit; there was nothing on this girl. She couldn't honestly say yes.

"Well…"

"Yeah, that's all I needed to hear." Justin cut her off before she could make up some bullshit excuse. "You have nothing that says she murdered ANYONE. So you can shut the fuck up and leave her alone! And if you EVER try to call her a murderer again I swear to god-"

"Regardless of whatever crimes Ms. Jefferies has commited, you are aware that she is reported as a missing person, correct? Yet here she is, finding refuge in your place of residence. We can press charges on you for kidnapping, you know." Naoto cut Justin's threat down to size with one of her own. And hers was a little more likely of actually happening. Justin stared at her with a blank stare on his face for a while, his brow tense with fury. She was going to try and have him arrested for offering his place to a homeless friend? That was the last straw.

"You know what? You do that. Press all the fucking charges you want. **Because if you or ANY fucking copy lays even a FINGER on her, if any of them so much as OFFEND her, you can all kiss your spinal cords good-bye. I'm giving you a warning now; Believe me when I say you won't get another one."** Justin wagged his finger in Naoto's face, pure adrenaline amplifying his words with rage. He had never been more angry in all his life. And his now golden eye color only proved it. Naoto had noticed the change, though she could not put her finger on what was causing such a strange transformation, nor what it could indicate. She stored the thought in the back of her mind; it was something she'd need to look into. All the same, Justin had just threatened Naoto and the entire Police force in one foul swoop. He was starting to show his true colors, that much was for sure.

"Is that a threat?" Naoto questioned, twisting her head to the side slightly.

"**It's a promise."** Justin remarked, before marching away from the encounter, rubbing at his temples slightly as he tried to surpress his shadow again. But not before stopping for a brief moment, dead in the center of the alleyway, a vicious glare still creeping across his face. She wanted to try and play detective? Fine; Justin could play the red herring if she so choosed. "For long you live and high you fly. But only if you ride the tide. And balanced on the biggest wave. You'll race towards an early grave. So run, rabbit, run." Justin snidely recited before turning around the corner, leaving Naoto standing there puzzled. She was having a hard time deciding if Justin was suspicious, or just strange. Still, that comment struck here as a little fishy… Who would be the rabbit; and why is it running? And what exactly did Justin mean by 'race towards an early grave?'

"Run, rabbit, run…" She repeated to herself aloud, musing as to what secret meaning to his words Justin might have held.

There was none. He just wanted to fuck with her.


	91. Chapter 90: July 13, 2011

CHAPTER 90

July 13, 2011

* * *

"Today I feel like getting something that's easy to slip into."

"Perhaps you'd like to feel like getting something quicker."

Ai had managed to drag Justin over to Okina City again; though most certainly against his will. Justin had to hand it to Ai; she knew how to play her cards to get people to do what she wanted. In Justin's case, all she had to do was insult him enough. You would think that would be a deterrent; but Justin had the habit of not thinking before talking when he was pissed off. He should really do something about that one of these days.

All the same, Justin was not pleased to be carrying Ai's bags around again; especially not in the middle of the school day. Chie had been cramming for exams, and he had half assumed she'd ask for his help during their study period. That wasn't happening now, though, that much was for sure. What WAS going to happen now, though, was Chie ripping him a new one once she put two and two together.

"Hmm, doesn't look like they've gotten anything new in. I already have all of this…" Ai ignored Justin's smartass remark as she continued to browse the inventory of the store. Justin wasn't sure what had caught him off guard more; the fact that Ai was still browsing after declaring she had all this, or that she had all of this in the first place. I mean, this store was fucking huge; to think she had EVERYTHING in this place certainly said wonders about how much cash this girl had. It certainly explained why she was never at school. I mean, why go to school when you can buy everything in life? Oh the power of money.

Justin sighed slightly as he paced around the store. He had seen that jacket again; but of course he didn't have enough money on him. He was hoping to maybe pick it up as a gift for Maya, since she had been so down in the dumps since yesterday. Even though it had all went down yesterday, Maya was still really out of it today. She was just sort of laying on the couch, starring at a blank television screen when Justin left; sadness in her eyes all the time. He hated seeing her like that; though he certainly hated Naoto more for causing it in the first place. Justin swore to god if she didn't stay away, he would pop a cap in her ass. He really would too.

"Well then don't buy anything. Sheesh, fucking women and their shopping…" Justin muttered that last part to himself, lest Ai hear him and bitch him out again. In all his life, the only person he had enjoyed actually going to the mall with was Chie; and that's because she didn't take for fucking ever when she did. She looked around; if she saw something, she bought it, if she didn't, they left. In and out. She didn't stare at the same article of clothes for an hour, she didn't try to see which outfit matched which outfit, and she didn't do sales math out in her head. Though that last part might have been due to lack of ability, not lack of effort. Point was, it was fairly painless with Chie. Ai, not so much.

"I'll get something next time, but I want something today, too. I came here to buy, not to look." Ai remarked, shuffling through some clothes on a rack. Justin in turn only groaned. Very loudly too, though Ai just shot him one of those 'stop your bitching before I give you something to bitch about' glares. Justin had to briefly wonder why she had even dragged him along again, knowing full well he didn't WANT to shop with her, knowing full well that he was going to bitch and moan the entire time. Maybe she was just a fan of moani-

…

_Alright, let me rephrase that…_

"Hey, I'm thirsty. But me an ice latte." Ai demanded of Justin, as she pulled something off the rack. Justin in turn only squinted his eyes slightly, as though he hadn't just heard that correctly. As though squinting your eyes would help you hear better. Oh well, no different than mashing the B button when catching a wild Pokémon. Still; Justin was very much pissed at that remark. _You want ME to buy YOU an ice latte? You're the one who's filthy fucking rich, and you want the poor kid to buy you a latte? Think again toots. If anyone's buying anyone a latte, it's you for me. And I don't even drink coffee; but I'll gladly pour it on the street in front of your ass._

"Oh right away your royal highnes- Fuck no, get your own damn drink." Justin snarled at her, a look of disbelief on her face all the while. Clearly she wasn't used to hearing the word no. Or if she was, nowhere near as aggressively as Justin had just done. She was probably used to people bowing down at her feet whenever she made demands. _Rich kids… Pfft._

"Huh…? Did you seriously just say that?" She questioned, more than a little caught off.

"Damn straight I did, princess." Justin remarked. He made a note to himself that Ai's official nickname was now princess. Since that's exactly what she thought she was anyway. Ai stared at Justin for a while; and for a moment, it looked like she was going to blow a fuse. Needless to see, Justin was a little surprised when it seemed as though she was surprised in a… good way? She certainly wasn't offended, that much was for sure.

"You're probably the first guy who's ever taken that tone with me." She remarked, staring at him as she made her way over to the counter to purchase the clothes she had picked out. Justin's glare softened only slightly at that. Well it seemed shit hadn't hit the fan, so that was a plus. Besides, it might do Ai some good to hear she isn't royalty every once in a while. Maybe then she'd stop acting so much like a spoiled brat. Justin sighed a bit before making his way over to the counter, leaning against it with his rib cage.

"Oh, Ai-chan! You're back again?" The saleswoman behind the counter questioned. Ai only seemed slightly irritated at the prospect of human interaction. I mean, how dare these peasants bother the all holy and infallible Ai!? That's outrageous! That's blasphemy!

"…Well, yeah?" Ai remarked slightly, as though the answer to that question should have been obvious. Clearly Ai didn't quite understand the concept of a rhetorical question. Or if she did, she decided she was just going to be a bitch instead. Justin wasn't going to rule the latter option out.

"Are you looking for anything in particular today? Oh, we got a purse in that's just your style! The guys'll be alllll over you!" The saleswoman tried to pitch to Ai. Ai of course was having none of that. No one told her what she should or shouldn't buy after all. Mostly because she'd probably just buy it eventually anyway. You know it's a sad day where you can actually run out of things to buy before you run out of money.

"Yeah, I don't think she needs a purse for that." Justin remarked sarcastically. Clearly if those guys Justin damn near beat the shit out of were any reflection of the general populace, Ai was never going to have trouble finding someone to put up with her attitude. Ai passed Justin a slightly irate glance before turning back to the cashier, still very much irritated to be bothered by such a lowly labor worker.

"…That's all right. I'm not shopping for purses today." Ai continued to try and get this person to shut up so she could just make her goddamned purchase. Of course, the saleswoman wasn't letting up; especially after she had noticed Justin.

"Ooh, is that your boyfriend? He's quite a handsome one!" Justin immediately fell, having lost his balance as the remark hit his ear. Ai just passed him one of those 'stop being an idiot,' looks as he writhed around on the ground holding his head inbetween his hands. Justin wasn't sure whether he should panic or get pissed. Chie was literally going to murder him now if this got around. And he hadn't even done anything wrong. It was all Ai's fault. Honestly, Justin felt sick to his stomach; like he was going to vomit up his lunch at any second. Still after a moment he pushed himself up off the ground, holding his head in his hand.

"FUCK NO." Justin made very clear to the saleswoman. He didn't need any rumors going around like that; he had a hard enough time getting Chie to trust Maya, let alone someone like Ai. The saleswoman shrugged slightly. After all, if he wasn't with Ai, maybe he was available. She quickly turned to Ai, slight excitement in her eyes.

"Are you gonna introduce him to me? I've had the worst luck with men lately! We were at the bar the other night-" She had began to try and start gossiping with Ai; but by that point Ai had reached her breaking point. She dropped the clothes on the counter, pretending to have suddenly been struck by a realization.

"Sorry, we've really gotta get going. I'll be back." Ai declared, trying to pretend she just remembered something important. She hadn't of course; she was just being an anti-social bitch. Justin groaned a bit as he rubbed at where his head had hit the floor, following Ai's rushed lead out the door. It took a bit of walking, but they eventually found themselves sitting on a park bench near the entrance to the station, just sort of staring at the crowds. You know that when Ai left behind clothes she was in the middle of purchasing, she was really pissed off about something. And so Justin just sort of kept his mouth shut until she said something. Though he wanted to tell her to fuck off for not clarifying that the two weren't dating.

"I hate salespeople. I'm the one keeping them in business, why do they have to pounce on me every time I go in there? They should get rid of all salespeople and put in vending machines. Press a button, and out come your clothes." Ai ranted and raved about people talking to her when she went to buy shit. Justin just rolled his eyes during the entire speech. She just sounded like a spoiled rich kid that couldn't stand being bothered when she was getting her kicks. Though Justin did have to admit; he could totally get behind a vending machine for video games or something. After several times of being asked whether he'd like to sign up for a 'Power-Up Rewards' account, and after saying no several times, you would think they'd catch the hint. Nope. Just keep asking. And it was really fucking annoying. Besides, sales people always made him feel bad if for some reason he didn't want to buy whatever they recommended. They were usually so nice; even if it was just them lying through their teeth. Justin would take phony kindness over being a jerkass any day of the week.

"Yeah, sounds fantastic…" Justin remarked sarcastically, not so much as looking at Ai as the remark left his mouth. Really, he was just pissed off at her right now. It was HER fault if he got in trouble with Chie. He should have known better than to help some random stranger; it always came back to bite him in the ass somehow.

"Isn't it? I don't need all that pointless banter. I can see right through it… There's no such thing as a relationship without ulterior motives." Ai remarked, her tone growing sadder and sadder as she continued. It seemed that her own words had started to strike a little closer to home than she had intended them to. Justin hadn't really been paying attention until he noticed Ai faltering over her words. She truly believed what she was saying.

"Well that's not necessarily true." Justin interrupted her. "You've probably met Yu, right? What am I saying of course you have; you manage the sports team- point is, Yu and Yukiko Amagi have a thing for each other. You don't see them trying to chase after each other for money or looks. They're just happy to be together. And then there's me an-"

"It's always about looks." Ai cut him off. Justin's mouth just hung open for a moment before closing it shut, a look of disappointment on his face. You know, it might sound strange, but Justin was actually slightly excited to talk about him and Chie. It wasn't very often that he got the chance; and even if Ai was a completely un-understanding bitch, she still had a pair of ears. He was the complete polar opposite of Chie in that regard: where she wanted to keep their relationship private, Justin sometimes just felt like screaming about it out to the heavens, to let the world know just how happy she made him. It's a shame he never had the opportunity, nor the courage to do it. Maybe one day. Ai sighed slightly after a short pause her remark had caused. "I don't know why, but I got a little annoyed when she was talking about you back there. She said you were handsome. Good for you, I guess." Justin grunted with anger again, his eyebrows lowering into a slight glare.

"Yeah I got awfully annoyed too." Justin increased the tension in his brow slightly before turning his head away from Ai. He was still furious that she didn't say anything like 'that's not my boyfriend,' or 'it's not like that,' or ANYTHING. I mean, she knew what would happen if people got the wrong idea. Justin could lose everything in the blink of an eye, and believe me, if Ai ended up getting Justin's heart broken, Justin was going to break something else of hers. Namely her spine. Ai sighed after a moment. It seemed she didn't really want to talk about this anymore than they already had.

"Hmmm… I don't really feel like buying stuff anymore. What should we do instead?" Ai eventually broke the silence. She really didn't feel like dealing with any more salespeople, that much was for sure. But she also had no intention of going back to school. Justin shrugged slightly. How the hell was he supposed to know what there was to do? He's been here twice.

"I don't know, just chill?" Justin remarked. He didn't really want to chill with Ai of all people, but he was out here now; and besides… She was sort of paying for his bus ticket. Pissing her off too much was not a good idea. And really, anything to not have to go back to school was ideal; even if it meant sitting next to some spoiled rich kid for an hour or so.

"What? You mean you don't have any kind of plan? Sounds boring… Oh well. Maybe you'll be able to make it interesting." Ai went back and forth out loud. Justin had briefly considered the possibility that she had multiple-personality disorder, but then he just realized the hypocrisy and got a little sad. Maybe he should be less jugmental of Ai; I mean, in a way, they were one and the same. Except Ai wasn't schizophrenic, or had an evil version of themselves living in their skull, or had daddy issues (citation needed), or lived alone, or was poor, or had a heart, or could jump into televisions, or had persona, or-

"You know, it's pretty funny… If I didn't sign up to manage that team, and they hadn't started making those comments about me, you wouldn't be here with me now. Looking at it from your perspective, I'd say you got pretty lucky." Ai interrupted his thoughts, continuing on her little ego trip. Justin raised his eyebrow. He wasn't sure lucky was the word he'd use. More like 'God hates every fiber of my being and is doing everything in his power to make my life a living hell.'

"That's subjective." Justin remarked sarcastically.

"I guess you should be thanking me." Ai declared with pride in her 'work.' Justin immediately shot her a glance, as though to say 'what the fuck are you talking about you crazy bitch.' Seriously, he stood up for her ass, put up with her bullshit, and very well might end up dying on her behalf if word of that rumor ever get back around to Chie, and he should be thanking her? _Hate to break it to you princess, but that's not how this is going to go down._

"Thanking you? Oh boy, you've got a lot to learn about the way the world works." Ai just sort of glared at him as the remark left his mouth. Justin was giving every little piece of shit she flung at him right back at her… In a way she kind of liked it. It was so different to see guys not falling down on their knees to beg for her. If anything, Justin was demanding that of her. It was an interesting role reversal for her to say the least.

"You know… It was your advisor who put me on that team. He said something like, 'Ai, being on a team should teach you something about putting someone besides yourself first!' I don't understand people who play sports in the slightest…" Justin shrugged slightly at that remark. She definitely needed a lesson on being less self-centered, that much was for sure, but she could certainly understand where she was coming from.

"I don't get it either. What the hell is the big deal with sports anyway? People throw a ball back and forth, and occasionally someone breaks a bone." Justin mused out loud. He really did not get what all the hype was around sports, why people found it so interesting. Ai seemed slightly surprised to see Justin agree with her. She had just assumed all guys were crazy about sports. She personally couldn't stand it; she just couldn't follow what was going on.

"I know right?" Ai grinned a bit. Or at least she was until the two were approached by a rather strange young man, quivering ever so slightly as he tried to speak up, his voice stuttering greatly as he tried. It was clear the guy was very shy, though that had to make Justin wonder why he was approaching two strangers like this. Though, he understood once he finished talking.

"H-Hey, u-um, Ai-san! U-Um, us meeting here like this… I-It must be f-fate, right!? So, um…Y-You w-wanna go o-o-out with me sometime!?" His eyes were wide with anticipation, hoping to get a positive answer. Justin could almost hear his heart snapping in two as Ai didn't so much as consider the proposition. Like, not even a second or two; right as he finished his sentence she was prepared.

"Ha, are you kidding me? Have you looked in a mirror recently?" And within seconds, the teen was heartbroken. He just sort of stood there for a moment, his head hung in shame, his eyes now dim before walking away. Justin raised his eyebrow in curiosity at the sight; she didn't so much as bat an eyelash at that. It was like she was used to it. She probably was, now that he thought about. Justin briefly wondered what the female equivalent of a lady killer was. _A black widow, perhaps?_

"You know, looks aren't everything. You probably should have considered it a little." Justin remarked, though Ai wasn't having any of Justin's moral bullshit. She shook her head a bit, her chin up with pride, eyes closed with self-indulgence. She honestly believed that she was always right; and that saddened Justin a bit. Her parents must have done a miserable job raising her.

"Well, a guy has to look at least on par with me before I'd consider him. That, and he has to click with me, I guess… Besides, I'm not interested in dating anyone right now." Ai explained her reasoning. Justin had to force himself not to laugh at the excuse 'on par with me.' First of all, how egotistical do you have to be to say that. Secondly, good luck finding ANY guy like that.

"You're not going to find any guy on par with you. We're guys. We're ugly as fuck." Justin sighed a bit before digging into his pocket to light up a cigarette. Strangely enough Ai didn't care in the slightest, nor did she even address the fact that he was holding an illegal substance between his fingers.

"Well I don't know. You're alright I guess."

"Hands off princess; this merchandise aint for sale."


	92. Chapter 91: July 14, 2011

CHAPTER 91

July 14, 2011

* * *

"Hey senpai-"

"TWENTY FOUR!"

Justin had fallen asleep on his desk when Rise had come up to him, poking him a bit as she tried to get his attention. It seemed she hadn't really noticed Justin had fallen asleep; though Justin sure as hell hadn't seemed to notice that class was over. Rise, needless to say was a little confused by Justin's half-assed attempt at giving an answer to a question that didn't actually exist. So was Justin once he realized it was just Rise behind him. He was actually a little embarrassed to have made an ass out of himself without any reason. At least if he had been called on in class, it would look like he tried… So long as it was a math question. God help him if it was an English one.

"Um…" Rise mumbled slightly, a little caught off guard by Justin's panicked frenzy. He calmed down eventually though; and once he did, his face was slightly red. He was a little curious as to what Rise was doing in his classroom right now though. They were in separate grades after all, so she had to have come looking for him or one of the other investigation team members. And looking around the room at the moment, it seemed the only one there was Justin. No seriously; he was the only one in the room besides Rise. Everyone had apparently left without bothering to try and wake him up. _Gee, thanks a lot Chie…_

"…Jesus, how long was I out for…?" Justin muttered to himself, rubbing his eyes a bit as he tried to wake himself up completely. Justin was half expecting Rise to answer that for him, but she didn't really know when Justin had fallen asleep, so she couldn't say. It was quiet for a moment as Justin rubbed away at his face, trying to wake up. "Hey Rise, what's up?" Justin eventually spoke up, breaking the silence as he finally nodded back into reality. Rise smiled slightly; at least he seemed to be awake now.

"Hey senpai, I was wondering if you had a moment." Rise smiled with innocence in her voice. Justin wasn't entirely sure why she always sounded so excited as of late, but hey, he could get used to it. Much better than the gloomy Rise he had met the first time they encountered each other. Justin smiled slightly before leaning back in his chair a bit. Given that Chie hadn't dragged his unconscious body to the library to help her study, he was going to say 'yes, it seems my schedule has suddenly cleared up.'

"Yeah sure."

"The test coming up covers a lot of subjects… I won't be able to study enough unless someone helps me." Rise frowned slightly. Justin's eyebrows shot up in immediate surprise. Not because she was asking Justin to help her study, she didn't know better. No, he was surprised that she was taking the exams. She had been here for all of… three days. There is no way in hell she was going to get in a quarter's worth of knowledge in such a timeframe. Though Justin supposed that's why she was asking around for help.

"They're actually making you take the exams?" Justin questioned, still very much surprised. Rise made a slight noise of disgust; not at Justin, mind you, but rather at the test and the school administration. She had no problem taking exams. She had a problem taking exams on material she couldn't possibly know. Justin felt awful for her. God knows half the stuff that was going to come up on that test was neither going to be relevant to the subject, nor more than just a passing comment ONCE in the classroom.

"I know right! Can you believe that…?" Rise ranted slightly. She was very angry about this in all honesty. It wasn't fair that she was going to be graded on stuff she couldn't possibly know… But then, she supposed she really didn't have to worry about getting good grades. Of course, that's what she thought. Justin knew better. In ten years, Rise's celebrity status would most likely be long gone. Not that he would ever dare say that to her face, but he knew she shouldn't just brush aside academics because she had it made not.

"So… what, you need my help studying?" Justin questioned. He had figured as much, but considering she had said she needed 'someone' and not 'you,' he wasn't going to make an ass out of himself. Rise only nodded and made a slight grunt of confirmation in response to Justin's horribly idiotic inquiry. Justin in turn only smiled a bit. It's strange; Rise was the only one to not question Justin's academic capabilities prior to seeing his exam grades. Not even Kanji seemed to think he was the brightest bulb in the bunch. It was amazing how much confidence she had in what was essentially a complete stranger. "Alright, push that desk over a little."

"Thank you sooooooo much!" Rise shouted with glee. Justin could swear she jumped a little too. She was probably a little enthusiastic about studying… though… Was that what she was so excited about? Maybe she was just happy that someone had offered her the help. Justin smiled a wide grin at her as she hurriedly threw all her books on the table, frantically flipping pages about as though trying to prove something. Her determination was kind of adorable in a way. "I'll do my best to make you proud, Senpai!" She shouted with resolve as she finished flipping her book open. Justin couldn't help but laugh at that.

"Trust me Rise, you don't have to work for that." Justin joked. He was plenty proud of her as it was; she had put up with the awful shit her shadow had done, she was going to try and help them catch a murderer, and even then she was still working hard in academics. But more importantly, she had saved his life… More importantly she had saved Chie's life. And for that, Justin would be forever grateful. Rise blushed ever so slightly, a child-like grin on her face.

"Please don't laugh at me even if I get it wrong!" Rise continued, still very determined, but also kind of self-conscious. Justin just sort of shook his head, a wide grin on his face.

"I would never!" Justin chuckled. Rise smiled a bit before staring at her book for a moment, tapping the side of her head with a pencil, deep in thought.

"Alright… So how do I solve this…?" Rise remarked, as she copied a problem down on a paper, before shifting it about so Justin could read it. Justin was good at math, especially math from a grade lower than him, so this should be a walk in the park for him… _Yep. Definitely a walk in the park… Uh… Let me read that again, just to be sure…_

_13 + 2_

_Okay… What the fuck. _Justin shifted his gaze up to Rise, a look of disbelief on his face. Of course, Rise just sort of laughed as she noticed how completely bewildered Justin was right now.

"I'm just joking." She giggled slightly. Justin wasn't sure whether or not he should be relieved. She certainly had been able to fool him, that was for sure. But it wasn't exactly a funny joke. Still, Justin smiled in defeat, knowing Rise had been able to outsmart him with wit and sarcasm. That was much more of an impressive feat than it sounds when you consider who she had bested in those categories. "Hey Justin… Can I ask you something?" Rise spoke up, her expression sobering up for some reason. Justin was a little caught off-guard by the sudden mood-change.

"Have I given you reason to think you couldn't?" Justin remarked snidely. Rise smiled only a little; she had something serious to ask, and Justin making a joke out of everything wasn't helping. Still, she supposed the reason she felt comfortable asking him, and not say Yosuke, was because he didn't take ANYTHING serious. Unless you seriously hurt him or someone he loved, generally he didn't give a shit. It made it easier knowing he was a friendly face, she supposed.

"Now that I'm getting the hang of school, I want to go out more and see the sights. But I tend to get recognized everywhere I go, so I'm a little nervous about going out on my own… And you seem like the type of guy who knows all the cool spots in town." Rise tried to sidestep the question slightly; being as indirect as possible. Justin got the hint though. He smiled slightly.

"Cool spots and me aren't exactly synonymous, but yeah, sure." Justin smiled warmly at her. He wasn't crazy about walking around with a celebrity everywhere, but she was a nice kid. He supposed he could put up with her every once and a while. Besides, she might need a bodyguard; and what did Justin do better than crack skulls? Rise was… well, excited would be a huge understatement. She had managed to knock her book off the desk when she threw her arms to the sky with excitement. Justin couldn't help but chuckle a bit to himself. She was like a child at the carnival.

"Really? Woohoo!"

* * *

"I can't take another bite. My stomach's full…"

Rise had damn near pulled Justin kicking and screaming over to Souzai Daigaku. Not that he was complaing or anything, but he thought he could walk there without Rise trying to tug him every which way and that. His wrist was actually getting a little sore from her pulling at them every twelve seconds. Just once, he'd like to go somewhere with a girl without them tugging him around like a ragdoll. Seriously, he had feet. He could walk on his own. _It's no problem ladies, just leave my wrists be._ Rise had finished eating something when she started moaning, her stomach feeling as though it were going to burst open at any second. Justin only got a drink; he couldn't stand all that fried fish and sushi crap. Really, just fish in general didn't settle with him. But what did, was sugar. Lots. And Lots. Of sugar. This was actually, like his fifth Cola. And you thought the guy was addicted to cigarettes; no sir-ee! He was a coke addict.

"But that really hit the spot! I've been wanting to come here. But it's a little embarrassing to show up alone, you know?" Rise seemed half excited, half saddened. She didn't like the concept of walking around town by herself. And why would she? The paparazzi was a bitch, and obviously pissing off Rise around her friends was not a good idea. Especially when her friends included Justin. Basically put, she went alone, media outburst; Justin went with her, not a camera in sight. Still, it seemed a bit strange to not want to go anywhere alone.

"I take it you don't eat out much, then." Justin remarked, taking one last gulp of his can before crushing it and throwing it over his shoulder. There was a trash can behind him that he was trying to get the can in without looking, but he missed completely. And he didn't care enough to pick it up and put it where it belonged. It would take the entirety of City 17's police force to get him to pick up that can.

"Nope! If someone snapped a photo of me doing that, I'd hear it from my agency." Strangely, Rise didn't seem the slightest bit bothered by her agency pretty much telling her what she could and couldn't do, what and where she could eat. Justin raised his eyebrow a bit. She seemed less bothered by the paparazzi and more so her agency. And Justin couldn't really blame her. The agency was the one who made her to be what she was on television. The agency made Risette, and unfortunately, Rise was the one who got in trouble any time Risette stepped out of line.

"Why not just tell your agency to fuck off? They don't get to control your life, you know that, right?" Justin questioned. Rise just shook her head a bit. Justin didn't quite understand what happens when you piss off your agency. Besides, she couldn't just tell them to fuck off. Maybe Justin could, but she had a little more class than that.

"I couldn't do that, I'd get in so much trouble!" Rise countered. Justin sighed a bit, leaning back against the wall of the establishment they had just wasted way too much money in today. He supposed she was right. If there was one thing you needed to know about the media, it was that any given moment on any given day, they could make your life a living hell. They were not the kind of people you wanted to cross. Well… Maybe not a sane person. Justin always wanted to see what would happen if he could piss off the major media outlets. What were they going to do? Plaster his face all over the news? Pfft- Boring. Rise sighed slightly, suddenly having taken the wrong turn down memory lane. Not that they were bad memories; in fact, they were very good ones. And that was the problem. She really missed those days sometimes. "The last time I ate out was at a festival when I was still a little kid. Back then, it was me and my family… It was fun." Rise reminisced.

"I think I went to a festival once in my entire life…" Justin mused out loud. Though where as Rise's trip down memory lane had been nostalgic, Justin's had been nightmare inducing. "My father took me. I was maybe five or six at the time…" Justin sighed slightly a look of disappointment on his face. His father wasn't always a bad man. For the first half of Justin's life, his father had been his hero. He went where he was needed to stop the big bad men that haunted his little boy's dreams, after all. What kid wouldn't want a cop for a father? I mean… It sucked having all those kids bully him on a daily basis, but he had his dad right? His dad would never abandon him…

But then he found the bottle. And then he got violent. Justin could remember the first time he had come home stinkin' drunk, the bottle in his hand. He was too young to understand what the alcohol did to him… But you're never too young to understand what a sharp projectile meant. He had nightmares for weeks after it first happened… Hell he still had them once in a while. He couldn't shake the memory anymore these days. But why? That man, the one with the bottle in his hand… That wasn't his father. The one who had taken Justin to the carnival, the one who made sure there were no bad guys hiding in his closet… That was his father. That man who came home in a drunken stupor every night? He was just a monster wearing his father's face. And yet the memory still haunted Justin at every turn. Even now he found a slight shiver in his spine as he thought about it. It wasn't a pleasant memory to say the least.

"So the last time you ate out was when you were a kid… Jesus that sounds awful." Justin quickly tried to shift the topic away from him and back to Rise. There had been a brief moment of silence while Justin remembered the demon that haunted his childhood, and Justin was fully aware of it. He didn't want Rise worrying about it. He could face his personal demons without bringing her down with him. Besides, they were here to have fun right? If this had been the first time she had gone out to eat since she was a child, then Justin was going to make it a pleasant memory for her. Rise seemed a little concerned about that moment of silence, but other than that, she was still excited to be up and about.

"To tell you the truth, I've wanted to do this since I was a child. My parents were actually pretty strict." Rise mused out loud. Justin paused for a moment, just nodding his head to indicate he had heard her at first. It took a moment before he smirked back. He had to push those lingering thoughts about his father out of his head; it wasn't just something he could do instantaneously. It took effort. "I didn't really have many friends."

"I can relate. I only had two friends throughout middle school. One of them was a smoke dealer that's four or five years older than me, and the other is my sister. Not exactly the most amazing selection of friends." Justin jabbed at himself. The way he put it, they sounded like terrible people to get all buddy buddy with. In actuality, there was only one person he trusted more than those two… Okay, maybe Yu had Kurt topped by a little bit. BUT IT'S CLOSE, I ASSURE YOU.

"Really?" Rise seemed surprised that there was someone out there that had gone through the same thing… Just minus the illegal cigarettes and sister part. She was actually a little surprised to hear Justin didn't have many friends growing up. She would have thought Justin would have friends coming out the wazoo. Sure he could be a bit short-tempered, but when he was in a good-mood he was one of the sweetest guys she had ever known. And that very well might be saying something. Justin nodded his head in confirmation.

"Yeah. But the important thing you need to realize is that if they don't want to be your friend just the way you are, then they aren't worth the hassel. You could find millions of people out there better than them. Hell, I've found at least a dozen of them since I moved here." Justin smiled slightly, though not quite as much as Rise. Justin had nearly forgotten about that whole 'real me' thing she had going on… But he couldn't really lie to her. There was a Rise and there was Risette, there was no denying it. And if the only reason people wanted to be friends with her was because she was Risette, then there weren't worth keeping around. They should like you for who you are, not what you do. And anyone who tells you otherwise is a complete asshole. No, he couldn't tell her to just get over it. He needed to tell her that she was better off without those people.

"I guess that couldn't be helped, since I hardly ever showed up for school." Rise shrugged slightly, though she was suddenly struck by the realization that she had just dropped that she didn't go to school to Justin. And he had certainly heard. Not that he was angry or confused or anything; he understood what she meant by that… At least, he thought he did. When school and all the bullies got to be too much for Justin to handle, he'd skip out, and just wait in the alleyway for Maya to come back around, to baul his eyes out until the storm passed. He wasn't sure why Rise hadn't showed up for school, but he could only assume it was for similar reasons. "Er, that's enough talk about that! What a depressing subject, huh? Let's talk about something fun. After all, I don't want to waste the time we have together!" Rise stammered slightly, trying to change the subject. Justin just smirked a bit. It was kind of funny how nervous she was getting, like she needed to make a good first impression or something. As if Justin even cared; a friend is a friend, regardless of what you say.

"We have all the time in the world, Rise. Don't be afraid to speak your mind." Justin reassured her. He had no problem listening to her talk about her childhood. In a way, it was nice to know he wasn't alone in what he went through. I mean, sure, Rise's father hadn't been a drunken child abuser (citation needed), but she knew what it was like to be an outcast. Rise smiled slightly at Justin's remark. If they had all the time in the world, then she didn't want to waste even a second of it.

"It's so great that I came to this town and met you. Really, I'm serious!" Rise gushed with glee. Justin's cheeks turned hot red again. Compliments tended to have that effect on him after all. It was a bit different when a celebrity said it to you though; even if he wasn't talking to Risette right now. Regardless, it made him almost fell… bigger. Like he wasn't so insignificant in the grand scope of this world.

"Well I guess it's so great I came to this town so you could come to this town to meet me." Justin remarked sarcastically. Rise in turn chuckled a bit before jumping up from her seat with excitement.

"Sooo, why don't I start by asking what kind of girl you like?" Rise questioned with a wide grin. Justin only raised an eyebrow a bit. He understood she wasn't very used to making small talk, but that's not really a great topic of discussion. Besides, she should know what kind of girl Justin li-

…

_Oh shit, she doesn't know about me and Chie yet, does she?_ Justin cleared his throat a bit.

"Well me and Chie are dating, so I guess that should answer your question." Justin's cheeks were a bit red as the words came out of his mouth, his hands scrambling through his pockets in search of a cigarette. He was expecting this to get really awkward really quick, but Rise only seemed to smile widely, her face practically glowing as the remark hit her ears.

"Oooooh! That's so cute! You two look like you'd make the perfect couple!" Rise gushed a bit. She thought the two of them together in a relationship was just the most adorable thing. After all, they had so much in common from what Rise had seen. Especially the short tempers. But hey, the family that fights together stays together. Justin was honestly a little surprised by the remark. Rise barely knew the two and she already thought they'd make a good couple? Seemed a bit odd but, he wasn't complaining anytime soon.

"I'd like to think we are anyway. We've gone through some tough shit together. If that hasn't torn us apart, then the only thing left would be the hand of god himself. And I bite the hand that feeds." Justin remarked with slight pride as he placed a cigarette between the crevices of his teeth, lighting it ablaze and taking a puff of it. Rise didn't seem too surprised by the cigarette. Mostly because most kids she knew in the business smoked. She was almost used to it by now.

"You should be a poet." Rise complimented, only slightly sarcastic. Justin shrugged a bit, a grin on his face. It was how he felt, not just some fancy words he had spat out to try and impress.

"Now why would I want to do that? Have you SEEN them kicking Edgar Allan Poe?"


	93. Chapter 92: July 15, 2011

CHAPTER 92

July 15, 2011

* * *

"H-Hey. Umm…"

It was afterschool when Ai had dragged Justin up to the rooftop. Justin was really getting fed up with constantly being pulled away from helping Chie study, and she no doubt was going to be pissed about him constantly skipping out on their study sessions, but Ai said it was important, so he went all the same. She was stuttering a bit over her speech as she tried to choke up the words she wanted to say, her voice quivering slightly with nervousness. Justin was a little surprised to see the normally cool and composed Ai shaking like a blender.

"You know, I can't really help you with anything unless you spit it out." Justin remarked sarcastically. Ai in turn only glared at him.

"I'm getting to it!" She shouted, annoyed by Justin's attempt to rush this along. He was sort of hoping to finish this up as quickly as possible so that he could possibly make it to the library before Chie got fed up of waiting. Though, given how short a fuse she had, Justin wouldn't be surprised if she already left. Always worth a shot, though. Ai's glare eventually subsided, the tension in her brow disappearing before she started to blush slightly. "Th-Thank you for that time, a week ago…" Ai stuttered, a bit embarrassed to thank anyone for anything. Justin' just shot his eyebrow up in confusion.

"What you mean with those kids?" Justin questioned. That was the only thing he could think of that he had done for Ai besides bitching and complaining. Ai nodded slightly. Justin stared at her for a moment before flicking his wrist a bit, shaking his head a little to each side. "Don't worry about it. It's what I do."

"I was… you know, happy." Ai continued, only seeming to blush harder. She was avoiding eye contact for some reason, as though too nervous to look Justin in the eye. And that concerned him slightly. "I-I'm… I'm in a weird mood… Every time I think about what happened, I can feel my heart beat faster, and I hardly sleep at night…" Ai tripped over her words slightly, trying to vocalize her thoughts as best as she could. Justin twisted his head slightly. He didn't take Ai as the type to care what people said about her. Especially assholes like those guys.

"Hey, hey… Don't let what those guys said bring you down. They're insignificant; they don't deserve to lick the dirt beneath your feet." Justin tried to cheer her up to the best of his ability. And it certainly did to an extent; but that's not what she had been so worried about. It had to do with those kids, but not what they said… Perhaps, rather what they were told.

"It's not that… I…" Ai faltered slightly before stopping for a moment to try and gather her thoughts. She barely knew Justin, but he was really the only one she trusted to help her with her problems. I mean, he would understand after all, right? Even though she had cut Justin off god only knows how many times while he tried to mention it, she was very well aware that he was in a relationship with that Satonaka girl. She couldn't see the appeal though, she wasn't exactly pretty. Still, Justin knew what it was like to be in love, perhaps he could help her. "I… I think… What should I do? I think I'm… in love."

Justin lifted his brow with surprise. _Love? You mean to tell me that Ai has a heart somewhere in that black hole in her chest? _Perhaps Justin was a little less surprised by her proclamation to be in love and more so that her love had somehow originated with those kids talking shit about her… She couldn't possibly have fallen for any of them, right? So then wh-

…

_Oh crap. No. NO NO NO NO NO. NOOOOOOOOOOO. NOT AGAIN._

"Love!?" Justin practically spat out. He had thought that Ai had been referring to him. After all, he was the one that came to her defense and damn near beat the shit out of those assholes in the hallway, right? He had completely neglected to recall that he wasn't the only one there that had stood up for her. Chie and Daisuke were there too, and she obviously wasn't referring to Chie. Ai blushed harder at the words that left her mouth. It was an interesting sensation talking about this stuff with someone she barely knew.

"It's funny, isn't it? Like… why now? I just keep thinking back on that day… And about Daisuke-kun…" The wave of relief that shifted over Justin's face at that very moment could be spotted a mile away. A huge crisis was just averted, that much was for sure. Justin sighed with slight relief, briefly thanking whatever god had come to his aid at that moment in time. "D-Do you know if he has a girlfriend? Do you think maybe I'm his type? O-Or do you think he hates… people like me?" Ai started to interrogate Justin, hoping he could help cure her heartache. Justin rubbed at his chin slightly.

"Well… I don't really know Daisuke that well, so I couldn't really say if he's seeing anyone… But I'm positive he doesn't hate 'people like you.' He wouldn't have stuck up for you if he did." Justin tried to reassure her slightly. Clearly she had expected Justin to be better acquainted with Daisuke than he was; after all, they seemed like friends from what she had observed that day. Looks can be deceiving though. Regardless, she did find some relief in hearing that Daisuke wasn't completely out of her reach… Though she did need more information than Justin had been able to provide.

"I-I'm not used to things like this… You're the only one I can turn to…" Ai admitted slightly. She was used to being the one that got asked out, not the one who did the asking. Justin blushed slightly at her proclamation that Justin was the only one she believed could help her with this. They weren't exactly friends, so to hear that Ai trusted him so much… It was a bit strange in all honesty. But then, Justin was a strange guy, so it worked out. Her trust wouldn't be misplaced in him. "C'mon, please… You'll help me, right? All I need you to do is… ask him what's his type. That's it." Ai pleaded with him. Justin smirked slightly before making a salute.

"Justin J. Tylor, Ace Detective, at your services." Justin remarked sarcastically. He was going to say Phelps, but he knew she wouldn't get the joke. Besides, that was more his and Chie's thing than anything, and he intended to keep it that way.

* * *

"Yo, Justin… What? Do I have something on my face or something?"

Daisuke had been hanging around near the lockers; mostly because he didn't have practice that day, and Kou had been bugging him a lot about some shit, so he had no intention of going to Aiya's that day. Regardless, it was perfect, because Justin could sort this out almost immediately. Ai had been hiding out of sight in the hallway nearby, just in audio range, but far enough away that she wouldn't be seen. He didn't need Daisuke getting scared off if he really did like her… Or if he didn't. Justin smiled a bit as he leaned against the locker next to Daisuke.

"Hey Daisuke, mind if I ask you something strange?" Justin remarked. Daisuke seemed a little confused as to what Justin could be trying to get at, but he was still receptive all the same. His smile only faded slightly, instead forming a slight o shape with curiosity.

"Yeah, shoot."

"What kind of girl are you into?" Justin questioned, purposely making sure to keep Ai's name out of this. Daisuke seemed confused; though slightly more pissed off than anything.

"Oh don't even tall me Kou's got you doing this too." Daisuke spat out slightly. He hadn't expected Justin to be onboard Kou's grand scheme of trying to get him to go out with a girl. He was onto Kou's dirty tactics, and he wasn't going to budge. Justin was just confused out of his goddamned mind though. He had only met Kou once or twice, so he wasn't entirely sure what Daisuke was talking about.

"What? I just wanted to know what you're looking for in a girl so I can keep an eye out for you." Justin raised his eyebrow a bit. He wasn't sure about whatever plan it was that Kou had contrived, but clearly this line of questioning was going to be a bit more difficult with Daisuke. Daisuke frowned and sighed a little bit. He really had no intention of getting in a relationship with anyone… Though he supposed if he gave Justin a particularly vague answer, he'd be able to get Justin off his back without offending anyone.

"Someone who's a nice person… I guess." Daisuke shrugged a bit. Justin nodded slightly, before opening his locker. He didn't need to put anything away or get anything out, but he did have a good excuse to leave, tell Ai what he had found out, and come back if he needed to press Daisuke for more information. He opened the locker door, looking inside for a moment before slamming it shut without taking anything.

"Shit! I think I forgot my English book in class. Hold on, I'll be right back." Justin remarked, giving Daisuke a slight wave before dashing off in the direction of Ai's hiding spot. Daisuke only waved back slightly before going back to leaning against his locker. He could believe that excuse easily; mostly because he did it every other Tuesday at the very least. Justin skid to a stop in front of Ai, whose face was still flustered, anticipating good news.

"S-So, did you ask him… what kind of girl he likes?" Ai stuttered with nervous anticipation. She was hoping Justin bore good news; that she was in fact Daisuke's type of girl. Then she could make her move and put her heart ache to rest. Justin nodded and smirked slightly.

"Yes I did, princess. He was a bit vague, but he said he liked nice girls." Justin recapped the conversation he had with Daisuke briefly. Honestly, Justin had taken that as a sure sign that Ai was completely fucked in trying to win Daisuke's heart. Let's be honest; Ai was anything but nice. She'd have to do a complete 180 if that's all he wanted in a girl. And honestly, who could blame him if that's all he was looking for. Looks and all that stuff seemed so irrelevant to Justin, though he'd be lying if he said they didn't help. Point was, personality is greater than appearances. And Justin could vouch for that. Ai hung her head slightly, somewhat getting the implications as to how that could be bad for her. She knew she could be a bit bitchy at times, but was that all she needed to win Daisuke? Maybe what she lacked in one area she'd make up for in another. Like beauty.

"…'Nice'? He didn't say anything about being cute? Not even like, 'a beautiful woman' or anything like that?" Ai questioned frantically. She could cover that angle, no problem. Nice… Not so much. Much to her fear, Justin shook his head a bit. He did not mention a single thing about looks. "B-But, every guy wants to be with a pretty girl, right? It's the good-looking girls who find love, isn't it!?"

"Well, being pretty helps, but it's not the only thing guys look for you know. And for the record, it's the good-looking girls who get married like seven times to complete scumbags. That's not love." Justin lectured slightly. If she was only hoping to get guys using her looks, she wasn't going to be very happy in life. Any guy worth keeping would care more about her as a person than any superficial appearances. Of course, Ai didn't need Justin's input. She just wanted to hear what she wanted to hear at this point; and she wasn't going to let this guy lecture her about how she should and shouldn't live her love life.

"Forget this, I'm tired of beating around the bush. Just go ask him if he's got a crush on anyone. What are you waiting for!? Go!" She barked and ordered Justin around. It was a wonder Daisuke hadn't heard her with the way she was shouting. Justin rolled his eyes and threw his arms up in defeat as he turned about to make his way back to Daisuke. Justin slowly made his way back to the locker that Daisuke had been leaning against. Daisuke raised an eyebrow in slight confusion as he came back around and leaned against the locker next to him.

"Where's your English book?"

"I just remembered I lent it to Chie." Justin lied, sighing slightly as he tried to sell the illusion. Daisuke was a bit skeptical, but otherwise he believed Justin. I mean, that seemed like an awfully convenient excuse, but Justin had no reason to lie to him. Especially over an English book. "So… Got your eye on anyone?"

"What is with all these questions?" Daisuke questioned with irritation. Seriously, it was bad enough he had been getting this crap from Kou and Yu. He didn't need Justin doing it too. Justin shrugged slightly.

"I'm just curious I guess. How 'bout Ai; she seems like your type." Justin plugged Ai's name in, hoping to maybe get a reaction out of Daisuke. Well he certainly did; it was one of shock and surprise. And not necessarily in a good way. Daisuke thought Ai was alright, but he certainly had no real attraction to her. I mean, how could he? He never saw her because she never actually showed up to do her job managing the team, and when she did, she was a complete bitch. He supposed she was alright looking, but it takes a lot more than that to win Daisuke over.

"Ai…? Like our manager, Ai? Not interested. We done playing 20 questions?" Daisuke questioned. Justin bit his bottom lip slightly; this was not going to be easy news to break to Ai. Luckily it seemed he didn't need to… She had been standing near the corner of the hallway, listening intently on the conversation, hoping to hear from Daisuke himself that he liked her. Instead all she found was dismissal without so much of a thought. Kind of ironic when you thought about it. Well, needless to say, she didn't take it to well. Her eyes were full of tears, and she had ran up the stairs in a panic.

"Shit." Justin mumbled under his breath before turning to Daisuke. "Sorry, got to go." Justin declared before rushing after her, leaving Daisuke behind in his dust. Daisuke just raised his eyebrow in confusion before shaking his head at the now fleeing Justin and shaking his head. Either something was up or this was the strangest encounter he had ever had. Actually, scratch that; it could very well be both for all he knew.

* * *

"Don't come any closer!"

Ai was climbing up the fence when Justin had made his way up to the rooftop. He immediately got the implications, much to his horror. _Holy hell, woman, it's just a guy; don't do this!_ Justin immediately ran over to Ai, grabbing at her leg so she couldn't climb any higher. Though she sure as hell was struggling a lot to get it out of his grip.

"Let go!" She shouted at Justin, as though just ordering him to do it was going to be enough to convince him. In fact, it seemed to have the exact opposite effect as intended, with Justin tightening his grip along the width of her leg. She was thrashing around a lot, which was making it hard to hold on, but he had to keep a grip on her 'lest she do something stupid… Well… Stupider.

"You're going to have to tear this leg off before I let go!" Justin shouted, glaring at her a bit as she looked down upon him, trying to pull her leg away from him. She wasn't having much success, though she had briefly considered taking Justin's advice and letting him rip the damn thing off. She wouldn't need it much more anyway. She was bawling her eyes out at this point, crying like an infant as Justin kept tugging at her leg to keep her down.

"He doesn't like me! He's not interested in the slightest! I…! I…" Ai hiccupped in between her tears, unable to force air into her lungs. She was in complete hysterics at this point. Justin could kind of understand how she felt, in a way. It must be a terrible feeling to love someone and be unloved back… He certainly knew it was a shitty felling to not love someone who loved you, that's for sure. But suicide wasn't the answer. There were other people out there. And if she really wanted Daisuke, she could work for it; try to appeal to him. But killing herself was not the solution.

"Ai; this ISN'T the answer. Calm down!" Justin tried to stop her. She stopped struggling her leg a bit, but she still refused to stop clinging to the fence, she still refused to stop bawling her eyes out. Or perhaps it was that she couldn't; powerless against the pain in her heart at the moment. Justin's eyebrows curved upwards in sympathy. He felt god awful for her right now.

"Guys like pretty girls, don't they!? I'm pretty now! And I had to work hard to become this way! But if I can't be loved, then… Then what's the point!?" Ai continued to shout back at Justin. Justin sighed slightly. She just didn't get it. Daisuke wasn't looking for what was on the outside. He was looking for what was on the inside.

"Look… We can talk about this. Just don't throw your life away for nothing." Justin pleaded with her. For a long while Ai just clinged to that fence, staring down at Justin with tears in her eyes. He looked worried out of his goddamned mind, but she couldn't understand why. She knew he didn't like her dragging him around everywhere, she knew he didn't like her. So why did he even care if she jumped? After a while Ai eventually loosened her fingers from between the chain links, letting her body slowly descend down the fence. Justin sighed with the most relief he had ever had in his life. That could have gone so horribly wrong it wasn't even funny. Justin slowly helped her down as her body came closer to the ground, lending her his hand to help stabilize her on the ground.

"I…" Ai remarked as she sat down, her back leaning against the chain link. It seemed it was just starting to dawn upon her what she was trying to do, and it showed by the way her entire body was quivering. Justin unzipped and removed his jacket, placing it on her shoulders. He didn't really need it anyway; it was more important that she calmed down. And if that meant keeping her warm, so be it. Ai was a little surprised by the generosity Justin was exhibiting, but not at all opposed to it.

"Are you alright…?" Justin spoke to her softly. He wanted to call her a fucking idiot for trying to pull a stunt like that, for scaring the ever living shit out of him. But he knew better. She was in a very fragile mental state right now; she didn't need Justin bitching her out about how reckless that was. Ai stared at him for a moment. She just didn't get it. Why did he stop her? She would think he'd be happy if she jumped, finally get her out of his hair. Yet here he was giving her his jacket just so she would calm down. She didn't get it. Not at all.

"I used to be fat and clumsy… My family was poor, and everyone at school bullied me all the time. They used to surround me and say I was gross, or they called me names like 'Piggy-hara'… The boy I had a crush on even told me not to look at him, because I'd 'give him my germs.' Those awful memories still haunt me in my nightmares…" Ai choked up her pain and nightmares aloud to Justin as he knelt down to get on eye level with her. Justin bit his bottom lip a bit. He always hated hearing about bullying; he knew just how awful it was, how much it could damage a person. Ai and Justin were both practically living proof of that, what with one being a psychopath and the other trying to jump off a building.

"That's terrible…" Justin remarked. Ai only nodded a little bit, agreeing with Justin. Terrible was an understatement as far as she was concerned. Surely Justin couldn't understand what she had gone through. No one could.

"About the time I entered middle school, my family came into their money. Everyone got so jealous of us that we ran away… and moved here. I knew this was my chance to start over… It was time to show them all… I dieted, got into shape, and read every fashion or women's magazine I could get my hands on. I studied them like they were textbooks and learned all the secrets-everything from attracting guys to smiling better." Ai confessed, pausing for a moment to let the tears roll down her cheeks. "But…  
Ahaha… Looks like… it was all for nothing. I couldn't be loved unless I became pretty, and now that I am, I still can't have it. I guess I'm doomed. I'll never be loved, will I? It's not like I have any other redeeming qualities…"

"What the hell are you talking about…?" Justin cut off her little showcase of self-pity, much to Ai's surprise. He didn't seem angry, just disappointed. He was disappointed that she didn't have any self-confidence, that she couldn't see the solution to all of her troubles right in front of her. "No redeeming qualities? I can think of one right now: You're you. And no matter what anyone tells you, you don't need to try and change for the world. You just need to be yourself, be the REAL Ai; not the one that tries to captivate hearts just by looking good. Show the world that you're your own person. And all the world will love you just as long as you are a shooting star."

Ai stared at Justin for a while, tears still falling from her eyes. She wasn't crying anymore; they just were dripping from their final resting place along her eyelid. In fact, she was sort of happy. Happy to see that Justin cared so much for her, that he had so much faith in her. She smiled weakly at Justin, who in turn smiled back. It might have been something she had to work at, but she really did have a beautiful smile.

"You're… so nice to me. I should've fallen in love with you…" Ai chuckled slightly to herself, her face slightly red as the remark left her lips. Justin's smiled faded away, a slight sigh on his breath. Even if she did fall in love with him, he'd just break her heart anyway. He loved Chie with all of his, after all… He just couldn't imagine loving anyone else the same way. Besides, Ai wasn't really his type… At least, not the Ai he knew. Who knew, maybe the real Ai was a better person than what he had come to expect out of Ebihara. "Haha, just kidding…" Ai tried to clearify, noticing full well that Justin wasn't too pleased with the possibility of another woman gunning for his heart.

"Yeah, you better be." Justin remarked snidely. Ai frowned a bit. She understood it was a bit of an inappropriate comment all things considered, so she wasn't TOO offended. At the same point, you would think he'd try to bullshit it a bit, at least pretend he'd give it a chance. "Just remember, I'm always here as a friend if you need one." Justin continued, a grin slowly creeping across his face.

"…You're a weird guy." Ai remarked, the cracks of her mouth curving upwards the tiniest bit. Justin in turn only laughed. The two sat there for a while in complete silence, as they just looked out into the distance… Or rather, they had at first, when Ai had spotted something slightly odd. "Hey, what are those bandages for." Justin turned his head only slightly to catch her in his line of sight. Crap! He had forgotten all about them when he had let her borrow his jacket. Justin starred at his wrists for a moment, examining the bandages wrapped around his arms.

"To remind me." Justin remarked lifting his arm a bit to get a better view of his arm. He very rarely got around to changing the bandages, so they were a dirty mixture of white and brown from the accumulated dirt on them. His cuts were still there; permanent reminders of his father's torment, but they were no longer open. He didn't really need to change his bandages other than for appearances; and since no one usually saw them, he more often than not left them untouched for weeks at a time. It was amazing they hadn't been ripped to shreds by his shower by now. Ai raised her eyebrow in confusion and concern. She was curious now as to what gauss bandages could serve as a reminder for. Nothing good she would imagine.

"Of what?"

"Hell."


	94. Chapter 93: July 16, 2011

CHAPTER 93

July 16, 2011

* * *

"Holy crap, Chie! The fuck was that for!?"

Justin had opened the door to his house, only to be immediately pelted in the face by a broad swing of Chie's text book. Maya apparently let her in at some point; though how Chie had managed to beat Justin home to his own house was beyond him. She probably ran the whole way there just to smack him upside the head. He rubbed at the red mark that now was forming on his face as Chie glared profusely at him. Clearly she was pissed off about something; though Justin probably should have figured that out from her sneaking into his house and smacking him upside the head with a book.

"That's for ditching me three days in a row!" She shouted, her teeth gripped together tightly. Justin groaned a bit; he really didn't mean to, but you know… he kind of HAD to. Imagine what would have happened if Justin wasn't there with Ai yesterday… Actually, nothing since he was the one who asked the question that pushed her over the edge in the first place, but still. And Chie abandoned HIM the day prior, so she couldn't even try to pull that shit on him. Justin raised his brow slightly, staring over Chie's shoulder a bit to see where Maya was that she didn't so much as make a peep on the vicious assault she had just witnessed. Well, she was crawling around on the floor looking for something from the looks of it; though what, Justin could only guess. He turned his attention back to Chie for the moment being, bloody murder still in her eyes.

"I didn't do it on purpose, Chie. Shit happens." Justin casually explained before cracking his neck back in place. Holy hell she swung harder than she kicked, that much was for sure. Chie only seemed to glare harder at his explanation, though could you really blame her? Shit happens wasn't a very good excuse, now was it?

"Oh don't you even try to pull that on me!" Chie got right up into his face, her hot breath deflecting off of his skin. That was never a pretty sensation. "You could have called me, you know! And besides, I know you were out with Ai! What were you two doing, huh!?" Chie's glare only deepened. At first she had found it humorous that Ai pretty much dragged him off against his will, but that was once. This was the third time this had happened, and she highly doubted Justin was putting up much of a fight by now. Justin's brow raised in surprise almost immediately. Not only had he thought Chie didn't know, he was slightly surprised at how pissed off about it she wa-

_Oh right, that rumor! Shit!_

"She sort of forced me to come with her to the mall. I tried to tell her, but you know how-"

"Enough! Enough with the lies!" Chie interrupted. She didn't want to hear his bullshit right now. She had practically caught him red handed, and he was still trying to lie right to her face. Justin of course just sighed a little bit. He supposed it was KINDA his fault; but it wasn't what Chie thought it was. And if she was going to be pissed off at him, she should at the very least be pissed off at him for something he actually did. Cheating on her with Ai of all people was not one of them.

"Oh, you want the truth? Alright, fine. I'll tell you the truth. Ai tried to jump off a building. There, happy?" Justin shook his head slightly before pushing his way past Chie. Chie was frozen in pace as the remark hit her ears; not entirely sure she had just heard that correctly. Her eyes were wide with slight terror, her jaw a gape with shock. It was a moment before she turned around to face Justin as he sat on the couch, rubbing his head some more. Just once, he'd like to get hit somewhere OTHER than his head. Hell, he'd even take a nutshot.

"She what!?" Chie shouted. Everyone was shocked by Justin's announcement; even Maya, who had stopped shuffling around the floor for a moment to pass a glance of confusion his way. She didn't know this Ai girl at all; all she had heard was that Justin might be doing something he shouldn't have with this girl. She didn't believe it though, and she was surprised Chie did. Justin wasn't that kind of guy; he got nervous enough around people as it was without trying to pull a stunt like that. Besides, she had seen the way he looked at Chie, the way she looked back at him. It made her a little sick to her stomach to be honest, but she could tell they loved each other very much. Perhaps that's why Chie was so up in arms right now. No one wants to have their heart broken after all. God knows Maya didn't.

"Yeah; I had to hold her back. God damn that could have gone bad…" Justin sighed a bit. Even though he was there, it hadn't really started to seep in until this morning just what was going on. In the heat of the moment, all he could think of was holding her back; he never once thought about the consequences, what would happen if he didn't hold her down. He shivered in slight disgust, as Chie made her way over to sit next to him, a half apologetic half concerned expression on her face. She certainly felt like a bitch for giving him brain damage for doing what any decent human being should.

"Jesus, Justin… What happened?" Chie questioned, her voice quivering ever so slightly as she made her way over to the seat next to him on the coach. This was some pretty serious shit Justin had just dropped on her after all. In all honesty, it was pretty serious before he mentioned the whole attempted suicide thing, but for much different reasons. This was probably worse than a broken heart. Justin sighed, as he replayed the memory once again in his head. They always say that watching someone off themselves was traumatic; but never did they mention watching someone try. Way Justin saw it, it was the same thing; just with less blood and gore.

"You can't say anything about this; I don't need her trying again." Justin remarked. Chie nodded slightly; she understood this wasn't something you could just go around shouting about to all your friends. "She has a thing for Daisuke, but Daisuke doesn't have a thing for her. So she decided the best solution would be to jump off the roof at school. Jesus, I don't get people sometimes." Justin sighed. It seemed like everyone he knew had to have melodrama in their lives these days. I mean, he was just one guy; nothing to kill yourself over… Justin was seeing some slight hypocrisy in his statement. He was wouldn't give a second thought about putting his life on the line for Chie or Maya; honestly, his life was insignificant compared to theirs.

"She tried to kill herself because Daisuke didn't like her!?" Chie repeated with astoundishment. She could not seriously believe what she was hearing right now. Justin rubbed at his temples slightly. Talking about this was just giving him a huge headache. It was bad enough that he was right there when she tried to go through with it; he didn't need to be reminded off it anymore than he already had. He was just glad she was alright in the long run. If something had happened to her… It would be his entire fault. It would be his fault she had her heart broken, his fault he couldn't stop her from jumping. Justin knew he shouldn't be dwelling on 'what ifs' but it was just so hard sometimes.

Chie sighed as she noticed Justin slipping into that state of mind again. He was blaming himself for something that hadn't even happened. He was always so worried about what could have happened that he never looked to see what was going on in the real world; all the good he had done. "You alright?" Chie choked up, placing her hand on Justin's shoulder. He didn't so much as budge at her touch; and that was saying something. It took a moment before Justin turned his gaze over to meet hers.

"You seriously thought I was seeing someone else?" Justin choked up. Chie's head recoiled slightly, a look of shock and shame on her face. She couldn't honestly say she didn't. I mean, she had sort of heard some nasty rumors about what was going on between the two. She knew better now, but… She was just ashamed to have not trusted Justin in the first place.

Justin stared at Chie a while, sorrow and pain in his eyes. He wasn't sure who he should be pissed off at; Chie for not trusting him, or himself for giving her reason not to. He had thought he could trust her with anything; but apparently Chie didn't feel the same. He felt as though his heart strings had just been ripped apart, an empty hole in their place. That's really the only way he could describe how he felt: empty. Unfulfilled, disappointed… just… empty. Like he didn't feel a damn thing.

"I…" Chie started up before closing her mouth shut, averting her eyes from the sight of Justin. She couldn't look him straight in the face after what she had accused him of. All Justin had done was stopped a man on the ledge, and here Chie was accusing him of seeing Ai behind her back. She knew she could be a little jealous at times, but… Had she seriously believed Justin was capable of being such a soulless bastard? Words really couldn't make the things she had said right.

"That's all I needed to hear…" Justin sighed before shifting his body to face away from Chie. He loved this woman, dammit, and here she was trying to tear his heart in two. He wouldn't let her villainize him for something he didn't do. He wouldn't let her paranoia hurt him more than he already had been in this lifetime. Maya watched on to the best of her ability from where she sat on the floor, surprised at how the two were acting. She could understand why Justin was upset, but this was unlike him. She had never once seen Justin so… broken.

"You two need to chill." Maya piped up from her spot on the ground, turning her torso around so she could get a better view of the two. Chie immediately shot her head over to Maya, a look of sadness and concern on her face. Justin was a little less receptive of Maya's remark, raising his eyebrow what puzzlement, though his eyes were piercing her like daggers. He just wanted to be alone right now, honestly; he didn't need Maya of all people trying to interfere with his affairs. I mean, what did MAYA of all people know about love? She knew he didn't want her to get involved, of course, but she couldn't just sit there and watch those two ripping away at each other's heartstrings.

"I need a lot of things right now. Aspirin for one. Chilling, not so much." Justin remarked sarcastically, rubbing at the area that Chie had smacked him with her book. It didn't really hurt, but he was just thinking about how Chie had pretty much pounced him for something he didn't do, because she couldn't put her trust in him.

"No, you definitely do. C'mon you two; you're fighting over nothing." Maya pleaded with Justin and Chie. Chie just wanted to beat her head against a wall right about now. She realized she fucked up bad; she knew how fragile the topic of trust was with Justin. He had put so much trust in people over the years, just to have it ripped away from him, that he was afraid to trust. And when he gave her his trust? She didn't return the favor. And that broke his spirit, if not his heart. Justin's glare subsided only slightly as Maya begged the two to get over it. He understood how ridiculous it was for him to get upset over a misunderstanding, but alas; the heart is separate from the mind. It's why people who are in love go out of their way to make an ass out of themselves, it's the reason some people try to jump off buildings when their heart is torn out…

"Look… I'm really sorry… It's just… I heard a rumor that you two were seeing each other, and… And I got scared… And I panicked…" Chie choked up, turning her head away from Maya and back to Justin, tears filling her eyes slightly. That's really what it came down to, now that she thought about it. If Justin really was seeing Ai behind her back… Then the two were done. It was over between them. But she didn't want it to be. She didn't want to see Justin prancing around with some other girl. She was afraid to see him go. Justin turned towards Chie, a blank expression on his face as he watched the tears build up behind her eyelids. He should have felt like shit… But he didn't. He almost felt like saying she deserved to feel so crappy. There were two things in this world he had given Chie, two things he trusted her to keep until the day she died: his love and his trust. Well, she clearly didn't trust him… So then what of love?

"Just say it Chie. You don't trust me." Justin remarked, oblivious to the current state of mind she was in. Chie shook her head frantically, as though expecting just the motion of her head to persuade Justin to the contrary.

"I trust you more than anyone else…" Chie whispered, her voice soft against his eardrums. The sound of her voice almost melted away at his insides. It almost always did. He hated to see her like this, he really did… But this wasn't just about her anymore. She had seriously hurt Justin in a way he had been hurt too many times before. She had twisted the knife… And it hurt more than ever.

"If you trusted me you wouldn't have been afraid." Justin remarked. "Stop. Lying… Please…" Justin whimpered ever so slightly. He knew bullshit when he heard it, and this was as bullshit as it got. And yet, despite how he refused to let her inside the outer shell of his heart now, she still seemed to burn away at his insides. The tears in her eyes were drowning away his soul; the grief in her voice was smothering back his anger. Chie's lip continued to quiver for a moment before her eyes dropped down into a glare. Why didn't he get it? Why didn't he understand why she was so afraid? It had nothing to do with trust.

"I was afraid because I love you, Justin!" She shouted, her voice rhaspy with anger and sorrow. By the time she realized what she had said, her cheeks were beat red, her eyes wide with slight horror as she heard the big 'L' word leave her lips. Justin and Maya were both speechless to say the least. Maya not necessarily in a good way mind you. She'd like to say she was over Justin, that she wanted Justin to be happy with Chie… But deep down there was always going to be that part of her that loved him as more than a friend or a 'brother.' And that was the part that hurt as Chie confessed her affection for Justin. Justin was just speechless for a moment, his jaw slightly agape before his eyes narrowed, eyebrows curved upwards as his chest started to hurt. But… It almost hurt in a good way. Like he felt all the emotions in his chest were just going to explode at any second…

"You… love me?" Justin questioned his voice coming out ever so softly and sweetly. Chie's lips only seemed to quiver more as Justin repeated her words back to her. She didn't mean to say it, she really didn't. She just sort of blurted out what she was feeling. She was angry and hurt, and… _Oh god… He's going to think I'm a freak now…_ She was absolutely petrified that she had screwed up, that she had just shouted that out loud. She bit at her bottom lip, closing her eyes slightly, expecting the worst. Justin just sort of starred at her for a while as she quivered in her seat, not sure what to say.

_…She loves me. She doesn't just… you know… like me… She loves me…_

Justin pushed himself over on the couch to get closer to Chie before wrapping his arms around her, tugging her tightly to his body. Chie's eyes only opened slightly, allowing for the tears in her eyes to flow out. She wrapped her arms around Justin in turn, though less because she wanted to and more so because she needed to. Her chest felt like it was going to implode at any second, and she needed something to grab onto to stop herself from bursting into hysterics. She rested her head next to Justin's afraid of what was going to happen now that she let loose the big 'L' word; now that she had brought love into things.

"…I love you too, Satonaka." Justin whispered softly in her ear. Chie's eyes widened with surprise, her mouth forming an o shape as the sweet sound of his voice made contact with her ears. It wasn't even just what he said; you could say you loved someone and not mean it after all… No, it was the way he said it. He said it in the softest, most sincere tone of voice she had ever heard come from Justin's mouth, pressing his lips close to her ear so that the sound could echo through her head, the words floating about in her mind as well as her heart. She let out the slightest gasp from her mouth as the two gripped each other tightly. The words Justin had said… He meant them… She didn't know how she knew, maybe it was just her heart talking, but she knew… And she had never been happier.

And in the corner was Maya just sitting there, her mouth shuffling back and forth between a smile and a look of disgust. On one hand, this was the most adorable thing she had seen in the last three years. On the other hand, they really should get a room. Besides, it was like they just wanted to keep twisting that knife around in her heart. It wasn't even a knife anymore, it was a corkscrew; and they just kept swinging that thing around. After a while she eventually decided to stick with disgusted. After all, they didn't need her approval; they had each other's. And really, it looked like that's all they needed.

"You guys are so lucky I can't see right now, or I'd probably vomit." Maya remarked with annoyance before turning back around to shuffle about the floor in search of what she had lost. Justin opened his eyes for a moment, a look of confusion on his face as the remark hit his ears. _Can't see right now…? Why…?_ Justin briefly let go of Chie, holding her body away from his by the arms. She was smiling up at him, tear droplets hanging from her eyelashes. They were tears of joy, though; honest. Justin smiled tenderly at her before turning his attention back over to Maya.

"You can't see? What's wrong?" Justin questioned. Chie was wondering that herself, though she refused to look in Maya's general direction: for a couple of reasons really. One being she didn't want this to get awkward between the two now. After all, Maya DID have a thing for Justin. She didn't know if Maya still did or not, but if she did, this must have been awfully painful to watch. Secondly, her face was radiating a pink tone, and she didn't want Maya to see how flushed she was right now. Regardless, all she knew was that Maya had been searching for something; she never said what, and she never asked for help, so Chie just sort of assumed it wasn't important.

"I dropped my contacts, and now I can't find them…" Maya remarked out loud. It was certainly difficult to find something that was damn near invisible when she had shit vision; that much was for sure. Justin sighed slightly, though it was more of a 'what are we going to do with you' sigh, before he pushed himself off the couch and made his way over to where Maya was shuffling on the ground in search of her contacts. Chie remained on the couch, just watching Justin from a distance, her face still illuminated a rosy color. _He… really meant it._

"You're sure you dropped them over here?" Justin questioned as he knelt down, patting around the floor for them. He sure as hell couldn't see them, that much was for sure. God, they must have dried out by now anyway, and Justin didn't exactly have much contact fluid around the house. Sure, he had some from when he used to wear one in his left eye, but there wasn't much left. It was a wonder these lasted as long as they did; as far as he knew Maya didn't have any replacements. Though, from his understanding, the contacts Teddie made for her were prescription, so she could wear them outside. It wouldn't surprise Justin to find out that they didn't dry out like normal contacts did. Maya shot Justin a slight glare.

"I'm blind, not stupid." She remarked sarcastically. "I dropped them over here; that much I know."

"I'm not seeing anything." Justin remarked with disappointment after patting around for a minute. He'd like to think he was an expert at finding contacts, but alas, he probably lost more a week than Maya had in her entire life. Maya sighed a bit before pushing herself off the ground, using her knee for support.

"Great, now I can't see a damn thing." Maya remarked, crossing her arms, as she took one last glance at the floor, as though getting distance from the tiles was going to help. It probably made it worse actually, what with the unable to see thing going on. "I take it you don't have any contacts around the house…" Maya groaned slightly. The two both had very similar prescriptions, so they could swap off contacts and have no problem. They wouldn't get 20/20 vision, mind you, but they could see better and they didn't really get any headaches from looking through the wrong prescription, so they could if they wanted to. Justin just nodded his head abit before pointing his finger at his eye.

"This was the last one." Justin remarked. Justin couldn't even begin to tell you how grateful he was that the contact hadn't melted into his iris when he got hit by the steam that killed his vision. He'd be walking around with bubbly plastic over his eyes forever if that happened. No, it seemed the steam had managed to propel the thing clean off in the television world. Maya raised an eyebrow slightly. She wasn't sure what he meant by 'was,' but then, Justin always did have the habit of using the wrong words for what he was thinking, so she just dismissed it as improper tense. Justin rubbed at his chin slightly. Maya obviously couldn't walk around blind; I mean sure, her vision might improve if she got used to having to see without them, but that would take forever. Justin had no intent on letting her go that long without seeing. "Alright, c'mon. Let's go see if Teddie can make you some new ones." Justin remarked, sticking out his hand to grab Maya by her wrist. She couldn't see, so she might need the guidance.

"Right now? Uh… Okay, I guess?" Maya questioned slightly and shrugged. She had no objections of getting some new contacts, but she would have figured Chie and Justin would have liked some time alone right about now, not to have to drag Maya around in search of something to see. Justin smiled a bit at her before dragging her along slowly, helping to maneuver her around objects; as though she couldn't see the blurs where objects were. She was blind, but not THAT blind. Though she supposed she appreciated the extra effort.

Chie watched the two maneuvering about, a wide grin on her face all the while, as the words Justin spoke continued to swirl about in her chest. It was like butterflies, but… Better. It was hard to explain. The only way she supposed she could explain it, was that it was love. And that's all there was to it.

"Hey, you coming with?" Justin beckoned out to Chie, snapping her out of her daze. Chie shook her head slightly as she shook herself back into reality. She was a little surprised that Justin was extending that offer to her. I mean sure… They had just put a lot of wonderful things on the table… But she wasn't sure she could take back what she said about him and Ai. She felt awful for mistrusting him so much, especially after his confession of love but a moment ago. And yet… He didn't seem to care anymore. She stared at him with a slightly sorrowful expression on her face for a while before smiling profusely.

"…Sure." She smiled brightly before pushing her way off of the couch and up to Justin, grabbing him by the other hand on the way out. Justin chuckled a bit as she intertwined her fingers into his. He would have very much liked for their hands to stay tied together like that, but that presented a problem.

"Chie?"

"Yes?"

"You realize I'm holding both of your hands right now, right? I look like a Kindergartener." Justin pointed out, chuckling slightly. Chie could not have let go of his hand any faster, blushing very hard as she realized he totally did look like an infant when she did that. She wanted to hold on tight, but she knew they didn't need to hold hands to know how they felt about each other. And besides. There was always the walk back. Maya was a little less pleased to hear the two were holding hands on the other side of Justin's body.

"She's doing what? Alright, pull this car over, I'm going to vomit." Maya announced to the world. Chie and Justin laughed at Maya as her mouth curved backwards with disgust.

She was serious. It was quite a mess actually.


	95. Chapter 94: July 17, 2011

CHAPTER 94

July 17, 2011

* * *

"Sweet mother of fuck; who'd you get in a fist fight with?"

"I could ask you the same."

Justin had been sitting on the rooftop, overlooking the schoolyard when Yu had made his way up there, for what reason, Justin didn't bother to ask. Perhaps it was that he didn't really care why Yu was here; perhaps it was just that he was too caught off-guard by the black-eye Yu was currently sporting. Justin shrugged slightly before rubbing at his own black-eye, before Yu took a seat next to him, looking over the edge of the building, down towards the ground below. Chie had one hell of a swing, that much was sure.

"Well you know how Chie gets when she's pissed…" Justin groaned a bit, removing his fingers from underneath his bruised eye. It was actually pretty sore now that Yu mentioned it; he just hadn't noticed it because he was so deep in thought. Yu could tell he was deep in thought too, just from the way his eyes seemed to stare at the people below him, his feet dangling over the edge. Justin had to wonder why Ai didn't just try to jump from this side; there was no fence for her to climb over. In a way, he was happy she hadn't taken the obvious approach. He wouldn't have been able to stop her in time.

"What'd you do this time?" Yu questioned humorously. Justin took a drag at the cigarette in his mouth before turning to stare at Yu, a slight expression of annoyance on his face. He wasn't sure what annoyed him more, Yu assuming that this was his fault, or the fact that he was taking this as a joke. Though, Justin supposed he didn't really know what happened. To him, it just looked like Justin made one smart ass remark too many and got a boot to his face. Justin shook his head a bit.

"Nothing. It was just a misunderstanding…" Justin explained, leaving out all the details. Not necessarily because he didn't want Yu to know, it was just that he didn't want to think about it. Not even just the part with Chie calling him a cheating scumbag, or the part where she told him she loved him; no he didn't want to think of what had lead up to that conversation, what had lead up to him getting a book to the skull. Yu crossed his arms and gave Justin a look of disappointment.

"Don't hold back or anything." Yu remarked, not buying Justin's bullshit for even a second. He always knew when Justin was trying to hold something back from him, or when he wasn't telling the full story. This was no exception. Justin stared at Yu for a moment, before sighing and taking another puff of his smoke. He really fucking hated when Yu decided to play love detective. Mostly because he could always get Justin to spill the beans. God forbid he ever get interrogated; he'd never be able to keep his mouth shut.

"I'm just going to assume Chie already told you about Ai…" Justin groaned a bit. He told her not to, but he knew she couldn't keep a secret worth shit. Yu rubbed a bit at the back of his head. He knew he wasn't supposed to let Justin know she had told him… But he was up here for a reason. She said he was really beating himself up over it, for some reason or another, and Yu figured he was probably up here thinking about it, so here he was. And it seemed his prediction was right on the money. The way Justin was looking over the edge… He was still thinking about what could have happened if he couldn't stop Ai.

"…Yeah." Yu eventually choked up. He could lie all he wanted, the minute Justin made that remark Yu knew that Justin knew he knew. Try saying that ten times fast. Justin shook his head a bit, only slightly aggravated that Chie had already went behind his back like that. It's like that whole conversation about trust yesterday meant nothing to her. Honestly, sometimes he wondered why he was in love with this girl.

"Dammit. I told her not to say anything…" Justin mumbled angrily to himself. It wasn't like Yu couldn't hear him though; Justin wasn't exactly the most subtle person out there after all.

"You know; you can't be beating yourself up over what could have happened. You saved her life. That's all that matters." Yu tried to comfort Justin, placing his hand on Justin's shoulder in the process. Justin sighed a bit.

"You think I don't know that? I just…"

"Can't stop thinking about it."

"Yeah…" Justin paused for a moment. He knew he didn't do anything wrong, he knew that he couldn't keep beating himself up over stuff that didn't even happen. But he couldn't stop himself. It wasn't just something you could forget, something you could pretend never happened. Hell, he couldn't even stop himself from thinking about it in his dreams. Not that he had to worry much about that, since he hadn't been getting much sleep anyway. Every time he dozed off, the horrifying images that rushed through his mind woke him up in a cold sweat.

"I thought you wanted to protect the people you loved? You protected her didn't you?" Yu pointed out. Justin just groaned a bit. Sure, maybe he did protect her; but he was the one who even pushed her that far in the first place. That's not protecting, that's retribution. And besides; why did he have to say love? If there was one thing he didn't want to think about right now, it was love. It amazed Justin how a feeling so wonderful could hurt so much. Yu could tell Justin was getting a bit irritable by this point. It was kind of a sensitive topic after all.

"…She said she loved me." Justin choked up, twirling around his lit cigarette between his fingers. He didn't want to talk about love; he didn't want to think about it. But his heart seemed to be taking precedence over his mind by this point. Which might not necessarily be bad thing when you consider what resided in his brain.

"Who? Ai?"

"No. Chie." Justin glared at Yu slightly. He knew he was being a bit vague, but he would have thought Yu would no better than to think he was talking about Ai. Besides, he already knew the story; he should have known that Ai had a thing for Daisuke.

"Ah…" Yu remarked, a slight grin making his way across his face. He understood what the problem was now; what was bothering Justin. It was love, plain and simple. And sure, Ai damn near jumping off a building was certainly on his mind, but it wasn't what was eating away at his insides right now. "Sounds like you're a little lovesick." Justin glared at Yu slightly. He did not want to talk about this, he didn't need Yu ridiculing him about love. "So what'd you do?"

Justin paused for a moment, staring towards the surface of the roof where his hand had been holding him in place. What he did? Well he did a lot of things really; like chew her out for assuming he was cheating on her for one. But that's not what Yu was asking about, was it? He was asking if Justin said it back. Justin bit his bottom lip a bit before turning back to Yu.

"I said I did too." Yu started laughing slightly to himself, much to Justin's anger. "Hey, shut the fuck up. Like you know jackshit about love." Justin spat out, annoyed that Yu was finding such amusement in the pain in his chest, the thought that was stirring away it his insides, burning away at his heart strings. Yu didn't seem at all offended by Justin's outburst though; in fact, he just continued smiling as Justin tried to chew his head off.

"That's not why I'm laughing." Yu explained. "You love her. She loves you. So what's the problem? Just be happy, man." Yu's smile was incredibly infectious; though Justin was in no mood to be cracking any smiles.

"It's not that simple."

"It's always that simple." Yu rebutted. He swore he could have given him this exact same lecture a while back. Justin sighed a bit, puffing out some hot air from his nose as he looked over to the horizon, over the trees and the small town in the distance. It was really a wonderful view. Too bad it would always remind him of what had almost conspired here that day.

"One of these days that's going to stop working." Justin groaned a bit. It wasn't even working that much right now; he just wanted to stop talking about him and Chie. He'd sort things out later; he didn't need Yu's constant patronage, his constant mocking. It was quiet for a while between the two, save the occasional sound of Justin exhaling smoke. It was perhaps a good five or so minutes before Justin turned to Yu. He still hadn't answered his question. "You going to tell me what happened with that eye, or what?"

"Huh? Oh… Uh… Yosuke sort of beat the ever living crap out of me." Yu explained, a half grin on his face, a shrug on his shoulders. Justin just raised an eyebrow with confusion and shock. _Yosuke… Beat the crap out of Yu… Okay, first of all, aren't those two, like, best friends? And besides, I thought Yosuke would have lost…_

"I'm serious."

"So am I." Yu's expression tensed up slightly; as though annoyed that Justin was questioning him. He hadn't lied to Justin yet… Well, except that whole social link thing, but that was for obvious reasons. Point was, Justin had no reason not to trust him. "It was all in good nature though; just him trying to work out some issues, you know?" Yu tried to explain, to make it clear to Justin that this wasn't just Yosuke getting pissed and trying to beat the shit out of Yu. He had agreed to it; there were no hard feelings between the two.

"And you lost."

"…Just a little." Yu rubbed at the back of his head slightly. It was a bit embarrassing to think Yosuke had beaten him in a fist-fight. Or at least, it was embarrassing how Justin was giving him that 'are you fucking kidding me' stare. But c'mon; the guy hit harder than he looked like he could. I mean, he had a black eye, but you should see what his gut looked like right about now. Purple everywhere.

Justin shook his head for a moment before tossing his cigarette off the roof. He didn't even care if anyone found it anymore. Maybe it was that whole run in with Naoto that was doing it, maybe it was just all this crazy bullshit that was happening around him, but he just didn't care. Not about the smoke, not about anything really. Yu passed Justin a small expression of concern as he watched the rolled up cigarette fall to the dirt three stories below them. He knew Justin was usually very careful about discarding those, so clearly something was up. He sighed a bit before turning back to Justin, a slight glare on his face.

"Let it go…" Yu ordered softly. That's all there was to it, really. Justin was gripping onto something that didn't even happen. Justin would beg to differ, though; it wasn't even just Ai. It was what had happened to Marooka, that argument he had with Chie, that confession of love between the two… Just… Everything. He couldn't handle all of this right now.

"It's so easy for you to say. What are your problems? Can't ask a girl out? You don't know shit; don't act like you do." Justin countered as he pushed himself up from the ledge. He just couldn't sit there and listen to this anymore. Yu stood up to follow, though Justin shot him a glare as he did; sending him back to his place along the ledge of the roof, just watching as Justin walked away, hands in his pocket, sight aimed towards the ground.

"Just let go…" Yu remarked one last time as Justin went to round the corner to go down the staircase. For some reason, repeating himself had stopped Justin dead in his tracks. For a moment, he just stared at the stairs below him, before eventually turning his gaze over to Yu. His eyes were tired, as though they didn't have the energy to scream out in pain anymore. Justin shook his head for a moment.

"…I can't." Justin sighed before taking his final leave down the staircase and out the front door of the school.

* * *

"Why does this shit always have to happen to me…"

Justin was walking around near the Junes, pacing about as he tried to clear his mind. He figured maybe just pacing about would get the old brain juices working again, and he could finally push these thoughts out of his head, get on with his life. But it seemed that all pacing about did was leave him alone with his thoughts. Nothing he did could really keep his mind off of it at this point. He sighed slightly as he pushed on ahead, eyes looking down at his feet as they tapped against the concrete below them.

Or at least, that's what he had been starring at at first. He eventually found himself looking at his arm, rolling his sleeve up slightly to get a glance at the bandage that it hid. Something he said to Ai a couple days ago really was sticking with him. These bandages weren't just some sort of fashion statement, were they? I mean, no one could see them… No, they were just a reminder. A reminder of the nightmare he had left behind in California. They'd always be there; just like the scars his father had left on Justin as a child. Just like the memory of Ai standing at the ledge would scar his mind for years and years to come. He just couldn't forget it; he realized that. No matter how much he tried to ignore it, tell himself everything had ended alright, he just couldn't shake the thought of her body hitting the pavement three stories below. He kept telling himself that it never happened, that she was alive and well. Yet despite knowing full well she was alright, that he had stopped her from doing the unthinkable, his heart kept trying to play tricks on his mind; feeding him bullshit thoughts, bullshit memories of what had never happened.

And then there was Chie… She had thought he had been cheating on her with Ai. In a way, that speech hurt a lot more now knowing what he did now. She loved him right? And he loved her. She said she trusted him, right? Then he had to have done something horribly wrong to make her feel so betrayed, to not trust him. It wasn't her fault that she had thought Justin was doing something wrong; it was his own and no one else's. He gave her reason not to trust him. And it hurt to think that even though he loved her, that just wasn't enough. He was pulling away at her heartstrings, drowning away her heart with worriment and doubt. He just wasn't good for her. Every fiber of his being said he should stay away, let her move on, forget him and all he had done to hurt her. But he couldn't let go of her. He loved her too much. If she were to leave, it would just break his heart again. And this time, a broken heart just might be enough to do him in.

Justin sighed a bit. Everything he did, everywhere he went, everything just seemed to turn to shit. Sometimes he wondered if things would have been better if he never existed. Maya would still be with her family at home, she would never have picked up that gun and put a bullet or six in Falcone's torso. Chie wouldn't constantly be worrying about what Justin was doing when she wasn't around, he wouldn't be able to play her heartstrings like a guitar any longer. He could try to say he was protecting her, stopping her from being hurt anymore by the shadows; but really, who was the one hurting her more? Him or the monsters in the television? Justin couldn't honestly see the difference.

"**Boo hoo, cry me a fucking river."**

Justin groaned a bit as he heard his Shadow's voice coming from his reflection in the window. Its image was faint, but still very much pleasant. And for the last fifteen or so minutes, he had insisted on making snide remarks about Justin and his state of mind. Justin just sort of huffed at him as he continued to pace around.

"**What's wrong, don't want to talk to your inner demon? I'm hurt. Welp, mark that off as someone else who's life you fucked up." **The shadow continued to push Justin. Justin stopped to stare at the reflection for a moment, a blank expression on his face. Normally, his shadow pissed him the fuck off, but today? He was having a hard time disagreeing. Except maybe that remark about fucking his shadow's life over. He didn't care about his shadow's life one bit. In fact, if he had the choice, he'd end it right here and now. But he didn't. Not if he wanted to keep his brain where it was anyway.

"Kindly shut up." Justin ordered his shadow. The shadow just laughed maniacally at that.

"**Oh, what's wrong? Am I offending you? Is what I'm saying too much for you to bear? Tough shit kid, I speak only the truth."**

"You speak twisted lies and half-truths." Justin countered, no real enthusiasm or anger in his voice. If there was one advantage to feeling totally dead inside, it was that the mind was clear and emotions couldn't cloud your judgment. The shadow smirked slightly. It was like Justin knew him so well. What with them being the same person and all.

"**You got me kid. I'm a rogue and a scoundrel. But then so are you." **The shadow laughed slightly, though Justin didn't so much as blink. **"Come on, don't you just hate what you are? What you do to everyone? Don't you just hate how everywhere you go, trouble is sure to follow? There's a solution for that you know." **The shadow laughed as he pressed two of his fingers against the side of his skull, making the motion of firing off a gun. Justin glared only slightly at that. He was depressed, but not suicidal.

"So I just realized all I have to do is walk away from this window and I don't have to put up with your bullshit anymore. So bye." Justin shook his head as he went to walk away, walking close to the walls of the Junes so that his reflection couldn't be picked up from a far. Of course, there were other windows, and his shadow had no intention of letting up.

"**What's wrong? Gonna keep running from the truth? The truth HURTS don't it?"**

"Yes it does." Justin sighed as he continued to walk. Or at least, for a moment. He approached the gap in the wall that signified the entrance to the Junes. Normally he would have been looking where he was going, but he was much to occupied arguing with his reflection. So he totally didn't see someone walking out, shopping bag in hand as the two collided, tripping over each other in the process. Justin hit the floor pretty hard, though he was more concerned about the other person. This was just more proof that he could not be trusted around people.

"Gah, FUCK!" Justin groaned as he pushed himself up from the ground, dusting off his jacket slightly as he turned around to see who he bumped into. "I'm so sorry-… Adachi?" Justin raised an eyebrow in confusion. It was still bright out, so he would have assumed Adachi would still be on duty. You know, with them having a suspect for the murder case and all. Adachi rubbed the back of his head as he stood up, silently muttering some obscenities under his breath. Justin couldn't make out WHICH obscenities, but he could tell he probably didn't want to know which ones anyway.

"Huh? Oh it's you." Adachi grinned a bit as he rubbed at his back, trying to stand back up on his two feet. He didn't really hit the ground that hard, though he did have to wonder where the hell his groceries had gone to in the scuffle now. "Something I can help you with?"

"No, no… Just… wandering around…" Justin remarked, slightly embarrassed as he rubbed at the back of his head. "So uh… What brings you here?" Justin tried to change the topic from the awkward collision they had just made. Adachi seemed to frown with slight surprise as Justin asked him what was up to. He had somewhat assumed that Dojima had sent him to spy on him.

"What's it look like? I'm working. It's easy to investigate here with all the people around. It's cool in the summer and warm in the winter. It's a pretty good place to…" Adachi paused as Justin leaned over to pick up Adachi's bag for him, having noticed it in the distance. Though not without looking inside at it's contents first. They were groceries. Justin raised an eyebrow slightly as Adachi nervous stammered, trying to cover his basis as he realized Justin had caught him red-handed in the lie. "Yeah, I think I've said enough!"

"…You only bought cabbage?" Justin pointed out as he passed the bag off to Adachi. Adachi nervously snagged the bag out of Justin's hand, laughing the fakest laugh Justin had ever heard. Clearly he was nervous about Justin finding out he had been doing some grocery shopping. Justin shook his head slightly. "I'm not your boss Adachi. I think I can keep a secret about you doing some grocery shopping…" Justin was still pretty confused about the whole 'only cabbage' thing, but he wasn't going to press Adachi on his taste in food. Adachi's startled expression soon subsided to one of pleasant surprise. His paycheck was safe for another day.

"Oh? That's a little strange…" Adachi remarked. Justin just passed him a 'are you fucking kidding me look' in response. _You want to talk strange? Let's talk about that bag of cabbage in your hand right now._ "What are you doing here? Killing time?" Adachi questioned, letting his guard down only slightly at Justin's announcement that Adachi's secret was safe with him.

"Not really. Just trying to gather my thoughts, you know?" Justin replied, sighing slightly as his mind returned back to the memories of the last couple of days. It sent a slight shiver down his spine, though nothing Adachi really picked up on.

"Tough to do out here in the sticks, isn't it? There's nothing here. It's not like the city at all." Adachi mused out loud, a somewhat disappointed expression on his face. Justin didn't know Adachi came from the city, so he was slightly surprised. Still, he was finding it hard to agree with Adachi. There might be less to do, but he supposed he liked that there was less to do. It made the town seem less frantic, less over-populated. More solitary and small, you know? Justin could certainly work with solitary.

"It's certainly different." Justin put it delicately. He liked this place more, but there was no doubt that it was much different from the city. And there really was nothing to do outside of Junes. Thank god Justin ended up making friends here when he did; he damn well might have put a bullet through his forehead from boredom if he didn't have their company to keep things interesting. That or he'd just play video games. He'd like to go with the bullet in the forehead though; just to be a little melodramatic. Adachi smiled a bit at Justin's response.

"I knew you'd understand. You're from the city too, right?" Justin nodded slightly at Adachi's question. He was a little concerned as to how Adachi knew that, but he was just going to assume they had records on him at the station or something. Probably the same files as the ones Naoto tried to threaten him with. He really would not be surprised if that was the case. Adachi rubbed at the back of his head with annoyance and embarrassment. "Get this; My first assignment here was tracking down a cat."

"Pfft- Really?" Justin chucked slightly. He found it absolutely hilarious that the police were dispatching detectives to catch cats. Either they had nothing better to do with their officers of the law, or they seriously needed to adjust their priorities. Adachi groaned slightly. He could definitely see why that was laughable.

"My suit got so dirty… And they wouldn't let me expense the dry cleaning bill!" Adachi continued to rant. Justin shrugged a bit, his eyebrows rising with slight amusement. "Next, I played peacemaker in a spat some married couple was having. I can't believe they've got the police doing that stuff." Adachi continued, a disappointed tone to his voice.

"Well, was it a violent spat, or…?" Justin questioned curiously. Adachi wasn't really giving him much detail to say whether that was ridiculous or not. Adachi shook his head slightly, a look of unfulfillment on his face. Clearly he wasn't very satisfied with the way they were treating him at the police department; sending him on all sorts of stupid errands.

"No. Just arguing." Adachi answered, shaking his head. It was quiet for a moment before Adachi raised his eyes from their view of the ground to look Justin back in the eyes. His look of disappointment gave way to one of slight determination. "But it's been more dangerous lately, so I can't kick back. There's that one case, you know? It's still not solved yet." Adachi sighed a bit. Justin raised his eyebrow with puzzlement.

"I heard you guys had a suspect." Justin remarked. He probably shouldn't have in retrospect. After all, that was sort of private information. Though if anyone asked, he'd just blame it on Naoto and get her kicked off the force. That would teach her for harassing him and Maya. Adachi didn't seem all that fazed by Justin's remark, however. He just nodded in slight confirmation, not really caring that a seemingly irrelevant third-party might know something he shouldn't have.

"The higher-ups don't know what to do… They keep changing procedure on the fly…" Adachi muttered in disappointment. It was a moment before it really struck him that he just told a pedestrian the police have no idea what they're doing. He quickly recoiled a bit, rubbing at the back of his neck as he tried to cover his bases. "Oops! I hope I'm not making you nervous. You guys have nothing to worry about, you know. Us police are on the job!"

"I'm sure you guys'll get him." Justin tried to reassure Adachi, feeling as though Adachi didn't quite believe the police force had any idea what to do. Adachi smiled widely at that, giving a slight nod of confirmation before turning to face away from Justin and towards the street.

"Well, time for me to get back to work." Adachi had started to walk away, when suddenly he froze in place, slight horror in his eyes before he came running back around and hiding behind Justin, ducking slightly since he was taller than him. Justin was a little confused at first, and had tried to turn around to see what the fuck Adachi was doing, though Adachi just grabbed him by the wrists and turned him back around for full cover.

Justin had to force himself not to laugh when he realized Adachi was hiding from an elderly woman that had been walking by. Seemed like a silly thing to want to hide from, but Adachi didn't care. He hid from her all the same, and didn't come back out until she was clear out of sight, a sigh of great relief on his breath as she passed. Justin turned around to face Adachi, a smug look on his face, arms crossed in slight mock.

"Phew, that was close…" Adachi announced as he made his way out of cover.

"Yes, that little old woman almost got you, man." Justin mocked. Adachi shot him a slight glare as he stood up, straightening out his jacket a bit from having been crouched behind Justin for a minute or so.

"I'd better go. You should hurry on home too." Adachi remarked, a slight smile on his face as he walked past Justin, ready to depart for real this time. Or at least it seemed so at first. After a couple of steps, he turned around to meet Justin's gaze once again. "Don't tell Dojima-san I was in Junes, okay?" Adachi requested a smile on his face. Justin crossed his arms and smiled back, shaking his head in slight disbelief. _This guy…_

"I will not tell the police officer who I barely know about your grocery list. You have my word." Justin chuckled with slight sarcasm.

* * *

December 8, 2011

* * *

"**You want to lend a hand, or are you just going to sit on your lazy ass all day?"**

The two shadows stood there in the alleyway as Maya's shadow fiddled around with the dumpster that housed all of Maya's cigarettes. She had dropped off a huge batch but a few moments ago, and Maya's shadow had devised a clever plan of offing her.

"**You seriously think this is going to work?" **Justin's shadow remarked, slightly irritated by Maya's shadow's constant bitching. He put up with it on a normal basis, mind you, but it was getting particularly annoying as of late. It was always 'help me kill my counterpart' this and 'you're stupid, kill your otherself,' that. What if he didn't want to? Why wasn't it an option for him to just fucking stay?

"**Not if I don't get it fucking done, it won't. Unscrew that leg." **Maya's shadow ordered Justin's shadow. He groaned as he pushed himself away from the wall he was leaning against at the moment, ducking to get into reach of the dumpster leg. He didn't have a screwdriver, but he did have change in his pockets. Why you ask? Do shadows need money? No. It was a double-sided coin he kept around for getting people to do what he wanted by faking a bet. It almost never worked though; he had a reputation for being a lying bastard. Still, he stuck the ridge of the coin in the screw, turning it about to twist the screw out far enough that he could undo the rest with his hand. As he did the back of the dumpster damn near tipped over. Any real weight applied to it would cause it to tip over immediately. The shadow sighed as the two backed away from the now loose dumpster.

"**So this is supposed to tip over and trap her under. Is that what I'm supposed to be getting out of this?" **Justin's shadow remarked, staring at the dumpster as he backed up to the wall again to lean against it. Maya's shadow groaned a bit as Justin's shadow started to question the plan again. She had gone over this at least four times now, and she was getting really fed up with repeating herself.

"**She'll grab on, the dumpster will tip over and crush her, I'll get a denial out of her, and then I'll do the finishing blow. What part of that is so fucking hard for you to remember?" **Maya's shadow scoffed at him, much to Justin's shadow's displeasure. Thing had been getting pretty damn tense between the two as of late, but now he was just getting outright pissed. He had enough of being bossed around like some sort of infant.

"**The part where you're a cold hearted bitch apparantly." **Justin glared, pushing his way off the wall a little to get a better view of Maya's shadow. **"And I am not your slave; get that through your fucking head."**

"**Oh you're not? What are you going to do? Shoot me? Fuck off Tylor; you'll do what you're told." **Maya's shadow snarled back. Justin stepped forward, his fist withdrawn. For a moment he was about to deck Maya's shadow right across the face, but something about the look in her eyes made him back down. They were vicious, commanding almost. She wasn't the slightest bit afraid of Justin's shadow, that much was for sure. Justin's shadow groaned loudly, his vocal chords echoing with anger as he threw his hands up in the air.

"**And who died and made you queen!" **Justin's shadow barked back, very irritated by the treatment he was receiving. She was always so bossy, and he was getting so fucking sick of it. He wasn't just some tool she could use whenever she wanted; he was his own goddamn person, and he would be treated as such. Maya's shadow spat off to the side in a mocking gesture, as though to say that Justin's shadow wasn't worth giving the slightest shit about.

"**You if you don't shut the fuck up." **Maya's shadow remarked, shaking her head in the process. Justin's shadow turned to walk away, ready to leave behind Maya's shadow and all he bullshit. He stopped after a couple of steps, however, turning back around with anger in his eyes, teeth clenched together with fury. Maya's shadow stared back at him in a daring fashion, as though to dare him to keep walking and watch what happened.

"**One of these days, you're going to need my help. And when you look up at me and cry 'save me,' I'll look down and spit on your fucking ashes."**

"**Is that a threat?"**

"**That's a promise."**


	96. Chapter 95: July 18, 2011

CHAPTER 95

July 18, 2011

* * *

"Here's the stuff I promised ya. N-No complaining, okay…?"

Justin and Kanji had been relaxing at the hill overlooking town when that boy from earlier showed up. Kanji seemed to have called him up there, but really, Justin didn't give the slightest fuck. He just continued to stare over the horizon line, down at the little town below. It always made his troubles seem so small, so far away. And if it were up to him, he'd sit here forever just watching that quiet little town from a distance. But he couldn't. And he knew the moment he walked back into that town; his troubles would find him again. It just wasn't fair.

Justin sighed, averting his eyes from the town in the distance to see what the hell Kanji was talking about. He had just passed off a small wool bunny doll, covered in all sorts of accessories that Justin could honest to god not recall the boy ever describing when he told Kanji what the bunny was like. It was… very elaborate. He just hoped that this would be close enough that the boy's friend would accept it as a suitable replacement. Well, the boy seemed happy at the very least, so it should be fine.

"Whoa! This is incredible! Where'd you buy it!?" The boy questioned with great enthusiasm. Justin was a little curious himself. He didn't really know any stores in Inaba that might sell plush toys; hell the place didn't even have somewhere that sold regular toys. It must suck to be a little kid around here… Though he supposed that's what Okina Station was for.

"Huh…? Wh-Who cares!?" Kanji stammered nervously, his eyeballs practically popping out of his head with terror. Justin raised his eyebrow in confusion for a moment, not entirely sure what Kanji was getting all worked up over. And then it hit him like a million baseball bats against his skull. Kanji's family was into textiles, Kanji himself liked to sew… It all made sense now. He made it himself. Justin felt like smacking himself for not making that connection earlier.

"But I want one too!" The boy continued, enthusiasm in his voice. Justin smirked slightly. The kid could learn to use the word please at some point, but other than that he found this absolutely adorable. Kanji just continued to rub at the back of his neck, slightly embarrassed by the boy's enthusiasm in his work. Especially considering he had made another one for the boy just in case.

"Oh… Well, I got one for you." Kanji remarked, trying to avoid eye-contact as he handed the boy a second doll. This one was also dressed up in all sorts of accessories. It was… very elaborate. Justin just shook his head a bit as he watched Kanji's cheeks grow redder and redder every second the boy seemed to question him on the topic. Apparantly he was proud enough in his work to give it to someone, but not proud enough to say he was the one to make it. He was like one of those 'anonymous' writers; writing all sorts of fantastic things then not leaving a name behind to tie the work to themselves.

"For me!? Thanks! But where'd you buy it…?" The boy continued. Clearly he was very curious as to where he could get more of these. It was like watching a child go through his Pokémon phase, where they went out and bought every single Pokémon toy they could find, just so they could 'catch 'em all.' And Justin thought that was absolutely adorable. Kanji, not so much. He was really getting backed into a corner, finding it more and more difficult to lie to the boy about the plush toy's source. Justin crossed his arms as he stared at Kanji from his seat on the bench.

"Er…" Kanji continued to stammer, trying to buy time to come up with an excuse.

"You're not fooling anyone. Might as well just tell him." Justin chuckled slightly. Kanji's face only grew redder as he recoiled in slight shock. He had thought he was doing a good job of hiding his secret, and here was Justin claiming to have known for a while now. Or at least that it was incredibly obvious to everyone but the boy. Kanji rubbed at the back of his head as he puffed out some hot air, turning towards the boy to confess where he had found the plush toy.

"Er… I-I made it…" Kanji nervously admitted. He turned his head slightly, trying to avoid eye-contact, fearing the worst. As though a child at his age was even capable of judging someone like that based on their hobbies. That really didn't kick in until middle school. Prior to that, it was pretty much all 'girls have cooties.' Surprising Kanji, the boy actually seemed very interested in the revelation just bestowed upon him.

"You… made this?" the boy questioned with curiosity, very surprised to hear that the older gentleman in front of him had manage to construct something so… very elaborate. Kanji just seemed to get angry at the boy questioning the man in front of him making something that was 'cute.' He didn't have to make jackshit for this kid after all.

"Y-Y'got a problem with that…? If ya think it's so creepy, then give it-"

"Wow! You're so cool! Hey, can you make me something else!? Mom loves this kind of stuff!" The boy interrupted Kanji's speech, great enthusiasm in his voice. After all, he never knew someone who could make stuff like this. Kanji stood there for a moment, his jaw wide open as the boy gushed over the dolls in front of him, over the man who had made them. He wasn't entirely sure how he should be reacting. This was most certainly the first time someone had found out about it and not laughed at him.

"Huh? S-Sure…" Kanji choked up, very much confused at the kindness this little boy was showing him.

"You promised! I'm gonna go give this to Sana-chan! Thanks, Mister!" The boy shouted with excitement before dashing off, practically skipping the entire way. Kanji just sort of stood there and stared at the boy as he ran off, not entirely sure how he should be reacting. The boy was clear out of sight before he turned around to sit back down on the bench next to Justin.

"I'm not that old, dammit…" Kanji muttered to himself as he crouched to plant his ass on the bench next to Justin. Justin in turn just shook his head, an amused grin on his face. The hair REALLY didn't help; that was for sure. "Hah, he said I'm cool…" Kanji chuckled to himself slightly.

"You say that like it isn't true." Justin remarked, digging into his pocket for a cigarette. He had decided not to smoke in front of the kid when he got here, but he really did need a smoke. Now seemed as good as any to try and ease his anxiety. Kanji shook his head slightly, not entirely sure if he believed Justin.

"Yeah, but it's not like sewing's good for anything…" Kanji sighed, his cheeks still glowing red with embarrassment. "But y'know… It ain't a bad feeling. 'Thanks,' huh…? Ahhh, it was nothing." Kanji started to muse aloud, a faint smile creeping across his face all the while. It felt good to be thanked for doing what he loved, even if he didn't think it was anything to be proud of.

"It always feels good to help someone out." Justin remarked, the smile on his face slowly creeping away as the words left his mouth. Not always. Sometimes when you help someone out, the memory still haunts you at every turn. Even if you did nothing wrong… The two sat in silence for a while, just staring out at the town in the distance.

"…This is a great place, huh? The wind is different up here… Never noticed before." Kanji broke the silence, musing out loud. Justin just nodded a bit before throwing his cigarette on the ground, twisting the tip of his foot against it to extinguish the lit end of it.

"Sometimes I wish I could just stay up here forever." Justin groaned a bit before pushing himself off of the bench, straightening his back out to the best of his ability. His eyes looked almost fatigued as he stood up, taking one last glance of the town on the horizon. It was one hell of a view; that much was for sure. "Chie wants me to help her get some last minute studying in, so I'm gonna head out." Justin remarked, not taking his eyes off the town in the distance. He never did see Kanji nodding slightly in confirmation; he just left, his eyes never leaving the sight of the horizon.

* * *

"Hey Maya, Chie come yet?"

Justin groaned a bit as he pushed open the door to his house, looking around the house for any sight of Chie. He was running a little late, so he was surprised Chie wasn't already here. Unless Maya didn't open the door for her, which honestly, Justin could see her doing. Maya was sitting on the couch, watching television. She had apparently caught a pretty nasty cold over the last few days, so she had a blanket wrapped around her shoulders. Justin was slightly concerned that it might have to do with her vomiting all the time, but it seemed unrelated. In fact, Maya had been vomiting LESS since she got sick.

"Yeah, she's upstairs." Maya choked up in between sniffles. Her voice was pretty nasally; which Justin couldn't really say it had been the day before. Sounded almost like her cold was getting worse. Though Justin was a little less concerned about Maya's health at the moment and more so what the hell Chie was doing in his room.

"She's in my room?"

"Please don't make me say it again…" Maya remarked sarcastically as she tried to enhale the dripping mucus from her nostrils. Justin shrugged slightly. He supposed he'd figure out what the hell she was doing up there in a moment anyway. Though for the time being, he wanted to check and see how Maya was doing. That cold just seemed to be getting worse and worse.

"You doing alright? Need some soup or somethin'?" Justin questioned, approaching the couch to get a better look at Maya. Her skin was pale… Well, paler. She really didn't look so hot right about now. Maya just shook her head though, refusing Justin's offer. Justin was having a hard time deciding if that was because Maya was a fighter, or if she didn't want Justin's cooking. He really wouldn't have been that offended if it were the latter. After all, he had tried it before; it's not that good. "Well… Alright. Don't hesitate to holler if you need anything, alright?"

"Kay." Maya remarked, a slightly irritable tone in her voice. It was just a cold and Justin was treating it like she had the fucking plague. She just needed some rest and she'd be fine. It's not like she hadn't caught worse from living in a rusty worn down car for a year and a half. Justin sighed before turning to walk up the stairs and into his room. He really wished Maya would just let him help. Sure she could do it on her own, but it's not like Justin was going to poison her soup or anythi- Well actually the soup itself might have been poisonous, but that's beside the point.

Justin slowly pushed open the door to his room. He briefly wondered why it was closed in the first place; though he soon found out once it opened up to reveal Chie going through his shit. Justin crossed his arms and glared, not sure if he should interrupt yet. After all, he wanted to know just what the fuck she was looking for anyway. It took a moment, but she eventually found what she was looking for, pulling out a leatherbound book. The only book Justin owned in fact. He hid it behind all of his CD's; partially because he was ashamed of how much he pretty much glorified that book. He had gotten it as a Christmas present from his father when he was nine. Apparently even around Christmas, the most soulless of bastards could find some compassion in them.

"If you're looking for my porn stache, I've already cleared my history." Justin remarked sarcastically. He had seen enough porn to know how this situation usually turned out. Chie just sort of jumped a bit, not having noticed Justin push open the door. Her cheeks were slightly red as she hurriedly hid the book she had taken off of the shelf behind her back.

"Th-This isn't what it looks like." Chie stammered trying to explain herself. Justin just flicked his wrist slightly, as though implying he didn't care. I mean, he kind of cared if she WAS trying to see if he had any porn magazines, but she wasn't going to find any, so it made no difference to him. Justin sighed slightly as he jumped on the bed, his torso facing up towards the ceiling, his arms resting behind his head. Chie went to try and slide the book back into place while Justin wasn't looking, though he could still see her out of the corner of his eye. "It's fine. You can use it if you want."

Chie paused for a moment, the book still in her hand, though half way in the shelf at this point. It took a moment before she withdrew her hand, clenching the book in both hands as she slowly made her way over to Justin. She wasn't looking for porn magazines, for the record. She just knew that Justin had a certain fascination with the book in her hands right now. She flipped the book open as she sat down next to Justin, flipping through pages, reading a few words here and there.

"You really have this whole thing memorized?" Chie remarked as she noticed she had no idea what the hell she was reading. Regular English was hard enough, Shakespearean English was just a bitch to comprehend. Justin smirked slightly as he pushed himself back into a sitting position, getting a better glance at what part of the play she was reading. She was about the time where Hamlet stabbed Polonius through the chest. Not that she knew it.

"Yeah, my father got it for me for Christmas… Kind of ironic when you think about it…" Justin chuckled slightly. His father bought him a book about a guy who killed his step-father for killing his father. Justin supposed he just didn't really see that Justin hated his father, or rather, the monster that lived inside of his father. Chie just sort of starred at the book for a moment, not getting anything she was reading. I mean, she picked up a few things here and there, but for the most part, everything was going over her head. It was a moment before Justin snatched the book out of her hand, flipping through a few pages. Since she was so interested in Hamlet, there was a passage he wanted her to see. He had the page memorized, just as he did the contents of the play. It took only a few seconds before Justin found what he was looking for and placed the book across the two's laps. "There's this one line in the play I really liked…" Justin remarked, running his finger over the stanza as he read aloud.

Doubt thou the stars are fire;

Doubt that the sun doth move;

Doubt truth to be a liar;

But never doubt I love.

The two just sat there, reading the passage over again in their minds, letting the words sink in for a while, smiles gradually making their way over their faces. After maybe a minute or so, Justin felt the odd sensation of Chie's head resting against his shoulder. He wasn't expecting that, that was for sure. He just thought it was a sweet passage that she might want to hear. All the same, he wasn't objecting; in fact, he was hard pressed not to lean his head against hers in turn. He smiled at her as he closed the book, pushing it delicately off to the side. It was quiet for a moment between the two as they simply sat their enjoying each other's company. It wasn't for a few moments that Chie eventually choked up a few words in a sweet whisper, the soft sounds of her voice rolling into Justin's ear.

"You know… this is the first time I've seen your room since… well, you know." Chie remarked. Justin nodded his head slightly. It was true; she hadn't seen his room since that time he had been tearing apart his house trying to figure out the mystery behind Maya. It certainly looked a lot different when it wasn't a complete mess. Justin paused for a moment to grab at the dog tags wrapped around his neck, rolling his finger over the engravements of each. These were what he was looking for that day. It took him a good few months, but he eventually got them back. He kind of felt like an ass for making Chie worry so much over it now that everything was over; but he supposed if there was anyone he trusted to help him with Maya, it was her. "So… uh… H-How did your room back home look?" Chie questioned, her face turning slightly red.

"A lot neater." Justin sighed. His father gave him shit over every little thing in his room; posters, misplaced CDs, loose guitar picks, everything. And since his father was sort of a drunken child abuser, Justin generally tried to keep his room as clean as possible. Anything to keep his father at bay.

"Oh… I wish I could have seen what it looked like." Chie blushed as she looked up at Justin from the corner of her eyes. "Sorry to barge in like this… It's just… I've been thinking a lot lately, and there's something I want you to hear. Only you…" Chie smiled a bit, her cheeks growing hotter by the seconds. Justin tilted his head to the side in light puzzlement. Did he do something else to offend her? "..I still don't have any idea what my good points are. But… I thought I could just keep on searching. I was thinking maybe… both of us together…"

Justin stared at her for a moment, a blank expression on his face. He was slightly confused what had made her start thinking about this stuff again, about what made her a good person and all that crap. Though there was something strangely wonderful about her words. They'd keep searching, together… Justin didn't need to search to find what made her a good person, but he'd very much like that; to search the depths of each other's souls together for the good and the bad. His blank expression soon gave way to a wide grin as he wrapped his arm around Chie, pulling her closer. Chie blushed really hard at that, though she wasn't very vocally against it.

"Always." Justin smirked a bit.

"Yeah!" Chie shouted with slight glee as she jumped up from Justin's embrace, excitement and enthusiasm in her movement. She was certainly happy about something, though unbeknownst to Justin at the time, it wasn't just his confirmation that they would be together for better or worse. "So, here… From me to you." Chie declared, blushing slightly as she dug around in her pocket for a moment before pulling out some wristbands. They looked like the same kind that Chie wore; though she was most certainly wearing both of hers. The smile on Justin's face gave way to an expression of confusion as she placed the wristbands into his hands. He wasn't entirely sure how to react. He was happy, that much he knew, but… Did these mean what he thought they meant? "Oh, and it's new, so it's clean! It makes a matching pair with mine." Chie clarified as he examined the wristbands in between his hands right now.

Justin stared at the wristbands for a while longer before smiling widely, extending his arm out to slide each over his arm. They were covering his bandages, but he didn't care. Maybe that's really all he needed right now. Something to hide away the scars… Or maybe just someone. He rotated his arms about to get a better look at the bands wrapped around his arm before turning his attention back up to Chie, smiling widely.

"It's perfect… Thank you." Justin choked up. Words couldn't really describe how grateful he was right now. How happy something as stupid as matching wristbands made him. Because it wasn't just some accessory he had thrown on over his arms. It was a symbol; that even when they weren't physically together, they would always be with each other. Just like their love.

"…I think this power of mine is what I wanted all along. To protect everyone… I understand now. I'm not supposed to use it to become more self-reliant… I'm supposed to use this power to protect people… Yukiko, my friends, my family, this town… And you." Justin paused for a moment, averting his gaze at Chie's speech about protecting the ones she loved. Justin had spent all these weeks thinking about how he needed to protect Chie, protect Maya; that they would be seriously hurt if he didn't… And all this time, it was Chie who felt the need to protect him. He wasn't sure if this was sad or hilarious. He chuckled silently to himself. Maybe… Maybe it wasn't about protecting her… Maybe… Maybe it was just about being together. Justin couldn't stand the thought of being all alone again, separated from the world by some invisible wall, by all the scars the people around him had left over the years. He was an outcast… But Chie didn't care about that. She would be with him regardless of what he was or what he did. And Justin hoped that would never change.

The two stared at each other for a moment more, their cheeks hot red, when suddenly Chie's eyes widened, a strange sensation sweeping over her body. Justin was a little caught off guard by her sudden expression of panic, but he sort of realized why soon enough. The room seemed to lighten up slightly as a blue light radiated from Chie's chest, right where her heart was. The light shot up into the sky, forming the shape of her Persona, before twisting it's shape in a blinding show of light. Within moments, the Persona's form had changed; its figure seeming to grow larger from wearing heavier armor, its yellow tone replaced with silver-grey. It was like a whole 'nother Persona. Justin's jaw had been wide open the entire time; not entirely sure how to react about this whole thing. I mean, he just saw a Persona in the real world, and it had completely changed its shape and form. Soon, the new Persona exploded outwards in a shower of blue light. Chie just stared up at the light shower of blue specks before it completely vanished from sight.

"Sweet mother of crap…" Justin muttered to himself. He didn't know what the hell he should do. Chie didn't really seem all that fazed; or at least, not nearly as fazed as Justin. She twisted about her arms, as though trying to see any notable changes; though there were none. She felt different though; and deep in her heart, she knew something had changed. She just didn't know what. Maya sure as hell did though, if the sound of her voice from beyond the door crack was any indication.

"An ascended Persona… Holy shit." Maya muttered, peaking into the doorway. Justin immediately jumped a bit at the sound of Maya's voice, though that immediately turned into slight fury, then eventually confusion. The way he saw it, the only way Maya could have seen that was if she was spying on the two; and he was definitely not okay with that. Chie seemed just as surprised, though she wasn't really putting two and two together on the whole 'spying thing.' Maya slowly pushed open the door to Justin's rooms, peaking her head in. She still had the blanket wrapped around her shoulders, and she looked absolutely exhausted.

"An ascended what?" Chie questioned, slightly concerned. Maya nodded a bit.

"My therapist told me about them. Whenever someone has a personal revelation where they fully accept themselves, their Persona's form ascends to that of a higher being." Maya casually explained as she slid her feet through the door, still sniffling on the built up mucus in her nostrils. Justin shot his gaze over to Chie, who had hung her head in surprise. As though staring at the floor was going to explain to her everything.

"My… new power…" Chie muttered to herself, surprised at first, though a smile eventually made its way across her face. With the power she had just been bestowed, she could really help all the people she loved. Justin was pleased to see she was happy about this, but all the same he was still very very confused. And very very pissed. He blinked a couple of times before turning his glare over to Maya.

"Maya… What the hell were you doing that you saw that." Justin questioned, the tension in his brow tightening with every syllable that left his mouth. Maya averted eye-contact for a brief moment. She realized how it looked, but she wasn't doing that. Honestly, her heart probably couldn't take it if she did; and she was sick enough as it was without listening in on those two get all lovey-duby with each other.

"I just had to go the bathroom, and I saw the light come out of the crack of the door…" Maya choked up, embarrassed by this entire situation. She sniffed up some more of the mucus in her nose as she sighed; not sure whether she should be upset or astoundished right now. On one hand, holy shit, she just watched someone's persona ascend. On the other, this was really awkward right now. Justin glared at her for a moment longer before sighing and letting loose the tension in his brow. Maya wouldn't lie to him, even if she knew what she had to say would piss him off. He just felt like an ass right about now.

"Sorry…" He muttered. Maya just nodded her head a bit before dragging herself back out the door to Justin's room. She still had to pee like there was no tomorrow; and seeing something like someone's persona ascend to their ultimate form like that certainly didn't help with her bladder. She closed the door on her way out, very weakly too from the looks of it. She really didn't have much energy in her, that much was for sure. Justin sighed a bit. It was times like this he hated that Maya was so deathly afraid of doctors and hospitals. That really looked worse than a cold. Justin sighed before turning his attention over to Chie. She was still looking down at her hands, as though the power she had been bestowed was radiating out of them. It wasn't. But she was more than a little thrilled, that was for sure. She eventually looked up towards Justin, a wide grin on her face.

"…I have you thank for this." Chie remarked, a wide grin on her face, her cheeks rosy with slight embarrassment. Or perhaps it was something else. Honestly, Justin wasn't very good on picking up on stuff like that. Still, he was much more pre-occupied with what Chie had said anyway to care what the color of her cheeks had signified. She had him to thank for this… If… If an ascended persona comes from accepting oneself, and Justin was responsible for it… Did that mean he helped her? A slight grin started to sweep across his face. He had been spending the last few days feeling as though he was useless, doing nothing but dragging Chie down with him. But here she was, her fears and feelings all conquered and manifesting itself into something beautiful. And she claimed it was Justin's work… Maybe… Maybe everything he touched didn't turn to shit. Just most of it.

"…I love you." Chie choked up. It was still a funny sensation saying the 'L' word. And it was just as funny to hear it back. It felt like this tingling sensation just came crashing over Justin's body in a wave. And even though it sort of hurt in a way, it hurt in a good way. Justin pushed himself off of the bed and over to Chie, grabbing her by the hands before placing a gentle pick on her forehead.

"I love you too." Justin smiled at her, before she rested her head against his shoulder blade, a wide smile on her face, her eyes closed as she took in the sensation of Justin's body pressing against her skull. Justin felt like they could just stay in that position forever. But alas, every good thing had to come to an end. Still, it was a very odd sensation to have a good thing end because you could hear vomiting down the hall. Justin sighed as the two broke things off, the atmosphere having been broken by the rather disgusting sound. "Dammit… She was doing so good too…" Justin moaned under his breath. Maybe it was just the cold doing it to her, but she seemed fine yesterday. This was starting to get out of hand. Justin was about to walk down the hallway to check on her, pulling Chie away from his body for the moment, but then something struck him as a bit odd. Chie was fidgeting. "Hey, you alright?"

"That's… uh… something else I wanted to talk about." Chie remarked, rubbing at the back of her head in the process, her cheeks red with embarrassment as opposed to red with affection this time around. Justin raised his eyebrows with shock. She knew something; that was painfully clear. "I uh… found the journal entry we were looking for." Justin immediately pulled Chie as far away from the door as possible, just as a safety precaution of Maya was listening in. Chie was a little surprised to be dragged away like that, though not at all angry. Justin leaned in to whisper to her.

"You did? What'd it say?" Justin whispered fast, nervous anticipation in his voice. He was having trouble deciding whether this was good news or bad news. Chie averted eye contact with Justin for a moment.

"She's… Doing it on purpose…" Chie sighed. "She thinks that she isn't pretty, so she's been vomiting to try and get thinner." She choked up, a slight tone of hurt in her voice. She wasn't exactly BFF's with Maya, but it still hurt to see a friend making such self-destructive decisions. Justin backed a way, rubbing at his forehead with the side of his index finger. This was not at all what he was expecting to hear, but it was also good in the regard that he now knew the cause. Now he just needed to sit her down, maybe have a talk with her.

"Shit…" Justin mumbled to himself, staring at the door. He could still hear vomiting coming from down the hall. It wasn't a pretty thought, especially when you realized that Maya was doing it on purpose. Though Justin did have to wonder why she chose now of all times to be spewing up her lunch. I mean, they did have company, and as far as Justin knew, nothing had come up that should have made her feel less attractive. He rubbed at his chin for a moment, trying to think of what to do. "I have to say something to her. This can't keep going on." Justin pondered aloud. Chie nodded in slight agreement as he turned back to her. "You think you can help me?" Justin questioned. Chie was a little caught off-guard by the question. She would have thought Justin wouldn't want to let on that Chie knew as well; but she had no problem helping.

"Yeah sure; but what are we going to say?" Chie questioned, not really sure the best way of handling a situation like this. Justin turned to stare at the door for a second before turning back to Chie, shaking his head slightly.

"I don't know… I'm going to give it some thought…" Justin sighed. He didn't want to just go down there and improvise; if he did he could just make things worse. No; he needed to know exactly what he was going to say to her. He'd take the night to think things over. Chie nodded in slight agreement as Justin made his way back over to the bad, jumping back to let his back side rest against his surface. It seemed he wasn't taking the news too well.

Which meant it was probably a good thing that Chie had left out the fact that Maya was doing it because of him.


	97. Chapter 96: July 19 - 23, 2011

CHAPTER 96

July 19, 2011

* * *

_What's the root of the word pend?_

_Oh fantastic. This had to be one of the questions…_

It was the first day of exams, and right off the bat Justin had to have THIS question hurled at him. Very first one in fact; and you knew because everyone shot Justin a slight glare in complete synchronization. They knew he didn't mean anything by that 'pend your ass from an antenna' remark, but goddamn, it was hard not point SOME fingers at him for that. Not that Justin blamed them for pointing fingers at him; he really felt bad about that remark in retrospect too. You ever hear that expression 'don't let the last words you say to someone be angry?' Well it was sort of like that; only with less angry and more threatening him with the exact method he was murdered...

You know, Justin was totally seeing why Naoto thought he was the murderer right about now.

All the same, he shrugged his shoulders a bit before scrolling down the list of bubbles, trying to find his answer. Sure enough, C was hang. This was one question he'd probably never forget the answer too. He sighed a bit as he moved on to the next question, biting at his eraser while he did it.

_Where does the term ham originate from, as it pertains to acting?_

Justin raised his eyebrow at that question for a moment. It was very awkwardly worded, so he wasn't entirely sure what was being asked. It was maybe fifteen or so seconds before he realized they meant 'hamming it up.' Which they probably should have just asked in the question. After all, ham wasn't the term; hamming it up was. Still, Justin knew enough about Hamlet to answer that question without so much as a second thought. Justin scribbled down the answer quickly, before scrolling his eyes down again to the next question…

Or at least he did at first. Now he could honestly say he was curious about something. All of these questions were coming extremely easy to him. Even though he had gotten a perfect score on the last exam, he HAD guessed on most of them. These? He knew the answers without having to think about it; and he had to wonder if that was just because they were the first few questions or if this entire test was this easy. Justin picked up the packet and started flipping through the pages using his thumb, quickly skimming through all the questions. Every single one he saw he already knew the answer to.

He raised his eyebrows in pleasant surprise. He might be able to finish the exams for today early; use the rest of the time to catch up on some sleep. After all, it wasn't till last night that he started to get some actual sleep again. The thought of Ai along the edge still found its way creeping into his mind on several occasions, but last night? Never once did he think of the bloody mess that could have been. He just slept in peace and quiet; no nightmares to wake him back to the conscious world.

"Easy stuff for you?" Chie whispered in an aside to Justin, careful to make sure the teacher up front couldn't hear. As though she even cared; Justin still couldn't believe no one had gotten in trouble for that whole pencil fiasco. Not a single eye-lash had been batted as they all passed objects back and forth between each other. They could have been passing answers back and forth between each other and the teacher wouldn't even know. It probably didn't help that the teacher on watch right now was more focused on trying to look pretty than actually watch the classroom. It was amazing how many of the guys in the classroom were getting distracted by her.

"Surprisingly…" Justin remarked as he dropped the packet down on his desk again, ready to breeze through this and take a nap.

"So… What's number four…?" Chie mumbled, her cheeks turning the slightest tint of red. She wasn't one for cheating, but this question just made no freakin' sense to her. It's like twelve people had given her twenty four different opinions on how this question was supposed to be answered. Justin raised his eyebrow in slight confusion as he looked down at his paper.

_What's the opposite of progress?_

Well he could certainly see what the problem was. Justin scanned around the room, checking to see if the teacher was paying attention to him or Chie at all. The coast was clear before he leaned slightly towards Chie so he could whisper the answer in her ear.

"It's regress." Justin whispered. Even though every fiber of his being told him to just put down congress, he couldn't let Chie lose points over a stupid joke. Even if it was technically right. Chie just seemed a little confused. Justin had told her that progress and congress were opposites a couple of days ago. What gives?

"Bu- I thought you said pro is the opposite of a con." Chie stammered with bafflement. Justin was having a hard time not laughing at how confused she was right about now. It was kind of adorable; though he'd never let her know he thought that. Not if he wanted to keep his balls in place, anyway.

"It is. The English language is fucking weird."

* * *

July 20, 2011

* * *

_What is the name of the Japanese poetry collection that includes many poems by Kakinomoto no Hitomaro?_

_Many poems of the who what and the where? Shitttttttttttttttttttttt-_

Justin groaned a bit. He should have known that the test from the day prior was just to lull him into a false sense of security. I mean, what the hell; Justin didn't read Japanese literature. He barely read ENGLISH literature; and very old literature at that. Needless to say, he was panicking almost immediately. He hoped to dear god that this didn't reflect what the rest of this portion of the test was like, because if so, he was SOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooo starred at the choices he had for a moment, trying to make rhyme or reason of who it could possibly be.

_Kokin Wakashu_

_Man-yoshu_

_Uji Shui Monogatari_

_Kojiki_

Alright, none of those choices helped at all. Justin groaned as he tried to see if he could rule out any of these names. The only thing that really came close to sounding far-fetch'd to him was Man-Yoshu. Everything else seemed like it could work. And when in those circumstances, the answer was always C. Justin just jotted down C, hoping that this question wasn't worth TOO many points. He sighed as he flipped the page of his packet over to get a glance at the next question.

_Which philosopher stated, "Law is the correct judgement of the state?"_

Alright… This seemed like it would be alright. Justin had no idea who the hell DID say that, but he sure as hell knew it wasn't Hamlet, so now he was down to three choices: Socrates, Pascal, and Descartes. Justin tapped at the side of his head with his pencil as he analyzed the choices in front if him. Well… He was almost entirely positive that Pascal was actually in mathematics Yeah, he was actually. Pascal's triangle, if he recalled correctly. Justin was suddenly very pleased to have helped Rise out with her studying, since apparently her class had gone over this at some point. So that left him with two choices.

He knew who Socrates was; there was no question that he was a great philosopher. He did NOT know who Descartes was... Though... the name sounded familiar. It took a moment before Justin realized this guy had popped up on the first exam. He was a french philosopher or something; hell if he knew. But he did know that whatever it was he did, the material on him must have been covered in full the previous quarter. That left Socrates. Justin hurriedly scribbled down that answer... Or at least... He meant to.

His hand slipped just as he went to answer the question. Yosuke had accidentally kicked Justin's desk when he went to slam his skull against his own. It seemed he was having just as much trouble as Justin, if not more. This wasn't the first time he had kicked Justin's desk by accident today either. It was the first time he had kicked it while he went to write an answer, though. And a horrible horrible thing had just occured to Justin.

He forgot to replace his eraser. Where before there had been an artificial white cylinder at the end of his writing utensil there was only he slightest hint of a stub right now. Not particularly useful for erasing. Justin stared at his pencil for a moment, eyes wide with terror before looking at his scantron. He had inadvertently marked off the bubble next to Hamlet.

_Shit shit shit shittttttttttttttt-_

He looked down at his paper for a while, horrified by what Yosuke had just done. It took him quite a bit of thinking too before he came up with a solution. And he wasn't entirely proud of it. He shivered slightly before licking the tip of his index finger, moistening it up before rubbing it across the stray mark. It took a while, but with enough force, he successfully managed to smudge it completely off his test. He sighed with slight relief before turning around to Yosuke, smacking his desk so that he also made a mismark.

Like Justin, Yosuke didn't have an eraser. Unlike Justin, Yosuke hadn't thought to use spit to rub it away. And unlike Justin, his mismark covered about four or five questions on the scantron.

* * *

July 21, 2011

* * *

_What purpose did blue eye liner serve for the Egyptians?_

Justin stared at the question for a brief moment before turning his attention to the front of the room. There were two things you should know about the teachers at this school. First and foremost, not a single one of them gave even the slightest of fucks... Well accept maybe Marooka's replacement; but that's another story entirely. The second thing to know was that only one of them seemed sane in any capacity. The teacher watching the class right now was not that teacher. No, the history teacher seemed to have some strange fetish with dressing up like an Egyptian. A particularly useful trait under these circumstances, though weird as fuck under all others. And so Justin stared at the monitor for a while before turning back to his paper.

_Huh. Being crazy isn't one of the choices._

Smug remarks aside, however, there were only so many things that Justin knew the Egyptians were famous for: The pyramids, being the bad guys in the Exodus, and having some pretty peculiar burial rituals. Now, knowing how much emphasis the Egyptians put on the dead, Justin was having a hard time accepting that this was just some fashion statement. No, the much more likely explanation was that they did it to protect the dead from something. Something like flies perhaps. Justin quickly scribbled the answer down before pushing on.

_Define the meaning of ressenti-_

"See! I told you it's pronounced re-sent-a-ment!" Yosuke whispered to Justin from behind, a smug expression on his face. Justin at first was a little confused why the hell Yosuke was picking now to try to rub in he pronunciation of the word. Especially when he was still completely and utterly wrong. That look of confusion eventually subsided to one of annoyance, his brow tensing up, his eyebrows leveled just above his eyes.

"Not everything is pronounced the way it's spelt, dumbass." Justin scolded Yosuke, annoyed with the stupidity of his remark. Yosuke just seemed to grin wider all the while, not in the slightest bit fazed by Justin's attempts to invalidate his claim.

"Don't be jealous just because I got it right, Captain Ressentiment." Yosuke mocked. Looking back at it now, Justin found the remark so hilariously ironic. Though back then, Justin was fairly pissed. Not at the insult, mind you, but rather the ignorance that Yosuke was exhibiting.

"I bet you're one of those assholes that pronounce it bo-log-nah." Justin rebutted, pointing out the obvious example of how not all words are spelt the way they were pronounced. Yosuke just seemed confused by the remark though.

"Wait. That's how you're supposed to pronounce it."

* * *

July 22, 2011

* * *

_Which of the following items CANNOT be harvested from the Andes Mountain Range?_

_You know, I was wondering when the crazy irrelevant questions were going to come back._

Justin almost had to force himself from laughing. He had given that burglar question a lot of shit when he had to answer it a good few months back. I mean, it seemed so irrelevant at the time; it still was. Just not nearly as bad as this. At least the burglar question was sort of useful. At least then you'd know when to expect someone to come crashing through your window to try and slit your throat and loot your corpse. This? When the hell was Justin ever going to find himself farming on the fucking Andes Mountains? This was just stupid in every sense of the word. And what fucking subject would THIS be categorized? Fucking gardening?

Justin didn't so much as give this question the time of day. He wasn't going to waste brain power on such irrelevant questions like this. He just circled melons, since that was the only thing in the choices he actually knew. He shook his head a bit before flipping the page, ready to finish up this test already. His eyes widened immediately, however, as he mt adreadful sight. There had apparently been a copying error because the entire page was blank. Justin's hand could not have shot up into the air any faster if he tried.

"Um... Excuse me...?" Justin choked up, beckoning to the teacher up front. He also apparently beckoned the glare of damn near every student in that room. They were trying to take an exam, and Justin's voice calling out to the teacher was not helping them concentrate. He was just outright embarrassed at this point. And the worst part? The teacher didn't even care.

"No questions on the exams." The teacher dismissed Justin without so much as considering listening to the question.

"That's kinda the problem..." Justin sighed as he turned back to his paper. He was so fucked right about now. He'd have to guess on all the remaining questions... Which in retrospect wasn't much different from what he was doing before. Still, this was cause for concern. Justin bit at his index finger's nail when suddenly he felt a slight tap on his shoulder. It was Chie, who had apparently noticed his packet was blank and had twisted her packet around so Justin could get a good view of it.

"Here you can look on with me." Chie smiled warmly, her cheeks slightly red. Justin had really helped her over the last few months; this was the least she could do for him. Justin stared at the paper for a moment before scanning the classroom to see if the teacher was watching. Once Justin noticed the coast was clear he turned back to Chie, smiling as he nodded in thanks, his cheeks slightly red with flattery.

"You're a life saver."

"I can thank you for that..."

* * *

July 23, 2011

* * *

"It's alll over." Yosuke sighed with relief, stretching slightly as though the mere act of thinking was physically wearing him out. Of course, it had just been that he had been sitting down for a while and wanted to stretch his limbs, but Justin would like tot hink it was the former. "I'm sooo sleepy…"

"Yuck! Don't yawn in my face like that!" Chie snarled at Yosuke, disgusted by he noise coming out of his mouth. He wasn't really yawning in her face of course, but you know how Justin got whenever Yosuke was bothering Chie in some regard. He jabbed Yosuke with his elbow in his rib cage. Yosuke only seemed mildly irritated though. He was starting to gain an immuniy to these types of things. "Hey, for the third question on the English test, which phrase did you choose?" Chie questioned, choosing to ignore Yosuke's lack of tact.

"Um... I went with 'used to'." Yukiko declared her answer. Chie's expression, surprising no one, turned to that of immediate fright. Yukiko wasn't perfect or anything; she got answers wrong too. But her test scores were so high it was just generally safe to assume that she was right unless proven otherwise. Still, Chie soon found herself looking towards Justin with expectant eyes, hoping Yukiko could be proven wrong. After all, Justin's scores were higher, and he was sort of the English expert among them. Justin nodded his head hesitatingly. She was right, as much as he knew Chie wanted to hear differently.

"Wrong again...?" Chie sighed, very much annoyed by how her test was turning out so far. Yosuke, on the other hand, seemed rather amused by Chie's inability to do well on tests. Something Justin immediately recognized as he shot Yosuke a slight glare in anticipation of his assholish remark.

"So much for Chie going abroad. Heck, why leave Inaba? You have so much right here!" Yosuke mocked her. You could practically see the steam shooting out of Chie's ears right about now. She certainly didn't find her grades amusing, nor did she find Yosuke shitting all over her aspirations funny either. She was amused by Justin smacking him upside the head though.

"Ooooh, you're so annoying!" Chie snarled, her voice echoing with irritation. Justin shook his head for a moment before turning his attention to Chie. Something Yosuke said struck him as a tad bit odd.

"You want to go abroad for your studies?" Justin questioned with curiosity. He never took Chie much as he kind of person to invest so much into their education. Chie nodded timidly, her cheeks slightly red with embarrassment. The only ones who knew about that were Yukiko and Yosuke; and she sure as hell regretted telling Yosuke. "Any place in particular, or...?"

"I don't know yet... Maybe I'll go to California." Chie joked slightly. She actually was curious what California was like now that she knew so many people from there, but she probably wouldn't try to pursue an education there. Justin shook his head a bit, a wide grin on his face. The two probably would have kept going back and forth on the topic if they didn't hear the doors to their classroom open, two familiar voices calling out to them.

"Yo..." Kanji mumbled as he walked through the door, Rise following shortly behind him. I seemed that the first year students had finished their exams as well. And boy did Kanji and Rise look out of it.

"No more encores… I mean… Hi everyone…"

"Woah, more losers!?" Yosuke mocked the two as they pushed their way past the empty desks and over to the rest of the group. Justin felt like smacking Yosuke again for being an ass, but decided it wasn't worth it; he was too tired anyway.

"What do I need to know English for!? I can always ask for a translator! How did you do, Senpai?" Rise ranted before turning her attention to Justin, perhaps expecting him to say 'yeah, English is bullshit.' Justin raise his eyebrow slightly at the question. It should have been obvious.

"What, on English? I'm from California. That stuff was elementary at best." Justin boasted. Chie seemed slightly irritated at Justin calling the material elementary. It could very well be the case, but she'd like to think she was smarter than an elementary student. Rise on the other hand seemed fascinated.

"Wow, you're amazing!" Rise practically worshiped Justin. His cheeks turned slightly red at that. She didn't say 'that's amazing,' or 'it's amazing how you know this stuff.' Nope. You're amazing. Much more all encompassing, and much more flattering. And much more jealousy inducing if the look on Chie's face was any indicator.

"Enough about the exams already… What's going on with the murder case?" Kanji interrupted, forcibly trying to change the subject. He didn't want to hear a word more about exams. He did however want to get to he bottom of these murder cases; and that's what he intended to do. Yosuke nodded his head in agreement for a moment.

"Hm… Why don't we head to our special headquarters? We haven't been there in a while."

* * *

"I'm kinda bummed... Not just because exams are over, but… The whole thing with the police finding a suspect. I mean, we believed that only we could solve this case. And now..." Chie mused aloud. There was something disappointing about all their work being for naught. Justin nodded in slight agreement. He was much happier that the killer would be caught, but it would have been nice if they were the ones to bring him to justice.

"Well, we still don't know yet. They haven't made an arrest." Yosuke countered, as though the police not making an arrest would be a good thing. That killer facing justice was much more important than who would be given the glory.

"That's what concerns me." Justin grumbled aloud.

"So... We got to sit on our thumbs." Kanji remarked with irritation, trying to confirm if they really were just going to let the police do everything. Justin sighed slightly. He wanted to say no, that they should go out there and keep working at it. But they really couldn't... Not with Naoto snooping around anyway. Justin was about to lecture the group on the matter when he was interrupted by an all too familiar voice behind him.

"For crying out loud... It's nice to have a suspect, but where the hell is he? We're at the end of our rope here…" Adachi mumbled to himself as he wandered aimlessly around the food court; apparently in search of their guy. The entire group had decided to eavesdrop on his conversation with himself, hoping to maybe pick something up. After all it was no secret Adachi had no idea when to shut up. He didn't get very far with vocalizing his thoughts before he noticed the investigation team listening in and started to panic. "Y-You guys!? D-Did you hear what I said? Ah… Ahahaha! This case is as good as solved! Don't worry, kids. It's only a matter of time before we bring in the suspect. I mean, the guy's kidnapping people at random and slaughtering them! We won't rest until we bring him to justice!" Adachi tried to reassure the teenagers, though he eventually realized they weren't worried; just listening in on every classified detail that came out of his mouth. "I-I gotta get going!" Adachi nervously excused himself before running away.

"Now I'm REALLY worried…" Yosuke declared, not exactly finding much assurance from a babbling detective like Adachi. Justin wanted to tell Yosuke to layoff, that Adachi was just new at this; but he kind of had to agree. Adachi was a nice guy, but a terrible cop. "On the other hand… If the police have a search warrant out for the guy, we should stay out of it." Yosuke sighed slightly. Interfering with police business was never a good idea.

"Oh, uh, I just remembered. There was a question on the exam that I didn't get." Rise interrupted, changing the topic once again. You would think the whole murder business would be more important, but apparently not. "I think it was, 'The chemical formula HCHO, used for silver mirror reactions. Its 40% solution is known as formalin.' And the question was, 'What is HCHO?'" Justin raised an eyebrow at that question. He hadn't he slightest fucking clue. Chemistry was not his forte in any regard.

"Formaldehyde." Yu replied, much to everyone's shock. Yu was an average student; B's across the board. No one would expect him to know the answer to a question like that. Apparently he had been studying hard.

"Oh, I see. I chose acetic acid… Duh, of course it couldn't have been vinegar. Hey, you had that question too, didn't you Kanji?" Rise questioned, turning her attention to Kanji. Kanji unfortunately was apparently not in a very good mood today. No one could really blame him; exams and murder? Pretty exhausting stuff. Still, that didn't really excuse his piss poor attitude when Rise tried to ask him a question.

"Shut up. And don't call me by my first name." Kanji snapped, glaring at Rise all the while. Justin raised his eyebrows in shock; he knew Kanji could be aggressive, but it just wasn't like him to be acting like this. He must not have done too well on the exams or something. It's the only possible explanation Justin could think of. Rise didn't seem to take too kindly to being verbally assaulted like that.

"Wow, kinda harsh, aren't you? I heard you got a nosebleed when you were around our senpai." Rise countered. Kanji immediately recoiled in fear and anger. That was not something Rise should have known about. And as for Justin? He had never been prouder of Rise in all his life. He took back all the nasty things he said about her being a celebrity. Anyone who could give Kanji shit back like that without batting an eyelash was okay in his book. And for that reason, and that reason alone, Justin decided to keep quiet about it being Chie's fault Kanji's nose was spitting up blood like a waterfall. It would completely destroy the comeback, and quite frankly, Justin had no intention of weakening Rise's stance in this argument.

"H-Hey! Who the hell blabbed about that!?"

"A-Anyways... Rise-chan, why don't you ask Yukiko to help you study?" Chie tried to cut off the argument right there and then. It was probably for the best that she did; those two looked like they were going to kill each other at any second. Rise seemed a little surprised by the question.

"Huh? I guess, but wouldn't you rather ask a senpai of the opposite sex?"

"Whoa, wait a minute- Is THAT why you wanted me to help you study?" Justin stammered, caught off-guard by her response. He hadn't assumed she had asked for his help just because he happened to be a guy. And he sure as hell hoped that she hadn't intended for that study session to be more. It was certainly starting to look that way though.

"Senpai… I'm not a nuisance to you, am I?" Rise continued, a slightly sorrowful tone to her voice; though clearly she was trying to be flirtatious. And everyone picked up on it almost immediately. Especially Chie, who looked like she was going to strangle Rise at any second. Justin understood she wasn't trying to be a romantic or anything; she was just naturally flirtatious. But boy, she really made it really hard not to think she was up to something funny sometimes. Justin rubbed at the back of his head slightly. She wasn't a nuisance, but he didn't want anyone to get the idea that he was welcoming of her advances. Chie could tell Justin was getting a little red in the cheeks too; which just sort of pissed her off more.

"Damn… This girl's dangerous…!" Chie declared, much to Rise's amusement. It was like she had been flirting with anyone at the table that had a penis (save maybe Kanji) and was succeeding for the most part. Needless to say, Chie wasn't too happy about Rise flirting with Justin; even if she wasn't being serious. Yukiko seemed slightly uncomfortable about all of this as well, but that might be because Rise had tried to flirt with Yu on several occasions as well. Chie sighed slightly as she noticed Rise getting a kick out of Chie squirm slightly. She was doing it on purpose. Sometimes she could be really immature, that much was for sure. "L-Let's change the subject. Hey, any idea how Teddie's doing?" Chie nervously changed the topic, deciding she didn't want to listen to Rise flirt with her boyfriend any longer than she already had. Yosuke had sort of fazed out once Rise started shit with damn near every person at the table, though he immediately jumped back to life at the mention of Teddie.

"Oh yeah, I forgot to mention it to you. Check this out." Yosuke declared before gesturing towards the opposite end of the food court with his head. Justin was a little confused at first what the hell Yosuke could possibly trying to point out, though he understood immediately once he got a good look at what he had been pointing out. On the far end of the food court had been Teddie, handing out balloons and interacting with the children. Justin smirked slightly as he struggled to hold back laughter. Something about Teddie handing out balloons to children struck him as funny; perhaps because they all thought he was a mascot the first time they went into the television, perhaps because Teddie had the mind of a child, so this was somewhat ironic. Whatever it was, it was funny. "I let him stay at my place. In return, he's now our official store mascot."

"Aaah! So he's hiding in plain sight. Reverse psychology, huh? Man… He looks like one happy bear…" Kanji found amusement in Teddie's new role on the Junes staff. Really, it was like he was made just for this position.

"He kept saying that he didn't wanna go back. So I made him a deal. Now, since I've got nothing better to do… I'm gonna go bug him." Yosuke declared as he pushed himself up from his seat around their lunch table, a devious grin on his face. Justin was going to tell him to sit his ass back down and leave Teddie alone, but when he realized Teddie was pretty much going to be mooching off of Yosuke for a long while, he figured Yosuke was entitled to bug him every once and a while. And this? This seemed like the perfect time. Justin smirked slightly as he pushed himself up to follow Yosuke's lead.

"Oooh, I wanna go too!" Chie declared with excitement as she practically jumped up from her seat. It seemed everyone felt like today was a good day to annoy the living shit out of Teddie.

"Then I hereby decree we shall bug the ever living shit out of Teddie until we get bored of it. ONWARDS!" Justin shouted dramatically, donning his British accent for the moment. It was amazing that no one quite realized that was a real accent he had, and not something he just faked. Oh well; he didn't need anyone playing twenty questions about his British heritage anyway. It was bad enough with California, he didn't need to answer questions about a place and culture he knew pretty much nothing about.

"C-Can I… feel his soft fur…?"

"Jesus Christ; someone cut off some of Teddie's fur so he can stop asking!"


	98. Chapter 97: July 24, 2011

CHAPTER 97

July 24, 2011

* * *

"Alright, so how are we going to do this…?"

Chie and Justin were standing outside, staring at his house from a distance. A week ago Justin had learned that Maya was purposely making herself throw up to try and lose weight; which was obviously no good. He couldn't understand why she was doing it, or what made her think she needed to lose weight to look attractive; but he didn't like it one bit. One thing he did know was that this had to stop; and it stopped now. She had been sick all week, and Justin knew it had to have SOMETHING to do with that. You can't just vomit up everything you eat; it's not healthy after all. And so he had given himself a week to think things over, to decide what he needed to say to Maya. He had nothing; this wasn't something he really understood how to deal with. Justin rubbed at his forehead slightly as he stared at his house in the distance.

"…I don't know. All I know is we have to say something." Justin sighed. He had a week to think of this and he still couldn't figure out what he was going to say to her. All he knew was that he needed her to know this wasn't the answer. Chie nodded her head slightly. She still hadn't told him that Maya had started doing this to impress him back in California. And quite frankly, she had no intention of telling him. It would just break his heart knowing that he was the source of Maya's illness. She was just concerned that Maya might bring it up at some point, or that they wouldn't be able to stop her if they didn't acknowledge his role in it… And then there was the matter of how they found out. They couldn't just come out and say they were digging through her journal, right?

"I'm ready when you are…" Chie muttered, staring at the house from a distance. That was a complete lie for the record. She wasn't ready for this; but she had to force herself to go through with it. Maya needed their help right now; even if she didn't know it. And until they said something, she was going to keep hurting herself by making herself sick like this. Justin took a deep breath, trying to gain his composure, before he slowly started to walk over to his house, Chie following timidly behind. He stopped at the door, grabbing it by the handle for a moment, taking one last moment to gather his thoughts before pushing it open to walk through.

Maya was lying on the couch, a blanket wrapped around her as she watched some terrible television movie she really didn't feel like watching. She barely noticed the door to the house opening up, nor the sound of Justin and Chie making their way inside. She just didn't feel good lately. She had thought it was a cold at first; but a cold doesn't last a week. She just didn't have any energy left; she could barely get up from the couch to go the bathroom anymore. It was clear to Justin that puking up everything she ate was really starting to take its toll on her. And if she didn't stop? It might get a lot worse.

"Maya…? We need to talk." Justin spoke in a soft voice. He didn't want to shout or anything knowing she didn't feel good. It probably wouldn't make her condition worse or anything like that; but no one wants to be yelled at while they're slowly dying on a couch. Besides, she had complained about having a really bad headache a few days ago. Justin didn't want to risk irritating that again. Maya barely lifted her head to see Justin and Chie making their way over to her. She had been taking up the entire couch, so they couldn't sit down without her sitting up. And she tried at first, but Justin just gestured to her that it was alright if they stood, that she should stay lying down.

"…Hey." Maya choke up a bit, her voice coming out very softly. She was tired, no real energy to spend on talking. As much as he hated to admit it, Justin thought that might help in the long run. She wouldn't be as argumentive when he told her that she needed to stop doing what she was doing. Justin crouched down to get on eye level with her; though he almost immediately regretted it. Her eyes were barely open, her eyelids dropping with exhaustion. She had literally no energy left in her anymore; and it pained Justin to see it.

"I know you don't want to talk about this right now, but it's important…" Justin stalled slightly for time. He wasn't really sure where to start; he didn't know whether he should be subtle or outright tell her to stop. It was a difficult topic to talk about. Maya didn't even know what he was talking about at first, which just made it worse. It wasn't like he could say 'that thing… you know, that thing,' and expect her to get it. He sighed slightly. "Maya, you can't keep doing this to yourself. It's not good for your health."

"I'm not forcing myself to get sick…" Maya remarked with slight annoyance; clearly not understanding quite what Justin meant.

"I mean the vomiting… I know you're doing it on purpose…" Justin clarified, deciding to just jump into the heart of the matter. The more he beat around the bush, the harder it was going to be for him to just say it; that he knew she was making herself puke and that he didn't much care for it. Maya didn't even seem fazed by Justin's acknowledgment that he knew she was doing it on purpose. Which meant either she already knew he knew, thought he knew, or just didn't care. It seemed like a combination of the last two.

"…So?" Maya replied after a short period of silence. She was not in the mood to get a lecture, and quite frankly, she could tell that's where this was heading. Justin gave her a slight glare, though not a mean one. He knew he had to be stern with her otherwise she'd just blow him off again.

"So? Look at you Maya. You've been on that couch all week; and don't even try to tell me it has nothing to do with you vomiting. This isn't good for you; you CAN'T be doing this; it's just going to make it worse." Justin tried to explain. Maya just rolled her eyes slightly, before attempting to roll over and ignore Justin. She was tired and she didn't need this shit right now. Justin, however, wasn't having any of Maya's shit right now. As she was about to turn, he grabbed her by the shoulder, pulling her back into place so that they maintained eye-contact. "Stop."

"Don't tell me to stop." She barked with as much energy as she could, ripping her shoulder out of Justin's hand. Before she had just been annoyed; now she was outright pissed. She was in no mood to be getting ordered around, to be told what she could and could not do with her body. Maya wouldn't tell Justin to stop if he was doing the same thing; she expected him to treat her the same. Justin passed a slight glance over to Chie, hoping to get some backup, clearly seeing that Maya had no intention of listening to Justin.

"He's just worrying about your health Maya… At least listen…" Chie pleaded with Maya. She couldn't force Maya to take anything to heart, but she could at the very least ask that she consider the words coming out of Justin's mouth. Maya passed a glare to the both of them. She didn't like being double-teamed for this. And besides; how in the hell did Chie know about all of this? She didn't recall ever throwing up around her- _Oh… right… Monday…_

"Yeah, well he doesn't need to be. I'm fine." Maya insisted. She didn't even care what they had to say anymore. She just wanted them to go away and let her rest. Was that so much to ask for when you're sick? Of course, given that her forcing herself to vomit was part of the problem, she wasn't going to get better until Justin and Chie got her to stop. And if she didn't get better, there would be no latter to discuss this; they had to do it now or never. Justin sighed slightly, letting loose the tension in his brow, the stern expression on his face slowly fading away.

"Why are you doing this Maya?" Justin questioned softly. He already knew why, but he had to hear it from her own mouth. Maya paused for a moment, just glaring at Justin for a while, before sighing. It seemed he wasn't going to go away until she answered his questions. Anything to just get some goddamn quiet around here right now.

"I just need to lose a few pounds, that's all…" Maya replied, finally giving into Justin's questions. Justin shook his head a bit. He knew that's what she was going to say, but that didn't make it any easier to hear. It was just sad to think she was making such self-destructive decisions over her weight. She didn't even weigh that much. Hell, out of all the people on the investigation team, she was the thinnest. And yet she still felt the need to lose more weight. He just didn't get what could possibly possess her to want to do this.

"Maya… You're look fine. You don't need to lose any weight. You're beautiful just the way you are." Justin smiled faintly at her, trying to reassure her that her appearances were fine. She blushed slightly, though given the way she was averting eye-contact, she didn't really believe him. Which was a problem. If she didn't believe him, she was just going to keep forcing herself to hurl regardless of what Justin said. It was a quiet for a moment between the two, no words being exchanged as they simply thought about the matter. It was a while before Maya finally looked Justin back in the eyes, a sorrowful expression on her face.

"Then how come he doesn't like me? Am I not pretty enough…?" Maya whimpered slightly. Justin raised his eyebrows in shock and confusion. It was a guy that was making her do this? She was trying to lose weight so that a guy would like her? Justin wasn't entirely sure how to feel. On one hand, it was nice to know that Maya had moved on; maybe found someone else. On the other; any guy who made her feel like she needed to vomit up a lung just to look attractive to him was a complete shit bag, and he intended to kick his ass. Chie bit her bottom lip. This was not exactly the kind of conversation she wanted to hear.

"Hold on… You're doing this for a guy?" Justin questioned, still caught off-guard. Maya just nodded slightly. Justin wasn't really sure whether or not to be pissed off right now, or sorrowful. He felt bad that anyone was pushing her to do such horrendous things; especially just because she wanted a guy to like her. Chie was finding it more and more difficult to stand there and just listen to this. It sounded to her like Maya was talking about Justin; and while they did need to help her, Chie sort of felt like slapping her right about now. Justin sighed a bit. "Well I'm not this guy, so I wouldn't know… Wait. I'm not this guy, right?"

"What? No!" Maya shouted, slightly aggravated that Justin had assumed that. Chie just sort of jumped a little bit in surprise. She wasn't sure if Maya was lying or what; but she knew what she read. She could not have been clearer that she had started throwing up to lose weight to impress Justin… Though… That entry was from a long time ago… Maybe things had changed. She just found it strange that she was already doing this with another guy. Was she really that desperate?

Maya was just annoyed by the question. Sure, part of her still loved Justin; probably always would. But she knew that Justin and Chie had something special, something beautiful. She would never want to get in between that. She just wanted Justin to be happy; and if that meant being happy with someone else, she would gladly stand down. No… She was done throwing up to try and get Justin to like her… There was someone else now. She hadn't known him for long, but she was already starting to get butterflies in her stomach around him. She wasn't sure what this feeling in her chest was; but it hurt every time she saw him; every time his eye seemed to pass over her for someone else. She wanted the pain to go away.

"Look, Maya…" Justin stammered slightly. It seemed he would be giving an entirely different speech than he intended. He had thought he would have to tell her how what she was doing was dangerous; how she looked fine and didn't need to lose weight. Now he had to give her a lecture about love. It's a topic that, while he was very familiar with it, could never quite comprehend. "You don't need to change for any guy. They should like you for who you are, not what you look like… Why would you even want a guy that only cared about what you look like anyway?" Justin questioned.

"He's always so nice to me… But he doesn't seem interested, so I thought… maybe if I lost some weight, he'd notice me…" Maya whimpered. She didn't like talking about this, though it sort of felt good to get off her chest. Besides, Justin seemed to know enough about love; maybe he could help her. Justin rubbed at his chin slightly. So it wasn't that the guy was directly doing somthing to make her fell like she needed to lose weight; she was doing it because she wanted to catch his eye.

"You really want this guy to notice you?" Justin questioned. Maya nodded slightly. There was nothing in the world she wanted more. "Then be yourself. If he really likes you, he's not going to care what you look like, or what you wear, or anything like that. He's just going to care that you are you. Don't keep making yourself sick just so this guy will notice you; because if the only reason he cares for you is because you're thin, then he isn't worth keeping around." Justin smiled at her a bit, and Maya in turn smiled back. You know, for a guy who had broken her heart, he sure seemed to know how to mend it.

"…Thanks." Maya whispered weakly. It sort of felt good to get all of that off her chest, but it just drained her energy. Which was especially bad on days like today when she didn't have ay energy anyway. She felt like she could take a nap right now and just sleep for days. Justin smiled at her as he stood up, realizing that Maya was barely staying awake at this point. She did need some rest, and it seemed the problem had been resolved; he just needed some confirmation.

"No more forcing yourself to throw up… Alright?" Justin ordered. Maya just nodded her head slightly as she closed her eyes, drifting way into the unconscious world. Under most circumstances, that would have been rude as fuck; but everyone in the room understood how sick she had been. It was more important for her to heal up than to hold a conversation with them. Justin smiled at her for a moment. "Hey, you mind if I ask who it is?" Justin questioned. He didn't get a response though; she had already fallen asleep. Justin just chuckled to himself as he realized he was talking to someone who couldn't talk back; only now realizing she had fallen asleep. He smiled at her lightly before gesturing to Chie for the two to walk outside. He wanted to keep the noise in the house to a minimum, and besides, it would be good to get some fresh air after that. The two slowly started to walk away from the house, just taking in the sights as they walked.

"You think she'll be alright?" Chie questioned. She kind of felt bad for not being able to help more; but it seemed Justin had it all covered. She wasn't really that great at giving pep-talks anyway; Justin seemed to have a knack for it. Justin had a wide grin on his face as he nodded slightly.

"You know… I found the entry you were talking about the other day." Justin remarked. He had wanted to read it for himself what had gone wrong; why Maya had been making herself sick like that. He was hurt at first when he had read that she was doing it to try and impress him, but he realized he really had no control over her actions at that point in her life. He just hated that he was the reason she did it in the first place. Chie frowned slightly. She had purposely avoided telling him for a reason.

"…I'm sorry I didn't tell you… You seemed so down, so-"

"It's alright Chie, really. She's fine now. Whatever reason she had, whatever happened in the past; it doesn't matter. All that matters is that she's alright now." Justin remarked, a wide grin still on his face. He was happy for Maya; not only had she found someone worthy of her affections, but she had made a huge step forward today. She realized it's not all just about looking pretty. He just hoped that she wouldn't revert back to her old ways at anytime. Chie stared at Justin for a while before smiling at him.

"Looks like you aren't dwelling on the what if's anymore… What happened?" Chie joked slightly.

"I let go." Justin remarked snidely. He had to remind himself to never let Yu know he had said that; because god only knows he was going to rub it in his face. It's amazing how the guy could help even when he wasn't there. The two walked for a while in complete silence, just enjoying each other's company as the wind blew against their backsides, trees rustling back and forth as they got caught in the breeze. It was maybe a half-hour or so later that Chie broke the warm silence between the two.

"So the big performance is tomorrow, huh? Yikes…" Chie piped up. She wasn't exactly looking forward to making an ass out of herself live in front of everyone. She got some pretty bad stage-fright actually; it usually manifested itself in the form of rambling and stuttering. Though Justin's stage-fright manifested itself by smoking two cigarettes at once, so Justin had Chie outranked on the nervous scale by a long shot. Justin's smile faded only slightly. Something had just occurred to him.

"Jeeze, I hope Maya'll be alright for tomorrow… We kind of had something we needed to do…" Justin sighed slightly. Chie was just confused though; what else did they have to do besides perform. I mean, she supposed they could go on without a drummer if they needed one… She couldn't see why Maya absolutely needed to be there. Justin paused for a moment, realizing he hadn't told Chie about it yet. "Oh crap, I almost forgot. Yu didn't tell you about what we're doing after the show, did he?"

"Wait what?" Chie gasped. They were doing something besides playing instruments? And no one had decided to tell her until just now? _What the hell you guys!? _Justin rubbed at his chin slightly, not sure whether or not he should tell Chie. She couldn't keep a secret, that much was for sure; and she WAS good friends with Yukiko… But she wouldn't really sabotage something like this, would she? No… It would be better for everyone involved if she kept her mouth shut; so she most likely would. After all, she wanted to see Yukiko happy too, right?

"Yu, me, and Maya are playing another song after we get done with the first one. He's dedicating it to Yukiko." Justin chuckled slightly. Chie's eyes widened with surprise before she let out a slight 'aww' sound. It was no beating up thugs, but it sounded sweet all the same. Though… She still probably should have known about this in advance. She would have helped if they asked her; apparently they didn't need her bass for whatever it was they were doing.

"That's adorable!" Chie declared; as though Justin didn't know. It was his idea after all; though if anyone asked, it was Yu's. "Oh but you're right; if it's only you three, you're going to need Maya, right?" Chie's joy soon faded away as it struck her that Maya barely had the energy to move; let alone play the drums. There was no way in hell she was going to be able to help, right? This could be very problematic. Justin shook his head slightly.

"I think she'll be fine." Justin remarked, a smile slowly starting to creep across his face. Chie didn't really understand how Justin could figure that. She had been lying on that couch for a week; clearly she wasn't feeling good. Was it really such a good idea to drag her to school? "She's a fighter; she'll be back in action by the end of the day, just you watch."

"You really think it'll be that quick? I mean, she looked pretty sick…"

"Not sick. Just love struck."


	99. Chapter 98: July 25, 2011

CHAPTER 98

July 25, 2011

* * *

"Where is she…?"

Yu, Justin, Chie, and Yukiko were all sitting down on the sidelines, waiting for their turn to get up on stage and perform. Apparently the music teacher had gotten permission to use the auditorium for the period; which would have been nice to know in advance. It certainly didn't help with the stage-fright being on an actual stage; that much was for sure. Still; they had more important things to worry about than being on a stage. Maya still hadn't shown up, and Yu was very clearly starting to panic. Not for their main set list, per say; rather the encore. This was important to him after all.

"She said she was going to show; but I don't know… She still didn't look too good…" Justin mused out loud. He would have liked to think she was just making herself lovesick; that she would be a-okay come the morning. Nope, she was still fairly sick this morning. Justin wondered if the vomiting even had to do with her getting sick. She might have just caught a really nasty virus. Yu sighed slightly before pulling Justin over to the side, clearly needing to talk to him in private.

"There is no way we're doing the encore if she doesn't show." Yu whispered to him, glancing over his shoulder to see if Yukiko was watching at all. She wasn't; she was much more focused on the band playing right now. Who would have thought Daisuke would be into metal? Not Justin, that's for damn sure. Justin shook his head slightly. Yeah, it was going to be tough without Maya, but they couldn't just throw in the towel and let Yu go back to desperately wanting to ask her out but getting nowhere. They had to do this; whether he wanted to or not.

"Look; it's not a very drum oriented song. We can still do it without her." Justin pleaded with him; because really, no one could force him out on that stage if he didn't want to go. The most they could do was beg and try to convince him. The only problem was Yu wasn't having any of that shit. He was staying right where he was, whether Justin liked it or not.

"I don't care if it's not a drum oriented song; I want everything to be perfect." Yu remarked, still checking back and forth between Justin and Yukiko; lest she turn around and see them. He really didn't want to do this as it was. I mean, what if he screwed up while he was on stage? That was it; it was all over. He could not possibly redeem himself. But Justin and Maya seemed to have confidence in him, so he was willing to give it a shot. Of course; that really only stood as long as Maya actually showed up. Otherwise it was just Justin on guitar and Yu singing. Not an impressive band. Justin sighed and rubbed at his forehead. He could understand how Yu felt; but this was really the only opportunity he was going to get…

"…Alright fine; but there's no backing down if she shows up." Justin declared, pointing at Yu before storming away. He got a funny feeling Yu would try to back out even if Maya did show, so he needed to lock Yu into in agreement… Even though he technically didn't say yes to that. Or anything really. But that was beside the point. The point was, Yu needed to do this; even though he was clearly afraid to. Justin just prayed to god Maya showed up.

It was only a few moments after Yu and Justin rejoined the rest of the group that the band performing before them had finished their song… And Daisuke managed to lose his drumstick somehow. It went flying out of his hand right at the end of the song. Justin just hoped that no one got hit by that stray projectile. He sighed slightly as the group made their way off the stage; Maya was still a no show. And so was Yu's dedication to Yukiko. Mr. Kentaro was busy writing some notes down on his chart; probably stuff about attitude and all that. Justin briefly wondered whether breaking shit was grounds for bad attitude or good attitude. I mean, that's what rock stars do, right? Regardless, he hadn't called their group up yet; so they were all stuck standing there with this awkward tension hanging over their heads right now. It was only really starting to seep in just how much it sucked that Maya hadn't shown.

"You guys ready…?" Chie stuttered slightly, her heart beating a thousand miles an hour. She briefly considered just taking the F and not going on stage. She just couldn't deal with people watching her… Judging her. She just hoped to god that being the bass player meant everyone would ignore her and just focus on Justin; what being the lead guitarist and vocalist for their first song and all.

"Not particularly, no." Justin sighed. He knew the song; he knew what he had to do. He had no qualms with that. He just hated people starring at him; and they just so happened to pick a seven minute long song. He wasn't sure if he'd be able to handle it for that long… Maybe if he just started ranting and raving about starting a riot he could get this over with and go home. They' just call it punk; no harm done. "…So am I the only one seeing the irony in our song choice?"

"Huh? What do you mean?" Chie questioned, slightly confused. Justin crossed his arms for a moment before extending one up to tap at the side of his head. The rest of the group wasn't entirely sure if they should be acknowledging this as a funny coincidence or something they REALLY should have considered before giving Justin the microphone. "Oh right… that… Yeah, that's... um... Yeah..." Chie stuttered slightly before rubbing at the back of her neck. This probably should have come up earlier. Now they were all just going to feel awkward performing this song. Justin just shrugged a bit.

"Well don't look all down about it. It's just a coincidence." Justin piped up. He didn't mean to break everybody's spirits with that remark. The point was to get a laugh or two, like 'oh yeah, that is true!' kind of laugh. You know, to ease the tension. Not to make more of it. Justin sighed slightly before turning his attention back out towards the stage. Mr. Kentaro had just finished scribbling something down, resting the clipboard in his hands back on his lap. Justin groaned a bit knowing full well what that meant. He turned his gaze over to the side of the stage where Justin and the gang were waiting their turn… Or more like dreading it.

"Alright then; our next band is 'Mothership.' Come on out." Mr. Kentaro ordered as the group slowly made their way out to the center of the stage. It was pretty awkward for everyone involved, since it was dead quiet as they did. Whoever wasn't on deck, so to speak, was in the audience watching; though not a single one of them made a peep. That was never a comfortable feeling. The group took maybe a minute or so to get into position; Justin took the longest, having decided to take one last chance to make sure his guitar was in tune before nodding to Yu to cue them in. Since Yu was dedicating that song later to Yukiko, he figured it would seem much more natural if he cued them in both times. Yu sighed a bit before making his way up to the microphone. He didn't know why he was introducing them if Maya hadn't even shown up. It would make more sense for the frontman to introduce the band under these circumstances, right?

"Hello everyone. We are Mothership… Uh… This is a song by King Crimson… You've probably never heard of it." Yu introduced the band to the best of his ability; but goddamn that silence was doing wonders on his nerves. How could anyone introduce a band with dead fucking silence? It just didn't feel right. Yu sighed before turning to the rest of the band, counting off to start the song using his fingers. Justin had lifted his hand, ready to strum hard as the song started when the group was interrupted by an all too familiar sound.

"Hey wait!" Maya shouted dashing in before jumping into her seat near the drums. Everyone passed each other a look of surprise; especially the band members. They hadn't thought Maya was going to show; especially with literally one second left until they started playing. She didn't even look like she should be here right now; she clearly didn't have much energy in her. Justin had to wonder if she could even keep a steady beat like that… Still… Steady beat or not, her presence had pretty much just forced Yu into doing the encore song. Justin smiled at her as she took her seat, huffing slightly as she positioned herself to hit the drums. "Sorry I'm late…"

"What took you so long?" Justin joked.

"I was busy throwing up." Maya groaned slightly. Justin's smile immediately turned into a frown, and then eventually a glare. Not even one day and she was already going back on her word. It was a wonder she had even been able to walk at this point honestly. Justin was livid now; he didn't even give a fuck about the performance. He'd take the F if he had to; but he wasn't going to just let Maya destroy her life like that.

"What the hell Maya!? You promised you'd stop!" Justin whispered rather loudly to her. He didn't need his entire music class judging her; that would just make the issue worse. But he was still very pissed by the news he had just heard. Maya shook her head a bit, a slight glare on her face.

"I didn't do it on purpose. I'm fucking sick Justin. Jesus…" She blabbered, very clearly annoyed at Justin assuming she had already broken her promise. Justin just stood there open jawed for a moment, the muscles in his face not moving the slightest bit as silence fell around him. He certainly felt like a huge prick right about now. He nodded his head slightly before slowly turning back around to face the audience. He would have apologized to her, but he didn't want to cause a scene. Well… He didn't want to cause a scene now that he was the one clearly at fault. Double standards can be a wonderful thing sometimes. Maya shook her head in slight disgust before picking up her drumsticks. At least the anger coursing through her body should give her the energy she needed. Justin gave a quick nod to Yu, who in turn nodded back before stepping up to the microphone again. Only this time instead of counting down silently, he decided to belt it.

"Three, two, one!" He shouted before quickly shoving the trumpet in his mouth, as every single person started to play their respective instrument… Save Yukiko, who only had to play hers for a few small verses. Justin kind of felt bad for giving her such a small part; but she said she didn't mind. If only she played the saxophone or something. Justin could probably find some songs for that. Justin hammered away at the power chords that comprised the main riff of the song, Yu matching his every note at the moment. And Maya? Well Maya was going crazy on those drums. She didn't miss a single beat; which was saying something for a song like this. The riff only lasted about three or so measures before it was Justin's time to start doing the vocals.

_Cat's foot_

_Iron claw _

_Neuro-surgeons scream for more _

_At paranoia's poison door. _

_Twenty first century schizoid man._

And just like that Justin was back to hammering away at his guitar strings, repeating the main riff again. The crowd clapped lightly as the band all joined back in complete synchronization as Justin finished singing the first verse. Yukiko seemed kind of embarrassed to just be standing there at this point; she only had two notes that she had to alternate between throughout the song. And it only happened three times throughout the length of the song. That's not forgetting the five or so minute long instrumental break where she did absolutely nothing. Oh she was going to look awkward then.

Justin took a quick scan around the rest of the band, analyzing their expression as they played. Yu and Chie looked like they were having a blast. Yukiko was blushing slightly; probably because she was realizing how stupid she looked right about now. And as for Maya? She had never looked more determined in all of her life. She probably needed to be in order to keep herself in check. She clearly wasn't feeling well. Justin kind of felt bad for even making her play. He nodded a bit at everyone before stepping back up the microphone to sing the second verse.

_Blood rack_

_Barbed wire _

_Polititians' funeral pyre _

_Innocents raped with napalm fire _

_Twenty first century schizoid man._

And with that Justin slammed down on his guitar strings, jumping backwards. He wouldn't need to get near that microphone again for at least another five minutes, which meant now seemed as good a time as anyway to have some fun and walk around the stage. After all; he could walk and play the guitar at the same time. The band repeated the main riff a few more times before it slowed down for a moment, a three note long verse, that slowly found itself speeding up leading into one hell of a back and forth between Yu on the trumpet and Justin on guitar. And that's not even mentioning the crazy rythymatic patterns that Maya had to follow on the drums right now. For someone who had never played real drums, she sure had picked up awfully quick. And who said you couldn't learn a real instrument from playing Guitar Hero?

Justin wandered about the stage, getting close to the other members of the band as he played his instrument, generally just trying to make an ass out of himself. But it was fun, so it was a-okay. Hell, there was one point where Chie and Justin had done this bass versus guitar thing, where they just sort of faced each other and played away at their respective instruments. It took every fiber of their being not to start laughing at how stupid they probably looked. But hey, they were rock stars. Looking stupid was what they were supposed to do.

It was amazing that Maya never once lost a beat; even on those drum centric sections of the song. This wasn't a simple beat or anything either. It was random, spastic, but oh so incredible. And Maya hit it on the head WHILE trying to summon the energy just to stay awake.

Justin was screeching on his guitar for a moment in a sound that would normally be ear grating, when the instruments slowed down to give way to a slight bass solo. Chie seemed a little hesitant to play it at first, but she pulled it off no problem; just like Justin knew she would. She was blushing pretty hard by the time it was over though. She was certainly relieved, if the smile spreading from cheek to cheek was any indication. That in turn eventually led back into the main riff, and by extension Justin's vocal solo, he made his way back over to the microphone, letting go of the Guitar neck to grab the microphone with both hands.

_Death seed_

_Blind man's greed _

_Poets' starving_

_Children bleed _

_Nothing he's got he really needs _

_Twenty first century schizoid man._

Justin kicked over the microphone as he jumped back to strum the main riff a few more times, before finishing by shredding away on the guitar strings in a strange, but not at all unpleasant guitar solo. Maya's arms were moving faster than anyone could keep track of at that point. Chie and Yu were having a lot of trouble keeping up with the frantic pace of the end solo, which was understandable. But given that it was a very disorganized sounding portion of the song, it didn't matter that they made quite a few mistakes. It only mattered that they hit the last note in complete synchronization; striking slightly dramatic poses in the process. Well at least Chie, Justin, and Maya had. Yukiko couldn't since her part was long over; and you couldn't look badass with a trumpet. You could with a bass or a guitar though. All you had to do was power slide… Or just get down one knee as you strum the last note in Chie's case. Justin would like to think he had her topped in that regard. And Maya? Well all she had to do was keep her face pointing down dramatically. Though she might not have been doing that on purpose all things considered. The point was. They looked badass. And the audience clapped with acknowledgement. Not cheered, mind you. Just clapped. They were all much too anxious about their grades to care about anyone else's performance. Believe me when I say clapping was probably the most they had done.

"Thank you." Yu spoke out loud, giving everyone a slight wave as though to quiet them down. Yukiko was already walking off the stages, Chie following slightly behind with a wide 'I know something you don't know' grin on, ready to go back down into the audience… Which was absolutely perfect. Yu turned towards Justin, a slight pleading look in his eye, asking if he really had to do this. Justin in turned pointed at him and gave him a slight glare before making his way over to Maya. He wanted to make sure she was doing alright.

"Hey, good job out there." Justin praised her as he made his way over to the drum sets. Maya was panting from having to swing her arms about like a mad man. "You feelin' alright? Need some water or something?" Justin joked slightly. He'd get her water if she wanted some, but he knew she didn't; nor would she make Justin go fetch it for her. She laughed slightly before sitting back up straight, taking a deep breath as she regained her composure. She gave him a quick nod.

"We're still doing this right?" Maya questioned.

"Only if you still feel up to it." Justin remarked, checking to make sure she could still keep going. But alas, Maya was a fighter; and once she had her mind set on something, there was no turning back. She smiled widely at him before nodding in confirmation. Justin smirked before turning and making his way back up towards the front, giving Yu the go ahead.

"If it would please the audience; we have one more song to play." Yu announced, turning his gaze over to Mr. Kentaro, making sure it was okay first. Secretly, he wanted Mr. Kentaro to tell them to sit their asses down. But alas; no cigar. In fact, Mr. Kentaro seemed pleased that their band was taking the initiative to play not only one song but two. Regardless of Mr. Kentaro's opinion on the matter, Yukiko was very clearly caught by surprise as Yu's voice boomed over the microphone.

"Huh? A-Another song?" Yukiko stopped, panicking slightly as the words hit her ears. She only remembered practicing for one song; not two. She was in no way shape or form prepared. Of course Chie knew better, and had insisted on continuing to drag Yukiko off the stage and into the crowd.

"Don't worry, it's just those three." Chie remarked, a slight giggle as she concluded her sentence. Yukiko was very deeply concerned at this point. Clearly Chie found something about this hilarious. Plus she had this sinister grin on her face; an all too familiar one. Yukiko knew Chie was always up to no good when she had that grin on; though this time she had no idea what it was she was trying to do. She wasn't doing anything of course; just making sure Yukiko was in the audience when Yu started. It's just that she was terrible at keeping secrets. She WANTED to tell Yukiko how Yu was dedicating the next song to her. She had to fight back every urge in her body to spew out Yu's secret.

"Permission granted." Mr. Kentaro nodded towards Yu. Yu sighed slightly, taking a deep breath as he tried to gain his composure. He had never been more stressed over anything in all his life. Why couldn't he just ask her out like a normal human being? I mean, at least that way if she said no, he'd still have his dignity. This was either going to be incredibly flattering or incredibly embarrassing. There was no middle ground. Yu just hoped to god she liked it, otherwise he'd probably never be able to show his face around her again. He held his breath for a moment as he pushed forward slightly to get closer to the microphone.

"This one goes out to a girl." Yu nervously spoke into the microphone, before taking a step back, giving himself some room so that his voice wouldn't cause the microphone to screech. He took one last glance out in the audience, checking for Yukiko's reaction. She seemed confused; mostly because no one had told her there was going to be a second song. Still… He had to wonder if she knew he was talking about her. He sighed before turning to Justin and Maya, who were staring at him with anticipation. He nodded before silently counting down to the start of the song.

Justin slowly plucked at the strings, playing a sweet melody on his guitar, all the while Maya kept a slow, but steady beat on the drums. One thing was for sure; Justin was wrong. It just wasn't the same song without that simple drum beat. The two played the slow, romantic song for eight or so measures, twice through the main riff before it was Yu's turn to sing. He almost couldn't force up the words as he stepped towards the microphone. It was like something was trying to hold back the words as they pushed up his throat. But he did all the same; he couldn't back down now, or else all was for naught.

_It's late in the evening_

_She's wondering what clothes to wear_

_She puts on her make-up_

_And brushes her long black hair_

_And then she asks me_

_Do I look alright?_

_And I say yes_

_You look wonderful tonight_

Yu felt like he was going to have a heart attack as he finished the first verse, allowing for a short instrumental break. He looked out into the crowd to see how Yukiko was reacting; he could give less of a damn what everyone else thought after all. She was smiling, though it seemed she hadn't quite got that it was about her. Yu would have though substituting blonde for black would have been a give away, but alas, he supposed a lot of people had black hair. Hell, for all she knew, he could be singing about Maya right now. In a way it was a slight relief. If she didn't know it was about her, then he wouldn't really be in any trouble if he fucked up. On the other hand, if she NEVER figured out it was about her, all of this was for naught. He puffed out some hot air as Justin and Maya finished the short interlude, moving back towards the microphone.

_We go to a party_

_And everyone turns to see_

_This beautiful lady_

_That's walking around with me_

_And then she asks me_

_Do you feel alright?_

_And I say yes_

_I feel wonderful tonight_

Justin plucked a few strings in what he would LIKE to call a solo, but given that it was only three seconds or so long, he had to just call it a lick. Besides, it wasn't impressive or anything, it just denoted the next part of the song was coming up. All the same, he continued to strum his guitar as he scanned the room. Much to his dismay, Yukiko clearly hadn't figured out this song was to her, and Yu was clearly way too nervous. Which actually could be a plus; some girls like when a guy gets flustered around them. It certainly wouldn't help though if he needed to outright tell her that the song was dedicated to her. He grimaced slightly as Yu passed him a slight glance before proceeding onto the next verse.

_I feel wonderful_

_Because I see_

_The love light in your eyes._

_And the wonder_

_Of it all_

_Is that you just don't realize_

_How much I love you_

Justin played the main rift of the song twice more; laying the way for Yu's final verse. It needed to hit hard, otherwise there might be problems. After all, Yukiko kind of had a funny look on her face, as though she was starting to put two and two together. With Chie's twisted smirk, the way Yu kept looking down at her from the stage; it was really starting to look like he meant her. She was fidgeting slightly; not because she didn't like that he meant her, but because she wasn't sure how you were supposed to react in this kind of situation. Besides, she didn't know quite yet that he did mean her; she just assumed. And you know what they say about assumptions.

Justin quickly did one last scan of the room before taking a few steps towards Yu to whisper to him. He was in a position where he could win big, and all he had to do was one simple thing. Or at least; you would think it would be simple. But when your heart felt like it was on fire, and your stomach felt like a walking time bomb, it was a lot more difficult. But he had to do it; otherwise he might as well have not even come out on stage.

"Yu… Listen to me. You have to look straight at her for this last verse." Justin whispered, trying to be as nonchalant as possible. Yu, on the other hand, apparently didn't get the memo. He passed Justin a funny look, turning his head completely away from the audience for a moment to talk to him. Which was a complete no no when trying to be discrete. Justin was a little aggravated, but he knew bitching Yu out for that right now was just going to attract more unneeded attention; and that would be hypocritical.

"Are you crazy?" Yu whispered loudly to Justin.

"Trust me; you'll be fine." Justin tried to reassure him. It wasn't that Yu doubted it would work; it would clearly show the song was about her after all. It was simply that he didn't think he had the guts to do it. His stomach already felt like it had a plethora of gaping holes in it where the butterflies had scorched through his digestive track; and he had barely looked at her. How was he going to do it for an entire goddamn verse? Justin could see he was panicking, so he moved slightly closer, turning his attention to Yu for only a slight moment. "Look at me. Stop panicking. You'll do alright." Justin remarked sternly before giving him a quick grin.

It was time for him to move up to the microphone again. He swallowed slightly as he moved back towards the microphone; trying to gulp down the fear that was filling his throat. He turned his eyes towards Yukiko, and almost immediately his eyes turned away. He bit his bottom lip, taking a deep breath before turning back. Justin was right; he had to do this, as much as he didn't want to. It took damn near every fiber of his being to keep his eyes on her. Both were blushing at this point.

It's time to go home now

And I've got an aching head

So I give her the car keys

And she helps me to bed

And then I tell her

As I turn out the light

I say my darling

You were wonderful tonight.

Oh my darling

You were wonderful tonight.

Justin played away at the guitar strings for a few more verses, his eyes closed as he drifted back away into the sounds of the melody… Or perhaps because he was afraid of seeing whether or not his advice worked. He was sure it would, but… He just didn't want to know. He played a few last chords, and Maya hit a few last beats as the song came to a close, a slight applause from the audience. Justin wasn't sure what it was about this song that had warranted applause. I mean, their main gig was so much better; they had all the members, they showed off more skill, they made it fun… This was just some guy asking a girl out in song. Maybe that's what was so appealing to the crowd: love.

Yu's cheeks were slightly red as he jumped off the stage, landing on his feet as he hit the ground, forcing his way through the crowd to Yukiko. God, he didn't want to make a scene right here; but he wanted to know if it worked, if all of this was not for naught. Justin and Maya soon followed; though Justin couldn't take the express way since he still had his guitar on him and didn't want to risk breaking it by jumping. By the time he made it to where Yu and Yukiko were, they were both blushing profusely in complete silence. And Chie just stood there smirking, a gleeful expression on her face. Justin smirked as Maya and him eventually rejoined the group.

"Alright then, next up… The River Rocks." Mr. Kentaro announced, clearly oblivious to the two teenage lovebirds in the audience right now. It was actually probably a good thing; it meant less eyes were on the two of them, and more on the front of the stage as the next band set up on stage. The two didn't say anything to each other until all eyes had stopped eyeing them. It took a while too; after all, who didn't want to see Yu trying to take on the Amagi Challenge? Besides Justin, I mean. He still couldn't believe that was a thing.

"So… uh…" Yukiko stuttered slightly; not entirely sure where to begin. "Y-You were really good out there." She praised him, her cheeks slightly red. Yu rubbed at the back of his head. He wasn't really sure what to do now; all he knew was this was very awkward. Especially with Justin, Maya, and Chie starring. Though in a way he supposed it was a comfort to know Justin was watching; he had given him some pretty good advice so far. Not so much Chie or Maya. "So… Umm… Wh-Who was it for?"

And within a second Yu looked like his soul had just been crushed. He had thought he had nailed it, made it clear to her that he was interested in her. And she didn't even know it. Of course; she highly suspected it was the case, but she'd rather not make a fool of herself if she was wrong. Yu turned his gaze down towards the floor, disappointed in his lack of results. Maybe he wasn't cut out for the dating scene. Justin's expression of glee soon turned to one of disapproval as Yu started to slump back, shrinking away in defeat. This would not do.

"Oh… W-well, you know… just some girl…" Yu stuttered, trying to back out of what he had just done. He was aborting the mission at this point; it was clear it wasn't going to be a very successful one if he didn't. Justin begged to differ, glaring at him harder than he had glared at anyone in a while. If by a while you meant the last time Teddie tried to flirt with Chie, which was… A week or two ago? Point was, he was glaring. And Yu noticed.

"Yu; tell her or I swear to god I'm kicking your ass." Justin threatened Yu. Yu hung his head and sighed, rubbing at the back of his neck. He should have known he wasn't going to get out of this as long as Justin was here. It was quiet for a moment as he tried to muster up the courage he needed to say it. Yukiko's face turned bright red already. Justin's remark in and of itself was pretty much confirmation that he was talking about her.

"…Uh… W-well… You." Yu blushed harder. It was one thing to know; it was another to be told straight to your face. It was a strange sensation.

"M-Me? Uh… Ummm…." Yukiko stuttered, very clearly caught off guard. Yu was hanging his head with embarrassment, trying to hide his red hot cheeks from Yukiko, lest she take him less seriously for being so flustered. Needless to say, he was a little surprised as she took a step closer to him, leaning in to whisper softly in his ear. "I-I feel the same way…"

Yu's head immediately recoiled with surprise, his chest over flowing with feelings he couldn't quite explain. Yukiko smiled sweetly at him, her cheeks glowing a pink shade. Yu wasn't sure how to react; but one thing was for certain: He was happy. Very happy. He felt like jumping around screaming about it to everyone he met. But of course he wouldn't. Everyone smirked at the two. It wasn't like they couldn't tell what Yukiko had said, after all; but it was still adorable as hell to watch.

"And he finally says it." Justin broke the mood with a smartass remark. Yukiko immediately jumped backwards, going back to her shy self; fidgeting slightly in place. She felt like her heat was about to stop right now; though whether that was because Yu had asked her out or because everyone had been watching was another question entirely.

"F-Finally?" Yukiko choked up, her face beat red. You mean to tell her that he had a crush on her all this time and she didn't know? Things would have been so much easier if they both knew the other had the hots for each other since the beginning. Justin smiled widely at Yukiko, shaking his head as she fidgeted slightly. She was not very comfortable right now, despite being immensely happy.

"Yep. This guy here's been your secret admirerer for... How long now?" Justin smirked, questioning Yu about his love life and purposely tying to embarrass him. It was all in good nature of course; and besides: it might be good for each of them to realize they've been into each other for a while. It would show how much they cared for each other that they didn't give up after a few months. Yu groaned a bit, averting eye contact in embarrasment.

"I don't know... It was... Like a day after you and Chie hooked up." Yu answered the question with irritation in his voice. Justin knew damn well when this was; he was just trying to torture Yu at this point.

"May 3rd." Justin accurately pointed out. He would always remember the day that him and Chie first kissed, and he recalled them having this chat about their love lives the next day. That would be the third. Everyone seemed susprised for entirely different reasons; save maybe Maya. Yu couldn't believe he had the date memorized. Yukiko couldn't believe that Yu had been eyeing her for so long. And Chie...?

"You... You remember?" She choked up, pure happiness clogging her throat. She'd be lying if she said she didn't remember the day; she had it down in her diary and everything. She just didn't expect Justin to remember. After all; it was just a date after all, and from what TV had taught her, guys didn't remember their anniverseries. Justin smiled sweetly at her, his cheeks heating up slightly.

"Why wouldn't I remember the best day of my life?"

"Alright; I've had enough. I'm sick enough without watching all of you people oggling each other like love struck baboons. I can't handle all of this fucking love." Maya gagged slightly before storming off, out the auditorium door. Chie wasn't sure if she should stop smiling; mostly because she had intertwined her fingers with Justin's and it was damn near impossible for her not to smile when they held each other's hand in their own. Still, she supposed she should be worried; Maya was sick enough without storming off like this and wasting her energy getting pissed off.

"She'll be back." Justin remarked, as though reading Chie's thoughts. She would be fine; just give it a minute or two for something to settle into her mind.

"What makes you say that?"

"I have the keys to the house."

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTES**

**It's been requested that I label songs from now on so that the readers could listen along as they read. So from hence forth, any significant music will be credited at the end of the chapter.**

**21st Century Schizoid Man - King Crimson**

**Wonderful Tonight - Eric Clapton**


	100. Chapter 99: July 26, 2011

CHAPTER 99

July 26, 2011

* * *

"SUMMER BREAK!"

It was outside the front door to school where Justin had practically kicked the door open, jumping with glee. People always told him the most wonderful time of the year was Christmas. He'd like to have a word with those people. He was practically jumping for joy as he stepped out into the sunlight, the taste of freedom in the air, the sweet sight of a whole new world just waiting to be conquered. And behind him were the rest of sophomoric members of the investigation team. Only Yosuke seemed to match Justin's enthusiasm. Hell, the two were so excited they even high-fived and fist bumped. It came as just as much as a surprise to the rest of the group as you would think it would

"Jeeze, you're certainly excited." Chie remarked, a slight chuckle under her breath. Of course she was excited too; just not quite to the degree that Justin and Yosuke were. Justin turned to her, a wide grin on his face. Of course he was excited; summer vacation was the best time of the year. Just months on end of doing nothing but hanging around, playing video games, and just having fun. Not that Justin didn't do that anyway at school, but it was better than sitting at that desk all day, the dead silence in the air slowly creeping down his spine as he tried to occupy himself with trivial games.

"Damn straight I am… God I don't even know what I'm going to do first." Justin rubbed at his chin, pondering ways to spend his vacation. Well the first thing he was going to do was get something for Chie's birthday of course. He didn't have much of a budget, nor did he really have any idea what to get her, but he'd think of something. After that? Who knows. Maybe he'd just waste the summer away unironically watching Nicholas Cage movies. Because fuck what anyone says, that guy could act if you just told him to act like a nut job.

"Well I know what I'm doing." Yosuke declared, standing proudly with his hands crossed behind his back. He looked like a general almost. At first they thought he was doing that to be funny, or just to try and look superior to everyone else. Instead, it seemed he was holding something behind his back. Two movie tickets, to be precise. He had failed hard the first time, so he was going to try again now. And if his wallet had any say on the matter, he was actually going to ask this time. Justin smirked slightly.

"At it again I see." Justin joked, crossing his arms and leaning slightly on one leg. "So who's the lucky girl?" Justin questioned. He had meant to ask the first time he was Yosuke with the two tickets; but it sort of slipped his mind with the whole 'Chie in the theatre with a broken rib,' thing going on. He was a little surprised to see that he was over Saki. He still seemed pretty upset about her whenever she got mentioned; and why wouldn't he? Even if he had moved on, it was a terrible thought. But this wasn't just a 'that sucks' kind of upset; it was much deeper. It certainly still hurt him to think about her, that much was painfully obvious to Justin. Yosuke's wide grin disappeared almost immediately as Justin started prying into his love affairs, blushing a bit as he quickly hid the tickets back in his pocket.

"N-None of your business." Yosuke stuttered slightly, his face beat red as he hid the tickets away. He had no intention of letting the others know about his love affairs. Especially not Justin. He'd probably kick Yosuke's ass if he ever found out… Which in retrospect meant he probably never should have showed Justin those movie tickets. He… might have just dug himself into a pretty deep hole here. Justin shrugged slightly. He could understand wanting to keep your love affairs a secret. Though he was kind of hoping to bust his balls the way he used to about him and Chie. An eye for an eye, as they say.

And all the while Justin stared Yosuke down with that 'I'm going to annoy the living hell out of you for answers' look, Yu and Yukiko stared at each other for a brief moment, before looking away. Yu had reached out to grab for her hand while still looking away, though he hesitated as his hand extended outwards, and eventually dropped his arm back to his side. He wasn't really sure what to do now that he had the girl. It felt good knowing they both liked each other, but other than that he was completely clueless.

"S-So anyway-" Yosuke nervously tried to change the subject, not liking the look he was getting from Justin and Chie. They wanted to know his dirty little secret, that much was for sure. Only he had no intention of spilling the beans; and you NEVER wanted to deny Chie or Justin something they wanted. They would make your life a living hell until you did. His only hope was to change the topic and hope they forgot what he had said. "H-How'd you guys do on the exams?"

Justin's smirk disappeared almost immediately. The grades had been posted the day prior. He groaned a bit; not because he did bad or anything, but because they were out of school and he didn't want to think about grades. And he sure as hell didn't want to know what Chie got. If she bombed the exams before summer break, guess where she would be stuck for the entirety of summer vacation? Not with Justin, that's for sure.

"Ninety four." Justin remarked. Yosuke smirked with slight satisfaction knowing that Justin hadn't been able to get a perfect score again. It was in fact a fluke from what he could tell; and that was more than acceptable for him. Yukiko beamed with slight pride as she heard Justin's grade come out of his mouth. He had managed to beat her out earlier in the year, but you couldn't keep the queen down for long apparantly. She had managed to get a 98, scoring the highest grade once again. "You?"

"Eighty two." Yosuke did a slight fist pump as he recapped his grade. It wasn't an A or anything like that, but by his standards this was pretty goddamn good. Yosuke grinned widely before turning to the others, interested in how well they did. You could tell for the most part just by the expressions on their face. Yukiko was absolutely glowing right now, and Chie was rubbing at the back of her head with embarrassment. Yu? Well Yu almost always had that blank face on, so it was hard to tell. It's probably why he was so good at poker.

"Uh… I, uh… I did alright…" Chie lied through her teeth, her cheeks glowing red. Justin sighed slightly. He hoped to dear god that it was at least passing. At most she'd probably get a scolding from her parents for that, which while not exactly ideal, was better than being locked away in her house for a month or two. Yosuke shook his head, opening his jaw to let out a smart ass remark before Justin shot him a slight glare. He had already anticipated Yosuke trying to act like an ass to her; and had already prepared to throw his shit back at him. Yosuke immediately shut his mouth; after all, he couldn't imagine asking someone to the movies with a black-eye would work out well.

"I got... God I don't even remember…" Yu paused, trying to recall his exact grade. He remembered being happy with it, that much was for sure. He supposed he just had a lot more on his mind than grades. I mean there was all this shit with the murders and the television, then he had his love affairs to deal with… He just didn't really care in all honesty. "Uh… ninety two? Yeah, I think that was it." Yu eventually remarked, having finally recalled the mark on the board. Justin nodded slightly, impressed with the score Yu had gotten. His grades were starting to improve, that was for sure.

"Niiiiceee." Justin remarked, making a slight whistle noise. "How'd you get your grades up that fast?" Justin was curious. He assumed the obvious answer was just effort; but then, he didn't know much about putting effort into one's studies. Yu shrugged a bit; he didn't notice THAT much of a change. Besides, his grades weren't bad before or anything.

"I sat at a desk ever night until I boosted my knowledge." Yu remarked, a slight expression on his face as though to say 'what the fuck do you think I did?' Justin shrugged a bit. Fair enough he supposed.

"Bullshit. You were making those origami cranes again." Yosuke jabbed, a slight chuckle on his breath. Yu glared slightly at Yosuke, as though the very act of pointing out he made those origami cranes at every chance he got was an insult. To him, it probably was.

"I can quit anytime I want to."

* * *

"Crap… What do I get her…?"

With the day being over, summer vacation starting, and Chie's birthday just around the corner, Justin had decided to take a trip to Junes in search of a Birthday gift. Now the question, was; just what exactly did he plan on getting her. He couldn't really think of anything he could get her that she didn't already have. He wanted to get her something nice; but it's not like he had a huge budget or anything. The most he could think of was some kung-fu DVDs, but no doubt she had already seen every kung-fu movie in existence. He recalled her saying she had never seen Reservoir Dogs, maybe she'd like that…? No, no; that's more of a 'now you HAVE to watch it,' kind of gift. That wouldn't suffice.

He took one last chug of the can of cola in his hand before tossing it in a trash can nearby. Something had occurred to him as he lifted his arm to drop the can, getting a slight glance of his wrists in the process. He had been wearing the wristbands Chie had gotten him; hell, he almost never took them off. Only when he slept or needed to take a shower. Maybe he should get her something like that, something that would serve as a reminder of their love… Justin rubbed at his chin a bit. That settled ONE thing at least; now it was just a matter of what to get her… He might have had an idea; but now he was curious as to whether he could even get that custom made in two days…

Justin sighed, ready to turn around, hoping to maybe find someone that could offer the services he was looking for when suddenly he bumped into someone familiar. Literally; the two damn near toppled over in the collision. Justin rubbed at the back of his head in slight embarrassment, backing away a bit to give Adachi some more room. It looked like he was slacking off again; that much was for sure. You would think he'd be on the lookout for their killer, but alas, it seemed every time Justin saw him he was here wasting time.

"Jeeze, I'm so sorry Adachi. Seems everytime I see you I manage to damn near knock you over…" Justin apologized. Adachi didn't seem all that fazed by the collision in all honesty. He was kind of glad to see a familiar face anyway; he didn't have anything to do but stay on the lookout for this guy. It would be nice to kill sometime instead of wasting the hours away looking for a guy who he probably wasn't even going to find.

"Huh? Oh it's you." Adachi remarked, a slight grin of surprise on his face. "What are you doing here? Shopping for dinner?" Adachi questioned. It seemed strange to see Justin here at this time of day. The best excuse he could think of was that it was summer vacation already and that he had a half day. And that begged the question what Justin would be doing here if his break had just started. He had to have something important to do right?

"Nah; it's my girlfriend's birthday in a few days, so I'm looking for a birthday present." Justin remarked. He'd drop Chie's name, but no doubt Adachi had no idea who that was. Hell, he didn't even look like he cared about Justin's love life. And could you really blame him? "How 'bout you? Got any more cabbage." Justin joked slightly. Adachi wasn't very amused by Justin constantly throwing the cabbage in his face. It was one time. But Justin was partially correct; he did plan on doing some grocery shopping here before he left.

"I live alone, so taking care of dinner can be pretty tedious." Adachi moaned slightly. Justin nodded in agreement. He could totally understand how Adachi felt. Only the difference was that Adachi probably knew how to cook. Justin didn't, nor could he say Maya really could either. I mean, yeah, she could make edible food, and it was a thousand times better than Justin's, but it was nothing to write home about. And most of it came with microwave instructions, so it's not even like you could really call it HER food.

"I know how you feel. I live with my sister a couple of blocks away, but neither of us know how to cook; so we just heat up some instant noodles." Justin remarked. Adachi seemed kind of surprised honestly. Mostly because he did the exact same thing after a long day of work, partially because he was surprised to hear someone Justin's age had been living alone with his sister. Adachi nodded slightly; it was strange to see a kid like Justin be able to relate to him so much.

"So… You've got a girlfriend?" Adachi changed the subject, a slight mischievous smile on his face. Justin nodded slightly, though he was a little confused. Adachi didn't seem the slightest bit interested a moment ago. Hell, he couldn't understand why he WOULD be interested; I mean, from his perspective it must just look like another teenage couple that would be broken up in a month or so anyway.

"Yeah. You've met Chie before, right?" Justin questioned. He knew the two had met on a couple of occasions, he just didn't know if Adachi knew it. They didn't exactly exchange names after all; the only reason Chie probably knew Adachi's name was because she heard someone else say his name.

"The one with the short black hair?" Adachi questioned. He knew a lot of Justin's friends, just not by name. He only knew Yu by name because he was Dojima's nephew, and they had talked over at his house on several occasions. Justin recoiled in slight horror. He hoped to fucking god that's not what people thought when they saw those two around each other. Because that was creepy as fuck.

"No, no no no no-" Justin stammered, waving his arms a bit as he tried to explain. "That's my sister Maya. Chie was the brunette." He explained concisely. It felt inappropriate to describe Chie as 'the brunette.' He could think of so many traits that better described her. But alas, that was the only way he could think to describe her to Adachi; by her looks, not her personality. Adachi nodded slightly, a little embarrassed to have called his sister his girlfriend.

"Oh. I'm so sorry. She doesn't really look like your sister, so…" Adachi frantically tried to explain his thinking process. Justin shrugged a bit. She didn't look like his sister because she technically wasn't. He had considered explaining to Adachi that she wasn't his biological sister, but really, it kind of defeated the point of calling her his sister if he had to keep saying she wasn't really his sister. "So you're into that kind of girl huh?" Adachi frantically tried to get off the subject of Maya. Justin wasn't sure what he meant by 'that kind of girl,' but he sure as hell better have meant that in a good way. "Cute girls are the best. Though I go for the real knockouts, myself. The most important thing is that they should be good cooks. Everything else, I can take or leave…"

Justin wasn't entirely sure if he should feel awkward or not right now. Adachi was certainly older than him; so it was weird for the two to be having a conversation about what they were looking for in a girl. Justin couldn't think of a single reason Adachi could have for wanting to tell Justin of all people. He wasn't judging or anything though; it just struck him as a bit odd. "Well I'm certainly not going to get that out of Chie." Justin joked slightly, and completely hypocritically.

"Tohru-Chan! Is that you?"

Adachi damn near fell over in fear as he recognized the voice, flinching a bit as the figure of an elderly woman approached him. Clearly whoever this lady was, Adachi wanted nothing to do with her. Hell, he actually looked kind of afraid of her. Justin had to stop himself from laughing. That had to be one vicious old lady to scare Adachi… Though to be fair, a lot of things scared Adachi. Like Dojima.

"Shit… she found me." Adachi grunted under his breath, frozen in fear as the little old lady approached him, a wide grin on her face. She certainly didn't seem to have any bad intent for him, nor did she seem to notice he did not want to be around her. At all. Justin crossed his arms, observing as Adachi stood frozen in place, curious as to what all this was about that he had been trying to hide from her.

"Are you off work? I hope you're not doing anything dangerous?" The old lady spoke up slowly, as the elderly tended to do. Adachi nervously rubbed at the back of his head. He needed a way out of this and now.

"Oh… No, I'm still on the clock. I was just on my way back to the station." Adachi lied, hoping to perhaps use that as an excuse to run like hell. I mean, if he had other obligations right now, this lady would let him go right? He hoped to god he was right. He wasn't.

"I'm so happy to see you working hard. I brag about you to my neighbors all the time! I'll bring you some nimono, okay? You have to take care of yourself!" The elder lady remarked, a wide grin on her face. Justin had no idea with nimono was, but it was probably food. Adachi didn't seem very pleased about that; which was strange, because he made it sound like making food was a pain. This seemed like a good alternative to Justin. Unless her cooking was really bad, but really; it couldn't be THAT bad. No worse than Justin's, that's for sure. "By the way, I saw this detective show on TV the other day…"

"Um… I need to get back…" Adachi interrupted her; really hoping to be able to escape from the conversation at this point. Justin could understand. She seemed nice enough, but she also seemed the type of person that never shuts the fuck up about shit that doesn't even matter. Like seriously, who even cares about what she saw on TV. Unless she saw the Midnight Channel, in which case Justin did.

"Oh, is it that time already? I hope your day goes well, then." The old lady kindly remarked before slowly walking off. It was a minute or so before she was long out of visual and audio range. Justin chuckled slightly before turning back to Adachi, who was rubbing his forehead in annoyance. Talking to old ladies was NOT part of his job. But then, chasing kittens and settling domestic arguments wasn't either, and they still made him do that.

"Finally…" Adachi muttered, rubbing at his temples for a moment before dropping his hands back down to his sides. He turned to Justin, who seemed a little confused as to why Adachi was so annoyed. "I guess her son has the same name as me. Maybe that's why she's been hanging around me ever since she found out. I don't know." Adachi sighed. Justin rubbed at the facial hairs on his chin in thought. That seemed a strange reason to want to hang around someone… Unless in her age she actually thought Adachi WAS her son. Justin HAD seen that happen before, he wouldn't be entirely surprised if that turned out to be the case. "She always brings huge heaps of that nimono to the station! And she'll talk your ear off if you let her… It's so annoying."

"Sounds like my grandfather." Justin remarked. He had only met his grandfather a few times, since he lived in England, but every time he did, he would not shut the fuck up. That's not to say he didn't like his grandfather; it was part of his charm that he always wanted to tell stories about every little irrelevant thing. "I can see how that could get annoying though." Justin clarified; after all, there was a difference between your grandfather and some old lady who hangs on to you like a leech because you have the same name as her son.

"Doesn't it? She's like that practically every day. She's the exact opposite of my parents, so I can't relate to people like that. She's lonely I guess. I don't think she has any relatives. I can't just ignore her either. It's part of my job. The police have been busy lately so I'm the only one who can deal with her." Adachi moaned about the old lady. Justin grimaced slightly, starring off into the distance where the elderly woman had disappeared. She did sound awfully lonely. In a way, he found it really sweet that she thought of Adachi like family; even if that could get really annoying for Adachi. It was heartbreaking in a way. "Though I wish I shared a name with her grandson instead! I'm only 27, after all."

"And if you were her grandson, maybe you'd get cookies instead." Justin smirked slightly. Adachi cracked a slight grin at that. He wouldn't deny that cookies sounded so much better than nimono. Hell, he might actually welcome that. He had a bit of a sweet tooth in all honesty, and nothing beats a homemade cookie. Presuming it's a good homemade cookie of course. Adachi sighed slightly.

"Well, I should head back, or Dojima-san will really chew me out. You should probably head home before it starts raining." Adachi remarked before walking off, a slight wave of his hand. Justin's eyes widened. He had no idea it was going to rain tonight. Actually, now that he looked around, it was getting pretty dark out; probably from rain clouds. And with all that had happened recently, it seemed like a good idea to keep an eye on the Midnight Channel.

"Shit!" Justin declared before running off in search of a vendor that did engravements. He'd like to get home before the storm hit.

* * *

11:59

"You regret walking home in the storm now?" Maya questioned with a laugh. The two of them were both on the couch, a blanket wrapped around them from shoulder to shoulder. Justin had managed to catch a cold from walking home in the rain, and Maya… Well Maya already had a cold. On the bright side, it seemed it was starting to pass. She was still sneezing a lot, but it was nothing she wouldn't get over in a day or so time.

"Not really; I got Chie something really nice for her birthday. I'd say it was worth it." Justin shrugged slightly.

"What'd you get her?" Maya questioned. She was curious what Justin could have gotten her that would have been worth getting sick over. Justin stared at her for a moment. He doubted she would be very pleased with the answer he was going to give her. He paused to think of the best way to say this that she wouldn't get pissed, but alas, nothing came to mind. It didn't matter though, because it soon turned midnight, and the television screen in turn flickered on, interrupting Maya's line of questioning. Saved by the bell it seemed

The two stared at the static on the screen for a brief moment before recoiling in slight shock as the image came in crystal clear. And in the image was a very familiar face to Justin. He didn't know where he had seen this kid, but he remembered seeing him. He remembered those wide fish-eye like pupils, that blank stare. He was just standing there on the screen, looking straight forward against a backdrop Justin couldn't even begin to guess the origins of. It looked like his Super Nintendo had vomited all over the wall behind him. Justin didn't realize quite how accurate that was until much later on down the road.

"…..You all think you can see me? You all think you know everything about me? …Then try and catch me." The boy dared the audience before the screen quickly flickered off. Maya and Justin just stared at the screen for a brief moment longer before turning to each other, a look of complete puzzlement and bewilderment on their face.

"What… The… Fuck."


	101. Chapter 100: July 27, 2011

CHAPTER 100

July 27, 2011

* * *

"Okay, Rise and Teddie are checking out the other side, so we'll go ahead and start the meeting."

It was the official first day of summer vacation, and the entirety of the investigation team had gathered around at the usual spot at Junes; minus Rise and Teddie, who would be joining them after they finished scanning the television world for any sign of that kid they saw on television last night. Justin groaned slightly. He didn't know who that was, but there was something definitely not right about that kid. The picture had come in clear, and from what he said, it sounded as though he was daring someone to follow him in. Maybe it was something like Justin's shadow; only instead of telling the investigation team to stay away, he told them to chase after him. Why? Who knows? Could be a trap for all Justin knew. All he knew was that this was the shittiest time for this to happen. With summer vacation starting and Chie's birthday in a few days, Justin had enough on his plate without this crap.

"Now, about what happened last night… You guys saw it, right?" Yosuke questioned, a very worried expression on his face. The way the guy on the screen had dared the team to chase after him, that blank, vacant stare he had on his face, the way the screen didn't have the slightest bit of static. Something was very very wrong. And everyone knew it.

"Yeah. Shit he said made my blood boil. That mumbling of his and those fish-like eyes pissed me off even more. Who the hell is he?" Kanji snarled with fury. Justin raised an eyebrow at him, lifting his face from the cushion he had made out of his arms. This was strange, perhaps even concerning. Rage inducing? Not quite. They didn't know what was going on yet, first of all; secondly, nothing the guy said struck as particularly distasteful or infuriating.

"I swear to god I've seen that kid somewhere before…" Justin muttered to himself. Yu and Chie nodded in agreement; they recognized his face, but for the love of god they couldn't put a finger on where. Yukiko probably should have recognized the guy, though no one knew it at the time, but apparently she had completely erased all memory of him.

"Whoever he is; it looks like he's our man." Yu remarked. Justin sighed. It certainly looked that way, what with him daring them to chase after him in the television, but they shouldn't get too far ahead of themselves. That could just be his shadow spreading bullshit; and face it: he never once said he had any involvement with the murders, nor anything that could connect him. The only thing clear was that he had some reason to hide, and he was getting cocky; what being in a TV and all.

"Yeah, I was thinking the same thing." Yosuke agreed. Justin was a little surprised to see so many people agreeing with Yu on this. They didn't have any evidence to say this was their guy. Justin had his suspicions that it was him, but they should hold off on calling him a murderer until they actually had proof that he did it. I mean, they didn't want to be like Naoto, right?

"You too, Yosuke-kun?" Yukiko questioned. It seemed everyone was a little surprised that everyone had the same creeping suspicion in the back of their mind. I mean, everyone had at the very least considered the possibility; and it seemed Justin was the only one that really disagreed with the group, that this guy might not be the killer. Maya was on the fence, but generally leaning towards the side of Yu and the gang.

"It's just a hunch, but it makes sense." Chie remarked. At least she had the common decency to say 'yeah, it might be him, but it also might not.'

"Let's hold off on pointing any fingers until we have all the evidence. For the moment let's just say he's very fucking suspicious." Justin interceded. He sincerely thought everyone was getting ahead of themselves. It wouldn't kill them to hold off on throwing accusations like that until they were a hundred percent sure. They could be suspicious of him all they want, and that would be fine; but don't drag the guy's name through the dirt until you know he's responsible. Yosuke sighed, nodding slightly in agreement. Every fiber of his being said that it was in fact this guy responsible, but they couldn't prove it. Not yet. That didn't mean they couldn't discuss it, though; because honestly? There was a good chance he was their guy.

"We've been told the suspect is a high schooler… The police are after him for the murder of King Moron. So to see that on TV last night, at a time like this… I mean, he even taunted the viewers, saying, 'Try and catch me…'" Yosuke reasoned out loud, stacking up the evidence they had on this guy so far. All pretty significant pieces of evidence too, though really nothing that couldn't be a coincidence. Justin leaned back in his chair, placing the tip of his foot along the edge of the table to tilt himself backwards slightly, rubbing at his chin as he tried to think. There had to be a more significant connection; because otherwise, they didn't have shit on this guy.

"Uhhhh… So?" Kanji puzzled aloud, not really getting what Yosuke was trying to say. Kanji wasn't very good with implications; things sort of had to be spelt out for him. It was kind of useful in a way: if Kanji didn't immediately get it, then there was a good chance they hadn't gotten enough evidence yet. Yosuke groaned, annoyed that he had to spell things out for Kanji, like he was some sort of toddler.

"Alright, let's say there's this high school student. We'll call him Shin. For some random reason, who knows why, Shin is able to enter the other world. Then Shin, again for some random reason, starts throwing people into that world, intending to kill them. The police can't prove the other world exists, so it's the perfect crime. He can't possibly be caught. Now imagine you're Shin, but after a while, people stop dying when you throw them in the TV. You don't know why. You want to kill King Moron, but the TV is out, so you have to do it personally. Now the police are on to you. As a result, you-I mean Shin-is a wanted criminal, and there's no place for him to run…"

"But the TV." Justin interrupted Yosuke's thought process. It made sense, it really did; and that's probably what the killer would do. But could they really prove that this kid WAS the killer? He could just be another person that got thrown in. I mean… yeah, the timing would be really shitty for that; but it's always a possibility. Yosuke nodded slightly, confirming that him and Justin were on the same train of thought here.

"So… you're saying he went into the other world to dodge the cops? Ohhhh… So that's why he said, "Catch me if you can…" Wow Senpai, you're smarter than you look!" Kanji complimented…? Smarter than you look is really an iffy compliment. Context was everything, and well… There was no context. Yosuke, needless to say, decided to take that more as an insult than the compliment it had been intended to be.

"Geez, you can piss me off sometimes." Yosuke grumbled, annoyed by Kanji's remark. Or perhaps he was just annoyed that he had to explain everything to Kanji. I mean, the guy had been part of the team forever; this was stuff he should have been able to put together on his own.

"We still don't know why he targeted people who were shown on TV… But if he had a personal grudge against Mr. Morooka, that explains one thing. With a strong enough motive, wouldn't he forsake the untraceable TV method and try to kill Mr. Morooka on his own? If you think about it that way, it sort of makes sense why Mr. Morooka died without appearing on TV." Yukiko reasoned out loud. It was true; they still hadn't discerned a motive for the killer; and if the killer was that desperate to put a hit on Marooka, he probably would get risk with his murder methods. But let's face it; there were a lot of people who hated Marooka's guts. Half the world had a motive to kill that guy. And besides; the motive really was irrelevant. The guy could just be killing because he could, or because he wasn't in his right mind. Point being, discerning the motive of a murder for a psychopath was just a waste of time and energy. They could catch the guy and then figure out his reasons.

"I don't think the motives all that relevant at this point. We just need to know who, not why." Justin pointed out. Yosuke grunted a bit. Obviously he wanted a why too. Someone very dear to him had died and he wanted answers. Everyone could tell that's why he was pissed off… Save maybe Kanji, who didn't even know about Yosuke's crush on Saki. Maya sighed slightly as she noticed Yosuke drifting back off into his memories of Saki again. Everytime he did that, she felt like she died a little bit on the inside.

"I wonder what that boy's going to do, now that he's in there… With Teddie on this side, there's no way for him to get out…" Yukiko remarked, a slightly concerned expression on her face. Even if he was a killer, being trapped in there with the shadows, just waiting for death? It was a horrifying thought really. Chie in particular seemed particularly worried about the kid's safety for some reason.

"Y-You don't think… he's gonna get desperate and end it all…? He did look depressed, like it was the end of the world…" Chie worried aloud. Justin's eyes widened for a slight moment; he did actually sound pretty depressed. And really, everything he did say could point to him trying to off himself as well. It was just as likely the kid was trying to commit suicide as it was he was the murderer. Yosuke shook his head a bit; he didn't see that being a possibility.

"No, I don't think that's it. The killer has to know that the people he threw into the TV have come back to this side. I can see missing Yukiko or Kanji or Justin. But Rise, a celebrity… There's no way the killer wouldn't know she's still alive. So that means he knows there's a way out of the TV world. As for the rest… We'll just have to ask him face to face." Yosuke reasoned out loud. That really didn't counter the whole suicide angle, but it did mean the kid knew he wasn't trapped in there; at least, if he was the killer that is. He could very well be innocent after all. Actually… Was it possible that he let himself in, but wasn't the killer? Maybe it was like Yu; where he had Persona even before entering the television. Justin could imagine it would be easy to fall into a television by accident under those circumstances.

Justin's thoughts were interrupted by the sight of Rise coming back around the corner, though Teddie was oddly absent. Perhaps he was still scanning the other world; because from the look on Rise's face, they didn't find jack shit.

"Hey, good timing! How'd it go?" Chie questioned cheerfully. Rise really wished she could return the sentiment; but given that she had bad news, she really couldn't pretend to be cheerful right now.

"Not good. There's not enough information to go on. But at least we're positive that someone's in there…" Rise tried to justify the bad news with some good news. She was almost entirely positive it was that kid in there; now they just needed to find him. And hopefully very quickly if Chie's suicide theory held any water. Yosuke looked around, clearly having just noticed Rise was alone right now.

"I see… Wait, where's Teddie?"

"He's still looking."

"Alright. So we need to find out who that guy is… And if he is in fact the one the police are after. Once we figure that out, we just do our thing." Yosuke ordered. Justin nodded a bit; that seemed like a fair plan to him. They did need to know who the kid was on the screen, and they could confirm whether or not he was the killer just by checking to see if he was the current suspect in the murder cases. So long as they didn't ruin the guy's reputation before they even knew he did anything.

"That's right! If he really is the killer and he's escaped into the other world, the police don't have a chance of catching him." Chie announced, as though no one else had already figured that out. Unless the police force suddenly figured out how to use Personas, they weren't getting into the television anytime soon. If they could, they wouldn't even be investigating the murders right now; now would they?

"So it's all on us!" Kanji agreed with Chie, fire in his heart and eyes.

"Well then, let's get digging!"

* * *

"Tell me something Chie. How is it that damn near everyone has seen the Midnight Channel at this point, but not a single person knows who the kid that showed up was?"

Justin and Chie were sitting inside Aiya's right now. They had been searching hours on end for any trace of information they could find on this guy; but it seemed they weren't having much luck. Yu said he thought he might have found a lead, but he wasn't having much luck pursuing it. Something about not being able to find the guy he was looking for or something. Honestly, Justin wasn't really paying attention; he was exhausted from wandering around and asking everyone about this kid. It was hard to get information about someone when you don't even know his name. And god knows Justin just could not handle talking to total strangers. He felt like his heart was going to explode every time he went up to some bystander on the sidewalk. God only knew most of them probably thought he was crazy by the time he left their presence.

"Well someone's got to know who that kid is…" Chie spoke with little optimism. She was trying to look on the bright side, but just knowing that there was someone out there that knew this information wasn't really enough motivation. It could take them forever to find this person for all they knew; and time was very much of the essence when it came to the television world. She sighed before turning her attention to the bowl of ramen in front of her. The two had ordered some food and pretty much called it quits for the day at this point. It was nearly dark outside after all, and they clearly needed to rethink their strategy as to how to probe for this guy's identity.

"It would help if we just had his name…" Justin sighed. Describing this kid to people was probably the worst part of his little interrogation sessions. The second he said 'fish-eyes,' because really, that's what they looked like, people looked at him like he was crazy. Figures that the guy that would stand out in a crowd would be the hardest to find. Justin was about to stick his chopsticks into his bowl when his phones started to vibrate, indicating that he had a new text message. He sighed, dropping the chop sticks into the bowl before dipping his hand into his pocket, flipping his phone open to see who it was. Not that he need to check to see who had messaged him; it had been Maya every single goddamn time.

_Nothing over near Junes. Have you asked around the riverbed?_

Justin groaned a bit as he read the text. No he had not for several reasons. The first and foremost being that he had checked the entire goddamn shopping district with Chie. The second was that Kanji and Yukiko had the river bed covered last time he checked; they didn't need anyone else over there. Justin mumbled a few obscenities under his breath with annoyance as he typed in a reply. This was like the sixth time she had texted Justin about this crap.

_Kanji and Yukiko have it covered. I'd ask them._

Justin grumbled a bit as he slid the phone back into his pocket, shaking his head a bit before grabbing a hold of his chopsticks again. "I swear, that girl has more questions about what I've done than the actual case." He sighed a bit before forcing some noodles into his mouth. He was starving from walking around so much. He was a bit surprised Chie was putting up such an appetite; what with her sneaking out to get a steak bowl while he wasn't looking. Not that he cared of course; they only really needed one ear on the street at a time. It was just surprising that she could still eat after that is all.

"She still checking out Junes with Yosuke?" Chie questioned. Junes had a lot of people, sure; but she would have thought they'd have the place covered by now. After all; Yosuke could probably just put an announcement over the PA system asking if anyone had any information on the kid. It wasn't subtle, and he'd probably never be allowed near the PA again; but it would work. Justin nodded his head a bit.

"She just finished up." Justin replied. "I'm hoping that means she'll stop pestering me every five seconds; but I doubt it." He sighed. He was tired at this point; he could just go home and sleep forever given the option. Not to mention he had a huge headache. With everything that had been loaded on his plate recently, his head seemed to be buzzing with all sorts of thoughts. The murders, Chie's birthday, Everyone's love life getting dumped on him, and now he could add Maya not shutting the fuck up for five seconds to that list. Just five seconds; that's all he was asking for. Justin dug through the noodles in his bowl, slurping them down slowly, but eagerly. He was too tired to eat fast; but hungry enough that he wouldn't just keel over into the bowl in front of him.

"You think he did it? That kid on the Midnight Channel, I mean." Chie questioned after a brief pause of silence between the two. Justin sighed as he placed the chopsticks along the edge of the bowl once again. In a way, he was so tired because this had been on his mind. I mean; the guy was suspicious as all fuck, but he couldn't find a single piece of evidence that definitively made it clear this guy was responsible. He wasn't sure what to think in all honesty. He could follow his instincts and say yes, this guy was a murdering scumbag. But then what if Justin was wrong? He could put this guy though a world of pain throwing around accusations like that. He could also say no, that no evidence pointed to him being the killer… But he didn't want him escaping if he really was responsible. The best he could really say was maybe. Anything more, anything less; and he had fucked someone over.

"I don't know…" Justin huffed a bit, his hand rubbing at his temples slightly. This was really just giving him a headache thinking about it. Maybe he just needed to withhold judgment until they figured out what the hell was going on. "He could be; but we don't really have any proof…" Chie nodded slightly. She had some doubts herself; though she trusted her instincts on this. They might not have the evidence, but she could just tell this guy was the killer. Call it woman's intuition, only don't because I'm entirely positive women don't have a sixth sense for knowing who's a murderer and who's not.

"Yeah… I know what you mean. It's like… I don't want this guy getting in trouble if it's not him." Chie mused aloud, a slightly concerned expression on her face. Justin nodded a bit before turning his attention back to his food. He just wanted to keep his mind off of this; he had enough on his plate as it was.

"I hope it is him though." Justin remarked, shoving some noodles in to his mouth; swallowing them down before proceeding to elaborate. "I just want this to all be over with already." Justin sighed. If this was their guy; they had him in a corner now. And it would all end soon. No more staying up at night waiting for the Midnight Channel, no more worrying about his friends' safety every day… No more putting themselves in danger every time someone got thrown in. They'd be able to just go back to the way things were before… Well; the peace and quiet part anyway. Justin hated to admit it, but if it weren't for this murder case, he'd probably never have made a lot of the friends he had right now. Hell, he even wondered if Chie and him would be friends. Sure, they talked before the incident; but with the way Justin acted, he'd be surprised if she started to ignore him after a while.

"It would be nice to go back to the things were before all of this…" Chie remarked. It seemed she just wanted this to end already as well. And who could blame her? These murder cases were like a leech to the investigation team; sucking away at their energy, their very souls on a daily basis. Chie wanted to protect people; that's why Justin assumed she kept putting up with all this bullshit. But even then, that didn't mean she didn't long for the calm before the storm.

"Yeah, I know what you- GODDAMMIT!" Justin shouted interrupting himself as his phone started to vibrate again. Chie found it actually a bit difficult not to laugh at how angry he was getting over a text message. Justin wasn't finding this quite as amusing as Chie. In fact; he was pretty pissed off right now. His head hurt enough without that irritating beep coming out of his phone every three seconds. He had half considered hurling the phone across the restraint and into a wall; cutting off all communication with Maya. But he didn't. He just flipped the phone open to see what could be so fucking important that Maya had to bother him AGAIN.

_You wouldn't happen to have left the keys under the mat, would you?_

"God fucking dammit Maya." Justin declared, pushing himself up from his seat. Chie passed him a puzzled look, not entirely sure what Maya had done this time that Justin was so pissed. Maybe she was vomiting up a lung. Probably not though, since she'd really have no reason to tell Justin that she was if he was trying to go behind his back. "Maya's locked out of the house, I have to go let her in." Justin sighed. "Just once I'd like to be able to sit down and eat without the melodrama or the interruptions." Justin muttered under his breath as he threw some money on the table for his portion of the bill. He felt bad for ditching Chie like this; but Maya WAS still sick, so leaving her outside his house in the cold of the night was not going to fly. Chie passed Justin a slight look of sorrow. The one time in months they'd been able to just sit down, eat, and chat; and Maya had to go and ruin it. They just didn't have much luck with this stuff apparently.

"Oh… uh… Good luck with her." Chie remarked semi-sarcastically. Though there was certainly some truth to her words; whether she knew it or not. Maya was really a handful in every aspect. She was always dragging Justin away from what he was doing for something; and that's not even mentioning the financial aspects of her living under the same roof as him. It was seriously draining away at him. He wondered if there was a way to petition to get a larger chunk of the trust fund a month. Sure, he got all the money at once when he turned eighteen; but that was still two years off. Not exactly helpful with Maya living with him now.

"I need a lot more than luck. I need my goddamn sanity back, for one."

* * *

December 9, 2009

* * *

"**If you don't stop playing that fucking song, I'm snapping that thing in half."**

The two shadows were sitting along the rooftop, overlooking the alleyway once again; a smoke in Shadow Maya's hand, a guitar in Shadow Justin's hand. Shadow Justin had been strumming that same riff over and over again as of late; as if he had just learned how to play it and wanted to let the world know or something. And that was incredibly annoying from Maya's shadow's point of view. Justin stopped playing for a moment to glare at her for a moment. Apparently at some point within the last week she had gotten the notion that she had any say over what he did. She was sorely mistaken. He glared at her for a moment longer before playing the riff again, just to spite her.

She reached out to grab the guitar neck, tugging at it as she tried to rip it off Justin's shadow's body. He was having a hard time deciding whether wearing the strap was a good thing at this point. On one hand, she couldn't rip the guitar off of him so long as that cloth wrapped around his back. On the other, that meant she just might settle on throwing him over the edge of the roof with the guitar. Luckily, she decided it wasn't worth the effort she was putting into trying to break that thing. Justin's shadow smirked in slight victory as Shadow Maya glared at him, annoyed by his childish antics.

"**Oh I'm sorry, what was that about snapping my guitar in half? I couldn't hear you over this riff." **Justin's shadow taunted her as he played the riff again. She was very visibly boiling with annoyance and anger.

"**I wasn't talking about your guitar." **The shadow snarled. Justin's shadow's playing slowed then to a crawl before eventually coming to a stop. He wasn't entirely sure what Shadow Maya had intended by that. I mean, what else could she possibly have to snap that would piss of Shadow Justin?

"**Oh really? What were you talking about then."**

"**Your spinal cord." **Shadow Maya's glare intensified as the words left her mouth. Shadow Justin just shook his head. She could threaten him all she wanted, he wasn't afraid of some bitch with an attitude. Where did she get off thinking her opinion was the opinion to end all opinions? That her word must be followed to the letter or there would be bloodshed? Justin grunted slightly. When he was king, she was going to be the first against the wall. Then he'd see just how cocky she was then.

Shadow Maya glared at the side of Justin's shadow's head before turning her attention back to the alleyway below her. She was about to drop her cigarette over the ledge, having had her fill of smoke in her lungs, when something caught her eye. It was Maya and Justin… and also Teddie unfortunately. That would no doubt make things more complicated. Maya dropped her cigarette next to her on the roof, so as not to alert the two teenagers below them of her presence, before turning and jabbing Shadow Justin in the side. He glared at her, annoyed with her insistence of whacking him for no reason, though he understood once she pointed down below them at the group below them. The shadow's eyes widened as he saw his human counterpart, looking nervously around as they approached the dumpster that Shadow Maya had rigged.

"**Shit! It's other me." **Justin's shadow remarked, as the two stood up, backing away from the ledge slightly. Justin's shadow bit his bottom lip as he watched Maya jump up to search inside the dumpster. If other him was here, and other Maya was here, then that meant it was time for them to get to work… He knew Shadow Maya wouldn't think twice to put a knife in her counterparts forehead. Justin's shadow? Not so much. He wasn't objecting to the whole murdering the other him part, mind you. He just wasn't sure he wanted to leave. This was his home; and even if all the other shadows wanted to leave so desperately, he just couldn't find the nerve in him to think of leaving the place. Sure the grass might be greener on the other side; but that's just because the shadows didn't have grass. Maybe they should work on that; plant the seed of change, you know? Then they wouldn't want to leave so bad…

But how? As long as the humans continued to corrupt this world with their ambitions and twisted dreams, the shadows would never truly be free. Perhaps that's why most of the shadows wanted to replace the humans. It was the only true way to be free in this hellhole. The shadow grunted slightly now that he thought about it. Humans were a fucking blight; destroying everything they touched. This world was all the result of dark human ambition and twisted dreams. And none of the shadows would be safe until they were gone…

"**Oh, grow some fucking balls already. There is nothing for us here. NOTHING." **Maya's shadow remarked, having seen the hesitation in Justin's shadow's eyes. He didn't want to leave, and that was very concerning to Maya's shadow. He was breaking all the social norms, he was defying their very nature for no reason other than to be a fucking idiot. She'd make him kill his counterpart if she had to. Justin's shadow glared at her for a moment before sighing, turning his attention back down towards the cement below him.

"**We taking the express way?" **Shadow Justin questioned as he eyed the ground below him, spotting a blind spot just behind where Justin was currently standing. It was shady for one; so it would be hard to make out anything from within the shadows' confines. Plus it would just be generally quicker; which might be a good thing since Maya could tip that dumpster over at any second. Maya's shadow stared at him like he was crazy for a moment.

"**No shit we're taking the express way. God damn." **She shook her head before backing up slightly and jumping down from the ledge of the building, a good five or so stories to the ground. Thankfully, since Shadow's were really all just blood and smoke, there was no real mass to their body to create a sound from impact with the ground behind Justin. Plus; you can't break any bones if you don't have any. Neither shadow was in any danger from jumping to the ground below them at any height. Justin sighed a bit, annoyed by Shadow Maya's asshole nature, before following her lead and jumping down from the rooftop. As he looked up from his landing spot, he noticed the motion of the dumpster slowly starting to tip. Maya's shadow smirked devilishly, her plan slowly starting to come to fruition; and with her plan, so too her freedom.

"**Showtime." **


	102. Chapter 101: July 28, 2011

CHAPTER 101

July 28, 2011

* * *

"Oh hey look; asking about a guy who you don't even know the name of doesn't yield much in the ways of results. Color me shocked."

Justin and Rise had been walking around the shopping district in search of any hide or hair of someone who might know anything about this guy. Alas, neither was having much luck, and it was starting to get late out again. Justin sighed a bit, making the occasional sarcastic remark about how they were making no progress. It probably didn't help that he didn't get any sleep last night. His shadow had apparently decided that now was a good time to bombard him with his was great and all that his shadow was giving him information that COULD help find the killer; but god damn, Justin was almost entirely positive his shadow was doing it just so Justin would lose sleep. And that pissed him off.

He rubbed at his eyes a little, yawning as they made their way over to Rise's house. Again, Yu seemed to be making some headway, but no one else was; that much was for damn sure. By this point most of the other members of the investigation team had just called it quits for the day. The only ones Justin knew were still at it were Yu, Yosuke, and Maya. Justin was a bit surprised at the initiative Maya had been taking with this case as of late; she had just sort of helped where she could before. Now it seemed she was waking at the crack of dawn just to go on a wild goose chase.

"You think we'll be able to find him, Senpai?" Rise questioned as the two walked, somewhat oblivious as to how completely drained Justin had been. He shrugged a bit. In all honesty, he had so much on his mind right now that he didn't even care if they found him. It's amazing how enough stress could make you not care about a serial killer running ramped.

"Would it be wrong for me to say I hope we don't find him tomorrow?" Justin remarked out loud. Yeah, he knew he sounded selfish; but it being Chie's birthday and all, he didn't want to go jumping into televisions beating the crap out of shadows. It was a day to be celebrated, after all; not a day to get damn near mauled by shadow tigers. Rise didn't really know what tomorrow was, so she couldn't really understand what he was getting at. It had to have been something important though for him to not want to find this guy, right?

"I don't know." Rise remarked, pretending she knew what Justin was talking about. She wasn't fooling Justin of course; but he didn't really feel like explaining it to her. He just wanted to drop her off at her place and go home; catch up on the hours of sleep his shadow had stolen from him the night prior. That was certainly a more difficult task when Rise had decided to just stop out of nowhere. Thank god Justin had been standing to the side of her, otherwise he would have ran smack into her. Something had caught Rise's eye, and she didn't seem all that happy about whatever it was she saw. "Is that a reporter…? Or… a stalker?" Rise questioned, making out the figure of a suited gentlemen standing outside her place, just staring at it, as though waiting for something. Justin's eyes widened slightly. He didn't need this stalker shit right about now; he had enough problems as it was without adding creepy pedophiles to that list.

"We should… uh… We should go." Justin remarked, slowly backing away, as he reached out to grab Rise by the wrist to pull her away. If that was a stalker; he wasn't in the mood to confront him right now. He was so tired right now he'd probably get his ass kicked if he got in a fight. Justin was brash, sure, but he did know how to pick his battles. And in his current state of being, he really wasn't prepared to be punched in the face repeatedly. Rise nodded a bit, as though to tell Justin to stop backing away; like he was crazy to react the way he was. She didn't seem the slightest bit afraid of the potential stalker standing in front of them. Justin paused for a moment before letting go of her wrist. He was confused right now.

"Uh, th-that's alright. We don't know if he's really dangerous or not. Let's just wait and see, okay? But… thanks for that." Rise smiled faintly, flattered by Justin's apparent concern in her safety. Justin blushed with embarrassment. He really wished she had spoken up about this BEFORE he had made an ass out of himself and grabbed her by the arm. "Hmm, but still… That guy… Where have I…?" Rise pondered to herself as the two slowly approached the man. She hadn't recognized him at first; but once she got closer, she recognized him almost immediately. It's hard not to recognize the guy who made you a superstar, after all. "Inoue-san, is that you!?" Rise remarked, very much surprised. The gentleman in the suit turned towards her, a wide grin on his face as he closed the distance between him and the two teenagers.

"Rise-chan!" Inoue greeted her, a charismatic smile on his face. Neither Rise nor Justin returned the sentiment; though that was for entirely different reasons. Rise was still very much confused by her manager's sudden appearance, and Justin? Well he had put two and two together; and you already know what his opinion on the industry was. Needless to say, he wasn't very thrilled to meet the man who had built many a man's souls up before sending them burning back into the ground.

"Wh-Why are you here…? I already settled everything with the agency…!" Rise's confusion eventually subsided to slight rage. She was here to get away from show business, not to be harassed by it after all. She just wanted to stop all this Risette crap; but clearly Inoue had other intentions. He frowned as Rise more or less told him to fuck off and stop bothering her about this shit.

"I'm here because… Personally, I can't accept that. I've watched over you this entire time as your manager…" Inoue tried to explain. Though he probably made it worse than just keeping his mouth shut. It sounded to Justin like he was trying to say 'shut up, I own you.' He was pretty much saying 'your decision doesn't matter, because it's my decision.' And that sure as hell pissed Justin off. People are not objects; even celebrities, believe it or not. You can't just manipulate them; you can't just scramble the pieces to the puzzle at your will. Justin glared at him slightly. He was only going to give him one warning to stop acting like a huge doucher.

"She said no." Justin remarked. She didn't literally say no of course; but the intention behind her words was the same. Inoue was a little confused by the older boy Rise seemed to be hanging about with right now. This was not going to look good if the paparazzi got word of it, that much was for sure. Still; he wasn't entirely sure he liked this kid's backtalk. He was talking to Rise, not him after all. Who was he to tell Inoue what to do anyway? Inoue managed star personalities like Risette; what did Justin do that made him think he was so much superior to one of the highest grossing managers in the industry?

Rise, however, only seemed to get angrier as Justin spoke up. He was right; she did say no to him. And she wasn't going to stand for him pestering her like this anymore than he already had. She didn't even care that he was her manager, or all the stuff he had done for her in the past. She didn't belong to the record company anymore, and she was going to make that painfully clear to him; one way or another. "I'm no longer a 'personality'! My private time doesn't belong to a manager anymore! Go home. If you don't, I'll call the police." Rise snarled at him, threatening him if he wouldn't leave. Inoue, who had seemed annoyed by Justin but a moment earlier, soon turned his expression into one of complete fear. This wasn't how this was supposed to go down. Not at all.

"W-Wait! Could you just think it over? I strongly believe that no other actress can play that role better than Rise Kujikawa. Your fans were looking forward to the movie, too…" Inoue begged her, trying to play the guilt trip on her and make her feel like shit for letting her 'fans' down. But, big shock; Risette's fans were fucking awful. Most of them were perverts or stalkers, and the ones who weren't would not shut the fuck up about her. Case and point: Yosuke. Point being; she had no regrets with annoying her fan base. They worshipped a person that didn't actually exist after all. That said, she only seemed to get angrier as Inoue tried to plead with her.

"You still want me to act…!?" Rise shouted, very much annoyed by Inoue's harassment at this point. She made it very clear she was done; yet here he was bugging her to do it anyway. Inoue raised his eyebrow in slight confusion, much to Rise's dismay. It seemed just yelling at him wasn't going to be enough to get rid of him. She was going to need to think of a reason to get rid of him. "…Anyway, I'm through with it! I have nothing to do with showbiz and all that stuff now! I… I-I've decided to marry this man once we graduate high-school!"

Well one thing was sure; Rise was one hell of an actor. Justin? Not so much; he immediately recoiled in slight horror. It probably gave it away to Inoue immediately that Rise was just lying to get rid of him. Rise shot Justin a slight glare, as though telling him to stop overreacting. How could he not though? He understood she was just lying, but you can't just say that kind of shit when you're a celebrity. What if that got plastered all over the news? Chie wouldn't just murder him. She'd murder him, find a way to resurrect his corpse, and then murder him again. And then she'd chop up the corpse just for good measure. "I said before it was only a hiatus, but I've changed my mind! There's no way I'm coming back! Justin sees the real me… He's so gentle…!" There was a slight harsh tone in her voice as she continued to give Justin the slightest glare, trying to coax him into playing along. He was horrified to even have been put into this position. He was a faithful man, he'll have you know; and he had no intention of giving anyone reason to believe otherwise. Especially not a multi-million dollar corporation that would gladly drag his and Rise's names through the dirt if they pissed them off.

"Uh…" Justin moaned slightly, not really sure what to do. She had really put him on the spot here. I mean, he couldn't go around telling people he was going to marry Rise; Justin barely even knew her. And god knows Chie could get suspicious as fuck about this stuff. The whole Ai incident was just proof of that. On the other hand, he couldn't just let her take shit from this guy, right? He couldn't let her get in trouble just because he was willing to save his own hide. Justin swallowed the fear in his throat, his stomach ablaze with worriment for the consequences he was no doubt going to face for his choices today. "Y-Yeah… married…" Justin stuttered, already regretting his decision.

"S-See? I told you…" Rise declared. Justin wasn't even sure how this was supposed to be leverage against her manager; all he knew was he was very far under the bus right about now. Why couldn't people ask before they tried to use him like that? Seriously, just a 'hey Justin, think you can do me a favor,' would more than suffice. He just couldn't be put on the spot for shit like this. He just couldn't.

"…I understand. I'll go home… for today. B-But I…" Inoue continued to try and convince her, despite it being painfully obvious she wanted him to leave and stay away. Especially with her lying about Justin and her getting married. Justin was a shit improv actor; his reaction had given it immediately away that Rise was lying through her teeth. Rise glared at her manager. She didn't understand what part of 'go away' he didn't quite understand; but she'd be more than happy to teach him what it meant. And by that she meant Justin would be more than happy to teach him. And by that she meant Justin was going to beat the ever-loving shit out of him if he stayed for even a second longer.

"Go away! Now!" Rise barked at her manager. It was surprising that a bubbly person like Rise could be so absolutely frightening when she was pissed. Hell even Justin had considered backing away slowly. Inoue outright ran for it as she ripped him a new one with three simple words. Apparently it's all about delivery; not so much the actually content. Rise sighed as he finally vanished off in the distance. With the murder crap going around and just trying to get away from that kind of life, she didn't need Inoue bothering her about her choices. She was old enough to make her own decisions; the agency didn't own her or anything. And if they thought they did, they had another thing coming. "Oh… U-Ummm…That was Inoue-san. He was… my manager. I'm his daughter's age, so he treated me like one of the family… But… he's a stranger now." Rise explained to Justin, who while having figured out most of that, was still relatively clueless. Justin sighed loudly. Why did he always get caught up in all of these messes. It was like he walked around with a giant 'kick me' sign on his back, only instead of saying 'kick me,' it said 'flirt with me, pretend I'm your boyfriend, or otherwise do anything that will get my girlfriend to murder me once she catches wind of this.'

"And that is why you should have never trust Holywood." Justin remarked snidely, shaking his head a bit. Rise was finding herself hard pressed to disagree. If Holywood was going to try and make her life a living hell now that she wanted out, then perhaps getting involved with Holywood in the first place wasn't such a good idea. But she was her own person; and her agency and her manager and all those people that built up Risette could fuck off if they couldn't comprehend that. She didn't answer to them anymore.

"S-Senpai, umm… I'm sorry… Lying about marrying you and all…" Rise apologized for putting Justin under the spotlight like that. She knew he was accounted for after all; so she felt bad about forcing him into that situation. But that was the only thing she could think of to get her manager to go away… Well short of Justin threatening him; but she'd like to avoid being sued if at all possible. Justin sighed slightly, his body shivering slightly. He was legitimately afraid of what might happen now that Rise had opened the bottle of snakes. He swore to god if the media decided to blackmail Rise with this shit, he was going to kill her himself. Friend or not, there are certain things you just don't ask from each other. And knowing how Justin got about this kind of stuff, asking him to do anything that might make him feel like he was betraying Chie, betraying her trust… That was off limits. But she sure as hell asked anyway; and he was livid.

"Yeah, well… If word of this gets around, you'd better hope you get around faster." Justin remarked, a slight glare on his face. Rise shook her head slightly. She knew what she was asking was a lot; she didn't think it was 'threaten to murder someone' a lot. Besides, if something came up like that, she could vouch on Justin's behalf. She meant no harm to come to his and Chie's relation; especially not because of something she had done herself.

"Very mature…" Rise remarked sarcastically. Justin shook his head. She clearly didn't understand the shit storm she may have just brew. He sincerely hoped for her sake this did not get around somehow. Because he was dead serious about wanting to rip her skull out if there was a fallout between him and Chie over this. "You really are a nice guy, though. Th-This isn't good… I feel like I'm going to depend on you even more…" Rise seemed almost concerned by the prospect of having to depend on Justin for anything. And that was understandable really. I mean, he did just say she was a dead woman if her little white lie made the papers. He wasn't exactly the most reliable of friends. "…J-Just kidding!"

"About what, being a nice guy?" Justin smirked slightly. He found it kind of humorous that Rise had pretty much tried to cover her traces by adding 'just kidding' at the end of her compliment. As though adding on to Justin's ego would be disastrous. And she wouldn't be that far off if that's what she did think. Rise recoiled slightly, a little caught off-guard by the question. That was not what she had meant by that, and she knew Justin knew she didn't. He was just trying to bust her balls. Figuratively speaking. Just trying to clarify, since you know- You know what? I'm sure you get it. Point is; he was busting her chops.

"What? No, I mean-"

"Because you'd be right you know."


	103. Chapter 102: July 29, 2011

CHAPTER 102

July 29, 2011

* * *

"Sh-Shouldn't we be looking for information on that kid?"

"Just keep your eyes closed, will ya?"

Justin had dragged Chie over to his house, albeit, forcing her to keep her eyes closed once they actually got inside. It was her birthday, and while they probably should be out looking for whomever this kid was, Justin honestly saw this as a little more important. He should probably get his priorities checked in all honesty. Stopping a murderer really should take precedence over celebrating your girlfriend's birthday; as much as Justin hated to admit it. But then, he really didn't give a fuck. He held this as something much more important to his heart than trying to play detective.

Justin pulled her inside the house by the hand, dragging her over to the table in the kitchen. He had a surprise for her… Other than her birthday gift, I mean. He wasn't even sure if she'd like her gift. He hoped she would; he put a lot of thought into it, but he'd understand if it wasn't really something she'd want to wear. Honestly, you had to have a very certain look to pull of wearing those things without looking like a complete douche bag. Justin thought she could pull it off; but then beauty was in the eye of the beholder. And as far as Justin was concerned, Chie was always beautiful. He smiled as he let go of her hand, stopping her as they approached the edge of the table, before reaching out to grab one of those annoying birthday whistles. It wasn't a celebration until someone went deaf, after all.

"Alright, you can open them." Justin gave Chie the go ahead, enthusiasm in his voice. She seemed very much confused prior to opening her eyes. In all honesty, she had almost forgotten today was her birthday with all the shit that had been going on lately. Like… She knew it was her birthday… She just didn't assume anyone else remembered; least of all Justin since she had never told him it was her birthday. Needless to say, she was more than a little surprised when she opened her eyes to be greeted by the sight of a steak with a candle in the middle. Justin couldn't really afford a cake; but he did know she loved steak, and steak kind of rhymed with cake, so he went ahead and got that instead. He figured it would be funny anyway. Justin smirked before blowing on the whistle, the sound of which caused Chie to jump slightly. She didn't expect Justin to have one of those on him, that was for sure; and she surely hadn't considered that Justin would blow on it right next to her ear. If she wasn't so surprised, so excited right about now, she might have punched Justin right in his face. God her ear hurt. "Happy Birthday." Justin chuckled as Chie rubbed at her ear a little.

"H-How'd you know?" Chie questioned, a wide grin sweeping across her face. She had never told Justin; and even if she did, she'd hardly expect him to go out of his way to do something like this. And for the record, she thought the steak instead of a cake was cute. She would have preferred the cake, but hey; she got a good chuckle out of seeing a steak with a single lit candle sticking in the center of it. Justin smiled at her as he put his whistle down on the table.

"Well Yukiko told Yu, and Yu told me." Justin explained concisely. Chie blushed slightly. This was all a little much to take in at once. She was flattered that Justin would go out of his way to acknowledge her birthday like this. A simple Happy Birthday would suffice; the steak was unnecessary. Nor was the gift that he was hiding behind his back at the moment. She didn't notice that though. "So how old are you now anyway?" Justin questioned. He was actually curious; he knew the month and day, not the year.

"Seventeen." Chie remarked with pride. It wasn't a sweet sixteen or anything like that, but seventeen was still a pretty big deal. Justin's smile subsided for only a moment. He had not expected that. He thought she would be turning sixteen in all honesty. It was a bit strange knowing that Chie was almost a full year older than him. Not that it really bothered him or anything; it just struck him as a bit funny for some reason.

"Lucky you. You've only got one more year before these become legal." Justin remarked, picking up a pack of cigarettes he had hanging on the table. Chie shook her head slightly. She really wasn't a fan of Justin smoking; after all, smoking kills. But it was something he did to calm himself down, and on that level, Chie could understand. Everyone had something they did when they got anxious; it just so happened that Justin's nervous habit could kill him. Justin noticed the slightly cold stare Chie was giving him as he lifted up the cigarettes, and quickly put them back down, nervously trying to change the subject. "I-I couldn't really afford a cake… I hope this is alright." Justin apologized slightly. Chie shook her head, dismissing her concerns over Justin smoking for the time being.

"It's perfect." She replied, blushing hard. It didn't need to be a cake; it was the thought that count after all. And she could honestly say there was a lot more thought put into getting her a steak than in getting a cake. And Justin didn't even need to do that. The only way this could get better was if Justin put frosting on the steak. It would be inedible; but hilarious as fuck. Justin smiled, pleased with her reassurance that the steak was actually a good thing.

"Well? Going to make a birthday wish?" Justin remarked, gesturing towards the candle with a shrug of his head. Chie made a slight grunt of surprise, having completely forgotten all about the dancing flame atop the candle wick. She still had to blow that thing out. She stared at it for a while, contemplating what to wish for… She thought long and hard about what she could want, yet she couldn't think of a thing. She had her friends, she had the power to protect her friends, she had Justin… What else could she want? So what did she wish for when she blew out the candle? For things to never change.

Justin smiled at her as she backed away from the now smoking wick, slowly slipping his hand out from behind his back. It was amazing she hadn't managed to see the box he was holding from behind his spine; it was a small one, but still. You'd think the position of his arm would have given it away. Still, he slowly slipped the box out from the cover of his behind, extending it out towards Chie, a wide grin on his face the whole time. Chie recoiled in slight surprise, her mouth forming a slight o shape as she saw the package in Justin's hand. "H-huh? For me?" Chie questioned.

"No, I just felt like showing you a box wrapped in wrapping paper. Of course it is." Justin remarked sarcastically, but sweetly at the same time. Chie hesitated to reach her hand out to grab the box. In all honesty, she wasn't sure if she really wanted the gift. It was no doubt very nice; but Justin had already done so much for her that she just didn't feel right snatching the present out of his hand. It would please her to no end to see what wondrous gift Justin had painstakingly picked out; but she almost felt bad that he had thrown money into getting her anything. She blushed slightly as she slowly gripped the present between her fingers, withdrawing her hand as she brought it close to her torso, slowly and delicately unwrapping it; keeping the paper very much intact as she removed the box it held from its confines. Justin would have just ripped that shit apart, but it seemed Chie treasured that paper just as much as the gift it held. Inside the wrapping paper was a small white box; and inside that?

Two dog tags wrapped along a fanciful chain; one with Chie's name, one with Justin's. She was surprised at first, though very much overcome with joy. She knew Justin wore dog tags with his and Maya's names on it. She stared up from the box to stare at Justin, a wide grin on both of their faces. Justin was fiddling with the dog tags along his chain; specifically the new one that had Chie's name on it. Chie's eyes watered slightly as she embraced Justin, a tight grip along his back as the two hugged each other. "This is the best gift I've ever gotten." Chie choked up over the pure joy clogging her throat.

"Happy Birthday, Satonaka." Justin whispered into her ear, as he closed his eyes, absorbed in tight embrace he now found himself in. He never wanted to let go; and given how happy Chie seemed right now, he damn well might not have to. At least, that's what he thought until his phone went off. Justin opened his eyes, frowning a but as the hunk of plastic in his pocket vibrated. If it were up to him, he'd just let it keep ringing; but he knew it was probably important. He sighed as he let loose his grip on Chie, who had been blushing profusely as he let go of her, to stick his hand in his pocket and answer the phone. "Hello."

_Justin? It's Yu. I've got the information we need. We're all meeting up in the television._

Justin sighed as the words left Yu's mouth. It seemed like this party was going to be cut short. He looked at Chie, disappointment in his eyes. She was slipping the chain over her neck at the moment, and she seemed absolutely thrilled. Justin wanted it to stay that way; he wanted her to remember her birthday because it was special, not because she was chasing after a murderer. "Alright… I… I guess we'll meet you there."

_Hey can you do me a favor? Maya and Yosuke aren't picking up their phones. Could you grab them on your way over?_

"Yeah… Yeah… I'll do that… I'll see you soon." Justin sighed as he hung up the phone. Chie passed him a glance of confusion and concern, clearly able to tell something was bothering Justin. He looked like he was damn near going to cry at any second. "Yu got the information we need… we have to get going…" Justin huffed as he slid the phone into his pocket. "Sorry we have to cut this short…" Chie stared at him with a concerned expression on her face for a moment before smiling, much to Justin's surprise. She closed the distance between her and him before leaning up and kissing him on the cheek.

"Don't be. It was perfect." Chie smiled up at him, grabbing him by the hands, before tugging at him slightly to nudge him out the door.

* * *

"Crap… I'm not getting any reception…"

Maya and Yosuke were searching around the shopping district at the moment; doing one last sweep for anyone they might have missed that could point them in the right direction. They weren't having much luck though. Maya had tried to ring up Justin to see if he was having any luck finding anything, but alas, it seemed their reception had just dropped completely off the map. Which was strange, considering she had been able to get reception here before. She sighed as she slid her phone back into her pocket, giving up in trying to get in touch with Justin. She'd have to wait to find out what he knew apparently.

Yosuke was fidgeting about slightly as the two walked about the somewhat empty streets. For summer vacation, it seemed not many people had been out and about. Which was good; less witnesses for what he was anout to do. He took a deep breath as he dug around in his pocket, gripping at the tickets in his pockets. The movie he had intended to ask her too was starting in a couple of hours. He had meant to ask her earlier, but with the search for this guy and everything, he hadn't found the time. Alas, he didn't have much more time to ask her; it was now or never.

"H-Hey Maya. You have a second?" Yosuke asked, his cheeks slightly red. He was almost afraid to ask; he didn't want this to interfere with their friendship if it went horribly wrong. Though he did suppose he could just pass it off as a friendly hang out session, not so much a date. Maya looked up an expression of interest on her face. Well of course she had a second; she had been with Yosuke for the last few hours today alone. She moved some stray hairs out from her face as Yosuke stared at her, trying desperately to hide his red hot cheeks.

"I'm here, aren't I?" Maya remarked sarcastically, chuckling slightly at her own joke. Yosuke chuckled too, but more in that 'oh everyone else is laughing, shit I better too,' kind of chuckle. Even just getting her attention was apparently going horribly. He rubbed at the back of his head for a moment, trying to choose his next words carefully. He didn't exactly have the home field advantage right about now; he needed to choose his words perfectly otherwise he might as well just walk away right now.

"I was wondering… Uh… I-If you're not doing anything, would you-"

"Yosuke, Maya!" Justin called out, cutting Yosuke off midway through his proposal to go to the movies. Yosuke stood there, his jaw slightly ajar as Maya turned her gaze over to Justin and Chie making their way over, Justin waving one of his hands to get their attention. Yosuke closed his jaw before averting his gaze, staring at the ground below him with disappointed eyes. They just had to interrupt him when he was going to pop the question.

"Oh hey Justin. I was trying to call you, but I'm not getting any reception." Maya tried to explain as Justin came to a full stop in front of her and Yosuke. He nodded in slight acknowledgement, satisfied with the explanation as to why they weren't picking up their phones. He would like to get this done as quickly as possible after all, so he could try to spend the rest of the day celebrating Chie's birthday the way they were supposed to. Maya and Yosuke weren't making that easy by not picking up their damn phones.

"Yu apparently got the scoop on this guy; we're all heading inside the television." Justin remarked, thrusting his thumb over his shoulder as though to gesture the two to come with them. Maya smiled with excitement; she was more than pleased to see that this whole murder case might be drawing to an end soon. Yosuke, not so much. He had immediately understood the implications. If Yu knew anything about this guy that would help Rise find him, they were going to be in there for a while today. And that meant no movies.

"Really? Cool, let's go." Maya remarked, cheer in her voice as the three of them marched off, leaving Yosuke behind for a moment. He stared at the back of Justin, Chie, and Maya's heads, somewhat flabbergasted at his shitty ass luck. Yosuke dug around in his pocket to grab the tickets, as though he wanted to make absolutely sure he had just been fucked over by Yu just now. Sure enough, the day for the movies were today. And no, the tickets were not refundable. Yosuke crushed the tickets up, anger and annoyance sweeping across his face before throwing the crumpled pieces down on the ground.

"Goddammit!"

* * *

"This is the guy. His name's Mitsuo Kubo."

Yu passed around a picture he had managed to get of the boy from his yearbook. Justin was actually a bit surprised he had managed to get a picture of the guy; he was one hell of a detective apparently. Justin stared at the photo for a moment; it was definitely their guy. He had this blank expression on his face though, as though he didn't feel a damn thing as the camera was pointed at him. He briefly wondered if he had to pose like that for his yearbook photo or what before passing it off to Yosuke, who for some reason or another had been pissed off the entire way into the television.

"That's him all right… It's definitely the guy on the Midnight Channel! It's settled, then. He is the killer… and he's in here now!" Yosuke shouted, pointing fingers already. It was clear that he just wanted this shit to be over with and stop interfering with his life. Justin glared at him slightly, annoyed that he was already jumping the gun again. They weren't going to sentence a guy to life in jail just because they were getting impatient. They needed evidence first.

"We don't know that yet." Justin clarified, trying to calm Yosuke down. There wasn't ANY proof that this guy was a killer, only that he could get through the television, and for whatever reason, he was daring the audience to try and follow him. At least; that's what it seemed at first. Somehow looking at this photo, hearing that name… A lot of bells were being rung. And most of them weren't singing the most pleasant songs. Rise's pupils dilated a bit once she got a better look at the photo being passed around.

"This guy came to our shop before… Was he… spying on me…? Oh my God… I really was being targeted…" Rise mused aloud; shocked by the picture she was looking at. Justin's eyebrows raised. This would have been really useful information earlier, and she had to have recognized this guy the first time she saw him. The picture came in crystal clear, after all. Justin would tell you something; that was a LOT more suspicious. They could put him at the scene of one of the kidnappings now.

"Dammit! Frickin' punk!" Kanji snarled, ranting and raving once again about how much he hated the killer. As if the rest of the gang didn't know that already.

"Hey, I've seen him before too… Hmm… Oh, now I remember! Yukiko, it's that one guy!" Chie declared after examining the photo for a while. This had been bugging her for the last few days, but after staring at the photo for a while, it seemed she could remember it crystal clear; as if just looking at the photo was enough to spark her memory. But that didn't matter; she remembered now, and let me tell you something… Any doubts she had about this guy being the killer were gone now. Yukiko still didn't remember though; nor Justin, but he'd figure it out soon enough.

"That one guy…? Yukiko questioned. She really needed Chie to be more specific. She could think of a lot of guys.

"Back in April, remember!? He suddenly came and started hitting on you!" Chie explained, a little annoyed that Yukiko didn't remember a thing about this guy. Justin did now that Chie was more specific, if the coughing fit he had right now was any indicator. Yeah he remembered that guy well enough. He was one creepy motherfucker, and it didn't seem like he left Yukiko on good terms that day. So now he had met TWO of the kidnapping victims- no wait scratch that: THREE. Justin was the one who had scared him off, so he already had a motive from that angle. This guy had a motive for everyone who recognized him so far, and they could place him at the scene. Justin was finding it hard to find more damning proof than that short of a bloody knife.

"Oh, him! The dude who got served by Yukiko in front of the school! Man, Chie, how'd you remember something like that!?" Yosuke asked Chie. He didn't even remember much about that day, and he was the one who had damn near lost both his testicles that day. Chie scratched at her head slightly; she would have thought it would be obvious. After all, let's face it; Chie was obsessed with protecting Yukiko, especially back then. She'd even admit it.

"Well, that was the first time he talked to her, but I remember he was always following her around." Chie explained. She had seen him around before, watching from a distance; though she didn't really make the connection until later. She thought maybe he had just been watching people walk by, or something had caught his eyes; not that he had any romantic intent. Now he just looked like some creepy stalker. Yu groaned slightly, perhaps a bit annoyed by the thought that there was a guy out there that had been gunning for his woman… Even though that was long before him and Yukiko really became a thing. And even then, they weren't really a thing quite yet; they both liked each other, but they've never really done anything a couple would… Mostly because they weren't sure what couples DID do.

"Um… Sorry, who are we talking about?" Yukiko questioned again. She still had no idea who this was, and despite Chie's clarification, she still felt like her question had gone completely unanswered.

"The dude who came right up to you at the school gates and called you Yuki!" Yosuke shouted at her, annoyed that Yukiko kept asking the same question. They couldn't get any more specific than they already had; she should have remembered by now. Apparently the keyword to spark her memory was 'Yuki.' As though that nickname was memorable enough that she would instantly recognize it, but not memorable enough that she knew who had said it; only that she wasn't a fan of it.

"Ohhhh… Uhh… Really?" Yukiko remarked, believing she remembered him, but not so sure if they were thinking of the same guy. At this point everyone had sort of given up on trying to get Yukiko to remember. They remembered who he was and what he did, and that was more than enough.

"Wait, did he kidnap Yukiko to get back at her for rejecting him!?" Chie snarled, very much pissed off that someone had tried to seriously hurt Yukiko just for saying 'no.' Before she wasn't even sure this guy had done anything, but she was more than convinced now. And she intended to kick his ass.

"Um… I didn't really reject him…" Yukiko interjected, trying to disprove Chie's perception of what had happened. Clearly Yukiko was the one with the twisted perception of reality; the one who didn't really understand what had happened. She rejected that guy so hard; it had actually managed to bruise his ego. Perhaps even physically too; who know. Yukiko could deliver one hell of a burn when she tried to. Justin groaned slightly before speaking up on the matter himself.

"It would certainly explain why I got kidnapped. I was the one who scared him off if I recall correctly." Justin theorized aloud. He had clearly pissed this kid off; so now he had reason to want to get rid of Justin. Every second this guy was looking more and more like their man. Rise nodded slightly, trying to get people's attention. She didn't know about what happened with Yukiko, but she was seeing a potential motive in her case now.

"He came up to me while I was busy working and asked, "Don't the biker gangs bother you?" Just going on and on about how biker gangs can't do anything unless they're in a pack and stuff… He seemed to be the type who just keeps talking, whether you like it or not… if that make sense… I usually treat those people politely so they don't get offended, but I was so tired that I kinda ignored him. Was that why I was kidnapped…?" Rise mused aloud. Mark that down as three for three on the motivation. I mean, this kid didn't seem like he handled rejection too well, and being rejected by a celebrity when he was most likely trying to just be friendly…? Yeah, that probably didn't settle to well with him. AND he hated biker gangs, which brings us back to Kanji and that completely inaccurate news report that labeled him as a biker.

"Huh…? Wait, I'm not a biker! Ugh… That damn special report… So that's why I got dragged into this." Kanji continued to add onto the pile of evidence. It was stacked very high at this point. Hell, Justin didn't really think they needed anymore evidence than this, but it seemed the investigation team begged to differ. They just kept on coming up with motives and ways they could place Mitsuo at the scenes of these crimes. And the pile kept getting bigger and bigger down the line.

"You know, I heard he'd been saying stuff about that announcer's affair, too. Lots of muttering about how women who cheat on their husbands should be executed." Chie continued. And that was pretty much that. They had a motive for every last person who was kidnapped. It was over; the guy was through. They just needed to catch him now.

"Sounds like it's all coming together… Well, it's time for a showdown! Can you tell where this Mitsuo guy's at?" Yosuke questioned, turning his attention to Rise. It seemed like they had more than enough information to track this guy down now, right? They had his appearance, they had some elements of his personality, and they knew he pretty much hated everything. Rise nodded slightly, scanning the world with the new information she had found. It only took a few seconds for her to locate their target.

"…Yeah, I found him! He's that way." Rise remarked, pointing off in the general direction of Mitsuo.

"Alright, let's go! We're so close to the killer… We can't lose him now!" Chie announced, as the majority of the group ran off in that direction… Maya included. Justin stopped once he noticed Maya trying to follow them. He had let her in the television for a moment because they were discussing what they had found out; he never said she could come with them when they went to fight Mitsuo. He held out his arm to cut Maya's path off, much to her disappointment. She knew what he was trying to do.

"Maya…" Justin spoke down to her like she was a child. She felt kind of bad, but she couldn't just stand by while everyone else put themselves in harm's way. Besides, she could help. She could heal them, and she DID know how to fight, even if she didn't have weapons like the majority of the group. "Turn around…" Justin continued, keeping his orders brief, but also very condescending. And that pissed Maya off a bit.

"But I can help! I'll be fine, really!" Maya pleaded with him; as though his opinion should even matter. All she had to do was out run him, right? Justin shook his head, a disapproving expression on his face. He was getting a little sick of Maya trying to push through regardless of how much he told her to stay behind; to stay safe. And Maya could tell that her pleading wasn't really getting through. So she would need to try something else. "I can defend myself you know. You realize how many legs I've broken?" Maya tried to boast, hoping her combat abilities would prove a sufficient explanation. She convinently decided to leave out the fact that one of those legs were Yosuke's.

"Maya… Stop. I'm not letting you get put into harm's way again. We'll be alright, but you need to-"

"Is what happened last time what you consider alright!?" Maya shouted, interrupting Justin's attempt at getting her to go back home. Justin froze almost immediately. He hadn't expected Maya to get so angry, nor to bring up something like that; something she knew hurt him very bad whenever he thought of it. "You remember what happened to Chie, huh!? What happens if it happened again this time!? You think it's just going to be a broken rib again!? It's not, Justin! She's going to get seriously hurt, and it'll be all your fault!"

Maya was huffing out in anger as she finished shouting at Justin trying to convince him to let her go. It took her a while before she realized what she had said to him, letting go of the anger she was gripping on so tightly in her chest. She had never seen a more pain filled expression in Justin's face. This was a sensitive topic with him, and she had outright shoved it down his throat and ripped his heart out in its place. He looked like his heart had outright stopped, like his eyes were about to flood with tears. And she felt god awful. She wanted to help; not break Justin's spirit. "…I…I'm sorry, I didn't mean-"

Justin didn't even say anything; he just turned around and walked away. Not a word more was spoken by him to tell her to turn around, nor to say she could come along. He didn't care what she did anymore. She could stand here and rot for all he cared right now. She hurt him. She hurt him really bad. Yet he couldn't find a single word to say to here. So he left. Maya watched from a distance, pain in her eyes as she saw him walk away. She went way too far and she knew it. And for a moment, she even had to contemplate following him. He probably didn't want to see her right now; not after she had pretty much just taken a shit all over his worries and pain. But she did anyway, following from quite a far distance back, hanging her head with shame.

* * *

"What is this…? Some kinda game?"

The group had eventually made their way to the spot Rise had claimed she found Mitsuo at; and what an interesting spot it was. Everything was pixely and blocked; what appeared to be low resolution textures were spread underneath their feet. By all accounts it did in fact look like a game. A very old one too. Justin looked around with slight amazement. Even in all the grief Maya had just caused him, he couldn't help but find himself awestruck. This was like every gamer's wet dream; and Justin just so happened to be a gamer. He was okay with this place; that was for sure. He just wondered what else about this place was like a game; if anything at all.

"Holy crap…" Justin remarked to himself as he took in the sights. He was absolutely fascinated. Hell, pretty much all the guys were. Justin was surprised Chie wasn't as fascinated by this place as the rest of them were; she was probably more of a gamer than half of them anyway. Really, the only girl who seemed mildly interested was Maya; and even then she had much more on her mind than this strange new world she had discovered. She sighed slightly as she stared at Justin. He seemed interested in this world Mitsuo's heart had thought up, but you could still tell by the expression on his face that he was sincerely hurt.

"Well, he did taunt us, saying "Try and catch me"… I guess he thinks of all this as a game." Yosuke replied after a short moment of taking in the sights. This was no game, but in all honesty, he was curious what else this guy had a managed to think up. Or if conventional gaming knowledge applied here. You know; power-ups, cheat codes, the works. Because that would be pretty damn useful for trying to catch this guy. And who wouldn't want extra lives? Chie didn't share Yosuke's enthrallment with this world however. She just seemed pissed that it DID look like a game.

"Ohhh, this pisses me off! I hereby sentence him to a hundred kicks to the face! Let's go!" Chie declared aggressively, very much annoyed that this guy thought of his killing spree as a game. People had gotten hurt, people were dead. This was no game. And to think that's all this was to the killer, that he was destroying lives just for his sick kicks… She was going to beat the ever loving crap out of this scumbag; that much she was positive of.

"Man, this is old school." Yu remarked. Admittedly, of all the games this guy's heart could have chosen to imitate, he picked some pretty classic stuff. Everything looked 8-bit; everything was pixilated and rough around the edges. Old school was certainly an adequate word for it. Now Justin just wondered what game Mitsuo was trying to copy here; if any at all. After all, if this WAS based on an existing game, and it had been a game Justin played… Well, he'd know the secrets to success, right? Yosuke chuckled with slight agreement. This just MIGHT make up for Yu dragging him away from his affairs with Maya. After all, he could always ask again sometime later… So long as his wallet held out anyway.

"Gotta admit… All guys love games." Yosuke remarked, a wide grin on his face. That was completely untrue, yet not completely wrong. Most guys certainly liked at least ONE video game, and Mitsuo was clearly not the exception. Justin shrugged slightly as he pushed on ahead with the rest of the group, eager to get started on their adventure.

"And all girls love Teddie!" Ted remarked pervetedly, much to no one's surprise. Justin sighed as they continued to push forward; Maya trying to get his attention the entire time to apologize. He never did turn around to acknowledge her.

* * *

"Justin… C'mon, stop…"

It had been a long day in the television world, and the investigation team had made quite a bit of progress. But alas, the day had ended and everyone had gone home… Justin and Maya included. And given the tension between them at the moment… Well that was awkward to say the least. Maya had been begging Justin to stop ignoring her. She was sorry, she really was. She didn't mean to say anything like that, she just got angry. Justin didn't care if she was sorry though. She had meant what she said; even if she didn't know it. She wouldn't have said, wouldn't have thought of it if she didn't think that in some capacity.

Maya sighed as Justin climbed the stairs, his feet crushing against the staircase loudly as he ascended to his room, slamming the door behind him. She hated seeing him like that; and it was all her fault again. She had hurt him so much in the past that this struck deeply at her heart. It seemed like everytime she did anything she had managed to hurt Justin more… And when that happened she started to think of running again. To leave it all behind. A lot more dangerous of a thought than you would think. You see; Maya never defeated her shadow, but that didn't mean it couldn't come back. And she knew it; she got her power by suppressing her emotions, keeping them under control. When she started having these regrets about what had happened that day again… She was giving her shadow the opportunity to return.

She sighed as she walked around the house, getting prepared to try and sleep her woes away. She hoped that time would heal all wounds; that Justin would forgive her come the morning. But she wasn't holding her breath. All she knew was she wanted to sleep, not live through this agonizing pain of Justin forsaking her for words that should never have been spoken. She couldn't help but grimace as she made her way into the kitchen, looking for something to eat before she went to bed. There on the kitchen table was a steak with a candle in it. Maya didn't know it was Chie's birthday of course; but she could put two and two together. This whole case had dragged Justin away from celebrating a very special day for him… pulling him away from someone he loved. And it just made her feel like shit knowing that he loved her as much as he did. Not because she had always wanted that love from Justin; but because she had used it against him. She had used it to hurt him for her own purposes… and it fucking worked. He wouldn't even look her in the eye anymore.

Maya stared at the steak for a moment longer before turning around and jumping on the couch. She didn't even care about eating anymore; she had lost her appetite the second she realized just what a terrible thing she had done. She just wanted to sleep it away, forget what had happened today… and hope that Justin did the same. She stared at the ceiling for what felt like hours before she eventually felt her eye lids grow heavy with drowsiness. After all, it's hard to sleep with a guilty conscience.

"I can help… What a loada shit..." She whispered to herself before finally falling fast asleep.

She had nightmares the whole night through.


	104. Chapter 103: July 30, 2011

CHAPTER 103

July 30, 2011

* * *

"Did you sleep well I heard that a girl was killed last night. The noise of the arcade was bad, but can you buy some coffee from the café in the police cars? Thanks, I can't even safely walk around… I can safely withdraw cash now. Have you heard? Good morning. Don't be out dangerously late, okay? Relax and don't let your guard down."

The investigation team was getting very close to the top of the castle Mitsuo had decided to hide out in, and with each floor they climbed, the stranger the words the hollow voice echoing through the halls spoke. No one could understand what the hell he was saying by this point, and quite frankly, it was a little concerning. Rise was outright frightened, in fact. But they pressed on all the same. If this guy was their killer, they couldn't back off. And the more his words seemed to lose their meaning, the less there seemed to be a method to his madness, the more his sanity seemed to gradually slip away, the closer they knew they were getting.

"It sounds like he's losing it… He might be insane… Umm… I'm getting kinda scared…" Rise announced as everyone walked around. There was no denying the guy had lost his mind by this point; it was only a matter of whether he was going to be dangerous because of it… Or if he was dangerous before his mind went. Justin honest to god believed it was him; but it would be nice to get a confession for confirmation. Though that really wasn't looking like that was going to happen soon.

"I… I… don't have anything… IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII DDDOOOONNTTHAAVEANNYYTHINNGG GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG"

"Jesus Christ, whatever happened to that level up shit? At least that wasn't creepy as fuck." Justin mumbled aloud. As absolutely disgusting as it was that Mitsuo seemingly had treated those murders as a game, the rest of the team was hard pressed to disagree with Justin. At least they could sort of understand why he did it if he thought it was a game. He'd be doing it for kicks; for shits and giggles. They couldn't figure out what had made him snap if his mind was already this long gone. And that was the scary part; delving into the unknown.

Of course, the group didn't really have much time to think about that; they had been running into shadows like crazy on this floor. Mostly these weird dice things and some more of those annoying ass hands. Though, they certainly hadn't gotten the drop on them like they had this time. Justin sure as hell wasn't expecting one of those hand things to fall from the ceiling and latch onto him. Well, needless to say; having a giant hand that weighs just about as much as you attached to your head was not a good thing.

"GAH! GET THIS THING OFF ME!" Justin shouted as the hand's fingers wrapped around his head, causing him to thrash about as the hand's weight shifted from side to side, steering him into walls and all sorts of hazardous objects. It was a wonder Justin's neck hadn't snapped from all that weight on his head. Everyone immediately got into a fighting position; save maybe Maya, who had taken up a support role since she joined the group inside the television. She could fight, but really she was better off just standing to the side and healing where she could.

"Quit moving!" Chie barked at Justin as she tried to line up a shot. Everyone else was hesitant to really strike the hand because it was right on top of Justin's head. Chie? Not so much. She didn't have any sharp objects that could sever Justin's head clean off if she wasn't careful. Though Justin really wished she had been a bit more careful as she gave a clean swipe of her foot to Justin's head; knocking the hand off, but also knocking Justin into the floor pretty hard. "Oh crap. S-Sorry." Chie frantically apologized as Justin groaned as he collided with the floor. That was not how he intended for them to get that thing off his head. And the worst part of it was they didn't even finish the thing off; it just sort of scurried away after taking one hard ass kick to its figurative ass. Justin groaned a bit as Chie helped him back to his feet, rubbing at a cut on the side of his head the floor had managed to tear open. Maya was immediately concerned once she noticed it and ran over to help.

"Jesus that's a nasty looking wound." Maya remarked examining it as Justin stood up. Justin glared at her all the while, not so much as saying a word to her. Maya bowed her head, ready to that thing she did with the blue aura and crap the let her heal people… But alas, Justin had other plans. He walked right past her, ignoring her efforts to heal him. And she noticed alright, opening her eyes in slight surprise and disappointment as he continued to try and pretend she didn't exist. She couldn't really do anything if he didn't stand still, and he knew it. He didn't want her help, apparently; as though that were supposed to make a statement. Everyone was a little flabbergasted at Justin as he didn't so much as say a word to Maya after blowing her off.

"We were heading this way right? Sort of lost my sense of direction with that hand on my face." Justin remarked sarcastically. Everyone on the team stared at each other in slight disbelief before turning towards Justin and nodding in confirmation. And with that Justin began to proceed back down the hall, the investigation team following shortly behind. Most of them wanted to stay out of whatever feud those two seemed to be having right now. The only one who seemed to care was Yosuke; who was getting a little fed up with the way Justin had been treating Maya for the last few hours. The two stayed behind for a moment as the rest of the team progressed; staying just far enough behind that Justin couldn't hear them, but close enough that they wouldn't get lost.

"What's up with you two? Something happen?" Yosuke asked Maya as the two walked along, Maya hanging her head with disheartenment. She shook her head slightly; not as a way of declining something had happened, but rather shaking her head with disappointment in herself. She didn't blame Justin for acting the way he was; hell, she was upset the others were blaming Justin for acting the way he was. Maya would be the first to vouch that she deserved this; as much as it hurt her.

"I said some nasty stuff to him the other day." Maya took full responsibility for the attitude Justin had. She didn't want the others to hate him for hating her… Yosuke crossed his arms, not very satisfied with that explanation. Everyone says stuff they regret later, but it couldn't be that bad. The Maya he knew wouldn't say something to purposely hurt Justin; and if she didn't do it on purpose, then Justin had no reason to be pissed at her. He was just acting like an overgrown man child by this point.

"C'mon. I'm sure it's not your fault." Yosuke tried to cheer her up. Maya smiled slightly, not necessarily because she had cheered her up, but rather because she was happy to see him try. It's the thought that counted after all, and this wasn't just any old thought; this was a thought from Yosuke. A very sweet one at that. It was a wonder she hadn't started blushing; perhaps she had just gotten better at trying to hide that stuff so she didn't look ridiculous in front of him.

"No… No it was…" Maya sighed slightly, the grin on her face slowly subsiding. Yosuke frowned, disappointed by the way Maya was beating herself up. He lifted his arm out from under his other arm, extending it out to try and grab Maya by the other shoulder, bringing her towards him in a half-embrace… For her, I mean! No totally not because he wanted to or anything… Well anyway; that was the intention, but half way through him trying to weasel his arm around her, he bumped straight into Teddie. It seemed the others had stopped as they found the door way to their culprit. Teddie turned around very visibly irritated by Yosuke's collision with him. Yosuke in turn blushed. Hard. He sure as hell hoped no one else had seen anything.

"Hey, what's the big idea?! How rude!" Teddie declared, pouting slightly as Yosuke waved his arms in front of his chest in an apologetic and frantic manner. Normally he didn't care what Teddie thought; but he didn't want to risk Ted possibly having seen anything and spelling the beans. Justin turned around to glare at the three making a commotion. They had business here, and they didn't need to waste their energy bickering like that.

"Will you two shut the fuck up?" Justin barked at the two, putting an end to Teddie's rant before he even began. Teddie crossed his arms and grumbled under his breath; no doubt annoyed with the way he was being treated right about now. Justin sighed before turning his attention to Rise. "Anything on the other side?" Justin questioned. As though he didn't already know. The big door always signified this was the right place. Still, he supposed it would be best to know before he kicked in the door. Rise nodded a bit, having finished scanning the other side with her Persona.

"Hmmm… I can sense him past the door." Rise declared, informing the group this was the place. Justin cracked his neck to both sides, as though to flex his muscles before him and Chie pulled back on their legs and kicked the door in with complete unison. It warranted some applause from Yu; though that was most likely sarcastic. Point was, they got the job done without everyone pushing on these doors for fifteen minutes. Chie clamped her teeth shut in anger as the door opened and they got a good look at the contents of the room. It was round like a coliseum; and in the dead center was Mitsuo and his shadow… Though strangely, Mituso seemed to be the one doing all the talking; not his shadow.

"Look! There he is!" Chie shouted before everyone rushed in, surrounding Mitsuo from all sides; ready to pounce and take him down if he tried anything funny. It looked like their mission was complete, save for one thing… This guy had a shadow. It seemed the possibility of the killer having a shadow had never crossed the team's minds; but when you think about it, someone as mentally unstable as Mitsuo probably had a lot of suppressed fucked up thoughts… That might be problematic now that they thought about it.

"You Mitsuo!? You better be ready to pay, you bastard!" Kanji shouted at Mitsuo, an expression on his face that suggested he was going to let loose some frontier justice on his ass… Which Justin was not opposed to for the record; it's just that there was something a little more important they needed to deal with at the moment. And for once, it seemed he and Yosuke agreed on something; something wasn't quite right about the way Mitsuo was interacting with his shadow. The shadow wasn't even saying anything to the kid; Mitsuo was the one doing all the talking.

"Wait, Kanji… Something's not right!" Yosuke tried to cool the embers in Kanji's heart. Something was certainly not right about this… Not one bit.

"Everyone gets on my nerves… That's why I did it! What do you think of that!? Say something, dammit!" Mitsuo barked at his shadow, practically spilling his guts out for his shadow to rip apart, only to find the shadow had no interest. Every time he demanded his shadow say anything, the shadow remained quiet; and in turn Mitsuo talked more. And the more he talked; the more evidence they had stalked against him. But the way he was just sort of shouting this to the world… Either he was very proud of what he did, or he needed someone to hear it. Anyone apparently, if his choice in recipient for this information was any indication. "Nobody even thought of me after the first two people. That's why I went for the third one! I killed them!" Once again, the shadow did not reply; and the quieter he got, the more pissed off Mitsuo got. "Wh-What're you all quiet for…?" Mitsuo questioned angrily.

"**Because… I feel nothing…" **The shadow eventually spoke up, the echo in his voice striking Justin as particularly ghastily. There was something frightening about the shadow being so… calm, yet so melancholy in his tone. There was something very painful in the shadow's voice… There was definitely something scary about the shadow being the one who seemed afraid. It wasn't, of course; but you could have fooled Justin easily if he didn't know how manipulative a shadow could get.

"What're you talking about!? Make sense, dammit!" Mitsuo demanded, his voice growing more and more frantic, panicking at the shadow's reluctance to speak. He had said everything to his shadow, and yet his shadow refused to so much as acknowledge his existence. Talk about an unheard plea for attention. Chie fidgeted about slightly, not sure if she should be maintaining her battle pose right now. She was more confused than she felt threatened.

"What the…? Which one's the Shadow?" Chie questioned.

"I'm guessing the one that's glowing purple." Justin in turn remarked snidely. Chie shrugged slighty. She really should have known that; but could you really blame her? This entire argument the two of them were having… Mitsui himself was exhibiting more of the traits a shadow would than his actual shadow. He was the one spilling all his secrets out to the world, and he was the one who was being aggressive. His shadow just sat there and listened. And said nothing. At least, it did until his shadow stood up, turning his attention over to his human counterpart, an empty expression on his face.

"**I… have nothing… I am nothing… And you… are me**…" The shadow spoke up slowly in a monotone voice; that creepy echo on his voice seeming to drive his words hard into the hearts of everyone present. It was seriously creepy; even by Justin's standards. And Justin had a control-freak who wanted to wipe out humanity (and potentially fuck anything with a vagina) living inside his skull. You know if you made him feel uneasy, you were one creepy motherfucker.

"What…? What's that supposed to mean!? I'm… I'm not nothing…" Mitsuo countered, faltering slightly as he finished his sentence, claiming to be more than nothing. It seemed he was having a hard time believing it himself. Justin immediately drew his gun; knowing fairly well how this was going to end. Obviously Mitsuo wasn't going to listen to a word the investigation team said; they were here to arrest him after all, so talking him down from denying his shadow wasn't going to happen. All they could do was prepare for if he did deny it.

"No! If this keeps up…!" Yukiko shouted, trying to stop him before he said anything. Strangely, despite being surrounded and shouted at a couple of times earlier, it seemed he had only just noticed the group surrounding him right now… One of them with a gun drawn and trained on the imposter standing in front of him. He wasn't too pleased with the people who had all been gathered around him right now, that much was for sure. Especially not… her.

"Wh-Who are you guys!? How'd you get in here…? Dammit, who the hell are you!? What're you doing here!?" Mitsuo barked at them, panicking as he looked around to spot way more faces than he was comfortable with surrounding him… Though there was a certain sense of pleasure stirring up inside of him with all these people watching him, listening to him and all he did; all the attention he was getting was actually exciting him.

"Shut the hell up! We came after you!"

"Are you the killer?" Chie followed up Kanji's vicious remark. Justin shook his head slightly. _Smooth, Chie. So much for subtlety. _Still, it seemed it had worked to some extent. Despite being direct as fuck, and this guy having really no reason to admit to anything, Mitsuo was more than happy to oblige. He paused for a moment before a wicked grin found its way spreading across his face, a sinister laugh under his breath.

"Of course I am! I'm the one behind everything!" Mitsuo declared with pride; pride in his work murdering people apparently. Justin was actually a little concerned he was pointing his gun at the wrong Mitsuo right now. After all, this guy was a huge scumbag, and the shadow couldn't exist on its own until Mitsuo denied him right? So if he were to say… accidentally pull the trigger on Mitsuo; boom, two problems solved at once. Mitsuo turned back to his shadow, continuing to shout and take credit for all the killings that had occurred. "I don't give a damn what this imposter's saying! Hahaha, you hear that!? You have nothing to do with me! Get outta my sight!" Mitsuo ordered the shadow, apparently finding some bravery and audacity in his pride, before turning his attention back to the teenagers surrounding him right now. "That goes for the rest of you, too… Why'd you chase me all the way here!? I'll kill you! I'll kill all of you! I can do it, you know… I can do anything!"

"Calm down before I put you down." Justin glared at him, turning his gun to Mitsuo now. Fuck the shadow; he just threatened to kill his friends. That wasn't going to happen, and he'd put a bullet in this fucker's brain before he so much as laid a finger on his friends. Mitsuo didn't seem in the slightest bit fazed by the gun pointed straight at his skull though… He did seem fazed by his shadow's aura suddenly glowing much brighter and much more intensely though, the purple smog surrounding him seeming to blow at him with strong intensity.

"**So you don't accept me…"** The shadow muttered. Justin went to train his gun back on the shadow when suddenly the entirety of the group had been blown back by an explosion of power. Justin didn't even hear the part where Mitsuo denied his shadow. He called him an imposter, sure; but he never explicitly stated 'you are not me:' which seemed like the exact words needed to get the shadows to shape shift. As Justin pushed himself up from the ground he had been flung against, he was greeted by the sight of what appeared to be a floating fetus, sitting in a meditation pose.

Yeah… It was weird.

It made more sense as he started to build up what seemed like a suit of armor out of blocks; pixels if you will, forming the much bigger and more recognizable shape of what seemed like an RPG character; a warrior made completely of blocks. Everyone was busy contemplating what the hell this thing was, for some inexplicable reason, when Justin decided fuck it and charged in before anyone else. He thrusted his hand forward as he rushed forward, summoning his persona as he darted forward. And within seconds his persona was right there in front of the pixilated warrior, hammering block after block of its armor away, sending them crashing to the ground below. Justin all the while was taking pot shots at any chance he saw the opportunity. They didn't do much unfortunately, what with the armor and all.

"**Come… I'll end your emptiness."** The shadow's voice echoed out from the outer shell of armor it was wearing; completely oblivious to the scratch damage Justin was doing. As he finished the remark, the rest of the investigation team charged in; save Rise who had simply been scanning the shadow for weak points, and Maya who was still serving a support role, and had simply been applying boosts and heals where she saw possible. It seemed as though almost no one noticed that Yosuke and Chie were sporting all new Personas. Maya certainly did, but now was not the time to be gaping at the ascended Personas those two had now possessed. Everyone else was hammering away at that outer shell with all they had. And they slowly but surely were deconstructing it. But with a single swipe of its sword, it had managed to hurl everyone back across the room, giving the shadow some more breathing room.

Justin groaned as he gripped at his side in slight pain from the second impact he had made with the floor. Good news; it wasn't a broken rib. He snarled a bit as he stood up, ready to send his Persona back in when suddenly the shadow cast a wave of energy over everyone in the room. Justin covered his face using the side of his arm as though blocking a punch. He didn't know what this thing did, and he highly doubted blocking it would do anything, but it was always better to be safe than sorry. Well, Justin seemed completely unaffected… Yosuke not so much. Out of nowhere, he literally dropped down into a fetal position, screaming in horror. Justin looked on with amazement as the once determined Yosuke sat there trying to hold back his fear. Yu immediately rushed to his aid, digging through his pockets for some medicine he had that he thought might help alleviate the sudden wave of fear over him. In the mean time; the rest of the team charged back forward to strike away at the shell.

"What's wrong?" Maya questioned as she ran over to where Yu was trying to help Yosuke. He was shaking violently at this point; though why was anyone's guess. All they knew was that wave of energy must have had something to do with this. Yu shook his head; the medicine wasn't working. It was designed to help with a lot of the status ailments they had run into the during their dungeon crawls, but alas, it seemed completely ineffectual here. This was not looking good.

"I don't know… He's afraid of something, that's for sure." Yu tried to explain. It was really hard to describe the condition he was in. It was like he was seeing something that wasn't there; and that thing was frightening enough to make him thrash his body about to try and escape. What it was he was seeing, Yu didn't want to know. Some things were better off being unsaid. Maya stared at Yosuke for a moment longer, before crouching down and giving a gesture to Yu to tell him to back off and let her try something.

"Give me some room; I'm going to try something." Maya ordered Yu, grabbing Yosuke by the hand to try and calm him the best of her ability while she performed the spell. She closed her eyes, and within seconds, the blue aura was surrounding her once again. "Patra." She whispered under her breath. This was a long shot, but it was worth trying anyway. Much to her relief, it seemed to work, as the tension in Yosuke's eyes suddenly loosened, his body stopped shivering… And his cheeks grew hot red as he noticed Maya was holding his hand. He almost immediately withdrew it.

"Wh-What just happened?" Yosuke questioned. He had seen some pretty fucked up stuff in the last few minutes, but everything seemed fine right now. He was very much confused, he'd tell you that much. Maya smiled at him with relief, pushing herself up from the ground, proud of the work she had done. But alas, while she'd love to stand here with pride forever, happy to see Yosuke was alright, she did have other work to do. Yosuke stood up, shooting her a grin of appreciation, before him and Yu soon darted off back into the fields. Maya eventually turned her attention back over to everyone beating the crap out of the shadow… And the shadow in turn turned its attention to her.

He had noticed that she had snapped Yosuke out of his fear, right when he was about to seal his fate; a spell that would make his fears a living reality. And that would in turn kill him, as he was trapped in his fears for eternity. And Maya had just ruined that. He wasn't very pleased that was for sure. It meant that the only way he was going to be able to teach these people the true meaning of fear, the true void of emptiness, was to do away with her. He pointed his sword at her, and she in turn froze in place with fear as the pixilated blade overshadowed her.

"**GIGA" **The shadow announced his move; energy radiating from the point of his sword. Maya just stood there and watched as the blade pointed at her, a bolt of pure almighty energy aimed straight at her. She couldn't move; she was stiff with fear at this point. Justin turned his attention away from the piece of armor he was hammering away at for a brief moment, noticing the energy attack aimed straight at Maya.

"Shit!" Justin declared, turning away from what he was doing, running over to where Maya had been standing. Just as the bolt of energy had been fired off, straight at Maya, Justin slid in front of the blast, taking the full force of the attack. Maya watched in awe and pain as she watched Justin scream out as the energy bounced off his torso, frying away at his skin. He felt every fiber of his being cry out with pain, and then some. And it wasn't even until the blast had ended that he could loosen his muscles enough to fall. Maya breathed in and out with horror as she watched Justin literally take the bullet for her. After all she had done, he had still put his own life in jeopardy to help him. She wasn't even sure she could move to help him, she was still afraid.

But she did; she dropped to her knees before rolling Justin over to get a better working angle on him. Maya grabbed at his wrist feeling for a pulse. Luckily, it seemed his heart was still working just fine. Hell; his pulse was actually pretty fast. It was like the blast was trying to speed up his heart to the point of explosion or something. Or maybe his body was just happy to still be alive right now. All the same, she felt a wave of relief come over her before she inspected the damages. There was nothing externally to give away what had happened, though she could make out a couple of broken bones where the blast had impacted. Justin's eyelids pulsated slightly; indicating that he was still very much awake, and still very much in pain. He couldn't even scream anymore; that's how bad it hurt. Maya held her breath for a moment, before bowing her head, frantically whispering chants under her breath as she tried to summon the energy she needed for this. It took almost all of the energy in her to mend his bones, to seal the fractures, to numb the pain. And by the times she was done; she couldn't even stand. She breathed out heavily as Justin slowly pushed himself off the ground; the pain in his muscles not entirely gone.

"You alright…" Justin muttered, panting heavily as he pushed himself up. Maya shook her head in slight disbelief. Justin had jumped in front of a deadly attack like that, been damn near out for the count with a whopping twelve broken bones, and he had the audacity to ask if she was the one alright. If she had the energy, she'd probably cry tears of joy. But she didn't. So she settled for a light 'you suck,' chuckle.

"You fucking asshole." Maya joked. "Don't worry me like that!" Justin smirked slightly as he raised himself from the ground, clutching at where his bone had been shattered but a moment earlier. Maya didn't have enough energy to numb ALL of the pain; just enough that his body wouldn't go into a coma from the physical shock. "I don't know what I'd do if something happened to you…" Maya remarked, sorrow in her voice. She couldn't take any more of the people she loved being hurt; she had dealt with that enough in her lifetime. Justin smiled weakly at her. It was like every ounce of rage in his body had disappeared with the wounds in his body.

"Probably the same thing I'd do if something happened to you." Justin remarked snidely. Maya blushed slightly, a wide grin on her face, as Justin gave a joking salute and limped back off to the battlefield. The others had worked quite abit away of the shell, and now… Now Justin could see the shadow inside, struggling back and forth as he noticed his defenses weakening. Justin pulled his magnum out of his pocket, slowly aiming it at the shadow's head as he slowly approached it. And just as he was about to pull the trigger; his eyes turned golden yellow once again. **"This is for fucking with my sister."**

And with that, Justin pulled the trigger; a bullet exploding out of the barrel of the gun and ripping straight through the shadow's skull. It simply stood there for a moment, letting out a foul screech as it's muscles tensed up with pain, before eventually dropping down, hanging over the edge of the armor he had crafted to protect himself; purple blood dripping down the pixilated sides of the 8-bit warrior. The suit eventually started to fade away, and with it, the shadow's form reverted back to normal, though the blood didn't stop. The team sighed with relief as they all slowly surrounded Mitsuo and his shadow; save maybe Maya, who couldn't stand. Yosuke had noticed and went back to give her a hand though, a wide grin on his face as he lifted her up from the ground, snaking his arm around her to hold her up. These weren't the circumstances he had hoped to be able to do that under, but he'd take what he could get. Maya was just happy that this was all over.

"Finally awake, huh? You've been a major pain in our ass." Yosuke shouted out towards Mitsuo as he dragged Maya along. He had just been waking up as the team surrounded him; ready to finish the job and go on with their lives. Justin was standing particularly close, hoping for him to give Justin an excuse to kick in his teeth. Everyone could tell he was limping, and most of them had seen him taking the blast on Maya's behalf; so they would have preferred he back up and let the rest of the team do the work. But he insisted on getting payback the good old fashioned way. With personal violence.

"What the…? You guys… Wh-Who the hell are you guys!?" Mitsuo asked frantically, as though he had already forgotten what they were here for. Justin glared at him before kicking him in the rib.

"Your worst fucking nightmare." Justin snarled before backing away from the now writhing in pain Mitsuo. That wasn't quite as violent as he had hoped he could get; but he realized he was actually hurting himself more than he was hurting Mitsuo by moving his only just healed bones around like that. They might as well be broken with the way they hurt. Not a single person objected to him kicking Mitsuo either. In fact, Chie tried to give him a high-five, but you can figure out how that turned out when his entire body was screaming out in pain.

"The police are after you. They think you're the one who killed King Moron and the other two. So…? Are you the killer?" Yosuke asked once more, annoyance in his voice as he interrogated Mitsuo. Mitsuo stopped squirming about in pain for a moment, glaring up at his attackers before his vicious stare eventually gave way to a maniacal laugh and grin. Oh he did it alright; and he was fucking proud.

"All the cases… All on me… That's right, I did it!"

"You piece of shit!" Kanji shouted what everyone was thinking. Right now, Justin was considering putting a bullet through the guy's mouth. An eye for an eye, after all, right? And this guy owed at least three eyes. Oh ho, his death should have been painful as fuck. But alas; if he did that, he'd be no better than Mitsuo. Justin was no murderer; as much as he'd like to be sometimes.

"And not just that bastard Morooka… That stupid announcer and that Konishi bitch, too! I killed all of them! It was all me!" Mitsuo continued, more than a little pleased that people knew of his work. That they knew he was the one to do it. After all; to die unsung would really bring you down. Of course; while they had wanted to kick his ass a moment earlier, they were much more captivated by the shadow disappearing behind him. No blue light; no purple smoke. Just gone. Like he had never been there to begin with. It was concerning to say the least.

"Wh-Where did it go!?" Rise shouted with concern as the shadowy figure bleeding out behind Mitsuo disappeared into thin air. Justin was getting a couple of side glances, for obvious reasons. He didn't seem to be reacting the way he did the last time the purple smoke had appeared… Something was very different about this… But what?

"What's going on…?"

"Ha… Hahaha… It's gone… That frickin' monster disappeared… Take that, son of a bitch…" Mitsuo shouted in victory over his now deceased shadow. He still hadn't come to terms that his shadow was part of him; that the shadow WAS him. And that might explain why the shadow didn't dissolve away into that blue light, why Mitsuo didn't seem to get a persona (thank god.) Persona or not, though, Mitsuo soon collapsed, keeling over with fatigue as his shadow vanished; slipping away from the real world. It seemed just having the shadow get the crap beaten out of it was enough to rip away at an individual's energy levels. Despite the terrible crimes Mitsuo admitted to, the team rushed over to his aide as he collapsed onto the ground.

"H-Hey!"

"He's exhausted… We need to hurry and get him out of here!"

* * *

"Where… am I..?"

It was quite a walk, but the group had managed to drag Mitsuo back out through the television; in more ways than one mind you. Usually when they pulled someone out of a television, it was because they were weak. This time, they were very forcefully restraining him the entire way out. Mitsuo didn't put up any fight or attempt to escape; but then, it kind of felt good to treat him like shit after what he had done to all those people. By all accounts, the investigation team had turned into those asshole wardens in those old jail movies. You know the ones. Yu kneeled down to address Mitsuo on a more personal level; anger, yet calmness in his eyes. It was a wonder the guy could maintain a cool head about all of this.

"Can't you tell?" Yu remarked, a frown on his face, only the slightest hint of anger in his voice. He was being incredibly condescending, but then, how could he not? They were talking to an asshole who had murdered three people; they were better than this fuck in every way. And they intended to make him know that. Mitsuo looked about the Junes, panicking slightly; not because he knew he had been caught. He didn't care about that. He was panicking because he was confused about everything that had just happened.

"Why… am I here…? What the hell are you guys…? S-Stop it… Why did the TV… Nngh…" Mitsuo choked up half questions; overloaded by everything he was seeing. It seemed this was the first time he had been inside the television… Strangely, he didn't seem to have any knowledge of what happened inside of there, about persona or shadows or any of that crap. Hell, for all Justin knew, he could have been throwing those people in there without knowing how dangerous it was. Of course; that excuses nothing considering he still killed those people, knew about it, and continued to do it anyway.

"You seem confused from everything that happened. But we have a bunch of questions for you. First off, why did you do all this!? Answer in ten words or less!" Teddie remarked, trying to sound as official as he could. He wasn't really taking this as seriously as everyone else; or if he was, he certainly didn't come across as it. Especially with that ten words or less crap. Though to be fair; it would be nice if this asshole kept it short so they could hurry up and throw his ass in jail.

"Haha… What the hell? Is that a costume…? Haha, what a loser… Get outta my face, you freak…" Mitsuo panted, very clearly finding amusement with this interrogation session he currently found himself in. And the more he back talked, the more amused he seemed by the team's questions on the crime, the more Justin wanted to knock his fucking teeth in. He didn't even care if it hurt; it was just important that he hurt too.

"F-Freak!? Grrrrr!" Teddie growled, just about ready to strangle Mitsuo, when Yosuke stuck out his arm to stop Teddie from doing something rash, keeping him in place and trying to calm him down. They still didn't have an answer, and besides; he wasn't as much of a fan of frontier justice as Justin and Kanji seemed to be. They were going to do this by the books; the cops would decided what to do with him, not them.

"Hold it, Teddie. You're not helping."

"Did you really do it?" Yu questioned, trying to play off Teddie's anger by taking the role of the good cop. He already knew Mitsuo did it; he admitted to it after all. But he wanted to hear it again; to hear the pride in this guy's voice as he declared that he indeed ended the lives of three innocent people. And after that? He'd turn a blind eye to Justin, who was coming dangerously close to punching the guys face in.

"Get off my back… I already told you… I did it…" Mitsuo remarked with annoyance; not because he did something horrendous, but because he was sick of repeating himself. He continued to chuckle at how his work was spreading about; how all these people cared about his crime… All the fame and reputation he had gotten from putting those people down. Everyone shook their heads in disgust; save maybe Yosuke, he was biting his bottom lip and closing his eyes, trying not to holler out in anger. He wasn't one for frontier justice, and he never would be, but this guy would truly deserve it for what he did to Saki.

"Why…? How could you do such a thing?" Rise questioned, pain in her voice as she thought about the horrible deeds this man had done. What possible explanation could there be for what he did? Nothing she could think of could justify systematically trying to murder innocent people. Was it for revenge? Was it just for the hell of it? She wanted to know. Especially since she was one of the targets.

"Three people are dead because of you…" Chie explained with disgust in her voice, condescending him and his immoral practices. She had expected him to feel some amount of remorse, just the tiniest hint of regret. Instead, he just started laughing like a mad man. And Justin in turn kicked him across the side of his head. He had about enough of this shit. Mitsuo didn't seem the slightest bit fazed by the now open cut along the side of his skull right now, though. Hell, he seemed to laugh harder at the blood gushing down his cheek.

"Everyone's talking about it, right? It's a huge deal… and I did it! All of it! All by myself…!" Mitsuo choked up with great enthusiasm. Justin was honest to god going to kill this fucker once he heard his reason. He had done it just to get attention? Thank god Yosuke and Maya held him back, because honestly? He would have done it. He really would have beaten this guy to death right there in the Junes. Everyone was outright mortified right about now; even Yu, who had been keeping a cool demeanor up until now. Now? He was very clearly pissed off.

"You just wanted the attention…?" Yosuke shouted with disgust as he held on tightly to Justin's arm as he struggled to try and break free to beat the ever loving crap out of this guy. Yosuke was honestly having a hard time deciding whether he should let go or not. The guy would definitely deserve it; after what he had done to Marooka and the announcer… and Saki. Especially Saki.

"Then why did you target me and the others? How did you kidnap us?" Yukiko shouted, her normally reserved demeanor long gone. She simply could not accept that this kid had been targeting people just for attention; especially not her and her friends. She wasn't going to tolerate it; he had pushed the wrong button, drawn the wrong straw. And that had sent her over the edge. Mitsuo didn't even care that he had managed to piss off everyone surrounding him. He just continued to laugh at them all.

"Whoa… Look who it is… Haha, hey Yuki… After all this time… now you wanna talk to me? Haha… What bullshit." Mitsuo mocked her. _Oh no, she doesn't want to talk to you, let's clarify that right now. She wants to fucking strangle you._

"Answer me! If you held a grudge against me, that's fine… But why the others!?" Yukiko continued to press Mitsuo aggressively for a motive. A reason why people who didn't even know him were being murdered. She would take the fault for anything she did, even if she didn't think she did anything wrong. But there was no excuse for targeting people like Rise, who didn't even know him, or Kanji, who wasn't even what Mitsuo thought he was.

"Ha… Haha, what a joke… You're so desperate it hurts… I didn't care who I attacked… Everyone pisses me off…" Yosuke let go of Justin's arm at that point, allowing him free reign to murder this fuck. Which sort of left the very tired Maya trying to hold Justin back from ripping this guy's head off. She wasn't having much success until Chie took Yosuke's place holding him back. She would yell at Yosuke if she didn't find herself agreeing with him so much. She understood exactly why he wanted to let Justin do his thing; why he wanted to exact revenge for Saki's death. He didn't even have a reason. He just killed her because he could. And for that, Yosuke could never forgive him.

"You what…? …gotta be… kidding me…! You killed Senpai over nothing!? …You son of a bitch!" Yosuke shouted before trying to leap at Mitsuo himself. Kanji and Yu managed to hold him back surprisingly enough. Kanji wanted to beat this guy's face in just as much as the others, but he was restraining himself fairly well all things considered. Hell, he was one of the very few voices of reason in the crowd right about now; a surprising feat coming from Kanji.

"I hope you're ready to get what's coming to you…" Kanji snarled, giving the most intense death glare to Mitsuo he had ever given. Mitsuo only laughed harder at all the people trying to rip his throat out right now; as though the thought of dying amused him. Clearly he wasn't afraid of what happened to him. The guy was mentally unstable. Yukiko passed Kanji a glance of concern. No one was going to be able to hold back a behemoth like Kanji if he wanted to do the deed himself. He wasn't a lightweight like Justin or Yosuke. She sincerely thought he was going to do the unthinkable.

"What, you gonna kill me?"

"That was the plan!" Justin shouted as he continued to try and break free from the grip Maya and Chie had on him. He eventually stopped after Chie smacked him upside the back of his head; as though that was all it took to get him to realize what he was doing; the only thing it took to snap him back into his right mind. And even then, he still wanted to punch the fucker. He just wasn't in need of as much restraint as before.

"Justin-kun!?"

"Kill you…? It ain't gonna be that easy, you piece of shit. What you did can never be taken back. No, you're gonna own up to your crimes and pay for what you did. You ain't gonna be allowed to kick the bucket until you understand exactly what it is you've done!" For the first time in the last few hours, Mitsuo froze, his grin slowly disappearing. He could accept death; it was quick and it meant people would remember him. The thought of rotting away in jail for the rest of his life, where people would eventually forget all about him… It horrified him. It horrified him to not be known, to not be given attention. Yosuke started to break down at this point; not in anger anymore, but in great sadness. He did it all just so people would pay attention to him. Words couldn't describe the pain in his chest right now.

"Why, dammit…? Why did she have to die because of this bastard…?" Yosuke spoke up, ready to break down into tears at any second. The girl he had loved had been taken away from him for no reason… No reason at all. She didn't even have to be the one to die. She was just unlucky. He couldn't find any ounce of aggression left to try and fight back Yu and Kanji anymore. He just wanted to sit there and cry his troubles away. Maya sighed with pain as she watched Yosuke struggle with his emotions. This was something no one should have had to go through with. Especially not him. Chie and Maya finally let loose their grip on Justin as they noticed him finally calm down, a look of great sadness on his face as he watched Yosuke hold back the tears. They didn't always get along, sure, but Justin still considered Yosuke his friend. And friends should never have to see friends suffer the way Yosuke was right now.

"I'll… I'll go get the cops."

* * *

"At least Adachi-san seemed happy…"

Justin had managed to track Adachi down and bring him to the electronics department to make the arrest. It figures that he was slacking off again; but in a way, that was a good thing. It meant it was easy to get a hold of him and get this kid into police custody. Adachi was thrilled; mostly because it meant Dojima would lay off him a little. And with that, it was all over .The killer was caught; and everyone could go back to their lives. So why did Justin feel like complete shit? Was it just because the killer's motive was pretty much nonexistent? Because he killed without mercy just to get attention? Was it because his friends were legitimately hurt on a deep emotional level just because this kid wanted fame? Or was it just because every bone in his body still hurt? He didn't know. He didn't care. He was just tired… of everything really. All this television crap, all this Persona shit, all this murder bull… And it was finally over. He should feel relieved… but he wasn't. He just felt empty; like there was supposed to be a big bang at the end, and it all just died out in a fizzle.

"Well, I guess this means our work is done…" Yosuke choked up with slight relief. You could still hear a bit of pain in his voice where Saki was still in his memories, but other than that, he was glad it was all over. He was glad Mitsuo was going to get his; that he was finally facing judgment for something he could never forgive him for.

"He did it all to draw attention… I can't get my head around that. It's just wrong. I mean, not that it would've been okay if he had a better reason…" Chie spoke up, a very disheartened tone to her voice. She just couldn't wrap her head around someone killing just for attention. After having time to really think it over though, Justin could kind of get it. It wasn't necessarily that he wanted attention; it was a cry for help. And no one fucking listened. That's why three people had to die; because no one would help him… It was too late now though. Justin just hoped that he got the psychiatric help he needed once he got convicted. He deserved that much at least.

"It's all over… Let's leave the rest to the police." Rise declared, trying to put the group's minds at ease. But how could they really? That was one hell of a bombshell Mitsuo had dropped on them. To find out he had killed people because he just wanted people to recognize him… It was disgusting… yet so sad at the same time. It was hard to feel happy about catching a guy like that… They just had to try and remember they had put an end to his killing spree. And that's all there was to it.

"My world will be peaceful again now." Teddie remarked with cheer. On the bright side, it seemed Teddie was very optimistic about all of this. And there was no denying Teddie's optimism was contagious. The more and more cheerful he seemed about this, the more the attitudes of the rest of the team started to brighten up. It was a slow process, but it was working gradually and surely. After all, who couldn't be happy that Teddie's home would be peaceful again?

"Yeah. I'm happy for you. We really went through a lot…" Yukiko mused aloud, a grin slowly slipping over her face as she considered all the obstacles they had overcome. Nods of agreement could be found all across the table; even by people like Rise and Maya, who had only been involved for a short while. And it wasn't even fair to say Maya wasn't involved for that long, since the Midnight Channel had sort of ruined her life two years back. Point was; they overcame a lot of bullshit.

"Like scoring with guys!" Teddie shouted, completely ruining the sentimental moment. Not that anyone was objecting; they could all go for a good laugh right about now. Justin let out a slight shout of pain as cola splashed up his nose from laughing while taking a chug from his can. And with that the laughter only seemed to exemplify. Justin would never understand what it was about pain that was so funny; but it was. Even he found himself laughing at his agony. The only one not laughing was Yukiko; who was getting sick of all this scoring shit.

"Oh, come on…! Will you ever let it go?" Yukiko glared hard at Teddie, looking as though she would shank him if he said the word 'score' one more time. The laughter slowly started to die out… Especially once Kanji realized he had no idea what they were all laughing about. He was just laughing because everyone else had… And because Justin had been squirming about with his nose in his palm as he tried to numb the pain in his nose.

"What…? Scoring with guys!?"

"Y-You don't need to know the details. I'm sure you'd like us to forget the sauna incident too… right, Kanji-kun?" Yukiko quickly flipped the tables on Kanji, making him the subject of ridicule as everyone recalled that sauna… Well… Everyone that wasn't Rise or Maya. Maya had no idea what ANYONE was talking about right now. Honestly she felt like falling asleep; she had wasted so much energy trying to mend Justin, that she just didn't have it in her to stay awake. It was pure curiosity that was keeping her lively right now.

"Urgh… W-Well…" Kanji stuttered; embarrassed by the sudden topic change. Yes, he most certainly WOULD like to forget about the sauna incident.

"That's not fair… I wanted to see everyone else's too!" Rise pouted like a child. Honestly, it was kind of funny in an adorable way. Justin could certainly see the appeal in seeing that drama; though he'd be happy if he never saw another shadow again. Some things people are better off not knowing. He still thought of Chie's shadow from time to time, its grotesque form ripping out and blowing her torso clean off of its body. Absolutely disgusting. Though he supposed he was more afraid when he remembered that than he was grossed out. And then there was the matter of his own shadow; who was a huge fucking prick.

"That's right. We three are the only ones who saw everyone's secret." Yosuke remarked, gesturing to himself, Yu, and Teddie. Really, if it hadn't been for Yosuke's shadow, that list would also include Justin and Chie; but really, Justin didn't care. He wasn't happy to have seen everyone's shadows. After the first one he saw, he knew he never wanted to see another one again. But he did. Several times in fact. Point being, seeing everyone's shadows was more a curse than a blessing.

"Hey, so what was Yosuke's like? C'mon, it's about time you told us." Chie questioned with great curiosity. Apparently she didn't share Justin's distaste for seeing the locked away emotions inside of everyone. But then, she hadn't seen a replica of the person she loved getting her torso blown clean off in an explosion of guts and tentacles. In fact, she never even saw Justin's shadow transform. Just a golden eyed Justin; nothing too disturbing, as sickening as his personality was.

"Oh, uh… Pretty much like the rest…" Yu quickly covered on Yosuke's behalf. He could tell that was some pretty personal stuff, and besides… He really shouldn't be talking about Saki after all that had happened recently. Yosuke gave him a fist bump under the table in thanks for keeping his mouth shut.

"C-C'mon, let's leave it at that! Speaking of which, nothing really happened in your case, huh?" Yosuke changed the subject over to Yu; perhaps fearing that if he didn't, everyone else would continue to press him on his shadow. Yu was very visibly angered by Yosuke's apparent betrayal. He had gone out of his way to keep his secret, and he still turned on Yu. Oho, he was going to find something to get back at him with. Maybe he'd fill his can of cola with a packet of salt while he wasn't looking.

"Really… Wait, really? Is there something special about Senpai after all?" Rise questioned.

"Sensei is da man!"

"But now that the case is solved, we won't be calling you 'Leader' anymore, will we…?" Kanji remarked, slightly saddened by that. As though that were something to be upset with. This was a democracy after all; no one should have been given the title of leader. Just because he was the first one to go in did not make him the leader. Maybe Justin just didn't like the thought of being under someone's command; someone who was supposed to be his equal, but the title of leader just did not sit well with him when describing Yu.

"Oh yeah… That's kinda sad."

"Not really." Justin remarked in a monotone voice. Even if he was okay with calling Yu 'leader,' it wouldn't be a sad day the day they stopped calling him that. Rise suddenly leaned forward, getting up slightly from her chair as an idea suddenly struck her.

"Hey, why don't we have a celebration? We always have a wrap party after we're done shooting. its fun, and it'll help give us some closure." Rise proposed with great enthusiasm. She was very much hoping the rest of the group would be onboard with the idea or a party. And much to her pleasure, almost everyone was okay with the idea of a party; even Justin. Maya was really the only one opposed to the idea, and not necessarily because she thought it was a bad idea, but because she was exhausted and she thought it would be rude if she was a no show.

"Oooh, a party! That sounds great! Let's go all out!" Chie remarked, very much okay with a party. It would be a good way of relieving all the stress from the days prior after all. What better way to end a case like this than a celebration after all? It might help to get Yosuke's mind off of Saki and the killer's motive anyway.

"Ooh, ooh! I wanna go to Yuki-chan's house! Gorgeous dinner, hot springs, table tennis, yukata! Geisha, Fujiyama, full wootness!" Teddie practically orgasmed out the mouth. Justin's jaw was wide open, dumbfounded at how excited he was at the potential of going to inn; more so how Teddie even knew what an inn was. Kanji seemed just as surprised; but for much, much darker reasons. Leave it to a teenage boy to make going to someone's inn dirty.

"You're right, Yukiko-senpai's family runs a hot springs inn… A-A hot spring that… Yukiko-senpai bathes in too…?" Kanji remarked, eyes wide open, sweating slightly as he turned what seemed an innocent thought into something very very creepy. On the bright side; Justin could official establish Kanji as straight. Or potentially bi, but more likely straight. Everyone looked at Kanji with a wave of disgust sweeping their faces. I mean, what the hell had to be the matter for you to say that aloud? And besides; it was fucking water. No need to get an erection over it.

"Oh. Wow. Uh… I think I want to vomit now." Justin remarked only slightly sarcastically. He did infact feel like hurling his lunch up right now. Maya actually did; getting up and running over to a trash can to spew up the remains of her stomach contents. She wasn't really sick anymore, but she still had a sensitive stomach from throwing up all the time; little stuff could easily send her flying for a waste basket to excrete her stomach contents into.

"Hey, keep it to yourself… You're sounding like a creep." Yosuke remarked, panicking slightly as he watched Maya leaning over a garbage bin puking up. She wasn't exactly in the best shape as it was without Kanji making her vomit. It was a moment before Maya came back, an expression of self-loathing on her face as she realized everyone had just watched her do the deed. She could do it in private no problem, but with people watching? Uh uh. She didn't need people think she smelt like vomit or anything.

"W-Well, it sounds like fun, but I don't think it's possible today…" Yukiko stuttered slightly as she tried to change the subject away from Kanji's very perverted remark. She would slap him if it weren't for the good circumstances surrounding today. But this was the only time he was getting off the hook for that.

"Yeah, it's summer vacation. All the rooms must be occupied." Chie backed Yukiko up, suddenly realizing that it was tourist season again. She sounded disappointed; though nowhere near as disappointed as Teddie. He looked like someone had killed his dog and made him watch. If he even knew what a dog was; he probably didn't.

"We can't do a sleepover…?" Teddie choked up with teary eyes. It was like Yukiko had just taken all his hopes and dreams and just ripped them apart.

"Maybe next time. I promise."

"Hey, why don't we hit your place instead? Oh, but will your uncle get suspicious? Like, 'Why are you all celebrating?'" Yosuke turned to Yu, questioning the potential of perhaps using his place instead. Justin had to wonder why no one asked to use his house; what with him living alone and everything. They could break all the stuff they wanted and not get in trouble. In actuality, Yosuke had considered the possibility of asking Justin if his house was available, but he figured Maya would be sitting the party out due to her condition… And to a lesser extent Justin, but he really didn't care about that. Point was, he didn't need to keep her up with a party in her place of residence. Yu raised his eyebrows in shock, surprised that they wanted to have a party at his house. He supposed it wouldn't be a problem, but… Why his house?

"Shouldn't be a problem." Yu replied. Dojima didn't really come home till late at night anyway; and with the killer caught, he would no doubt be doing overtime down at the station to question and interrogate Mitsuo. So yes, he would get suspicious, but what he didn't know wouldn't hurt him. Besides' it had been a while since Nanako had been able to hang out with his friends. It might be a pleasant surprise to her.

"Then it's settled. Nanako-chan can join in, too." Yosuke remarked, a smile creeping across his face. He was starting to get excited for this party, that was for sure. Justin chuckled silently to himself. It had been a while since he had seen Nanako. He liked that kid; she was very mature for her age. Of course, he wouldn't really want to see her on a daily basis, but it was nice every once and a while.

"So… no booze?" Justin joked. Of course, everyone shot him a glare instead of laughing. Except Kanji and Rise, who weren't aware of Justin's drinking antics. Justin's smile soon faded away, giving way to a slight glare. "Oh goddammit guys, it was one time!" Everyone shook their head at Justin before going back to their conversation, much to his irritation.

"Oh yeah, if your uncle's a detective, he might not come home tonight… Nanako-chan might be getting hungry." Chie pointed out. Not that he ever came home anyway; so Yu kind of had to do all the cooking for that family. Still; perhaps it would be nice to do something special, like get take-out or-

"Hey, then why don't we make dinner together?"

_DEFINITLY NOT THAT._

"Wow… Are you good at cooking, Senpai?" Rise questioned Yukiko and Chie. Both of which rubbed at the back of their heads nervously. They couldn't honestly say yes. So they decided to say it dishonestly instead. Every single guy at that table right now was fretting for their life. Save maybe Kanji, who hadn't tasted the awfulness that was the girl's cooking. I mean; it was the thought that counted sure, but they didn't HAVE to cook… and Justin hoped it would stay that way.

"W-Well… sort of?"

"What are you saying…? Did you already forget the tragedy of the school campout!?" Yosuke spoke up on behalf of every guy who had ever had those two's cooking. That disaster would never happen again so long as he had any say any the matter. Justin wasn't about to say anything anytime soon, simply because he knew he couldn't do any better; but he was certainly rooting for Yosuke on this one. He was already in enough pain without losing another wisdom tooth today.

"W-We already told you that was an accident!" Chie nervously tried to defend herself, though not a single one of the guys believed her. Not even Kanji, who could tell just from the way she was stammering that she was making bullshit up. It wasn't an accident; they were just terrible cooks.

"She's right! We just got a couple of the ingredients wrong!"

"Guys, please don't do this, I'm begging you… I don't need another trauma to deal with…" It was true; he really did have enough to deal with. He was probably just referring to the incident at the camping trip, of course, but that didn't change the fact that having the girl you loved killed and confronting her killer was a pretty traumatic experience. Let's not add death by food to that list; because Justin could guarantee you if it was anything like last time, there would be plenty of teeth lost tonight.

"Hey, I'm a good cook too! I'll make something for you, Senpai." Rise spoke up, slight enthusiasm in her voice as she flirted slightly with Yosuke, as she normally did with every single guy at the table. Well one thing was for certain; Maya jumped up slightly, snapping out of her half asleep daze. She wasn't pissed or anything, just a little sad. Mostly because she knew Yosuke had flirted with Rise a fair number of times himself.

"Tadaaaah! Teddie has a great idea! Let's have a cooking battle! The winner will be crowned Iron Cook Inaba!" Teddie stood up and declared, putting forth an idea that could very well get them all killed. Justin's jaw dropped in pure fear as he noticed all the girls nodding in slight agreement. He still had his gun in his pocket… Maybe if he just pulled that out and shot his brains out now, he could save himself some pain in the long run.

"A cooking battle? Now I'm even more worried…" Yosuke grimaced. Those two's cooking was bad enough when they were imparting each other's knowledge on each other; imagine if they were on their own. That food would outright kill; there was no question in Yosuke's mind.

"S-Sure, that sounds like fun. How about you Maya? You want to-"

"No." Maya thankfully countered Chie's proposition almost immediately. Maya was alright; she could make food that was edible, but nothing exactly pleasing to the senses. And she knew that well. She was saving the guys a lot of pain by saying no. Yosuke seemed slightly disappointed strangely enough. You would think he'd have learned his lesson about letting other people cook food for him by now, but no. He hadn't.

"Aww, but I'll win hands-down. You sure you want to make it that easy?" Rise mocked the other girls, Maya included apparently. Maya just lifted her head up from its resting place on the table to glare at Rise for a moment, mouthing off a 'fuck you,' to her while she boasted. She didn't see it though, thankfully. Otherwise shit might have hit the ceiling.

"Dude, listen to me. For the sake of our stomachs, you have to cook something too." Yosuke ordered Yu. Yu glared a little bit at Yosuke. That was the second thing today Yosuke had signed him up for that he wanted no part of. But hey, the rule was three strikes and you're out, right? So Yu would wait till he signed him up for something else before punching him in the gut. Justin nodded in agreement with Yosuke. He didn't know if Yu could cook or anything, but anything that would keep him from eating Chie's cooking again was a-okay in his book. "Help us, Yu Narukami! You're our only hope…"

"Then you can represent the guys' team. Nanako-chan will be our judge!" Chie declared. Justin had to wonder why the guys' team only got one representative, but the girls' team got three. That was just unfair; not because it was horribly unbalanced, but because that meant there were going to be three terrible dishes and one good one… Well that might be a little unfair to say. Justin had never had Rise's cooking, it could be good, and likewise Yu's could be bad. You get the point though.

"I can be a taster too!" Kanji quickly called dibs. Justin raised his eyebrows, surprised Kanji would actually volunteer to eat Chie and Yukiko's food. Which meant only one thing. He didn't know better. Justin had to warn him.

"Trust me, you don't want to be."

* * *

"Ask Nanako-chan what she wants for dinner!"

The team had all made their way to the market on the bottom floor of the Junes in search of ingredients for their cook off. Of course, they had no idea what they were making, so they had Yu call up Nanako to see what she wanted to have for dinner. Justin prayed to god she said instant noodles; even Chie and Yukiko couldn't fuck that up. Yu and Yosuke could attest to that personally. Yu repeated the question to Nanako, nodding his head slightly as he waited for her to respond. It was always awkward having a phone conversation between multiple people without the speaker on. But it's not like they could do that in the market, right?

"She says anything's fine." Yu relayed the information, covering the phone with his hand. Why? Perhaps just so Nanako didn't have to hear him repeating the question over and over again. It sure as hell wasn't because he needed to block out what the others were saying; that was for sure. Yukiko shook her head slighty. That wasn't an acceptable answer.

"She's just being modest! Ask her again." Yukiko demanded of Yu. Yu shrugged a bit before repeating the question to Nanako again. He honest to god hoped this back and forth wasn't going to just be him repeating the question over and over again, with Nanako replying that she didn't care what they had over and over again. It took a moment, but he eventually got an answer out of her.

"Alright, I'll tell them. We'll see you in a bit." Yu ended the conversation, hanging up the phone after a cheerful goodbye from Nanako. She was certainly excited about having all of Yu's friends cook dinner for her. She really shouldn't, given how god awful their cooking was. Yu turned to the girls, slipping his cell-phone back into his pocket in the process. "She says she wants a fried rice omelet."

"Fried rice omelet… An excellent choice, Nanako-chan. With a dish that simple, I doubt we'll get a second helping of Mystery Food X." Yosuke thanked the not at all present Nanako. After all, who didn't know how to cook an omelet? Well, for starters, Justin. But he somehow managed to burn macaroni and cheese; and you're supposed to boil it. Really you could just assume that if a normal human being could cook it, Justin could not. And given some of the sour expressions around the room, it seemed the girls had that in common with Justin. "…Huh? What's wrong?" Yosuke spoke up with worriment as he noticed the girls grimacing slightly. He hoped to god that look didn't mean what he thought it meant.

"…N-Nothing. Alright, let's go get our ingredients." Chie announced before the group of girls scattered in all different directions. Justin didn't think anything of it, but Yosuke seemed to take that as meaning something far, far worse.

"Uh… If they're all making the same thing, why are they splitting up to different parts of the market…?" Yosuke questioned aloud. His conspiracy theory as to what horrible things they were creating would have made a lot more sense if they were working together. But they weren't. No doubt they wanted to keep their secret ingredients a secret by buying them away from the others.

"They're probably just getting the ingredients in a different order." Maya remarked. She had opted to side with the guys on this one, apparently. She couldn't cook, but hopefully she could help in whatever way she could. After all, she had heard stories about how shitty the others' cooking was. There was going to be one edible dish out of this if it killed her. And it damn well might if she strained herself too much.

"Looks like you'll need all the help I can give you… Hey, what kind of omelet are you making? I'll go get the ingredients for ya." Yosuke questioned. He really wasn't going to need much help to beat the girls honestly; he just wanted to make sure this dish came out as, you know… edible? Yu smiled with appreciation, before recapping quickly what he was going to need. Justin didn't recognize half that shit, so hopefully that meant this was going to be some fine cuisine. Not that he was probably going to eat it anyway. He didn't like omelets; regardless of whether or not the girls were the creative masterminds behind that cuisine.

Of course, mid way through Yu listing off what he would need, Rise made her way to the carriage and dropped all her ingredients in. Apparently she was a quick shopper. Yosuke was a little surprised to see she was done so quick and decided to take a peek inside. And that in turn only seemed to surprise him more. "Foie gras!?" Justin had no idea what that was, but given the way Yosuke said that, he was going to assume that was a bad thing. The rest of the girls soon found their way back to the carriage as well. This was getting very concerning with how quickly they had finished their shopping.

"Quite an eye you got there, Senpai. It's a must-have for my special omelette! Don't worry, I'll let you have a taste. Ooh, or maybe I could spoon feed you. I heard last time you choked down something so awful that words couldn't describe it…" Rise continued to flirt with him. Maya in turn glared at her while whispering all sorts of obscenities under her breath. She didn't have the guts to say it to her face, but basically, she wished she would go die in a hole somewhere and lay off. Yosuke was not as a repulsed by the flirting, strangely enough. Apparently he was quite the player.

"It was horrible…" Yosuke whimpered with melodrama. Justin was having a hard time disagreeing, though he thought the crocodile tears were a tad much. And by that he meant, he was giving Yosuke that 'cross the line, and I will break you,' glare. And what a fine line it was. Rise continued to speak in this low, sensual voice as she continued to flirt with him while mocking the other girls.

"You poor dears… Who would do such a horrible thing…?"

"R-R-Rise-san? This is gonna be the only chance you get to gloat, is that clear?" Chie gritted her teeth together, her fists were rolled up in a ball. She didn't even care if she was a bad cook; only that she was a better cook than that foul woman. No one insults her cooking like that; NO ONE.

"…I'll crush you with one strike." Yukiko was just as pissed off, if not more. Her threats seemed a little less… fake? Like, Justin was sincerely concerned that Yukiko was considering murdering Rise right about now. He had never seen Yukiko so determined, so vicious. I mean, it wasn't all THAT vicious; especially relatively speaking to people like Justin and Kanji, but it was extreme for her. And that was not a good sign.

"Whoa… You guys look like you're ready to enter the Ultimate Frying Championship." Kanji remarked, returning to join the rest of the group from whatever it was he was doing earlier. Though, Justin figured it out as he spotted the brownish bottle in Kanji's hand. A smirk spread across his face as everyone else identified the object he was carrying.

"Kanji-kun! That's alcohol!" Yukiko shouted in astoundishment. Kanji's eyes widened as he stammered slightly, trying to think of an excuse as to why he had that bottle in his hand. Alas; he had nothing. And so with that he just hurriedly departed to hide the evidence that he had that on his person. Justin had that 'in your fucking face,' look on right now. But that's alright, because Chie had that 'start and I'll kick your ass,' face on. They kind of counteracted each other.

"By the way, where's Teddie?" Chie questioned, turning her attention away from Justin for a moment to try and identify Teddie in the store. It took her a moment to find him. He was at the food sample stand, surprising absolutely no one. What did surprise them was what he was doing there. Let's just say, there was something cooking over there besides from meat… and maybe even that.

"Miss, am I allowed to eat this?" Teddie asked, sparkles radiating from his eyes as he stared down the lady from behind the stand. Justin's jaw almost dropped the second he realized what was going on. He was trying to get some… from some random lady… at a food stand. And it was actually fucking working.

"Of course you can, dear. Eat as much as you like!"

"You're such a nice lady. Is this one cooked already?" Teddie continued, leaning on the stand slightly as his voice slipped lower and lower in to a more sensual voice. The lady behind the stand giggled slightly, clearly indicating that Teddie's advances were… well advancing.

"This one's ready too. Oh my, are you hungry for more? Here… I'll open this one too."

"You're so beautiful…" Teddie continued, driving the hammer home. He was certainly forward, that was for sure. And surprising everyone, it fucking worked. Literally three sentences exchanged between the two and he already had her in the palm of his hand. I swear, it must be the sparkles.

"Oh my, no! No, I mustn't! I've got a husband and a son!"

"But I really want this meat… And I want you to cook it, Miss."

"Sweet mother of fuck; Teddie's a pimp." Justin remarked with awe as Teddie put the moves on this woman.

* * *

"Jesus Justin; turn that off!"

The entirety of the team had gathered at Yu's house for the celebration; even Maya, despite being tired as fuck. But then, she fell asleep on the couch, so that wasn't saying much. It was just nice that she showed up he supposed. No one bothered to wake her up either; they figured she looked happy enough curled up on the couch. Besides, Teddie was busy talking to Nanako about something, and all the girls (and Yu,) were busy in the kitchen. The only ones really free to wake her up right now were Justin, Kanji, and Yosuke. Justin and Yosuke weren't going to do it,that was for damn sure. And Kanji just got squeamish around girls; he didn't know if you were supposed to wake them up when they were asleep. So yeah; no one would or could if they wanted to.

But somehow, despite everyone being busy in the kitchen, they all had the time to yell at Justin for playing some music. He didn't get it; it was a party, right? And what's a party without music. Then again, it wasn't so much the music itself as it was his choice in music. He had kind of forgotten Nanako was present and went straight for the heavy metal. Chie had recognized the song the second it started playing; after all, Justin had slipped that album in there as a joke when they were in music class. It was most certainly not kid friendly.

"Oh come on. It's just a little music!" Justin shouted back into the kitchen. Chie finished up making her omelet, slapping it on a plate to bring out in a moment before rushing out to stop Justin. Disturbed and children Nanako's age was not a good mix. She'd rip that iPod out of his hands if she had to. And she did actually, pausing the song just before the f-bomb got dropped, much to Justin's disappointment. "Why do you like playing around with my narrow scope of reality?" Justin joked slightly as she dropped the iPod back on his lap.

"Nanako's here, you idiot!" She lectured Justin. Justin grumbled a bit as he just realized that he had completely neglected to recall a young child was present. Yeah, the heavy metal might have been much. Still, he was disappointed; he liked Disturbed, as much as he knew Yu didn't. And so he pouted slightly as a joke. "Live with it." Chie joked a bit before going back to the kitchen to put the finishing touches on her omelet.

"But I don't get it!" Justin joked as she stormed back off, before finally digging back through his iPod. Half of his music library was off limits right about now. It took a lot of effort to find something they could really listen to in front of Nanako, and still have a party too. With a couple of slides and taps of his finger he threw Siamese Dream on his iPod, blasting alternative rock throughout the house. After all; everyone loved the Smashing Pumpkins… right?

_Today is the greatest_

_Day I've ever known_

_Can't live for tomorrow_

_Tomorrow's much too long_

_I burn my eyes out_

_Before I get out_

Justin sat back down, leaning against the back of the couch next to Maya, bobbing his head back and forth in time to the music. It felt good to just sit back, listen to some music and just… relax. He still hurt all over from his previously broken bones, but there was a certain happy air about this late night gathering. As tired and broken as most of them were… it was all over. The killer was caught, the murders and kidnappings would stop… And they could all go back to their normal lives. It was the day Justin had longed so long for. And he was more than content with it; content with wasting his life away doing what normal teenagers did: just listening to music and hanging around. No more televisions. No more murders. Just life.

He was snapped out of his daze maybe a minute or two later by the loud sound of Rise making her way out if the kitchen. How loud, you ask? She managed to wake Maya up; and mind you, she had been sleeping through heavy metal blasting throughout the house. She groaned a bit as she pushed herself up from the end of the couch, her cheeks beat red as it dawned upon her that she had just fallen asleep in someone else's house when they were supposed to be having a party. She must have looked rude as hell at this point. She yawned a bit as she sat up next to Justin, the two just staring at Rise pushing her way past Yosuke rather aggressively.

"It's reeeeeaaaaadyyyy! Incoming food! Out of the way, Senpai!" Rise shouted as she knocked Yosuke over. Yosuke groaned in pain as he was knocked to the floor. And everytime he tried to get up, he was forced back down by one of the others walking over him… Yu had to walk over him twice in fact. He had been talking to Teddie for a moment, so he had to step over him to go back into the kitchen to get the food, and step over him on the way out. Yosuke could not for the love of him understand why the others couldn't just wait for him to stand up; that they insisted on treating him like a rock they had to step over. Justin and Maya chuckled a bit as he pushed himself up off the ground, a glare on his face as he marched over to the table to take his seat. Justin and Maya laughed for a moment before slowly pushing themselves off the group to join the others around the table. It took a bit longer for them, what with Justin aching all over and Maya having just woken up, but the team waited patiently regardless; wide grins on their face as the entirety of the team sat around the table on celebration. Or food poisoning. One or the other. "Bon Appétit!"

"W-Well, wait a sec. Asking Nanako-chan to jump in and try these for us is kinda… unethical." Spoke up as Nanako picked up her fork, ready to test out one of the four plates that had been spread across the table. She was more than a little excited about this. After all, she had all of her cousin's friends here making her omelets. How cool was that? How many kids her age could say that the big kids had been sucking up to her, not the other way around? Chie passed Yosuke a slight glare as he stopped Nanako from being the first to suffer from the potentially dangerous omelet in front of them.

"D-Don't look at us like that!" Chie barked angrily, annoyed that Yosuke wasn't even going to try it before calling their food poisonous.

"Ohhh… So it's our job to taste it first, to make sure we can keep it down." Kanji explained out loud, as though no one else had managed to get that on their own. Justin thought it was pretty clear that was what Yosuke had meant. But once again, Kanji: not the brightest bulb on the tree. Rise seemed out right offended by that, even though technically the tests were only meant for Chie and Yukiko's food. Rise's food couldn't be that bad after all.

"Hey! That's mean! Then try mine first, Yosuke-senpai. It's guaranteed delicious!" Rise boasted a slightly flirtatious tone to her voice as she tried to seduce Yosuke into eating her food. His Risette Drive was off the charts already. There was nothing Rise could not get this man to do… Except maybe eat her food a second time after this little incident. And once again, Maya found herself grumbling all sorts of foul names under her breath that even Justin would blush at if he heard them. He didn't though. Probably for the best.

"You don't mind me going first? Actually, I've been looking forward to yours. I mean, Risette cookted it herself. Can you imagine how many guys would kill me if they found out? Well then, chow time!" Yosuke announced, every single word of it pissing Maya off more and more. Her eye was twitching by this point. In fact, Yosuke even noticed it; he just didn't say anything about it. He figured it was just her trying to stay awake anyway.

He stuck his fork into the omelet, ripping off a piece of it and shoving into his mouth. You could tell the second it touched his tongue he was regretting all that praise he had given her earlier. He chewed at it for only a brief moment before forcing himself to swallow. The longer that thing was on his tongue, the more painful this experience would be. It didn't sit quite too well in his stomach. In fact, he was almost entirely sure he had just gotten instant diarrhea. He shivered slightly as it went down his throat before dropping the fork back on the plate and pushing it away. "Urgh… I-I… can't give this to Nanako-chan…" Yosuke hesitated to remark. He didn't want Rise to think badly of him after all.

"Ooh! It's so delicious that you won't let anyone else have a bite!?" Rise questioned, as Yu decided to see if it was as bad as Yosuke was making it out to be. Given that he had the exact same reaction as Yosuke, Justin was going to say 'yes, it is that bad.' Yosuke shook his head slowly, trying to break the news to Rise as easily as he could. She wasn't taking it to well, given the look on her face. And why would she; her cooking apparently fucking sucked.

"Here, try mine next." Yukiko interrupted right before Rise burst into tears (which Maya was holding back laughter at,) apparently oblivious to what the group already thought of her cooking. Thankfully, Kanji decided to step up to the plate, as to avoid any bias on Yu, Justin, or Yosuke's behalf. Would you believe it if I said he got the best of it? Apparently bravery is rewarded by whatever higher being was running this show.

"I'll take this one."

"K-Kanji… That's a lot…" Yosuke tried to warn Kanji as he dipped his fork into the plate, pulling of an astronomically large chunk of omelet in the process. It was almost painful to watch him shove all of that in his mouth. Yosuke didn't even watch; he averted his gaze to avoid watching Kanji's explode from the god awful taste of whatever he head inserted in his mouth. Mystery Food Y, perhaps? Strangely, Kanji didn't seem all that bothered by the food in his mouth. Actually, he wasn't sure what to think of it at all.

"H-Hey, say something." Yukiko demanded hesitatingly as Kanji swallowed the food. His face was completely blank; so it was hard to tell if he liked it or not. The short answer was no. The long answer was 'it's alright in that I can't actually taste anything way.'

"Well… Uh… How do I put this…? I tastes really, um… boneless…?" Kanji tried to phrase his opinion on the food the best way he could. But alas, it was hard to describe taste when you didn't taste a thing. Justin passed him a look of confusion; not entirely sure what the hell he meant. One thing was for sure, he was curious now. He didn't like omelets, but he wanted to know what the hell boneless tasted like. He picked up the fork Kanji had dropped a moment earlier, cutting off a small piece and inserting it into his mouth.

"What!? That's not a word you use to describe taste! Does it taste good or not!? Tell me!" Yukiko shouted at Kanji, demanding a proper answer. Seriously, who uses the word boneless to describe flavor? Justin almost immediately got what he was saying though. He meant boneless like, without content or substance. It felt like Justin had just eaten absolutely nothing. And that's not necessarily a bad thing. If all omelets tasted like this, he'd probably be more inclined to eat them. He swallowed the piece in his mouth before turning to Yukiko, ready to give his opinion as well.

"He means it doesn't taste like anything." Justin explained on Kanji's behalf. He meant that as a compliment, but alas, tasting like nothing is not a good thing when you're trying to make your food taste good. At least it was a good middle ground, right? Kanji nodded slightly, confirming that Justin's explanation was accurate.

"Yeah, what he said. It tastes like… Like I'm eating plain oatmeal… It's pretty impressive that you put so many ingredients into a dish and it came out tasting like nothing." Kanji tried to spin this around to make it sound better than it was. Yukiko however just took that as him just trying to pity her. She wasn't having any of that shit. Her food was good; Kanji just didn't get it.

"Y-Your palate just isn't refined enough!" Yukiko shouted, pure hurt in her words. Who would have thought Yukiko would be so sensitive about her cooking skills. Hell; Justin and Maya couldn't cook (Justin less so,) but at least they had come to terms with that. Yukiko, Rise, Chie; none of them could accept the possibility of being terrible cooks. Who knows, maybe that was a big thing over here and Justin just hadn't picked up on it yet. Adachi seemed to put a lot of emphasis on finding a woman that could cook; and he seemed like a pretty normal guy. Maybe that was just expected of them. Though that begged the question why Chie felt the need to know how to cook. Justin didn't really care if she could or not; he loved her regardless of what she could or could not do. If it was a matter of being appealing to guys, Chie's working for something she didn't need.

"…I think it tastes good." Nanako remarked, having taken a bite herself while Yukiko and Kanji were arguing back and forth over the flavor. Of course, being a child, she wasn't quite as picky about her food. So long as it was edible, it was good. And Yukiko's was most certainly edible. Yukiko's face brightened up almost immediately, the compliment of a mere child seeming to convince her she was some sort of master chef.

"Nanako-chan…!"

"O-Okay… Try mine next. Urgh… I dunno about this… But I think it'll taste good! This time for sure!" Chie tried to convince herself that she had made something edible this time. She had passed a look at Justin, hoping he would try it. And as much as he'd like to say no, pointing to where his wisdom tooth had been, he just couldn't. It was important to her that he at the very least tried. He reached out for the fork, chopping a piece off an placing it in his mouth before dropping it on the plate.

His eyes started to water almost immediately. Oh god it was horrendous. He was starting to see where the horrid flavor from Mystery Food X had come from. He couldn't even taste the egg; all he could taste was this gag inducing mixture of sauces that should not be allowed anywhere near each other. And the thing was watery, dissolving away in his mouth with every chomp as he tried to chew it. And did I mention how salty it was. Dear god, that might have been a lethal dosage of salt in there. He forced himself to swallow, a slight shiver down his spine as he finished the job. He was getting sympathetic looks all around; they were expecting Justin to keel over at any second. It took him a moment before he turned to Chie.

"It's… good…" Justin lied through his teeth. You would have thought Chie would pick up on his bluff almost immediately, but it seemed she wanted to believe it was good so hard she would even accept a lie as the truth. She smiled with glee, clapping her hands together with pleasant surprise. The guys all passed Justin a look of surprise. The way he had looked when he ate it, he seemed almost as though he was in pain. He was for the record, and he had decided to warn the others, mouthing off the words 'don't eat it,' to the others. They all nodded slightly, picking up on it. They got that he was doing it just to make her feel better about it; but they weren't going to risk it.

"I'll give it a whirl." Teddie remarked, being one of the only ones who hadn't picked up on Justin's warning (the others being Chie and Nanako,) before picking up the fork and chopping off a piece for himself. He was smiling profusely as he chewed that thing up and swallowed, much to Justin's shock. He had barely found the thing edible. Could it be he just got a bad piece? Nope. Teddie just wasn't very picky about food. All food was good food to him. "Wow, this tastes awful! You have to try this, Yosuke." Teddie shouted as he finished swallowing. And within a second, Chie's spirits were broken; the trance she had been put in by Justin finding her cooking acceptable being broken by Teddie's lack of subtlety. She looked almost like she was going to tear up and start crying at any second. Justin made a mental note to kick Teddie's ass later.

"Dude, not after you say that…" Yosuke sighed before extending his arm to grab a piece himself. He didn't know why; he knew it was terrible from the last two people to eat this. Perhaps he just wanted to see how terrible. Well, it was pretty terrible. "Ahhh… I see…" Yosuke tried to remark calmly so that he didn't break Chie's spirit too much. It was already far past the point of mending though. "Well, um… It's a huge improvement over the curry…" Yosuke tried to cheer her up.

"Yeah, thanks for the consolation… I feel soooo much better…" Chie remarked sarcastically with teary eyes. Oh man, it was like her heart had just been ripped out. Justin had set her up for great expectations, and Teddie had gone and taken a shit all over her aspirations. But that's okay; because it seemed the girls were more than pleased with Nanako's perception of their food anyway.

"I think this tastes good too."

"Nanako-chan…!" Chie gasped, a slight wave of relief sweeping over her body. She had felt like such shit with what the guys had said about her cooking; minus Justin, but she could tell he was lying to try and make her feel better. She was flattered he had done that for her, but still very much saddened that her cooking wasn't to his tastes. But Nanako… Nanako liked it despite what the guys thought. And that was more than enough for her.

"Oh yeah, they're right… They're totally right! It tastes awful" Yukiko started laughing hysterically as she took a bite of Chie's cooking. And just like that, heartbroken a second time. Now here best friend wasn't even trying to sugar coat the truth. Chie just wanted to flip that table over and go running all the way back to her room to cry herself to sleep by the is point. All that effort she had put into this, to try and make it special to celebrate their success, and everyone was ragging on her and her cooking skills.

"Then try Rise-chan's I bet you anything mine tastes better than hers!" Chie choked up over her tears. Justin scotched over a bit, swapping places with Maya, so that he could sit next to Chie, placing his hand on her shoulder as he tried to calm her down. It was taking every ounce of her strength not to sob as they took turns insulting her cooking. Yet somehow, Justin's reassuring touch helped her calm down a little. She was still very hurt though; and nothing Justin could do was going to fix that. Really, she just needed a good cry right about now. But not in front of all these people; not in front of her friends.

Yukiko stared at Chie for a moment, contemplating whether or not to take the challenge she had proposed to her. It took a moment, but she decided to go through with it, extending her arm to take a piece of Rise's omelet, shoving it in her mouth as she chewed at it delicately. Within seconds she was choking over the spicy and foul flavor. And seconds after that, she had been knocked clean out. Justin was more than a little surprised to see that Rise's food was the one that killed someone.

"S-Senpai!?"

"Sure enough… One strike." Kanji remarked snidely as they all stared down at what could possibly be Yukiko's corpse. Rise didn't seem all that concerned that she might have just stopped Yukiko's heart though. She seemed much more concerned about how everyone was reacting to her food. As far as she was concerned, Yukiko was just being a drama queen. Dying was just an over-reaction."

"Well, Yukiko and Chie's didn't taste good either… But at least theirs didn't cause any casualties…" Yosuke laughed, poking fun at Rise's food, driving in the nail even further. He might as well have kicked her in the stomach while he was at it; it would have the same effect. Rise started sobbing immediately, tears rolling down her cheeks as she started to throw a tantrum.

"I-It's a taste too subtle for kids! It's a mature flavor! You guys are just kids… I, I… Waaaaaaah…!" She started wailing uncontrollably. Justin covered his ears, the pitch of her cries being damn near deafening. Maya would have been the first one to rub it in that her cooking was shit, but even she didn't have the heart to be a bitch when Rise was crying her eyes out. She bit her bottom lip and watched with shame as Rise sobbed uncontrollably.

"…It's spicy, but it's still good." Nanako choked up, having forced the food down her throat. You could tell just by looking at her she didn't like it; that she was lying just to calm Rise down. It seemed Rise was very gullible though. As was everyone else in the room. She immediately cut her tears off, not even slowing to a halt. She had been faking the entire time just to make people feel bad. Maya damn near jumped across the table to strangle her. She'd give Rise a legitimate reason to cry if she was going to try and twist around everyone's emotions.

"Nanako-chan…! I knew it! Nanako-chan's the most mature person in this room!" Rise beamed with pride, apparently taking Nanako's half-assed attempt at cheering her up as confirmation that her food was not just edible, but the best. Rise got more than a fair share of glares from around the table. Justin in particular seemed pissed, but believe him when he said he had no intention of getting on Rise's bad side. She could easily black mail him if she wanted to. And she probably would. What a devious girl.

"C-Crocodile tears!?

"They're going to be real tears in a second." Maya snarled, glaring threateningly at Rise. Never before had Justin seen someone cut to size quicker than he had now. Maya could be pretty damn intimidating when she tried to be.

* * *

"You're lying."

"…Excuse me?"

The interrogator had cut Justin off midway through his story to accuse him of falsery in his testimony. Justin wasn't entirely sure he had just heard the bastard right. Did he just try to tell Justin he was wrong? That he was fabricating all this? That this interrogator knew more about the television and persona and all that crap than he did? Because if he was, he had another thing coming.

"I said you're lying." The interrogator repeated, very visibly annoyed by what he perceived as lies. Only they weren't lies, and Justin was very pissed off at his insinuation that they were. "We have the records on the Hanged-Man murder cases in Inaba. We know Mitsuo only killed Marooka, and I know you're bullshitting right now. We already know who the real killer is, so you can stop hiding that from me."

Justin glared at the cop for a long while, every ounce of anger in his body circulating in his head. His glare was intense enough that if heat-vision was a real thing, he no doubt would have melted this asshole's skull off. But it wasn't, so all he could do was clench his fists together and hope he didn't lose his cool. He didn't need the asshole residing in his skull trying to take advantage.

"…You're a fucking idiot. Did you even read those files? Mitsuo was suspected of the other two cases at first as well. We found out later that it wasn't him. Now unless you'd like to showcase more of your ignorance, I suggest you sit down and shut the fuck up." Justin barked at the interrogator, slamming his fist into the table as he darted up from his chair. The interrogator glared at him for a while, saying nothing until he finally sat down. He simply had stopped acknowledging Justin when he went into this phase; it was the only way he would calm down and he could take control of these circumstances.

"So you say… Or is it that you're trying to hide the killer's true identity. We've got a lot of written statements on file from him about you, you know? From our understanding, you two were close. But news for you; hiding his secret doesn't help when he's already in jail-"

"Was."

The interrogator paused for a moment, very much alarmed by this. The killer was supposed to be serving a life sentence with no chance of parol. If he wasn't in jail anymore, something very illegal had just gone down. He only hoped Justin meant that the killer had expired; gotten shanked to death or something. Anything else, and everyone was in a lot of danger right about now.

"Was? What the hell do you mean was!?" The interrogator shouted in slight panic. This could be disastrous if this man was walking the streets again. Justin took a puff of his cigarette before smirking slightly.

"Exactly what it sounds like."

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTES**

**Longest chapter to date with a whopping 30 pages length and over 18,000 words. There's not going to be an update tommorow for the holiday, so consider this chapter an early Christmas present. Happy Holidays, everyone.**

**MUSIC**

**Today - Smashing Pumpkins**


	105. Chapter 104: July 31, 2011

CHAPTER 104

July 31, 2011

* * *

"It's finally over…"

Justin awoke with a wide grin as he stared up at the ceiling, getting a good night's rest from the terrors that had befallen him the day prior. Every bone in his body was still screaming out in pain, but he didn't care. It just felt good knowing that everything would be going back to normal now. There would be no more murders, or Midnight Channel, or investigations, or Personas, or shadows, or anything. It would just be Justin living the life of a normal teenager. And after all he had suffered in his lifespan, it was long overdue. And so when he finally awoke, he couldn't help but laugh a bit with glee as the sun shone into his room. In a way, it was like summer vacation was only just beginning today; not because it was the first day of summer break that the team hadn't been tracking Mitsuo down, but rather because it was the first day Justin was free. Free of that god forsaken channel that had haunted him his whole life; manipulating his life and everyone around him, destroying the very fabrics of their souls and sanity. And everyone had prevailed. They didn't just beat the killer… They beat the Midnight Channel. And hopefully this time it would stay down.

Justin pushed himself out of the bed, though not in the way he normally did where he'd smack his head against the floor to wake up. He simply turned towards the end of the bed and stood up, for what seemed the first time in ages. He didn't need any motivation to get up today; to awake to his miserable excuse for a life. Because suddenly, his life seemed a lot less miserable. The murders were over, he had all his friends, he had Chie… Really, his life looked pretty damn good right about now. The only thing he didn't have was his sanity… But then, his shadow had thrived off that purple shit that shadows spewed out when they died. The murders were over, and with that, so was Justin's shadow's chances of absorbing more shadows. And given the way his head seemed to buzz right now, his shadow wasn't too pleased about that. Now all he had to do was stay away from mirrors and puddles, and he should be set for life.

Justin slowly creeped down the stairs of his house, throwing on a shirt as he descended the staircase. Nothing particularly funny or anything; just those two light bulbs from the cover of the Era Vulgaris album. He had been careful not to make too much noise as he slowly made his way to the kitchen, figuring Maya would be asleep right now. She was pretty out of it last night after all; Justin probably understood that more than anyone, what with her sparing damn near every drop of her being to mend Justin's broken body. He hadn't expected that of her, especially with the cold way he had been treating her. He always knew he was being a dick, but he figured she deserved it. She had broke his heart a little bit that day when she told him that he couldn't protect the people he loved; that he wouldn't be able to save her if something happened again. And even as angry as he was at her, as much as he wished she would just go away, he couldn't just stand by when Mitsuo's shadow tried to target her. Maya had told him he wouldn't be able to protect the people he cared about. He intended to show her just how wrong she was. And so he jumped in front of the blow. Some might call him a suicidal maniac; but Justin? He'd like to think he just did what anyone would do for family. And even when he should have lied there in agonizing pain, slowly withering away into the cold grip of unconsciousness, Maya helped him. After all he had did, she didn't give the slightest fuck; she just cared that he was alright… He died a little on the inside to think he had been mad at Maya after that. She cared about Justin… She wouldn't purposely go out of the way to hurt him; especially not with a remark like that.

Justin continued marching down the stairs, hoping to sneak outside without waking Maya. But alas, it seemed Maya had been wide awake and watching some bullshit on television. She was smiling at whatever it was she was watching… Or perhaps she was smiling at the figure of Justin marching down the stairs out of the corner of her eye. Whatever it was, she was happy. And Justin in turn grew happier. They never did say sorry to each other about what had happened prior to Justin taking a blast of energy to his stomach, and they never would. Actions spoke much louder than words after all. Maya grinned at Justin as she turned away from the screen for a moment.

"Oh hey, Justin!" Maya called out cheerfully as Justin walked over to where she was sitting on the couch. She balled up her legs slightly to give Justin room to sit next to her. He had no intention to sit prior to her making that move, but alas, he had no objections. It would be nice to just sit down and let the time pass as they did whatever teenagers normally did when they had nothing to do. It felt good just sitting there watching the television blink. It reminded Justin that you could be different and still live a normal life. And really, was there anything else he had wanted in the world?

"Whatchya' watching?" Justin questioned taking his place next to Maya on the couch, playing around a bit with the dog tags hanging from his neck; twirling them around between his fingers. He had to thank the gods that Maya hadn't noticed the third dog tag. That was sort of a special thing between the two. Of course, that wouldn't change just because Justin got a third one with Chie's name on it. After all, that was Maya's idea in the first place. No, it simply meant that he could exchange that sacred bond with someone else as well. It wasn't as exclusive as before, sure; but the significance was still there. Maya turned her attention back to the screen. Honestly, she didn't have any idea; it was just some show that had caught her attention while she was flipping channels.

"Beats the hell out of me. I guess it's supposed to be a 'where are they now,' kind of show, only with people I don't know." Maya remarked with slight confusion. It would be nice if they actually showed who the hell these people were instead of just describing them. Justin turned his attention to the screen for a brief moment to see what could possibly be interesting Maya right about now. They were talking about some detective in his thirties who liked to cook, or something. Hell if Justin knew, he didn't have the faintest idea why someone like that would be on one of these shows. I mean, he was no rock star or celebrity, that much was for sure. And these shows usually were about people that people actually knew, not some random cop on the street.

Then they started talking about some journalist or something. Honestly, the description kind of reminded Justin of Maya… Minus the cheery attitude, of course. That's not to say that Maya wasn't a cheerful person. She was fairly positive actually, and god knows you had to have a good demeanor to get along with animals as much as she did. The fact of the matter was that Maya actually had a fairly short temper. You just had to yank the wrong chain and she'd explode right in her face. And god knows she could be really fucking bossy; it's the reason Justin started smoking after all. Then there were a bunch of people Justin could give less of a resemblance of a fuck about. Guy with long black hair is not exactly the most gripping person for the audience to want to know the fate of. Oh you mean he loses his cool when you mention his old job? News flash, it's his old job for a reason. Honestly, after only five minutes or so of this crap Justin was bored out of his mind. He just couldn't understand how Maya was so fascinated with this shit.

"It's all over now, huh?" Justin eventually spoke up, talking over the television program Maya was watching. She must not have been as interested in at as she seemed, because she seemed almost glad to do something other than watch this. Which was strange, because she had the remote. Perhaps she had just figured Justin was watching it. Or maybe she had forgotten where she put the remote and just said fuck it. Either way, she had no problem diverting her attention from the television monitor. She was certainly happy that all of this was over now; that much was painfully clear to Justin. The Midnight Channel had haunted her life for the last two years. Sure, maybe they hadn't destroyed the Midnight Channel completely, but they had put a stop to the man that was abusing it to ruin other's lives. And in a way, that was good enough for Maya. It was a symbolic victory, but that's all she needed to satisfy the shadow that lied deep in her heart. She wasn't afraid of the channel or what it had done to her anymore; because now, she knew with the help of her friends she could defeat it.

"It feels good, doesn't it?" Maya remarked, a wide grin sweeping across her face. Justin chuckled slightly before nodding. It was hard to explain why it felt as good as it did. This wasn't just the joy that one would normally associate with success; it was much more over powering. Perhaps it was just the sense that something that had gone horribly wrong years ago had been put right in some regard yesterday. It was like laying a nightmare to rest that had squirmed and fought to escape from Justin's heart for two straight years. It felt good; like ridding one's self of their personal demons. Even if Justin still had plenty of those, in more ways than one.

"I just don't know what to do now." Justin mused aloud, a grin still sweeping across his face. "We can all go back to living our own lives now, like none of this ever happened. Be normal, you know…"

"Normaler." Maya interrupted, correcting him. It was meant as a joke, but it was true in a certain regard. The team would never truly be normal after the things they had witnessed, after the manifestation of Persona had been revealed to them. They could pretend it never happened, but they'd never truly be normal anyway. Which was alright, because they weren't exactly normal beforehand. Most of the team was formed of misfits and outcasts; most of the team was alone in some regard prior to the incident. But now that they had Persona, and they were united by that common thread. And they always would be, like an undying friendship. So maybe they weren't normal in the normal sense of the word. But they were normal to each other. And that was more than enough.

"It's like… I don't even know what to do with my life anymore. I don't have to worry about shadows, or murders, or Personas… It feels liberating, you know?" Justin continued. It was strange; as happy as he was that the Midnight Channel was done with, it's absence had left a huge hole in his life. It was like he felt there was something he needed to fill the gap, and with the Midnight Channel gone, that gap was now empty. It had played such a huge role in his life, that it was actually almost sad to see it go. It was an awful place that had done awful things his family and friends, but it was still important to him in a way; always would be. Hell, Maya wouldn't be sitting besides Justin right now if it wasn't for the Midnight Channel. Justin's parents would have died regardless of what had happened with the Midnight Channel. After all, last time he checked, the Midnight Channel hadn't given his mother cancer and shot his father, now did it? He always would have ended up in Inaba. It was the Midnight Channel that had reunited Maya and Justin two years later. Yeah, it sort of completely destroyed Maya's life and killed three people, and yes, maybe Justin was being a little selfish all things considered, but in a way, he was happy the Midnight Channel was a thing because of it.

"Well, I don't know what you're going to do, but I get started with my job next week." Maya remarked, slight pride in her voice as the comment left her lips. Justin immediately burst into one of his coughing fits. First of all, how the hell did Maya get a job, and with who? Secondly, why? Is it because she felt the need to put some money into her residence here? Because that was completely unnecessary. I mean, yeah, Justin did struggle with money from time to time because of Maya's stay in his house, but she wasn't obligated to give him a single cent. He just hoped she was getting a job for some extra spending money.

"You got a job!? Where? When?" Justin started to barrage her with questions. Maya was clearly caught a little off guard by Justin's surge of inquiries as to the nature of her job. He was acting as though her job was going to jump out of his closet at night and shank him and his loved ones. And knowing Justin, he might seriously believe that. Still, she was proud that she had finally managed to get some work; even if the only reason she got the job was probably because she was friends with the manager's son. Her smile never faded as Justin seemed very uncomfortable right about now; not because anything was particularly wrong with her having a job, but because he hadn't expected it.

"Yosuke hooked me up with a job in the electronics department at Junes." Maya remarked with enthusiasm. She hadn't even asked him for the position, he just sort of offered it to her. She had made a passing comment a while back that she didn't have a job; though she was surprised he remembered that. And of course, everyone knew Maya didn't go to school. It was pretty sad actually, but they all understood Justin couldn't afford to enroll her at Yasogami, nor could any of them. Though to be fair, the only one who probably would have considered enrolling her at Yasogami was Yosuke, and he was already pushing the limit with Teddie's residence in his house. His parents were not very happy about that. Justin raised his eyebrows in even more confusion. That explanation only seemed to raise more questions.

"But you don't know anything about electronics…" Justin pointed out. Hell, she had asked if being able to go through your television screen was normal the first time it happened. I mean, it was understandable since she knew nothing about televisions… But that was kind of the point. She knew nothing about televisions. I mean, sure, she could probably study up, and she had used pretty much every piece of tech in Justin's house over the last month or two, so she probably knew a lot more now than then, but still. She was probably one of the worst people for that kind of job. Maya shrugged.

"I'm just supposed to handle the register. I don't think I need to know that much." Maya explained. She would admit herself that she didn't exactly know much about technology. That was more Justin's forte anyway, though he wouldn't dare let anyone know. She'd be lying if she said she hadn't seen Justin fiddling around with the computer in his room on a regular basis; unscrewing parts, putting new ones in. Sure, building a PC wasn't hard if you knew what you were doing, but goddamn. She didn't even think he was trying to fix the PC; just screwing around with the wires and boards on the inside. God knows he probably couldn't afford any replacement parts to update his computer anyway. Justin still felt like he had a thousand questions; like how Yosuke even knew Maya didn't have a job, or why he would even offer her one. But he didn't even bother to ask. Maya seemed happy enough; he didn't need to ruin it with a game of twenty questions.

"Well good for you." Justin remarked, cutting himself off from anymore questions. Maya blushed slightly, though in that 'Yeah, I am pretty awesome,' kind of way. For her, this was a big deal after all. She had never had a job, but she had always needed money. It was that pursuit of money that had serious fucked her over in her life. And now she had a chance of getting it in a nice, safe way. No more mafias, or Kurts. Just minimum wage. "Just make sure you learn how to do 20% off." Justin joked.

Maya's state of bliss was immediately cut off with surprise, then a slight glare. Even when she did go to school, she failed math. Hard. She finished with a 52 average, if Justin recalled correctly, the year prior to the incident with the mafia. She almost always had to go to summer school just so she could move onto the next grade. She never was very good at math, so her family tried to be understanding. And at first, they could afford to send her to summer school. But once Maya's father slipped into that comma, they couldn't really afford it. They still sent her anyway, but god knows they always had to do without because of it.

"I can do math just fine, thank you very much." Maya glared at him angrily. She also called him an asshole under her breath, much to Justin's amusement. He thought it was hilarious how angry she was getting over something she knew she was bad at. That was like Justin getting pissed off for someone calling his cooking bad… Well actually, he got pissed at Kurt once for that; but that's beside the point. Justin smirked a bit as he realized his comment was getting under her skin. Maya almost immediately noticed the smirk and started to grimace. She knew what that meant; and that meant Justin was going to jab at her about it for the next half hour or so.

"What's the square root of twelve times three to the fourth power over fourteen plus pi times-"

"Gah! ENOUGH! You're giving me a headache already!" Maya shouted, cutting him off, as he she clutched at her head. She actually looked as though trying to parse Justin's bullshit long equation was physically paining her. It might, in fact; given that Justin was just adding numbers onto numbers to keep the equation going as long as possible. He didn't have an answer, even if she did try to figure it out.

"Feel like resigning yet?"

"A little!"


	106. Chapter 105: August 1, 2011

CHAPTER 105

August 1, 2011

* * *

"When I first got to town, I used to sit here and do nothing… I would just listen to the sound of the river, the sound of the birds, the sound of the rain…"

Rise and Justin were sitting at the top of the hill that overlooked town, just starring out in the distance, observing the tiny town that seemed to fit in the palm of Justin's hand. Justin never objected to coming up here, and even though Rise did kind of piss him off big time last time they hung out, it was hard for him to stay mad when he was sitting up here. Plus she gave him those puppy dog eyes. God damn those puppy dog eyes. It was drizzling out, and you could hear the faint patter of rain drops deflecting off the roof they sat under. Honestly, if Rise hadn't been talking, Justin might have fallen asleep to the rhythmatic beat of water splashing against the surface of the rooftop. It was just so relaxing, he couldn't help but feel at peace. And when he felt at peace, he slept. That's just how he was.

"I don't blame you; it's really nice up here." Justin remarked, staring into the distance, a grin on his face all the while. He really wished he had known about this place when he first moved to town. Shit was so stressful back then, plus it was far enough away from civilization that he could smoke here without getting caught. I mean, sure, it wasn't like he couldn't smoke at his own house; but god damn, sometimes the smell of smoke when he walked through the door was just too much. Especially with Maya back in the picture now. You might as well have taken smoke scented Febreze and sprayed it over everything. You'd think smoking as much as he did, Justin would have gotten used to the smell by now. Nope, still smelt god awful.

"I felt I could forget 'Risette' and find myself that way… But… Senpai, have you ever thought that you're pushing yourself too far, or that you were just acting…?" Rise suddenly questioned. Justin paused for a moment before sighing. He should have known this was going to be one of those conversations. He had no problem helping people with their problems and all that; honestly, he was a little flattered that everyone trusted him enough to disclose their personal problems with him. But that was also sort of the problem in and of itself. EVERYONE trusted him enough to disclose their personal problems with him. Just once he'd like to hang out with someone and have a regular conversation without all the melodrama. It was just draining away at his energy. He couldn't put up with all this bullshit.

"Look at me Rise; I'm a huge sarcastic prick that wouldn't hesitate to kick your ass in public, I chain smoke out in the open, and I couldn't lie to save my life. I'm no actor, as much as I wish I was at times." Justin sarcastically remarked. Rise seemed more than a little caught off-guard by Justin's comment. He didn't in the slightest bit seem satisfied with the traits he had listed off to Rise. And could you blame him? Being a sarcastic prick is nothing to be proud of, nor was having a tobacco addiction. Being a bad liar wasn't necessarily as bad as Justin made it out to be though. Being a bad liar only meant you told the truth a lot; and that was by no means a bad characteristic. If anything, it was pretty admirable. Rise sheepishly nodded her head, having no real words to counter Justin's self-pity. It was hard watching him beat himself up over just being himself.

"I feel like I've been able to relax after coming to Inaba. Meeting all of you, laughing together… Watching the store, reading comics, playing with the cat…When I was at my parents' house, I was on my best behavior around them…" Rise nervously tried to change the subject. She didn't want to stay on a topic that was just going to lead to Justin continuing to mock himself, to mock what made him him. Justin had been frowning when Rise posed her earlier question, though he found a slight smile emerging from the cracks of his mouth as Rise nervously shifted the topic to her thoughts on Inaba.

"Now that, I can relate to. My father was strict as all hell. One thing in my room where it wasn't supposed to be, and out with the belt." Justin joked slightly. Of course, then he noticed the shocked expression on Rise's face, and the fact that he had pretty much just told her his father beat him. Which wasn't a lie at all, but he wasn't very comfortable with her knowing. He was barely comfortable with Yu and Chie knowing it, let alone a gossip like Rise. "Figuratively speaking of course." Justin nervously tried to clarify. You could practically see a wave of relief washing over Rise. Nothing like being told that your friend was beaten as a child to put you on edge.

"Oh, but Grandma doesn't ask me anything. Y'know, like why I quit or what I'm thinking of doing next… She just talks about tofu. She says… I'm like tofu. I had to ask her what that meant. The way she explained it… Tofu looks weak and fragile, but it's actually pretty resilient. Even though it stands out because it's not like any other food, it can be mixed in with any recipe or flavor… Tofu is incredible. I'm nothing like that…" Rise ranted about tofu. Justin all the while just sat there with an expression on his face as though he wanted to interrupt her and say 'what in the hell are you talking about?' Like tofu? What kind of fucking analogy is that? You know what tofu is? Bland, flavorless, disgusting, unappealing, and one of the only things that could make Justin vomit. He had tried that shit before. Never again. Point was; being like tofu is not a compliment; no matter what her grandmother tried to say to justify her comparison.

"Of course you're nothing like that. You're a human being, not food." Justin remarked with a mixture of sarcasm and seriousness. Rise giggled slightly at that. She knew Justin knew what she meant, he was just trying to be funny. And he usually failed horribly at that. But at the very least he tried; and it was that effort and enthusiasm in trying to be clever or witty that she found so appealing in Justin. Sure he was a hardass, but he did have a softer side around his friends and family; all you had to do was look closely to see it trying to break through that rough outer shell. She smiled for a moment before her grin slowly faded away into a frown.

"I… I was actually bullied at school before I made my debut…" If you listened very carefully, you could hear Justin groaning. Every single one of his friends seemed to have been bullied at some point. Hell, he was bullied all the time as a kid. But there was only so much he could sympathize for bully victims after a certain point. If every single person on the face of the planet was bullied, it would be hard to feel bad for them, because everyone went through it. It was something like that, but on a much lighter scale. He still felt bad, but not so much that his heart started to twitch in pain hearing the words come out of Rise's mouth. "I wasn't good at talking, and always looked at my feet… I was alone the entire time…  
But I didn't have a problem with that. No one expected anything of me."

"T'was the exact opposite in my case. Everyone expected something from the kid with a cop for a dad. So they beat the shit out of him and made his life a living hell so he'd keep his damn mouth shut. Fucking assholes…" Justin muttered angrily. There was a slight sympathetic expression on Rise's face. That sounded a lot worse than what she went through, though she couldn't feel too bad just knowing that Justin understood what it was like. Having someone she could relate to on this was almost uplifting in a way; so even though she felt bad for Justin, she wasn't crying tears or anything. Though getting the crap beaten out of you just because of your dad… That she couldn't understand. And she didn't want to understand.

"And then… the application my relative sent without telling me passed the first audition. I wasn't interested in being an idol, but… I wanted the chance to change myself… And just by chance, I won." Justin had been inserting a cigarette between the slits of his mouth when the remark hit Justin's ear, causing him to spit the cigarette back up, down to the ground below him. _Well that was a waste. _It wasn't so much shock that she had won; after all, it wasn't like he hadn't known she was an idol. It was that she had won through some sort of contest… And that she never even intentionally entered. Her relatives apparently did it without her consent. Justin briefly wondered whether her relatives knew how shitty Rise felt being an idol, if they were still proud of putting her through that.

"Wait, wait… You didn't send in the application yourself? Like you just woke up one day and boom, you were an idol?" Justin questioned with surprise. Rise nodded with embarrassment, her cheeks red. Why she was embarrassed? Who knew. Perhaps she thought people would like her less if they knew she didn't want to be Risette. Of course, Rise must have forgotten who she was talking to; because Justin didn't like Risette. He much preferred Rise. "Hot damn; sounds like waking up to a nightmare to me."

"When it happened, I panicked, thinking maybe I should turn their offer down. Then I thought… if I appeared on TV, I could make friends… That was literally the only reason I went through with it…" Rise continued with her sad story of her rise to fame. Justin paused as she slowly started to bring the story full circle, to where she was now. She had done it only so that she could make friends… His eyebrows curved downwards in sorrow after a short moment. Justin had three friends throughout the entirety of his life prior to coming to Inaba. There was Maya, then there was a smoke dealer…

And then third one… Well the third one was dead. He died long before his body did. There was no use in trying to carry on his memory. He had already done enough to implant those long, horrible years into Justin's mind as it was. He didn't deserve to be remembered; he should have just been forgotten, left alone to disappear into obscurity. But he didn't, and he wouldn't; all because Justin could never forget, as much as he wanted to. Justin sighed, fiddling around with his dog tags for a moment in complete silence.

"…You can't force friendship, Rise… It'll just hurt you in the long run." Justin whimpered a little. He wanted to cry, but he refused to whenever he was around others. After all, no one wants to be friends with a cry baby. And after all he had done in his lifetime, after all he had endured… He didn't want to lose anymore friends. His heart wouldn't be able to take it. Rise stared at Justin for a moment, sympathetic eyes. You could tell someone had hurt him really bad in the past, but the fact of the matter was, he wasn't spilling the beans on how. Perhaps it was better off that way. He just needed to forget the pain, forget everything had happened; move on. A feat easier said than done.

"After a while… I realized something. The person everyone likes, the one they say "hi" to on the street? That's not the real me. Risette is the one everyone likes… The fictional character they sold the public." Rise remarked in slight agreement with Justin. It was true; she had tried to force friendship through being the eye of affection in the media. Only, that wasn't really her. No one knew who Rise was, only who Risette was. And they weren't truly her friends. It was truly amazing; even with all her fans and followers, she had never felt more alone in her life. Justin nodded slightly. You could tell he was still caught up in all of his thoughts at the moment, a sorrowful expression gracing his face as he breathed in and out heavily, staring out over the horizon. "…It's the same with you, isn't it?" It was silent for a moment before Justin lifted his gaze from the horizon, shifting it over to Rise.

"Like I said Rise, I'm no actor. I don't have the liberty of being some fictional character to make friends. What you see? That's what I am. And people just hate that." Justin sighed slightly. He wasn't quite the asshole he was today prior to meeting Maya, but then, he had tried to reserve himself on purpose. He figured that if he just didn't say anything, people would leave him alone. But they didn't. It wasn't until he found a friend in Maya that he felt he could really let out his inner emotions. He didn't fell like he had to pretend to be this socially acceptable kid to get friends. And that's when the sarcastic Justin you know was born. No, he never had the privilege of putting on an act to get friends. Because no matter what he tried to pretend to be, people would always judge him for his father, and his father would always judge him for those bullies at school. He figured, why be a nice guy when people are just going to hate you anyway?

"Umm… I-I meant that you're with me right now because I'm Risette…" Rise clarified, slightly embarrassed at the way Justin had taken her question. Very badly apparently. She didn't mean that Justin was putting on a mask just so people would like him, she just meant that he was probably hanging out with her right now because she was a celebrity. Justin's face grew redder than a tomato in a matter of seconds. He had pretty much just spilled his guts out on the table, and that wasn't even what Rise was talking about. He could think of very few occasions where he had been more embarrassed than he was right now. Justin scratched nervously at the back of his head, averting his gaze for a moment while he tried to regain his composure. He couldn't look Rise dead in the eye with his face as red with embarrassment as it was. Plus, how exactly was he supposed to break the news that he fucking hated Risette?

"…I don't like Risette. She's a phony person who tries to sell albums for the record company, who in turn tries to sell her to her 'adoring fans' for even more of a profit. She's a tool for the industry." Justin remarked, all the while Rise couldn't tell if she should be pleased or kind of hurt. "Rise, however, is a good person. I'm proud to call her my friend." Justin continued a small grin on his face. He couldn't really go all out with the smile simply because he was still embarrassed. Rise could though. She was still a little annoyed by some of those comments about Risette. Yeah, sure, that wasn't her. But it was a character she played, so in some way, she still felt like any insult to Risette was an insult to her. All the same, though, she was pleased to see someone who was friends with her because of who she was as a person, not because of she was a celebrity.

"I'm sorry. That wasn't a fair question… But I'm happy you said so." Rise smiled brightly at Justin's confirmation he was here for her, not some character she played. Justin nodded his head before turning his gaze back out to the horizon, fiddling around with the tags around his neck once again. He found himself doing that a lot as of late. Usually he just twirled the end of his cane into the dirt below him, but apparently things change. Maybe he was just so trapped in his thoughts and memories right now that he wasn't in the mood to be making marks in the dirt with his cane. He just needed something to twist in between his fingers to keep him from getting restless.

"When I got back to school after my debut, no one bullies me… I was happy at first, with people I didn't even know talking to me… But they weren't suddenly interested in Rise Kujikawa… They wanted to hang out with Risette. The bullying stopped, but… I felt like none of them saw the real me. In my heart, I've always thought… 'This isn't the real me…' Funny, huh? I was the one who wanted to change, and…" Rise stopped, tears starting to swell up in her eyes. Clearly this was a painful topic for her. Justin probably would have said something to calm her down a bit if his heart wasn't twitching in agonizing sadness right about now. All that stuff he had said a moment earlier… it was all true… And it hurt him to know that it was. He just wished that part of his life had never existed, but alas, just because you wish something to be (or not to be as this situation warranted,) doesn't mean that it would come true. Suddenly Rise jumped up from her seat, her eyes lit with glee, despite tears still building up behind her eye lids, a small grin making its way from cheek to cheek. "But none of that matters now! I'm done being Risette! Now I have people who know the real me. Plus, I have power that can help everyone… I love that! This time, I'm going to change into a Rise that everyone can like! Keep an eye out for her, Senpai!"

Justin stared at her for a moment, a little surprised by the sudden mood change, though that gave way to a reassuring smile. Rise was doing now what she probably should have done years ago; getting rid of Risette once and for all. She had to be herself, not some character that the media had been selling to the populace just to make a few bucks. She was a person with feelings, not a tool for profits.

"Why would I look out for her? I'm looking at her right now."


	107. Chapter 106: August 2, 2011

CHAPTER 106

August 2, 2011

* * *

"Chie, I swear to god if you bend that arm any further bac- GAH!"

Justin and Chie were down near the riverbank pretty much beating the ever loving crap out of each other. Oh, I'm sorry; I mean training. Why were they training you ask? Well Justin asked that exact same question, and look where he was right now. Chie had him pinned to the ground with his arm twisted behind his back, bending back on it in the most painful way possible, as though trying to get Justin to confess to murder or some shit. He would totally do it too; this hurt like a bitch right about now. It probably didn't help that Chie was laughing at him the entire time as he pleaded with her to let go of her grip on his arm. She intended to get as many kicks out of this as possible.

"Alright, say it; Chie is the greatest fighter in the whole world." Chie mocked him, twisting his arm even further back. He was damn near on the verge of tears, it was that painful. He was actually concerned Chie was trying to kill him for something. Maybe word about Rise passing off Justin as her fiancé had gotten around… No, no… Chie was smiling pretty hard right now; she didn't seem pissed off about anything. She was just enjoying watching as he squirmed about trying to get his arm out of her grip. Eventually he sighed in defeat; this was certainly going to do a number on his pride, being beaten by a simple twist of his arm.

"Chie is the greatest fighter in the whole world…" Justin groaned. It seemed Chie wasn't quite done with him yet though. She still had a tight grip on her arm, and she had that wicked grin on her face that she always seemed to wear anytime she had something terrible in mind for Justin. Justin just groaned as she tugged at his arm again. This really brought a whole new definition to love hurts.

"Alright, I'll let you go…" Chie started, trailing off slightly. It was clear there was another condition, other than praising Chie's master abilities as a fighter apparently. She could probably just pile on condition after condition for his release, and he'd say yes to every single one of them. He hoped to god that's not how this was going to go down, but knowing Chie, it probably was. "…But you have to buy me filet mignon." Chie grinned mischievously. Justin squinted one of his eyes in slight confusion; not necessarily because he was confused by the request, but because he had literally done that but a few days ago. She never did touch that birthday steak; which just so happened to be the most expensive steak Justin could find on Aiya's menu. He puffed up a bit, his face shoved into the dirt and grass below him.

"**You two are into some pretty sick shit."**

Justin groaned as he raised his eyes. From his little trap in the dirt he had a very good view of his shadow in his reflection in the river. He would have told him to fuck off, but he couldn't just THINK it; he had to outright say it. And with Chie on his back right now… Well, he'd rather not look like he was crazy. Instead he was stuck just glaring at his shadow smirking him and the position he found himself in. He was getting some sort of kick out of watching Chie extorting Justin for steak.

"**So when do we start busting out the leather and whips." **The shadow continued to mock Justin, knowing full well he couldn't say anything without looking batshit insane. Justin might not have been able to talk, but he was able to communicate with eye contact for the moment. And at the moment, he was glaring very hard. Probably not a good way of getting his shadow to stop in retrospect. **"You know, usually it's the guy that's on to- Oh, no wait. Sorry, seems I was mistaken; that is a guy on top. Looks like you're the bitch in this relationship, eh kid?"**

"Wellllllll?" Chie teased Justin, twisting his arm even further back, trying to coax him into giving in. He bit his bottom lip in pain as his arm bent in ways it was not meant to bend. Arms don't twist that far for a reason. If she was trying to send him to the hospital, it was working. "C'mon, say it…" Justin huffed out a bit, trying to hold out as long as he could. He'd probably end up buying her one anyway (though certainly something much cheaper than a fillet mignon,) but he'd rather do it on his own free will, not because he was pinned to the ground and forced into it. All he had to do was last long enough and she'd get bored eventually, right? If only the same could be said of his shadow.

"**Come on kid, you've got the money to buy a steak for this bitch right? After all, you already sold your soul to me." **The shadow continued, much to Justin's displeasure. You could practically see the steam shooting out of his ears. If Chie wasn't in top of him, he swore, he would give his shadow so much shit his mind would explode. But alas, he was stuck here, just holding back his rage as his shadow laughed at his anger building up. **"Oh but you don't want her to get off you, is that it? Come on; let's hear your rebel yell." **The shadow laughed, all before making a suggestive motion with his fingers. Justin wanted to vomit a little thinking that pervert was in his brainpan; but given that he was face down in the dirt right now, spewing up his stomach contents might not be a great idea. He'd lose his religion later.

"Jesus Christ; FINE! Just get off my back already!" Justin shouted at his shadow after a while. Of course, it was a good thing Chie was sitting on his back while she had his arm twisted around, otherwise that might have gotten very awkward very quickly. Needless to say, she thought he was talking to her. She jumped up off of Justin's spine in victory, a wide grin on her face as she posed triumphantly off to Justin's side. Justin had never been happier to have control of his arm again; though he didn't think he'd be using it anytime soon.

"I win!" Chie shouted with glee, jumping slightly with excitement over her prize. Justin groaned a bit as he pushed himself up off the ground, his arm killing him as he tried to push himself up. All the while he could hear his shadow laughing at him from his reflection. Though that swiftly changed as Justin picked up a pebble and threw it into the river, causing his reflection to shimmer away. He really wished he had figured out he could do that earlier; would have come in a lot of handy a long time ago.

"I think I would have rather had you break my arm than my wallet."

* * *

"And there goes my electricity for the week."

Justin and Chie were sitting at Aiya's when Chie finally got her damn steak. Justin had tried to talk her down from the filet mignon, what with his budget for all this crap being exactly zero dollars. But no; Chie wasn't letting this one go. You'd think she'd understand Justin didn't have the money for that kind of crap, but alas, her desire for steak seemed to overpower any concern she might have had for Justin's living conditions. At least Maya would be starting work soon; Justin could use some money to help with his bills.

"Jeeze, you went down easy." Chie mocked him as she cut into her steak, more than satisfied with proof of her victory over Justin. Justin just groaned a bit, resting his cheek against the palm of his hand, his elbow on the table. If that was going down easy, he'd hate to see what it would be like if Chie actually tried. Well, besides that incident with the textbook. That hurt like a bitch, but it didn't seem like she was trying to kill him just yet. She was certainly plotting it though. "You know you can't stop training just because the case is over." Chie preached to him about keeping his body fit and all that crap. Of course, being an athlete was never Justin's thing, so good luck getting him to practice anything but dodging.

"I'd rather be training my thumb on the television remote." Justin remarked sarcastically as he took a gulp of his beverage. Chie just seemed to grin harder though. She would prefer if Justin kept in shape, but then she supposed he wasn't exactly at any health risk if he didn't. And besides, she was getting free steak out of his lack of ability to break out of her hold. That seemed as good a reason as any not to push him too much to exercise.

"So hey, did you hear that rumor?" Chie spoke up after chewing away at her steak for a while, not too long after Justin had finished chugging his can of cola. He could down one of those in seconds, so it really wasn't much surprise that he was already done chugging it down; especially after training in the hot sun like that. Justin raised his eyebrow slightly. He had no idea what rumor Chie was talking about, but he thought he had enough with rumors.

"I will in a second; what's the rumor?" Justin questioned, curiosity getting the better of his better judgment. Why did he get a sinking feeling in his chest that there would be a second murder case if Chie didn't keep her mouth shut on the matter? It seemed like every time he had heard any sort of rumor it had been true; and if this was anything like the Midnight Channel… Well some things are better off not being said.

"Well there's this rumor going around that there's this curse, right-"

"Alright, stop right there. Don't want to hear it." Justin cut her off. He had just about enough curses over the last few years. Well… Technically the Midnight Channel wasn't a curse; but it sure as hell felt like it. Chie shook her head slightly, giving Justin those puppy dog eyes again. And within seconds, Justin found himself sighing in defeat again. He should wear a bag or something on his head; that way he would be immune to Chie's charms. "…Fine, go ahead." Justin rolled his eyes, all the while Chie clapped with delight.

"Well, apparently someone's been putting a curse on men in their twenties or so who are unfaithful to their girlfriends. They start having these nightmares… Only if you die in your dream, you don't wake up." Chie recapped the curse to the best of her ability, lowering her voice an octave or two to try and sound spooky. Justin just thought it sounded absolutely preposterous; though to be fair, he thought the same thing about the Midnight Channel, so perhaps he shouldn't judge so quickly. Justin chuckled slightly, shaking his head a little bit.

"Next you'll be telling me they turn into sheep." Justin remarked sarcastically, though Chie shot him a slight 'shut up and let me finish,' glare, to which he immediately backed down, sliding down his chair slightly.

"They're calling it the Weakening Deaths. I heard they found this guy who supposedly had the curse put on him. He was nothing but skin and bones when they found him." Chie continued, the slightest hint of concern in her voice. She certainly seemed to believe whatever it was that she was recapping to Justin. Justin wished he could too, maybe then he'd see what Chie was getting so worked up over. But come on; this was like Bloody Mary all over again. He really couldn't understand what there was to be so afraid of. Especially when it wouldn't even apply to anyone they knew. Save maybe Kurt, but he didn't even have a girlfriend, so it wouldn't affect him in the slightest.

"I wouldn't get too worked up about it; it's probably just some story that's getting passed around while they solve the real case." Justin remarked. He didn't doubt that someone had been killed; it happened all the time after all. He did doubt that someone had died just because they died in their dream. Not that Justin would really know; for all he knew, it might be entirely possible for someone to die in their dreams and not wake up. He wouldn't know, though; he was the one who did all the killing in his dreams.

"Pfft, who said I was worried about it. It's just some dumb myth…" Chie chuckled that awkward 'I'm totally lying' chuckle. Justin tilted his head slightly towards the ground to give Chie that look again; the one he gave her every time he knew she was lying to him. Her cheeks seemed to grow redder as Justin caught onto her bluff. "I mean it couldn't possibly- Okay stop giving me that look!" Chie eventually spat up in anger as she noticed that look Justin was giving her wasn't subsiding. That was getting very irritating very quickly.

"But I just can't keep my eyes off you, babe." Justin joked, laughing slightly. Chie wasn't having any of that, though. Not that she wasn't up for flirting; she just knew Justin was trying to change the subject from that stare he was trying to give her. She could play his game too, you know.

"I'm not falling for that."

"Eh, worth a shot." Justin shrugged with defeat. You never know if you don't try; and he had figured he was charismatic enough to- Okay that's a complete lie. Justin would never describe himself as charismatic. He was just trying to use his expert flirting and pick up line skills to his advantage. It usually worked; but then, that wasn't necessarily because he was good at flirting or anything. He just usually had very good timing. Not so much this time. "But seriously; No one we know even fits that description. No use getting worked up over it, you know."

"Well what about Adachi?" Chie spoke up, trying to raise a point. She was going to say Kurt, but then she realized he hadn't actually had a girlfriend. Or even gone out on a date from her understanding. Justin immediately burst into hysterics. The thought of Adachi playing two women at once was too much for him to bear, the thought was just absolutely hysterical. Chie didn't seem too pleased that Justin was more or less mocking her suggestion right now. She was just listing off people the both of them knew that were in their twenties. It took a minute or so before Justin's laughter finally came to a halt.

"You seriously think Adachi is a ladies' man? Oh-ho, no. He couldn't get a girl if he tried." Justin choked up over his laughter. Clearly he wasn't exactly the most charming person when it came to the ladies. After all, he had pretty much said all he wants out of a girl is someone who can cook, or someone who was hot. No girl was going to want to get with Adachi so long as he maintained that outlook on life. Hopefully he'd figure that out in a few years time. After all, he was still pretty young; maybe he'd learn that's not what you should be looking for in a girl; or rather, at least learn to be a little bit more respectful when it came to talking about them.

"Well it was just an idea…" Chie groaned, slightly embarrassed to find that her theory seemed to fall completely on its face. She wasn't entirely sure if Justin was just making assumptions about Adachi, or if he knew enough to actually make a remark like that; but she didn't bother to ask. Really, looking into this rumor was pretty stupid, now that she thought about it. Someone had to put the curse on them, right? As far as she knew, no one had put any curse on anyone. And she was sure a cop like Adachi would notice if someone tried to pull any weird voodoo magic on him… Although they were talking about Adachi. He was pretty clueless.

"I know, I know." Justin finally remarked as his laughter finally came to a stop. "Don't worry about it; not every little rumor you're going to hear is true, y'know?" Justin calmly explained, trying to ease the tension in Chie's body with his words. She shrugged, letting out a slight sigh. It was hard to just dismiss ridiculous rumors like that after all that had happened on the Midnight Channel. She found some slight relief in hearing from Justin he didn't believe this for a second, but not really enough to be completely at ease. I mean, if this was a real thing, could they help solve this crime too? Probably not, now that she thought about it. How would they even go about getting in the dream? Chie, Yukiko, and Rise would never be able to get in just by going asleep, and Yu, Yosuke, Justin, Kanji were still a good three or four years away from even being old enough to get in. And god only knows if Teddie would qualify. Probably not.

"…Thanks." Chie smiled sheepishly, grateful that Justin was at least attempting to calm her down. He was failing miserably, but it was the thought that counted right? Justin smiled, nodding as though to tell her not to worry about it. Justin rubbed at his chin for a moment, pondering this myth for a moment; something about it struck him as a bit odd… Of course, that was a little subsided by him feeling the sensation of the facial hair around his chin. He had a slight soul patch by this point. He groaned a bit; he was okay with a little bit of facial hair, but he might have been letting it get to be a little much by this point.

"I should really get around to shaving." Justin sighed finally removing his hand from his chin. Chie passed him a slight look of confusion, though that was immediately replaced by a rosy glow of her cheeks and a wide grin.

"Why? It looks good on you." Chie remarked, much to Justin's surprise. He thought having too much of this crap would probably look terrible on him. He was more than a little shocked to see Chie thought it looked alright on him. He rubbed at his chin one last time before moving his hand away from his chin again. He probably should be more concerned with how he thought he looked than what Chie did, but he was willing to leave it if she liked it. Anything for her, after all. "Besides, I'd miss that prickle if it were gone." She teased him. Justin's face turned beat red almost immediately. He had never even considered the possibility that she could feel that when they kissed. He briefly wondered if that would be annoying; but given that Chie seemed to implore him to keep it, he was going to guess she was okay with it.

"S-So keeping it is then, fantastic…" Justin nervously steered the conversation away from the more intimate side of things. Chie just chuckled a bit as Justin's cheeks grew redder and redder. It was very rare she as able to do that to him, and she loved it everytime.

"You know, you're pretty cute when you get flustered." Chie continued to tease him, much to Justin's displeasure. He could only handle so much flirting at once before he started to crawl in his skin. It wasn't that he didn't like flirting or anything; he just wasn't so comfortable being on the receiving end. It's always awkward to receive a compliment; even more when it's an intimate compliment. Justin glared at Chie slightly, face still redder than the sun in the sky. Which was really more orange than anything, but alright.

"I'll have you know I'm always cute... Wait, no… Don't quote me on that." Justin nervously tried to correct himself. Cute was not a word he wanted being attached to him. Imagine what would happen if Justin, the schizophrenic anarchist with temper control issues got labeled as being cute. Oh man, he'd never be able to show his face again. Not that Chie would ever spread around that he was cute; nor would anyone really take her word on it, but still. Chie just grinned mischievously at that thought.

"Too late."


	108. Chapter 107: August 3, 2011

CHAPTER 107

August 3, 2011

* * *

"Oh man… Kanji is going to have a fit."

Justin had walked out of his house at the sound of what sounded like a dying cat. He hadn't exactly expected to see Yu and Yosuke sitting outside on what he had to assume were motorcycles. They looked more like scooters than anything; and by that Justin meant they looked god awful. He had half expected Kanji to beat the two up for going full-blown biker; so you could imagine Justin's surprise when Kanji came riding up on a regular bicycle… Wow, that was… uh… Kanji looked very strange on a bicycle; let's just leave it at that. Everyone parked their bikes in front of Justin's house, wide grins on their face. Seemed like they had something awful in mind. As to what? Justin didn't want to know. But given that they were here, he was guessing they were going to tell him regardless of what he wanted.

"Hey Justin; check out or rides. We got our licenses the other day." Yosuke remarked with pride. It was no secret he had been gunning for a motorcycle. Seemed he was still gunning for it given that he only had a scooter. Point being, you could tell he was thrilled to be sitting on that thing right now. Justin couldn't understand why he would want a scooter though. You'd probably look really dumb on one of those things. If the point was to look cool on a motorcycle, Yosuke had already failed.

"Do I even want to ask?" Justin remarked snidely, climbing down the stairs of his house and up to where the three had parked their bikes. Yosuke almost seemed offended that Justin couldn't see the appeal. Clearly they needed to fill him in on their up close and personal plan. Even a guy like Justin could get behind something like that, right?

"What, haven't you heard?" Yosuke questioned Justin, still a bit confused that he wasn't aware of all the advantages of having a motorcycle. Those things were chick magnets. Not that Justin really needed any help in that category, nor would he WANT help in that category. Still, it's not like Justin couldn't take advantage of all that a motorcycle had to offer. "When they're sitting in back of you it's like a squeeze play!" Justin raised his eyebrow, very clearly not getting what Yosuke was trying to get at.

"Squeeze play?" Justin questioned. He got the part about someone sitting behind you on the bike. He didn't get the squeeze play part. Which was a bit strange when you considered Justin had a very dirty mind. You'd think he'd get the implications almost immediately; but alas, no. Yosuke sighed, rolling his eyes a bit. He didn't want to outright say it; after all, who knew who could be listening in on their conversation right now.

"C'mon, you know what I mean. I'm talking about how, when there's a girl sitting behind you on a motorcycle, they press right up against your back." Yosuke elaborated slightly, enthusiasm in his voice. Clearly he had high expectations of what was going to happen if he showed off his motorcycle around the ladies. Or maybe just THE lady; who knows. That guy was trying to put the moves on a different girl every time Justin checked. All he knew was that last time he checked he was trying to ask some girl out. Justin stared at Yosuke with a confused stare for a moment longer before his eyes widened with realization. Justin wasn't sure whether he should feel disgusted or fascinated. I mean, of course they pressed up against you, but it shouldn't be that big of a deal. Of course, Justin being a guy and all, wouldn't be totally against it; he just wouldn't be very vocally for it.

"Oh. Oh wow. Okay, uh… wow." Justin stuttered slightly, very much embarrassed they were talking about this. Words could not describe the amount of disgust he was feeling towards Yosuke right about now. Yosuke apparently took that more as Justin being interested, just very modestly interested. He smiled as he leaned against his bike, praising his bike all the while.

"I think motorcycles are the hot new thing for guys now. Girls like guys who spend time outdoors, right? I couldn't afford more than a scooter on my budget, but at least it'll let us get places." Yosuke patted his bike with pride. Justin crossed his arms a bit as he stared at the trio of guys. Alright, so they got motorcycles… and a bike in Kanji's case. Surely they weren't just here to rub it in Justin's face. And knowing Yosuke, he was probably up to something. In a way he was; he had hoped Maya would have been home and saw his bike, but alas, no. She had been out at the shrine. Not that she was a particularly religious person; she just really took a liking to that fox for some reason. But other than that, his plan was pretty much non-existent.

"Well, we were going to let you in on our 'up close and personal' plan, but I'm guessing you don't have a bike." Yosuke teased Justin slightly. Justin sighed a bit. He always did want a motorcycle; but with his budget, he just couldn't afford one. Besides; he didn't really want any part in their 'up close and personal' plan. He had enough of getting caught up in shit with other girls. It was amazing that no matter what he did, somehow someone was getting him in trouble with Chie. "Like I was telling this guy, what a guy needs nowadays to be a big man is first a motorcycle, and then…" Yosuke paused for a moment, expecting someone to ask him what 'then' was. He got no response. "A girlfriend."

"One out of two ain't bad." Justin shrugged. Kanji seemed very much irritated at the moment though. He didn't have a motorcycle, and he didn't have a girlfriend. Yosuke had pretty much just told Kanji he wasn't a man; which as we all know, is something you never want to say to Kanji. Actually, Yosuke brought up an interesting point. What was Yu doing here if he already had both of those things? Apparently looking's free. "So… What, you guys just going to ride around town and expect girls to try and jump on your bike or somethin'?" Justin remarked with sarcasm. Clearly Yosuke didn't get that even with a motorcycle you still have to approach the girl, not the other way around.

"We're going to ride over to Okina Station. We'll roar up on our motorcycles like the badasses we are, and when the chicks come up, we'll play it cool… The pheromones dripping off of us will bring them around in no time." Yosuke recapped his plan to Justin, who in turn looked at him like he was crazy. There was no way in hell any of those guys were going to get a girl doing that.

"F-Feral… Zone…?" Kanji questioned, very much confused as to what Yosuke meant by pheromone. Hell, he didn't even seem to pick up that he was talking about pheromones. Yosuke was very visibly irritated by the question.

"No! We're not going to a cat house, you idiot. I'm talking about PHEROMONES!" Yosuke shouted at Kanji in explanation. Justin couldn't help but chuckle at that. They might as well have just gone to a cat house; they'd get better results that way. "My research shows that a motorcycle is the number one surefire way to increase a man's pheromones."

Justin sighed before turning back around to reenter his house. The trio was very much confused at first; usually Justin had a smartass remark anytime he stormed off like that. They had just sort of assumed he was trying to ignore them and their 'brilliant' plan. The three of them started throwing their helmets back on, ready to depart at any second when Justin came walking back out, a black skateboard underneath his arm. It was old and broken, and there was tape all along the center of the board where he had broken it a while back, but it was still good for getting around. The three of them stared at him with great confusion as he approached the three, plopping the board down on the sidewalk besides them, moving it back and forth with his foot to make sure the wheels were still working.

"Uh… That's not a bike…" Yosuke remarked with bitter sarcasm. Justin rolled his eyes for a moment; still testing to make sure the board would work fine. Something Yosuke hadn't realized was that Justin wasn't in this to pick up chicks, or whatever the hell it was Yosuke thought they were doing. He was going along because apparently none of those three knew what the hell they were doing right now.

"No, but I can't beat someone over the head with a bike, now can I? Now onward!"

* * *

"Hello, Okina Station! That was easier than I thought."

Yu, Yosuke, and Justin had all come to a stop outside Okina Station, with Kanji following not too far behind. Yosuke was a bit surprised in all honesty that Justin had been able to keep up on a board, when they had been working with gas power. Though to be fair, he did take a few short cuts; ollieing over corners, and grinding down rails on stair cases. Justin wasn't exactly a great skater, but he knew the basics. Maya was a lot better at him when it came to this stuff; she was the one who taught him after all. There were very few things Maya owned in her name; her iPod was one, her skateboard was another. Then there was this comic book he always saw her reading, which was strange, because Maya didn't like comics. Justin felt pretty goddamn awful about breaking her skateboard the first time she let him use it; but he did get her a replacement eventually. He ended up keeping the broken one, patching it up with some tape. And from there, they just sort of did their thing. There was no skate park or anything, so they just skated around the city where they could. After all, you didn't want to skate in a place where cops could see.

"That was a breeze!" Kanji shouted as he finally caught up with the three standing outside Okina station. Yosuke was more than a little shocked Kanji had been able to catch up. Sure, he had heard that he had managed to catch up with bikers before on that thing, but he hadn't actually taken him seriously. And could you blame him? That sounded absolutely preposterous. "It's no sweat keeping up to a couple of guys getting' used to their scooters."

"Psh! If I had run out of gas back there, we'd have left you in the dust!" Yosuke tried to defend the two's scooter prowess. Justin actually kind of appreciated the gas stop; he had time to get something to drink while Yosuke was busy cussing his bike for not having better miles per gallon. "…I shouldn't have cheaped out on gas just so I could have more money to fool around with." Yosuke grimaced slightly as everyone dismounted their bikes and put their helmets aside. Save Justin, because helmets are for pussies. Besides; brain damage actually might be an improvement over what he had now anyway.

"Y'know, I notice every time I come here, there's a lot of people around." Kanji mused aloud.

"Well… yeah?" Justin added snidely. They had everything here, and it was within riding distance if you went by bike, or skateboard in Justin's case. Why wouldn't people want to come here? Hell, Justin was tempted to just leave the three of those to their awful plan and to wander off to do his own thing. Maybe catch a flick or something.

"Yeah, if we hang out around here, I bet someone will come talk to us!" Yosuke shouted. Justin just groaned a bit. That's not how that worked, at all. The guy is always supposed to go up to the girl, and sure there were certainly exceptions, but a bike was not one of them. Basically, Yosuke didn't know how to get a girl in any way shape or form. Justin was starting to feel bad for whoever it was Yosuke had been sweet on over the last month or two. It must be torture putting up with his 'up close and personal plan.'

"Actually, uh… mind if I head off for a bit? Since I came all the way to Okina, uhh… th-there's this craft shop…" Kanji stammered off, trying to get away for a moment to go buy whatever it was he wanted at the craft store. Yosuke and Yu were giving him a funny look, not very aware that Kanji was into crafts. Kanji noticed too, given that he immediately started to panic. "It's nothin'! I'm just sayin' I gotta go buy some stuff! Anyway, I'm gonna go do my own thing for a bit, so you guys get started without me!" Kanji declared before quickly running off before Yosuke could drill him on what it was he planned on doing. Not that that really stopped Yosuke anyway; it's just that he started questioning the others instead.

"Then… Why'd he come with us…?" Yosuke mused, slightly annoyed that Kanji had run off when they had a carefully worked out plan. Step one, hang near the bikes. Step two, get chicks. Step three, repeat step two. Justin rolled his eyes; he wasn't here for their plan either, but you didn't see Yosuke getting on his back for it. Yu shook his head a bit at the fading image of Kanji running off to some store in the distance.

"Forget him, our plan's more important." Yu remarked, much to Justin's surprise. Apparantly it never really struck Yu that he already had a girl back home. And Justin doubted she'd be too pleased to see Yu leading this little operation. Actually, Chie probably would be really pissed off if she found out Justin had gotten involved… Maybe he should have thought through coming here with the rest of the gang.

"You're right! Okay, let's get this plan underway!" Yosuke declared as the two sat their assess back down on their bike. Justin rolled his eyes at them, moments away from telling them that what they were doing was stupid. And then curiosity struck him. He wondered how long it would take them to realize sitting on their bikes wasn't going to get them any girls. And so, while those two waited, Justin skated around the parking lot, watching the time fly by, curious to see how long they'd last before they gave up on their horrible plan.

Three hours passed.

Three fucking hours. And they still hadn't given in; they just sat there waiting and waiting. It had gotten to a point where Justin really wasn't sure whether he should intervene or not. If he didn't, they could sit like that for days on end hoping some girl would finally go up to them. And if they died of starvation, Justin was not going to be the one to break the news to Yukiko that her boyfriend died trying to pick up chicks. Thankfully, Kanji came running back… three hours later. How long did it take to pick up a few things from a craft shop. Whatever; at least it snapped Yu and Yosuke out of their daze.

"Sorry to make you guys wait! I couldn't decide which one to get…" Kanji trailed off with enthusiasm before noticing that Yu and Yosuke were wallowing about in self pity as they noticed their plan wasn't working. "No luck, huh?" Kanji questioned, as Justin rolled up to where everyone else was, skidding his board to a stop just as he made it to the curb. It should have been obvious they hadn't gotten anywhere, but then, perhaps it would do those two some good to have it rubbed in their face how bad their plan was.

"This is so weird. I think someone's watching us from somewhere, though…" Yosuke mused aloud in denial. He had to convince himself that SOMEONE was watching them on their bikes, otherwise all of this was for naught. I mean, if he couldn't even get a glance from some strangers, how was he going to impress Maya what this thing? Yu nodded with slight agreement, trying to convince himself that Yosuke was correct.

"Oh that? That's just Yukiko watching you try to pick up other girls." Justin teased Yu. Yu turned bright red almost immediately. It wasn't like he was trying to hook up with anyone, he just wanted to see if he COULD. Get a number or two or something. It sounded like it would be fun, after all. This? Not so much? Yu sighed tossing his leg over his bike, as though ready to drive off. Yosuke in response immediately jumped off his bike in an attempt to get him off that bike. He needed his wingman for this. I mean, more bikes meant more chances of girls taking notice, right?

"H-Hold on! I'm sure if we hang around a little longer…" Yosuke pleaded with Yu, trying to force him off that bike.

"Dude, the sun's gonna set… Maybe there's some holes in your plan after all." Kanji pointed out the obvious. There entire plan consisted of sitting on their assess and hoping the girls would just come running into their laps. "You said every guy needs a motorcycle, but that thing's a scooter. Does it, like, not matter what kind of motorcycle it is, as long as you got one?"

"The problem isn't the motorcycle; though that scooter's certainly not helping." Justin interrupted Kanji's musings as to what had gone wrong with the plan, pointing out what should have been obvious to all three of them. Girls don't care about motorcycles; and they certainly aren't going to hop in bed with you just because you own one. "The problem is that you're expecting the girls to do all the work. You have to actually talk to them. Scary, I know." Kanji rubbed at his chin slightly as Justin scolded the two of them for their stupid ass plan.

"Senpai, can you give me ten minutes? I can't keep quiet after getting shut out like this. I'll avenge you guys!" Kanji shouted with determination. He had no intention of leaving here without someone getting lai- sorry, getting someone to admire their bikes. No one was getting laid that day. Except maybe Kanji if he played his cards right. As much of a perv as Yosuke was, he wouldn't dare try to push for anything more than a little 'squeeze play' as he liked to call it apparently.

"This isn't a fight, you know. What're you gonna do to 'avenge' us? Hit on some girls?" Yosuke scolded with pure irritation. How the bikes hadn't worked was beyond him. Everything he had known about bikes and women was a lie apparently. Justin smirked, giving Kanji a slight nod of support, throwing his fist up in cheer. Who would have thought that Kanji would know more about getting a girl than any of them. Well, except maybe Justin; but he wasn't really trying to, so yeah.

"Hell yeah! How else would I fix this?" Kanji remarked bravely. He had determination, that much was for sure. Justin was almost touched by the courage he was exhibiting. He'd be a little more touched if his bravery had been directed towards something other than getting some from the ladies. Of course, given that this was Kanji, it was nice to see him coming out of his shell a little bit. Just so long as no one mentions hot springs around him again… That was something.

"C'mon… We have motorbikes and we failed. There's no way you could do better. Right?" Yosuke tried to dismiss Kanji's attempts at 'avenging' them. If they couldn't do it after all their planning, after all the money they had thrown into their efforts, and Kanji thought he was going to beat them just by hitting on some girls. Yu got off his bike, a determined expression on his face as he planted both feet on the ground.

"All I need is three minutes." Yu bragged. He was dead serious too; he honestly thought he could snag a girl's number in a matter of three minutes. Justin barely was able to hold back the laughter for that, though Yu did hear a chuckle or two slip out while he tried to hold back his giggles. It took Yu months just to build up the courage to ask Yukiko out. How was he going to do it with a complete stranger, knowing full well he was already in a relationship anyway.

"What're you saying!?" Yosuke panicked.

"Even instant ramen takes five minutes to make!" Kanji remarked with wide eyes. Apparently getting a girl was the equivalent of cooking ramen. By this point Justin had given up trying to correct their views on women and dating. They seemed completely clueless. But then, Justin wasn't exactly much better, so he shouldn't be talking right now. "Now that's my senpai! Let's make this a contest. I'll show you clowns how a real man gets it done!" Kanji declared, much to Justin's disgust. Alright, so now it was also just a game to these three. Fantastic.

"Calm down! This is turning into something we've all got a stake in!" Yosuke shouted, nervously trying to back away from the challenge Kanji had just issued. Justin didn't blame him, though clearly they were denying the challenge for entirely different reasons. "I mean, do you realize what you're saying? This means we're the ones that have to approach the girls."

"Heaven forbid." Justin remarked snidely.

"That just sounds lame… and I doubt it'll go well for us…" Yosuke mused aloud. So far approaching girls directly to get them on a date hadn't worked much in Yosuke's favor. The first time he chickened out, the second time the Midnight Channel had ended up ruining everything. Justin nodded in slight agreement as he leaned against his skateboard. Kanji wasn't having any of that shit out of those two though. They were going to compete whether they liked it or not. It was amazing how he had managed to convince them in a simple two words:

"Ya chicken?"

"That's not what I mean…" Yosuke stuttered slightly. Justin shot Kanji a slight glare, as though asking him to say that again to his face. He was no chicken; he just had enough respect to not ask girls for their numbers when he had no intention of calling them. And besides, what did he gain from competing in this competition? The title of King of Swag?

"All we gotta do is ask them to be our friend. And then make 'em say 'yes.' Nothin' to it." Kanji continued to try and convince the two. Yosuke sighed in defeat after a while, though Justin was still firmly holding his ground on the matter. He outright refused to ask anyone for their numbers while he was here. If those three wanted to murder each other over who could pick up more chicks, let them, but Justin was staying out of this.

"Well, I guess there's nothing to lose…" Yosuke pouted slightly, very clearly not wanting in on this. Kanji was enthused to see he had convinced one of them; now that only left Justin. He was certainly going to be a lot more difficult to convince, there was no denying it.

"That's the spirit, Senpai! And you-"

"No." Justin cut Kanji off immediately. He wasn't even willing to hear his proposal.

"But-"

"No." Kanji sighed after a moment. Justin had his mind set already; and while he had hoped to convince him, he couldn't do that if Justin wouldn't even let him talk. At best he could hope that his losing conditions would be enough to tempt Justin into putting him in his place. Even though he had no intention of losing, and certainly wasn't going to lose to Yosuke.

"Well… If I lose, I'll run around the block in nothin' but my underwear and those gag glasses Yukiko-senpai had!" Justin raised his eyebrows at that. Kanji thought that might catch his attention. Justin would be lying if he said he didn't want to see that. And everyone noticed; they just had to give him a little extra push.

"C'mon man, you don't have to call them or anything. Just give their number to one of us." Yosuke continued to try and prod Justin into joining. Justin in turn shot Yosuke a glare. That was the stupidest goddamn thing he had heard in a long time.

"Yeah, because I'm sure they totally wouldn't be able to tell the difference between me and you." Justin rolled his eyes. He was ready to march off to avoid discussing this any further, when he was stopped by something he hadn't expected. Yosuke had turned to the drastic; he had donned the puppy dog eyes on Justin. He had seen it before; when he had tricked Chie into giving him her noodles. Never did he think those deadly, mesmerizing eyes would be turned to him. Never did he think he'd actually be tempted by them. I mean, it wasn't exactly as charming as when Chie did it, but oh god was it stopping him dead in his tracks. Yosuke looked like a heartbroken toddler who got coal in his stocking on Christmas. "…You monster."

"Pretty pleassssse?" Yosuke remarked, raising his voice an octave or two in an attempt at trying to appeal to Justin's natural attraction to anything even remotely adorable. For a hardass, he sure seemed to fall for cute easily. Justin stood their jaw open as Yosuke tried to push him into joining their contest. And even though every fiber of his being said to run before those eyes did their work, it was much too late. They had already worked their charm and paralyzed Justin where he stood. Justin bit his bottom lip trying to force back the words in his throat.

"…Oh for fucks' sake, fine." Justin eventually choked up, almost immediately ashamed with himself. Chivalry until a point apparently. He was going to have to do a lot of self-reflection after what he did today. And he swore to god if Chie ever found out about this, he was literally going to rip Yosuke's skull out through his ass… Actually, no, that's uh… That's probably a little much. He was murdering Yosuke, not participating in a hardcore gay porno. No, just pulling the skull out would more than suffice. No assholes involved.

"All right then." Yosuke beamed with pride as he managed to bring Justin down to their level of filth and disgust. "Remember, only girls count for this, all right?" Yosuke remarked in an aside to Kanji. Justin in turn smacked Yosuke across the head. Hard. Yosuke probably should have seen that one coming; though he supposed that wouldn't make it hurt any less.

"You're still stuck on that? Dammit! Hell if I'm gonna lose this!" And with that, pretty much everyone ran off in search of a girl to hit on. Save Justin who stood there for a moment sighing in disbelief. He should have never said yes. He wasn't sure if the losing conditions for Kanji applied for all of them, but he had no intention of risking it. He rubbed at his temples before walking around in search of someone. Anyone really; he could care less who, he just needed someone to write some digits down.

He eventually came across two girls talking in front of a café on the west side of the station; they were both very loud and obnoxious, and from the looks of it, they had a superiority complex. Justin would have picked pretty much anyone else, but from the looks of it, all the other guys had them covered. Which meant these were the only people available. Just Justin's luck. He groaned a bit as he slowly made his way up to the two.

"And that guy trying to pick me up was such a loser. That nose piercing of his made him look like such a cow." One of the girls remarked in the bitchiest way possible. It seemed Kanji had already made a pass at one of their numbers, and failed miserably from the looks of it. Justin sighed as he continued pressing forward. It wasn't TOO late to back out. But alas, he had to. For his dignity… Actually, it would probably be more dignifying not to compete; but that was beside the point.

"That sounds awful! What did he think he was, Inaba beef?" Well that was certainly one Justin hadn't heard before. He was not looking forward to this conversation; not one bit.

"Um… Excuse me ladies." Justin choked up, trying to get their attention. Well he certainly got it; along with all their anger and fury if the glare he was getting was any indication. He was already regretting it. Maybe he could just pretend he lost his wallet and was going to ask them if they had seen it- What was he thinking? These were the kind of people that would keep it if they found it. He'd probably get bitched out no matter what he said now.

"What the hell? Who are you? Are you hitting on us?" One of the girls shouted at Justin. Clearly she was a bit paranoid. Justin shrunk back slightly. He was absolutely not hitting on her, nor would he have any intention. He just needed some digits. Any digits would suffice. He'd even take their house number if that's what they wanted. Just so long as they included their zip code in the mix so that he could make out a full number with it.

"…No. No I was not." Justin clarified; very much embarrassed to be where he was right now. Now would be the time to run if he still wanted to survive.

"Well… He is kinda cute." The other girl spoke to the more flamboyant one; apparently oblivious to the fact that Justin had no intention of hitting on the two. He just needed some goddamned digits. He didn't even intend to call them. I mean, surely they could just write SOMETHING down, right? His face grew redder as they talked about his appearances as though he wasn't even there. He should have expected that out of girls like these. "We're not doing anything right now, so maybe we could hang out."

"I haven't seen you around. Where do you live?" The other girl immediately cut Justin off as he tried to explain to them that he really had no intention of sticking around. He was just hoping one of them would have the kindness of playing along with his little charade. He'd pay them if that's what they wanted; after all, they seemed to be the kind of people that only cared about money. Fucking rich girls. Or… was it bitch girls? Same thing now that Justin thought about it.

"Oh… uh… I live near the shopping district in Inaba-"

"Inaba he says! What a redneck! That's too funny!" The girls started laughing hysterically as they mocked his current location of residence. Justin's cheeks turned bright red almost immediately. This was not bringing back pleasant memories of his childhood; though usually it was the guys who did this to him… Actually, now that he thought about it, it was ALWAYS the guys. He had never once been bullied by a girl. This was certainly a new experience for Justin; and not a pleasant one at that.

"I didn't know being British made you a redneck…" Justin mumbled. Yeah, technically his heritage was American, but he figured they'd still call him a redneck if he said that. At least the English had some bloody class. The girls didn't pay him the slightest bit of mind though. They didn't care about his heritage, only where he was living right now. And apparantly all country-folk were red necks. Justin kind of wished Chie was here, she wouldn't stand for this shit. She'd also kick Justin's ass for trying to get their number, but maybe he needed a good ass-kicking right now.

"I heard Inaba's so dead, the farm animals have taken over! Four legs good, two legs bad!" The two continued mocking him and the entirety of Inaba. He could feel his stomach twisting in knots as they didn't even bother to try and hide their derogatory remarks from him. Even Ai wasn't this bad. She was a bitch, but she would never stoop so low as to insult an entire town, to call everyone inside it animals. Justin wasn't really sure to react. Usually he gave Ai crap back when she was being a bitch, but you could tell she didn't mean it. In fact, she didn't even care when Justin gave her crap back; she seemed almost pleased that someone was taking a stand against her bitchiness, so it worked out. But these two? They meant it. Justin had never actually been this insulted by a girl before. He wasn't even sure if he COULD give these girls shit back. Especially not if he wanted them to cooperate. Instead, he was just stuck their mortified by the two girls getting their shits and giggles out of Justin's embarrassment.

"That's like that book!"

"…Animal Farm?" Justin questioned. Maybe if he knew what they were talking about they'd back off. Of course, they didn't care that Justin read the same book they had, it didn't prove that he was there equals. They still saw him as some sort of lower class human, unworthy of their time or attention. God, this was exactly why Justin hated the rich. So full of themselves that they thought they were on another plain of existence.

"Let me hear you squeal, country boy!" One of the girls finally barked straight at him, not even passing their insults back and forth between each other anymore. They were going directly after their victim, like sharks chasing a bloody otter. Justin's mouth was slightly ajar, a slightly hurt expression on his face. He had seen shadows, he had seen demons, he had seen bullies, he had seen the mafia. Never had he seen anything quite as evil as these two girls.

"…What is this, the Deliverance?" Justin remarked snidely as the two stared at him with malice and ill-intent in their eyes. They wanted to see this kid squirm, just some toy that they were playing around with to get their sick kicks. The two made some slight piggish noises themselves as they tried to coax Justin into it. It was taking every fiber of Justin's being not to turn around, breaking down in tears. He had always thought girls were above this stupid shit; that's why a majority of his friends WERE girls. He never thought that a girl would make him want to cry the way the kids back in California did.

"Whatever you Inaba people do to keep your pig overlords happy! I bet you're one of the pigs' pets in Inaba!" Alright, that was about all Justin could take of these… monstrosities from hell. He would have just walked away, but alas, he did have business. And he was just going to cut to the chase, because if he didn't get that number in the next five seconds, he was going to strangle someone.

"…Look, will you two please shut your fucking mouths for two seconds?" Justin choked up, rage and sorrow in his voice. That sure as hell shut those girls up, though they also didn't take having their shit thrown back at them as well as Ai did. Oh, they were livid. How dare this country pig talk back to them, after all? "All I need is for you to write down a number. It doesn't have to be your real number, just some number so I can get my friends off my back. Can you do that, or are you two busy sitting on your goddamn thrones?" Justin continued to scold the two, pleaing desperately for them to write something down. The two girls stared at him for a moment, very visibly furious.

"…Pfft, whatever." One eventually spoke up after a while, scribbling a fake number down on a piece of paper for Justin and shoving the crumpled up piece of paper into his palm before storming off. They had better things to do then let some country swine lecture them after all. Justin sighed in relief as he read the number off. It looked pretty real, even though he knew it was fake. It had to be after he had out right insulted those two. He stared at it for a moment before heading back to the rendezvous point. It was a good two or three minutes before everyone had gathered to show off their prizes.

"…How'd it go?" Yosuke questioned as Kanji rejoined the group, a less than promising expression on his face. He seemed confused and all around disappointed. Which was a good thing for Justin, it only meant he wouldn't be the one running around the town in his boxers. Well that's what he thought at the time anyway. By the time all was said and done, it appeared everyone had forgotten the losing conditions; which completely pissed Justin off. He had gone through hell over literally nothing.

"Not as well as I hoped."

"I thought so…" Yosuke sighed. He hadn't gotten the results he was expecting either, but he did get results all the same. And results are results; he wasn't complaining anytime soon.

"Oh, but I did get a phone number from some chick who said to give her a call… Does that count?" Justin raised his eyebrow at Kanji's question. Of course it counted; he got her number, didn't he? So what was the problem exactly? Yosuke and Yu seemed almost shocked that Kanji got results though; as though he was completely unappealing to anything that resembled a woman.

"A girl hit on you!? What did she say!?" Yosuke eagerly started probing for details.

"Somethin' like it only costin' so much an hour, I dunno… What was she talkin' about?" Okay, Justin could see the problem now. How in god's name Kanji had managed to get a prostitute's number, Justin would never know. And quite frankly, he was happy to be left in the dark on the matter. Ignorance is bliss after all. Still, that did leave Kanji with a potential herpes ridden piece of paper with a prostitute's number on it. Not something you want lying around the house, that's for sure.

"Kanji? Burn that number. Burn it and forget whatever you saw." Justin commanded him. It seemed Kanji hadn't really gotten the implications, but whatever it was, it was going to cost him money. He'd pass if there was a fee to whatever it was you were supposed to do when you call a girl up. Yosuke glared at Kanji, his jaw wide open with shock. I mean, how dense could Kanji be? There was no way that would count. He sighed after a moment before turning to Yu, who seemed more than pleased with his bounty.

"What about you, did you get anything?" Yu nodded slightly, a wide smirk on his face. Whoever said he couldn't be a ladies' man. Yosuke cheered up almost immediately; at least this one wasn't a prostitute. At least… He hoped it wasn't a prostitute. This could be one very clever whore passing her number around. Probably not though. "Way to go partner! Was it her cell? What kind of girl was it? C'mon, you should call her up! Please? …Pretty please? PLEASE!?" Yosuke begged him to dial the number, much to Justin's displeasure. He hoped they weren't testing all these numbers, because otherwise, he was boned.

"How many times are you going to beg?" Kanji eventually interrupted Yosuke, having been very annoyed with Yosuke repeating the question for the twelfth time. It wasn't convincing, it was just annoying. Of course, Kanji turned into a hypocrite within the time span of two seconds. "So, you're gonna call her, right? …Right?" Yu sighed after a moment, pulling his phone out of his pocket. He didn't want to, but those two weren't going to stop until he did.

"Fine, only if you stop asking…" Yu remarked with annoyance as he punched in the number. The four of them all stood there, listening to the phone in Yu's hand ring as it tried to connect to the other end. Much to their surprise and pleasure, the phone cut off after a few moments; no voicemail. He had successfully gotten through to whoever's number it was he had gotten.

"She picked up…!" Yosuke remarked with enthusiasm. Yu nodded a bit, confirming that he had in fact gotten a connection; though his face had almost immediately gone sour. Something wasn't quite right, you could tell just by the look on his face right now.

"Uh… Hello?" Yu questioned. He swore to god he got a girl's number, not a guy's. Maybe her father or brother had picked up the phone or something. Whoever it was, they were pissed. You could hear him a block away with the way he was screaming through that phone. And let me tell you something, everyone was very much afraid.

_Oh, I get it… it's you, huh? You rat bastard! You're dead, shitbird! How dare you hit on my girl!? I'll rip off your head and spit down yer neck! You better not call again, got it!? _Yu could not have flipped that phone close any quicker than he did. The look on his face suggested he was very much prepared to be struck down by whoever that was on the phone at any moment now. Everyone stared at Yu, mouths agape. Justin out right pulled out the paper the number he had gotten was written on and ripped it in half. He didn't know whose number that could be, and he wasn't going to risk it. Yosuke seemed more than a little annoyed by that too.

"I could hear him from here…" Yosuke grimaced. He was just as afraid as Yu right about now. "And dude, what are you doing!" Yosuke turned to Justin, annoyed that he was ripping up the paper that housed the fake number he had. He was not risking it anymore, that was for sure. As much as Yosuke disapproved.

"I'm getting rid of these numbers before I get murdered." Justin remarked, dropping the shreds of paper he had ripped apart to the ground below him. Yosuke's eyes widened slightly at his choice of words. He hadn't said 'this number,' he said 'these numbers.' As in, multiple chicks. He was jealous if not outright pissed right now. He could have used those numbers if Justin wasn't going to.

"Numbers? Dude, how'd you do it!?" Yosuke probed for Justin's secret. Of course, there was no secret because those weren't real numbers. They were just fake scribbles those girls had written down so they could go on their merry way. Justin shrugged a bit as the wind picked up the remains of the shreds of paper the numbers had been printed down on.

"What can I say? I'm pretty fly for a white guy." Justin remarked sarcastically. "What about you; you get any numbers?" Justin questioned. A wide grin swept across Yosuke's face. Yes indeed he had; and he intended to dial this bad boy up almost immediately. It was great knowing he was going to be the only one who got an actual number.

"Of course I did. One phone number, right here! Man, it wasn't easy, too. She was crazy hot." Yosuke boasted about his apparent success as he pulled out his phone, checking the number that he had written on the back of his hand with pen. He didn't have paper like the others, because unlike the others he didn't carry paper randomly around with him everywhere he went. Though to be fair, Justin wrote his down on a dollar bill. Yeah, he was starting to regret tearing that up a little bit. Oh well, wasn't like he was going to be able to use it here until he converted it to yen anyway. "I just had to push myself a little and go for a sexy, older woman. I hope you guys are ready for this!" Yosuke continued as his phone rang, connecting to the receiving end of the call. It rang for a moment before Yosuke smiled widely, having gotten through on the call. "Hello? It's me! Yep! The guy who asked you out on a motorcycle ride! Man, I can't wait… Huh? You know my name? Did I tell you? …We do? That's impossible. I mean, you… Wait… That voice…"

Within seconds a wave of horror swept over Yosuke's face as he quickly hung up the phone. No one needed to hear the conversation to hear something horrible had gone wrong. Right now Yosuke had pretty much considered slamming his head against a wall until he bled out. What he had just heard had sent shivers down his spine like no other. This was what he got for trying his luck with the ladies. It just never seemed to work out in the end for him. But before it was just rejection. This was much scarier. It had to be a mistake, it just had to be… "Oh god, I am in such deep shit… D-Did I call the wrong number?" Yosuke muttered aloud as he tried to explain what could have possibly gone wrong.

"Make sure you didn't mix up any ones with a seven, and vice versa." Justin advised. He didn't know if Yosuke wrote his ones with that thing up top, but that could certainly be problematic if he was trying to tell the two apart. Yosuke shook his head a bit. There wasn't a single one or seven in the number, so it couldn't have been that. He probably just punched the number in wrong. He flipped the phone back open, trying the number a second time.

"O-One more try!" He declared as he held the phone back up to his ear, hoping for better results this time around. It took a moment, but the phone connected once more. And Yosuke didn't bother to be a little more cautious with his greeting this time. He went right back to that seductive tone he used when he tried to hit on the ladies. Bad move. "Hello? Its me!" Not even five seconds later, he had hung up again.

"…What the hell was that?" Kanji questioned in slight concern. This was not looking good right about now; that much was for sure. He had been close enough to hear the person on the other line this time though, and let me tell you, he wasn't very comfortable with what he heard. "It sounded like a fiend from the pits of the earth… I could feel a chill go down my spine…"

"Forget about it… for your own sake…" Yosuke pleaded with them. He wouldn't have them be accomplices when… IT arrived. "This number is dangerous… It's better that you don't know what that was." Yosuke warned them. Justin passed a confused glance back and forth between everyone. He was very much concerned right now. Five bucks said he ended up calling one of their girlfriends by accident. Oh god that would be hilariously awful. The reality was significantly worse.

"Oh, you guys…" A deep voice called out from the distance, that heavy girl from the school campout making her way around the corner. It looked almost like she was spying on them. Whatever it was, it was horrifying. In fact, Justin threw his skateboard on the ground, ready to scram when Kanji blocked off his exit. Hos before bros apparently.

"Hanako…san!? Why're you here…?" Yosuke grimaced, backing away from her slowly. Now would be a good time to run, but alas, she had their bikes cut off from them. The only one who could scram right now was Justin, since his board was within reachable distance. It was just that Kanji refused to let him escape for whatever reason. Perhaps he figured that if they were going down, Justin was going down with them.

"The countryside's no place for a girl like me. I was taking a walk when suddenly I got a phone call. You're really into me, aren't you? A motorcycle date, huh…" The walking behemoth that was Hanako remarked flirtatiously. Justin damn near wanted to vomit. Flirting was bad enough without hearing it come from something like her. Yeah, nothing wrong with being chubby, just don't try to come onto us if you are, please.

"Well actually he's into-"

"Quiet you." Yosuke cut off Yu immediately, making a slight gesture of his head to Justin. Yu nodded his head slightly, having completely forgotten that Justin was in their presence right now. And just about how well he'd react to hearing Yosuke's love interest. There would be blood, let's just leave it at that.

"Well if you want to take a ride that bad, I'll go with you." Hanako declared, having noticed Yosuke's bike. Yosuke immediately started to panic. He didn't want her fatass anywhere near his bike. It would miss with his pheromones and all that crap. Yosuke called out to try and stop her as she hopped into the air, turning her behind around to land on the bike… And completely destroy it in the process. The group averted their eyes as Yosuke dropped down to his knees in pain, watching his dream smashed to pieces by this lardass.

"N-NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! M-My motorcycle…!" Yosuke was on the brink of tears, as he fell down to all fours. This had hurt him more than any shadow had over the last few months, that was for sure. Justin felt for the guy, really he did. He had been saving up for that for ages, and this bitch came along and broke it just by sitting on it. Justin bowed his head and placed his fist near his heart in memorial of Yosuke's bike.

"What's with this scooter? It's broken. If you want to take me out, you've got to do better than that. The best girls don't go steady for nothing, you know. You need to make an effort." Hanako remarked, looking around at the destruction she had caused. She was very clearly oblivious to… well everything.

"…Just… Leave the man to his mourning." Justin remarked, without so much as lifting his gaze from the bow he had entered but moments earlier to grieve for Yosuke's loss. It might have been a little over-dramatic, but then, when was ANYTHING they did less than that? Hanako pouted slightly before jumping off the remains of Yosuke's bike and storming off. It was quiet for a moment as Yosuke mourned over the remains of his once beloved bike.

"Am I cursed…?" Yosuke questioned. First there was the camping trip, then there was the movie tickets, now the bike. He must have pissed off some higher being that he was always getting into all this trouble. Just once, he'd like to get what he wanted. Was it so much to ask?

"Senpai, you fought well."

"We shall forever remember the day that Yosuke's bike was tragically taken from us. May motorcycle god have mercy on its mechanical soul."


	109. Chapter 108: August 4, 2011

CHAPTER 108

August 4, 2011

* * *

"Huh? What are you doing out so late? It's dangerous, you know. Go home."

Justin had been making his way back from a quick stop at Junes after he realized they were all out of instant noodles at home when he bumped into Adachi again. Physically, mind you. Either Justin needed to learn to watch where he was walking, or there was something about Adachi that he physically could not avoid colliding with him. Though to be fair, Adachi had stopped getting irritated with Justin over that by this point. It happened so often that he had automatically associated the sensation of walking into someone with Justin. Regardless, Justin raised his eyebrow in puzzlement as Adachi warned him of the dangers of nighttime apparently. Justin could not think of a single thing about this town that would be dangerous at night. Mitsuo was in jail right now, and last Justin checked, the only other criminals in this town were Kurt and his ex-goons. Nothing Justin hadn't been able to handle before.

"I just had to pick up some dinner; we completely ran out of instant noodles at my place." Justin calmly explained, taking a quick glance at the contents of the plastic bag in his hand. Nothing but instant noodles and a few TV dinners. He was getting awfully sick of eating microwave chicken, but alas, it wasn't like he was going to be able to do any better with a stove. Adachi smiled faintly at Justin as he rummaged through his plastic bag with his eyes, eyeing every little thing he had bought. That would probably last him a week tops, but he wasn't in the mood to do a full shopping trip this late at night. Just some stuff to hold the two over until he got around to it.

"You must have a lot of time on your hands. Your parents will be on your ass you know." Adachi joked, a mischievous smile spanning across his face. Justin had by this point been completely desensitized to people making remarks about his now deceased parents. He didn't even look up from the contents of his bag as the two walked down the street to clarify to Adachi that there were no parents to get on his ass. Thank god for that.

"My folks are dead. Like I said, it's just me and my sister." Justin explained before finishing taking inventory of the contents of his shopping bag, holding it by his side as he turned his attention back over to Adachi. He had a more than shocked expression. First of all, both Maya and Justin were sixteen, or at least around that age if Adachi's calculations were worth anything. He wasn't even sure of the legality of it. It was entirely legal, of course; just very abnormal. Adachi rubbed at the back of his head nervously, trying to justify his comment now that he realized just how offensive that might seem right about now.

"Oh, uh… Sorry… I didn't mean-" Adachi nervously tried to cover his basis, though Justin eventually cut him off with a simple shake of his head and wave of his hand. Adachi sighed slightly with relief knowing that Justin hadn't taken his remark as offensive. Though his relief soon changed back to disappointment as the two continued to walk, stopping at his destination. Souzai Daigaku, to be precise. Whenever Chie wasn't dragging Justin to Aiya's for steak, she usually dragged him here for steak skewers. Basically, Chie's diet consisted of steak, instant noodles, and more steak. Well needless to say, Adachi was disappointed to find the place closed shut already. He hadn't eaten yet, and was hoping to grab a bite on his way home from work. "I knew it! Stores out here close too soon."

"Haven't eaten yet?" Justin questioned as Adachi hung his head with disappointment. He almost looked like he was considering smashing the door in and grabbing something to eat anyway. Adachi nodded his head, letting out a huff of hot air. This was exactly the kind of punishment he got for being lazy.

"I got off work early, so I thought I'd make something, but then I got lazy." Adachi explained to Justin, all the while a slight smirk began to cross Justin's face. Oh the magic of procrastination; how it always seemed to screw you over somehow. "What should I do? I have tons of nimono at home…" Adachi grimaced. He didn't want to touch that stuff, but that old lady just kept piling it on him. He had to get read of it somehow, but if he ate one more bite of it, he was going to hurl. He NEEDED this steak today, something to break up the nimono. That wasn't happening apparently.

"Why, Tohru-chan! How is work? Are you still working hard?" The voice that Adachi dreaded so much echoed from behind the two as that elderly woman made her way up to the two. Adachi immediately put a scowl on his face. And could you blame him? Justin could sort of sympathize for this woman, wanting to keep an eye on the man that bore resemblance to her son. It was really quite touching. But it was also very annoying being ambushed by this woman every twelve seconds.

"Oh… H-Hi. Yeah, I just got off…"

"Have you had dinner yet? You're young! You need to eat up! Would you like to come to my house? I'm making your favorite- nimono!" The elderly woman tried to coax Adachi into spending dinner with her. Adachi was very visibly panicking though. He could not swallow another bite more of her crappy nimono; it might just kill him if he did. Adachi looked around in horror, trying to think of SOMETHING to get him out of this. He wasn't having much luck.

"Oh, uh, today? I've… got a… That's right! I promised this kid I'd eat dinner with him!" Adachi eventually shouted, realizing the most obvious explanation for why he couldn't go was to just say he was busy doing something with the person standing beside him. Justin shot Adachi a confused glance, though he eventually caught on that he was just bluffing. He'd have no problem with Adachi grabbing a bit from his house; just so long as he wasn't expecting fine cuisine. "He's my boss' nephew," Adachi lied, playing off Justin as Yu, "So I can't say no… Maybe next time." Adachi nervously laughed, hoping she would buy his lie.

"Oh… That's too bad. Well, next time, then! Good night." The elderly woman seemed only slightly disappointed as she marched away from the two. Adachi was practically holding his breath until she was completely out of sight, letting out a huge sigh as she was finally out of audio range. That could have gone horribly wrong, horribly fast. Thank god Justin was there, otherwise he would have been eating nimono for dinner. Again.

"…She really sucks away my will to live. Can you imagine how awkward dinner would be, just me and her!? I don't really like her nimono, anyway. The lotus root is too tough." Adachi grimaced aloud. Justin chuckled slightly to himself. Something about the situation Adachi had unwillingly been thrusted in tickled his funny bone a little. "Oh, uh, sorry for using you like that. You were a big help." Adachi thanked Justin for… well, pretty much just being there at the right time. Justin shrugged slightly.

"No worries; just happy to help." Justin remarked. It was quiet for a moment between the two, as a sudden realization struck Justin. "…Oh but wait, you still haven't eaten, huh?" Justin questioned. Adachi nodded with suspicion. He wasn't entirely sure where this was heading, but he wasn't sure if he liked it. "…Well, you COULD drop by my house if you want. I'm no cook, but I don't really need to be to heat up some instant noodles." Justin remarked sarcastically, pulling out a package of instant noodles from his bag to show it off to Adachi. Adachi was needless to surprised. I mean, he had instant noodles at home, but he was never one to turn down food. Unless it was that nimono. There were exceptions to everything after all.

"At your place? Well isn't that a generous offer." Adachi remarked, slightly pleased by the proposal Justin was putting forward. He couldn't deny that he was curious what his living conditions were like without any parents, so on top of free food, curiosity was slowly sealing the deal for Adachi. "But… Does that mean it'll just be us? Isn't that weird?" Adachi suddenly realized as he mused about what Justin's house was like. Justin shook his head a bit.

"Well Maya'll be there too." Justin shrugged. They wouldn't be completely alone, though Adachi would be eating dinner with a bunch of teenagers. It would really depend on whether or not he'd be comfortable with that. Justin could understand if he wasn't. Justin had considered perhaps inviting Kurt over too, so that Adachi had someone closer to his age to talk to, but then he realized drug dealers and cops don't mix. Adachi wore a slightly perplexed expression on his face.

"You're seriously inviting me over? You don't think it'd be awkward?" Adachi stared at Justin with perplexion, not entirely sure if Justin knew what he was asking. Justin shrugged. It wouldn't be awkward to Justin; he hung out with a drug dealer that was a good four or five years older than him, so age or occupation wasn't an issue for him. And he had his shadow in his head that had pretty much desensitized him to everything else. Point being, nothing was awkward for Justin anymore. "…Why not." Justin smiled faintly before giving a slight throw of his arm to gesture Adachi to follow him.

* * *

"So do you cook like this all the time?"

Adachi had been sitting at the table with Maya and Justin, waiting for their instant noodles to finish so they could eat. Adachi was right about one thing; it was a bit awkward to be eating dinner with a bunch of kids. I mean sure, he liked Justin, but he barely knew Maya, and the age difference made him feel like he couldn't talk about a lot of things. Maya was just confused with Adachi was doing here anyway; not that she had a problem with it, mind you. It was just a little out of the blue. And in all honesty, she swore she had got a couple of creepy glances from Adachi. Something about him just rubbed her the wrong way. But then; she had a natural hatred of all cops after what had happened in California.

"Yeah pretty much; neither of us know how to cook, so we just eat TV dinners." Justin explained, popping open a can of cola for himself. Adachi didn't really seem all that surprised in honesty. He was more surprised that there were more people out there like him that had to eat instant noodles every day. Maya passed Justin a slight glare.

"Hey, speak for yourself. I can cook… kinda…" Maya tried to defend herself. Though Justin just tilted his head towards the ground, giving her that look he gave everyone when he knew they were bullshitting. "Alright fine. But I'm still a better cook than you." Maya eventually settled on a middle ground, pointing her chopsticks at Justin. Justin shrugged a little.

"You say that like that's a hard feat." Justin shook his head sarcastically before turning his attention back over to Adachi. "But yeah; we pretty much just eat instant noodles." Justin remarked with slight disappointment. He wasn't really sick of ramen, but eating it so much was kind of… boring. Justin had considered taking another ride up to Okina City to get some Burger King again. Oh how he missed American food. Adachi scanned the room, looking at their living environment. The house was pretty big for just the two of them, though he was much more surprised at how neat it had been. Save for a blanket that had been tossed on the couch, which Adachi had already guessed the implications of, everything was just so… clean. He couldn't even keep his place neat.

"So you two really live here all alone?" Adachi questioned, continuing to scan the room. "Must be tough without the old folks." Maya had been peeling open her container of instant noodles the second the comment hit her ears, at which point she stopped dead in her tracks. She understood he meant Justin's parents, what with him telling everyone the two were related, but it still hurt to think of her own parents now that Adachi brought it up. Adachi and Justin immediately noticed too. Justin passed her a sympathetic look as she hung her head in sorrow, though Adachi was a bit more vocal as he tried to correct his mistake. "Oh, I'm sorry; I didn't mean-"

"It's fine." Maya harshly cut Adachi off. You could tell it most certainly wasn't fine, but she didn't want to talk about it. It was quiet for a moment between the three, much to Adachi's dissatisfaction. He should have known this would be awkward. Justin wasn't going to have any of that, though. He couldn't get mad at Maya for reacting the way she was; she was reacting the way anyone her age would. Besides; her and her father were really close; it would just be pure evil for Justin to tell her to get over it. Instead, he opted to just try and keep the conversation moving, and away from anything to do with their parents.

"It's not so bad. We don't have much money, but we make do with what we've got. Electric bills are a bitch though. We only get so much from the trust fund a month, ya know?" Justin spoke up, breaking the silence as he opened his own instant noodles. Adachi was already slurping his down long before the others had started eating. It was kind of rude in retrospect, but no one could blame him for wanting to eat and get out at that point. Adachi shook his head slightly. He didn't know anything about trust funds so he couldn't honestly say he did know. But he did get the general gist; they lived a simple life with the bare minimum. Must be tough living this kind of life, especially at their age.

"I'm starting work Monday, so hopefully we'll have some more money to put towards food and crap." Maya remarked sadly. You could tell the thought of her father was still on her mind, though she was forcing herself to pretend it wasn't. Adachi's eyes widened with surprise as he paused his indulgences in the noodles in front of him. That was not what he had expected to hear. From his understanding, Maya and Justin were the same age. What was Maya doing with a job?

"Huh? Work? Shouldn't you be in school?" Adachi questioned. Unless this was a part-time job or something, he wouldn't expect Maya to be cutting school to put some money on the table. Especially when Adachi knew for a fact that Justin WAS going to school. What the hell was Justin doing in school when Maya wasn't? Maya shook her head. It seemed Adachi was single-handidly trying to rip her heart. It wasn't that she didn't WANT to go to school; it was that she couldn't. First her father, now this. She almost wanted to tell him to get out. But she didn't; she just bit back her pain and tried to act sociable.

"I dropped out in eight grade." Maya put it delicately. She technically didn't drop out; she had just run away from home, and by extension school. And since she never completed the eight grade, it might as well have just been her dropping out. Adachi seemed even more confused. He didn't know when Justin's parents died, so he was sort of assuming Maya dropped out when his parents bit the dust. Which meant Justin took the education, and Maya took the job. Seemed kind of selfish if you asked him. Justin could already tell that's what Adachi was thinking too, given the look he was giving Justin right now.

"She dropped out before…" Justin paused, glancing over at Maya. She was staring at Justin with saddened eyes. He didn't even need to finish the sentence for her to know what he was going to say, and it fucking hurt. She just wished everyone would stop talking about dead parents. She couldn't take it anymore. It was breaking her heart. Justin sighed slightly turning his gaze back to Adachi. "…Before the accident." Justin put it subtly. Adachi nodded slightly, happy to get some clarification. It wasn't that Maya had been forced out of school, she did at of free will. At least to his knowledge anyway. It was quiet for a moment, an awkward tension between everyone as they all realized just how god awful Justin and Maya's lives were. No parents, no schooling in Maya's case… Yeah, it kind of sucked. It took a moment before Adachi broke the silence, trying to ease the tension.

"Umm… Hey, Maya, have you ever seen this trick?" Adachi questioned, extending his hand to reveal a 500 yen coin. If the trick was charity, Justin very much enjoyed this one. It wasn't, but hey, a guy could hope. Maya raised her eyebrow in confusion. Believe it or not, Maya had never one seen a magic trick. Not on TV, not in real life. All she knew was that trick about a magician pulling a rabbit out of his hat. "Alright, watch carefully." Adachi ordered her, closing his fingers on the palm of his hand, before shaking his fist up and down. "You watching?" Adachi questioned Maya again, much to her annoyance. No, she was just covering her eyes and going 'LALALA, NOT WATCHING!' Of course she was. Adachi smirked as he opened his hand again, to reveal the coin had disappeared, much to Maya's surprise and puzzlement. Justin smirked; he knew how he had done the trick. It wasn't exactly difficult to pull off, he just slipped it down his sleeve while he was shaking his fist. Maya didn't know that though; she was none the wiser. It was amazing how naïve she was, actually. It was almost as though she were a toddler watching their first magic trick. Mostly because she WAS watching her first magic trick. Blown away would be an inapt description of how Maya felt right now.

"What the hell…? H-How'd you do that!?" Maya questioned with excitement and enthusiasm. She had seen a lot of fucked up things over the last few years, but this? This took the cake. Which kind of concerned Justin in a way if she was more surprised by a sleight of hand than fucking demonic alternate versions of themselves and that weird shit she did with her eyes and that blue light crap. But oh well, it was nice to see she was having fun at the very least. "Come on, do it again." Maya pleaded with Adachi, much to his amusement. It was interesting to see a teenager begging him to do magic tricks. He would have thought she would have outgrown this kind of stuff by now.

"Nah, this time I'll show you an even better one!" Adachi declared, producing a second coin... Or maybe the exact same coin; who even knew. Adachi clutched the coin in his hand once more, grinning mischievously as he gestured towards Maya with his head, trying to alert her that he was going to give her instructions. "Check your back pocket." Adachi ordered. Maya seemed surprised, though she was even more surprised when she produced a coin from her back pocket. She didn't keep anything back there, so the only way that would be there was if Adachi had done it. Justin smirked slightly. Looked like someone else was good at reverse pick-pocketing too. He had probably planted that long before the trick… Though Justin wasn't entirely sure he was comfortable with Adachi inserting his hands around Maya's ass area; even if it was just for a trick. As long as he didn't have any mal intent though, he supposed it was alright.

"How are you doing that!?" Maya admired. Whatever grim memories had been gripping her moments earlier had long since been overtaken by her pure fascination. Adachi rubbed at the back of his head with pride and slight embarrassment. He never thought he would be praised for doing a few magic tricks. Especially not someone's Maya's age. Most girls her age had been complete bitches to him; he just couldn't get along with them. If only more people shared Maya's blissful innocence.

"I'm pretty good with my hands, so it comes easy to me." Adachi remarked, very much proud of his skills right now. Justin passed him a slight 'might want to reword that' glance. Thank god Maya didn't have a dirty mind; though you would think she'd be a little more cautious about remarks like that after meeting some less than savory characters while trying to get smokes. "Maybe I should have been a magician. Then I wouldn't be in such a- Uh… well… I guess there's no job like a government job. It's not like I can get a job working with my hands."

"You can in Vegas."

* * *

"**Showtime."**

The two shadows had been working their business on Maya and Justin, mocking them and generally trying to exploit their weaknesses; things they didn't want people to know. Maya's shadow was working on Maya's desires for love, while Justin's shadow… Well… Justin's shadow was just being an asshole. The truth was; even though Maya's shadow had been forcing him to go through with this, he didn't want to leave. He'd kill Justin no problem, but if he did that… would he have to leave? Would he have to leave behind all he knew of this world? What if the other side was worse? What if the other side wasn't all they had hoped it was? He wanted to stay. And so, the shadow simply mocked Justin, never revealing what exactly he was. Because if he did, he just might never be the same again. Justin glared at his shadow, pure anger in his voice.

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean?" Justin shouted at the shadow, not entirely sure what was going on. The shadow simply smirked back at him, finding humor in his ignorance. Maya's shadow had already succeeded in her job; and that meant she would get off Justin's shadow's back about murdering their counterparts. She got what she wanted; she could give less of a damn about Shadow Justin now. Selfish bitch.

"**Just watch and learn kiddo!" **The shadow mocked as the two turned their attention over to Shadow Maya, her body morphing into a twisted metal form, a steel winged monstrosity in a dirty ragged robe. It was like a fallen angel, beautiful in a twisted, intimidating way. It could kill you in the blink of an eye, but there was a certain radiance about it. Maybe Justin's shadow admired Maya's new form; maybe he just admired this show of power. Whatever it was, he could almost feel his heart skip a beat. Of course; he didn't have a heart, so that wasn't saying much. The point was, he was awestruck as Maya's Shadow exploded out like a metal phoenix, overshadowing Maya scrambling away on the ground.

"**I am a shadow. The true self."** It announced in a filtered machine voice, the light of its eye suddenly shining down on the two as it pointed the tip of its spear at them, intent to kill. With a single thrust of its spear, it could become one with the humans. And with Maya gone, Justin would be trapped here. She had no doubt his shadow would chicken out; he was always a pussy, but so long as Justin wasn't walking around with the humans, spilling out the shadow's true identity, she would be fine. Not that it would matter if Justin did try to tell anyone. The humans would just think he was insane, throw him in an asylum while Maya's shadow got to go free. **"He may not love me, but that's okay. Love hurts."**

"R-Run!" Teddie shouted at the two humans, causing Justin to pick up Maya but the wrist, pulling her out of the way of Maya's shadow thrusting her spear down. The ground splintered where the spear embedded itself in the concrete below them, a surge of power cracking through the ground. Justin's shadow laughed with glee at the pure power Maya's shadow was showcasing. If this was what awaited him by killing Justin, he could get behind it. If there was one thing that shadow loved; it was power. The more power, the more control, the better.

The humans and Teddie soon darted off, fleeing from the shadows as Maya's shadow gave chase. Justin's shadow all the while, just strolled the entire way. He had no reason to run; not when Maya's shadow was able to fucking fly; to cut them off and kill them at any second. So he simply walked, a wide smirk on his face as he heard the sounds of the ground crackling, the air splitting with each swing of that spear. He could just imagine the bloodshed, the corpse that he would walk in on when he finally caught up. It would be like a birthday surprise; only not his birthday. You could imagine how disappointed he was to find no dead bodies, no blood, no nothing. All he saw was the angelic figure of Maya's shadow hovering over a shimmering television, it's form slowly shifting back to the more humanoid one. And when she reverted back, she was infuriated. Justin's shadow couldn't exactly say he was pleased too, as he approached the now snarling Maya's shadow, glaring at the television screen, hands balled up into fists.

"**What the fuck…? Did you let them get out!?" **Justin's shadow shouted with disgust as Maya's shadow tried to bite back her pure anger. She should have just smashed the goddamn television in; see them try to escape then. No. She had to get cocky. And now they knew she was in here; they weren't coming back anytime soon. And you know who she blamed for all this? Not herself, not the humans; hell not even Teddie. She blamed Justin's shadow. He didn't even try to help her catch them. He didn't even try to get Justin to deny him. He had ruined everything; he always did. She quickly turned around and got right into his face, shoving him slightly.

"**This is YOUR fucking fault! You could have stopped them, but you fucking didn't! Now thanks to you I'm going to be stuck here for fucking ever! I am going to KILL you!" **She threatened him. Of course, there was no real threat behind her words. Shadows could not kill shadows; it was one of the rules HE had given all of them. They'd probably all kill each other by now if that wasn't a rule. All the same, Justin's shadow wasn't a fan of being threatened with murder. He immediately shoved her back, pushing her against the television, damn near tipping one over.

"**I didn't do jack shit! I don't even want to be part of your goddamned plan; but no. You just had to drag me into this. You couldn't just leave me the fuck alone." **Justin's shadow snarled back, though he was interrupted by Maya's shadow punching him across the face. Before long the two were fist fighting, beating the ever loving crap out of each other. No killing was the rule, not no fighting. This was actually fairly common, believe it or not. Just over a lot stupider things than their human counterparts escaping. In fact, these were some of the first human counterparts in a long while. A good three or four years if he recalled correctly. It was understandable that Maya's shadow was pissed. And so, the two beat the crap out of each other for what seemed like a good five minutes.

And all the while Teddie watched on with horror, backing away slowly as he tried to escape being noticed. You'd think with five minutes to make it out, he would have gotten out of sight; but alas no. He was scared stiff for too much of it to actually escape. Besides, the shadows never harmed him; he really didn't NEED to run. He just didn't want to stick around and risk it. There's a first time for everything after all. And today just might be that day. After beating each other up for a while, the two stopped, panting for a while. Maya's shadow was about to take another swing when Shadow Justin held up his hand to stop her.

"**Wait, wait, wait… Stop." **Shadow Justin cut her off. **"We're pointing fingers at the wrong person…" **Justin's shadow tried to plead with Shadow Maya to get her to back down. She still had her hands in a fist, but she was willing to listen… For a moment anyway. **"We weren't the ones who helped them escape, now are we?" **Justin's shadow remarked turning his attention over to Teddie, who was very visibly frightened now as Justin's shadow slowly approached him, a vicious glare on his face. Maya's shadow's eyes widened almost immediately, with surprise. Shadow Justin might have been right; it kind of was Teddie's fault, not theirs. But the look on his face… He wasn't just going to scold Teddie; and that… That was going to be a problem. She immediately tried to get between the two before Shadow Justin broke one of the big rules: Do not interfere with Teddie. He was a special case, and the Shadows weren't allowed to do anything that could harm him.

"**Whoa, what the fuck do you think you're doing!?" **Maya shouted as she tried to cut off Justin from his target. **"You know the rules! Are you trying to get us both killed?"** Justin wasn't even paying Maya much attention as he continued to glare at Teddie over Maya's shoulder.

"**You know, you've been a real pain in our ass. Everytime we're getting somewhere, you have to fucking interfere; you have to just let people out or ruin our plans. Don't think I don't know this is the first time you've done it either!" **Justin's shadow scolded Teddie, slowly making his way up to him as Maya's shadow tried to hold him back. Teddie was cowering in fear as Shadow Justin closed the distance between them.

"H-Huh?"

"**I'm ending this now." **Justin's shadow declared, and with a quick sleight of his hand, the gleam of metal could be seen near his waist; a magnum in his hand. He didn't just intend to beat Teddie, to try and deter him from interfering. He out right intended to put him down. Maya's shadow's eyes widened with terror as she noticed the gun. Teddie was out right frantic, backing away as quickly as he could from the shadow with the gun.

"**Whoa whoa whoa! Calm the fuck d-" **Maya's shadow didn't even get to finish her sentence as Justin's shadow pushed her clean out of the way, raising the barrel of his gun to aim it straight at Teddie's head. Shadow Maya hit the ground hard after Justin's little shove, but she couldn't just lay there and let him do the deed. They'd both be dead if she didn't stop him. She groaned as she tried to force herself up off the ground. It would have been easier if Teddie screaming his head off wasn't giving her such a headache.

"**Your luck runs out today." **Justin's shadow declared, pure anger shadowing his judgement. Clearly he didn't give the slightest fuck about the rules right now. What were they going to do? Make him disappear? The way he saw it, he was doing them all a service right now by getting rid of Ted. And if he died being a martyr… Well so be it. He'd die if it made this world better in SOME capacity. He started pulling on the trigger, ready to put a bullet in Teddie's skull, when Shadow Maya jumped up and grabbed the gun, trying to wrestle it away from Justin. **"The fuck!? Get the fuck off me, you bitch!"**

"**Put the goddamn gun down! Are you trying to get us all killed you fuckwit!? LET IT GO!" **Maya pleaded with him, trying to get the gun out of his grip. It was latched on pretty tightly in all honesty; she couldn't get his hand to budge at all as she tugged away at that metal death machine. Of course, Teddie had seen this as a good a time as any to run. And so he did, starting to back away at first before turning to outright dash away, screaming the whole way there.

"**GET OFF, YOU WHORE! HE'S GETTING AWAY!" **The shadow shouted at Shadow Maya, trying to get her off before Teddie got out of shooting range. He'd bust a cap in his ass one way or another. Alas, just as determined as he was to get rid of Teddie; to stop him from screwing over more shadows, Shadow Maya was determined to actually live. That wasn't going to happen if Justin's shadow laid a finger on Teddie. The struggle for the gun slowly got more violent, with Justin tugging violently at the gun to try and get it out of Maya's clutch, tossing about Maya in the process as she tried to maintain a good grip on the instrument of death.

"**Over my dead bod-"**

Before Justin's shadow even knew it, he had accidently squeezed the trigger while tugging at the gun... while the barrel had been pointed right at Maya's skull as they tangoed for control of the weapon. Within seconds, a lead bullet had splattered Shadow Maya's brain matter everywhere. You couldn't even recognize her anymore with the gaping hole in her skull; purple blood seeping out of every pore of her skull. The anger that had taken a hold of Justin's shadow immediately turned to one of disgust in fear, his glare subsided to dilated pupils and wide eyes, his lips quivered and his voice whimpered as he stared at the now dead shadow.

The corpse had been standing merely by muscle tension, though that eventually gave way and the body dropped right at the shadow's feet, horror sweeping over him as he started to regain his composure. He didn't just break the rules; he had killed Maya's shadow. He always said he would do it too, but he never really thought he would. And certainly not on accident. The shadow slowly backed away from the corpse, almost frozen in fear as he watched the blood pool up around the body. The shadow turned around and bent over to vomit a black liquid.

The shadow vomited for a while, the stench of death taking complete control of him as he emptied his stomach contents out on the concrete below him. It was a while before he finally turned back to the body, eyes still wide with terror as he fell to his knees and crawled over to the corpse. He didn't even care that he was getting covered in the shadow's blood. He shook the body slightly, staring at her vacant eyed corpse, trying his hardest to make the reality nothing but a lie.

"**Come on, wake up! Wake up, dammit- wake up…" **Tears were starting to roll down the shadow's face as he continued to shake the body, trying to get any sign of life out of her. She was long gone though; you don't just pump lead into someone's skull and expect them to get up and walk away. **"wakeupwakeupwakeup… PLEASE! WAKE UP!" **Justin's shadow gave one more shake trying to wake her from the slumber of death, to no avail. He fell back down on his knees, staring at the face of Maya's shadow… He never wanted this. Sure they didn't always get along, and sure, he had always thought of ending this bitch's life… But he never wanted THIS. He didn't need to have a heart to feel it break in two as he stared at her dead body. **"…wake up… please…" **The shadow whimpered one last time before giving into the inevitable fact that she was long gone.

He just stared at the body for a while, tears rolling down his eyes. They always used to say shadow's were incapable of crying; that it was a human thing. But Justin's shadow was no human; if he was, he would have made it so things like THIS couldn't happen. It was all the humans fault that had pushed them to this point; that had made this world so shitty that the shadows were trying to escape. And in the process… In the process she had to die. Justin's shadow was no human… No, he never wanted to be human. He never wanted to be one of those… THINGS that had brought this upon her. All those fucking humans should be wiped out; exterminated for the atrocity that had happened here today. But now was not the time for the shadow's vengeance. Now was a time for mourning.

The shadow sat there for what felt like an hour before the tears finally stopped. He wiped his eyes before reaching down, pushing Shadow Maya's eyelids closed, and her jaw shut. He refused to let her corpse look like that… She deserved to at least die in dignity. The shadow whimpered slightly as he picked himself up from the ground… Shadow Maya deserved a proper death, a proper burial ceremony; but there was a problem with that. Justin's shadow couldn't do that without letting it be known he had broken the rules and killed another shadow. It was an accident, but they wouldn't care. They'd kill him all the same. He wouldn't die until she was avenged; until things changed around here. He refused to die…

And that only left him with one option. He needed to hide the body. The shadow looked around for any place nearby that would be a good place to store a corpse. Nothing; the city was so barebones you'd be able to tell where it was almost immediately… It took him a long while before he spotted something rather peculiar: a brick wall with a couple of loose bricks. The shadow stared at it for a moment before leaning down to pick up the body of his fallen comrade, making his way over to the wall to examine it. There was a small patch of bricks in the wall that seemed to slide away at the pressure of Justin's hand. He stared at it for a moment before pushing one brick in and taking a glance through the peep hole he had made.

The inside of the building was boarded up, run down and dusty. No one had been in there for ages; though that was probably because only three shadows had lived in this general part of their world. One of the shadows had long since been gone, and the other… Well the other Shadow Justin held in his arms right now. It horrified him every time he stared down at the corpse's face, blood dripping down its pale cheeks. Why of all the people did it have to be HER? Why'd it have to be…? The shadow whimpered a little bit before tearing up again. He needed to get rid of the body quick; otherwise he'd just start wailing again. He just couldn't look at her anymore. It tore away at his heart and soul too much. He quickly pulled at the bricks in the wall before dropping the corpse into the building, replacing the bricks quickly to hide the evidence that he had ever been here.

And when he finished the job, he turned around and vomited some more. He breathed in and out heavily as he finished spewing out his stomach contents, trying to calm himself down. If he panicked, he'd just make himself sicker and sicker until he ended up doing himself in. He needed to stay calm, take deep breaths…

"**Alright, alright, calm down… It was just an accident. Accidents happen in the dark. They'll never find the body… This never happened… Just forget her… forget the memories... forget the pain... forget her face... forget… Oh god, I can't do this…" **The shadow muttered before running his fingers down his face, trying to regain his composure; screaming into the palms of his hands as he tried to get all the fear and pain in his system out of his system. But alas, no matter how much he tried, he never could forget what had happened here, the pain in his chest lingered. No amount of screaming could change the atrocities he had committed… The horrible sight of her bloody face…

It haunted him around every corner he took for the remainder of his days in the shadow world.


	110. Chapter 109: August 5, 2011

CHAPTER 109

August 5, 2011

* * *

"Note to self… Stop sleeping."

Justin groaned as he pushed himself into a sitting position on his bed, rubbing at his forehead slightly. That was certainly… something. From what he could gather, it was another one of those dreams about his shadows memories… Justin couldn't help but wonder if the shadow was doing it on purpose, or if shadows just dreamed too. Didn't seem like what he had just witnessed was something he'd want people to know. Especially not the part where he broke down and cried like a little baby. Justin always figured his shadow was a soulless asshole incapable of any emotion but lust and rage. Sadness didn't exactly fit in there that well.

Justin sighed as he pushed himself up from the bed. It was still very early, and the sun had yet to rise; but with the headache he had right now, and the thoughts about the dream circulating around in his head, he couldn't fall back to sleep. Besides, something had been gripping at his chest as he awoke and contemplated the images that were flashing through his head. He lightly opened the door to his room and quietly creeked down the stairs of his house. Sure enough, there was Maya, lying down on the couch, fast asleep. Strangely, she wasn't sleeping on her pillow though; instead opting to hug it close to her chest. Justin sighed with slight relief, a wide grin sweeping across his face as he turned to walk back up the stairs and leave Maya to her slumber.

In the dream, Maya's shadow counterpart had taken a bullet straight to the face, blood splattering everywhere. It was a wonder her skull hadn't exploded like a melon after that, instead leaving only a neat hole on the center of her forehead where the blood and brain fluids were leaking out. A disgusting image to say the least, if not outright traumatizing. Justin knew immediately it was the shadow, he knew nothing bad had happened to Maya… but he wanted to check just to be sure. After seeing the things he had seen; could you really blame him? He was more than relieved to find her skull in one piece as she drifted away to dreamland. Justin could feel the tension in his chest loosen as he got confirmation that Maya was very much still alive. But that still left a lot of questions…

Justin climbed the stairs just as silently as he had descended them, curiosity seeping its way into his mind with every step. There had to be a reason his shadow was showing him all this stuff; most likely because it was part of their deal. If that were the case though, why show THAT moment? Why show Justin a moment of weakness? It didn't seem to match the shadow's agenda in the slightest. Whatever his agenda WAS. All Justin knew was that it wasn't good. Justin slipped back into his room silently again, before approaching the mirror in his room. He had long since flipped it over to avoid being met by his shadow's reflection in the morning; but this seemed as good a time as any to discuss a few things with him. He quickly flipped the mirror back around to be met by the sight of his shadow rubbing his eyes. It seemed the act of looking into his reflection had woken his shadow up. He didn't even know shadows needed to sleep. Maybe they didn't, and Justin's shadow was just a lazy bitch.

"**Jesus, what the fuck do you want?" **The shadow mumbled as Justin glared at his reflection. Sleeping or not, clearly he didn't want to be bothered right now. And that was saying something considering the shadow was always up for bugging the shit out of Justin. Either he really had just been woken up, or something was on his mind. Both seemed like logical explanations given the circumstances. The shadow rubbed at his eyes for a moment longer before crossing his arms in front of his chest with irritation.

"You know exactly what I want, don't play dumb." Justin whispered back to the shadow, careful not to make too much noise and wake Maya up downstairs. The shadow raised his eyebrow in confusion. He actually hadn't the slightest clue what it was that Justin wanted; all he knew was that Justin was getting on his nerves very quickly. He was trying to catch forty winks, not answer this guys stupid ass questions. He could do that later when it wasn't six in the morning.

"**What, you want to masturbate to your own reflection or something? Fuck off, I'm trying to sleep." **The shadow snarled back. No reason could be worth waking him up this early. Justin tilted his head to the side as he stared at the reflection with puzzlement. For a guy who had just showed him a memory of him murdering someone then breaking down into tears, he sure as hell didn't seem to care. But then, when did his shadow ever care about anything other than his own selfish desires? Justin glared at the shadow, leaning closer to his reflection; as if he would suddenly have the ability to strangle his reflection through the mirror if he didn't cooperate. Maybe it just came naturally to Justin to get up in someone's face whenever they were pissing him off.

"You seem to sleep easily for a murderer." Justin snidely remarked. The shadow just shook his head a bit. If the entire point of this conversation was just for Justin to point out the obvious, he was out of here. Of course he was a murderer; he was a shadow. His entire existence relied upon his natural tendency to commit murder. And he didn't have any trouble living with that.

"**What was your first clue? The part where I tried to trap you in a stairwell for a week or the part where I tried to kill your little girlfriend?" **The shadow snarled back.

"I was thinking more about YOUR little girlfriend." Justin countered. The shadow glared at Justin for a moment before the tension in his brow started to soften a bit. Now he was starting to put the pieces of the puzzle together; he was referring to Maya's shadow. And he was not at all pleased to have that day brought up again. He had killed a lot of shit in his days; but he would never forget THAT day. The shadow stared at Justin with a horrified, sorrowful expression on his face for a moment before dropping back into a glare. He didn't know how Justin knew that, and he didn't really give a damn; he just wasn't going to sit there and let this bastard preach to him about the sin he had committed in secrecy all those years ago.

"**I haven't the slightest clue what you're talking about. Now unless you have something productive to say; kindly fuck off." **The shadow snarled at Justin, denying the truth of what had happened two years ago. He had never revealed that to Justin; he had no idea who or what had done it, but he was not pleased. But alas, he supposed that was the punishment he faced when he merged souls, merged minds and bodies with the shadows he had been victorious over in the months that had passed. It wasn't like they lost all sense of individuality when they merged with him. They were like a hive mind with only one drone; Justin's shadow. He supposed it wasn't entirely out of the question for one of those other shadows to have done it. Now it was just a matter of which one… Justin continued to glare at the shadow, very obviously annoyed at the way his shadow continued to deny what Justin already knew.

"I know what you did; you can't hide it from me." Justin remarked at the shadow before the shadow rolled his eyes and eventually vanished from his reflection; indicating he had grown tired of Justin's summons and gone back to his resting place inside the confines of Justin's skull. Justin grumbled a bit as he stared at where his reflection was but a moment ago. Whatever this was he had dreamed about, his shadow didn't want Justin to know. Which meant the revelation had been completely unintentional… And potentially very good for negotiations. He stared at the mirror for a moment more before flipping back around and making his way over to the dresser beside his bed, grasping at the cell-phone that rested on it. He flipped it open and quickly started punching away at the buttons. It was early yet, so he didn't send out a call; only a text:

_Meet me at Junes when you wake up._

* * *

"Jesus Justin, what did you need to wake me up so early for…?"

It was about eight or so by the time Chie had found her way over to the food court at Junes, dark rings around her eyes as she tried to stay awake. Clearly she was not a fan of being woken up so early by Justin for whatever it was he needed her for. Justin had made it over here about an hour and a half prior to Chie, simply tapping his fingers against the table he sat at as he tried to pass the time. He was more than happy to see Chie had shown up; even happier that she had shown up much earlier than he had expected her to. He was surprised her father even let her out this early; especially when you consider her father didn't like Justin one bit. Justin smiled at her as she took a seat on the opposite side of the table from him, rubbing her eyes slightly.

"Sorry; didn't mean to wake you so early." Justin apologized first and foremost. Chie nodded slightly, indicating she didn't care. She very much did, but alas, it couldn't be helped now that she was here. Besides, this sounded a little more important than catching some zs. "Alright, so this might sound a little strange, but… You remember those dreams I used to have about Maya?" Justin tried to ease into the topic. Chie's eyes widened almost immediately with fear and shock. That was not what she had expected to hear, nor wanted to hear.

"Huh!? Are you having those dreams again!?" Chie jumped the gun slightly. She wasn't entirely wrong mind you; but she clearly was under the impression that this was much worse than it was. Not that watching Maya's shadow get her brains blown out was an enjoyable experience, but it wasn't anything that was going to get Justin trapped in a stairwell again. Justin tilted his head to the side, rubbing at the back of his neck slightly.

"Well… Sorta. You remember the deal with my shadow? How he was supposed to help us catch the killer?" Chie passed him a slight look of confusion. They already caught the killer; she wasn't seeing much relevance in their deal anymore. Other than the shadows capabilities of taking over when ever Justin got really pissed off, that is. Of course, Justin now knew that the shadow knew who the killer was on the inside; and while that really wasn't much knowing that everything inside that television was a killer, it was still worth knowing. Yosuke probably deserved to know at the very least. "Well, he's been showing me stuff through dreams. Like last time." Justin paused for a moment, taking in the sight of Chie's face to see if he was laying this on too thick. Seemed he was doing alright so far. "Well, uh… I had another one of those dreams last night…"

And for the next ten or so minutes, Justin recapped everything to Chie: about the shadows chasing Maya and him out the exit, how they fought each other, how Justin's shadow tried to put a bullet in Teddie's skull, how Maya's shadow tried to stop him, how she took a bullet straight in her brainpan. But most importantly, he told her about the body; how Justin's shadow had hid it. By the time he was done recapping his vision to Chie, she was completely flabbergasted. She hadn't expected any of this. In all honesty, she was very much concerned for Justin right now. She already knew he was going to try to act on this information now; she just didn't know how.

"Holy crap…" Chie exclaimed as Justin finished his story. Justin nodded slightly with agreement. Holy crap might just be the best way to describe everything. Chie stared at Justin for a moment before donning a very concerned expression on her face. "…You've got that look in your eye again. Don't even tell me…"

"Well… That's kind of why you're here. My shadow didn't seem to want me to know about this; which means it's the perfect negotiating material. I can use this to get out of our deal, Chie." Justin beamed slightly. Oh how nice it would be to get his shadow out of his skull. He didn't want to know anything anymore, he just wanted to move on with his life and leave his shadow behind in that god forsaken television. Chie just continued to look at him with those puppy dog eyes though. She could understand why he wanted out; hell they ALL wanted him to get out of that contract. She just didn't want him doing something stupid, getting hurt trying to pursue whatever it was he was looking for as proof that the shadow had killed someone. "He hid the body somewhere in that city… And I think I know exactly where. All we have to do is find the body, and bam. It's over." Justin explained to her; all the while Chie had a slightly disgusted and fearful expression on her face. She did not want to go back to that place; especially not to go looking for corpses.

"Wha-!? You want us to go grave digging!?" Chie shouted with surprise. Justin's enthusiastic smile eventually gave way to a frown of disappointment, and eventually a sigh. He wasn't exactly proud to be defiling the shadow's grave either. Even if it was pretty much the embodiment of evil AND had tried to kill Maya, everyone was entitled to rest in peace. But it was necessary. He had to get rid of this shadow before he took control and did something stupid.

"You don't have to come if you don't want… I just figured it would be nice if you'd help…" Justin sighed. He really didn't intend for that to sound like he was guilting her into doing it, but apparently that's exactly how it appeared to Chie. And it fucking worked. She sighed with defeat as she conceded to Justin's wishes to go body searching.

"Alright… I'll go." Chie declared, a slight smile creeping across Justin's face all the while. It was nice to see she had his back, even to the point that she would return to the city that had haunted her nightmares for weeks. The thought of Justin struggling in there, trying to escape his captors… It was too much to bear for her. She still had dreams about it from time to time, and every time she'd wake up with tears in her eyes. Letting go was a lot easier said than done; even harder when you were being dragged back to the site of your darkest nightmares.

"Thanks Chie... I couldn't do it without you." Justin smiled faintly, reaching his hand under the table to grab a hold of hers. Chie averted eye contact for a moment, her cheeks glowing a rosy shade before she tightened the grip of her hand around his.

* * *

"This the place?"

Chie and Justin had been walking down the streets of the toxic green city in search of the place Justin's shadow had hidden the body. They had been walking for what felt like hours before Justin finally spotted what he was looking for; that oddly shaped wall with the loose bricks. Justin smiled with enthusiasm as the two approached the wall; it seemed this was going to be a lot easier than he thought. He was looking forward to being a free man once again. He ran his hands across the bricks quickly, feeling where the loose bricks had been disconnected from the rest of the wall.

"Yeah. Me and Yu were training here a while back; I recognized this wall when I was having the dream. This is the place alright." Justin declared, his voice cheerful with anticipation. Not to find a dead body mind you; that was kind of fucked up. No, he was happy to get out of the deal with his shadow. All he needed was to show the shadow he knew where the body was, and that he'd spill the beans unless he got the fuck out of his skull. From his understanding, this kind of thing was a major violation of shadow law, and that meant Justin's shadow was looking at hard time; or worse. Who even knew how the law system worked in here. Chie nodded with confirmation as she ran her hand along the bricks as well. They were definitely loose; and that meant they could be pulled out.

"Alright… Let's do this." Chie remarked after taking a deep breath. She was not looking forward to finding a two year old corpse. She wasn't sure if shadows decomposed the same way humans did, if at all, but she was hoping they didn't. She didn't want to find a maggot infested skeleton. And even if they didn't, they'd still find Maya's shadow with dried blood all over her face. Not a pretty sight no matter which way you looked at it.

Justin nodded at her, giving her a pat on the back for encouragement before they turned their attention back to the wall. Soon, they were pulling apart the wall, brick by brick, trying to make a hole for them to pop their torsos into. They'd probably need to grab the body when they found it after all; otherwise they'd have no proof they found it, which they absolutely needed if they wanted to get the shadow in Justin's skull to take a hike. Well you can imagine the shock and disappointment in Justin's voice as they found absolutely nothing on the inside of the building. Justin had to take a double take just to make sure he wasn't crazy or missing something. Nothing; the place was completely empty. The two passed each other a look of confusion as they pulled their bodies out of the building.

"Uh… Y-You're sure this was the place, right?" Chie questioned, slightly alarmed that the body was gone. Neither of them knew what happened to a shadow when it… well… died; so this could be concerning. Especially when you consider Maya personally had never accepted her shadow… What if just the very act of returning to the television world had resurrected her shadow? After all, a shadow was ramped emotions, right? And if Maya hadn't dealt with those emotions, would it come back? Justin nodded his head.

"I'm positive; this was the place, no doubt about it." Justin remarked with confusion. There wasn't the slightest doubt in his mind that this was the same place as in his dream. There were signs that this was the right place everywhere you looked. Chie tipped her head to the side in confusion, placing her hands along her hips as she pondered a possible explanation for why the body wasn't there then.

"Are you sure this was one of THOSE dreams? Maybe you were just having a nightmare…" Chie tried to reason. Justin in turn just shook his head and picked up one of the bricks they had pulled out of the wall, holding it up so that Chie could get a good look at it.

"There's dried blood on this. The body was here, it happened." Justin explained, pointing out some of the evidence that proved Justin's shadow had dragged that corpse here. Chie groaned slightly; clearly having no idea what could have happened then that the body wasn't here. It was quiet for a moment as they tried to ponder what had happened to the body… And then it hit Justin like a semi-truck. "…Shit." Chie looked at Justin with puzzlement.

"Huh? You remember something?" Chie questioned as Justin rubbed at his forehead, pacing around. It should have occurred to him much earlier what had happened to the body. It was just plain common sense and he had immediately looked over it.

"Chie? Why didn't my shadow take control and try to lead me away from here if this was where the body was?" Justin remarked. Chie's eyes widened with shock. That's right; the shadow COULD take control; and that meant Justin really had no chance of getting anywhere near the body. The very act of him being here meant that the shadow knew the body wasn't here; that he had nothing to fear from Justin meddling around here. "He must have known we were coming and moved the body. Fuck!" Justin shouted. There was no blood trail or foot prints they could follow now, no clues to lead them to where the body resided. His shadow had outsmarted them; his shadow had won. Chie stared at Justin with sympathy in her eyes, a frown across her lips. She had hoped Justin would have been able to get out of the contract with this; to move on without his shadow ruining his life… But alas, that was long gone; much like Maya's shadow's corpse.

"H-hey… M-Maybe there's something else we can find… I mean, maybe the blood on the bricks will be enough proof…" Chie tried to look on the Brightside, for some silver-lining that could still help Justin achieve his goal; his reason for being here. Justin shook his head in disagreement. That wasn't anywhere near admissible evidence. Not unless they could prove that was Shadow Maya's blood; and even then, they'd still have no proof that Justin's shadow had been the one to drag her here. Face it; the body was the only thing he could have used to prove he did it; to blackmail him.

"No, no… We'd need a forensics test on the blood to see if it was the same as Maya's shadow, and since we don't have any blood directly from her, that's as good as useless anyway." Justin sighed for a moment, staring down towards the ground in disappointment, as he shuffled through his pockets for that mirror he kept on him. It was already over; he had lost the chance to break the chains of his shadow's mind control. All that was left now was to see his shadow's reaction. He quickly flipped it open to be met by the sight of a smirking Justin's shadow. Justin glared at his reflection, at the golden eyes that had met him as he stared at himself. His shadow won, and he was more than happy to gloat about it. He had nothing on him now, he was victorious, and Justin had lost. He eventually started to squeeze the glass portion of the mirror, pure fury rushing through his arms as he crushed the mirror in his hands, cutting his fingers in the process.

It was amazing how Justin's shadow could cause bloodshed without even being there.


	111. Chapter 110: August 6, 2011

CHAPTER 110

August 6, 2011

* * *

"Hey, you know… We should go somewhere since it's summer vacation. My motorcycle's back from the shop."

The group was all hanging out around Junes, chilling out in the food court. Mind you; no one actually planned for them all to be gathered at Junes like that; it just seemed everyone picked today as a good day to go shopping. Except maybe Justin and Maya, who were there because they were being dragged there by Chie and Yosuke respectively. In Justin's case, he was pretty much just there to say 'Yeah, that looks good on you.' In Maya's case… Well, Yosuke apparently figured the best way to a woman's heart is with money. Lots and lots of money. Maya of course, was very reluctant to purchase ANYTHING. She never liked to spend other people's money… Especially not after stealing that money from her family. After all, she knew what it was like to go without cash; she'd never want someone else to go through it.

But alas, Yosuke could be very convincing when he wanted to be, and she eventually grabbed something anyway. Another hoodie; the same as her own, only with a pink stripe instead of red (Justin smacked himself up the head at that; he knew he should have gotten that from Okina Station when he had the chance,) and this strange looking combination of a skirt and jeans. Basically, they were black jeans with fishnet stockings around the knee areas instead of fabric, with a black skirt attached around the top. It was amazing how cheap that thing was for how complex the design work on it was; though not quite as amazing as the fact that Maya essentially looked like a Goth when she wore that. Pale skin? Check. All black? Check. Fishnets? Check. All she needed was some piercings and a few hair highlights and she'd have the full look. It was just astonishing that for someone who hated Goths as much as she did, she sure as hell went out of her way to look exactly like one. But then; black was always her color, even when she was just a little girl. It would be strange if she just suddenly stopped with that now.

Yosuke was more than happy to part with the money, much to Justin's confusion. Justin tried to pay Maya's bill for her, what with it being within his price range and all, but Yosuke seemed hell bent on being the one to buy it for her. Maya was just embarrassed the whole time, trying to insist she really didn't need it anyway, and that the two should really stop arguing over something so stupid. Justin eventually sighed with defeat as Yosuke applied his employee discount and took the bill. Justin didn't really get what had driven Yosuke to want to pay for Maya's bill like that… Honestly, it was a little concerning. This was Yosuke they were talking about; he was one stingy bastard, no ifs ands or buts about it. Either he had a much needed revelation and had changed his ways, or something fishy was going on here. Justin just didn't know what.

Eventually the two finished their quarrels over who would be paying Maya's bill for her, and the group made their way over to the food court to… well, just chill. They were all here anyway, and they didn't have anything better to do, so why not, right? It was just a shame that gathering in the food court like that had become so synonymous with investigating the murder cases. There was a certain sense of nostalgia and awkwardness sweeping over everyone, knowing that those days were over. It was kind of sad in a way. Still, they eventually eased into regular banther… and then eventually, a very peculiar proposal on Yosuke's behalf. Justin raised his eyebrows in slight surprise; not so much at the 'go somewhere' part. Sounded like fun to him. No, he meant the whole motorcycle part.

"Jesus, they already fixed that!? Give me that autoshop's number. Like right now. That's incredible." Justin gushed with admiration. He could work with machinery pretty efficiently, especially computers, but never before had he seen someone fix an entire bike like that in the span of two days. Yosuke wasn't sure whether to be confused or be proud in his choice of auto services. He had to admit, it was a pretty quick job; he was just surprised that his baby still worked like a charm on the ride home. Oh how he had missed his ride.

"What would you even need an autoshop for? You don't have a bike." Yosuke mocked Justin slightly, chuckling a bit at how he had managed to one up Justin in some capacity. He did raise a valid point though; Justin didn't own a damn thing he could bring to an autoshop. He was just so fascinated with the workmanship of it's employees, he just wanted that number just in case. Regardless of all that, however, the guys were pretty much the only ones who knew about their rides. Every single one of the girls was surprised and confused right now.

"Hey, you guys have motorcycles!? Lucky you!" Rise gushed with admiration for Yosuke and his bike. Yosuke grinned widely at that. The up close and personal plan wasn't flawed; he had just been working on the wrong kinds of girls. I mean just look at the looks on all the girls faces right now: No way this wouldn't work this time. It just HAD to work.

"I'm surprised they got it back together after… Hanako-senpai, was it?" Kanji questioned. He hardly remembered that walking behemoths name; and could you blame him for trying to erase the memory of that thing from his mind? Yosuke still got a shiver down his spine thinking about what she had done to his bike; his poor baby. He had treated that thing like a golden idol before she came along and snapped it like a twig. He was just happy his ride was back home where it belonged, in the safety of his backyard. Chie and Yukiko passed each other a funny look of shock and confusion before turning their attention back over to Yosuke.

"Did something happen with Yosuke and Hanako-san?" Chie questioned with great curiosity. Yosuke stopped dead in his tracks, the smile on his face slowly degrading into a horrified frown. He knew where this was going already. And of all the places this could take place, in front of all the people they could have had this conversation around; it had to be around HER.

"He was strikin' out with the ladies and got his scooter busted up." Kanji explained concisely, conveniently dropping out the part that made it clear that Yosuke was NOT into that monstrosity from hell. It was like Kanji was single-handedly trying to destroy his love life. Not that he knew anything about his raging crush on Maya; only Yu did, and he had vowed to keep it a secret, but still. It sure felt like he knew sometimes, what with the way he almost ALWAYS did this kind of crap in front of her. Yosuke didn't even bother turning his gaze over to Maya during all of this; he didn't want to see what her thoughts on him were now. Which was good, because the heartbroken expression on her face just might have ripped his soul in two. Why was it that no matter how much she tried to appeal to him, he just went off trying to score with other ladies? It was like that with every guy Maya had ever liked… It had to be a problem with her, right?

"Whoa! Yosuke's after Hanako-san!?" Chie shouted, only cementing the humiliation and fear in Yosuke's chest and the pain in Maya's. It was bad enough without her shouting about this stuff to the world. The louder she got, the more it hurt.

"I-I'll back you up" Yukiko added.

"I am not! That's not what happened at all!" Yosuke nervously tried to cover his basis, lest anyone get the wrong idea. It was bad enough that this was all happening in front of her, he didn't need people thinking he was shooting for that fucking grizzly bear. Just the thought sent a horrible shiver down his spine. He was going to have nightmares now because of Chie and Yukiko. "I was saying we should go somewhere since it's summer vacation, like the beach. It'd be a pain to go by train, but a motorcycle…!"

"Hm, I haven't been to the beach in a long time either…" Yukiko spoke up, very much intrigued by the idea. The majority of the group shared her opinions on the matter of going to the beach; the lone exception being Justin, who, of course, could not swim. That meant he'd have two things to do at the beach: sit on the sand and watch girls in bikinis. And while the latter wasn't exactly ENTIRELY a bad thing, Justin sure as hell wouldn't be the one partaking in that event. He got flustered enough as it was the first time he saw Chie in a bikini, and had averted his eyes. Forcing himself to stare? Not happening. Maya's interest was piqued as well, but alas; no swim suit meant she would be stuck sitting frying under the sun. That's no fun.

"Oh yes. Let's take the guy who can't swim to the beach. We'll all have a ball." Justin remarked sarcastically, taking a chug of the can of cola in front of him. No one took Justin seriously, of course; they were more than used to him objecting to every god damned idea they had. In all fairness, they were usually very stupid ideas, but that was beside the point. This plan could not possibly go wrong; and besides, he could wallow in the shallow water just fine. That's what most of them did at the beach anyway.

"The bright sun, the glistening waves, the luscious scent drifting from nearby stands, the dripping of meat juices…" Chie whispered in what struck Justin as the most sensual voice he had ever heard come from Chie's mouth. You heard it hear folks; Chie had more hots for steak than she did for Justin. That sure as hell did a number on his self esteem. Yosuke seemed slightly annoyed that Chie had turned a beach trip into a steak excavation.

"Is food all you can think about…?" Yosuke groaned. Rise scanned the expressions of everyone around the table before grinning and putting forth her own wild proposal. Yu and Yosuke were the only ones with motorcycles, so only going by cycle was not going to cut it. No, they needed to get everyone on a bike.

"Hey, why don't we get our licenses too? It's just a written test, right?" The sophomoric members of the group had their interest piqued almost immediately… and by that I mean only Chie and Yukiko. Justin and Maya couldn't afford a motorcycle even if they wanted to; so there was NO point in getting a license. Besides, Maya didn't even know how to ride a bike, how was she going to ride a motorcycle? Kanji shook his head, seeing a few obvious faults in Rise's plan.

"We can't. We're too young."

"Aww, sorry Kanji! But my birthday was two months ago, so I'm sixteen now." Rise remarked condescendingly. You could tell Kanji was very much shocked, and also kind of pissed. It wasn't fair that Rise got a motorcycle but he didn't. Or maybe he just didn't like that the entire gang was getting motorcycles. He was like the biker police or something; beating up bikers far and wide. And that just very well might include his friends at this point.

"Hey, that's cheating!" Kanji shouted, slight anger in his voice. This was not fair in the slightest. Rise giggled slightly before turning a slightly lustful glare towards Yosuke, much to Yosuke's immediate notice and surprise. He already knew what that look meant.

"Ohh, but sitting behind Senpai sounds great too. I wanna squeeze in close!" Rise flirted with Yosuke, much to his embarrassment and slight pleasure. His cheeks turned red immediately; almost as red as Maya's face right now. If you looked carefully, you could see Maya muttering under her breath for Rise to back off. She also called her a whore, a bitch, and a couple of other words I have no idea what they meant. But they sure sounded filthy. Point was; Maya was coming dangerously close to shanking a bitch. It didn't help that Yosuke was always accepting of Rise's advances. Just because he was shooting for one girl in particular didn't mean looking wasn't free after all, right? And come on, it was Rise. He could live with a couple of flirtatious remarks coming from her.

"It's only supposed to be for work, but there's a scooter at the inn!" Yukiko interrupted the awkward flirting between the two. Maya was more than pleased that Yukiko was there to keep things on topic, because otherwise, she had seriously considered jumping over that table and mauling Rise. She had already murdered one person, she didn't need to add a second to her record, thank you very much. Rise nodded slightly; she had similar circumstances that worked in her favor.

"We got one as a gift at the office that's just sitting around. I bet I could borrow it if I asked!" Rise spoke optimistically, until a rather unpleasant thought struck her like a bowling ball. "…I'd have to call my manager though." Rise grimaced with disappointment. She had sort of told her manager to fuck off last time she saw him. And besides; she didn't WANT to talk to her manager. She was DONE with her manager. She was DONE with all of that.

"I can help you with that if you want." Justin remarked from his seat, already knowing the conditions under which that might be a difficult feat. Plus… If anyone else helped her with that, news of Rise's 'fiancé' might slip out, and that would just be disastrous. Rise grinned widely at Justin, more than pleased that he was willing to put himself out there just so she would have an easier time dealing with her agency. She shook her head in denial; though she was very much appreciative of the offer. "Well… Give me a ring if there's a problem anyway…"

"Huh. Is this actually working out…? How about you Chie?" Yosuke questioned with glee. The up close and personal plan was still in effect; he just hoped to god at least one of them didn't have access to a motorcycle. And luckily for him, Maya was dirt fucking poor. And they called his plan idiotic. That will never work they said; you have to approach a girl they said. Well who's laughing now!? Chie tilted her head slightly as she tried to think. She must have had SOMETHING she could get there on.

"A scooter, huh? I might be in luck… One of our relatives loves motorcycles! Maybe he has a scooter I can borrow." Chie exclaimed, much to Yosuke's satisfaction. The less people that needed to hitch a ride, the more chance of his bike being empty when Maya needed a ride. After all, Justin no doubt was going to take the skateboard… Maya had nothing other than a bus to get there; and he doubted that was going to happen.

"Whoa… This might really happen! Let's all get our licenses and hit the beach together!" Yosuke declared. Of course; there were still three people unaccounted for, as enthusiastic as Yosuke was… Well, technically only one. Yosuke just assumed Justin was taking the board, and he already had plans for Maya; that only left one person TRULY unaccounted for.

"Hold up. What about Teddie?"

"Forget Teddie; what the fuck about us!?" Justin interrupted Kanji. "We can't afford a motorcycle, and we sure as hell don't know anyone we can borrow it from." Justin remarked with slight annoyance. Yosuke grinned slightly; everything was falling into place. If it wasn't for everyone staring at him right now, he'd probably start laughing maniacally, rubbing his palms back and forth in a sinister fashion.

"Well you could always take the skateboard, right?" Yosuke pointed out. Maya seemed a little surprised by that remark. She couldn't believe Justin still had that broken down old thing. In a way it made her almost happy; even though that was technically hers and Justin had broken it. It was still technically a gift, and to think Justin still held onto it after all these years was flattering. She felt like she could just give him a big hug right here and now; but alas, that wasn't happening. No need for Chie to slap her again, after all.

"Yeah okay, that covers me; what about Maya?" Justin questioned, pointing at her with his thumb. Maya shrugged slightly. She supposed she'd just stay home; she usually did anyway for all of this. And besides, she had a job now. She probably wouldn't be able to go on this trip anyway unless it was on Sunday, when the beach would no doubt be crowded. She of course forgot that Yosuke was the manager's son, and would be more than willing to pull some strings to get her out for the day. Yosuke rubbed at his chin, pretending he didn't already have this accounted for and a careful plan formulated in his mind already.

"Well… I suppose she could hitch a ride with one of us… My bike's probably big enough for two." Yosuke carefully proposed, trying not to seem too desperate. He might have failed in that regard, because now Justin was shooting him an intense glare. He was worried for a moment that Justin might have been on to him and his intentions at this point. He kind of was; though he still hadn't fit all of the pieces into the puzzle. He just had a vague idea of what the image was when the pieces were fully assembled. Maya was slightly less opposed to the idea, but not necessarily for it either. It honestly sounded like having to squeeze up against Yosuke would be more embarrassing than satisfying.

"Oh you mean that thing that's totally illegal? And besides, what ever happened to your 'up close and personal' plan." Justin pointed out, very much annoyed. There was going to be no 'up close and personal' plan with his sister. Not if Yosuke valued living, that is. Maya and the girls just didn't get it though; so instead they just passed Yosuke a confused look. A very interrogatory confused look. Yosuke averted eye contact as he tried to think of a way out of this.

"It's nothing like that; I just have the biggest bike is all…" Yosuke lied. Technically Yu's bike was bigger; but Yu already knew what was going on. He wasn't a fan of Yosuke using his motorcycle for the forces of evil; but hey, whatever got him the girl in the long run. Yu nodded in slight confirmation, resulting in everyone backing down in their seats slightly. Justin crossed his arms with suspicion, but otherwise backed down from his previous assertions. He was keeping an eye on Yosuke. "I'm sure we'll figure something out…"

"I don't need a ride..." Maya interrupted a slightly disappointed tone to her voice. You could imagine that look on Yosuke's face as he heard that. God just did not want him to get a girl EVER. It was the only possible explanation for why this kept happening to him. "I don't even have a swimsuit, so I'll probably just stay home..." Maya sighed a little bit. Yosuke's expression of disappointed fear soon turn into sinister excitement. No swimsuit, huh? He could fix that; in fact: He was the EXPERT on fixing that. Just ask any of the guys at the table right now.

"We can always pick one out for you now." Yosuke remarked, trying not to sound too desperate. Bad move. Justin didn't so much as miss a beat to jump on his case. Justin still hadn't quite figured out that Yosuke had a thing for Maya; but he had figured out that he had some less than family-friendly ideas in mind for her. Justin immediately turned his head over to Maya, shouting out a warning to her.

"Whatever you do, do not fucking trust this man." Justin warned Maya, much to her confusion. It wasn't like she was going to take Yosuke up on his offer anyway; she had already spent enough of his money today as it was without going out and getting more. She was blissfully unaware of Yosuke's twisted plan; and thankfully so. Justin soon turned to glare at Yosuke, pure anger in his eyes as he practically pierced through Yosuke's soul using only his pupils. "I don't know what game you think you're playing here; but let me assure you you aren't going to win." Justin snarled at Yosuke. Yosuke waved his arms back and forth in a slightly defensive manner, trying to calm Justin down and throw him off his trail.

"I-I didn't mean it like-" Yosuke tried to explain, though he felt as though he was immediatly cut to size by Justin's glare. He already saw through Yosuke's intentions, and he was less than pleased. Yosuke sighed with defeat; nothing he said was really going to back him out of the corner he had backed himself into. He had buried himself neck high in his own shit. That's what happens when he tried to push his luck...

"Woohoo! I'm so excited!" Rise interrupted the two to shout out with excitement. "The beach, huh…? I've gone before for pinup shoots, but it's been a while since I went for fun!" Rise grinned with pure excitement. Yosuke in turn, got this really perverted look in his eye. His Risette Drive had just went into overload three times over. He couldn't stop himself from getting a little excited himself… in a manner of speaking of course.

"Oh my gosh… Does this mean… I'll get to see Risette herself in a swimsuit with my own two eyes!?" Yosuke practically fawned over her. Maya's eyebrows curved upwards in pure sorrow as her heart started to tear in two once more. Every single day it seemed to get clearer and clearer that Yosuke was into Rise. She didn't even know why she bothered; he didn't like her, that was painfully clear to her. She just wanted to go home and cry into her pillow until she fell asleep. Why was love such a cruel game? Why must she always fall for the man who didn't love her back?

"Can you maybe not talk about her like she's not here!?" Chie scolded Yosuke. Which was good, because it immediately snapped him out of his Risette Drive. Any longer of him fawning over that girl and Maya just very well might have ran off in tears. And it was great because Yosuke could look at how much of an ass he was making himself out to be in front of the girl of his affections. He really needed to learn how to control himself around girls. Yosuke rubbed at the back of his head in embarrassment.

"Hey, who are you looking forward to seeing in a swimsuit, Senpai?" Rise questioned, turning her attention to Yu. Yu's eyes widened immediately. It should have been obvious to everyone there; but alas, Yukiko and Yu weren't exactly as high-profile a relationship as Chie and Justin were. And it's not like he could just say Yukiko; he was much too shy for that. And besides, would that be considered rude or flattering? He didn't even know. Justin stared at Yu for a moment, his face turning bright red, before deciding to butt in.

"Well I know who I'm looking forward too." Justin remarked, passing a slight glance and grin Chie's way. Chie immediately blushed, an embarrassed, timid smile making it's way across her face. "That's right; Kanji." Justin whistled before chuckling at Chie's flabbergasted expression. He had totally pulled a fake out on her; and with KANJI of all people. Kanji didn't even seem to get the joke; which just made things a thousand times more awkward. Chie wasn't even sure how to respond; she knew Justin was just making a wisecrack, but even then, she couldn't help but feel her cheeks grow redder at the thought that she had started blushing over nothing. It was times like this she missed her school jumper; she couldn't borrow her cheeks behind the neck of a tank-top, after all.

"Aw mine's nothin' special. The crotch area's thin and built for speed, so…" Kanji started explaining what his suit was like, clearly not getting that Justin had meant that in a slightly more homosexual way. Which in retrospect, probably wasn't a great idea when talking to Kanji. I mean, he wasn't gay or anything, and it wasn't like Justin was serious, but he did get uncomfortable about that sort of stuff.

"Hold it right there!" Yosuke cut Kanji off, very much disgusted by the conversation that was going down right now. Of course, Yosuke was always a homophobe, so it didn't surprise Justin that Yosuke was getting disgusted even by a joke. It takes a real man to be confident enough in their sexuality that they could make jokes like that; which is more than Justin could say about Yosuke. "Why in the world are you interested in Kanji's swimsuit!? Cut that out, dammit!"

"Why wouldn't I be interested in Kanji's swimsuit?" Justin continued, lowering his voice a few octaves in a slightly sensual manner. The joke itself was only funny the first time he said it. Making Yosuke uncomfortable, however, was always good for a few laughs. It was amazing that Kanji never once caught onto the joke; he legitimately thought Justin was just curious what his swimsuit was like.

"Uh… Justin? Is there something you want to tell me?" Chie questioned, legitimately growing a little concerned with how convincing Justin was coming across right now. She had thought it was a joke at first, but now it was getting a little creepy. One homosexuality joke per day; that was the rule. Justin had just doubled that quota.

"Yes Chie. I'm leaving you for Kanji's swim trunks. It's not you; it's just... have you seen those trunks? They are fiiiiiiiiiiiine" Justin mocked her slightly. It got a couple of laughs out of the table, the exceptions being Kanji, Yosuke, and Chie. Hell, Yukiko had started going into one of her laughing fits. So in that regard, it was at least a little funny, even if it was a bit awkward.

What wasn't so funny was Chie kicking Justin straight in the balls. He knew he should have started wearing a cup.


	112. Chapter 111: August 7, 2011

CHAPTER 111

August 7, 2011

* * *

"Jesus; your allergies are this bad?"

Justin and Kurt were wandering around the city, taking in the sights and generally just chatting about any old random thing that came to mind. Kurt had apparently found himself in possession of some freetime in between selling smokes and getting the cops of his trail and decided there was no better way to spend it than talking to some kid that was four years younger than him. Unfortunately, today just happened to be one of those days for his allergies. The pollen levels must have been through the roof or something, because he was practically sneezing every twelve seconds. Thank god the guy kept tissues in his pocket; because otherwise that could get gross really fast.

"I swear; they're usually not this bad." Kurt choked up, his voice slightly nasally from the mucus building up in his throat. You could tell the guy was sick, no doubt about it. If it weren't for the fact that this was the first day off the guy had been able to work into his work schedule in a month, Justin would have told him to go home and try to get away from all the pollen and shit. But alas; when you run an underground illegal tobacco distribution operation like Kurt, you didn't get much time to yourself. Justin wouldn't be the one to take away his one day off in for fucking ever just because he wasn't feeling well.

"So how's business going for you?" Justin questioned as Kurt proceeded to start sneezing again. He sighed slightly as he pulled his tissue away from his face, taking a quick glance of it's contents. Fantastic; he had managed to get a nosebleed from sneezing so much. He dabbed away at his nose with the tissue, it's white texture soon changing colors to match his blood before quickly shoved the tissue back in his pocket, ready to grab at it if his nose started to bleed again. Lady luck just was not on his side today apparently. Kurt took a deep breath as he pushed the tissue in his pocket, contemplating the matter.

"Slow." Kurt eventually said after a while, letting out a puff of hot air. "Inaba's not quite the city of sin and vice as San Diego. I just can't find anyone who's interested in smoking at that age…" Kurt mused aloud slightly disappointed. He liked Inaba; but from a purely business point of view, it just wasn't working out for him. If business kept up like it was, he was either going to have to cut his losses or take his business elsewhere. He'd rather not move again if he had a choice on the matter. Justin took a drag at his cigarette, exhaling some smoke before turning back to Kurt.

"Maybe it's time to get out of the business. You know; get an office job somewhere." Justin proposed. Kurt was a good guy; and while he REALLY had no one else to turn to to get smokes, he'd rather Kurt not get arrested for his line of work. And besides; it's not like Kurt couldn't pick up a pack for him every once and a while and have Justin give him the cash. It just wouldn't be as large scale as his operation now was. Kurt shook his head slightly.

"Me? In an office? I wouldn't last a week." Kurt admitted. Just because he was a nice guy didn't mean he didn't like certain kinds of people. It would only be so long before chatting over the water cooler got annoying, after all. Plus, just sitting there doing work in a clean sterile office… Just didn't feel natural to him. It was like a manufactured experience. At least in Kurt's line of work he got to walk around outside, take in the sights. The only time he was constrained behind a desk was when he was doing out the math on his inventory and profits. It was very liberating; though he supposed the very act of breaking the law on a daily basis was liberating in and of itself. "Maybe you're right though… Might be time to call it quits while I still had a good run." He mused aloud. Justin nodded slightly.

"You ever finish getting that degree?" Justin questioned. Kurt, believe it or not, was a very intelligent person; I mean you'd have to be to keep a business like his going after all these years. But that's not what I mean when I say he's intelligent. He was booksmart; like, smart enough that he skipped two grades smart. He was a sophomore in college when the whole mafia incident went down two years ago. All things considered, he probably didn't have time to finish his education by the time he had arrived in Inaba; but what did Justin know. He wasn't in college after all. Last Justin checked, he was actually looking into getting into medicine. What branch of medicine? Justin didn't know, but you could tell the guy knew his shit. Kurt shook his head slightly.

"Nah; had to drop out when the cops caught on to my business." Kurt sighed slightly. He wasn't a fan of sterile offices, or sitting behind a desk all day or anything like that. But think about what a doctor did; they went from room to room checking on patients, talking it up with new and interesting people, and got their hands dirty when they needed to help someone. Yeah that white sterile look of a hospital made Kurt a little uneasy, but everything else seemed like it was a job made just for him. It didn't matter now though; he was long out of college and long degreeless. He'd consider just picking up his studies here in Inaba if his profits weren't so low. He just couldn't afford to go back to school on his current paycheck.

Kurt sighed slightly before stopping, something catching his eye. Out in front of the Aiya's were Yosuke and Maya, steak skewers in their hands, talking about something. Kurt couldn't help but stare with curiosity at the sight. First of all; he didn't know Yosuke, so he was wondering who it was she was talking to. Secondly, he could have swore Maya hated Goths; what was she doing dressing up like that? Justin stopped after a moment, realizing Kurt was staring at something in the distance. Justin turned his attention over to the two before raising his eye brow with confusion. He just didn't get why those two were always hanging out.

"I see those two are at it again…" Justin groaned slightly. After Yosuke's little display of perviness the other day with trying to get Maya in a swimsuit, he didn't feel comfortable with those two hanging around. I mean, sure, Yosuke was always a pervert, but still. Something was fishy to Justin… Kurt turned to Justin with a slight expression of puzzlement; not entirely sure what Justin was getting at.

"What; that her boyfriend or something?" Kurt questioned. Justin could not have given Kurt a stranger look and a quicker shake of his head if he tried. He wasn't even sure where he was getting that from. What, because she was hanging out with a guy, they were dating? Come on, get real. Kurt shrugged a little bit. He didn't really appreciate Justin essentially calling him a fucking idiot for just making some observations. "Well who is it then?"

"His name's Yosuke Hanamura. He's a friend of ours. More so her than me." Justin clarified slightly. He didn't want people to get the idea that he liked Yosuke; that would be disastrous. No seriously; no sarcasm involved. Yosuke would rub that in his face every day for the rest of his life if Yosuke ever found out. And if that happened Justin would tear his head off. And you could quote him on that. Kurt nodded, making a slight 'ah' sound with understanding. Still sounded like a boyfriend to him though. Hell, he could practically see her blushing from over here.

"How are things between you two anyway? Awkward living in the same house?" Kurt questioned, trying to catch up to date on Justin's life. That was actually a fairly good question now that Kurt asked. They got along very well. Actually, if Justin didn't know better, he'd almost be able to convince himself Maya really was his sister. They just sort of had that bond. So was it awkward? Sometimes; but Maya was like family to him now. It just wouldn't be the same without her balled up on that couch when he walked through the door; even though that would probably change tomorrow. She'd be out working; how late, Justin didn't know. But he knew the house was going to feel a lot emptier with her gone… For a guy who spent a lot of his life alone, he sure wasn't looking forward to going back to that kind of lifestyle. He'd never truly be alone of course; but it would sure feel like it.

"She's like the sister I never had. It's about as awkward as any relative staying at your place." Justin grinned at her from a distance; though she obviously could not tell. She was much too preoccupied talking to Yosuke about whatever it was she was talking about to even notice him in the distance. The same went for Yosuke. Still, he was just happy to see Maya moving on with her life. You would think after all she had seen, all she had done, she'd be traumatized for life. You wouldn't be able to tell just looking at her just how tough her life had been; she was much too cheerful. Justin wouldn't have it any other way. Kurt adjusted his fedora, a smirk across his face all the while.

"Well that really depends on the relative. You ever meet my Uncle Lenny?" Kurt questioned, chuckling slightly to himself. Justin just shook his head. Of course he hadn't met Kurt's uncle. They were friends; but they had become friends through business. And how would Kurt even explain why he was friends with some teenager that was four years younger than him? No, Justin had never met Kurt's family. That was probably for the best. Kurt laughed at Justin's puzzlement into the matter. "Okay, well all you need to know is that Lenny is into cocaine."

"Yeah, I think I've had enough coke heads in my life." Justin grimaced slightly. Of all the drugs, it had to be cocaine. Not that cocaine was suddenly just going to be synonymous to Falcone now; it just certainly made Justin think of him these days. And given that Kurt was trying to imply the guy was probably off his rocker, he certainly wasn't getting the best image of Lenny from experience. Kurt just laughed a little more; he didn't know anything about Falcone, so you could forgive him for taking this a little more lightly than Justin was.

"Haven't we all? You should have seen him this one time we took him to McDonalds. You'd never think someone would make as much of a big deal about getting an extra chicken McNugget than this guy." Kurt laughed, drifting away into memory lane. Lenny was one crazy old bastard; there was no denying that. Justin couldn't help but smirk slightly himself. At least he was one of those wacky cocaine users, and not those shotgun wedding cocaine users.

"I don't know about that; you ever hear that Tenacious D skit with Jack Black at the drive-thru?" Justin joked, a wide grin on his face. The two just sort of laughed a little bit; they had both heard that skit, and both thought it was pretty hilarious. Kurt eventually held his palms out as though to gesture Justin to stop. He was throwing in the towel on this one; that was some pretty crazy shit. Still not as crazy as his uncle, but crazy nonetheless. The laughter between the two slowly died down as they turned their attention back over to Yosuke and Maya, who had slowly been walking away from Aiya's, having finished their food already. Maya seemed to be laughing about something, which in turn just made Justin's heart jump for joy. It was always nice to see her smiling about something. In a way, you could say that's why Justin had slowly been growing a soft spot in his heart for Yosuke. He was still a perverted douchebag with no sense of chivalry, but he made Maya happy. That was good enough for Justin.

The two stood there for a moment, just starring out into the distance, observing the cityscape in peace and quiet. Or at least, until Kurt's phone started to ring. You could tell he wasn't very pleased by that. He blinked twice in slight confusion, not sure if he was hearing that right now. He had a fairly good idea what that meant, and he wasn't pleased. He sighed as he thrusted his hand into his pocket, pulling his cell-phone out… and a few tissues by accident. Used ones too; yuck. Kurt flipped the phone open and pressed it to his ear.

"Hello? …Uh huh… Goddammit, kid, I told you to handle that already… No, no don't give me that excuse; all you had to do was… Those guys? Don't let them push you around; get up in their face… They're not going to- Goddammit I hired the biggest fucking pussies in all of my life." Kurt sighed slightly, cupping the end of his phone for a moment as he turned his attention over to Justin, shaking his head with slight disgust. Justin could already tell this was a business phone call. One Kurt was not in the mood for today. If there was ever a reason for him to quit the distribution business, it was this. Just one day off; that's all he was asking. "Justin, you mind if I let one of my guys drop your name."

"That really depends for what." Justin's eyebrows curved upward with concern. Having a drug dealer drop your name is not necessarily a good thing.

"You remember those guys I fired a while back for harassing that kid? Yeah, well they've been starting shit with some of the replacements. I was hoping I could let them just drop your name so they'll back off." Kurt explained. He could go down there himself and resolve the issue; but he wasn't in the mood. Besides, believe it or not, Kurt was a pacifist. All of his threats were without any real substance; and anyone who knew Kurt personally knew that. Justin's confused expression soon turned into a glare.

"They are? Need me to knock some sense into them again?" Justin snarled slightly. He was so sick and tired of those goons; he'd be more than willing to smash their skull into a wall again if it got them to stop this wannabe gangster act. Kurt just shook his head in denial though; that wouldn't be necessary.

"Nah, its fine. They just need to drop someone's name to scare them off." Kurt continued to explain. Justin sighed slightly, crossing his arms in front of his chest. He kind of WANTED things to get physical, but alas, Kurt did not. And since this was HIS business, Justin had to abide by his rules of engagement.

"Yeah, sure… Fine." Justin sighed. Kurt smiled at him and nodded before uncupping the bottom of his phone, pressing it back against his ear.

"Alright, look; there's this guy I know that beat the ever loving crap out of those three before. Just drop the name Justin Tylor; they'll back… Hey, hey, liste… Shut your fucking mouth for a second-… Jesus fucking Christ." Kurt quickly flipped the phone close. You would never have thought Kurt could get this angry, but alas, this WAS supposed to be his day-off from this crap. Kurt shoved the phone back in his pocket before turning his attention over to Justin, throwing his arms up to his sides in a 'what the fuck' mannerism. "They're not listening, I have to go down and sort things out." Kurt sighed.

"Need some hel-"

"No, no, it's alright. It's not a big deal…" Kurt rubbed at his forehead for a moment before shaking his head and extending his hand out to shake hands with Justin. The two gripped hands before tugging each other close for a half hug and pat on the back. It was more or less their traditional way of saying goodbye, much like bumping fists had been their traditional greeting. "I gotta get going; say hello to the misses for me." Kurt joked, pointing at Justin in jest before walking off, hands in his pocket.

Justin sighed slightly as the figure of Kurt eventually faded out of view. Justin really felt bad for that guy sometimes; it was a wonder he managed to maintain such a sunny attitude with all this bullcrap being thrown his way. Justin would have snapped long ago in Kurt's position. He shrugged slightly, ready to walk away and back to his house, when something caught his eye. Kurt had accidently dropped a whole chunk of tissues when he went to grab his phone. And yes, they were every-bit as disgusting as you would think. As much as Justin hated to admit it, he couldn't just leave that shit out in the middle of the street; germs and all that crap.

He gagged slightly before bending down and grabbing the tissues in his fist, making his way over to the trash can near Aiya's to dispose of the evidence. He had opened his fist and dropped the tissues in, when one of them stuck to his hand, much to his disgust. Must have been a lot of mucus on that one. Justin peeled the tissue off with disgust before dropping it into the trash with all the others. He couldn't help but want to vomit after that; that was just unsanitary as fuck. Oh what he would do for the environment.

He also couldn't help but wonder why the tissue was purple.


	113. Chapter 112: August 8, 2011

CHAPTER 112

August 8, 2011

* * *

"I placed lots of special orders. Come with me next time when I go pick 'em up, Senpai."

Justin and Rise were walking around the shopping district, where Rise had ordered out for some out of stock items. She seemed to be having a ball, though Justin had to wonder what he was doing there. It wasn't like when Chie dragged him to the mall; Justin was sort of expected to go with her after all. Rise really had no reason to drag him along other than she could or she wanted to. And that begged the question why you would want someone like Justin bitching and moaning the entire time. But alas, he kept his mouth shut and went with the flow. It had been hours since their shopping session had started, and only minutes since it had finally ended. Justin fist pumped when Rise ran out of stores to shop at. He had to wonder where everyone was getting all this money to go shopping with; he barely got enough to live off of. But then; he supposed the others weren't paying for heat, food, electricity, and mortgage, were they?

"I had tons of fun today. Not many people tried to come up and talk… Maybe they already forgot who I am." Rise mused aloud, slightly pleased. It was nice to be able to walk around without having to bother with all of her fans coming up to her to harass her for an autograph or a picture or something. Not that she had to worry about that with Justin anyway; one glare and he'd send them running. He was like her bodyguard, only he didn't get paid. He should really consider charging her for his services from now.

"It's possible I suppose; happens to celebrities all the time. I mean, if I asked you who Robert Plant was right now, would you know him?" Justin questioned. Rise shook her head in denial, much to Justin's displeasure. "Well you should." Justin remarked, a discontent expression on his face. How dare anyone not recognize that name. Kids these days and their new fangled pop and their call of duty and their hippin and the hoppin and their swag-

Look, you get the point. Kids these day suck.

"Oh, yeah. Want some tofu to take home? I helped make them today." Rise changed the topic, feeling slightly uneasy with the dirty look Justin was giving her. She wasn't sure who this Robert Plant guy was, but clearly Justin had great admiration for the guy. Justin scratched at his chin slightly. He didn't like tofu in the slightest, but he didn't want to be rude and turn her down. Besides, he didn't believe Maya had ever tried tofu out. For all he knew, she might enjoy it. Maybe he'd bring a little bit home, just so she could taste what it's like. After a moment, Justin shrugged.

"That sounds great; thanks." Justin expressed his gratitude as a wide grin swept across Rise's face.

"Wait right here." Rise ordered before cheerfully walking off, a skip to her step. Justin wasn't really sure why he couldn't go to the shop with her, but alright. He could use a moment to himself right about now anyway. I mean, sure, he had pretty much been following Rise around all day while she piled more and more clothes onto her bill, so he didn't have much to do but think as it was, but it was still nice to get a moment of peace and quiet. Rise was great and all, but goddamn could she get annoying sometimes. She was just too bubbly for Justin; he couldn't handle her in large doses like today. Justin had started digging around in his pockets in search of a cigarette to light up when he was startled by the voice of someone making their way over to him from behind. He damn near pulled the smoke out as he jumped from being startled; not a very good thing if it was anyone who wasn't aware of his smoking habits. It wasn't; it was Rise's manager.

"Excuse me… Justin-san, is it? Ummm… Sorry about the other day… I'm Minoru Inoue, Rise Kujikawa's former manager." Inoue introduced himself to Justin, who for a moment was still trying to get over how the guy had scared the living shit out of him. Rule number one with Justin: Don't sneak up behind me… Well actually that was more like the seventh rule, with most of the rules preceding it being 'Don't fuck with me.' And one rule regarding Chie's cooking. Hypocritical? Yes. Wrong? Absolutely not. Justin stared at Inoue for a moment, his face frozen from being startled before eventually dropping his eyebrows into a glare.

"…I'm sorry, can I help you?" Justin remarked bluntly, a slightly annoyed tone to his voice. He already could tell this guy was here in regards to Rise; and she had already told him to stop bugging her. That made this harassment; and if he continued to harass her, he would punch this fucker straight in his obnoxious face. Inoue rubbed at the back of his head, slightly embarrassed by the conditions under which he had to deliver the letter he had been holding in his hand. Usually he just gave it to Rise; now he had to work through a middle man. A very angry middle man at that.

"I'm sorry to bother you, but… Could you give this to her?" Inoue requested as politely as he could, handing off the letter in his hand to Justin. Justin stared at the letter with a confused expression on his face before turning his attention back to Inoue. He wasn't going to just give this to Rise without knowing what was in it. For all he knew it could be a death threat. That would be really fucking stupid for the record company to do, don't get me wrong, but Justin wouldn't rule it out with those fuckers. "A fan letter came, you see…" The explanation did nothing but confuse Justin more. He came all the way down here to give Rise a fan letter? He wasn't buying it. Justin stared at the letter for a moment more before turning a glare back to Inoue.

"Jesus man, why are you so interested in her anyway? Can't you see she just wants to be left alone?" Justin scolded Inoue. He was only going to tell him once more to get lost; after that if he kept showing up, there was going to be a problem between the two. But one thing was for certain; this needed to stop. Inoue sighed; he had a lot of reasons for wanting her back. Some of them didn't even involve money. Shocking, I know.

"I'm one of her fans myself. Her talent is captivating… Rise always looked forward to this girl's letters, so I…" Inoue paused for a moment, considering his words, choosing his phrases carefully. He wanted to make it clear he meant Rise no ill will, and that he had only the best of intentions being here. "In today's cult of personality, being popular carries its own problems. Your schedule fits together, minute by minute, like a jigsaw puzzle… Every day you're squeezed utterly dry… But even knowing that, I still want her to come back… She was genuinely brilliant… Not only that, but she's strong enough to use her pain as a foundation. From what I could see… she's relying on you. So could you…?"

Justin paused for a moment, just staring at the man in front of him, before letting loose a slight sigh. He still didn't trust the guy; but his words at least seemed genuine. If he wanted Rise to come back, that wasn't going to happen. It was her choice, not his. And for the record, Justin was still a little pissed off over that 'pain as a foundation,' remark. Pain is pain; don't try to use it as a business step, you fuck. Still; he did care enough to drop this fan letter off to Rise, simply because she enjoyed reading them. If the intention was meant to bribe her; that wasn't going to happen. If he was doing it just to be a good guy, well… Justin just wasn't sure about this guy's motive anymore. Clearly he wanted her back; but he also seemed to wish the best for her.

"Sorry, Senpai, but we're all sold out…" Rise came walking back to the scene; empty handed too. Not that Justin cared; he didn't really want the tofu anyway. He was just trying to be polite since she offered it. Well needless to say once Rise caught sight of Inoue, she was furious. Justin didn't even know Rise could get as angry as she was. But hey; you learn something new every day. "Inoue-san!? Quit pestering me! Wait… What did you say to Senpai!?"

"I-I'm sorry. I'm leaving now… Goodbye…" Inoue quickly apologized, slightly ashamed to be caught in this position. He quickly departed without a word more; not even pointing out that Justin was currently holding a letter that he intended for her to receive. I mean sure; she'd probably just rip it up and throw it in his face if he did, but you think he'd at least acknowledge what he was doing there. By the time he was out of sight, Rise was biting her bottom lip in fury, an intense glare on her face that suggested she was considering ripping that fucker's spine out.

"Hounding me even after I quit… He's practically a stalker! To think I trusted him… I feel betrayed!" Rise shouted in anger, stomping the ground beneath her feet. Justin passed her a side glance before looking at the letter again. He was contemplating even giving her the letter. She seemed very vocally against even the slightest mention of Risette… Would she still want this fan letter then? He didn't need her getting upset again. "So… what did he come for?" Rise questioned, letting loose a small sigh, all her rage and anger flowing out with it. Justin stared at the letter for a moment more before passing it off to Rise. He had a feeling he was going to regret this almost immediately.

"He told me to give this to you. Said it was a fan letter." Justin explained concisely. Rise's aggravated expression turned to one of shock almost immediately. She had certainly not expected to read another one of these again; let alone to have her manager travel all the way out here just to give it to her. Hell, he could have just dropped it in the mail; there was no reason for him to physically travel down here to give this to her. Unless he wanted to be there when Rise bought into his bribe, that is.

"This letter… She wrote again… I see… But he came all the way out here for this…?" Rise questioned, rubbing her fingers over the envelope; feeling the texture of the paper container that housed the thoughts and feelings of one of her admirers… No… Not just an admirer; more like a friend. Sure, they never met in real life, but they talked about everything on a regular basis. If that's not a friend, what is? She turned her attention away from the letter for a moment to turn to Justin, explaining the significance of something as simple as a sheet of paper with words on it. You didn't need to tell Justin the power of words of course; she just felt she needed to. "This girl is a middle school student. She writes to me all the time. I did this public service campaign once to stamp out bullying… She said it inspired her… She wrote that she wouldn't let bullies get her down, that she'd try to make friends… Ever since then, she wrote me letters… 'This happened to me today,' 'I was able to say this,' stuff like that. 'Seeing Risette work hard encourages me,' 'It makes me feel like I can still hang in there…' Haha, she doesn't really know how it works, huh?"

"How it works? You're an inspiration; they're no secret magic or backstage conspiracy behind that, Rise." Justin smiled warmly at her. Justin wasn't a fan of Risette in any way shape or form, but there was no denying she had inspired someone somewhere; and regardless of all the shit going on with Risette, she was and still is an inspiration to the girl. There was no 'how it works,' to that. It just happens. Rise shook her head slightly. She was having a hard time believing that.

"But still, every time I read her letters, I felt like Risette actually meant something… So whenever things got tough, I would read them over and over…" Rise stared back down at the letter. She felt slightly teary eyed right about now, though her eyes remained dry. Perhaps it was just because she was normally so bubbly that it was hard to notice just how happy she was right about now. "Senpai… Do you still have some free time…?" Rise questioned after a slight pause. Justin raised his eyebrow slightly. What a dumb question.

"I'm here aren't I?"

* * *

"She's worried about me…"

The two had marched their way up to the shrine; because god forbid anyone just read a letter in their own house. Honestly, Justin didn't like coming up to the shrine. That fox was always there and giving him this weird look. It made him REALLY uncomfortable. If only Maya were here; he wouldn't have to worry about that fox if he was preoccupied with her, right? Regardless, Rise had ripped that envelope open quicker than a roadrunner on rocket propelled skates. Given the look on her face, she couldn't tell whether she should be happy or sad. Like, she was happy her friend was concerned about her, but saddened that she was worrying her in the first place.

"Officially, I'm taking a break due to illness, so…" Rise paused, sorrow choking up her words as she recapped the letter. It was a lot sadder now that she knew she had hung up her role of Risette for good. She knew she was disappointing people; but it's a lot different when you disappoint someone as close to you as this one particular fan was. "Before I quit, there was talk about a part in a movie… She sounds like she was really looking forward to it… 'Please get well soon and come back,' she says…" Rise read off again out loud. Justin passed her a sympathetic look. Whoever this fan was, Rise must have had a huge impact on her life. She really looked up to Risette. "I'm so glad you were here. I was scared to read it alone… I gave up being Risette. I can't meet her expectations…"

"Having second thoughts?" Justin questioned. God knows he would be in her position. I mean, being an idol sounds like the shittiest job in the world, but just thinking about how he might have made an impact on someone's life like that… It might just make it all worth it in the end. Of course; he wasn't exactly in the same position as Rise; actually BEING an idol an all. It might just not be worth it in the long run. Given the look on her face though, he was going to guess she was really considering it.

"I have no regrets… At least, I think not. I mean, it was such a relief to quit. To go back to being the real me…" Rise laughed awkwardly, as though trying to force herself to smile. Or perhaps trying to convince herself she had made the right choice. Clearly she didn't even believe herself when she said this was the choice she wanted to make. Justin tilted his head to the ground slightly, giving Rise one of those looks.

"Rise?"

"Yeah?"

"That's a second thought." Justin remarked snidely. Rise blushed slightly once she realized Justin's words were entirely true. She was having second thoughts; and she absolutely hated that. She just wanted out from that business and everyone in it… So why did part of her want to stay? What good, what reason could she possibly have for staying there?

"Anyway, Risette doesn't exist anymore. It's not just this girl. I disappointed lots of other people… The president of the company told me that over and over, and I knew already… I knew this was the path I chose, but…" Rise mused aloud. She was trying to convince herself this was the right choice, but the more she thought about it, the more she was starting to regret her decision. Justin wanted to say something to ease her concerns, but the fact of the matter was this was a decision she needed to make on her own. She couldn't have people telling her what to do or what the right choice was. This was about what was good for Rise, not what everyone told her was good for her. Rise paused for a moment before jumping up from her seat on the steps, cutting off her musings with a slightly brighter take on the matter. The more she thought about the people she disappointed, the more she regretted her choice. And she didn't want that. "Maybe I'll just inherit the tofu shop! I'm the shop's main attraction now. I bet I could make it thrive!"

"Is that what you'll be happy doing? Don't just rush into anything…" Justin cautioned her. He wanted to make it absolutely clear to her that deciding what you want to do with the rest of your life isn't just something you decide on the fly. It requires a lot of thought, a lot of reflection. He didn't want her just to rush into running the tofu shop because she'll inherit it, or go on to be Risette again just because everyone was pressuring her. Rise's slowly faded; Justin raised a rather valid point, but it was so hard NOT to try and rush things… Take the next thing she said for example.

"…Senpai. Maybe we should really just do it… Y'know, what I was saying a while back. You could marry me once we graduate high school, and the two of us could work at the tofu shop together. Doesn't that sound fun? H-How about it? Haha… ha…" Rise joked only slightly. The fake laugh at the end certainly wasn't doing much in the ways of passing that off as a joke. In fact, it just made her sound dead serious. Justin had been smoking a cigarette when Rise made that remark; at which point he promptly ceased all movement and gave Rise the most terrified look she had ever seen. _Jesus Christ woman, are you TRYING to get me killed?_

"Just a friendly warning; if Chie ends up killing me for that remark, I'm killing you." Justin joked only slightly. He was dead serious about giving her shit if Chie got pissed at him for that. Rise laughed slightly, though that eventually faded as she realized that wasn't entirely a joke.

"Pfft, yeah right. You wouldn't hurt a fly."

"Yeah, but that's because I'm afraid of bugs."


	114. Chapter 113: August 9, 2011

CHAPTER 113

August 9, 2011

* * *

"Ladies aaaand gentlemeeeeeeeen."

Alright, so Justin had no idea where he was right now. He remembered Teddie coaxing him and a few of the others into stepping through the television… and that's about it. All he knew was that it was dark and he could hear Teddie. And that was never a good thing. Justin rubbed at his head slightly before feeling around in front of him for pretty much anything to identify where he was. Well, there was a box like object in front of him… and he was pretty sure he wasn't supposed to push whatever it was that he pressed when he was running his hands over the object in front of him. For all he knew, he might have just pressed the nuclear launch button for the entirety of Soviet Russia's nuclear weapon stockpile. All he knew was that he was clueless. He wasn't panicking or anything like that; but he got the sinking feeling that someone was doing something really stupid right now. He wasn't entirely wrong.

"How are you all doing tonight, now that we can breathe easy? But enough small talk! Now the moment you've all been waiting for… I'm your host… 'On the Mark' Teddieson!" A light suddenly blinked into view of Justin, revealing the form of Teddie wearing a cheesy white suit and this weird combination of an orange top hat and a propeller. Oh yeah, Teddie was DEFINITLY doing something stupid. Though Justin had to wonder who the hell Teddie was talking too, given that he sure as hell wasn't facing the direction of Justin… He recalled some of the others going through the television too… perhaps he was addressing them? And host? Host of what exact-

Wait… Box like object… Big button in the middle of it… Teddie acting like some cheesy game show announcer… Oh dear god.

"Nice to meet you all. Let's get this show on the road! With concentration, knowledge, and Teddie's favor, go for the gold! We call it…" Justin was blinded slightly by one of those title cards appearing once again. Not a good sign to say the least. Though it did sort of confirm his suspicions. The title read off in big blue and orange letters 'Midnight Trivia Miracle Quiz.' Only… It wasn't midnight last Justin checked…

Regardless, the lights soon flashed on to reveal the stage that the investigation team had been standing on. To Justin's right stood Yosuke and Yu, and to his left, Chie and Yukiko; all behind their own podium. Everyone seemed just as confused as he was, thankfully enough. He was concerned for a moment that this was all some big joke that he wasn't in on. Nope; Teddie was just going nuts. Justin couldn't help but admire the elaborate set though. If this was something Teddie was working on during his free time, he did one hell of a job. Now if only he put those efforts into something a little less idiotic.

Like CSI: Television. Justin would watch that.

"…Uh, hold on there. What the heck is this?" Yosuke asked the question that was on everyone's minds. They were under the impression that Teddie needed to talk to them about something (as if he couldn't do that in the real world,) not that he was hosting a goddamn game show. Justin sure as hell would never agree to participate if he knew in advance this was going to happen. He answered enough questions at school, and he doubted there was a prize anyway.

"Ooh, is that a question from Mr. Yosuke Hanamura from Inaba?" Teddie questioned, approaching the podium Yosuke had been standing at. It's a good thing that podium was there; otherwise Yosuke would be able to reach Teddie and beat the ever loving crap out of him. Justin turned his attention away from the two for a moment to pass Chie a confused glance. She shrugged slightly, a flabbergasted expression on her face. This was a lot to take in at once; she sure as hell wasn't expecting this. Not that she was as against it as Justin and Yosuke, but it was still strange all the same.

"You're damn right I have a question! What the heck's with this set? And why'd you call us all the way in here!?" Yosuke spat out all sorts of inquiries. It was pretty obvious Teddie was doing this all for the shits and giggles… At least, Justin sincerely hoped so… This channel only aired on television at midnight, right? Because if not; Justin was marching off the set right now. Teddie was not so pleased with Yosuke's constant questions. He was being a horrible guest right about now. Who the hell even screened these people?

"Yosuke! Can't you play along? I put this together as a celebration for solving the case!" Teddie replied with enthusiasm. Justin raised his eyebrow in slight astonishment. This was meant as a celebration? Didn't they already have a celebration with the omelets and stuff? I mean, it was kind of a crappy celebration, especially with Maya asleep for most of it; but it's not like she was here now anyway so that was irrelevant. Actually… Maya was working right now, right? Shouldn't Teddie be working too? Man, he is so getting fired for this. You know, just once Justin would like to have a normal celebration; just throw on some strobe lights and some disco and call it a day, you know? "Can't you tell? No matter how you look at it, this set is obviously…" Teddie trailed off slightly as he continued to chit chat with Yosuke. Yosuke was very much confused as a result.

"Obviously…?" Yosuke questioned after a slight pause of silence from Teddie. Seemed to him like Teddie had trailed off. Little did he know that it was very much intentional, and he had fallen right into Teddie's trap. Because remember kiddo's, no one's gonna tell you to run if you missed the starting gun. Teddie grinned mischievously at Yosuke's ignorance.

"Bzzzzt! Time's up!" Teddie shouted, much to Yosuke's shock and aggravation. That bussing noise Teddie was making was really fucking annoying for one. Secondly; time's up? The hell? That was one of the questions? Nobody told him! He didn't even get to pick a category. He would have taken video games for 400, for the record. "The correct answer is… a quiz show! Too bad, Yosuke. You lose one point." Yosuke's eyes widened with shock as he stared at the point counter on the front of his podium, it's light blinking red before dropping to a score of -1. You could imagine he wasn't too pleased about that.

"Wha!? We already started!?" Yosuke shouted with anger and astonishment. This just wasn't fair at all. Justin couldn't help but chuckle to himself; any game show where you could have negative points before you even start was alright with him. "I'm seriously losing a point for that!?"

"Alright then , let's skip Yosuke and go on introducing the contestants."

"Hey, listen to me! And whaddaya mean, skip!?" Yosuke demanded an explanation, pleading with Teddie not to walk away from his interrogation session. But alas, it was much too late for that. Teddie turned to him, waving off his frantic pleas as though they were as insignificant and as bothersome as a common house fly. Yeah, Yosuke was red with rage by this point.

"Oh, no need to worry! You'll get your share of beartime." Teddie dismissed Yosuke before turning back towards the 'audience.' At least… That's who Justin ASSUMED he was talking to. Sure as hell wasn't any of them, and he didn't see anyone else here. Though Teddie really needed to learn that you're never supposed to show your back to the audience. Learn some fucking theatre etiquette, Ted! "And now for our first contestant... From way down in Inaba... Chie Satonaka!" Teddie declared, the light shining around Chie brightening slightly, damn near blinding her in the process. She was really confused right about now. Not as much as Justin though, who was wondering why Ted had skipped over Justin and Yu. Maybe he was going in alphabetical order…?

"Huh!? Who, me!?" Chie questioned, as though there were anyone else here with the name Chie Satonaka. But then, she never did deal with stage fright that well, so it was kind of understandable that she was so flustered. It probably didn't help that Teddie had a 'studio audience' track that applauded as he announced her name. "Er… Who's voices are those!? Don't tell me we've got an audience!" Chie stammered nervously, much to Teddie's apparent delight, and by extension, Justin's rage.

"Oh, Chie-chan! You're so self conscious! That crowd is just some sound effects I put together." Teddie teased her. Chie wasn't exactly in the mood for that though; her stage-fright was absolutely awful, and it didn't help with Teddie pulling that shit. Hell, it didn't SOUND like sound effects. Sounded pretty realistic to her.

"It's too realistic, bear-brain!" Chie scolded Teddie, very much pissed by what he had just put her through. She could still feel her heart racing with fear. Justin glared at Teddie for a moment, arms crossed in front of him.

"Don't be a ****." Justin shouted in rage at Teddie, when suddenly his foul mouth was bleeped out by the censors in real time. Everyone passed each other a funny look, surprised that Teddie had actually managed to get a censor on this… They also realized how annoying it was going to get when everything Justin said got censored. Of course, their thoughts were interrupted by another beeping sound. Justin leaned over his podium to stare at his point counter. Apparently cursing was grounds for losing a point. "Oh what the ****, I didn't even get asked a question!" The counter dropped a second time after that. Justin decided to keep his mouth shut.

"Now to the next contestant!" Teddie declared, ignoring Justin's potty mouth antics. He still couldn't believe he was losing to Yosuke right now. And Yosuke had fucking negative points. That was just degrading. "Also from Inaba, Miss Yukiko Amagi!" The light shone down on her brighter as Teddie introduced her to the non-existent crowd. She was… uh… hammering away at that button. Justin didn't know if she expected anything to happen if she pressed it enough or what, but she sure as hell seemed clueless right now. Well at least she looked like she was having fun.

"I'm supposed to press it as fast as I can, right?" Yukiko questioned with cheer. Everyone just sort of looked at her like she was insane, though. Save maybe Justin, who thought it was absolutely adorable. You would think Yu would be the one who thought it was cute, but no. Justin. It was like watching a child try to figure out how a toy worked.

"Well, someone's eager… On to our next contestant. He's our big man from California… Justin Jeremiah Tylor!" Teddie announced as the light shone down brightly on him. He was a little pissed that Teddie was using his full name… Hell he didn't even remember giving Teddie his full name… Who the hell spilled the beans? Probably Yosuke now that he thought about it. "So tell us Justin-san; any plans for the grand-prize?" Teddie questioned, leaning against his podium. Justin sincerely doubted there even was a grand-prize, let alone something he could use. It was probably Teddie just pretending to be a game show host again.

"Thought of giving it all away to a registered charity. All I need is a pint a day… If I ever get out of here." Justin remarked snidely. Alas, the joke seemed to go clean over everyone's heads. He should have known better than to quote Wings.

"You're going to give it to charity? Aww, that's so sweet!" Chie admired.

"What? No, it's… Yeah, sure. Giving it to charity." Justin sighed in defeat. He couldn't really say he wasn't with that look of admiration on her face anyway. Apparently giving to charity was one way to Chie's heart. Not that Justin needed any help getting there; but it would still hurt to break her perception of what she thought Justin was doing. If she wanted to look up to him for something he wasn't going to do, then so be it.

"And finally, our main contender… Sorry to keep you waiting, dear viewers! The hands-down favorite of this tournament! We have a special guest from Inaba! SENNNNNNNNNSEEEEEEEEEEEEEI! He's here to compete!" Teddie hyped up the 'audience' before every single light shone down in complete unison on Yu. You could imagine just how embarrassed and confused he was right about now. Why was his introduction such a big deal when the others weren't?

"Is it me, or are you the only one who got a grand introduction…?" Yosuke questioned with slight annoyance. Yu shrugged before rubbing at the back of his head with slight embarrassment.

"Careful Yu; I think he might be trying to hit on you." Justin smirked, jabbing at Teddie's apparent obsession with Yu. Narukami in turn just rolled his eyes; he realized how creepy it was at times, but still. Justin was pretty much just saying that to piss someone off. You had to take everything he said with a grain of salt, otherwise you'd end up with a black eye by the end of the day.

"Now then! Contestants, are you ready? I'm being cued to cut it short!" Teddie remarked outloud, shaking his head slightly as he paused for a commercial break… Even though there were no commercials and it had only been, like, two minutes since the show started. Must be a hell of a lot of commercials if they were already cutting into the show. Of course, Yosuke felt the need to call Teddie on his bluff. The quicker this was over, the quicker they could go home, right?

"Yeah? And where's the AD? Are we really doing this?" Yosuke questioned with annoyance. Could they just cut the crap and go back to their side? Teddie and him were supposed to be at work right now anyway. Plus Maya was still learning the ropes, so he really shouldn't be leaving her alone for too long. God knows the employees in the electronics department would chew her out in a second if he wasn't there. Not that it was doing wonders for his reputation; people pretty much just saw her as Saki 2.0, if what those two girls he ran into a while back where any representation of the rest of the workers. Not necessarily a great viewpoint for either of them.

"Mmmmm? I see now. Yosuke… you're scared aren't you?" You should have seen the look on Yosuke's face. It was this odd combination of being startled, embarrassed, and pissed as all fuck. "You're afraid you can't beat me in a battle of wits, huh? That you won't stand a chance against my brains?"

"Are you kidding me?" Yosuke shouted at Teddie with pure fury. Teddie damn near toppled over from Yosuke's booming voice. Though… the guy almost fell over over everything, so that's not saying much. "Heh, you're on! I'll go a couple of rounds with you. But don't you go crying home to mommy when you get shamed." Yosuke challenged Teddie.

"Way to fall for his tricks." Chie sighed. After that crap with the studio audience, she just wanted to go home. Her stomach was tied in knots at this point; she just wanted to lie down until the sick feeling in her gut passed. But no. Teddie just had to keep pushing this, didn't he? And Yosuke wasn't helping by accepting his challenge.

"Well, I'm sure he'll be satisfied if we play along. And hey, the case is closed. What's the harm in messing around like this every so often." Yosuke tried to reason with her. Justin could think of a lot of harm that could come from messing around like this. For one; why the hell was no one keeping in mind the fact that Maya didn't know jackshit about electronics? That's sorta why Yosuke had been helping her, and with him gone… well you can see the problem.

"Alright! It looks like our contestants are ready! Now then… Midnight Trivia Miracle Quiz! Let's begin!" Everyone immediately posed themselves at the ready, hands in position to quickly dart for the button if they knew the answer. Save maybe Justin, who was really not as into this as the others. Even Chie, who was sick to her stomach, figured if they were going to do this, they were going to do it with a smile. Justin slowly moved his hand onto the button, not pressing it in, but placing it on top so that the slightest flinch would allow him to answer. "Alright… Question one… What is the jingle in the Ju-"

Yosuke didn't even wait to finish hearing that question to buzz. Justin was absolutely amazed that he had buzzed in so quickly. Teddie didn't even get to name off who the jingle was supposed to be for. Maybe Yosuke was just bussing to try and push this along faster by rushing through the questions? Who even knew. "Every day's great at your Junes." Yosuke sung; if you could really call that singing. That was awful. Why'd he need to sing it anyway?

"Correct! Point to Yosuke!" Teddie announced, Yosuke's point counter blinking before returning to zero. Fantastic, Justin was losing to a bunch of zeroes… Literally. Yosuke smirked as Justin looked over at him with a bewildered expression before the two turned their attention back over to their buttons. Justin sighed as he repositioned his hand along his button, ready to make his comeback. "Question number two! What pattern is the pouch that the fox a-" Justin quickly pressed the button. Now that was something he knew. That fucking fox was always starring him down after all, so it was only natural he do the same.

"It's got hearts all over it." Justin spat out quickly. It was quiet for a moment while whoever was in charge of checking the answers did his thing. Justin knew the answer was right, but god knows the tension was killing him. Sure enough, he heard a short beep a moment later, signifying his answer was correct; the screen on his podium updating so that he wasn't in the negative points. "**** yeah! Wait; ****!" Justin grabbed his head as he watched his score plummet back down as he let loose his potty mouth once again.

"Only goes to show; potty mouths aren't winners." Yosuke remarked snidely, as though he had just said something clever. Or perhaps he was just satisfied that he had managed to piss Justin off even more than he already is.

"**** you too, Yos- GOD******!"

* * *

"Question number nineteen…"

The show had been going on for what seemed like forever. Surprisingly, Yu had managed to take the lead. You'd think Yukiko would be the one winning, what being the brains of this entire operation and all, but alas; it seemed she didn't know much about beef bowls. Chie did though, earning her a spot in second place. Now you may be wondering where Justin was at this point. He had a score of -12 at the moment. No he did not learn his lesson the first five times.

"What is Maya-chan's middle name?" Justin raised his eyebrow at that. Seemed like a bit of an odd question to him, but an easy one at that. I mean, it's not like anyone other than Justin knew Maya well enough to know her middle na- Okay, spoke too soon. Yosuke buzzed in almost immediately, much to Justin's great shock and confusion. How the hell would he even know here name? Did he know her name? For all he knew, Yosuke might have thought Jefferies was her middle na-

"Skye." Nope, he got it right. Justin gave Yosuke a funny look, very much confused. How in the name of all that was holy did Yosuke know that?

"Alright; how the **** do you know Maya's middle name." Justin swiftly started to interrogate Yosuke, rubbing his head slightly as he heard his counter drop again. That buzzing noise was quickly becoming a huge headache. Yosuke immediately averted eye-contact; a sure tell that he was about to lie.

"Oh, uh… lucky guess?"

"Bull****- You know what? **** it! I don't even ****ing care about the ****ing points anymore! **** this mother****ing censor!" Justin turned his rage away from Yosuke for a moment to start glaring at Teddie. "If I hear that ****ing censor one more god**** time, I'm going to ****ing rip your ****ing **** clean of your ****ing crotch and **** down your ****ing *******, you mother ****ing piece of ****! You hear me!? I will **** on your ****ing ****** *** **** and ****ing gouge your mother****ing ******* out with **** and a god**** spoon, you ****!" Yeah, you can imagine his score dropped down a lot after that. You could also imagine that everyone quickly got a headache from the constant bleeping. Teddie didn't so much as miss a beat on Justin's little rant though… By choosing to pretend he never even said a thing. His entire rage induced, point-sucking rampage had been entire without meaning now as Teddie ignored everything he said. Gotta keep them family ratings after all.

"Alright so next question!"

"**** you!"

"This final question is worth triple points… Question 20... How many topsicles can I eat." Teddie questioned. Everyone just gave him one of those stares that suggested it was a stupid question that no one cared about. I mean, what the fuck, it's a topsicle. Yu eventually sighed before pressing the button. Technically, he already won regardless of who got this point, so it wasn't even worth prolonging the inevitable.

"…Two?"

"Wow sensei! Right again!" Teddie gushed with admiration. Justin couldn't help but glare at Teddie though. That was a complete and outright lie. Justin knew for a fact that Teddie ate more than that. From his understanding, he gave Kanji a run for his money, and Kanji topped off at about five; which leaves Teddie at three or four. Definitely not two though. He was purposely rigging the game so Yu would win. At this point though, he didn't even care. "Alright everyone, let's see the results… The winner as expected is… SENSEI, FROM INABA!" Confetti shot up in the air in front of Yu's stand, much to his embarrassment. He wasn't a fan of being treated like some sort of god by Teddie. "Good job, after his strong showing in the qualifiers, Sensei will be moving on to the playoffs!" Teddie declared, much to everyone's shock and surprise.

"Playoffs…!? Ted…?" Yosuke stammered with concern. This wasn't happening. THIS WASN'T HAPPENING. Justin outright slammed his head down into the podium in front of him; setting off his buzzer and, as you may have guessed, causing him to lose a point for buzzing while Teddie was talking. Because his points mattered so fucking much at this point.

"Didn't I mention that? This is the qualifying round for the playoff spot." Teddie explained. Justin sighed before withdrawing his head from the big red button on his podium, rubbing his temples slightly. On the bright side, that meant only Yu was going on… At least, he hoped. On the other hand, there was something that had Justin a little curious.

"Hey Teddie… You mentioned a grand prize earlier… What exactly is the grand prize?" Justin questioned unenthusiastically. He just wanted an answer so he could leave and rest his pounding head. All this buzzing and bleeping was killing him. Teddie smirked, an innocent yet all so sinister grin on his face.

"Ooooh, good question Justin-san! Listen to this; the grand prize was a chance to score with moi!" Teddie joked only slightly. That was the prize if one of the girls won… Yeah, Teddie had no sense of what a relationship meant. Well needless to say Yu felt very VERY uncomfortable right now. He had outright considered running while he had a chance. Not that he needed to run anyway; Yukiko's face had turned bright red with anger at this point. She had warned him about that scoring shit before, and now she had just about had it. Within seconds she had pulled her fan out from below the podium, aiming it with the palm of her hand. Teddie noticed quickly and soon tried to make a desperate dash away from the scene of the would be murder.

Sure enough; one strike.


	115. Chapter 114: August 10, 2011

CHAPTER 114

August 10, 2011

* * *

"Son of a bitch… out already?"

Justin had reached into his pocket in search of his pack of cigarettes, only to find that it was the last smoke in the pack… and that was his last pack. Justin sighed as he pulled the pack out of his pocket, carefully and discreetly dropping it off in a nearby trash can. He would just out right throw it out; but after that run in with Naoto, he was being a little more careful about this kind of stuff. Instead he carefully slid the carton in the trash before taking a detour down the alleyway, popping a smoke in his mouth and lighting it up. He was supposed to meet with Yu in a couple of minutes, so he had to make this quick. He also had to make a mental note not to forget seeing Kurt about getting some more smokes later.

Of course, that wasn't really a problem given that he had managed to run in on him as he turned the alleyway… And an all too familiar group of thugs. Looks like that little chat Kurt had with these guys the day prior wasn't doing much. Perhaps the thugs had caught on to Kurt's bluff, or the fact that Kurt himself was harmless. Perhaps they were just fucking idiots trying to push their luck. Whatever it was, clearly they were messing with the wrong person. Kurt was standing there, arms crossed, a stern expression on his face. And Justin? Well Justin just leaned up against the wall, observing for a moment, plotting out his attack strategy.

"Whatchya' gonna do about it? Call the cops?" One of the thugs mocked, a toothless grin on his face. Apparently he never thought about going to the dentist to get a replacement. Kurt glared at them even harder with every word that came out of their mouth. Clearly he couldn't call the cops; that would be signing his own death warrant. But other than that, there wasn't much else he could do but spout threats. He COULD just beat the shit out of one of them, but he wasn't a great fighter. That punch that knocked Justin out that one time? Lucky shot. He'd never be able to do that again if he tried.

"You want to steal from ME!? Two can play that game; fuck with my business one more time and I'll steal another one of your fucking teeth!" Kurt threatened the toothless leader of the gang. He just rolled his eyes in turn. He wasn't afraid of Kurt in the slightest. If he had any intention of showing violence, he would have done it by now. Of course; the tooth remark sure as hell pissed him off. No one pointed out his toothless grin. No one.

"Why don't you try then, you pussy!" He shouted before shoving Kurt back into the brick wall behind him, causing him to scrape the back of his neck slightly, breaking the skin and allowing the blood to slowly seep out. Justin had merely been watching before that, but within seconds he had snuck up behind the asshole who had just shoved Kurt, grabbing him by the back of his neck and pulling back on his head as he slowly got up in his face, twisting his arm all the same so he couldn't get out of Justin's grip. He knew Kurt didn't really want Justin intervening, but it wouldn't hurt. And besides; he was more than justified at this point. The thug looked on in horror as he laid eyes on Justin. Don't even tell him that HE was his replacement.

"Oh hey there, you miss me?" Justin remarked snidely, tugging at the asshole's arm so that he let out a silent scream of pain. He was going to say something smug to Justin, but the pain shooting through his arm had cut him off almost immediately. Apparently those training sessions Justin had been having with Chie as of late did come in handy. "What'd you steal?" Justin questioned, condescendingly. The thug was in no position to really fight back without risking this psychopath snapping his neck.

"I ain't tellin you- GAH!" Another twist of the arm and he was already shouting back out in pain. "10,000 yen!" He shouted in defeat as every fiber of his being shouted in pain. Kurt rubbed at the back of his neck sorely, pushing himself back off the brick wall and back towards the others. He was pissed off now; that much was for sure. He was a pacifist; but he'd strike back if provoked. Kurt slowly approached the punk and punched him straight in the gut as Justin held him down; knocking the air clean out of him. The other two punks just stood there, watching in awe as their so called leader was getting the ever-loving shit beaten out of him… AGAIN.

"That's a lot of cash… I hope you have all of it on you." Justin continued, twisting his arm even further. The thug's eyes widened with slight panic. He expected him to give it back? What in the hell? That wasn't right! He worked hard to get that money from that kid. The pain in his arm was doing more than enough to convince him to cough it up though. He looked out of the corners of his eyes at the other punks watching. He was sort of hoping they'd chip in; what with them having split the cash already. The two thugs just stared at him though, before giving each other a nod and running off… The punk's jaw dropped in disbelief as he watched his comrades make a mad dash away; cutting their losses. "Cough up the dough before you cough up some more teeth." Justin continued, getting a glare and slight nod from the kid as Kurt made his way up to him, digging through his pockets… He was short. Honestly, though; he didn't care. He had made back 70% of his losses. That was good enough for him.

"I think this is about enough…" Kurt remarked aloud, rolling his thumb over the cash before turning his gaze up to the kid that found himself in Justin's grip. "Let this be a lesson to you. Fuck with me again, and I guarantee you won't wake up." Kurt threatened him before turning back to Justin. "Care to do the honors." Kurt asked Justin. The punk was very much confused and very much scared at the moment. And for good reason too. Justin smirked slightly.

"With pleasure." He announced before tossing the punk into a nearby wall, almost knocking him out cold. He was down, but still conscious, holding his head as he hit the ground, balled up and groaning in pain. Of course, his conscious state was soon ended by Justin kicking the fucker in the head while he was down; slamming his skull into the wall behind him and knocking him clean out. Justin smirked at his handiwork before turning his attention back over to Kurt; who had been rubbing the back of his sore neck, slipping the cash into his pockets.

"Thanks man; they stole this cash from one of the new guys." Kurt explained, a goofy grin on his face as he tried to readjust himself; the fedora around his hat, his jacket… Hell, he even tugged a bit at the bandana he wore around his neck. As if that had gotten messed up in the scuffle. Justin nodded, a satisfied grin on his face. He was always happy to help… Though he really should learn not to get involved in black market scuffles. The smile on Justin's face slowly faded though as Kurt continued to rub at the wound on the back of his neck. He had cut it pretty hard; though Justin hadn't really seen. And losing blood from your neck? Justin was no doctor, but he assumed that was one of the few places you DIDN'T want to bleed; the others being your head and your… well, head.

"You alright man? You look kind of hur-" Justin paused as he eyed something odd. Where Kurt had been shoved into the wall but a moment earlier was a dark stain. One would assume it was blood from his scrape, but that's not what was concerning Justin. People bleed. People don't bleed fucking purple. Still, maybe that was just his color blindness acting up again. That didn't mean he wasn't on edge right now… Which very well might have been the problem. He had to be seeing things; probably just stress from all this shadow crap.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little bit of a scrape." Kurt remarked, dusting off his jacket slightly. That wasn't doing much to ease Justin's concerns though. His jaw was slightly ajar and he was wearing a half-startled glare. He hoped to god he was just going crazy… He had to be. Still; he had to know for sure… And there was one way to know for certain.

"Kurt… Turn around… Uh… So I can check the wound." Justin covered up his inquiry quickly. He didn't need Kurt getting suspicious; especially if this all turned out to be just a misunderstanding. Who know, maybe something had just mixed in with the blood on the wall. Pollen could do some pretty weird shit after all. Kurt raised his eyebrow in puzzlement; seemed like an odd request.

"Huh? Oh no, it's fine; like I said, just a-"

"Turn the fuck around." Justin cut him off. Kurt passed him a very confused glance, very suspicious of whatever motives Justin had. He trusted Justin, but for him to be so interested in the back of his neck… well he was concerned. He rolled his eyes and sighed after a moment.

"Fine. But I'm telling you its fine." Kurt sighed before turning around, pulling up on his wavy brown hair so that Justin could see his neck under all of that. Justin held his breath as he slowly approached Kurt, hoping to dear god he was just crazy. It wasn't the first time his prayers had gone unheeded. Sure enough, dripping out of the crevices of the scrape, wrapping around Kurt's fingers, was purple blood. Justin stared at it, horrified for a moment, before realizing exactly what that meant. He quickly took the opportunity to slam Kurt into the wall. No fucking shadow was going to get the drop on him. Well, you can imagine Kurt wasn't too pleased with that. "Ow! What the fuck, man!?" He shouted as Justin pressed his body and skull against the wall.

"You're a fucking shadow!?" Justin shouted in fear and anger. You would too if you found out your best friend was an entity of pure evil. Kurt just seemed very confused right now. Last time he checked he wasn't a shadow, he was a human being.

"A shadow? I don't… Is that supposed to be a metaphor for something?" Kurt questioned. He honest to god had no idea what was going on here. In a way, that concerned Justin. Either he was really good at playing dumb, or he sincerely didn't know… Regardless; a shadow is a shadow, and given that every shadow Justin had ever had the displeasure of knowing had tried to kill him and his friends, he wasn't letting go of Kurt anytime soon. Justin glared at the back of Kurt's head for a moment, before grabbing him by the collar of his jacket and tugging him away from the wall he had just slammed him into. You can imagine Kurt was getting a little annoyed by the way he was being manhandled. Just a moment ago Justin was fighting his battles; what gives? "Okay, you can stop pushing…!"

"I hope for your sake Yu knows what the hell is going on here."

* * *

"Hey Justin, hey… Um… Who's that? And why are you…?"

Justin had pretty much manhandled Kurt all the way over to Junes, much to Kurt's displeasure. He could walk without being pushed around everywhere, thank you very much. Whatever it was he had apparently done to piss Justin off, he wasn't exactly a runner. Just show him the direction and he'd walk. Yu stared at the two with great confusion as Justin shoved Kurt forward a little bit, Kurt rubbing his back as he finally got loose of Justin's grip. Never in all his life had he been more mortified than right now. Kurt groaned, pulling out a chair and taking a seat. At least he seemed cooperative.

"I'd like to say that's Kurt; but I don't think it is." Justin remarked, glaring at Kurt. Kurt was getting very tired of this shit really fast. Did he say something? He didn't recall doing anything that should be getting Justin this worked up. And what the hell; even if Justin was mad, Kurt was still Kurt. That was a fact that doesn't change no matter what you do. Yu passed Justin a very puzzled look. "Kurt, show him your neck."

"Is that what this is about?" Kurt questioned. This was one hell of an awkward moment, he could tell you that much. Why the hell was everyone so interested in his neck? Justin soon glared at him an intense glare that suggested he was going to physically force him to if he didn't do it willingly. Kurt sighed before pushing his hair up and tilting his head away from Yu so he could get a look. Narukami pushed himself up from his chair, making his way over to Kurt to get a closer look. He had seen a scrape mark, so it looked as though it might be related to that. What he found completely shocked him. A dark purple had been dried completely along the open wound; his fingers too.

"Holy… Your blood is freakin' purple!?" Yu questioned, backing away a couple of steps. Kurt let his hair back down before giving Yu a funny look.

"Yeah, so? Isn't everyone's like that?" Kurt questioned. Yu and Justin immediately passed each other a glance of confusion. It was getting increasingly and increasingly more difficult to believe the guy was bluffing. Justin hadn't been physically restraining him at this point, so he could have already tried to run if he did know; and he just seemed so clueless on the basics of human nature. Yu's eyes dilated suddenly as a sudden realization struck him. If the blood was purple, that meant Kurt was a shadow… And if he was a shadow…

"Wait… So then… If Kurt's a shadow… And the shadows can't come over here until they kill their host…" Yu reasoned out loud; a feeling of fear and horror sweeping over him. Dear god; this shadow had murdered the original Kurt and taken his place. Kurt slammed his hands into the table with fury. He had about enough of this shadow crap. Someone needed to fill him in now before he lost his cool.

"What in the fuck are you two talking about!? Can you two make sense for five fucking seconds!?" Kurt shouted, losing his temper. The two stared at him, anger and worriment in their eyes. Oh he was clueless alright. But why? Why did he not seem to comprehend what he was? Was he even a shadow? Maybe something weird was up… This was all just too confusing; how would Kurt NOT know if he was a shadow or not… Yu rubbed at the back of his head for a moment. He wasn't sure at all how to deal with this… What do you do when you find out someone is actually a shadow. Obviously they couldn't just ignore this, but… Hey, what if...

"…Wait, if he's a shadow… won't he react to the television?" Yu proposed. He wanted to be absolutely sure before they did something stupid. Justin raised his eyebrow. That was true; they could always do that… They damn well might need to actually. If he IS a shadow, they can't just let him walk around their world, right? I mean, Kurt was cool and all, but… Justin didn't know what to think anymore. This was way too much to take in at once. He felt angry, betrayed… yet so sad at the same time. Was this what Kurt was really like? Or just his shadow? And the shadow… why did he not remember anything? None of this made a lick of sense.

"Answer me goddammit!" Kurt shouted again, getting sick and tired of these two talking about him with this weird ass vocabulary. Shadows, televisions; what in the fuck was going on here? Justin sighed slightly as he looked down at the confused Kurt. He truly didn't understand what was going on. He leaned over to grab Kurt by the collar again, pulling him out of the chair. Kurt swiftly smacked his arm away as Justin pulled him to his feet. "I can walk on my own, thank you very much!" Kurt snarled, a raspy voice. Justin glared at him for a moment before letting loose a sigh.

After that, the three soon departed for the electronics department in search of the entrance television. Maya, strangely enough, was not there. It was lunch time right now, though, so she might have been on break. You'd think that would mean she was in the food court, but apparently not. Yosuke was probably dragging her somewhere, but where- he didn't know. That wasn't important now anyway; they needed to settle this right here, right now. Was Kurt a shadow? And if he was… well… what were they going to do about it?

"Kurt… Put your hand on the television screen." Justin ordered, staring at the screen, waiting for Kurt to press his palm against the surface. Kurt wasn't doing anything though without getting an explanation. Why were these to freaking out? And what did it have to do with him? And seriously, what was the big deal over his blood being purple?

"Not until I get some goddamn answers." Kurt shouted, glaring at the two. The guy was starting to draw some attention; which was not a good thing by any means. Yu made a motion with his hands to calm him down once he noticed a few heads turn. He waited a moment for everyone to go back to what they were doing, for the silence to pass, before turning back to Kurt.

"We'll explain it all in a second; but first you need to touch the television screen." Yu calmly explained. Kurt gave him a dirty look, as though he wasn't sure what this was even going to do. It all sounded incredibly stupid to him. He even sighed and rolled his eyes before walking over to the television, pressing his palm up against the television. He was expecting the guys to tell him when he could remove his hand… though he really didn't need the cue when his hand went straight through the television screen. He quickly removed his hand in quiet horror as his eyes dilated in fear. Justin sighed; this was just confirmation of his worst fears.

"…What the fuck…?" Kurt muttered as he held his wrist in his other hand. This was just unbelievable. What the fuck was going on here? Was this like a new television model or something? Someone owed him a lot of explaining right about now. Yu placed his hand on Kurt's shoulder. He could tell Kurt was unaware of his true nature… this was going to be one hell of a bomb shell they dropped on him. Kurt passed Yu a glance of fear and confusion.

"…We, uh… need to talk… You're not gonna like what you hear." Yu explained to him. Kurt just stared down at this hand all the while. Did those two already know this was going to happen? Is that what they meant by being a shadow? Yu passed Justin a nod to give him the heads up to go in. Justin nodded back and turn before stepping through, much to Kurt's complete and utter fear. He was about to turn around and run when Yu grabbed him by both shoulders and turned him back around. Kurt swallowed slightly as Yu pushed him towards the television gently. This was absolutely frightening. Like; about to hurl my lunch frightening. All the same, this wasn't just something he could ignore. He held his breath as he slowly stuck his hand into the television… followed by his leg… then eventually the rest of his body.

He had closed his eyes as he passed through the screen, afraid of what he might open his eyes to. You could imagine his relief when his foot hit solid ground on the way through… then the sudden wave of amazement and fear as he opened his eyes. There was green fog and odd shapes all along… and in the middle of the fog, he could make out two figures… Justin and some weird bear thing. Kurt had been slowly backing up when he bumped into Yu, who was doing his best to keep Kurt from running without getting forceful. Teddie and Justin nodded before they both turned to the television set, at which point Teddie almost immediately jumped back and cowered in fear behind Justin.

"What!? You brought HIM here!?" Teddie scolded Justin from behind his legs. Yeah, that wasn't a good sign. So not only do we know that Teddie knew who Kurt was; clearly he was afraid of him in some capacity. Kurt was just too dumbfounded by everything to even acknowledge the remark. What in the hell was going on? Was this place always here? Justin stepped away to give Kurt a clear view of Teddie, much to Teddie's dissatisfaction.

"What… the… hell…?" Kurt gasped, dumbfounded. "What… What is this place?" Kurt spoke as he slowly paced around in a small radius from where he stood. He didn't want to risk walking around in this place, but he couldn't resist the temptation of exploring this new world. Well… old world. He had been here before; he just didn't remember. Yu slowly made his way around to where the other three were standing. Teddie stared at the two for a moment, a distrustful expression on his face before sighing and turning around. He really didn't want to make glasses for this guy. Not after he left a boot mark on his beautiful fur last time.

"This is the television world… It doesn't really have a name." Yu explained to the best of his abilities. "You can get through it through any television so long as you have the gift…" Kurt stopped staring around the room for a moment to look Yu dead in the eye. Gift? You mean… there was something special about the people here right now?

"Is that what a shadow is…?" Kurt questioned. It must have been some nickname they gave people with the gift, right? Yu and Justin both shook their head in complete unison. This was not going to be an easy thing to drop on Kurt… An even harder thing to even explain. How do you explain the concept of shadows to someone who didn't have a persona. Yu scratched at the back of his head, contemplating the matter.

"Well, uh… that's sort of why you're here… You see… How do I explain this… well; there are only two types of people that can go through a television screen... there are persona-users, and shadows… A persona is the manifestation of one's strength of heart, it comes from accepting one's self and one's feelings… On the opposite end of the spectrum, are shadows… They come from denying one's true feelings. They are a manifestation of everything someone suppresses and tries to pretend isn't real… They are the people that inhabit this world." Yu began to explain. That only served to confuse Kurt more though. He sure as hell didn't sound like a shadow; so he must be one of these persona-users, right? I mean, he didn't live here, and he sure as hell would remember being someone else's feelings.

"I don't get it… I'm not someone else's feelings…" Kurt interjected, not believing any of this. Yu bit his bottom lip. Everything pointed to him being a shadow; the purple blood, being able to get through the television, Teddie recognizing him… He was a shadow plain and simple.

"Well, uh… When a shadow manifests itself, it tries to get the host to deny them; so that they can be their own being…" Yu paused for a moment, not exactly sure how Kurt was going to react to this. "…And if they succeed… The kill the original and take their place. We think…" Yeah, Kurt damn near choked on his saliva at that. According to them, there were two Kurts… And this Kurt had killed the other. But that couldn't be. Kurt was a pacifist; he wouldn't kill someone, let alone forget about it.

"Hold on wait a second-! I never killed anyone! I don't even recognize this place! How could I possibly be… a-a shadow!" Kurt tried to defend himself. This was ridiculous. He was being accused of murdering an alternate version of himself? What in the fuck? This had to be a dream; it made too little sense to be real. Justin rubbed at his chin for a moment before turning to Teddie, who was busy putting together Kurt's glasses.

"Hey Ted… Do shadows forget that they're… you know… shadows if they replace the original." Teddie looked up from his work, an expression of surprise and puzzlement on his face. That was actually a really good question. Certainly one that Teddie didn't have an answer to.

"…I don't really know. This is the first time I've heard of a shadow actually replacing the original." Teddie mused aloud. It was true; every other shadow he had known or seen try to replace their counterpart ultimately failed. Kurt… He wasn't there if Kurt really did get killed by his shadow; but if he DID in fact get replaced, then this very well might be the first time a shadow had succeeded in becoming human. Justin sighed slightly as he turned to Kurt, who was panicking. And very rightfully so.

"I didn't…"

"Look. Calm down. We're going to get to the bottom of this." Yu spoke up, noticing Justin start to grow red with fury, ready to snap at Kurt and his incessant denials. He didn't know if he ever knew the real Kurt or not, but Kurt WAS his friend, and now you were telling him this fucker had killed him? That wasn't going to fly. "Maybe you're a shadow, maybe you're not. But when you're out there bleeding purple and can go through the television screen… Well we can't risk it."

"I…" Kurt tried to choke up, but failed to find the words. It was silent for a moment before Kurt fall down on his ass, arms around his knees. He sighed with disappointment and fear and every emotion there possibly was. He didn't know what to feel, he didn't know what to think. He wanted to believe that they were all wrong; that he was fine… But how else could you explain him going through a television set. Was he really one of those… things? "…I understand…" Kurt sighed.

"You know you have to stay here for now…" Yu choked up, disappointed that he had to be the one to tell him he couldn't go back to his house or his life out there. He seemed harmless to Yu; but precautions were precautions. Still, maybe they should have just ignored it. He hadn't done anything wrong, and introducing the television world to Kurt may have done more damage than anything. Kurt nodded slightly; despite just wanting to go home. "Don't worry. Teddie will be here to keep you company…"

"Yeah… whatever…" Kurt sighed. Justin and Yu looked at each other, a sorrowful expression on their face. Were they really leaving Kurt in this hell hole until they sorted everything out? I mean, yeah he was a shadow, but… He had a life. He had friends and a job and everything. Justin couldn't forgive the shadow for doing what he did; but clearly the shadow wasn't even aware he wasn't the real Kurt… so it begged the question, was he really doing anything wrong? Justin sighed before leaning over, getting on an eye-level with Kurt.

"Look on the bright side. At least you got that day off." Kurt chuckled slightly to himself as he tangled his fingers into his hair. He was having a hard time deciding whether or not he should be offended by that. After all, he was being trapped in a fucking television for the next twenty four hours… But in the end, Justin was right. It was a break; just not one under good pretenses. This wasn't how he would have wanted to spend his day-off, but a day-off is a day-off he supposed… Strange…

For a the first day-off he had in months; he sure felt like he hadn't slept in years


	116. Chapter 115: August 11, 2011

CHAPTER 115

August 11, 2011

* * *

"A shadow!?"

The entirety of the investigation team had been summoned to Junes that morning, minus Teddie of course, to discuss the matter of Kurt. Justin and Yu had been contemplating what they should do with the guy all night, and yet nothing seemed to come to mind. He was a shadow, and that meant that if he was over on their side, he had to have killed the original Kurt. Yet, despite how disgusting that seemed to both of the two, it was like the guy didn't even know. He had feelings, he had a life… he was a good person, from what they could tell. So what do you do with someone like that?

"Are you positive?" Chie questioned. She and Kurt weren't exactly best friends like Justin was, but she did know him well enough that this seemed… well out of character. Every shadow she had seen was a murderous scumbag, an embodiment of suppressed emotions. If Kurt WAS a shadow… what exactly was he supposed to represent? Being a good guy? That's… Kind of fucked up.

"Yeah… His blood was purple and he could get into the television on his own. There's no doubt in my mind he's a shadow." Justin thought aloud. This was tearing him up inside. He had nothing but pure hatred and prejudice against the shadows after all they had put him and his friends through. So now he had a real dilemma… What do you do when you find out your best friend is the very thing you despise with all your soul? Could he just look the other way, knowing what the shadow must have done to get where he was now?

"But if he's a shadow, doesn't that mean…?" Yukiko began to question, starting to put two and two together in the matter. You could tell that this entire conversation was physically paining Justin; every mention of Kurt's true nature, every mention of what he did to walk amongst the humans… All it did was dehumanize Kurt… Justin wanted to pretend this wasn't true; that Kurt was just as human as the rest of them. But he couldn't turn a blind eye to murder… To the true nature, the sinister intent of the shadows… And that killed him a little bit on the inside.

"We don't know. He didn't seem to know he was a shadow." Yu talked on Justin's behalf, picking up the pain in Justin's facial expressions. He didn't want to be the one to make this decision; he didn't even want to be involved. But he was. And so, Yu decided he was going to try and make this as easy on Justin as he possibly could. He would be the voice that told the team about Kurt's true nature; spare Justin the pain of remembering what his friend truly was deep inside. "I think it's safe to assume that's the case though."

"It makes sense; the first time I met Kurt, he was kind of a douchebag. He had a real sudden personality change a couple of weeks after that." Maya mused aloud. Justin didn't even think to ask what she thought about this entire situation. He really should have considering Maya had known him longer than anyone else there. If anyone knew what was going on here, it was probably her.

"So then can we assume that's when he got replaced?" Yosuke turned to Maya. Maya gave a timid nod. She couldn't say for certain; but it seemed strange for Kurt to go from this huge dick to this really generous charming fellow in a matter of days. She had always just assumed he was trying to trick her or something… now it seemed that it was an entirely different person that had immerged from Kurt. Though Maya did have to wonder… if that was a shadow; why weren't his eyes golden like the rest of them?

"…So then what do we do about him? We can't just let some murderer walk around, can we?" Kanji spoke up. Justin raised his eyes from the surface of the table in front of him for a moment to shoot Kanji an intense glare. It was entirely true; but that didn't mean that part of him still didn't want it to be a lie. And he wasn't too fond of Kanji treating him like a common crook. This was a real grey area; the original Kurt was long gone… By all accounts this WAS Kurt now… And he WAS a good person; hell he didn't even know he wasn't human. So what does that say about the shadow's intentions?

"W-Well, there are good people out there that have killed people, y'know…" Maya stammered slightly. She really could sympathize with the shadow, what with the killing Falcone thing and all. I mean, yeah, as much of an ass as the original Kurt was, he probably didn't deserve death; but c'mon. This Kurt was so much better; plus he didn't seem like he had bad intentions… Was there any harm in letting him stay? She got a few dirty looks from people sitting around the table; save of course Justin and Chie who were giving her a half sympathetic look, a half 'shut up before they catch on,' expression. Not that Maya picked up on that; she had no idea ANYONE knew, let alone fucking Chie.

"What? Murder is murder; there is no justification for that!" Yosuke scolded Maya, pure adrenaline boosting his words with anger. Oh god, the look on Maya's face at that moment. She looked like someone had just ripped her heart in half… mostly because Yosuke kind of did. _No justification, huh...?_ She didn't regret what she had done that day… but it was becoming increasingly obvious to her that the others were less than… accepting, of what had happened. Even if they didn't know. They didn't NEED to know to show their true colors, their true opinion on that day. No, Maya did not regret that day; if she regretted anything, it was that no matter what, everyone would forever look down on her for her choices, like she was nothing but a common criminal. Even more than that; she regretted that HE was looking down on her for it…

"No… No she's right." Justin interrupted, noticing how heart-broken Maya was right now. "Sometimes you have to kill; you don't have a choice on the matter. I mean look at us. When Yukiko, or Kanji, or Rise got thrown into the television, didn't we kill their shadows to save them? Sometimes someone's death means someone else will live." Justin mused aloud. He wouldn't condone the shadow's actions, but he can understand why he had done it. After all, they had all killed shadows without remorse… Why wouldn't the shadows treat humans the same way? Why was it wrong for the shadows to kill the humans, but not the humans to kill the shadows? It was one hell of a double standard.

"Dude, that's different. The shadows live just to kill." Yosuke grimaced aloud, insulting Justin's viewpoint on the matter. Justin just shook his head. Yeah, maybe they were made just to kill… to replace. So if that's how their culture raised them to be, could you blame them for just doing what they were born to do. The more Justin thought about all of this, the less and less he could really find any fault in what the shadow had done. In a way, he thanked Maya for opening his eyes on the matter. Sometimes murder was justifiable. For the shadows, killing their counterpart only meant they would have a chance to live… Was that such a bad motive for doing what they did? Justin would never just let someone be killed by their shadow, don't get him wrong, but he could somewhat sympathize with their plight…

Except his own shadow's. His own shadow was just a huge prick.

"But you're not denying that it's alright to kill them because they're trying to kill us?" Justin remarked. Yosuke shook his head in denial; he didn't think it was wrong in the slightest. Really, none of the people at the table had any remorse for slaying shadows, even though they really should. But that wasn't the point Justin was trying to make here. War is war; and the side you fight for will always be the one who's right. The shadows think they're right for killing the humans, and the humans the shadows. "So then why is it any different for someone to kill someone else who's trying to kill them? Good people sometimes have good reasons for murder."

"Look, we're getting sidetracked here." Chie interrupted the two. They could go at it all day on whether murder was alright or not and still not get to the heart of the matter. Besides, it was clear the more they argued about it, the more uncomfortable Maya was getting. You don't talk about the justification of murder in front of a murderer. It's just not a good idea. "We need to decide what to do with Kurt."

"Well, he's a shadow right? Couldn't we just… y'know…" Kanji made a sound by slapping his fist into his palm. Figures Kanji would be the one to suggest offing the fucker. Justin wasn't having any of that shit though. Even if he was a shadow, even if he did do something awful, they weren't going to kill him. He had emotions, no recollection of the murder… he was like a regular person now. Killing him would be no different than killing an innocent. And besides… he wouldn't let that happen to a friend… Even one that had betrayed his trust…

"We're not killing him." Justin spoke up. Everyone save Yosuke and Kanji nodded in agreement with Justin's movement to shoot down Kanji's proposition. He was a sentient being with a real life now. Killing him was out of the question. Of course, Yosuke had no qualms with killing the fucker. If anyone hated the shadows at this table more than the others, it was Yosuke. After all, it was the shadows that killed Saki. He had nothing but hatred and prejudice towards the shadows; any shape, any form. "…I think… I think we should let him out."

"What are you nuts!?" Yosuke shouted in disagreement. "We can't just let a shadow walk around our world!" Justin sighed. He had found himself thinking that way at first too, but when you thought about it… was he really a shadow? I mean, yes, he was LITERALLY a shadow, but figuratively speaking… He lived a normal life, he had normal emotions, and he had NO recollection of the other world. He thought, he felt, he laughed, he cried, he bled… That sounded pretty damn human to Justin. So yes, maybe Kurt was a shadow… maybe he did kill the original Kurt… But he was human now. And humans belonged over on this side.

"No. He's right." Yu pleaded to Yosuke. You could practically see his jaw hit the floor as even Yu stood up for Kurt's right to be on the human side. "He didn't even know he was a shadow; that he killed someone… How could we possibly hold something he didn't even know about against him? Whatever he was, whatever he did, that doesn't matter now. He's no less human than you or I." It was quiet for a moment as everyone considered the words Yu had spoke. He was a lot better at giving a speech than Justin was, that's for sure. After a while Yosuke sighed, crossing his arms in slight defeat.

"Alright, look… Why don't we have a vote?" Yosuke proposed. This was really the only way they were going to settle this, no doubt about it. Everyone passed each other a few glances before nodding in agreement. That seemed the only fair way of doing this. "…Alright… we'll do this by show of hands. First of; anyone up for putting him down." Yosuke tried to put it delicately. It was quiet for a moment as Yosuke allowed time for everyone interested to put their hands up. Strangely, despite both having supported the idea prior; neither Yosuke nor Kanji put their hands up. Perhaps Yu's words had really spoken to them… Perhaps they just saw a better option. Regardless, not a single person threw their hands up into the air.

"…All in support of leaving him in the television." Justin spoke up after no one raised their hand in support of Yosuke's proposition. Everyone looked around the table, observing everyone else to see their opinion on the matter. After a few moments of silence, Yosuke eventually raised his hand into the air. He wouldn't kill the shadow; but he wouldn't let a murderer get what he wanted. That was soon followed by Kanji, and eventually Rise, surprisingly enough. "Three votes for the television. That just leaves letting him go, right? Okay, show of hands…" Justin remarked. Slowly the remaining voters threw their hands up to the sky, starting with Justin and Yu, followed by Chie, then Yukiko. Strangely enough, Maya refused to vote on the matter. Perhaps she was afraid of being judged, perhaps she just didn't know what to believe anymore. She withheld her vote during the poll. In the long run, it didn't really matter. Unless Maya intended to side with Yosuke; the winner was obvious.

"…Well… Fair's fair I guess…" Yosuke sighed in defeat. "Let's go give him the news."

* * *

"How's he doing Teddie?"

The entirety of the group had made their way into the television, where Kurt was leaning up against a railing, Teddie looking over him the entire time. Taking a closer look at him, it seemed he had gotten a nose bleed at some point while in the television, dried purple blood along his upper lip. Strange… Justin didn't think there was any pollen in here… Was it possible to get a nosebleed from just stress? Cause that sure as hell would do it right about now. He also was wearing a pair of thin glasses with a dark green frame. Regardless, the team soon found themselves approaching Teddie and Kurt, the latter of which seemed more than a little surprised by the huge group following Justin.

"Chie…? Maya…? You guys are persona-users too?" Kurt questioned. He still had no idea what this persona bullshit was, but it was from his understanding that you needed one to get in, otherwise you were a shadow. He was going to assume that he was the only one that was a shadow though. Maya rubbed at the back of her neck slightly. She technically didn't have Persona. She still wasn't even sure how she could get into the television, retrospectively. All the same, she thought it wasn't worth confusing Kurt anymore than he already was, so she decided to keep it simple.

"You could say that…" Maya stammered slightly. Kurt didn't seem to question what she meant by that though. He didn't care, truth be told. After being in here for the last twenty-four hours, he just wanted to go home. Thank god Teddie had come in and out of the television to get him food. Kurt stared up at all of the group as they gathered around him. Some friendly faces, some less than welcoming ones. And by that I mean Yosuke and Kanji. Even Rise didn't seem like she had any ill will towards the guy, it just seemed he'd be better off in the world he had come from.

"Well he's been quiet for the most part." Teddie replied to Justin. The guy never even moved from this spot, actually. It was probably too much for him to take in all at once, and they had pretty much just left him here. Actually, looking at Kurt now, he seemed a little pale. The stress was probably chewing away at his insides… Well… Whatever shadows had instead of organs. Justin nodded before crouching to get on eye-level with Kurt.

"How you holding up?" Justin questioned, a half grin on his face. He still felt uneasy about all this. He must not have ever met the real Kurt, which meant he had always been friends with a shadow. Even then though, he couldn't help but feel like he lost a friend knowing this wasn't the real Kurt; just a duplicate that had stole his role. Kurt frowned slightly. He couldn't say he was holding up so well, what with apparently NOT BEING HUMAN AND ALL.

"The air taste stale, I feel sick to my stomach, oh and I might not be human, but other than that, just fucking fantastic." Kurt remarked with bitter sarcasm. Justin smiled slightly. It was good that at least he was making jokes. If he lost his sense of humor, he'd have nothing left. "So… what now?" Kurt questioned. He just wanted to go home; but really, he understood that wasn't his decision to make right now. Justin frowned slightly. It killed him inside to see Kurt submit to their will so easily… Yeah, this was their decision to make, but he shouldn't have been okay with them deciding his fate like that. Still Justin did bring good news for him in that regard, so he supposed all would be fine in the end. He extended his arm to boost Kurt up, though it took a moment before Kurt extended his hand to grip Justin's.

"We all voted on it… You can go home now." Justin gave the news to Kurt. He was practically ecstatic, though you couldn't tell from anything other than his facial expression. He hadn't slept, so he was exhausted. He just wanted to go home, go to sleep, and forget all of this. Pretend none of this had happened. "We'll be keeping an eye on you, but you're free to go." Kurt frowned slightly. He didn't like the idea of being free with restrictions. That wasn't really 'free' now was it?

"…I don't remember anything. I don't know what this shadow shit is, man…" Kurt mused aloud. "I just want to pretend this never happened…" Justin frowned slightly. This wasn't a shadow to him anymore. Just a man thrown into situations beyond his control. He placed his hands along Kurt's shoulders in a reassuring pat.

"And you can." Kurt nodded his head slightly before grabbing Justin's hand and removing it from his shoulder, slowly pacing his way towards the television.

"…If it's alright… I'd like to go home now." The others all passed a few glances at each other, deciding whether they should let him go just yet. There were so many questions to ask… but… Kurt clearly didn't know anything. This was all news to him. Asking him any questions was going to be pointless. Besides; he didn't look so hot. It might have been a good idea for him to head home and rest.

"You need any help getting home?" Justin questioned. He looked really out of it; like there wasn't an ounce of energy left in him. He was walking and standing, but it seemed like he barely had the energy to hold himself up. He really shouldn't be walking home alone. Alas, Kurt shook his head in denial. He didn't want help. He could do this on his own.

"…No, I'm fine…" Kurt remarked, leaning his hand against the plastic case of the television set, preparing himself to go through the screen. No one believed him though. Maya sighed slightly before marching her way over to Kurt. You'd think she'd be the last person to help him home, what with her being deathly afraid of the guy… Something must have changed that all she feared about the guy had simply disappeared.

"I'll help." Maya declared, supporting Kurt to the best of her ability. Fact of the matter was, she had a really small, fragile body frame, so Kurt leaning against her was sort of tipping her over. Still she wasn't going to let him just walk home in this condition. Kurt gave her a tired smile, thankful for her support. He was going to tell her he was good; but he figured that she was just going to help him home anyway. "I'll, uh… See you guys soon." Maya announced, giving a nod of departure before stepping through the screen with Kurt. It was quiet for a while after they departed.

"You really think we're doing the right thing?" Yosuke questioned after a while. I mean, letting a shadow just roam around the real world… That couldn't be a good thing. Justin just stared at the television screen for a while, arms crossed as he contemplated the matter himself. He had to wonder if they made the right choice here today, or if his relationship with Kurt had clouded his judgement...

"Only time will tell."


	117. Chapter 116: August 12, 2011

CHAPTER 116

August 12, 2011

* * *

"You okay…?"

Chie and Justin were at Aiya's, eating ramen and just generally chatting it up… At least, they were until Chie noticed a rather downtrodden expression on his face. Hell, he wasn't even eating his food; just swirling it around with his chopsticks. Just looking at his food was making him sick to his stomach; he didn't even know why he bothered ordering anything. Of course, Chie knew what was wrong almost immediately. His mind was on Kurt; about all that had happened over the last two days to shake his faith in the guy. And could you blame him? You'd probably be thinking about it a lot too if your best friend turned out to be a shadow. Justin sighed as he pushed the noodles around in his bowl.

"…It's nothing. Just a lot on my mind is all." Justin tried to ease Chie's concerns. He didn't really want to talk about Kurt; he didn't even want to think about him. But you can't just force a thought out of your head, otherwise it just comes right back. He had to think about Kurt; even if every fiber of his being didn't want to. Why of all the people that could have been a shadow did it have to be HIM? Teddie said this was the first time he knew about the shadows successfully replacing someone… so why out of all the billions of people on earth did it have to be Kurt? Of all the shitty luck…

"Still thinking about Kurt, huh?" Chie continued, deciding not to just drop the subject like she probably should have. It wasn't like she could just ignore Justin wallowing around in his pity after all. She understood what he was feeling right now; it was like his best friend was nothing but a lie, not even close to what he appeared to be. Kind of like Takeshi; only… you know… more evil and less of a scumbag? And could they even say evil? Kurt was one of the nicest guys Chie could think of… didn't really sound evil to her. "You made the right choice."

"It's not that…" Justin sighed. Of course he made the right decision letting Kurt live. He wasn't any different than any of his other friends; he just bled purple where the others bled red. It was just… he couldn't help but feel like he lost a friend finding out that Kurt was a shadow. He didn't know the original Kurt, that much was becoming increasingly clear to him… but he would have liked to know what the real Kurt was like. Maybe he WAS a douche bag… but at the very least he owed it to Kurt to know what the real him was like, not just this duplicate that had taken his place.

Not even just that; even if this new Kurt wasn't the real Kurt, it was the Kurt Justin had befriended… And they had pretty much ruined his life by telling him he was a shadow. I mean, in the heat of the moment, it seemed like the right thing to do. If he was a shadow, and shadow killed people, they couldn't just let him wander around, right? Justin never once thought about how that would mentally scar Kurt, knowing that he wasn't really who he thought he was, or what he might have done to get where he was. How do you motivate yourself to keep living when you're living a life that wasn't even yours in the first place? What do you do when you discover you're something less than human? No… They never should have even mentioned it to Kurt. But they did. And now Kurt was ultimately the one paying the price.

"Worried about him?" Chie continued to try and probe for information. Truth be told, that was exactly what was going through Justin's head right now. Worriment for his friend. But he didn't want to talk about this; and just confirming that was what was bothering him would be like giving Chie an invitation to play twenty questions with him. Justin sighed before raising his eyes from his bowl to pass Chie a tired glance.

"Look, can we not talk about this?" Justin pleaded with her. He just wanted to not eat his noodles in peace without thinking about Kurt. Of course, Chie felt the need to pull out the puppy dog eyes, as though trying to convince Justin to just talk about it. And for once, and maybe the only time in Justin's entire life, they were completely ineffectual. There are some things that cute cannot convince you to do apparently.

"We can if you want, you know…" Chie continued to try and coax Justin into talking. She didn't want Justin getting the idea that he couldn't talk about this; especially if it was eating him up inside. She was always there if he needed to talk about this kind of stuff. Not that Justin didn't know that; half the shit he had talked about with Chie he wouldn't dare say to anyone else. The only one he trusted as much as he trusted Chie was Yu; and that's because he hadn't done Justin wrong yet. He didn't even trust Maya as much as those two, as much as it pained him to admit. He'd trust her with his life; but not his feelings sadly enough.

"I don't." Justin remarked. Chie seemed more than a little disappointed that Justin was trying to bottle all of this up. It might do him some good to just get it out in the open. But god be damned if the more and more he thought about this, the more and more it hurt him inside. The sooner he swept it out of his mind and under the rug, the sooner he could forget the pain. Talking about it wasn't going to help him do that. Justin sighed after a while, Chie still giving him a sympathetic look in a last ditch attempt at getting him to open up. He wasn't in the mood. "…You, uh… Do your summer work yet?" Justin desperately dug through his mind for something else to talk about. Anything would be alright with him.

"I started with our summer reading, but… I don't really get it." Chie replied, cheeks red with slight embarrassment. Literature and her just did not mix. Justin supposed than it was a good thing she was dating the guy whose favorite literary work was Hamlet. If you can understand what's going on in a Shakespeare play, you could understand any book. He straightened up a little bit in his chair, an interested expression on his face. Summer work might just be the thing to keep his mind off of Kurt, now that he thought about it.

"Well how far are you into it?" Justin questioned. He didn't want to spoil anything while he tried to explain the book to her… Though to be fair, there really wasn't much to spoil about Catcher in the Rye. Actually, you know what? Fuck it; she didn't even need to read the book. She was dating a living embodiment of Catcher in the Rye; bitching about everything and trying to get drunk every twelve seconds... Okay, maybe only once, but the comparison still stands!

"Page 25…" Chie choked up with embarrassment. Yeah, well you can imagine the look on Justin's face right about now. Of course she didn't get it; she was barely into the book at this point. He rubbed at his head in slight annoyance, slight disappointment. He'd help her, but goddamn, that wasn't much to work off of.

"Oh Jesus; this is going to be a long book…"

* * *

…_**there's no body. No body… Maya's not here. There is no Maya. There was never a Maya.**_

Justin's shadow sat, back against the wall, talking to himself as he flipped the edge of a switchblade in his hand back and forth. It had been the same wall that he had thrown Maya's corpse in the day prior. He had tried to run away, but his legs refused to budge. Perhaps he felt some sort of sacred duty to watch out for the shadow he had killed; perhaps he was just afraid to run… Whatever the reason, he had been sitting there, tossing about a switchblade as he chanted to himself lies to ease his troubled mind. _**There was never a body, there was never a Maya. Who is Maya? I don't know. Where is she? Certainly not here. **_He sat there, eyes vacant as he stared out into the distance.

His hands were dripping with purple blood from a few bad movements of the butterfly blade in his hand, where he had accidently slit his hands up with the tip of the blade in his carelessness. He didn't even feel the pain, though; his mind was too far gone to think about the pain screaming out from his body. All he could think about was the corpse in the wall behind him, trying to convince himself that it wasn't there… That none of this had happened. And sadly, he was starting to believe it himself. Maya never died; she was still out there somewhere, he just didn't know where.

Oh, yes, his mind was racing back and forth with all sorts of lies. _**I don't know Maya. Maya's still alive. There's no body here. I don't know anything about that body. The body's right here, but that's not Maya. Maya's alive. Who's Maya? I don't know. **_His mind was a mess of lies; almost all of them contradicting each other. For a being that's existence was based almost entirely on being a lair, he was struggling to create a lie for this. Maybe it was just because the truth hurt so much; maybe it's because he didn't want to hear the truth. Maybe he was just going insane. Who knew? Certainly not him. All he knew was that whatever happened; he wanted nothing to do with it.

_**Who killed Maya? I don't know. Who's Maya? Never heard of her. I'm sure she's out there somewhere. Who killed her? It was those humans. Those humans are the cause of everything. What humans? No idea what you're talking about. There aren't any humans around here. Never were. Who killed the shadow? Why, you and I of course. Who am I? I'm you. And who are you? You are me. Then who are we? I have no fucking idea. Did we kill Maya? No idea who that is. Where is Maya? Hell. And where is hell? Right here.**_

Actually… Insane might be a good word to describe the shadow by this point. It had gotten to a point where he was actually having conversations in his mind with himself, questioning the nature of what had happened here. And each time, the shadow had a different answer; each less sensical than the last. Yes, insane just might be the best way of describing him. His mind was gone; gone with Maya. Now there was only the lunatic ramblings of a mad man, trying to hold onto the last scraps of his sanity. Was he insane? Not yet. But he was getting there. All he needed was a little extra push.

_**I don't know Maya. I do know Maya. Who's Maya. Maya never existed. Did you kill her? I didn't kill her. I didn't. I couldn't. I wouldn't. But I did. Did I? I did not. There is no Maya. There's no body. No body. There was never a body. There is no body. There was never a body. What body? No bodies here. There is no body. No body, no body, no body, no body, nobodynobodynobodynobodynobo dy. Where's the body? Gone. Gone where? Not here. There's no body, no body, no body…**_

"…Jesus Maya, stop dragging your feet, we have to get out of here!" The shadow raised his eyes from the cement below him, an all too familiar set of voices emerging from around the corner. Even with lunacy screaming through every brain cell he had, he found himself recalling with complete clarity those voices. Maybe he WAS losing it, maybe he was out of his mind, but he would never lose the memory of those freaks. His eyes dilated slightly as he saw Justin and Maya walking quickly around the shadow world; clearly in search of something, given the way their eyes kept darting around. The shadow couldn't believe this; those humans had come back? After the all they had done, they had the nerve to come back? And fucking Teddie was with them… None of them deserved to be here… None of them should be here.

The shadow slowly pushed himself up from the ground as he watched the two quickly rounding the corner of an alleyway, a slightly irate expression on his face. How dare they come back after what they did here… No. No they wouldn't be here for much longer, that much was for sure. This was a blessing in disguise. He'd finish Shadow Maya's work… and then he'd kill the others. That would teach them to fuck with him. The shadow slowly marched his way around to where the three of those fuckers had gathered… The alleyway with the dumpster. That just made the shadow's blood boil. He wanted to just stab those fuckers right in their heads right now… but alas; he wanted to know why they were here first. He quickly hugged the wall so that he remained out of sight, peeking around the corner as he listened in.

"Fuck… FUCK!" Maya screamed out as she bent over to sort through some crushed packages. You could hear the tears swelling up in her voice, muffling the sound of her voice slightly. Justin leant over to try and pick her back up to her feet, his hand against his back as he tried to calm her down as best he could. The shadow couldn't help but feel his heart skip a beat again, a sorrowful expression sweeping his face. There was Maya bawling her goddamn eyes out... It took him a moment before he snapped himself back out of his brief moment of weakness. That wasn't HIS Maya; that was the human Maya. They might look the same, but they were not the same person… As much as he'd like to believe HIS Maya was still up and about, walking like her. It broke his heart a little just seeing the human Maya walking around. It reminded him of what was no more. He let out a deep breath before regaining his composure, a glare sweeping across his face as he hugged back against the wall.

Just in time too, the three of them soon left the alleyway, Justin helping Maya keep a steady pace as they marched off to the television. She was in too many hysterics to run on her own, so she needed the help from Justin. Teddie was following close behind the two… And behind them? Justin's shadow, creeping quickly, but silently behind them, switchblade in hand, ready to stab it down on those fuckers given the chance. It was quite a walk for them all, at least a good two minutes before they made it to the television, each second feeling like forever for the shadow as he prepared himself to make the kill.

"Goddammit. God FUCKING dammit!" Maya shouted as they stopped at the television screen, ready to make their way back out. She was in shock, no doubt about it. Over what? The shadow didn't know. Maya's shadow might have, but she was long gone by now. The three stood there looking at the television screen, hearts heavy with dread. Well save Teddie; he was blissfully ignorant. Regardless, the shadow slowly crept up behind them, raising his the blade in his hand above his head, ready to crash it down into the back of Teddie's skull. That would hopefully cut the exit off on the other two. Justin and Maya slowly started to make their way through the screen, which meant if he killed Teddie quickly, the exit might close, chopping the two clean in half. A fitting death if you asked the shadow.

The shadow held his breath in, knife in hand, ready to thrust it down and finish the job he started. At least he did, until the image of Shadow Maya flashed before him. Where before he had seen Teddie, stood the girl he had killed but the day prior. The shadow gasped in shock, dropping his hands to his side as the knife dropped down to the side behind him. It was only as the sound of the knife hitting the concrete echoed out did the shadow's vision fade back to reality, Teddie's figure reemerging from the mirage. The sound also immediately alerted Teddie to the shadow's presence. He turned around to be met by the sight of a flabbergasted, yet also very visibly enraged Justin's shadow. He didn't need much motivation to run away screaming like a maniac. The shadow didn't persue him.

"…**What the hell is wrong with me?" **The shadow questioned, falling to his knees. Now he was seeing shit; fan-fucking-tastic. He couldn't sleep, he couldn't think… He couldn't even fucking avenge her without her face immerging through the clouds of his mind. The shadow sat there on his knees, breathing in and out heavily. It had to be the stress… Yeah that's it; he's just stressed out right now. He'd forget her soon enough. And when he did? There would be hell to pay… Now it was just a matter of how long before he would forget.

Never.


	118. Chapter 117: August 13, 2011

CHAPTER 117

August 13, 2011

* * *

"Oh wow… That's uh… That's a lot of empty cans."

Justin had found his way over to Kurt's house with Maya's help. More of an apartment really. With everything that was going on as of late, he wanted to make sure Kurt was holding up alright. Because it wasn't just Justin that was hurting from this situation. It was Kurt. And you could tell given that there were empty beer cans everywhere. Mind you the guy only just turned twenty; not even legal drinking age. I suppose he just looked older than he actually was. Either that or he got it from some of his contacts. Justin recalled him having a friend in alcohol that had gotten in touch with Maya's brother one time. Maybe that's where he got all the booze? God knows this must have done a hell of a number on his pay check.

Justin and Maya slowly crept into the house, Kurt sitting on the couch, downing another can, watching some stupid show on television. He was just trying to keep his mind off of everything; but it's not like you could just forget that you weren't human. He could try to pretend it was a lie all he wanted, but deep down he knew the truth. And the truth can really hurt sometime. Justin and Maya stepped over crushed up cans that Kurt had left tossed about the floor. Apparently he never heard of using a trash-can. _I mean, I get your depressed and stuff, but FUCK! This is just unsanitary!_ It was a moment before they made it over to the couch with Kurt, who had barley even acknowledged their presence. You'd think he'd be more alarmed about people just coming into his house; especially with booze littered all over the place… But then, he probably also should have locked the door.

"I'd ask how you're holding up, but I think I've already got an answer to that." Justin remarked as Maya and him sat down on the couch beside him Kurt groaned a bit, rubbing at his head before taking another sip of the can in his hand and throwing it over his shoulder into the mountain of cans slowly building up behind the couch. It was a wonder this guy didn't get alcohol poisoning… though, come to think of it, shadows probably didn't have livers. He'd probably be fine.

"That obvious?" Kurt croaked, leaning forward to grab another can of beer from the table in front of him. "I've been trying to get drunk for the last two days; but apparantly whatever the hell a shadow is can't get drunk." He groaned with slight anger. Getting drunk would have been the best solution to all of this honestly; it would take his mind off of things for a while, and he'd probably think all that shadow crap was part of his drinking spree. So much for that plan. Kurt sighed, popping the can of beer open before pushing it up to his lips to take a sip.

"You know; you really should hide those cans better. It's not exactly legal." Justin spoke up, eyeing the litter behind the couch. Kurt just shrugged a bit. He really didn't care if his apartment looked like a mess anymore. His LIFE was a fucking mess; why the hell should he even care if his apartment was clean or not. It didn't even matter now.

"Yeah, well it's not exactly legal for you two to be smoking either; now is it?" Kurt remarked sarcastically, before letting loose a slight sigh and leaning back. "If either of you want one; go right ahead. They're not doing me much good anyway." Justin passed Kurt a funny look like he was insane. He really should have expected that from Kurt though, given that he pretty much did the exact same thing with smokes. Because remember kids; it's okay to take the smokes, but don't you dare touch that alcohol.

"I think we'll pas- Maya what the hell are you doing?" Justin cut himself off as he noticed Maya lean forward to grab a can of her own. Justin just stared at her with disgust as she gripped the can before leaning back, eyeing it as though deciding whether or not to open it up and take a sip. Strangely enough, that 'don't you dare' look Justin was giving her did nothing but convince her to try some.

"What? You got to try some on that camping trip, now it's my turn." Maya remarked before flipping the tab on the can open. Justin tried to plead with her not to take a sip using only his eyes, but Maya wasn't having any of that shit. She quickly took a sip of the beverage… and immediately her face scrunched up, a sour expression on her face as she examined the contents of the can. It was a moment before she put it back on the table; content with not getting a buzz off of it. "Okay… Yeah; I can see why that was a bad idea." She remarked, trying to get the taste off her tongue. Must be an acquired taste. Justin shook his head, a slight smirk on his face before turning his attention back over to Kurt.

"Come on man; this really isn't healthy for you."

"Debatable." Kurt cut off Justin's lecture about how alcohol was going to kill him or something. If he couldn't even get drunk, if he wasn't even human; he was probably going to be just fine. There was nothing unhealthy about HIM downing twelve cases of that shit. Justin just shook his head in disapproval however. First of all, that WAS unhealthy as fuck; but that's not what he was referring to.

"Not that. You can't keep beating yourself up like this; you'll make yourself sick." Justin explained. Kurt sighed slightly. Yeah, probably; but that didn't mean he was going to stop. It wasn't like he didn't WANT to stop, he literally could not. This wasn't just like… scratching the paint on someone's car, or giving someone the wrong answer on a test. He wasn't a fucking person! You can't ignore something like that; especially when there was probably murder involved.

"I don't get this. I've been going through my memories for the last few days… I don't remember any of this shit. I remember pretty much everything else… So does that mean I was always I… what did you call it? A shadow?" Kurt mused aloud. He could remember everything. His childhood, his teenage years, school, his business, med school, his friends, his family, every little fucking thing. He didn't remember no fucking TV, he didn't remember killing anyone, he didn't remember… well, not being Kurt. So unless he was born as a shadow, or he was a shadow as a fucking infant, this made ZERO sense. Justin scratched at the back of his head slightly.

"Well… Maybe you just forgot. You know; like how I forgot about you know wh-"

"I'm right fucking here Justin!" Maya cut him off. She had no problem with him forgetting her; that was what she had tried to do after all. He didn't need Justin rubbing it in her face and talking about it like she wasn't there though. I mean goddamn; could he be any more obvious. Justin shrugged his shoulders in slight embarrassment. The point still stood, regardless of whether or not Maya was offended by it. Kurt shook his head slightly.

"It doesn't matter anyway. None of this fucking matters." He grimaced aloud, drowning his sorrows away in the can of beer in his hand. Justin and Maya just gazed at him with sympathetic eyes for a moment. It seemed beyond their comprehension how someone like Kurt could be so depressed. He was always so upbeat and lively… perhaps that was the worst part of all of this. They hadn't just broke Kurt; they broke his spirits. Justin sighed after a moment before placing his hand along Kurt's shoulder in a reassuring pat.

"…I never should have said anything when I saw the blood that day. Everything would have been fine if I kept my mouth shut." Justin mused aloud. If anyone was to blame for all of this, it was him. Kurt was just an innocent caught up in circumstances beyond his control. No one should have been holding him accountable for anything. No one but himself, of course… He was blaming himself for being… well himself. If anyone should have been blamed, it was Justin; not him. Kurt shook his head in denial.

"No. You did the right thing. I would have done the same thing in your position. It's not your fault." Kurt cut Justin off. It wasn't Justin's fault that he was what he was. And what he was wasn't human. Any reasonable person would have pushed him against the wall if they had found out he was some… shadow… a shadow of the real Kurt. No, he didn't hold Justin accountable for trying to stop what was a man just wearing his friend's face. Truth be told, Kurt himself didn't even know if they were truly friends. Was it him and Justin, or the original Kurt and Justin? He didn't remember when the swap out occurred; he didn't even know if one DID occur. His memory was clearly missing some key parts… perhaps these weren't even his memories at all. He could remember his life from birth to now; never once did he remember anything about that television world. So where did the shadow come into play? He didn't know. As far as he could remember, he was always Kurt. Boy could memories be deceiving.

"Well if it's not my fault, and it's not your fault, than whose fault is it?" Justin questioned out loud, a slight grin sweeping across his face. If they both were taking responsibility for their own actions, responsibility the others were denying needed to be taken, then was any wrong truly done? Plenty. But that was in the past; they needed to fix their mistakes, not dwell on who did what. Kurt raised his eyebrow in slight confusion. That seemed as good a question as any if you asked him.

"No one?" Kurt choked up, getting slightly annoyed by all of this. They could point fingers all they wanted but that really didn't change the fact that he was not human. He didn't care about that stuff with the wall or the television… he just cared about the lie he had been living for… God only knows how long. Could have been all of five minutes for all he knew; could have been forever. The only one who could answer that question was the real Kurt; and he was long gone. Justin spread his arms put slightly.

"Exactly! Look man, we're here for you. We'll help you figure everything out. Because- Hey look at me Kurt." Justin snapped in his face as Kurt went to turn his attention back to the screen to ignore Justin. He sighed in defeat before turning back to him, annoyed by this whole intervention. _Just let me rot away in peace here in my apartment, please. God knows I probably don't have to eat or anything anyway…_ "It doesn't matter if you're a shadow or not. Maybe you don't bleed the same color as the rest of us, maybe you don't need to eat as much as we do; that doesn't matter. You are still you; that's all that matters." Kurt stared at Justin for a moment, processing his words in his mind. It felt like hours before a slight grin slowly started to crack through Kurt's grim expression. Still as pearly white as ever.

"It's not that easy, man."

"Nothing's ever that easy. That's why we're here to help." Justin and Maya grinned reassuringly to Kurt. It was quiet for a moment as everyone soaked in the atmosphere, the words that the others had spoke, After maybe two, three minutes, Kurt leaned forward and put the beer can in his hand on the living room table. He was done wasting his time trying to get drunk. It wasn't working anyway; and besides… he had better things to do now.

"…Thanks, man."

"And…?" Maya interrupted, rolling her hands around slightly, trying to coax Kurt into finishing that thought. Kurt chuckled to himself. Even though Maya didn't do anything but drink his beer, he supposed he owed her thanks too. Besides; she did help him home the day prior… He supposed THAT was worthy of thanks at the very least.

"Yes, yes, thank you too Maya." Kurt laughed.

"Well when you say it like that-" Maya grumbled to herself. She didn't like her role in all of this being considered secondary to Justin. She helped too, believe it or not… Maybe not as much, but she still helped, dammit! She deserved some recognition without her having to jump down Kurt's throat to get him to admit she was helpful. Kurt laughed slightly at the now pouting Maya, pushing his back back against the couch as he turned his head towards the television. He was tired; apparently you didn't need to get drunk to become exhausted of drinking.

Justin and Maya soon turned their attention to the screen as well, curious what it was Kurt had been watching all this time. It was on a commercial; figures. Though I'd be lying if I said Justin and Maya didn't seem interested with the advertisement. Apparently they were opening up a paintball venue on the outskirts of Inaba. A strange place to open up shop, in all honesty. Not necessarily because it was on the outskirts; after all, the woods were the best place to play paintball. No, I mean why they picked Inaba to open this place. It was a small town, so you had to wonder if they would get enough business to warrant opening the place up. Though, to be fair, Justin could think of a lot of people he'd love to shoot in the face with a paintball; perhaps the same could be said of the others. It might just be what this place needed.

"Geeze, I haven't gone paintballing in forever." Maya spoke up after a moment. Kurt and Justin both passed each other a funny look before turning their attention to Maya. Maya was into a lot of dangerous and stupid things; never had they considered paintball being one of them though. Hell, Justin didn't even know when she could have went; she never went with him, that was for sure. And usually you have to be around thirteen to play, right? So… that should have been around the time they met. Why the hell DIDN'T she invite him? Justin liked to shoot things… _Uh… What's the 'no homo' equivalent for psychpopaths?_

"You've been paintballing?" Justin asked after a moment. Maya nodded in confirmation, chewing at her fingernails in the process as she watched the television screen.

"Yeah, my brother took me a while back; a little bit before I met you I think." Maya mused aloud, trying to remember the specifics. "It was me and a couple of his friends. Poor Noah." Maya remarked with slight sadness. Once again Kurt and Justin passed each other a funny look before turning back to Maya. It just kept getting stranger and stranger.

"Noah?"

"Like I said; friend of my brother. We were all on one team; but when we were all suiting up Noah decided he didn't want to hear it. He went in without the padding or the helmet on, thought he was being funny, right? Sure enough, took one right in the eye." Maya explained, making a gesture with her arm as though trying to mimic the bullet's trajectory. Justin started laughing immediately. That's what happens when you get cocky. Well at least it made for an interesting story. I'm sure they were all laughing about it the next day.

"Oh man; I'm sure he was regretting that one in the morning." Justin continued to laugh.

"Well, yeah. He's blind now." And within a split second, laughter cut right off. Ever have one of those moments where you unintentionally did something that made you feel like a huge douchebag. This was one of those. How was he supposed to know that taking a paintball to the eye would blind you. I mean, yeah it would probably hurt, but blind? That seemed so farfetched. Well he sure as hell felt like an ass now. He rubbed at the back of his head in slight embarrassment; mortified that he was laughing at the incident that had blinded a man.

"O-Oh… Uh… whoops." Justin tried to make it clear that he didn't mean anything by it; but in turn he only sounded like more of a douchebag. "I-I mean… uh... You know…" Maya shook her head, a slight smirk on her face. Justin wasn't sure what was so funny about all of this, but Maya sure as hell was getting a kick out of it. He just hoped she was finding Justin's stuttering humorous and not the part with the blind kid.

"You know; besides from that, it was pretty fun…" Maya continued to muse aloud. As the comment left her lips however, her eyes started to widen, her bottom lip parting slightly. She had just gotten struck by a bolt of inspiration, which, knowing Maya, was never a good idea. Justin had just about enough of her crazy plans and ideas, thank you very much. "Hey… We should all go paintballing. It would be fun!"

"Not after you told me this Noah kid got blinded by one!" Justin shouted in protest. Maya didn't in the slightest bit seem fazed by all of this. It made you have to wonder if she was just pulling Justin's leg, or if even this Noah kid took his blindness seriously. Heaven knows his friends weren't, apparantly.

"Pfft- It'll be fine. We'll all wear the equipment like we're supposed to." Maya tried to ease his concerns. It was sort of working, but not really. "Come on; I know how much you like shooting stuff. Think about it, all of us on one team, sulking through the woods like… like, um…" Maya was finding a hard example of who might be sneaking through the woods to shoot someone in the face with a paintball gun.

"…Masked serial killers?"

"No!" Maya barked, surprised that Justin wasn't even following her same train of thought. Though to be fair, those guys probably shot more than their fair share of people in the face in the woods. "Like, uh… A soldier in Vietnam!" Maya eventually settled on. She thought it was a shitty comparison in all honesty, but Justin seemed to like it, so why the fuck not. "Special operatives tasked with getting enemy intel; eliminating enemy personal as we go. Sneaking around through the woods, gun at the ready, enemy in sight. You line up your shot, finger on the trigger as you hold your breath. You wait for the commander on the walkie-talkie, ordering you to take him down nice and easy. Boom! One to the chest without even a sound." Maya tried to paint a picture for Justin. The whole murder angle probably shouldn't have been grabbing Justin's attention as much as it was, but it seemed to be doing a hell of a job convincing him.

"Well… It does kind of sound like fun." Justin surrendered after a while. It should be fine so long as everyone wears the protective gear instead of being idiots. Besides; he was already blind in one eye; what were the chances of that happening again. Would be a nice way of getting his mind off of this whole shadow business anyway. Shooting people in the chest with painful paint pellets? Sure, why not? Maya smiled with slight victory. She hadn't exactly done much over the summer other than work, so it would be nice to get some rest and relaxation in before the seasons changed.

"Oh man this is going to be great. We'll dominate the field." Maya bragged slightly, even though she didn't know what the competition was going to be like. Though given some of the things she mentioned; I don't think anyone was going to question her dedication to victory on the matter. "Last time we went paintballing, we made a grenade with a spray paint can; all we did was-"

"Ahh- Y-You know what; I'll take your word for it."


	119. Chapter 118: August 14, 2011

CHAPTER 118

August 14, 2011

* * *

"Rogue five, check our six."

Apparently Maya's proposal of going paintballing was met with little to no resistance. The only one who didn't really want in at first was Yukiko; though I think she changed her mind immediately once she realized everyone else was doing it. I mean, how bad could it possibly be? The entirety of the investigation team was on one team, and the other… Well actually, they didn't know who was on the other team. That didn't matter though; all that mattered was putting a bullet in the back of their skulls. The group had been gathered around, checking every side as they moved, keeping low as the crouched about the forest.

"Dude, will you give the codenames a rest?" Yosuke whispered with annoyance and slight hypocricy. Why couldn't they just use each other's real name? This wasn't some sort of covert ops, as much as they were acting like it was. They weren't running around guns ablazing; they were actually trying to be really sneaky about all of this. Keep low, stay quiet, pick 'em off one by one. Those were the rules of engagement that they had all agreed upon. Save maybe Kanji, who wanted to do a full frontal assault. A sure fire way of getting killed if you asked Justin. Justin glared at Yosuke for a moment before Yosuke sighed and turned around, checking behind the main group. Looked clear to him. "All set."

"Clear." Justin announced, checking the front for anyone. Seemed they were all alone at the moment. Strange; they'd been out here for ten minutes and still hadn't seen hide nor hair of the enemy team. Justin wasn't sure if that was a blessing or not. Justin made a quick movement of his hand, signaling the area was clear and giving the team a moment to lower their guard. Everyone stood up from their crouching positions, removing their helmet for the time being. Was hard as fuck to breathe in those things, that was for sure. They really should have kept them on for safety concerns; but the coast looked clear so there really wasn't any harm in it.

"Are you sure we're going the right way?" Kanji questioned, stretching his back slightly as he assumed a full standing position. They've been walking for ten minutes with no sign of the enemy. Unless both of them had been walking in circles since the start of the match, it seemed they weren't making much progress. Maya nodded in confirmation that this was the right way. Being the only one who had done paintball before, Maya was appointed as the 'leader' persay; directing the group where to go and giving tactics where she could. Not that Justin didn't try to butt into her leadership every now and then; but for the most part, she was in charge.

"This place is huge… I bet you could get lost here easily." Yukiko mused allowed, eyes darting from tree to tree. You could tell by the look on her face that at the very least she was enjoying the scenery. Clearly shooting people in the face wasn't her thing; but no one could deny that the leafy green treetops around them were quite the sight. But they weren't here to be tourists; they were here because this was war! They didn't have time to admire the trees when the enemy could be hiding around any corner.

"I'm pretty sure they have measures in place so that doesn't happen." Justin thought aloud. He could definitely see people getting lost here; but they wouldn't just send teenagers in here without a way to get back, right? Yukiko nodded with slight relief; seemed she was actually concerned about getting lost here. Not like that was going to happen with Maya in charge; she was one hell of a navigator.

"This was a great idea you two." Yu remarked allowed, wiping some sweat off his brow. It was way too hot to be wearing that helmet; but after hearing Maya's little story about Noah, no one was risking leaving it off. Save Justin; who Chie pretty much had to force the helmet on. Of course Justin wouldn't see the need to wear a helmet when he was already blind in one eye; but the others didn't know that. Appearances are everything. Maya blushed slightly; pleased to see that she had at least ONE good idea in her. She was just surprised Yosuke had managed to get both of them a day off today. Teddie, unfortunately, had to stay behind. They needed the mascot for some upcoming holiday or something. Not that they probably would have brought him along anyway; he was such a loud mouth he would have ruined their operation almost immediately.

"Yeah, no kidding. I know we haven't really done anything yet, but I'm still having a blast." Chie announced, checking her weapon, making sure everything was in place. It wasn't like she used a rifle on a regular basis or anything, so she found herself constantly fiddling around with it to make sure everything was in place. It was a wonder she hadn't accidentally fired that thing off already. Yosuke crossed his arms in slight disappointment. He wanted to shoot something already, and it seemed they weren't making much progress.

"Jeeze, where are those guys anyway?" Yosuke complained aloud, slight irritation in his voice as he looked around for anything that might resemble a person."There's got to be something we could find them with." Maya stared up towards the sky as she tried to ponder a possible solution. It was true that they weren't getting anywhere just walking around, they needed something else. It took a moment before she had an idea, dropping to one knee as she dropped to the ground. "…Uh… What are you doing?"

"Checking for foot prints. If we can find their footprints and just follow them, we should be able to find the other group." Maya explained to them, crawling around in the dirt in search of any foot print that wasn't there's. She wasn't having much luck at the moment. The others all nodded, impressed with Maya's navigation skills. For a girl who had gone paintballing only once in her entire life; she seemed to know a lot about getting around the turf.

"Whoa… Great idea Maya!" Yosuke praised. You couldn't really tell from where any of the others were standing, but Maya's cheeks grew a little red at the compliment. Compliments from Yosuke were becoming scarcer and scarcer these days. Mostly because he kept stumbling over his words; though Maya didn't really know what he intended to say. If she did, her heart damn well might have stopped from overjoy. Perhaps it was a good thing she didn't know. Maya continues to scan the ground for a moment before a wide grin crossed her face.

"Found it; two sets of foot prints." Maya declared before beckoning the others over. As many people as possible crouched down to get a good glance at the foot prints; none of them recognized the prints as their own, so that was a good sign. It could have just been from another team from earlier; but it seemed a better idea to follow these than to keep wandering around aimlessly. The group all stood up and backed away from the footprints as they decided what to do. "Alright, how are we going to do this…?"

"I say we send a few people to check it out. Just to make sure it's not an ambush or something." Justin proposed. I mean, they'd kind of be screwed if they all ran into the hoard while following the prints, but at least they'd lose less men doing that than running into an ambush. Most of the others nodded in support, throwing in their two cents on the matter. Maya rubbed at her chin contemplating the proposal, deciding whether or not it would work. She eventually decided it was worth giving a shot.

"Alright then, let's send a few people out to scout." Maya declared, rubbing her chin as she scanned the group. She didn't want to send in anyone who would cause a commotion; so Kanji was immediately out. Yosuke was admittedly too much of a blubbering idiot to really get there without making noise, and let's face it, Yukiko was clueless. Of course; Maya didn't want to go out with the scouts in case something happened to the main group while they wait. Justin and Chie were probably competent enough… But she didn't want to send more than three people… That left Yu and Rise. Yu probably knew what he was doing, but… Did she REALLY want to wait here with Rise's awkward flirting? Yeah no; away with her. "Justin, Chie, Rise; you're on scout duty. Get to it." Maya ordered the three.

"Sir, yes sir." Justin joked, making a mock salute. Chie immediately jabbed him in the ribs to stop him from making a scene. She didn't need him drawing attention to them if the others were nearby. Rise seemed a little bit confused why she was tagging along, but not at all objecting to the matter. She was going to miss making Yosuke feel really uncomfortable though. Which is probably why she insisted on blowing a kiss to the group as the three departed. Every single one of the guy's faces turned red immediately.

Maya damn near shot her in the back herself.

* * *

"You know; I'm starting to think this wasn't such a good idea."

Fifteen minutes hiking, still no sign of the guys they were looking for. It was starting to look like these were old tracks; not recent ones left by the opposite team. Justin and Chie sighed as they continued to march onwards, guns at the ready should something come up. Rise seemed much more enthusiastic, humming some tune as they kept marching. You'd think she'd be the least happy about this since the equipment she was wearing was heavier on her than anyone else (who would have thought they'd run out of padding that fit her?)

"Come on senpai; it's a lot more fun than hanging around with Kanji." Rise teased from the back, pointing her gun every which way. It was a wonder just the motion of her tossing the gun about hadn't attracted any attention… Especially since it seemed they were just coming up on their targets now. As Justin saw the vision of two figures in the distance he raised his hand to stop the two from proceeding onwards. They had their targets. The three quickly took cover behind a tree to remain out of sight.

"Looks like our guys." Justin remarked out loud. The others nodded in agreement, making a slight grunt noise of confirmation. "Looks like only two of them… We should be able to take them down quietly." Justin turned to the others.

"I don't think we can really get a good shot from here." Chie spoke up with disappointment. It was true; they were too far away to make an accurate shot; they'd need to get closer. And that meant they'd need to use the cover to their advantage. It was a pretty open area they had spotted those two patrolling about, so they'd need to plot a very careful route for their assault. Justin groaned a bit as he tried to map out their movements. It seemed Rise had managed to beat him to the punch.

"Hey senpai; you think we could use that rock for cover?" Rise spoke up… a little louder than she probably should have; but not loud enough to really distract the two guards thankfully. Justin passed her a slight glare before looking out to what she was talking about. Yeah, that rock formation would work perfectly; it'd even be a good support for aiming their guns at their targets.

"Yeah… Yeah that'll do. Stay low." Justin remarked, making a movement of his hand to point to the rock. The others nodded with confirmation as they hit the ground, crouching as they quickly made their way over to the rock. Justin thought they'd be a goner when he accidently stepped on a really crunchy leaf, but it seemed luck was in their favor today. Either that or the targets couldn't really hear the three of them because they were talking about something. Within moments the three of them all had their backs against the rock, ready to make their next move. "Alright; here's how we're going to do this. I'll take the one on the right, Chie, you take the one on the left, Rise; cover us if something goes wrong."

"Aww; but I wanted to take them." Rise pouted slightly. She was WAY too enthused about using a gun. Perhaps taking Rise paintballing wasn't such a good idea. She shrugged it off though; she was used to playing the support role anyway. The three slowly peaked their heads up over the rocks, aiming their rifles at the two guys standing their chatting. Both of their helmets were off, so headshots were off-limits. They'd have to take them down with a shot to the chest and then rush 'em while they were down. Justin was lining up his shot when something caught his eyes.

"Hey wait a second… Chie take a look at this." Justin tapped her on the shoulder before pointing to the guy he was supposed to take down. She squinted for a moment before her jaw damn near dropped.

"Takeshi!? The hell is he doing here!?" She whispered VERY LOUDLY. Justin had to actually cover her mouth with his hand before those two noticed they were here. It worked for a moment; but then Chie decided she wasn't a fan of being gagged like that and bit Justin's finger. Justin bit his bottom lip as he tried to hold back the obscenities. She didn't just take a light bite; she bit down on his skin HARD. He was only surprised it wasn't bleeding.

"Takeshi? Who's that?" Rise questioned, lowering her aim on the two men for a moment as she tried to figure out what was going on here. They needed to coordinate their efforts before they went any further. Justin waved his hand around for a moment trying to numb the pain before reaching back out to his gun to steady his aim. If they started to move or turn around, they'd need to take the shot right there and then.

"Chie's ex."

"What!? He is NOT my ex!" Chie clarified. She just had a crush on him during elementary school; that stuff happened. She was so over him now though; nor had they ever dated. Ex her ass; Justin knew that, he was just trying to bust her (once again figurative) balls. Rise only seemed to find amusement in Chie's denial. For some reason she believed Justin more than she did Chie on this. She seemed WAY too defensive about it for it not to be true.

"Yeah; well… I hate him like he was your ex. Same thing, right?" Justin continued, keeping his eye on the target all the while as he lined his shot up. He had a clean strike right to the chest that would bring him down to the ground without so much as a sound. Chie was turning red with anger at this point. She knew Justin was just trying to joke around with her; but she sure as hell didn't find it funny.

"Oh you are unbelievable." Chie snarled before lining her own sight up with her target again. It was quiet for a moment as they both lined up their shots, ready to pull the trigger at Justin's cue. Only, Justin never did give the cue. He just stared; iron sights trained where Takeshi's heart (or lack thereof) was located. After a moment, he rested his rifle back down again, turning over to Chie.

"You want to take Takeshi?" Justin questioned. All things considered, he thought she deserved to be the one to put a figurative bullet in his skull. Chie blinked twice in slight confusion. Seemed like a strange offer to her. After a moment she shook her head in refusal.

"Nah; I'm good."

"You sure? He's all yours." Justin continued. He could tell deep down Chie wanted some good old fashioned payback. It was quiet for a moment as Chie looked out to where Takeshi stood. That bastard had really fucked her and her friends over. She thought he was her friend, but apparently he was just a pretender… She sighed after a moment, turning back to Justin.

"Alright, switch with me." Chie commanded as the two awkwardly tried to maneuver around each other. It would make no sense for the guy on the right to shoot the guy on the left and vice-versa; they needed to change position lest the accidently shoot each other's bullets out of the air. An unlikely scenario, but still a possibility all the same. It took a moment of rustling around in the grass before everyone was back in position, aiming their gun at their new targets.

"On three; take them down." Justin whispered to Rise and Chie. They both nodded in confirmation; even though technically Rise wasn't even going to get a shot in. Everyone took a deep breath, preparing themselves to take their shot. "One... Two... Three."

Chie and Justin both pulled on their triggers, hitting their targets dead on. It only stumbled the guy on the left, but it had managed to knock Takeshi down. Either that or he was purposely trying to hit the deck. Either way, they still had to take the other guy down before he started opening fire in retaliation. Thank god Rise was prepared; popping up from behind the rocks to try and take him down. She sprayed paint pellets about trying to hit her target, and she succeeded. But not before he managed to fire off a few shots of his own. Regardless, he hit the ground eventually, soaked in blue paint. Justin and Chie quickly jumped over the rock they had been taking cover behind, running up to where the two were. Technically, they COULD just get up and start shooting again; which meant they needed to take them down. Chie pointed her rifle at the downed Takeshi, while Justin took the other guy. Rise just stayed behind, leaning against the rock as she watched their six.

"…Chie?" Takeshi choked up, staring down the barrel of Chie's rifle. Chie just smirked with victory; that's what he got for being a huge douchenozzle. Takeshi was very clearly uncomfortable with all of this, what with the gun in his face and Chie behind the rifle. And to make the matter worst, the guy behind her had just took his helmet off, revealing the all too familiar Justin. He was scared shitless at this point. "You're my opponent." Chie shook her head after a moment.

"No; the Vanguards of the Lunch Revolution are." She joked, pointing the barrel of her gun away from Takeshi's face. He sighed with relief… Although, he probably shouldn't have given that she immediately turned her rifle around, slamming the butt of the gun down into his skull; knocking him clean out. Justin whistled slightly as he made his way over to Chie standing triumphantly over her prey. His foe had apparently hit his head on the way down, so he was already out clean. Regardless; Justin found that more than a little amusing.

"That was probably a little much." Justin remarked, a wide grin on his face. It might have been overkill, but he rather enjoyed watching it. Plus, you know Takeshi wouldn't be trying to show his face around Chie ever again. Not that he had since Justin got Kurt involved, but you know how that works. Chie smiled softly, taking one last glance at her triumph over Takeshi, before the two slowly started to trail back to the rock Rise as taking cover at.

"Maybe. But it sure felt good." She smiled warmly as they finally made their way back to where Rise sat. They turned their attention over to Rise, who was rubbing her arm furiously. The two just seemed confused at first. What, did the recoil hurt her arm or something? She looked like she was holding it right… "Hey, something wrong with your arm?" Chie questioned. Rise sighed as she slowly removed her hand from her grip along her arm. Yeah, they were seeing the problem now. There was a yellow blotch where she had been struck by her opponent's stray shot.

"Oh shit… You alright?" Justin questioned. Rise groaned slightly as she pushed herself up from the ground. She was pretty sure this was supposed to be elimination; which meant she SHOULD be out… But who was going to notice a tiny splotch like that on her clothing. Besides; it was only her arm, she could still shoot, right?

"Only a flesh wound." Rise joked, throwing her rifle against her shoulder before pointing back the direction they had come. "Now march!" Justin and Chie passed each other a funny look as Rise marched off like one of the queen's guardsmen. She was really getting into it. Eventually they just shrugged and followed her lead.

"You think we should wake those two up?" Chie questioned, as they slowly walked out of view of their corpses.

"Nah; we're just leaving them out in the middle of the woods where wild animals may or may not try to devour their corpses. What could possibly go wrong?"

* * *

"Jesus, what took you guys so long? You find anyone?"

The three finally made it back to the main group after getting lost a couple of times trying to follow their footsteps back to where they started. Who would have thought that following Rise around would have been a bad idea? You would have thought with her navigation experience inside the television world she would have a better idea if how to navigate around the woods. Justin pulled his helmet off as he sat on a nearby log, breathing out heavily as he got some fresh air in. Goddamn was it hot in that thing. Who the hell made these things so there was no fucking insulation?

"Yeah; there were two of them on their own. Took them down, no problem." Justin choked up in between breaths. You could tell he was exhausted from the walk. The rest grimaced slightly with annoyance. Taking two down was really good, no doubt about it. But it was only two after like a half-hour period. You would have thought they would have found the main group by now. This was actually sort of getting ridiculous now. I mean, what the hell? Where WERE these people?

"…This is taking forever… Maybe they already headed ba-" Yosuke began to speak. At least he had until he was suddenly struck with a barrage of yellow paint pellets. Well it seemed they had been found after all. It just sucked that none of them had their helmets on. The team all quickly dashed for cover against the barrage of pellets. Maya outright had to drag Yosuke to cover. He was down… Well, pretending to be anyway. He was still conscious and it's not like it hurt THAT bad. Everyone pressed up against the trees for cover, providing blind fire where they could get a chance in. The other team had them pinned pretty good. So much for their stealthy approach.

"They got Yosuke!" Maya shouted to the others as she managed to take some low cover behind a nearby rock, leaning him up against it to the best of her ability. Of course; everyone already knew Yosuke was down for the count; still helped to get small status updates like that. Kanji growled from behind his cover before charging out.

"You punks think you can mess with Kanji Tatsumi!? I'll show you! I'm gonna renovate your asses!" He shouted as he charged forward, guns ablazing. He manage to take one of the other team down right off the bat, and even though he was just getting bombarded with pellets, he didn't so much as slow down. He was a fucking tank out there, and the other team knew it, given that they tried to retreat. Not without losing a few more guys in the process though. At least half of the team was down on the ground before the rest of them were out of sight, all of them writhing in pain from the bullets that had bounced off their stomachs. Everyone was more than a little surprised to peak around the corner to find the enemy team all gone and Kanji standing victoriously in the center of the battlefield, yellow paint coating damn near every inch of his body. Who would have thought Kanji would be such a huge bullet sponge.

"…I-Is it over?" Yukiko questioned timidly as she peaked around the corner. That seemed to be over way quicker than it should have been. AND she never even got to fire off her gun. Not that she really wanted to; but it would have been nice if she could help. Kanji seemed to have things covered though. He did have to lean against a nearby tree to get his bearings after all was said and done, of course, but he was still standing. The group all slowly marched out, surprised that it was all over so quickly. They still had to deal with the stragglers of the other team, but for the moment, they were safe.

"…M-Maya…" Yosuke choked up, griping his chest where the one single and not at all deadly paint pellet had hit him. "They got me good. I think I'm dying." He joked, trying to be a drama queen. The others soon turned to gather around Yosuke and Maya trying to ham it up for the audience. They weren't really sure whether or not they should be concerned or annoyed at how overly-dramatic this was.

"What?" Maya choked up, crouching down to get on eye-level. "You're going to be fine; it's just a flesh wound." Yosuke shook his head, taking in a very loud deep breathe, as if struggling to get air into his lungs. As if.

"They got me in the lung… It hurts to breathe…" He took another deep breathe, closing his eyes as he put on some crocodile tears. "I'm not going to make it. Just leave me behind. Go on without me." Justin rubbed his forehead with annoyance. This was just so fucking cheesy. I mean, yeah; he was just as guilty of 'roleplaying' today, but even then, he wasn't faking his own death on the battlefield.

"Nonsense! We're not leaving you behind! Live soldier; that's an order! You don't have my permission to die!" Maya shouted in his face, grabbing him by the wrist as though holding a dying man's hand. Yosuke took another deep breath, recoiling his head as though in pain, eyes widening as though in shock. It seemed those drama classes had actually done him some good. Now if only he got a better writer.

"Tell Teddie… He still owes me 1,000 yen." Yosuke took another deep breath, slowly closing his eyes as though drifting off too sleep. Or at least, he was until Maya slapped him. No, you read that right. Not just pretend to slap him, or shook him. Physically slapped him. And really hard too, given that Yosuke had on a slight glare as he rubbed at the red spot on his cheek. Maya grabbed Yosuke by the shirt, tugging him close to her face.

"If god wanted you dead, he wouldn't have created me!" Maya shouted in his face, tugging him back up to his feet before balancing his weight on her shoulder. Oh he could walk just fine, but it wasn't like he had a better excuse to have his arm wrapped around Maya's neck. "We're getting you out of here solider!" She shouted, positioning his weight against hers before slowly marching off with Yosuke in tow. Everyone just watched in awe as the two marched towards the enemy like that. The drama was fine around friends who actually knew they were joking; but how would complete strangers take this.

"How come we didn't do that?" Rise questioned, rubbing at her arm again. She wouldn't mind pretending to die for the shits and giggles. Looked like fun. Justin raised his eyebrow and crossed his arms. What a stupid question.

"Because we're not idiots."

"Oh, right."

* * *

"How far did these people run? They know they're supposed to be shooting us, right?"

The group had all marched after their opponents, following their footsteps as quickly as they could as they tried to catch up. They weren't making much progress though. It was like they had vanished completely off the face of the planet. Everyone came to a stop after a while. Clearly just chasing these guys wasn't helping them. They might have needed another plan. Plus; Kanji might have taken a little more of a beating than they had originally thought. He was gripping his side a little where the pellets had bounced off his rib cage. Damn that stung.

"Hit and run. Makes sense to me." Justin mused allowed. He was half right. Out of nowhere, the remaining members of the other team jumped up, aiming their guns at the Investigation team. They were severely out numbered, but they did have the jump. The group was at a disadvantage. Everyone looked around with shock and slight fear. This was not good; not in the slightest. They were expecting to be shot at any moment, but instead the three remaining members of the other team just stared for a moment.

"…Chie? That you?" A rather familiar voice spoke up after a moment. Chie and Yu recognized the voice almost immediately; though for everyone else, it helped that he dropped the gun for a moment to take his helmet off. It was Kou. Damn, they were running into all sorts of opponents out here. The others soon took their helmets off in turn; Daisuke and some girl Justin didn't know. She had short black hair, kind of like Maya; and Chie, Yukiko, and Yosuke all seemed to recognize her… She must have been a sophomore like the rest of them. What a hell of a reunion. "You're our opponent?"

"What was the giveaway?" Justin joked as the investigation team pulled off their helmets in turn. Clearly there was a halt to the hostilities. The others seemed a little surprised at who else was in the group. You would have thought they'd have recognized them all when they started shooting at them before; but alas it seemed they had been so busy running from Kanji that they didn't get a good look at anyone's face. The other three dropped their weapons for a moment; hell Daisuke out right stepped out of the bush to do daps with Justin.

"How's it hangin'?" Daisuke asked, as he finished up his little handshake with Justin. "Where the hell were you guys; we've been searching for you for ages?" Daisuke questioned. Justin couldn't help but laugh a little bit at that. Maybe whoever was running this whole paintball trip should have walled in some of the area; it was just too big of an open space to accurately track down a small group of people like that.

"Well, we had a small scout group; but the main group was right where you found us a few moments ago." Justin explained. Daisuke seemed a little confused by the prospect of a scout group; but then, they had sent one out themselves, so he really shouldn't be dismissing the idea. Clearly enough of their own people thought it was a good idea. Justin slowly scanned the faces of the three as they all made their way out of the bushes and back out into the open. He still had no idea who the girl was; though he really probably should have. "…I don't believe we've met; Justin Tylor. And you are…?" Justin questioned, extending his hand to give her a handshake. It was not returned; only a slightly annoyed stare instead.

"Uh… Yumi Ozawa? I operated the lights during your presidential campaign…?" She remarked, kind of annoyed Justin didn't even know her. Of course he hadn't known her by face; that's why he wasn't the one who had asked her. He knew who she was by name though, and he kind of felt like a dick for asking who she was now. Still; t'was nice to meet the wizard behind the curtain.

"Oh you're Yumi? Sorry; This is the first time I've seen you in person." Justin apologized. "Thanks for the help with that by the way." Yumi made a slight grunt of acknowledgement, the tension in her brow loosening as Justin at least explained why he didn't recognize her. Though hadn't he seen any of the school plays? Come on, he should have known who she was.

"I didn't know you guys were friends with Takeshi." Chie spoke up ,hands on her hips as she pondered where the hell they could have possibly met this guy. They just shook their heads though; it wasn't at all what it looked like. They were most certainly not friends.

"Oh, no. It's only us three that are together. We obviously weren't big enough to be in a team of our own, so they threw some other people in." Daisuke explained. Chie nodded with slight relief. Thank god; she didn't want Takeshi betraying these people the way he betrayed her. She was a little confused why Yumi was with them; she didn't really seem the type to hang out with jocks like Daisuke, but she figured it would be rude to ask about that and just dropped it. It's not like Daisuke wasn't a pretty cool guy off the field; same with Kou. Though Kou was a lot less out going; he was always stumbling on his words around her, so she could see how that might be a little less desirable out of a friend. "Speaking of, where are those two anyway?"

"Oh, uh… We… sorta knocked them out cold." Chie's cheeks grew slightly red as she admitted to going a little far with this whole war scenario they had been reenacting. Yumi seemed surprised in a bad way, Kou in a… kind of good way? And Daisuke just fucking laughed. He laughed at EVERYTHING. Point being, she was getting a lot of looks right about now.

"Whoa… Really? Way to go, Chie!" Kou praised her, much to her embarrassment. She didn't need support for knocking a guy out. Even if that guy was a complete doucher. "Maybe you should have been on our team; we'd be winning." By this point, Justin raised his eyebrow suspiciously. What was with all of the flattery. Seemed a bit excessive if you asked him. He bit his tounge though; he didn't want to jump to conclusions just because Kou was being a nice guy. Justin slowly looked around the woods, a sudden realization dawning upon him now that Kou had brought it up.

"Uh… Speaking of winning… Shouldn't we be shooting each other in the face with paint?" Justin mentioned. Everyone looked around for a moment, it dawning upon them that they truly did still have to finish the match; otherwise they had kind of wasted money coming here. Maya actually drew her gun and started pointing it straight at Yumi. Yosuke had to swat the gun down out of her hand; still using her as a balance for NO explicable reason. Justin was actually getting a little irritated by that; but clearly Maya knew he wasn't really hurt and was doing it anyway, so… Wait… Why was she doing it anyway?

"He's right." Daisuke shouted, the three members of his team drawing their guns again and pointing them at the investigation team; who in turn all drew their guns. It was like a Mexican stand-off, only with paint loaded rifles. Everyone was giving each other an evil eye, just waiting for someone to make a move to justify pulling the trigger. "Let's make this quick."

"You're in bad company now, kid." Justin joked, aiming his gun to hit Kou right in the chest. You'd think he'd aim it at Daisuke, what with him being closer, but no. Something about Kou was just not rubbing him the right way today, so he would be the first to die when he pulled the trigger. It was quiet for a moment, eyes darting back and forth as each side tried to decide their next move. You'd think the only move would be 'shoot until someone's left standing.'

"…Uh, guys. I don't feel so good." Kanji remarked, rubbing along his stomach as he bent over near a tree. It seemed his stomach was sore from all the places the paint pellets had bounced off of his skeleton; and everyone could tell. He took quite a few shots there. Everyone turned their attention away from their opponents for a moment to stare at Kanji as he bent over and pain. "Whoa… that sti-" Within seconds Kanji had vomited, the pain in his stomach being too much to hold in any longer.

"Nope, fuck it. I'm out." Justin declared, throwing his gun to the ground and marching off. Chie bent over to pick up the rifle on his behalf, knowing full well that he had no intention of turning back to pick up that rifle. No one could really blame him.

The others followed a similar response. How's that for a way to end a Mexican standoff?


	120. Chapter 119: August 15 -19, 2011

CHAPTER 119

August 15, 2011

* * *

"You have reached the Tylor residence; at the sound of the beep kindly fuck off… Um… Beep."

Justin was woken up by his cellphone ringing beside his bed. He had sort of expected it to be Chie bugging him about SOMETHING; it almost always was when he was woken up at this hour. Thank god it wasn't, or he might have gotten his head ripped off for telling her to fuck off. No, it was only Yosuke; and he was a-okay with pissing him off. Justin rubbed his closed eyelids slightly as he listened to the other line. Why? He didn't know; he had been planning on going back to sleep once Yosuke got off the bloody line.

_Hey, it's Yosuke. Sorry for dropping this on you all of a sudden, but can you do me a big favor?_ Justin groaned slightly. He got a bad feeling about this already, and besides; what the hell incentive would Justin have helping Yosuke out with? Wasn't that what Yu and Maya were there for? The guy must have been getting desperate if he was turning to Justin for help; which only further concerned Justin as to what it was Yosuke could possibly need assistance with.

"The shovel's in the garage; wash the blood off it when you're done." Justin remarked sarcastically, sitting up from his bed a bit. After yesterday's paintball session, was it too much to ask to get a little rest? Apparently so, given that Yosuke was the one trying to get Justin out of bed. Whatever happened to 'I'm dying, They got me in the lung, blegh.' Fucking drama queen; if they wanted to make assess out of themselves, all they had to do was ask Justin; he would have brought along his copy of Hamlet. Actually, wait, no he wouldn't. Yosuke'd probably tear out the pages or spill something on it. He didn't trust that book anywhere near Yosuke.

_What? No, you idiot!_ Yosuke scolded Justin; as if he was actually expecting a legitimate answer out of him. Justin. Being serious. Oxymoron of the decade, if not the entire century. Yosuke should have been used to Justin's sarcastic brand of humor by now, but alas, apparently not. Maybe he'd catch on if he focused his brain power away from his idiotic 'up close and personal,' plans. "Can you work at Junes from today 'til Friday?" If Justin had been wider awake, he might have started one of his coughing fits; that was the stupidest fucking thing anyone had asked him. Of course he wouldn't do that. _This was summer break, motherfucker; I ain't working for your lazy ass. Besides, isn't that what Maya's there for? Get her to do your fucking work._

"I'm hanging up now." Justin remarked, slowly going to flip his phone off so he could go back to sleep. Yosuke wasn't quite done begging yet, however. He was practically shouting as Justin went to close his phone, so much so that Justin flipped the phone back open, even if just to tell him to shut the fuck up. Yeah, hanging up the phone would do that too, but he wanted to make sure Yosuke got the message extra clear.

_I'll buy you lunch every day at work, I promise!_ Yosuke pleaded with Justin; trying to negotiate a working contract for him. He really needed help with the work, no doubt about it. He was reaching the end of his wits here. Justin tried to give Yosuke one of those 'you gotta be shittin' me,' looks through the phone. Surprisingly, however; it appears that people cannot actually see the person on the other end of an audio device. Shocking, I know.

"You're trying to buy my servitude with food from Junes? Like, seriously?" Justin remarked with sarcasm. He'd eat the stuff they served there, but it wasn't exactly tantalizing shit. It was barely edible actually; it was a wonder Chie managed to down steaks from there on a regular basis. Point being; Yosuke was being a really shitty negotiator. Justin was about to close his phone again, but it seemed Yosuke was hell bent on keeping him on the line.

_Chie'll be there!_ He shouted, trying to appeal to a different side of Justin. I mean, he'd be more willing to go to help Chie and his sister right? He saw himself as this chivalrous white knight that had to come to the girl's aid on a regular basis, right!? Well, that wasn't ENTIRELY incorrect; Justin might have been a little over… chivalrous, for lack of a more appropriate term, but even he had his limits. Chie and Maya didn't need Justin's help stocking shelves; they probably had it covered. What with Maya working there normally anyway.

"Try again."

_Alright, alright, fine! I'll pay you double what we usually pay our workers!_ Oh that had caught Justin's attention alright. Being the poor kid of the group, money was ALWAYS welcome. I mean, the people that worked at Junes probably didn't make much, but double that over the course of a week? That's a whole lotta bucks that Justin could invest into buying steaks for Chie because she kept fucking pinning him to the ground. I mean, he paid for them ANYWAY; but it was nice to do it of his own freewill. Plus Chie was fucking heavy. _Don't tell her I said that._

"Should have just said so." Justin remarked, flipping his phone close before Yosuke could get a word in edge wise, pushing himself up out of bed to grab his shit and depart.

* * *

"Why are there so many people just for the hero show…?"

The four investigation team member (and Teddie,) were all busy working in the food court. And by that I mean Teddie was working the grill, Chie was busy shouting advertisements, and Yosuke, Justin and Maya were… Well just standing there. You'd think they'd be off doing their JOBS, but apparently Yosuke was very lenient about Maya actually doing her job; and he wasn't going to risk telling Justin what to do. He helped when he needed to; let's not push it with him. Justin wiped his brow as the hot sun beat down on all of them. Holy hell it was too hot to be wearing this fucking apron.

"Children, I guess." Justin shrugged. He had no idea what the hell a hero show was, but he was sort of assuming it was like an airshow. Only with less planes and more people marching around in costumes… So basically just a parade. Still; given the name, he was going to guess this was an event more popular with children than adults. Yosuke nodded slightly; made as much sense as anything to him.

"This is soooo freakin' tiring… I'd be a zombie by now if you weren't here, Justin…" Yosuke groaned allowed. Justin was slightly caught off guard that Yosuke was thanking him for anything. I mean, didn't Yosuke sort of hate Justin's guts. And besides; he wasn't the ONLY one helping. Why wasn't he thanking Chie, or Teddie; hell, why not MAYA!? Those two were like, BFF's or something. Maya apparently seemed to pick up on that two, given the mildly annoyed glare she was giving him.

"Oh yeah, don't mention it." She joked. Yosuke's face turned red with embarrassment almost immediately, rubbing the back of his neck as he realized how that had sounded. It's just that Maya ALWAYS worked here, so he didn't think he needed to thank her for doing what she did on a daily basis anyway. That would be like thanking the toaster for toasting your bread, or the toilet for not shooting shit up into your face. You don't need to do it because that's what's expected. The three were standing there when they heard the voices of some other employees passing by; those bitchy girls always complaining to Yosuke to be precise.

"Oh hey look; it's Saki 2.0!" One of them jibed as they walked by. Maya just sighed a bit, angling her fact to the ground. She had been getting that shit ever since she got her job here; she was more than used to it by now, but it still kind of hurt. She didn't do anything to those girls, and yet they were always getting down her back. Probably because Yosuke was always working with her to make sure she understood all the shit in the electronics department. Probably looked bad in retrospect. But even if it did; was it really any of their business?

"The hell is there problem?" Justin spat out. He got what they had meant by that; he knew Yosuke totally had a thing for Saki. They thought Maya was getting special treatment just because those two were friends. And maybe it was true that she was; but that's no reason to be bitches about it. No reason to even say it, let alone right behind her back. They were purposely trying to rile Maya up. It was a good thing for them the only thing that pissed Maya off these days was jealousy; otherwise they both might have woke up with black eyes. Maya shook her head in disappointment.

"They've been like that since day one… Just… Just ignore them." Maya choked up. You could tell she wasn't exactly happy with the way they were treating her, but it's not like she could do anything about it. I mean… Yosuke could probably fire their asses, but she wasn't going to have him do that. Firstly; that would only go to prove she was getting special treatment from Yosuke, that she could pull his strings. She wouldn't let them have the satisfaction of being right. Secondly; she wasn't going to let Junes be down two workers just because those two wanted to be a bitch.

"Want me to kick their ass?" Justin suggested. That was immediately met by Yosuke and Maya waving their hands back and forth quickly trying to deter Justin.

"What? No! They're girls, man! You'll get arrested!" Yosuke shouted at Justin, kind of shocked he was even considering it. Justin raised his eyebrow in slight confusion. He didn't really get it. He did get it at one point, but it was important to note he was dating a girl that actively encourage him to try to beat the crap out of her every day. He always failed miserably as she got him in a lock on the ground, but that was beside the point. Before he would agree no one should lay a finger on a lady. Now? Chie had completely desensitized him to that one basic rule.

"Says the guy who brought weapons to the Junes." Justin countered, a slight smirk on his face. _Oh, we want to talk about doing stupid shit and getting arrested? Let's talk about YOUR antics, Yosuke! _Yosuke's eyes widened before dropping into a glare; annoyed that he was bringing that back up. It was one time! He didn't think everything through! It was a moment of weakness, dammit! Yu had already chewed him out enough for this; not to mention Justin had nailed him right in the face afterwards, he didn't need more of this shit.

"You brought weapons into Junes!?" Maya shouted with shock. Even by her standards that was a really stupid idea. And she should know a thing or two about stupid ideas. Yosuke quickly started waving his palms about, trying to get the heat off his back. He was alright with Justin thinking he was stupid; but he head to try to look smart as fuck in front of Maya. This wasn't helping with that.

"I-It was an accident! One time." Yosuke tried to cover his basis with as many excuses as he could think of. He supposed it never really struck Maya that they all had to bring their weapon into Junes at one point or another. She didn't have a weapon of her own, nor did Rise. And everyone before that had proceeded Maya joining the team. Hell; Yu, Yosuke, and Justin were really the only ones carrying real weapons. Yukiko carried a fan around for Christ's sake. And let's not even get started on the folding chair Kanji tried to bring in. Thank god he decided to stick to his fists.

And then there was the matter of Justin. He carried the magnum around with him everywhere, though the others didn't know. It was kind of hypocritical for him to bitch at Yosuke about bringing weapons into Junes when he did it every single day; but he didn't really care. Teddie had proven himself to be a little more than unreliable with things he didn't understand. The gun was one of them. He wasn't going to risk leaving even an empty magnum with Teddie. Knowing him, he'd find a replacement for the bullets and still manage to shoot his brains out. Or whatever the hell Teddie had. Maya rubbed her forehead with slight annoyance.

"How do you 'accidentally' bring a weapon into a store!?" Maya questioned after a moment. Especially big ass knives like Yosuke's. Yosuke raised his finger, as though trying to counter the point Maya had made, but failing to actually come up WITH a counterpoint. He eventually hung his head in defeat, letting out a huff of failure. She probably thought he was an idiot now too; just like the others. God dammit Justin… God. Fucking. Dammit.

"Welcome! We've got shaved ice here, with all your favorite flavors! Cheer on the heroes while enjoying a tasty snack of frosty shaved ice!" Chie shouted from her post, a wide grin on her face. She seemed enthusiastic about her job at the very least. After a moment though, her smile turned into a frown, a tired expression on her face. Her throat was hurting from shouting so much and it was hot as fuck out. She should have never agreed to this. "…Ugh, it's so hot today!" Chie shouted after a moment, leaning up against a nearby pillar. Justin soon followed her lead, leaning up next to her.

"One shaved ice please." Justin mocked her, before getting an elbow right to his rib. Apparantly it was hot enough that it was painful to stand there and shout, but not hot enough that Chie couldn't bust Justin's literal balls for busting her figurative ones. Well, she may not have got him in the balls, but his ribs were getting awfully sore from getting smacked there on a regular basis.

* * *

August 19, 2011

* * *

"Welcome, everyone! Beat the heat and eat some meat! Yakikiku! Grilled steak! Pork ginger! Chow down and restore the energy the brutal summer days have taken for you! Try our tender, delicious beef!" Chie continued to cry through the air, trying to attract customers. It was nearing the end of the group's time working at Junes; and Justin couldn't have been happier. The pay was worth it though, as Yosuke passed out everyone's paycheck. 40,000 yen for Justin and Maya respectively. This was absolutely perfect; All money that could be used to do stuff OTHER than pay the bills. Justin would have suggested going shopping if Yosuke hadn't already beaten him to the punch. It was still a little strange getting used to Maya's new look. It looked good on her, don't get him wrong; it was just… Kind of ironic.

"Man, Teddie is really dedicated, isn't he? I'm melting in this short-sleeved shirt, and he's wearing that huge costume. AND he's standing in front of the griddle. How does he do it…?" Yosuke mused allowed, turning away from his two employees to stare at Teddie in the distance. Chie had apparently given up on being the crier and decided to take a break, coming over to where Justin and Maya were sitting to take a breather. "Hey, tomorrow's the Summer Festival, remember? Meet us at the shrine tomorrow night, okay?" Yosuke ordered the two. Maya and Justin just stared at each other with a stare that suggested the two were clueless. It took a moment for Justin to really remember what was going on.

"Oh; oh right you mentioned it at the party." Justin mused allowed. Maya just continued to stare at Justin like he was nuts. Seemed Maya had forgotten she had fallen asleep again towards the end of the party; which was about when Yosuke had brought the topic up. "You were out cold when he mentioned it." Justin swiftly explained to Maya. She made a slight 'ah' sound as she nodded her head. She still had no idea what a summer festival was, but she supposed it would find out eventually.

"Oh yeah, that's right." Chie spoke up, just having been reminded of the festival herself. "Oh I still haven't started getting ready for that yet…" She mused allowed; she still had to get some yukata. All the girls had decided they were going to surprise the guys with it. Not that they weren't supposed to wear them anyway, it was sort of a tradition, but you know… Shut up, the plan would work. "Oh Maya, are you all ready for the Summer Festival?" Maya gave her a funny look.

"Get ready?"

"Uh… Summer Festival isn't a thing in America." Justin calmly explained. Chie and Yosuke looked at him like he had just grown devil horns. Not a thing in America? What in the hell is wrong with those people? Chie scratched the side of her head. This was going to be a problem if Maya had no idea what was going on. Especially since she probably didn't have yukata, nor knew how to wear it. Not that it really mattered since Chie had to get hers today… Maybe she could take Maya along while Chie tried to organize everything.

"Well… Uh… I still have to get some stuff too… Tag along, we can get everything you need in the process." Chie declared, standing up. Maya seemed a little confused, though much more bewildered when Chie grabbed her by the wrist and started dragging her way.

"Wha- hey!" She shouted trying to break free of Chie's grasp. It wasn't much use though; she was going to be part of this whether she like it or not. Justin and Yosuke just stared in the distance where the two figures slowly rounded the corner, very much confused as to what was going on. Neither of them really understood what the hell those two could possibly be preparing for.

"Women, eh?" Yosuke remarked after a while.

"What a piece of work woman is."


	121. Chapter 120: August 20, 2011

CHAPTER 120

August 20, 2011

* * *

"Funny, I remember this festival being a lot more crowded… is it because of the murders?"

The guys had all been gathered at the summer festival, waiting for the girls to show up because apparently they all decided to go to the bathroom at the exact same time or something. Seriously, where the hell were they right now? Ah well; gave Justin a chance to eat the candied apple he bought. He didn't really like apples, or fruit in general; but he did like candy and caramel, so it was alright in the end. Still, it seemed the others were getting a little impatient. I mean, they were here at the festival, just standing there like idiots. Guess they should have bought some food like Justin; then they'd have something to preoccupy themselves.

"Yeah, there ain't that many people here this year. Well, I guess you can't blame people for being scared… Haven't seen the reporters around, either. They sure are good at stirring shit up and then disappearing." Kanji mused allowed as to the matter of the small crowds. Justin couldn't really see these kinds of things being more crowded honestly; seemed like they had just the right amount. Plus, Justin highly doubted it had to do with the murders; I mean, they already made a formal statement that the murderer had been apprehended. There was nothing left to be scared of.

"Yeah, well; that's the media for you." Justin remarked snidely, pointing his candy apple at Kanji. Kanji shrugged after a moment. It really didn't matter where the media was; they were here and that's all that mattered.

"Well, it ain't so bad to have thin crowds. What IS important right now is that we go get some ikayaki!" Kanji shouted with determination. Justin had no idea with ikayaki was, but it sounded like as good a plan as any, so why the hell not? Teddie seemed to be just as enthused to grab some ikayaki; and just as confused as to what it actually was.

"Ooh, I wanna get some too! Kanji, what's ikayaki?"

"Man, they're late… Why were they meeting up at Yukiko's house in the first place?" Yosuke questioned, a grimace on his face. This was just plain annoying; what could they possibly have needed to meet up at Yukiko's house for. The festival was here, dammit. Justin raised his eyebrow slightly. It seemed people just loved to keep him out of the loop on this stuff; no one ever told him they were all meeting at Yukiko's house. He wished he had known that before wondering why every single one of them was running late. Though to be fair; he should have known something was up when Maya wandered off on the way over to the festival. It wasn't like she knew any shortcuts.

"They'll show up sooner or-" Kanji slowly started to trail off, his eyes widening, his mouth opening slightly ajar. Something had clearly distracted Kanji, though as to what, Justin hadn't the slightest clue. And rather than just look in the same direction as Kanji, he decided to wave his hand in front of Kanji's face; snapping once or twice to snap him out of his daze. Kanji didn't so much as flinch.

"Whoa, isn't that them?" Teddie suddenly remarked allowed. Oh, that's what must have caught Kanji's attention. Though why was he… Oh. Justin turned his gaze away from Kanji for only a brief moment to be met by the sight of all of the girls approaching them dressed in yukata. His jaw instantly dropped, along with the candied apple in his hand; his grip loosening to allow it to fall into a sloppy mess on the ground. Holy... Fuck.

"Sorry we took so long." Chie apologized, a wide grin on her face as they all slowly approached the guys. It was sort of hard to walk around in those things, so they had to move around slower. Her eyes slowly analyzed all of the guy's expressions, just to get a good idea of how well their 'surprise' worked. Pretty damn well apparently. You thought Justin's reaction was a little much? You should have seen Yosuke when he spotted both Maya AND Rise in yukata. Pinch him, he must be dreaming. Maya just seemed very uncomfortable at the moment; clearly not accustomed to wearing that stuff. The others weren't either, but they sure as hell had worn it more than Maya. Honestly, she kind of felt dirty walking around in this thing. It was like wearing a bathrobe out in public, only thinner; at least… that's how it felt to her.

"It took us some time to get dressed." Yukiko explained. Not that the guys were really questioning why they were running so late by this point. Justin had to forcibly press his jaw back into place using his hand, lest they get the idea that he was a pervert. He totally was for the record; just a very subtle one.

"You have to wrap towels inside, so they're not as breezy as everyone says." Rise remarked. Maya made a slight groan from where she was standing. That was probably the worst part of this entire thing. It was uncomfortable. So on top of felling like she was walking outside wearing pretty much nothing, she was physically uncomfortable with her attire as well. She got tradition and all that crap, but this just struck her as weird. She was just hoping the guys were used to this kind of stuff; then it might feel a little less awkward and a little more… well; socially acceptable.

"This is so embarrassing…" Maya whispered under her breath. Rise promptly jabbed her softly with her elbow. She had been complaining about it the entire time; she could kindly shut up right about now. Besides; appearances were everything. If she didn't act like she liked it, it kind of ruined the entire point of putting these things on. Not that Yosuke was that picky anyway; but you know how that goes.

"It's kinda hard to walk." A much tinier voice choked up. The guys shifted their view slowly down to the spot next to the girls. They hadn't even noticed Nanako was with them. Also wearing yukata if I might add. Who would have thought that Nanako would bitch about the yukata less than Maya? How does it feel to complain more than a child? Yu smiled warmly at her; was nice to see her out of the house and having fun.

"You look cute in it." Yu remarked, a grin on his face. Nanako started to blush immediately, giggling slightly.

"Nana-chan, you look so cute! I'm head over heels for you!" Teddie added on… Only… Justin, kinda sorta thought he was serious. He might have been; who even knows? It wasn't the last time he had said something really kind of… uh… pedophilic. And given how much of a perv Teddie was, that was very much concerning.

"Ooookay; slightly creepy." Justin remarked, snapping himself out of his moonstruck daze at last. He was still completely awestruck by how beautiful Chie was; but you know… pedophilia might have taken priority over him getting a little hot under the collar. Besides; it probably helped in the long run that he had control over his mind. Didn't want to say anything stupid to this beautiful goddess of the night.

"Thank you." Nanako choked up over her giggles, very much flattered by Teddie's remark. She was a little too young to understand why what he was saying was disgusting in every way. In a way, her blissful ignorance was absolutely adorable. But just you wait; five or six years from now, she's going to randomly remember this day and be like… _Holy shit, what a pedo. Why did I hang out with that guy, holy shit._

"How do we look, Senpai? Does the sight make your heart skip a beat?" Rise questioned, turning to the guys, a flirtatious expression on her face. Even Justin would admit Rise looked stunning in that; and Rise wasn't even close to Justin's type. A fact Rise seemed to be all too aware of as she tried to coax the guys out with into admitting it with a flirtatious pose of her head and sensual tone to her voice. Justin stared at Chie, then at Rise, then back to Chie again, before dropping down on one knee.

"Marry me."

"Wha-!? Cut it out!" Chie croaked loudly, her cheeks turning pink with embarrassment and flattery. Enough to make Justin fall to his knee; even if he was just being sarcastic… Damn; she must have pulled that look off nicely. Still; would have been nice if he didn't do that in front of everyone. Especially Nanako, who had actually thought Justin was serious for a moment. That could have gotten awkward fast. "Sheesh, how embarrassing…" Yosuke gave Justin a funny stare as he slowly pushed himself up from the ground, a shrug on his shoulders, before turning to see Kanji purposely turning around to face the other direction. The fuck was wrong with him?

"Kanji? What're you looking away for? Don't tell me you're ashamed to look! What are you, a monk…?" Yosuke mocked Kanji. You couldn't see his face, but you could see the slight recoil of his head to indicate he was more than a little caught off-guard by that question. He wasn't ashamed! Not at all!

"Th-That ain't it!"

"Ahaha! You're so cute, Kanji." Rise giggled, a flirtatious tone to her voice. Oh so apparantly she now had a thing for Kanji. Justin couldn't even keep up with this girl anymore. First she's pretending she's going to marry Justin; then she's got the hots for Yosuke, then she's trying to lay the moves on Kanji._ MAKE UP YOUR MIND WOMAN! YOU ONLY GET ONE!_

"Hey… Thanks for looking after her." The all too familiar voice of Dojima's uncle called out. Seemed he had been the one to bring Nanako to the festival; not the girls. Justin once again started to panic, pushing his hands into his pockets to keep a firm grasp on his cigarettes. Just in case. Dojima gave him a slightly suspicious glare before turning his attention back to the group, and of course his daughter.

"They bought me cotton candy!" Nanako shouted with cheer; satisfied with the bounty she had managed to reep from the other girls. And that was why the older kids were so cool; always buying her snacks and stuff. Who wouldn't want older friends like the investigation team? Well except maybe Justin. Or Kanji. BUT OTHER THAN THAT-

"Did they now? Alright then, you wanna go over and do the target prac-I mean game with me?" Smooth Dojima. Well, regardless, Nanako was more than happy to go target prac- I mean, gaming with Dojima. Dojima grabbed her by the hand before turning his attention over to Yu, a wide grin on his face. "I'll take care of Nanako from here. It's only a few times a year that this town gets charged up like this. You kids should go and have fun." Dojima recommended before pacing off with Nanako. Everyone waved good bye to her. Especially Teddie; who was practically jumping as he did. It was quiet for a moment after she left. And that was more than enough to encourage Teddie's terrible ideas to spout out again.

"Hmmm, a summer festival… A couple walking together at a festival… Unused to wearing it, the girl's yukata comes loose… Summer has begun." Teddie mused allowed, a very perverted tone to his voice. Everyone started to give Teddie a slight glare, very annoyed that he was already going to start this shit. Save Maya, that is, who had looked down at her own yukata._ This thing sure as hell feels loose… Oh god; please don't let that happen to me…_

"What kinda tagline is that…?" Chie questioned with irritation. Teddie soon adopted an official, stiff looking pose; as though he were some sort of general issuing an official proclamation. Mostly because he probably thought he was. Honestly, Justin wouldn't be surprised if he found Teddie in a general's hat and a cape a couple of years down the road. And maybe a Hitler moustache. MAYBE.

"We gotta go two-by-two! Raaaawr! See, I've been thinking. It's the summer, you're wearing yukata, and we're at a festival. It's just wrong for guys and girls to walk around in a huge group like this. We should couple up while we're here! It's the natural way of things!" Teddie explained his think process. It was dead silent as he finished his explanation, still standing there in that general-esque pose, eyes closed as he looked up towards the sky and his elbow raised out so that his hand was against the center of his chest. Justin was half waiting for an eagle to fly down and perch on his arm. After a moment of complete silence Kanji finally spoke up to ask what everyone was thinking.

"Wh-What the hell are you babblin' about!?"

"I'm with Teddie!" Rise spoke up. Yu had damn near choked up the cotton candy he had been eating. Justin actually got behind him, ready to do the Heimlich if it was needed. Yu was extra careful to make it clear he wasn't choking. He did NOT trust Justin to perform that maneuver in the slightest. "C'mon, Senpai… Why wear yukata in the first place? So we have memories we can remember fondly, right? So we should pair off right away!" She tried to explain her thinking process. Justin just continued to look at Rise like she was nuts. He wasn't opposed to the idea, but that seemed like some pretty strange logic.

"Rise… What a terrifying girl! You got a point, though… Good memories…" Chie spoke to herself, before turning her gaze over to Justin, cheeks pink, a smile on her face. Justin just rubbed at the back of his head. He had never been to a festival like this before; let alone with a girl. He sure as hell hoped that he wasn't going to fuck anything up. He probably would.

"I-I'm fine too. Oh, what I mean is, um… Count me in." Yukiko spoke up as well. Yu seemed a little surprised in all honesty; they didn't really do much alone by themselves… Maybe today would be different. Would be nice to get some one on one time with Yukiko for once. And with that all eyes turned to Maya, much to her disapproval and fear. _Goddammit you people, don't make me make that decision…_

"I… guess?" Maya choked up after a while, face red as the sun. Which is still orange, you idiot!

"Alright… Y-You guys decide how we'll split up." Chie choked up after a moment, turning back to the guys. Justin and Yu passed each other a glance to suggest that they were really confused. _What, you mean we're not going together by default? I thought that was sort of the point of agreeing to this._ Yosuke seemed much more pleasantly surprise. Justin was obviously going with Chie, Yu with Yukiko. That left Maya and Rise; either would be acceptable with Yosuke. Preferably Maya, of course; but walking around with a celebrity sounds fun too.

"Huh? Seriously? It's up to us? A-Alright…" Yosuke spoke up, before huddling everyone together. "Alright; so I'm guessing Justin's going with Chie, and Yu with Yukiko, right?" The two both nodded; seemed obvious to them. Yosuke quickly turned his attention over to Kanji. "Alright, so that means two of them and two of us. Got any picks Kanji?" Teddie tossed Yosuke a funny look. Justin and Yu noticed too, immediately recognizing the problem here. There were more guys than girls.

"Two guys? Aren't you missing one?" Teddie questioned with disappointment. He must have just been forgetting Kanji or something. Maybe he was just being a generous fellow and giving up his chance with a lady. Yosuke passed Teddie a confused look.

"What? Me and Kanji makes two."

"Whaaa!? You did that on purpose!" Teddie shouted, slightly angered by Yosuke's insolence. It was only just staring to dawn upon Yosuke that Teddie thought he counted. Oh that's rich. Teddie was a bear; he wasn't going to get anywhere with those girls. Better leave this to the people that could actually benefit from all of this. Kanji stared at the ground for a moment, musing to himself.

"Uhhh… Should I really do this?" Kanji thought aloud. He really didn't like any of the girls on the investigation team like that; he wasn't really going to get as into it as say Teddie was. Besides; last time he had gotten a nosebleed. No need to repeat that incident. Yosuke's mouth curved up into a smug smirk; seeing this as a great way to end the dispute before it even started.

"N-No way! I can look at 'em! It'll be a chinch, just you watch!" Kanji boasted, not taking Yosuke's shit. He had done alright on their babe hunt in Okina, right? He had no problem showing Yosuke how it was done. He'd walk the shit around with that girl, just you watch! Yosuke just shook his head though; not believing a word coming out of Kanji's mouth.

"Nah… You should bail, Kanji. It'd be best for everyone that way." Yosuke remarked plainly; he had already settled on Kanji sitting out. Nothing Kanji said to interject would change that; that much was for sure. Kanji just continued to glare at Yosuke, ready to prove just how well he would be able to put up with Rise's crap for an hour. Justin stared over his shoulders at the girls waiting for the guys to make up their mind. You would think it would be quicker, but apparently not. The girls were very much confused; especially since they already knew who Justin and Yu's choices would be. Justin waved at Chie, and Chie in turn waved awkwardly back.

"Well, I've made my decision…" Teddie finally announced. Yosuke and Kanji just shot Teddie a glare; they didn't even know if Teddie was going to be involved! "I want Chie-chan and Yuki-chan and Rise-chan and Maya-chan for my partner." Teddie listed off every single girl. Everyone's jaws dropped; especially Justin and Yu's. What the hell Teddie; those two are NOT debatable!

"That's not a decision! Dude, you're the one who said we gotta pair off in the first place!" Yosuke scolded Teddie. If he wanted to take one of the girls fine; but he wasn't going to steal Maya AND Rise away from him. One or the other Ted.

"I ain't joking here, Ted! If you try and butt in on this-" Kanji chocked up through his teeth, ready to bash Teddie's skull in at any second. Ted of course was having none of that; he could manipulate Kanji if he wanted to. He was getting his share whether Kanji liked it or not. After all; it was his dream in life to score with all of those girls. Fucking pervert.

"That's right, Kanji! This is serious business! And you're a true man! A true man wouldn't be prancing around with other girls at a place like this! Kanji! This is a test to see if you can uphold your status as a true man!" Teddie exclaimed. Justin wasn't even sure whether not he should be pissed. Teddie knew how Kanji got about this kind of stuff; and yet here he was trying to manipulate the guy with it. And the sad part? It worked. Poor Kanji.

"Y-Yeah… You're right! Thanks, Teddie! You said it. Okay, count me out." Kanji declared, satisfied for some inexplicable reason. Why would he be happy to have been cheated out of his position? Oh right; Kanji. Not the sharpest tool in the shed, was he? Yosuke for some reason almost seemed offended that Kanji had fallen for that. If Kanji wanted out he was going to go out for his own reasons, not because of Teddie's trickery.

"Dude, come on! Don't fall for that!" Yosuke turned to Kanji, an expression of annoyance on his face. Meanwhile Teddie slowly approached the girls; perhaps deciding to take the initiative to pick his girl out since Kanji had forfeited his right.

"It's decided! I'm going with all of you!" Teddie loudly declared. That sure as hell stopped everyone dead in their tracks. Yosuke and Kanji turned away from their argument to glare at Teddie; Justin and Yu stood their jaws open. The motherfucker! Do you realize who you just screwed over?

"Huh? What's going on?"

"Oh, well, there were too many guys, so someone would have been left out… I just couldn't let that happen." Teddie spoke with a sympathetic tone of voice; trying to make this out like it was a hard decision. Not that that lasted for long. Justin ran up from behind Teddie and tapped him on the shoulder. The minute he turned around he was met by an iron fist, and eventually the concrete ground below. The girls weren't even sure what was going on at this point. Justin cleared his throat as he tried to stiffen his posture slightly.

"My apologies ladies; Teddie is not an endorsed member of the Investigation Team nor does he voice the opinions of Investigation Team incorporated. The views expressed by Teddie do not correspond with those of the Investigation Team. We apologize for the inconvenience." Justin remarked, stepping over the now bruised Teddie on the ground. He wasn't unconscious, but he was down for the moment. He slowly extended his elbow as he approached Chie, allowing her to wrap her arm around his, should she so choose. "Right this way ma'am." She blushed slightly before wrapping her arm around his, entangling the two together. Yu and Yukiko slowly followed Justin and Chie's lead, gripping each other by the arm. That left Yosuke and Kanji still pondering. After a moment Yosuke slowly approached the two remaining girls, extending his arm out.

"Care to join me, madam?" Yosuke remarked, making a slight bow to Maya. Her face turned redder than a tomato almost instantly. He had picked her? But- Wha- Wasn't Rise still there? She could have swore he had a thing for her. She slowly looked around the group, cheeks red hot with fear, embarrassment, and perhaps something more. She didn't know what to do. At least, until Rise jabbed her in the side to get her attention.

"Come on, go on…" Rise whispered in Maya's ear. Now Maya was just really fucking confused. Rise was always flirting with Yosuke, and vice versa. When the hell did Maya get mixed into the middle of all of this. Still; if Rise was giving Maya her permission, then perhaps… Perhaps there WASN'T something between those two. A small grin started to form around the cracks of Maya's mouth.

"S-Sure." She remarked, extending her arm out to wrap it around Yosuke's arm. Yosuke was actually a little surprised that had worked; but then, it was probably only peer pressure doing it to her. Kanji nodded slightly, approaching Rise as Maya and Yosuke finished hooking arms together.

"Guess that leaves us." Kanji sighed slightly.

"Well gee, don't sound so happy about it!"

* * *

"Yesterday I wished you'd come to the festival with me. I can't believe it came true."

Chie had insisted the two make a stop at the shrine to make a wish or something. Probably was good luck during the Summer Festival or something. Chie seemed to believe there was some magic behind this place after all. Justin smiled at her a bit as the two slowly approached the shrine. Sometimes wishes do come true; even the stupid ones like that. Like he wouldn't come to the festival with her without Chie making a wish on a star. There's nothing he would have rather been doing today. Nothing he wouldn't do for her.

"Hey, what are you going to wish for?" Chie questioned as they stopped at the shrine. Justin immediately took an upright position, making a slight salute.

"World domination." He exclaimed with a straight face. Chie gave him a light shove, much to his amusement. The two chuckled for a moment before Justin looked back down at the shrine offertory box. He rubbed his chin for a moment… What was there to wish for really. He had all he ever really wanted right here. Friends, love, the power to beat the hell out of people's inner demons… He couldn't think of much more he wanted. Except maybe to get his shadow out of his head. Oh if only the gods were that merciful. If they were, they would have saved Justin from himself ages ago. No; the gods had no plans on intervening with that. So then what could he wish for… "I guess just to be with you." Justin remarked, a smile on his face. Chie blushed. Hard.

"I… Wished for the same thing. Except I sorta added forever at the end." Chie nervously chuckled, cheeks glowing pink as her heart started to pound again. Justin's reaction was soon mimicking hers; heart racing, his cheeks burning hot as the words left her mouth. Forever was really what had done it for him. Not just; I want to be with you. I want to be with you forever. Forever… No, forever would not do. Forever was much too short. The two bowed their heads in a moment of silence, sending their wishes up to the heavens. Hopefully God would answer Justin's prayers for once in his life. When they finished, they turned back around, hand in hand as they walked back the stall coated path.

"Hey, why don't you two come over here? I've got the greatest candied apples in the world!" A stall vendor called out to the two as them walked by, stopping them mid trot. Chie seemed a little surprised by the vendor calling out to them; a little more so with Justin. You know how he got around strangers.

"He's right you know." Justin remarked, swapping his gaze from the vendor over to Chie for a moment. That candied apple he was eating was just the best thing. And he didn't even like apples. Chie frowned for a moment, scratching at the side of her head as she considered it. She had one before the girls had all grouped up to meet with the guys; she didn't want to get cavities or anything.

"I don't know… I already had one today." Chie pondered aloud. Justin had to wonder WHEN she had gotten one; but he wasn't arguing. So long as she had fun with it, right? The vendor, as all vendors tend to do, wasn't going to take no for an answer though.

"Summer Festival only comes once a year young lady. How about it? Want to share a candy apple with your boyfriend?" The vendor questioned. Justin raised his eyebrow before staring down towards his side. Yep, still holding hands. That would explain it. He probably should have let go knowing Chie wasn't a fan of people knowing this stuff in public, but really, he didn't want to. Besides; Chie didn't seem all that offended.

"H-He called you my boyfriend. But, wait… That's true." Chie pondered to herself. Justin chuckled slightly at how embarrassed she was getting over this. Or perhaps the fact that it was really just dawning on her that Justin was her boyfriend. They had been dating forever, but never, NEVER had she used the word boyfriend. Justin had used the world girlfriend once or twice, but not much. They loved each other, no doubt about it; but official titles like boyfriend and girlfriend… Kinda of felt good hearing it to be honest. "I'm not supposed to be nervous about this." Chie awkwardly chuckled. Justin shook his head a little bit before turning back over to the guy behind the counter.

"We'll take one." Justin remarked to the vendor, holding up his finger as though the vendor was incapable of putting the pieces together without explicit directions from Justin. Chie passed Justin a strange look.

"Huh? You're not getting one?" Chie questioned. Justin smiled a devilish grin, shaking his head in the process. He could be oh so sinister sometimes. Though he did have to wonder if this would work as well as say… a milkshake, or an ice cream cone.

"Yeah of course I am."

"But you only ordered- Oh. Oh!" Chie started to blush immediately, starting to get the implications. She wasn't sure how well that would work, or why they weren't just getting two, but she more than appreciate the gesture. She just hoped to god Justin wasn't going to get syliva all over the things. As if she had never gotten some of his saliva in her mouth before. Oh yes, the back of the movie theatre… They really should go back now that her ribs weren't a goddamn mess anymore.

"Here you go." The vendor remarked as he reached over to hand the candied apple over to Justin, a slight twitch of his eyebrow as though to let Justin know he was onto his little scheme. And a-okay with it to boot. This was the first time he had seen a couple share a candied apple in over fifteen years; it was a nice change of pace. Justin smiled as he grabbed hold of the apple, turning his attention towards Chie as they slowly departed.

"Let's go look around and see the other stands, too." Chie declared. Justin took a bite of the candied apple before passing it off to Chie. Somehow this idea was a lot less appetizing than it sounded it first. Romantic; not great for the stomach though. It was a moment before something in the distance caught Chie's eye, causing her to drag Justin with her by the hand. It was a wide, but low glass tank, full of fish.

"Oh hey; I remember these." Justin remarked, as Chie leaned over to peer into the tank, fascinated by the fish inside. He had to wonder why; fish really weren't that interesting. They just kind of floated around and occasionally died. Still, he found himself peering inside along with Chie after a moment. "The goldfish always died." Justin remarked; probably not a great remark in retrospect, but Chie wasn't really interested in the fish anyway. No it was something else in the tank.

"These goldfish-fishing games always have a turtle swimming around in the bottom of the tank… Is that safe? I heard in science-class that pond sliders like eating fish when they're little." Chie spoke up with slight concern for the fish. Who would have thought that Chie would have a soft spot for goldfish? Well… She did apparently. Must be because she owned a dog. Justin rubbed his chin for a moment, before turning to the vendor.

"How much for a game?"

"200 yen." Damn that was cheap. Chie looked up at Justin, confusedly. What was he going to do, try to save a goldfish from a turtle? She wasn't ENTIRELY far off; he was certainly going to save the fish from the turtle… Just not one of them. Justin rolled up his sleeve as he extended his arm out, dipping it into the bottom of the tank, careful to navigate it around the fish as he reached towards the bottom of the tank, catching the turtle in his grip. Well you can imagine the vendor's and Chie's confusion as Justin pulled the turtle out of the pond. "Uh… Haven't seen that one before." The vendor remarked sarcastically, shaking his head slightly. He supposed Justin had technically caught something so it was fine; but damn, that was unexpected. He extended his other hand before placing the turtle on his feet, holding the small turtle in the palm of his hand, extending his finger to pat it on the head.

"Hey there little guy." Justin talked to the turtle, delicately stroking its head. Strangely, the thing seemed to be enjoying it. Must have been a whole lot better than swimming in that tank all day, that's for sure. Turtles still needed dry land, right? Chie slowly stood up from the tank to get a closer look at the turtle herself. In retrospect, it was kind of cute; for an old wrinkled turtle that is. Justin was happy enough with his prize anyway. He never really wanted a turtle, but looking at it now; he wasn't sure why not. Besides; Maya would appreciate it. Wonder how she was holding out with Yosuke. He probably spelt ketchup on her by now or something.

"Wow… I can't believe you actually caught that thing." Chie remarked with awe. She would have thought it would have tried to bite him. Nope, seemed relatively content in his palm. "You going to give him a name?" Chie questioned curiously. Oh that's right; he'd need to give the thing a name, huh?

"Chie 2." Chie glared at him slightly. If that was supposed to be flattering it wasn't. Justin chuckled after a moment, content with Chie's embarrassment. "I like Donatello."

"What, you mean like the Ninja Turtle?" Chie questioned. That was an interesting way of picking out a name for your pet; no doubt about it. She was a little surprised Justin would even pick the name of a turtle from a children's cartoon (apparently Chie never read the comics or watched those kickin' rad live-action movies.) But then; it was a turtle, and Ninja Turtles were pretty high up there in turtle related content.

"Yeah, why?"

"Why not Leonardo?" Chie questioned. That's who she thought of when she thought of the Ninja Turtles anyway. Katanas were superior to a stick at the very least. Justin just sort of passed her a dirty look; like she was out of her mind.

"Because my turtle ain't no kiss-ass." Justin remarked as the two slowly paced themselves away from the tank, admiring the turtle Justin had won. At least, that's how it had started. After a moment, Chie stopped dead in her tracks, as did Justin once he realized Chie had stopped walking beside him.

"I had a lot of fun today." Chie remarked, a smile on her face. Justin in turn smiled back, though he noticed that the smile on Chie's face had slowly started to fade. Something was bothering her. It wasn't related to the turtle or the festival; just something she had been thinking about lately. She wanted Justin's opinion on something, since it kind of pertained to him too. "Um… I've been meaning to ask this, but… I talk about meat all the time, and I ate a lot today too, but… Do girls who eat a lot turn you off?" Justin had been starring at the turtle this entire time, but his eyes immediately darted up at Chie as the question left her lips.

"Of course not!" Justin shouted, wrapping his fingers around the turtle as he dropped his hand to the side for a moment, extending the other to put it on her shoulder. He couldn't even believe she was asking that after all that had went down with Maya forcing herself to puke; forcing herself not to eat. If she was even CONSIDERING holding back on eating just for him, there was going to be serious problems. "It might be a pain on my wallet sometimes, but that's just who you are Chie. I wouldn't have you any other way."

"Really? I'm so relieved!" Chie remarked, a sigh of relief on her breath. "…But I'm still gonna stop talking about meat all the time. Not everybody's as understanding as you!" Chie declared. Justin smiled faintly as he wrapped his arm around her shoulder, tugging her towards him, heads leaning against each other. He turned for only a brief second to plant a gentle kiss on her forehead. He could practically feel the heat being radiated from her cheeks. She closed her eyes for a moment, drifting way into bliss for a short moment.

"…Though if you don't mind, I guess it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks."


	122. Chapter 121: August 21, 2011

CHAPTER 121

August 21, 2011

* * *

"...OhgodJustinthisisjustthebest thingEVER!"

Maya was practically choking over her words as she observed the turtle Justin had won the day prior. It was no squirrel; but it was still pretty damn awesome if you asked her. Justin personally couldn't see the appeal. Sure, it was kind of cute for a wrinkled amphibian; but he would have gladly taken the squirrel over a turtle. Justin had only seen Chip once, when Maya had brought him along to the alleyway; he recalled it being a pretty well behaved and… Well; adorable. Real shame Maya's older brother was a huge prick. Justin never did get the full story out of Maya; but from his understanding, broken bones were involved. Poor Chip. Point being; at least the squirrel would do stuff. The turtle just kind of walked around the counter Justin had placed him on for the moment being. He still needed to go out and pick up all the stuff you need to take care of a turtle. A tank, food; the works. For the moment though; Donatello would be freely allowed to prance about in the kitchen.

"Can you believe I got this little guy from one of those goldfish fishing games?" Justin remarked, the two kneeling besides the counter to observe their new pet. He was a tad bit small for a turtle now that Justin thought about it. He had to wonder if he was going to get bigger, or if he would stay pretty small for the duration of his life. Hopefully the latter; Justin wasn't keeping a bigass turtle in his house. Not that it wouldn't be amazing to walk his turtle around like it was a dog and watch people's reactions… You know what; strike the former comment. Justin hoped to god that Turtle grew ten times his size; like that one monster from Godzilla. And by that Justin meant ALL the monsters from Godzilla.

"Oh you mean the one at the festival?" Maya questioned. Justin nodded slightly in response; he wasn't really surprised Maya had managed to find the one booth at the festival to have animals. She was like a metal detector; only instead of finding treasure, she found animals. Even if said animals were just fish. "I tried my hand at it, but uh… the fish kind of died when I caught it." Maya remarked with sadness. "The guy was really slow about getting the fish into some water. Ended up drying out… poor sod." She was getting a little teary eyed over the loss of the fish. Justin was just a little surprised the guy didn't give her a replacement after killing her fish… Perhaps Maya just refused his offer to get her another one after seeing him kill one.

"Should have went for the turtle." Justin remarked snidely, stroking Donatello's head with his index finger, the turtle nodding its head like a bobble head with pleasure. Why turtles did that, Justin would never know; but he didn't care. If anything it was one of the only qualities of a turtle found genuinely adorable. Everything else, he could take or leave. Maya shrugged. The turtle was already gone by the time she got there, actually. She most certainly would have tried to get the turtle if she could. Those things don't dry out as fast. "Speaking of the festival, how did things go between you and Yosuke?" Justin questioned with curiosity. He wanted to know what sick plan Yosuke had up his sleeve this time; there was no doubt in his mind he had one. Maya seemed a little surprised by the question, only a slight tint of red crossing her cheeks.

"Oh uh…" She stammered slightly. What she wanted to say was that her heart was beating so fast last night she swore she had been having a heart attack. What she wanted to say was that the sensation of his skin pressing up against her arm like that felt like a thousand burning suns burning through her flesh. What she wanted to say was that time felt like it had frozen still as Yosuke dragged her around the festival, arms hooked around each other's. But she didn't say any of that; it's not like Justin would understand anyway. If anything he'd just beat the shit out of Yosuke. No, instead she settled simply for "It was alright."

Alright… Al-fucking-right. That was the best she could come up with. It almost hurt to lie to herself like that. No, the word she would have used certainly began with an A; but it wasn't 'alright.' Amazing. Awesome. Awe-inspiring perhaps. They didn't even do that much; they just walked around, told a few jokes, laughed at said jokes… But then; isn't that really all that Maya had expected anyway? Isn't that all she wanted? Someone to laugh with. Sure, there was more to it than that… But this was a good first step. She just hoped that Yosuke didn't stick his leg out to trip her. _Pleased god, just let me take a few more steps…_

"Alright like, nothing went horribly wrong alright, or alright like, never again in a million years alright?" Justin scraped for information. Maya glared at him, cheeks growing hotter and hotter the more they talked about it. What did he want her to say; Yosuke was a complete asshole and broke everything he touched? Contrary to popular belief, Yosuke could be competent from time to time. If anything, he was real gentleman last night. Just like she had always imagined. But she wouldn't dare say that to Justin. She wouldn't dare say it to anyone.

"We going to keep playing twenty questions today, Bekowsky?" Maya remarked. That sure as hell shut Justin up. Chie and Justin still hadn't given up on that whole Phelps and Bekowsky thing; and while no one knew what the hell it meant, especially not Maya who had heard it far less than everyone else, it was easy to tell that Phelps was the more desirable candidate. Being Bekowsky was like an insult; at least, to Justin and Chie it was. Justin's eyes were wide with shock and disapproval.

"Not cool."

"You started it." Maya countered. Justin just shook his head as the two turned their attention back over to Donatello coming dangerously close to falling in the sink. Justin extended his hand to block the path, causing Donatello to slowly but surely turn back around. Justin had to wonder if turtles were smart enough NOT to walk off edges. He got the feeling they weren't. Maya went back to observing the turtle with child like glee in her eyes, adoring every little bob of its head I made, every painfully slow step it took. It was a wonder she didn't want to be a veterinarian when she grew up. She had long stopped having aspirations for her future; she threw that down the drain two years ago. When she did have dreams though, she wanted to be a musician. As good of a drummer as she was; she probably wouldn't get far. Talent wasn't very much appreciated in the music industry, just marketability. And let's face it; they only marketed girls one way in music these days. Maya was not on board with that.

"…How about you and Chie?" Maya questioned after a moment. If Justin was going to butt into her affairs, she had every right to butt right back into his. Though, the smile creeping across his face wasn't exactly the reaction she was expecting. She thought he would get embarrassed again, his cheeks turning bright red, or his hand rubbing feverishly at the back of his neck. No; he seemed more than content with his memory of last night. She supposed he didn't really have much to be embarrassed about in retrospect. It wasn't like with Maya and Yosuke; how neither wanted the other to know how they truly felt about each other, lest they screw things up… No, Justin was confident in the bond between him and Chie. Maya butting in to ask questions about it? All it did was remind him of a wonderful night. That didn't seem so bad to him.

"The chariest maid is prodigal enough if she unmasks her beauty to the moon." Justin remarked, his voice coming out a little too soft for Maya's comfort. It seemed he was already getting caught in the memory… At the very least he seemed happy with his memories of the prior night. There was a certain sense of longing in the tone of his voice; as though disappointed that the night was already gone. It's not like Summer Festival wasn't a yearly thing, or that he didn't see Chie on a regular basis, but still… The magic of the night wasn't something you could replace. It had come and gone; now only a distant memory in Justin's heart. And his heart seemed to beat slowly as it slipped into a trance, enthralled by its vision.

"You know; I never have any idea what you're talking about when you do that Shakespeare crap." Maya remarked, not really annoyed, but kind of bugged by Justin's quotes. She didn't like being left out of the loop, but there was a certain beauty to the words Justin spoke. Like poetry in motion, pulling the heart strings of those in its immediate radius. Now if only Justin could pull that move on Chie and NOT Maya. I mean; it's not like she was ENTIRELY against it… But come on; why'd he have to do this when she was just starting to move on. Stop being a fucking romantic Justin; it's killing me. Justin chuckled a bit, shaking his head slightly.

"Oh don't you start sweet cheeks; I don't think I need to remind you of that comic you used to read all the time." Maya's eyes immediately widened. Yeah, there was a brief period of time where she would quote stuff out of Watchmen, but honest, it wasn't intentional. Still, she was sort of seeing the hypocrisy here; both of them having been quoting lines from literature they read on a regular basis. Of course; the comic held a little more sentimental value to her than Justin's copy of Hamlet did. Yeah, sure; he had gotten it from his usually drunk father… But he hated his father, so that really don't go a long way. Unless he was keeping it as proof that his father had a heart.

"T-That's beside the point! At least that made sense!" Maya cut him off, stammering slightly as she tried to get the heat off of her. Seemed the tables had been flipped awfully quickly. Before Maya was the torturer; now Justin was the executioner. Justin smirked a bit, turning his attention away from Donatello for a moment to take advantage of Maya's embarrassment.

"Don't you get it Maya? I'm not locked in here with you. You're locked in here with me!" Justin remarked snidely. The comment kind of lost its meaning given that he hadn't actually read the comic and quoted the movie instead; kind of missing the point of teasing Maya for being obsessed with a book. Of course; the line was in the comic too, but Maya knew for a fact Justin had never read it, nor did he have any interest in reading it. No seriously; he had outright said that once when Maya quoted it one time. Said he was completely turned off from the book just because she wouldn't shut up about it. But apparently not turned off enough to not see the movie, you filthy blasphemer. Don't worry though; Maya made sure to smack Justin for that little douchey remark. He just didn't get it. Point was; she knew damn well that he was quoting based on the movie; and that in and of itself... That pissed her off a bit. Maybe because she didn't like the movie adaption; maybe because she didn't like that Justin liked the movie adaption. Whatever the reason, it seemed to have pissed Maya off quite a bit. She quickly pressed her hands against her ears, closing her eyes as if throwing a childish tantrum.

"LALALA, NOT LISTENING!" She shouted, trying to block out the sound of Justin's voice. Justin just chuckled a bit; it was always good fun making her squirm a little bit, and sometimes it was just too easy. Justin still didn't get why she read that comic as much as she did if she was so ashamed at having read it. A guilty pleasure perhaps? No; she wouldn't have made it as clear that she read it as she did if that was the case. She wouldn't talk about it with Justin or take go with him to the movies to see it. No, there was something else behind that; Justin just didn't know what.

"My sister's afraid of me… I've seen her true face." Justin smirked. Maya just slammed her fist down on the counter besides her, causing Donatello to jump up slightly. Justin laughed slightly, waving his arms back and forth in a dismissive, yet defensive fashion. "Alright, alright; I'm sorry. I'll stop." Justin apologized. Maya sighed, a sense of slight relief washing over her; she wasn't in the mood to play these games with Justin. She would NEVER be in the mood to play THAT game with Justin. It was a sore subject. Sure, Justin didn't know that, but she was going to hold him against it anyway. Why? Because it was Justin, and he'd probably still tease her about it regardless of whether or not he understood the implications. It was quiet for a moment, each of them trapped in their own thoughts.

"So…" Maya spoke up after a moment, breaking the silence. "Why Donatello?" Maya questioned, curious behind the logic behind Justin's pick. She got the whole Ninja Turtle connection; she was fine with that. It made sense. She just had to wonder why DONATELLO. I mean, you'd think Justin would pick Raphael, what with both of them being hardasses with anger issues. That or Casey Jones. But wait, you might be saying; Casey Jones wasn't a turtle. Well, see the explanation is quite simple: Fuck you, Casey Jones is awesome, that's why.

"Because Purple is a manly color." Justin remarked with only slight sarcasm. Maya gave him that look as though to say 'yeah yeah very funny; shut up and tell me already.' Justin expected that much though; he almost ALWAYS got that look from SOMEONE. He supposed he was better suited to telling jokes in groups for that very reason. Less likely for EVERYONE to give him that look than for one person to laugh. "Plus; he wasn't as obnoxious as the others." Justin answered seriously after a moment. The purple mask thing was a bit of a factor in all honesty; but really, Justin just preferred Donatello to the other turtles. Maya nodded a bit as she reached out to grasp the turtle in the palm of her hand, stroking his shell softly. As if Donatello could even feel that.

"He's a cute little guy." Maya remarked, smiling as the turtle reached its head out to try and tap the tip of her finger. Justin smiled a bit as he watched Maya play around with the turtle. He was happy she was enjoying the new family pet; because god knows the only reason he grabbed it in the first place was to make Chie feel better about the fish being trapped in there with a turtle. I mean, he had no problems owning a turtle, in fact, it was kinda cool; but he didn't know ANYTHING about owning a pet. Maya did. So it was good that she was enjoying the family pet; because in actuality it was more like her pet now.

She just didn't know it yet.


	123. Chapter 122: August 22, 2011

CHAPTER 122

August 22, 2011

* * *

"We really need to stop meeting like this."

Justin had been walking about Junes, checking out the back of a game he had bought with the money he got from working at Junes last week, when he walked straight into Adachi. Again. At this point Adachi had completely tied the sensation of bumping into someone with Justin though; it wasn't even offensive or painful anymore. It was like a handshake almost; just with a lot more bodies being bumped into each other and a lot less everything that made a handshake a handshake. Adachi smiled at Justin, who was nervously dropping his purchase back into his bag, face red with embarrassment. It was getting to a point now where it was just embarrassing to run into Adachi because he ALWAYS collided with him from not paying attention.

"You sure have a lot of time on your hands. I feel like I keep seeing you around." Adachi remarked with a grin. Justin shrugged, wrapping the grip of the plastic bag around his knuckles so that the bag wouldn't open. It wasn't like Adachi wasn't going to see Justin around in a small town like this; especially since it seemed any time Justin wasn't paying attention, Adachi was there. And since he very rarely paid attention… "But I guess that's what it's like for a high schooler. Enjoy it while you can."

"While I can? When do I stop? Hell, when did YOU stop?" Justin joked, noticing once again that Adachi was just slacking off in Junes. Adachi's eyes widened for a moment before he reached up to rub the back of his neck. Was it really THAT obvious? I mean; yeah, he kind of was slacking off every time he had bumped into Justin prior, but that didn't mean he was ALWAYS slacking off. Just a majority of the time; honest! He could work when he wanted to; he just never wanted to. But then; he supposed that was kind of the point.

"I wouldn't put it that way. Taking breathers is part of the job. It's all about efficiency." Adachi tried to justify his laziness. Justin continued to chuckle to himself, amused by Adachi's laziness. He supposed he had a point; even though that point really didn't apply to Adachi. Breaks were good for rejuvenating the stamina and the mind. Of course, when you take more breaks than you actually work, that's not exactly 'efficient,' now was it?

"Kind of like exercising." Justin remarked. You know; since you had to take breaks for water and breathing and all that crap. Adachi smiled slightly, more than pleased that someone was seeing where he was coming from. It was exactly like exercising. Especially since Adachi didn't exercise; so it was just like work!

"See, you get it!" Adachi remarked cheerfully. "Everyone needs a rest from time to time. And today, that old woman hasn't found me yet…" He continued, slight excitement in his voice. This might be the first day in a long long time that he had managed to evade that elderly woman. Strangely; you'd think he'd know her name by now, but no. He was always much too busy trying to run away to get it. He stood their smiling with pride, until his grin slowly faded to an expression of horror, eyes wide with terror. He had to open his damn mouth; for there in the distance was none other than the woman in question. He quickly ran behind Justin again, hoping to use him as cover. Justin just ruled his eyes in turn; he was used to being a human shield by this point. Which might have been a little concerning now that he thought of it. Point was; he understood what Adachi was trying to do right now, and he had no intention of giving away his location. Justin and Adachi watched carefully as the elderly woman walked about, eyes drifting about in search of Adachi. She wasn't having much luck apparently.

"Hmm? Where did you go Tohru-chan?" The elderly woman spoke to herself as she gazed about the Junes, trying to identify Adachi in the crowd. Justin could actually feel Adachi crouching over in that 'Shiiiiiiiiiiit' motion, his back hunching over slightly. And he knew he was doing that because he managed to bump his spine into Justin's in the process. Seemed that elderly woman had seen him at some point and only lost track of him. And that was not good in the slightest. It meant Adachi might have zero chance of hiding if she wanted to be persistent. Plus… Adachi was taller than Justin; so Justin could only provide so much cover.

"Oh, geez, not again… Did she bring me more nimono?" Adachi questioned out loud. He was sick and tired of the goddamned nimono, and he was sick and tired of this goddamned woman. He just wanted her to stop bothering her every god damn day. It was getting to a point now where all she was doing was searching for her. So no; he would not be coming out from behind Justin to acknowledge his existence, he would not-

"I'm right here, mother. Did you finish your shopping?"

…Well that was unexpected.

In the distance, the figure of another young man approached the elderly woman. He had slicked back black hair and a small pair of glasses. He was wearing a business suit as well; which suggested he was probably working. Or at least on the way back from work. Though that begged the question as to what she was doing in Junes. From the sounds of it, the elderly woman was his mother, which meant… Which meant this was ALSO Tohru. Adachi and Justin weren't really sure whether to be pleasantly surprised or slightly confused. This was one hell of a coincidence.

"I surely did. Let's go home. You're here for the first time in ages, I have to…" The elderly woman started to chat to her son before slowly turning back towards the exit… And in the process spotting Adachi's head peaking over Justin's. He probably should have ducked a bit in retrospect. "Oh, why hello, Detective!" Adachi's eyes widened with horror as she spotted him. He just hoped that her son's presence would encourage her to go away soon. Justin sighed as he stepped to the side so that Adachi had a clear view of the two and vice-versa. He was spotted now, so there was no use trying to keep him hidden behind his back. "Tohru-chan, this is Adachi-san. He's a police detective." The elderly woman explained to her son. Her son seemed slightly pleased by the explanation, perhaps already recognizing Adachi's name.

"Hello. I hear you've been good to my mother." Tohru remarked with slight praise. Anyone who treated his mother right was alright with him. After all; you know what they say about how a guy treats their mother. It could probably be assumed that if Adachi would do that for someone else's mother, he was probably a really good guy. Adachi rubbed at the back of his head nervously, slightly embarrassed that this was even being discussed. He didn't even do anything with this woman but run away. He wasn't a fan of being praised for something he didn't even do.

"This is Tohru, my son. He's in town to see me." The elderly woman spoke up cheerfully. Seemed it meant a lot to her for her son to pay her a visit. And really, could you blame her? It WAS her son after all. For most parents, their children meant the world to them. MOST parents. Some parents are just sadistic bastards and hopefully were spending their time rotting away in hell. And unfortunately, some people would probably be joining their parents when they died. Rather unfortunate really. Though whether it was unfortunate that Justin would have to spend eternity with his father or whether because he seemed almost positive he was going straight to hell when he died was debatable. I mean; yeah, he could be a prick at times, but what had he ever really done that would deserve being sent to hell? He saved people's lives on a regular basis after all.

"Well, I'm really here for my job. I have to go back in a few days though." Tohru clearified, laughing slightly at his mother's misinterpretation of his presence here in Inaba. Not that he wasn't going to spend time with his dear old mother; but that's not what had brought him back.

"Don't make an old woman sad, dear. Though it's good to see you're working hard." The elderly woman spoke to her son with praise before turning her attention back over to Adachi and Justin. Justin didn't even understand what his role was in all of this. The elderly woman didn't even KNOW him. She just pretended he didn't exist apparently. He could have left by now if he wanted to since he wasn't really involved in this conversation… But something was holding him back. Perhaps he felt a certain obligation to Adachi, to stop him from doing this along. Perhaps he was afraid it would be rude to depart even if he wasn't involved. Whatever reason, he stood there, listening in. "Tohru-chan works at a trading company. He takes lots of business trips overseas. So young, and he's already a manager!"

"Come on, mother. We're probably getting in the way of his work. Let's go home, okay?" Tohru requested, much to Adachi's pleasure. Finally someone with the power to get this woman off of his back. He hoped Tohru enjoyed it here and decided to stay. Wouldn't that be a treat? Alas; his pleasure was immediately cut off by the elderly woman as she turned to him and made a remark that caught him completely off guard; if not scared the shit out of him.

"Alright then, I'll leave you and your son too it. I'll see you soon Adachi-san." She declared as the two walked out of the building. Adachi and Justin's eyes were wide open, their jaws a jar. Did she just call Justin Adachi's fucking son? Was Adachi even old enough to have a son Justin's age? Holy shit that was a disturbing thought. Justin and Adachi both turned their gaze to each other for a moment; long enough for Justin to mouth out 'what the fuck?' to him. It was a moment before those two left; talking about nimono or something. Adachi and Justin didn't care; this was just too fucking weird right now.

"Jesus; do I really look that old?" Adachi remarked with fear and disgust in his voice. He didn't want people thinking he was old enough to have a son; especially a son Justin's age. And that in and of itself brought up a whole lot of question. "And you don't even look a thing like me!" Adachi continued to trail off on a tangent, trying to think of all sorts of reasons that remark made no sense. Justin could think of a lot of reasons himself, but alas Adachi not looking like him wasn't one of them. Not because it wasn't true; they looked nothing alike. But rather…

"…Actually, uh… My father did kind of look like you." Justin remarked with embarrassment. A grimace slowly creped across Adachi's face. Why would Justin even say that; he was trying to reassure himself that lady was nuts, not that it was possible for people to think they were related. I mean; that was just creepy as all fuck! He had been hanging out with Justin because he seemed like a cool guy; not because they had a father-son relationship goddammit. He never signed up for this.

"Don't even say that! Just thinking about it is sending shivers down my spine." Adachi remarked, shuttering slightly. Justin gave him a slight glare in turn. Yeah, he didn't like the idea of people thinking they were related either; but he wasn't getting physically fucking sick from the thought either. I mean what was wrong with the thought of Justin being his son. Wouldn't you want a son you could relate to? If anything, Justin was probably the best candidate to be Adachi's not at all existent son. Of course; it wasn't so much the thought of Justin being his son that creeped Adachi out; it was the thought of all the responsibilities. Living alone was so liberating; you didn't have to put up with people's crap, you didn't have to work to please anyone. You just did your own thing. If he had a son, that would put a damper on his entire way of life.

"Hey, I don't like it either…" Justin remarked, trailing off slightly... Honestly? Now that Justin really took a good look at Adachi; he reminded him a LOT of his father. Well… His father before he changed for the worst. Carefree, polite, someone you could have an actual discussion with without fear of being judged. Not to mention they looked alike in a lot of way. Justin's father's cheeks were a little bonier for starters, and he had a rough five o' clock shadow, but other than that, the resemblance was… Well it was there. Plus they were both officers of the law; albeit much different divisions… Yes; Adachi reminded him a lot of his father. Justin was having a hard time deciding if that was a bad thing. He sighed after a moment. "Well I guess that's what happens when a thirty year old hangs out with a teenager on a regular basis."

"I suppose…" Adachi remarked, slightly disappointed in all of this. God knows it was going to be awkward talking with Justin now. I mean seriously; why did that elderly woman even have to say that. She just seemed to ruin everything, didn't she? The awkward tension between Adachi and Justin was soon interrupted however by very loud, angry shouting. They both immediately recognized the voice and cringed with fear. That was never a good sign.

"Adachi! So here's where you are!" Dojima shouted as he rushed up to the two. Adachi closed his eyes for a moment with fear and shame, shoulders scrunched up a bit. He opened his eyes for only a second to peak at Dojima's aggravated expression. He was expecting more shouting; but he only seemed confused by Justin's presence. "Hmm? Oh, it's you." Dojima remarked with curiosity before turning his attention back to Adachi to scold him. "Don't waste your time playing with high-school kids! Let's go!" Adachi cringed back in horror again. Oh he should have known this day would be coming soon. Justin passed a sympathetic look to Adachi, almost feeling his pain as Dojima chewed him out. He wasn't even really doing anything wrong right now; someone had approached him and he couldn't just walk away, right? "Sorry he kept you like that. Go on home." Dojima apologized to Justin; as if it was even his right to apologize for Adachi. Justin stared towards the ground for a moment before turning his attention back to Dojima.

"…It's not his fault." Dojima passed Justin a funny expression, as if he were out of his mind. What the hell did he mean not Adachi's fault. He was here, not doing work. Sounded like his fault to Dojima. "I was reporting something to him. There was a kid getting bullied outside a moment ago. Adachi here scared them off." Justin lied; trying to play Adachi off as a hero. Dojima soon turned his gaze over to Adachi, slightly irritated, as though not really believing Justin's story. And could you blame him? Bullies? Sounds like something Justin would have dealt with himself to Dojima.

"That true?" Dojima questioned, glaring at Adachi; hoping his piercing glare would get him to admit the truth. It always did. Adachi swallowed the syliva in his mouth; not really sure what to do here. Justin was doing his best to defend Adachi's honor; he couldn't just let him look like a liar in front of Dojima right? Dojima would kill him right there and then. No, he needed to risk it.

"Oh, uh… Yeah. Couple of punks outside. I took care of them though; don't worry." Adachi stammered slightly, hoping his lie would work. Given that Dojima's cold stare slowly faded away to a smile, he was going to guess yes. Thank the heavens; he didn't want to get another lecture at the office about slacking off. Even when he WAS working he got that lecture; it was ridiculous.

"Well then… Good job." Dojima remarked, slowly turning about to give Justin a nod of appreciation, and then eventually depart out the front door. Adachi huffed out a breath of relief; pleased to see their little lie had gone by without a hitch. Adachi turned his attention over to Justin a wide grin of appreciation on his face. Justin might not have known it at the time, but he pretty much had saved Adachi's neck big time.

"Thanks; you really saved my hide." Adachi thanked before marching off to follow Dojima's stead. He was on his good side right now; no need to push it by lolling behind. Justin just watched, arms crossed and a smile on his face as Adachi pushed his way through the door to and from Junes. It was quiet for a moment now that Adachi was gone, leaving Justin to his thoughts. His smile gradually started to fade, the light in his eyes starting to dim. His eyebrows drooped downwards with some emotion Justin couldn't explain. It wasn't a pleasant one, that much Justin could tell you. In fact, it was kind of sad now that he thought about it. Justin's eyes dropped to the tiles below him for a moment, deep in thought, before turning his attention back to where Adachi had walked out the door but a moment earlier.

"Son, huh?"


	124. Chapter 123: August 23, 2011

CHAPTER 123

August 23, 2011

* * *

_Mornin'! Your leg in good condition?_

It was morning, and once again Justin found himself being rudely awoken by Yosuke. Seriously; when did it suddenly become his duty to insure Justin didn't catch even a single wink of sleep? Justin groaned as he slowly pushed himself up in his bed, rubbing his eyes feverishly as he tried to wake himself up. Or perhaps just because he was rather annoyed; who even knew? All he knew was that was one hell of a question to wake someone up with. Especially when Justin's leg had been fine. I mean, who the hell calls someone up just to check on the condition of random limbs? Yosuke apparently.

"What in the fuck are you talking about now…" Justin mumbled a bit, slightly irritated, slightly confused, and one hundred percent exhausted.

_Remember how I mentioned how we should all go to the beach before? Why not go today? _Yosuke clarified only slightly. Justin still wasn't getting the whole remark about his leg; but at least he knew what Yosuke was calling him up for. It was true they had all made plans to go to the beach, and while Justin wasn't exactly thrilled about sitting in the sun and frying while the others swimmed, he supposed there was no real harm in showing up. Besides; any excuse to see Chie in her swimsuit aga- _Holy hell I'm turning into Yosuke. What the fuck is wrong with me?_

"Yeah, that really doesn't answer the whole leg thing." Justin remarked as he stood up from his bed, stretching his back out a bit. It wasn't like he could really say no to Yosuke since they had already agreed on this a while back. Seemed like he should probably get ready to get going soon.

_Well, you're using your skateboard, right?_ Yosuke questioned. Well that made a little more sense; Justin had to use his legs to skate after all. Didn't make the question any less weird; but it at least explained his thought process. Yeah; he should be good to go… Though that did bring up another question. Justin was taking his skateboard, right? What exactly was Maya going to take? The bus? He doubted the bus even went out that far. Maybe he'd just give her his skateboard and stay behind. She'd probably have a lot more fun than he would anyway.

"So uh… How exactly is Maya supposed to get there?" Justin questioned. He didn't even know why he bothered asking Yosuke that. Seemed like the answer would be pretty obvious given that this was Yosuke he was talking too. Looked like the skateboard was going to be the way to go.

_Huh? I thought she was hitching a ride with me? _Yosuke remarked. Still shooting for the 'up, close and personal plan,' apparently. Justin wasn't exactly pleased that Yosuke thought he was going to be able to get away with pulling that shit on his sister. I mean, of all the girls he could have been doing that shit with; he picked Maya. The only way Yosuke could have buried himself deeper with this plan was if he tried that shit with Chie. Justin would plant him six feet in the ground if he ever so much as thought about that, though.

"Yosuke… Do you think I'm stupid?" Justin choked up with pure anger into his cell-phone. Again; another stupid question. He most definitely did think Justin was stupid; otherwise he wouldn't have even tried to pull this shit in the first place.

_What…? I-It's not like that. _Yosuke lied horribly into the phone. _Besides, it's not like she has any other options. _He continued. He sort of had a point; the only way everyone was going to get to the beach today was if someone hitched a ride. Justin COULD give her the skateboard, but then he'd have to hitch a ride with someone. That actually wouldn't be all that bad… except it would be kind of weird if Justin was sitting in the back of the scooter and not the front. Usually it's the girl that does that, right? And it's not like Justin could drive a scooter; he didn't have a license. No, he'd have to sit in the back; no ifs ands or buts about it. And that meant he'd look like an idiot.

"…I'll just let Maya use the skateboard; you guys can go without me." Justin eventually settled on. He'd rather no body look like an idiot than him go to the beach any day of the week. Really; anything to stop Yosuke from pulling this stupid shit with the motorcycle again. Of course; Yosuke had been anticipating something along those lines. He already had a plan on how to convince Justin to come along. One single sentence was all he needed.

_Hmm? But I thought you wanted to see Chie in a swimsuit again?_

…

Okay; Yosuke might have been a complete genius. What a manipulative bastard. Justin wasn't sure what part about this scared him more though; the part where Yosuke had managed to get into Justin's mind and convince him in a single sentence, or the part where Justin had been convinced by the prospects of seeing his girlfriend in a bikini. He truly was turning into Yosuke. _Give into your feelings; you know it to be true._

_I'm not hearing a no._

"Hey, shut up." Justin growled into the phone, slightly embarrassed. Goddamn this was slowly turning into a very creepy phone call. It was quiet for a moment before Justin sighed in defeat. Who would have thought his will could be so easily shaken by a swimsuit? "Goddammit, fine. But I swear to god if you try anything funny, if I hear the slightest sound of pleasure coming out of your mouth, if I see so much as a SMILE; I will rip your fucking dick off and shove it down your throat. You hear me?" Justin threatened Yosuke over the phone. He was one hundred percent serious too.

_Already on my way. _Yeah; it was starting to look like Justin would have to go through with it. Clearly Yosuke was looking forward to it if he was already riding over here… And wait… Could you even talk on the cell-phone while riding a motorcycle? Wouldn't that fuck with your balance? Oh man; this was just getting scarier and scarier the more Justin thought about it. He sighed as he quickly flipped his phone close before throwing some clothes on: A black Ghostbusters t-shirt and his usual black jeans. He slowly walked down the stairs to find Maya was already awake, watching Donatello march around in his tank. Apparently she loved animals so much, she was losing sleep just to watch a turtle walk around.

"Having fun?" Justin questioned sarcastically. Maya didn't even speak, she just nodded a bit, very absorbed in what she was doing. Was it possible to have an addiction to animals? Because if you could, it was very possible that Maya did in fact have a problem. "…Yosuke just called; apparently we're all going to the beach today." Well that caught Maya's attention anyway, detaching her attention away from the turtle for a moment.

"Oh cool."

"You're gonna have to hitch a ride with someone though… That okay with you?" Justin questioned. Maya didn't seem at all surprised by this revelation, pushing herself up from the couch and straightening out her skirt. In all honesty, she was sort of expecting it; and not at all opposed to it. She would be more concerned if Yosuke wasn't the one who had suggested the idea. She didn't want anyone to get the idea that it was weird. It kind of was in a way; but it was her kind of weird, so she supposed it was alright in the end.

"I thought we already decided that." Maya remarked aloud. Justin just shook his head slightly; this was very concerning. If only Maya knew about Yosuke's 'up, close and personal' plan. She'd change her tune almost immediately; no doubt about it. "Now where did I put my swimsuit…" Maya murmured allowed, eyes scanning the room. All of her possessions were scattered about the living room, after-all, so it had to be here somewhere. Justin's pupils dilated in slight horror as the remark left her mouth.

"Oh don't even tell me you let Yosuke 'help' you pick one up…" Justin gagged slightly. What a horrifying thought. Maya's eyes dropped into a slight glare at the remark. So what if she did? She didn't of course; but would it really be a problem if she did? She trusted him more with that shit than she would anyone else; especially Justin. If she didn't know better, Maya would almost think Justin was jealous. Which would be kind of cool; but you know that wasn't happening anytime soon. It would just be too weird with that whole brother-sister thing going on.

"Uh, no. I can do my own shopping thank you very much." Maya remarked, walking about the living room. It was a moment before she finally found what she was looking for, holding it up for a moment to look at it before dropping it back down to her side. "Here we go; be right back." Maya declared before wandering off with her swimsuit, departing to change. Justin just hoped to god she was going to wear that under her normal clothes; because otherwise, this would be weird.

She did for the record; she came back out a couple of minutes later, still wearing her normal clothes, only with the bikini underneath. And for a while after that, it was quiet as they just sat on the couch watching out after Donatello. But eventually the silence was broken by the sound of motorcycles outside, cuing the two to be on their merry way. Justin slowly opened the door, skateboard in hand, taking a sigh as he saw the rest of the group already there with their motorcycles… And roller blades in Teddie's case. Kanji had a bike, but he supposed that was alright by comparison.

"And here comes the cavalry." Justin joked, walking up to the gang of motorcyclists. Everyone seemed excited to be on their way to the beach; and why wouldn't they be? Seemed like a hell of a way to end the summer, right? Maya slowly approached Yosuke's scooter, slightly impressed. Why? Who the hell knew? It wasn't even an impressive scooter; it was fucking orange for Christ's sake.

"Wow; nice… scooter." Maya remarked, pausing to try to find the right word for it. It definitely wasn't a motorcycle that was for sure. Yosuke smiled a little bit at Maya's fascination with his bike. They told him that pheromone stuff was bullshit. He'd like to think it was working pretty well.

"She's my pride and joy." Yosuke remarked with only slight sarcasm, trying to imitate a biker's voice. Maya giggled slightly at his horrible impression. It wasn't accurate or funny; but she supposed it was the thought that counted. "Would you care to join me for a ride, madam?" Yosuke continued, doing that stupid salesman voice he had done when Justin first met him months back. It was just as terrible now as it was done. Maya blushed slightly; seemed he was getting a little bit ahead of himself. I mean, were they leaving already? All the same; she supposed she was going to have to get on eventually anyway.

"S-Sure…" Maya remarked, cheeks completely red. "Uh… H-How does this work?" She questioned, not really sure how to begin.

"Just toss your leg over the back of the seat behind me." Yosuke instructed a wide grin on his face. Maya nodded a bit before following through, timidly lifting her leg up to throw it over the side of the bike, taking a seat behind Yosuke. You should have seen the look on Yosuke's face when he got a slight upskirt glance. Of course; since it was jeans that Maya wore under the skirt, he didn't see anything, but you know. Guys will be guys. After Maya finally took a seat behind him, he slowly turned his head around to look her in the eye. "Alright… Now just wrap your arms around my waist… Uh, so you don't fall off I mean." Yosuke blushed slightly as he instructed her; he didn't really realize how awful that sounded. Maya nodded a bit, cheeks red hot as she slowly snaked her arms around his stomach.

"L-like this?" Maya stuttered slightly; wanting to make sure she wasn't making Yosuke uncomfortable. In actuality; it was quite the contrary. They were totally right about the squeeze play shit for the record. This had to be the best idea he had ever had. It took every fiber of his being not to squeal with pleasure as her body pressed up against his back. He did smile profusely though in the process. A motion that Justin noticed. He warned Yosuke.

"Yes, perfect." Yosuke remarked, reaching up towards the front of his bike to grab a pair of sunglasses he had been wearing prior to pulling up to the house. He slowly slipped the glasses on in an attempt at trying to look like a badass. It only slightly worked. Yosuke flipped his hair back slightly before reaching down to turn on the radio. Goddamn could it BE any louder?

_Welcome to the jungle_

_We got fun 'n' games_

_We got everything you want_

_Honey we know the names_

_We are the people that can find_

_Whatever you may need _

_If you got the money honey_

_We got your disease_

"Yosuke…" Justin growled, glaring at him profusely. Yosuke had been nodding his head slightly in time to the music until Justin spoke up. When he turned to see the angered expression on Justin's face, he already knew he should be afraid. Don't so much as smile, Justin had told him. He didn't actually think Justin was serious. Yosuke stared at him with frightened eyes for only a moment, before quickly turning the key on his motorcycle and driving off. Justin quickly slammed his skateboard down and pursued.

He came pretty close to grabbing him by the neck too.

* * *

"You know… I'm starting to get nervous…"

All the guys, minus Kanji, were standing on the beach, waiting for the girls to finish getting changed. Yosuke had a slightly bruised eye from when Justin had caught up to him, but by this point, he had just shrugged it off. You could have imagined Maya's reaction, though. She wasn't too pleased; mostly because she wasn't really in on Yosuke's twisted, perverted plan. Regardless; they all stood there in their swimsuits (minus Justin, of course,) waiting for the girls. Yosuke was getting a little frantic and uneasy.

"We're at the ocean. Which means swimsuits. Which means, Risette live and in person! What are the ramifications here…? Am I using up my lifetime supply of luck with this?" Yosuke mused frantically out loud, less than modest thoughts coursing through his mind. Of course; while he was looking forward to Rise in a swimsuit as well, he was more looking forward to Maya. He just wouldn't dare to say it out loud after this morning. His eye was still a little sore; but hey, at least he still had his dick. He'd count that as a victory in its own right. Justin passed Yosuke a glare of disappointment.

"Have you learned NOTHING since this morning?" Justin questioned. He should have known by now that ogling the girls the way he was did not ever end well for him. Yosuke sighed slightly. He learned that Justin was not worth pissing off, and that's about it. He missed the days when Chie was the one to beat the shit out of him. At least he had always known where she was going to try and plant her foot; at least he knew to wear a cup. You never knew with Justin.

"I gues-… Whoa…" Yosuke cut himself off, jaw dropping in the process. Justin was going to take that as the girls approaching in the distance. And sure enough; he was right. The girls soon approached them from across the horizon; most of them sort of flustered to find the guys still standing there in the sand. The only ones not really embarrassed were Rise (which was sort of to be expected,) and Maya… Though that changed once she caught a glance of Yosuke. Subsequently, most of the guys on the sand's jaws hung slightly ajar as the girls approached them; the singular exception being Justin. But then, he did make a slight sign of the cross on his chest to thank God; his cheeks red hot as he spotted Chie in all of her beauty.

"H-How come you guys are here? You should be in the water!" Chie stuttered a bit with embarrassment. This was the exact same thing that had gotten the guys kicked over a waterfall months ago; were they REALLY going to try risking it again? Plus, let's face it: Chie could be really self-conscious about her appearances at times; especially when it came to wearing a swimsuit. The same could probably be said of Yukiko. Maya… not so much. It was just her heart pounding that had made her want to shrink away from the sight of the object of her affections. And Rise might as well have been a stripper with the way she tried to strut her stuff around all the time.

"Oh, were you waiting for us?" Rise questioned, slight flattery in her voice. Or perhaps just egotism; Justin wouldn't put it beside a person so into themselves and their appearances as Rise to just take any opportunity to delude themselves into believing she was being ogled by the guys.

"Dude, that's just insane…!" Yosuke remarked, eyes wide with pleasure as he eyed the girls. He was keeping his head aimed at Rise, but he was very subtly trying to make side glances at Maya. For the most part it went unnoticed. Except for by Maya; who had been carefully observing his expression. Every time his eyes darted over to her for a short moment, her cheeks grew redder and redder. Any redder and you might have thought she had sunburn already. She did sunburn easily after all thanks to her pale skin. "Summer…is…awesome!"

"Hey… were you checking me out Senpai?" Rise tried to play dumb and innocent in an attempt at being flirtatious again. Of course, while Rise was enjoying the exposure, the other girls weren't so much. Yukiko's face was bright red at this point. Hell, almost everyone's faces were red. Made you wonder whether going to the beach was such a good idea if all they were going to do was get flustered.

"Um, can we get going into the water…?" Yukiko pleaded slightly, trying to hide her body from the world. If there was a downside to going to the beach, it was that you suddenly became some sort of sex object to be ogled by the boys. Let's face it; all of the guys were looking at at least one of the girls. Save Kanji, but that's because he wasn't present. And honestly; Justin doubted he'd really stare at them anyway.

"Chie-chan, Rise-chan, Maya-chan, and Yuki-chan all win the Ladies of Summer competition." Teddie spoke up, infaturiated by the appearances of the four. They probably should have known bringing Teddie along would be a bad thing. Especially given the floatie he wore around his waist. Seemed he couldn't swim either; which was understandable since it appeared there was little water in the television world. And if you're wondering why Justin couldn't do the same thing, the reason was simple: He didn't want to look like an idiot. And no, he had no intention of learning to swim today, or anytime for that matter. Which is a shame, because that's a really useful skill to have. "I'm surrounded by such beautiful mermaids. I feel like this could be my chance for a summer romance…"

"Beastiallity is illegal in most state. I'm going to assume the same applies here." Justin remarked snidely. Besides, let's face it; who would Teddie even think he had a chance of scoring with. Chie and Yukiko were already in relationships, and Maya already had her eye on Yosuke. The most he was going to be able to get was Rise; and let's get real: it was far more likely for Rise to screw Kanji than it was Teddie. And that was saying something. And speaking of the devil…

"…Where's Kanji?" Rise questioned after a moment, scanning the area for any sign of him. Everyone was here except for him, so where the hell was this guy. It was true that he was taking forever to get changed; had to have been one hell of a bathing suit if it took him that long to pull his pants down.

"I bet he's still worn out. Riding all that way on a bike really did a number on him." Yosuke considered aloud. It seemed like the best explanation for why he was moving like molasses going uphill in the middle of January… with crutches. Not that they really needed to ponder for very long, as it seemed Yukiko was able to make out his figure approaching them in the distance.

"Oh, here he comes." Yukiko announced, poking her head above the others to get a better view. Indeed it was him. The guys turned around to greet him, only to be greeted themselves by Kanji and his… interesting choice in swimsuit. A speedo to be precise. That might have explained why he was taking so long. Most every single person at the beach turned red with embarrassment; hell, Yukiko outright looked away, trying to avert her gaze from the strange sight in front of her. The only one who didn't really seem all that embarrassed by all of this was Maya; who didn't really see the problem. Even Justin found himself slightly flabbergasted by his choice in apparel. But as always, he figured the best way to deal with this kind of situation was awkward humor and sarcasm.

"HEL-lo!" Justin remarked loudly, eyes wide as they dropped down to his crotch area. "And you all laughed at me for wanting to see Kanji's swimsuit." Justin felt his head jolt forward as Chie knocked him across the backside of his head. She knew he was joking, but that whole 'being gay for Kanji' shit was really annoying. _You have a girlfriend, asshole; if you're going to make those jokes, don't do it in front of me!_

"Dude… What is that!?" Yosuke shouted, completely and utterly horrified. Did Kanji have no common decency, or did he really just not get it? He couldn't be THIS clueless, right? Turns out; yes, yes in fact he was that clueless. He didn't even get what everyone was freaking out about.

"What's what?"

"Your swimsuit! What else would I mean!?" Yosuke shouted, every fiber of his being shouting out with disgust and anger. Why was he so angered by Kanji's choice in swimwear? Could just be his homophobia speaking again, could be something else. Justin sure as hell didn't know. All he knew was he might have been over-reacting just a tad much. Yeah, his swimsuit was a little… awkward, for lack of a better word; but it was covering his junk, and that was good enough, right?

"It's your basic black." Kanji remarked, still not really getting why Yosuke was freaking out. It's not the color or lack of pattern; it's the lack of fucking everything.

"I'm not talking about the color! I mean… I mean… the whole thing!" Yosuke stammered; tripping over his words as he tried to explain to the rather clueless Kanji. This better have been part of his grand plan to try and get the girls to see his junk, because otherwise, there was going to be a serious problem. And even if it was; did he really have to subjugate the guys to it too? Well, the guys besides Justin. He seemed into it for some inexplicable reason. "I'm seeing things I never needed to see!"

"You're the only one sayin' stuff like that!" Kanji suddenly snapped, perhaps just starting to get the implications. Of course; even though Yosuke was the only one saying that, it was certainly going through everyone's minds. Again, save Maya and MAYBE Justin. He was certainly thinking it, but he was putting an… interesting spin on his thoughts. One that most of the others were less than comfortable with. Kanji still didn't get it though; which might have been for the best. If he did, he'd probably rip Justin's spine out.

"Don't act like you're not egging me on!" Yosuke shouted back with fury. Yeah, he was the only one saying something, but Kanji was really pushing it. Rise looked around the group for a moment, a slight expression of confusion on her face. Something was bothering her about all of this; something she had heard a while back.

"Wait, Kanji. How come you're not getting a nosebleed over me?" Rise questioned, much to the confusion of everyone else. She had heard at the school camping trip Kanji had gotten a nosebleed when he saw Chie and Yuikiko in their swimsuits. Of course, the truth of the matter was just that Chie had kicked him so fucking hard that he was still bleeding the next day. Not that anyone really knew that besides from Kanji, of course. Still, a strange question indeed. Kanji of course, knowing the real reason he got a nose bleed, didn't get why he would be getting a nosebleed over Rise.

"Huh? Why would that happen?"

"What!?" Rise shouted pure anger going through her body. Apparently not being attractive enough to give Kanji a nosebleed was offensive to her. The ultimate insult; a fate worse than death. Justin didn't really get what she was getting so worked up over anyway. Last he checked those two hated each other's guts. Unless love was in the air the night of the festival or some shit. It probably wasn't; at least, not for those two. It was for everyone that was actually with someone they liked, but Rise and Kanji didn't like each other, so boom.

"I'm surprised they can get this worked up over just some swimsuits." Chie mused aloud as Rise, Yosuke, and Kanji suddenly burst out into a war over his swimsuit; insults and jabs being thrown every which way. If Justin had some popcorn, he'd probably be eating it right now as he watched with enthusiasm. Drama was what he lived for. Well, amongst other things; but it was up there on the list.

"Geeze, they're hopeless . I'm gonna go ahead and jump in the water! Chie-chan, Yuki-chan, Maya-chan! Let's be mermaids!" Teddie declared, before quickly turning about and darting for the water, screaming his head off with excitement the entire way there. For some reason Chie wasn't too pleased with that. Like it was a race to see who can get in the water first, but she had entirely missed the starting gun.

"Hey, he went in first! C'mon you three. Let's go!" Chie ordered everyone to rush in after Teddie. Everyone that wasn't Rise, Kanji, Yosuke, or Justin that is. Felt kind of odd not even having the invitation outstretched to him, but Justin supposed it wasn't like he could join them if he wanted to. What with him not having a bathing suit and all. He'd have to either go in fully clothed or in his underwear if he wanted to jump in. Both shitty ideas for different reasons.

"Hopeless? Said the kettle to the pot." Justin remarked snidely.

* * *

"Found a vending machine."

Yosuke, Yu, and Maya had all jumped out of the water for a moment in search of something to drink. It was pretty hot out, so it was kind of understandable that the heat was clouding their navigation skills in search of the machine. Though really, they really could have just asked Justin to point them to it; what with him having nothing better to do than sit in the sand and drink Cola. That and make sand castles, but he made sure to destroy the evidence before the others were in viewing distance of his masterpiece. No one would ever know what kind of master sand-architect he was; it shall be forever buried in the sands below, a secret to all.

"I'll go buy drinks. You guys want a soda?" Yosuke questioned. Yu nodded with acceptance while Maya denied his generous offer. Justin just snidely took a sip of the cola already in his hands, as though to say 'I don't know Yosuke, you tell me. Do you think I need another soda?' Yosuke smiled at the group, taking a step forward to depart for the vending machine, when he was stopped dead in his tracks by a screech coming from Yukiko. Everyone turned around quickly, though nowhere near as quickly as Yu, who was prepared to dive into the water like he was David Hasselhoff or something.

"My string's getting undone!" Rise shouted, jumping a bit in the water. Yosuke's eyes widened a little bit with anticipation. Holy shit; a wardrobe malfunction! This very well might be the best summer of his young life. He thought he might have had a heart attack for a brief moment.

"Hey! Teddie! Watch the hands pal!" Chie shouted. Seemed it wasn't so much an accident as it was Teddie perving it up again. The look on Justin's face went from one of indifference to one of pure anger. He was going to literally rip the stuffing out of Teddie now. It was one thing to just be a creep around his girlfriend, it was one thing to undress her with his eyes. It was a WHOLE 'nother thing LITERALLY trying to undress her. Oh he wasn't just going to kill him. He was going to kill him, dedicate his life to learning how to resurrect the dead, bring him back to life, and then fucking kill him again!

"Aww, don't be so stingy! I think we're due for a 'wardrobe malfunction'…" Teddie explained. Justin out right tried to dart for the waters to kill Teddie. Of course, while Yosuke wouldn't object to that normally, it was no secret Justin couldn't swim. He'd kill Ted, and then what? Sink like a stone? Kind of anti-productive don't you think? No, he could kill Ted later. For the moment though, letting him dive in would just be hazardous, if not stupid. Yu and Yosuke grabbed him by the arms as he tried to dig his feet through the sand, pushing his way to the shore.

"I'm gonna fucking kill him, Yu!" Justin shouted, the grip on his wrists becoming harder and harder to maintain as he struggled. Yu had to hand it to him; when Justin wanted to kill someone, he was dedicated. Why, he'd make the perfect serial killer!

…

That wasn't as flattering as he thought it sounded at first.

"Suddenly I'm glad I got out of the water." Maya remarked aloud, watching with slight disgust as Teddie tried to cop a feel on the girls… And failed horribly. Although, her musings on the matter were soon interrupted by another scream. Kanji's to be more precise. Justin stopped trying to break out of his grip for a moment, struck by a sudden wave of curiosity. _Did Teddie seriously just…?_ Within moments, the figure of Kanji made its way out of the water, holding Teddie in his arm like he was a piece of luggage. Either Teddie was lightweight, or Kanji was one strong ass motherfucker.

"Got you, you bastard!" Kanji scolded Teddie as he dragged him out to shore, a defeated expression on his face. This just worked out for everyone; now Justin could snap Teddie's fucking neck without drowning. Kanji slowly began to walk towards the group, Teddie in tow under his arm, his limbs limp as they hung down. He wasn't struggling to break free, that was for sure.

"Busted…"

"Hey, senpai! This stupid bear here…" Kanji started as he slowly progressed his way to the four of them. Probably not a good idea. Because as he slowly started to approach them, a horrifying revelation was thrown upon them. The wardrobe malfunction was entirely Kanji's; his crotch barren of anything that resembled a swimsuit. A wave of horror swept over all the guy's faces. Maya just sort of stared, with wide eyes. Like she was so disgusted she couldn't avert her eyes. She just sort of made that 'uh' sound as she stared. Justin raised his arm up to shield her eyes for her, much to her gratitude. You'd think Maya would have been freaking out, but it seemed she wasn't too offended by looking at some guy's junk. Kind of concerning when you thought about it.

"H-Hey, hey, HEY! Not cool!" Yosuek shouted, turning around to shield his eyes from the sight of Kanji's junk just sort of… flopping about. How the hell did he not feel that? Seriously; he couldn't feel that shit dangling about? It wasn't even like he was lacking down there, so he couldn't even say he didn't notice the difference… And now Justin wanted to slap himself for think about the size of Kanji's junk. But I mean, let's be honest; what else COULD you think about when this sort of shit happened? It was almost automatic, if kind of disgusting. All Justin knew was he felt sort of… inferior. Let's leave it at that.

"You listenin', Senpai?" Kanji spoke up, still not really noticing his lack of a swimsuit. You know; you had to wonder why Teddie hadn't notice yet, what with his head RIGHT FUCKING THERE! I mean for Christ's sake, with the way that thing was dangling it was a wonder it hadn't smacked him upside the head yet. Hell, maybe it did. Good luck washing that one off Ted.

"Wait. Hold it, time out!" Yosuke shouted, cutting Kanji off before they started playing another game of twenty questions. Way he figured it, the best way to explain something to Kanji was 'show, don't tell.' "Uh… -L-Look down."

"Down?" Kanji questioned. It was a moment before he actually looked down; Teddie doing the same. They both jumped back in horror as the saw his junk just hanging down like that; or at least as much as he could in Teddie's case. He was certainly freaked out at the very least; and for good reason. He didn't even know he lost his speedo; so he had no fucking idea where it was now. Which meant… OH SHIT! "Holy shit, the wardrobe malfunction was mine!" Kanji shouted, trying to cover up his crotch to the best of his ability using Teddie as a shield. You can imagine Teddie was doing his damndest to try and avoid this.

"What are you doing!? You need to cover up down there, dammit!" Yosuke barked at Kanji, begging him to hide his junk. For the women and children you see. Not that Maya hadn't gotten a good glance of it; so he's already scarred 25% of the girls at the beach so far. I mean, she wasn't exactly mortified or anything, just very confused, if not somewhat interested in a bizarre, kind of disgusting way. She didn't WANT to see his dick, mind you; but once you see something like that, it's kind of hard to just avert your eyes and pretend it's not there. Like a double-take, only far worse.

"I give up, I give up!" Teddie shouted as he squirmed around trying to break free. Kanji just sort of smacked him with his freehand, trying to get him to stop struggling. He didn't like it any more than Teddie did, but it was a necessary evil. Besides, if he just kept his eyes closed; it would all just go by like nothing happened.

"Hey, quit squirmin'! You run off and I'm toast!"

"But if I don't run off my dignity will be in ruins!" Teddie tried to plead with Kanji. Apparently his reputation was much more valuable than Kanji's was.

"Trust me Ted, your dignity was in ruins the moment you tried to force a wardrobe malfunction." Maya remarked sarcastically from behind Justin's hand shielding her eyes. She probably could have shielded it herself by this point, but whatever. Less strain on her arms as far as she was concerned. Plus, there was always going to be that urge to take another glance; and that in turn would just lead to her staring again. She didn't need people getting the wrong idea.

"Why don't we take a break." Yukiko's voice suddenly spoke up from the waters they had all been lurking about for a while. One hell of a time to decide to take a break apparently! Everyone jumped back a little bit with fear. Perfect; now they needed to find a way to shield Kanji's junk AND they had a time limit. It had started to occur to Justin that the guys were all forever cursed by God. And Maya by extension, apparently. Not that she would be the one to get shit for this. Unless people thought she was somehow responsible for Kanji being trunkless, in which case there was going to be a HUGE problem.

"I need to put on more sunscreen."

"They're getting out of the water!" Yosuke shouted frantically; shit was about to hit the ceiling unless they found a way to hide Kanji's indecency from the girls. "I'll go look for something! Sit tight!" Yosuke ordered the orders before running off in search of anything that could cover Kanji's pelvis. Anything at all would really due at this moment. That left Maya, Justin, and Yu to try and deal with this mess while Yosuke searched for something to cover him up. Yu passed a glance at the girls swimming towards shore, than back to Kanji, rubbing his chin slightly.

"You're a man, let them dangle." He remarked after a moment. Justin in turn had to take the hand he was using to cover Maya's eyes to slap Yu upside the back of his head. And that in turn lead to Maya starring back down at Kanji's crotch again. She was trying not to look; she really was. Honest. Yu just rubbed the back of his head as Justin glared at him. What was he nuts? Was he TRYING to get them all completely murdered!? Yeah, that might have been a funny joke if they weren't all going to be dead in a few seconds!

"Hell yeah! A man should… Nah, that's pushing it. I'd be in some serious shit!" Kanji remarked, suddenly realizing Yu's remark was actually really fucking stupid. This wasn't Greece or anything like that after all; you couldn't just walk around with your junk hanging out. And given the look that Maya was giving his uh… crotch; it probably wasn't such a good idea. Seriously, why was she doing that anyway? He got it; his dick was hanging out. No need to keep looking at it.

"I can hear the harps…" Teddie murmered, a sorrowful tone to his voice. It seemed he believed this to be the end. And no one could really blame him. Well actually they could since this was all his fault to begin with. What the hell was he doing tugging at Kanji's crotch anyway? Was he NOT looking at whose strings he was tugging!?

"Stay with us, Ted!"

"Alright! Kanji, I found something!" Yosuke called out as he came dashing back with his solution… seaweed. No I'm not shitting you. Seaweed. He literally thought about covering Kanji up with seaweed. Why not a towel or some of the pants the guys had been wearing before changing into their bathing suit? It wasn't all that far from where they were standing, seemed like that was the obvious solution. Though panic did cause people to not really think straight, so Justin could kind of understand why this was the best he could think of.

"Wait, that's seaweed!" Kanji objected immediately. That was not going to cover his junk at all, it was much to b-

…

Shut up, Justin was totally not comparing his junk to Kanji's again. He was just saying the seaweed didn't offer much in the ways of coverage. Yeah that's it; no self-confidence issues at all. None whatsoever. Point was; seaweed wasn't going to cover his junk unless he had a really small dick like-

…

Shut up.

"Oh, there they are. Senpai!" Rise called out to the group as the girls finally made it to shore. They were heading straight for them, much to their despair. Everyone started looking around frantically, save Yosuke who was still trying to thrust the seaweed in Kanji's face so he would finally cover his junk up. He wasn't taking it though; even Teddie was better coverage than that. Maybe he could just hide behind a rock somewhere though. Justin bit his lip, shaking his leg as he nervously tried to stimulate thought. It took a moment but he finally got something.

"Son of a- Here quick!" Justin remarked, pulling his shirt off and tossing it over to Kanji. Yosuke and Yu passed Justin a slight expression of surprise as they saw what he had been hiding underneath his shirt. Turned out he was actually pretty scrawny. You could actually kind of see his rib cages. It wasn't bad, like anorexic bad, but you could tell he might have been a little too thin. Probably didn't help that he never exercised, so he had little to no muscle mass. Maya didn't really react; it's not like she had never seen him without a shirt before. She DID live with him after all, and it's not like he always waited until he had finished throwing his shirt on before leaving his room. Kanji was just completely confused by that; how was his SHIRT going to help if he didn't have PANTS. "Just tie at around your crotch like a loincloth… And then kindly burn it when you get the chance."

"They're coming! Just hide it!" Yosuke pleaded with Kanji, who was about to object to Justin's hastily thrown together plan. Kanji scanned the expressions of everyone gathered around him, trying to see if this was really the best idea. No one had any objections. He sighed in slight defeat before dropping Teddie to the ground and hastily wrapping Justin's shirt around his crotch area. Hid his junk perfectly, thankfully enough. And just in time as the girls finally showed up.

"Hey guys, how's it…" Chie started to speak as they all approached the guys. That is, until she noticed that Justin wasn't wearing a shirt anymore. She just sort of paused for a moment, taking in the sight. She wasn't really sure what to think about this…

5/10. Not too bad, but certainly not going to make her swoon anytime soon. Good thing she loved Justin as a person and not because of his looks, because the scrawny, somewhat bony chest he hid underneath his shirt wasn't exactly a deal sealer. At least it wasn't hard to look at; it was just sort of average… She did have to wonder why she was judging him on that though; wasn't judging people based on their physical appearances what had cause her so much grief in school? Nah, Justin might not have been hot; but he was a good person. And she loved him for that. That was more than enough.

Plus he still had a pretty cute face.

"Uh… Why are you not wearing a shirt?" Chie questioned after a moment. Justin raised his eyes to the sun for a moment, trying to jumpstart his train of thought. Who would have thought that the very thing he was starring at would be the answer?

"It's hot, we're at the beach. I took it off. Why?" Justin remarked. Technically; up until a moment ago, he was the ONLY guy still wearing a shirt. So it shouldn't have come as a surprise to her. She shrugged slightly; that seemed like a fair enough excuse… Until she noticed the sleeves coming back down the back of Kanji's bathing suit. That just brought up even more questions… And a whole lot of anger. She swapped her gaze over to Kanji's swimsuit for only a moment, then back to Justin, a deep glare on his face.

"Uh huh; and why is Kanji wearing your shirt around his crotch." Oh shit; this was not happening! The guys (and Maya) all exchanged panicked looks, trying to figure out what was going on. Justin rubbed the back of his neck nervously for a moment, trying to think of an excuse. And then it dawned upon him. He quickly turned his attention over to Kanji, a glare on his face.

"You're doing what? Why are you- Ugh!" Justin shuttered a little bit. "Who the fuck told you could wrap my shirt around your junk!? That's disgusting!" Justin tried to put on a show for the audience, give everyone the impression that he was just finding out about this for the first time. It seemed to be working, too. Kanji was about to open his mouth to give Justin shit back for shouting at him when he was only doing what he was told, but then Justin gave him that 'shut up and play along' motion with his head.

"W-Wait, this is your shirt!? Shit, man; I thought I grabbed a towel!" Kanji remarked. That was… a bit of a far stretch. The girls all passed each other a suspicious glance before turning their attention back to Kanji. They were finding that hard to believe; but they couldn't think of any other explanation. Unless he lost his swim trunks or something, but come on. What were the odds of THAT happening? "Here, you can have it-"

"Dude, I don't want it back after it's being wrapped around your dick! Jesus man; think before you act." Justin countered. Kanji hung his head in fake shame, pretending to be embarrassed by the 'confusion.' The girls passed each other a funny glance before looking back at Kanji.

"Oooookay then… We're uh… We'll just be going now." Chie remarked, eyebrow raised in confusion, before they all turned about to go back to what they were doing. "What was all that about?" Chie questioned Yukiko. Everyone in the shoreline party sighed with relief as the girls marched away. Although it came at the cost of Justin's shirt, it was a crisis they had just averted. They won a bitter battle.

"Oh thank god…" Yosuke sighed aloud, head leaning back as he sighed into the sky above him. Justin stood there, still shirtless and feeling very awkward as the breeze blew against his back. Despite how hot it was out there, he couldn't help but feel a shiver creep down his spine. He just felt kind of dirty standing there in the half-nude. Probably didn't help that Chie kind of gave him a strange look when she saw him shirtless. He knew he wasn't exactly the most physically attractive guy out there; but boy did that do a number to his self-esteem. It was quiet for a moment as Justin stood there, arms wrapped around himself as he tried to cover up the best he could.

"So… I just realized I have to skate back home like this." Justin remarked with disappointment. Now the whole world could just stare at him as he went by in the buff. Faith was a cruel mistress sometimes.

"Huh? You can just have this back you kno-"

"I'm serious about you burning that."

"I know you are.

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTES**

**MUSIC**

**Welcome to the Jungle - Guns and Roses**


	125. Chapter 124: August 24, 2011

CHAPTER 124

August 24, 2011

* * *

_I did my time and I want out_

_So effusive - fade - it doesn't cut_

_The soul is not so vibrant_

_The reckoning, the sickening_

_Packaging subversion_

_Pseudo sacrosanct perversion_

_Go drill your deserts, go dig your graves_

_Then fill your mouth with all the money you will save_

_Sinking in, getting smaller again_

_I'm done! It has begun! I'm not the only one!_

Justin, Maya, and Chie had all been hanging around Justin's house playing Rock Band; mostly because Maya had the day off, it was raining out and they had nothing better to do. Justin was on Guitar, of course, Maya on drums, and Chie on bass. Chie never did play music games though, so she was faltering behind quite a bit. But that's okay, because Justin had secretly thrown No Fail mode on, anticipating that happening. Justin and Maya, of course, were having no problem keeping up to the notes on screen, hitting every beat thrown their way.

Maya and Justin seemed to be having a ball frantically keeping up in time with the music. Especially Maya, who had been tossing her head back and forth as she slammed her drumsticks against the plastic drums in front of her. It was sort of hard for her not to with how fast she had to pound those drums in time to the music. But you could tell she was enjoying it all the same. Justin eventually found himself following in Maya's footsteps, tossing his head back and forth in time to the chorus.

Chie, on the other hand, was having a hard time really getting into it. Maybe it was just because she was really bad at the game; missing damn near every note. Kind of disheartening when she played a REAL bass and not the plastic one Justin had tossed in her hands. Maybe it was just that she wasn't a fan of screamo; which was sort of ironic because she listened to System of a Down. Still; wasn't really the same kind of screamo as Slipknot; that was sure. Whatever the reason, she didn't really find herself having as much fun as Maya and Justin were. All she knew was she was picking the next song; because apparently she couldn't trust Justin's taste in music for even a second.

_And the reign will kill us all..._

_Throw ourselves against the wall_

_But no one else can see_

_The preservation of the martyr in me_

_Psychosocial! Psychosocial! Psychosocial!_

_Psychosocial! Psychosocial! Psychosocial!_

It went on like this for a while, with Justin's fingers clicking away at the buttons on his controller frantically and Maya pounding away at those drums like her life depended on it. You could have imagined the relief that swept over Chie as the song finally ended, happy to stop hearing that screaming pounding in her ears. Probably didn't help that Justin decided to scream along when the singer shouted 'psychosocial.' Apparently Justin could either hit high notes, or make himself sound like a demon out of hell. And that's about the extent of his singing abilities. Not sure if that was concerning or not. If anything it meant he'd be perfect for an Iron Maiden tribute band. Or ANY screamo band for that matter.

Regardless, the result came up after a moment. Justin and Maya got a perfect score, surprising no one. Chie hit an outstanding 13% of the notes. She must have been the goddess of the bass with a score like that! Chie sighed with defeat, taking a seat on the couch as she observed how awfully she did. This was apparently not the game for her. Justin soon plopped his ass on the couch, shaking his now sore arm slightly as though to cool it down. Maya had been sitting to use the drums, but she eventually stood up from the stool she had placed near the drums and made her way to the couch to join the others, pushing her bangs back in place in the process. They kind of went all over the place when she was head banging. That pin she kept in her hair wasn't as useful as you would think it was.

"I don't get how you guys do this." Chie remarked as they stared at the still screen recounting their triumphs (and failures,) throughout the course of the song. Maybe she just wasn't used to the controller yet, maybe she was just bad, but she couldn't understand how Maya and Justin had excelled so much at this game that they were getting perfect scores. Maybe understandable for Maya, since real drums work pretty much exactly the same way as the plastic ones; less so Justin. The plastic controller worked nothing like a real guitar or a real bass. It was just awkward to Chie. Justin shrugged a bit.

"Just a lot of practice. We were pretty shit at this game when we first started too." Justin remarked, trying to cheer her up. Of course; in the process he had pretty much just called Chie shit at the game, so that kind of counter acted everything. Not that she was really offended; she was sort of thinking the same thing anyway. Didn't do wonders for her self-esteem though. It was quiet for a moment, as everyone tried to gather their energy again, the sound of rain drops patting against the roof echoing throughout the house. Chie was half-surprised she wasn't getting calls from her father asking where the hell she was. Not that she was complaining; that was great news. It meant she could go five minutes without her father breathing down her neck. Plus; you know how her father got about Justin. It was probably for the best that he was left in the dark on the matter.

"Can we do Rammstein next?" Maya questioned after taking a deep breath, an excited smile on her face. She seemed to be having a ball. Chie passed her a slight glare; not very content with those two picking the music. For all she knew this was going to be hardcore death metal. She wasn't TOO far off for the record. Justin just seemed very pleased with Maya's song selection though, a smile creeping across his face, eyebrow raised with impression.

"Du hast mich." Justin remarked in German. Maya and him quickly exchanged a high-five, clearly in on something Chie was completely missing. She didn't speak German; that was apparently Yukiko's jurisdiction… And Justin now that she thought about it. Every time someone spoke something in a foreign language, it was ALWAYS Justin.

"Du what now?" Chie spoke up with puzzlement. If they were going to speak German around her, they should at least have the common decency to translate.

"Huh? Oh, right; Du hast mich means 'you've got me' in German." Justin explained to her concisely; though the explanation only seemed to anger Chie slightly. Why exactly was he saying that to Maya? Because she suggested a song he liked? That's kind of… uh… weird. Justin picked up on her glare too, raising his palm as though to signal her not to bite his head off just yet. There was a perfectly reasonable explanation, he'd have you know. "It's from the song." Chie's brow loosened only slightly at the explanation. Well at least it seemed he was just trying to be funny and failing miserably.

"I thought du hast mich meant 'you hate me.'" Maya questioned for a moment. Which kind of begged the question why she would high-five Justin after that remark. Maybe just because he knew what song she was taking about. Given that she strongly looked down on modern music, it was quite possible it was just that she was pleased anytime someone knew what kind of music she listened to. Now if only she could get Justin to listen to some more fucking psychedelic rock; they'd be all set. Justin shook his head in denial.

"Nein. That's du hasst mich. With two S's." Justin explained, raising his fingers as though Maya couldn't count. Believe it or not, she DID finish the seventh grade. They learned to count by that point in their schooling. Shocking, I know. Who would have known that a session of Rock Band would have been educational? Maya didn't seem to really believe Justin, though she didn't feel like arguing over it. And Chie just was confused by all the German. She swore Justin was doing that on purpose just to annoy her. There was no other explanation.

Chie was about to speak up against the proposition of playing whatever this Rammstein stuff was (after all, if it was in German, she wasn't going to get it at ALL,) when a loud rumble outside caught her off guard, causing her to jump up a bit in her seat. Seemed she wasn't a fan of thunder. Which was alright to a certain extent, because neither was Maya. They both jumped slightly in their seats, shocked by the sound of thunder just outside their window. Justin just passed them both a confused look as though they were both nuts.

"Oh jeeze, not another one." Justin mocked Chie slightly. Maya and Chie both turned their attention over away from the window for a brief moment to glare at Justin. They sure as hell weren't finding this funny. Thunder was serious business. Thunder was like the sandman waiting under your bed, just waiting for you to go to sleep before jumping out of the covers to shank you in your fucking neck. Thunder was an all present force of murder and destruction that watched from the shadows, just waiting for you to lower your guard so he could put a bullet through your skull. Thunder wouldn't stop until they were all dead. Maya and Chie knew better; they were just keeping their guard up so that they'd survive the night. Justin should have been doing the same. Who knows, maybe he'd be the first to go.

"Hey, shut up Mr. 'I'm afraid of stairs.'" Chie countered. Yeah, that sure got Justin's attention all-right, his eyes dropping into a slightly offended gaze. He'd have you know that was a perfectly reasonable fear to have after being dropped down a flight of them by the Mafia. The Mafia never tried to kill him with fucking thunder after all. Besides; thunder couldn't even hurt you; it was the lightning that did that. Stairs could get you at any fucking time, man. _Next time you trip up the stairs don't say I didn't warn you._

Within seconds, the thunder hit again; only this time, it took the power out with it. One hell of a storm apparently. Justin threw his hands up with disappointment. He wanted to play Du Hast, dammit! He sighed after a moment, turning his attention back over to his side… Well that was one hell of a sight. Apparently, when the thunder struck again, Chie and Maya had jumped up and grabbed onto the first person they could… And that just happened to be each other. Justin THOUGHT he heard a bit of a screech earlier; seemed his ears weren't playing tricks on him.

The two girls slowly peaked one of their eyes open, perhaps having it just dawn upon them who they were gripping onto, trying to hold onto dear life as the rain and the thunder barraged the household. They almost immediately jumped away from each other once they got a good look at who they were latched onto, turning their heads away from each other as though not being able to see the other would make the awkward incident erase itself from history.

"This never happened." Chie declared after a moment, cheeks hot red as she stared out the window in complete darkness. She had thought she had latched onto Justin at first; completely neglecting the fact that Maya had been sitting between them. Complete and utter fear was apparently a great way of deceiving yourself. It probably didn't help that Maya was latching onto her as well; almost like a hug, only with a lot more nails being dug into each other's clothes. She just felt awkward now. Maya cleared her throat, as though trying to force the awkwardness of the situation, in her chest, out of her system.

"No idea what you're talking about." Maya played dumb, deciding to get a head-start on the whole 'pretending this didn't just happen,' thing. Hopefully she'd forget by the end of the week. Hopefully. Justin just laughed a bit at the two awkwardly trying to avoid eye-contact, cheeks red with embarrassment. He wasn't sure what was funnier; the part where the two were holding on to each other for dear life, or the part where they refused to look at each other afterwards.

"Couple of the year." Justin poked fun at the two. That was immediately met by Maya slapping him across the face, leaving behind quite the red mark on his face. And that was immediately followed up by Chie leaning over Maya to do the same. He probably should have thought this through before poking fun at the two finding themselves in such an awkward position. _You mean joking that two of the most violent girls you know might have been into each other was a bad idea, especially when one of them is your girlfriend? Who knew?_ Justin furiously rubbed at his aching cheek, trying to numb the pain the two girls had imparted upon him. Well that's what he got for being a major douchebag, he supposed.

"I don't know Justin, I think you and Kanji might already have that title." Maya spit at him sarcastically. Justin's just raised his eyebrow with slight bewilderment. Were people actually taking him seriously on that? You'd think just the fact that Justin had a girlfriend would have confirmed that his 'flirting' with Kanji was just a joke he had been doing… But then; he supposed Tom Cruise had a girlfriend too. "Oh Kanji; you're so buff and handsome. Can't wait to see you in a swimsuit, you hunkalicious piece of man meat." Maya mocked Justin, trying to imitate his voice in a… less than flattering way. Justin just passed her a slight 'you're one to talk' glare as she shook her head and took a sip of the can of cola she had opened only a moment earlier. Apparently being half-scared to death and called a lesbian was thirst quenching.

"Says the girl who was staring at his dick." And within a second, the contents of Maya's mouth were spewed all over the table in front of her, Maya very clearly caught off-guard and disgusted by Justin's rebuttal. Chie had on an expression of puzzlement and concern. She wasn't sure if Justin was telling the truth or not, but if he was… holy shit; that was strange as fuck. Maya stared at the proud expression on Justin's face with mortified eyes for a moment, lips slightly ajar, as if she hadn't just heard that right. Once it really started to seep in that he DID just call her out on that, though; oh boy she was livid. Her horrified expression soon turned to one of pure fury and anger; the can in her hand being crushed slightly as she tried to ball her hands up into fists.

"Justin…" Maya growled a bit. Justin raised his eyebrow slightly, as though inviting her to even TRY to make a comeback from that. She didn't need a clever repertoire, though; she didn't need to counter his claim that she was staring at Kanji's junk. No, no, no. All she needed to do was make it painfully clear what she was going to do to him right now. Many things; none of them pleasant. "You have five seconds to run before I rip your fucking balls off."

Justin's proud expression stood frozen on his face for only a moment more before it slowly faded into a horrified expression. Maya was dead serious, as he was slowly starting to realize. He wasn't entirely sure if he regretted his counter; it was pretty damn well timed… But he would most certainly regret the loss of his balls. He slowly got up from the couch, hands up as he though trying to keep Maya at bay, as she followed his lead; piercing eyes laid upon him the entire way as they slowly backed him through the house and to the front door. Maya quickly opened the door, and with a single look, managed to kick Justin out of his own house, as he backed away from the safety and comfort of his home into the rain and lightning outside. Maya quickly slammed the door closed before locking it shut. She had no intention of letting him back in; no matter how much he banged and slammed on the door. She huffed out with anger as she marched back over to the couch next to Chie, arms crossed as she glared angrily at the blank screen.

"…Wait, you really…?" Chie choked up after a moment, taking Maya's rather aggressive reaction as confirmation that Justin wasn't lying. It only took a moment before Maya's intense glare was aimed at Chie; pure rage and adrenaline going through her veins. It wasn't like she was doing it on purpose; goddammit people. She was just caught off-guard is all. Besides; Justin was staring at his dick too. He had no room to talk. The worst part of it all too was that Chie had literally no context for how this had come to be, and it's not like she could just admit to Kanji losing his trunks at the beach; they had sort of been trying to AVOID the others knowing, after all. No, that wouldn't do it all; and since Maya really would have no other excuse for looking at Kanji's crotch, nothing she said would probably have made this any better. And as always, Maya stuck by her general rules of thumb when it came to arguing or deflecting blame: anytime you're backed into a corner, threaten someone.

"You want to join him outside?"

"I'll shut up now."

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTES**

**MUSIC**

**Psychosocial - Slipknot**


	126. Chapter 125: August 25, 2011

CHAPTER 125

August 25, 2011

* * *

"Swear to god; I was standing out in the rain for a good few hours."

Yu and Justin were sitting on a park bench near the flood plain, just sitting there and talking about random shit that didn't really matter. Justin was shivering slightly, sneezing ever so slightly. Even though all of this had gone done yesterday, he still couldn't help but feel a chill going down his spine; as if the rain was still soaking ever inch of his body. You could tell he had probably caught something during his brief, but excruciating stay out in the rain; but god be damned if he was trapping himself in the house today. Not because of Maya, mind you; she had work today after all. No; he just hated being trapped in the house when it wasn't really his choice.

"I would have kicked you out too." Yu remarked only semi-humorously. He really would have kicked him out, but he was trying to put a light-hearted spin on his words so as to not offend Justin. He knew better than to get on Justin's bad side. He really should look into getting some anger management. Justin just shrugged a bit as he shuffled through his jacket in search of his smokes. He wouldn't be one to argue that he might have crossed the line a little bit with that dick remark, but come on. The timing was just too perfect; he couldn't just ignore that opportunity. He'd like to say getting shoved out into the rain was a little overkill; but he'd say it was worth it in the end. He just wondered if Maya was still pissed at him. She probably was, now that he thought about it. He did sort of pick the lock to his house to get back in, after all. Would it have killed Chie to hold that door open for a second longer when she left?

"I would have gladly kicked myself out if it wasn't raining blood out there." Justin remarked sarcastically, finally finding his pack of cigarettes and popping one out. All the while Yu, was giving him a funny look; one that Justin had noticed as he went to slip his smoke into his mouth. Was he still not over the whole smoking thing or something? Maybe he had something on his face. Maybe Dojima just decided today would be a good day to jump out while Justin was having a smoke. It wasn't any of those things; it was just the metaphor soaring right over Yu's head that had startled Yu.

"Wait, what?" Yu remarked with great curiosity and puzzlement. Seemed he had taken Justin's little remark a little too literally. Justin was only surprised that Yu had taken that comment as a fact and not just Justin trying to be snide again. I mean; it's not like it wasn't raining around him either. Last Justin checked, the rain wasn't red. _A little common sense goes a long way, Yu._

"Figure of speech, Yu." Justin sighed a bit. It wasn't LITERALLY raining blood. He just meant that it was one hell of a fucking storm. "It hit me like a gamma ray, standing in a hurricane." Justin muttered to himself, placing his cigarette between the slits of his lips before lighting it ablaze. He sort of missed the television world, if only because his Persona could do light his smoke with a flamethrower. Needlessly flashy and unnecessary? Absolutely. Amazingly cool? Damn straight it was. Justin took a drag of the smoke, holding back smoke in his lungs before forcing it back out. Yu stared at him for a moment as he sat there smoking.

"You know; you really should consider quitting." Yu spoke up after a while, slight concern in his voice. Justin turned his gaze over to Yu, eyebrow raised in confusion. For a moment he wasn't sure what Yu was talking about; but then he turned his attention back to his cigarette, and he felt like an idiot for not getting it any sooner. He sighed a bit, shaking his head before taking another puff of his cigarette, much to Yu's disapproval. It wasn't that he was still up and arms about him smoking mind you; it was just that he was concerned about his health and all. No one could deny it was bad for him; hell, Yu still caught him coughing up a lung from time to time when he smoked. So yeah, maybe it was kind of because he was uncomfortable with Justin smoking all the time; but he was uncomfortable for the right reasons.

"You say that like I haven't tried before." Justin sighed slightly, the scent of smoke slowly filling the air like… well, smoke. He had tried a couple of times to quit; but usually something or someone ended up getting him back into it. Hell, there was even a time in Inaba he had tried to stop; but with all of the shit that had been going on, he was finding himself too stressed to cut himself off. He supposed he could try to stop now; but in the end he'd just pick up the habit again anyway. And besides, it wasn't like Maya was going to quit just because he did. And if she was smoking, he was going to keep getting tempted to do it himself. Justin always did bend easily to peer preasure; or at least, the prospect of fitting in. Nothing would have pleased him more than to be one with the crowd. Perhaps that's why he took up smoking in the first place; because Maya had been doing it. He could have said no; but he didn't. He barely even hesitated.

"Maybe you just need to try a little harder." Yu continued to press him on the matter; as if hounding him were going to make him change his mind. If anything, all it was doing was pissing Justin off a little. If that was his master plan to get Justin to quit giving himself lung cancer, well Yu better rethink his strategy. Pissing Justin off was the LAST thing you wanted to do if you needed to convince him to do ANYTHING. Only once had Justin been convinced while in that state of mind; and to be fair, that WAS with Yu. That didn't mean he could do it again though. There was NO way in hell he'd be able to pull that stunt on Justin a second time.

"Try a little- Are you fucking shitting me?" Justin spat up, irritated by the proposition Yu had put on the table. Yu just sighed a little. By this point he was used to Justin giving him shit anytime he offered him advice. He supposed it was alright, given that Justin usually followed through with his advice eventually; but that didn't mean he liked Justin giving him shit beforehand. "Do you realize how hard it is to quit smoking. It's like a fucking drug- no, not like. It IS a fucking drug. I don't know if you've ever been addicted to something; but you don't just wake up in the morning and say 'Hey, I don't want to fucking do this anymore.' You don't, and you want to know why? Because you need it. You need it more than the food you eat or the air you breathe. You need it more than the water you drink or the hours you sleep. Try a little harder; what are you fucking nuts?" Justin ranted and raved on the topic of addiction. Yu was a little caught off-guard in all honesty. He got that smoking wasn't just something you quit; he wasn't quite aware of how much Justin seemed to need to depend on it. It was more valuable to him than the very essentials he needed to live. Ironic in that the smoking was probably having the opposite effect on him. Still, had Yu ever been addicted to something?

"I've been addicted to love; does that count?" Yu joked only slightly. It was true that love was rather addictive; something even Justin could get behind. Everytime he saw her face, everytime she was near, he could feel his heartbeat like a drum. And when she was gone? He felt almost empty; like there was a hole in his chest where his heart had been. It was like needing a smoke, or another fix of whatever drug it was kids these days used. You didn't just want it; you NEEDED it. You wouldn't be able to go on without it. Justin shook his head slightly, a smile slowly starting to creep across his face.

"Come on, Yu. Love is the GREATEST drug." Justin joked. The two chuckled slightly for a moment at their horrible exchange of clichés. But as all good things do; the light-hearted atmosphere slowly started to fade, and a serious one soon took its place. Smiles faded away, the sparkle in their eyes dwindled a little bit. Goddammit, why did Yu have to bring up Justin's smoking habits? He was actually having fun until he had to bust out the melodrama. For once, he'd like to have these hang-out sessions not end with Yu giving him life-advice. Yeah, it usually helped, but that didn't mean Justin enjoyed Yu constantly pointing out faults in the way Justin was living his life. Trial and error was part of the beauty of living, after all. And sure, the error always tasted especially bitter, but that only made the success taste oh so sweet by comparison. Yu holding his hand the whole way through his life was almost depriving him of the rich taste of accomplishment. Because really; it wasn't so much HIS accomplishment as it was Yu's when he was trying to guide him every step of the way.

"I'm not saying it's not going to be hard; but I think you need to do it for your health." Justin just passed Yu one of those 'quit pulling my leg' looks. It was definitely not healthy for him, but it certainly hadn't had any effects on him or his health thus far. He had ZERO motivation to quit other than it could cause problems down the road. And as they say, why do today what you can put off till tomorrow? There'd be a day when Justin walked out of the doctor's office to find he had lung cancer. And on that day he'd have nothing but regret and remorse for his stupidity as a teenager. But until then, he was going to keep smoking. Because after all; he was a teenager. And teenagers did stupid things. "If not for yourself, do it for your friends." Yu pleaded slightly.

Justin froze in place, every muscle in his body stiffening; even his ever tapping foot, fidgeting about because it had nowhere else to go. For some reason, the comment had struck rather hard at Justin's heartstrings. Why? Because even though Yu had said 'friends,' what he really meant was 'do it for her.' He was just trying to be subtle to avoid bringing Chie into things again. That's always where these conversations headed at some point. Justin wasn't sure if he was very happy about that or not; that Yu was using the power of love as a weapon against him. And the worst part was it was working; he was falling for Yu's cop out of using Chie as an excuse to get him to quit rotting his lungs out. Justin stared at his cigarette for a moment, his eyes slowly seeping into a glare.

"…Leave her out of this." Justin growled, fury powering his word like an amplifier. Yu just shook his head. He had no intention of backing down on the matter. Justin needed to know he wasn't just hurting himself when he did this stuff; he was hurting everyone that cared about him. And that included Chie; whether he liked it or not.

"What if something happened to you? How do you think she'd feel?" Yu continued, an almost soft tone to his voice. He wasn't trying to force the topic; but it was something he wanted Justin to consider. Justin sighed a bit staring at the lit cigarette in his hand. After a while he threw it down on the ground, stomping out the lit end of the cigarette. Not because he was committing to anything, mind you; but because his stomach was all twisted in knots right now. Leave it to Yu to make him feel like an asshole for fucking smoking. He did raise a valid point thought. What would Chie think if something happened to him? If he really did himself in with all this smoking? Justin didn't give the slightest fuck about his own health, his own safety… But Chie? He wanted to protect her. From what? Well everything he supposed. He didn't want to see her suffer a day in her life; she deserved better than that. And yet, with all the determination he had put into preparing himself for that moment, that one moment where he'd have to give everything to see her safe and sound, he never truly considered the consequences. No, he still didn't give a damn about himself. He only gave a damn that Chie gave a damn about him.

"…Fuck you man; just… Just fuck you." Justin whimpered slightly, something clogging his throat. He'd like to say it was sorrow or anger, or anything. In actuality it was fear. He was afraid that he wouldn't be able to truly protect Chie. He couldn't let her suffer in any way shape or form… but if he took her place? Then she'd just suffer thinking about how he was suffering… Smoking wasn't what was going to kill Justin; smoking wasn't going to hurt him or Chie. No; love was. Love was the drug that was tearing those two up. Because just by the very act of loving each other… they were hurting the other. They were hurting each time they failed, each time they saw the slightest bit of sorrow on the other's face. Love was what brought them to their knees anytime the other was hurting, unable to cope with their partner's pain. Yes, Love was quite a drug. The greatest drug? Perhaps Justin misspoke. Love was the deadliest drug. No drug would tear you apart faster than Love; not heroine, not crack, not anything. And when it tore you open and broke you down… there was no going back.

"Look, I know it's toug-"

"NO, YOU FUCKING DON'T!" Justin shouted at the top of his lungs, tears filling his glare slightly. All this thinking about Chie and love and all that bullshit was ripping his heartstrings out one by one. And it fucking hurt. He loved Chie with all his heart; and he knew she loved him back. Or at least, so she told him. He believed her; he'd never have any reason to doubt her a day of his life. After all, he loved her. But… But it was because he loved her that all of this hurt. It was because she loved him that he was so afraid. So long as she loved him; he'd never truly be able to fully protect her. Love? A selfish thought at best. He wanted her love; he loved her love. But when it came down to the matter… If Chie didn't love him… would she still suffer if he suffered for her? Would she still cry knowing Justin was crying on her behalf? Would she even care? Justin wanted her love, hell he needed it… But maybe… maybe love was the problem in the first place. Love can mend your life, but love can break your heart.

Sometimes he wondered which was worse: Being alone or being in love.

"Every fucking time we meet, Yu; every fucking time, you've got something else to say to make me feel like an asshole, you know that?" Justin raved, trying to hold back his tears. "Well you know what? I'm fucking trying; I'm fucking trying to protect the people I love. Do you know how hard that is? To constantly be worrying that you're not doing enough, or doing too much? To be afraid every goddamn day that the person you love might not be there the next? To be afraid that one day you're going to hurt them just by fucking existing!? I'm trying my fucking hardest; I don't need you giving me shit about it every day… I can do that just fine by myself." Justin's voice slowly faded, almost as though he didn't have the energy to keep giving Yu backlip. It was quiet for a moment as they sat there, Justin's head hung in sorrow in pain, horror building up in his chest. It had been a long time since Justin had actually shed a few tears; each rolling down his cheek like raindrops on a windshield. He had never been more afraid in his life than this very moment, the moment he considered just what his very life would do to others. Just by the act of existing, by being there, he could make someone happy; or he could make them cry. He didn't want that responsibility. Hell, he was sick and tired of it. Sometimes he just wanted it all to go away, like he had never existed at all. It was a moment before Justin felt some pressure on his shoulder; the pressure of Yu's hand pressing down on it as though to reassure him; to reassure him that he was there for him.

"Great here come the waterworks again." Justin choked up after a moment, mocking himself for breaking down in tears. He was probably making a bigger deal out of all of this than he had to. But he didn't care; he just didn't care anymore. He was just tired of all of this bullshit. "Tell me Yu; why is it that every time we meet like this you make me want to cry. Is that it? Do you just want to see me cry? Because I'll go home and cry in a jar for you; and you can just spend hours on hours laughing at how you made a grown man cry." Justin continued, semi-sarcastically. Yu shook his head a little, disappointed that Justin was taking this as something Yu was personally trying to force on him; as if he wanted nothing more than to see Justin break down into tears.

"Sometimes you just need to let it out." Yu explained slightly, trying to justify the tears in Justin's eyes. Like anything could really justify him crying over a girl just because they loved each other. Love was supposed to be this wonderful thing that could never be broken, right? It was supposed to be the greatest feeling in the world; hell, Justin could even attest to that. So then why did it make him want to cry? Why did it fill every fiber of his being, of his soul with sorrow in pain?

"Why does love have to hurt so much?" He sighed, wiping his eyes with his sleeves. It helped just getting it out of his system; but then, he probably wouldn't be feeling like this if Yu didn't even bring up his smoking in the first place. A small smile crept its way across Yu's face as the two sat there in complete silence, just lost in the moment. Justin honest to god didn't know why he bothered to hang out with Yu anymore these days; all that ever seemed to happen was him walking away in tears and sorrow. He knew Yu meant well but… goddamn.

"It's one hell of a drug, huh?" Yu remarked, cheerful, yet so soft at the same time. Justin sighed a little bit, trying to empty out the horrible feelings in his chest. And for a brief moment a half grin made it's way across his face, as though to laugh at the hollow shell of a man that sat in front of him. Maybe it was just his shadow mocking him; no doubt he was getting a kick out of this. Fucking lunatic.

"Nah. Drugs kill… Love just kills you slower."


	127. Chapter 126: August 26, 2011

CHAPTER 126

August 26, 2011

* * *

"I can't get this place outta my head."

Kanji and Justin were walking about the flood plain, eyes delving into the depths of the water, as though to search for treasure on its sandy floors. What were they looking for? Well Kanji had been instinctively looking for that plush toy that kid threw in the river a while back; a couple months at least. Justin? He didn't know. In fact; he had pretty much every reason to avert his gaze from the riverbank, from his reflection mocking him with those sinister golden eyes. Justin didn't even really want to be here, in all honesty. He still felt like shit after yesterday… and part of him just wanted to be alone. Alone with her. For her to tell him all his worries were just illusions he had created in his mind. For her to whisper sweet lies into his ear, and let him forget all his worries. But here he was with Kanji; ignoring the temptations of his heart. Why? Maybe he was just afraid to listen to his heart anymore than he already had.

"I keep wonderin' if that rabbit the kid tossed out mighta washed ashore around here… If he finds it now, he'll just feel bad." Kanji mused allowed, slight sympathy for the boy that he had met so long ago. It seemed like forever since he had seen that kid. He supposed that was just what happened when you helped someone. They got what they wanted, and they just left; like they had never been there in the first place. Kanji couldn't really say he was offended or hurt or anything; this was but a small child he was talking about. They really didn't know much better, and even if they did; it's not like Kanji was expecting to make a friend or anything. He was just doing him a favor. "…Not that I'm wading in today or anything." Kanji clarified slightly. The extent of his generosity in that river had reached its limits. He was not catching another cold looking for this kid's toy.

"I wouldn't worry about it. It's been at least a month since he threw that thing out. If the rushing water hasn't ripped it apart and dissolved it, it's long out in the ocean by now." Justin reasoned out loud, trying to put Kanji's concerns at ease. Nothing could be done about that toy by now. It was long gone; nothing they did was going to change it. Besides; that kid got his replacements, and he seemed more than happy with the quality of it. Justin didn't think the kid was going to feel bad about seeing the old one wash up on shore anytime soon. At most, he'd probably take it and give it back to the girl he borrowed it from. That would be the right thing to do anyway. Kanji shrugged slightly. He supposed that's probably what happened; but that didn't mean he didn't think about it from time to time. He really should get over it.

"Hey, Mister!" The two were suddenly interrupted by a slightly squeaky shouting. Speaking of the devil, her was that kid from prior. Why was he here? Who knew? All Justin knew was the look on Kanji's face when the boy called him mister again was priceless. Again; what did he expect when he bleached his hair like that? "There you are! Sana-chan was really happy! I've been looking for you ever since!" The boy shouted excitedly. Seemed like he had been searching an awful long time just to pass that news on to Kanji. Justin wasn't sure whether the child's determination was admirable or just stupid. There comes a point where you can give up trying to say thank you, you know? Same with sorry. Sometimes it's just impossible, and while it wasn't IMPOSSIBLE to thank Kanji, a month might have been excessive.

"Look, kid, quit callin'… Ah, forget it." Kanji sighed in defeat. He had told the kid a thousand times not to call him mister. If it hadn't gotten through his thick skull by this point, it wasn't going to get through any time soon. Justin chuckled slightly at Kanji's frustration, only to be met by a Kanji brand instant glare. That shit was heavy duty, that's for sure. Still; Justin wasn't one to stop what he was doing just because he was offending someone. Especially if all he was doing that was offensive was laugh. His laughter slowly died down as he waved his hand's back and forth in an apologetic manner. Kanji sighed before turning his attention back down to the wide-eyed boy, a large grin on his face.

"Can you make some more, Mister? My mom really wants one! Sana-chan's mom does too! They said they'll pay you!" The boy frantically pleaded, begging for Kanji to work his magic once again. And there was even money involved. You could practically see the dollar signs in Justin's pupils and hear the cash register ringing. As if Kanji would give him even a single cent of whatever he made off of this. And that was zero dollars. He was caught off guard that the boy even insisted on putting a price on Kanji's work. He did it to be a good person, not just so he could make some money on the side. That's something Justin would do. Kanji shook his head, eyes wide with shock and puzzlement. He wouldn't charge the boy a single cent for this stuff. And that was even assuming he was gonna make more. The boy didn't NEED more; the only incentive Kanji had now was just for the fun of it, really.

"Pay me!? I don't need that… I-it ain't like I'm a pro at this." Kanji stammered, trying to feign the little boy's attempts at trying to bribe him into making more. The boy didn't really seem to get it though; in his eyes, Kanji was just some toy-constructing god, creating plush toys with just the snap of his finger. The boy didn't really understand that Kanji had to actually put work into it for anything to get done. He couldn't just say, I feel like making a toy, and expect it to magically appear in his hands. He wasn't Santa Claus for Christ's sake.

"My mom wants a cat, and Sana-chan's mom wants a dog. And my teacher wants a pink alligator." The boy read off what MUST have been his Christmas list or something. Asking for one thing was hard enough without him making a manufacturing list for Kanji. Oh the blissfull ignorance of childhood. Justin had started the chuckle again, as though to say 'wow, sucks to be you right now Kanji,' but Kanji ended up punching him in the shoulder before he really got into full-swing. That put an end to his laughter almost immediately, replacing it instead with slight groans of pain as he rubbed at his now sore shoulder.

"A pink alligator? Ohh, like that one in that storybook, huh…?" Kanji mused aloud. Justin had no idea what story book they were talking about of course, but he wasn't all that surprised they were writing storybooks about pink alligators. Though, unless it was a story about how being different was okay, they really should have just made the alligator green. But Justin, I hear you cry, they're just children; let them live in their fantasy world. Oh sure; we start with the pink alligators, but then we move onto the green gorillas, and the purple elephants, and then where do we end up? It'd be total anarchy! Destruction and chaos around every corner. And all because you just had to let them have their pink alligator. I hope it was worth it just because you didn't want to 'crush a child's hopes and dreams.' Don't say Justin didn't warn you. "F-Fine, then… I'll get around to it sometime." Kanji sighed, promising the child something he really didn't want to do. Why? Maybe he just thought he'd feel bad if he didn't. I mean, how do you say no to a child who was laying all of their hopes upon you.

"Yay! Thank you! Remember, you promised!" The boy shouted with excitement before quickly running off. The look on Kanji's face when the kid pretty much said 'you HAVE to do it now, you have no choice'… Justin couldn't put a price on that; it was just too perfect. I think he might have had a miniature heart attack at that very moment. After a moment though, his shocked gaze gave to one of slight annoyance, and then eventually disappointment. The things he got himself into… He sighed a bit before speaking up in an aside to Justin, watching out into the horizon where the boy had run gleefully off. Most likely to tell all his friends about how Kanji was going to make him all sorts of toys.

"Strange situation I got myself into, ain't it?" Kanji remarked sarcastically out loud, biting the inside of his cheek slightly, as though to ponder. Perhaps he'd feel better about doing all of this if he didn't feel so forced into it. Sure, it was nice helping this kid out; but when it seemed as though the kid was going to hold his promise against him like some kind of binding contract… It stopped being helping a child out and more abiding by a contract lest he get sued. Yes, sued by a child; you can never be too sure these days. People sue over everything. Hell; Justin swore he had seen someone get sued over eating someone else's lunch at work. _Should have put a post-it note on it buddy; not his fault you don't know how to hide your snacks._

"Tell me Kanji, what's it like being blackmailed by a child?" Justin remarked sarcastically, giving Kanji a light shove in jest. Seemed he didn't really get the whole 'in jest' part. At least he didn't think that demanded violent retribution; just a funny stare as do to say 'dude, what the hell are you doing?' Justin smiled at Kanji for a moment, finding humor in the fact that Kanji was essentially being bribed into doing something he really didn't want to by the mere fact that he made a verbal contract with a seven year old. But then it really started to seep in that Kanji wasn't finding this funny. Hell, he actually seemed kind of upset. Why? He was doing a good thing, isn't that a reward in and of itself? "Hey man, don't look so down. You're doing a real good thing, you know that?"

"Good…? I don't really know about that." Kanji sighed slightly, kicking up some dirt with the tip of his shoes. The smile on Justin's face slowly started to fade, until he found himself mimicking Kanji's disheartened expression. He had to briefly wonder if this was what he looked like whenever Yu brought up Chie as a weapon against him. Because if so, he had to give Yu props for putting up with him while he pouted like a whiny little bitch. Not that Kanji was whining or pouting or anything like that; but you could definitely tell he was down in the dumps. And if that was enough to break Justin's spirits; he could only imagine what it was like when Justin actually WAS bitching. Must be awful. It was a moment before Kanji looked up, aiming his eyes to the sky as though lost in a daze… or perhaps rather, a memory.

"When I was in elementary school, I fixed a classmate's bag this one time. Thinking back… I guess I liked her. I only did it to make her happy, but…" Kanji paused for a moment, eyes darting about, dull and lifeless as he tried to force the memory out. Not that he really needed to anyway; Justin had a pretty good idea where this was going. Kanji was afraid of girls; or at least for a time being. And he always said he tried to keep his hobbies a secret because people thought it was weird… Yeah, Justin could certainly see some connections forming here. It didn't take an ace detective to see what the problem was going to be. "The next day, all the girls were makin' fun of us… She cried." Kanji sighed a little bit, clearly upset that this girl who he had been sweet on had been the subject of ridicule just because he had tried to patch up her backpack for her. Justin shook his head with disgust, unable to really comprehend how people managed to get off with this shit. What the hell was it about mocking and ridiculing a person till they broke down into tears that they found so amusing?

"They were picking on a girl for having someone patch up her backpack…? Jeeze, and I thought I had a shitty reason for getting bullied." Justin scoffed aloud. Kanji shrugged slightly; he still didn't really know what Justin was talking about whenever he mentioned getting bullied. Hell, he doubted that was even true. A hardass like Justin; a guy who wouldn't let you get away with so much as saying boo behind his back… Who wanted to risk picking a fight with that? Perhaps it was just that Justin figured out how to deal with those people sooner than Kanji did. The way he saw it, the best way to get people to lay off is to give them a reason to lay off. Make them afraid to cross you, lest they got their skull smashed into the concrete, you know? "So then what happened?" Justin questioned with curiosity.

"She stopped talking to me after that." Kanji remarked with sorrow. He remembered beign quite heartbroken over that. I mean, when you do something nice for that special someone, you don't expect them to just throw it back in your face, to walk off without so much as another word to you. At least; that's not what Kanji expected. "I didn't understand why, but y'know… I thought I'd done something wrong. So I never thought… I'd be thanked for doing this stuff." Kanji concluded slightly, turning his gaze back over to where the kid had walked off but a moment earlier, a smile slowly starting to creep over his face again. He chuckled lightly for a moment, almost happy that that child had come along. Even if he was pretty much blackmailing Kanji at this point. At least he was blackmailing with a smile. "It feels good. Hearin' 'thank you'… I like it!"

"Really? Always the opposite with me. Can't stand being thanked… Like… I don't want people to acknowledge I had any role in whatever it is I did. It's like… Giving someone a birthday present. It's iin your hands already, don't need to flatter me with how I shouldn't have. I shouldn't have but I did, you know?" Justin ranted slightly, his words going further and further off track. It started off with him declaring he didn't like getting thanked for stuff, and ended with Justin getting mad about birthday parties. Quite the transition in a matter of a few sentences. Kanji's eyebrow curved upwards with confusion, not really getting what Justin was trying to get at. At all.

"No. No I do not." Kanji admitted rather bluntly that he was clueless. Justin seemed a little dumbfounded that Kanji didn't know what he meant. He hated being thanked; but you know what he didn't hate? People agreeing with him. He was hoping Kanji would agree that was awkward so that he'd feel less like a weirdo. I mean, come on. He couldn't have been the ONLY guy who hated that shit. Just use the damn present; I didn't waste my time picking you out something just for you to waste MORE of my time telling me how I shouldn't have wasted my time. It was quiet for a moment between the two before Kanji spoke up again.

"Oh… Well, I gotta jet. I have to go to Okina Station. To the, uh… f-fabric shop. I'm outta material, so… L-Later!" Kanji stammered nervously, already anticipating the tremendous amount of work he was going to have to put into those plush dolls for that kid. Cotton didn't just grow on trees after all… No wait. Kinda? It grew- LOOK THAT'S BESIDE THE POINT. The point is, he needed to get more material before he could even consider working on more stuff. He gave a quick nod of his head and wave of his hand before departing, a skip to his step and a whistle on his lips. Justin watched Kanji march off for a moment before sighing and taking a seat beside the river, shuffling through his pockets for a smoke. By the time he had found one and put it through the slips in his mouth, however, he was starting to realize some of the fault in deciding to sit by the river to have his smoke.

"**Smoking again? Tsk, tsk; and here I thought you loved Chie. 'I never want to see her suffer a day in her life; fucking pity me.' Anything you'd like me to tell her at your funeral?" **The shadow in his reflection mocked. Justin stared down at his reflection in running waters for a moment, an annoyed expression on his face, before pulling the cigarette out of his mouth. He couldn't talk with a tube of tobacco shoved down his throat after all… Well he could; just not very well. And besides, didn't his shadow live inside his head? One of these days he should try just thinking and seeing if his shadow could hear his thoughts.

"You realize that if I die, you die with me right?" Justin poked holes in the shadow's logic. The shadow only seemed barely phased by the remark, though disappointed all the same. Clearly he had been looking forward to giving the eulogy at Justin's funeral. Justin could just imagine half the shit that would come out of his mouth. It would be the first time they've excommunicated someone from the Catholic Church in decades. "Besides; one a day isn't going to kill me."

"**Of course not; that's my job." **The shadow jeered slightly. Go figure the shadow would still actively be campaigning to kill Justin. He probably just hadn't made a move yet realizing the ramifications. They were two halves to a broken whole after all; he couldn't exist if Justin was gone. That didn't mean he didn't like to push the boundaries a little sometimes. **"Go on; take a deep breath. Just take it all on. That's the taste of death in your lungs my friend. And it taste so good."**

"I'm not doing this so that you can get your fix; get it out of your head right now." Justin countered calmly, about to slip the cigarette back in his mouth, ignoring his shadow. But something stopped him as he went to place the rolled up tobacco into his mouth. What, he didn't know. Certainly wasn't his shadow. But as the cigarette pressed up against his lips, he couldn't help but feel a little sick, like his body was rejecting it. Could be for all he knew; all he knew was that deep down in his chest, it hurt. It hurt the closer the cigarette came to his lips…

He didn't want this.

He needed it. But he didn't want it.

Justin took only one last stare at the cigarette before pulling it away from his mouth, slowly twirling it between his fingers, resting it on his thumb as he moved his index finger up against it side; flicking it off into the rushing by river. You could imagine Justin's shadow wasn't too pleased to find the death inducing cigarette was in the river and not Justin's mouth. Justin had no risk of ever dying from smoking during the shadow's stay in his body; but he did have long-term risks. And that was something his shadow was a-okay with. He still owed him for all he did to fuck up his life in the television world.

"**The fuck do you think you're doing?"**

"Let the fish have at it. I'm done with this bullshit."

* * *

"I see that didn't last very long."

The investigator decided now would be the perfect time to rudely interrupt Justin ONCE AGAIN to put in another stupidly snippy remark. What was it any concern to him? He obviously didn't give a damn about Justin's safety or his well-being. He never did. All he was doing now was trying to make himself feel superior again. After all; that's what people like the investigator strived for: the feeling of dominance. The sensation of being in complete control. It saddened Justin to think that part of him was like that too. Justin rolled his eyes a bit, taking a drag at the smoke in his hand before putting it out in the ash tray in front of him.

"You don't just wake up in the morning and say 'Hey, I don't want to fucking do this anymore.' You don't. Because you need it. You need it more than the food you eat or the air you breathe. You need it more than the water you drink or the hours you sleep." Justin repeated to the detective, because apparently he decided not to pay attention the FIRST time he said that. "Don't know if you caught on to the part about needing it. Besides, I still don't smoke as much as I used to; shit's just stressful lately." The detective shook his head, dismissing Justin's arguments about how addictive smoking was, not really wanting to hear it.

"You're being melodramatic; it's not that hard to quit smoking." The detective remarked, taking a sip of the coffee in front of him. Justin's face scrunched up with disbelief and anger. Who the hell was HE to talk? Of all people, he thought he had the right to preach to Justin about addictions? "I quit smoking years ago; on your advice too if I recall correctly. It's not as bad as you say."

"Yeah, well I can think of a lot worse things you should have quit." Justin spat up. He wanted to just stand up and march out of that room, go back to his cell and let the interrogator rot in hell. What a hypocritical shitbag. Years had passed and he still hadn't changed one bit. The detective just groaned pushing himself away from the table slightly in slight fit of rage. You could tell he didn't like having this bullshit thrown back in his face as much as it was. Karma's a bitch.

"You won't forgive me for that till the day I day will you?" The detective spat out with anger. And why not, Justin had to wonder. He never heard the detective ask for forgiveness, nor had he even apologized for everything he had done. You don't just earn forgiveness as time goes on.

"I didn't forgive you the first time you died, why would it do it the second time?"


	128. Chapter 127: August 27, 2011

CHAPTER 127

August 27, 2011

* * *

"Today, we're buying for you!"

"Wait, what?"

Rise had dragged Justin to Okina Station, as per usual. He had expected to just be walking around carrying bags for a couple of hours like usual. In no way had Rise let on that this shopping session was supposed to be for him. You could imagine how much of a shock that came as to him. And he wasn't entirely sure if he should be very concerned or slightly flattered. On one hand, it was nice to think that Rise cared enough that she would drag him out somewhere to give him a makeover, so to speak. On the other hand, why did she feel the need to change Justin's wardrobe? Was she calling him ugly or something? Justin would have you know that wearing witty one-liners on t-shirts was a perfectly acceptable style. Like the one he was wearing right now; it was light blue and read 'This T-shirt was tested on animals. It didn't fit.' And besides; this was Rise we were talking about. He didn't want to come out looking like some sort of boy-band reject.

Except according to Chie that one time, he already DID look like a boy-band reject, so he supposed nothing would change except for his dignity. And even then, Justin couldn't say he had much in the ways of dignity as it was. Look; the point is, Rise wasn't really the right person to give Justin a makeover, if he even needed one in the first place. Unless she was Kurt Cobain's stylist or something, she probably didn't have the slightest clue what look Justin was aiming for. And that was the look that he just woke up out of bed in the morning and just did not give the slightest fuck. Because Sunday morning was every day for all he cared.

"I'll put together the best outfit for you, so be prepared. I've already checked out most of the stores. First is… over there…" Rise continued, starting off with great excitement in her voice, though that eventually started to fade as she trailed off, something in the distance grabbing at her attention. Perhaps for the best now that Justin thought about it. He really didn't want anyone picking out clothes for him; especially in fucking advance. What, they weren't even going to see if it looked alright on Justin? And there was still the matter of who was paying for this shit. Justin still had some money left over from working at Junes, but he had no intention of spending money on clothes he didn't want. And he sure as hell didn't want Rise buying them for him. Even if she WAS probably filthy rich. Unless the record company kept that too. Right next to her dignity. "That ad… I see… So Kanami is the new poster girl…"

"Kanami?" Justin questioned, looking over his shoulder to see what Rise was staring at. Seemed like some random subway ad; only not on the subway. Honestly, kind of reminded Justin a bit of those Risette ads Yosuke had tried to show him on a regular basis. Only, instead of Risette, it was some other teenage idol. Looked like they got over Rise pretty damn quick. Perhaps for the best.

"Oh, uhh… That store's sign has a girl who was at the agency with me. Kanami Mashita… She was my junior… She was cute, so I figured she would sell." Rise mused aloud, staring at the ad with her chin held between her fingers, as though to ponder something. Perhaps pondering how she had been replaced so quickly, or what it meant now that Risette was slowly fading out of the public eye. After all; even if she hated being Risette, she must surely have felt strange leaving behind an entire lifestyle just like that. Justin nodded making an 'ah' sound as though having just solved some sort of mystery. _Justin Holmes, at your services._

"So… you suggested she take your place or something?" Justin questioned. That's how it sounded to him; like Rise had set this girl up to take over when Risette fell. He wasn't sure if that was incredibly generous or incredibly selfish. He supposed it really depended when she first put this plan into action: when she still loved being Risette, or when she hated it. After all, if she loved doing what she did, wouldn't it seem like the ultimate gift to give to someone else? To give them stardom? But if you hated it; what worse of a curse could you bestow? None. Rise nodded with slight confirmation, turning her eyes away from the ad for a moment. "That's a good thing, right?"

"…Huh? Oh yeah. If some other girl takes off, I'm sure the agency will leave me alone." Rise spoke up with slight cheer after snapping out of the slight daze she had been entranced within. Perhaps she was having second thoughts; or perhaps she didn't quite realize the implications of this girl taking her place. It meant THEY would stop harassing her. And that was always a plus when you just wanted to live a normal life without all that celebrity bullshit. Rise smiled, taking a few steps forward, ready to depart on her journey to spruce up Justin's appearances, when she had been stopped dead in her track by the sound of bystanders chatting it up. And she was apparently the topic.

"Man, Kanamin is sooo cute. It's crazy that she's still in middle school. I like how she's not so fake, like Risette." One of the guys spoke up. Justin and Rise immediately turned their attention away from whatever store it was that Rise had planned on dragging him to to eye the boys across the station from them, gossiping and chatting it up over their stupid celebrity crushes. Had it ever occurred to them that they shouldn't talk behind the back of a celebrity that was living in the same fucking town as you? I mean, technically Okina City and Inaba were different places; but they were so close and this WAS a hangout spot for all the kids in Inaba. Why would you even risk that? Justin shook his head with disgust at the two, and Rise simply glared with sorrowful discontent.

"Fucking hypocrites. Five bucks says they say that exact same thing about Kanamin five months from now; they'll just pretend they didn't have a raging… crush on some fifteen year old." Justin spat with anger, but also being careful to censor himself slightly. Not that Rise couldn't take him saying the word boner, but when you consider the fact that he was implying that they idolized Risette the same way a mere five months ago, he probably shouldn't be mentioning the whole sexualization angle. You could practically see the steam boiling out of Rise's ears as they talked about her like she wasn't there… Or was it because they were talking about Kanamin? Hard to tell.

"Yeah, Kanamin's like… plain, and honest. Somewhere between a little sister and the girl next door. Like, the kind of girl you want to protect." And then they had to up the creepy factor by the third power. Like, it was bad enough that they were talking about a fourteen year old like this; they had to fantasize about protecting her? I mean, sure, Justin kind of did that with Chie, but dammit he had good reason. He at least was fucking dating her for one, not just getting some sick kick out of her looks; so he actually had a reason for wanting to protect the person he loved. What was these guys excuse? They wanted to jack off and they just couldn't do it without thinking they were some kind of superhero, or somethin'? And then they had to just throw in the little sister angle, JUST TO MAKE IT EXTRA CREEPY. Justin just eyed the two with disgust as they marched off, chatting about their twisted fantasies. Rise was livid by this point, hands clenched into fists as she watched them walk off.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm 'fake.' That's the role I played… It was all an act… Everything… Hey! All that stuff about Kanami is an act, too!" She shouted after them, as though she needed to prove anything. Maybe she just needed to get it all out of her system. Whatever the reason, she felt the need to scream at the two boys. They didn't so much as hear here though, which Justin suspected just made it worse in the long run. You could almost see the soul crushing expression on her face as she watched those guys walk away; as though she hadn't even been there. As if they had forgotten who she was already. Perhaps that's the part that killed Rise so much. For all they worshipped her as Risette; they wouldn't pay her the time of day now that she was Rise. She sighed with defeat after a moment, head hung in disappointment and sorrow. "…Let's go home, Senpai. I don't want to be here."

Well so much for getting a makeover. Not that Justin was complaining; he had a feeling he wasn't going to walk away from that one with much of his dignity left over. Implying he still had his dignity in the first place, but you get the point. Regardless; it was clear to him that Rise was very much hurt by being forgotten so quickly. It was a hard lesson that Justin honestly believed she should learn from, so that she doesn't go trusting people like her agency again; but that didn't mean she had to do it alone. Justin nodded sympathetically in agreement.

"I've had enough of this place today to last a life time."

* * *

"Senpai, are you… happy right now? Do you like being with me… like this, the way we are now? You like having such a cute underclassman, right? I'm an ex-idol, after all."

"Oh god Rise; don't ask me that."

The two had eventually made their way to the flood plains, observing the rushing river from a distance. Justin had been under the impression that she wanted to go HOME home, not home as in just Inaba. Honestly, he swore if he saw this river one more goddamn time this week, he just might lose it. He'd like to say the river was the source of all the drama surrounding this week. But it wasn't; it was but water flowing after all. So unless Justin fell in any time soon, the River couldn't so much as touch him. Physically or otherwise.

"**Come on man' don't you think Rise is sm-m-mokin'? Remember the strip club? I'd give her all of my twenties, if ya know what I'm sayin'." **Right; because while the river itself couldn't hurt him, his reflection sure as hell could. He was just surprised his shadow was talking to him from this distance. They could barely make out their reflection from this far away, let alone the shadow's twisted grin. Though, Justin did suppose this was as good a time to test his little theory out. The shadow lived inside his head; and he COULD communicate with it before by thought, so…

_You'd make it rain on a rock with boobs drawn on it if you had the chance._

"**That's what we like to call porn, kiddo." **The shadow mocked. Justin just rolled his eyes a bit. At least now he could call his shadow out on his shit without people thinking he was taking to his reflection like a mad man. He had to wonder why he didn't think of this sooner though. You'd think he would have thought to just think to his shadow instead of talk; what with him not actually BEING there and all. Justin sighed a little bit before turning back to Rise, still expecting an actual answer out of him. Why would she even ask him that kind of question; she knew he got sensitive about that stuff. He didn't have eyes for any other girl besides from Chie.

"I don't care what you look like Rise; you should know that by now." He wanted to follow that up with 'and seriously, quit flirting with me,' but figured that wouldn't really get anything accomplished. She'd probably still keep asking these questions whether he told her to stop asking them or not. Rise smiled faintly at Justin's reassurance that he was here for her and not just her appearances. Even though she didn't believe him in the slightest. Rise seemed to have this misconception that guys only hang out with girls based on their appearances. And sure, it was true of some people, I don't think Justin was in much room to judge people based on their looks; what with only having one pupil and all.

"Y-Yeah, of course not… What am I saying? You see me as Rise, huh…? The real me…" Rise mused outloud, her eyes seeming to dart off towards the ground all the while. She seemed sad about that for some reason, or at the very least, something about the comment had brought out something in her to make her feel like shit. It was probably the whole 'real me,' thing. Rise had been struggling with figuring out who she really was ever since she got kidnapped; and obviously before that if her shadow was any indication. Justin accepting her for who she was probably should have put her mind at ease, but all it did was confuse her more. "…I'm sorry. I was just irritated… I dragged you all the way to Okina, then just came back without doing anything… I'm really sorry…" Rise suddenly apologized for doing absolutely nothing wrong.

"Rule number one Rise. Never apologize. Especially to me. Especially over something as stupid as that." Justin reassured her in his usual sarcastic manner. Rise smiled slightly. Even though Justin could be a bit of a prick with the way he went about this stuff sometimes, you know he meant well. And that was good enough for her. She wasn't going to stop apologizing for stuff though; because that has got to be the worst advice she had ever heard from Justin, if not somewhat hypocritical given how many times she had heard the word sorry come out of his lips. She was going to say something on the matter when the two were interrupted by an all too familiar voice. One for once that Justin was happy to be interrupted by.

"Oh, Justin-chan and Rise-chan!" Leave it to Nanako to brighten everyone's spirits just be showing up out of the blue. Rise seemed to cheer up anyway, and Justin. Well Justin was always happy.

…

Not buying that for a second are you?

"Oh, Nanako-chan… Y-You're going home?" Rise spoke up with shock. Nanako just nodded her head, that big grin of hers stretching from cheek to cheek. She seemed happy enough; and good know that any good smile was infectious. You could see Rise brighten up just the tiniest bit, though something was still nagging at her. And she made it very clear what. "Oh, I know… H-Hey, Nanako-chan, umm… Well… Do you know who Kanami Mashita is…?" Rise questioned, very clearly bothered by Kanami's fame… Or perhaps just the fact that she was stealing the spotlight. Who even knew?

"Ummm… Kanami… Mashita…?" Nanako questioned, not really knowing who Rise was talking about at first. And for a moment, Rise was pleased to know that she wasn't so famous that everyone knew about her yet. But then it just turned out Nanako didn't know here because she had taken on a stage name. Like Risette, only a lot less creative. And that's saying something. "Oh, you mean Kanamin? Yeah, I know her. Some of my friends like her. I tell them, "Rise-chan's way better!"

"Y-You do, huh? Hahaha, thanks… B-But I'm totally different from how I am on TV… You must be disappointed…" Rise continued to probe Nanako, dragging her into her woes and troubles of being a celebrity. Of being unable to meet everyone's expectations. Justin was honestly somewhat annoyed that she was doing this shit with Nanako. She was only a child after all. Of course, the thing that Justin neglected to remember was that while only a child, she was a very mature child.

That didn't really mean she understood a damn thing Rise was getting at.

"Nope. I like you."

"Huh? Oh… thanks. But that means… you like the 'me' over here, huh…" Rise continued. Seriously, stop confusing the poor thing; Nanako must have been clueless to all of this. And she was. She didn't get all this real me stuff; mostly because Rise neglected to fill her in on anything that would make it clear what she meant by 'the me over here.' As well as she should have, mind you, but that did mean she couldn't make comments about that kind of stuff around Nanako. She just wouldn't get it.

"The… 'me'…? Aren't you just Rise-chan? I like you, that's all." Ah how reassuring the innocence of a child was. They generally saw things just the way they were. People didn't have hidden motives, there were no dark horrors or secrets hiding around the corner, no real problems. To be a child was to be blind to everything but the truth. Something Rise seemed to understand given the way her face lit up after that. Rise passed a short glance at Justin, as though to see what he thought about that. He just raised his arm up slightly as though to say 'well there you have it.'

"Oh, er… ummmm… Thanks, Nanako-chan. I like you too." Rise remarked, praising Nanako slightly as a small but genuine grin started to make it's way across her lips again. Nanako seemed pleased to have Rise's approval anyway. And mind you; she only saw Rise as Rise and not Risette; which meant she was pleased just to have a friend in Rise. Yes, the wonders of a child's innocence.

"Yay! Oh, the show's about to start! I'm going home now! Bye!" Nanako announced as it suddenly struck her that her favorite programming would be starting soon. Friendship was great and all; but fuck that, she had TV to watch! She could hang out with celebrities anytime she wanted to. After all, she WAS Nanako. But her television program? Uh, uh. Television waits for no man. Justin chuckled slightly as Nanako ran off. One of these days he was going to have to replace Yu with his cousin; she seemed a lot more helpful, and a lot less prone to make you break down into tears. Plus Justin was really starting to miss smoking. And it had only been one day. At least he had some toothpicks at home. That had been helping.

"'You're just Rise-chan,' huh…? Wh-What was I thinking, asking all that to Nanako-chan…?" Rise mused aloud.

"Ooh, ooh, I know!" Justin jumped up slightly, imitating that one kid in your elementary school that always had to shout when they knew the answer. And the teacher delibaratly picked someone else just to piss the child off. Yeah, hard to decide who was worse in those situations… Or who was the child. "You were thinking, I bet I could ask Nanako!" Justin joked. Because really, that was exactly what had went through her mind when she decided to ask her. Rise just rolled her eyes a bit, chuckling slightly to herself. This guy never learned. Her laughter died down eventually though, and so did her smile.

"Risette… I quit so I wouldn't have to think about stuff like this… I have no regrets about showbiz. I wouldn't want to go back. Why would I sacrifice my real self!? I just want to become a Rise who's needed by the ones who see the real me. Like you, Senpai. That's the 'me' I want to be. It's the truth." Rise spoke with declaration. Though in actuality it sounded more like she was trying to convince herself than she was Justin. And Justin was starting to pick up on that. She was having second thoughts, which sort of annoyed Justin in a way. This wasn't his decision to make; but if it was, he would drop the showbiz act permanently. Nothing but trouble was going to come from the folks in the recording studio. Rise sighed slightly. "I… got a little upset today when I heard those kids talk about Kanami. …I'm sure I'll forget it by tomorrow." Rise tried to reassure herself, and by extension, Justin. Justin shook his head for a moment before putting his hand on her shoulder.

"Don't let her get to you. She's just a person." Justin tried to cheer her up. It… didn't really work. She just sort of shrugged off Justin's suggestion of ignoring her. How could she ignore the person stealing her career and fans after all. She didn't want them; but she didn't want HER to have them either. At least that's what she believed, anyway. She was sure of it; she wanted nothing more to do with that business.

"I'm sorry for being so selfish to-"

"AH, there's that word again!" Justin humorously cut her off. She smiled slightly at it, but in all honesty, she wasn't much in the mood for humor anymore. She wasn't she what else she was expecting out of someone like Justin, but she just wasn't in the mood.

"When I was working, I met lots of people, but at the cost of free time to meet people outside of work. I had no free time at all… So when I was alone, I was truly alone. Whatever I was thinking about… I had to keep them to myself. So… Right now… I don't want to be alone… Stay with me… just a little longer…" Rise begged sadly for Justin's company. Justin was a little caught of guard by the request. Partially because it seemed so out of the blue, partially because Rise was picking to be alone with him. And partially because he knew how Rise got. When she said ALONE, did she mean like lonely alone, or, alone not flirting with someone alone. Given the look on her face, he was going to have to say the former. She really was lonely deep down. And that was a feeling Justin knew all too well. He smiled weakly at her, nodding his head slightly.

"You're only as alone as you feel Rise."

"I feel pretty alone right now."

"Not anymore."


	129. Chapter 128: August 28, 2011

CHAPTER 128

August 28, 2011

* * *

"I have to write a paper about my favorite animal. Hmm… Which one should I choose…?"

Justin and Yu were sitting on the couch, late at night helping Nanako with her homework. Chie was supposed to meet with Justin, but alas, seemed she had just realized they had summer work due soon. To be fair, Justin hadn't done his either. But he was good at bullshitting when it came to book reports, so he didn't really have much to fear from putting it off until the last minute. And if he didn't finish in time for some strange reason? Well who was forcing him to go to school the first day back anyway? Certainly not his parents. And even if he did; he didn't really give much of a fuck about his grades. Yeah sure, college and all that… Honestly, he wasn't sure he even wanted to go to college. He'd be happy enough just standing behind a cash register from nine to five.

"Well what animal do you really like?" Yu questioned, trying to help spark Nanako's thinking process. Seemed she was having a hard time choosing an animal. Strange; Justin thought most children Nanako's age had a favorite animal. Even if it was just a velociraptor, like in Justin's case. Come on, could you really blame the guy? It was a lizard standing on two feet with long claws and sharp teeth. It was the ultimate killing and hunting machine, capable of destroying its prey in a matter of seconds. Justin was kind of starting to see himself as a little twisted as a child. Didn't most kids pick their favorite animal based on what was the coolest looking or the cutest? Justin was actually considering the killing prowess of his favorite animal. That was a little… strange for a child his age. Still, regardless of the dark implications of Justin's choice in animal, it was a shame that for all its power and might, it hadn't been able to withstand the power of a comet. Apparently the forces of God were superior to that of a single over-grown lizard.

"Oh, I know! There's a picture of it on that shirt that Dad bought… What's it called? A platypus? I'll write about platypuses!" Nanako remarked with excitement as she slowly began to recall an animal she rather liked. Justin just raised his eyebrow with a tad bit of confusion. A platypus? He didn't know children Nanako's age even knew what a platypus was. Hell, Justin didn't know what a platypus was. It was like… some kind of duck right? Point was; seemed like a bit of an odd choice for a favorite animal. But hey; if that's the kind of thing Nanako enjoyed, more power to her. Good on her for not picking a bunny or, or… a rhinocerous or something. Justin recalled that being a popular choice when he was in elementary school.

Nanako searched around the table for a moment before grabbing a hold of a book, probably as big as a single volume of any big-name encyclopedia. Justin somehow doubted that it was such a good idea to let a child lug around a book that big around; especially if it was only for summer work. Sure as hell seemed it, seeing as it was labeled the 'Encyclopedia of the Animal Kingdom.' She'd no doubt found what she needed in that, but still. Justin scratched at his nose for a moment as Nanako silently got to researching her animal. He honestly wasn't seeing much point in him being here. Seemed Yu and Nanako had it covered. But no, Chie just had to insist that they come over to give Nanako a hand with her homework. And he'd be happy to help if she actually needed it; but it seemed she had it covered with little to no input from Yu or Justin. Not that Justin really could help all that much anyway, he didn't know anything about platypuses. He sighed after a moment before shuffling through his pockets and grabbing a hold of a toothpick to stick between his teeth. Yu seemed a little confused by the lack of tobacco in his mouth. Not that he was going to object to Justin NOT smoking in his detective uncle's house.

"Not smoking?" Yu questioned after a moment, figuring the toothpick was very clearly a replacement for the cigarette Justin usually had in his mouth. Justin glared only slightly at Yu as the question left his mouth. Obviously he wasn't smoking, he didn't need it getting rubbed in his face. Besides; if he did indeed say he had quit, if Yu decided that it was all his doing that had gotten Justin to try to lay off the smokes, he was not looking forward to 'told you so.' Sure, Yu wasn't that kind of guy, but you could always tell he was pleased with his results by that smug smile he wore. And that was going to kill Justin on the inside. He was the one making the change, not Yu. _Don't get full of yourself just because you suggested I stop; you didn't do shit._

"I just need something to chew on, that's all." Justin put it subtly, deciding to leave out the part where this was merely a substitute for having a cigarette in his mouth. Not that Yu didn't pick up on that of course. He smiled at Justin reassuringly, as though to say he was proud of him. Though he was probably more proud of Justin for showing restraint inside of a detective's house. Not that it would be the first time a detective had discovered him smoking. They couldn't lay a finger on him without proof or a warrant, and he knew that all too well. Looks like Naoto wasn't going to be getting either anytime soon.

"Okay, okay; I get it." Yu chuckled slightly, noticing that Justin was purposely avoiding mentioning the whole smoking aspect. Justin rolled his eyes a bit as he jiggled the toothpick between his teeth with his tongue. If there was any advantage to having a toothpick stuck in his mouth as opposed to the cigarette, it was that he could just sort of play around with it using his teeth and tongue; twisting it about every which way. Not that it was really much compensation for the withdrawl Justin was going through. He had one hell of a headache, and he had been having a slightly more difficult time balancing as a result. Quitting cold turkey might have been a bad idea, but he probably wouldn't have been able to do it any other way. Unless he went to rehab that is. He didn't need that though. He just needed to keep his mind on the prize; remind himself what he was fighting for. _Don't do it for yourself, do it for her._

"Yeah, well withdrawl is a bi-" Justin stopped himself midway through the word bitch, recalling that Nanako was present in the room. She had heard much worse of course; but he didn't know that. He swallowed for a bit, trying to quickly reevaluate his stance so as to play that off as anything other than a curse. "-ig pain in the neck." Justin finished, correcting himself in the process. Nanako didn't seem to notice he almost said bitch anyway, so it seemed his quick save was successful in that regard. One of these days he was going to slip up when censoring himself, and he'd be willing to bet it was going to be one doozy to drop in front of Nanako. He really could stand to be a little more… socially correct, for lack of a better word. But hell; he wasn't what society wanted out of a person. Never was, never would be. And as much as he hated that meant he'd never fit in, he wasn't going to change just to be accepted. He had tried to play the timid kid, the one who kept to himself and left everyone alone as a child. He tried to play the kid who you'd find behind the school yard smoking fags. He tried to be every little thing one might want from society, and even then society rejected him. So he was done trying to change; to be someone he wasn't. He was tired of it.

"The platypus lays eggs..." Nanako spoke allowed as she began to write her report, her eyes dashing back and forth between the encyclopedia and the paper she was writing on. Seemed she was doing good so far. And hell, seemed she even learned a couple of things given how completely and utterly shocked she was by the next thing she read out of the encyclopedia. Justin couldn't say he blamed her. "And they have poisonous claws!" She shouted with shock and surprise. Justin out right spat the toothpick in his mouth out with shock. _Poisionous claws!? The shit!? Aren't they just ducks!? DO THEY EVEN HAVE CLAWS!?_

"Poisionous cla- What in god's name do they even need those for!?" Justin questioned very loudly as Nanako nodded her head in confirmation, as though to tell him she wasn't lying. It was in there, word for word on that page. There was no denying they had poisonous claws. It just wasn't very believable. Yu chuckled slightly, shaking his head a bit as Justin leaned forward with interest to stare at the book. He didn't care about platypuses at all, but he couldn't deny that was very interesting in its own right. Justin stared intently at the book for a moment, squinting at the words on the page, as though not believing what he was saying. "Well I'll be damned; she's right."

"Hey, hey!" Yu cut Justin off as he said the D word in front of Nanako. He thought Justin knew better; after all, he had already censored himself a couple of times today as it was. Clearly he knew swearing around the six year old was a no-no. It wasn't so much that he was afraid Nanako would be scarred for life or something by Justin dropping a swear here and there. He just didn't need her repeating the words that her 'cool' friends were saying around her. Dojima would have a fit if he ever heard Nanako say those words. And that was only assuming she said it in the house, and not say school. That would just be a disaster. Nanako could be pretty easily influenced by Yu and his friends as far as he could tell, especially Teddie, so it was generally a good idea to keep Justin from dropping swears in front of her. Justin just passed Yu a glance as though to suggest he was crazy, though.

"What? Damn isn't a swear." Justin argued. Hadn't he ever heard the word damnation before? Hasn't he played any guitar hero game ever? That's the ONLY thing they won't censor. Yeah, probably not something Nanako needed to hear or repeat either way, but it wasn't a swear. Yu just shook his head, a glare in his eyes though. Swear or not, he didn't want Justin talking like that in front of Nanako. That shit was unacceptable. Justin rolled his eyes and sighed as Yu gave him the stinker eye; clearly deciding he wasn't going to win this argument, despite technically being right. "Fine, fine; Nanako, never use that word I just said, alright?" Justin turned to Nanako, making it clear to here that even something as minor as damn was not to be taken lightly. Nanako nodded her head, indicating that she comprehended that she shouldn't use that word. She seemed a little irritated that Justin had to make that clear to he, though; she understand that was foul language just from her father saying it all the time. Still, she understood all the same. No saying damn. She eventually turned her gaze back over to Yu, who had been crossing his arms with disappointment in Justin.

"…Question! Is it the male or female platypus that has the poison claws?" Nanako suddenly pop-quizzed him, enthusiasm and laughter in her voice. You could tell she already knew the answer, but she wanted to know if her 'big-bro,' knew. Yu was very clearly caught off guard by the question. After all, he didn't know much about platypuses either. More than Justin, of course, but still very little all the same. He pressed the side of his index finger to his chin as he tried to figure out this grand mystery. He wasn't having much luck though.

"Well… Usually the males are the territorial ones in regards to animals, right?" Yu tried to reason out loud, thinking of anything that could possible help him decide which had the poisonous claws. Really, it made more sense for the male to have the claws, though part of him wanted to say this was a trick question… "Um… Male." Yu eventually settled deciding it was better to fall for a trick question than to get an obvious answer wrong. Luckily, seemed his decision to go with the male was in fact correct. Nanako seemed delighted, if not shocked by how smart her big bro was. She should have him help her with her homework more often.

"Correct! You're smart, big bro!" Nanako remarked, pleased with her big-bro's success in determining who had the poison. Justin seemed mildly disappointed though, head tilted towards the side, arms crossed across his chest, a small frown on his face. He had fallen for Nanako's trap and thought it was the female. He probably should have known better given that he had been looking at the entry for the platypus but a few moments earlier. Looks like he hadn't learned a thing.

"I-I could have gotten that too." Justin lied slightly, trying to look good in front of Nanako. Not that he really had much to prove in front of Nanako, but he didn't want to be known as the 'dumb' one. Especially when he was a lot smarter than half the other investigation team members. The only one that could definitively be stated as smarter than him was Yukiko. Yu and Justin were kinda on equal levels, excelling at certain things, and failing at others. Everyone else was, uh… They had varying scores. Yeah, that's it. Yu just chuckled a bit at Justin's half-assed attempt at trying to look good in front of Nanako.

"I bet you don't even know what a platypus is."

"…O-Of course I do, it's that… animal. You know the one with the tail and the… and the poison claws… Shut up."


	130. Chapter 129: August 29, 2011

CHAPTER 129

August 29, 2011

* * *

"How ya holding up?"

Justin and Kurt were wandering around the shopping district, just taking in the sights. He'd say they were talking, but alas, this was the first thing anyone had spoken since they got here. It was one hell of a way to start a conversation, one that Justin wasn't sure Kurt was entirely comfortable with. It should have been an unwritten rule by this point that mentioning Kurt was a shadow was completely off-limits. But alas, it was hard for Justin to ignore, and like-wise Kurt. Kurt twisted his head about as the question assaulted his ears, examining every building, every person, every little thing they had been walking past with observing eyes. His dull eyes suggested there was a certain pain in what he was looking at; perhaps because he realized he wasn't like the people he walked by. Perhaps because this wasn't really his home. Perhaps because he had dived just a little too deep into wonderland.

"It's strange…" Kurt began to muse allowed, his voice dull and emotionless. "Ever since… since that shadow shit, I can't look at people the same way. I know I'm not the same thing as they are… I just can't really fit in with them anymore." Kurt sighed, almost saddened by the prospect that out of all the people in the world, he was different in such a way that he could never even TRY to be the same as they were. It was like watching an orangutan trying to be a fish. They might put on a good act, but they'd never even come close to what they were trying to imitate. They would always be primarily an orangutan first, and a fish second. Kurt would always be a shadow first, and a human second. It was just how things worked, much to his displeasure.

"If you think having bones and organs is what makes you human, you've got another thing comin', Kurt." Justin remarked semi-sarcastically in an attempt to cheer Kurt up. He could have swore that they already covered this, made it clear to Kurt that he wasn't any less human just because he just so happened to be a demonic spawn of some opposite world where everyone is trying to kill their counterparts. Kurt just shook his head though, denying the matter. It wasn't that; figuratively speaking, he supposed those things aren't what made a human human. The fact of the matter is, he was not physically a human, and as a result, there was always going to be this barrier between him and the rest of the world; preventing him from really being able to join their ranks. Perhaps he didn't want to be human anymore; he felt like he didn't belong. He was a shadow first and foremost… human second.

"No, no it's not that… It's just… It's like going to a zoo almost, watching animals interact with each other." Kurt spoke aloud, eyes still darting from person to person. Justin just raised his eyebrow with puzzlement and slight offense. He'd have you now that humans were not some filthy animal you watched at a zoo; they weren't just there for Kurt or any shadow's amusement. Of course, the point of that comment had gone completely over Justin's head. It wasn't that Kurt was claiming to look down on humans as just being there for his amusement or anything, he was just saying that he was a distant observer, unable to truly understand what it was to be human anymore. Justin sighed a bit, rubbing at his forehead in the process.

"Jesus Kurt, we've been over this a million times. Human isn't just some species of animal you observe for fun; it's a state of mind, a lifestyle if you will. I'm human, you're human, we're all human Kurt. Hell I'd even argue that Teddie's human, and we have no idea what the fuck he is." Justin explained to Kurt with slight annoyance. Kurt just kept nodding his head, as though not really caring, but making it clear he WAS listening to Justin. He had something else on his mind anyway. "For fuck's sake, I bet a robot could be human." Well that certainly got a funny look from Kurt. Even after all the weird shit he had seen over the last week or two, he was a little… wierded out by that remark.

"Robots…? You serious?" Kurt questioned. He wasn't sure if Justin was just trying to give far out examples by this point or if he legitimately believed in robots. Robots obviously existed of course, just not the kind that Kurt was thinking of, or the kind that Justin had meant. Justin shrugged and nodded his head a bit.

"Yeah, why not? Some day they're going to make a robot, and it's going to be able to love and feel and all that crap. And it'll be more human than the entirety of the human race combined, mark my words." Justin continued on his tangent about technology and robots learning to love or some shit. Kurt just kept giving him that glare like he was crazy or something. Next Justin was going to start saying he believed in aliens and UFO's… Actually, that wouldn't be all that surprising given that Maya did. No seriously; she claimed UFO's really were a thing. She actually believed crop circles were from aliens. Either she was paranoid as all fuck, or she'd believe anything she saw on television. "Oh you laugh now, but watch. Years from now when the androids come rolling in, I'll be the first one to call you up and rub it in your face."

"You're crazy, you know that?" Kurt remarked, eyebrow still raised as though he wasn't believing this shit. And who could blame him? It wasn't very often that someone tried to define what it meant to be human by citing robots. It wasn't very often that someone cited something that didn't exist as support for their argument. He got that Justin was supposed to be, like, some sort of mechanical engineer or something, but come on. Surely even he must have been able to comprehend just out of place it was to believe in androids. Let alone androids that could love. Sounded to Kurt like Justin had watched one too many bad pornos.

"So I've been told." Justin countered dully. No one needed to convince him that he was out of his mind; he did have a shadow living inside his skull after all, and he most definitely was crazy. Plus no one needed to tell him twice that half his ideas and comments were a little bizarre. That was the point of most of them. Kurt sighed a bit, shaking his head as though to pity Justin and his warped, strange perspective on the world around him. He honestly thought it was sad that Justin believed this stuff, that he believed all of this bullshit. _Said the Scientologist! _Not that Justin knew much about Scientologists, of course; all he knew was Kurt was one and that everything he HAD heard about Scientology just sounded ridiculous. _Said the guy who jumps into televisions!_

"Regardless…" Kurt began, sluring his word slightly as though a little creeped out. "You get what I'm saying though. Maybe human is just a state of mind; but that doesn't change the fact that I'm a shadow and they aren't. All I can do now is just… watch." Kurt continued, trying to explain to Justin since he didn't seem to get it. Justin sighed with disappointment as Kurt continued to try to convince him that his viewpoint was the truth; that being a shadow made him less than human or different. Maybe it was true; but as far as everyone else knew, he was just as human as the rest of them. That should have told Kurt that he wasn't so different after all. He just believed he was. Justin watched Kurt with disappointed eyes for a moment, before something rather odd caught his eyes. A slight smile was cracking through that downtrodden expression of his, as though his spirits had been elevated by something.

"It's not all bad though." Kurt eventually spoke up, his voice slightly cheery. Seemed he was finding a bright side to all of this; much to Justin's pleasure. He was just glad to see he wasn't ripping himself apart for something he had no control over. "Being a shadow has some perks, you know?" Kurt began, almost excited by whatever perks it was he was referring to. Justin was completely clueless though. He couldn't think of much a shadow had that humans didn't. Beside that purple smoke shit, but Justin somehow doubted Kurt knew how to use it. If he even could; it very well might have been something only Justin's shadow knew how to take advantage of given he had never seen any other shadow try to manipulate it.

"Such as?" Justin questioned with curiosity. What possible perks could there be to being a shadow in the human world? All he knew was that they couldn't get drunk; which Justin supposed could be a blessing or a curse. If you wanted to get drunk, which was the main purpose of drinking mind you, then it was the worst thing. On the bright side though, you'd always have a designated driver, and you could drink to your heart's content. Justin supposed it really depended on why you drank. Not that Kurt really drank. That incident in his apartment not too long ago was the first time he had tried that shit. He probably wouldn't be drinking it again anytime soon. Not that he disliked it the way Maya did, and to a lesser extent Justin, but he didn't see the point anymore.

"I don't need to eat, I don't need to drink, I don't need to sleep… It's nice, don't get me wrong. But I don't need it. And that's pretty cool." Kurt chuckled slightly. He wasn't sure what a shadow's lifespan was, but given that they didn't seem to require food, water or sleep, he was going to guess that it was a rather long time. Maybe forever. Wouldn't that be great? To be able to live forever? Yeah, you'd watch the rest of the world slowly die away all your life, friends and family going… And when the world inevitably got destroyed from getting too close to the sun, Kurt would kind of just be floating around in space… But man, all those billions of years before than would be amazing.

"Damn, really? Wait; how did you even figure that out?" Justin questioned. He imagined he was only going to figure that out by actually waiting and seeing for himself whether he could live that long without food or water… Which meant if he fucked up; he was REALLY in deep shit. Sadly enough, that seemed to be exactly how Kurt went about discovering it.

"I'unno, just didn't eat for a while I guess." Kurt shrugged. Justin couldn't help but run his hand down his face, his fingers rolling over his features. He could not believe the stupidity of what Kurt had done. What if he still had to eat? Well congratulations, you just starved to death you fuck. I mean, come on; why even risk it? Justin got that there was probably a lot about the shadows that were different than humans, about how their bodies worked and what amazing feats they could do; but even then, there had to have been a better way of finding out what those were without damn near killing each other. Next Kurt was going to tell him he jumped off a building just to see if it would kill him. Spoilers; it wouldn't.

"Makes me wonder what else I can do." Kurt mused with excitement. The possibilities seemed endless to him. Perhaps he wasn't human in the traditional sense, but what he was was so much more in so many regards. You could say he was more human than human, capable of doing things the average man was uncapable of, of enduring things humans normally could not. If he didn't need to eat, if he didn't need to drink, if he didn't need to sleep… What else could he do that was beyond the physical limitations of man? Fucking fly? See through walls? Of course not; that would be idiotic. But he was sure there was more to it. And he intended to find out every little thing. After all, what was life worth if not the thrill of it all, of delving into the unknown and coming out victorious?

"Yeah, well; don't do anything ELSE stupid while trying to figure that out." Justin remarked allowed. If Kurt had cut off all the neccesseities of human life to himself just to test if he could live like that, he was afraid of what else he might do. Try to take a bullet to the face perhaps? Fall off a cliff? Stand in the middle of the road to see if a car could kill him. Kurt was usually pretty level-headed, so Justin wanted to know he could trust him not to do crazy shit like that, but after what he had just heard, he was having a hard time believing that Kurt wouldn't pull some crazy stunt like that just to test it out. The guy needed to know that just because he was an exception to some of the basic rules of life, he could still die; just the same as any human.

"Don't worry so much; wasn't going to go out playing Russian Roulette any time soon." Kurt dismissed Justin's concerns with a roll of his eyes. He might have had some strange ideas it times, but he was smart enough not to do anything that could potentially get him killed. Justin sighed, shaking his head a bit with concern. He was concerned that Kurt might have been pushing himself a little far. Maybe he could do things most people couldn't, but he didn't want Kurt to push himself to do things that would put himself at risk, just to see that he can. Just to prove that there was something more to him than just being… well, a shell of the former Kurt. But a duplicate trying to find his place in the world.

"I'm serious… Don't do anything stupid."

"I left med school to become a tobacco dealer. I think I've already hit the stupid quota."


	131. Chapter 130: August 30, 2011

CHAPTER 130

August 30, 2011

* * *

"Ooh! The crowd's pretty thin here!"

It was night time, and the group had all found their way to the top of the hill that overlooked town. According to Yosuke, who had practically broke down Justin's door with excitement, there was a firework show tonight. Now; Justin was no fan of Yosuke constantly trying to break into his house just to pass some news onto Maya, but he did like explosives. Especially explosives that made pretty colors in the sky. He briefly had to wonder if the sparks from the firework ever fell back down to the earth below and… Well; burnt someone's fucking face off. Probably not. Point being; Justin was looking forward to watching some fireworks. They obviously didn't have the Fourth of July in Japan, so Justin had sort of missed out on the festivities. Not that he really was a fan of barbecues or anything, but there was no denying that fireworks were quite the spectacle to behold. And besides… He'd never seen fireworks with someone he loved before. From his understanding it was supposed to be romantic; or at least, from what he had learned from television, movies, and the internet. Worth a shot anyway. It would certainly explain why Justin was standing kind of close to Chie at the moment, shoulders almost touching. She either didn't notice or didn't mind.

"The riverbanks were packed. I'm surprised you found a quiet spot." Kanji mused aloud. Strange given that he had come up here with Justin on a regular basis. You'd think he would know this place was never crowded. Except for Friday's; apparently they had day care on those days or something. Regardless of whether Kanji was right or not though, he was right that it was nice and quiet compared to everywhere else. Justin hated crowds, they just made his claustrophobia act up… Made him wonder if he was claustrophobic or agoraphobic at times. It was nice and quiet up here, no real crowds… Justin could get behind sitting up here to watch the colorful explosions cloud the sky. He just only hoped they'd be able to see it from here.

"Oh no, I knew about it. I pass by the mountainside a lot. Customers ask me about it, too." Yukiko took pride in knowing where this mountain was. Despite the fact that everyone there at the moment knew where it was. Save maybe Maya. She MIGHT have known where it was, but she never came up here, so it was probably safe to assume she did not. I mean, there were a lot of squirrels and stuff up there on their little view over Inaba. If she had known about it, Justin doubted he'd see her anywhere else. Save maybe with the fox. Why she liked that fox, Justin would never comprehend. At least she spent more time at home now because of the turtle. That was a… plus? Meant he saw her more often at the very least. "I wonder if Nanako-chan will make it. I called and told her where we'd be before I left…"

"She's with Dojima, right?" Justin questioned. Yu just nodded a bit in confirmation. You'd think Yu would just bring her along with them, but then; Yu wasn't her father now was he. "She'll probably be fine." Justin continued. If her father was bringing her here, and not say deciding to keep her away from bad influences like Justin (as he probably should,) then she'd make it here in time, no problem. The others nodded a bit in agreement, save Rise, who had a puzzled expression on her face. Seemed she was pondering something; something the rest of the group should have been considering in retrospect.

"Hey, where's Teddie?" Rise questioned. Everyone's expressions soon turned to match hers, confusion and the like making its way across their faces. Save all except Yosuke, who only seemed mildly annoyed by the question. He knew very clearly where Teddie was right now, and Justin was going to guess it wasn't exactly… pleasant, for lack of a better word. At the very least it was enough to piss Yosuke off. Five bucks said Teddie was perving it up again. That always got on Yosuke's nerves; guess he was afraid of Teddie moving in on his territory or something.

"Not only was he hitting on girls nonstop, he accidentally put the moves on Hanako and she dragged him away. He ducked into his 'bear skin' right away and acted like a bear, but he still got dragged off without a word." Yosuke recapped Teddie's misadventures. Surprisingly, it seemed everyone was getting the horrible implications of Teddie being dragged off by that walking behemoth. That was a fate that no one would wish on even the worst of their enemies.

"Wha-!? Can we just leave him like that?" Chie frantically spat out with worriment. As though his very life was in danger by being entrapped by Hanako. And given that this was Hanako, the lady who had broke a bike by just sitting on it, Justin was inclined to agree. Teddie could be a bit of a pervert, especially around the investigation team, but even he didn't deserve that. Yosuke begged to differ though, a slightly aggravated expression sweeping across his face. He was happy to see Teddie got his just deserts.

"Sure we can. His karma caught up with him." Yosuke remarked bluntly. No one could possibly see how he was a-okay with Teddie probably being suffocated to death by that grizzly bear… Actually, wait. Wouldn't that be a good thing…? Who even knew at this point. Point being; Teddie could be in a lot of trouble if they just left him there with Hanako. And besides, who was Yosuke to talk about karma catching up with anyone. Justin glared at Yosuke slightly.

"Karma caught up to HIM? Please, I don't think I need to remind you about your 'up close and personal,' plan." Justin mocked him. That only served to confuse all the ladies and panic all the guys. If word ever got out that they were involved in that kind of shit, there would be so much hell to pay. Unless of course you were Justin, since he couldn't execute that plan on a skateboard even if he wanted to. Kanji might be safe too, as was Teddie. So basically Yosuke and Yu would lose their balls if words were ever spoken of Yosuke's twisted plan. His eyes widened slightly as the girls all passed each other a few glances trying to figure out what that meant.

"Th-That's beside the point!" Yosuke shouted trying to cover his tracks. "Besides; when I think back to this morning, he totally got what was coming to him. Truth be told I wish I could send two or three more Hanakos at him…" Yosuke continued pain and anger in his voice. Whatever it was Teddie had done, it had pissed Yosuke off to no end, if not scarred him to life. Justin was curious at this point what he could have done. Usually Yosuke only got mad at Teddie when he was perving it up… Wait, did he try to lay the moves on Yosuke? _OH GOD!_

"Dude, that would kill him. What happened anyway?" Kanji objected, hoping to perhaps talk some sense into Yosuke. What he was casting down upon Teddie was a fate much worse than death. No one should ever wish MULTIPLE Hanakos on someone. That was just cruel. It would be like sawing a guys dick off in front of him… Only two or three times in a row. Each time slower than the last. And with a rustier and duller saw. In fact; last one's not even a saw. It's just a fucking lead pipe that he's going to beat the guy's dick o-

Wait, let me reword that.

"I don't even want to remember it…" Yosuke choked up, clearly not pleased with whatever events had conspired this morning. "He dug up some private stuff from my room and brought it to the Hanamura family breakfast. He was all like, 'Yosuke, what's this magazine about?' Can you imagine the humiliation I went through because of him!?" Ah; seemed the issue was that Teddie had found Yosuke's porn stache. Justin still didn't understand why it was so hard for some people to just use the internet. The only one who had no excuse for that was Yu; who didn't have internet in the first place. And he doubted Yu was the type to look up pornography anyway. No, that was Justin and Yosuke's jurisdiction, thank you very much. Disgusted eyes all laid on Yosuke; or at least from some of the girls. The guys could kinda of sympathize with him, Yukiko didn't seem to get what he meant by magazines, and Maya just didn't really care. Guys did that after all; it was a fact she understood all too well.

"It's your fault for having that stuff." Chie objected, defending Teddie on the matter. After all, the guy clearly didn't comprehend a lot of things, let alone porn. Yosuke shouldn't have left it where Teddie could find it if he didn't want Teddie showcasing it around the house. The fault lied on him for not taking precautions. Maya tilted her head to the side a bit, shrugging slightly.

"Should have done what Justin does; just use the internet and delete your history afterwards." All eyes fell on Maya and Justin, different reactions on each's face. Mostly disgust. Justin was absolutely mortified if not infuriated. Yukiko STILL didn't get it. And Yosuke? Well Maya wasn't bitching him out for reading porn. The girl that he had a crush on was OKAY with him looking at pornography. In fact, she was giving him advice on how to get AWAY with reading pornography. I don't think I need to explain why that is the most amazing thing to discover.

"Maya… Do you WANT me to kick you down this hill? I will." Justin growled at her, cheeks red with embarrassment. Maya didn't so much as flinch at his threat though, simply holding her head high with pride. It wasn't just an accidental slip of the tongue, she had purposely done that to tick Justin off. That's probably the part that pissed him off the most. He wasn't sure if it was any conciliation that this had been old news to some of them. Chie was still giving him that 'you're a pig,' look though. As if this was to be unexpected from a teenage boy. Masturbating is ALL they had.

"Serves you right; next time you'll keep your mouth shut." Maya remarked. Justin stared at her with confusion before it slowly dawned on him. She was talking about that comment Justin had made about Maya ogling Kanji's junk. She was still pissed about that!? How was the even fair? He already did his time standing out in the middle of the rain for a few hours. He had even caught a cold. How was that NOT enough payback? Rise sighed slightly, a little disgusted by this entire conversation. Could they NOT talk about porn? Why wasn't that an option?

"Is this really what you want to be talking about with girls around?" Rise interjected in this awkward conversation. She wasn't sure what was stranger, the fact that Teddie had been prancing Yosuke's porn around, the fact that Justin apparently had a porn stache on his computer, or the fact that Maya was very well AWARE of his porn stache. What, was she watching it too or something? She couldn't imagine very many satisfying explanations for why she would know that. Justin turned his face away from the group, skin hot with embarrassment, refusing to look anyone in the eye. Especially not Chie, who was still giving him that look.

"Huh? Is he not talking about his secret savings?" Yukiko questioned, clearly not getting it. You'd think the deleting Justin's browser history part would have given it away, but alas not. Oh how clueless Yukiko could be about people or what they did in their spare time. Justin thought it was a common stereotype that all guys spend their freetime jacking off. An entirely true stereotype, if he might add. Apparently Yukiko hadn't gotten out enough to hear that one. A lot of funny glances were tossed Rise's way, especially from Rise and Yu.

"Secret savings. For a guy. Right. Let's just leave it at that…" Rise sighed, deciding perhaps it was best that Yukiko was left in the dark on the matter. And most everyone was okay with Yukiko being clueless, despite the fact that she seemed to be picking up that's not quite what it was. That is to say, most everyone except Maya. Her revenge would not be complete until every last person knew what Justin's browser history was like. Maybe she'd even talk about the kind of porn she found…

N-Not that she was watching or anything. The titles were in the links, you over assuming fuck. A lady such as herself would never be caught watching something as filthy as pornography. Especially not Justin's pornography. She wasn't seeing the stuff Justin being into being particularly attractive to any girl that wasn't a complete whore… Lots of strange stuff there. Let's keep it simple. Blondes. That's all you need to know; anything past and you'd lose your lunch.

"Actually, we're talking about p- OOF" Maya was immediately interrupted by Rise jabbing her in the stomach with her elbow to get her to shut up. You know how Justin beat the shit out of Yosuke when he did something stupid? Yeah, well apparently Rise did the same with Maya. Thank god Maya wasn't as much of an idiot as Yosuke, otherwise she'd have a lot of bruises. Maya glared at Rise slightly, gripping at her stomach with pain. She was about to smack her back, but then the group was interrupted by the slight sound of moaning. Teddie's to be more precise. Looked like he managed to escape. But at what cost!? As the sound of his voice called out to them all, it seemed he had been flattened again; bear suit and all. Poor guy; she must have sat on him or something.

"What a tragedy… My lovely fur is completely ruined…" Teddie remarked, flopping about as he approached them. Remember how Rise's shadow had almost killed them all and flattened Teddie like a pancake? Whatever Hanako did; it had the EXACT same effect. God have mercy on Teddie; he must have been traumatized by whatever happened. God knows Justin would have. Hell, even Yosuke seemed to soften up slightly when he actually saw the punishment Teddie had endured. He didn't think it would be THAT bad.

"That's… Okay, that's worse than I was expecting…" Yosuke remarked with slight sorrow. Though that changed very quickly when he realized Teddie was walking around flat as a pancake. No human could fit in that suit like that. Made you wonder what happened to the body in Teddie's suit when that happened. Did it just get squished, or… what? "Anyway, people are going to stare at you like that. Hurry and take it off."

"But I'm like a newborn child inside…!" Teddie objected with slight fear, afraid to show his bear-bottom to the world. Justin raised his eyebrow higher than he had in… well, a long time. Why the hell would he take off his clothes while he was wearing the bear suit? No seriously; Justin had heard about going commando, but I don't think that really applies to a mascot suit. That's just… ugh… "Just like your magazine from this morning, Yosuke!"

"Quit reopening this morning's wounds!" Yosuke angrily spat at Teddie. How dare he continue that? Was he ASKING for Yosuke to roll him and the bear suit off the cliff? Because he was seriously considering it at this point. He didn't even feel bad about Hanako flattening him at this point; he crossed the line twice in one day. Just was busy rubbing his forehead, cheeks growing redder and redder the more they talked about porn. He really didn't need this right now.

"There they are! Big bro!" And then there was a crisis. See, Teddie was still completely flat, and probably naked under that suit; and it's not like he could just jump out in his bear suit right? They needed to get Teddie out of sight immediately. Apparently Teddie already knew though, quickly darting off into the bushes. Justin sighed with relief as he hid out of sight, as Nanako and Dojima approached them. Hell Dojima was even smiling. Good news all around!

"Hey, Nanako-chan! Looks like Dojima-san made it in time." Chie remarked with cheer as the two of them joined their ranks. Was a bit strange having an older fellow like Dojima hanging in a group of teenagers, but alas, it was more for Nanako and his nephew than anything. At least Justin didn't need to hid the contents of his pockets today. Just toothpicks. Nanako seemed more than happy to be here with all of her friends, still wearing that yukata too apparently. Still looked absolutely adorable on her.

"Yeah! Dad came home early!"

"Sorry if I made you nervous. I didn't quite finish my paperwork, but I figured Adachi could handle the rest." Dojima claimed as he stood next to Yu, explaining what had caused the delay. Justin just shook his head with slight disbelief. You figured wrong; Adachi's just going to sit there, stare at the papers for an hour, then claim it was too much work. Justin could kind of feel for the guy though; that wasn't HIS work, it was Dojima's. And sure, Dojima deserved time off with his daughter, but Adachi didn't deserve Dojima's work. Justin was going to make another snide remark in concerns to Adachi, when everyone heard the shuffling of leaves. Apparently Teddie couldn't keep still. Which was sort of alright, since it seemed he had gotten out of the bear suit and into his regular clothes… Wait, didn't he say he was naked? What happened to that? It was weird having him just casually walk out of the bushes though; especially given what he followed it up with.

"Hey there, little lady. Wanna launch some fireworks of love with me?" And the best part about the pedophilic comment? He was busting out the fucking sparkles. He was legitimately trying to hit on a six year old . Justin's jaw was just wide open with disgust and shock. What the hell had to be wrong with Teddie? If a child wasn't present, he'd probably beat the ever-living shit out of Ted right now. At the very least Nanako seemed fascinated by the sparkles. Justin had to wonder why Dojima wasn't confused how that was even possible… OR FUCKING CONCERNED ABOUT THE PEDOPHILE HITTING ON HIS SIX YEAR OLD DAUGHTER!

"How did you do that!?" Nanako remarked with great enthusiasm and curiosity. It wasn't like you saw a guy sparkle on a daily basis after all.

"Cut it out, Teddie! Do you want Dojima-san to haul you in!?" Chie scolded Teddie for perving it up with Nanako. Thankfully, he got the message the first time. Probably because the glare on Chie's face was just THAT intense. She looked like if Dojima didn't haul Teddie in; SHE would. And she would be a lot rougher about it. Needless to say, Teddie eventually shrinked back a bit in his clothes, fear hiding him away in his shell. The group was all busy giving him the stinker eye when they were interrupted by the sound of Kanji speaking up.

"Things are heatin' up down there…" Kanji remarked, observing the restless city below. From the looks of it, the show was about to start soon… He was entirely right for the record. Before they could even ask what Kanji meant by that, the fireworks had shot up into the sky, breaking through the silence with a big boom. Poor Nanako was completely startled by it; seemed the noise was too much for her. Though to be fair, Justin almost instinctively hit the ground in cover. That was, until his brain kicked in and said 'What are you doing you fuckwit, you're at a firework show.' He sure felt like an idiot after that; though at least he hadn't actually dived for cover.

After regaining his composure, his eyes eventually darted up to the colored spectacle above him, moonstruck by the heavenly mist of shades above him. Blue, yellow, red; all bursting out like a water fountain of color. There was nothing in this world quite as beautiful as the artificial explosion of colors. Except maybe the young lady standing near Justin's side right now. Not even all the stars in the sky could compare to her. He smiled a bit as the colored explosives shot into the sky, exploding outwards like a rosebud opening for the world to see. The others had been shouting with excitement, but Justin? He was more than content to stand here in silence, taking in everything around him with his senses. Even Teddie once again proving to be bad influence on Nanako. Yosuke had outright started to lecture him about it at one point, but that subsided very quickly.

It was only after a moment that Chie turned to Justin, wondering why he wasn't shouting like the rest of them. She had been concerned perhaps he wasn't enjoying himself, or that he wasn't feeling good. It wasn't that though; he very rarely felt as good as he did now. He was just content. He didn't want to ruin the moment with unnecessary shouts of excitement. I think Chie realized that after a moment too, that Justin was just… happy. And that was all he need. She smiled at him a bit, though his eyes never turned to meet hers. Instead he simply extended the hand by his side slightly, fingers reaching out for anything. Chie saw the movement out of the corner of her eye, and immediately understood what it was Justin wanted. She blushed a bit, contemplating whether or not to take his hand beneath the colored sky above. What a dumb thing to contemplate. Her smile grew only bigger as she slowly extended her own hand to grab his, tugging their bodies closer together so that they were touching at the shoulders. And for a moment everything was great between the two.

Yu and Yukiko didn't really follow their lead, though you could tell they were having a great time together. Yu's hand was on her shoulder as he pointed to the explosions in the sky. The two had quite a few laughs; though thankfully, there wasn't one of Yukiko's infamous laughing fits. She just chuckled a bit as Yu told her jokes about what each firework's explosion looked like, or what it reminded him of. The red ones reminded him of her; and the silver ones reminded her of him. Even further down the line, Yosuke and Maya were shouting up at the sky… Well Yosuke was anyway. Maya was a little more timid than that. She did clap a bit at times, though she was generally quiet throughout… Save for once Yosuke's hand had brushed up against hers as he brought it down from pointing at the colored powders on the sky above. Her eyes widened, and she could feel her skin warm up, cheeks red. It was accidental, but… but it felt so right. She didn't want it to be accidental…

"U-Uh, Y-Yosuke…" Maya choked up a bit, her hand still pressed up against his. Yosuke turned her eyes down to her for a moment, a little caught off guard by the interruption. She went to open her mouth, to point of that his hand was brushing up against hers, yet not a sound came out of her mouth… She didn't just want their skin touching like that. She couldn't stop herself. "…Oh, uh… n-nevermind, it's nothing." She sighed a bit. Yosuke just shrugged a bit before turning his attention back up to the skies. Maya just stood there, head hung with embarrassment and shame. Why was it so hard for her to just say what she felt? Why must she keep playing these games? It wasn't even just with him, she couldn't tell Justin how she felt when she loved him either… Maybe she was just shy; but shy was killing her on the inside. _Why can't I just extend my fingers and wrap them around his? Why does my hand feel so stiff?_ She sighed a bit, hand still pressed against his. Maybe it wasn't holding hands, but… But it still felt good to feel her heart skip a beat… That was enough for her.

"Man, that was amazing! Totally worth coming out here for!" Chie shouted as the fireworks slowly came to a close. Justin and Chie's hands were still entangled at the moment. They probably should have let go at some point… But sometimes it was just so hard to let go. Sometimes… Sometimes you couldn't let go. Sometimes you didn't want to let go. And sometimes you never let go. He'd have to let go eventually; but for now… forever would do. Of course, Yosuke had to go and ruin that almost immediately.

"Because you got to stuff your face right?" Right, romantic mood totally killed in a matter of seconds. Thanks Yosuke. Justin and Chie slowly pulled their hands away from each other to shoot Yosuke a glare. Maybe he should keep his mouth shut before it got him in trouble one of these days. Kurt went to med school, right? Maybe he could sew it shut for him so he wouldn't have to learn how to keep it closed on his own.

"So what!? You were all munching on snacks too!" Chie objected angrily. What was so wrong with eating while watching the fireworks? She'd have you know that people watched the fireworks at barbeques, you know. People were ALWAYS eating at these things; why did SHE have to be the exception. Because Yosuke said so? She didn't think so. Besides… It didn't matter what any of these people thought about her and her meat fanaticism. Someone told her once that it's what made her Chie. And she valued his opinion over Yosuke's any day of the week.

"An extra large steak-bowl does not count as a 'snack'..."

"Did you have fun Nanako-chan?" Yukiko questioned, ignoring the feud that was brewing between Chie and Yosuke. They always used to try and kill each other anyway, so if anything, this was just like old times. Not that she ALWAYS argued with him, just after a couple of months after they met when she realized he was kind of an ass. And even then, she slowed down once it seemed Justin had it covered on her behalf. No need to repeat the same thing twice, after all. Nanako smiled; she had a blast!

"Mmmhmm…" Nanako remarked. Although she was having a lot of fun and was shouting only a moment earlier, her eyes had started to droop a bit, her voice lacked energy. It was late after all, and she was only young. She was probably exhausted. "…I'm tired." She declared after a moment, rubbing her eyes lazily. She really should go to sleep by now. Dojima chuckled a bit, finding humor in his daughter succumbing to the weakness all children faced at that age; the ability to go more than 12 hours without sleep. If it weren't for the loud fireworks, you could bet she would have fallen asleep as the night went on.

"I'm not surprised. It's about time for you to be home on bed. I'll take Nanako back. Make sure you guys don't stay out too late." Dojima turned from Nanako to address the rest of the group, a smile on his face. Nice to see they had his blessing to do what teenagers normally did. Still, they supposed this was kind by Dojima standards, so no one planned to throw his 'generosity' back in his face. Just accept it as it is… Everyone waved goodbye at the two as they departed; especially Teddie who was also jumping up and down. God that guy was eccentric. It was a moment after they left before any conversation really began.

"The fireworks were great… but I dunno… It just feels like summer's just about over…" Kanji sighed, it suddenly dawning upon him that summer vacation was almost over. Justin could understand the disappointment. Summer vacation in America was three months long, compared to the two months here. It felt way too short for Justin's tastes. But hey; beggars couldn't be choosers. He was lucky he got a summer vacation in the first place. Chie sighed a bit, a disappointed expression sweeping across her face.

"Why'd you have to bring that up…?"

"I'm all right with that." Rise interrupted. Everyone seemed a little confused how she could possibly be alright with having to go back to school. Even bookworms like Yukiko would rather have freetime to do whatever they wanted. Even if that just meant doing more studying. Not that she studied with her freetime, but you got the point. Everyone seemed confused alright… Except Maya, who had nodded with agreement.

"I don't go to school anyway; so there's not going to be much of a difference for me." Maya claimed. The others were envious in a certain capacity. Sure, she had to work, so it wasn't much better, but at least she got paid to be miserable. In school they had to be miserable so they could get into college to be miserable just so they could get a job and be miserable for slightly MORE money. Totally worth it. Yosuke was probably the most envious though, what with having to work AND go to school. He got the worst of both worlds.

"When I'm working, I have to wear fall clothes during the summer, so I don't get a sense of the seasons changing. But this year, I went to the beach and saw some fireworks! I even got to wear yukata out to the summer festival." Rise recapped with excitement why she was more than satisfied with her summer experience. Yosuke rubbed at his chin at the mention of yukata, of the summer festival. For once in his entire life, he actually had FUN at the summer festival. Though that might have actually had to do with going with someone and not by himself. He felt kind of bad about that goldfish Maya had won, but other than that, the night seemed perfect.

"Oh yeah, the summer festival… Yeah, that was so much better than going by yourself." Yosuke remarked with enthusiasm. Maya had generally been keeping to herself since Yosuke's hand had brushed up against hers, content with her solitude and thoughts; but at the mere mention of Yosuke enjoying the festival, her eyes shot up from the ground beneath her. She seemed caught off guard, and pleasantly so. Her pale skin had been turning red with embarrassment, or perhaps flattery. He was claiming that going with her was better than going alone. She wasn't sure how much of a compliment that was, but she was willing to take it to heart, as evident by the slow beating in her chest.

"…I-It was?" Maya questioned after a moment. Eyes fell on her as her eyes nervously darted about, wrist in hand as though to prevent herself from quivering. Justin raised his eyebrow in confusion. What the hell was she panicking about? Having fun? Or was it the having fun with Yosuke part? Because Justin could definitely see why you wouldn't want to acknowledge the latter as being true. Yosuke nodded, a wide grin on his face.

"Yeah; you know what they say, two heads are better than one. You're a lot of fun to be around, you know?" Yosuke remarked with pride. A smile soon found its way creeping across her face. She could practically feel her eyes watering up with joy. To be a source of joy in his life when it was only the two alone was almost heart-wrenching, but in a good way. She could feel her lips quivering slightly. _Say it… SAY IT!_ She shouted in her mind trying to force the words up. She wanted to tell him how she felt; but she just couldn't. Maybe it was because everyone was watching, but every time she tried to say it, something grabbed at her words and pulled them back down into her chest. She couldn't tell him that she loved him. Not just that he made her happy, or that she liked him… She loved him. She had loved before, but dammit… She was sure it was real this time; that it would last until the day her heart stopped beating. It just had to be. She had loved Justin too, but she moved on… She didn't think she could just move on from this. Not again. But no matter how much she tried to say to him that she cared for him, that she wanted him to want her… She couldn't. She couldn't do it. All she could choke up was a simple comment.

"You're a lot of fun too..." _Great Maya, great. You had the moment, you had the timing, and AGAIN you blew it. You fucking suck!_ She sighed with disappointment in herself, though no one seemed to notice just how much pain she was going through right now. Yosuke smiled a bit, taking a mock bow with pride in his description of 'being fun.' Being fun was what he strived to be after all.

"Why thank you, madam." He remarked with a bow. That seemed to have caused something to stir in Maya though. Not more passion or this strange sensation called love… No it was actually kind of angry. Why was he doing this to her? Why was he playing around with her emotions? Why did he have to be such a fucking gentleman all the time? Why'd he have to call her things like madam, and ma'am? No one ever did that for her unless it was in jest. Why did he have to make her care? She averted her eyes after a moment, tears building up behind her eyelids.

"…J-Just stop!" She choked up, much to his surprise. Yosuke's eyes widened with slight concern and shock. He was under the impression that she was alright with that; that she was happy. Why was she suddenly turning her face away from him? Why was she crying? Within seconds she walked off, a quick pace to her legs as she tried to get out of sight of Yosuke. She couldn't bear to look at him a second longer. All it was doing was breaking her heart.

"Wha- Hey!" Yosuke called after her, trying to stop her where she stood. It didn't work though, she wouldn't freeze in place just because she tried to hold her back. Just so she could suffer more under his eyes… He stood there hand extended as she continued to run off. Justin passed Yosuke a glance of 'what the fuck is going on.' You'd think he'd be pissed off at Yosuke for scaring his sister off, but he wasn't even sure he had done anything wrong. Something else was going on here. "D-Did I say something?" Yosuke turned to the others, as though expecting them to know. Yu sighed a bit, crossing his arms. He might have been the only person by this point to have put two and two together. The way her face seemed to grow red around him, the way she seemed so shy in his presence, or how her lips quivered whenever he bowed her head to her… She liked him; it was clear to him.

"I don't think it's so much what you said as what you didn't say…" Yu remarked. Yosuke passed his gaze up to Yu, not entirely sure what he meant by that. How can you take offense to what someone didn't say. That's just not fair in any capacity. Yosuke eventually turned his saddened gaze back to where Maya had ran off a moment earlier. He sighed a bit, feeling his chest almost burst into flames. She probably hated him right now; for what, he didn't know. But it was enough to send her away crying in tears. That couldn't have been good.

"Is… Is she going to be alright?" Yosuke spoke up after a moment, sorrow in his voice. Justin turned to face where she had ran off after a moment…

He doubted she was coming home tonight.


	132. Chapter 131: August 31, 2011

CHAPTER 131

August 31, 2011

* * *

"You seriously woke me up for watermelon?"

Justin was woken from his restless sleep by Yosuke calling him up. Apparently Yu had decided to invite everyone over to his house for watermelon. Justin wasn't much of a fan of fruit, but hey, why the fuck not? It's not like he didn't like watermelon; he just wouldn't eat it on a regular basis. Of course; Justin had some other matters to attend to. For starters, Justin was right about Maya not coming home the night prior. When he had opened the door to his house, the couch was empty, unsurprisingly. She had run off teary eyed the night prior, for reasons no one could explain; reasons that obviously needed addressing. They couldn't just ignore Maya's little breakdown, right? Justin just hoped she had come home at some point; he had made sure the key was still under the mat for her… He didn't need her out sleeping in the streets again.

_Why not? It IS watermelon._

"I'm only surprised you didn't call me sooner."

_Hey, uh… Is… Is Maya alright? _Yosuke questioned after a moment, slight sorrow in his voice. He felt responsible for her running off the night before; after all, she didn't seem to run off until he had made that comment. It wasn't even an offensive comment; if anything it was a compliment. In a way, that made Yosuke feel even worse about it; not knowing just what it was he did to send her over the edge like that. Justin rubbed at his forehead as he pushed himself out of bed, walking down the stairs to see if she was there. She was, thankfully enough; though she did seem to be trying to smutter herself with the pillow, her face down against it as she slept. The implications pointed to Maya crying herself to sleep, much to Justin's displeasure. He sighed a bit as he stared at her from the staircase.

"…She's fine." Justin lied slightly. She was here, so that was an improvement at the very least. On the other hand though; she DID cry herself to sleep, so he wasn't sure how much that really counted for. Not much he would assume. Still ignorance is bliss; and that would be enough to put Yosuke's nerves at ease until they figured out what had caused Maya to snap like that. Yosuke sighed with slight relief on his end of the line. It wasn't much conciliation to know she was okay now; but it did help a bit with the guilt.

_Well alright… Um… C-Could you tell her I said sorry? _Yosuke choked up a bit. He still didn't know what he did that was so wrong, but he felt bad about whatever it was. Justin nodded a bit as though Yosuke could even see that through the phone. And it took him a second for him to realize that as well.

"Yeah, I will… I'll, uh… See you soon man." Justin choked up before flipping his phone close, hanging up on Yosuke. No doubt Yosuke would want to tell her himself, but there was a pretty good chance Maya wouldn't even want to go. Hell, Justin didn't even know when she had come home. For all he knew, she might have just fallen asleep moments ago. He thought it was a little more important for Maya to sleep it off, to get it out of her system than for Yosuke to beg forgiveness. Justin sighed, slowly approaching the couch before crouching down at her head. He should at least see what she wanted to do about all of this… Maybe she just needed to talk after all. Maybe she was just having a bad day. He gently shook her by the shoulder, just enough that it would wake her up if she wasn't too far gone. Given how quickly she responded, Justin doubted she was ever asleep to begin with. Either that, or she sure as hell hadn't missed a beat waking up.

"Go away." She mumbled, her voice smothered by the pillow she rested her face in. She certainly hadn't gotten over what had been tearing her apart the night prior, that's for sure. Justin stared at her with sympathetic eyes as he hovered over her; not that she could see it though, what with the pillow covering her face and all.

"Are you alright…? We're all going to get watermelon…" Justin tried to bribe her to raise her eyes from the pillow she had been resting her head against. Maya was a big fan of watermelon, despite almost never eating it, so he supposed that would cheer her up. It caught her attention anyway, as she twisted her head to the side, so that her face was facing Justin, and her ear was pushing up against the pillow. Her eyes were red and irritated, and she looked like she hadn't slept for ages.

"…Is he going to be there?" She choked up after a while. Justin bit his bottom lip. He already understood where this was going. He could tell her the truth and have her refuse going, or he could lie to her and make her hate the BOTH of them when she actually showed up to find him there… He decided lying to her wasn't going to accomplish much but betray her trust. He had done that once before; it wasn't a pretty sight, and he had no intention of repeating the mistakes of the past.

"…He says he's sorry Maya." She quickly flipped back around to avoid looking at Justin. She wasn't in the mood for this shit. She just didn't want to be around him anymore. All he was doing was breaking her heart. She couldn't stand being around him; around all the wonderful things he did for her. _Madam; pfft, what a joke. He's just trying to drag me along for the ride… Then he'll kick me out once he reaches his destination. They always do._ "You should at least give him a chance Maya. If he was calling me of all people to apologize for him, you know he feels bad." Justin remarked trying to convince her. Maya just shook her head in denial.

"He's not sorry. He doesn't even know what I'm mad about." Maya sighed. He didn't know what she was mad about, otherwise he wouldn't be tugging at her heartstrings like this. No one would be that cruel. That was what was killing her; He didn't know. She wanted him to know, but he didn't. And he wouldn't, no matter how hard she tried to make it clear to him. She was partially to blame in that regard, she supposed. How hard was it to say 'I love you?' Apparently very. Justin placed his hand on her arm with reassurance, trying to calm her down a bit, to cheer her up with just a simple touch.

"But I'm sure he'd like to." Justin remarked. It was silent for a moment as the comment seeped into her brain. She'd like him to know too, but there was just no way. It never worked for her, it never would. Love was some ridiculous game of cat and mouse… Neither would really get what they want; just spinning around in circles for the ages, chasing their hopes and dreams. Maybe he would like to; but she just couldn't tell him. She wanted to; but she couldn't.

"…Just leave me alone." Maya choked up after a moment, closing her eyes again, trying to ignore everything and everyone around her. Just let her sleep; pretend that love was just a bad dream. Justin sighed as he stared down at her. If she didn't want to go, he wasn't going to force her. She needed to get it out of her system eventually though. Yosuke was probably her best friend… they shouldn't be at odds ends like this.

"Alright then… I'm uh… I'm gonna get going. Just give me a call if you need me, alright?" Justin remarked, hoping that he could be here if she needed to open up about something. She remained silent though, refusing to budge on the matter. He sighed a bit as he pushed himself up off of his knee, heading upstairs to change.

* * *

"Um, Dad got a watermelon from someone, so he said we should call everyone."

Everyone, save Maya, had gathered at Yu's house with promises of free food. Justin was never picky about food when it was free. It could be shit on a plate, and Justin would eat it so long as you didn't charge him a cent. Probably. Okay most likely not; but he'd eat a lot of things if it were free. Just not fecal matter. Everyone seemed excited to be here at the very least. Save maybe Justin and Yosuke, who were still a little torn up about Maya's emotional state. They didn't know what was wrong, and that was painful. They wanted to help, dammit.

"Man, a watermelon! 'Cause of all the stuff that's gone down this summer, I completely missed out. So where is it? The fridge?" Kanji nervously stammered trying to locate the watermelon he so badly desired. Never before had Justin seen someone so frantic about watermelon; not even Maya. And she practically idolized that stuff. To be honest, just the thought of eating watermelon without Maya was making Justin a little sick to his stomach. He knew she wanted to be here; she just didn't want to be here with Yosuke for whatever reason. Maybe he could bring some home for her… It was the least he could do.

"Gee, Kanji. They invited us over… At least show some manners." Rise scolded Kanji. He should know better than to try rummaging through the house in search of fruit of all things. He just needed to patiently wait for his host to get around to serving them. Kanji didn't at all seem fazed by Rise's attempts at civilizing him a bit. In fact, he was already devising another… slightly less than civil plan. He didn't seem to get the idea of guest courtesy.

"We gotta smack it open first." Kanji declared with aggressive excitement. That got quite a few funny looks out of people. Half of the room seemed to be in agreement, while the other half thought Kanji was absolutely nuts. Who the hell thought it was acceptable to break someone else's food, especially when they were being generous enough to offer you some. That was like a guy offering you a free hot dog and then having you throw it on the ground because you were an 'adult.' Thank god no one's ever done THAT before. Yosuke sighed a bit. It sounded like fun, but in all honesty he just wasn't in the mood for it. Too much on his mind and all that. And could you really blame him? Even Justin wasn't really in the mood for smashing watermelon open. And this was Justin we were talking about. He LIVED for breaking stuff open.

"Huh? Are we seriously gonna do that? We can't eat it if it gets all crushed." Chie objected. Food was meant to be eaten after all, not smeared all over the floor. Strangely enough, it seemed Yukiko didn't quite share Chie's philosophy on food. Perhaps just because she sucked at cooking and had some sort of deep-rooted hatred of food. It would explain why she had completely mutilated that curry. Justin still hadn't gotten that missing tooth checked out. It WAS his wisdom tooth after all, so he probably didn't need to. Still felt weird with that gap there though.

"But, but, doesn't it sound like fun?" Yukiko spoke up. It did sound like fun. Breaking stuff was ALWAYS fun. It was just the part that came after breaking stuff that was shit. That's why only psychopaths (and Justin) broke stuff on a regular basis; because they didn't care about or realize the consequences. Yu passed Yukiko a strange look. Seemed out of character for someone as shy as Yukiko to want to break a watermelon open. Whatever happened to eating food anyway? Couldn't they break something else?

"I wanna do it too!" Nanako piped up with excitement. Once again, turned out the investigation team was a horrible influence on the young, easily influenced mind of Nanako. They should have been teaching her about not wasting food and all that crap. Hell, Justin WISHED people had taught him not to waste food, he had to figure that out on his own when he first started to live by himself. He went through his food budget a LOT quicker than he should have. And that was coming from the guy who didn't eat breakfast. Teddie quickly stood up from the seat he had taken on the couch next to Nanako, fiery determination in his eyes.

"I'll swing at it with everything I've got! The splattering fruit juice! Bursts of joy! One night of love… The bitter sweetness of those days is the essence of youth!" Teddie pitched, as though trying to sell a product. The product in this case being smashing someone's generosity open like a fragile vase. Why? Because they could of course. Yosuke's expression of self-pity eventually faded to one of slight annoyance, a grimace slowly creeping across his face.

"That makes no sense at all… And dude, will you cut out those commercial lines of yours!?" Yosuke angrily spat at Teddie, trying to get him to stop with his awful pitches. He didn't need to be reminded of his pitch for the summer festival. A girl's yukata coming loose is not a good tagline, goddammit. And this was coming from YOSUKE. And let's not forget that Nanako practically worshiped Teddie. How could she not? He WAS Junes's mascot after all, and given that she absolutely loved that place, it was to be expected.

"That's the essence of youth!" Nanako enthusiastically repeated, reciting Teddie's new catch-phrase. Justin couldn't stop himself from slapping himself in the forehead. There goes Teddie making everything horrible again. Sometimes Justin wondered why they even let him out of the television sometimes. If they knew he was going to do THIS; they would have barred off their entrance television with wooden planks or something. Justin was about to say something when the group was suddenly interrupted by the sound of a door creaking over. At first they had just assumed it was Dojima, but as they slowly turned to face the door, the spotted that all to recognizable pink hair pin. Seemed Maya had decided to grace them with her presence after all. She slowly slipped her shoes off, before timidly make her way inside, head hung with slight embarrassment, cheeks red. Maya timidly took a seat next to Yosuke on the couch, eyes facing away from him with embarrassment and shame. She had tried to fight it, but she still wanted to be there by his side. Love was such a silly game… But dammit, she still wanted to play. Even if Yosuke clearly didn't. She had to try; that's what made love love after all. Yosuke stared at her with apologetic and sorrowful eyes, as she tried to avoid eye contact.

"Well, look who finally decided to show up!" Justin teased her slightly from where he stood. Maya refused to look in his general direction though, her cheeks still red. After the scene she had caused this morning and the night before, she didn't really feel comfortable around everyone. "Feeling better?" Justin questioned. Maya nodded timidly in response, again refusing to look at Justin as he spoke to her. That only served to turn his smile into a frown once more. He felt like an ass for asking her questions when she clearly didn't feel like answering them. Perhaps she just wanted everyone to pretend nothing had happened. Not that he had much time to ask more questions though; everyone was soon caught off guard by the sound of the door creaking again. Justin was half expecting another fake-out and for Kurt to walk through the door. Which would be awful for so many reasons, but you got the point. It was actually Dojima this time.

"I'm home-whoa, that's a lot of shoes. How many people are here?" Dojima remarked as he slowly slipped through the door. Nanako quickly hoped out of her seat on the couch to run to her father joy and anticipation in her eyes as he carried in a bag that most likely contained the watermelon they were apparently going to smash open. Or at least the one that Nanako wanted to smash. If it were up to some of them, no fruit would be smashed that day. Unless you consider chewing smashing fruit up with your teeth.

"Welcome home! Um, let's split the watermelon open!" Nanako cheerfully requested. Within seconds the wide grin that had been sweeping across Dojima's face suddenly turned to one of embarrassed, disappointed shock. It was immediately clear what had happened based on his expression; seemed like someone had beaten them to the punch.

"Say what!? …Uh, well, you see…" Dojima stammered slightly as he placed the bag housing the watermelon on the table, slowly unwrapping it. There was already a sizeable chunk sliced out of it. Not that they couldn't smash it ANYWAY, but for some reason, it kind of ruined the whole thing. They wanted to smash a watermelon before anyone could use it for food dammit. They wanted to laugh in the face of third-world children. Sorta. Probably not. Nanako's glee immediately turned to that of disappointment. "Well, I uh… Already shared some with the neighbors…" Dojima tried to explain. Wasn't doing much to raise Nanako's spirits regardless of what he had done to justify cutting up the watermelon SHE wanted to break. No fair.

It was a moment before the watermelon was sliced up, even longer before the watermelon was evenly distributed. And by that I mean the girls all got a third of what the guys did, for no explicable reason. That was totally fair. Maya didn't even get a slice, but that was because of her own decision, not the person with the knife's. She just sort of sat there next to Yosuke, who had a huge slice of watermelon on his lap, chewing away little by little at its insides. It was quiet between the two of them, despite everyone else talking lively about their… fruit. Or in Justin's case, questioningly loudly what the hell Kanji was shaking onto his watermelon. He had pulled a fucking salt shaker thing out of his pocket; like he just carried that around everywhere. _Was it salt? Sugar? Give me a fucking clue Kanji! You're killing me here!_

"Hey Maya?" Yosuke choked up after a while as everyone around them bustled noisily with conversation. It had only been quiet between them two, and they both knew it. Maya slowly lifter her eyes up from her lap, somewhat sad eyes lying upon him. "I-I know Justin probably already told you, but I'm sorry about yesterday…" Yosuke apologized softly to her. Maya's eyes just seemed to drop again for a moment, sadness in her gaze. She wasn't sure what was worse, the fact that no matter how much she tried, Yosuke just didn't get it… That she was suffering… Or that her little outburst had been making HIM suffer, eating away at his insides with guilt.

"…I'm sorry too… I didn't mean…" She began, though she couldn't seem to find the right words to finish that sentence. She wasn't sure what she should be sorry for. Yosuke had made her feel like shit that day; even if all he had been doing was treating her the way she had always expected out of a gentleman. He bowed his head and called her all sorts of pleasantries like madam, and ma'am… She was only sorry that he made her feel the way she did; but she couldn't the other way around. She sighed a bit, tilting her head to the side, resting the tip of her head against his shoulder. Yosuke's eyes widened for a moment with surprise with the gesture Maya was going through here. Truth be told, it wasn't just that she wanted her skin to touch him like that, it was just that she was tired. Tired of crying and feeling the way she did. She just needed a place to rest her head, and that just so happened to be Yosuke's shoulder.

It was quiet for a moment between the two as Yosuke stared at her with a slight look of shock and confusion. It eventually faded though to one a small grin along the corners. If he didn't have a watermelon in his hands, he'd almost be tempted to wrap his arm around her back and to the other shoulder, like a half hug. Maybe it was a good thing he had a watermelon, sounded like a sure fire way to get slapped across the face if you asked him. Instead they just sat like that in quiet, watching the others laugh and shove. And for just a moment, they had never been happier… Even Maya, who had eventually drifted away to sleep, head still leaning against his shoulder. She hadn't slept the night prior… And never before had she felt so… right, if that's an accurate word. She felt like everything was just the way it should be. And even though her heart was racing, she had never been calmer.

"Sugar? Spice? Everything nice? Come on Kanji, give me a clue here!" Across the room Justin was still deciphering what the hell Kanji could be pouring on his slice of watermelon every twelve seconds. By this point, he was starting to get a little irritated. Why did it even matter to Justin what he was putting on his food. Yeah, he was putting something on his watermelon. Just a sprinkle of shut the fuck up. It WAS sugar by the way. He just didn't feel like explaining himself to Justin. Justin was going to continue his interrogation session too, when all of a sudden he heard most of the others pipe up in agreement about something. Mostly cries of 'you betcha'.

"Huh? Oh, you betcha!" Kanji called out from where he was standing, realizing he had missed his cue with Justin pestering him. Justin's eyebrow curved downwards with confusion as everyone piped up with the same claim of 'you betcha.' What exactly were they all agreeing on? He liked to agree on things to. Made him feel like part of the group.

"Sorry, wasn't paying attention… what were we talking about?" Justin questioned with puzzlement. Nanako seemed to be smiling profusely at the moment giggling a bit to herself. Justin had assumed she was laughing at him for not knowing what was going on._ So that's how it's going to go down, huh? To think I trusted you!_ In actuality, she was just happy to find all of her friends would remain her friends in the coming year. Always nice to have friends after all. Especially cool older kids.

"Nanako asked if we'd play with her again next year." Chie explained for Justin, a warm smile on her face. Justin couldn't hold back laughter; which at first kind of seemed really douchey. Like he was laughing at Nanako's question. Like he was laughing at the prospect of playing with a seven year old. He even got a bit of a glare from everyone else. Turned out everyone had really jumped the gun. Good thing Justin hadn't noticed the glares, otherwise he would have gave everyone some shit back.

"Next year? I was under the impression this year wasn't even over yet." Justin laughed a bit. "Anytime Nanako." Nanako clapped with joy, happy to see everyone would play with her in the days to come. Summer might have been over, but there was still next summer. And winter vacation; and all those other days off they could play. This was going to become the beginning of a wonderful friendship. Justin smiled at the girl before turning back to Kanji.

"So seriously, paprika or something?"

"Son of a…"


	133. Chapter 132: September 1, 2011

CHAPTER 132

September 1, 2011

* * *

"…Seven… o'fucking… Clock… I can't take this; let them give me an F. I need sleep dammit!"

Justin, Chie, and Yukiko were all walking to school together. See, Chie always walked to school with Yukiko, even before meeting Justin. And once Justin and Chie started dating, those two started walking together. So in the end, they just sort of combined their efforts and formed one group. Not that Justin's presence would be entirely missed this morning, what with him complaining about the beginning of school again. No one liked it anymore than he did, but at least they weren't bitching and moaning about it every twelve seconds. They couldn't be too mad at Justin though, because he was just saying what they were all thinking. Chie sighed as they continued to walk towards their destination.

"Put on your iPod or something; that'll wake you up." She suggested, hoping that Justin snapping out of his half asleep daze would make him less grumpy and more tolerable. Justin shook his head and groaned though. As much as he would LOVE to be blasting music in his head to banish the thoughts of having to sit in those desks for days at a time again, he couldn't. No, I don't mean something was holding him back or anything, I mean he physically could not deafen himself with his iPod right now.

"Can't. Batteries dead." Justin and Chie sighed with disappointment. Yukiko didn't seem to mind though. Not that she was a fan of Justin's bitching or anything, she just generally let everyone do their own thing. She never seemed to be fazed by anything; let alone Justin swearing up a shitstorm. Everyone had been desensitized to it by this point honestly.

"So how did your summer work go, Chie?" Yukiko questioned after a moment, trying to make some small talk. And since they WERE on the topic of going back to school, seemed like a fair thing to talk about. Given the look on Chie's face though, she'd rather not talk about it. She sighed a bit, placing her hands on her hips as though deep in thought. In actuality, the last thing she wanted to do was think. That's why summer vacation ending and school starting was such a pain, remember?

"So… Holden Caulfield got expelled? I don't understand what the point of any of that was. All he did was complain." Chie spoke aloud, confused about the book. What was the story? All she got was that this guy went around smoking and getting drunk and just generally bitching about everything. Who even likes a guy like tha-

…

Wait…

"Oh yeah, Catcher in the Rye is just awful. People try to justify at as this wonderful masterpiece, but it's just a guy bitching and moaning about everyone. You know the guy who killed John Lennon blamed Catcher in the Rye? Said the book told him to do it or something. Fucking psychopath." Justin mused aloud with slight anger. Chie just groaned a bit; it was a bad enough book without hearing there was a possibility she might want to kill John Lennon now. Good thing someone beat her to the punch. It didn't matter anyway, they had finally arrived at school. And from the looks of it Yu and Yosuke were already there, talking about SOMETHING.

"Good morning." Yukiko called out to the others. Yu and Yosuke turned towards the three approaching them with smiles on their face. As much as they hated school, at least they'd all be sitting next to each other again, so that was a plus.

"Oh hey you made it. Man, summer vacation felt like so long. I actually got lost on the way here." Yosuke remarked, probably exaggerating a little bit. Plus, Justin being the American here couldn't help but give Yosuke a funny look, like he was nuts to think this was a long vacation. It was two months shorter than the summer vacation Justin was used to. This was a SHORT vacation if anything. Yukiko nodded with agreement; felt like summer had lasted ages. And that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Just made it harder to adjust to coming back to school.

"The vacation was pretty long."

"Not THAT long. Sheesh…" Chie remarked sarcastically. She could not comprehend how Yosuke could have possibly lost his way already. Though to be fair, Justin probably would have gotten lost if he didn't know the way to Chie's house, where they had all grouped up together. He could NEVER forget the pathway there after all. Yosuke shrugged before they all turned to walk through the school gates and to their homeroom again. Or at least they had until an all too familiar figure stepped into view. Justin wasn't sure what was worse; the fact that Naoto was here, or the fact that it seemed she was waiting for them, given the way she just sort of stepped out of cover.

"Good morning." She addressed the group. Justin just sighed and held his wrists out with mockery, as though to dare her to put the handcuffs on him. He wasn't sure what he did, but he was sure the only reason she could have to be here was to arrest SOMEONE. And let's face it, who else would get arrested at this school besides Justin? Naoto passed him a confused look, then eventually a glare as she got what he was implying. She eventually just rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to the others, who were much more shocked by her sudden appearance.

"Y-You…!? You're that, uh… pint-size detective!" Yosuke remarked after a while, clearly having forgotten her name… Or was he around when she introduced herself in the first place. Now that Justin thought about it, Yosuke and Chie were busy arguing when she first introduced herself; and Justin doubted she had mentioned her name a second time after that. It was so long ago that he didn't really remember. It was such an irrelevant detail of life after all. Regardless of whether they had been formally introduced however, Naoto sure as hell took offense to that. Justin decided to make a mental note that calling her a pint-sized detective pissed her off. That seemed like useful knowledge.

"I beg your pardon!? My name is Naoto. Please, don't give people bizarre nicknames you make up on the spot." Naoto scolded Yosuke. She wasn't just annoyed by the comment either; she was fucking livid. As though she had never been more offended by anything in her life. Of course, that wasn't true in the slightest. She HAD met Justin after all.

"If you insist, my dear Watson." Justin mocked her, donning his best British accent. So basically just his accent. Once again, everyone seemed impressed by the authenticity of his accent, still not having really caught on that Justin was actually British. It wasn't something Justin was going to tell anyone. Which is strange, because he was always more proud of being English than he was American. Perhaps it was just to avoid confusion; perhaps he just wanted to avoid the tea and crumpet jokes. Whatever the reason, he just kept quiet on the matter. Naoto continued to glare at Justin with great intensity. It was a wonder she hadn't arrested the guy for disturbing the peace or something by this point. Though apparently it seemed she just didn't have any authority on the matter; or at least, not anymore.

"My cooperation with the police has come to an end. However, there are aspects of the case with which I remain unconvinced. There are some family-related issues as well, so I've decided to stay here for the present. From today forth, I'll be a first-year at your high school. And I felt that I should at least introduce myself to you all. I trust our relations will be cordial, Senpai." She explained, glaring slightly at Justin, as though to make it painfully clear to him that comment was directed specifically to him. _Cordial. Right. Because after calling me and my sister a murderer, harassing my sister about her home life, and trying to arrest me for tossing a cigarette on the ground, I'M the one being uncordial. _Naoto gave a bow of her head before departing from the group's presence, entering the school building.

"Senpai…? That detective boy's… our underclassman?" Chie spoke up with shock and puzzlement. That was certainly not expected. Though perhaps it was more that a girl who was smarter than most of the people present there was actually a grade lower than them. That sure as hell wasn't doing much for her self-esteem. Justin groaned and rolled his eyes.

"Can't wait to get arrested for starting a food fight."

* * *

"Man, school's as dull as ever. With the case closed, the days feel so empty all of a sudden…"

The school day had ended after many an hour had passed by sluggishly. Not that Justin could really complain about how dreadfully boring their classes were when he had gone back to his usual schedule of not paying attention and doing something stupid in class. This time he was making rubber band balls. At one point he had even threw it at the front of the classroom, causing it to bounce off the chalk board, and through sheer luck, right over to Yukiko's desk. She was more than willing to pass it back over to Justin before she got in trouble. Not that Kashiwagi seemed to really care. Hell, Justin was sure it had gone right over her head. Literally and figuratively. Chie did give him quite the talking to afterwards though. That was a little stupid, even by Justin's standards.

"C'mon Yosuke, everything went back to normal. It's a good thing!" Chie objected, trying to justify their dull, boring, everyday schedule. Justin didn't think anyone was objecting to that though; school was just always boring as all. With the case, they had stuff to do and worry about, evidence to gather and all that stuff. He wasn't saying he wished there were more murders or anything like that. At least, Justin hoped so. He was just saying it was a bit boring having nothing to do with their time now but study. Or be a class clown in Justin's case, apparently.

"I didn't mean it that way. It's just…"

"Hey, we're stopping by Junes later, right? Why don't we ask Naoto-kun to join us?" Yukiko questioned, only to be met by a very intense glare from Justin. Clearly she didn't know the stunt Naoto had pulled, otherwise no one would want to even be near that girl. Justin was actually considering bringing it up to the others, but given that she was entirely right about Maya killing someone, he figured it was probably not a good idea to smear her name for something she was right about. Besides, if anyone brought it up to Maya… Well… You can realize why that's a bad idea. "Oh, I just thought… Since he doesn't know anyone yet, he must feel lonely…" Yukiko tried to justify her comment when she noticed how furious Justin was right now. She didn't know WHY he was pissed, but that was never a good thing.

"Didn't he say he came here to help out with the murder case? With the case closed, he's just an ordinary guy now. And if you think about it, that makes him a transfer student… just like us." Yosuke mused aloud, as though sympathizing with the girl. And that only pissed him off. ESPECIALLY when he compared her to them; saying she was just the same. _Just the same? Nowhere near._

"Oh yeah, except for the part where she's a huge asshole, yeah just like us." Justin remarked snidely. All eyes feel on him passing him a funny look. Partially because of the hypocrisy, partially because they still didn't get why he hated Naoto so much. Or why he kept calling him she. That seemed like kind of a prick move to call a guy a girl, or vice-versa. Just like Chie and the bro with a vagina remark. "I know what I said, don't give me that look." Justin countered, knowing full-well he was an asshole too. Just not as big an asshole as her.

"Hello, Senpai!" Rise remarked as she joined the group. Not a single person noticed though, choosing to ignore her greeting. She seemed sort of annoyed as they continued to talk like she wasn't there. She'd have you know she was a celebrity at one point, not a fucking ghost. They could see her just fine!

"Maybe he transferred here out of plain stubbornness. 'Cause he doesn't seem like he's only in it for fun. Alright, let's see if he wants to hang out with us." Yosuke decided, completely ignoring what Justin wanted. Justin practically ripped the hair out of his head at that. Why was it his opinion never counted for anything. This was a legitimate asshole they were looking at; it wasn't even Justin's tendency to be a dick to everyone doing it this time. There was no way in hell they were hanging out with her. Absolutely not!

_Okay maybe once. BUT I REFUSE TO ENJOY IT!_

"A celebrity coming to school is already a surprise, but a detective is even rarer. I'm a little curious to see what his family's like, too." Chie spoke up with curiosity. Who the hell cared about Naoto's family? Seriously. Five bucks said she lived with her grandfather or something. That's what most detective types did, right?

"Oh speak of the Devil, there's the little guy." Yosuke pointed out, spotting an all too familiar purple hat as he turned his gaze down a hallway. Justin had to briefly wonder how long she had been there. Or what she was doing. Seemed she was talking to a couple of girls, about what, he didn't know. But given that she had her back pinned to the wall, he was going to guess they approached her. And she wasn't too pleased about it. Justin took a couple steps forward to listen in on their conversation. He wanted to hear this for some inexplicable reason. Perhaps to gather any possible ammunition he could to use against her.

"You dunno the area yet, right? C'mon, we'll show you around." One of the girls spoke up with interest. And when I say interest, I mean 'interest.' Because Justin had forgotten that apparently not only could no one tell Naoto was a girl, they couldn't even say 'he' was a feminine guy. In fact, apparently he was a hot stud or something given the way the girls seemed to be swooning over him.

"There's probably tons of places to hang out that only we'd know about." Justin began to chuckle with amusement at this entire situation. The others could hear, but they weren't entirely sure what Justin was laughing at. All eyes fell on him with curiosity, trying to decipher what he had found so humorous.

"What's so funny?" Yosuke questioned.

"They don't realize they're hitting on a girl." Justin smirked, trying to hold back his fit of laughter. Everyone else just sort of glared at him though. This whole 'Naoto is a girl,' thing was really starting to get on their nerves fast. They weren't sure if Justin honestly believed that stuff or if he was just doing that to mock Naoto; but whatever the reason, it was degrading.

"That won't be necessary. I'm not interested in "hanging out," and neither am I interested in you two." Naoto countered the two girls aggressively, trying to get them to leave her presence. Justin raised his eyebrow nodding his head a bit, smile on his face slowly degrading. Naoto might have been a complete bitch, but he did have to admire the way she managed to break the ice. By taking the ice pick and jabbing it through those fucker's heads instead, that is.

"Huh? Hey, what did you say!?"

"What's with that attitude!? We're just trying to be friendly!" Oh yes, it seemed that Naoto had rustled quite a few jimmies with that remark. To be fair, if it wasn't obvious those two were just slutting it up, it would have been really douche and rude. But when you're a girl and girls are trying to get in your pants, well; you'd probably want them to get away as quickly as possible too. Yosuke just shook his head a bit, annoyed that Naoto had been here for all of one day and she had already managed to stir up a shit storm.

"Geez… Way to make an impression. Yo, Naoto-kun. How's it going?" Yosuke muttered before approaching the group. Perhaps someone else's presence would deter the girls from continuing their attempts at perverting Naoto. At least; Justin's presence perhaps. It was still pretty common knowledge that Justin was a bit of a renegade. A very easily angered renegade. Fucking Americans, right? The girls eyes widened with surprise and fear as they all approached Naoto; even Justin. And that fear only doubled as they heard a second voice coming from behind. Seemed Kanji had decided to join the party too.

"H-Hey guys. 'Sup?"

"Uh, well, we'll be going now…" One of the girls declared, realizing they were in deep shit the moment a delinquent like Kanji had showed up. Better to run now and risk survival than get the last word, right? And within moments they quickly walked off, swiftness to their pace as the rounded the corner. Kanji passed the girls a funny look as they walked by him, not sure what was going on. All he knew was he spotted the others and Naoto. Naoto grinned a bit, tipping her head and hat in gratitude for the services the others had provided. Even if she could have gotten those girls to leave on her own. After all, she DID have a gun in her pocket. The benefits of working with the police, eh?

"So we meet again. May I help you?" Naoto questioned, eyes darting from person to person, trying to decipher their reason for being here right now. All she saw was smiles; save perhaps from Justin who refused to look in her general direction and had his arms crossed. She was going to guess he wasn't a very willing participant in whatever it was the others wanted. Her suspicions were only confirmed when Chie actually told her what they were here for.

"Hey, Naoto-kun. If you're not doing anything after school, wanna come with us?" Chie questioned enthusiastically, curious of Naoto would like to join their ranks for the evening. And by that I mean Chie wanted to ask her a shit load of questions. Like if she had ever met Bruce Willi- Wait, wrong prick. Forget what I just said. Naoto just seemed flabbergasted by the offer though. Which was strange, because she didn't really seem all that flattered by those other two girls offering the same thing. Though to be fair, those girls WERE whores, so it's alright.

"Come with… You mean me?" Naoto questioned with surprise. She seemed almost pleasantly surprised by the offer. And this was coming from the group she thought housed multiple murderers. _But fuck that, because friendship overcomes everything, right? _Sarcasm aside, however, her satisfied expression soon faded away as she realized she really could not take these people up on their generosity."…Perhaps another time. I have some things to mull over." Naoto remarked with disappointment.

"Things to mull over?" Rise questioned, not really understanding what she could possibly be talking about. It couldn't be the Hanged Man murder case, could it? That was already and done with; the police had already made an official statement and everything. So unless there was paperwork or something to be done, which probably wouldn't be in Naoto's jurisdiction anyway, it seemed that wasn't it. Naoto nodded a bit, confirming that was indeed what she had said.

"I must go straight home today. I promised my Grampa so." Naoto explained slightly. Justin immediately turned and did a slight fist pump. Look who was the detective now. _Cole Phelps, detective at law, at your services._

"Called it!" Justin muttered under his breath with excitement. Chie passed him a slight confused look, having been the only one standing close enough to him to hear what he had mumbled. She didn't know what it was he had apparently called, but he seemed pretty damn satisfied with his deduction.

"Oh well… That's that, then. Let's hang out some other time."

* * *

"Man, did you see Naoto's attitude…? He sure blew his debut at school… Is he gonna be okay at Yasogami?"

The group had all gathered at the Junes, at their 'secret headquarters.' Though it wasn't really their headquarters anymore, would it hurt so much to pretend they were? It was kind of nostalgic sitting around the table here with the others. Reminded Justin of some bitter times; but there was a reason they called it 'bittersweet.' _Just like old times, eh?_

"Told you she was an asshole." Justin remarked with sarcastic pride. He was going to rub that in everyone's faces as much as he possibly could. Not that the others necessarily agreed, but hey; Justin did sort of have the advantage here. The most they've seen of Naoto so far depicted her being kind of a bitch. Could be worse than they hoped. "She'll be fine, as much as it kills me to say it. Remember MY debut?" Everyone nodded with agreement, to Justin's displeasure. It was hard to argue with that logic. _Dammit you people, I was joking. Don't agree with me!_

"He is different, but he has this… mysterious air around him that draws your attention." Yukiko mused out loud, trying to figure out what it was about Naoto that seemed so off to her. Probably the part where she was a girl trying to pretend she was a guy. That was pretty strange. Yosuke's eyebrow curved up, his interest peaked at the remark Yukiko made. He had taken that a completely different way.

"Whoa, Yukiko, I never knew… You like younger guys?" Everyone passed Yosuke a strange glance, as though to say 'what the hell is wrong with you?' Why would you ask someone that, let alone someone you know is in a relationship. Yu and Yukiko passed each other a glance. Well there was only one way to find that out.

"When was your birthday again?" Yu questioned with curiosity. He probably should have known this; what with him calling Justin out on not knowing Chie's birthday and all, but whatever. Shit happens, and he was a hypocrite. He could accept that.

"December 8th."

"Yes she does." Yu remarked turning away from Yukiko. Seemed she hadn't figured that was the intention of Yu asking when her birthday was, given the slight gasp coming out of her mouth and her cheeks turning bright red. Almost red enough to match her cardigan.

"Naoto-kun said he has "things to mull over," but he's gotta be talking about the murder case." Chie interrupted, bringing up what many of them had been thinking about. What could Naoto possibly need to mull over when the murder cases were over? Last Justin checked, there wasn't a lot of crime around Inaba. Just Kurt's little black market tobacco ring. And maybe that guy who had sold Justin a gun; that was kind of illegal. BUT OTHER THAN THAT.

"He's some ace detective, right? I bet he's not satisfied… even though the case is closed." Yosuke reasoned. That seemed the best explanation for why Naoto was still musing over the criminally natured. That is, it seemed the best explanation if you weren't Justin or Maya. She was probably trying to figure out a way to get Maya in a cell or something. Not that she'd ever succeed. Justin was being literal when he said over his dead body. He'd make a last stand if he needed to. He wouldn't of course; but he was committed to it if it ever came down to that.

"That's true… but…" Chie began to muse, though she couldn't seem to force up the words she was thinking. She sighed slightly with disappointment and defeat. All this talk about the murder case had reminded her of what was not anymore; and that was the investigation team. They were just a group of misfit teens now; nothing more. "This place isn't our "special headquarters" anymore… Eh, let's talk about something else." Chie pleaded for the topic to be changed. No one objected to that.

"Isn't the class trip coming up soon? Um… Where are we going…?" Yosuke spoke up. Justin just raised his eyebrow in curiosity. He didn't know that there was a class trip coming up. Damn, he really should pay some attention in class. But why would he do that when he had rubber bands? _Don't be ridiculous brain; you're making sense again. Quit while you're ahead._ Maya just sighed a bit, resting her cheek against the palm of her hand. A class trip meant everyone was going to be gone for the day, right? That meant she was going to be home alone again… And she wasn't going to have Yosuke backing her up with those wicked girls that mocked her behind her back at work. She should stand up for herself, but she didn't want to cause trouble just because her feelings were hurt. She had done it but a few days earlier, and look what happened there. Not again. Not now, not ever.

"Tatsumi Port Island. I heard it's an artificial island that faces the ocean. It's a pretty big city." Yukiko explained to the group. Justin and Maya had no idea where or what that was, but it seemed most everyone else did. Especially Rise, who had gotten a little wide-eyed at the mention of the island's name. She seemed excited at the very least anyway.

"Huh? Port Island? I did tons of shoots there. It's just beyond the Moonlight Bridge, yeah? Should be lots of places to hang out there." Rise spoke with enthusiastic admiration for Port Island. Justin only cared about the lots of places to hang out part though. The camping trip was complete shit, so HOPEFULLY this turned out much better. Chie just groaned though as Rise praised the place. That was not a good sign in the slightest. Justin prepared himself for the bombshell she was about to drop on the group.

"Uh, actually… we may not have any time to goof off during this trip. I heard the school board is changing the trip's schedule this year. The idea is, we're gonna visit a private school there. Like, to have local and urban students interact or something. It'll be all about studying and serious business… Yuck." Chie remarked with disgust. The only one at the table who didn't groan at that was Yukiko, who had absolutely no problem going on a school trip to learn something. Either that or she just wasn't one to complain. Both seemed like viable explanations.

"Ugh… They're totally missing the point of a class trip." Rise groaned, her hopes and dreams for this class trip crushed in a matter of seconds. She knew there was supposed to be a class part to the class trip; but there was also supposed to be a FUN part to that class trip. You just had to turn the c on its side, take the l, put it in front… do a bunch of other complex shit- LOOK, IT SPELLS FUN, ALRIGHT!?

"What kinda place is this private school?" Yosuke questioned after a moment, wanting to know if they were at least going to go to a FUN private school. Because you couldn't spell private school without fun. Unless you knew how to spell that is.

"I heard it's really good. They have nice buildings and everything. But it's closed on the day we're going there, so they're going the extra mile to make this work. They want us to tour some factories on the second day, and then we're coming back on the third day." Chie explained how the trip was going to work to everyone involved. Well on the bright side, they were going to stay in a hotel right? Sounded like that could be fun, what with having electricity and all. He was going to see that this trip was fun in SOME regard if it killed him. Even if it meant turning that hotel upside down. Besides, not like they couldn't all meet in the same hotel room and have a party or something. Unless the teacher's thought girls had cooties and separated the genders again. Because apparently all teenagers thought about at that age was sex. True if you were a guy.

"That's not different from a social studies field trip! Urgh… I didn't want to know that…" Yosuke groaned, not very satisified with what he was hearing. This was just going to be the camping trip all over again, he could tell. Just minus the waterfalls and the bathing suits and with more actual studying. Basically it was going to be school, but they slept in a hotel at night instead of at home. Oh joy.

"Can't expect much from a school-sponsored trip, I guess." Kanji reasoned, shrugging his shoulders. "Well, we'll be around, so if it starts to drag we can ditch." Kanji suggested. Justin raised his forehead off of its resting place from the table, eyes alit. Brilliant, they were going to get lost in the city; but that still sounded better than looking at a factory for 5 hours. They'd be running through the urban jungle.

"I'll show you guys around!" Rise spoke up with glee and excitement. All those years and show business were starting to pay off. For once, SHE would be the one who knew everything. She would be the one to navigate the investigation eam in such a matter as to maximize fun output. As if she didn't navigate for the team on a regular basis anyway. Not anymore though, Justin supposed; what with there being no real reason to go back into the television. Except for shits and giggles he supposed.

"But we're in different years…" Yosuke pointed out, figuring Rise couldn't even show them around if she wanted to. He should have learned by now that the school likes to do whatever it can to save a pretty penny. Funny; Justin would have thought they'd still have a budget with them increasing tuition like a motherfucker on a regular basis. The greed of some people never ceased to amaze Justin.

"Oh, didn't you know? The excursion will be like the campout. They're going to combine the first and second years. Since student enrollment is down and they're low on funds, they've cut the excursion back to once every two years." Yukiko explained to Yosuke how a budget worked. She also had to say the dreaded C word. No one should ever mention the campout. Ever. That was just an all-around disaster. People still wouldn't let it go that Justin had gotten drunk that night. It was one time for fuck's sake, and you never know if you don't try, right?

"Well, at least we won't be bored with you around, Senpai." Kanji shrugged and sighed, trying to look on the bright side of all of this. Though if his upperclassmen were the only bright side to this trip, Kanji was in for a world of disappointment. Unless by that he meant he was expecting Justin to start shit. Which he most likely would. _Good place to put your trust, Kanji._

"Gosh, I'm trying to remember the last time I went to Port Island and I wasn't working…" Rise giggled with excitement. Even if this was pretty much a social studies field trip, she knew how to get around. This would be fun one way or another. "This'll be great!"

"I wish I could be that positive about it… Doesn't this seem like a pain in the ass to anyone else?" Yosuke remarked, trying to see if anyone else was dreading this as much as him. Justin and Maya immediately shot their hands into the sky with complete synchronization. Everyone sort of looked at Maya weird though. She wasn't going on this trip, how could this possibly be a pain in the ass to HER of all people. It couldn't is how.

"What? You think that shit doesn't go down here when you're gone?" Maya remarked with slight disappointment, sorrow, and annoyance. The others all shrugged it off with the exception of Yosuke, who had actually took her words a little deeper to hear than the others. 'When you're gone.' What was going on when they left that Maya wasn't looking forward to their departure? He was going to need to look into the matter; because he thought he had a real good idea what it was. Besides from being lonely that is. But Maya was used to that when she was homeless for a good year, her only real company being her therapist.

"Some people were against the proposition, but it's been decided. Oh, and guess who's idea it was? King Moron's. It's just the kind of thing he'd come up with…" Chie spoke up with annoyance with this entire trip. Or at least, annoyance that Marooka was still torturing them even in death. Justin just groaned and rolled his eyes. Was it so hard for everyone to use his real name now that he was dead? _Yeah he was still a moron and a douche, but let's show some respect for the deceased, okay?_

"Nooo… King Moron…! Why must you torture us from beyond the grave…!?" Yosuke shouted needlessly dramatically to the heavens, as though someone had just taken his first born child and spilt its blood all over the sidewalk. You know. Like the Egyptians. Hell, he had screamed loud enough to attract Teddie over from his place across the food court working. Lesson to Yosuke, don't ever shout. A Teddie's vision is based on sound. Don't make a sound, and it can't see you.

"Noooo… King Moron…!" Teddie mirrored Yosuke's shout as he approached the table, still in his bear suit. Yosuke seemed almost infuriated by Teddie's not at all intentional mockery of Yosuke's joke. Besides, shouldn't he still be working? Really, so should Maya, but you know how that worked. The electronics section was always dead anyway.

"You don't even know who that is." Kanji remarked bluntly, shooting Teddie down. He was just repeating whatever he heard, like a small child learning his first words. Really, that was an apt description for anything Teddie did though. He was clueless about pretty much everything, just trying to imitate the people around him. That's where all the scoring shit came from in the first place, after all.

"Hey, tell me more about this trip. Where is Port Island? What's there?" Teddie decided to play a game of twenty questions. Yosuke decided to counter that by declaring the beginning of a game he like to call' shut up and get back to work before I fire your ass and kick you out of my house, you lazy, perverted, mooching asshole.'

"Get back to work, will ya?"

"Well, even though the class trip is coming up, it's still a ways away. What should I do until then…?" Chie mused aloud, trying to figure out how to best spend her freetime before being enslaved for three days. It was going to be hell when they left for this trip; even if she supposed it would be better than any graded work. Justin's eyebrow raised in a slightly sensual manner as she pondered how to spend her freetime.

"I can think of a few things." Chie's face turned bright red at the innuendo. That was… really out of character. All eyes feel on Justin with slight shock and embarrassment. Was this really the best place to be doing that shit? Maya didn't even give a shit by this point, just sighing as she stared at the tips of her nails, checking for dirt or something. Point is, she was over it. "Them Crooked Vultures Rock Band DLC comes out tomorrow. You, me, Maya."

"Dammit Justin, stop doing that!" Chie shouted at him, knowing full well that he only did that to fluster her then catch her off guard for jumping the gun. Justin laughed hysterically at her embarrassment, giving her a light shove from his seat beside her. At least she was a good sport about it and hadn't hit him yet. At least she got that he wasn't really perving it up. Kanji shook his head after that awkward exchange.

"Well, it's not like we got much to do here in the first place… Man is just an animal trying to figure out how to kill time through his days…" Kanji recited, a deep look in his eyes as though he were dead serious. He couldn't be, right? That… That made no sense at all. What did man being an animal have to do with killing time? Maybe if he said man was a knife or something that would make sense, but… An animal? No, doesn't work that way Kanji.

"Huh. You made that sound like you were being philosophical… Yet it made absolutely no sense." Chie laid down a burn on Kanji. Kanji only seemed flustered by his apparent lack of philosophical skills. Perhaps she should leave it to Shakespeare here. And speaking of Shakespeare…

"And my time is a piece of wax, falling' on a termite who's choking on the splinters." Justin recited. It got a whole bunch of funny looks from everyone, though only one applause. Seemed Yosuke was the only one who got what Justin was trying to do. And that was to out nonsense Kanji.

"Sorry Kanji, I think Justin's got you beat on the nonsense scale."

"Well of course I do. I'm Justin goddamn Tylor. I always have Kanji beat on the nonsense scale."


	134. Chapter 133: September 2, 2011

CHAPTER 133

September 2, 2011

* * *

"I thought you hated Modern Rock?"

Justin and Chie were walking home from school together, talking about various things. And by that I mean Justin was busy fangasming about that Rock Band DLC he had mentioned the day prior. Seemed he was actually serious in some regard. Chie couldn't help but wonder who this band was that even Justin was finding himself squealing like a fan-girl over a couple of crappy songs for Rock Band. She sure as hell couldn't see what was so exciting about playing fake instruments. Especially ridiculously over-charted songs. She'd have you know she could have played the baseline to whatever shitty metal music it was Justin was making her listen to no problem, it was just that crappy piece of plastic that was messing her up. Totally. Mind you, she was on easy, so she really had no place to talk about over-charting, but alright. Justin turned to her, glee in his eyes as she continued to question him about his taste in music.

"I do." Justin remarked concisely and bluntly. "But this is different. This is Josh Homme, Dave Grohl, and John Paul Jones in one band. How can you NOT love that!?" Justin continued with admiration for Them Crooked Vultures. Chie, of course, didn't recognize half the people that Justin had listed off in an attempt to convince her this was the greatest band in the world. She knew he was probably going to strangle her for saying she had no idea who Josh Homme or John Paul Jones was. She was almost right, too.

"I… don't know who those people are." Chie remarked slowly, as though trying to hold back the question she knew would result in her losing her head. Justin quickly shot her a disappointed and shocked glare. He probably should have known better in retrospect, since Chie knew NOTHING about Led Zepplin; and he was going to guess she wasn't exactly a Queens of the Stone Age fan. Not knowing Dave Grohl would be an unacceptable crime had she not known who that was. But let's get serious; who DOESN'T know Dave Grohl? He's all over the goddamn place.

"You pulling my leg?" Justin questioned, wanting to make sure he had heard that right before bitching her out. She timidly shook her head, indicating she had never been more serious about question in all her life. Justin shook his head in slight denial. "Josh Homme's the lead singer for Queens of the Stone Age, John Paul Jones is the bassist for Led Zeppelin, and Dave Grohl is in everything." Justin explained to her with slight annoyance. She was a bassist, and she didn't recognize the bassist for one of the world's greatest bands? The hell was wrong with her? She shrugged slightly. Since she didn't listen to any of those bands, save the ones Dave Grohl was in of course, she didn't really get all the hype. Though she did supposed Justin was a big Zeppelin fan, so that explained a lot.

"I still don't really see the appeal." Chie remarked. _Well yeah, that's because you haven't listened to their music yet, you… you… person who judges music before she listens to it, you!_ Justin shook his head a bit a slight smirk on his face in the process. Dammit, she was going to know the glory that was Them Crooked Vultures if he had to jam it down her damn throat. As if that had got Chie to listen to any of the other bands Justin had tried to force her to listen to. She really should considering they shared common musical tastes, but that was beside the point. No one likes having an opinion shoved down their throat after all.

"I don't need a reason baby, put your arms around me! Hold me real close, CLAP ME IN IRONS; c'mon Caligulove me!" Justin sung along to the not at all present music, at one point actually snaking his arm around Chie to wrap his hand around her opposite shoulder. Well it didn't really explain a lot, but it sure as hell caught her off guard. She blushed a bit as Justin made an ass out of himself while holding her close like this. Probably not a great image for anyone who might have walked by and seen them like this. In fact; it was an awful, awful image. She was starting to remember why she didn't like their relationship to be public knowledge. It was moments like this.

"…You can let go now." Chie remarked after a moment, cheeks red hot with embarrassment. Justin laughed a bit as he slowly let go of his grip on Chie. To this day, he still hadn't gotten tired of seeing her get so flustered. It was just as adorable as the first time he had seen it. She sighed a bit as they continued to walk, happy no one had seen them. Or at least, not seen it while Justin as singing whatever the hell it was singing. Was kind of sweet, but Justin didn't know how to sing, so that only went so far. Plus he was way too eccentric about it; kind of defeated the point.

"Of course, don't take my shitty singing as any representation of the actual product." Justin chuckled with self-mockery, demeaning himself and his musical prowess. Or lack thereof. Thank god he never had any aspirations to be a singer, otherwise his hopes and dreams would be smashed across the concrete like that watermelon they never got to break. Of course, while the two were staring at each other, Justin once again fell for his natural attraction to bumping into people because he wasn't paying attention, knocking himself and the lady he had collided with down on their asses. He longed for the days it was just poles that he walked into and not people. Especially complete strangers like this girl… Though, the person she was with seemed no stranger to Justin. How could he EVER forget Narukami. Justin rubbed his ass as the two slowly pushed themselves off the ground, sore from the collision. "Crap; I'm so sorry ma'am."

"Hey, watch where you're going!" She snarled at him as she stood back up, adjusting her blue hat. She was wearing a white, sleeveless shirt and a black tie, a blue pouch across her shoulder. She was wearing a plaid skirt with long knee socks decorated in a black and white striped pattern, and boots with so many laces he couldn't even count. She had short black hair and gray eyes, and she wore long fingerless gloves that ended only a little short of her shoulders. Basically she was a goth. Thank god Maya wasn't here, otherwise shit would go down. Justin groaned a bit as he tried to straighten his posture. Whoever this girl was, she didn't need to be rude about it! Chie only seemed to smile though; perhaps finding amusement in Justin being a clumsy oaf again.

"Oh hey Marie, long time no see!" Chie greeted the girl with enthusiasm. She seemed a little startled by Chie's presence, for some in explicable reason. Though perhaps more inexplicable was that both of these two seemed to know Marie, but Justin didn't. I mean come on, he got that he wasn't the most charming fellow out there, but he liked to be introduced to people from time to time too, you know. Was it so hard to say, 'oh hey Justin, this is Marie. She's a friend of mine.' _That's all I'm asking!_

"Oh, it's Green again." Marie remarked, eyes slightly widened as she noticed Chie standing next to whoever the hell it was that bumped into her a moment ago. She had been so caught up in her thoughts that she hadn't even noticed them there. Obviously if she did, she would have moved out of the way of Justin. Unless she was one of those kinds of people that expected people to get out of the way for HER. That wouldn't be entirely unexpected given the attitude. Chie's smile slowly faded as Marie spoke to her using her nickname. The one she certainly didn't pick out for herself.

"…It's Chie…" Chie choked up slightly, almost pleading to Marie to actually remember her name for once. She claimed that it was supposed to be a compliment, but the more and more she called her Green instead of her actual name, the more she doubted Marie even knew what her name was. Justin just chuckled a bit at her nickname. It was rude as fuck, but there was some truth in it. That managed to get a shocked gaze out of Chie as she turned towards the snickering Justin.

"She's right. You DO wear a lot of green." Justin chuckled.

"H-Hey! I like green; that's all!" Chie nervously stammered as Justin playfully mocked her choice in clothes. It was a moment before he stopped laughing and regained control over himself and his senses. Of course, he didn't care that Chie wore a lot of green. It looked good on her. There was a certain charming contrast between the brown tone of her eyes and the light green attire she so often donned. Or maybe it was just the fact that her eyes were beautiful. That could have just been it.

"Don't worry, it looks good on you." Justin reassured her after a moment, much to her apparent relief. Justin wasn't sure why she should care what Justin thought looked good on her; she was the one wearing that stuff not him. And besides; he wouldn't ever dare try to make her feel like she needed to change for him. No one has that right after all. Justin turned his smile away from Chie and over to Marie. He still hadn't formally introduced himself. "Name's Justin; sorry 'bout bumping into you earlier." Justin remarked, extending his hand out. Marie didn't seem to quite grasp the concept of a handshake, pun intended, and rather instead just stared at his hand in confusion, refusing to extend her own hand in response. There was a certain awkwardness in the air as Justin's friendly gesture went unreturned. Even more so when Marie seemed to turn her attention to the cane at Justin's side, eyeing it with puzzlement. Nice to see his cane was more interesting to her than the person in front of her.

"…Is that a 'cahn?' Margaret told me it's what old people use to get around. Like The Nose." Yeah… Really awkward indeed. A lot of puzzled looks fell upon Marie, save perhaps from Yu, who just sighed as though he was used to this. Justin was slightly bewildered. He wasn't old, he just used it because it looked good… And truth be told, it really DID help with the lack of depth perception. He still occasionally misplaced his foot on the stairs or something from time to time. Which was made worse by the fact that he was deathly afraid of stairs.

"And here I thought I was the youngest guy here…" Justin sighed with annoyance and disappointment. Marie didn't seem to give a damn though, just turning her attention back over to Yu as Justin rubbed his forehead with annoyance. Justin was finding whoever this Marie girl was to be very unlikeable. It was a wonder he hadn't started bitching her out yet. Perhaps he was just a lot more reluctant to jump the gun when it came to girls. What could he say, it was a weakness of his. The only girls that had ever treaten him shitty in life were those two bitches at Okina Station and Naoto. Everyone else who had been a complete dick was a guy. He just had a bit more of a trusting inclination around females, he supposed, for that very reason.

"C'mon, we still need to get this looked at." Marie remarked, holding up a bamboo brush in her hand. Yu nodded a bit with confirmation. Justin and Chie had no idea what the hell they needed a brush looked at for, but hey, more power to her. Though Justin did have to admire the craftsmanship. It had a very intricate design carved into the side, yet the surface still appeared smooth and polished. The poles jutting out of the bottom of the cone were fancy in design, but they still looked as though they could be used. He was no carpenter or anything like that, but he could tell an impressive trinket like that a mile away. He whistled slightly as he stared at the comb Marie held up in her hand. She turned somewhat surprised eyes to Justin, believing he might actually know something. Would save everyone some time if he did. "…You know anything about this."

"Well, I'm no carpenter… But I did take a workshop class in Freshman year…" Justin mused aloud as he stared at the comb. Marie quickly passed it off to him, so that he could stare more closely at it. He tilted his head as he slowly ran his finger along the bamboo comb, examining every little indentation, every groove along it's texture. He was not a woodshop expert for taking workshop for a year, but he could probably figure a thing or two out about it. Marie sure as hell seemed to hope he could anyway, given the wide eyed stare that had fallen on him. It was silent for a moment as he stared at the comb before passing it back to Marie. She seemed a little confused, though also anxious. "I don't know if it helps to know that's not real bamboo. Much too sturdy." Justin explained to her.

"But where was it made?" Marie questioned, not really caring about the actual materials in question; only where it had come from. Justin raised his eyebrow with curiosity. There was no way in hell he was going to be able to figure that out just from staring at a comb for a couple of seconds. Unless there was a watermark on there he hadn't noticed, those materials could be from anywhere. And like he said, he was no craftsman expert. He just knew a couple things about wood and materials. Not really enough to help her out in the long run.

"I'unno, China? Everything's made there." Marie's eyes widened with excitement, much to Justin's dismay. Seemed she had taken that comment much more seriously than she should of. It was supposed to be sarcastic dammit, not an actual remark. "Hey, don't get your hopes up; I don't know where it came from." Justin tried to calm her down. And it worked to a certain extent, but it seemed that her hopes had been smashed just as soon as they were raised, leaving only a disappointed Marie behind. She sighed a bit before placing the comb in her pouch again, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

"Well that was no help…" Marie sighed. Justin just threw his hands up and rolled his eyes, as though to say 'what the fuck did you expect.' She was lucky he even gave her his opinion after she had decided to be a bitch to him. And it wasn't like he was an expert craftsman or anything. If she had asked about computers MAYBE he'd know a thing or two, but this? Best he could tell was the wood was too sturdy to be something like bamboo. It was a close imitation if it was fake, that's for sure. But it was definitely not bamboo. "C'mon, let's go." Marie barked at Yu like an order as she quickly wandered off, leaving the three of them behind in a fit of rage. Yu quickly turned to Chie and Justin, who were just bewildered by this encounter.

"I am so sorry…" He apologized through his teeth before trying to catch up to her. Justin and Chie sighed a bit as the two slowly marched off, Marie still wrapping her arms around herself as though bored as fuck with something. And Justin thought he was bad. At least he was subtle. Sometimes. Okay not at all. But he was still better than that, dammit. He had charm! Justin was about to turn around when he heard the slight sound of crumpling beneath his shoe, as he spun around on his heel. His eyes widened momentarily as he looked down. Seemed he had stepped on a small white piece of paper. Looked fresh too. He doubted this was trash. He took his foot off of it, unfortunately leaving a dirty footprint mark on the back in the process before picking it up to examine it. You could tell just by the way he raised his eyebrow this was one hell of a thing to discover.

"…All You Clowns?" Justin read aloud from the top of the page, a slight shiver going down his spine. It just had to say the C word. Hopefully it just meant clowns like, you're acting like a clown, kind of clown. His curiosity was peaked with a title like that anyway. As was Marie's if the way she came to a dead stop as she heard Justin recite the title of the paper was any indication. Seemed she wasn't out of ear range yet. Which was yet to be seen as a good or bad thing. Justin's eyes darted along the words as he silently mumbled along, reading the paper to himself, and by extension anyone listening in. Including Marie.

"_Hey, you! How long are you going to wear that ugly mask? You know you ain't got the guts for this task. Cover yourself with paint, you're actin' like you aint' afraid of whatcha got in store for your fate. You think you got me? Well, that's too bad! 'Cuz I ain't stupid enough to get had! So drop the pathetic act. I wanna dance and that's a fact. Now quit your gawkin' and start to react! YEAH-YEAH! Now DANCE!_ …Ugh, fucking clowns." Justin mumbled to himself as he concluded reading the strange paper. Seemed like a poem. A really shitty poem. Though whether that was because of the actual poem itself or the subject matter, the subject matter being CLOWNS, was another question entirely. Didn't matter anyway, within seconds Justin felt the paper being ripped out of his hands.

"Hey! Who told you you could read my stuff!" Marie shouted at him, cheeks flustered and red with embarrassment as she ripped the paper out of his startled hands. Justin just wasn't sure how to react to any of this anymore. The best thing he could think of to help explain ANY of this stuff was to constantly remind himself that she was a Goth. That's where the attitude came from, that's where the crappy poetry came from. Justin was really starting to see why Maya hated Goths by this point. "Ihateyoustupidjerkfaceclown." She muttered quickly with anger before stashing the poem in her sash, right alongside the comb.

"Never ask a clown to dance. That's how they get you. They'll just disembowel you with a machete while you're caught off guard by their 'fluid movements.'" Justin remarked with fearful eyes. Marie just passed him a funny look like he was insane, though, like she was almost interested in his insanity. He was certainly a peculiar one; even in comparison to all these other people she had met. Marie groaned a bit as she made sure the poem was secure in her pouch this time.

"I don't understand how these keep getting lost…" She muttered to herself as she slowly stormed back off, cheeks red hot with embarrassment. And with that, Yu and Marie departed for real this time, leaving a rather confused and bewildered Chie and Justin behind, just sort of standing and staring at where two had been but a moment earlier.

"So… poetry, huh?" Chie spoke up breaking the silence after a while. Was kind of awkward with a poem about clowns, especially one like THAT, lingering in the air. I mean, how do you go back to normal conversation after someone demanding a clown to dance for them? Just doesn't happen. "You're the literature expert here. On a scale of one to Shakespearian…"

"Catcher in the Rye out of ten."

"That bad?"

"Horrendous."


	135. Chapter 134: September 3, 2011

CHAPTER 134

September 3, 2011

* * *

"What should I have?"

Rise and Justin were standing outside that steak place Chie was so fond of. No, not Aiya's. The OTHER steak place. You know, the one with the croquettes. What do you mean they both serve croquettes? THE steak croquettes you dumb fuck. They call 'em super croquettes or something… Oh don't get snippy with me, you know damn well which steak place I'm talking about. Point being, they were getting steak. Chie would lose her shit if she ever found out Justin and Rise were eating steak without her. She'd probably find out soon enough anyway. She had, like, steak senses or something. She'd sniff them out a mile away, find them, beat the living shit out of them, and then mug them for their steak. But until then, this should suffice. Rise was staring at the menu with great interest, as though she had never been more fascinated. Despite being here with Justin before, that is.

"Heck, maybe our shop should do something like this. How about a "ganmo kebab"? Or a "tofu croquette"?" Rise remarked after some brainstorming. Seemed that all of this steak had inspired her, made her a visionary in the field of tofu and tofu accessories. Justin of course didn't see the appeal in any of those ideas. He didn't like tofu after all, so what Rise was suggesting sounded to him like the rough equivalent of 'flavorless block of nothing on a stick.' Or even better 'turkey corndogs.' Who the hell bought a fucking turkey corndog? If you're buying a corndog, you know what you're getting into, don't try to vegetarian it up.

"If Chie ever found out you were desecrating the sacred name of steak by replacing it with tofu, she would literally rip your head off and use it as a volleyball. I would advise against that." Justin remarked, half serious half joking. It wasn't entirely out of the question that was something Chie would do. Rise didn't quite seem to grasp that this was something Chie would have no qualms going through with, brushing off the joke with a short giggle. At least, until the two were interrupted by the voice of a man in a suit approaching the two. _Is it me, or do I seem to get interrupted A LOT by complete strangers? And half the time they always seem to be wearing suits. One of these days I'm going to get approached by a CIA Agent and get shot right in the forehead. Won't even see it coming. Mostly because I'll be dead._

"Well, if it isn't Rise-chan." The man in the suit called out to Rise. Rise tilted her head to the side, a slightly puzzled expression on her face. She looked lost in thought as the man came to a stop in front of the two, completely ignoring Justin and focusing all his attention on the girl. You could tell that she had recognized the guy, but she couldn't quite put a finger on who he was. Kind of like when you forget someone's name, but instead of nervously mumbling and stringing together a bunch of consonants in a desperate attempt to play off you knowing their name, she was just trying to remember it. She didn't get a name though, only an occupation. Good enough she supposed.

"Ummm, you're the deputy mayor… right? Good afternoon…" Rise formally greeted the deputy mayor. Justin just gave a quick bow of his head to the mayor. He wasn't going to make a huge bow or anything; that would just look strange. But regardless, he WAS the deputy mayor, so obviously he deserved some sign of respect. Of course, so did half of Justin's teachers and every cop he had met, but that's beside the point. The deputy mayor smiled enthusiastically, eagerness in his eyes as he went to barrage Rise with a storm of questions that needed answering.

"I heard the news! You know, about the upcoming film!" The deputy mayor remarked with loud enthusiasm, arms extended a bit, as if to congratulate her. Not that he was; she had nothing to do with that movie anymore. You could tell from the look on Rise's face that she wasn't even entirely sure what news this guy had heard. She was out of the business, so it surely couldn't have pertained to her, right? The deputy mayor soon caught on to the fact that Rise seemed clueless on the matter though and figured he best explain himself. Probably would have been better if he just kept his damn mouth shut. Justin swore, adults were just the most socially incompetent people in the world. And coming from Justin, that was saying something. "…Hm? You haven't heard yet? You know Kanamin, right? Kanami Mashita! They're going to be filming nearby, right? I hope they stop by Inaba, too. Oh, I know! Why don't you ask?"

"Kanamin…" Rise remarked dully, slight sorrow and annoyance in her voice, eyes dull as the name rang against her earbuds. She didn't want to hear anything more about Kanamin. She was sick and tired of all that shit. She sighed after a moment, shaking her head to each side as though to deny the mayor's request to speak to Kanami. She probably could if she wanted to; but she didn't want to. So she wouldn't. She refused. "…I don't have anything to do with them anymore." She explained, making it clear that there would be no exploiting of her Risette personality to interact with the record company. She was done with all that shit; she was tired of people trying to drag her back into it. The deputy mayor didn't quite catch the hint.

"But wait… How many are coming? We only have small bed-and-breakfasts around here… Got it! They can stay at the Amagi Inn! Alright, I need to go tell that manager guy I was just talking to!" The deputy mayor declared before quickly running off to make preparations. Justin groaned a bit as he ran out of sight. Sure, it was probably his job to make sure that the town could accommodate a large cast like that; crowd control, living quarters, the works. That didn't mean he should have been drilling Rise with a game of twenty questions on the matter. He didn't know better, Justin supposed, so he got off the hook this time. THIS time. Next time he was going to punch someone in the face. And what did you know, next time just so happened to be this time. Within moments, as though following in the footsteps of the deputy mayor, came Inoue-san. And it seemed his only intent was to rub salt in an open wound. A wide open gaping wound that was still bleeding. And by salt, I mean rock salt. You know, the stuff they use to melt hard-ass ice? Yeah that.

"Oh, Rise-chan. Nice to see you." The manager remarked, though not very graciously. In fact, his words almost seemed cold, as though housing some resentment. For a guy who had done nothing but harass Rise and talk about how he wanted her to succeed and all that bullshit, he didn't seem too pleased to see her again. Justin and Rise picked up on that. Rise especially, who had sighed and rolled her eyes with annoyance. Was it so much to ask to just be left alone? She gave them all the wanted, and they were still trying to drain her of more.

"Inoue-san… What do you want today…?" Rise questioned with sarcastic annoyance. She obviously didn't care what Inoue wanted. He was bothering her, and she wanted him to go away. She could tell he had no good intent anyway. He adjust his glasses in that really douchey 'I'm better than you,' kind of way, if that makes sense. You know, where they sort of hold the frame with their thumb and index finger, even after they finished adjusting their lenses? Yeah, like that.

"I'm down here scouting film locations, so I thought I'd come see you. I wanted to hear your answer one more time, face to face… Are you sure you're not coming back?" Inoue questioned calmly. Seemed he was prepared for whatever answer he received. He wasn't quite as desperate as he was before, that was for sure. Rise sighed as the question assaulted her ears again. She didn't want any of that anymore. She was done being an idol… she… She was done. _Positive. Definitely. Probably? Yes, one hundred percent done._

"…I…I'm not going back…" Rise remarked, her voice quivering slightly, as though choosing her words carefully. Why she needed to be so cautious about what she said on a matter as simple as saying 'no,' Justin couldn't comprehend. Inoue adjust his glasses again, a slight expression of brief annoyance on his face. Like having a fly soar past your ear; only a minor inconvenience. It was immediately clear that he didn't really care that Rise had denied his offer. And while Justin had hoped that meant Inoue would give up and go home, content knowing this was what Rise wanted, it seemed he only stopped giving a shit about Rise because he saw a better deal in the making. One that very well may have broken Rise's heart.

"I see… Okay… I understand. Well, now I can focus on my new job. I signed up as Kanami Mashita's manager." Rise's eyes widened immediately with shock. How quickly she was replaced, not only as an idol, but by her own goddamn manager. The one who had said she was a friend, the one who had treated her like part of his family. Turned out she was nothing more than a betting chip; a betting chip that had grown worn and useless, only to be replaced by a shiny new chip. Justin shook his head with disbelief and disgust. How could he just betray her like that, without even a second thought. Rise didn't want to go back, but could he have even waited for the fucking corpse to grow cold before looting it's pockets? Inoue was nothing but a vulture, picking at the dead remains for his next meal. He didn't care who had to fall for him to succeed. He was a scumbag, through and through. "Remember how we were talking about doing that movie? They picked Kanami as your replacement. …We're going to sell Kanami. I have every confidence she'll be just as popular… no, even MORE popular than Risette."

"…You little prick!" Justin mumbled under his breath with anger. He didn't care about Rise, he just cared about making a star. They were going to sell Kanami to the public the same way they did Rise, until she had outgrown her usefulness, and then toss her into the pile along the other celebrity has-beens. You could already see the tears welling up in Rise's eyes as Inoue confidentially proclaimed how Risette was through, irrelevant, useless now compared to her replacement. It only went to prove how shallow he truly was. Inoue continued talking though, ignoring Justin's small, short-tempered outburst. He didn't care about Rise's fiancée anymore either. As far as he was concerned, this little marriage scheme of theirs would be a PR nightmare. Part of Rise's image was sex appeal to young men, and the idea of her being off the market would only go to ruin that image. Plus, her fiancée seemed to have a short temper. If the paparazzi ever came around, he'd ruin everything with one foul swoop of the tongue. Oh yes, he was glad to be rid of BOTH of them.

"Although… Kanami is an ordinary girl. We have to 'polish' her so she sells." Inoue continued to talk about the new girl as if she were just some trophy, like a fancy car you would take out on a spin. She had to look good otherwise the neighbors would get the wrong idea. What a sick fuck! "But you had that spark… You learned fast, adapted well to new situations, had that smile that could be as strong or weak as you needed… And those acting skills of yours! You were like an old pro. You could have reached heights most girls could never dream of…" Inoue tried to guilt trip her, into making her feel like shit for refusing the offer he was making her. Never again would this be on the table, and he wanted to rub it in her face just how badly she had fucked up. Tears were already starting to roll down her face… That was about all Justin could take holding back his rage. He always said people should be able to stand up for themselves, but this was unacceptable. The way Inoue was treating her… Rise had never stopped being bullied. The bullies just happened to be her management. Justin stepped in between the two, pure rage flowing through his veins as he looked Inoue dead in the eye, the most terrifying glare you had ever seen sweep across his face piercing through Inoue's dark heart.

"…You know what asshole? E-fucking-nough. You've been harassing her since day fucking one. All she wanted was for you guys to leave her alone. But you couldn't just do that, could you? You just had to fucking push her. Are you happy? Are you happy to make a girl fucking cry? I want you to get the fuck out of here and never come back. Because if you continue to harass us I guarantee you the cops will get involved." Justin menacingly threatened Inoue. Inoue was very clearly caught off guard, slightly fearful of the shit Justin had thrown back into his face. But then he realized; this was just some snotty teenage punk threatening to have him arrested for harassment. He worked for the Record Company. He could out lawyer Justin any day of the week. Rise was still bawling behind their backs, though it had lightened up a bit as Justin took a stand against Inoue. Someone needed to teach that asshole a lesson; she just wasn't the one who could do it.

"Harassment? I guarantee you that with our lawyers, no charges you press will stick. You can try to get me arrested for 'harassment' all you want; it isn't going to happen." Inoue smugly remarked to the furious blonde haired boy. The boy just shook his head eyebrows raised in such a way as to insult Inoue's intelligence for not getting what he had meant by that, a slight snicker on his voice as he found amusement in Inoue's complete ignorance on the matter.

"Arrest you? No, no. If you come back around here again, you're not going to be the one that gets arrested." Justin quickly cupped his cane between his two hands, bouncing it up and down the way one would with a baseball bat, cracking his neck side to side in a menacing fashion. "I am." And then it finally seeped into Inoue's mind what he had meant by the cops getting involved. Justin was outright going to slaughter his ass if he ever came back. Inoue fearfully and slowly backed away before running off like the coward he was, leaving the enrage Justin and the tearful Rise behind. She was actually hiccupping a bit as the tears came down her face. She was going at it pretty hard. Justin sighed as he turned to Rise, the glare on his face lightening up to sympathetic, sorrowful eyes. He felt bad that Rise had to hear those things: From him and Inoue alike. She just wanted to be left alone after all. She never wanted any of this to happen. "Hey… you alright?"

"What the heck… That's not fair… After he made me answer… He never told me any of that when we were still working together… Acting skills…? Of course I have 'em. What the heck…? Telling me all that stuff now… It's too late…!" Rise shouted in between hiccups. Seemed she hadn't really realized Inoue was just being a sarcastic prick, trying to build her up so she felt bad about leaving. Which was a good thing Justin supposed, though that did make Justin look like a real asshole threatening the guy like that if he was only complimenting her. Rise wiped her eyes, trying to stop the tears from streaming down her eyes. It wasn't really working though. "Hey… Why… am I crying? There's no reason to cry… There's nothing… to be sad about… Nothing… Senpai… I… I don't know why I'm crying…" She hiccupped over her tears and sorrow.

"Because that guy was a complete prick; just ignore him. He's not worth crying over." Justin pleaded with Rise in an attempt to stop the tears from flowing. He wasn't having much luck in that regard though. "Please don't cry." He eventually remarked, realizing he wasn't getting much accomplished just through logic. At this point he was practically begging, each tear Rise cried drowning Justin's heart with sorrow and pain as he watched his friend break down.

"I… I lost… everything… I don't know how… but… I lost everything… I'm scared… I'm sad… What's going on…? Senpai… Please, stay here… Stay by… my side…" Rise begged and pleaded in a hysteria. Justin doubted she really understood what was going on at this point. What she was saying made no sense, like she was slowly losing her sanity. Or perhaps her sanity was just being clouded by all the built up emotions in her chest. The tears only started to flow faster though, her cries louder and spastic like her hiccups. She needed to calm down; if she kept this up, it wouldn't surprise Justin if she couldn't get any air into her lungs. Within one quick movement, Justin extend his arms, clinging her close to his body in an embrace, trying to calm her down, give her a shoulder to cry on. And it worked somewhat. She certainly had suffocated herself with Justin's shoulder, trying to force back the tears as he patted at her back. God he was so happy Chie wasn't here. She'd rip him a new one if she ever saw this. Hopefully she'd understand. "Senpai!" She screamed into the cloth of Justin's shoulder. She probably just needed to get all out; everything that had been clogging her chest.

All the while Justin remained entirely quiet. No matter what he thought about her shithead of a manager, or the tears running down her face, it just didn't matter. None of it mattered. She just needed some time to get everything out of her system. Just quiet; no words needed to be spoken. It was a quite a few minutes before Rise finished crying, timidly pulling away from Justin's embrace. Her cheeks were red with embarrassment, though nowhere near as red as her eyes. Mostly though… she felt good. Better at least. Alright, she still felt like shit; but at least she could breathe without hiccupping over her tears. That was a plus.

"Senpai… I have you… I have the others… I didn't lose everything… There are people who need me, right…?" Rise choked up as she let herself out of Justin's grasp. His eyes remained sorrowful, pitiful for a moment, before a small grin made its way across the cracks of his mouth. He didn't find any happiness in watching Rise suffer like this, but he did find happiness in Rise realizing there was more to her than some Record Label. She was more than just Risette. Just because the Record Company had dumped her on the side of the road, didn't mean she lost anything. She lost nothing worth losing.

"There's an important role in life for all of us, Rise." Justin mused aloud, hands on her shoulders as he looked her dead in the eyes, as though trying to speak to her very soul. "There's always someone out there who needs you; and there's always someone out there you might need. It's what links us all together. You've lost nothing; only your direction on your pathway." Justin smiled warmly at her. It was quiet for a moment before Rise smiled back, her eyes shining slightly.

"I'm going home now. My head's all messed up… I need time to think it all over. About how I feel now… I don't want to lose anything more… Goodbye, Senpai…" She sorrowfully dismissed herself, a slight grin still along the corners of her mouth as she broke free of Justin's grasp on her shoulders. She quietly and slowly walked away from the spot the two had stood at only a moment ago, joking about tofu on a stick. Justin smiled a bit as she walked off into the horizon line.

"Would it be douchey for me to point out she's walking the wrong way home?" Justin chuckled to himself. Seemed she really had lost her way.


	136. Chapter 135: September 4, 2011

CHAPTER 135

September 4, 2011

* * *

"Let's see, got the instant noodles, got the oreos… Forgot the Cheez Whiz; shit!"

Justin mumbled to himself as he accounted for all his purchases at Junes, all his groceries. Or perhaps the lack there of. All he got was noodles and some cookies after all. He didn't need much to get by; and alas, neither did Maya. That kind of disappointed Justin in a way. She had been eating, but it still seemed like the bare minimum. He supposed he couldn't really force it though; her stomach must have shrunken from spewing out her lunch on a regular basis. He just wished she'd eat more than a couple cups of instant noodles a day. Those barely counted as a meal for JUSTIN; and he didn't exactly eat much himself. He sighed a bit, before rounding the corner into the music store. As much as he wanted no interaction with that creepy shop keeper, he did need to get some more guitar picks… Maybe some thicker strings while he was here. And besides; he might have been creepy, but at least he was generous. Justin supposed he owed him and his shop at the very least a visit once and a while.

He walked in, gave the cashier a quick wave, hoping to avoid conversation, and immediately made his way over to where the picks were… Right at the counter. He probably shouldn't have given the cashier the heads up that he was approaching in retrospect, but hey. Whatever got him in and out with his goods. The cashier smiled enthusiastically at Justin as he came to a stop in front of the glass cabinet housing a shit ton of picks, all very entriquetly designed. Too bad they didn't have one of those Van Halen picks. You know, the red ones with the white lines going every which way? Yeah those. Justin passed his eye from pick set to pick set, trying to pick out which one would suit him best, when the cashier suddenly lit up with optimism and enthusiasm in his eyes. Justin probably picked a shitty day to wear his Queens of the Stone Age t-shirt.

"No way, you listen to stoner rock?" The cashier questioned. Justin's eyes quickly flew up from the glass cabinet. Oh figures, the guy who had suggested he play Cocaine a few months back was into stoner rock. Not that Justin could really be too judgemental. Stoner rock was the shit. It was just that he doubted this guy was listening to stoner sock just because it was good. Justin groaned a bit, knowing he had somewhat dug himself into a corner here when he was wearing a Queens of the Stone Age t-shirt. Didn't get much stoner rock-er than that.

"A little bit." Justin shrugged slightly. That was a complete and utter lie, but he didn't intend to turn this into a huge discussion on music or bands or anything like that. He should have known better from this guy though; especially given that little to no one was inside the store at the moment. The cashier clearly had nothing better to do than talk about meaningless shit like music. Not that music was meaningless of course; it was just that the cashier had no reason to talk about it than to fritter away the hours of boredom.

"What's your favorite Queens album?" The cashier continued to question. Justin rubbed at his forehead slightly as he slowly got sucked into a game of twenty questions that he wanted no part in. He could already tell how this conversation was going to go. _Hey what's your favorite album? Oh really? Mine's such and such. Song x was absolutely amazing; you hear that guitar solo. I mean bla bla fangasm etc, etc. Look at me. I know shit about music and think people give a flying fuck about it._ Justin sighed, eyes darting back down to the picks. Sooner he found what he was looking for, the sooner he could leave.

"Era Vulgaris." Justin muttered off, hoping the answer would satisfy the cashier's curiosities. It didn't though. That would be too much to expect out of a guy like him. Justin was starting to remember how a long time ago Ai had suggested replacing all the cashier's and salespeople with vending machines. Justin was finding himself hard-pressed to disagree. He had been in agreement then; but after revisiting the cashier and his shop, Justin was finding himself agreeing. The guy DID give him a guitar for over 80% less than sale tag price though, so he couldn't just storm out or tell him to shut his fucking mouth. He had to bear it knowing the guy meant well, that he had done something good for Justin. Never bite the hand that feeds after all.

"I prefer Songs for the Deaf." The cashier remarked plainly. Justin sighed, eyes still staring at the picks… If only he could pick one of these out, pun unintended, without the cashier barraging him with discussion on whatever music it was he was listening to… And then it struck Justin. He still needed some thicker strings to give his Les Paul a deeper sound. And where were the strings? You guessed it, in the back. Why the cashier didn't keep them upfront was beyond Justin, but whatever. They weren't out here, and he KNEW that cashier had some; which meant if he asked for those, he could get the cashier to go away for a moment. "David Grohl's drumming was phenomenal-"

"Hey uh, hate to interrupt, but I was thinking of getting some thicker strings for the Les Paul. You think you might have something?" Justin cut the cashier off before he went on a fan rant about why Songs for the Deaf was the best album. The cashier's eyes opened slightly wider as the comment met his ears, a little caught off guard by the sudden topic change. Or perhaps by the prospect of doing his fucking job.

"Oh, sure. Be right back." The cashier remarked before pushing himself away from the counter and making his way to the back row. It took every fiber of Justin's being not to fist pump as the cashier finally left. If he didn't need some new picks so badly, he'd almost be tempted to run while he could. But alas, he did not, and was more than satisfied to browse for his purchase in peace and quiet. At least, he was, until he noticed something odd spread across the top of the glass display case. A slightly crumpled white piece of paper. Was probably just a list of strings they had or something, but Justin figured he might as well check it out. Well, instead of finding a catalogue, he instead found more poetry. Slightly less shitty than the last time this had happened.

_The fallen angel is chained down_

_Her wings torn off, eroded by prejudice, her last breaths full of black despair…_

_Do you know her name?_

_Will she eventually return to nothing, forced into the realm of oblivion?_

_No!_

_Her requiem will become a roar and tear away the mask of hypocricy!_

_Do you know her name, she who will strike down the cowards and tear down the lies?_

_That's right, her name is…_

_What is it?_

Justin rubbed at his chin, slightly impressed. This. This wasn't half bad actually. Would make one hell of a metal song with a couple modifications here and there to help with the flow. At the very least it was a good palette cleanser from the last time he had found shitty poetry lying around. Though he did have to wonder where it had come from. It should have been immediately obvious in retrosepect, but just in case it wasn't, within moments he felt the paper being ripped out of his hands once more. Looks like Marie was back, having realized she had lost this, and not all too pleased about Justin having read it whil she was gone.

"Again!? Stop reading my shit! Godihateyoustupidjerk." She muttered quickly and angrily as she stashed the poem back into her pouch. Justin was a little shocked by the sudden revelation, though not entirely surprised. If anything, he felt stupid for not having made the connection earlier. He also wasn't too pleased to be getting bitched out by Marie again. Yeah he was reading her shit, but she had just left it out in the middle of nowhere. And it's not like he wouldn't have given it back to her if he knew it was hers… Or where to even find her… Ah, he'd probably give it to Yu and let it be his problem, since he seemed to know what the fuck was going on with this girl. Not Justin though, that was for sure.

"Sorry, I didn't know it was yours." Justin apologized, even though he really had nothing to apologize for. He was just curious, and it's not like the thing had been labeled 'Marie's shitty dark ass poetry.' Marie didn't seem satisfied with his explanation regardless though, just glaring at him as she insured the paper was nice and secure this time. Whoever kept doing this shit was going to pay one of these days, she swore it on her life. "…What exactly was it doing here anyway?" Justin questioned after a moment. What was she doing taking out poetry in a music store… unless… Was she writing a song perhaps? Needed work, but Justin could see it working.

"I don't know; I just came in to see whatever this 'guytar' thing was." Marie remarked with annoyance, crossing her arms as she continued to give Justin the stinker eye. Don't think she wasn't serious about him being a jerkface, reading all her shit. Justin's eyebrow raised. Partially because Marie had apparently never seen a guitar before, partially because she had completely mispronounced the word guitar. It wasn't that hard of a word to pronounce at all. Still, his curiosity was peaked, and given the presence of her poem here, he was finding it increasingly difficult to believe that she wasn't here with musical aspirations.

"Guitar? You've never seen a guitar before?" Justin questioned. Marie just shook her head, not really realizing why that was strange as all fuck. All she knew was that some of those people on that StarScandalz show Margaret was always talking about had one. She still had to wonder how Margaret knew that when they didn't have a television in that car. "Really? Wow, didn't think that was humanly possible… What made you want to check it out anyway? Planning on doing something with those poems of yours?" Justin inquired after a moment. The comment seemed to anger Marie, though also interest her in some aspect, grasping out to her. She got what Justin was trying to ask, and the answer was no. And would he stop reading her motherfucking poems?

"…No. They're poems, not music." Marie remarked matter of factly, as though to imply music wasn't poetry or vice-versa. Justin tilted his head a bit, giving Marie a strange look; as though he were fascinated yet so… confused at the same time. How could anyone who writes poetry not understand those were the same thing? The timing of lyrics, the way each line flowed into the next in such a pleasing way to the ear, telling all sorts of stories and speaking straight to the human soul. Can you tell whether I just defined music or poetry? Exactly.

"Not music? Marie; music is just poetry played by a band. Music is poetry in motion." Marie just shot him a puzzled glance, as though to imply she had no idea what the hell he was going on about. Partially because she had no idea what a band was, but also partially because she couldn't believe that anyone thought poetry was the same thing as music. They weren't. Not even close. Justin picked up on her reluctance to believe him though, holding firmly onto her belief that her poems couldn't hold the same impact as any song. And she didn't even know much about music. They didn't exactly have music in that boring old cramped room. It was a wonder she even had room to write. "You don't believe me, do you?"

"No." She remarked concisely and bluntly. Justin sighed a bit, rubbing at his chin as he tried to think of a way to convince her. And then it struck him like a runaway freight train. He placed his bag of groceries on the counter for the moment being, sticking his hand in his pocket as he shuffled around for something. His father had given him a wonderful piece of advice years ago. Granted, it was when he was lecturing him about standing up to bullies, and right before he had smacked him upside the head again, but it was still good advice all the same. If you want to change the way a person thinks: show. Don't tell. Justin grabbed a fancy electric guitar off a nearby rack, pulling out a worn out, chipped guitar pick from his pocket. It was broken, but it still worked for what he needed to do he supposed.

"Here… Watch." Justin remarked as he quickly checked the tuning of the guitar, strap across his shoulders as he secured the guitar along his body. He had to wonder what was taking the cashier so long on those strings, but hey, he didn't care. Just so long as he didn't get the wrong idea about him playing music in his store. Marie just watched with puzzlement as Justin readjusted his position, holding the guitar firmly with one hand, pick in the other near the base of the strings. He took a deep breath before slowly plucking at the strings, a few very strange sounding chords, before erupting into a more complex chord progression pattern, his fingers sliding up and down the board.

_You got a question? Please don't ask it,_

_It puts the lotion in the basket._

_You say bigger's better but bigger's bigger._

_White boy dressed up like a figure._

_Drawn inside a toilet on the wall,_

_The world is round, my square don't fit at all._

Justin sung trying his best to play along to the song using only his guitar. Wasn't the same without the bass drops. Queens of the Stone Age bass drops were so godly they might as well have had their own pair of testicles. Still it worked for what he wanted to do anyway; and that was prove that music could be poetic. Marie listened with fascinated curiosity as he continued to strum at the strings. There was something magical about the words. They were non-coherant and somewhat strange, but they also sort of made sense. And in that, it spoke volumes to her.

She didn't get the lotion in a basket part, though. At all.

_They say those who can't just instruct others,_

_And act like victims or jilted lovers._

_You can't lose it if you never had it,_

_Disappear man, do some magic._

_You want a reason? How's about "Because"?_

_You ain't a has been if you never was._

_I sound like this,_

Justin flipped his hair forward, crouching forward as he started to play a guitar solo. You would think he'd skip the actual music part and do just the lyrics, but then… Didn't music just speak volumes in and of itself. The lyrics were great and all, but the song itself… The music is what made you feel, the lyrics were just what spoke to you. It's when the two combined that you truly had something magical. Marie seemed entertained at the very least, if the first smile that had crept across her face since Justin had met her was any indication. It was about a minute and a half before Justin finished wailing on that guitar, the aggressive, yet mellow sound of the chords filling the air reducing back to their original form. He held his head up, flipping the hair out of his eyes the best he could. Or at least the one he WASN'T trying to hide.

_Scared to say what is your passion,_

_So slag it all, bitter's in fashion._

_Fear of failure's all you've started;_

_The jury is in, verdict: retarded._

_I'm so tired, I'm wired too._

_I'm a mess, I guess, I'm turning on the screw._

Justin played one last chord before stopping at the last few lyrics of the song, allowing the words to flow freefully through the air. He was sort of hoping that last verse of the song would reach Marie in some regard, since she was so obviously afraid of other's reading her work. She didn't need to hide it; though she did need to stop with the clown shit. That just made Justin's skin crawl at the mere thought. Plus it wasn't too well-written. Justin took a deep breath, putting the guitar back on the rack as he finished. Marie just stood there, her usual blank expression still on her face, minus the slight grin along the cracks of her mouth.

"Impressive…" Marie mused allowed, impressed by just how powerful an instrument an instrument was. Perhaps she had misspoken; that sounded awfully poetic to her. She was going to have to give Margarette shit for describing music to her as something humans did for recreation, but describing poetry as art. Had she never listened to music or something. "…How's it work? You just… think or something?" Marie questioned, eyeing the guitar Justin had put back on the rack. Justin scratched at the back of his head slightly.

"Well… Sort of. It's like writing poetry. You practice and practice until it becomes second nature. It's not that easy when you first start, believe me. Your fingers are stiff, fumbling over the strings as you try to find the right place to place your fingertips. I still have a hard time using my pinky." Justin laughed a bit at his ineptitude at playing a musical instrument. He found damn near every technique in the book to avoid using all four of his fingers. It was a wonder the guy could play chords. Besides power chords anyway. Justin could play power chords like no one's business. Good on him for knowing how to play a chord that consisted of two strings (three if you were pushing it.) Marie rubbed at her chin taking one last look at the guitar as the two were interrupted by the cashier coming back. Was a wonder he hadn't heard his 'favorite' band's song on the way back.

"Alright here we go; got some extra thick ones. Should give you that 'bass' quality." The cashier remarked. Justin raised his eyebrows with fascination. How did the cashier know that's what he was aiming fo- Oh right, Queens of the Stone Age t-shirt… Should have guessed. Regardless, seemed the cashier had Justin's back, as strange as he could be at times. Perhaps that's the reason he kept coming back to this place and didn't avoid it like the plague. Justin approached the cash register, sticking his hand in his pocket for his cash.

"Thanks. I'll take these and… Oh you do have those Van Halen picks. Must have overlooked them. Yeah, I'll take a set of those." Justin remarked.

"2000 yen." Justin quickly placed the necessary funds on the table, dropping his new purchases in the bag with his groceries. He was ready to make his departure when he was met by a rather unusual sight. Marie had approached the cash register; guitar in hand. Justin's eyes widened slightly as she pushed the guitar up onto the counter (thanks for scratching the glass, you bitch.) Did she even have the money for that? God knows Justin could barely put money aside for THIS with the way he lived.

"How much for the 'guytar?'" She questioned. The cashier took one look at the blue fender, running his thumb along the surface as though he could determine the quality just by touching the materials, before turning to Marie with a price in mind.

"10000 yen." Surprising Justin to no extent was Marie simply opening her pouch and putting that money on the counter like it was nothing. No doubt, no hesitation. And the best part? Justin had caught a glimpse inside the pouch while she did. Aside from all the papers in there and a wooden comb, the thing was chock full of cash. Holy, fucking, shit; this girl was loaded. That explained so much and yet so little. The cashier nodded before taking a quick trip to the back to grab a guitar case. How he took significantly shorter to get that than he did some guitar strings, Justin would never know. He must have put a LOT of fucking thought into what kind of strings Justin wanted. And he picked some damn fine ones too. Keep on truckin' cashier guy.

"Where'd you get so much cash?" Justin questioned after a moment. Marie groaned a bit, as though the question annoyed her. Or perhaps it was the answer.

"Ugh, the nose makes us charge for out services. But we don't even use money in there; I don't get why we charge for it at all. So I just sort of took some of the money that was lying around." Marie explained, though god knows Justin was completely lost. Serivices? The Nose? What in the hell are you talking about woman. Make some goddamn sense. The cashier eventually came back, not a moment too soon, might Justin add, with the guitar in its case and handed it off to Marie.

"Uh… you really want to do that? You don't even know how to play." Justin remarked, pointing out the obvious. Marie didn't seem so much as fazed by the remark though, grabbing a hold of the guitar and holding it by her side.

"Which is why you're going to teach me." She remarked as though it were an order. Justin spat out the toothpick in his mouth with shock. Now wait a damn second; he never agreed to that. He didn't even know Marie, he didn't know where to find her, where she lived, how to fucking teach for starters! How was he going to teach her guitar. The worst part of the matter was it was clear she wasn't taking no for an answer. She quickly walked out of the store while Justin's jaw hung loose, completely flabbergasted by what had just happened. It took him a moment to regain his composure.

"You know what? I should just become a hermit. That way I won't have to deal with people and get involved with this shit on a daily basis."

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTES**

**MUSIC**

**Turnin' on the Screw - Queens of the Stone Age**


	137. Chapter 136: September 5, 2011

CHAPTER 136

September 5, 2011

* * *

"Senpai… I thought about it…"

At Rise's request, Justin had met her up here on the hill overlooking town. Had Justin ever told you what a nice hill this was? Very grassy and… mountainous. There were some rocks, and some… uh… more rocks. You know, the beauty of this hill kind of got lost when he was up here all the time. Wasn't quite the home away from home it used to be, his little safe haven to just look out over all his worries like they were just insignificant ants in the palm of his hand. He didn't have much in the ways of worries these days, though. With the murder case closed, he wasn't constantly worrying about making sure chie would be safe, or that they made sure no one else got hurt inside that television. It was just nice… calm… peaceful even. In a way, it was very disorienting to Justin. Like he'd come home at night, and go to bed at night feeling as though he was forgetting something important. Perhaps a certain midnight time-slot based television program. It was hard to just pretend nothing had ever happened; it had become routine.

But despite that gripping sensation in his chest telling him he still needed to jump into televisions or stay up into the darkest hours of the night, he still felt at peace. Perhaps that was why this hill didn't give him the same sense of comfort it had so many months ago. Maybe it was just that Justin had a good idea what Rise wanted to talk about, and wasn't looking forward to it. She just needed to let go. Forget about her shitbag of a manager, move on. But more importantly, she need never shed a tear for her decisions. And if anyone made her believe otherwise; well… Well Justin would be there to help. Because sometimes, it was just so hard to stand on your own two feet.

"Why my mind just went blank when I heard about Kanami…" Rise continued to speak her mind allowed, a slightly pained, sorrowful expression on her face. She didn't like talking about it, that much was painfully obvious to Justin. But she did know she needed to get it off of her chest. Especially after the day prior. She was a little embarrassed to think she had broke down in public like that, wailing like a baby… And then there was Justin… Well… That was another matter for another time. For the moment, she needed to get this showbiz shit off her chest. She needed to make a decision. "I mean, I ran away from showbiz because I was tired of being an idol… So I shouldn't have had any problem. And yet… I felt so angry about it… Why do you think that is?"

"Because you're management was full of a bunch of dickheads who didn't wait twelve seconds for the ashes to cool…?" Justin remarked semi-sarcastically, voice raising in octave slowly as the sentence went on. It was clear to Rise he wasn't being serious despite this being a serious conversation. She wasn't offended. She had come to expect that from Justin. Just disappointed. Disappointed that he couldn't shut his fucking mouth for twelve seconds to give her a serious answer.

Justin's smirk slowly disappeared as he noticed Rise didn't so much as flinch at the remark, simply staring him down with those sad, pained eyes. He sighed, somewhat disappointed in HIMSELF for not taking this more seriously. She obviously needed someone to talk to right now. She didn't need a friend; she just needed a listener. Though perhaps more disappointed in himself, Justin was disappointed in Rise. He should have been proud of her, that she had realized what was wrong. But what she had felt was lacking in her life, what had really been the issue this entire time… It just wasn't right. Those people treated her like shit, and now she wanted back in? She didn't deserve that kind of abuse from them. She got enough of that shit before she applied to being an idol. Plus, Justin had an unnaturally heavy bias against the record company; no denying it, even from his perspective. Yes… this was her decision, and her decision alone… but dammit, it was hard to agree with it. "…Risette… Is just a character they made Rise. Sure, some part of her is always going to be part of you, but… God how do I explain this…" Justin rubbed at his forehead as he stumbled over his thoughts, trying to make a coherent sentence. "Are you sure this is what you want to do?" Rise nodded her head timidly, a small grin along the corners of her mouth.

"Risette's name in lights… Idolized by the masses… That was 'me' too… I didn't want to lose that me." Rise continued to pour her heart out on the table. Justin sighed, shuffling through his pockets to stab a toothpick inbetween his teeth. God he was starting to regret smoking lately… Maybe… Maybe just one… It wouldn't kill him ri- _God, the fuck am I saying!? Stay cool Justin, you don't need it. You don't need it. Don't. Need it. "_There's no way to become someone else… I ran away from my plain, gloomy self… Then I ran away from my idol self… Right now I'm the homicide detective self, I guess?" Rise joked. Justin sighed with slight relief as the tension in the air loosened slightly. The corners of his mouth curved up into a slight grin.

"I don't think Miss Phelps will enjoy you stepping in on her territory." Justin chuckled slightly; since apparently being a homicide detective was the cool hip thing all the kids were doing now. Justin remembered the times when it was just him and Chie bitching back and forth over who was Phelps and who was Bekowsky, where people looked at them like they were crazy for arguing over which one of them was which detective. Now look at them; they were ALL trying to pretend to be homicide detectives. They kind of were in a way, but this was taking it to a different extent no doubt. Rise passed Justin a confused glance, not getting the joke he had made. And why should she have; she wasn't there when Justin and Chie first started the Phelps shtick, and it had died out not too long before she joined. They still made passing references to it from time to time, but they weren't ripping each other's arms off trying to call dibs on being Phelps either. Regardless, Justin supposed he owed Rise SOME explanation. "Oh sorry; old inside joke between me and Chie. You weren't around when it was a thing." Rise smiled slightly at the explanation. Not because she got the joke, but she got the hidden meaning in it. It wasn't JUST a joke to those two. Nothing ever was.

"So does that make you Mr. Phelps…?" Rise questioned with a slight giggle, a small grin on her face. You could tell she was genuinely curious though for some reason, her eyes digging through his skin to try and find the answer to her question. She wasn't sure whether she should have found it adorable or been kind of hurt when a grin crossed Justin's face, laughter on his lips.

"I would be so lucky." Justin chuckled. Alas, he couldn't be mister unless she was a misses. Maybe someday; but not today. Not today… Rise smiled slightly, not entirely sure how she should take that. She knew how she SHOULD have taken it. Laughing and giggling and smiling about how adorable those two were as a couple and all that jazz. But she didn't. She just smiled a little bit, battling with some other emotions bottled up in her chest. All things considered, all things that had happened… She just didn't get some things. For starters, she didn't get what Justin was doing here. What he had EVER been doing here with her. Didn't he have better things to do? Shouldn't he be out with his… girlfriend? Why was he always there when she needed him; like some watchful guardian. Why? She sighed a bit, turning her eyes away from Justin. If she kept looking at him, she'd never be able to suppress the doubts and questions in the depths of her heart.

"I would've run away from that 'me' as well, if I didn't realize… I've been trying to become how I wanted to be. I pick a role… When I'm through with it, I continue chasing the 'real me' by picking another role… When in fact all those roles are 'me.'" Rise continued to muse aloud. Justin nodded a bit, his eyes slowly dancing their way away from Rise and back to the horizon in the distance. Funny… Looked a lot tidier without the smoke from his cigarette blowing up into his face.

"That doesn't mean you're all those roles though." Justin spoke up after a while. "Risette's a character you played, that they made. You are not Risette; she's an artificial personality created by men in business suits. But that doesn't mean that there aren't parts of her that exist inside of you. Inside your heart. You're not Risette, but Risette is you… Does… Does that make sense?" Justin questioned, hoping he was wording this right. Rise nodded her head, signifying she had understood what Justin was trying to say. Even if he was blubbering on like an idiot.

"I don't want to run from myself anymore. I don't want to search somewhere else to find myself. I'm gonna hang in there… As the complete me. " Rise continued to muse allowed, a certain sense of resolve in her voice. She was determined to do this no doubt about that. It killed Justin a little bit to see her mind so set on going back to the business that had used her for their own gain, tossed her aside like an old ragdoll they were done tearing up. She deserved better than that; and she was given up her inheritance to the dogs in corporate. Justin sighed flicking at the toothpick in his mouth a bit with his index finger.

"Don't think you need to go back to being Risette to find the real you. Risette's already affected and shaped your life; going back won't change that. And don't worry about where you search to find out who you really are Rise. That's something that comes with time, not being tied down with a chain doing something you don't want to do." Justin spoke, trying to discreetly push her away from rejoining the show business. Alas, however, it wasn't just about being Risette that had driven her to join the show. It was… well… Everything. "If you're going to do it… Do it because it makes you happy. Not because you're searching for yourself."

"It does… I loved being an idol. I just felt that I was lying to myself in the process. Now I know that was just a lie… After being here, I realized it's what truly made me happy; performing on stage…" Rise paused for a moment as she spoke about her interests, what would make her happy in life. Justin couldn't help but raise his eyebrow in confusion as her cheeks lit up a rosy color, a wide grin sweeping across her face. Apparently she didn't just love being an idol. She LOVED being an idol. She wanted to get backstage passes to being an idol and fuck the shit out of her career. Figuratively speaking. Hopefully. "I'm also happy I came to this town. After all… It's where I met you." She only seemed to blush harder at the comment, though Justin had no idea why. He really should have all things considered. Hadn't this shit happened to him enough times for him to pick up on the implications? For all his words and advice about people and life, he sure seemed to know jack shit. Perhaps that's why despite claiming to know all the answers to life's problems, never once had he been able to solve one of his own. Talk is cheap, after all.

"Well I am Inaba's number one tourist attraction." Justin remarked with silly sarcasm. "Folk gather from all around just to catch a look at these golden locks of hair, these… manly… God I can't even say abs. Uh… Skin… flabs? Look point is, I'm a god to these mortal tourists. A GOD I TELLS YA'!" Justin went on an overly dramatic, overly sarcastic rant about how people came to Inaba to see him. Yeah right; if they knew he was there, they'd hijack the plane and go back home. Justin was sort of like the Pit Bull of the dog kennel. No one wanted one because it was just bound to tear off your arm and then use your wrist bone as a Frisbee. "Joking aside; I'm nothing special Rise. Just a guy at the right places at the right times… Or the wrong times. Usually the wrong times. Almost always the wrong times." Justin constantly reevaluated his statement, quickly realizing that to be dragged into this drama on a regular basis like this had to be some sort of joke from the powers that be. That's what he got for telling God to fuck off the first week he had been here. Though God did sit him next to Chie in homeroom… _You know what God? You're an alright guy. I wouldn't go out to a bar with you, but you know._

"I wouldn't… necessarily say the wrong times…" Rise chuckled a bit, again her cheeks radiating red. Justin was actually getting a little uncomfortable with all the blushing. Blushing was never a good sign, he had come to learn… Or, was it… always a good sign. Look, it's weird when it first happens anyway. We can all agree on that. Though it probably wasn't the blushing that was creeping Justin out so much as it was Rise leaning slightly towards Justin. He smiled awkwardly at her, a fake half grin as his eyes darted around. This was a little strange, even by Justin's standards. She wasn't just close, she was damn near touching his shoulder with her head. Come to think of it, she was probably doing that flirting thing where she liked to fuck with the guys by getting their hopes up. She was going to find herself very disappointed if she thought Justin was getting his hopes built up by her awkwardly flirting with him. _Get a bowl cut and a black belt and maybe we'll talk._

It was quiet for a moment between the two, awkward silence filling the area. It wasn't so awkward for Rise, but it sure as hell was for Justin. Just one cigarette. That's all he'd need to break the ice… Well… put it back in place perhaps. He just wanted to calm his jittery nerves down at this point. After a while there was a slight sigh from Rise's lips. Her smile had slowly faded as she sat back up to her regular sitting position, a disappointed expression on her face. "I have to go home now." She mumbled and groaned. She didn't get up and wave goodbye like usual though. She just sort of sat there, eyes in her lap. She didn't get any of this. This was all just so confusing, but… But… "I wish time would just stop…" She smiled again, cheeks redder than a firetruck. Justin's eyes lit up immediately.

"A-ha! See, you get it! Power to manipulate time; you just can't beat it." Rise's smile faded slightly as she gave him a funny look. She didn't get what he was talking about in the slightest. Again, because this conversation had only taken place between him and Chie. She had figured that much anyway; kind of broke her heart in a way. Why? She didn't know. It just did. It just did. She sighed a bit as Justin laughed doing all sorts of victory gestures in his seat on the bench. Come to think of it… She was happy Chie and Justin had whatever conversation this was based off of.

It made her smile watching him jump up and down in his seat with glee.


	138. Chapter 137: September 6, 2011

CHAPTER 137

September 6, 2011

* * *

"Swear to god; she just fucking picked up the guitar and said that I was supposed to teach her."

Justin and Maya were hanging around the electronics department, discussing various topics. Yosuke sort of came and went from time to time, joining their conversation where he could. Fact of the matter is, he DID have to work here too, even if all he really did was make sure everything was going smoothly. No complaints, everyone doing their job, no mass riots or protesters trying to burn the mall to ash. You know, the usual stuff. At the moment, he was away dealing with some complaints about the bathrooms or something. Since when did he become a janitor? No strike that; since when did people use the bathroom at fucking Junes? Go at home; goddamn. Public bathrooms are just the most unsanitary thing, and anyone who made a complaint to management about them clearly didn't understand what they were diving into in the first place. If you were expecting rainbows to shoot out of the toilet… Well depends on whether you were at a bathroom in a strip club or not.

"We should probably stop leaving the key under the mat then." Maya remarked sarcastically as the two walked, eyeing the television sets as they walked. How anyone could afford a television this big, Maya would never know. Even the one that Justin had at home was only a small television; like the ones that were actually shaped like a box and not a piece of paper. You know; the clunky big ones that they had in the 90's? Yeah, those. Not that Maya was complaining; compared to what she had, that small little television was more than plenty. Justin shrugged a bit. He didn't think that was necessary. Unless Yu decided to open his big fat mouth, Marie wouldn't know where he lived. Unless she was some sort of super secret spy in the CIA tracking his every movement, in which case, he was SO fucked. Not that Justin doubted someone somewhere was doing that. His father WAS in the FBI after all; seemed kind of strange to just let the kid off the radar like that. Unless he never left the radar at all. Overly paranoid? Perhaps. But Justin would rather be paranoid than dead. "Hey, you mind giving me a hand? I have to move one of these televisions out and replace it with one of the newer models."

"Move- They expect you to move one of these things? They're huge!" Justin shouted with shock. He wasn't even sure two people could lift one of these things. And then it slowly started to dawn upon Justin. There were only two more people working in this department of Junes. Those two girls that were always talking shit about Maya. From what he had heard, they barely showed up to work anyway. Which meant… She probably had to do this by herself more often than not. That just wasn't right. Justin doubted she even had the strength to do it. "No one helps you with these?" Justin questioned after a moment. Maya sighed with disappointment, positioning herself towards one end of the television placing her hands a long it's edge.

"Not really. Yosuke helps me with the heavier ones when he can, but that's about it…" Maya sighed. She really had a hard time with these on her own. She was just one person after all, and a small-framed person at that. If it wasn't for the fact that she could go into televisions, she'd be afraid of getting smashed to bits one day from dropping a television. Nah, she'd just end up getting flung into the television world. It did mean she had to be very careful about the way she held the television though. If her thumb touched the screen at all, it would just faze through to the other side. And that could be disastrous if anyone noticed. In a way, it was a good thing she never got help moving the televisions around from anyone other than Yosuke. If she slipped up… well… There'd be a lot of explaining to do. Justin sighed holding his breath as he positioned his hands along the television screen as well.

"On the count of three… One, tw-oofh. I said three dammittttt…" Justin's voice quivered as Maya lifted the television up before the cue. He wasn't prepared for that, and as a result, all the weight of the television pressed right up against him. It was a wonder he hadn't turned into a human pancake. Maya grimaced slightly with shame and embarrassment. She didn't mean to jump the gun like that; she just had a nasty habit of taking 'on three,' as 'three, two, one.' Which was the EXACT opposite of what was supposed to happen. When she heard one, she thought she missed something and picked up the television anyway.

"S-Sorry; misheard." Maya stuttered, face red with embarrassment, eyes averted from the sight of Justin cowering under the weight of the television, trying to lift if up. He was a pretty scrawny guy after all, so it took him a bit to get the television back up to where it should have been. He breathed out with relief as he managed to finally level the television at chest level. He really should go lift weights or something, because that was painful. Partially because of the curvature of his spine, partially because the television just sort of got dropped on him unexpectedly. The two nodded before slowly walking away with the television and back towards the storage room to put this baby away.

"Still having problems with those two bitches?" Justin questioned as the carried it, his voice strained by the apparent duress carrying around this thing. It was no secret that Justin was no athlete, but what wasn't common knowledge was to just what extent he wasn't an athlete. This was KILLING him right now. Like, wouldn't be able to walk for a week kind of killing him. He could punch, he could kick; but anything more on the physical activity trail, and he'd be on the floor gasping for air. Maya shrugged her shoulders the best she could from her current position.

"They don't work enough for them to really get to me." Maya burned the two. Justin couldn't help but chuckle a bit. That sure as hell was one way of looking at it. Still, he was worried about Maya. She didn't deny that they were still doing this shit, which meant they probably were. And even having to deal with that shit for five minutes a day is five minutes too much. "Honestly, I don't even care. No one here likes those two anyway. I've got nothing to fear about them spreading rumors." She continued, a small grin sweeping across her face. Truth be told, they weren't all bad rumors anyway. Sure, she wasn't a fan of being called Saki 2.0, and sure, there was nothing between her and Yosuke, but… Wouldn't it be nice to just pretend there was? Just a little while longer?

Justin shrugged as they continued waddling their way to the back room. There were a few complications, namely the part where Maya had forgotten to open the door to the backroom before they had their hands full. There was a bit of an awkward shuffle there where Maya tried to maintain her grip on the television while leaning back to twist the door knob. It took a good five minutes for her to get it, and by that point, Justin's knees were giving out, eyes wide with pain as he tried to stop the television from pounding him into the dirt. It wasn't long after that that Maya and Justin successfully deposited the television in its respective storage slot. Justin practically collapsed to the ground with wear as he pushed the television onto the shelf, exhausted from the effort. And he still had to help Maya drag the replacement out; God help them all. Justin flipped some hair out of his eyes as he sat down, leaning his back against the shelves behind him. Maya soon followed his lead. She needed a break anyway, and if anyone objected… Well maybe they should tell those other two to actually show up to work for once instead. That's probably why she got away with taking as many breaks as she did; because she actually WORKED. That and she was friends with the manager's son. That probably helped.

"So… Big trip's coming up, huh?" Maya remarked semi-sadly as the two sat there, leaning against the inventory. In a way, it was kind of nostalgic. Reminded her about leaning against the dumpster in the alley, passing smokes back and forth as they talked about music and how much they hated their teachers. She kind of missed it in a way; not because they didn't talk about that shit now… Well, they kind of didn't what with Maya not going to school anymore… No, she just missed the days where there were no worries in the world. Now they had bills to pay, work to do, and occasionally murders to solve. It wasn't quite the same as worrying about midterms… Maybe she just missed school. She wanted to go back, really she did. But they couldn't afford it.

"It's going to be such a pain. Why do we even need to go sleep at some hotel just to go to another fucking school?" Justin sighed slightly pissed off by this entire thing. The preparations he had to make just to go to school were absolutely ridiculous. Not to mention he just hated hotels. Couldn't sleep. Kind of like when he first came to live here in Inaba. He was a little paranoid about sleeping somewhere other than his home, and at the time his house in Inaba really wasn't his HOME persay; just his residence. Huge difference. Maya dug around in her pockets before grabbing a hold of her lighter and cigarettes. There weren't any security cameras back here, so this was really the only place she could smoke while she was on the clock. Why were there no security cameras here? Because the management was full of a bunch of idiots… She probably shouldn't say that considering Yosuke's father was the manager. She lit one up before taking a drag, smoke flowing from the cracks of her mouth. Justin just groaned a bit. This was driving him crazy watching her light one up in front of him. He could feel the sweat dripping from the palms of his hands. Was it so hard for her NOT to smoke in front of him? Of course, she needed it just as much as he did at this point; so for her to just say 'not in front of Justin'… Well, it wouldn't work.

"I think I'd rather be there than here." Maya remarked a certain longing in her voice. Justin twisted his head to the side slightly, a little confused by the tone in her voice. He wasn't sure about what part of this trip seemed so enthralling to her; it all sounded so terrible. Of course, it wasn't so much the trip itself that had been tantalizing Maya as it was… well… The trip. She didn't want to be here all alone while everyone else was having fun. She just didn't want to be alone period. She had been there, done that, and she had no intention of repeating history. "I wish I could come with you guys…" She sighed taking another puff off the smoke inbetween her fingers.

"Trust me, you don't want to come. It's going to be boring." Justin tried to calm her nerves. He could tell she really did want to come, but there was just no way. Best he could figure, he just need to dwindle any desire she had to come on this trip. Maya just shook her head though. This wasn't about being boring or being fun. She could live with boring. She didn't think she could live by herself. Not again anyway. And even though it was only going to be two days, she couldn't help but feel her heart splinter at the thought of being by herself again. Was it so much to ask just to be with her friends? It would be boring… But then, most of what they did anyway was boring. Sitting there talking about shit that didn't matter, jabbing at each other… Not very exciting now that she thought about it. But it was the act of doing it with your companions that made it exciting.

"…Hey, what if I borrowed Chie's uniform again? No one seemed to notice I didn't go to school there last time." Maya spoke up, proposing her shitty plan of trying to stowaway on the bus. Justin just shook his head, a somewhat disappointed expression on his face. He wasn't sure if it was the fact that Maya wanted to go or if she was just afraid not to. It's not like they weren't going to come back, and it was only for a few days. Maya could tell he was disappointed to, her gleaming eyes soon fading to dullness, her eyes aimed towards toward the ground, and then eventually her head. "I'm sorry… I just…"

"Don't worry about it. I understand." Justin cut her off, reassuringly waving his hand as though to wipe away the worries that were bussing around her head. Maya just shook her head though. He didn't understand. He didn't get it. He didn't know what it was like to have to leave behind your friends and family, and to have others ripped violently out of your grip. You could never truly hold on to them. If you clinged tight, it only made it hurt more when they were eventually pulled out of your reach. And no matter what you did, you could never stop them from leaving… At most you could hope to follow them where they went.

"No… No, you really don't." She sighed, tapping the tip of her cigarette to discard of the ashes. She really should have found something to tap the ashes into instead of on the floor, but honestly, she didn't give a fuck. Worse came to worse, Yosuke could cover for her… Not that she expected him to, but she was pretty sure he understood. It kind of pissed Justin off a bit that everyone was okay with her smoking, but when he did it OH NO, YOU'RE GONNA FUCK EVERYONE'S LIFE UP, YOU ASSHOLE!

"No really, I do. Don't forget what I was like when you first met me." Justin remarked, pointing at her as though ordering her not to forget. She laughed a bit, much to Justin's bewilderment. That was meant to say 'hey been there done that,' not 'oh yeah, Justin was laughable as twelve year old.' All the same, she laughed, a smile creeping across her face once more. She never really knew Justin as much of a loner, save for the fact that he sat alone at lunch. At least, until she invited him over to the lunch table with all of her friends… That table lost people really quickly. As time went on though, it became increasingly clear that Justin was a bit of a social outcast. So was he alone? She didn't know. She'd like to say no. After all, he had her, right…?

"Maybe you're right… I just… Just need to tough it out." Maya sighed, nodding her head a bit as though to confirm her own statement. Justin smiled a bit at her before extending his arm to place his hand on her shoulder in a reassuring touch. She smiled a bit, cheeks grown slightly red. She was starting to remember why she had fallen in love with him all those years ago. He always knew just what to say. Unless you were a cop at least. In which case, fuck if he knew how to act. You'd think he would know how to interact with law officials better given that his father was a cop. Or at the very least, he wouldn't give them back talk given how deathly afraid of his father he was. Maybe he was just afraid of saying something to his father, so he said it to every other cop. Minus Adachi, strangely enough. Though… Now that Maya thought about it, Adachi did look a lot like a younger version of Justin's father. She couldn't help but wonder if there was a connection. "Thanks Justin."

"Don't thank me; I only told you what you already knew." Justin dismissed her thanks, rubbing at the back of his head. He was smiling though. Because as much as he hated getting thanked for anything, he wasn't entirely opposed to flattery. Certainly made him feel better about himself anyway. Maya shook her head though. Justin didn't give himself enough credit.

"Yeah well, I dropped out of the 8th grade. I don't exactly know much." Maya admitted slightly embarrassed. She wasn't exactly book smart for that reason. Also because she spent more time smoking in the alley than she did actually studying. She was about an average student. Justin shook his head and chuckled a bit. She was smart in more important ways than knowing when the Alamo was.

"I'd take life lessons over knowing when George Washington fucked the British over any day of the week." Maya passed him a slight 'you serious?' look. Not necessarily because he was wrong, but he was very oddly aggressive towards the notion of George Washingiton beating the British at their own game. Probably because he was British himself. Like I said, he was much more proud of being an Englishman than he was American. It was no secret to Maya that Justin was British; he was a lot worse at hiding it from people back then. Not that he really NEEDED to hide it, but he was oddly insistent about trying to hide the fact from people.

"You're still mad about that?"

"We British folk have been known to harbor a long grudge."

"Pretty sure that's just you."


	139. Chapter 138: September 7, 2011

CHAPTER 138

September 7, 2011

* * *

"So are you ready for the trip yet? This guy won't shut up about it."

Chie and Justin were on their way home from school to prepare for the trip tomorrow when they were cut off by Yosuke and Kanji trying to join their ranks. And by that I mean by them walking up beside them arguing about something and then Yosuke turning to Chie and Justin for support even though they didn't even know what was going on. Not that Justin cared; he was sure it had to be something incredibly stupid. It WAS Yosuke and Kanji after all. Still, Justin supposed there was no harm in discussing the trip. After all, that's what him and Chie were talking about prior to those two showing up anyway. Neither were particularly thrilled about the trip; what with it pretty much being a history class field trip where the slept in some crappy hotel. Only with less history and more of SHIT THEY ALREADY DID. Justin had been doing a bit of research on the area though for pretty much anything they could sneak off and do instead. He found a couple of things that should be easy to get to. Now it was just going to be a matter of getting the others to ditch with him. He had no doubt all the guys and maybe Rise would cut with him, but Yukiko and Chie might be a bit more troublesome to convince. Give them an hour on the trip, they'll change their mind real quick.

"Yosuke-senpai hasn't even started packing. He's all like, "Was that tomorrow?" 'Sup with that?" Kanji remarked with slight irritation as they continued to walk. Chie and Justin passed each other a slightly embarrassed glance, eyebrows raised as though they had been kicked straight in the nuts. Well… In Justin's case anyway. He doubted getting kicked in the crotch really did much to a girl… One of these days he was going to have to see what that did… N-Not that he was going to be the one to test that out. Why the hell would Justin just kick some girl in their crotch? He was an angry fellow, but he wasn't a sicko. It would take a real douche to kick a girl, let alone in their vagina…

He'd check YouTube later. They'd probably have twenty videos on it.

"Well… It only takes a half-hour to pack clothes for two nights." Justin pointed out slightly defensively. He'd have you know that he had very good reason for not being packed right now. And that reason was he was a lazy bastard who would rather be looking at porn than bend over a suitcase for a half hour… What do you mean that only takes five minutes. He wasn't looking at porn the WHOLE time, you presumptuous idiot. Just because his shadow was a pervert didn't mean he was… Well… Not as much as his shadow anyway. That was good enough for him

"Dude, really? I've been packing all week. Have to have clothes, deodorant, toothpas-" Kanji began to list off everything that was in his suitcase, oblivious to the fact that the others had to pack too and were already well aware of what they would or would not need. No need to recap the essentials to be packed. Justin shook his head and waved his hand a bit, trying to cut Kanji off before he said anything else on the matter.

"Th-That's okay Kanji, I think we get the picture." Justin remarked with biting sarcasm trying to get him to shut up before they died waiting for him to finish listing off all the stuffed animals he was going to bring with him because he couldn't sleep without them. Probably. Knowing Kanji, that really wouldn't surprise Justin all that much. Yosuke groaned a bit at Kanji's catalog of various pantry goods he'd be taking with him. He had said he was going to bring a shit ton of animal crackers with him for fuck's sake. They WERE getting fed while they were there, you know. That tuition had to go somewhere after all, and it sure as hell wasn't going to the principal's lap dance fund. Well some of it was, but the majority of it was not.

"You are way too excited about this. I mean, you're even worried about how many boxes of animal crackers to bring. We're only gonna be there for two nights, dude! Besides, I'm pretty sure they have convenience stores on Port Island." Yosuke remarked sarcastically, belittling his precautions to make sure he was all stocked up for the trip. Kanji shook his head a bit, sighing slightly. Clearly Yosuke didn't understand just how dire this situation was. He still needed to find the penguin; it was his sworn duty in life to insure that he found this treasure before he died. And he would rest at nothing to ensure he succeeded. Bringing the animal crackers wasn't just for food; it was for his quest. Though he did suppose they would have animal crackers there too… Yeah, he probably didn't need to bring much with him.

"For serious!? I've never really left this place, so…" Kanji muttered a bit to himself, confessing his lack of confidence in the presence of convenience stores around the globe. Because apparently that was a thing that only existed in Inaba, and nowhere else. You didn't need to get around to know that kind of stuff, I mean, come on. Chie and Justin both shot Kanji a glance as though he were nuts. Or possibly just that he was stupid.

"Uh… Yeah? We're not the only ones who have convenience stores you know." Chie remarked sarcastically, eyes dropped in a condescendingly glance.

"Well… You guys might be the only people in the world to have a sword store, but yeah." Justin followed up that thought with more of his trademark sarcasm. Of course, Inaba wasn't the only town in the world to have a metal works. Just the only town where it was sitting there in the middle of the shopping district with a guy who would sell katanas and guns to any has-been to walk through his doors. And that was worth noting if you asked Justin. Kanji sighed, eyes drooping towards the ground. Not necessarily because he felt bad that he had missed the obvious; but because a thought had suddenly struck him. There was so much he didn't know about what it was like outside of Inaba… Did the rest of the world know what it was like in Inaba then?

"Huh… I wonder if the murders here got as much play over there, too." Kanji suddenly broke the ice with a rather… uh… depressing topic. Justin groaned a bit as Kanji brought up the murder case again. Oh no, there was nothing wrong with talking about the murders mind you; it was just… why? It was over and done with; they should all move on with their lives. The guy was in jail, the murders had stopped. There was NOTHING more to talk about. It seemed so pointless. "Like that Mitsuo Kubo dude. They're still showing him on TV here. Every time I switch on the tube, the news is showing like, what he wrote in his yearbook. Pisses me off, man." Everyone passed each other a slightly confused glance. What about that had pissed Kanji off?

"I… Don't think I follow." Justin remarked with slight curiosity, not really getting what about that was so wrong. The guy killed a bunch of people in a very high-profile murder case. It would be a problem if he DIDN'T get any coverage. It might have been getting a bit excessive by this point, and Justin was sick of hearing about the murders, but it was neccesary. People were going to want answers. Especially the families and friends of the victims. People want to know they could be safe. And if that meant constantly assuring the public over the television that Mitsuo had been caught… well… Justin could live with it.

Besides, he didn't watch much television anyway.

"The frickin' media's slapping together anything they can find to make the dude look like a born criminal. People think they can say anythin' they want about a guy who's been branded a criminal… 's just not right." Kanji continued to rant on the matter. Justin made a slight ah sound, nodding his head a bit. He hadn't been following Mitsuo's trial or case or anything since he got hauled off into custody. He was confident justice would be done, he didn't need to keep an eye on the case. To hear though that they were slandering his name all over the news… Well… He was a murderer, so Justin couldn't feel too bad for the guy, but certain things were off limit. Like… Yearbooks? Really? That's not relevant at all. And even if it was, it was clear the guy was mentally unstable; was any of this really necessary. If anything, all it was doing was giving him what he wanted. Attention… Perhaps they should have given it to him sooner.

"Fucking media. They don't really care whose toes they step on to get what they want. I mean look at Rise." Justin remarked, fury starting to boil up within his insides. He just didn't get why the media had to use people to advance their own agendas. Did it make them feel good? Did they just not care about other people? Were they people themselves? No. No they were monsters hiding behind human skin. Nothing human about smearing a mentally unstable person's name into the ground. He acted because he felt he needed to, because he thought there was nothing else he could do to get attention. Condemn the means, but don't condemn his motives.

"That's pretty low. Even for a guy like him." Chie remarked with disgusted disappointment. She was all for kicking the guy's face in, but even she couldn't really see justification for going through his yearbook to make it seem as though he was born a killer or something. She was sure that he was probably a real nice kid. Minus the whole murderer thing. Twisting around personal memoires like that so he was some sort of twisted villain? That wasn't fair. Even if a murderer didn't really deserve fair.

"I mean, I still hate the guy's guts. But… I dunno, after getting involved with all this, I started to realize how off-base most rumors are… It's so messed up…" Kanji sighed with disappointment. The group stopped for a moment, just contemplating on the matter that Kanji had brought up. It truly was disgusting to every sense of the body; even if Mitsuo kind of had it coming. Still seemed so… wrong for them to twist everything around like he was some sort of psychopath. He kind of was; but not in the way they were trying to portray him. He was just misunderstood, you know? Misunderstood and confused.

"Well, I gotta admit, the news can be pretty out there." Yosuke sighed, shaking his head with disapproval. In the process, however, his eyes caught sight of something rather familiar. That shade of purple was practically embedded into his brain cells by this point. It certainly had been in Justin's anyway. Everytime he saw that hat, he swore he was filled with the most uncontrollable rage, the most vomit inducing disgust. "Hey, it's Naoto. Yo, how's it going?" Yosuke called out to her figure as she walked by. She paused for a moment, caught off guard by the voice calling towards her, before eventually turning towards the group with confused eyes.

"Good evening senp-" Naoto began to greet the group (save perhaps Justin. She didn't associate with delinquents.) Or at least, she had been until Kanji's eyes widened, sweat dripping down every pore of his skin. Never before had he seemed more panicked than he did right now. Which was… strange. No one could quite pin-point why, but they were going to guess it had to do with Naoto's arrival given that it seemed to act up only when she had just shown up. He seemed find around her before though, so it was safe to assume it wasn't just her presence. He probably broke something of hers or something. Or perhaps she had just tried to pull the same shit on Kanji that she did Justin. That wasn't entirely out of the question.

"Oh yeah, I-I'm on duty today! Heheheh! W-Well, see ya later!" Kanji frantically stuttered over his words before quickly dashing off. Quicker than Justin had ever seen anyone run ever. The guy could be in the Olympics with speed like that. Everyone stared at the horizon where he ran with jaws dropped and curious eyes. Kanji could be a real peculiar guy sometimes. This was one of those times. Justin and Yosuke shook their heads before pinching at their foreheads with annoyance. One day they were going to figure out what they we're going to do with that guy. Today wasn't that day though. Yosuke sighed before shooting his eyes back up.

"He's the messed up one…" He remarked with annoyance. Of course, to Yosuke everyone was messed up but him, so this was not unexpected coming out of his mouth. Even then though, Justin found it hard to disagree at times. He shook his head again eyes still aimed at the ground, fingers pinching his forehead. This was just headache inducing.

"Beats up an entire biker gang, afraid of a girl. Kanji Tatsumi, ladies and gentlemen."


	140. Chapter 139: September 8, 2011

CHAPTER 139

September 8, 2011

* * *

"Whoa, what's up with this place…? This school's way too big!"

It was the day of the field trip, and after being crammed into the back of the bus again (this time, sadly without a musical number,) they had finally gotten here. They all had to get on the bus early, so for the most part the ride up here was fairly uneventful; what with everyone sleeping and all. It was, like, six in the morning when they got on the bus; what did you expect? They all had to wake up early, like five o clock in Justin's case. Even earlier for people like Chie. Justin had tried to stay awake on the bus and just fall asleep on the field trip, but alas, it seemed fate was a cruel mistress. Instead he woke up hours later with his head leaning against Chie's. It was pretty embarrassing honestly; though she didn't seem to get pissed off like that one time on the camping trip. Just kind of flustered.

But regardless, here they were, standing outside the school; dark rings under their eyes as the principal and some student council lady stood before them. Justin really wished they could at least sit down while they did this. His legs were killing him from being crammed on that bus with all their stuff. Really, was it too much to ask for them to get a second bus to put their luggage on or something? They just didn't fit when they had three people per seat AND clothes for two nights. He yawned a bit as the group of them stood their, Yosuke gushing over the size of the place.

"Wait… If we can't beat 'em on size, we're totally sunk…" He groaned a bit, taking the actual size of the school a little too close to heart. As if it was a competition to see which school was physically bigger or something. News flash Yosuke; bigger didn't mean better. Most of the time anyway.

"It's not the size; it's what you do with it." Justin remarked sarcastically, yawning again as he rubbed at his eyes. Yosuke passed Justin a strange glance, as though not entirely sure if he was on the same page, but if they were, then he was going to be a bit concerned. Seemed like an odd remark to just bring up out of nowhere… But then; this WAS Justin. It wouldn't really surprise Yosuke to find out Justin was trying to make a dick joke in front of another school's principal.

"…Are we talking about the same thing?"

"I don't know, you tell me." Justin remarked snidely, not so much as lifting his eyes off of the front of the crowd. Why? Who knows; god knows there was nothing to really look at up there. Maybe just because he couldn't really look someone straight in the face while he was talking about the size of someone's junk. Could you really blame him? Thankfully, it seemed Yosuke (and to a lesser extent Yu,) had been the only one to pick up on the sexual innuendo. It went right over Kanji and the girls' heads. Chie yawned a bit, still very much tired from this entire trip. A lot of sleep broken up over small intervals didn't really do much. You had to get it all done at once, not an hour here and hour there.

"Well, uh, next I will explain about our fine educational institution and the reasons for its establishment! Uh, I'd like to start with a proverb… 'If a job's worth doing, it's worth doing well…'" The principal began to speak and lecture. No one cared though. If they wanted to listen to proverbs, they'd go to the shrine. If they wanted to be bored to death, they'd go to school. Nah, right now was just there time to pretend they were listening and do whatever the fuck they wanted, hidden behind the back of the crowd. In Justin's case that meant listening to his iPod. Who would have thought that heavy metal could give you such a headache when you just woke up? Chie yawned again, though this one sounded a little more forced, as though it were a statement and not her body just subconsciously reacting.

"Is this principal in love with his own voice or what…?" Chie remarked with semi-annoyance. She was having a hard enough time staying awake without this guy trying to put her back to sleep with boredom. Justin was having a hard time disagreeing, though whether that was because he naturally tended to agree with Chie on everything or because he really thought the guy refused to shut up without having anything to say, he couldn't say. Yukiko jabbed Chie a bit in the side of her arm, which was a bit of a strange reaction coming from Yukiko. Strange or not, her eyes were wide with slight panic and horror. She didn't want to get in trouble, nor did she want CHIE to get in trouble. They had to be on their best behavior while representing their school after all.

It should come as no surprise that Justin didn't get that memo.

"Chie! He'll hear you!" Yukiko scolded Chie, wagging her finger at her like she was Chie's mother or something. Which is great, because Chie huffed and pouted like she HAD just been told off by her mother. The cycle was complete.

"Ah-hem… Our school is closed today, but, ahh, because of this rare opportunity for cultural exchange… Some of our students will walk you through these halls. First, though, a student body representative will say a few words…" The principal remarked before turning his gaze over to the young girl beside him. She had long brown hair and was wearing glasses. The look on Yosuke and Kanji's faces sent a slight shiver of disgust down Justin's spine. Not that this girl wasn't cute or anything like that, but why did those two always have to make everything about checking out girls. The girl nodded to the principal before turning to the crowd with pride.

"Thank you, principal. Welcome to Gekkoukan High School. My name is Chihiro Fushimi. I'm a third-year student, and the Student Council President here at Gekkoukan. It's an honor to meet you all today." Chihiro introduced herself to the crowd. She sure as hell was excited about all of this; but then, Justin supposed that was why she was the student council president. And speaking of excited…

"Holy crap, that girl's unbelievable!"

"Yeah, you're right… She is cute…" Yosuke and Kanji ogled the girl to the best of their position from the back of the crowd. Justin had to pinch his forehead with annoyance lest he smack the two upside the back of the head._ You can go twelve seconds without trying to look up some girl's skirt, you perverts._ Chie's fists were balling up a bit with rage as well. Why was it that all of her friends were perverts? Hell, she was probably dating the biggest pervert of the group. At least he TRIED to hide it though.

"I gotta say… She's the most bewitching bespectacled beauty I've ever beheld…" Yosuke continued, tripping over his words slightly as he spewed out the tongue twister. There was even a point where he ran out of words that began with b, and had to pause for a second while he searched his mind for anything else he could fill the gap. Justin was convinced he'd keep going if he could remember anymore relevant words that began with b.

"You guys… Stop overreacting!" Chie shouted at them, scolding the two for perving it up even on a school trip. Though this should have been no surprise coming from the guy that had pretty much been hiding bathing suits up his ass for Chie and Yukiko to wear at the camping trip. Seriously, where WAS he hiding those suits the entire time? And why did Chie and Yukiko still wear them at the beach trip a while back? You'd think they would have burned them.

"This is the first time our school has invited another student body for a true cultural exchange. To learn about others is to learn about oneself, and is the first step on the road to self-betterment… This I believe. To ensure a worthwhile experience for each and every one of you, we will do our best to help you accomplish that. So let us enjoy our time together! Thank you very much." Chihiro spoke to the crowd charismatically. There was some applause from the crowd as she finished; mostly from guys unfortunately. Honestly, he doubted half the people clapping even understood what she said. Chie sighed a bit as the small speech came to an end, a disappointed expression on her face.

"…She beat me in every category…" Chie remarked sadly with disappointment. Once again, the whole self-esteem thing reared its ugly head. Justin passed her a surprised glance, then a sad, sympathetic one, then eventually a slight smirk as he wrapped his arm around to her other shoulder.

"Now come on; I bet she doesn't know kung-fu or fight evil demons inside a television screen." Justin joked, shaking Chie slightly in jest. She blushed and smiled all the while, chuckling slightly at his horrible attempts at trying to cheer her up. So what she knew kung-fu; that really didn't define her as a person. Though she supposed Justin would beg to differ in that regard as well. Again though, the whole hugging her in public thing was really kind of embarrassing. He should stop. Like, right now.

"Alright, everyone get into groups with your classmates!" Their teacher suddenly shouted, breaking whatever mood that speech had created. Everyone groaned as the crowd dispatched, grouping up with whatever horrible people they unwillingly got paired up with. Unless of course you were part of the Investigation team. What were the chances they ALWAYS got paired together. Wasn't even like their last names were close alphabetically. Just the luck of the draw. Seemed they all might have separated a bit too soon, though, given the way Chihiro's eyes suddenly widened and how her hand dashed out to try to stop them all from separating. For all the attention she had managed to grasp a moment earlier, she seemed to have no control over students who just wanted to get this over and done with. She sighed before noticing that the investigation team hadn't branched off yet. Mostly because they didn't need to.

"Excuse me, could I bother you for a moment? This is today's schedule for everyone. Could you hand it out later, please? I forgot to do it myself… Sorry to be so disorganized. And you all came so far…" Chihiro approached the group, requesting them to hand out some schedules on her behalf. And also apologizing about it immediately. She handed the stack of papers off to Yu, what with him looking like the only person who WOULDN'T lose it (save maybe Yukiko, but Yu was closer.) Yu nodded a bit as he held out his hands to grip the papers.

"It's not a problem; accidents happen." Yu tried to dismiss her concerns as she nervously tried to apologize for something that was completely beyond her control. Chihiro sighed with some relief as Yu accepted the task of handing out the schedules, followed by a slight chuckle. Seemed she had gotten rather anxious about something that wasn't even that big of a deal. After all, it wasn't like the groups were going anywhere till they got the schedules anyway, so she probably could have handed them out herself if she was that concerned.

"Thank you. In fact, I didn't write the speech on my own. One of the former Student Council Presidents helped me. She was the president, my first year here, and she was amazing… I always looked up to her. I should call her later and tell her the speech was a success! Oh, I'm sorry! Listen to me, going on and on about myself… I have to stop babbling when I got nervous. Um, your group is scheduled for a special lecture soon. The classroom is on the second floor. I have some arrangements to make with your student council, so please excuse me." She went on and on about shit that Justin really could care less about. Regardless, seemed she had something she needed to do, so she took off real quick, leaving the investigation team behind where they were. A very annoyed investigation team too, given the look on Yosuke's face. But then, Yosuke always seemed annoyed about something. Funny; Justin always seemed to be annoyed about Yosuke being annoyed by something. Was like a chain reaction.

"Did I just hear her say "special lecture"? We came all this way to be lectured!?" Yosuke shouted with annoyance. Justin sighed and rubbed his head. He had to agree with Yosuke; but it wasn't like he wasn't expecting it. They did just travel all the way here to check out some other school's… well… school. What else could they possibly be doing here but listening to some teacher tell them about shit that doesn't matter to any of them.

"Let's see, our class is… It's being taught by someone named Mr. Edogawa. The lecture's about Qabbalah…" Yukiko ignored Yosuke as she looked down at the paper that had been handed off to them, checking where they would be for the next painfully long few hours of the day. Justin groaned a bit as he heard the subject matter. Not that he knew what that was, but generally speaking if he couldn't pronounce it, it probably wasn't a very fun topic. Or a very easy one. The same could probably be said of Chie.

"Kabawhat?" She questioned, not even able to pronounce the entirety of the word. Which was a-okay, because Yukiko was probably the only one who could. Kanji passed Chie a strange look, as though to call her an idiot using only his eyes. Kind of hypocritical all things considered; especially after his follow-up comment.

"You don't know? It's a casino." Yeah, it was definitely not a casino. Justin didn't know WHAT it was, but a casino? He was positive that wasn't it for several reasons. The first and foremost being this was a school; they weren't just going to teach children about casinos and gambling (unless you were in a probability math class.) The only exception would be if the casino had cultural or historical significance, and given that Justin, nor any of the others had heard of it, it was probably a safe bet to say it wasn't important in that regard. Yosuke sighed and shook his head, dismissing Kanji's idiotically incorrect answer.

"So when's our free period." Yosuke acted cautiously. He got a bad gut feeling in his stomach with how shitty this trip was turning out so far that he didn't want that question answered. Turns out, for once his gut feeling was right. Chie bit her bottom lip as she peered over the paper, taking a glance at the words across it's surface. Didn't look too good.

"Uhh… We don't get one. We have classes all through today. Tonight and tomorrow, we'll be staying at a hotel… We'll have free time tomorrow and the day after, until we leave at noon." Chie sighed with disappointment. Yosuke just gripped his hair and started thrashing about in a fit of uncontrollable rage and annoyance, muffled screams echoing through the cracks of his teeth. Never had anyone seen Yosuke as pissed off as he was right now; and he had A LOT of things to get pissed off over. A lot more than this anyway.

"Come on, guys! Let's focus on our studies for now, so we can enjoy our free time later!"

"If by focus on our studies you mean, taking a nap; sure let's go."

* * *

"Alright here we are. The Seaside Clamshell Inn. We'll be staying here tonight."

It was hours later, night time in fact, and the group had all made their way to the hotel they would be staying at for the night. The lectures prior to getting here were pretty unnotable, save one that was about Izanagi or something. Justin could have swore that Yu's persona was Izanagi; though obviously they were probably unrelated. After all, there's a difference between a god and a person's true feelings. Unless Yu had a god complex. Other than that though, really stupid. Regardless, they were here right now, standing outside the hotel. And by hotel I meant motel. And by motel I meant 'motel.' And by 'motel' I mean fuck hut. Seriously, even said it on one of the signs. Justin was seriously concerned about getting AIDS from stepping into this place. As was… well… pretty much everyone else there.

"So what do you think? It was me who found this place. It just opened not too long ago. It's got that modern look-and the price was right! Personally, I think it was an excellent choice." Kashiwagi continued to praise her ability to find an STD-ridden motel. Everyone gagged a little bit with disgust, save maybe Yukiko, who hadn't really caught on to what kind of place this was… And for some reason Rise was blushing really hard. But what else did you expect from Rise? "You there! Don't just stand there! Keep marching in." Kashiwagi barked at the teenagers, trying to herd them into the gate. The investigation team was less than receiving of that order, refusing to budge and make their way inside, despite all the heavy luggage they were carrying.

"Isn't there something funny about this place…?" Yosuke questioned, catching on that the place might have been a little shadier than first thought. Chie shrugged a bit, tipping her head to the side slightly as she examined the hotel from a distance. Much like Yukiko, seemed she didn't really get the deep dark secrets hidden in this hotel.

"Is there? We don't have these modern hotels in Inaba, so I can't tell." Chie remarked, rubbing at her chin a bit as she tried to figure out what was so disgusting about this place. She would no doubt find out when she walked inside to find condom dispensers and heart shaped beds. Probably. It wasn't like Justin knew what the inside of these motels looked like. Well; not knowingly anyway. He's probably seen one or two without really knowing it, if you catch my drift. I mean he's probably seen it in a magazine or something, you over assuming asshole. Why does everything have to be about the porn? Yukiko passed Chie a slight glare, somewhat offended by the remark. She'd have you know the Amagi Inn was very modern.

"Um… this area is called 'Shirakawa Boulevard,' and it's-" Rise began, cheeks very red as she recapped the purpose of the hotel, a somewhat sensual tone to her voice. As if she was going to take advantage of the features this hotel had to offer. They were sharing rooms after all, and given that it was pretty obvious Rise was into guys… Wait… What if she rolled both ways? Food for thought, huh? Rise sidestepped ever so subtly towards Justin, shoulders getting closer as she described what this area was. Justin didn't notice, but if he did, he'd probably be freaking out right now. This was NOT the place to be trying to lay the moves on someone. Especially not someone who's accounted for. Especially Justin.

"Th-That's all right, Rise. I don't think I wanna know…" Yosuke cut her off, more than satisfied with his ignorance. Or perhaps his lack there of. Justin sighed and shook his head. Why was it everytime they went on a trip everything just turned to shit. He was about to march his way inside and get this over with, to locate which ever room was 304, throw his shit against the wall, and watch bad pay-per view televi- Actually, wait. Given where they were, it might be a good idea to stay away from the pay-per view. Anyway, he was about to pick up his shit and go inside when suddenly an all too familiar voice echoed through the alley way. Oh yeah, that was another thing. The entrance to this place was in an alley way. How much shadier could this GET.

"Hmhmhm… Faster than I expected… This is quite the hotel. If they were to meet me… I wonder, what would the look on Yosuke's face be…?" The sound echoed through the alleyway. Justin just groaned, dropped his shit back on the sidewalk, and pinched his forehead. Looked like Teddie had decided it would be a good idea to stalk them here. If Maya couldn't come, why would he ever think it was okay for HIM to come? _Next you'll be telling me Kurt followed us here too._ Everyone else looked up with slightly horrified eyes. Yosuke hadn't quite got that it was Teddie yet, despite hearing his voice everyday; what with Teddie living with him and all.

"Who's that!? Look! Up there!" Yosuke barked as he finally identified the robust figure of Teddie on the rooftops above. Even better, not only had he stalked everyone here; he did it WEARING THE BEAT SUIT. Was he just trying to fuck everything up? Because if so, he was doing a HELL of a job.

"It can't be…!" Yukiko gasped in an overly dramatic fashion. That was immediately followed by Teddie JUMPING OFF THE FUCKING BUILDING. On the bright side, he lived. On the other hand, HE JUMPED OFF A FUCKING BUILDING. And the best part? He just got up and walked it off, whistling as he pushed himself off the ground and approached them. Like he hadn't just JUMPED OFF A FUCKING BUILDING. Did I mention the part where he JUMPED OF A FUCKING BUILDING? Because he did. Justin had never been more confused in his life as Teddie just brushed it off like he had fallen into a ball pit. The only kind of people Justin knew that could jump off a building and just shrug it off were shadows… Wait…

Hold on one fucking second here…

"Teddie!? What're you doing here!?" Kanji shouted frantically, trying to decipher what the fuck was going on. He wasn't sure what was worse, the fact that Teddie had followed them here, or the fact where he followed them here in his bear suit. That couldn't have been discreet. Teddie frowned a bit, donning that sad face he donned anytime he was going to lay down the melodrama. Justin's eyes darted around just to see if there was a chair around he could sit down on. He knew this was going to take a while; might as well kick his feet up for the show, right?

"The lonely bear inside of me went stir crazy!" He shouted, shaking his head and folding his hands by hind his back in an officious pose. Yeah, right; stir crazy. He wasn't even alone for a few hours and he went stir crazy. Even Maya wasn't this bad when she said she didn't want to be alone for the weekend. And that was another thing, if he was so stir crazy, why didn't he just go hang with Maya. She was literally one department away from him. ONE. FUCKING. DEPARTMENT. Now Justin just felt bad for Maya. He had assumed she and Teddie could keep each other company. Now she really was all alone. Unless you count Kurt, I guess, but Justin serious doubted she would ever see him alone ever again after everything that had gone down.

"If only I could detect people in the real world…" Rise growled at Teddie, infuriated by him stalking them about and startling them by JUMPING OFF A FUCKING BUILDING. Just in case you forgot he did that. Justin nodded his head a bit, crossing his arms.

"If only I could set people on fire in the real world..." Justin remarked, rubbing his chin, a slightly devious grin sweeping from cheek to cheek. That got more than few concerned looks. No one doubted that Justin would set shit on fire all over the place given the chance. He was like a pyromaniac without the fire. Probably wasn't a good thing that his persona casted agi for that very reason. Or that his arm was flamethrower. That too.

"How did you come here!? Do you have some special ability!?" Chie questioned with startlement, perhaps looking a little further into this then she probably had to. Could Teddie teleport or fly or something like that? Maybe. But it was far more likely that he just called a cab… While wearing a bear suit. That probably didn't go over well.

"No, I took the train." Teddie remarked, practically calling Chie an idiot for missing the obvious. "I swore off Topsicles and saved up the money I got working at Junes. I knew where you were going, thanks to Yosuke's 'Trip Guide.' You guys have free time tomorrow, right? No use hiding it! I already know!" Teddie continued, explaining the method to his madness. Justin just couldn't help but shake his head. The problem with getting everyone here wasn't the cash; it was the fact that they WEREN'T SUPPOSED TO BE HERE.

"How in the world did you make it here looking like that…? I mean, why wear the bear suit here!?" Yosuke asked what everyone had been thinking. Seriously, it wasn't like he needed the suit, he just wore it for no explicable reason. This was just proof that they couldn't leave Teddie alone for even five seconds. Next time they all had to leave Teddie and Maya behind, Justin was putting Maya in charge of making sure he didn't do anything stupid.

"I almost got thrown in the trash a couple times. But I kept hanging onto the promise Chie-chan made to go on a date with me! That's what gave me strength to carry on!" Teddie remarked with glee. Justin's eyebrows just dropped into a glare before rolling his eyes. At this point it wasn't even worth getting pissed off at. Teddie wasn't worth hating.

"Yeah, well, unless you'd like to get thrown in the trash again, I'd suggest you shut up."

"Uh, g-good job, Teddie… D-Did I promise that…? Oh yeah… I do remember saying that I'd go out with you someday…" Chie sighed realizing just what she had promised to Teddie all those months ago. She had only meant to boost his spirits, not give him some false hopes of scoring with her. Or perhaps a motive. It wasn't happening. Ever. Didn't mean Teddie was going to stop anytime soon, though. And that was rather unfortunate.

"I've been here before, so I'll show you around tomorrow. I guess we can go shopping first. And I know a great place we can hit later on." Rise interrupted everyone, figuring that deciding how they were going to spend their freetime tomorrow was much more important than Teddie awkwardly trying to get inside Chie's pants. Not that she would necessarily object to Teddie pulling Chie away from you know who, but hey; shopping. Shopping solved everything.

"The other students don't know Port Island that well, so they're just gonna go wherever the school recommends." Chie elaborated on that thought. Perfect; they'd be able to go shopping without everyone else cluttering the mall. Not that Justin really had to worry about his store of choice being crowded. GameShops almost never were, nor were record stores thanks to iTunes and all'a them crappy online music services. Still, a shame there wasn't anything to do here other than shop. He could have done that at home if he wanted to.

"Well, I guess a shopping spree beats a factory tour. Alright, we're in too." Yosuke remarked. As if Rise was only proposing the idea to her and Teddie. Seriously, of course they were in; they had nothing better to do after all. Unless they were into factories. Justin didn't really know what he wanted to do with his life, but he could guarantee you that wasn't it. That said, he really didn't need to know a damn thing about factories.

"Leave it to me." Rise giggled with pride; pride that she was the go to person for the entirety of this trip. Not that she wasn't the go to person for navigating anywhere else anyway. She did sort of have a navigation persona after all. Though Justin supposed none of this persona crap mattered anymore now that the murders were over. If anything, they were just going to insure that all of the investigation team would need therapy at some point in life. After all, in retrospect, all this shadow business was some pretty… well… fucked up stuff. Hell, Justin heard voices in his head. If that didn't make him crazy, he didn't know what did.

"Now… before the fun starts…" Yosuke began, sighing slightly as his eyes fell upon Teddie. "We gotta deal with this guy." It was true; they certainly couldn't smuggle him into the motel, right? He obviously didn't go to school there AND he was wearing a bear suit. Sure, they could just dispose of the bear suit, but Justin doubted Teddie would be okay with that. Kanji crossed his arms, rubbing at the tip of his nose with his thumbs as he eyed Teddie, trying to think of a solution to their woes.

"Can't you sleep outside for the night? That suit should keep ya nice and cozy." Cruel, but probably the best option now that Justin thought about it. After all, Teddie always WAS complaining about that suit being hot all the time; should keep him warm at night. The only problem would be keeping him hidden from any passer-bys in the night. Maybe they could cover him with a garbage can…

"Cruelty to animals! You don't know how much trouble I went through to get here! I took the slow train all this way! Do you hear!? The slow train!"

"They're all slow!" Justin shouted back at Teddie as he caused a commotion. This was not helping them get him out of the public eye in the slightest. In fact, all it did was attract their homeroom teacher, which was a bad enough idea in and of itself without possibly pissing her off. Justin had seen her pissed off over Rise before, can you imagine what she was like when she got mad about something actually worth getting mad about? Yikes.

"Now now, you kids aren't bickering about your room allocations, are you?" Kashiwagi remarked, walking out to the gate at the front of the motel. Well technically they were bickering about room allocations, just not in the way she was thinking. And the way she was thinking was probably why weren't the guys in the rooms with the girls. Fucking slut…Uh… Figuratively…? Kashiwagi began to eye everyone there, that creepy smile of hers on her face before she eventually spotted Teddie, frozen still for some odd reason. "What's the matter? …Oh? What's this giant teddy bear?" Yu paused for a moment, eyes darting about as he tried to think of a way of explaining this. It was hard to justify having a huge ass bear like this just sitting in the middle of the road… Well… The alleyway anyway.

"A… souvenir?"

"My… It's so big…" And suddenly Justin wanted to vomit. And he did actually; only he was sure to swallow it before it came gushing out of his mouth. His breath was probably going to smell awful now, but there was no way he WASN'T going to puke when Kashiwagi was making sexual innuendos over a fucking teddy bear. She was probably a furry or something. Yuck. "Go oh, hurry on inside with it. By the way, these rooms are amazing. Every room has a waterbed! But don't flip the wrong switch when you're turning on the lights, or your bed will start spinning." She remarked before turning back around to enter the hotel; leaving everyone with great relief, and in some cases surprise. Mostly on Justin's behalf.

"Waterbed? I know I should probably be freaked out but… Fucking waterbeds!" Justin shouted with slight glee, fist pumping with excitement. Chie just shook her head and rolled her eyes, a playful grin on her face. Sometimes Justin just never learned, did he?

* * *

"Let's see… 304. Here we go."

After wandering around the motel for like ten excruciatingly long, somewhat disturbing, minutes, Justin had finally been able to locate his room. He was happy to report, for the record, that this really was a fuck hut. Someone was going to get sued when all was said and done. There was no way any of this could have been legal; bringing school children to a place like this. Justin didn't really care though, he was just tired. He wanted to take his shoes off, jump on the water bed, and watch television for the next three hours. He sighed as he slid his keycard into the scanner, unlocking the door. He was curious who he would be bunking with, since there were only so many rooms and everyone had gotten paired up with a roommate. And Justin being Justin, decided the best way to find out was by making an ass out of himself the minute he walked through the door.

"Alright, everybody hands up. This is the police. You have the right to remain silent." Justin shouted in jest as he walked through the door with his suitcases. He was smiling at first… But then he saw his roommate. Giving him a funny look as he walked through the door was Naoto, no doubt irritated by the roommate she had been give, irritated that Justin was being a disruptive loudmouth. Justin's eyebrows slowly started to lower in a 'you know what? Fuck my life' kind of expression. "Oh wow, it really is the police. Just for the record, if you plan on putting handcuffs on me while we're here, I'm going to take it a whole 'nother way." He remarked sarcastically as he walked inside with his bags, dropping them in an empty corner of the room.

"Clearly." Naoto continued on that thought, rolling her eyes and turning her attention back to whatever it was she was doing over at the desk on the opposite side of the room. Looked like she was writing something, though what, Justin had no idea. And he didn't care. He just wanted to pretend she wasn't here, that God wasn't punishing him for some sin he had innocently committed. "I wonder if it's too late to request a private room…" Naoto mused aloud. Really, she wasn't sure how she thought this was going to work out anyway, what with her being a girl disguised as a guy. No matter what, she was going to have to room with a dude and try to hide her womanhood a little more extensively.

"Maybe you should have thought of that before you tried to parade around like you had a dick." Justin remarked tossing his shoes off and jumping on the bed, causing it to jiggle like jello during an earthquake. Oh man, this waterbed was just how he had imagined it: Orgasmiiii-_I,uh…. Should probably choose a better word than that._ Naoto proceeded to pass another one of her glares Justin's way. First of all, that topic was not up for discussion. Secondly, was it so much for him to act like he had a single ounce of class? Did he talk like that to everyone he knew? How crude. "Oh and by the way, I call dibs on the bed." Justin continued, flicking on the television. Naoto had resolved herself to just trying to ignore the radical teenager at first, but that sure as hell caught her attention.

"…I beg your pardon?" She questioned, turning her attention away from her writings for a moment to glare at Justin. If anything, Justin would be taking the floor and she would be taking the bed. She refused to sleep on this disease ridden floor however. If anyone was walking out of here with crabs, it was going to be Justin. Justin didn't so much as flinch at Naoto's objection. Normally he would offer the bed up to a lady in a heartbeat… But Naoto wasn't a lady, now was she? Besides, she wanted to act like a guy, she'll get treated like a guy. And that included all the bitching and moaning and arguing over every little thing. It's what guys did best.

"You heard me."

"It seems you're mistaken." Naoto remarked, standing up from the chair to cross her arms and glare at Justin. Why they couldn't have two beds to avoid all of this, she never knew. Possibly because the point of going to motels like this was to fuck. You don't need two beds for that unless you're getting into some really freaky shit. Justin remained quiet for a moment, flipping through the television channels before his eyes finally rolled their way over towards Naoto's direction.

"Do tell Watson." Justin mocked her, knowing full well she didn't like the nicknames. "I ain't moving from this bed; so unless you intend to join me, to the floor with you." Justin remarked, dismissing her with a flick of his wrists. She could sleep in the bathroom for all he cared. "Oh hey, I forgot these beds spin, where's the switch for that…" Justin muttered to himself, clearly not fully invested in Naoto, as though dismissing her as a threat. Which might have been a problem, because the 'solution' he proposed WAS an actual solution. Just not one either particularly wanted. Naoto adjusted her hat slightly as she turned back to her work.

"Well then it's settled. We'll make a barricade out of the pillows." Naoto remarked, slight disgust in her voice knowing that she REALLY didn't want to be in the same bed as that asshole. Or any asshole really. More so Justin than anyone else though. The only bright side she could see towards these rooming conditions was that Justin was aware she was a girl, so she really didn't have to hide that kind of stuff too much… She decided she'd just sleep with her normal clothes on anyway. Just in case. Justin's eyes widened for a moment, eyes darting over to Naoto with shock. That was NOT a serious proposal.

"What? Whoa, whoa wait a second , I didn't mean… Goddammit." Justin sighed with defeat and aggravation, eyes filled with rage as he turned back to the television, the sound of which was very clearly irritating Naoto in some capacity. She WAS trying to write right now after all, the sound was no doubt distracting her right about now. "Fine, but I'm warning you ahead of time I have Restless Leg Syndrome. So if I kick you in the middle of the night… It's intentional."

"I could have deduced that for myself."


	141. Chapter 140: September 9, 2011

CHAPTER 140

September 9, 2011

* * *

"Whoa…! So this is a club!"

It was getting late on the second day of the class trip, and that meant only one thing. It was time to party and break shit and do other irresponsible things teenagers did when they had freetime. Rise had managed to find some club located in the mall they had wasted their time around all day instead of going on that factory trip. Because apparently not a single person noticed none of them had shown up. Save maybe Naoto, since Justin and her were roommates, but she didn't try to stop him. Arguing with him was just anti-productive. She'd just report his misconduct to the proper school authority when she found the time.

Justin himself was having a ball today. Shopping seemed so much more fun in a huge group, especially when you were shopping for music. It was great just rubbing your taste in music into everyone's face, and vice-versa. And then there was Justin trying to buy vinyls every twelve seconds despite not owning a record player. He still walked out with a bunch of CDs, most of them pretty cheap. Like $5 cheap. Apparently the Eagles of Death Metal didn't sell too well. So Justin fixed that and bought ALL of them. He also bought a couple of other things, one of which was cleverly hidden in his back pocket at the moment, but that was a secret for now. For the moment Justin was just enjoying the 90's techno booming from the speakers and the flashing light. He hadn't heard 'Blue' in so long, and goddamn, that was a problem. This song was incredible. Too bad white people couldn't dance and he just looked like an ass as he walked in the door bobbing his head up and down.

"Whoo! I'm totally ready for this!" Chie shouted with excitement, pumped by the booming music and the strobe lighting. Justin really couldn't resist strobe lights… No really; he wasn't sure why, but he literally lost all control when he was exposed to strobe lights for too long. They fucked with his brain or something. Made him feel like he was in a dream, and when that happened, well… No consequences in dreams, now were there?

"There's nothing like this back home…" Yukiko mused out loud with amazement. They really should have a club like this in Inaba. This was beautiful in so many ways; and they hadn't even started dancing or anything. In fact, they were about to walk out to the dance floor at that moment when they were all cut off by an all too familiar voice. Figures they couldn't even have fun at a club without Naoto being a killjoy. Justin could put up with this shit when he went back to his room thank you very much. He wasn't even going to pay Naoto the time of day.

"Is it permitted for high school students such as yourselves to be here?" She questioned the group as they passed by a staircase. Seemed she was making her way down the stairs, ready to depart, when she ran across the group of students that had been oddly missing during the factory tours today. Must have gotten over whatever cold they caught awfully quickly… Yosuke jumped a bit, startled by Naoto's sudden appearance… and pissed off by the sudden interrogation. Wasn't that kind of hypocritical?

"Wh-What!? Dude, look who's talking! You were here before we were!" Yosuke shouted. He was going to make a comment about how he didn't even know Naoto was here, but then he remembered over hearing Justin bitching about his shitty rooming conditions to Chie. Yosuke almost felt bad having to stay in a room with a killjoy like that. He doubted Justin was even allowed to watch television; that's how much of a hardass Naoto was. Naoto shook her head, adjusting her head a bit.

"The clientele here seems above-board, so I don't expect there'll be any problems." Naoto remarked, taking a few more steps as she prepared to depart from their company. She still had some stuff she needed to write in her journal; and she'd rather not do that with someone like Justin around. He would no doubt try to burn it or something. Those were important notes that were contained within the journal's confines.

"Huh? You're leaving?" Chie questioned, stopping Naoto dead in her tracks as she tried to leave their company. Justin would have tried to stop her from getting Naoto to stay if he wasn't so absorbed in the music, tapping his foot and bopping his head up and down in time to beat. No one would have ever expected a classic rock nut like Justin to be into techno. Even if this was really more electronica than anything. _I'm blue, da ba de da ba die._

"Why don't you join us?"

"Are you… asking me to stay?" Naoto turned around startled by the question. She didn't have that offer extended to her very often, especially from possible murder suspects. Still, it was a pleasant surprise, and minus the part where Justin was part of their ranks, seemed like a pretty good deal to her. She blushed slightly, embarrassed to be caught in such an embarrassing position, being asked to join the ranks of delinquents. And actually considering taking them up on their offer.

"Uh-huh. We didn't get to chat last time." Yukiko remarked with a warm smile. Naoto's eyes darted towards the floor below her with slight shame. She recalled having to blow them off on this offer last time due to business she had at the moment. She adjusted her hat, eyes still focused away from the people in her presence, cheeks a little red.

"Ah… I… I-It's just that I had some matters to attend to that day." Naoto hesitatingly tried to explain herself, keeping it as vague as possible. Didn't need to involve these teenagers into any of her own affairs. Especially when everyone was a suspect at the moment. Even people she didn't know. She had no clues or anything.

"Well, you're free now, right? I was really eager to talk to you. I'm curious how someone my age is working as a detective." Rise remarked with curiosity. Naoto sighed before raising her eyes to make eye contact again. She got asked that question a lot, and it was always just as annoying to be asked that as the time prior she had been asked.

"Hmmm… Very well, if you insist." Naoto eventually gave into the requests of the investigation team, not counting Justin of course, who had just about enough of her on this trip. He was too intoxicated by the atmosphere right now though. The strobe lights were getting to him already. But that's alright, because it seemed the same could be said of Yu, given the two were both doing this awkward shuffle in time to the beats of the song. Which was now 'Numa Numa,' for the record. Whoever was the DJ here, Justin wanted to give him all of his money. This was just the best thing. Still, Justin was a little on guard. He was just waiting for 'Gangnam Style' or 'Moves Like Jagger' to ruin everything.

"Wait here. I'll go reserve the area upstairs for us." Rise announced, to the members of the group that were actually paying attention. Read: Anyone that wasn't Justin or Yu. And who said you couldn't dance with another guy and still have fun? Yosuke nodded his head a bit. Or at least, until it really sunk in what Rise had just said she was going to do.

"Okay… Wait, what!? Reserve!?"

"Yep. Don't worry, I think I can pull some strings." Rise declared before quickly turning around and searching for the manager. She had performed here a long time ago, so no doubt the manager would be alright with lending Rise a private room for a night. It was the least he could do for a celebrity attracting business. Especially after what had happened last year. And with that, everyone was left just patiently awaiting the return of Rise with news of whether she could get the room or not. Might as well dance right. Save maybe Kanji who was complaining about stomach pains for some inexplicable reason.

"I fucking love this club!" Justin shouted as the music continued to pound. No one had really joined them dancing, though that was alright, because too many people making an ass out of themselves really took away the novelty of looking like a fool. Justin opened his eyes a bit as an idea suddenly struck him. Well, not JUST struck him; more like he had just remembered it. He knew they were coming to a club, and he had a dastardly idea. "Oh, hold on one sec; I'm gonna go put in a request." Justin remarked stopping his awkward shuffle for a moment, and by extension stopping Yu's. No one wants to look like an ass by themselves after all. Yu nodded a bit before Justin ran off in search of the DJ.

It was a moment before Justin actually found where the guy was. Thankfully he was using a computer, which meant using the song he wanted wouldn't really be a problem. No one could hear Justin because he was too far away, but they could see him whispering to the DJ and pointing at the group for a moment. That wasn't really a good sign. The DJ looked as though he was laughing before giving Justin a thumbs up and sending him on his way. He was laughing hysterically as he eventually rejoined the group. Everyone gave him a couple of funny glances, not really sure what he was up to. Naoto just wanted to know if what ever got up his ass had finally crawled it's way out, what with Justin not being a self-righteous asshole right now.

"What'd you request?" Yu questioned, curious what it could be. It was probably hardcore death metal or something. Which wouldn't be a bad idea, if only for shits and giggles, but no. No he had an actual song that people could actually dance too. In fact, he was counting on the latter. Justin smirked bit, tilting his head in a very suspicious manner. It was clear he was up to something.

"And three… two… one." Justin counted down the end to Numa Numa, fading out into the background, and the fading into his requested song. Everyone immediately recognized that guitar riff as it started to ring through the club. It was that song. They didn't know the name of it, but they knew they heard it before. Justin laughed a bit as he slipped his hand into his back pocket, reaching for the purchase had made earlier, anticipating their night at the club: A small rose that he had been hiding using his shirt, which he quickly gripped inbetween his teeth before extending his hand towards Chie. Her face could not have turned redder any quicker. Almost as red as the rose in Justin's mouth infact. She wasn't sure if this was the most romantic thing she had ever seen or the stupidest. Joke's on her though, love was always stupid.

"Wha- me!?" Chie stuttered, caught off guard by Justin's invitation to dance. For starters, she didn't know how to dance, so this was just going to be awkward. People would be staring at them; and that was just a no no for Chie. Justin nodded a bit before grabbing her by the wrist, knowing all too well she wouldn't go out there any other way. Her face only seemed to get redder as she got dragged out to the dance floor, ending with Justin holding her hand with one hand, gripping her by the hip with the other. He didn't know how to dance like this but it was worth a shot. "B-But I don't know how to dance!" Chie begged with him to let her go. Justin just shook his head before spitting the rose off to the side, knowing he couldn't talk with that in his mouth, and not wanting to let go of his hold on Chie.

"Good, cause neither do I."

_Man it's a hot one _

_Like seven inches from the midday sun _

_I hear you whisper and the words melt everyone _

_But you stay so cool_

Justin slowly started to step in beat, his left foot forward, and Chie's right foot backwards so that their legs crossed over. Then, Chie mirrored Justin's steps, stepping forward with her left foot while he stepped back on his right. And they repeated this, circling ever so slightly with each step. Her face was beat red as Justin lead the dance. He said he couldn't dance, but she sincerely doubted it with the way he was moving. She just hoped no one was watching. She was half right. At some point Yu and Yukiko had decided to follow their lead. Though Yu was the embarrassed one in that case. And Yosuke, Kanji, and Naoto were stuck just watching, some disgusted, some just curious.

_My munequita_

_My Spanish Harlem Mona Lisa _

_You're my reason for reason _

_The step in my groove _

_And if you say this life ain't good enough _

_I would give my world to lift you up _

_I could change my life to better suit your mood _

_Cause you're so smooth _

Soon Justin found himself flinging his arm out, Chie and Justin's body separating as the pushed each other away then dragged each other closer in a swing-esque dance manever. Justin let go of one of her hands for a moment to spin her around with the other. At this point Chie was having a hard time keeping out… But in a way that was the beauty of all this, that raw sense of chaos, just going with the flow. Perhaps it was just that she trusted Justin not to slam her into a wall with these fancy dance moves. Plus, it was kind of nice that they were chest to chest by the time he pulled her back.

_And just like the ocean under the moon _

_Well that's the same emotion that I get from you _

_You got the kind of lovin that can be so smooth _

_Gimme your heart, make it real _

_Or else forget about it_

As the chorus finished, the two were close together again, stepping side to side this time instead of crossing legs, mixing up blues and swing step patterns. Which was bad in that Chie could see the others watching at this point (but also Yu and Yukiko going at it, which was kind of cute.) She was having fun, but god this was embarrassing. Why couldn't those three dance too and make this less awkward for everyone. Hell, those four were the only ones dancing in pairs like this now that she noticed. She was going to have to smack Justin when all was said and done. Or maybe just kiss him. She had never been so mortified and frightened, yet felt her heart pattering so quickly in all of her life.

_I'll tell you one thing _

_If you would leave it would be a crying shame _

_In every breath and every word _

_I hear your name calling me out _

_Out from the barrio, you hear my rhythm from your radio _

_You feel the turning of the world so soft and slow _

_Turning you round and round_

_And if you say this life ain't good enough _

_I would give my world to lift you up _

_I could change my life to better suit your mood _

_Cause you're so smooth _

The song went on much like that for a while, Justin and Chie twisting back and forth in an elaborate serious of spins and steps that she was having a hard time really keeping up with. Though it seemed Justin was very good at leading in that regard. She didn't seem to HAVE to know how to dance to really understand what she was supposed to be doing. Though maybe that was partially because Justin would occasionally whisper in her ear what to do, ever so softly. The hot air coming from his mouth only heated her skin up more, flustered by just how… Well… Wonderful it felt. The song eventually died out though, and so too did the duos' dances. There were a couple of claps as the techno kicked back in and everyone went back to being an ass.

"And you said you couldn't dance." Justin playfully jabbed at Chie. She blushed a bit. Partially because he still hadn't let go of his grip on her hips. She smiled warmly up into his eyes before planting a gentle peck on his cheek, and he hers. Yosuke looked like he wanted to vomit by the time they came back. He got enough of that shit from the room upstairs at the motel. A full fucking hour. What were the chances that he got the one guy in the world that could last that long?

* * *

"Are you sure this is all right? Isn't it expensive…?"

Rise had returned not too long after Chie and Justin's dance with the good news that she had managed to reserve the entire upstairs section of the club. And get them free drinks. This was the best night ever; FACT. Justin downed his glass in a matter of seconds; after all, dancing like that fuelled quite the thirst. He shook his head, flipping his hair about as he slammed the glass back down like he had downed a shot. A statement that held more truth to it than he had thought at the time. Rise shook her head, quickly dismissing Chie's concerns.

"No worries. Two years ago when I had a secret show here, the power went out in the middle of it, and the gig was cancelled. They still owe me from then, so they're willing to put this one on the house." Rise remarked with a devilish grin, her face bright red for some inexplicable reason. It wasn't even just the cheeks. Her entire face was just red for some reason. Plus she had this funny look in her eyes. Chie grinned a bit at the thought of this all being on the house. Free drinks were always nice. Except when they had roofies in them. That wasn't so nice.

"Well in that case, I'm gonna order more."

"Whooooo! I'm not gonna hold back either!" Teddie shouted, slurring his words slightly. Again, inexplicably. Justin raised his eyebrow with curiosity. The shouting wasn't what was getting to him; he wouldn't mind doing that either. It was the WAY he said it that caught him a little of guard. That tone of voice sounded so peculiar.

"Dude… You sound even weirder today…" Kanji seemed to pick up on that too. Teddie leaned in real close to Kanji, wrapping his arm around Kanji's neck as he pointed at him with the hand holding his glass. Okay yeah, something was definitely up. Kanji's face lit up like a Christmas tree eyes wide with panic as Teddie tried to lay the moves on him

"Awww, you're sho cold, Kanji… Hm… Kanji? Kanji, Kanji… I Kanj-ecture that shomething's up! Heeheehee, that's a great one!" Teddie joked, substituting Kanji's name into a random word. Yukiko was laughing hysterically, though everyone else was just staring at Teddie like he was nuts. Save maybe Justin who thought that was ingenious.

"Oh are we doing name puns now? Justin time!" Justin chuckled a bit to himself. It was groan worthy, but then, it seemed everyone had reached a point where groan-worthy was actually funny, if you catch my drift. I mean they had shit taste in humor; come on. Not everything is an innuendo, sexual or otherwise, you know.

"I hope Yu realize that was awful." Yu remarked, downing another one of his beverages, holding the glass the way a spy would in a James Bond movie. He was laying the swag on extra thick here tonight.

"I think we all just need to Chie-ll out." Chie interrupted, waving her hands back and forth as though to try to get everyone to stop. Of course, when she had inserted her own name into a pun similar to the others, it was clear she was having just as much fun with this as they were. Justin pointed at her and raised his eyebrows, as though to tell her that was a good one. He didn't even think he could have worked with Chie's name, it didn't really fit into any words unless you forced it.

"She's right we should stop. Naoto just get a refill on these drinks." Yu remarked, seeing an opportunity for a pun, but knowing full well Naoto had no intention of joining these shenanigans. In fact, she rubbed at her forehead with annoyance once her name had been brought into this.

"Can we please stop with the puns? They're really Teddie-ous." Kanji remarked dully, though his eyes widened once he realized he accidentally let out a pun. He meant to say tedious, dammit. These name puns were infectious. Yosuke opened his mouth as though to say something, though he didn't have anything to say.

"…I got nothin'." He eventually sighed with defeat. Yosuke just couldn't be used in a pun; nether could Hanamura. Justin slammed his glass down on the table in front of him throwing his hands up with annoyance, as though he were pissed Yosuke wasn't clever enough to force his name into anything.

"Dammit Yosuke! Now we have to Risette this entire joke chain." Justin shouted with annoyance, crossing his arms and shaking his head. Yosuke sighed and shook his head. All of this was just so painful to listen to. Though mostly because he couldn't think of anything to top the puns that had already been put out there. Kanji's eyes darted around the room at all the smiling faces giggling at the shitty name puns. This would have normally warranted a bunch of groans, not laughs. What was going on?

"Wow… Everyone's looser than usual." Kanji mused aloud. For some reason, that comment struck Yosuke like a bowling ball struck bowling pins. His eyes quickly darted to his own glass, a worried expression on his face as he slowly started to put two and two together.

"Hey, wait a sec! Are these liquor…!?" Yosuke shouted. Everyone suddenly stopped laughing for a moment as the thought struck them. Now that they thought about it, it did seem kind of hot in here. Plus, everyone WAS a little looser than usual. And that was saying something about some of the people here. Justin rubbed at his chin a bit as he eyed his glass. He hadn't tasted any alcohol; it probably was clean.

"I-I told 'em to give us soft drinks! They're non alcoholic! …I told them. Really, I did! Really!" Rise shouted at the others, trying to nervously defend herself in a drunken stupor. Justin bit his bottom lip. He didn't taste any alcohol, but… But Rise was very clearly drunk. No ifs ands or buts about it; and she had only had a couple of glasses. Yukiko and Teddie seemed out of it too. Eyes slowly widened around the table, save Naoto's as they quickly deposited their glasses on the table. Except maybe Yu as well, who just took that as a chance to take another drink. How many drinks did Rise order anyway?

"Aw, sheesh… I was wondering why it's so hot…" Chie remarked, frantically pushing the glass away then tugging at her collar. Justin could agree with that; it really did feel like it was getting hotter in here. Though, like he said, he didn't taste alcohol; it must have just naturally gotten hotter in here. Justin rubbed at his chin… Was it possible that… Some of the drinks were spiked and others were not? Like Russian Roulette with alcohol?

"…My drink was fine, but what if-"

"King's Gaaaaaaame!" Rise shouted very loudly cutting Justin off, piercing his ear drums. Seemed he wasn't getting that thought out any times soon. And what the fuck was King's Game? "Times like this, adults play the King's Game. It's the law… What's their problem…? They make me act like a ditz, call me Risette and stuff, and then say I'm a kid… It's so obvious… Those wrap parties get a lot funner after I go home! Morooons! I'm gonna play the King's Game now and ain't no one gonna stop me!" Justin suddenly felt a bad gut feeling in his… well… gut. There was probably a reason they were doing it when the kids were gone.

"Yet another side of Rise exposed… I wonder if she knows what she's saying…" Yosuke mused to himself. Justin shook his head. She most definitely did not. Justin knew drunk; after all, that's what his father was 99% of the time while he was still alive. This… this was about as drunk as you could get. Rise apparently could not hold her booze well. Same might be said of Yukiko. Teddie… Justin didn't think Teddie was really drunk. It was hard to explain, but it looked like he was just pretending. His face wasn't red like it was supposed to get when you were drunk. Oh no, he wasn't intoxicated, he just believed he was.

"Kanjiiii! Get the chopsticks ready!" Rise shouted, trying to imitate royalty in her drunken voice. It was quite awful if Justin may say so himself. As a professional Brit, he would have you know that their queen did NOT sound anything like that. Not that he really did know what the queen sounded like, but it sure as hell wasn't that. He'd like to think the queen sounded like Freddie Mercury, but that was just wishful thinking.

"Wha-!? Why me…?" Kanji nervously objected.

"The King's word is law! Chop-chop!"

"I-It's already started!?" Yosuke questioned. Not that he really got what this King's game business was, but he was going to assume that this had something to do with it. And he didn't like the sounds of this one bit. What was this, truth or dare, but only with the dare part or something? Chie scratched at her head a bit as she tried to recall anything about King's Game. Alas, she had never heard of it, as much as she swore she had heard that before somewhere.

"U-Um… What's this King's Game again?" Chie questioned on behalf of everyone that wasn't drunk. Which was slowly starting to lower in numbers apparently. Yukiko giggled a bit for no real reason before pointing at Chie… And damn near falling over in the process. She clearly had no balance at the moment.

"Okay… one chopstick makes you the King if you draw it, and the others have numbers on 'em… The King picks a number and says what that person has to do. But who has which number is a secret until the King gives the orders!" Yukiko recapped the rules of the game for everyone there. That put a lot of questions to rest, though that did leave one HUGE question.

"Y-Yukiko!? Where'd you learn this stuff!?" Chie stuttered a bit, slightly fearful of what kind of private life Yukiko might have had when Chie wasn't around. This didn't sound like the first time Yukiko had done this, unfortunately. Kanji had taken off a moment earlier in search of some chopsticks, and had finally returned, dropping them on the table. And Rise had markers on her… Again, why? Justin had no idea. She was just carrying markers around I guess.

"C'mon, everyone draw!" Rise ordered as she finished marking up the chopsticks. Her handwriting was atrocious when she was drunk, by the way, but Justin supposed it was readable at the very least. That was good…? Everyone sighed before hesitatingly sticking their hand out towards the pile of chopsticks in the middle of the table, surrounded by glasses, empty and full alike. Justin held his breath as he grabbed a hold of a chopstick. Number two. Alright, he wasn't king… That meant he wasn't safe. God save the queen… "Okay, sooooo… Who's the King?"

"Teddie's is red! Red! Is Teddie the King!?" Teddie shouted jumping up and down on the couch he had been sitting on, eyes wide as he held the chopsticks skyward like a sword. Every single person that was sober in that room, minus Naoto, slammed their face into their hands with grief and fear. This would not end well. Knowing Teddie, he was going to use this as an opportunity to try and 'score.' And if he got Yukiko or Rise, he damn well might.

"Ugh, we're already doomed from the get-go…" Yosuke groaned, fearful of whatever sick thoughts resided in the back of Teddie's skull.

"I, the King, command thee to smooch the King without delay! Smoooooooch!" Teddie commanded as he stood tall and mighty, a very determined expression on his face. He was dead serious about smooching. And that had actually scared the living shit out of Chie. After all, the odds of her getting picked weren't exactly small.

"S-S-S-Smooch!?"

"Fear not, my queen. I shall be your White Knight in shining armor." Justin remarked, donning his british accent once more, holding his arm against his chest in a pledge position. He was dead serious about this too. Game or not, he WOULD kill Teddie if he tried anything. "I shall put my life on the line to protect thee." Chie's face turned bright red again. Really, the whole chivalry thing was great and all, it was one of the few things she loved about Justin more than anything else, but did he have to be so vocal about it at times?

"Please God… Grant me a girl! Number 3!" Teddie shouted, clenching his eyes shut in fearful anticipation. Within seconds you could hear Kanji scream out in horror. No one was sure whether they should feel relieved or feel bad for Kanji. Better him than them, they supposed. No one wanted to kiss Teddie. No one. "I meant Number 2…!" Teddie tried to correct himself.

"Do it and I will shank you." Justin remarked very bluntly. That got a rather aggressive, suspicious glare from Naoto. Note to self, do not mention murder around the law abiding, dick riding fun police. Teddie sighed, realizing just what he had to do, Yukiko and Rise demanding the smooch he had promised but a moment earlier.

"K-Kanji… So you were after my fuzzy fur! Okay, but it's my first time! Be gentle…!" Teddie remarked in a low, husky, sensual tone. Kanji's eyes widened, and for a moment it looked like he was going to run. But alas, Teddie had tackled him before he even got a chance to move. Justin would hardly call the horrors he witnessed a smooch. Looked more like Teddie was trying to bite Kanji's face off. Kanji screamed out for help, but no one lifted a finger. After all, if they did, they might be next. Sacrifices needed to be made.

"Ohooo… Only the first round, and two contestants have dropped out already." Rise remarked.

"Huh? Is it that kind of game?" Chie questioned. Justin hoped to god it was; it only meant that if he got to be King, he could do his dare, then get the fuck out of there. It was the only way to be safe in this game. Or was it? Apparently even the King wasn't safe from the poetic justice this game dealt out. Everyone held their breath as Rise regathered the sticks and drew them back into the center for everyone to grab. Justin was almost afraid to see what he had managed to get. Not king, unfortunately. That was an honor reserved for Yu, who had put on his glasses, tossed his chopsticks up in the air, unbuttoned his shirt, and caught the stick on the way back down.

Basically, they were fucked.

"King me." Yu remarked, adjusting his glasses as he stood there, pure swag radiating from his exposed chest. By this point Naoto had covered her face with her hat, refusing to watch anymore. This was just ridiculous by this point. She had no idea she was getting involved with imbeciles. She probably should have all things considered.

"Phew, someone decent… No crazy orders this time…" Chie begged him, hoping to dear god that this would be the end of a tyrant's reign. Oh if she only knew; deep down Yu only had the most sinister of intents. And that was the intent of shining his swag down upon all he touched. Yukiko just started laughing hysterically at Chie though, amused by her pitiful attempts at trying to be reasonable.

"That's not how it goes! If the last King demanded a smooch, then the next order's gotta be more extreme. Chiiieee, don't be such a party pooper… Ahahahaha!" Yukiko continued to mock her. Chie hid her face with fear, not liking where this was about to go. It probably didn't help that Rise and Yukiko were giving him horrible horrible ideas.

"Heyyy! The person who gets picked should have to rest their head on the King's lap."

"Nah, make 'em sit on his lap."

"Oh! Or they could have to hug him!"

"Better than that… A piggyback ride!" See what I mean? Horrible, horrible ideas. Justin feared for his soul in all honesty. Though he supposed all of those were better than a smooch. Justin could sit on Yu's lap for a couple of seconds if that was the alternative. That didn't sound so bad by comparison. And a piggyback actually sounded like hell of a lot of fun. Yu stood up from his seat, adjusting his glasses before turning his attention dramatically from where he stood, a dart in his hand. Where did he get the dart? Who knew; all they knew was he had a dart, and there was a dartboard on the opposite side of the room.

"Number two." Yu remarked before throwing the dart half way across the room, right over Justin's head. Maybe it was just the fact that he had almost been impaled by a dart, but Justin could have swore the dart was moving in slow motion as it slowly approached its target. Apparently Yu had amazing aim, because the dart hit RIGHT on target. Everyone just stared with amazement as his prediction came true and he adjusted his glasses, before slowly turning about to face the rest of the group. "Sit on my lap." He remarked in a… slightly husky tone. Did I ever mention how much swag Yu had? Because god damn, he was practically sweating swag by this point. Justin was only expecting shit to catch on fire as he walked by, blowing up because the swag was just too hot for them.

Eyes darted about the room, searching for the lucky (citation needed) girl who would have the pleasure of sitting on Yu's lap. If lady luck decided to rear her gorgeous head right about now, hopefully it would be Yukiko. Nope, Justin slowly lowered his eyes to look at his own chopstick. Two. Again. He groaned a bit before tossing his chopsticks to the ground, a combination of anger and courage surging through his veins. If he was going to do this, he was gonna go all out. "Oh dear god." Chie groaned as Justin stood up, glaring at Yu. Yu… didn't even seem fazed. He didn't care who sat on his lap at this point, so long as someone did and someone did right now.

"Ladies, please take note. This is how it's done." Justin remarked sarcastically before turning about and sitting on Yu's lap. His eyes widened almost immediately as he sat down, cheeks growing red. So this was how he was going to lose his virginity. Apparently swag also gave someone a huge fucking erection. This was going to scar him for life. Yu just adjusted his glasses though, perhaps not noticing that Justin was rubbing up to his dick right now, perhaps just not caring. Justin slowly turned his eyes away from the disgusted glances he was getting, the hysterical laughing of Yukiko and Rise, to look Yu dead in the eyes, his jaw hanging slightly ajar. "…Seriously?"

"The King's law is absolute." Yu remarked bluntly. _Yeah okay, that's great Yu, but the King's law doesn't stipulate that the King can rub his dick up against my fucking ass. Get rida' that shit before I rip it off and stomp on it._ Justin sighed a bit, face still red as he shook his head. It was a moment before Yu finally dismissed him, at which point he couldn't have jumped off any quicker in search of his seat, a shiver down his spine as he placed himself next to Chie again. She passed him a concerned look, feeling absolutely horrible for Justin; for what he had to go through. Also for the fact that this game was getting really gay, really fast. Which is cool, I guess; except no one there was fucking gay. Yu might have had Justin fooled for a second there, though. And would he please button his shirt back up instead of just sitting there like that, his legs open, arm wrapped around the back of the sofa.

"Ahahaha, me next! Me! I'm the King! Actually, the Queen!" Yukiko suddenly shouted outloud, oblivious to all that was going on around her. Did she not just notice her boyfriend potentially trying to rape Justin just a moment ago? And even then, there was the fact that Yukiko didn't even draw a chopstick. In fact, everyone still had their old ones from a moment ago. They weren't even set up for the next round. This was even worse than that time they had all played cards and Yosuke kept forgetting the rules every twelve seconds… Okay, maybe not that bad. But still pretty awful.

"You didn't even draw a chopstick!" Yosuke shouted with aggravation. This whole game was just a clusterfuck; in more ways than one. Would it be so much to ask that they just not do this? Just go back down to the club and dance to more 90's techno. Please; that's all he was asking. Of course, Yukiko didn't care. She was too far gone at this point to think rationally. Or think at all for that matter. Justin began to eye the drink in front of him again. He had been think about this prior to their game beginning. Something was definitely up, but he honest to god didn't taste any alcohol in his drink…

"Alright, then… Let's have someone talk about something really embarrassing that they'd never wanna tell anyone! Hrmmm, let's see… Ah! Naoto-kun! I choose you!" Yukiko continued, completely ignoring the rules. Naoto just raise her eyebrow with intrigue, not necessarily off put by Yukiko breaking the rules to ask her to tell them all something rather embarrassing. Not that she could think of anything embarrassing. Besides perhaps from having to bunk with Justin. That was an embarrassment to everyone involved with that arrangement.

"She's breaking all the rules… Just ignore her, Naoto." Yosuke advised her, very much annoyed at how quickly everything had degraded. Could they go on one trip without SOMEONE getting drunk. Just one. That wasn't so much to ask for, was it? Naoto shook her head though, as though to refuse Yosuke's perfectly reasonable advise. Seriously, that was probably the best option and she just played it off like it was nothing. Ace detective.

"No… No, that won't be necessary. One stipulation, though: If I do this, the rest of you must reveal "something" as well." Naoto remarked, her interest peaked as she realized she could use this to her advantage. She still had so many unanswered questions; now seemed as good a time as any to get them out on table. Justin groaned a bit, quickly downing the glass in front of him. If it was in fact alcoholic, he was going to need it.

"The body's under the floor boards." Justin sarcastically remarked, as he slammed the glass back down on the table. Naoto didn't pay him any mind though, as per usual. She practically had a clause in effect that anytime Justin addressed her, she should just drown him out. Seemed she wasn't getting much out of him anyway, other than him being an asshole. And as suspicious as that was, being an asshole wasn't against the law. It really should be, though. She eventually turned her attention away from the blonde trouble maker and back towards the rest of the much more sane-minded group. And that was saying something when Rise and Yukiko were drunk as fuck.

"No particularly embarrassing experiences come to mind… Would discussing my life be fair game? It's the rare situation like this that gives me call to speak of such things." Naoto remarked, completely missing the point of the game. This wasn't her own personal diary, which she clearly had one of at the motel mind you. This was so they could all mock her for being drunk enough to talk about that stuff. Except she didn't seem drunk. At least, not yet.

"Damn… Way to kill the mood…"

"The Shirogane family has been detectives for generations now. We lend our powers to the police from time to time." Naoto continued, all the while Justin was mouthing off so much shit to himself, it was a wonder he didn't just think it. Mostly stuff like 'who the fuck cares?' Seriously, it wasn't as big a deal as everyone was making it out to be. If anything, he despised that a tight-ass like Naoto was allowed to walk around with a badge and a gun. She was the kind of person that shouldn't be allowed in any law-enforcement capacity. "In days gone by, when there were no crime scene investigators, consulting detectives were considered more valuable. Thus, my grandfather still has a strong connection with the police and looks after me, despite my youth and inexperience. But investigators nowadays are well versed in science and medicine, so I must further my studies."

"That sounds tough…" Yosuke remarked, pausing for a moment as though to expect Naoto continue with her story. Only she didn't seem to have anymore to the story, she simply leaned over and grabbed her drink, taking a sip. She was just as boring as Justin had always imagined. "…That's it? No punch line?" Naoto passed Yosuke a slightly shamed look, as though embarrassed that they were expecting more out of her. She thought that was pretty impressive without a 'punchline.'

"Ahm… I fear you may be looking to the wrong person for that." Naoto remarked. Yosuke just shook his head with a disappointed expression, muttering to himself how he just wanted to go home. Which I think was pretty much what all the sober people were thinking right now. Naoto took another sip of her glass before donning a much more serious expression, gently placing the glass back down on the table in front of her. "Well then, it's your turn now. A straight answer, please. What is your true involvement with the murder case?" And there she went showing her true colors again. Justin threw the glass in his hand over his shoulder, shattering it against the wall behind him as though to say 'fuck it, I'm done.' He should probably leave some money behind to pay for that. Couldn't be that expensive right.

"You know, you're so good at killing the mood that it's almost funny…"

"Killing the mood. Murder investigation. And who said Yosuke couldn't be funny." Justin chuckled abit at Yosuke's not at all intentional pun. Yosuke wasn't sure whether he should find this pleasantly surprising, or somewhat concerning. There had to be a catch. Besides; the pun was, as aforementioned, unintentional.

"You did."

"Oh right." Justin shrugged before leaning over to grab another drink, pressing the liquid up against his lips. He stopped dead in his tracks this time. Now he could taste alcohol. The drink in his hand was definitely spiked with something; though what Justin wasn't quite sure. So Rise and Yukiko weren't just being dumbfucks, they were actually hopped up on liquor. "Uh guys, we have a problem he-"

"Weeeeell, we go rescuing people who've been kidnapped by jumping into the TV! And theeen, we do stuff like, "Persona!" with our Personas and beat the crap outta Shadows…" Yukiko interrupted Justin as he went to warn everyone that the drinks had been spiked. No wonder everyone had been acting crazy. Though he did have to wonder why only some of the drinks seemed spike… Actually, now that he thought about it, the drink he grabbed was closer to Chie than it was to him, which meant it was probably supposed to be hers… Oh, shit…

"Alright, two problems." Justin remarked, eyebrows dropping down as he shaked his head. He just gave up with these people by this point. It wasn't even worth getting pissed off when someone said something stupid these days; because then he'd have to be angry all of the time. Not that he wasn't anyway, but you know how it is. Naoto sighed with annoyance and disappointment. There just went an hour of her life. She should have known they wouldn't spill the beans.

"Are you making fun of me?" Naoto questioned, annoyed that this had all just been a charade to seemingly mock her. Justin twisted his head to the side a bit slowly raising his shoulders and squinting his eyes as thought to say '…maybe?' Shouldn't have come as a surprise to her in all honesty, given that Justin was in their company.

"Ish true! Personaaaa!" Rise remarked, following up Yukiko's idiotic outburst with one of her own. She also stood up on the couch and thrust her arm into the sky, as though she wasn't getting enough attention drawn to her yet. That was immediately followed by her tipping over and damn near crashing into the table in front of her. She didn't break anything though, so no one seemed to care when she hit the floor. _Real nice guys._

"Sheesh! Somebody put these two drunks to bed already!" Chie quickly remarked, trying to playoff Yukiko and Rise spilling the beans as them being drunk. Justin made a 'hngh' sound as she made that remark, signifying she really shouldn't be talking right now. She sounded and looked like she had control over her mind and body at the moment though, so Justin wasn't sure how drunk she could possibly be. Maybe she was just better at handling her booze than the others. Chie passed him a slightly confused glance.

"…I see now that you had no intention of telling me the truth. But I'm curious… How did you become so inebriated? This isn't alcohol." Naoto remarked, a disapproving 'you're all idiots' look on her face as she pointed out how stupid they were. Justin made an even louder 'hgnh' sound this time. They all needed to stop acting like this wasn't alcohol, like, right now. Because it was, clear as day. It was just a matter of who spiked it, and why did it only seem to be certain drinks…?

"Good one Naoto!"

"No, I confirmed it when I first entered. No alcohol has been served here since a rash of drunk driving last year." Naoto shook her head, dismissing Yukiko's beliefs to the contrary. These were non-alcoholic; and anyone who believed otherwise was a complete and utter fool. Even though she was COMPLETELY wrong. Perhaps she just hadn't gotten one of the spiked drinks.

"HNGH! COUGH COUGH!" Justin grunted again, only loud enough to the point where he was actually speaking the onomatopoeias and not just coughing. Everyone's eyes finally fell on Justin with annoyance at how obnoxious he was being at the moment. "Actually, uh…" Justin spoke up after a while. "…I uh, accidentally grabbed one of Chie's drinks a moment ago… I can taste the alcohol in it clear as day. These have been spiked." Justin remarked, shaking his head as he held up Chie's glass. Chie started freaking out immediately, and pretty much everyone else jumped back a bit in their seat. Minus maybe Naoto, who had simply slapped her forehead with annoyance.

"Are you a pack of imbeciles?" Naoto remarked with annoyance; perhaps overlooking the fact that Justin knew what alcohol tasted like. You'd think she would have picked up on that immediately and throw him in cuffs or something, but alas, no. She probably thought he tried some at a Bar Mitzvah or something. Everyone quickly turned their attention back down to their drinks, minus Yukiko and Teddie who were either drunk or thought they were drunk, and Rise, who was probably dead. _No guys, don't help her off the floor._

"What!? You mean…!?" Chie gasped with shock and fear. Who the hell was trying to drug her? Justin nodded his head timidly, knowing she really didn't want that answer. She wanted him to just say 'hey, just kidding.' Not that they were all drinking down roofies and moonshine for the last hour. Yosuke's eyes darted quickly around before reaching out his hand to grab the beverage from where Rise had been sitting a moment earlier. Clearly Justin could tell what was going on, best if he handled this.

"Here; test this." Yosuke ordered as he handed off Rise's drink to Justin. Justin was more than happy to oblige, grabbing a hold of the glass and gulping a good chunk of it down. Yep; more alcohol. Still tasted awful for the record, which only served to piss Justin off as he realized he was going to have to do this with everyone's drinks. He lightly put the glass back on the table, nodding his head abit.

"Spiked."

It went on like that for a while with everyone passing drinks to Justin. Surprisingly enough, it seemed that even the people that had seemed sober a moment earlier were in possession of spiked drinks. The only ones who didn't have a spiked drink was Justin and… strangely enough, Teddie. Even Naoto had a spiked drink, though she refused to accept that as true when Justin pointed out. If anything, she was pissed that Justin had laid his lips upon her drink. She sure as hell didn't want it now. Justin was on the last glass at the moment; Yu's, taking a sip slowly, his body shaking a bit, his eyes drooping. In retrospect, it probably wasn't a good idea to let Justin chug down seven or so glasses of whatever alcohol had been slipped into their drinks.

"Itsh.. itsh shpiked too." Justin remarked, a slight sigh and lisp on his breath. Everyone who was sober passed each other a look of concern, once again, minus Naoto, who looked like she was getting dangerously close to getting up and walking out. She was getting more than a little tired of everyone pretending to be drunks. She figured these people were imbeciles, but this took it to a whole 'nother level. Justin eyed the rest of the drink in his hand for a moment, as everyone tried desperately to hold on to their wits end. It was at that very moment that drunk Justin said 'fuck it' and poured the rest of the liquid in his mouth. That earned more than a few shocked glances. "Yolo."

"Oh Christ; now he's drunk too."

* * *

"You know… you know… have I ever told you green looksh good on ya. It doesh."

So yeah; Justin got really wasted, as did most of the others. The only ones really sober by this point were Naoto, Kanji, and Chie. Everyone else was drunk out of their fucking minds; even Yosuke, who had been sober a moment earlier. Apparently peer pressure had pushed him to downing a few drinks himself too. He was going to regret that in the morning. Chie was dragging Justin out of the club and out into the mall as the sober members tried to get the drunken members back to the motel. Again, minus Naoto he refused to believe they were telling the truth. Chie sighed a bit as Justin rambled on like a drunkard, tipping over every which way and that.

"Hey, HEY, lishten. Look over th-lishen. Look over there. They… They totally have a kar-" Justin paused for a moment for a small drunken chuckle. "They totally have a karaoke bar. We should… we should totally do some karaoke…" Chie passed him a disappointed look, shaking her head as she continued to drag him along with her and Kanji. Who would have thought KANJI would be the sober one. It wasn't unknown to the others that he had tried to get drunk before. They just managed to catch him before he got away with the deed. Maybe he was just reluctant to get drunk with the detective prince watching him. That must have been unnerving.

"Justin. You're drunk. You're not going to the Karaoke bar." Chie tried to talk him down from his crazy schemes again. She wasn't exactly mad at Justin this time, what with it being involuntary. At least… At first, but she supposed that he had gotten drunk before he started downing them intentionally. And if he HADN'T drunk all of those, the others wouldn't have a warning that they were drinking shit they shouldn't have been. His sacrifice would be remembered; but only if he stopped doing something stupid. Justin glared at her in a drunken stupor.

"No, no, you don't, you don't get it. We have to go to the karaoke bar becaushe we're drunk. That'sh how karaoke worksh." Justin tried to change her mind. She just passed him another disappointed tired look though. She wasn't in the mood for this. Justin's eyes passed across everyone else, most of them also in a drunken stupor. He paused for a moment before shaking his head at the others, as though passing them a signal. Yu in turn passed one back to him. "You're right Chie, I'm sho- NOW!" And within seconds he broke out of her grip and made a mad dash, the other drunks following his lead. Save maybe Yosuke, who Kanji had managed to stop by tackling him. The others made a clean get-away though. How did it feel to be duped by a bunch of drunks?

"Son of a-" Chie began, anger and worriment flowing through her blood cells as everyone ran off. The amount of trouble those people were going to get into. Naoto just pinched her forehead. She had enough of this; she was going home. She didn't even say anything as she left Chie and Kanji's company. "Wha- hey!" Chie called out to Naoto trying to stop her. They needed help dammit. Naoto just dismissed her by throwing her arms up in the air, as though to uncharacteristically say 'FUCK ALL OF YOUR SHIT.' And with that she left them there, passing glances back and forth. It was two of them versus four drunks. And Yosuke if he kept struggling.

"Crap, what do we do now senpai?" Kanji questioned, trying to restrain Yosuke as he stood up. He eventually stopped struggling, but not before kicking Kanji straight in the balls. Kanji was going to have to kick the shit out of him for that once he sobered up. That way he could feel it all. Chie pinched at her forehead as Kanji jumped up and down holding his crotch. This wasn't going to be easy, was it?

"Look, we need to stop them before they do something really stupid." Chie ordered. It took a moment before Kanji stopped hopping about in pain and nodded with agreement. Once he regained his composure, the three quickly rushed up the stairs of the mall in search of their runaway drunks… After paying an entrance fee. Seriously, they were drunk and still managed to find their wallet AND get away from Chie and Kanji? Impressive, if not for the fact they were crazy. The two paid for admission before rushing inside in search of their runaway drunkards. Well they found one of them anyway. Seemed Yukiko had taken a seat in the audience, laughing hysterically for some odd reason. Chie quickly rushed up to her, trying to find out what was going on. "There you are! Where are the others!?" She questioned frantically. Yukiko just laughed harder though.

"Chie you're really funny when you're scared." Yukiko continued to laugh. Great, she was no help. At least they just needed to find the other three at the moment. You'd think Yu'd be the responsible one here, but alas, it seemed when he got drunk, he just became a human swag machine. Chie sighed as she looked about for any tell-tale signs of the others. It was starting to become increasingly obvious at this point where the others must have been. Backstage, waiting for the chance to go on stage and make an ass out of themselves. At least Yu and Rise could sing, she supposed, but that did nothing when they were all drunk. Unless they could grab a hold of their senses for a few minutes. Chie sighed a bit before sitting down at the table, her face in her palms as she realized they were much too late at this point. Unless they planned to cut the power, they had no chance of reaching the others. Kanji didn't quite seem to get the implications at first, though he certainly did when he heard the announcer boom over the speakers.

"A round of applause for Ai Abukara, great job out there. And now a special surprise for everyone in the audience. It seems we have a celebrity with us today." The crowd started to cheer for a moment, though Kanji took that as his initiative to mimic Chie and shove his face into his palms.

"We fucked up didn't we?"

"Big time." Chie sighed, the sound of piano slowly fading in, the lights dimming to signify they were already on stage. She was prepared to jump up and grab someone should they decide to break anything for the record. Or if anyone caught on to their very apparent lisp. Basically, she was ready to jump up immediately.

"Ladies and gentlemen, Risette!" The announcer's voice boomed as the light slowly flickered on to Rise's lone figure. Still no sign of Yu or Justin, but it was probably a good guess that they were on stage beside her somewhere. Regardless, the paino played for a moment more as Rise stood there, the occasional tinny echo of an electric guitar ringing out.

_How can you see into my eyes like open doors?_

_Leading you down into my core where I've become so numb_

_Without a soul my spirit's sleeping somewhere cold _

_Until you find it there and lead it back home._

And just like that the lights flickered into full view revealing Justin and Yu, both with their own pairs of microphones, shouting in complete synchronization. The song seemed to have male backup singers after all; and who better to cover that section than Yu and Justin. Especially since it didn't take much singing prowess on Justin's behalf, and it didn't draw too much attention away from Rise. The crowd went nuts as Justin and Yu jumped up landing just in complete synchronization to the start of their verse, their voices synching up in perfect, violent harmony. Provided a nice contrast to Rise's nice… well… sweet voice.

_(Wake me up)_

_Wake me up inside_

_(I can't wake up)_

_Wake me up inside_

_(Save me)_

_Call my name and save me from the dark_

_(Wake me up)_

_Bid my blood to run_

_(I can't wake up)_

_Before I come undone_

_(Save me)_

_Save me from the nothing I've become_

And as the guy's verses ended, the lights began to flicker again in a strobe pattern. Probably a bad thing since Justin was up there. But at least he was just taking the opportunity to use his microphone stand like an air guitar, flipping his hair back and forth in a needlessly dramatic fashion. It seemed to entertain the crowd anyway that this backup singer was just going bat shit insane up there. Yu was a little more composed, though he was giving the most lustful look Chie had ever seen into the audience. He even licked his teeth at one point. Chie swore she heard someone's chair tip over. Good god, Yu was knocking em' dead with his swag now. That was legally a deadly weapon by this point.

_Now that I know what I'm without_

_You can't just leave me_

_Breathe into me and make me real_

_Bring me to life_

_(Wake me up)_

_Wake me up inside_

_(I can't wake up)_

_Wake me up inside_

_(Save me)_

_Call my name and save me from the dark_

_(Wake me up)_

_Bid my blood to run_

_(I can't wake up)_

_before I come undone_

_(Save me)_

_Save me from the nothing I've become_

The guitar took off for a brief moment, the lights fading out again to obscure all view of the others, leaving only Rise visible once again as she uttered a few more lyrics. Justin and Yu still weren't done mind you, but it seemed Justin's voice was… well… moving. And not in a good way. That might have been why he was whispering, who even knew. Regardless, it gave Chie a bad gut feeling. And she was probably right all things considered.

_(Bring me to life)_

_I've been living a lie, there's nothing inside_

_(Bring me to life)_

_Frozen inside without your touch_

_Without your love, darling _

_Only you are the life among the dead_

The sound paused for a moment, lights slowly seeming to dim even further. And for a moment everyone thought the song was over; despite pretty much EVERYONE having heard it before. Chie was only surprised no one was mad that Rise wasn't singing one of her own songs. Ah well, everyone had to do a cover once and a while; even if this hardly counted as a cover. Regardless, the song faded, before after a moment the guitar started to blast again, the lights flickering quickly in a strobe pattern before shining down on the Rise and a single table in the audience. A single table Justin was now standing on belting into the microphone and waving his arms about in a duet between him and Risette. The people at the table seemed oddly happy enough to stare at his ass as he leaned over to do what he could have done on stage. Chie just slapped herself in the face. God have mercy on them all.

_(All this time I can't believe I couldn't see_

_Kept in the dark but you were there in front of me)_

_I've been sleeping a thousand years it seems_

_Got to open my eyes to everything_

_(Without a thought, without a voice, without a soul_

_Don't let me die here)_

_There must be something more_

_Bring me to life_

The lights flickered again as Justin hopped off the table walking through the audience back up to the stage as he kept up his part of the song, giving high fives to everyone as he passed by… And a peck on the lips in Chie's case. Okay. Now she was going to kill him.

"How's it feel dating a rockstar?" Kanji joked as Chie furiously glared at Justin, the crowd cheering as the back-up singer laid the moves on a groupie MID-FUCKING-SHOW. For a guy who was pretty shit at singing, he sure as hell had a stage presence. And besides, everyone was at a karaoke bar; they weren't expecting good singing. They were expecting drunken shenanigans. And that's exactly what they got. Chie slowly turned her glare over to Kanji.

"How's it feel getting kicked in the balls?"

"I'll shut up now."

_(Wake me up)_

_Wake me up inside_

_(I can't wake up)_

_Wake me up inside_

_(Save me)_

_Call my name and save me from the dark_

_(Wake me up)_

_Bid my blood to run_

_(I can't wake up)_

_before I come undone_

_(Save me)_

_Save me from the nothing I've become_

_Bring me to life_

_(I've been living a lie, there's nothing inside) _

_Bring me to life_

Justin and Yu both threw their microphones down at the ground as the song ended, creating a loud boom sound that was actually kind of painful to listen to. But no one cared because it looked incredibly badass. Say what you want about the singing, those three knew how to put on a show when they wanted to. The lights faded out with the sound of the piano, and with that, the group quickly hopped off the stage and out of the public's view. In this case, that meant hiding at Chie's table. They could barely hear each other over everyone applauding and the announcer talking about what an honor this all was. They could tell given that they had someone working the light booths for them.

"That… That wash great. I'd, I'd buy a CD of yoursh if you made one Rishe" Yukiko praised Rise, forgetting pretty much everything she knew about everything in her drunken rampage. Justin put his feet up on the table as he took a seat next to Chie. Chie just glared at him profusely the whole time, rubbing her cheek. She wasn't sure whether to blame it on the booze, or whether to blame it on Justin, but all she knew was she was furious. He didn't get to do that while making a drunken ass out of himself. The club was one thing; at least he was being romantic. This… This was just… blegh.

"…You realize I'm kicking your ass right?"

"Chie, chie, chie… I'm drunk. I'm surprished I haven't gotten my assh kicked already."

* * *

"Why'sh my bed sho hard..."

"That's a wall."

"Oh… Oh right."

Justin was having a very clearly hard time locating his room, often times confusing walls for some place to sleep. Thank god Chie was with him, otherwise, he very well might have fallen asleep in the hallway. Chie groaned a bit as she lead Justin to the door. She was having a hard time deciding if this night was a lot of fun, or a pain in the ass. Like, everything prior to them getting drunk was fun; everything after was hell on earth. Who would have thought Justin would be this hard to manage when he was intoxicated. She sighed a bit as she continued to the door, stopping for a moment so Justin could get his keycard out. He didn't though, so she eventually settled for digging it out of his jacket pocket herself. Hopefully he didn't lose it in a drunken fit. Even then, though, she supposed Naoto would just let them in if they knocked hard enough. Unless she looked outside and saw it was Justin, in which case, she would make sure the door was locked

"Hey Chie, Chie… Hey… Hey Chie…" Justin drunkenly and very annoyingly tried to catch her attention. "Have I… Have I ever told you I love you?" Justin continued, a wide grin on his face, arm hanging loosely by his side as he leaned up against the wall with the other. Chie sighed a bit. He had, but she knew he wasn't proposing an actual question. He was just very very drunk.

"You're drunk." Chie reminded him, trying to brush the question off. Justin shook his head and hand a bit, as though trying to seriously catch her attention. Was he trying to make her feel like shit? She really didn't need this coming from drunk Justin's mouth. If she wanted to hear this, she'd listen when he was sober and actually knew what he was saying.

"No, no, sheriously. Sherious- Chie, Sheriously. I loooooooooooooove you SHO much. I love the FUCK out of you." Justin hiccupped, poking her before damn near tipping over. Chie luckily managed to grab him on the way down to the floor, though the way she did it ended almost like a hug instead of just her catching him. Justin smirked at her, a strange look in his eyes, as though they were lost in something. Perhaps her own eyes. Chie just stared at him a slightly sorrowful expression on her face. Did he really mean that or was that just the liquor talking again?

"…I love you too." Chie remarked after a while, dragging Justin back up to a standing position. He never did let go of his grip on her though, keeping his arms wrapped around her as she tried to stand. God she was happy everyone was a sleep by this point. She loved this guy with all her heart, but sometimes he made it really hard for her to be proud of that. She eventually found the keycard and gradually slipped it into the lock, gently pushing the door open to the best of her ability with Justin practically suffocating her.

"…thus, while certainly aggressive, and a rather peculiar individual, it is in my opinion that the suspect is not the culprit of the Hanged Man murder case. He is, however, still a complete imbecile. There is also still the possibility of linkage to the unsolved Burned Man case..." Naoto was talking aloud to herself as Chie opened the door. Chie couldn't help but wonder what the hell she was talking about; though it probably should have been obvious almost immediately. Justin HAD told her that Naoto tried to accuse him and Maya of murder after all. She was half-right.

"Excuse me, Naoto-kun?" Naoto jumped a bit with surprise, having not heard the door open. She quickly shut the journal she was writing in shut and throwing the pen across the table as though hiding something. Chie only raised an eyebrow though. "Could you give me a hand here? Justin's kind of a handful when he's drunk." Chie begged slightly. Justin raised his arm a bit, pointing at Naoto, a silly expression still on his face from before.

"Hey, Nao-Naoto. I want to ax you something. When, when you, when you change for PE, which locker room do you use?" Justin questioned. Despite just being a drunk's ramblings it was a fairly good question. Naoto rolled her eyes before marching over to give Chie a hand. She still didn't think Justin was drunk; he simply thought he was. It was the placebo effect it its finest; he was drunk because he believed he was drunk.

"Thanks Naoto."

"If he vomits in the bed, I'm sending him to your room."

* * *

**ACTUALLY IMPORTANT AUTHOR'S NOTES**

**Hey look at that, eveyone managed to get home alright. Happy endings all around.**

**...**

**So uh, what if they didn't? Well guess what, I considered that too. So what happens when everyone got really drunk and woke up with no recollection of the night before? Well this of course. I'm pleased to announce the first spin-off of Persona 4 Requiem; The Hangover. A short AU scenario in which no one made it back to the motel that night. It's entirely optional reading and not at all canonical to the storyline, but I think you'll enjoy it. Copy the following link below (minus spaces) to be taken directly to the spin-off.**

www .fanfiction net/s/8965089/1/P4R-The-Hangover

**LESS IMPORTANT AUTHOR'S NOTES**

**Music**

**Blue – Eifel 65**

**Dragostea din tei (Numa Numa) – O-Zone**

**Smooth – Santana**

**Bring Me to Life- Evanescence**


	142. Chapter 141: September 10, 2011

CHAPTER 141

September 10, 2011

* * *

"Mmmm! Oh man, this is really something."

"Gah… don't slurp so loud. Please."

Everyone had met up this morning to eat at the local ramen place, Hagakure Ramen to be precise, chomping away at noodles. Well, everyone was eating except for Justin anyway. It was too early for him anyway, plus he had a huge headache. He didn't remember much, but he thought he had a pretty good idea what had happened. He'd recognize that buzzing sensation in his skull anywhere. Now it was just a matter of figuring out what the hell he did last night that he couldn't remember a thing… Actually, you know what? He didn't want to know. He was satisfied just knowing he was drunk. Let's leave it at that and pretend none of this ever happened. Justin groaned, leaning over the counter and rubbing his forehead in pain, all the while, sympathetic eyes rested upon him. Given that most of them had gotten wasted too, they could feel his plight, his head ringing like a buzzer. They kind of felt like hypocrites too, giving Justin shit about getting drunk then getting drunk themselves. And for those who didn't get drunk… Well… they weren't mad. That was a plus.

"This place serves the best ramen in town. When we were filming, a lot of times I came here instead of eating boxed lunches." Rise spoke aloud, having not really quite been as affected by her drunken shenanigans as some of the others were. In fact, she was pretty up beat. Which was kind of concerning given that she had been the drunkest one of them all. Either she had done this before, or she had some sort of immunity to the stuff. Everyone else groaned abit, listening to her upbeat voice drilling through their heads like knives through bread. It hurt like a bitch just listening to her. She must have caught on too, turning to Yukiko as she groaned in pain. "Huh…? You're not hungry?"

"Um… What happened last night…? I don't remember much about it…" Yukiko questioned, a gap in her memory where last night had been. Justin could relate; though he was much less eager to fill the hole. Some things were better off being forgotten after all. He wasn't sure if they did anything stupid, but he didn't care to find out. Rise pressed her finger to her chin, eyes aimed toward the ceiling as she tried to recall herself. Now that Yukiko mentioned it, she didn't quite remember whatever had happened either.

"Oh, I think the two of us fell asleep quick. I heard it got pretty wild, though." Rise remarked, deciding whatever happened, she had no recollection of it. Wide eyes soon crossed Kanji's and Chie's faces as they shot each other a glance, as though debating whether to tell them what had really happened. After all, Rise sure as hell did not fall asleep. She did get knocked unconscious at one point for a short moment, but if anything, she had caused more shit than anyone there.

"Uh… yeah… asleep. Aha…" Chie chuckled nervously, lying through her teeth. Justin passed Chie a strange glance, not really buying her lie, blinking a couple of times with disbelief. He eventually just shrugged and turned his attention back to his drink: just water at the moment; soda would no doubt make his headache worse with all the carbonation and shit. He could tell Chie was lying, and Chie could tell Justin had caught on to her bluff, but it was also very clear he just didn't care to find out what had really gone down. For now, all he knew was Rise was awake and drunk enough not to remember anything. She probably started a riot or something, now that Justin thought about it. In a way, he was curious. Just not curious enough to throw his innocence and blissful ignorance out the window. Sometimes the truth just wasn't worth pursuing.

"I see… I don't remember at all…" Yukiko muttered, not entirely satisfied with the empty void in her mind where memories should be. Of course, if she actually did remember everything that had happened last night (particularly the part where Yu had turned into a ladykiller,) she'd probably flip the fuck out. And could you blame her? Rise turned her attention back to her food, oblivious to the fact that everyone had gotten drunker than an Irishman on a Budweiser factory tour. She should probably be more concerned considering she had gotten wasted herself, but she seemed more concerned with her food than anything at the moment.

"Ahh, this flavor never changes. I couldn't come here too often because it's high in carbohydrates, so being able to eat as much as I want is like a dream!" Rise savored the flavor of her noodles as if it tasted like gold. Of course, it didn't taste like gold, that would taste like shit and be kind of concerning in a lot of ways; but it was still pretty good. Justin just wanted to vomit a bit. The scent of food this early in the morning was twisting his stomach on knots. Yukiko shrugged before turning her attention to her own food, slurping down a few noodles of her own. Her eyes widened a bit as she slurped them down, shocked to find this it really DID taste like gold. Again, figuratively speaking. Unless gold tasted like noodles.

Remember kids, ask your parent's permission before licking their jewelry.

"Oh… This is delicious! It has an interesting taste that makes you hungry for more." Yukiko admired the food in front of her, surprised that it tasted far better than anything they had in Inaba. What was their secret? Did they have some sort of special ingredient or secret spice? Ground pepper? Seafood? Mocha, yogurt and mint chocolate? TELL ME YOUR SECRETS, DAMMIT!

"You know what else has a taste that makes you hungry for more? Crack." Justin remarked with his usual biting sarcasm. It was kind of a relief in a way seeing that his hangover wasn't so bad that it was distracting him from what he was as a person. He'd be just fine. Justin yawned a bit, still very much tired, though kind of afraid of going to sleep. Not because there was any health risk or anything, (he was drunk, not concust,) but because their ride was coming soon. He didn't want to miss it; even if he trusted Chie to wake him up should he slip to never never land.

"Another bowl, please! Keep the noodles hard!" Teddie shouted to the chef. He was wearing his bear suit for some inexplicable reason, which just made it awkward for Justin to be sitting here right now. Why? He had a human body. Why did he insist on wearing that everywhere? Was he fucking insane? And who the hell eats noodles hard!? That sounded unhealthy as fuck. Though, given that Teddie certainly wasn't human, he probably didn't have to worry about his health in the same way the investigation team did. For all Justin knew, eating noodles hard might have been healthy for… whatever it was that Teddie was.

"Um, I'll have the Hagakure Bowl." Some guy who just walked in ordered. Now you may be asking yourself: but wait, who the fuck cares what some random bystander ordered? Well Rise did, for some inexplicable reason. Seemed that this stranger's order had appealed to her in some strange way. Her eyes widened a bit before she turned her attention down to her bowl.

"The Hagakure Bowl's a normal menu item now…!? Argh, I should've asked! Oh well. This is just as good." Rise remarked very quickly getting over her disappointment in not being able to grab whatever this Hagakure Bowl was. Sounded like it was good though, given how amazed Rise had sounded when the name of the dish had assaulted her ears. Oh well; she could always just order a bowl of that stuff later if she wanted. Yosuke looked up from his bowl, a slightly curious expression on his face as he eyed Rise.

"Hey, is it okay for you to be out in the open like this?" Yosuke questioned. At first it seemed as though he was asking whether it was okay for a celebrity to just walk around in public, which it obviously was given that she had been doing it for the last two months. In actuality, Yosuke, despite being pretty damn drunk, was not so drunk he didn't remember what happened. He still felt the bruises from Kanji decking him, but that was beside the point. The point was that he remembered Rise kind of causing a scene when she went to do karaoke. That couldn't have been a good idea putting a drunken celebrity on stage like that. Hopefully no one noticed. Rise nodded a bit, as though not even fazed by the question. She really didn't answer the question since she didn't know Yosuke was referencing events she no longer recalled.

"Sure, no prob. See those signing boards? My autograph's up there too, but the cook doesn't give me a second glance. That's just how it is over here. Plus, I'm barely wearing any makeup." Rise blushed a bit, as though embarrassed by the fact that she wasn't coated head to toe in make-up. Oh and just in case you forgot, Rise's fifteen. She didn't need it. Really. Not one bit. In fact, she was actually really pretty for her age. Not that Justin was really into the whole school girl look, but you get the point. But wait you say, she IS a schoolgirl. You know what I mean, you smart ass.

"You really don't need it." Justin remarked in a half-compliment, half factual statement, half reassuring remark, and half lack of math skills. Rise blushed a bit, head shrinking a bit into her shoulders in a timid, somewhat flirtatious expression. And that only in turn earned a glare from Chie. _Don't flirt with her; that's what I'm here for dammit._

"Oh, you're so sweet senpai." Rise gushed and admired, cheeks red hot for some inexplicable reason. Justin blinked a few times, getting a funny feeling about the way she was blushing, before shrugging, rolling his eyes, and turning his vision slowly back to the counter in front of him, his movement slow and cautious. He was worried for some inexplicable reason; something about that look on her face was gripping tightly at his lungs. Chie's glare slowly swapped back and forth between the two, trying to decided what the hell was going on here and who she should be pissed about. Why couldn't it be both?

"Y'know what I think? The reason they don't notice you is 'cause this bear sticks out like a sore thumb… I guess if he wore that over here, he'll have to go home wearing it…" Chie remarked deciding if she couldn't decide who to take her anger out on, she would take it out on Teddie. When in doubt, it's Teddie's fault. A statement that held more truth to it than one would normally think. Teddie didn't so much as lift his gaze from his food though as everyone shifted the blame to him and his bear suit. Either he had accepted that he was at fault, or he just didn't care when food was on the line. In fact, speaking of food…

"Isn't it all steamy inside from the ramen?" Kanji questioned. It sounded like a good question at first, but then you realized the ramen was going in Teddie's mouth, not the suit. In fact, now that Justin thought about it, this was one of the stupidest fucking questions Justin had ever heard. Did it get steamy in Kanji's head when he ate ramen? Maybe. But Kanji wasn't wearing a bear suit…

Now Justin was imagining Kanji in a bear suit. Quite an… interesting image.

"Huh? Where's my bowl!?" Yukiko questioned out loud with great confusion and disappointment. She had turned her attention away from her bowl for a mere second to stare at Chie and Rise, and now her food was gone. Though, out of the corner of her eye, she had noticed that Teddie had stopped moving. It took her a second before she got the implication, her mouth slowly opening with disgust and disappointment, her eyes squinting into a glare, her head slowly twisting on its axis to stare at Teddie. Teddie just maintained his forward view, trying to avoid looking Yukiko in the eye. He was guilty as all fuck. "You didn't eat it… did you?"

"Y-You didn't finish, so… Ahaha." Teddie chuckled with embarrassment and fear, trying to justify his actions. The pure murder and intensity in Yukiko's eyes was actually terrifying to watch. It wouldn't be the first time Yukiko had come close to murdering Teddie. Show of hands, who remembered that midnight channel quiz show thing? Yeah that's what I thought. Needless to say, Teddie should probably run right about now.

"I was going to finish it!"

"Hey, didn't you just order more a second ago? How many have you eaten?" Yosuke questioned with careful curiosity. Teddie didn't really have money because all of the money he made went to paying rent, so everything he ate was coming directly out of Yosuke's paycheck. That said, if it was anything over three, Yosuke was going to rip Teddie's head off. Both of them. Teddie's expression slowly faded to one of sorrow. But not actual sorrow mind you, just that face he donned anytime he was going to start with the melodrama.

"I dunno how to count." Teddie remarked with great sorrow. No one believed him in the slightest. In fact, they knew for a fact he could count because he was there for the whole four princes bullshit. He KNEW how many princes there were and how many of them there were. _Can't count my ass; you can count just fine you lying prick._ Justin shook his head about shrugging and throwing his hands up with disapproval.

"I don't have any Shakespeare quotes on the topic of counting." Justin remarked with slight disappointment. He felt as though he had let the investigation team down, unable to satisfy their Shakespearian desires…

They'd probably be all right.

"…You read Shakespeare?" Naoto questioned with disbelief and curiosity. Sounded like a pretty blatent lie to her. Justin just dropped his eyebrows in a glare though. It wasn't enough that she had called him and his sister murderers and tried to arrest him for smoking, now she was going to judge him based on his literary interests? She could go fuck off.

"There a problem with that?" Justin snarled with anger, irritated that Naoto was interrogating him on shit that was none of her business. He got enough of this bullcrap from the others when they found out he had Hamlet memorized, he didn't need it from this bitch too. Naoto glared at him a bit, not very fond of where this was going. She was HOPING this might actually be a topic of discussion she could get behind, the slightest essence of class in Justin's character. Nope. He was still being an asshole. So she'd keep her mouth shut. She wasn't that big of a Shakespeare fan anyway.

"You little liar! Gimme that check! Let's see here… One, two… T-Ten bowls!?" Yosuke shouted with pure anger and shock. It almost looked like he was going to faint for a second, his knees growing a bit shaky and his palms wet with sweat as he looked at his bill. Teddie almost looked proud of his reckless spending; as if this was just a contest to see who could eat more. Everyone was glaring at Teddie by this point.

"Yuki-chan's makes it eleven." Teddie burped, a wide grin on his face. Yukiko's head dropped with disappointment and sorrow for the loss of her lunch. Such a precious dish, gone within seconds, stolen from her like a baby taken by the dingo… if the baby were made of solid gold and the dingo was the incarnation of Satan himself. Chie patted her on the back, hoping to cheer her up a bit with the mere reassurance that there were people there that cared about her AND her lunch. Really, everyone was being a little over dramatic. Would it kill her to just get another bowl? Seriously; if it was an issue of finishing it or not having enough money, Justin would cover it. Even if food DID make him sick in the morning.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, but it's close to the meeting time." Naoto remarked, interrupting the drama. For once, Justin was actually grateful for her not keeping her mouth shut. Now if she could just keep it closed from this point forward, that would be fantastic. Everyone passed each other a couple of glances, as though surprised to see the time had gone so fast. Not that Justin was going to complain about getting on the bus back home. Chie seemed disappointed though, despite all that had happened.

"Awww… Already? I thought the trip was gonna be a bore… But now that it's over, I actually had a good time." Chie remarked with disappointment, eyebrows curved upwards with discontent. Even though everyone had gotten drunk and kind of screwed everything to hell, it was… well… fun, if not magical. Because forget about the alcohol, everything else was just so perfect. Yes, even Justin and his rose biting antics. It was cheesy, but… But maybe that's why it was just so perfect. "Hey, let's buy a souvenir at the station. I bet Nanako-chan will be expecting one." Chie lightened up a bit, shaking her memories from her mind. Yu scratched at the back of his head a bit, not really sure what he should get Nanako. She enjoyed that t-shirt with the platypus on it… What if he got her a platypus?

Wait. No. Wrong direction with that thought. Let's try the t-shirt.

"I'll pick up a t-shirt for her."

"Alright, let's get going. C'mon Teddie, we're leaving." Yosuke remarked with a smile, pushing himself up from the chair and getting ready to depart. Teddie didn't budge at all though, despite Yosuke ordering him to stand. Everyone else had since gotten up from their seat, ready to depart, but Teddie still remained still. Perfectly still in fact. If anything it annoyed everyone at first, but then they started to get concerned at just how still he was being right now. It was… kind of creepy.

"Don't make me rub your fur the wrong way, you little- D-Dude… Hey, he ain't moving! I-Is he hibernating!?" Kanji panicked after a moment. No one else was really fretting until Kanji started to shout, at which point, his frantic disposition became contagious with everyone's eyes widening and their voices raised with concern. Save maybe Justin and Naoto. Naoto just thought they were being imbeciles again, and Justin… well Justin just doubted there was anything wrong with Teddie. There never was. The guy got as flat as a pancake and walked it off. He'd be fine.

"Hey… D-Don't tell me… I-It's not because he's been in our world too long, is it!?" Chie shouted, proposing a rather unsettling theory. Rise out right lost her shit at this point, shouting to try and get Teddie to move. Justin just rubbed his forehead with annoyance, and Naoto passed a couple of strange glances around. Our world? The fuck did they mean 'our world?' Well, Rise was busy shaking Teddie, trying to get him to move. It was actually looking serious for a moment. Then Teddie burped. Right in Rise's face. He fucking burped in her face after making everyone think he had suddenly expired.

"My tummy's heavy." There was a look of disbelief on everyone's face, bewildered that Teddie had simply had a sore stomach. And then there was anger. Lots of anger. Especially on Rise's part, since she now had Teddie's breath all over her face. He had to burp right then?

"Leave it behind." Yukiko snarled, before turning about and marching off. She was dead fucking serious. And the best part? Everyone one followed her lead, one by one, Teddie slowly pleading with all of them to try and get them to come back and most likely pay his bill because he was a cheap bastard. It was only Justin and Yosuke after a minute or two, and even they were seriously considering leaving him.

"I ate too much… Can't move… Someone carry meee." Teddie begged the two, hoping to be carried out there with a free train ticket back home. Yosuke and Justin stood there for a moment, staring him down with arms crossed before exchanging a quick glance and a nod. The two bowed their heads, hands folded in an honorable position.

"Farewell, Teddie… We shall leave you here, along with our memories of youth…"

"Or lack there of."


	143. Chapter 142: September 11, 2011

CHAPTER 142

September 11, 2011

* * *

"…I am currently in the room of Justin Tylor…"

Alright, so Rise had practically kicked down Justin's door so that she could see what it looked like; why, beat the hell out of Justin. If he knew, he probably would have locked the door and never opened it again. Better safe than sorry after all. Regardless of who had what intention for being there, the two stood there in Justin's small room. Rise was standing and observing the strange new world she had stumbled into, while Justin simple laid down on his bed, headphones on and music blasting. As far as he knew, Rise just wanted to hang out, so he saw no problem with just kicking back for a bit.

"Thank you for the update madam. Keeping an audio journal of your dangerous venture into the lair of Baron Tylor the Third?" Justin joked a bit, chuckling ever so slightly at the awkward means by which Rise was chatting to herself. Seriously, why was she recapping what she was doing to Justin like he couldn't see her a mere two or three feet away. It wasn't that big of a room. There was a bed, some drawers, a mirror, and a computer. All of that mentioned there was little to NO walking room whatsoever; so Rise was most certainly close enough to him that he could tell what she was doing without her describing it to him. Regardless, she continued to talk to herself, as though she were making some sort of scientific discovery here.

"It seems quite clean for a boy of his age… Uh, ummm… Th-There doesn't seem to be anything lying around that he wouldn't want me to see…" Justin slowly turned his head to pass her a funny look. His headphones were blasting music, but certainly not loud enough that he wouldn't hear that. In fact, he could hear it clear as day. What would he have lying around that he wouldn't want her to see besides… "Now then, where could the goods in question be hiding…!?" Justin's eyes widened with slight terror as he jumped up a bit from his bed. 'Goods' almost always referred to the same thing; and Rise was actively fucking looking for it. Why? She has her own internet; she can do that at her own house on her own time, but she was not going to go digging through Justin's house in search of non-existent pornography. Besides, he already deleted his history; his secrets were safe. "I'll ask the man himself! So- where do you hide them!?" Rise suddenly turned to Justin, aggressive eyes as she interrogated him. Justin might as well have been hiding a crack cocaine factory in his house and Rise might as well have been the FBI with the way she was interrogating him. Justin just sat up, returning the glare, pissed that she had broke into his house just for this.

"Long out of your reach, you sinister harlot." Justin mocked slightly. Harlot probably wasn't the best choice of words all things considered. Now maybe if he was talking to Rise's shadow, that would be a different story; not so much Rise herself. Still, she didn't seem too offended by it, perhaps not quite realizing that a harlot is a prostitute. Because apparently looking at or searching for pornography made you a prostitute. You might as well have just cuffed Justin right now if that were true.

"Oh uhhh…" Rise nervously trailed off, slightly surprised by the response. She did know Justin watched porn; Maya had kind of spilled the beans on that one, but it was strange hearing it from the man's mouth himself that he did in fact view some rather questionable adult content. And that he had already burned the evidence so that anyone who might be looking for said adult content (read: Maya and Rise) would be sorely disappointed. Must have been some pretty dirty shit. It was. "I'm sorry. Umm, i-it's not that I wanted to know… I just got kinda embarrassed, so…" Justin raised his eyebrow with confusion.

"…Embarrassed of what?" For some reason, that strange sensation that had been gripping at his lungs before was starting to latch on again. Something about the way she was avoiding eye contact, how she was nervously stammering over her words. Something was fishy here, Justin just couldn't put his finger on what. Rise looked away, cheeks a little red as she started stammering again; god forbid Justin discover what was going on here. That could be… problematic.

"You're such a meanie..." She sidestepped the question gracefully. If it wasn't for the fact that Justin had in fact just called her a harlot, he might not have fallen for that bullshit. But he did, and was very consciously aware of how awful of a thing that was to say to anyone; even if it was in jest. He sighed a bit leaning back against his bed as he let his nerves loosen up. Yeah it was kind of creepy that she was looking for his porn, but he supposed it was nothing to be mad about. Especially when there was a 0% chance she was going to find it.

"I'm sorry I called you a woman of the night." Justin half-apologized. Really didn't sound that way with the sarcasm tacked on, but you knew he meant well. Rise just shrugged a bit; she didn't care about that. Again, probably because she didn't know what Justin meant when he said woman of the night. Was that someone who stayed up late? It was quiet for a moment, Rise averting her gaze for a moment before slowly turning her gaze back over to Justin, a slight grin on her face. She had something she wanted to tell him; and only him.

No not that, stop assuming.

"I've made up my mind about something. You see… I'm thinking of going back into the showbiz in the spring." An immediate look of disapproval swept across Justin's face. He'd support whatever it was Rise wanted to do with her life, but that didn't mean he had to agree. He just couldn't wrap his mind why she'd want to go back to that, to people who abused her for their own gain. At the very least, please tell him she was going to go with a different record label; one that would actually appreciate her as a person and not a symbol. "I am Risette, after all…"

"No Rise, Risette is you. There's a difference." Justin corrected her, making a slight pointing gesture with his hand. Saying that she was Risette meant that all she was was what the men in suits and ties told her she was. Risette being her meant that Risette only made up a small portion of what she was as a person. And that was exactly how it should have been. Rise smiled a bit before turning around and sitting on the bed, just next to Justin's extended legs. He probably should have asked if she wanted to sit down earlier, but it had slipped his mind completely. Accidents happen.

"When I consider it like that, I think I can have more fun working. I know how hard it is for a star to make a comeback after an entire year's absence. But even then, I want to start over from the beginning." Rise explained her thought process for returning back to the business that had pretty much tortured her for the last few years. Justin shrugged a bit; still seemed like a shitty idea, but at least Rise had put some thought into this. At least she was going to do this because it was something she enjoyed and not because the big wigs told her she had to. Besides, if she was reinventing her image, maybe she could ditch that whole 'school girl' shit they made her do. Can you say heavy metal Risette? Well you can, but you wouldn't because that would be awful. She'll figure it out eventually.

"Just don't go out and get a Mohawk or somethin'" Justin joked, though he was also being kind of serious. Depending in what kind of direction she went in, a Mohawk would be an entirely viable hairstyle for certain genres of music. It was important for Rise to know that would look god awful on her, and no matter what her executives said, she should NEVER even let the thought cross her mind. Rise giggled a bit; she listened to her managers about a lot of things, but she sure as hell wasn't going to get a Mohawk anytime soon. They couldn't pay her enough to do that.

"Do you remember the fan who gave me that letter? I'll do it for her, for my old manager, Inoue-san-"

"Whoa whoa whoa, hold up for a moment. Don't do jackshit for that asshole." Justin cut her off. Rise just seemed a little flabbergasted by the interruption; not necessarily because she disagreed that he was an asshole, he kind of was, but because Justin seemed very passionate about her NOT doing this for her manager. At the very least she owed it to him for getting her where she was today, right? So she should do SOMETHING. Rise tilted her head to the side with some confusion.

"Well, what else should I do?" Rise questioned. She couldn't just pretend he hadn't had a huge impact on her life, douchebag or not. Justin slowly rested his back against his bed, eyes lifted towards the ceiling, thinking of the best way to acknowledge him. He didn't deserve ANY positive acknowledgment, that was for sure. Especially not after leaving Risette out to dry when she wasn't being milked for money. He sighed after a moment.

"…Do what Freddie Mercury did. Write the most insulting song you can think of, then dedicate it to a real motherfucker of a gentleman." Justin eventually dictated, giving Rise an order. She rubbed at her chin a bit, as though actually considering the proposition. It was a pretty good, actually; but that would be assuming she found another label to take her. She shouldn't get ahead of herself before she actually got in a position where she could do it. And Justin would gladly help her when she did.

"Regardless… I'm still doing it for everyone important in my life." Rise shrugged off Justin's suggestion for the time being. "My fans, my family… you, even myself." Rise listed off a bunch of people, not necessarily in order of significance. She had to pause a bit before putting Justin in on that list, fearing that it might be a bit strange, or awkward. And she was right in some regard. Justin's eyes widened for a moment, blushing a bit before rotating his eyes to look away from the ceiling and towards Rise, surprised that he was considered someone important to her.

"Me?" Justin questioned with bewilderment, caught off guard by the remark. Rise blushed, her cheeks red as she nodded her head matter-of-factly. She hadn't a doubt in her mind that Justin was important to her; she had nothing to fear admitting that. Justin paused for a moment, shifting his hand into his pocket to grab at some toothpicks. "No, Rise… I'm just some guy." Justin modestly admitted, sticking a tooth pick between his teeth. He needed a smoke right about now, but he was still determined to keep away. He's keep away as long as his body let him, and if he succumbed to temptation, he'd just have to keep further away. Rise shook her head.

"Well for just some guy, you've saved a lot of lives." Rise remarked, referencing their time in the television. Justin just shrugged a bit; sounded like something ripped out of a shitty drama television show, or a good video game based off of said shitty drama television show, so it wasn't exactly reassuring. "Besides… You're a good friend." Justin's eyes darted up, again a little surprised by the remark. A good friend? He just sort of stood around at Rise's request. Was that all it took to be a good friends? There had to be more to it than that. Still… it made him feel good, as much as he disagreed with Rise's assessment. Friend? Perhaps. Good friend? Justin doubted it.

It was quiet for a moment, save for the sound of buzzing coming from Justin's headphones, this almost strange atmosphere between the two. It was hard to put a finger on just what it was about it, though it seemed to make Justin a little uneasy in the stomach. After a minute or so, Rise began to shuffle through her pockets in search of something, what, Justin didn't know. He found out soon enough though, when Rise pulled a slip out of her pocket, staring at it with a slight smile before turning to Justin, her hand extended as she tried to pass it off to him.

"Senpai, this… I want you to have this…" Rise remarked as Justin gripped at the slip with his thumb and index fingers, staring at it with curiosity. It was a photo; a school photo from Yasogami of Rise, in fact. She seemed happy enough where she was, which kind of broke Justin's heart in a way. She was clearly happy here… So why was she going to leave in the spring? Justin's eyes ran across the photo for a moment more. It was signed in the corner, not by Risette, but by Rise… This was Rise's autograph; not Risette's. Justin smiled a bit looking at it. Seemed Rise was finally starting to get it. "It's the one we took at school. I look really normal, don't I?"

"Hell, Rise, you always look normal. You were just wearing beer goggles the entire time." Justin remarked, delicately holding onto the photo, before subtly placing it down on the drawers next to his bed, placing it so that the picture shone out to the world.

"I know it'd probably be worth more if it had a signature from Risette, but…" Rise stammered a bit, a little embarrassed that she had signed with her real name and not Risette's. It would actually be worth something to Justin if she did that. She wouldn't really get much from her signing her real name, most people didn't even know her real name was Rise. (Seriously, not even joking. People were that stupid.) Justin shook his head a bit.

"It's more valuable to me like this." Justin remarked warmly, eyeing the photo that now stood on his bed stand. He'd need to get around to buying a frame for that. Rise blushed a bit, almost embarrassed by Justin's kind words. He really didn't care about Risette… Just Rise. In a way, it made it hurt to think that he was already accounted for. He was a real nice guy once you got past the sarcasm. But that's the way things were; and unless there was a major fallout between him and Chie (fingers crossed!), that's the way it was going to stay. And she was fine with that. Maybe she wanted more, but… But she was happy just to have Justin as a friend for now. And who knows? Maybe time would tell.

"Senpai… I won't make the same mistake. There's no such thing as a me that isn't me. So I won't run away… I won't try to be someone I'm not. There's a lot of Rise's inside me… I won't try to change them. Instead, I'll let people know those Rise's exist… That's the me I want to be." Rise settled upon what she wanted to be as a person. And for a moment there was nothing but smiles.

And then the room started to get dark again. The smile on Justin's face immediately fade. Oh he recognized what was going on here; whenever a person truly accepts themselves, their Persona ascended. The two watched on with awe, and in Rise's case confusion, as a blue aura swirled about the room, the figure of Rise's persona appearing behind here, faded, but every so visible. And soon, that figure changed, its figure seeming longer, lankier, clothed in white robes… It also had a satellite dish coming out of its ass. No, no I'm not kidding. Kind of killed the whole atmosphere for Justin honestly; he couldn't take it seriously just because of THAT. Soon, the figured disappeared and the room lit back up to its normal color. Rise blinked a couple of times, confuse, yet seeming to understand everything that had just gone down. She could feel the change in the depths of her heart.

"This means… my powers have changed…? I see… I've become a little stonger. Thanks to you… being with me." Rise blushed a bit as she realized what was going on, who she had to thank for all of this. Justin just rubbed at his head a bit before pushing his headphones back onto his head. He had taken them off for a moment as he saw the blue aura circulating around Rise, though now that it was over, there was really not much reason to be distracted from his music any further. Especially if it was just flattery. He didn't make the change, she did. Justin just pointed her in the right direction.

"…Really? Just… Really?" Justin's eyes darted from Rise and to the door of his room. Maya had been downstairs watching television or something, so it should come as no surprise that she had seen it. Seemed she was kind of pissed about this happening again, though for whatever reason, Justin could only guess. Perhaps she was just jealous she didn't have a Persona; despite having all the perks OF having a Persona. Perhaps the lights were just annoying. Perhaps she was just wondering why this always seemed to happen upstairs in Justin's bedroom, and what was bringing about all of this. Justin's eyebrows dropped in a 'seriously?' expression. What was her excuse this time?

"Dare I ask?"

"On the way to the bathroom." Maya explained concisely and to the point. Justin didn't believe her in the slightest though, as was clear by the expression on his face. You meant to tell him that she had been going to the bathroom BOTH times this had happened? Uh, uh. He wasn't buying that for a second. He really should have considering it was true. Apparently Maya's bladder just so happened to act up whenever someone's Persona evolved. Like a spider-sense, but with Personas and a lot more creepy in so many ways.

"You honestly expect me to believe that again." Justin remarked bluntly, laying it on the table that he thought Maya was full of shit. She just rolled her eyes, jumping up and down a bit, clearly having a hard time holding her bladder by this point. She didn't need a game of twenty questions right now, that was for sure. And besides, it wasn't like she wasn't going to notice it anyway; the door was open, unlike when he was with Chie. The whole house had been like that.

"No, I expect you to stop interrogating me so I can go piss." Maya remarked with annoyance, almost pleading to be dismissed so she could go use the bathroom already. Justin just sighed and waved her off with a flick of his wrist. It wasn't like he was holding her back or anything. Maya darted off extremely quickly, as though she HADN'T just watched someone's Persona do some weird shit in the real world again. She wasn't even fazed in fact; or if she was, her need to pee was much more important than gushing about the spectacle she had watched. The door to the bathroom closed loudly as she made her way in, and what do you know, she did have to go. See, the bathroom kind of echoed a bit, so you could hear when someone was pissing. It was a little gross honestly, but no one said anything. Thankfully no one had gotten diarrhea yet; and for that they were thankful. It was quiet for a moment between Justin and Rise, only the sound of Justin's headphones and the sound of piss splashing against toilet water filling the house.

"Uh… Senpai… As long as you're watching me… I'll do my best… So, umm… I'm happy doing anything as long as you're there with me. I'm sure I can hang in there as long as you're with me. Because… You're special to me." Rise remarked, cheeks red, picking her words carefully. She wanted Justin to know just how important he was to her without him knowing how she really felt. She didn't want things to get awkward between them or to tear a hole between him and Chie. That wouldn't be right, not fair. So she'd keep her mouth shut until hopefully a day would come. Justin raised his eyebrow a bit. This really sounded familiar to him for some reason, but he didn't quite get what. He came close, but not quite close enough. Crisis averted.

"We'll always be friends Rise." Justin remarked, taking the whole special remark a whole different way. Close enough anyway. He extended his hand out, and in turn, his pinky, begging for Rise to do the same with a mere twitch. Rise seemed a bit surprised at first, though a grin eventually crossed her face, her arm extending to meet his, their pinkies linked together like an unbreakable promise, an unbreakable bond.

"Always."


	144. Chapter 143: September 12, 2011

CHAPTER 143

September 12, 2011

* * *

"_A suspect in the murders in Inaba was safely arrested recently."_

Maya and Justin were sitting on the couch, watching television because they really didn't have much better to do. Except maybe sleep in Maya's case; apparently she had to move televisions around again today, so she was kind of out of it, her eyelids drooping as she stared at the blinking screen in front of her. In retrospect, she probably should have just told Justin to get lost and let her sleep; wasn't like he was looking for anything to watch on television anyway, he was just trying to kill time. Justin groaned a bit as the news started up, still talking about Mitsuo. It was a month ago that the guy had been captured; by this point it was getting ridiculous.

"I can't believe they still talk about this shit…" Maya remarked, tired but annoyed all the same. It was all over now, so she just didn't get why the news continued to talk about it. The investigation team had been beaten, broken, and left for dead by all of this murder business on several occasions, hell Maya still had a slight scar from where she had taken a bullet to the gut, you didn't see any of them still talking about it. At this point they were just beating a dead horse. Mitsuo was a terrible person who did terrible things; but he was in incarceration now, and he would be for the rest of his days most likely. That's it. End of the story. Nothing more to say. Wrap. Cut. Print it. Call it quits. There's nothing left. Nothing at all.

"That's the media for you. They'll rag on this guy so long as it gets them ratings and cash; and as long as people give a shit, they'll keep bashing the guy's reputation into a wall. Pfft. Not like he hadn't done that himself." Justin corrected himself a bit, realizing the media really wasn't all to blame for a murderer having a bad reputation. That kind of came with the territory of being a murderer, you know. Well… most of the time anyway. There were obviously objections. Maya sighed a bit, perhaps Justin's remark scratching a little deeper than it should of. It was hard to talk about this kind of stuff around her for the very reason that she had been there done that. But the difference was, Maya saved lives when she put a bullet in that fucker's skull. Mitsuo was just trying to get attention. Justin wasn't sure if she just didn't understand that, or if she just had regret. It must be hard to pretend you weren't a cold blooded killer; to pretend you hadn't spilt someone's blood all over the concrete.

" I guess… I don't know; I think the guy really believed what he was doing was alright." Maya sighed a bit, sympathizing for Mitsuo's misguided ways. To her, it seemed he was just a man who needed someone's attention; anyone's attention. And this was the last place he could turn; murder. She couldn't condone what he had done, but she could understand what had driven him to that point… Or at least try to anyway. Justin just eyed her out of the corner of his eye, a sad expression on his face. One of these days he was going to have to tell her he knew about what happened; that she had done the right thing, that she didn't have to live life in a shadow anymore. She needed to move on from that; and while she had done a good job of living life without the memory hanging over her head, you could tell she still thought about it. Especially when the topic of murder had been on the table. Made you wonder why she wanted to get involved in a murder investigation in the first place. Perhaps it was for redemption; feeling as though she hadn't done enough just saving Justin's life from a mad man. Maybe it was just because she had a pure heart. Hell, maybe it was just so she could feel like she belonged to part of a group, of a community. Maybe it was so she would feel less alone. No one could really say but Maya, and for now, he lips were sealed. Justin sighed a bit, eyes darting back over to the television screen. He was about to flip the channel, put Maya's mind and heart at ease, but then a strange comment assaulted his ears.

_"But what few people know is that the mastermind who brought him to justice was a high school detective."_ That froze Justin dead in his tracks. It was a true remark; but it wasn't something that should have been public knowledge. The only person other than the investigation team's members who would know that is Adachi, and while he WAS a bit of a blabber mouth, Justin doubted he'd give credit to a bunch of kids. After all, there was a raise in his paycheck for him if he kept his mouth shut and said he and Dojima were responsible. And Justin was fine with that; he wasn't much for being singled out, on television or otherwise, anyway. Someone had to tell the media though, and since Adachi seemed ruled out on the matter, that meant it had to be one of them, right? Maya and Justin quickly exchanged a glance of confusion.

"Someone took credit?" Justin questioned. Seemed the only reason one of the investigation team members would ever mention they had a hand in the matter. The problem was, Justin couldn't really think of anyone who would want to take credit for this. His thoughts went to Yosuke at first, but it was clear he was doing this in Saki-Senpai's memory, in her honor. Yeah, it sounded like something he would do, but Justin sincerely doubted it. Kanji perhaps? He might have been blabbering and had the remark slip off his tongue. He couldn't think of anyone who would intentionally bring it up though…

"But… Why?" Maya questioned, just as puzzled by this as he was. "Wouldn't everyone just think they were crazy if they brought up the whole Persona thing? No wait, could probably leave out the television part… B-But still. I don't…" Maya choked up a bit, a little concerned about this in some way. Partially because she didn't want her name getting put out on the table if it was true someone spilled the beans. Especially if the Personas were brought into this, especially if the television world was brought up. It's… not exactly impossible to trace similar remarks back to her, and if someone were to say the television world was the mechanism of death for the announcer, Saki, and Marooka… well, that would be very problematic. Especially with Naoto watching her like a hawk. Hell, half the reason she ran away from home was because she was afraid she'd get caught; she… she didn't want to run again.

"_Tonight's report will focus on this Detective Prince, Naoto Shirogane, whose handsome looks are sweeping the nation. Thanks for being on the show."_

"WHAT!?" Justin's voice echoed through the house with furious shock. Naoto was getting credit for solving the crime; she had stepped forward and said she was responsible. She didn't do jack shit! She stood there asking ridiculous questions and pointing fingers at anyone who so much as walked past the victim at some point. The investigation team were the ones who did everything, not this selfish attention-whoring bitch. Justin didn't want recognition for doing what was right, but he'd be damned if he let this… vile creature try to ride off of someone else's good deed just to boost her career and reputation. "SHE'S THE ONE WHO TOOK THE CREDIT!?" He screamed, eyebrows dropping into a glare. It's a wonder the neighbors didn't hear. Though to be fair, that's probably because Justin didn't have neighbors; his house was all by its lonesome near the end of some dead end street. It WAS a summer house after all.

"Not cool." Maya remarked, shaking her head a bit. She didn't like Naoto too much either, but where as Justin didn't like Naoto because she had done nothing but harass them and make a mockery of all they stood for, Maya didn't like Naoto because she was afraid of her. After all, if someone was very clearly onto something you did that was very VERY illegal, you would be too. It was probably for the best that Maya stayed home during the trip for that very reason.

"_No, no, the pleasure is all mine." _Naoto's voice echoed from Justin's television set. You could see Justin restraining himself from jumping up out of his seat and punching a hole in his television, just so that one less person in the world could watch this bullshit. He probably could have just changed the channel, of course; but as we all know, logic is for nerds and people who like the pretend they solved a crime they had no part in. Though Justin supposed there was little logic in the latter option. You had to be a real idiot to think you'd get away with that; especially when a psychopath like Justin was the one being wronged. She better lock her doors extra tight tonight. Actually, second thought; don't do that. It'll only make it harder to get out when Justin sets her whole goddamn house on fire.

"Yeah, I bet it is, you bitch!" Justin contined to snarl at the television, pure fury pulsating through his veins like heroin in a junky. Of course, he looked like he was about to break something, so Maya extended her arm as though to block him off from doing something stupid, giving him a disapproving look the whole time.

"Justin, calm down." She spoke condescendingly, as though speaking to an angered brat at the mall. Justin glared at her for a moment, annoyed that she was treating him like a kid when he was entirely right. She didn't deserve recognition for something THEY had done. She didn't deserve to get credit for sitting on her ass and being a huge bitch, accusing anyone who so much as looked at her the wrong way of being the murder. God, if only Justin's ability to enter a television screen worked both ways. He'd punch the television screen, have his fist go through one end, come out the camera, and smack her right upside her head. That'd teach her. Justin groaned and sighed a after a moment, shaking his head and leaning back in his couch. He supposed there was no use in shouting at the television screen. He'd save it for the next time he saw her.

"_First, congratulations to you and the police for your recent arrest of the culprit. It was well-known that there were a lot of mysteries surrounding this case, and you did a great job clearing them up." _The news anchor went on to discuss with Naoto. Justin's eyes just seemed to deepen their glare with anger as word after word poured out, powerless to stop Naoto from attention-whoring. She was just the worst kind of person, wasn't she? But then, it's not like he could say, 'no, we solved the crime' anyway. They didn't want credit, and anything short of proving they themselves were the ones who caught the culprit would fall on deaf ears. And so, Naoto would get away with this little charade. She would get away with lying and pretending she accomplished something she had no role in. And Justin, and Maya, and any of the investigation team watching the news right now was powerless to do anything. They just had to sit there and watch as all their work and efforts were made a mockery of by some fifteen year old girl trying to play detective.

"_I'd hesitate to say that the matter is "cleared up," as such. It's true that our suspect was behind Mr. Morooka's unfortunate death. But when I cast my eye over the case as a whole, I detect a few things that seem out of place."_ Naoto mused allowed, slouched over the desk that had been separating her interviewer and her, as though contemplating the matter. Justin just rolled his eyes and threw his hand up. So not only was she going to take this opportunity to steal the investigation team's accomplishments, but she was most likely going to call him and Maya out on being murderers again. This was just getting to a point of pure stupidity now. Maya seemed to shake slightly, perhaps fearing the same thing as Justin; that Naoto was onto her game, and willing to spill the beans. She wasn't a suspect in the Hanged Man cases like Justin had been, but she most certainly was in the Burned Man case back in California. And if Naoto so wished to make a connection… well, shit.

"Don't worry so much; she's got no evidence." Justin remarked trying to calm Maya down. That only served to catch her off guard though. She was well aware that Justin was accused of being a murderer; she was probably the only person Justin had told about it. She obviously wasn't afraid of that though, because they obviously did nothing wrong. Evidence was irrelevant. That meant that if Justin was bringing evidence into the equation, he was talking about something that actually WOULD produce evidence. Like shooting a gangster in the face six times.

"Wh-What do you mean?" Maya nervously stammered, eyes darting about the room in panic, avoiding eye contact lest Justin see through her lies. As if the lack of eye contact wasn't going to be a give away. Justin bit his bottom lip a bit, eyes widening as he realized he might have accidentally let on that he knew about the murder.

"W-Well we didn't do anything, so there's nothing against us, right?" Justin nervously covered his tracks. Maya nervously blinked a couple times before turning her attention back to the television, passing a quick glance back Justin's way very two seconds. This didn't sit well with her at all; paranoia had found it's way to her, gripping her as Justin slipped up. Justin's reaction followed the same suit with him nervously sitting there hoping that lie would serve as an adequate explanation. Or at the very least serve to let Maya know he didn't blame her for what she did. If he wasn't pressing her on the topic of murder, and in fact trying to reassure her on the matter, shouldn't that just go to show he cared enough about her to not put her in harm's way? To keep her secret safe from the likes of people like Naoto? Perhaps he just didn't realize how big of a secret this was. This wasn't your typical 'I like so and so,' secret; this was the act of taking away the life of another human being. It was a burden that no person should have to carry; yet if they dropped it, it was like nothing would even have mattered at all. Straight to the slammer with you. No, she couldn't trust Justin to help her carry her secret; it was just too risky… even if she'd trust him with anything else.

"_Oh… Like what?"_

"_Unfortunately, I cannot divulge details at this time. But this matter claimed the lives of three people. Hence, I believe even the smallest inconsistency must be investigated."_ Naoto continued, trying to sound like she knew shit even though she clearly didn't. If she was as smart as she acted, she'd realize that Justin was literally going to contemplate murder over this. You want to call him a murderer? Fine, he'll make you a man of your world. Or woman. Whatever. Point was, if her intent was to piss Justin off, she succeeded. Oh boy did she succeed. Justin groaned a bit as the conversation went on, his hand slowly searching around for the remote. If he wasn't getting the opportunity to bust a cap in someone's ass, he might as well watch something that wasn't going to make him kick a puppy in the face. Twice.

_"I… I see. I have to say, this is a surprise in light of the police's official statement. N-Now for our next segment, 'The Detective Prince's True Identity,' where Naoto-kun tells us a little bit about himself. Amazingly, the Detective Prince has solved a whopping 24 cases. 16 of them were…"_ The interviewer went on until Justin finally managed to find the remote and switch the channels to Scrubs. Seriously, he swore this show was cancelled ages ago. Was it all just re-runs now or something? Not that he was complaining, but you know. He sighed a bit, pressing his hand against his forehead with annoyance as he sank back into his couch, glad to be rid of the bothersome noise that was Naoto's insufferable egotistical voice.

"I can't believe we tried to make peace with that bitch." Justin remarked after a moment, shaking his head with digust. They had invited her to their clubbing, they had tried to be friends, they tried to be nice, and she went and stole from right under their nose. He just hoped he wasn't the only one who wasn't going to stand for this shit.

"Justin, calm down and take your pills." Maya remarked sarcastically, again jabbing at the attitude. He was right, she agreed with what he was saying, but he was getting way too angry over something as trivial as credit. It just bugged him so much to see her succeeding for something she didn't even do. Justin's eyebrows dropped as he turned to Maya, not really pissed, but not too amused either.

"I would but they're suppositories. Unless you'd like to help." Justin joked, though he managed to make the comment with as straight a face and as serious a tone as possible to sell the illusion that he was in fact taking suppository pills. And Maya one hundred percent believed him for a moment.

"Oh. Oh gross. I think I'm gonna vom-"

I don't think I need to explain what happened here. Just know that it was very messy. And it kind of smelled like instant noodles and cheerios.


	145. Chapter 144: September 13, 2011

CHAPTER 144

September 13, 2011

* * *

"Hey, did you see the show on TV last night? Naoto-kun was on!"

Everyone had been walking to school that morning when they all just happened to conveniently walk into each other. Guess they just all left at the right time that they'd meet on the road to school or something. However that brilliant stroke of luck worked, everyone was there, save Kanji, with word of the news report on their tounge. Seemed they had seen it too; and not very many of them were too pleased about it. Yosuke was out right furious, much like Justin had been. Who would have thought they could agree on anything, let alone the matter of getting credit and attention. After all, Justin just wanted to fit in, to fade away in the crowds; to see him so visibly angered by the prospect of someone riding off of his deeds and his accomplishments, of someone taking the spotlight away from him… It was almost out of character. Kind of reminded him of the day he first moved here, when he transferred in with Yu. He didn't want attention, yet for some reason, he was really pissed that he had to share the spotlight with Narukami.

"That thing about the Detective Prince solving the case? C'mon, we're the ones who actually caught the killer." Yosuke shouted with aggravation and annoyance. Justin was only happy to see who wasn't the only one absolutely infuriated by the Detective Prince taking credit for something she had no role in. It was like watching a great movie, then leaving the theatre and saying 'yep, if I didn't eat that subway sandwich a week ago, this movie wouldn't have been possible.' I mean, what the fuck? Who was she to take credit for that? She didn't even do anything!

"I don't want to brag or anything, but c'mon. That's bullshit at its finest. She didn't do a damn thing!" Justin snarled, eyes stooped into a glare. Most of the others nodded in slight agreement, save perhaps Yu and Yukiko. Yu just didn't see why it was a big deal; they knew what they did, so it didn't matter if some phony was preaching, trying to take credit where credit was not due. They did a good thing, and because of them, the murders were over with. That was all that mattered in the long run. Yukiko, on the other hand, just didn't think any of the others were right when they said she played NO part in the investigation. She did do something, even if it wasn't that much.

"But the police were the ones who identified the suspect, and he was cooperating with them on it, right? So it's true he helped solve the case." Yukiko reasoned out loud. Justin just threw his hand up and scoffed at the remark. Working with the police does not make her responsible for solving the case by extension. That's not how it worked. She stood there pointing fingers at people that were actually trying to help get this case closed and solved instead of doing her damn job. That's not solving the case, that's being an obstructive bitch.

"I'm kinda surprised, though. I didn't think he was the type to go after the spotlight like that." Chie remarked with puzzlement, confused what had pushed Naoto to take credit for something she didn't do. Made you wonder if all the other cases she had solved had gone down the same way; with her simply standing there, then taking credit once the ashes had cooled. Sure looked that way from Justin's point of view anyway. The group was walking forward at the moment, though they all stopped when they heard an all too familiar voice calling them from ahead. None of the group was really watching where they went, so it came as a shock when they were stopped dead in their tracks by Naoto standing there in the middle of the road, blocking their path. It's a shame there were so many witnesses right now, or Justin swore he'd just turn around and deck her square in her smug ass jaw. That'd teach her not to steal from Justin Jeremiah Tylor. But alas, no; they were on the road to school and people were passing left and right. He'd have to restrain himself for now.

"Good morning."

"And speaking of the devil…" Justin groaned as the group slowly came to a stop. She had a lot of balls to take credit for something they did, and then stand here making pleasantries like she hadn't just stole from them. If Justin were Naoto, he would run and never show his face around these parts again, lest she learn about the Trial of the Dragon… Okay, well maybe Chie wouldn't kick her in the face just for stealing the show away from them, but damn, someone had to do SOMETHING to put her in her place. She shouldn't be allowed to get away with this kind of shit.

"I've been waiting for you all. There's something I needed to discuss with you regarding the case." Naoto remarked officious, very serious in tone. She meant business that was for sure. Justin groaned and rolled his eyes, almost tempted to turn around and walk away. He didn't need this bullshit today; they had caught the murderer, and she was STILL going to interrogate them? She was STILL going to point fingers at them for a crime she KNEW they didn't commit? That was where he drew the line. And the worst part is he couldn't just call the cops on her for harassment. She was above the law because of her working relationship with the police. It was utterly disgusting to every nerve in Justin's body.

"Discuss? Dude, we'll be late if we talk too long… Hey, where's your uniform?" Yosuke questioned with annoyance. He wasn't getting another bad mark on his already shitty attendance record just because Naoto wanted to bug them some more on an issue that was long since closed. I mean, what the hell could Naoto possibly have left to ask? What was Mitsuo's favorite color? _Black. Black as his cold, desolate soul. There, happy? Now go home._

"Could you please indulge my current theory on the matter?" Naoto again requested the cooperation of the investigation team on the matter, hoping for them to explain some things to her that she just didn't understand. Though maybe if she actually did her job instead of letting everyone do the work for her, she would have been able to figure it out on her own. Justin and Yosuke both crossed their arms, rolling their eyes and groaning. They didn't have time nor patience to deal with Naoto right now, so the sooner she stepped aside, the better.

"What is it…?" The two both groaned in complete synchronization, before passing each other a shocked look. That was weird, and in a way, not entirely pleasant. The thought of the two being on the complete same wavelength in their minds at any given time seemed absolutely horrible to the two of them. "That never happened." Justin dictated, trying to pretend that they hadn't been thinking the same thing. Yosuke could not have argued less with that order if he was given a million dollars and told to go on vacation in the Bermudas.

"First, as regards commonalities between the victims, all of them were kidnapped before they were murdered. The victims were all locals who had been the focus of recent media attention, becoming suddenly well-known… That is the most likely scenario. I don't believe there's anything intrinsically unique about the victims themselves. …Haven't you all come to the same conclusion?" Naoto laid out her theory before turning this into somewhat of an interrogation session. At first she had simply laid out her own conclusions, but then she suddenly requested to know if the investigation team had came to the same conclusion. Perhaps she was very well aware of the investigation team's role in all of this, perhaps she was just testing the waters. Whatever it was, it was very clearly a trap to get them to admit to their role in the investigation. All they needed to do now was to keep their mouths closed and refuse to answer any questions she may have concerni-

"Yeah, we did."

…

_Okay seriously, what the fuck Yu?_ So basically, Yu decided to not even hide the fact that they clearly knew stuff they shouldn't have known unless they got involved in the investigation. Which for the record, was ENTIRELY illegal, whether they were helping solve the crime or not. She could charge them all with obstruction of justice right now if she so pleased, and all because Yu decided not to lie to the girl who sure as hell had no problems lying to them and the rest of the world about her involvement in the case. Seriously, four simple words. I plead the fifth. That's all he had to say, and it would all be over. No more questions, no more interrogations. Done, they'd be in the clear. But NOOOOOOOOoooooo. Someone had to be all 'oh yeah, we totally know everything about those murders.' Remind Justin again why everyone considered Yu the leader of the bunch. Did the guy even talk enough to warrant that title?

"Then, allow me to state my point. Will you admit that a number of you fit these identical circumstances?" Naoto continued with her interrogation; after all, she did just get confirmation from Yu that they knew a bunch of shit she clearly did not. Was he trying to make them all late to class.

"We plead the fi-"

"Yes."

"Dammit Yu!" Justin shouted back. What the hell was the matter with this guy today? For starters, didn't he think that information should have been something they decided to share. Justin sure as hell had no intention of letting Naoto know he was one of the victims. He doubted Yukiko and Rise were entirely comfortable with that either, especially after the stuff that had shown up on their show on the midnight channel. Which they somehow doubted Naoto was unaware of at this point. She had clearly started putting the dots together on pretty much everything else. Yu shrugged a bit, clearly not fazed by the fact that he had said WAY too much on the matter. Someone should put a muzzle on him before he kept blabbering.

"There was a long interval between the second and third deaths in this case. But after I applied the aforementioned criteria, I discovered several similar disappearances had taken place. Yukiko Amagi. Kanji Tatsumi. Rise Kujikawa… Justin Tylor, if his absence records are to be considered in correspondence with his appearance on the television." Naoto remarked passing a bit of a glare at Justin. Seemed she had figured out no one had reported him missing, despite the fact that he very much was. But the fact of the matter is, he broke a LOT of the guidelines that the others fit into when they went missing. It was one of the sole reasons she had been so suspicious of him at first. Judging from his character however, and the mere fact that he associated with all of the alleged victims on a regular basis, it seemed he was just an odd exception to the rules. A red herring if you will. It could be that the killer was trying to break the cycle and throw the investigation off.

"For a detective, you sure seem to believe a lot of silly rumors." Justin brushed off her entirely correct deduction by trying to play the Midnight Channel off as nothing as a rumor. He probably shouldn't have been all things considered. After all, if he wasn't on the Midnight Channel, that simply meant he had went missing for a week. And that was definitely suspicious as fuck. Naoto just ignored Justin though; she had seen the channel with her own eyes, he wasn't getting out of it that easily. She was only surprised she was withholding information that was critical to the investigation of a crime that almost lead to his murder. You would think he'd be more cooperative. And he would be, if it were anyone BUT Naoto. He literally had no problem with her up until she made that murder remark about Maya and him; she had brought it on herself that he was being so uncooperative.

"All of you disappeared shortly after being shown on TV… Either you escaped death somehow, or you faked your own disappearances in order to divert attention from yourselves… Since some of you had ties to the victims, there came a point where I suspected one of you must be the culprit." Naoto continued, eyes never really drawing away from Justin. Oh it was very clear to EVERYONE who Naoto meant when she said she considered one of them to be the killer. And despite the fact that Justin certainly was aggressive, and from an outside perspective, they could definitely see him getting into trouble on a regular basis, none of them would ever consider Justin playing a role in a crime like this. Deep down, he really was a good guy. If you didn't wrong him, if you just treated him as a human being deserving of some respect, he'd return the favor. If you didn't, he'd give your shit right back. After all, he sure as hell didn't want it. Point being, Justin being the killer had never crossed the minds of the investigation team for even a second. Nor would it ever.

"You thought one of us was the killer!? You can't be serious!" Chie shouted with shock and anger. It was one thing to hear from Justin that she had said that to him; but as they all knew, Justin could be a bit of a drama queen, throwing everything out of proportion. He had good intentions when he went into a fit of rage, but even with his intents in mind, he was most certainly an unreliable source of information on matters such as this. Chie gritted her teeth a bit, almost as though angered by the fact that Naoto had been dragging Justin's name through the dirt all this time… A long while ago, and even to this day, Justin had stood up on Chie's behalf when someone tried to drag her to the dirt. She thought it was about time she returned the favor. It was too bad at this point that Justin was taking this all as a joke, not in the slightest bit offended by the comment. He was angry, but not offended.

"Plot twist!" Justin remarked sarcastically, pulling out the jazz hands for a second, wearing a phony grin as though he were putting on a show. After all, this wasn't new information to him, not was it for Chie. And let's face it, none of the others ever doubted who Naoto was referring to in this scenario; which was… kind of disheartening in a way. He was an asshole, but not THAT much of an asshole, I mean, come on! Naoto just shook her head and adjusted her hate, ignoring the overly sarcastic and eccentric gesture. Truth be told, she somewhat suspected his 'sister' more. There was no record of when she had arrived in Inaba, meaning she could have started this spree at any given time, and there had been an increasingly large stack of evidence that could link Maya to the scene of the Burned Man case in California. Nothing conclusive; but it was definitely suspicious anyway. However; considering that Justin was one of the victims, and the two claimed to be brothers and sisters, residing in the same house; that Maya had actually taken a bullet to the gut, and yet no one reported her assaulting or attempting to kidnap someone… It was very unlikely that she would victimize herself or loved ones. She seemed in the clear on the matter of the Hanged Man case. For now anyway.

"This was a prior theory, since discarded. Putting together everything I've learned until this moment, I believe exactly the opposite. You aren't the culprits. You may, in fact, be the only ones with the means to pursue the true perpetrator… Seen as a joining of forces between the rescued, everything falls into place." Naoto began to muse out loud, piecing together the last puzzle pieces. Justin had to do a slow clap, as though to applaud the last horse crossing the finishing line. That should have been obvious to her almost immediately.

"Now if only you used that detective brain of yours to solve crimes instead of accusing me of murder." Justin remarked sarcastically. He had a rather filthy name he wanted to call her at the end of his little applause, but he figured since she was using her head for once, he'd let it slide this time. If she kept up the good work, maybe she'd get an actually applause one day. Maybe.

"…Of course, this is all speculation. There is in fact a flaw in the theory. It doesn't account for the third incident… Mr. Morooka's murder. He has never been broadcast on television, and neither did he ever disappear. We must also consider the condition of his corpse. The first two victims are still listed with an unknown cause of death… But Mr. Morooka died of an easily identifiable blunt force trauma to the occipital cranium. The police have not satisfactorily resolved this discrepancy, yet they are desperate to close the case." Naoto continued to address her disappointment in the way the case was handled, citing issues she found in the resolution in the case. And it would all be a valid point if they hadn't caught the fucking murderer. He confessed. That's it; it's over. There is NOTHING left to investigate. It doesn't matter why the method changed when the culprit already admitted to committing both crimes.

"Further action…? What do you mean?" Chie questioned, a little curious what she meant by that. Further action? What else was there to do? The murderer was in jail, and the case was closed. She wasn't going to find any more evidence, she wasn't going to make any more deductions. There was nothing left for her to do. That's it, game over. Any more action on her part would be completely and utterly pointless by this point, if she could even do anything else. She probably couldn't.

"Well, whatever the outcome… the evidence should come to light… You said something interesting to me not long ago. This is not a game for me either…" Naoto remarked, before turning about to walk away, a fiery look of determination in her eyes. And she damn well might have just kept walking if Justin didn't call out to her behind, his arms still crossed, an annoyed glance on his face. She thought she was some kind of superhero, but really, she was nothing but another piece in the puzzle.

"Please. It's all a game; and we're all just the pawns." Naoto stopped dead in her tracks, pausing for a moment before turning back around to face Justin.

"Then who's the chess master?"

"Does it really matter? Just move where you're told."


	146. Chapter 145: September 14, 2011

CHAPTER 145

September 14, 2011

* * *

"Let's see… History report, Biology report, English report; Jesus fuck, how many reports do I need to write?"

Justin was at his locker, trying to figure out what books he needed to bring home to cram for all of his homework for the night. From the looks of it, pretty much every single book. I mean, why couldn't they have gotten all of this work over summer vacation? They just had to cram like seven reports into the time span of a few days? He was just one man, dammit! He couldn't handle all of this at once. Maybe if he just divided the work up between him and Chie; each of them could take a couple reports, share it with the other, tweak a few things, then boom. Efficiency at its finest. Oh but wait, Chie is against cheating and copying and all that shit… Well fuck. I'm screwed. Justin sighed, shuffling through his locker in search of his belongings. He was about to grab his shit, when he heard an all too familiar voice in the background. A small smile crossed his face as her voice echoed through the corridors. He knew he was forgetting something or someone when he came back to this miserable place they called school; he almost felt bad for not running into her earlier.

"What do you want?" Ai's voice rang through the hallways. Seemed like she was being just as bitchy as always; which only served to amuse Justin in a lot of ways. Honestly, it was kind of charming in small enough doses. Like, Justin wouldn't hang around Ai all day when she was in one of those moods, but a snide remark here and a snide remark there was oddly refreshing from the phony smiles people tried to wear around him on a daily basis. No one was perfectly happy; acting otherwise was idiotic. Justin turned about, curious who she was talking to, and ready to make his way over to say hello once she was done turning down whoever it was she was talking to. Because let's be honest; it's obvious that she was rejecting someone. She always was.

"Hey, Ai-chan. Haven't heard from you in a while. What's up with that?" The boy she had been talking to spoke up, a smug grin on his face, a confident aura to his stance and words. Justin raised his eyebrow slightly, closing his locker for just a moment to lean against it as he watched the events that were unfolding in front of him. It was strange; most of the guys that tried to flirt with Ai were these strange, socially awkward nerds who could barely keep up with their own words. This guy… not so much. Justin wasn't sure how to describe him. He'd say smooth, but… "What, you gonna play hard to get now? I see how it is!"…Yeah. He was very clearly pissed that Ai refused to answer his remark. Which Justin could kind of understand, but… I don't know, something about the tone to his voice… It sounded like he was angry long before he came here. Something felt off. Justin bit his bottom lip, crossing his arms as he watched. He got a bad feeling in his gut about this.

"You think I didn't hear about your new arm candy? That transfer student, Souji, right? Are you seriously dating that loser?" Justin rolled his eyes and shook his head. Why was it that it was a rumor that he was dating everyone BUT the girl he actually was dating, and was very public about. He didn't even try to hide the fact that him and Chie were a thing, as much as Chie did. Why was this even a topic of discussion? And for the record, he didn't take too kindly to be calling a loser. _Yeah, I'm a loser; so why don't ya kill me?_ Regardless of how offended Justin was by all of this, it was becoming increasingly clear this guy had nothing but bad intentions. I mean, Justin had NEVER seen anyone get this worked up over getting rejected; that is, anyone but Mitsuo. I'm sure you recall how that went down. He was on guard, waiting for this prick to cross the line.

"…We're not dating. And don't talk about him like-" Ai begin to speak, defending Justin's honor, still seemingly unaware of his presence on the opposite side of the room. Was nice to see she was defending him even when she didn't know he was around; meant she genuinely cared about him and his reputation. On the other hand, this asshole seemed to be getting some sick kick out of it, and you could tell Ai was getting more than a little uncomfortable as the kid got a little closer, smirking and laughing and cutting her and her pleas off. He just didn't care; and that was problematic.

"Coulda fooled me! Heh, not that I'm worried or anything… I mean, come on, me versus him? Not even a contest! I could show you stuff you've never even dreamed of, babe." The guy tried to flirt her in a very creepy way; kinda like what a rapist would say in an attempt at making it less rape and more consensual. You know, because why do something illegal when you could do it without repercussion? Not that they had any intention of taking no for an answer. And neither did this guy, as he slowly creeped up on her, a lustful smirk on his face. Justin bit his bottom lip, curling his hands into fists. This was disgusting to every fiber of his being. It was a wonder he hadn't come over and decked this guy yet. Maybe it was just that Ai was TRYING to defend herself, and Justin didn't want to be that guy. She was standing up for herself; and that was a good thing. So for now, he'd just bite his tounge and see how this went. If it went to shit, his fists were always ready to talk on Ai's behalf.

"Stop it. Geez… There's nothing going on between you and me. Never has been." Ai remarked with annoyance and disgust, trying to push the pervert away from her. There was a reason she never dreamed about the stuff he wanted to show her; because she didn't dream of pathetic assholes who would do anything to get into someone's pants. By this point, the other guy was twitching, his smirk slowly fading into an angry glare, continuing to narrow the distance between the two. And Ai was slowly running out of space to back away from him with. Jesus, where was the faculty anyway that they were ignoring all of this crap.

"Hey, listen. I can only take so much of your mouth. Come on. Now." The kid barked out orders at her. He wasn't even asking anymore, he was telling her she was going to go with him… Or else. Jesus, who even let people like this into school? They should be in a fucking institution, not allowed around girls to victimize. I mean, what the fuck? This was literally the exact thing rapists did. If they weren't in a school right now, one that presumably had security cameras, Justin would almost believe he really did intend to get down and dirty right here. Whether she liked it or not. And she very clearly didn't. He had started to reach his hand out to grab her by the wrists, though she swiftly slapped it away, not taking any of his bullshit. She wasn't going anywhere, especially not with some sleeze like him. Apparently resisting might have been one of the worst moves she could have made; it only served to piss him off more.

"Forget it. I'm not going anywhere with you." Ai repeated, more sternly. Before she had been cautiously afraid to interact with the guy; but after being told that she had to go with him to do things she had no doubt were filthy and disgusting, she had enough. The last straw had been drawn for both of them; and you would think that would be enough to send both of them in opposite directions, content to be pissed off at the other. But like all creepy raper guys, this guy had no intention of walking away fruitless from his efforts. He WOULD get her to come with him, and if she didn't go, he'd put her in her place.

"Hey… Hey! What the hell!? You had me wrapped around your little finger and now you're gonna act like this!? You want me to leave a mark on that precious face of yours? I'll call up some friends! It'll be a party!" The asshole threatened her. It was a bit debatable what kind of mark he intended to leave on her face if he intended to invite friends, but it was clear that was no way to talk to ANY lady; especially one that's told you no on several occasions. She doesn't want to go with you; what part about that is not going through that thick head of yours. Justin had to hold himself back from getting in the middle by this point. Clearly since he seemed to have been brought into the equation, somehow he got the feeling that stepping into this would only make it worse. No need to piss this guy off more, right? In retrospect, he probably should have punched him the moment he opened his mouth.

"I don't care about your stupid threats. Why don't you just do it already?" Ai dared him, not at all afraid of his threats. And as good as it was that Ai was standing up for herself, she never REALLY had a problem with that before, so perhaps letting Ai handle this herself wasn't a necessary move. In fact, it was probably a really shitty move. The other kid's eyes were practically popping out of his head by this point, pure anger flowing through his veins. That was it; that was the last straw for him. This was the point where he had enough of her smartass mouth. If she wasn't going to go with him, he was going to give her a reason to.

"I'm officially pissed off now, you little shit!" He shouted with pure anger, before lashing out with one swift movement, slapping her across the face. Within a split second Justin had reacted, pushing himself away from the locker and dashing out towards this asshole. No one laid a finger on a lady; especially just because she rejected your psychotic ass. Within seconds Justin had tackled the student to the ground, pure anger flowing through him, as he beat him senselessly, fists flying every which way as he pounded his face into the floor below him. Ai just watched on with shock, not really sure how to react to Justin beating this guy to a bloody pulp. And I do mean a bloody pulp; the guy's face was a mess after only a short while. The guy clearly deserved it, but even this was a little shocking.

"**You… Mother… Fucker!"** Justin shouted in between each swing of his arms, his now golden eyes menacingly staring down at the terrified senior beneath him, crying out in pain and fear as he struggled to break free of the vicious beating he had been ensnared in. Alas, Justin had been firmly seated on the guy's torso, pinning him to the ground as he tried to escape. Justin had stood idly by, expecting this guy to learn his lesson and walk away after being rejected for the seventh or eighth time, he had GIVEN this creep the benefit of the doubt, the chance to keep his teeth. And what did he do? He put his hands on a lady. That shit wasn't going to fly. Justin wasn't even sure who he was madder at: This asshole for being the most despicable excuse for a human being Justin had ever laid eyes on, or himself for not acting sooner. Perhaps it was that confusion that kept his fists going for minutes, despite the pleading of the asshole beneath him. By the time he had finished getting all of that violence out of his system, blood was completely covering his face, his white skin now soaking red. It wasn't a pretty sight. Justin gasped for air, still not relinquishing his spot pinning the prick to the ground. He wasn't done just yet, even if his fists were. After a moment of regathering his energy, he gripped the senior by his shirt, pulling him up close to Justin's face so he could see the pure hatred in his eyes.

"**Let's get something straight here, asshole. You don't put your hands on a woman ever! You hear me!?" **The enraged Justin shouted at the bauling teenager, tears mixing with his blood as he fearfully tried to escape the position he had just put himself in. All he wanted was to get a little bit of action; he never intended for it to end with him beaten and bloody on the ground. **"If I ever see you put so much as a finger on her, or any girl again, I'll make sure you don't have any fingers to repeat that mistake. Do you understand me!?"**

"Y-yes!" The thug shouted in fear as Justin leered over him, fists clenched, eyes shut as he prayed to the gods above to save him. Unfortunatly, God doesn't love rapists and woman beaters. Justin brought his fist down on the asshole one more time, punching him clean out with a powerful strike to the head. And with that, he was unconscious. Justin sighed, closing his eyes to regain control over himself, to suppress the shadow again, before eventually lifting himself off the ground, turning his attention over to Ai, who had been watching on with shocked, yet almost pleasurable disgust. She WANTED to see that asshole get what was coming to him, she just never pictured it'd be so… bloody.

"Are you alright?" Justin questioned after a moment, sympathetic eyes gazing at the red mark on her cheek. Ai's eyes widened a bit with surprise, having forgotten about the pain along her cheekbone for a moment, caught so off-guard by the sudden exhibition of violence. She was surprised in all honesty to see Justin so calm now after beating a man to a bloody pulp but a moment earlier. In fact, he actually looked kind of sad. Was it regret for his actions? Or was it regret for his lack thereof? "He didn't hurt you, did he?"

"I'll be fine as soon as I get some ice on it…" Ai smiled slightly, trying to alleviate Justin's concerns. Justin sighed a bit, leaning against the wall behind him as he tried to maintain his balance. Supressing his shadow always did take a lot of effort, but luckily, he had been getting better at it. It was just shit like this that made everything he worked for pointless. How could he not lose his shit when someone just smacked a friend of his across her face, just because she rejected him? It just wasn't right. "Is… he going to be okay?" Ai questioned, looking at the bloody heap that was once a man. Justin just shook his head a bit.

"He wasn't okay in the first place." Justin remarked with a slight sigh. It sounded like a smart-ass remark, but it was true. Anyone who had tried to pull the shit he had done couldn't have been two right in the head. Laying his hands on a woman because he wasn't getting his way… Now who was the loser? "Figures the first time I see you in a month and it's under these circumstances." Justin mocked himself and his unfortunate luck. He wasn't as violent a person as he made himself out to be; he didn't LIKE having to kick the crap out of people like this. It was just instinct; he couldn't just let people get away with this kind of crap, and that was the only way he knew how to put people in their place. It was the way he was taught after all… Though was it the fingers or the brain that _**he**_ was teaching a lesson? Probably the former. Point was, he was sick of everything ending with someone's bloody being thrown to the ground. He supposed trouble just found its way to him like a magnet.

"D-Don't worry about it. I just thought… Maybe I could do something to help you, for once." Ai remarked, trying to dismiss Justin's concerns over the beaten student just inches away from his feet. Probably would have helped if she wasn't concerned over that herself. It was REALLY gross to look at afterall, and she did have to wonder if Justin acted this way around other people. He seemed fine around her, if a bit aggressive at times. She didn't think he'd so quickly resort to violence. Alas, in the end though, she supposed it was the only real option left. It was self-defense after all.

"Do me a favor. Don't." Justin remarked as Ai announced she was trying to do this for his sake. "Otherwise it'll just end like this… I appreciate the gesture, but really. Don't put yourself at risk just for me. I can handle myself." Justin smiled slightly, hoping to wipe away her concerns. Ai shook her head, a grin on her face all the while. Maybe he could handle himself; but there was a little more to it than just being able to fight back. It was her turn to give back to Justin for everything he had done for her; that he continued to do for her.

"Well, I guess I didn't really think that far ahead. It was kinda like a reflex… I wonder if my face is gonna get all swollen… Oh well." Ai laughed off her very apparent injury, a red mark in the shape of a hand painted across her face. No doubt someone was going to ask where that came from, and when they did, Justin had to wonder what she would say. Hopefully she told the truth, and this prick got what the punishment he really deserved. Something deeper than the cuts Justin had imparted upon his flesh. "Hey… Why don't we go somewhere close by. You know… To talk." Ai recommended, an optimistic grin on her face. "I don't want anyone to notice… Funny, even with a face like this, I still want to be with you…" Justin chuckled a bit, stepping forward a bit so they were side to side.

"And even with an ugly mug like mine, I'd be happy to oblige."


	147. Chapter 146: September 15, 2011

CHAPTER 146

September 15, 2011

* * *

"Midnight Channel? Wait, hold on one second…"

The group had all been gathered in Justin's homeroom, talking about something that had clearly left a sour expression on their face. At most Justin had expected to hear they had all went out and done something really stupid, or that they weren't looking forward to writing all these reports. He didn't think they had watched the Midnight Channel again, nor had they seen anything on it. The case was closed; there was nothing left TO watch on that channel. And yet now Justin had just been informed that everyone had still been watching that show; and worse, they didn't sound very enthusiastic about their findings. A couple of odd looks were passed Justin's way, as though they were shocked and disgusted that he was so clueless on the matter.

"What, you didn't watch it?" Yosuke questioned, arms crossed and eyebrow raised as though impatiently confused by Justin's inquiry. Justin's eyes darted about, a very puzzled expression on his face all the while, as he slowly shook his head. Yosuke just groaned a bit as Justin denied having viewed the Midnight Channel last night. He thought they were all going to keep doing it, just as a safety net… Yet Justin seemed to have completely neglected his duties; the ones that came with the power of Persona. They were supposed to be like silent protectors of this town; being ready to strike back should shit come back around. Justin clearly didn't get the memo.

"Why would I? The murderer's caught right? That's over, there's no reason to keep watching." Justin tried to explain his reasoning. Seemed no one was entirely satisfied with that explanation though. Justin sighed after a moment shrugging his shoulders a bit. "Plus I was pretty tired." Justin admitted. Seemed beating the living shit out of a potential rapist took a lot of energy out of you. Yosuke straightened up a bit, repositioning himself from the desk he had been leaning his ass against but a moment earlier.

"Oh yeah, that's right. I heard you got into a pretty nasty fight yesterday." Justin twisted his head a bit to the side, a startled, but puzzled expression on his face. How the hell did he know that? Was it a rumor already? Hell, were there even any witnesses besides him, Ai, and that other kid? He doubted Ai was the type to talk about that kind of shit, and the other kid… Well the other kid was probably much too afraid to talk about it. Plus, he was the one who looked like a push-over in this case, since he lost and all. No doubt he wouldn't have told the truth though. And it wasn't really a fist-fight either. Seemed this game of telephone had gotten underway rather quickly.

"Justin got into a fight?" Yukiko questioned with curiosity, having not heard the rumor that was spreading like wildfire apparently. Seemed most of the others had though, which really only served to confuse Justin more. Chie was passing him a slightly concerned look. She wasn't surprised Justin had gotten into a fight, and she was positive he could hold his own, but she couldn't help but worry a bit for him. He was always getting involved in this kind of shit. One of these days it was going to catch up with him.

"Well I wouldn't really call it a fight." Justin rubbed at the back of his head a bit, embarrassed that this was even a topic of discussion. He wanted to make sure everyone knew what had REALLY happened if they were hearing rumors about this, but at the same point, he didn't want to look like some hero, some vigilante that was just waiting to pounce people when they were being complete pricks. "There was this really pervy guy trying to get Ai to go with him somewhere, but she didn't want to go, so he slapped her. I kind of lost my cool and punched him in the face. He went down real easy." Justin cut out the unnecessary details of how the other guy was probably a rapist and how more than one punch had been exchanged before that guy went down. They didn't need the bloody gory details after all. Everyone seemed almost surprised by the actual truth of the matter.

"Really?" Yosuke remarked with curiosity, almost annoyed he had heard something far different. "The story I heard was that the guy stepped on your toes or something and you got really pissed off. And also that you lost." Yosuke shrugged a bit. Justin shook his head. Well it was becoming VERY clear where the rumor had come from this time around. Anything to protect your reputation after all, huh?

"I think we're getting a little side tracked." Yu interrupted the group talking about what ever duel Justin had been involved in the day prior. Was it really that much of a surprise to any of them anyway? They knew Justin well enough to know he wouldn't just punch someone in the face without reason. He'd probably bitch their ears off, but that wasn't how the rumor went, now was it? "What was someone doing on the television?" Yu questioned, his understanding of how the Midnight Channel worked sending shivers down his spine as he considered the potential meaning behind the sudden showing.

"I talked to Teddie, and he says no one's entered the other side…" Yosuke muttered, already seeing where Yu was going with this. Someone appearing on the Midnight Channel always corresponded with a kidnapping; but… It was impossible. No one was on the other side that didn't belong there, and the killer was behind bars. It was entirely possible the Midnight Channel was just a strange phenomenon, a weird coincidence. After all, from his understanding the Midnight Channel used to show in California, but no one used to show up. It just didn't make sense. It was strange, but probably unrelated all things considered.

"Well, yeah. The killer's been caught." Rise reminded him, as though Justin hadn't just mentioned that a moment ago, or that Yosuke hadn't been considering that possibility for the last twelve or so hours. Yosuke nodded a bit, a concerned but puzzled expression on his face. He was very clearly deep in thought on the matter; after all, this most certainly was food for thought. Food for thought if you weren't Kanji, that was; who was, as always, completely lost. Made you wonder if he even paid attention.

"Huh…? What's up?"

"C'mon, get with the program. You saw the TV last night, right?" Yosuke scolded Kanji, rather annoyed with his apparent negligence towards the issue. After all, this was important shit, and Kanji seemed to not even give the slightest fuck. Was it so hard for him to just listen for once in his life? Kanji groaned with annoyance and anger, again, very clearly not taking this seriously. Seemed he had been thinking the same thing Justin and Rise had been on the matter; and that was that there was nothing to worry about anymore. The crimes had been solved, and the culprit was facing his sentence. No need to get their panties in a knot.

"So? 's got nothing to do with us. The killer's behind bars, man. You guys are overreacting. That shit Naoto said didn't make any sense either, so there's no use getting all worked up about it." Kanji tried to put Yosuke's doubts at ease, though in the process, all he had managed to do was peak Yosuke's interest in a comment he had made. What exactly did Naoto have to do with the Midnight Channel again? Nothing? Yeah, that's what he thought too. Seemed Kanji had his little loverboy on the mind again.

"Huh…? Naoto-kun?" Yukiko questioned, not really seeing the relevance herself. Kanji's face lit up rather quickly as Yukiko pointed out that he had brought the boy detective into this again. He didn't mean that Naoto was relevant to the Midnight Channel or anything, he was just saying the stuff she said made little to no sense, much like the Channel reappearing. Though that did bring up the question as to why he had even been thinking about what Naoto said in the first place. He was a bit confused himself really.

"Uh, no, well… How do I put it…?" Kanji nervously stammered, rubbing at the back of his neck as he tried to justify his remark, to think of an explanation as to why he had brought Naoto into something he had clearly been uninvolved with. Yosuke just had on this malicious smirk, clearly less than good intent in his eyes and smile. He planned to take full advantage of Kanji's one moment of weakness, the one moment where he WOULDN'T get the ever living shit kicked out of him, but still get pretty damn close.

"What, were you out of it 'cause you were still thinking about what Naoto said? So you're still hung up on all that stuff." Yosuke laughed hysterically at the very much embarrassed Kanji. It wasn't like that at all, and he would really appreciate it if Yosuke quit it with the homosexual jabs. He wasn't gay goddammit; he swore he had proved it a million times over by this point.

"That's-! I ain't hung up on it!" Kanji shouted back in nervous defense; he was having a hard enough time figuring out what was going in his head without Yosuke being a pretentious dick about it. Yosuke just shook his head, that obnoxious grin still on his face as he shook his head, deflecting Kanji's claims of totally not being into Naoto. He wasn't like the love guru or anything, as was evident by his own poor luck with woman, but even that said, he could tell when someone had a raging crush a mile away... Well for the most part anyway. He had with Justin and Chie, and he had with Yu and Yukiko. Kanji was no exception to his expert love deduction skills.

"It's okay, we all understand. Just don't go overboard, man." Yosuke continued to mock him. Or at least, he had been until Justin threw a calculator at his head to get him to shut up. Yosuke just rubbed his head with annoyance as the mechanical tool hit the ground, battery latch in the back smashing open. Justin shook his head with a bit of disgust, annoyed this was turning into a discussion of Kanji's sexuality now. It wasn't any of Yosuke's damn business. Kanji was furious by this point, face red with anger. He was sick of having to justify his comments, to clarify he was straight. He was done with this shit.

"You little… I said that's not it! Tch… I got stuff to do. I'm outta here." Kanji declared, flipping Yosuke off before turning and storming off. He wasn't going to stand for this humiliation any further. As Kanji slammed the door behind him, all eyes fell on Yosuke, disappointed in his actions, anger in their eyes as he clearly overstepped his boundries.

"Stop bringing that up, Yosuke… You know he doesn't think it's funny." Chie scolded Yosuke for being a huge dickwad. Yosuke rubbed at the sore spot on his skull from having a calculator chucked at it before sighing with disappointment. He was starting to realize he might have went just a little too far. But dammit, he knew Yosuke was only joking, why'd he have to make such a big huff about it? Rise was just a little bit confused though, what with not being there for Kanji's shadow and all. All she got out of this was that something had happened between him and Naoto; and not necessarily in THAT way.

"Ooh, what? What? Did something happen between Kanji and Naoto-kun!?" Rise frantically questioned, trying to probe information out of the others, to get the scoop on whatever it was that was going on with Kanji. Everyone passed each other a glance, as though considering giving Rise the scoop, before realizing that was a horrible, horrible idea. She was one of the last people that should have had that information. She wasn't a gossip or anything, but given how often she liked to poke fun at Kanji, it was best not to give her more fuel for the fire.

"W-Well that aside-" Yukiko began to try to change the subject. She really didn't have to though, given that the group all were cut off by the sound of the intercom buzzing in their room, a loud beep signifying someone was about to speak. God was it loud, Justin outright flinched a bit as he was caught by surprise by the unexpected intervention. Didn't that thing have volume knobs or something, holy fuck he swore he just had a heart attack. He almost had a second one as the person on the speaker began to speak.

"Will Justin Tylor please report to the faculty office, immediately." Justin's eyebrows shot up almost immediately. He didn't like the sounds of that in the slightest. It couldn't have been for an emergency, right? After all, the only one who might call the school is Maya, and it was far more likely she'd just call Justin's cell instead, eliminating the middle man. Per…haps he simply lost something. Yeah that was it; and nothing more. Still, despite having reassured himself this was nothing, sympathetic eyes fell upon him, almost fearful for what consequences he might be facing for his actions.

"If you need character witnesses, give us a buzz."

"Up yours too, Yosuke."

* * *

"Ah, Justin-chan. Thank you for joining us."

Justin cautiously entered the principal's office after being guided there by the secretary. It was… well… unpleasant to say the least. There was no denying what he was there for now; unless the principal wanted to talk tuition or financial aid with him. Which Justin would be all for, for the record. He wasn't so proud he wouldn't take money from the school, especially given him and Maya combined were only barely making ends meet; counting of course the occasional trip to buy clothes or something. That was beside the point though. Justin's eyes darted about the room, already knowing he was in deep shit; a thought only reassure by the sight of the kid he had beat up the day prior. Seemed that when rapists didn't get their way, they cried to mommy. _I mean, what the fuck; man up and admit you fucked up and got what you deserved. Don't drag me down with you._

"What can I do for you sir?" Justin questioned, trying to play off that he didn't know what was going on. The glare he had passed the black-eyed kid however threw any chance of him getting out of here on grounds of not being involved. There was no doubt there was some sort of conflict between them. The principal gestured to the open chair beside the other guy, allowing Justin to take a seat instead of standing like an idiot. It was quiet for a moment as the principal sat there choosing his words.

"Tylor… It's come to my attention that you and Seito here were involved in a… physical dispute yesterday after school." The principal slowly tried to spit out the words he wanted. You could already tell he wasn't trying to offend either party, that he didn't want to take sides. After all, there was nothing worse than an angry parent. Of course, since Justin didn't HAVE parents, you could already imagine where this was going to go in the case of a 'tiebreaker' so to speak. "I'm not going to dance around the issue; is it true that you punched Seito?" Justin paused for a moment, head slowly bobbing up and down, bottom lip clenched between his teeth as he looked around.

"I did." Justin admitted. He was sure the principal was told a completely false story, but at the same point Justin wasn't going to lie. He'd give the REAL story in a moment, after the principal was done appealing to Seito's little game. The principal sighed a bit, leaning forward in a stern matter as though to get closer to Justin as he explained how this was going to go down.

"I see… I hope you are aware of the school's policy on bullying and fighting." The principal remarked. Justin's eyebrow shot up, amused curiosity on his face. Oh so now HE was the bully. Right, because he was harassing other people in an attempt at getting some sexual pleasure out of it, and smacking them when they refused. Yes, HE was the bully, and definitely no one else. _You caught me, princey._

"Bullying? Is that what he told you? The irony in that is almost funny. Almost." Justin remarked snidely, a tone he probably shouldn't have been taking with the guy who could make sure he never got into any school ever again. The principal readjusted himself, sighing again. Seemed he was sick of hearing stories about how this really went down; but all the same, he had to. It WAS his job after all. Besides; bullying looked horrible for a school's reputation. That's why he tried to get children to lie to the police on the topic of murder. Fucking idiot.

"Well let's hear your side of the story then."

"Alright, so here's how it went." Justin slouched forward a bit, extending his arms to make gestures as he told the story, like some sort of visual supplement to his words. "Basically, I was at my locker when this guy over here approached a friend of mine; I'm sure you know Ai. Anyway, he starts saying all this disgusting stuff to her, like how he was going to show her stuff only in her wildest dreams. She didn't like that obviously, so she told him no. Well this guy didn't like that, so he slapped her. And THAT'S when I punched him in the face. Several. Times." Justin clenched his teeth on the last part. He had no regrets about his actions; only that he hadn't done it sooner. Seito sat there for a moment, shaking his head.

"That's bullshit." He remarked bluntly, not seeming to filter himself in front of the principal of the school. He did get pointed at by the principal, a scolding glare on his face as though to tell him to watch his mouth. He just shrugged and sank back in his chair. It was quiet for a moment before the principal turned his attention back to Justin.

"I… see… Justin, I have yet to receive any complaints from Ai or any other party regarding physical abuse from Seito, and Seito has a clean record in regards to this kind of stuff… You, however… uh… do not." The principal again delicately picked his words. It was true, Justin's record for trouble was kind of shit; especially after the presidential elections, but that shouldn't have been relevant in any capacity. Justin stared at the principal with anger and confusion. He had just told him the truth, and he was going to side with Seito just because he had a clean record? The fuck was this bullshit? Why because he got here first? Because Ai wasn't a snitch? Bull. Shit.

"So what, because he told you his story first, you're going to believe him? This is ridiculous!" Justin shouted with anger. He wasn't going to let this guy get away with rewriting history; that was a complete fabrication he had made moments ago, and Justin wouldn't stand for it. He wouldn't let HIM, a pervert who had struck a woman for not wanting in on his sick kicks get away with it while HE took the fall for doing the right thing, for stopping him from doing it a second time. The principal sighed and shook his head.

"Well why don't we bring Ai in here to see if your stories match." The principal remarked, leaning over as though to call to someone outside his office, most likely so they would go get Ai. Justin just shook his head and held out his hand, stopping the principal. He had told Ai to stop getting involved when he got himself into trouble, and he intended to keep it that way. After all, if she ratted on this Seito guy with him sitting RIGHT there, there was no doubt there would be repercussions. That was not going to happen. Ever.

"No. I'm not letting her turn into a snitch just so this guy can blame it on her and do it ALL over again." Justin remarked, refusing to allow Ai to defend him, just because she knew the truth. The principal sighed a bit unclenching his hands and forming a half-shrug, as though to say there was nothing else that could be done. If he wasn't willing to take steps to clear his name, then the principal was going to have to take sides with Seito.

"Well I'm sorry to inform you Justin, but if you're not willing to put forth evidence to support your claims, I'm afraid I'm going to have to believe Seito. And as principal, that means I have to impart punishment for violating school code." Justin sighed, sinking back in his seat and resting his cheek against his palm. At this point he just didn't care.

"Fine, whatever. Suspend me. Seems you had your mind made up before I even came in here anyway." Justin remarked, annoyed by the way this was all handled. It was clear the one with the more influence or the one with the most money had been the victor here, not the one who had done the right thing. The principal shook his head though, clenching his hands together again.

"Oh, I'm afraid it's much more serious than that. Bullying, and physical bullying at that, is not to be tolerated in this school, and given the looks of Seito's injuries, I am to assume that this was rather severe. We're looking at expulsion here."

"…What?" Justin choked up with shock and disgust, sitting up from his chair. No. No he REFUSED to be expelled for something he did not do; for defending someone who needed defending. Besides… The way his trust fund was set up, he only got money so long as he was in school. The moment he got expelled, the second the money got cut off. If he got expelled, he wouldn't be able to buy food or pay mortgage. He would lose the house, and that would only put him and Maya homeless on the streets. He would wreak hell if he even thought of expelling him; especially for something he had not done. The principal took a deep breath, and for a moment, it looked like he was going to make the punishment official. At least, until the principal was interrupted anyway.

"That won't be neccesary." Justin quickly turned towards the door, dread in his face as he made out the figure of Ai standing there bravely, head aimed away from Seito for reasons that should be obvious. He swore to god he told her not to get involved, and yet here she was. She was going to get herself in so much shit, especially with Seito sitting right there. It wouldn't surprised Justin if he pulled out a fucking gun and just shot her right there and then. "I heard the announcement and figured this was what it was about." Ai explained, already anticipating Justin's first question.

"Ai, don't do this." He pleaded with her, trying to get her to go before she sealed her own fate. Ai just shook her head though. Justin had saved her ass so many times, now… Now it was time to return the favor in ways more than just words. She wasn't just going to protect his honor or his name; she was going to save him in a time of actual need. Justin grimaced as she slowly approached the principal's desk, head hung high.

"Justin is right. I was in the hallway when Seito approached me, and after making a couple of… degrading remarks, struck me. Justin didn't react until after that. He was acting in defense." Ai explained concisely and to the point. The principal rubbed at his chin a bit. He still wasn't buying this story though; it could have easily been rehearsed; and besides, the most obvious tell-tale sign that she HAD been attacked simply wasn't there.

"Ai-chan, you claim you were struck, correct? Yet I don't see any bruising…" The principal pointed out. Justin rolled his eyes. Ai had literally just threw herself in danger and he wasn't even considering her words as true. And besides, not every strike left behind bruises; sometimes it just reddened your skin for a moment, the flesh sore from the blow. Ai shook her head though before reaching into her pocket and pulling out a compass, mirror extended as she looked at her reflection.

"I'm wearing make-up." She declared, slowly trying to brush away the make-up from under her eye, just enough for him to make out any sign of a struggle. And what do you know, there was a bruise there alright; a very prominent one in fact. The principal backed up a bit, almost surprised. Seemed he HAD gotten the correct story out of Justin and Ai after all. He kind of felt like an ass for not believing them sooner, but regardless. His job required him to be suspicious of everyone, and without proof, he could only take the victims claim into account. He was happy to see proper justice be served.

"So I see! My apologies Justin-chan, Ai-chan. Seito, do you have anything to say for yourself?" The principal questioned a disappointed expression on his face. Not a word could come out of Seito's mouth. He didn't expect to be cornered like this; he had thought he'd get his revenge on the fuck who had interfered with him and his plans for Ai. All he could do now was stammer, trying to think of an excuse out of this. "I see. Seito, I'm very disappointed in you. Sexual harassment, violence, and attempting to frame a fellow classmate… I'll be calling your parents up to tell them you'll need to find another school." The principal remarked. Ai backed up a bit, getting closer to where Justin sat as she tried to reapply her make-up. Justin and Ai exchanged a quick high-five, proud of their victory. Justin wasn't a fan of Ai involving herself, but he was happy that it was at least not in vein. Plus, he'd still have a home now. That was a plus.

"Thanks Ai… You didn't have to do that." Justin thanked her for sacrificing of herself so that he would not be wrongfully punished. Ai smiled a bit, finishing reapplying her make-up.

"Well, I thought it was about time I did something for you." She remarked, closing her compass. She was about to put it back in her pocket, but for some reason, she found herself just starring at it, a slight frown on her face. After a moment a grin cracked on her face again, and she slowly turned her attention back to Justin. "…Here. I don't need this anymore. I want you to have it." She declared after a moment, slipping it into Justin's hand. Justin looked at her like he was crazy for a moment, not sure why he would want her compass. "You taught me a lot; I don't need to worry what people think of me; what I say or how I look. It's all in here." Ai tapped her chest, where her heart was. "I don't need to worry about hiding behind make-up and fake attitudes anymore. Keep it." Justin's eyes swapped back and forth between her and the compass for a moment before smiling and slipping the compass into his pocket. So that's why she had come here today; she was doing it because she wasn't afraid of how she's appear to this guy. She was being true to herself and how she felt. And how she felt was that she needed to rescue a good friend of hers from an unfortunate fate.

"Twice in one day you've graced me with your generosity. Are you trying to seduce me or somethin'?"

"No."

"…That was the joke." Justin rolled his eyes a bit, though he was grinning all the same. His humor might have went over her head at times, but he was glad to have Ai as a friend. The two were interrupted as the principal finished lecturing Seito and turning his attention over to Justin.

"Now as for you, there's still the matter of your outburst. Given the context of the situation, I'm willing to lessen the punishment; but I cannot simply condone a gross show of violence. Two weeks out of school suspension." Justin and Ai stood there, dumbfounded, just staring at the principal, occasionally exchanging a glance between each other, as though not able to understand this shit.

"So… Happy ending, huh?"

"My life is a goddamned mess."

* * *

"Two weeks suspension!? For that!? You gotta be shittin' me…"

Justin and Maya were sitting on the couch, waiting for Midnight Channel to air once again, much to their displeasure. Maya didn't even believe Justin when he said the others thought they saw something, nor could she believe that they were staying up for something that was obviously over. But even more than that, she couldn't believe Justin had been suspended for doing the right thing. For two fucking weeks none the less. That was complete bullshit, and she only got half the story. Justin shook his head and groaned.

"Well on the bright side, I guess I don't have to write that English report yet…" Justin sighed with disappointment. He had told the other members of the investigation team on his way out of the building as well. None of them could believe it themselves; hell Chie actually seemed really pissed off at the school for some reason. Yosuke just seemed indifferent. Two weeks without Justin throwing shit at the back of his head during class? Sign him up! "I've realized at this point all adults are complete retard-"

"Don't say the r word." Maya cut him off, a disappointed gaze on her face. Justin raised his eyebrow with curiosity. He knew a lot of things about Maya; but what he didn't know was that she was apparently not cool with saying retarded. Probably because Justin very rarely used the word. Still, that seemed kind of out of character for a girl that had just as big a potty mouth as him. She just knew how to hide it better around people.

"…Please don't be that person, you know what I mean-"

"Don't."

"But given the context-"

"I said no." It was silent for a moment, as Justin just stared at her like she was nuts. She wasn't even giving one of those speeches about how it was offensive to the mentally disabled; which he could totally understand by the way. She was just refusing to let him talk on the matter, like the only reason she didn't want to hear it was because she didn't want to hear it. That is to say, she had no reason. Justin tried to open his mouth a couple of times to present a point, but Maya cut him off before he could even speak each time. He sighed after a moment, turning his attention towards the television screen.

It was quiet for a moment as they patiently awaited midnight. It wasn't long that they had to wait, but those minutes felt like hours, what with quite a few awkward topics just left hanging in the air and the tension of seeing something on the Midnight Channel. When they channel did flicker on, it seemed empty at first. And Justin and Maya couldn't help but laugh at that.

"See, told you this was bull." Maya remarked, laughing that they had stayed up for absolutely nothing. Justin shrugged and chuckled a bit. At least he didn't have to worry about getting enough sleep before school tomorrow… Actually, this whole suspension thing was really starting to look more like a reward than a punishment. I mean come on; little to no work, sleeping in, doing whatever he wanted for two weeks? This was like an extended vacation. He only regretted it being harder to chat with all the others now. They all met up after school from time to time, but in school, they were always gathered together, and that was always fun. Everything else though, amazing. Justin was about to get up and walk to the kitchen, grabbing a midnight snack before heading to sleep, but he was immediately pushed back in his seat by the sudden appearance of an all too immediate face.

"**Good evening, everyone. I am the Detective Prince, Naoto Shirogane. Welcome to 'Experiment of the Century: The Genome Project.'"** The shadow addressed the audience, coated in a long lab coat, the whir of electronic machinery ringing from behind her. Maya and Justin just sat there for a moment, jaws open as they watched the Midnight Channel come to life with a show they all knew too well the dark meaning behind. This didn't make any sense. None of it made sense. Justin and Maya never said anything to each other on the matter, they simply opened their jaws from time to time to try and say something, only to choke back their words before they could even form them.

"**I will be experimentor and experimentee both in a forbidden yet wonderful bodily alteration process! You shall witness my departure into a new realm… The moment of a new birth! From the chosen day forth, I shall walk a completely different path in life…! And I will share this glorious occasion, this memorable day, with all of you! Do stay tuned!" **And with that, the screen flickered off, only the reflection of Justin and Maya in the television as the power was cut. It was dead silent, save the rain pattering against their window for a moment, no words able to be processed between the two. Their brains had pretty much exploded at this point. The killer was behind bars, right? So how could this happen? And why did it have to be HER? Did they even have to save her? Couldn't they just sorta… leave her? After a moment Justin aggressively jumped up off the cough, hands in the air as though to declare he was done with this shit. Maya watched with curiosity as he slowly approached the door to his house, trying to escape out into the rain.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm going to go find a bridge to jump off of."


	148. Chapter 147: September 16, 2011

CHAPTER 147

September 16, 2011

* * *

"Last Night on TV… That was Naoto for sure."

The entirety of the gang had met up at Junes, as Justin obviously wasn't going to be able to get into the school to contribute his opinion to the effort. Most of them looked confused, almost saddened by the recent turn of events. They all knew what that show appearing meant; there was no denying there was a connection between that and being thrown into the television. But why? Their killer was behind bars, right? Was there a copycat killer out there or something? I mean, there was no doubt Mitsuo killed those people right? He admitted to it and everything; and sure, he was kind of an attention whore, but surely even he wouldn't take credit for murders he didn't commit, right? That would just be stupid. Justin rubbed at his forehead a bit, trying to loosen the tension in his head, a migraine buzzing through his skull like buzzsaws.

"What's the verdict, Teddie? Is he really in there?" Chie questioned after a moment. Teddie had been sent off into the television with Yosuke to check the are out and see if there was anything out of the unusual. They had returned but a few moments earlier, and given the look on both of their faces, it was probably a safe bet to assume they were not bearers of good news. Bear pun unintended.

"I do smell someone." Teddie admitted, a less than pleased tone to his voice. He didn't WANT to smell anyone in there; that only meant the case wasn't over and that the killer must still be out there, right? And that just brought up so many questions about Mitsuo's true involvement in the case. Perhaps he simply had an accomplice the whole time, one who was still out there committing these crimes without Mitsuo. This was all just so confusion; it shouldn't have even been possible in the first place. But it was, and now the Investigation Team had a real dilemma. What do they do now? Was Naoto in danger? Was the killer still out there? And could they PLEASE just leave here there?

"It's just like before… Nothing's changed." Yosuke sighed, almost everyone else seeming to follow his sigh with one of their own, as if in complete synchronization. It was quiet for a moment, looks of disdain and dread on everyone's face. Save perhaps Yukiko, who seemed as though she had heard something that had caught her interest, eyes poised at the ground in such a way as to show off she was deep in thought. Yosuke had said something that struck her as a little odd, but she was having trouble figuring it out at first.

"Like… before…" Yukiko repeated to herself, hoping to kick her mind into high-gear, to try and replicate that sensation that something had clicked in her head. It took a moment, but her head eventually jumped up, wide eyes as a sudden realization occurred to her. "Of course! That's why Naoto-kun appeared on the news so suddenly! He said something didn't seem right, and that he wasn't convinced. He also believed that the people who are kidnapped appear on TV first, remember?" Everyone passed each other a slightly surprised glance, as though this was something big they had stumbled upon. Save maybe Justin that is; though whether that was because he was seriously debating leaving her in there or because he didn't see how that was relevant was another question entirely. Seriously; he'd keep his mouth shut if they just wanted to… say… forget until next Sunday…

You know, when he finally stopped being so pissed off at Naoto (read: never) he was seriously going to have to slap himself for considering leaving a human being in that place to die JUST because he didn't like her. Hell, Yosuke and Chie were deathly afraid of Kanji and they still saved him, right? Justin's grudge with Naoto should be irrelevant. And who knows? Maybe she'd back the fuck off with this murder shit if he saved her ass from the fires. Just so long as she remembered that if he was the killer, he'd have no qualms abandoning her in there. And the same obviously went for Maya; though Justin doubted Maya was having any thoughts about leaving Naoto behind… Even if she was trying to put the girl in cuffs at every possible chance. The enemy of my enemy is my friend after all, and if Naoto really was searching for the Hanged Man murderer; then she supposed they were united by common goals and intentions. So long as she didn't start questioning her about California again; because she would lose her shit if that happened.

"Wait… Are you trying to say Naoto went on television… to get kidnapped?" Justin questioned, slowly trying to process that theory. That was just the stupidest fucking plan he had ever had the displeasure of hearing. I mean, what the fuck? Did she not quite understand what happens when you get kidnapped by a murderer? Here's a hint; YOU GET FUCKING MURDERED. Yukiko nodded a bit in confirmation, much to Yosuke's shock. Seemed he hadn't really put the pieces on what Yukiko was implying until just now. Which was strange, because he usually was a step ahead when it came to matters of the murder case.

"He's using himself as bait!? We came to the same conclusion he did, about how people who become famous through TV would disappear. Could he be trying to prove the theory by using himself…?" Yosuke questioned, putting forth pretty much the exact same theory Yukiko had a moment ago. She had said that he knew the victims were people of high-notoriety on the television… Or a random by-stander in the back in Justin's case. Justin honestly doubted that was quite it, but he couldn't find any other dirt on the matter, so it seemed that was the explanation that was going to stick. Point was, Yosuke was pretty much repeating what they had all managed to piece together already.

"You mean he got kidnapped on purpose!? That's crazy… He could be killed!" Chie voiced her concerns for Naoto's idiotic plan. You know when even Chie thinks your plan is bad, you've really fucked up big time. Though, to be fair, she thought Yosuke's plan to jump into the television with a rope was bad too, and while the rope idea was pretty shitty, the whole returning to find out about Saki thing helped them catch a murderer and save four people in the long run, and all with only a broken rib or two. That was pretty damn impressive all things considered. Still, there was no denying that his was the stupidest fucking plan. She should count herself lucky that the murderer's methods were slow and not by any means reversible; otherwise she'd be dead right now.

"He said, 'This is not a game former either…' It's all my fault… I'm the one that said that to him…" Rise remarked with great concern, sorrow in her voice for doing something she didn't even do. Well, I mean, she did say that to Naoto; but that's probably not what had pushed her over the edge. Justin passed her a sympathetic glance from across the table. Figures Naoto was going to tear this group apart without even being there. _Good job fucking everything up by getting kidnapped! This is somehow your fault and not the murder's!_

"Hey, hey; calm down Rise. It's not your fault; if anything I was the one who brought up that game shit." Justin tried to ease her concerns. She just sniffled a bit, sucking up the mucus in her nostrils as she tried to regain her composure. She was taking this a little to hard to heart when she wasn't even close to responsible. Honestly, Justin was having trouble even feeling bad about this; she had sort of done this herself, and karma WAS kind of a bitch. He was going to get her out of there, and then never speak of this again, and hopefully, never speak to her again. That would be nice. It was quiet for only a split second before Kanji slammed his fists into the table in front of him, aggravation and fury coursing through him like blood through his veins. Really, it should have been expected given how much Naoto seemed to be on his mind as of late.

"That idiot! Why the hell didn't he just tell us!?" Kanji shouted with irritation, questioning why Naoto had insisted on doing something so stupid. It was bad enough she was trying to get herself kidnapped, which by the way begged the question of whether it was kidnapping or not, but she also had tried to do something so idiotically reckless by herself without the assistance of someone who could see her through her plan safe and sound, who could pull her out should shit hit the ceiling. Kanji wasn't sure who to be angrier at, Naoto for being a dumbfuck or the Investigation Team for being dumbfucks who hadn't anticipated this.

"He knew we'd stop him if he did… Instead, he left us clues so we could figure it out and-" Yosuke had began to try and explain Naoto's reasoning to Kanji, as if he was in any position to be trying to interpret Naoto's motifs. They didn't even know if Naoto really HAD done this on purpose, they were just assuming based on what they already knew. Still, seemed Kanji was more than aware of whatever reason Naoto might have had for putting her life in jeopardy like this. He didn't get a lot of things, but this he got perfectly clear, and he didn't need Yosuke explaining it to him like he was some ignorant child.

"I know! That son of a…"

"B-But… What about the killer the police are holding now? Mitsuo did kill King Moron, right?" Chie interrupted the shout fest between Yosuke and Kanji, putting a question on the table they had all been considering. There was really only a handful of explanations for this, though the far most likely explanation was the one the Investigation Team had been hopefully trying to convince themselves was not the case. Mitsuo was behind bars, that was the end of the story right? …Right?

"Maybe it's a copy-cat kill-" Maya had began to propose, cleverly sidestepping the actual explanation for what was going on. I mean, they couldn't deny it forever, not if they wanted to solve these crimes, but couldn't they pretend it was all over just for a little while longer? Alas, Yu, being the party-pooper he was, decided it would be ill-advised for them to turn their heads the other way just for the sack of ignorance being bliss. This was something they all needed to confront.

"Simple, Mitsuo killed King Moron, but not Saki or the announcer." Yu explained aloud. The others passed each other a speculative glance or two, examining Yu's theory to see how well it fit in with what they knew. Surprisingly well, actually. In fact… It made a LOT of sense; with differences between the murder scenes of King Moron and the others, and the fact that the crimes still seemed to be happening with Mitsuo behind bars. This was happening right now because Mitsuo wasn't the one who had thrown the announcer or Saki into the television. Hell, maybe he never even threw King Moron in. Justin sighed a bit; it pained him to admit that Naoto had been right about something she knew little to nothing about, when they all seemed clueless to the truth of the matter.

"I get it now…! I remember Naoto-kun mentioning this! He said it was strange that the police were able to identify the cause of Mr. Morooka's death!" Yukiko remarked with surprise, a sudden bolt of realization striking her like a stray bullet. How had they all not seen this before? They had their suspicions, and sure they had turned a blind eye to them in their eager hopes of it being false, but this? It should have been obvious from the very beginning.

"Then is King Moron the only one Mitsuo killed…!? That'd explain why there were no signs of King Moron being thrown into the TV… The killer didn't change his methods for King Moron… It just seemed that way 'cause it was done by someone else!" Yosuke, once again, announced what they had all pieced together for themselves. It was like he was trying to explain this to some idiot who had just walked in from using the bathroom, someone who hadn't been paying attention for the entirety of the case. Not everything needed to be spelled out for them; they were smart individuals who could put two and two together on their own. Justin groaned a bit, taking a chug of his can of soda before smashing the can and throwing it over his shoulder. Much to Yosuke's relief, it actually found its way to the trash can this time. He was sick of having to pick up Justin's trash knowing full well that it was sort of his job.

"Then whoever kidnapped Naoto-kun… That's the real killer!?" Rise spat out with disgust and shock. Justin kind of wanted to point out that 'real-killer' was in inadequate term when both Mitsuo and whoever the real suspect was were both murderers. They were BOTH the real-killer; just the real-killer for different people. But alas, that was a matter of semantics, nothing to get his panties in a knot over. Chie bit her bottom lip for a moment, eyes darting about the room as though she wanted to say something, but wasn't entirely comfortable about it.

"B-But wait a sec… Didn't Mitsuo say he was the one behind it all? Why would he take the blame for someone else's crime? Isn't that weird? And they said on the news that the culprit confessed to the other murders, too…" Chie voiced her concerns about this theory. She didn't get why Mitsuo would confess to crimes he didn't commit. All he was doing was getting into more trouble that way. Hell, last she had heard from the news, he was looking at life in prison. Why would you want to take credit for something that would only keep you jammed in a prison cell for the rest of your days? Justin made a slight sound with his throat, raising his finger as he tried to catch her attention.

"Simple; he wanted the attention. I mean, that's why he killed Marooka, right? So, when he was given an opportunity to take credit for even bigger scale murders, he took them." Justin explained, shrugging a bit already anticipating Chie's follow up question of 'but why would he want that kind of attention.' He couldn't see any logical reason for wanting to be famous from a jail cell. The only thing being famous did in there was make you the bottom bitch after all. Unless he was into that kind of stuff, in which case… uh… good job man. You, uh... you keep doing that.

"To hell with someone who's behind bars! If we don't get off our asses, that stupid Naoto's gonna die in there! We gotta go find him!" Kanji shouted, standing up quickly from his chair, a fiery determination in his eyes, before charging off. Everyone watched in with confused curiosity as he ran around corners at the speed of… well not light; but he was fast. He was getting really worked up over something he knew they probably had weeks to accomplish. Justin rolled his eyes a bit resting his elbow on the table, and his cheek on the palm of the respective hand.

"I'd make a joke about him having a hard-on for rescuing Naoto; but I think that might actually be true."

* * *

"Someone's definitely in here. And the world seems to have grown larger..."

The group had all made their way into the television, allowing Rise to scan the world for any signs of Naoto. She had to be in here somewhere, there was no doubt about that. It was now just a matter of where. Kanji was tapping his foot impatiently while the others simply stood there (or paced around in Justin's case.) Why Kanji seemed so frantic about this was a mystery to all of them, but they all thought they might have a good idea why. Nothing concrete of course, but they just got that feeling about those two, you know? Maybe one of these days they should let Kanji in on their discovery; because he was still clueless on the matter.

"That's amazing, Rise-chan! There's no way my nose can pick up that much. Shall I give you a massage?" Teddie tried laying the moves on Rise while she was trying to concentrate as hard as she could. It seemed he had no concept of timing. Rise swatted him away a bit with her elbow to the best of her ability, but it seemed Teddie hadn't really gotten the hint. So Justin decided to drag him away before he started doing something stupid.

"Hey Teddie, have you ever wanted to learn how to stuff a turkey? How about the opposite? Good, because that's what we'll be doing the next time you decide to act like a fuckwit when we're doing something important." Justin threatened Teddie as he dragged him a way, made slightly creepy by the smile Justin wore the entire time he was threatening to pull Teddie's fluff out. He was probably looking forward to it; and sadly, no one would object if he did. Except Teddie of course, but that would end quickly when his insides were on the outside.

"It's the same as last time… I know he's here, but I can't tell where… I need something that'll help me understand him… I need some clues. Without that, I have no idea which way we should look…" Rise remarked, sighing as her Persona vanished into thin air. Justin's eyebrows just dropped with disappointment; not because she couldn't find Naoto, but because she needed clues. Again. How did that even fucking help!? What a waste of time!

"Dammit… There's too much we don't know about that kid… But if we don't do something, he's gonna…" Kanji frantically stammered with panic, as though just the act of telling Rise how important this was was going to help her find Naoto better. She already understood the implications without Kanji having a heart attack over here. After a moment, Chie seemed almost annoyed by Kanji constantly blabbering on and on about how important this was. He needed to snap out of it.

"Hey, snap out of it! This is just like all the other times. Let's not panic, keep an eye on the weather, and do this like always. We'll save him, no problem! First, we need to look for something that'll help us locate him." Chie reasoned out loud, putting Kanji's concerns for the moment at ease. He took a deep breath, trying to gain control of his shaking hands, reassuring himself they had time. It was actually kind of surprising seeing Kanji so worked up over this; this was the guy who never even seemed to pay attention to these meetings, yet here he was shaking like a blender on the tip of the Eifel Tower.

"I-I know… I-I wasn't panicking. We know he's over here… So all we gotta do is get him out." Kanji remarked, explaining almost. But whether he was trying to reassure the others that he was fine, or reassure himself nothing would go wrong was another question altogether. All they knew was this was clearly tearing away at Kanji. Rise sighed after a moment, disappointed she hadn't been able to locate Naoto so they could get her out of there before she did something stupid.

"I'm sorry I couldn't find him… All I need is some kind of hint to help me understand him better. Then I could find him for sure!"

"Okay, well for starter's he's a she-"

"We heard you the first time!"


	149. Chapter 148: September 17, 2011

CHAPTER 148

September 17, 2011

* * *

"Am I the only one who thinks this is the most tedious thing ever?"

Justin and Chie were at Aiya's, waiting for some noodles to come out as they took a break from their search for information about Naoto. Not like they were going to get anything but very vague facts and opinions which were completely subjective. Justin was leaning on the table with his elbow, playing around with his chopsticks like they were some sort of children's toy in a happy meal. To be fair, they were both pretty disheartened by this, so anything to keep their minds of the matter at hand was okay with them; even if they did look like impatient children in the process. Chie sighed a bit, annoyed by all of this. She had thought that this was all over, that things could go back to normal. This was just all so sudden; and not at all pleasant.

"The investigation or the jumping into televisions part?" Chie questioned, not really sure what aspect Justin had been annoyed with. I mean, it was all pretty terrible after all, so could you blame him for being so aggravated with this entire situation.? Justin groaned a bit, trying to straighten his back out, but succumbing to laziness and not giving enough of a fuck.

"Both." He eventually settled. He had been referring to running around asking vague questions about a girl they knew little to nothing about to strangers they knew little to nothing about in a frantic attempt of trying to scrape together the slightest bits of useable information, but he supposed the fighting shadows part was pretty annoying too. Justin swore he'd get more success just looking up her facebook page; the one that most likely didn't exist, that is. The two sighed a bit, continuing to fidget with whatever was closest to them; the chopsticks in Justin's case, a salt shaker in Chie's. She was tipping it back and forth in a rocking motion using her index finger. Let's just hope to god she didn't spill any by accident. That's like… seven years bad luck. Though why seven years, when seven was considered a lucky number, Justin would never understand. He'd just settle for declaring it a paradox.

It was quiet for a moment, save the sound of the bustle of busy chefs and hungry customers wandering about the restaurant. But between Chie and Justin? Not a word. Perhaps it was the fact that they didn't want to talk about this Naoto shit; perhaps it was because it was all they could think about. Perhaps it was just that they didn't have any food to talk over yet. Whatever it was, it was quiet. And that was almost nerve-racking for Chie. She couldn't understand how Justin could go so long without so much as a peep without going stir crazy from the awkward atmosphere. It wasn't entirely unexpected behavior coming from a Hermit in retrospect.

"So… How's being suspended going?" Chie tried to break the ice, flinching a bit as she realized how poor her choice in topic had been. Not that she had offended Justin or anything by bringing up how he had been tossed out of school for two weeks. Truth be told, Chie could call Justin's mother a fat sack of shit and call Justin a boy-band reject with a dick the size of a tack and he still wouldn't be offended. Apparently an insult's value really depends on who's making the remark, and not the actual insult itself. Regardless, Justin sighed a bit as he forced himself away from the table and towards the back of his seat, making eye contact with those twinkling brown eyes as he cracked his spine back into place.

"It's not as bad as you would think." Justin remarked, almost pleased by the sudden change of subject. I mean, sure, it was kind of shitty that he was being punished for doing the right thing, but at least his punishment was… well, really shitty punishment. Apparently the principal never considered the fact that Justin had no parents to keep him away from the video games and focused on the make-up work he would be missing over the next two days. And even then, the internet was a wonderful thing, so he could literally do all that work the day prior to returning to school. Basically, the suspension was more like a two-week paid vacation than any sort of disciplinary action. "I mean, I've pretty much spent all my freetime searching for Naoto so far, but anything's better than school."

"Isn't this going to look bad on your college application, though?" Chie questioned with concern. Maybe it was a bit early to be thinking about college; but with everything that had happened over the last half-year of her life, she wanted to make everything just right. For starters, she knew she wanted to be a police officer, to protect those who couldn't protect themselves. Cliché? Perhaps. But it was all she had ever wanted to do in life, to be a Vanguard of the Lunch Revolution. The other matter was… Well… The thought had crossed her mind a couple of times that when Justin and her leave High-school and go to college… That was it. They'd go their separate ways and it would all be over. She didn't know what Justin wanted to do with his life, or if he'd even go to college, but if he did… She didn't want to be separated from him, best case scenario, for four whole years. And she didn't even want to think of the worst case scenario. That's why she had to make sure both her and Justin had choices when it came to college; to increase the likelihood of them going to the same campus, of remaining chained together by their unbreakable bond. Unbreakable by all but separation that is. Justin shrugged a bit, taking a sip of the glass of water in front of him. He had a sore throat, probably from catching a bug or something, so he was trying to stay away from carbonated drinks and focus more on the plain, bland flavor of pure, not at all out of a tap, water.

"I did the right thing. If people want to view me negatively for stopping a woman-beater from getting his way, then fuck 'em. I don't want an education from those kinds of people anyway." Justin ranted a bit, flipping his hands about in an angered tirade. He really did seem passionate about his beliefs, about what he had done in the past, about his stance on every issue. In a way, that would be his downfall some day; his inability to let go of something… Even when he knew it was wrong. He'd stand by a theory, by a feeling, by an opinion, a thought, a stance until death did them part. And that concerned Chie in a lot of ways. Especially on something like this. She just wanted to make sure they'd be together when high-school ended. He said she loved her, and she loved him, but… Was there love sturdy enough to withhold being apart for four or more years? Chie wasn't sure she could handle it. That's why this was so important to her, and yet… Justin didn't even seem to care. He just shrugged off the issue by deflecting blame instead of looking at the real problem. Chie sighed a bit with disappointment, shaking her head.

"I know you did, it's just…" Chie began, trying to choose her words carefully. She didn't want to sound like some overprotective control freak who was afraid to let go of him, who was already making plans years in advance. And yet, despite pretty much leading right into what she wanted to say, she couldn't think of a single proper thought to express how she felt about this, about him and his reckless actions, how he was tearing apart not only his future but hers. Was that what he wanted? To slink down to her level? (Let's face it, with Chie's grades she wasn't getting into as prestigious a college as Justin could.) "Never mind, forget it." Chie sighed, deciding now probably wasn't the best time to be talking about a topic like that anyway. They had so much else on their plate, she didn't need to throw their future into the pile to burn. Justin raised his eyebrow with curiosity, not sure what it was Chie had wanted to say, but clearly able to see that it was bugging her in some capacity.

"It's alright, you can say it." Justin urged her, a soft gentle tone to his voice, as though to allure her with merely the ringing of his vocal chords. She sighed, shaking her head a bit, considering whether to play into Justin's trap or not. She had no doubt Justin would want her to talk about this, that he'd most likely understand what she was thinking too… But she just couldn't talk about it. The mere thought was clogging her air tubes, as though trying to kill her before she could vocalize the thoughts of her heart. Eventually she just decided to keep her mouth shut, content to suffer under her worries alone. She didn't need to drag Justin down with her, into the depths of her concerns and troubles.

"Nah, it's nothing. Forget I even said anything." Chie faked a grin, a slight chuckle on her breath as she tried to throw Justin off her tracks. Justin wasn't buying it for even a second of course, but he figured if she didn't want to talk about it, who was he to force her to? Whatever it was that was troubling her, she'd talk about it when she was ready. And he'd be there for her when she was. But for now? Now, they were more than happy to just sit there, waiting for their food and making small talk about whatever just so happened to be going on in their lives at the moment. "So what are you going to do out of school for two weeks?" Chie questioned, curious what he was going to do with his new found free time. In a way, Justin almost made being suspended sound desirable, even though deep in her heart she knew it was going to be nothing but trouble.

"I don't really know yet. Probably play some video games, practice some guitar, bug Adachi, you know the usual." Justin shrugged. He was only slightly joking about the bugging Adachi part, but hey, he was usually a good sport about it when Justin bumped into him from time to time, so perhaps it wasn't such a bad idea. Besides, Justin couldn't help but admit he had a real soft spot for Adachi. He was a bit clueless about a lot of things, but he supposed that was part of his charm. He was a really nice guy when you got down to it; I mean you'd have to be to deal with Justin's shit on a regular basis. Yeah, he might like to bitch and moan about a lot of things, but then so did Justin, so it all worked out in the end. Chie raised her eyebrow with curiosity. She was aware that Justin and Adachi talked from time to time, but she wasn't really aware they were on a friendly enough bases to be bugging each other just because they were bored. Seemed a bit strange for someone like Justin to be hanging out with someone like Adachi; after all, Justin hated cops.

"You two get along really well, what's the deal?" Chie questioned. Really, it was kind of a stupid question asking why two people got along. They just sort of did, and regardless of whether they got along or not, it really wasn't anyone's business. Still, Justin just shrugged a bit, not taking offense to the inquiry into his social life.

"Jealous?" Justin joked a bit, though Chie didn't seem very amused. Really, he should have known by now that ever implying Chie was jealous of anything was a bad idea. He was lucky he didn't get smacked. "I don't know, we just click I guess. He's a nice guy, even if he does run his mouth a little more than he should at times." Justin decided to seriously answer her inquiry instead of dodging the issue with more sarcasm. Truth be told, apart from Adachi being a really good guy, he couldn't think of any reason the two's paths often found themselves entangled, why they got along so well. I mean, it takes a little more than someone being a good guy to really click, there had to be something else there. What it was, though, Justin just could not identify. Or perhaps it was that deep down he knew, yet he was ashamed, even afraid to admit it. Not again. Never again.

"He seems a bit strange…" Chie remarked with curiosity. Something about Adachi rubbed her the wrong way. Maybe it was just the way he seemed to blabber on about everything, never shutting his mouth on even the most important of things. Maybe it was just because he seemed so enthusiastic about everything; like that time they had caught that pervert at Rise's house. Maybe it was just because he always seemed to be smiling. Always. He never frowned or got angry or anything, he just always seemed happy. No one could possibly be happy twenty-four seven, right? She just couldn't put her finger on why, but something about the way he was always grinning made her feel uneasy.

"I'm not seeing it." Justin countered. He didn't see anything about the way Adachi acted as off to him; if anything, he admired the fact that the guy was always smiling; even when shit hit the fan. It was refreshing to find someone with such a positive attitude, even for a negative person like Justin. He supposed opposites did attract each other though; just ask any magnet manufacturer. "He's just your average guy, you know? I had him over for dinner at my house once-"

"You invited him over for dinner?" Chie questioned with great shock. She couldn't believe for even a second that Justin had been able to pull that off. For starters, Justin couldn't cook; so unless Maya did the cooking (she didn't,) or they had instant noodles (they did,) Chie couldn't wrap her mind around how that could have worked out. Secondly, eating dinner with a cop? Surely that must have been awkward; not necessarily just because of Justin's obvious hatred for the police or the huge age gap, but didn't Justin keep cigarettes and lighters around the house? If Adachi knew Justin lived alone, that could be a real problem. Justin had considered that when inviting Adachi over, however, and truth be told, he felt no threat with Adachi seeing a couple of smokes lying around. He still seemed to have the mentality of a teenager, just living in the moment. Surely he'd understand what it was like to make reckless decisions like that, right?

"Yeah, he just got off shift and the place he usually eats at was closed, so I just invited him over. He was a pretty good house guest; even did some magic tricks with a coin. It was a little awkward when he mentioned our parents, though; you know how Maya gets about her father." Chie tilted her head to the side. She actually didn't; she had never been around when a comment had been made about her father, so she didn't know why she was freaking out, or if she even did freak out. "Oh uh, sorry. Her father passed away a couple years ago. He had a seizure and went into a coma, but… he uh… didn't wake up. From my understanding, they pulled the plug." Justin remarked sadly, a frown slowly crossing his face. How was it this had started off with a conversation about what he was going to do with all his free time and ended with Maya's dead father? A sorrowful expression hit Chie like a wave.

"Oh… That's terrible…" Chie choked up, caught off guard by the very sudden and depressing topic. She hadn't expected this to turn into a discussion about everyone's deceased parents. She had gotten enough of that the onetime her and Justin were sitting by the riverside. She could still remember the pain in her chest to this day; and she had no intention of feeling that way again. Justin sighed a bit, sinking in his chair in the process. He was regretting bringing that up already.

"Yeah; she doesn't take it too well whenever you mention her father or hospitals…" Justin choked up, shaking his head a bit. It was a shame that even three years later, she was still clinging onto such a painful memory; like a stain on her sleeve. Truth be told, Justin thought it was less about her father's death and more that she blamed herself. They were the ones who pulled the plug… maybe if they had more money he would have still been alive to this day. But they didn't, and Maya just had to sit there and stare while her mother and brother decided they couldn't afford to keep her dad alive. That's something no child should have to be subjugated to.

"You know, she never talked about it in her journal…" Chie choked up after a moment. You'd think that something so terrible, so… overpowering to the emotions would make it in her written word at least once. Yet over the course of two years, not a single word was scribbled. And over the course of two years, she refused to so much as mutter his name. Why was she trying to bottle this all inside? Why was she refusing to acknowledge it had ever happened, to come to terms with the past? Justin shook his head a bit.

"I think she's just afraid."

"Afraid of what?"

"Of herself."


	150. Chapter 149: September 18, 2011

CHAPTER 149

September 18, 2011

* * *

"Looking for someone?"

Justin had been asking around the street when he was approached by Kurt, a curious expression on his face as he wondered what the hell Justin was doing asking every single human being in sight about whatever it was he needed. Kurt knew Justin well enough to know he hated strangers, if not outright feared them. There was nothing scarier than a man whose motivations are not out there on a table, than not knowing whether the man you look in the eye was your friend or your worst enemy. Justin jumped a bit, startled by Kurt pretty much sneaking up right behind him to interrogate him on why he was interrogating everyone with a mouth and ears.

"Jesus Kurt, don't sneak up on me like that!" Justin shouted with startlement, clutching at the spot on his chest where his heart was. It took him a minute of deep breathing before he was able to fully regain his composure. He shook his head a bit, still speaking in between deep breaths, as though struggling to get air into his chest after Kurt had scared the living shit out of him. "Yes, actually. I am. You have no idea how hard it is looking for someone you don't know a thing about." Justin grunted with slight annoyance at how terribly slow paced their investigation was going. Kurt raised his eyebrow with curiosity.

"Why would you want to look for a person you don't even know?" He questioned with puzzlement. He couldn't think of very many reason someone would look for someone they had little to no information on; but going around asking random people on the street didn't seem like an effective way of going about it. He did briefly wonder if this had anything to do with that shadow and Persona bullcrap, and he was right in that regard, but he figured it wasn't really worth it to bring up shadows. That would just turn all the attention around on him, how he wasn't human and all'a that bullshit.

"It's uh… complicated." Justin rubbed at the back his neck as he spoke. It wasn't like he couldn't tell Kurt about the Midnight Channel and the kidnappings; after all, he already knew about the other world. It was just a matter of whether or not he'd want to involve Kurt into the matter. Justin wasn't really concerned about Kurt's safety or anything like that; after all he was a shadow, and a twenty year old one at that. He was probably at a lot less of a risk than any of the investigation team was at the very least. It was just… Did he really want to drag Kurt back to what he had escaped from years ago? That he was still slowly trying to crawl away from, deny the existence of.

"Do you know their name at least?" Kurt questioned with interest. He'd like to think he knew almost everyone around town by this point, even the kids. It was a small town, and his business did revolve around him needing to know the difference between a customer and an undercover cop. He knew a thing or two about the people living around here, and who knows. Maybe he knew who it was Justin was looking for.

"Naoto Shirogane. She's that high-school detective they've been talking about on the news non-stop lately." Justin rolled his eyes a bit. It annoyed him to think that someone like Naoto was getting fame and attention, especially for taking credit for something she didn't do. She was probably just doing it to get the killer's attention, sure, but she could have thought of a number of other things to say rather than claiming she was what had brought the case to an end. Kurt's eyebrows shot up almost immediately. Oh he knew who he was talking about alright, and quite frankly, he wasn't sure why Justin would want to track down someone like that.

"You mean the detective-prince right?" Kurt questioned, raising his index finger in a pointing gesture, eyes wide as he spoke. Justin nodded as he slipped his hands into his pockets, keeping his hands snuggly against his hips as he listened to Kurt. "Yeah I know him; he came to me asking a shit ton of questions." Kurt groaned with annoyance. He could tell that Naoto was a copper from a mile away, despite how she had insisted otherwise; you just don't ask the kinds of questions she was asking without having intent of putting someone in cuffs. Justin raised his eyebrow with curiosity.

"…What kind of questions?" Justin inquired. He had a pretty good idea in all honesty. Let's face it, Kurt had a connection with Justin and Maya, plus he was illegally selling smokes to minors. Sounded like she was either getting the lowdown on Maya or she was trying to get Kurt into cuffs. Both equally shitty ideas if she knew what was good for her.

"Exactly what you'd expect." Kurt remarked, crossing his arms as he leaned up against the wall behind him. "Mostly trick questions trying to get me to slip up and admit I've been selling cigarettes to minors. I'm old enough to buy cigarettes for myself of course, so they have to prove I have intent to distribute, and I only keep a few cartons on me at any time so they best they can do is get a confession out of me." Kurt chuckled a bit at his own cleverness, how he was able to outsmart the police at their own game. "Besides from that… Something about Maya I think. Wanted to know what my relationship was with her and all of that crap. And then he started asking me about some fire in California. By this point I'm just like 'what the fuck are you talking about?' You should have seen him when I told him I wasn't answering anymore of his questions; he threw a fit. You'd think he was a child with the way he was acting."

Justin groaned a bit as Kurt mentioned the fire. Looked like Naoto might have known a little more about Maya's crime than she should have; and that concerned him. There was no evidence left behind to tie her to the crime, but… Could Naoto still put her in cuffs? Was she that hot on her trail that she was going to do what the police have failed to for two years? Justin wouldn't let her. Still, despite the unsettling news about Naoto and her investigation into Maya's crimes, it was apparently clear that Kurt knew about her, and he knew more than enough. Justin rubbed at his chin for a moment, contemplating the situation. He wasn't sure if what he was about to propose was good idea… but he decided to do it anyway. Justin thought Kurt could handle knowing what they did; the nature of their business. He DESERVED to know after all they had put him through.

"…Kurt, are you busy right now?"

"Not really, why?"

"Come with me, I need your help with something."

* * *

"What is this place?"

Thanks to character testimony on behalf of Kurt, Rise was able to find Naoto quicker than a roadrunner on rocket propelled rollerblades. Of course, everyone was a little concerned about bringing Kurt into this, both into the television again and into the case, but Kurt didn't need to convince them much that he was okay with being there. Even with Kurt's confirmation that he was okay helping out with whatever it was they needed, the group was having some trouble deciding whether it was worth it to tell him what they did. Sure, they could use all the help they could get; but did they really want to bring a shadow into this? One who was barely holding onto his sanity and humanity after being informed he was nothing but a duplicate of the real Kurt? It took some debate, but the investigation team decided to explain everything to Kurt; what a Persona was, about the Midnight Channel, about its connection with the murders, about shadows and this world that existed in the television screen. Filling him in on what they did was a little… awkward, what with them all being teenagers and all. Kurt seemed kind of opposed to kids that age doing something as reckless as trying to catch a murderer, but he conceded once he realized that with their power, they were the only ones that could go through the television screen, the only ones that could do this. Plus, it seemed at least half of them claimed to have been rescued by the others, by the ones using Persona… Even Justin.

No, Kurt wasn't for children getting involved with killers; but it seemed that with the power of Persona… or maybe even a shadow, they were the only ones that could. And given that they had saved five lives, if you counted Maya's bullet wound, it seemed that perhaps he should trust them to be able to do this, to take the responsibilities that only they could bear. That didn't mean that a bunch of teenagers should be running around putting themselves in harm's way, especially when there was someone like Kurt who could watch over them; keep them from doing anything stupid. And so, he did what no one expected of him. He volunteered his services; pledging himself to help them in any way he could. Now, we all know Justin flipped when he heard that; he was always vocally against bringing anyone else into their team of investigators, and sure, he had noble reasons for doing so, but alas Kurt didn't need protection. He was an adult capable of making his own decisions. And last he checked, he was four years older than Justin AND the only adult here; so he had no say on the matter.

Well, the others were a little more accepting of his assistance, and again, after some more debate on the matter, it was eventually decided that Kurt could come with them; at least this once. Call it a trial period, see if it didn't scare the ever living shit out of him. There was one condition though, Kurt needed to be able to defend himself; he needed to either have a weapon or a persona. Or both. Well, he didn't have a weapon, he WAS a pacifist after all. So the next best option was to see if he could summon a Persona; if shadows COULD even do that. The group slowly showed him how to do it through example, summoning their own Personas. Kurt… was a little scared shitless in all honesty. He had seen Rise's Persona earlier, and that was frightening enough, but seeing everyone else summon there's? Nothing seemed scarier to him than teenagers summoning big ass demons from some… astral trading card. One by one, they all summoned a Persona… except for Maya. Kurt raised his eyebrow with confusion.

"W-Where's yours?" Kurt stuttered a bit, still staring in awe at the huge figures of the personas floating above him. They didn't attack or move, only stared. Hell, Justin's Persona tried to light up his toothpick like a cigarette, so used to having to do it with anything that was sticking out of his mouth. That was concerning, but kind of humorous at the same time; especially when Justin flipped his shit, lecturing his Persona like a dog who shit in the house. Not a smart move when your Persona has a flamethrower. Maya's face turned a little red, averting eye contact for a moment before shrugging.

"I… don't have one." Maya admitted, somewhat embarrassed. She had the power of her Persona, but she did not have a Persona itself; and that always seemed to make her feel bad. She was the first in their group to go through the television, and yet she still was being dragged behind the others, not harnessing the true power of her emotions. Kurt raised his eyebrows with startlement. He was told there were only two conditions someone could enter a television, and if it wasn't because she had a Persona…

"Wait, if you can only enter a television if you have a Persona, or if you're a shadow… does that mean…?" Kurt began to question. Maya's eyes widened a bit with panic. Kurt never knew he was a shadow; and while she seemed confident she was pretty damn human, the thought of also being a shadow was pretty damn frightening. Especially when she had a near-death experience with her shadow as it was. Her gaze shot over to the others, hoping they might know. Yu just shook his head though.

"Your blood was red when you got shot; you're in the clear." Yu reassured her, holding his palm up as though to stop her in her tracks. Maya sighed with great relief, griping at her chest where her heart had been racing a thousand miles an hour. Truth was, no one knew how Maya had been able to get into the television without Persona; same could probably be said of Yu as well. So when Kurt had put forth a perfectly logical explanation as to why… Well she panicked. She was just happy to see it was just a disproven theory. "Maya's a bit of a special case. She's kind of like our medic; she does this weird shit with her eyes and she can cast healing spells." Yu tried to explain in the best terms he possibly could WITHOUT having Maya demonstrate. It did take a lot out of her, and it did require her to break someone's fucking leg, so it wasn't worth it.

"It's… Not weird… Is it?" Maya remarked with embarrassment. Different, sure, but not weird… right? Yosuke shook his head at her, a wide grin on his face all the while as he tried to reassure her concerns. Seemed Yu's explanation had put to ease some worries but raised others. Still, Maya sighed again with relief as she got confirmation that her… powers were not weird, just a little out of place. Kurt sighed a bit as he repositioned himself, breathing deep in and out as he faced away from the group.

"Alright… How's this work?" Kurt questioned shakily, positioned to try and do whatever it was the others had been doing with those astral cards they had been shooting from their wrists, kicking and smashing them to summon those… things. Justin slowly made his way to his side, getting up close like a father would when teaching his son to shoot a gun, steadying his hand and making sure he knew how to hold his breath as he squeezed.

"Alright, it's a little tricky when you first do it, but here's what you do." Justin remarked, standing just next to Kurt's shoulder, eyeing where he wanted Kurt to aim his powers. "Hold out your hand." He ordered Kurt. Kurt swallowed a bit, fearful of what he might be able to unleash, before shakily raising his arm to point at a far off railing in the distance. "Alright, now this might sound a little strange, but what I want you to do is focus all of your emotion into your finger tips, whatever your feeling, focus it all to the muscles there. And then, just say 'Persona.' If you have one, one of those tarot cards will appear. And then you just smash it." Justin nodded with encouragement before backing up. Kurt took a deep breath, biting his bottom lip for a moment as he gained his composure, trying to focus all his energy, all his emotions. And more importantly, he had to make sure he thought positive about all of this. If a Persona was based on emotions, he didn't want the Persona to go on a rampage.

"…Persona." Kurt whispered, calling out to his inner ego. Only, nothing happened. No card shot out from his sleeve to where his hand was, no demonic warrior from his soul floated above his skull. He simply stood there, looking like a mad man with his hand extended as he tried to summon something that wasn't there. "…Persona. Persona. Persona?" Kurt tried again and again to get it to appear, but nothing happened. Justin shook his head a bit, slowly reproaching Kurt. He wasn't sure if he was doing it wrong, or if he never had one to begin with. And that was going to be problematic.

"Alright, how were you focusing your feelings? Were you just tensing up the muscles, or…?" Justin began, examining Kurt's posture, everything about him. It might have simply been that he wasn't emotionally charged enough to summon a Persona, that he wasn't putting enough feeling in it. His emotions couldn't form his inner alter ego if there was no emotion there. Kurt slowly turned his gaze to Justin shrugging a bit as though he doubted the problem was what he was doing. Justin sighed a bit. "Well this is going to be a prob…lem.." Justin began to speak, but then his eyes caught a glance at Kurt's hand.

His veins slowly turned a sickly black, and from the edge of his sleeve, slowly emerged the shape of thorns and vines. Kurt hadn't really noticed until Justin started to stare, but when he did, all he could do was watch with great confusion and fascination. The thorns slowly grew into leaves, and from the palm of his hand, a black rose, dark, yet oh so beautiful. As the form of the flower slowly reached maturity, the two couldn't help but stare at each other with confusion.

"Kurt… What exactly were you thinking?" Justin questioned with fascination and great confusion. Kurt slowly crouched down to his knees, slipping the flower from his hand, leaving it on the ground beneath him. The thorns that had been running up his arm dissolved into thin air, yet the flower continued to sit there, blooming as though it had been planted in a garden. By all accounts, Kurt had just created life. Kurt stared with curiosity, tapping the black flower gently with his foot to see if this was some sort of trick. It was not.

"I… was just trying to think positive. I was a little afraid of what was going to happen, so I figured if I just kept a positive outlook..." Kurt hesitatingly admitted, some what ashamed that a grown man like him was afraid of this stuff when these teenagers didn't so much as flinch. Justin twisted his head to the side, staring at the flower with curiosity as it slowly began to wither away, quickly running through all of its life cycle. It took a moment before the flower was gone and dead, and his eyes found their way back up to Kurt.

"…Kurt, I want to try something. I want you to do the same thing, but this time, I want you to get angry." Justin ordered. Kurt passed Justin a look of great concern; very much afraid of whether that was a good idea. They clearly didn't know what was going on here, and he didn't want to do anything that might hurt someone. Besides, he wasn't a very angry man. Justin just nudged his head towards the railing, ignoring Kurt's concerns. He sighed, holding his breath before extending his hand again, trying to think of something that would piss him off. It was hard, but he eventually manage to get the blood in his veins to heat up like a supernova, his head tense with adrenaline and anger. He was about to shout out for his Persona again, but it seemed that his Persona was all but non-existent. Instead, a thin purple fog began to emit from his wrist, taking shape in the palm of his hand. He stared at it with great confusion and concern before slowly trying to close his grip on the gaseous substance. Strangely, as his grip began to tighten, so too did the object solidify, a handle around where has hand grabbed, large chunks of brass along the ends of his knuckles. It was only a moment before the object finished constructing itself around his flesh; a black brass knuckle, perfectly formed to fit around his hand.

"…What does it mean?" Kurt questioned, starring at his weaponized hand, slowly loosening the tension on his grip and allowing the fog to flow free once more. Everyone had began to gather around him by this point, curious as to what in god's name was going on, and yet, none of them could possibly answer Kurt's inquiry. Justin rubbed at his chin a bit, trying to piece the pieces of the puzzle together.

"That purple fog is part of you, part of being a shadow." Justin tried to form a theory out loud, stringing together everything he knew about shadows and that fog to form a logical thesis on the issue. "The most I've ever seen it used for is to take control of someone's muscles, to manipulate people… But is it possible for the fog to manipulate itself and the world around it? Now that I think about it… When a shadow dies, it becomes that fog, right? Does the fog necessarily have to take the shape of a human? Maybe it can take the shape of… say… a flower."

"That explains why, but… how?" Kurt questioned. He never tried to make a flower or make brass knuckles. If it was true that this fog allowed him to manipulate his own form, to create life, and materials, and all there was to make, how exactly did he control it? All he did was get angry and his fists had turned into deadly weapons. All he had done was think positive and he had made a flower. Was it as simple as just feeling? There surely had to be more to it.

"I don't know. We'll have to figure it out with time." Justin remarked, slightly saddened by his inability to teach Kurt how to control whatever it was he had here, saddened by his lack of understanding of shadow nature. The best he could do was try to help him learn, to be there to point him in the right direction and encourage him to keep going. "But for now; we need to get searching for Naoto."

And so here they were; a half hour or so later, standing in front of something Justin could only describe as a secret base ripped straight out of an Austin Powers movie. It was large, cartoonish, cheesy, but very fascinating in its construction; how doors would slide open like they always did in those science fiction movies. By all accounts, this was the military bunker they always seemed to have in those action and science fiction movies; it even had those yellow and black caution bars. Everyone was starring on with a sense of child like wonder, fascinated by the sheer scope, the sheer ingenuity of the building Rise had lead them too.

"It's all sci-fi… Heyyy, doesn't it remind you of those secret hideouts in live action shows?" Yosuke remarked out loud, trying to draw some sort of comparison to things they knew to make sense of it all. At the moment, the best he could think of was children television shows, like old cartoons. Perhaps thinking of something so childish would be what would get him through all of this anyway, blinding him to what ever dark secrets this bunker may hold.

"What, like Power Rangers?" Justin remarked out loud, trying to see if he was on the same page as Yosuke. Of course, everyone just gave Justin a funny look, and for good reason. Power Rangers wasn't a thing over here in Japan, they had something else instead, a name that had almost escapepd Justin. After all, whatever the Japanese counterpart was, it didn't have a theme song by Buckethead. "Sorry, it's the American version of Neo Feathermen."

"Oh yeah… I used to watch Featherman all the time when I was a kid." Kanji remarked, the comparison finally starting to click.

"I hear that those are really tough shoots. A lot of the actors do their own stunts, like jumping through fire themselves." Rise mused a loud, perhaps drawing the Investigation Team a little further of topic than they should have been. Alas, most of them seem interested in the topic all the same, so no one really mentioned that they had a task to get to. It was probably worth noting that all the Americans in the vicinity thought Rise was full of shit. All of that stuff was CGI these days, and even back in the 90's, they had special effects for that crap. They couldn't risk the actors getting hurt; just ask the directors of that Twilight Zone reboot that fucking killed everyone.

"Well, it's every man's dream to do that stuff." Yosuke decided that his opinion was a representative of the entire male populace. It wasn't entirely untrue of course, but damn, Yosuke should really learn to speak for himself and not every single guy on the face of the earth. It's that kind of shit that got everyone in trouble when HE decided to fuck everything up. Justin shrugged a bit.

"I don't know; I think I'd rather be a rock star than a crime fighter." Justin countered Yosuke's claim to the contrary. Both were some pretty sweet options, but Justin would rather take the right to act like a complete asshole on stage and still have your fans love you. Only rock stars could throw fans off the stage and get cheered on after all. Yosuke shrugged a bit, indifferent on the matter. You'd think he'd change his mindset considering he played guitar too, but alas, it seemed it was little more than a hobby, not a passion.

"Yeah, I can understand that. They're action-based, like kung fu movies. And just the phrase 'secret hideout' has this exciting ring to it! Actually, when I was a kid, I had my own secret place near the mountain by Yukiko's house. I'd pretend that a legendary kung fu master was teaching me special techniques." Chie mused on her childhood for a brief moment, a little overly excited by the prospect of a secret base. It was kind of adorable in a way, to see her deteriorate into this sense of childlike wonder and enthusiasm; her imagination running free. And for that reason, you could see Justin smiling awkwardly, eyes resting easily upon her as she awkwardly struck one of her kung-fu poses; perhaps to try and convince the others she really was learning from a legendary kung-fu master. It's a shame that it took murders and kidnapping to really bring out the best of them. Yosuke groaned as Chie went on her tirade about her childhood expeditions.

"You got it all wrong…" Yosuke groaned, annoyed that Chie couldn't seem to tell the difference between fighting crime and wearing a kick ass costume, and just knowing kung-fu. "But hey, so this secret hideout thingy came from Naoto's mind? I guess our proper boy detective isn't as grown up as he looks. Alright, let's get going." Yosuke ordered before attempting to take the lead. Yu kind of stopped that with a little bit of a glare, as though to dare him to try and take the role of leader. For what was essentially a democracy, everyone seemed to be under the preconception that Yu was their leader; and that seemed to have gone to his head. All the same, they all departed slowly in a large group… All but Kurt, who simply stood there and stared at the strange building in front of him. Justin of course noticed and stopped for a moment to turn and face him.

"Hey you all right?" Justin questioned with great concern. Kurt smiled a bit as he stared at the world around him. He couldn't explain what he was feeling right now; this sense of sick dread in his stomach, anger and hatred for the vile world around him, yet… so calm and at peace; like he had been here all his life. There was a good chance he HAD lived here all his life, though, so that would be expected. Kurt shook his head, a grin on his face.

"Home sweet home, huh?"


	151. Chapter 150: September 19, 2011

CHAPTER 150

September 19, 2011

* * *

"This is just amazing…"

It was the middle of the day, and the majority of the Investigation Team had found themselves trapped in school. Justin, Kurt, and Maya, however, were not really constrained by any obligations to the education system; and sure, Maya had to work, but she doubted it would be an issue since Yosuke was very well aware of the crisis they had to face. Plus it was her break. Teddie, on the other hand, didn't have any breaks, and was busy as fuck. Plus, let's face it, Ted could be annoying as fuck when he got excited about something; so the three conveniently opted out of inviting Teddie to join them. That said, the three had found themselves sitting inside the television, observing Kurt as he tried to mess around with whatever it was he had been doing with that fog the day prior. At the moment, he was doing that shit with the flowers again, black leaves growing around his fingers, swirling around the bone as flower after flower delicately bloomed within his hand, only to wither and die as he placed it on the ground.

"Yeah, this'll be perfect if I ever want to take up a career as a florist." Kurt remarked with sarcasm, despite the fact that he was just as stunned by his powers and abilities as the others. He had no idea he could do this kind of thing, manipulating himself and the world about him to create. Create what? Well, the extent of his creative abilities was still yet to be seen, but from the looks of it… anything. Even life itself; as short lived as it was. He had to wonder why the flowers seemed to die the second they were pulled from the roots on his veins, as if their life fed directly off his own life blood. He could create something so beautiful, so mysterious, so full of life, yet it couldn't seem to survive on its own without him. Why was that? Was he doing something wrong when he placed the flower down in the world about him, or was it just destined to be? Was it the very nature of the life he created, as if the world around it rejected it, refusing to allow it to grow in this barren wasteland. Whatever reason it was; the flower always died but moments after being set out into the world to flourish; yet it live and grew so long as it rested in the palm of Kurt's hand. Strange, yet fascinating all the same.

"How do you even do that?" Maya questioned with fascination, leaning over Kurt as she stared closely at the palm of his hand, trying to pinpoint an origin to the black leaves that formed in his hand, giving root to the black pedals of life. That was another question; why was everything that formed from his body black? One would assume that if the objects that developed from Kurt's flesh were somehow related to the fog, it would share its purple color… but instead it was just black. Sure he was creating flowers and plants, blooming life within his palm, but when you really looked at how it lacked color or vibrancy, you had to question whether he WAS creating life. It always looked so lifeless, even as it flourished outwards, a radiant, pearl shade to its leaves. Kurt shook his head a bit.

"I'm not really sure, I just kind of… Think about it. I don't know how to really describe the sensation…" Kurt scraped the back of his mind, trying to think of any word he could to describe how he was doing this. All he was doing was what Justin had told him, to try and focus all of his emotion, all of his thoughts to the palm of his hand; he couldn't really describe how he was doing it though, he just…. Focused as much of his energy as possible to his fingertips. And then his body just sort of did the rest. It wasn't really something he could describe, or explain; it just happened, as much as he was sure Maya would want to know for herself. Perhaps she wanted to mimic Kurt's abilities; after all, she didn't have a Persona either, so perhaps if she focused hard enough she could do the same. Of course, that's not how it worked, but it was always worth trying, right?

"Can you… you know… make anything else?" Justin questioned after a moment, rubbing his chin a bit. He had seen the flower trick at least a dozen times by this point, and as amazing as it was, it was getting a little dull by this point. After all, making flowers that died a few seconds later wasn't exactly a useful skill. Surely there was more to this than just making flowers or a brass knuckle or two. Kurt raised his eyebrow with curiosity, tipping his head to the side as though not quite understanding the question; as straightforward as it was.

"What, you mean like the brass knuckles?" Kurt questioned. He had to make those several times over the course of yesterday as they slowly ascended the base, trying to find their way to wherever Naoto had been hiding out. Even though he was a pacifist, it had become increasingly clear that he had to defend himself in here… Yet despite the fact that all those shadows were viciously trying to rip the Investigation Team apart, they didn't so much as bat an eyelash at Kurt… at least, not until he stepped into stop them from hurting those teenagers. It was strange, it was like the shadows all knew what he really was, despite the fact that he had left all those years ago, that he had since lost much of what had made him a shadow in the first place. He didn't have the golden eyes that had come with being someone's counterpart, a trait he most likely lost over time, slowly but surely. Justin personally couldn't recall ever seeing him with the golden eyes, and neither could Maya; strange given that Maya had been there when the replacement had most likely occurred. It was quite possible that the shadow had adapted it's appearances immediately upon finding himself on the human size, trying to blend in with the world around him. What had happened, none of them could say. All they knew was the shadows refused to attack Kurt unless he attacked first.

In a way, Kurt kind of felt like an asshole. These shadows… they were almost treating him like kin, not posing any threat to him, ignoring him as though he were one of their own… And then Kurt bashed their skulls in with a brass knuckle. He was a shadow, yet here he and these teenagers were, killing shadows indiscriminately, as though there were nothing but dangerous, non-sentinel creatures, deserving nothing less than death. Why did they deserve death? To be killed as though they were nothing but cannon fodder to be thrown aside in the teenager's path to saving their friend? Justin had explained to Kurt that these shadows were not like him, that they weren't capable of thought or emotion, that they only killed. And even the shadows that were like him were horrible people, horrible people that wouldn't think twice to kill innocent people just because of their human nature. Kurt was one of a kind; and he should never feel bad for the shadows that had to die to insure that they would live. Kurt was a little flattered to think that he was the best the shadows had to offer… but even then, he felt like he was betraying his brothers and sisters, destroying what he himself was. He was a traitor; and while perhaps that was for the best, he couldn't help but feel bad about his wicked deeds.

"Kinda?" Justin remarked. He didn't want to see the brass knuckles again; he knew Kurt could do it, and he knew Kurt could hold on to that form long enough to fight when he needed to. He wanted to see if that was the extent of Kurt's powers, if he could create more than just those two things. It was clear Kurt had some prowess so far at creating that, showing that he could make them on a whim. "Can you try making something else? Uh… Try… try making a bullet. .34 cal." Justin requested, pulling his gun out from his waistband to show it off to Kurt, so that he could get a good look at the kind of gun he needed a bullet for. Kurt was a little confused why he needed a bullet, why he needed to load up a gun with whatever it was that came from his palm, but he obliged anyway.

He sighed before turning his attention to his palm, raising his hand to eye level so that he could see what it was he was doing, before tightly gripping his hand shut, and so too his eyes. He took a deep breath, trying to focus all his thoughts and heart onto the tip of his fingers, squeezing as though molding clay in his hands. After a moment, he opened his palm, revealing a single bullet, black as always. Justin stared at it with amazement, before reaching out to grab it with his index finger and his thumb. It was cold and tough, just like steel; very much different from lead, that was for sure. Still, a bullet was a bullet, and he quickly flicked his wrist, exposing the chamber of his revolver before pushing the tip of the bullet Kurt had spawned into its respective slot in the gun, shutting the chamber with the palm of his free hand. He held his breath in as he slowly steadied his gun, aiming it off into the distance, slowly squeezing the trigger before firing off the bullet into the distance. Or at least, that was what they had assumed was going to happen. Instead, a mere explosion of purple smoke blew out wards, the bullet vanishing into thin air and in its place, a puff of that sickly purple shade. The smoke slowly flowed back into Kurt, as though adding to his very being, what had made up his form.

"Looks like you're going to have to keep buying ammo." Kurt joked, adjusting his fedora as he smirked at Justin's lack of results. Justin just shook his head though; it wasn't like he wanted Kurt to become a human… uh… shadow ammo supply. He just wanted to see if Kurt could make something else, and if he could, what would happen if a human interacted with it. It seemed that whatever Kurt created however, it's physical form never lasted long, either lacking physical duress, or withering and dying rather quickly. Regardless of how well it interacted with the world around them, however, it was clear that Kurt could create anything he wanted if he put his mind to it… Or at least presumably anything that could fit in the palm of his hand. No one expected Kurt to make a dog for example.

"Oooh, oooh! My turn!" Maya called out like a child trying to catch Kurt's attention before leaning over him again, staring at his palm with excited eyes, child like wonder in her smile. "Can you make a butterfly?" She questioned with great curiosity, hopefully clinging to Kurt's ability to create life. Kurt shrugged a bit before leaning forward, readjusting his posture as he tried to gain his composure. Justin just smirked a bit.

"Make it a bullet with butterfly wings." Justin joked, a smirk on his face as he realized that there were an infinite amount of possibilities in Kurt's creative process. Hell, he could probably make things that weren't even humanly possible. Why not have a little fun with it then? Maya just shook her head and shot Justin a glare though; which was strange, because you'd think she'd be onboard with that idea. The both of them liked Smashing Pumpkins after all, so he wasn't sure what the problem was.

"Ugh; you already got your bullet. Just do the butterfly." Maya remarked with annoyance, ordering Kurt around as though he HAD to do what they asked. Maya wasn't exactly the girliest girl out there, so to speak, so it was a bit strange for her to request something like a butterfly; but then perhaps it was linked to her love of animals, furry, winged, or squirmy alike. She just didn't want Justin messing with her animals by turning them into killing machines; even if it was just for the sake of a joke, even if the butterfly would most likely die right away either way. Kurt just rolled his eyes a bit, leaning back over as he focused his thoughts into the matter. After a moment, he pressed his two palms together in a folded motion, applying pressure to the fog being emitted between his hands. His eyes were closed tightly, and his teeth were clamped together even tighter. One would almost think he was in pain just from his appearances. Of course, he just had to focus really hard, and sometimes that gave him a headache; nothing more.

After a minute or so, he slowly unclamped his hands, palms extended skywards as he revealed a black butterfly, dark yet beautiful as its wings twitched, as its legs delicately crawled across Kurt's fingers. Justin couldn't help but flinch a bit looking at the thing, its six creepy crawly legs twitching about as it moved around. Thank god Chie wasn't here, or she and Justin would flip out with disgust. They couldn't handle bugs very well after all. Maya smiled with child-like amusement as she stared at the winged creature, small, yet despite lacking any color, being oh so gorgeous to the eyes. It was only in a split second that the butterflies wings started to flutter, the creature taking to the skies. Or at least it flew up and landed on the bridge of Maya's nose. You would think that would be uncomfortable, or gross, or creepy, but Maya looked as though she had never been happier as the thing squirmed around on her face.

"Hey there little guy." She whispered sweetly to the dark toned bug, sitting delicately on her nose, giving butterfly kisses with each flap of its wings. Justin wasn't a fan of bugs, but even he couldn't help but feel his heart warm up a bit seeing Maya so absorbed in her sense of bliss, ignorant to the dark world around her for but a moment as she wiggled her finger at the winged beauty that rested on her freckles, almost as though to stroke and pet it's wings; if butterflies even got any sense of fulfillment or joy out of that. It wasn't quite the same thing as scratching a dog's fur; in fact, one might have even assumed it would be painful to stroke something as delicate as a butterfly's wings. Yet despite everything pointing to that being the wrong way to handle an animal, it seemed the butterfly didn't mind. Maybe butterflies really did enjoy that kind of stuff; maybe Maya just had a gentle enough touch to pull it off without hurting the butterfly. "My name's Maya, what's yours." She spoke to the creature, as though expecting an answer. The butterfly did flap it's wings a couple of times though, as if to try and answer her in its own language. "That's a beautiful name."

"…You speak butterfly?" Justin questioned, since it seemed that Maya was very clearly able to understand what the butterfly was trying to communicate. She gently shook her head side to side, careful not to disturb the creature that still rested on her face.

"Nope. But I'm sure whatever it was was very nice." Maya smiled warmly, pupils crossing each other awkwardly as she tried to focus on the center of her nose where the butterfly rested. "Your wings are very pretty." She continued to speak to the butterfly, as if it were more than just some illusion Kurt had created moments earlier, nothing more than a shell of what could be a butterfly. As if it were going to live for more than five minutes, tops. In a way, it was kind of sad; you could tell Maya was getting a little over attached to the poor creature, even knowing that it would expire very quickly.

"Uh, Maya… You do realize that…" Justin began to speak to her, trying to stop her from getting her hopes to high for the poor thing, but then she just stared at him with those eyes, seeming to have forgotten all about the fate of the butterfly in a mere matter of minutes, absorbed so much in her short time with the creature that she had pushed aside the dark truth to the back of her mind. Justin sighed. "Uh… Nevermind." He choked back up. Maya just smiled before turning her attention back to the butterfly, extending her finger to allow the butterfly to rest there instead of on her face.

"It's alright, I know." She smiled at the butterfly on her finger, observing it as closely as she could as it crawled around, clinging to her skin like Velcro. After a moment she eventually raised her finger, and with that, the butterfly flapped its wings soaring away and up to the sky, flying higher and higher before eventually disappearing from sight. Given the purplish cloud that could be seen if you squinted hard enough, it was generally safe to assume the butterfly didn't make it; whether because of getting too far from Kurt or because its time had expire, no one knew. They simply sat there and watched as its ashes spread into a purple puff, falling down upon them like a shower, flowing back into Kurt's being. It was actually a rather gorgeous sight, despite the implications. And because of that, they couldn't help but smile as the butterfly passed on; wherever it was Kurt's creations went when they expired.

"So where do you think they go when they disappear?" Justin questioned, looking up into the sky as the purple ashes rained down on them. Maya smiled and shook her head, a strange reaction given how friendly she had been towards the now deceased butterfly.

"I don't know. A better place."

"Kurt's hand is a better place?"

"Compared to your hand, yes. Yes it is."


	152. Chapter 151: September 20, 2011

CHAPTER 151

September 20, 2011

* * *

"BEYOND THIS POINT IS CONFIDENTIAL! ENTRY IS FORBIDDEN FOR ORDINARY COMBATANTS AND RESEARCHERS. PLEASE PRESENT YOUR ID."

It took quite a bit of climbing, but the investigation team had slowly ascended their way through the base in their pursuit of Naoto… and descending once or twice as they found one or two doors locked in their attempts to climb the metallic base. This was one of those times as the group came to a stop in front of the door, groaning a bit as the mechanical voice warned them that access to the next room was prohibited for the likes of themselves. This was made partially worse by the fact that the last door they had entered had literally had the same exact security measure; only, the ID card that worked on that door was completely ineffectual on this one. Justin sighed as he quickly tried to swipe the card several times, each time met with an access denied notification.

"Guess we have to find another ID…" Yu groaned as Justin angrily pressed the key card in time after time, doing all sorts of weird tricks with the way he slid the card in and pulled it out; as if just the way he was scanning the card was going to give them access. Rise sighed a bit, staring at the door with disappointment as Justin furiously tried everything he could to get through without having to do more backtracking. Anything but fighting more shadows; not when they were so close.

"He's right behind this door, too." Rise remarked with disappointment, her Persona abilities scanning the area, as though to sense the shadow and the human on the other side. There was something a little off about her quick scan of the environment, but she figured that wasn't important right now. What was important was they needed to get on the other side of this door and get Naoto out of there. Justin turned around to face Rise, an expression of shock on his face, as though surprised to see they were SO close, and yet they had to turn around just to look for another fucking card.

"Seriously?" He remarked, still leaning over the console that would open the door to Naoto's location. Rise nodded timidly, very much upset that they were being stopped by something as silly as a door; as silly as a mere barricade. They should have been able to overcome this without having to trace their steps. Justin shook his head violently before signaling the others to stay with his hand and dropping down to his knee. "No, fuck that. Let me try messing with the wiring."

"Mess with the wiri- Justin, do you even know how to rewire… whatever that thing is!?" Chie questioned with concern as Justin tugged at the casing of the machine, trying to pop the thing open and expose its insides so that he could get a better look at what he was working with. "We don't need you locking us out for good you know!" She scolded with caution, clearly fearful of Justin messing with something he knew little to nothing about. He was good with computers, but this wasn't exactly a personal computer he was dealing with here. Justin grunted as he finally tugged the casing open, exposing its hardware to the open air around him. He breathed out with relief as he relaxed his muscles, as though tired just from the act of opening the machine up. He probably was all things considered.

"Hey, have a little more faith will ya?" Justin joked, though his voice came out softly, as though to request a little more moral support from Chie. She sighed a bit, shaking her head; though whether she was disappointed at herself for not having a little more trust in Justin's ability to hardwire whatever it was he was hardwiring or disappointed in Justin for messing with something that he was clearly not familiar with, she wasn't sure herself. "Alright let's see… the scanner is connected by this wire here to the door… Which means the switch should to get it open should be somewhere in this general area. Yeah; I can work with this, but you're gonna have to give me a moment." Justin reassured them before sticking his torso into the machine, examining the wiring more closely as he got up close and personal with the hardware.

"Well that's good…?" Yu remarked, slowly turning away from the exit and back to the door Justin was now working on opening. He hadn't assumed Justin would be able to actually get the damn thing open, so he was already half way out the door to go look for the next key card. "Hey, while we're on the topic; what do half these machines do anyway? They just kind of sit there…" Yu mused allowed, pacing back to the rest of the group as he looked around at the room at the blinking lights and buttons that really didn't seem to do anything at all.

"These things do science so hard, you say 'I've never seen that much science.' And it's all, 'check this out,' then boom: more science." Justin chuckled to himself as he fiddled around with the wiring inside the console, flipping switches and pulling apart hardware. It really didn't look like he knew what he was doing, but alas, interrupting him by this point wasn't going to do anything but guarantee that scanner wouldn't work. Yosuke shrugged a bit, ignoring Justin's sarcastic humor and pop culture references for a moment as he seriously considered the possible implications.

"I'unno. Maybe it's just because he's so smart." Yosuke thought into the matter, trying to figure out whatever reason her castle, her bathouse, her stripclub was a mechanical base that looked like it was ripped straight out of a children's live action show. Justin could be heard laughing hysterically as the remark left Yosuke's mouth, much to the majority of the group's annoyance. Or at least everyone but Maya.

"Naoto. Smart. Good one." Justin continued to laugh as he fiddled around with the machinery. It was only a moment before he had finished rewiring the damn thing, eliminating the obstacle in their way. "Alright; found the switch. Let's see how deep this rabbit hole goes." Justin joked before flipping the switch, crawling out of the machine and kicking the cabinet shut with the back of his foot as he stood back up and turned around. The group stood there, watching as the doors slowly opened, creaky, loud, but still parting to allow the group entrance. As the doors came to a full opening, the group could peer in to see the figure of both Naoto and her shadow; and it seemed Naoto was very much fully awake. In fact, she seemed very calm, all things considered; one of those things being that there was an operation table just a few feet in front of her with GIANT FUCKING BUZZSAWS coming down from the ceiling. Holy fuck; what the hell was going on in this room. The shadow… strangely enough, was wearing a long white lab coat, and seemed to be rubbing its eyes furiously. Leave it to Naoto to make her shadow cry instead of the other way around.

"Two of them?" Kurt remarked with surprise as they walked in, not as used to the whole shadow thing as the others. "So wait, does that mean one's Naoto and one's his shadow?" Kurt questioned, kind of getting it but not really. He still wasn't entirely sure how this whole 'replacing the original Kurt' thing worked, so seeing two Naoto's like this was actually explaining a lot to him. Justin nodded with confirmation, bringing him up to date with a single motion of his head. Naoto of course heard Kurt's inquiry and soon looked over her shoulder to glance at the just arriving Investigation Team. She could honestly say she was surprised to see Kurt here, when he had never been seen with the rest of the group, only Justin and Maya, but otherwise, it seemed all was going according to plan for her.

"Ah. It's about time you arrived. Dealing with this child has been quite a pain…" Naoto muttered with annoyance, an irritated expression on her face as her shadow continued to bawl like a baby. Justin couldn't help but cross his arms, eye lids half closed as he stared at Naoto. It was so… brilliantly ironic. I mean, yeah, the shadow was a manifestation of the inner feelings of the original, so it should be expected, but just the very act of Naoto calling someone a child… The kettle calling the pot black at its finest. Now he was just waiting for her to accuse the shadow of murder (which probably wouldn't be that far off in all honesty.)

"**No! No, no, don't go!"** The shadow begged, practically trying to cling to Naoto's leg as she turned about to walk away from the over-grown cry baby. Awkward glances could be seen passed from member to member as they watched the shadow throw a tantrum, kind of off-put by the implications of what the shadow might have been representing. A place ripped straight out of a children's live action show, check. Shadow acting like a child, check. That really over grown lab coat it was wearing that was clearly much too big for her, check. It all pointed to the shadow being in an infant like state of mind. Naoto sighed, rolling her eyes as she turned back to her shadow.

"It's useless speaking with you. I need to go back now…" Naoto groaned with exasperation, clearly fed up with dealing with this overgrown man child. After all, there was nothing more annoying than dealing with a child when they were throwing a tantrum; something her shadow had presumably been doing for a while now. After all, it was very uncommon to find the kidnaping victim fully conscious as they busted down the door; the one exception being Justin, and he wasn't even in the fucking room, so they weren't sure how much that counted for. You had to wonder how long Naoto had been awake that food or water didn't seem to be factoring in to how she was holding herself up. The shadow continued to beg though.

"**Why? Why're you leaving me here!? Why am I always left alone!? It's so lonely… I don't wanna be alone!"** The shadow continued to drown itself in tears. In a way, it was kind of sad to watch, knowing very well that what the shadow was saying was what Naoto had felt (granted, blown to astronomical proportions, but what she felt nonetheless.) Even Justin couldn't help but feel a little bad, as angry as he was trying to look, as much as he wanted Naoto to feel bad about all she had said about him and Maya after they put themselves on the line to save her ass. Naoto groaned, having about enough of this charade.

"You wear the same face as me… It's as if you're implying we're one and the same. But the difference between me and you is…" Naoto began to speak, to try and put the shadow in its place using words alone. Of course, the problem with that is that Naoto was trying to distinguish a difference between her and her shadow; and as we all know, doing that was always a very bad idea. The shadow stopped bawling almost immediately as it heard the magic words, it's eyes widening a bit to show off the sinister golden shade of its eyes, glowing in the dark, machine lit room.

"**Why delude yourself? I am you."** The shadow suddenly shouted with anger, jumping at the chance to shove the truth of Naoto's thoughts and heart down her throat. Naoto's eyes widened slightly at the sudden change of demeanor, at her shadow's sudden move from begging and pleading to an offensive maneuver. **"These childish gestures are no mere affectation… They're the truth. The fools all say it, don't they…? 'You're only a child,' 'Keep out of our business, kid,' and so forth. No matter how many cases you spend hours cogitating over, no matter how many crimes you solve, you're a child in their eyes. It's your brain they're interested in. The grey matter locked up in that skull. As long as they need it, you're an ace detective! But once you're done, it's back to the playpen with you. You haven't the means to deal with society's two-faced nature… You're just a lonely child."** The shadow lectured her, trying to jump at her fears and her doubts. Naoto was getting a little squirmish, though she did try to keep as cool a demeanor as possible given the circumstances.

"That… kind of explains a lot actually…" Justin muttered to himself. She wasn't necessarily accusing Justin and Maya of murder because she believed they were the culprits (she sort of did, of course, but beside the point) but rather because she was trying to cling to a case and everyone involved with it. Because when the case was closed, she feared she'd simply be thrown out; her services having all but been used up by that point. "Still pissed though." Justin remarked afterwards, as though anyone were going to judge him for not being angry about Naoto calling him a murderer.

"**I wanna be a grown-up… I wanna be a big boy right now… Then they'll see who I am… I… I want a reason for me to stay…" **The shadow began to act like a child again, mocking Naoto from where it stood. By this point Naoto was getting rather pissed off, not exactly a fan of being called a child, let alone a clingy one that couldn't let go of a single case.

"That's enough. I can find my own reason for living…" Naoto tried to shut the shadow up, to try to act dignified and confident about her fears and concerns; but alas, a shadow was a shadow, and she certainly wasn't fooling it by simply acting as though nothing was bothering her. Hell, the very fact that she was trying to keep the shadow quiet was proof she didn't want to hear it, and why wouldn't she want to hear it if it wasn't true? Aside from the shadow being a whiny bitch that is.

"**Hah… I'm telling you that's impossible. You are but a child. How can you change that essential truth? At your core, you admire the sort of "strong" and "cool" men who populate detective fiction. But in trying to emulate them, you must know that in truth, you're nothing of the sort-you're a child. There's no avoiding first principles… Admit that you're a child, and admit that there's nothing you can do about it. Now then! Our analysis is complete. Let us begin the body alteration procedure. You have no objections, do you… "Naoto" Shirogane?"** The shadow continued to mock Naoto. By this point she had completely lost her cool, not wanting to hear the truths being thrown at her; especially not something like this. And seriously, what the fuck was all this body alteration crap? Was she getting plastic surgery or something? Because Justin didn't know about Naoto, but he wouldn't want to get any kind of surgery on a table with a giant fucking drill and buzzsaw hanging over it.

"Stop it!" She screamed at the shadow, trying to get it to shut up. By this point it had become increasingly clear shit was about to hit the fan. Yosuke had attempt to run forth, to stop her from saying anything stupid, but Kanji simply extended his arm, stopping him and shaking his head. For whatever reason, he was against the prospect of stopping Naoto from denying herself; perhaps because he felt she deserved the right to get some skeletons out of her closet. Whatever it was, Yosuke sighed and stood down from his attempts to rescue Naoto before she said the magic words.

"'**Naoto'… Such a cool, manly name! But a name doesn't change the truth. It doesn't let you cross the barrier between the sexes."** Everyone's eyes widened slightly at the prospect of crossing gender barriers; perhaps less because of the actual prospect and more because they got a real deep sinking feeling about something. Everyone, save Kurt who had never really caught on to Justin calling Naoto a she this whole time, slowly turned their attention to Justin, who was just wearing this really smug grin on his face, pride in his eyes, biting his bottom lip as if he were about to burst out laughing at any moment. "**How could you become an ideal man when you were never a male to begin with…?"** And there went the bombshell, everyone's jaws dropping as Justin crouched down and fist pumped with glee.

"OH! In your FUCKING faces!" Justin shouted with excitement and glee, proud to rub it in all of their faces after they had mocked him and called him an idiot for knowing what anyone with fucking ears and eyes should have been able to have picked up on. Chie clearly wanted to say something, but everytime she tried to verbalize her thoughts, it simply came out as an 'ah' sound, as though she didn't know HOW to talk. "You all said I was crazy! You said, 'don't be a douchebag, Naoto's a he.' Well guess fucking what? She wasn't! How you like them apples, bitches!" Justin got into all of their faces as he laughed hysterically, mocking them all and their stupidity.

"Dude, is now REALLY the time?" Yosuke remarked with slight annoyance in Justin's insistence in rubbing it in their face, in his lack of sportsmanship in his apparent victory on a matter that really wasn't all that big of a deal in the first place. I mean it kind of was, because they were calling a chick a dude for the last few months, but let's be serious. They had bigger problems than bragging rights right now. Justin just shook his head, oblivious to the situation he had found himself.

"Oh no, I've been waiting for this moment for fucking months now! I'd like to just take this moment to individually tell you all to go fuck yourselves for not believing your friend Justin and being huge assholes about it." Justin mocked, individually walking up to each member of the investigation team, getting in their face and cursing them out with a smile on his face. "Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you, fuck you; I'd say fuck you, but you'd kick my ass." Justin remarked as he passed by Chie. He was right, for the record; it wouldn't be the first time she'd kicked his ass for cursing at her, even if it was in jest. "And I don't think you ever bitched me out for it, so you're in the clear." Justin remarked for Yukiko as he passed by her. She seemed happy about it anyway. "Fuck you, fuck you, and you don't even know who Naoto is. There, done." Justin rubbed his hands together, as if to wipe dirt off his hands as he walked away from Kurt, a look of satisfaction on his face as he crossed his arms and stared back at the shadow and Naoto. Strangely, both Naoto and the shadow seemed bewildered by Justin's little show, as if they'd never seen something so… stupid. "Oh no please, don't let me stop you." Justin flicked his wrist, encouraging them to go back to bitching each other out. And they did, after staring at him with wide eyes for a moment.

"I won't throw a tantrum… That accomplishes nothing…!" Naoto turned back to her shadow, calmed down a little, but not nearly enough to really throw the shadow off its path of destruction. The shadow smirked a bit amused, by Naoto's attempts of throwing the shadow off her trail, as if to try and feign ignorance towards what she knew was true. The shadow started laughing hysterically, maniacally even for a brief moment, a wide, wicked smirk on it's face.

"**How often I've heard those words from the adults. 'Throwing a tantrum won't solve anything, Naoto-kun,' and other such bilge! They made you cry, didn't they? Yet here you are, mimicking those same men. What exactly are you trying to justify?"** The shadow chuckled to itself. Naoto just seemed perplexed though, almost as though her mental state had snapped as the shadow pointed out a glaring hole in her mentality. Her eyes widened, her jaw dropped, and it had become increasingly obvious that she was scared; scared of the truth the shadow spoke as it mocked her from afar. **"It's all right. You needn't suffer anymore. That's why you're undergoing this body alteration procedure to begin with. You throw a tantrum, but it fails to change the situation a single bit… I can quite understand the feeling. After all… I am you."**

"That's not true!" She finally shouted, having about enough of this bullcrap. Man, the investigation team didn't even have a chance to react for that one, she just out right denied it with full force. The shadow began to glow that purple aura, laughing maniacally as power pulsed outwards from it, it's shape slowly distorting, though still maintaining a humanoid shape. Naoto backed away with terror as she felt the power surging from the shadow, though it was much too late for her to take back what she had said, or to escape the radius of the shadow's explosion of power.

"Don't say it!" Chie tried calling out to Naoto, as if she still had time to stop herself from fucking up big time and denying her shadow's existence. Alas, however, it was much too late; you could just feel it in the air, the wind pushing against them as the shadow seemed to spew out pure energy from the pores of its skin, powering up. Kanji shook his head as the figure grew three times its size, it's skin shining like metal, it's form bulky like steel… Also it was a giant robot; just so you knew. By this point Naoto had out right passed out; perhaps the sight being too much to bear, perhaps the energy blowing outwards from the now transforming form just being too forceful for her to withstand any longer. Whatever it was, it knocked her clean out, leaving only the investigation team, and her shadow.

"It's okay… Let the kid spill the whole thing. If not, Naoto's just gonna keep hurting… We'll just do our job and kick the Shadow's ass. Yeah?" Kanji spoke to the others, striking an aggressive pose as the shadow stared over them, metallic spotlight eyes flashing down on them in blinding fashion. Most of them had to hold their hands in front of their eyes to keep themselves from being blinded by the spotlight. Justin groaned as the spotlight slowly dimmed, allowing them to see again, the robotic figure hovering above them, jetpack on its back, cartoonish laser gun in its hand. The shadow laughed at them all, it's mechanical voice echoing throughout the room, filtered like it were going through a dial up connection and had REALLY shitty audio quality.

"**As if you know anything about me! You'll kick my ass, huh? Fine… Go ahead and try, you lizard-brained imbecile! "** The shadow threatened, as it slowly aimed its gun down at everyone down on the ground beneath her. **"MUTE RAY." **The shadow's voice echoed down into halls below, the tip of its gun glowing as it charged up. The investigation team's eyes widened for only a brief moment as they tried to scatter. Strangely, Maya stopped to try and drag Naoto out of the way of the blast, to insure she wasn't going to get killed by whatever it was that robotic Naoto clone was shooting at them. Probably a bad move in retrospect, because while it hurt like a bitch, it wasn't lethal. And Naoto was by all means dead-weight; Maya couldn't drag her out of the way quick enough as a blast of light was shot down into the ground below, knocking her over and enveloping her in its glow. Justin quickly rushed back over as the fog of war began to clear, heart racing as he tried to make out Maya's figure in the disappearing glow. Thankfully she seemed fine, leaning over on her knees, but very much able to move. She looked like she was coughing, but Justin certainly didn't hear it.

"Jesus Maya, are you alright?" Justin questioned, helping her back up to her feet, steadying her as she shook her head, as though trying to shake off the headache she had right now. She smiled a bit after dusting off her skirt, though when she went to speak, to confirm she was just fine, not a sound left her lips. And she was very well aware of it, given the way her eyes seemed to widen as her lips flapped without sound. She frantically tried to speak after that, though she still remained voiceless. "Maya? What are you… Oh shit…" Justin slowly realized what was going on. Mute ray. Mute. Of course; why hadn't he had figured that out immediately? "Maya, stay calm; Just keep trying to talk until we figure out what's going on here, and whatever you do, don't try using your powers." Justin ordered her, hand on her shoulder as he tried to keep her from shaking like a maraca. She nodded timidly before mouthing off what looked like a confirmation; but Justin couldn't lip read well, so for all he knew, she could have just claimed to have fucked a toaster. Hopefully not anyway.

Justin soon ran off to join the others, who were trying to fight off the shadow with their Personas, swarming around it in the air in what looked almost looked like a dogfight, each being flying around the other and slinging spells at each other. The robot had landed briefly just long enough for Kurt to try and take a swing at it, but as you may or may not be aware, punching a giant hunk of metal, even with brass knuckles, hurt like a bitch. Kurt soon found himself hopping about, holding his hand in his wrist as he tried to hold back screams of pain. If shadows had bones, he'd swear he had broken every one of them in his hand. Seemed Kurt's area of expertise was of no use here. Justin sighed before summoning his own Persona, flinging it forth at Naoto's shadow in an attempt at knocking it out of the sky.

"Agilao!" Justin shouted, ordering the Persona to shoot out a strong burst of fire at the machine, trying to burn through its steel hull and expose its insides. Instead, the fire simply bounced away from the machine, as if it weren't even hurting it. Which is saying something because it was a fucking flamethrower. The shadow didn't seem too pleased by the annoyance all the same, regardless of it having no effect on his defenses.

"**Galgalim Eyes."** The shadow remarked, suddenly turning it's head towards Justin.

"Wait, what?" And just like that the shadow turned its beams, not at Justin's Persona, but rather at Justin, taking him down quickly, and cleanly as the lights emitted from its eyes burned through his defenses. As the rubble from the blast cleared, Justin laid in the center, gripping his side with pain as he tried to hold onto his conscious state.

"Justin!" Chie called out nervously to him, as he squirmed around in pain. She quickly ran over to where he had been dug in by the enemies attack, deflecting the enemies attempts at striking Chie down as she ran with several shields of ice. Thankfully, there was no hot steam involved this time; so no one lost an eye. She quickly slid into the ditch, alongside Maya, who really had nothing else she could do but try to gain access to her healing spells again. "Justin, are you alright!?"

"…kinda?" He groaned, taking in a deep breath as his ribs cried out in pain, every pore of his skin crying out as though burnt to a crisp. Physically, he looked fine, and quite honestly, he probably was; but that didn't mean he wasn't in a lot of pain right now, as if that laser had done nothing more than mess with his muscles. Chie stared at him with fright and pity before turning her attention over to Maya.

"W-Well? What are you waiting for!?" Chie nervously scolded Maya for not already trying to pull out her healing magic to get Justin back on his feet. After all, the fact that there was nothing visibly wrong with Justin was pretty damn concerning when he was definitely in pain. Maya grimaced for a moment before flapping her lips again, trying to speak, but physically unable to. Chie was a little confused at first, but she eventually caught on. After all, Maya wasn't one to joke around during emergencies like this; why start now? "Shiiit! Come on hang in there."

"I'm in pain, not dyin- Oh fuck. I don't know where my kidney is… but it hurts." Justin groaned again, trying to calm Chie down somewhat, though to not much success. She was still frantically trying to examine him for anything that was wrong, her bottom lip clenched between her teeth as she leaned over him, as if he were on his death bed. Maya had her eyes clamped shut as she constantly tried to mutter spells, to try and get her powers to emerge, against Justin's advice; but alas, she couldn't even find the energy to call upon the power within her.

"We don't have time for this." Chie remarked after a while, realizing Maya wasn't having much progress in finding her voice, as much as she tried to push the air through her throat. They weren't going to get Justin off the ground just by waiting for Maya to use her powers this time around. "I'll go get Yukiko." Chie tried to reassure Justin; after all, prior to Maya's inclusion in the team, Yukiko had been the medic. She should have no trouble getting Justin back on his feet. However, just as Chie was about to run off, Justin grabbed her by the wrist, stopping her from leaving, much at his painful expense.

"No wait!" He shouted, groaning a bit as he rested his back into the ground after leaning forth to stop Chie from running away. Chie seemed concerned, but she obliged all the same. Little had she known that while Maya was trying to chant her spells again and while she was busy examining him for injuries, his eyes had been examining the shadow soaring through the sky, trying to find some sort of weakness… And he thought he might have just found it. "Up there, the jetpack." Justin pointed out the spot to Chie, trying to make it very clear to her where she needed to aim. "The exhaust pipe up there; if you can freeze it close, the jetpack will overload and it'll come crashing down." Justin described to her, hoping she would know how to go about doing that. She stared at him for a moment, biting her bottom lip before getting up and turning her attention to the shadow flying about, trying to aim a shot to the best of her ability.

"Suzuka Gongen! Bufula!" She shouted, ordering her persona to stop trying to strike it down with physical strikes and to focus her power on that one spot. Her Persona gracefully flew around the mechanical behemoth, trying to find a shot to cast her Bufu spell. It took a moment, with the shadow possibly having figured out what Chie's plan was, but thanks to a quick distraction by Yu's Persona smacking the shadow upside the head, she eventually manage to get a clear shot at it. With a single graceful gesture, she cast her spell freezing the exhaust pipe shut. As much as the shadow tried to unclog the frozen bit that now constipated it's exhaust, it simply could not break free, and soon went tumbling to the ground as the jetpack overloaded and went on the fritz. It roughly skid on the ground, grinding metal against metal in a horrible ear screeching sound, before finally coming to a stop, right in front of Kanji's persona, who happily throve it's thunderbolt shaped blade straight through the now downed robot's skull, causing the machine's arms to shoot up in response, before crashing down as all systems shut down.

"Boom, baby!" Kanji shouted with pure adrenaline, as the machine twitched before slowly accepting its death, electric malfunctions coursing through its circuitry, the occasional bulb being blown out or screw turning loose in the seizure motion. The shadow, as always, slowly began to take its humanoid form again, thankfully opting not to form where the head had been pierced moments earlier; otherwise there would be no accepting the new shadow. Chie sighed with relief to see the plan worked before gesturing Yukiko over to help heal Justin. She was a little confused why she had to do it when Maya was right there, but she did it nonetheless. She cast a couple rounds of Dia spells to bring Justin up to tip top shape, and while his balance was a little wobbly as he stood back up from the dirt grave beneath him, he seemed just fine. He shook Yukiko's hand with gratitude, a warm smile on his hand before they all circled around Naoto, who was slowly beginning to return to consciousness. _Anyone else think it's a little convenient they always wake up after their shadow goes down? Yeah me neither._

"Are you awake!?" Yukiko questioned with concern as Naoto pushed herself up from the ground, groaning a bit with pain as she tried to steady herself. She seemed pretty confused at first, mostly because she had just woken up from being unconscious in an unfamiliar place, partially because she had hit her head on the way down; something very clearly evident by the way she was gripping her skull and groaning with pain.

"Where am I…? I remember you all arriving, and…" Naoto began to question, trying to descipher where it was she had awoken. It only took her a moment to put the pieces together though. "That's right… You saw everything…" She sighed a bit as her eyes slowly drifted to her shadow, painfully trying to crawl its way back to a standing position, though failing to even get up on its knees. It was clear that regardless of what she did, the shadow wasn't going to make it; it took too much damage to keep living in whatever this world was. She didn't even need to acknowledge its existence… but she felt she needed to. She took a seat beside the shadow, still crawling around, trying to claw its way to Naoto, at its one chance of life. "I lost both my parents in an accident. I was still young, so my grandfather took me in. I was inept at making friends… so I spent my time reading detective novels in my grandfather's study." Naoto spoke aloud; though whether she was speaking to the shadow or the investigation team wasn't really clear. Justin passed her a sympathetic look, even though she couldn't really see.

"I used to do the same thing with my copy of Hamlet." He muttered, trying not to let Naoto hear, lest she think he'd gone soft on her. As much as they seemed to have a lot in common, as much as he could almost feel a lot linking the two together; he didn't want the two to have a connection. And that was something he'd probably fight till the day he died. Maya smiled, moving her lips as though to add on to what Justin was saying; though she still remained mute. She had tried to mention that comic book she used to read; but no one could really see her but Justin, and he was far more concerned by the fact that her voice hadn't come back yet.

"**When I grow up… I'm gonna be an awesome, hard-boiled detective…!"** The shadow spoke as it continued to try and inch its way to Naoto, stopping dead at her feet, gripping onto her shoe, though lacking the strength to pull herself any further. Naoto sighed listening to what was essentially her as a child; it was hard to decide if she should feel nostalgic or disgusted with the way she had ran her life from that point on. She had no qualms about being a detective; but the way she went about it? Maybe she had lost her way somewhere along the line.

"My parents were proud of their job. I had no qualms about following in their footsteps… An inherited occupation can feel stifling to many, but I welcomed it. I yearned for the day I could be a detective myself… Perhaps I inherited that desire from them as well. I was always alone… Seeing that, my grandfather must have believed it was his duty to help me realize my dream. I secretly aided my grandfather with his clients… And before I knew it, people started calling me Junior Detective. At first, I was delighted. But not everything went so smoothly…" Naoto pretty much told the story of her life to everyone as she stared herself in the face, watching with pity as the shadow tried to grip at its one chance at life.

"What was that you said about 'You're only a child...'?" Yukiko questioned, not understanding quite what her age had to do with anything. Was it that Naoto was just that paranoid of being seen as a child? Of being disposed of or looked down on simply because of her age?

"Not everyone welcomes my collaboration when it comes to solving cases… My status as a "child" was sufficient to offend many of those whom I worked with. Were that the only issue, then it would have resolved itself with time… But though I will one day change from a child to an adult, I will never change from a woman to a man…" She sighed with disappointed. Justin couldn't help but make a slight gagging sound. He was generally okay with a lot of things, but for some reason, the thought of wanting to switch genders struck his stomach in a less than pleasant way. Maybe he just wasn't as tolerant as he thought he was.

"Do you not like being a girl…? Is that why you always dress like a boy?" Yukiko continued to question, as though it weren't painfully obvious already that's what Naoto was trying to do. She nodded a bit, almost with disappointment. It wasn't necessarily the being a girl part that bothered her; it was the way people viewed being a girl in her field that twisted her stomach and mind.

"My sex doesn't fit my ideal image of a detective… Besides, the police department is a male-oriented society. If they had the slightest 'concrete' reason to look down on me, no one would need me anymore…" Naoto sighed with disappointment. Most of the investigation team shook their heads with disappointment as she put herself down before anyone else could. I say most, because Chie was biting her bottom lip with concern. She did want to be a cop when she grew up after all, so she couldn't help but wonder if that was true or just paranoia speaking. She didn't want people looking down on her just for being a woman; she just wanted to protect the people after all.

"You don't know that." Kanji expressed his disappointment in Naoto putting herself down based on her gender without even knowing if what she claimed was true. After all, it wasn't like the police force was sexist or anything; at least not the majority. Honestly, who even cared if they were; she just wanted the job right? They couldn't take it away from her just for being a woman, so she had nothing to worry about. Naoto sighed, hanging her head in shame for a moment before a slight grin swept across her face, her eyes hanging upon the sight of her shadow looking up at her with pleading eyes.

"You're absolutely right. I'm sorry… I kept ignoring you, pretending you didn't exist. But you are me… and I am you. You've always been inside me. What I should yearn for… No, what I must strive for isn't to become a man. It's to accept myself for who I really am…" And with that, the shadow smiled nodding a bit with confirmation before disappearing in a radiant blue light, purple fog circling around the beacon of light. And from that light emerged her Persona: A… Uh… A, umm…

…

Look, it had a suit and a lightsaber. That's all I could make out. Justin sighed a bit as the Persona vanished into that blueish light again. He already knew how this was going to end.

"And three… Two… One." He remarked sarcastically before the blue light shot out and struck Naoto in the heart, and the purple fog shot out and flowed down Justin's throat. He couldn't help but cough a little bit of that shit up as it finished making its way to wherever it was his shadow hid inside his body. You would think if he lived in Justin's mind the smoke would go up his skull, not down his throat, but whatever. Naoto seemed a little confused as to why only Justin had that happen to him, as did Kurt knowing full well that smoke was a shadow, much like him, but no words were spoken on the matter. In fact, Naoto outright collapsed after having her Persona fuse with her.

"In any event, you're a devious bunch… I can't believe you kept something like this hidden for so long… No wonder the perpetrator has eluded the police. But it's apparent now… This case is far from over." Naoto chuckled a bit as she tried to maintain her strength, slight glee as she was thrown back upon the trail of her killer. Yosuke smiled a bit, almost proud of the girl kneeling in front of him.

"That's right… And you proved it, Naoto. Anyways, we can talk more later. We need to get you out of here."

"I wonder if we can get back home via jetpack…"

* * *

"Sheesh… She really put her life on the line for this…"

The Investigation Team had all made their way back to Junes, dragging Naoto along with them. She had collapsed again almost immediately upon exiting the television, not even able to stand from the looks of it. It was very rare that someone had this much trouble as they left the television screen, probably the last case of it being this bad being with Justin; what with having nothing to eat for a fucking week and all and then getting a stone pillar to the face. Still, the group all stared at her as she tried to gather her energy, musing on the much more serious issue that was now at hand.

"But without her efforts, we'd never have realized that the culprit is still at large." Yukiko remarked, again, probably giving Naoto a little too much credit. If the killer was still at large, he would have struck again anyway. And besides, was it ever established that she DID do this purposely? Who knows. Maybe Justin just didn't WANT her to be some sort of genius with a master plan to ensnare the crook. It would only be a compliment to someone who had been nothing but bitch to him and his sister.

"You're too frickin' reckless, dammit…" Kanji scolded her, as though relieved she was safe, but oh so pissed that she had put herself in danger in the first place. He was like a parent who had their child run away; happy they were safe back at home, but oh so pissed and very likely to beat them over the head with a shoe. Sorry, hand; because using a shoe would be illegal and wrong. At least it wasn't a beer bottle, entitled assholes.

"I never doubted that you'd all come for me… Although the reality turned out to be far beyond what I'd imagined." Naoto remarked with amazement, astounded by the world beyond the television screen, by just how deep the rabbit hole went. Justin warned her not to go chasing rabbits; but did she listen? Nooooooooooo. Gotta get kidnapped because that's part of my master plan to get kidnapped and herp de derp. Kanji only seemed more annoyed by Naoto's confidence in them.

"Tch… What a dumbass. You're no genius at all. We were tearing our hair out over you…" He continued to scold her. You know, by this point, I think it was safe to assume that everyone was putting two and two together about Kanji and his apparent obsession with Naoto, and let me tell you something: calling her a dumbass is no way to get in her pants. Rise only seemed to find it adorable though, practically swooning over the two lovebirds.

"So you did worry about her, Kanji! Awww…" Rise gushed over the two. Kanji's eyes widened a little, partially of shock, partially off annoyance, partially of fear. He still didn't get it himself really, but he sure as hell didn't want Rise going all 'aww, those two are in wove,' on the two of them.

"Shuddup! M-Mind your own damn business!"

"I'll take her home. I don't think she can go back by herself." Yukiko interrupted Rise and Kanji's little argument; or at least Rise teasing the fuck out of Kanji. Seriously, the term 'old married couple' would fit those two perfectly; it was like they couldn't stand each other, but god be damned of Rise didn't take the opportunity to flirt with and tease him on a regular basis. Naoto was a little reluctant to allow Yukiko to support her, to give her a hand on the way home, but it's not like she had the strength to fend her off anyway.

"It's… all right… I can…" Naoto tried to plead with Yukiko to allow her to walk home on her own, to break free of her grasp on her. Yukiko shook her head though, shooting her down without so much a word. Rise had Yukiko covered in that department after all.

"No way, missy! Don't think that doing everything on your own is the "adult" thing to do! C'mon, let's go!" Rise cheerfully ordered her to come with them. She sighed with defeat before allowing the Investigation Team to carry her home in her current state, conceding that she really didn't have much room to argue when she could barely stand. Rise and Yukiko soon departed with Yukiko, slowly but steadily followed by the others until only Chie, Justin, and Maya were left. Kurt, was probably the first to leave, surprisingly enough, claiming he needed to put his hand on ice. Like that would even do anything. The three stood there in quiet for a moment.

"You're sure you're alright, right?" Chie questioned with concern, as she turned back to Justin. Justin placed his hand along his spine for a moment, trying to pop it back in place; seemed it had gotten a little dislocated during their scuffle with Naoto's shadow; but otherwise he was good. Just a little sore. He smirked at her a bit, though warmly if that made sense.

"Now you know how I felt when you broke your rib that one time." Justin chuckled. Chie just shook her head and smiled a bit. She had thought Justin was getting a little over worked up about it at the time, but now that he mentioned it, she could totally see where he was coming from now. She hadn't been more worried in all her life. Justin sighed and looked up towards the ceiling for a moment. "Well, all's well that ends well I suppose." He smiled.

Just to his side, however, was Maya, still trying to speak but unable to make the tiniest squeak. She was smiling warmly despite the fact that she clearly knew no words were coming out of her mouth. Justin and Chie stared at her for a moment with concern, not entirely sure why that hadn't expired already, why she was completely unable to speak as if her vocal chords had been clipped. Justin bit his bottom lip for a moment.

"Um… That'll probably clear up in the morning." Maya's eyebrows shot up almost immediately with concern, her lips mouthing off the word probably, as if questioning Justin's diagnosis. "Hey, I never claimed to be a doctor."


	153. Chapter 152: September 21, 2011

CHAPTER 152

September 21, 2011

* * *

"Thank god I don't have to go to school today, because my head is fucking killing me."

Justin grumbled to himself as he slowly descended the stairs of his house, rubbing his temples in pain all the while. His muscles were still sore from whatever it was Naoto's shadow had struck him down with the day prior. He wasn't going to collapse from his organs exploding any time soon or anything like that, but goddamn. It was like… Have you ever played Nintendo Wii for too long and for the next week your arm felt like it was about to fall off? Of course not, because no one plays the Wii. Point being; it stung a lot, but he'd probably be fine. He rubbed his eyes and yawned as he made it to the first floor of his house, stretching his arms a bit in an attempt at loosening his stiff muscles, at trying to numb the pain just a little. It didn't work too well, but oh well. Not like he had anything he need to do today anyway; he'd just sit in front of the television until he could walk a straight line without feeling like that thing from Alien was going to burst out of his stomach at any moment.

Strangely, however, as he crept down the stairs of his house to the living room below, he was met by a familiar sight out of the corner of his eye. Messing around with Donatello and his tank was Maya, sitting there with a rather sad expression on her face as she stroked his head with the tip of her index finger. Justin was a little confused as to why she was still here, and more importantly why she looked like something was bothering her. She should have been happy that they managed to rescue Naoto yesterday… Well, not necessarily happy, because she was most likely going to try and harass the two of them over what happened in California again, but you get the point. Was it just the fact that the murderer was still on the loose? That they still had so much left they needed to do before this small town would be at peace again? Hell, did it even have to do with the case? Justin slowly and cautiously took a seat beside her on the couch, a sympathetic expression on his face.

"Hey, what's wrong? Aren't you supposed to be at work?" Justin questioned, leaning forward a bit to try and peer into her eyes. She didn't so much as turn her attention away from the turtle though, her pupils focused intently on Donatello as he bobbed his head up and down with pleasure as Maya stroked its head. Looking at Maya dead in the eyes right now, Justin could tell something was very clearly a miss; her skin was dark under her eyes, perhaps indicating she had been crying at some point. "Maya…? Were you… crying?" Justin questioned with concern.

She nodded timidly after a moment, as if ashamed to admit she had broken down into tears over whatever it was she was crying about. Justin stared at her for a moment before wrapping his arm around her shoulder in a half hug, as if to lend her a shoulder to lean against. She just continued to sit there though, staring at the turtle, refusing to tell Justin what was wrong. Justin bit his lip for a moment. He really couldn't help her if she didn't tell him what was wrong.

"Come on Maya, you know you can tell me anything." Justin tried to reassure her that he trust wouldn't be misplaced telling him what was bothering her. She sniffled a bit, and you could practically see tears welling up in her eyes again. It seemed Justin had picked some really poor choice in words; for you see, at that moment Maya tried to open her mouth again, to speak, but not a sound came out. She COULDN'T tell him anything because she couldn't even talk. Justin's jaw slowly became unhinged, his eyebrows raising with concern. He was smart enough to realize what was going on here. "Your voice still isn't back!?" Justin questioned with great worriment. When she had been hit by the Mute Ray or whatever it was the day prior, they had all assumed it would be a temporary ailment, something that would pass just like any other spell the shadows cast upon them. Tears started to roll down her cheeks as she shook her head, afraid of her now missing voice. No matter how hard she tried to speak, she couldn't so much as make a peep.

Justin quickly jumped off the couch running to the kitchen to shuffle through the cabinets in search of something to help. It was a few moments, but he eventually came back with quite a few items they had found during their travels in the shadow world, items that had usually helped them when they were struck by ailments such as this. Ointments, pills, those weird leaves the fox had; you name it, Justin clutched them in his arms as he ran over to the couch, tossing them on the table as he sorted through them in an attempt at deciding the right medicine for what she had contracted. It was a moment before grabbed a hold of a pill bottle he had taken out of the cabinet a moment earlier.

"Alright, Maya, take a couple of these, they should… help…" Justin began to order, though he noticed Maya was just shaking her head as he tried to hand her off the pill. He paused for a moment as she gradually reached out towards the side of the tank Donatello had been residing in, grabbing a hold of a notepad and pencil, scribbling on the paper before handing the pad off to Justin. He paused for a moment before dreadfully looking down at the pad, not entirely sure if he wanted to read whatever it was Maya had written down. But he did; it was his duty after all. He couldn't help but shake his head before pressing the side of his palm against his forehead, pure hopelessness sweeping over him as he read Maya's horrible handwriting.

_Already tried. Didn't work._

Justin sighed, dropping the note pad down on the table in front of him, knocking over all the items he had scattered across its surface but a moment earlier. It was quiet for a moment as Justin tried to ponder how to fix this; how to cure Maya's ailment, but alas, he was completely clueless. He wasn't even sure what had caused her to loser her voice in the first place, but if the usual methods of getting rid of these kinds of problems wasn't working, he wasn't sure what would. He cupped his mouth with his hand for a moment, rubbing his chin with the tip of his thumb before slowly turning to Maya, frightened, sad expression on her face. "Maya… You do realize we're going to have to see a doctor about this, right?" Maya's eyes immediately widened, and she furiously shook her head side to side in refusal. She didn't want to go anywhere near a hospital, even if she somehow was completely able to talk. Justin cut her refusal off almost immediately though. "Maya; stop it. No one is going to get hurt; they just need to check out your throat, and then they'll probably going to give you some pills or something. No surgery, no IV's or needles, they just need to look at your throat… alright?" Justin tried to calm her down. Maya sighed a bit, nodding her head with reluctant acceptance.

"Don't be scared. It'll all be alright." Justin tried to reassure her, grabbing a hold of her hand in a reassuring motion, gripping it between the two of his own the way one would hold someone's hand at their deathbed. Probably not a very good comparison in retrospect.

* * *

"I never know what's worse about going to the doctor; the needles or the wait."

The two sat alone in a patient room, awaiting the doctor's return with the results from an x-ray he had taken. Apparently he couldn't figure it out just by looking down her throat or feeling her neck for anything out of place, so he figured the next best option would be to look at her skeleton. Yeah, I'm not sure how well that was going to work either, but he did it anyway. Maya sighed a bit, eyes poised towards the floor as she tried to keep her mind off of the issue at hand. This was all just too much for her to handle; all so concerning. Justin passed her a look of sympathy as she twiddled her thumbs, waiting for good news, for the cure to whatever was wrong with her speech.

"Hey, chin up. I'm sure you probably just have a cold or something." Justin tried to cheer her up, placing his hand along the width of her shoulder. She smiled for a brief moment, hopes raised as Justin tried to reassure her that everything would turn out for the better, even if she didn't really believe him. Someone's voice doesn't just disappear without a trace with a mere fever after all; and it had been like this for two days now. She shrugged a bit before turning her eyes back down to the floor beneath her. It wasn't long before the two were interrupted by the sound of door creaking, sending a shiver of dread, but also hope down the spines of Justin and Maya, their eyes falling upon the doctor as he stepped through the door.

"We've got the x-ray results back." The doctor announced as he walked into the room, flipping pages on his clipboard, a slightly puzzled expression on his face as he scanned the x-rays for any inconsistencies that might have caused Maya to have lost her voice. I don't think I need to tell you that look of confusion on the doctor's face was less than reassuring for the two teenagers, out right scaring the living shit out of Maya as she fidgeted about in her chair, not anticipating hearing whatever news the doctor had come across.

"That's good, right?" Justin questioned as the doctor rubbed at his chin, jaw slightly unhinged as he continued to scan the x-rays now in his possession. Really, this doctor knew very little about subtlety given how obvious he was making it that he saw something was amiss. Weren't doctors supposed to try and lay the bad news on their patients easy? He was doing a horrible horrible job at it already. Justin could feel Maya's hand slip out to grab his, gripping it tightly with fear, biting her bottom lip as the doctor paced around with the clipboard.

"I've never seen anything quite like this…" The doctor mused out loud to himself; again, lacking in subtlety as he pondered the implications of the notes he had collected. Justin's eyes darted about the room for a moment, avoiding staring at the doctor so that he could remain blind to the body language that clearly indicated he had less than pleasant news.

"That's good… right?" Justin questioned again, wanting some reassurance that shit had not hit the ceiling, that there was nothing wrong with Maya that some pills couldn't fix, that they were all worrying about nothing. He should have known better though thatn to try and deceive himself from what he could clearly see in the doctor's reaction. The doctor shook his head, much to Maya's dismay; her lips trembling slightly as though she wanted to just burst out in tears. She didn't need to hear anymore, she already knew what he wanted to say anyway.

"This is a sudden change in condition, correct?" The doctor questioned, inquiring into whether her loss of voice had just occurred, or if she had never been able to speak in the first place. Justin nodded his head a bit, not sure what that had to do with anything. The doctor quickly flipped around the x-ray, so that Justin and Maya could see what he was talking about as he spoke. "We ran a couple different kinds of x-rays; this one right here for example, should be showing the vocal cords… But as you can see. There's nothing there. At first I thought that it was a problem with the way we took the x-ray; but when I look at the other scans… there's nothing there either. It's as if the vocal cords completely disappeared into thin air."

Justin and Maya stared at each other with great confusion and distress. Maya opened her mouth, as if she wanted to say something, though she closed it almost immediately afterwards; possibly because she realized she couldn't say anything if she wanted to, partially because she had nothing to say. She didn't even know how to feel about this. She got that the mute ray was what had actually done the deed, but other than that she just didn't understand how any of this was possible. Or why it had to happen to her. Why had SHE been the one to get struck by the ray? She didn't need to drag Naoto out of the way; hell, it would have been better for her if she didn't… but she did. And now she was being punished for it. She was always being punished by the forces that be for doing a good deed. She was sick of it. But more importantly, she was afraid. Afraid of losing her voice permanently, being silent for the rest of her days. What was she even going to do to communicate with people; learn sign language? It was much too late for that. She didn't know how to feel about this… except maybe very sad.

"Disappeared? The fuck are you talking about!? Vocal chords don't just disappear!" Justin shouted angrily. This had to be some cruel prank. It wasn't physically possible for this to have even happened; the doctor had to be fucking with them. The doctor recoiled slightly at Justin's foul language before readjusting himself, flipping through the pages on his clipboard again, shaking his head as he tried to ignore that fact that he was just cursed out by some teenager. He was just going to associate that with grief and not just Justin being a huge asshole.

"That's what I thought at first too, but x-rays don't lie." The doctor remarked with slight annoyance. Justin had been leaning forward to snarl at the doctor, but as he got confirmation that this wasn't just some sick joke the doctor was pulling on the two teenagers, he couldn't help but feel every ounce of rage, of energy just flow out of his body, along with all of his hope for a solution to the problem. He soon sank into the chair, an expression of despair sweeping across his face all the while.

"…There's nothing you can do, is there?" Justin questioned, already knowing the answer to an inquiry he had hoped he'd never have to ask. The doctor shook his head with slight sorrow, disappointed that he had to be such a bearer of bad news. "Can't you just replace it or something!?" Justin shouted angrily after a moment, trying to cling to the last shreds of hope in his body, at just the slightest chance of Maya being able to speak again. The doctor just shook his head again though.

"We've repaired damaged vocal chords before, but we cannot replace an entire vocal cord. I'm sorry, but there's nothing we can do on the matter… I'd advise looking into some classes for learning sign language, carrying around a notepad or something to communicate with others… Maybe one day we'll find a way of implanting an entire vocal cord…" The doctor tried to reassure the two before leaving the room, not a word more. Not how to cope with it, or anything else they might need to know about her condition. He just left. By all accounts, he had to be one of the shittiest doctors on the face of the planet, just dropping a bomb on them like that and expecting to just deal with it. The two were quiet as the door closed behind the doctor, partially because not all of them had the option to not be silent. Words just couldn't describe what had befallen them today.

"…GODDAMMIT!" Justin finally shouted, letting his emotions get the better of him, turning around and punching the wall. You know; punching holes in the wall was probably not such a great idea at the doctor's office. He was just glad that he hadn't actually given the doctor his name, so there was no way they'd be able to track him down to pay for the damages. Well… It really wouldn't be worth it anyway. Maya was weeping like a baby by this point; and if she could cry out in her sorrow, she probably would. But as it were, all she could do was silently shed tears, lips quivering as she tried to stop herself from breaking down. Justin quickly turned to wrap his arms around her, holding her tight in an attempt at trying to stop the tears. "Jesus Maya, I'm so sorry." Justin apologized as she wept into the shoulder of his shirt.

He wasn't sure who to blame for all of this. The most obvious culprit would be Naoto's shadow, the one who had pulled the trigger on that damn mute ray. Really, though, it would just be too easy putting all the blame on the being that had shot the gun; the one responsible was the one who had put Maya into a position where she could get hit by the shot. Blame should then fall on Naoto, right? It was her stupid ass plan that got them all in there in the first place, that got her shadow to emerge and launch that weapon at her. And if she hadn't passed out, Maya wouldn't have to drag her ass out of the way. She should have been the one who lost her voice, not Maya dammit… And then… Then there was Justin. He had stopped Maya from entering the television before to protect her, so that shit like this wouldn't happen… but he eventually conceded to her pleas, over-riding his own judgment on the matter. And now this happened. He should have known better. The only one he could blame for all of this was himself for not sticking by his guns. "This is all my fault…" Justin could feel Maya's head shaking in his shoulder blade, as if to deny his attempts to take the blame for her sudden condition.

If only he could believe her.

* * *

"Mute!?"

The investigator practically spat up the coffee he was drinking as Justin indulged the interrogator's curiosity on the matter. You could tell he was clearly not to pleased to be recapping that day for the investigator, but he did so anyway, trying to keep his eyes from pouring by keeping his mind on the drink in front of him, eyes focused on the waves that shimmered through the glass as he rotated the cup every which way. He sighed a bit as the investigator repeated to him the thought that had haunted him around every corner; that despite all he had done to protect Maya from a fate such as this, he couldn't. It was what he feared the most in life; not necessarily failure, but failure at the expense of other's safety. And now because he couldn't just stomp his foot down and say no to her when she wanted in on the investigation. It was all his fault, and he hated himself for it.

"Yeah..." Justin muttered, pain in his voice as he tried to hold back the tears. Even now, years after it had happened, he still blamed himself for her illness. It kept him up at night from time to time as he wondered if there was a way to fix it, if there was a way to prevent it. And everytime, he came back with the same answers: no and yes, in that order respectively. It killed him to think no matter what, in the end; it was irreversible.

"Poor kid..." The investigator sighed after a moment, pitying the lass who had suffered so much already in her life, only to have that thrown in on top. "...I'm guessing it didn't get better." He remarked after a moment, staring at Justin's eye as he posed the question. It was clear what he had meant; if like Justin's condition with the eye, had it gone a different direction than doctor's had anticipated. But alas, doctors knew a lot more about medicine than Justin did, and the harsh truth of the matter was they were usually right... especially when posing bad news. Justin shook his head after a moment before putting the glass of water down on the table, suddenly making a series of hand gestures that the investigator was having trouble decoding. And by that I mean he had no idea what the fuck Justin was doing. At all. "...I don't speak sign language." The investigator remarked with slight annoyance and sarcasm. It was bad enough news to hear as it was without Justin doing whatever it was he was doing.

"No, but I do."


	154. Chapter 153: September 22, 2011

CHAPTER 153

September 22, 2011

* * *

"Uh huh… uh huh… I see… There's gotta be someth-… I get the medical issues, but there must be SOMETHING you can do… Alright… Yeah… Thanks doc… God fucking dammit."

Most of the investigation team was sitting at their usual spot in Junes, watching as Justin constantly picked up his phone to answer calls from medical experts. He had already explained the situation to all of them; they could hardly believe he was being serious in all honesty. Nothing that bad ever happened to them; they were the good guys after all, right? Good guys always win. Sure, Justin was blind in one eye, but that wasn't quite the same thing; he could still live a perfectly normal life like that. Maya? No one was sure how she was going to get by without the ability to speak. No one was taking it well as Justin slowly sunk into his chair, face covered by his palms, fingers twisting through his hair as he griped his skull with despair and hopelessness. He was taking it pretty hard, though strangely not as hard as Yosuke was. He looked like someone just stabbed him in the balls. Twice.

"You've been getting a lot of callbacks…" Chie remarked with slight concern as Justin snapped his cellphone shut with fury, his fingers practically cracking the plastic casing as he gripped it tightly in his palm. He wasn't taking the news too well as doctor after doctor called him back to say there was nothing that could be done about Maya's missing voice box. He rubbed at his forehead a bit, shaking his head with disappointment.

"I've been trying to get some second opinions… I thought… Maybe it was just that doctor; maybe he just looked at her scan wrong or something, but… They all say they can't do anything about it…" Justin looked like he was on the verge of crying as he recapped the horrific news he had been told time after time again by the voices on the other end of the line, each time his hopes raised as he listened to his ringtone signify the doctor had called back, each time only to have his hopes dashed across the rocks, to be told that they couldn't help his sister. Justin's grip on his phone only seemed to tighten till after a moment his anger got the better of him, his arm flinging back before tossing the phone at a wall half way across the food court. "GOD DAMMIT!" He shouted, his words choppy as he tried to stop himself from crying. No one was sure whether to be horrified by Justin's outburst, or to feel sympathetic as he barely hung on to his wit's end. All they knew is, they felt horrible for whoever it was Justin almost pegged with his phone. Plus, Justin probably needed a new phone right now; which was going to be problematic since he would no doubt need to shell out some cash to either medically fix Maya's speech problem… or worse come to worse, get an assistant to speak on her behalf.

"Th-this can't be right." Yosuke chuckled nervously as he tried to deny the truth of the matter, as if expecting Justin to turn around at any second and shout April Fools. This was just too terrible to be real; he had never expected anything like this to happen to any of them, least of all Maya. Why was it that good people had to suffer for others? Especially her… Maybe it was just his heart getting to his head, but she had to be the most wonderful, generous, self-giving girl he had ever had the pleasure of meeting. Yet despite everything that made her probably the finest example of humanity, she still had shit like this happening to her on a regular basis. Wasn't everything else that had happened enough? Why were the gods doing this to her? To the people that cared about her and loved her. "This is Maya we're talking about, she can't… She…" Yosuke stuttered trying to make any logical sense of this horrible news. No one could really blame him for being so baffled by this, for having his heart torn out and chopped to pieces.

"Can't they just do an implant?" Yu questioned, kind of ticked off that it seemed the doctors that were calling Justin back were missing the most obvious solution. Of course, they had considered that possibility, but the very fact of the matter was they couldn't implant a vocal cord without risking killing the girl in the process. And there wasn't even any guarantee she'd be able to use it afterwards anyway. Justin shook his head a little bit with disappointment.

"I'm not a doctor, but… I don't think they could really do that." Yukiko remarked with disappointment. Given her experience as a field medic for the Investigation Team, and given that she was one of, if not the smartest person at the table, it was hard to argue with her, even before she explained her thought process. After all, they were no doctors. Except maybe Kurt, but it's not like he had a degree. "They'd have to get a matching blood type, not to mention they'd have to cut open her throat to put it in. I'm pretty sure that would kill her." Justin sighed, sinking back in his chair a bit. Yeah, slicing up her throat didn't exactly sound like it would leave Maya in the best condition afterwards. Even if she did talk, he'd imagine it would hurt to do so, not to mention her voice would be raspy as fuck. Though any voice is better than none he supposed.

"I can confirm." Kurt remarked. You'd think it was a little weird for a twenty year old to be sitting at a table with a bunch of teenagers, but it seemed no one around them really cared about his presence at the table. Must be because he still looked so young. And of course, given the circumstances, no one really objected to Kurt sitting around the table with them. Maya was his friend too, even if she had been deathly afraid of him for the last two years. This was hurting him just as much as it had been Yosuke or Justin… Well maybe not quite as much as Yosuke. "It's not impossible to cut the neck open to get inside non-lethally; but it's so difficult that even attempting it would be foolish. She'd bleed out almost instantly if they fucked up the cut."

"So there's nothing they can do?" Justin questioned after a moment. He had asked every doctor he could find for their opinion, but he never once considered asking Kurt what he thought about this. He did go to medical school after all; and sure, he never finished, but he must have known SOMETHING about this kind of thing. Kurt sighed with disappointment.

"Unfortunately not."

"This is all Naoto's fault… She had to do this stupid fucking plan to get kidnapped. She doesn't give a damn who got hurt in her little scheme; because hey, I'm sure I'll get rescued no problem. Clearly nothing could go wrong or there'll be repercussions for pissing off a serial killer!" Justin mocked the detective prince from where he sat, angrily trying to find someone or something to put the blame on. Someone other than himself anyway. If Naoto hadn't done this stupid ass stunt getting herself kidnapped, her shadow wouldn't have gone haywire and it never would have been able to mute Maya with that… Mute Ray; whatever the fuck that was. She thought she needed to do this to draw the killer out again; but apparently she didn't consider the fact that if the killer was still attacking people on television, she didn't NEED to force it; it would have come with time. It was because of her that Maya had gotten hurt. Justin was actually seriously considering forgiving her for calling the two of them murderers, at least after hearing what her shadow had to say; but now? Now he could NEVER forgive her. He could practically feel the hate running through his veins for this woman.

"There's gotta be something we can do!" Yosuke shouted after a moment, panicked rage flowing through his body as he stood up from his chair, hands sprawled across the table as he leaned forward to look everyone dead in the eye. Or at least, he had tried to; but no one could really make eye-contact with each other right now. In reality, they all felt responsible for this in their own rights; it was hard to look Maya's friends and loved ones in the eye after they had muted her for essentially life. They still didn't get how her vocal cord had completely vanished as if it hadn't even been there in the first place, but that wasn't what mattered right now. "Anything!"

"You don't think I've been trying!?" Justin shouted with annoyance after a moment, aggravated with Yosuke shouting to the heavens about how they all had a duty to help Maya out. He was more than aware of that; after all, helping her deal with this was the least he could do after putting her in danger in the first place. "I'm the one that's been calling every goddamn doctor in the phonebook! You think that shit's cheap!? It's not! All of my savings went into this! So sit the fuck down, and shut the fuck up!" Yosuke shook his head, getting up in Justin's face as he leaned across the table. He didn't give the slightest fuck about Justin's savings; though he probably should have given that if Justin ran out of money and got evicted from his house, so did Maya. All he cared about right now was getting Maya the help she needed.

"This isn't about your goddamn bank account!" Yosuke scolded Justin, perhaps not understanding that without money Justin couldn't actually BUY Maya the help she needed. So maybe, just maybe, he should keep his damn mouth shut on matters he clearly didn't understand. "I don't care if it cost you every cent you have, you-"

"Yosuke, that's enough!" Yu shouted, interrupting Yosuke from trying to ripoff Justin's head, and by extension vice-versa, because you know Justin wasn't going to stand for this shit after he was doing everything in his power to help Maya. Maybe he couldn't cure Maya, but he was trying to at least make sure she'd have the tools to deal with it. And if Yosuke couldn't accept that, then he could go fuck himself. Yosuke hung his head with slight shame, sighing as Yu snapped him out of his daze of anger. He really didn't mean to lash out at Justin; he knew he was trying his hardest to make sure Maya didn't have to suffer through this… It was just… He had never been in as much pain as he was right now, as he heard that Maya would never be able to speak… Not even when he had heard about Saki had he felt as shitty as he did right now. He couldn't explain why Saki's death seemed so insignificant compared to this; it just did. Did it make him a terrible person to be less worked up over her death than someone simply losing their voice? Perhaps; but he'd gladly accept that title if it meant he cared a little too much.

"…I'm sorry, I didn't mean to snap." Yosuke apologized before sinking back into his seat, disappointed in his lack of ability to control his emotions. Justin glared at him from across the table for a moment longer before sighing, letting loose the tension in his brow. He could understand how Yosuke felt; being powerless to stop something that shouldn't be. And yet, despite wanting the best for Maya, for wanting to be able to change what could not be reversed, he didn't understand how Yosuke felt at all. And he probably never would. The relationship one had for a sibling, after all, was far less heavy on the heart than the way Yosuke felt about Maya. Maybe Justin had felt that way about Chie before; like that time she broke her rib… But right now he was clueless about the pain in Yosuke's chest. "…So what are we going to do about this?" Yosuke questioned after a moment of silence to regather his thoughts, to calm himself down at least a little bit.

"…Whatever I have to, I guess." Justin sighed. He didn't LIKE what he had to do, not because he was doing it be grudgingly, but because it only meant that there was no other alternatives, no way Maya could speak again. You know how you never know what you've got till it's gone? Justin had never quite realized how sweet, how beautiful Maya's voice was until now. It was a shame that it had to end like this, that she had to suffer on Naoto's behalf. "I'll look into some classes on sign language. Get Maya to learn it… Then I guess I'll take the class too and learn to translate." Justin continued. He didn't like the fact that he'd need to translate on behalf of Maya. It only created this sort of barrier between her and the rest of the group, in which what she had to say didn't flow naturally into the conversation, where the conversation would need to stop just so she could say something then have Justin translate for her. It would be like saying the same thing twice, and all it did was fail to make her feel like part of the group. Thank god she wasn't as subconscious about that kind of stuff as Justin.

"I guess she can't really work the register in the electronics department now…" Yosuke grimaced a bit, almost ashamed that he'd have to pull her away from her position, from her job because of her new disability. It wasn't right that her life had to change just because she couldn't speak; that she had to be given special treatment because of her condition. Not that Yosuke didn't give her special treatment anyway; but that was because he cared for her, not because he was concerned about his damn business. If it was up to him, he'd leave her there, to keep doing her job like nothing had ever changed. And sure, some customers might have trouble dealing with that, but you know what? Fuck 'em. He didn't give a shit about customers or profit or anything like that. "I… could just give her the paycheck…" Yosuke considered, paying her even if she couldn't work. Justin shook his head with denial though.

"No. She's too proud for that; she's not just going to take your money." Justin objected. He would have taken Yosuke up on that offer; after all, getting paid to not do work was the American Dream. But the fact of the matter was it wasn't his choice, and Maya wouldn't really feel fulfilled getting paid to sit on her ass. She didn't mind working to make a living; if anything, she'd actually enjoy it. It was just the kind of person she was, always trying to help wherever she could. Perhaps it was that fact that made her sudden lack of voice all the more sad. She was a good person, and despite this, horrible things kept creeping their way into her life. Yosuke sighed a bit.

"Yeah… I guess you're right…" Yosuke sighed with disappointment. "I'll figure something out." He eventually shrugged off the conundrum, figuring he'd have plenty of time to figure something out. After all, Maya refused to step out of the house after she had received the bad news; and she most likely wouldn't get the courage to face the others for a while. That of course didn't mean Yosuke could just sit there twiddling his thumbs waiting for her return… There was something else he needed to look into before she came back. He just hope there would be enough time before she returned. Eyes slowly shifted their way back to Justin, dark rings under his eyes from sleeplessness as he leaned forward on the table, grabbing his aching head again.

"Are you going to be alright?" Chie questioned after a moment, pitying the boy in front of her, the one who had been losing sleep and pulling hair out trying to figure out what he was going to do to solve this dilemma, to remedy what had gone horribly wrong. Maya didn't deserve this after all she had done; hell, she only got struck because she was trying to drag Naoto out of the way. This was her punishment for sacrificing herself for others? Unacceptable. Justin wouldn't rest easy until he found some sort of solution to their problem.

"I'm not the one whose mute now." Justin remarked with sarcasm before digging around in his pocket. At first, it seemed as though he was going to grab a toothpick; but in actuality, he had grabbed a hold of a cigarette. Yu's eyes widened with disappointment as Justin lit up the smoke. He had thought Justin had quit, but here he was puffing away at his tube of tobacco, like they had never even had that conversation at the riverbed.

"Hey! The hell do you think you're doing!" Yu shouted, trying to interrupt Justin before he could inhale more of the toxic substance. Justin's eyes slowly, almost non-responsively pointed in Yu's direction, his eyelids blinking slowly and wearily, as if he hadn't slept for weeks. "Did you already forget about what we talked about!? Do you just not care!?" Yu interrogated him angrily. Everyone was confused; save of course Justin, who was just slowly getting very angry. After a moment, he flicked the cigarette at Yu in anger. Thankfully Yu ducked before he ended up getting burned by the lit up projectile.

"You know what Yu!? Fuck you! I just found out my sister's never going to be able to talk again, and it's all my goddamn fault. So I think I'm entitled to one fucking cigarette, you piece of shit asshole!" Justin shouted with anger before turning about and kicking his chair over, trying to take his anger out on something other than a human being, lest he break someone's spine. Everyone just watched with their jaws hanging loose as Justin stormed off, not in the mood for Yu's shit today. They weren't sure what was worse, Justin trying to burn Yu's face off with the cigarette, or him trying to destroy the food court. Yu slowly pressed his palm against his face with disappointment. He was supposed to help people with their problems, not make them worse. Yukiko placed her hand reassuringly on his shoulder, trying to cheer him up with just a touch. He couldn't really smile though, as much as he wanted to. As much as it pained him to admit it; Justin was right.

"I really screwed up didn't I?"

"He just needs some time to think."


	155. Chapter 154: September 23, 2011

CHAPTER 154

September 23, 2011

* * *

"Hey Maya… How you holding up?"

Justin and Maya were lounging around his house, doing pretty much nothing but drown in their sorrows and disappointment. Occasionally Justin got a phone call from one of the doctors he had called previously, or from some people one of the doctors had put him in touch with in regards to getting Maya some lessons in sign-language; but other than that, the house was dead silent. How could it not be when the only one who could speak was Justin? Even if this wasn't tragic, who exactly would he be talking to? It was true that Maya had since been carrying around a notepad to communicate with Justin when he tried to speak to her, but that wasn't REALLY holding a conversation. The two would NEVER be able to truly hold a conversation again it seemed. That's probably what was the worst part of all of this was; like there was now this barrier between them. Before they'd rib and heckle each other for hours, laughing at each other as their faces turned red with embarrassment. Now? They could never do that again; all they could do now was pass notes around, hoping to try and imitate the magic of the days gone past. Maya shrugged a bit as Justin took a seat beside her, questioning her condition. You could tell she wasn't dealing with it too well just from the look on her face; but she tried to play it off as nothing. Figures that Maya would lose her vocal cord and still worry about others before herself.

"C'mon, it's alright. You don't need to lie to me you know." Justin prodded her, trying to get her to confide how she really felt in him. He could see right through her lies; he could see how her eyes betrayed her as she tried to play everything off as a minor inconvenience. That dull, shineless appearance to her pupils, the way her eyes seemed so focused, yet not aimed at anything at all… It was very clear that it was all she could think of. She sighed after a moment, reaching out to grab her pad and pen again, to try and speak to Justin the only way she knew how. She slowly scribbled something down before handing the pad off to Justin, so he could read the words she wanted to speak, but couldn't find the voice for. His eyebrow raised with curiosity as he stared at the crisp piece of paper, at the ink markings where her pen had scratched the surface.

_IVsj GfbeeeN bBeetteeR._

"Have I ever told you your handwriting sucks?" Justin joked only slightly. He really couldn't read this, so the fact of the matter was he couldn't actually respond to whatever it was she wrote. Maya just swiped the pad out of his hand angrily, very clearly not pleased by Justin pointing out how crappy her writing was. It was the only way she could communicate with him, so he'd have to suck up her shitty cursive skills. She furiously began to scribble again; this time opting not to try practicing her cursive skills and going straight to the manuscript. It wasn't like she needed to impress anyone with her calligraphy skills or anything anyway. After a moment she tossed the pad back at Justin, much more forcefully this time as she pouted over Justin's lack of sensitivity towards the issue. Justin couldn't help but chuckle a bit as he stared at the new message.

_Well excuse me princess; I'll be sure to practice my curls for your reading pleasure._

"Hey, don't worry so much about it. I'm just pulling your leg." Justin choked up over his laughter. Maya sighed before sinking into the sofa a bit, her anger seeming to vanish in thin air, but still leaving a very visible effect on her as it left the shell of her soul. In retrospect, now was probably not the best time to be telling jokes, even if they all could use a good laugh about now. "I'm still waiting on a call back from that guy the doctor recommended; and then we won't have to worry about your handwriting." Justin tried to reassure her; to comfort her in the fact that she would know sign-language soon enough. Maya raised her eyebrow with curiosity, not really sure if that was supposed to be reassuring or what. If anything, the fact that she'd need to speak with sign-language from now on was horrifying, if not intimidating. I mean, it would be like learning a whole 'nother language, wouldn't it? She was afraid that it was going to be difficult to learn, that she wouldn't really be able to get it. Writing seemed so much easier; even if she knew it wasn't exactly efficient passing around a pad every time she wanted to speak. Though, having Justin translate probably wasn't much better. Maya started to scribble in the pad again, passing it back and forth between herself and Justin as they spoke; like passing notes in class.

_I don't know. Sounds complicated._

Justin shook his head a bit as he read the notepad that was being thrown back and forth between the two like a flier. "From what I've heard it's not as hard as it looks. They have gestures for entire expressions and stuff. Think of it like charades." Justin tried to ease her concerns on the matter. Maya didn't seem all that convinced though. Whether it was because it still sounded so difficult to her, or because she wasn't fond of her disability being referred to as a game of charades, however, was still up for question. It was quite probable that it was both that had been chewing away at Maya's heart strings, tearing at her soul and spitting it out like a vulture pecking at the carcass of a dead coyote. "Come on, if I have to learn it, you can too." Again, more writing, more silence save the sound of pen scraping against paper filling the air. In a way, it was an unsettling noise, if only because of what it had reminded them of; of what the noise of pen scratching was substituting.

_You aren't the one who barely passed seventh grade Spanish._ Justin couldn't help but laugh a bit at that; which apparently was enough to warrant a slap upside the head. After all, it wasn't funny that she was stupid… N-Not that she was stupid or anything. She was just… bilingually challenged. Yeah that's it. Justin rubbed the back of his head for a moment, trying to numb the pain of Maya's palm colliding with his skull. "Look, I'll let you copy off my test, alright?" Justin continued to joke, much to Maya's annoyance. She wasn't seeing what was so funny about all of this; about her having to change the way she spoke to the people around her. Things would never be the same again, and not necessarily for the better.

It was quiet for a moment between the two, Justin self-satisified with his attempts at trying to lighten the atmosphere, and Maya just crossing her arms and giving him the stinker eye. She didn't need a lighter atmosphere right now, she just needed some time to think this over. If she wanted jokes, she'd turn on the television. Justin kind of caught on that she wasn't in a mood to be humored right now after a while though, and eventually toned it down a bit, his smirk fading into a frown, his smartass remarks fading away in the back of his mind. She needed someone to be there for her right now, not a clown. If she needed that, he'd call Yosuke up.

"Hey Maya, can I ask you something?" Justin suddenly spoke up, cautiously picking his words as he began to speak to her. Maya seemed a little confused as to why Justin was asking that, unless it was a really shitty question; which honestly, it probably was. She raised her eyebrow with curiosity before reluctantly nodding her head, giving Justin the go ahead to ask whatever it was that was on his mind. "Promise you won't get upset." Justin demanded of her, still not really letting on to what he was going to ask; only that it was pretty probable that it was going to piss Maya off in some capacity. She crossed her arms, getting slightly irritated by this entire conversation before snatching the notepad out of Justin's lap again, writing down furiously on the paper; quickly, but also neatly. Partially because she stayed away from the cursive this time. It still wasn't pretty to look at, but at least you could tell what she was writing.

_I can't promise that unless I know what you're going to say. _Justin shook his head a bit at the pad of paper in front of him, the words striking him as slightly ironic. Oh how many times he had told Maya that exact same thing when she was about to propose one of her stupid plans; like that whole incident with the television. Perhaps this was meant to be some kind of ironic payback for all the times he had bitched her out for dragging him into another one of her shitty plans. Perhaps it was just that she felt it was her turn to bitch out Justin for saying or doing something stupid. Hell, maybe she didn't even remember all those times, and it was all just a coincidence. Justin would like to think that it wasn't that last option. Maybe he had forgotten Maya all those months ago, but now that she was back… he couldn't forget a thing about him and her. He hoped it was like that for her too, memories of their youth forever stored in the back of her mind somewhere beneath all her troubles.

"Well, uh… You don't have to answer if you don't want, but…" Justin began to speak, pondering whether he even wanted to go through with his inquiry. He knew the moment it popped in his head that it was a question he should never ask; but curiosity got the better of him once again. By this point Maya was losing patience though, smacking Justin in the arm and shaking her hand in an attempt at kickstarting Justin's circuitry, at getting him to say what the fuck it was he wanted to ask. If she had known the question, she might have been content just sitting there watching Justin fumble over his words, debating with himself whether he was going to spit it out or not. But she didn't, and she encouraged him to ask what was probably the most inappropriate and shitty question Justin could have asked given the timing and circumstances. "Well, uh, I wanted to know… Do you regret your last words? L-Like I mean, was there anything you wanted to say, but never got the chance to? Y-You know what I… You know what forget it; this was a bad idea."

It was quiet for a moment, Maya just staring at Justin with increasingly sad eyes. If she had known that was the question, she never would have implored Justin to ask it. For a number of reasons really; the first and foremost being that she didn't want to keep talking about her disability, especially in such a negative light. The second being she had a lot of thing she regretted never being able to say. A lot of them were stupid things, like being able to shout Happy New Years this year, or the next, or the one after that. Others, a lot more dear to heart, more important. Justin sighed after a moment, turning his eyes away from Maya and out towards the hallway. He was having trouble looking her in her face after that, her heartbroken expression piercing his soul like a steel tipped spear. Perhaps it was the very fact that it looked like he had broken her spirit that he was surprised to feel her fingers brush up against his leg as she snatched the notepad, deciding to answer Justin's assholeish inquiry. He turned to her with surprise, watching her scribble in the notepad with a hurt expression on her face. Clearly just writing this down was painful to her; which begged the question why was she writing it down in the first place. Perhaps she just needed to get it off her chest. Justin sighed as she threw the pad over to him, a frown slowly overcoming his face as he read what she had wrote down.

_I never got to tell him I love him. _Justin could practically feel his heart swallowing itself up like a black hole, melting, crumbling away as he read such a simple but powerful statement. He sighed before throwing the pad onto the table in front of him, unable to look at the words she had scribbled down without feeling tears well up in his eyes. He didn't know who it was that Maya had been talking about, but it was clear she felt passionately about him; and yet all of it was taken away from her in seconds. Perhaps there was still hope; after all, love wasn't constrained by words alone… But no matter what happened, she'd never be able to say she loved him… and that was something actions could not replicate. Justin rubbed his temples for a moment before slowly turning his eyes to Maya, just staring blankly towards the floor beneath her, head hung with sorrow. He slowly stretched his arm out to rest his hand upon her shoulder her eyes suddenly shooting over to him with surprise at the kindly gesture, but also great sorrow.

"There are other ways you know…" Justin tried to reassure her. He knew that actions wouldn't be quite the same as saying the words with your own mouth, that fuzzy sensation that caused the lips to tingle as the L word slurred against the skin. Justin could attest to that; he had shown Chie all he could, all of his love before two had ever said that they loved each other… It was a lot different. So yes, perhaps Maya could just show how she felt about the guy through actions, but it wouldn't feel the same way as just telling him. And that was something Maya seemed to understand all too well. She shook her head with disappointment, not believing anything Justin said.

"Hey, hey; look at me." Justin cut off her moment of self pity, reaching out to place his index finger under her chin, twisting her head to the side to face his. "Actions speak louder than words. It's not going to be the same thing as just telling him, I know… But that doesn't mean you can't show him how you feel." He reassured her, a gentle smile slowly creeping across his face. Maya seemed confused, averting eye contact as though deep in thought. It was probably a safe bet to assume that even if she did believe Justin, she didn't know how. How was she going to show him just how she felt if she couldn't even speak? She could barely keep her cool around the guy as it was; how exactly was she going to show him that she cared for him like that? He just didn't seem to get it, and neither did she. She eventually reached out for the pad again, scribbling down a single word, very quickly.

_How? _That was the question wasn't it? Even before losing her voice, it wasn't like Maya had the slightest clue how to get the guy to notice her; and now that she couldn't tell him even if she wanted to, it all seemed so… pointless. Like no matter how hard she tried, it wasn't going to work in the long run; at least, that's what Maya feared. Her new condition only seemed to cement that fear. After all, who wanted to be with a girl who couldn't even talk? Whose only means of communication was going to be a notepad and sign-language; the latter of which he wouldn't even understand? Justin stared at the pad for a moment. You'd think he was contemplating an answer to her question, but the very fact of the matter was, he already knew. In actuality, he was just thinking of how stupid a question it was. Didn't Maya know the answer had been right under her nose all along?

"Simple. Just be yourself; if he likes you back, it'll show. And when you think the time's right… Show him." Justin advised with a warm smile. Maya smiled a bit in return, though it took her a moment for Justin's advise to really sink in, for her to really believe anything he was saying. It was quiet, though in that moment of silence, Maya's mouth had been moving. Justin couldn't lip-read, but it was very clear what she had been saying. A simple thank you; nothing more nothing less. A commonplace expression, usually holding no significance, no meaning other than to acknowledge someone had done the other some good. Yes, it was a rather insignificant expression that would have left Maya's lips, had she the power to do so.

And yet it meant the world to him.


	156. Chapter 155: September 24, 2011

CHAPTER 155

September 24, 2011

* * *

"Justin, you are not going to believe this!"

Justin and Maya were hanging around the house, the ever haunting silence lingering over them like a plague. In a way, Chie kicking down his door with excitement was a relief to the two of them; even if they weren't really in the mood for whatever shitty idea it was Chie most likely had. After all, she never got this excited unless kung-fu and or steak was involved. Perhaps it was for that reason Justin wasn't surprised why Chie had seemed so excited, even knowing that Maya and Justin were in mourning behind that wooden door that would grant her passage to his house. In a way, it was kind of a breath of fresh air, reminding them that even though tragedy had struck Justin's household, life still went on, and their were smiles and laughs still to be had. Justin stared at her with curiosity as she ran over to the couch, diving into the seat beside Maya, phone in hand for some inexplicable reason. Maya just seemed confused by her eccentricity; though it really all made sense to her once she actually explained. Not that she'd get excited over it, but she knew Chie would practically die over it.

"Trial of the Dragon 3: Electric Boogaloo?" Justin questioned with slight sarcasm, Chie punching in some numbers into her phone quickly before turning her attention over to Justin. Seemed she had put the number in, but never pressed the dial button; perhaps to have it ready in advance. Justin groaned a bit as he crouched over to sit on the couch beside Chie, examining her with great curiosity as she stared at him with excitement. She'd excuse him for mocking her Trial of the Dragon movies this one time, if only because she was so happy about her current discovery.

"No! Aiya's delivers now!" She squealed like a little girl at a… uh… 'insert whatever male popstar is popular now here' concert, damn near jumping up in her seat as she grinned with gleeful anticipation. Justin couldn't help but look at her with disappointment; was it really worth her interrupting the two while they mourned over such a tragedy just because Aiya's delivered steak now? I mean… Justin liked Aiya's as much as the next guy, but come on. Besides… If they delivered now, when would he get the time to eat out with Chie again? Perhaps it was a bit selfish for that to be at the forefront of his mind all things considered, but matters of the heart tended to have that influence on the mind; even when it shouldn't.

"That's… great…? I don't think now's really the ti-" Justin began to express his concerns with Chie barging in just to inform him they could get steak in the mail when he was interrupted by a strange sound. Chie heard it too, and so both of their eyes slowly turned to Maya, whose stomach had started to growl at the mere mention of food. She blushed a bit with embarrassment at the sound being emitted by her digestive tracks before shrugging a bit. It was probably all this talk about food getting to her, even if they had barely even mentioned the topic. It was quiet for a moment, a certain awkward atmosphere having filled the air after Maya's unintentional interruption, though that was eventually filled with the sound of giggles coming from Justin and Chie, finding amusement in all of this. "Well, maybe I spoke too soon." Justin chuckled. He had thought that talking about food and shit was inappropriate given the circumstances, but it turns out that it was just what they needed right about now. Truth be told, Justin hadn't really seen Maya eat since she lost her voice. At first he had assumed it was just because she was afraid of swallowing anything with her throat condition, but it eventually became clear that she was much too sick to her stomach with worry and regret to eat anything.

"I'll order, what do you guys want?" Chie questioned after the two's laughter slowly died down, Maya still a bit flustered that the two were laughing at the noises her stomach were making. She was just hungry was all, no need to make a joke out of it. Still, as angry as she was with the two for mocking her stomach growling, she supposed she did need to tell Chie what to order. She didn't really know what, or care though. She shrugged after a moment; she'd eat whatever they decided to get. Justin rubbed at his chin for a moment, trying to recall the menu, before deciding fuck it.

"Get one of everything." Justin decided after a moment. They all needed a little cheering up right about now, and sure it was no feast or anything, but at least it was something. Chie and Maya looked at him with shock, almost taking that as a joke, weren't it for the fact he had said it with a straight face. After a moment Maya just shook her head, a slightly disappointed expression on her face. For starters, they didn't have any money left for that; they barely had money to order out with the lessons the two had signed up for on sign-language and all her doctor visits. Secondly, there was no way in hell either of them could eat that much. Maybe Chie could, but not Justin and Maya. She eventually reached out for her notepad and scribbled something down before passing it off to Chie; trying to do it discreetly without Justin seeing, but failing miserably.

"_Don't do that. Just get some ramen and rice." _Maya advised her through text, ignoring Justin's attempts at bankrupting thus household in one foul swoop. Chie nodded with agreement before passing the pad back to Maya, again, trying to hide the text from Justin like he couldn't see it. Or like he wouldn't know something was up when she actually placed the order. He sighed a bit as Chie pressed the dial button on her cell, getting Aiya's up on the other line after a moment of ringing. You could hear whoever was on the other side, but not clearly enough to make out WHAT it was he was saying. Chie smiled a bit as she held the phone close to her ear, hungry anticipation in her eyes. Justin swore he saw her lick her lips at one point.

"Hi, we'd like to place an order for delivery… Uh… I'll take three steaks-"

"I'll pass on the steak." Justin interrupted Chie, remembering all too well that rock hard slab of what Chie like to call meat. He'd rather not lose any more teeth over Chie's taste in food… though… Did she actually think that food they made on the camping trip was good? She didn't sound like she was too confident in it in retrospect. Chie just passed Justin a slight glare though, as if annoyed be the remark. Not because he was rejecting steak of course, but rather…

"Who said it was for you!?"

* * *

"Just leave the bowls."

"L-leave the bowls…? Where the fuck am I supposed to leave these?"

The door slowly closed to Justin's house as he walked back inside with his order. The delivery girl had arrived but a moment earlier, and despite being weird as fuck, she had food; so no one could complain. Still, Justin had no idea where the fuck he was going to leave this bowls, or WHY he was going to leave them. Couldn't he just… you know… keep them? I mean, it WAS delivery after all, and they wouldn't deliver something they wanted back, right? And they WERE some nice bowls. Justin didn't exactly have much in the ways of silverware, so he'd be pretty damn pleased to stash these in the cabinets. Of course, rules were rules; so he'd leave them on his window sill or something.

As he slowly crept his way back to the couch, Chie and Maya seemed preoccupied with something they had been watching on television; some stupid action movie that went straight to DVD, or in this case, television. It was almost a bit surprising to see Maya enjoying it as much as she was; she usually wasn't into that kind of thing. But even then, it was nice to just see her escape from her troubles for even a brief moment; even if it was just watching television and eating noodles with some friends. You know, it was funny; Justin didn't really think Chie and Maya got along all that well at first; hell Chie outright tried to avoid her when she first moved here, yet here they were, hanging out on the sofa and watching shitty television the way best buds would do. Not that Chie and Maya were best friends or anything, but you could have fooled Justin.

"Foods here." Justin remarked as he sat down, as if they couldn't already tell from the fucking doorbell ringing, putting the food down on the table so that everyone could grab their order. Maya was kind of timid about grabbing her bowl of ramen, as if she were embarrassed to eat in front of people, or afraid of spilling something on the couch. In actuality, she really was concerned about eating with her throat. She hadn't had any problems before; but having one's entire vocal cord disappear usually left concerns about doing anything involving the throat. Chie, of course, practically ripped the container housing her steak open like a Christmas present. She had no qualms about swallowing an entire slab of beef on the couch while watching television.

"This has got to be the greatest invention in the history of man." Chie remarked as she chewed on her steak, the food in her mouth muffling her voice as she stuffed her face. Justin swore if the steak didn't have a fork that came with it, she would have just ripped it apart with her hands. He briefly wondered if it were possible to be a steak-aholic, because if it was, Chie was the very epitome of it. Her friends and family were worried about her problem. DIDN'T SHE SEE HER ADDICTION WAS HURTING THE PEOPLE SHE LOVED!?

"What, steak?" Justin questioned only semi-sarcastically as he reached out to grab his bowl of ramen. He wasn't really hungry when he ordered the food, but just waiting for the stuff seemed to raise his appetite. Chie stared up at the ceiling slightly, as though legitimately pondering Justin's remark. After all, steak WAS pretty awesome.

"Well… That too." Chie remarked, as if correcting her previous statement. "But I meant Aiya's delivering; this made my whole week right here!" She remarked with pleasure, shoving another piece of steak into her mouth. Maya and Justin both passed her a look of disappointment. Maya was mute now, and all it took to remedy Chie's concerns was a fucking steak? They got that she loved that stuff, but come on; that was a little overkill. It seemed that Chie was really quite ignorant to Chie's lack of ability to talk though; or at the very least, she wasn't making a big deal out of it. Maya wasn't sure if that was reassuring that people didn't seem to care, or disappointing because… well people didn't care. There was no way to win in a situation such as this. "Thank god it's the weekend; I don't think I could take anymore school. You know exams are coming up again soon…" Chie groaned a bit, clearly not looking forward to one of the four worst times of the year; the other three being exams, exams, and exams. "How 'bout you? I mean, I guess everyday's the weekend for you, but you know what I mean." Chie questioned Justin.

Justin tilted his head to the side a bit, contemplating the question for a moment. He wanted to say how it was pretty much all going to the doctors, making sure Maya would have the skills she needed to get along with her disability. Hell, they were going to a lesson on this kind of shit tomorrow; so really, he couldn't say everyday had been a day off for him. All he had been doing was working; and he probably would be until he returned to school later this week. But of course, he didn't answer with that; he didn't need Maya getting upset again, thinking she was just a job that Justin needed to get done, an obstacle keeping him from relaxing.

"Well with all this shit with Naoto, it's not like I've been able to relax that much… My back is still killing me." Justin sidestepped the question only slightly. He answered it, but he didn't answer it that way he actually wanted to, knowing full well that Maya would just feel like a burden if he did. He didn't want her to feel bad just because he wasn't getting his kicks and jollies; it was hard work, but he really did enjoy helping Maya however he could. That was what family was for after all. "I'd say I miss school, but the only difference is I get to sleep in a bed here. I think I'll live." Justin smirked, chuckling a bit before taking a bite of his ramen, eyes focused on the television screen. Turns out it was a Bruce Willis movie; probably one of the Die Hard sequels. He wasn't surprised how shitty it was in retrospect. "So, did I miss anything important?"

"Nothing that I remember." Chie shrugged. She tried to memorize the shit the teacher's talked about, but god it was just so hard when they blabbered on about nothing at all for what seemed like an eternity. "But you know; Yosuke's been studying like non-stop. We invited him up to the roof, but he said he was busy. He's been spending all his free periods in the library. It's really weird." Chie remarked with slight concern, but also some sense of hope. Yosuke usually got shit grades because he just didn't try, unlike her, who got shit grades because she just wasn't that smart. That extra little effort just might help him in the long run; plus it just showed he could be a mature adult when he actually tried. Maya passed Chie a confused look, placing her bowl of ramen down delicately on the table before grabbing her pad a gain, writing something down and handing it to her.

"_Seriously? What's he studying?" _Chie shrugged before passing the pad back to Maya.

"Beats me. He's probably trying to get ready for the exams. Seems a bit early to start studying though…" Chie remarked, confused by the prospect herself. It seemed so out of character for Yosuke; though that was probably what made it so noteworthy. If it had been Yukiko in the library, skipping out on lunch with the group, no one would have batted an eyelash. Yosuke though? The prospect of him actually being productive during his free-period seemed so ridiculous. Justin shrugged with indifference though, not really seeing what the big deal was. So Yosuke was turning over a new leaf; good on him to actually do something smart for once.

"Well at least he's not waiting to the last minute… Chie." Justin remarked snidely, aiming a smirk her way, eyes brightly lit with jest. She only seemed flustered by the remark though. She didn't wait THAT long to study… Just a week or so. That wasn't bad right? Hell, Justin didn't even study; he didn't really NEED to, but that was beside the point.

"Hey; I study hard you know!" She tried to counter Justin's insinuation, though that only served to tickle his funny bone, causing him to chuckle with glee at his success in pissing Chie off. You know, for someone who loved her with all his heart, Justin sure loved to tick her off whenever he could. Perhaps it was just how adorable she looked when her face turned red with embarrassment that had driven Justin to do it; Justin didn't even know what compelled him to tease her like that. But it felt right; so he kept on doing it. Besides; it wasn't like Chie took too much offense to it. She always knew he was joking when he started laughing afterwards; she was only disappointed she could never catch on that his little jabs were just traps to get her to react.

"I know, I know." Justin chuckled to himself after a moment, his laughter slowly dying out. He snaked his arm around her throat, shaking her body slightly in jest, tugging her slightly closer to him. Maya just rolled her eyes before grabbing her notepad off the table again. She had never written down anything faster in her life as she threw the pad at the couple, Justin smiling and Chie's face flustered by the sudden embrace. You'd think she'd be used to it by now, hell maybe she was and it was just such an odd wonderful sensation feeling his body mass rub up against hers that she couldn't stop her cheeks from heating up with pleasure. Justin grabbed the pad that had been chucked at them, Maya crossing her arms with annoyance out of the corner of his eye.

"_Will you two get a room?" _The paper read in big bold letters, a good twelve or so exclamation remarks following it. Justin couldn't help but chuckle as he dropped the pad, dismissing Maya's inquiry as nothing less than a joke; which only went to piss Maya off. She was serious about that; she might have been over Justin, but goddamn this was still sickening to watch. It was like opening a closed wound and rubbing salt on it.

"Hey, I'm the one who pays the rent here. Unless you want to buy the house off of me…" Justin joked. That was immediately followed by Maya standing up, scribbling something down, and dropping the pad on Justin's lap before heading for the door. At first Justin thought he said something to offend her. "Wha- Hey! Come back, I was only joking!" He sighed as she walked off, middle finger raised in the air the entire way to the door. Slowly his eyes found their way to the pad on his lap, at which point he couldn't help but tear up a little trying to hold back laughter.

"_Going to the bank to get some checks. Don't you dare stain my bed while I'm gone."_


	157. Chapter 156: September 25, 2011

CHAPTER 156

September 25, 2011

* * *

"Hello ma'am; my name's Justin Tylor and this is Maya. We have a speech lesson scheduled here; could you possibly point us to where our class would be?"

Justin and Maya had made their way to a small facility on the outskirts of town. It was almost isolated from the rest of the town, but alas, that was probably for the best all things considered. Still, the two had a lesson scheduled here for this morning, so here they were; trying to navigate their way to whatever room it was they would be sitting in for the next few hours being lectured by some guy on how to do sign-language. Maya was very clearly nervous about all this; why Justin just couldn't understand. Was she worried about what people would think about her, in a place where they taught people like her to deal with her problems on a regular basis? Because if so, that was kinda stupid to be shaking in her boots about. If it was that she was worried about actually learning how to speak in sign-lanugage… Well… They'd get through it together. Justin was sure she'd get through it just fine. If he could do it, she could too. The lady smiled warmly at the two before looking around the corner of a hallway off to her side, as if checking to make sure she knew where the room was before giving the two instructions.

"Brail courses are in the hallway to your left, twelve paces and the first door on your right." She pointed out kindly, though also completely incorrectly. Justin's eyes widened with surprised confusion for a moment, only darting towards the cane in his hand after a brief moment. Of course one wouldn't really know Maya was mute unless she went to speak, so from appearances alone it looked like Justin was just a blind kid who needed to read stuff with the tip of his cane. Well, she was half right he supposed; but he had no intent on learning brail anytime soon. He shook his head and hands, trying to cut her off before she continued giving them directions that were contrary to their actual purpose here.

"Oh no, no. I just have a bad left eye; I use the cane to help me with depth perception." Justin tried to explain to her, rubbing the back of his neck with slight embarrassment. The recipient seemed kind of embarrassed too, though she was at least laughing it off as a simple mistake she had made at the very least. "We're actually here to learn sign-language." He clarified more, gesturing towards Maya with a slight nod of his head. She smiled and waved timidly, cheeks red with embarrassment as he brought attention to her and her disability. She didn't want people knowing this stuff; even the people that were supposed to help her. Even if it was incredibly obvious to anyone who so much as talked to her.

"Oh I see! You'll have to forgive me for jumping to conclusions. It'll be your first door in the hallway to your right." She corrected her directions. Justin smiled and nodded before giving Maya a light prod towards their destination, partially because she hadn't budged at all when Justin tried to take his leave towards the classroom. She was REALLY reluctant about this for some inexplicable reason. Maya sighed a bit before slowly trodding in the direction of the classroom and whoever it was that would be teaching her how to speak with her hands for the rest of her life. It wasn't necessarily that she was afraid or anything… but going to this class, it was like accepting she'd never be able to speak again. She just wasn't ready for that, even if she knew it was true, even if she knew this was the only way she'd be able to communicate again. Justin could tell she was hesitant of course, placing his hand along the length of her shoulder as the two walked to the classroom, trying to reassure her that it would all turn out for the better.

"Hey cheer up. You'll do great, I promise." Justin smiled at her. Maya smiled slightly at the remark, pleased by Justin's confidence in here; even if she wasn't all that confident in herself. T'was nice to see someone cared about the stress she was under anyway. It wasn't long before the two found their way to the classroom, Maya cautiously pushing the door open and peaking through the crack, secretly hoping he wasn't there. He was though, and even though she had tried to back away and pretend he wasn't, Justin had seen and pushed her through the now open crack of the door, the motion of which immediately caught the teacher's attention. Maya was going to have to remind herself to slap Justin later for making her life a living hell. The middle aged man inside smiled at her, making a slight gesture of his arm to invite her in. Maya was a bit embarrassed, but she waved back all the same before slowly walking to one of the few seats in the class. Given that there were only a couple more chairs than people, she got the feeling this was a private lesson: Which could be either really good or really awful. She didn't want to be ridiculed if she did it wrong. Justin followed her lead soon afterwards, tapping his cane as he walked in, much to the teacher's apparent surprise. Seemed he had thought Justin was blind too, which begged the question what he was doing in a sign-language class.

"Hi, you must be Justin and Maya?" The teacher questioned, trying not to stare at Justin's cane. It made little sense for him to take a class like this if he was blind. Though to be fair, it was also quite possible that he just had a bad leg. Seemed like he moved just fine without the cane though, and he clearly had some issues with depth perception, so he was going to just assume it was the blind thing. Still, given the movement of his pupil, you could tell he seemed to have at the very least some sense of vision. Justin nodded a bit as he approached the teacher, extending his hand for a handshake. And for the first time in forever, someone actually shook his hand back. It was like a fucking Christmas miracle.

"That would be us." Justin remarked, shaking the teacher's hand firmly as Maya took a seat in one of the few chairs available. She didn't exactly know how to introduce herself now that she couldn't speak, so she figured the best alternative was to just skip that step altogether. "You must be Mr. Kaito."

"Indeed I am." The middle aged man chuckled, waving his arms to invite Justin to follow Maya's lead and take a seat. Justin shrugged a bit, a little surprised that they were jumping right into things, though not really all that disappointed in it. The more they learned in their few precious hours with the instructor at a time, the better off Maya was going to be in the long run. Justin slowly pulled out the chair before taking his seat, followed by Mr. Kaito doing the same, folding his hands as he stared at the two from across the table that now separated them. His eyes slowly made their way to Maya, whom he was already aware was the mute one here; he figured it would be best to address her directly. "Hello Maya-chan; it's a pleasure to meet you." Maya nodded timidly in response, as though to return the pleasantry, but not really knowing how. "Your brother's told me a lot about your circumstances; don't worry, you'll know sign-language before you even know it." He reassured her.

Maya's eyes widened a bit with surprise before darting her eyes over towards Justin, shocked he had already told the instructor about all of this. Maybe it was that she didn't actually want the specifics of her condition to be known to people, maybe it was just because Justin was already blabbering about her problems to what was essentially a complete stranger; but she was actually kind of pissed off at him. She'd kick him right now if they weren't in the middle of something important. Justin just smiled at her though, that reassuring warm grin, notifying her that he was there for her; even if she really didn't like it. She sighed before turning her attention back to the teacher, though he had since turned his attention to Justin to talk to him on the matter.

"Do you or your sister know any sign-language?" He asked, hoping to get a good idea of where to start their little session. Justin shook his head after a brief moment.

"Nothing but your everyday stuff. You know, nodding, waving; that kind of stuff." Justin shrugged. He wasn't sure if that really counted as sign-language, but that probably didn't matter in the long run. Mr. Kaito wasn't going to re-teach them the sign-language equivalent of something they both understood very well. The instructor nodded for a moment, adjusting his seat so that he could face both of the teenagers at once.

"Alright, perfect; we can skip your basic greetings then…" The instructor spoke to himself as he straightened his back out a bit, adjusting himself in his seat. Justin had been doing some preparations of his own, digging into his pocket to find a pen to write in the notepad he had brought with him. They didn't have a textbook for the material, and Justin doubted he and Maya would remember all this stuff just watching the instructor act it out; so this would have to suffice as far as study materials went. "Well why don't we start with some basics…"

* * *

"See, you're getting the hang of it!"

The trio had been at it for a good couple of hours now, and were surprisingly making some pretty significant progress. It wasn't necessarily that they had been learning a lot of phrases, but what they had learned they had down pat. It had gotten to a point where Justin had stopped taking notes; turned out he really didn't need them. He'd have to remind himself to thank his doctors for finding such a fantastic teacher. Or at least he would if this wasn't so damn expensive. I mean, it was all for a good cause, and the guy did his job well, so he couldn't complain too much; but damn his wallet was hurting right about now. Still, Maya seemed to have loosened up quite a bit since they started; hell she was actually laughing a bit as she slowly started to get the hang of it, almost thrilled by how easily she was grasping the concepts. Maybe there was still hope for her and this sign-language crap.

'_Thanks.' _She motioned with her hand to the instructor, giddy with excitement over how well she was able to communicate now, where before she had to scribble in a note pad. Perhaps it was just the fact that she was getting the hang of something new; who knows. Whatever it was, she was happy; and that by extension made Justin happy. This might have cost him damn near every cent he owned, but in the end, he'd say it was worth it.

"Alright then, let's try something else: needs. Hungry, tired, bathroom; the works." The instructor spoke, moving the topic away from their previous area of basic questions: how, why, what, who, when. Kind of useless on its own, but he did teach her a couple of words that would be useful to combine with those conjunctions. And of course, it's not like Justin couldn't pick up on contextual clues when she used those words when he was translating on her behalf. Maya nodded with confirmation before slowly adjusting his seat. "Let's start with hungry. Hold your hand like this, so you're making a C shape; like holding a cup." Maya slowly extended her arm to mirror her teacher, eyes darting back and forth between her hand and the teacher's to make sure she was doing it right. "Alright perfect; then all you need to do is pull it down, like this." The instructor demonstrated, making a southbound shake with his hand.

Maya nodded before trying it out herself, shaking her hand in the same motion as the instructor. The only difference though was that there was a very slight tilt in the way she made the gesture; something that would seem trivial to the naked eye, but really made all the difference in sign-language. The teacher looked as though he wasn't sure whether he should laugh or be mortified. Still, he was very quick on the draw with his arm, grabbing her by the arm and pulling her hand away from the gesture she was making.

"Ah, ah… Not quite; you've got to do it straight down." The teacher advised. Maya and Justin both stared at him with curiosity, confused by why that would even matter. Sure, there were only so many gestures you could make with your hand, so it would be understandable that MIGHT mean something else; but even then, it was pretty clear what Maya had meant by that. It was pretty clear what she WOULD mean by that, pretty much all the time. And that was without even knowing what she had accidently gestured off instead.

"I don't really see the problem…" Justin remarked, eyebrow raised with curiosity at the teacher who had so quickly darted his hand out to stop Maya from doing whatever it was she was doing. The teacher blushed for a moment, face red as he leaned back in his chair, pressing his fingers together as he tried to think of the best way to put it. He opened his mouth for a moment to say something, though he had to pause and rethink what he was going to say.

"Well… Sign-language is a very subtle language; the slightest differentiation in angle or motion can change the entire meaning of a word… Maya-chan for example, uh… Changed hungry into hungry for sex." Maya looked as if she was trying to do a spit-take but didn't actually have something in her mouth to do it with. She was holding her wrist in the palm of her other hand though, pulling it back as if afraid of what else she might have done by accident. She had never been more mortified in her life, and it certainly showed. Justin just seemed dumbfounded, not necessarily because of what Maya did, but because it was such an easy mistake to make.

"The shit!? Why would they make those two so similar to each other!?" Justin remarked with embarrassment for Maya. He could only imagine how she was feeling right now saying that kind of thing. She was rather conservative when it came to matters of… well… that. She would never say something like that of her own freewill in a million years; accidentally wasn't much of an improvement from that. The teacher shrugged a bit, not all that offended by Justin's crass language. He could understand the frustration behind that. He'd be lying if he said he hadn't had that happen to him before in his teaching career. And it was always this embarrassing for everyone involved.

"I'm not too sure myself. I certainly wouldn't have made that decision." The teacher mused to himself for a moment before shrugging it off. "Don't worry too much about it, let's try again." The teacher turned back to Maya, encouraging her to keep going. She was a little reluctant to try again after that, though the teacher did grab her by the wrist, forcefully, but also gently extending her arm to the position, manually walking her through the gestures. "Alright, cup your hand again. Good, and then… straight down." The teacher slowly lowered her hand, making the gesture on her behalf so that she got it right this time. "Just like that. Now you try."

Maya sighed before putting her hand back in position, then thrusting her hand down… Unfortunatly at an angle again. Seemed she just couldn't get it to go straight down for some reason. The teacher rubbed at his forehead, staring at her hand again. It was like she just had a natural inclination to angle her hand when she moved it up and down; which was going to be very problematic.

"Yes… well… You'll get it eventually." The teacher rubbed at the back of his neck. Seemed this was going to take a lot more work than he thought. It might have been alright if it were any OTHER gesture she was making, but it wasn't. It was incredibly vulgar, and easily mixed up with a common phrase in sign-language. She needed to make sure she differentiated otherwise she could get in a lot of trouble with the people around her.

"And you said you didn't know how to ask that guy out." Justin chuckled a bit, trying to find at least SOME humor in this awkward moment. Of course, he should have known by now that Maya was not a fan of that kind of humor; in fact she hated it. How much did she hate it? She decided to punch Justin straight in the balls where he sat, sending him keeling over to the floor, clutching his crotch in pain as he tried to muffle screams of pain. She was going to have to remind herself to wash her hands after that. Maya soon crossed her arms and turned her head away from the now writing Justin, pouting with disgust at his rather vulgar taste in humor. And all the while the teacher just watched, not really lifting a finger to help Justin, because honestly, he kind of deserved it.

"Huh; starting to see where the cane comes from."


	158. Chapter 157: September 26, 2011

CHAPTER 157

September 26, 2011

* * *

"Figures I get you a pet turtle and you still spend more time with that damn fox than anything else."

Justin and Maya were sitting on the steps of the shrine, about midday, where Maya was hanging around with that fox she was so fond of. Justin couldn't say he felt the same; it was like everytime he saw that fox it just gave him this look, this piercing gaze that went right through his soul. He didn't seem angry or vicious or anything, but just the way he looked at Justin… It was like the creature was trying to play mind games with the guy. Still, with Maya's speech issue, he kind of had to go along with her to translate if she ever needed to talk to someone about something. Granted, he wasn't going to be able to hold this charade of constantly hovering over Maya to translate on her behalf for very long, what with him going back to school very soon and having his own social life and all, but he was going to help her with this stuff wherever he could. And he wasn't going to just deny her from doing what she enjoyed just because that fox creeped him the fuck out. Maya ignored Justin though, stroking the fur on the fox's skull as she sat near the shrine, just taking in the atmosphere and enjoying herself.

"_He's cuter."_ Maya signed off to Justin to the best of her ability. You could see she was having trouble remembering the gestures, given that she paused between each motion, enacting them slowly as if doing the sign as she remembered it; but all the same, it was clear by the time she was done that's what she meant. Justin shook his head a bit, as though unable to grasp how someone like Maya who loved every kind of animal imaginable actually had a tier list, a hierarchy of favoritism in the animal kingdom sorted by cuteness from the looks of it. He rolled his eyes a bit, leaning back in his seat along the steps of the shrine.

Despite the very clearly present wild, and possibly dangerous animal, the shrine was filled with the sight of children playing; skipping, laughing, jumping about like little kids do. One of them had actually approached the two earlier to get a ball back they had accidentally thrown the two's way. Maya had been the one to hand him back the ball, though the boy didn't seem to understand why she wouldn't speak to him, only making gestures to the man beside her. In a way, it kind of broke her heart watching the child question her why she was making all those motions to Justin, why Justin was speaking for her. Children of course had trouble holding back their curiosity, never really censoring their questions; only speaking what they truly thought. And to this child, she looked like some weirdo that had been playing a strange variation of rock, paper, scissors with her companion; and god, the amount of questions the child seemed to ask after Justin told the little boy that she was mute, unable to speak. The two eventually just decided to tell him that it was a sore throat, saving themselves the trouble of explaining she'd never talk again. He didn't need to know that anyway.

Still, despite the child's curiosity reminding Maya about her disability and just how it made her different from all of the people around her, Maya sat there, content with enjoying the company of Justin and the fox as she sat in the sunshine, the cool breeze pressing against the back of her neck, the sound of children playing filling the air like a rather pungent odor. Something about just being out of the house after everything had gone down was a nice change of pace, just moving on with her life as if nothing had ever happened in the first place. She was still struggling with her new-found silence, but it was nice to pretend it wasn't a problem, even if for only an hour in her life. Justin by this point had been twiddling a cigarette inbetween his fingers, contemplating whether or not to light one up. His anxiety was through the roof, and he felt like he needed it, but… After everything that had been said on the matter, even though every fiber of his being was trying to push the cigarette through his teeth, he just couldn't do it. It was probably a good thing in the long run, even if he was a little light-headed from quitting cold turkey.

"…You want one?" Justin spoke after a moment, holding out the cigarette to Maya. The way he saw it, best way to keep himself from smoking was if he didn't have the smoke in the first place. Not like Maya wouldn't pass it to him if he really wanted to of course, but at least it would help. Maya smiled a bit before pinching the cigarette between her fingers, the lighter being passed off into her other hand. Say what you would about smoking being unhealthy, especially with her throat, Maya enjoyed it; she wasn't going to quit anytime soon. Justin sighed with slight relief as she lit up her smoke, taking a puff of the cigarette as she handed the lighter back to Justin, a wide grin on her face. She briefly had to wonder if cops would be more lenient about catching her with this kind of stuff if she was a mute; play the guilt card and all of that crap. Probably not; though Maya didn't have any intent on getting caught anyway, so it all worked out in the end.

"I must be nuts thinking this'll work…" Justin and Maya's faces both shot up a bit, their ears responding to a familiar voice in the distance. You know it was strange; Justin was usually pissed off whenever he heard Yosuke's voice and Maya had always been ecstatic. Now it seemed just like the roles had changed. Not that Justin was happy or Maya was mad, but Maya was blushing and trying to hide behind Justin at this point, embarrassed by the prospect of seeing him after what had happened with her voice. She was afraid of what he would think of her now that she couldn't even speak. Why would you want to be friends with someone you couldn't even speak with after all? Yosuke slowly crept towards the shrine, eyes up towards the clouds as though to speak to the heavens, before finally looking straight ahead, jumping a bit as he caught sight of Justin… And Maya trying her damndest to get behind him. It didn't work. "M-Maya? Wh-what are you doing here?" Yosuke stuttered with surprise, quickly crumpling a paper he had in his hands and thrusting it into his pocket. Seemed he was trying to hide whatever it was that was written on that slip. Given that he was at the shrine right now, it could probably be assumed that whatever it was was an absolutely horrid wish; probably to get laid or something. Justin slid over to the side on the stairs, allowing Yosuke to have a clear line of sight with the girl, even though she clearly didn't want him to. She'd need to get over her disability sooner or later anyway. She blushed hard, embarrassed that she couldn't actually answer that question, eyes wide, mouth curved down in a frightful frown as she waved timidly at him to acknowledge his presence. The fox yipped for a moment before running off to dive in a bush, as if already sensing that shit was about to get awkward.

"Just getting some fresh air; you?" Justin questioned, eyes darting to his pocket for a moment. Yosuke could tell too, since he had adjusted his stance slightly to try and keep Justin's eyes away from his pocket, rubbing at the back of his neck with embarrassment as he tried to side-step the question. His business at the shrine was between him and whatever powers may be in the heavens above that would grant his wish. And by that I mean the fox.

"Oh that? Its nothing, just a to-do list. Yeah, that's it." Yosuke tried to bluff, horribly too if I might add. Justin just rolled his eyes as Yosuke made his way over to the steps to take a seat by Maya, who had slid over even closer to Justin, as if she were allergic to the guy. She wouldn't look in his general direction either, averting her eyes in the direction of Justin in an attempt at hiding her bright red cheeks from Yosuke. It seemed school was just getting out given that he was wearing his backpack. Or at least he was until he dropped it to the ground beside him, resting his back muscles from the heavy load of his books. "Hey, something wrong?" Yosuke questioned as he noticed Maya refusing to look him dead in the eye, instead opting to try and hide her face to the best of her abilities; as if that was going to change the fact that she couldn't speak, as if that would hide her sudden silence from the boy. "You feeling alright? You look kind of sick…"

Maya paused for a moment, as if to contemplate even acknowledging Yosuke's presence. After a while though, she decided as embarrassed as she was being around the boy after her accident, with her condition, she couldn't just ignore him. That would make it worse. She had to at the very least try. She moved the hair from her bangs out of her eyes for a brief moment before signing off to Justin so that he could translate, trying to hide the motion from Yosuke even though she failed miserably. Justin responded in kind by grabbing her by the shoulders and rotating her around slightly so that she wasn't facing away from Yosuke, much to her embarrassment, her cheeks heating up ever quicker as her eyes met his. Justin had no problems translating, but she wasn't going to hide it from her friends like it was some plague. They all understood and wanted to help her; not condemn her.

"She say's-"

"Not really?" Yosuke cut Justin off, much to his amazement. He wasn't sure if Yosuke was just picking up on Maya's body language or if he actually understood the motions she was making, but it was entirely true that's what she had been trying to say. Maya seemed surprised, though she wasn't sure if it was a good thing or bad thing that he could read her motions.

"You… know sign language?" Justin questioned with some annoyance as Yosuke examined Maya, trying to figure out what was wrong from appearances alone. You would think he would have caught on that when Maya said she didn't mean she felt sick; though she kind of did in a way. Sick to her stomach, sick to her heart; but not the kind of sick Yosuke thought she had been. Yosuke seemed a little caught off guard by the question, if not a bit defensive as Justin interrogated him on his knowledge of the unspoken art of language.

"Just a little." He remarked nervously, though that only served to piss Justin off a bit. It was great that Yosuke knew this stuff, if only because it meant less translating on Justin's behalf, but goddamn that would have been some useful information a couple of days ago.

"You know; I really would have appreciated knowing that before I spent all my money on lessons." Justin snarled with aggravation. He doubted Yosuke would be as good a teacher as the instructor they got was, but it would have been so fucking nice if Justin could have taught Maya this stuff and still had money for food. Yosuke averted eye contact, rubbing the back of his neck a bit with embarrassment.

"Oh uh… M-Must have slipped my mind." He remarked, cheeks red all the while, as if embarrassed, ashamed that he wasn't able to educate Maya on the matter. Besides, he only had a very basic knowledge of sign-language; he probably wouldn't be able to help Maya out in the long run. Still, after the wave of shame passed over him, his eyes soon fell back on Maya, concern for her well being. Her usually pale skin was red as hell, and coupled with the fact that she wasn't feeling good, he thought it was a fever. He never even considered that she was referring to her throat when she said she felt like shit. He slowly extended the back of his hand out to Maya's forehead, checking her temperature through touch. Of course, Maya only seemed to blush harder after that, skin heating up as his flesh met with hers. She didn't even consider for a moment correcting him on his assumptions of illness; perhaps because she was too embarrassed, too shocked to move, perhaps because she just didn't want to, even for such a brief moment. "Sheesh, you're burning a fever Maya." Yosuke remarked with concern as he pulled his hand away. Of course, she wasn't burning a fever, her skin was just growing that hot from the mere touch of his skin. Maya paused for a moment, still trying to gain her composure from the out of the blue contact of skin before making some rather quick motions of her hand.

"_I'm fine, really!"_ She insisted through the motions, almost mortified knowing what was really causing her skin to heat up to feverish temperatures. Oh she was sick alright; love sick. Yosuke didn't really seem to believe her though, which might have been good. Maya wasn't sure she really wanted Yosuke to catch on to the real reason her skin was red, her skin warm, her palms clamy. At least not here, not now, and not under these circumstances. Though given the fact that she couldn't really tell him herself anytime soon, maybe it would have been better if he did figure it out. Yosuke smiled at her for a moment, though his eyes still had that worried expression to them.

"You know, whenever I used to get sick, my parents used to give me ice cream. I don't think the local ice-cream shop's closed for winter yet." He remarked happily. Maya seemed a little confused by the notion, as to why he was inviting her out for ice cream. If it was for the company or the conversation, he was going to be very disappointed. She had began to shake her head for a moment in denial, though Yosuke apparently was refusing to take no for an answer on the matter. He reached out for her writs, accidentally grabbing her by the hand at first before readjusting his fingers and tugging her up from the ground. Maya briefly had to wonder if he was doing this on purpose just to make her heart race a thousand miles, to torture her as if she had committed some crime against humanity for being in love. "Come on; It's on me." He encouraged her. Though she didn't have much choice given that he began to drag her there anyway, as much as she firmly tried to plant her feet in the ground to stop him. It wasn't until they were towards the gate of the park that she decided to stop resisting, to just give in and go get some diary treats with the boy of her affection. Maybe things wouldn't work out with her voice now missing; and if so, it was only more reason to enjoy all the time she had with him while she could. Justin smiled as the two left, though that changed after a moment when he realized Yosuke had forgotten to throw his backpack back on over his shoulder as the two departed; he was much too enthusiastic about taking Maya out for ice cream to remember his shit.

"Wait, Yosuke!" Justin called out, trying to stop him before he rounded the corner of the shrine; though to not much avail. He just groaned with annoyance, pinching his temples as the two disappeared into the horizon line, departing to do whatever it was those two did when they were alone like that. He sighed after a moment, standing up from his seat along the ledge of the stone step and grabbing Yosuke's bag by the right strap. Of course, Yosuke being Yosuke and all, the bag seemed to have been unzipped quite a bit, and as Justin lifted the bag, its contents spilled out like an oil spill. Suddenly Justin had the strangest urge to punch Yosuke right now; especially when he had to go chasing after papers that had been stolen by the wind.

It was maybe two minutes later that he had managed to collect all the papers fluttering about in the wind and return them to their respective position in his backpack, even longer to get the books in there; seemed Yosuke had quite a bit of homework. He must have pushed off some of those reports a little too long. At least, that had been what Justin thought, but even for a guy who had a shit ton of make-up work, this seemed like a lot of work to Justin. Curious, Justin couldn't help but read off the titles of the books he had brought home, trying to decipher the mystery of Yosuke's collection of textbooks. Math, History, Physics; the works. Nothing seemed particularly out of place… Except for one book in particular.

Justin grabbed at the book with curiosity, holding it up in the sunlight for a moment to make sure he had read that title right. It seemed he had, and for that reason, he couldn't help but smile; smile for Yosuke wherever he might be at this moment in time.

In Justin's hands, with a library card sticking out of one of the pages like a book mark, was an introductory textbook on sign-language.


	159. Chapter 158: September 27, 2011

CHAPTER 158

September 27, 2011

* * *

"Chie-senpai says the steak bowl here is great. And hey, she's the expert."

Kanji and Justin were walking around and generally chilling out around the shopping district, apparently in search of food given how much Kanji kept talking about steak. Maya was out with Yosuke for the moment, albeit slightly reluctantly, doing whatever it was those two did when Justin wasn't around; and since Yosuke had a good enough understanding of sign-language, that meant Justin was free to do whatever it was HE did when THEY weren't around. And that was apparently doing absolutely nothing with whoever it was that was available. He would have hung out with Chie like usual, but school was in session. And that only begged the question what the hell Kanji was doing out here, though it was probably safe to assume he was cutting class. It wasn't really much of a surprise coming from someone like Kanji, in all honesty.

"That she is." Justin chuckled a bit to himself. If there was anything that Chie knew like the back of her hand, it was steak. That and Kung-Fu movies, though Justin was willing to bet she knew more about her sirloins than she did her kicks; and that was saying something from the girl who had kicked a hole in her wall once, amongst other things. Justin REALLY should look into getting a cup one of these days; though by this point he wasn't sure there was anything left down there to protect. The two were about to go inside to grab something to eat when they were suddenly interrupted by a police officer calling out to the two, trying to stop them where they were. Justin rolled his eyes and crossed his arms; why was it that everytime he was about to do something a cop had to ruin it for everyone involved.

"You're Kanji Tatsumi, right? I'd like to have a word with you." The cop interrupted the two as he made his way towards them, a clearly pissed off expression on his face all the while. It was clear to the two boys that whatever the cop was here for, it wasn't pleasant, and he wasn't exactly pleased to catch a glimpse Kanji. Oh yes, Justin could smell that there was going to be trouble a mile away; but what kind of trouble was still up for question.

"Huh? Yeah, well I wouldn't." Kanji denied the police officer's request to speak with him, perhaps already sensing where this was going and wanting no part in it. The police officer glared at him for a moment, not exactly a fan of the lip he was getting from the boy. In fact, he was refusing to leave here with no for an answer. He was going to talk to Kanji about whatever it was he wanted to talk about, whether Kanji liked it or not. He'd use the cuffs if he needed to.

"…Come with me." The police officer ordered, deciding to skip the pleasantries and go straight towards telling him what he was going to do if he didn't want to sleep in a cell tonight. By this point, Justin was steaming with rage. He didn't know what this was about, but it was clear the police officer was trying to use his position to push Kanji around. Kanji said he didn't want to talk to the officer, so he didn't have to; that was the law. And if the officer had a problem with it, Justin would give him reason to put someone in cuffs; and it wasn't going to be Kanji.

"I'm sorry; I don't recall you ever showing me a warrant." Justin remarked sarcastically, taking a step forward to get into the police officer's face. In actuality, that probably made things a hell of a lot worse; but hey, sometimes you just got to make a stand. Not like Justin didn't do this stuff on a regular basis anyway, but whatever. Kanji cleared his throat a bit, expressing only slight discontent in Justin's comment. He was happy the man was standing up on his behalf, that Justin had his back, but was it REALLY a good idea to bring warrants into this? He was practically admitting guilt by doing that; and Kanji was most certainly not guilty of whatever it was this cop was trying to accuse him off.

"Ah… You're the kind that's Tatsumi's been hanging out with lately. I see. So you're in cahoots…" The officer sneered at him, clearly not pleased that the boy was demanding a legal explanation for why he was here. Probably because he DIDN'T have a warrant; but the teenager didn't need to know that. Justin was getting pretty pissed off now, throwing his arms up with exasperation and shaking his head in the process, as if to call the cop a complete fucking idiot.

"So what if we hang out? What's it to you?" Kanji shouted back with irritation and annoyance. It was one thing to call him out and call him a delinquent; it was another to try and shift the blame to his friends when they were innocent of whatever crimes it was Kanji was being accused of committing. The tension in Justin's forehead slowly increased as word after word left the cop's mouth, anger flowing through his veins, irritation gritting his teeth together. He quickly thrust his hand in his pocket before sticking a tooth pick between the crevices of his teeth. He had briefly considered lighting up a smoke in front of the cop and blowing the smoke in his face; but then he realized how fucking stupid that idea was. Plus Maya had his lighter and smokes, since she was the only one who smoked them these days.

"…You know there's been a group of teenage bullies lurking around here, don't you? We got a tip saying you've been threatening a child at the hill and the flood plain." The officer snarled at Kanji, accusing him of shit he hadn't even done. Why? Because he had a reputation? That wasn't evidence that he had done anything wrong. And an anonymous tip is NOT grounds for harassing a teenager or throwing one in cuffs. They had to get fucking evidence that this was true first for Christ's sake. But no, it was much easier to just blame the kid with a bad reputation, right? They just wanted to take the easy way out and collect their paychecks for sitting on their asses and not doing their jobs.

"Threatening? Child…?" Kanji questioned with confusion. It took him a moment before he realized that the police officer was referring to the little boy he was always knitting shit for, which only served to annoy him. For starters, he didn't want to acknowledge he had any involvement with that boy, especially when it was all knitting and shit. Secondly, he did NOT bully him, and he was annoyed these coppers were even assuming that. Hell he HELPED that boy; he wasn't going to stand for being bad mouthed for something he didn't even do. "Oh, him."

"Hmph, so you admit it. Not a shred of remorse, either." The copper remarked with annoyance, taking a step towards Kanji in what looked like a half-assed attempt of scarring the shit out of him… or perhaps just getting in a position to cuff the guy. At least that had been the intention until Justin slid in front of Kanji, already seeing where this was heading. He wouldn't fight Kanji's battles for him; after all, Kanji could do that on his own no problem, but he wouldn't just stand by and let the guy get arrested for something he was innocent off.

"In what crazy world do you live in where knowing the child in question is a confession?" Justin snarled at the officer. "I don't suppose you have any proof to back up your claims? No, of course not; because that's not what happened and you're pulling shit out of your ass." Justin lectured him, annoyed at how he was accusing Kanji of doing the exact opposite of what he had actually done. The police officer, needless to say, was less than amused by Justin's back talk, even less so his language. If it wasn't clear enough by appearances alone, Justin's attitude had since made it clear he was a bit of a delinquent itself. Or at least as close to being a delinquent as you could get without actually being a delinquent, if that made sense. Like there was a fine line of delinquency, and Justin was just stepping all over it, walking across it like a tight rope.

"Oh? So tell me… What was he doing?" The copper questioned, demanding their side of the story if they were going to just lie to his face. Kanji, of course, wasn't exactly fond of the idea of people knowing he had been knitting stuffed animals for the boy, and was rather reluctant to answer. He rubbed at his neck with embarrassment for a moment, unable to force himself to admit to the actual nature of the two's constant meetings. And that was a problem when you were facing a cop who was breathing down your neck, suspecting you of harassing the person in question. "That's what I thought. You two are going to have to come with us down to the station." Justin's eyes widened with shock and anger. The hell did he mean two? He wasn't cool with them harassing Kanji, but he'd be damned if he went down with him. What, because Justin wasn't going to stand for this shit, he was going to get tossed in the slammer too? Fuck. That.

"Over my cold, dead body." Justin glared at the cop, taking a step forward and getting into the police officer's face in an attempt at intimidating the officer. Alas, there was a problem with threatening to disobey an order from an officer of the law, especially over your corpse, and just as quickly as Justin had gotten within a few inches radius of the copper, the officer grabbed a hold of the boy and turned him about shoving him into a nearby wall, using it as a brace as he snapped some cuffs on the boy. If he wasn't going to come quietly, they'd bring him in by force. "The fuck is this!? Get your damn hands off me!" Justin shouted with anger as he struggled to get out of the grasp of the iron cuffs along his wrists, kicking and screaming bloody murder as the officer pressed him against the wall.

"Now wait a sec! Senpai has nothin' to do with this!" Kanji shouted as the cop pressed Justin against the wall, preparing him for a nice cozy cell down at the station. This was unacceptable; Justin just happened to be a bystander and now he was going to jail because he hung out with Kanji? It was bad enough that Kanji didn't even do anything wrong, but now his friends were being punished just because they knew the guy? This wasn't going to happen; not on his watch. Kanji was actually considering punching the cop out right there and then, but he was interrupted by the sound of a familiar voice.

"Oh, Mister. What are you doing?" The group's eyes all fell upon the young boy as he approached them, a look of curiosity on his face as he stared at the police officer holding Justin against the wall, his skin scraping against the bricks as he stared at what could be his one hope at freedom at this point. He was only glad he didn't have his cigarettes on him; not so glad he had the gun with him. It was a moment before the cop fully turned his attention away from Justin, loosening the force he was applying to keep Justin pinned to the wall only slightly as he turned to the boy.

"You know these boys, kid? Can you tell me how you know them? I don't think they're being straight with me." The officer began to question the boy, passing a sight glare to Justin who continued to struggle to break free of his restraints. Justin should have known that resisting was only going to get him into more trouble; he should have quit while he was in cuffs. Kanji spat with disgust as the officer clearly tried to put the boys in a negative light in front of the child, most likely so he could manipulate the child's answer to his own agenda.

"The hell are you telling that kid!? You call yourself a cop!?" Kanji insulted the officer, annoyed at the way this was being handled. Justin was in cuffs just for knowing Kanji, and this officer was trying to alter the boy's testimony to paint the boys in a negative perception. Justin jolted his body, trying to get the cop off of him, but he wasn't having much success in that regard. Instead he just growled at the officer, briefly considering spitting in the fucker's face before realizing that would just get him in more trouble.

"He's got me pinned against the wall for no reason other than being in the same vicinity as you; I think it's safe to assume he's no cop, just a pig wearing a badge." Justin insulted the officer, though doing so while biting his tounge and keeping his foul language to himself in the presence of a child. The last thing that boy needed was Justin swearing up a shitstorm, especially when he was being interrogated about the two teenager's characters.

"Did this boy ask you for anything? For instance, did he claim he lost his money?" The officer asked, again, steering the question in an attempt at extorting a certain answer from him. It was almost painful for Justin to listen to this cop, knowing full well the cop was going to make the two out as villains, even though they were innocent of any crime. Except maybe having an illegal firearm in Justin's case. He never thought he'd ever actually be in cuffs, so he never saw much reason in leaving it at home. He was starting to see some fault in that logic now.

"You lost your money, Mister? You can have some of mine!" The boy spoke up with concern for Kanji and his missing wallet. In a way, it was kind of cute how generous the boy was being for a man who made him dolls from time to time; but god be damned if the cop was going to take it that way. He was just going to pretend that the boy's generosity was brought on by trickery on Kanji's behalf, that he was only offering Kanji a single dime because he had been scammed into it.

"Just as I thought…"

"You're a real piece of work, you know that? I hope they take your badge and freakin' burn it!" Justin snarled at the officer, disgusted with his deception. He was a textbook shitty cop; as if he didn't hate cops enough as it was without being wrongfully incarcerated for crimes the officer had made up. Justin had never wanted to kick anyone's ass more in his entire life, and yet, it was the only time he couldn't if he wanted to keep his freedom. It disgusted him to think this officer could very well get away with this bullshit.

"Oh, but I came today to give you the cookies Mom baked as thanks. I was going to sneak in and leave them at Tatsumi Textiles, but here you are." The boy remarked happily as he handed off a Ziploc bag full of sugar cookies to Kanji. He was more than a little surprised by the kind gesture, and while under normal circumstances he would have denied these, he kind of was being watched by the cop to see how he would react, so he had to play it cool. The cop seemed more than a little confused by what the boy could possibly be thanking Kanji for, especially if he had been bullying him. Perhaps it was just more trickery on Kanji's behalf.

"Thanks? Thanks for what?" The cop questioned with curiosity, as if he were ACTUALLY going to do his job and hear every side of the story instead of jumping to conclusions and throwing the first person he saw into cuffs. The boy smiled, blissfully ignorant to what was going on in front of his eyes; like Justin getting arrested. Not like Justin had any intent on going to jail. He'd fucking run with the cuffs and saw them off later if he needed to.

"He made me a bunch of dolls, like a bunny and a cat. He's real good!" The boy cheerfully went on to a tangent all about the dolls Kanji made, much to his embarrassment. Looked like the cat was out of the bag, even though that was probably a good thing since Justin had iron clamps around his wrist right now. The police officer however, being the huge fucking douchebag he was, didn't believe the child in the slightest. After all, Kanji looked like a troublemaker, so he MUST be a troublemaker. Logic at its finest right there.

"Dolls!? And you're saying Tatsumi made them? What a load of… There's no way you're getting me to believe that." The officer denied the child's claims, refusing to believe that Kanji could possibly have made him dolls. Sounded like some bullshit that Kanji told the child to say if he were ever to get caught red handed. By this point, Justin had lost any patience he had. The child out right said Kanji wasn't doing anything and the cop refused to believe the fucking victim. What. The. Fuck.

"Oh for crying out loud! You are the world's worst goddamn cop, you know that? Kanji, will you just confirm already so I can get these damn things off of me." Justin turned his rage from the officer for a moment so that he could plead with Kanji to just man up and confess. He wouldn't have asked Kanji to spill his guts like that if he WASN'T at risk of getting arrested, but he was. So it was either he fessed up, or Justin was looking at a couple years in the slammer once they found the gun in his pocket. Kanji stared at Justin for a moment, as if contemplating whether it was worth getting him out of the cuffs… but of course, Justin was his friend. And friends don't leave friends behind. His expression of embarrassment slowly shifted to one of angered determination. He wasn't going to put up with this shit from the police anymore than he already had.

"Yeah, Senpai. I got it!" Kanji remarked with determination, nodding before slowly narrowing the gap between him and the police officer, as if to mimic the move Justin had made to get him in cuffs. Not a smart move, but a bold one all the same. "Awright, listen up, punk… There ain't any lying about it. I made the kid some dolls. What with the ones for his friends and his mom, it was eight all told! And lemme warn you… They're so cute, they'll give you diabetes- the instantly fatal kind!"

"Cute gives you diabetes? Shit, wish someone told me that years ago." Justin mused out loud for a moment, interrupting Kanji's mini-rant against the police officer. He found some humor in the remark, though his facial expression was one of slight shame as he quickly turned his eyes down to the little boy. "Oh uh; sorry. Don't say that 's' word I just said." He ordered the child, realizing he had slipped up and dropped one of the big swears. He didn't consider freakin' or damn as swears, so he hadn't apologized for that, but he didn't want the small kid going around saying that, had he not heard it before. The boy nodded with confirmation, not really sure what Justin was getting at, but still blissfully ignorant to everything going on around him.

"So what, you want me to teach you how to make 'em!? Huh!? You 'bout to say that ain't like me, right? Go ahead and laugh, dammit! Like I care. I'm used to being pointed at. And what's most important is, I ain't gonna make this kid or Senpai a liar!" Kanji stood up for the two, earning a grin of support from Justin. Or at least until he got pushed into the wall a second time to stop him from squirming. He was seriously considering mule kicking this fucker in the balls by this point. "Hey you! That button's falling off! I'm gonna sew it back on, y'hear!?" Kanji mock threatened the cop, much to his great discomfort and confusion. He wasn't sure what to make about all of this; it certainly wasn't the reaction he was expecting, that's for sure.

"Huh? What's going on here?" Justin wasn't even sure whether he should be happy that more people were showing up, or annoyed about all of this. He settled for a little bit of both, rolling his eyes and shrugging his shoulders to the best of his ability as Adachi approached the group, a cup of coffee in his hands and a very confused expression on his face. Justin supposed the bright side to this was that Adachi was a cop too, so maybe he could talk some damn sense into the officer holding him against the wall. At least, he hoped people took Adachi seriously on the force; he kind of was a nitwit at times. The officer holding Justin against the wall seemed a bit panicked at the very least.

"Oh, Detective Adachi!" The officer remarked almost frantically, significantly decreasing the force by which he was holding Justin in place, as if he already knew he was doing something stupid. "We've got reports of bullying around here; I'm taking these suspects in for questioning on the matter." Adachi's gaze swapped back and forth for a moment with confusion, then eventually what looked like turmoil. It was hard to explain, but you could tell the guy was pondering something. He took a sip of his coffee before sighing, avoiding eye contact with the officer.

"Yeah, I heard something about that… They aren't your culprits though." Adachi remarked starring at Justin with sympathetic eyes… or perhaps with pity. Whatever it was, he was discontent. The police officer stared at Justin with confusion. "These two were with me at the time; I can confirm their alibi." The officer turned his gaze to Justin, who was smirking triumphantly, then back to Adach, still very much confused. He was having a hard time believing that; even if Adachi was trustworthy.

"What exactly were you doing with delinquents like this?" The officer questioned, much to pretty much everyone else's annoyance. They thought it had pretty much been established that they were NOT like that; but hey, this guy was a stubborn fuck apparently. Adachi shook his head with shame for the police officer. Those two might have had an odd tendency of getting involved in things they shouldn't have, but they were far from delinquents.

"Oh, uh… They're not those kinds of kids." Adachi somewhat sidestepped the question, having trouble thinking of a good circumstance to meet the both of them under. He could say he met one of their families for dinner or something; but that would only cover ONE of their alibis. Both? He really couldn't think of an excuse. "You can uncuff him; I'll take care of him." Adachi advised, making a gesture towards Justin's cuffs. The officer stared at Adachi with disbelief for a moment before sighing and unlocking the metallic clamps that had been attached to Justin's wrists. Justin rubbed at his wrists as the cuffs were removed, happy to get those things off. They hurt a lot more than they looked, apparently.

"Your problem now." The officer remarked before storming off, pissed off at his lack of results, at the detective's intervention. He didn't want to release Justin, but he was sure he'd get in a lot of trouble for disobeying a detective's orders. It wasn't worth the hassle really. Justin sighed as he watched the officer walk off, no doubt to repeat what he had done to him and Kanji to some other unsuspecting teenagers. It was silent between the group for a moment, save the occasional sound of Adachi slurping his coffee.

"Thanks Adachi; you didn't have to do that." Justin thanked him for his services, knowing full well if they caught Adachi lying about this, he'd be in a lot of trouble. He could actually lose his job if they figured out he was throwing the officer off from his investigation, even if he WAS technically correct. He just didn't know it. Adachi was quiet for a moment, as if he hadn't just heard Justin; though he eventually responded. Not in that happy-go-lucky manner he usually did though for some reason.

"Well, I still owe you for covering for me with Dojima. What are you kids doing out at this hour anyway? Aren't you supposed to be at school?" Adachi questioned with slight concern. Justin and Kanji passed a slight glance at each other. Justin had an excuse; Kanji did not, so this could be problematic. Justin trusted Adachi not to cause a stir over Kanji, but… It would probably be a good idea to lie about it. Just in case.

"It's a long story; let's just say we got suspended and leave it at that." Justin grimaced a bit, worried that Adachi was going to take him as some sort of criminal scum now that he admitted to getting kicked out of school for a couple of weeks. Strangely Adachi just seemed to smile though, as if finding amusement in their punishment; non-existant or otherwise. He chuckled slightly after taking another sip of his coffee.

"Same thing used to happen to me all the time in high-school." Adachi chuckled with nostalgia, finding amusement in the teenager that reminded him so much of himself at that age. Justin couldn't help but laugh along with him, even if he had no reason TO laugh. Perhaps it was just that laughter was contagious as fuck. Maybe it was just because he was happy to not go to jail.

"You know Adachi; they need more cops like you." Justin complimented as the laughter died down. "You actually know how to do your job; that guy didn't care who got in trouble so long as he got a paycheck." Justin continued to chuckle abit. Adachi's laughter had completely died down at that point, almost cutting off as Justin's compliment went on. For some reason, it didn't really FEEL like a compliment to him. Just a bunch of bullshit.

"Oh, ahaha… I don't think I'm THAT good."

"But you're better than him at least. I think that counts for something."


	160. Chapter 159: September 28, 2011

CHAPTER 159

September 28, 2011

* * *

"I shit you not, the fucker put cuffs on me. It took every fiber of my being not to spit in the prick's face."

The investigation team had been out at an old basketball court near the flood plains; worn down, but still pretty sturdy from the looks of it. They were for the most part just throwing a ball around that Yu had borrowed from practice; not really playing a game, though they were shooting and passing and all of that shit. Everyone was out on the court, save for Yukiko and Rise, who had opted to just watch from a nearby bench as the rest tossed the ball around, conversing over whatever was on their mind; and of course Kurt wasn't present either, because… well… why would he be? He may not have liked leaving those kids alone in that place like that, but that didn't mean he didn't have better things to do than babysit a bunch of teenagers twenty four seven. Teddie wasn't there either, but of course; that was probably another intentional decision on the team's behalf. Teddie could be rather annoying at times, so they'd rather he not ruin the game by trying to eat the basketball or something. So that left all of the guys, Justin included surprisingly enough, and Chie and Maya on the court, dribbling and taking pot shots at the basketball hoops.

"He tried to arrest you!? For what!?" Chie shouted with aggravation, tossing the ball over to Justin. Justin shrugged a bit, as he caught the ball, bouncing it against the pavement beneath him, but not really dribbling it. Probably because Justin had not athletic prowess whatsoever and didn't actually KNOW how to dribble. Regardless, he rebounded the ball off the ground beneath him a couple times before responding, catching the balls in his hands and grasping onto it firmly.

"I don't know; He just felt like adding to his arrest record I guess. And since Kanji and I are 'delinquents' we were the first people on his chopping block." Justin shrugged before tossing the ball over to Maya. If there was anything the group had learned during this little session of theirs, it was that Justin could not shoot a basket to save his life; so even though he was mere feet away from the basketball hoop, it would be reckless to let him attempt to make that shot. Even if they weren't keeping score or playing a traditional game. "It's a good thing Adachi came around when he did; I could have gotten into some pretty deep shit if he didn't bail us out like that."

"Pfft, you know those charges weren't gonna stick; they didn't have anything on us." Kanji remarked with slight annoyance towards the topic at hand, watching as Maya attempted to take a shot at the hoop. She was having just as shitty luck as Justin by this point, which was saying something. She used to be pretty damn athletic before all the shit went down with the television; but once she stopped eating, she just didn't have the strength or willpower to keep it up. After that, her muscles just got weak over time; it was part of the reason she always got so sick from running around too much. Even then, though, it seemed pretty unlikely that Maya's problem with scoring baskets was related to her physical health. No, it was much more likely that her heart just wasn't into it. It was clear to everyone that Maya was having a hard time coping with life now that she couldn't speak; even things that wouldn't require talking just seemed to lose their magic without it. And sure, she had been getting better, closer towards acceptance of her condition, but she was still a ways off.

"Uh, yeah… sure…" Justin mumbled hesitatingly. Maybe they didn't have anything on Kanji; but they'd have plenty on Justin if they decided they wanted to turn out his pockets; which they most certainly would if he came in with cuffs. A couple of strange glances were passed Justin's way, perhaps because the group was picking up that there was something he wasn't saying. Hell, Kanji was there, and even he was a little suspicious of whatever it was Justin was trying to hide from them. The only one who actually knew what he was talking about was Maya; who had seen him slip the gun in his back pocket on several occasions. The first time she saw it, it scared her half to death; she wouldn't lie and pretend that after all that happened she was okay with laying her eyes on a pistol again. It horrified her watching Justin carry around the killing machine that had ruined their lives, as if watching him follow the same deranged path she had years ago, as if handing him that pistol years ago had turned him into some kind of killer or gangster. But she kept her mouth shut; she never said a word of it to him or the rest of the group out of pure fear. She didn't speak of the gun then, and she wouldn't speak of it now; even if the sound of that thing firing off in the television world sent a shiver down her spine. Even if every time she saw that metallic gleam, she could feel her heartstrings tensing up in dreadful anticipation.

Yosuke slowly made his way towards Maya as the ball bounced backtowards her, rolling to a stop at her feet, picking the ball up and handing it back off to her. Only, as he let go of the ball, he slowly circled around to her back side, grabbing at her arms the way one would when instructing a child how to do something. Maya, of course, immediately turned red with embarrassment; not sure how to react to this. He never did this kind of stuff when she could speak; save maybe the summer festival a while back. She wasn't really sure what to make of it all in all honesty. "You're shooting a little too high, try aiming it from here." He instructed her, his voice flowing sweetly though one ear and out the other. She didn't exactly have much to say about all of this; how to express how she felt about this, and even if she did, she doubted she'd have the guts to tell him. Instead, she simply nodded, allowing him to move her arms into position before she attempted to throw it again. This time it rebounded off the back board and into the hoop with one foul swoop. Seemed Yosuke knew more than you would have thought about basketball. Maya smiled with satisfaction as the ball swiped through the net beneath it; hell she looked like she would have jumped for joy if people weren't watching. Which was probably smart, because it wasn't like she painted the Mona Lisa or anything; she shot a basket. Now if JUSTIN had managed to pull it off, that would be a different story. "See? There you go." Yosuke smiled at her before backing away, catching the ball bouncing back their way.

"So Adachi busted you guys out?" Yu questioned, catching the ball as Yosuke passed it off to him. Yu, being on the basketball team and all, decided that would be the perfect time to be a show off and spin the ball around on his finger with little to no effort. The ball stayed in motion for a good while too, not so much as tipping from side to side on his finger tip as Yu spoke to Justin. Justin nodded before snatching the ball out of his hands, partially because he was sick of Yu rubbing it in his face how much better at sports he was, partially because he wanted to focus on the conversation and not Yu's handling of a basketball.

"Oh yeah, he blew a hole in our cell wall with dynamite; there was a helicopter and everything involved. Should have seen it." Justin remarked sarcastically, jumping up to try and score a shot of his own with the basketball, to no avail. Justin sighed and shook his head as the ball fell completely short of the net, like he didn't even have the strength to toss the ball far enough to make it in the basket. "And yet another reminder of how much I suck at not being a couch potato." He groaned as Kanji ran off to grab the ball and bring it back to the group.

"Funny; you know what I mean." Yu rolled his eyes, though he chuckled all the same. It was hard to tell if he really thought it was funny, or if he was just being sarcastic, but Justin supposed that certain questions just weren't worth being answered. He'd be more than content not knowing the true intention behind that remark; with just pretending Yu thought Justin was one hell of a comedian. After all; if he lost his sense of humor, what else did he have left?

"Yeah; amazing the kinds of strings a detective can pull, eh?" Justin chuckled. It was pretty clear that the officer had let go of the cuffs reluctantly, so it could most likely be assumed the only reason the cop had let the teenagers go was because he had no other choice. And that meant that Adachi had probably pulled some serious rank shit to get Justin away from a cell. "Mark my words; Adachi is by far the best cop in this god forsaken town." Justin remarked as Kanji threw the ball back over to the group. Justin caught it, but he was very quick to pass it off to Yosuke. He was done making an ass out of himself. Well; almost anyway.

"Justin!" Chie shouted in a shocked tone. It wasn't the part about Adachi being the best cop in town that had struck her the way it had; even if that was kind of an insult in and of itself. Last she checked, Adachi did nothing but slack off and run his mouth when he wasn't supposed to. He was a nice guy, but god damn was he an awful cop. No siree, it was the part where Justin referred to Inaba as 'this god forsaken town.' Inaba was a nice play; and for the most part, it had accepted Justin as if he had been born here. The least he could do was show it some respect. Justin shook his head and waved his hands in a defensive manner.

"Sorry, slip of the tongue. Didn't mean it like that." Justin tried to defend himself. He liked Inaba; really he did. He wasn't a fan of it being small; just meant that people knew who he was, that he couldn't really blend with the crowds because crowds were pretty much non-existant here, but as a whole it was a wonderful town full of kind people. And besides, anything was an improvement over the Ritalin rats of the back alleys in San Diego. Chie sighed with disappointment, though she supposed she couldn't be too angry at the guy for one remark. He HAD said far worse after all.

"Not gonna lie Justin, Adachi''s… Kind of, uh… How do I put it…" Yu rubbed at his chin, debating what the best way of describing Adachi would be without offending anyone. It was no mystery to the group that Adachi was a slacker and a blabber mouth, both really hard traits to associate with a good police officer. Sure, he did his job, and usually he did it well, but… Yu wasn't sure he could consciously say Adachi was the best cop in this town. He was about average in almost every regard, and that's not counting his crippling flaws, laziness being the primary offender.

"Lazy? Talks to much?" Justin spoke on behalf of Yu, who was almost surprised Justin was filling in the blanks with a smile on his face; like he wasn't even offended that he was insulting Adachi's character. Yu didn't really know much about it, but he had heard Adachi make a passing reference or two about him and Justin while he was over for dinner, so it could probably be assumed the two were friends at the very least. Justin chuckled a bit. "Yeah he may be lazy, but he's an honest cop that knows how to do his job. He doesn't let his paycheck get in the way of his sense of justice. Last I checked, that's what defined a good cop." Justin remarked. The others just shrugged. They were sure there was more to it than that, but they weren't really going to change Justin's mind on the matter. Besides; they weren't here to discuss whether or not Adachi was a good cop. They were here to just have fun and unwind after school… Or absolutely nothing in Justin's case. Speaking of school, actually…

"So; you're coming back to school tomorrow, right?" Chie questioned, grabbing a hold of the ball as Yosuke passed it off to her. Why they were passing the ball instead of shooting hoops was really up for question, though Justin sure as hell wasn't objecting. He could pass a ball no problem; if there was ANYTHING he was good at, it was putting the burden of athletic prowess on someone else. Justin groaned a bit, shaking his head. He wasn't really looking forward to going back in all honesty.

"Yep; I almost forgot what a massive pain in the ass homework was too." Justin remarked only semi sarcastically. He had hoped to push it all off until the last minute, but it turns out that three reports in one days was a HUGE overkill. So instead he just copy pasted a Wikipedia article. You'd think that was a bad thing, but it wouldn't be the first time he had done it to get out of doing homework and gotten away with it. And what were they going to do if they caught him? Suspend him again? Sounded like fun, honestly.

"It'll be nice having you back." Chie smiled warmly, sliding ever so slightly closer to Justin, just close enough to whisper in his ear. "You know, it's just not the same with your seat empty." She whispered sweetly, pulling herself away and giggling to herself. Justin was a little confused by the gesture, though his cheeks grew red hot all the same. It was pretty damn noticeable too, given that Maya had actually started to chuckle a bit at Justin's red face. Well; as much as she could without being able to make noise that is. It sounded more like weezing than anything, but the way she was hunched over and had her mouth covered by her hand; it was clear she was laughing. It still filled her with disgust watching those two get all lovy-duby; but it never got old how Justin's face looked just like a tomato when he got embarrassed. Justin bit his lip a bit, trying his damndest to cool his face down with sheer willpower. It didn't really work. Though, Maya's sudden laughter fit had reminded him about something he wanted to ask her.

"Hey… Uh, Maya…" Justin rubbed at the back of his neck. "I know you probably don't want to talk about it; but are you going to be alright with me gone…? You know, with the whole sign language thing?" Justin questioned somberly, a little disappointed that he had to discuss this with her. He just wanted to make sure she'd be alright with him away, with no means of her communicating with people if she needed to. Maya's giggle fit died out almost immediately, replaced by a sorrowful frown. Why did Justin have to bring that up of all things? She was trying to forget about, and he just kept shoving it down her throat. It was quiet throughout the entire court as Justin brought up something they had all been trying to ignore. They didn't care if she could speak or not, but at the same point, they could only imagine how devastating it was for her, how it must feel to not be able to speak to your friends and loved ones. They didn't know how to approach that kind of situation, so they did the next best thing: they ignored it. Yosuke frowned with sorrow as all signs of joy faded from Maya's face, only sorrowful resentment across the corners of her lips, eyes wide, but shineless. He bit his lip for a moment before slowly approaching Maya, placing his hand along the width of her shoulder blade in a reassuring manner.

"Hey; she'll be just fine." Yosuke smiled at her, though Maya just stared back with this wide-eyed gaze, like a child who had just been taught the true meaning of Christmas. She didn't know what she would say now if she could, all she knew was she felt strangely… happy to have the brown-haired boy supporting her, putting his faith in her, even over something as silly as communicating with others. Made her feel like she could do anything; just because he believed in her. She slowly began to smile at the boy, knowing no other way to communicate the way he made her feel about him.

And for just a brief moment, it felt like time had just stood still as she basked in the sunshine of his love.


	161. Chapter 160: September 29, 2011

CHAPTER 160

September 29, 2011

* * *

"Just needed some fresh air from the inn. You wouldn't believe how much they tease me about Yu."

Justin and Yukiko were hanging around the shrine after school, just kind of sitting there and talking about random shit. You know, it was strange; Justin considered Yukiko a really good friend of his, but they never actually talked or hung out around each other outside of the main group. Sure they walked to school together, but Chie was there too, so it wasn't QUITE the same thing. This would mark the first time in a long while it was just the two of them sitting around talking about bullshit. At the moment, it was the topic of work at the inn; seemed Yukiko was getting really tired of having to devote all her freetime to that place, which Justin could understand. It was HER freetime, and not theirs after all. But a job is a job, and someone has to do it; so she put up with constantly being dragged from her social life to work at the inn.

"Now, they're saying I should bring him home… Adults are so quick to poke fun at me… It's such a hassle, isn't it…? B-But of course my family runs an inn, so guests come by all the time…" Yukiko continued to muse out loud on the topic of Yu. It was a little awkward for Justin, to be honest, listening to her concerns in regards to the two of them, but he listened all the same. After all, he could relate in a lot of ways. Not necessarily the bringing him home part, since Justin could do that with Chie anytime. It was one of the few perks of having dead parents. No, it was more so the OPPOSITE; Chie couldn't really bring Justin to her house because her father flipped his shit at the mere sight of the boy. You'd swear Justin kicked in his door one day dressed up as a Vietnam vet and shot up the place with a machine gun or something with the way he acted.

"Maybe you should invite him; Yu's well-behaved enough, right?" Justin suggested, though that only served to make Yukiko blush really hard. It was bad enough her parents and the inn's staff were doing this kind of stuff to her, she didn't need Justin doing the same. Of course, Justin meant no harm by that; he simply thought it would be nice for Yu to meet her parents. He'd have to do it eventually anyway, and at the very least they could see he was a good kid. Which was more chance than Chie's parents… well, father, ever gave him. She shrugged after a moment.

"I don't know…"

"Oh, Yuki-chan!" The two were interrupted by the voice of a man approaching them. By this point Justin was keeping count of how many times this has happened now. Seventy two… Okay, maybe not quite that much; but it had to be close. The two's eyes fell upon the sight of the deputy mayor approaching the two, a look of curiosity on his face. Not towards the two sitting there at the shrine of course, but rather the fact that Yukiko had been here. "The people at the inn seemed very busy. Is something going on?" The deputy mayor questioned. He needed to know if there was a big event in town so he could prepare. Yukiko just seemed confused though.

"Huh?" Yukiko questioned after a moment, not really sure why the inn would be busy. Or at least; she hadn't at first, but then it struck her like a runaway train out of Chicago. Within a split second, Yukiko's demeanor had change from one of calm confusion to one of panicked worriment. "Oh no! Today was the interview for the travel show!" She shouted, gasping a bit as it suddenly struck her that she had something she was supposed to do today. She had forgotten all about it, and yet here she was sitting at the shrine and wasting time with Justin. The deputy mayor nodded, giving a small grin before rushing off to make preparations, leaving Yukiko behind to fret about how late for the interview she was.

"You're going to be on TV?" Justin remarked with curiosity. She had been on television before, but Justin hadn't seen it. In all honesty, being on television wasn't all it was cracked up to be these days thanks to the murder investigation. But still, the thought of being on television somewhere across the country… It was kind of exciting, wasn't it? Yukiko tilted her head to the side a bit as she stood up from her seat.

"Well… sorta. I'm not the one that's getting interviewed. It's for a travel show. It looks like a serious show, and we agreed to it because my mother and I won't be filmed. But they need me to help clean, so I have to go now." Yukiko bowed her head a bit; and for just a brief moment, it seemed as if she were ready to run as fast as she could back to the inn. Well, she had anyway until she was cut off again by a familiar face running up to her. Justin didn't recognize the woman, but it was pretty clear that Yukiko did. "Kasai-san? What's wrong?" Yukiko questioned the woman as she came to a stop in front of her, breathing heavily as she stood in front of Yukiko, a look of panic and concern on her face.

"That TV crew came, but don't go to the inn! It was a trick! It's those people from that 'news of the weird' show! And I think they're looking for you! So stay put, you got that?" She ordered Yukiko with concern. Justin couldn't help but growl a bit under his breath as he stood up, straightening his spine out. He remembered that news report from a while back they tried to do with Yukiko; and she wasn't too pleased about it then. Somehow, Justin got a feeling it was the same show. And the same reporters from the looks of the group of men that had apparently followed this woman here, laughing and smiling deviously at the three of them. Justin just crossed his arms and glared. He broke their camera once, and he'd do it again.

"There you are. No use in hiding, future manager of the cursed inn." The field reporter mocked as he slowly approached the two, laughing to himself as if he had just struck comedy gold. Yukiko just seemed really confused; and why wouldn't she be? The fuck did they mean by cursed inn? It wasn't like it was haunted or something.

"C-Cursed Inn?" She questioned with puzzlement. The reporters only laughed harder at that, as though finding amusement in her ignorance. Justin snarled a bit at them, but otherwise held his ground; he supposed they hadn't done anything wrong YET. But he was waiting, watching; and when they slipped up, he'd be ready to tear them a new asshole, which he would then promptly shove that camera of theirs up. Hopefully the glass lens was still broken for just such an occasion.

"We know all about that murder case. Mayumi Yamano stayed at your place, right? And you guys've been hurting what with the drop in visitors, huh? So I came up with a great idea! 'The High-School Manager's Embarrassing Struggle: Renovating the Cursed Inn!' How's that grab you? The customers will be pouring in, I tell ya." The reporter proposed, though it was pretty clear it wasn't a serious proposal and just him mocking the poor girl. Yukiko wasn't even sure how to respond by this point; how exactly do you respond to some shithead coming up to you and saying that kind of stuff. Well besides from shoving your foot up up their ass. Right next to the camera.

"I don't understand what you-" Yukiko questioned again with confusion. What exactly did the announcer's stay there have to do with their inn? She couldn't say she was too pleased about them wanting to broadcast the place as being cursed; that was for damn sure.

"I want you to be the star. When we introduce the hot springs, let us film a little bathing scene, eh? 'The Modest Manager's Steamy Service!' Our ratings will go through the roof!" The reporter announced, leaning forward ever so slightly, closer to Yukiko, much to her horror. The camera crew just cheered him on, which was sickening in damn near every sense of the word. By this point Justin was furious; what kind of sick fuck puts pressure on a teenage girl to do that kind of thing.

"Who the hell do you think you are!? Listen you motherfu-" Justin was immediately cut off by the field reporter shoving him out of the way; which was really a shitty move all things considered. Justin stumbled, trying to keep his balance without hitting the grass beneath him. Well if it wasn't already something he had planned to do before, he was going to rip their heads off and shit down their throats. No one lays a finger on him; especially not some perverted asshole. Yukiko passed a concerned gaze towards Justin before turning her attention back to the reporters, trying to sound as officious as possible given the circumstances.

"Anyway, please leave. We are not interested in your coverage." She ordered politely, but also forcefully, trying a different route than Justin had on getting them to leave. Alas, however, the field reporter had no intention of leaving with no for an answer. He sighed, slowly beginning to try and close the gap between him and the girl, as if to impose himself upon her.

"You're refusing? Look, kid… You don't know the power of television, do you? Well, I can't blame you, living in the countryside. We're trying to help you out here. I mean, do you WANT the patrons to dry up? If you're gonna be the next manager, I'm trusting you to make the right decision here." The reporter propagated, trying to strike fear into Yukiko's heart by showing her just how much of a living hell he could make her life if she refused to offer them coverage. Oh yes; the media just loved to manipulate the news to their own agenda. Yukiko averted eye contact, a slightly sorrowful expression in her eyes.

"I… won't be the next manager…" Yukiko remarked sadly, a dull gleamless look to her eyes as she stared down at the ground. Justin wasn't sure what she was upset about, but he could still feel his heartstrings being pulled as Yukiko stood there in defeat, head hung in sorrow. Made probably worse by the fact that the report team just would not let up.

"Oh, really? Hmmm… That so? Well, you just say the word, and I can hook you up with a better gig than running this dump of an inn. You could call yourself the 'Former High-School Innkeeper'… Heheheh, I'm already liking the sound of that! Why don't you hear me out?" The reporter continued to try and approach her. Justin was about to jump the guy, but it seemed that Kasai wanted to try and handle this as diplomatically as possible.

"How dare you say that to Yuki-chan…!" She shouted, trying to force herself between the two to stop the guy from talking to her, to keep him away from Yukiko. Yukiko just delicately pushed her aside though, reassuring her that she wasn't afraid of the asshole with a microphone and camera with a quick gesture of her hands.

"…It's okay. Let him say what he wants. He'll go home once he gets it all out." Yukiko reassured the woman before slowly turning her eyes towards the reporter, sighing as though to give him permission to just get this done with. The reporter, needless to say, was furious that Yukiko wasn't taking him as a serious threat, that she wasn't accepting his rather fucked up proposal. It was a good thing they weren't filming, because what happened next was some pretty fucked up stuff; it would be a shame if his character was destroyed on television because he wanted to creep on a sixteen year old girl.

"What the shit…? You say your inn has been going for generations, but all that means is, it's crappy and run-down. Tradition is so last year. You'd be better off if you did close up shop. I've seen the stuff you serve… Small portions, decent service, nothing that stands out. If you want customers, you can't just do the same old, same old. You guys don't get that, and that's why you suck. Your waitresses don't even give any extra service unless you tip 'em, huh? Heyyyy… I know! Why don't you make all the waitresses young girls, and have 'em do all-day menus? Y'know, spread the futon out, then go straight in! But anyways, I was saying… Let's give your place a little TV-style publicity. Use your head, willya?" The reporter continued to bash the inn and suggest all sorts of perveted fucked up shit. Justin was about to deck the guy in all honesty, but then… then something had happened. Like something had lit a fire in Yukiko. She was biting her lip, trying to prevent her from shouting in rage at the man who insulted her home and traditions; but it was just too much. Within a split second, the normally calm and collected Yukiko had exploded in a fit of anger.

"…the hell up!" Yukiko shouted, the shut portion beign cut off by her trying to force her mouth close. Justin's jaw dropped immediately, eyebrows shot up with shock. This wasn't something he had come to expect from Yukiko… But he kind of liked it. Good on her for giving them their shit back. They deserved it. The group jumped back a bit with surprised at the sudden outburst, infuriated, but also kind of frightened. "Don't say another word about our inn! Who'd take your stupid ideas seriously!? From now on, we refuse ANY coverage from your station!" Yukiko dictated, blowing the newscast off permanently.

"You… bitch! If that's how you wanna play it, I'll plaster those words all over prime time! See how that feels!" The field reporter threatened, calling her all sorts of derogatory names. Yukiko wasn't offended though; in fact, despite being incredibly pissed off, she seemed to have control of this entire situation; of her rage and anger.

"Go ahead, by all means. And we'll respond with an official complaint to your sponsors." Yukiko threatened in kind. The cameramen were very clearly alarmed by that threat, though the field reporter remained on her ass on the matter. Or at least he had until he felt a tapping sensation on his shoulder. He turned around, anger in his eyes to be met by the overshadowing figure of Yu. And he was very pissed off from the looks of it. That was saying something coming from Yu.

"I believe the lady asked you to go." He glared at the reporter. The reporter in kind just backed away slowly. He was surrounded on all sides by this point; and it wasn't looking too good. His eyes darted from angry face to angry face, then to the panicked expressions of his crew members. And then as if it finally clicked with him, he realized no one wanted him here. Violentally so.

"…Tsk, I'm outta here." He tried to play it off coolly, pushing his way past Yu and ordering his equipment crew to follow. Of course, the moment he was out of sight he ran like a roadrunner, his crew keeping pace surprisingly well for a bunch of people holding a huge camera. The four of them stood there, staring at where the reporters had been a moment earlier. For a moment, there was nothing but awkward tension in the air. Perhaps that was the reason Yukiko had burst into a fit of laughter; as if it were so awkward it was funny. Most of the others chuckled a bit as she laughed, though none really joined her laughter to quite the same extent.

"I said some incredible things…" Yukiko remarked over her laughter, blushing with embarrassment, but otherwise finding humor in the situation. The others just shook their heads a bit, wide grins on their face as they watched Yukiko struggle to contain her laughter. At the very least it was nice to see the situation hadn't broken her spirits. If anything, Justin would say it did her some good to get those skeletons out of her closet. Justin slowly turned his eyes over to Yu, smirking a but.

"Nice of you to drop in, Captain Chivalrey." Justin joked a bit. Yu just shook his head rolling his eyes and laughing a bit.

"Last I checked, that was you." He remarked, stepping to the side to allow the woman from earlier to pass by. She had some work to do at the Inn, so this was about where she took her leave. Justin shook his head a bit; partially in amusement, partially in denial. He wasn't THAT chivalrous… right? He just kind of… happened to… Actually, fuck it. Captain Chivalry sounded about right. _Wonder if any super powers come with the turf…_

"I just… kind of lost it when he was insulting everyone. W-Was I scary?" Yukiko questioned after a moment, blushing as if concerned about her appearances. She was still just getting off her laughter high; but otherwise it seemed like a serious question. Justin shrugged his shoulders in an indifferent manner; not indifferent towards the question mind you, but rather, the embarrassed expression on Yukiko's face. As if it didn't matter in the slightest; as if all of this was just some joke.

"Where was THAT Yukiko all this time? New Yukiko is AWESOME." Justin joked. "Ten out of ten, five out five stars, would like and recommend to a friend." Yeah, okay, maybe a little overkill with the internet jokes, given the way Yu slapped him upside the head, but otherwise, it was pretty clear everyone was cool with it.

"Really? Thank goodness." Yukiko sighed with relief, glad that she didn't just look like some queen bitch who was out to tear everyone a new one. Her eyes slowly shot up to the sky for a moment, smile shrinking slightly, but not fully from her face. "There was a time not long ago when I thought, 'It'd be better off if it closed,' but it's like my home… It's where everyone in my world is…" She mused allowed, a sudden revelation seeming to strike her from the heavens above. The other two smiled a bit.

"We all think that kind of stuff; it's almost like wishing your parents were dead." Justin tried to cheer her up a bit; because while not everyone got the pleasure of inheriting an inn, everyone had been in a position where they thought they'd be better off without someone or something, only to realize they really did need it in their life. Yukiko didn't really get the comparison though; partially because she had never wished something like that on her parents, partially because she couldn't understand the relation to wanting your parents to die and running away from it all.

"Wh-Why would you wish for that?"

"Because sometimes it works."


	162. Chapter 161: September 30, 2011

CHAPTER 161

September 30, 2011

* * *

"Hell-… Okay. Who the fuck gave you my address?"

Justin and Maya were at home after school when they heard the sound of knocking on the door. At first they just assumed it was Chie, who often times barged into Justin's house to eat his foodl, watch his television, and generally make Maya sick to ber stomach with all that lovey-duby bullshit. She got it, the two wuved each other beary much; no need to rub it in her face. In actuality, the person who had been knocking on his door was Marie; guitar in hand as she plowed past him and into his house. Justin needless to say was pretty damn pissed off; for a number of reasons really. The most obvious of these was that he never volunteered to do this, yet here she was forcing him into it. The second reason was that he had specifically told Yu NOT to let her know where he lived so she couldn't bug him about this shit; he was going to guess he fell through on that. Finally; she was just plain fucking rude barging into his house like that without any heads up, just pushing him aside in the doorway. Granted, he didn't have to greet her the way he did, but this? Come on.

"I told you you were going to teach me." She remarked, almost as if to dictate to Justin that this was what he was going to do whether he liked it or not. Justin glared at her, arms crossed as she approached the couch, looking for somewhere to drop her guitar case so she could unpack. Of course, during the process, she managed to lay eyes on Maya, who was just staring back at her with confusion; confusion as to who she was and what she was doing here with a guitar. She eyed Marie with curious eyes trying to decipher her identity, as did Marie examine Maya. "Who's she?" She questioned after a moment, apparently deciding that just asking Maya herself who she was wasn't going to cut it. Not like she could answer anyway, but you know how it worked. It would have been nice if she at least asked before going over her head and asking Justin instead.

"That's my sister Maya." Justin explained reluctantly. He had no problem introducing the two, but he did have a problem with Marie barging into his house just to interrogate everyone there. Maya waved timidly, though also still very much puzzled by the interruption. Here they were just watching television and throwing popcorn at the television screen anytime Nicolas Cage said 'Declaration of Independence.' Why? Because they didn't have the alcohol to make it a drinking game. Marie just continued to stare at Maya with confusion as she plopped her guitar on the couch beside her.

"Why isn't Pink here talking?" Marie questioned, apparently forgetting her name already and identifying her by the pink designs across her hoodie. She'd call her black given that she wore FAR more black than Pink, but that was an honor already reserved for Yukiko. Maya's jaw dropped slightly with disgust and anger, already picking up what was going on; and needless to say, she wasn't a fan of being called Pink. For a number of reasons really; but let's just settle for it wasn't her name. She very quickly made a couple of movements of her hand towards Marie, as if expecting her to actually be able to understand what she was trying to say to her.

"_Oh hell no." _She gestured angrily before dropping her hands to her side, glaring at Marie before darting her hand out for the bowl of popcorn that had been resting on the table in front of them; just next to Donatello's tank. Marie obviously didn't get it; why would she after all? Instead she simply raised her eyebrow with confusion, staring at Maya like she had just grown devil horns and started vomiting fire. Justin cleared his throat a bit as he approached the two, trying to get between the two as he noticed some hostilities on Maya's behalf. He didn't really blame her, but he'd prefer if any catfights took place outside of his house and away from any fragile, breakable objects. Like televisions.

"Maya's got a… umm… speaking problem." Justin put it delicately, trying to avoid using the word mute. It wasn't necessarily that it offended Maya, so much as it just upset her. Even this was pretty damn hard on her heart strings; but at least it wasn't as blunt as just outright acknowledging her condition. Marie just continued to stare with confusion, not really catching on to what exactly it was Justin had meant by speaking problems; but then it occurred to her: she really didn't care. She turned her attention back to her case, unzipping the case and grabbing at the neck of the guitar. She was holding it completely wrong as she pulled it out by the way; hell, she damn near broke Donatello's tank as she swung that thing around. "Hey, hey! Careful with that thing! Give me that!" Justin shouted, snatching the guitar out of her hands before she ended up breaking something.

He glared at her, annoyed at how she had come barging into his house only to nearly tear the place apart with her improper handling of a guitar. Eventually though, he couldn't help but sigh. He knew little about this girl, only that it was clear she was stubborn and kind of a bitch. It wasn't very likely that he was going to get her to leave by just ordering her to. His eyes slowly shifted towards Maya, almost weary and disappointed with all of this. Was it so much to ask for one day to just watch television without shit hitting the ceiling? Maya nodded a bit before getting off the couch. He hadn't said anything to her, but she could tell just from the look in his eyes what he was going to do about this. She stretched her back out before reaching into her pocket, grasping at her iPod and earbuds before plugging them in to her eardrums. She pressed a couple of buttons on the device as she slowly made her way upstairs, grabbing at the nearby bowl of popcorn in the process so that she could bring it up with her. Normally she would just leave the house to go bug Yosuke or hang around the shrine when this kind of shit happened; but she didn't really have the courage to face the world in her current state. She was more than content to just lay back on Justin's bed and listen to some music while he did whatever it was he was doing downstairs. Plus; it would be nice to lay on an actual bed for once. Maya wasn't complaining about sleeping on the couch or anything, but you know… A mattress would be nice. Justin sighed as she slowly crept up the stairs, every step creaking as she inched up the stairs to his room. Justin sighed, shaking his head before turning his attention to Marie, who was just staring at him expectedly.

"…Hold it like this." Justin growled at her with anger, properly shoving the guitar in her hands, quickly but reluctantly adjusting her hands to grip the guitar correctly. "Throw the strap over your shoulder, I'll be back…" Justin grumbled a bit before rushing up the stairs to grab his Guitar. Seemed Maya was taking her sweet time, because he ended up bumping into her on the staircase, knocking loose a couple of popcorn kernels in the process. She just gave Justin one of those 'seriously' looks as he ran past her, shrugging a bit. It was only a moment before he came back down with his Les Paul, a couple of picks in his pocket as he plopped his ass back down on the couch, eyes staring at the ceiling all the while as he contemplated how he was going to do this. He had never taught anyone a musical instrument after all, so he wasn't really sure where to begin. Marie strangely didn't take a seat beside Justin until he extended his hand out to offer her the cushion beside him. Strange; it seemed she was selectively polite. Either that or just completely socially awkard. Not that Justin could really complain. "...You know anything about how to play."

"Yeah, sure you, uh… Do that thing with uh… No. Not at all." Marie had tried to reason out loud before she realized she had no idea what she was talking about. Justin sighed, leaning forward for a moment, trying to think of what the first song he learned to play was. Of course, the one thing Justin had forgotten to take into account when he had contemplated the matter was he was a natural with the guitar. No, he was not some revolutionary guitar player; he'd never be in a Rolling Stones list of top 100 guitarists or something, but even from the beginning he had a pretty clear grasp of how chords and shit worked. Probably from watching as many music videos as he did, just watching how the guitarists worked the strings. He slowly leaned forward, readjusting himself so he had a good posture over his guitar, before slowly strumming away at the strings; a simple four chord progression, though there was certainly alterations with the way the strings were strummed that made it a little harder to follow. Plus he was already starting with chords. He probably should have been teaching Marie fretwork first. "Alright… Just watch for a moment, pay attention to what I'm doing what my hands." Justin ordered to her over his strums, repeating the same main riff for a while. Shame he didn't have a distortion pedal; he'd have to settle for just strumming louder. He repeated the main riff a couple times, tapping his foot in time to the beat where the guitar track would be.

_I ain't got no inclination_

_Give away my sweet sensation_

_Sleeping' in an old tool shed_

_Scumbag crying' on his pillow_

_When you wanna be with me then we will see_

_Who's fuckin' with my head_

Justin sang along with the song for a moment, though that was probably a bad move, because it distracted him from his chord work. Not because he couldn't multitask this kind of stuff; no rather, it was that he was so used to multitasking. Before he knew it, he was deterring away from the basic rhythmatic guitar riff to the licks scattered throughout. And that needless to say threw Marie for a loop as she watched. Not that the chords didn't, but this made it far worse. "Alright, you try now." Justin encouraged her, still playing along to the song. Marie slowly pushed her fingers up to the guitar neck; but rather than keeping them stationary at the appropriate frets and strumming all the strings, she just sort spazzed her fingers about the neck, flailing her arms as if expecting the music to play if she just strummed fast enough. Justin just slowly stopped picking at the strings, as if he had never seen anything stupider than what he was seeing right now. He could understand if she couldn't get it; he couldn't understand being this far off. "Okay, stop, stop! The fuck are you doing!?" Justin interrupted her, getting a headache from the constant clinking sound of strings bumping against frets.

"I don't get it; am I not thinking hard enough?" Marie questioned as she stared at the guitar. Apparently she was still under the impression that you just had to want to play the guitar and it magically happened. Which was just incredibly wrong in every capacity. Justin groaned, pinching his forehead. He should have known he couldn't teach with example; he had to physically show he how to do this with as clueless as she was. He sighed after a moment, lifting his guitar a bit so it was clear to her what he was going to do.

"Alright; maybe we need to start with something easier…" Justin remarked after a moment. "I suppose we could do Can't Get No Satisfaction; but that's cliché as fuck." Justin remarked as he tried to pick out an even easier song to play; something even Marie could pick up with her level of expertise. He figured everyone learned off of the Rolling Stones (everyone that wasn't him anyway), and while it probably would have been better off for Marie to learn like that, he wasn't going to teach her the same thing every other teacher did. He wasn't a part of their system, man. It took him a moment, but he came up with an idea after some contemplation. "Alright, I've got it. Okay, you see these metal bars going across the neck of the guitar? The space in between those is called a fret; each one from the top to the bottom has a number. For example; this is fret one, this is two, this is three, four, five, so on and so forth." Justin explained, as he slid his fingers up and down the neck. "When you press your finger against one of these strings, and pick at the string, like this… It plays a note. The higher the fret number, the higher the note; like so." Justin strummed several notes to show off the increasing pitch as his hand slid down the neck. "Alright, make sense?"

"I…Guess?" Marie questioned. She didn't really understand it, but she supposed she'd figure it out as they went along anyway. Justin doubted she quite got it, but it was a tricky concept for the musically illiterate like her; she'd get it as they went along. Justin stretched his arm a bit before pressing his finger to the second fret of the sixth string, making eye contact with Marie as he pressed his finger tip against it.

"Alright; I want you to press your finger against the second fret on the biggest string, like this… Okay… Okay good. Now, normally this is played with power chords, but for now, I want you to just play that one note to this beat." Justin strummed at the note, picking it as if it were part of the actual riff they were going to play, but the other notes were not present. Marie, of course just strummed like a maniac, not keeping the tempo. "No, no, goddammit, stop! You can't just keep picking it like that; you have to do it in time. Like… When I do this: one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four. You notice the even spaces between each word? Okay, that's a beat; you need to have the exact amount of beats between each note, otherwise it won't work. So let's try gain, IN TEMPO this time please; we'll count along to keep pace. Like this, bu ba da bu ba, pause, bu ba da bu ba, pause. You'll play on the bu's, alright?"

"Okay…" Marie was very confused by this point, but she abided all the same. "Bu, ba, da, bu, ba… Bu, ba, da, bu, ba." She mumbled along in time as she strummed the string. It was still a little offbeat, but it was close enough for now. She felt like an idiot mumbling like that to herself, but she did suppose it helped her given the way that Justin was actually smiling now.

"Alright, good, good; you've got it. Now, we're going to do it again, but this time, you're going to take your third finger right here and drop it down on the fourth fret on all the other beats; minus the pause. But-! You can keep the fret for the lower number held down if you want to play a higher fret, but not the other way around; so keep your index finger on the second fret but only press down on the fourth fret when you want to play the higher note. So it'll be like this. Bu ba da bu ba. Bu ba da bu ba." Justin made onomotopeias in time to the song. Marie nodded before imitating him, again, a little off beat, but the riff was noticeably there; and she'd get better at it over time. Seemed she hadn't recognized the song too, so maybe she just needed to play a song she knew and she'd get the tempo down. "Alright keep going." Justin ordered before pressing his own fingers to the neck in a power chord, imitating the same rythym.

_Girl, you really got me now. _

_You got me so I don't know what I'm doin'._

_Girl, you really got me now._

_You got me so I can't sleep at night._

"Alright, nice, now, push both your fingers up two frets and keep that same tempo." Justin ordered quickly. Marie was a little caught off guard by the order, and she certainly had trouble sliding her fingers up, but it came eventually; and luckily it took her exactly one measure to do so, just enough for Justin to keep the tempo for her in the mean time. "Okay perfect, be ready to do that again when I say up, alright?" She nodded as she kept the tempo.

_Girl, you really got me now _

_You got me so I don't know where I'm goin', yeah_

"Up."

_Oh Girl, you really got me now _

_You got me so I can't sleep at night _

_You really got me _

_You really got me _

_You really got me_

"Alright good stuff; now go back to two and four. You're going to repeat that for the rest of the song. So it's up, up, back at the same points, alright." Justin dictated to her. She nodded with confirmation, before following suit, keeping the tempo, slowly and clumsily, but keeping it all the same. Justin nodded a bit in time to the beat, playing his chords for a only a moment more before shooting his hands down towards the bottom of the neck, playing various licks by tapping the strings in a solo. It seemed to have thrown Marie off for a moment without Justin to keep the tempo, with the sound of another guitar doing something different distracting her, but she kept at it. It went on like that for a few more bars before Justin shot his hand back up to the power chords to join her, smiling as she kept at it. It wasn't great; and he did better when he first played, but hey, at least she was getting it.

_Please, don't ever let me be_

_I only wanna be by your side _

_Please, don't ever let me be _

_I only wanna be by your side _

_Girl, you really got me now _

_You got me so I don't know what I'm doin', yeah _

_Oh yeah, you really got me now _

_Got me so I can't sleep at night _

_You really got me _

_You really got me _

_You really got me_

"And stop." Justin ordered here as he hammered the last few power chords in a big rock finish, ending the song with style. Marie seemed a little confused by the interruption, even more so by Justin pushing his guitar off to the side as he stopped her in her tracks.

"What; did I mess it up again?" She questioned, not really seeing much other reason to stop the song. Justin shook his head, grinning a bit as he sighed a bit. It wasn't a hard song to play, but even then he found himself a little tired from moving his fingers up and down the frets. Probably because of those killer solos. Why did Van Halen always make Justin want to cut his arm off to stop the pain afterwards; goddamn.

"Nope, just the end of the song." Justin chuckled a bit. "You did good; what you did there, that was an entire song you just played. And it doesn't get much harder than that. Sometimes you'll have your fingers pressed against more than one string at once, and that's a chord. Other times you'll have to use all four of your fingers; I know that pinky can be a bitch to work with at first. But other than that, it's all just press finger here and strum, press other finger here and strum." Marie nodded a bit, though she paused after a moment, shaking her head; as if she were agreeing at first, but then she realized she didn't get it.

"So… I do flail my fingers around like you?" She spoke with confusion. Justin's expression slowly faded from one of a musement to one of confused disappointment; aka the 'seriously' face. He didn't think people were this dense when it came to instruments, but it seemed he was wrong.

"Not unless you're in a death metal band."

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTES**

**MUSIC**

**Fuckin' With My Head (Mountain Dew Rock) - Beck**

**You Really Got Me - The Kinks (Though in this case, it's the Van Halen cover.)**


	163. Chapter 162: October 1, 2011

CHAPTER 162

October 1, 2011

* * *

"So… Why aren't we at your house again?"

Justin and Chie were hanging out, a controller in Justin's hand as the two stared at the blinking television screen in front of them. Nothing entirely unusual mind you; except for one little thing. For once, they were playing video games at Chie's house; not Justin's. It was a bit of a strange change of pace for several reasons. First and foremost, Chie thought that Justin would want to include Maya in all of this; or at the very least be around if she needed him to translate for her or something. Secondly, it was no secret there were hostilities between Chie's father and Justin; it was part of the reason they were always at Justin's house instead. Having Justin knock at her door just to play video games… honestly, it was a refreshing change of pace. Just a very odd one. Justin shrugged a bit as he waited for the game to load, staring at the screen intently.

"Don't know. I had a chat with Yukiko the other day; guess it just made me think of a lot of things." Justin remarked, a somewhat sad tone to his voice as his eyes darted down to the controller, as if having trouble just keeping his eyes level. When he had suggested she invite Yu over so that he could meet her folks, in a way it reminded him of how he never went to Chie's house, just to avoid her father. He hated Chie's dad, if only because even after all he had done to prove that he loved Chie, that he would never hurt her, he still treated Justin like some kind of asshole. But as much as Justin despised her dad, and as much as her dad despised Justin… It wasn't really fair to Chie. It wasn't fair to Justin either. He wanted to be with her, no matter the place, no matter the time. It was strange how something as simple as a conversation over inviting Yu over to Yukiko's house had made him realize that. He shook his head a bit, pupils shooting over to face towards Chie, who just wore a confused expression on her face. She wasn't really there, so she wasn't sure what Justin was talking about. "It's nothing; Just felt like a change of pace I guess." Justin smiled, bluffing to her as she smiled back.

"…So what game is this anyway?" Chie questioned, changing the topic. In retrospect, she didn't really care why he was here so much that he was here. It was such a small gesture of kindness, of affection; and yet it meant so much more to her than that. Of course, despite this being her house and her console and her controller; she hadn't the slightest clue what it was they were playing. Why? Simple. Justin had come prepared, a couple of games he had grabbed from home thrown in a plastic bag along with some snacks and drinks as he walked through the doorway to her room. It wasn't a multiplayer game, she knew that much. It did beg the question why Justin was the one playing then, but she figured they'd just swap the controller off every time someone died or something. Justin took a sip of the can of cola he had popped open but a few minutes earlier, wetting his lips a bit as his eyes darted up to the television screen.

"Duke Nukem Forever. I found it in the value bin at Junes; heard it's REALLY bad." Justin chuckled a bit. If the loading times were anything to go off of, he was bound to agree. Chie of course just seemed confused. First of all, she had never heard of whatever game this was, which was amazing because it was pretty much the butt of the joke in the gaming industry; but more importantly she had to wonder… why? Why were they playing this game if it was supposed to be horrible? Why would Justin even waste money in it if he knew it was going to suck?

"If it's so bad, why are we playing it right now?"

"Because one; I love bad games and I love bad movies. Secondly, it's one of those things where I hear it's so bad it's funny. Besides; this things been in development for eleven years. I gotta see how they fucked up THAT bad with that much development time." Justin remarked as the two turned their attention back to the television screen; seemed the game had finally finished loading. As Justin pressed the proceed button the two were met by the grissled sound of Duke Nukem's voice… and the sound of piss hitting a urinal. Seemed the game started with you pissing. No, I don't mean the cutscene, you literally had a piss button. "Case and point. I'm trying to decide if this is incredibly stupid or incredibly awesome." Justin remarked, trying to resist the urge to smile a bit. It was immature as fuck, but goddamn, just the thought of having a piss button. He would NOT let go of that trigger, letting the piss just sort of flow, occasionally loosening the pressure briefly to cause lulls in the stream of urine flowing on screen. Basically, Justin was having way too much fun peeing in a video game.

"How about gross!" Chie objected. Digital, pixilated or otherwise, piss was piss, and it wasn't exactly something she wanted to watch someone do. Justin sighed and rolled his eyes a bit before zipping his virtual pants up. If he knew Chie was gonna be such a killjoy he would have brought Dark Souls. Then no one would have fun and it'd be all her fault.

"Remind me to never show you Postal II." Justin remarked sarcastically, finishing up his pissing and zipping his virtual fly up. Chie seemed a little surprised by the comment, though more confuse than anything.

"Wait… you could do that in Postal?" Chie questioned. Justin wasn't sure what he was more surprised at; Chie having played Postal II, or the fact that she did it without knowing there was a piss button. Wasn't that sort of the entire point of the game? I mean, you didn't HAVE to; but if you asked Justin, you weren't playing the game right until you set someone on fire then tried to put the flames out by pissing on their corpse. Or by pissing on any food before someone ate it. Or just pissing on anything. Basically, what I'm saying is Justin totally had a hard on for pissing in video games. He should really look in to getting that checked out.

"How you managed to play Postal II without figuring that out is beyond me." Justin remarked sarcastically, shrugging his shoulders a bit. He supposed it really didn't matter in the long run. "Alright… So where to now…" Justin mused to himself as he made his way away from the urinal, wandering around the map in search of anything to progress. Alas, that's what he had tried to convince himself and Chie. In actuality, he just wanted to explore the bathroom; why? Simple; he wanted to use the piss button again and play it off as an accident. He wasn't sure if it was just because he found it so funny or because he just loved watching Chie squirm. Alas, when he opened the bathroom stall to attempt to piss in the toilet again, he was met by something he hadn't really expected. A giant turd, just floating around in the toilet bowl.

"What the hell kind of game is this!?" Chie shouted with disgust; though Justin just sort of broke into a giggle fit, laughing at what he REALLY shouldn't have. It was poop, it was immature and gross and served no purpose being there other than it could be. Maybe Justin just wasn't as mature as you would think looking at him. Or maybe it was that he was mature enough that he could laugh at this stuff without making a big deal out of it. Who even knew; all he knew was he found it hilarious for some odd reason. Justin slowly approached the toiler, aiming his reticule at the piece of shit floating in the toilet water. The two's eyes widened slightly as he pointed the camera at the turd, one with concern, one with a devious grin on their face. Take a guess which one was which. "…Please don't tell me you're…"

Before Chie could even finish her thought, Justin shot his virtual hand into the toilet, grabbing a hold of the shit floating about. Chie looked like she wanted to vomit by this point, but Justin just looked like he was having a ball. "This is the greatest game ever made." Justin squeed a bit, walking around with shit in his hands for no other reason than he could. You could tell that what he was doing was incredibly stupid, because even Duke was insulting him for his poor decisions regarding shit through the television screen. So yeah, Justin walked around with shit in his hands for a good while… And then he found a water bubbler.

"Justin, please don-" Too late. Justin threw the shit at the water bubbler then immediately proceeded to make Duke Nukem drink from it. By this point Chie had ripped the controller out of Justin's hands. It was becoming increasingly clear that she couldn't trust him with even playing a video game. "Give me that!" She shouted as she wrestled the controller out of a giggling Justin's hands. She slowly backed away from the shit stained water fountain, trying to stop whatever it was that was stirring in her stomach. Probably her lunch. She was just happy that the volume on her TV wasn't that high; if her parents heard half this shit they'd probably ground her until the end of time.

"Oh come one! We haven't even found a fan to throw it against yet!" Justin choked up over giggles. Chie just shook her head with disgust before leaving the bathroom, lest Justin get anymore horrible ideas of what to do with whatever disgusting crap Justin found lying around. As she left the bathroom she was met by the sight of dozens of soldiers sprawled against the floor, most likely dead. There were a couple living ones discussing plans or something, but given that they immediately high-fived each and ran around in circles, no one was really taking anything they said seriously.

It wasn't too long after entering the room that Chie was practically bum rushed by some guy wearing military armor. Well, not bum-rushed per say, he just kind of stood there; but he did address her, so he was probably a plot essential character or something. Again it seemed the topic was about plans, only this time, the NPC had been requesting Chie come up with a plan; which might actually be a good idea considering who had been coming up with the plans earlier. Still, it wasn't like Chie knew what was going on, so she didn't really HAVE a plan to propose. "Huh? Plan? I don't know what's happening…" Chie mused allowed. It wasn't long until the game prompted her towards a whiteboard, giving her a marker to do… something with. She wasn't sure how the game would handle a plan like this, but it seemed like the point was to draw out a move; kinda like one would when couching football… Or at least it seemed that way until the guy from earlier kept shouting 'Good one Duke,' before she even started drawing. Seemed it didn't actually matter what she did; it was just there to draw on… And that concerned her a bit. She could slowly feel Justin's eyes cast themselves upon her, that devious grin of his on his face again.

"You know what must be done." Justin remarked after a moment, almost like an order to Chie. She knew damn well what Justin wanted to do; and the answer was a plain and simple no. She was not going to draw THAT on the whiteboard. Still, the way Justin was looking at her; she got the feeling he had no intent on letting her leave that board without scribbling it down. She sighed after a moment, passing the controller back to Justin.

"Get it out of your system." Chie sighed as she dropped the plastic controller into a very happy Justin's hands. He very quickly grabbed a hold of the remote, like Chie had just offered him a million dollar check, thrilled to do whatever he pleased to fuck up the plans that were already there. Why? Because he fucking could, goddammit! Within seconds he was scribbling furiously with the joystick, making marks all over the giant alien that had been there a moment earlier. Chie was concerned at first about giving Justin the controller, but it seemed she might have actually gotten ahead of herself. Seemed Justin was mature enough not to draw THAT; instead scribbling a crown on his head and sunglasses over his eyes; a jetpack on his back and a goatee across his chin. At the moment, he was just finishing up drawing boxing gloves over his fists, to which Chie could only sigh with relief. "Oh, good; for a second I thought you were-" And then he drew a dick. "…Nevermind." Chie sighed, her hopes dashed across the rocks like shit against a fan. And she would know, because Justin managed to find a fan and run back for the shit. That was about the point Chie was done with this shit, jumping up from the bed and powering off the console.

"Hey! What was that for!?" Justin remarked with irritation as Chie flipped the console out, practically ripping the disk out to get that filth out of her console. She just couldn't watch anymore of this… whatever the hell it was; why? She didn't know. Maybe it was just the sudden revelation that Justin was a little more childish than one would assume. It wasn't necessarily a horrible thing that he was into that kind of shit; after all, this was the guy that tried to fight Teddie in a bear pun war… And almost won. She'd love him regardless of his poor taste in humor; but even then, it was a bit… unsettling in some regards.

"Apparently I can't trust you with your games, so now we're playing one of mine." Chie remarked with irritation as she popped Duke Nukem back into it's case and pulled out her own game. What it was, Justin couldn't see; perhaps for the better in retrospect. All he knew was Chie had denied him his shit-flinging, piss-taking, dick-drawing action. He wasn't exactly happy. He just crossed his arms with disappointment as she popped the new disc in, grabbing a second controller and tossing it over to Justin before taking a seat beside him.

"So what game are we playing now?" Justin questioned, staring at the black screen as he awaited whatever it was Chie had put into the disc. It was silent from Chie's end of the bed, which was a little concerning for Justin. He slowly turned to stare at her, curious why she wasn't answering. He didn't think he pissed her off THAT much with Duke Nukem Forever. In truth, however, she was just smiling; smiling in this weird way that made her look like she wasn't trying to smile. Justin was pretty damn confused as to why… And then he turned to look at the screen. "GAH! NO! FUCK NO!" He shouted, tipping over the bed and falling behind it for cover to brace his vision. Chie just started laughing hysterically, tears in her eyes as she tried to hold back her giggle fit. You know; she couldn't really give Justin too much shit for acting like a child when she did shit like this. He might have been a child… but then so was she; so it all worked out in the end.

"Oh my funny bone…!" Chie tried to hold back her laughter over Justin hiding from the mere sight of Twisted Metal. It was no secret to her or anyone really that Justin was deathly afraid of clowns. It WAS a secret however that it was THIS game in particular that had done that to him. She was literally putting his worst nightmares in front of him and getting a kick out of his reaction.

"Fuck you! We're not playing this; turn it off, turn it off!" Justin pleaded angrily with her to turn the game off, to save him the horror of seeing that machete swinging psychopath of a clown. Chie laughed before flipping the screen off. It took a while after the screen went black for Justin to reimmerge from behind the bed, huffing as though he had just ran a marathon trying to hide from a video game. Chie wiped her tears of joy away as her laughter finally died down, her eyes focusing on Justin as she smiled with child-like amusement.

"You know, you're pretty cute when you're scared." She teased him. Normally that would be grounds for Justin to start blushing profusely, but he was still recovering from his near heart-attack, so you'd have to forgive him for not being flattered by Chie's flirting.

"Never… Again…"

"No promises.

"Hate. Let me tell you how much I've come to hate you since you showed me that damn clown. There are 387.44 million miles of organs in wafer thin muscle layers that fill my body. If the word 'hate' was engraved on each cell of those hundreds of miles it would not equal one one-billionth of the hate I feel for clowns at this micro-instant. For you. Hate. Hate."

"Love you too."


	164. Chapter 163: October 2, 2011

CHAPTER 163

October 2, 2012

* * *

"...wake up. Justin, wake up!"

It was early morning when Justin was slowly woken by the sound of Chie's voice. He didn't know what was going on or why he could hear Chie as he returned to the waking world; he was much too tired for that. Instead, he merely opened his eyes the tiniest crack to observe the world around him before deciding he was still exhausted and shutting his eyes once again. He was more than content to sleep where ever he was; even in the sitting up position he had found himself in. Well, at least until he was much more forcefully awaken by the force of Chie's palm slapping against his cheek in an attempt to wake the boy up. It certainly worked at the very least, even if it wasn't subtle, even if the noise of her hand smacking against his flesh was a little louder than she had hoped.

"Fourty two!" Justin shouted with shock, his brain just vocalizing the first though that had come to mind. In this case it had seemed as though Justin had thought he had fallen asleep in class again, blissfully unaware of the fact that it was Sunday. It made sense at least; the boy had fallen asleep in class more times than he could count, so it had almost become instinct by this point for him to wake up to a questioning teacher. Plus Justin couldn't think of any other time he had awoken to Chie's voice or her face. Unless this was a second camping trip he had forgotten all about overnight. Given that they were in Chie's room right now, though, that probably wasn't the answer. Chie shook her head before shaking Justin a bit, trying to reawaken his senses, to clear the fog of sleep so that he could see just the kind of shit they had awoken to.

"Wake up, you idiot. We fell asleep last night while playing video games." Chie whispered in a panicked manner. It took Justin a moment to really get the implications, for the comment to really process in his half asleep brain, but it did sink in after a moment what was a miss here. As the implications started to seep in, as he slowly realized he had been sleeping in Chie's room for the last eight or so hours, he jumped forward a bit, his body flinching as the first wave of terror hit him like a wrecking ball.

"Crap!" Justin shouted before Chie shot her hand out to cover Justin's mouth. He was speaking way too loud. If they made too much noise, then Chie's folks would knw Justin had never left last night; that he had been there all night. And let's face it; would you trust your teenage daughter alone with her boyfriend (one with a delinquent reputation mind you) at night alone in her room? Chie wasn't so much concerned about her mother finding out; call it a hunch, but Chie just didn't think her mother was THAT suspicious of Justin. If anything it seemed she trusted Justin not to pressure her into something Chie wasn't comfortable with. Maybe that's why Justin vastly preferred Chie's mother to her father. No; what Chie was concerned about was her father going into papa wolf mode. If he had even the slightest reason to think she and Justin were... well... you know... He'd probably lock Chie in her room till the end of time and castrate Justin. There was no way he could find out about this little slip up.

"Quiet! My parents are downstairs, and if dad hears you he'll... He'll..." Chie stammered frantically as the horrific ways her father would torture Justin ran through her mind like a film reel. It wasn't pretty to say the least. "Look we need to get you out of here!" Chie proposed, as if that wasn't immediately clear to Justin anyway. Justin jumped up from the bed, silently creeping his way over to the door to Chie's room. He opened it just the tiniest crack so that he could peek downstairs. Sure enough, her mother and father were down there in the kitchen, drinking coffee and reading the paper.

"I know that, but its not like I can just waltz done there and say 'hey, don't mind me, I was just sleeping with your daughter.'" Justin remarked with sarcastic annoyance. There was no way in hell he was getting out through the front door with her parents just sitting there; any attempt to do so would jut be a suicide run. And its not like Chie could just smuggle him out like the group had smuggled their weapons into the television. He wouldn't fit in her skirt, not to mention that was kind of the misconception they were trying to avoid in the first place. Chie glared at Justin a bit, hands rested against her hip bones.

"Well not when you word it like that!" Chie remarked with annoyance. It was technically true the two had been sleeping together; but they weren't SLEEPING together, if you catch my drift. In actuality the two had fallen asleep with controllers still in hand, watching the television screen in front of them. When Chie had awoken, the two's heads were rested against each other, lying snuggly between the skull and shoulder blade in Justin's case. It was kind of nice in a really awkward way; but never you mind that. This was a bit more of an emergency than how Chie had felt waking up with her skin touching his.

"M-maybe you can cause a distraction." Justin proposed after a moment of silent contemplation. You wouldn't really know it just by looking at him, but Justin was scared half to death right now. This was essentially a make it or break it moment; if they fucked up here, Justin would never be allowed to show his face in this household ever again. And that was under the circumstances that her father was feeling compassionate when deciding Justin's fate... Or rather Justin and Chie's faith as a couple. "Just talk to them or something, draw their attention away from the staircase and the front door." Chie bit her lip for a moment, considering the proposal before shaking her head with denial.

"That wouldn't really work; Kenji would bark at you." Chie sighed with disappointment. It wasn't like Kenji meant anything bad by barking at Justin, he just got very excited whenever the boy was around. Barking was just his way of shouting to the world how happy he was to see Justin. Too bad Justin couldn't see it like that.

"Bloody dog." Justin snarled with irritation. He just wanted to go out that front door without any complications; but it seemed Kenji was going to be hellbent on seeing Justin trapped in a deathmatch with Chie's father, trying to claw his way out of the furnace he had been throw into. Chie passed Justin a funny look, one of partial puzzlement and irritation at Justin calling her dog a bloody mutt.

"Bloody? What are you, British?" Chie remarked sarcastically. It had been meant as a jab at Justin and his peculiar vocabulary, but as he stared back at her with this blank, yet horrified expression on his face, she couldn't help but think she might have been on the money. "Wait... Really?" Justin blushed and rubbed at the back of his neck, embarrassed by the sudden discovery of his English ancestry. He tried to keep that shit a secret after all.

"Look can we just focus on my escape route for a moment here?" Justin nervously tried to change the subject, with only mild success. Although she didn't say any more on the topic, you could tell Chie was still fascinated by the look on her face; as though just knowing a little more about Justin was as valuable as gold. It was a bit confusing since Justin claimed to be from California; but she supposed they could discuss that later. For now they needed to get Justin out of there before all hell broke loose in the Satonaka household. Her eyes darted about the room, as though expecting to find some sort of trap door that would lead Justin right out of her room and outside. She wasn't entirely mistaken in that regard.

"...The window! You can climb out through that!" Chie proposed, noticing the glass panels gleaming against her wall. He could leave out the window and not a single person downstairs would even know Justin was there in he first place. It all sounded like a bulletproof plan; except for one major thing Chie may have forgotten that made jumping out a window a less than ideal plan.

"We're on the second floor, Chie; I'd break my legs jumping from here!" Justin pointed out as they slowly approached the window. They weren't too high up, so Justin probably could have made the jump with minimal bone damage; but that was really beside the point. The point was jumping from here was going to hurt, no matter what way he did it. Chie shook her head, opening the window silently but swiftly to allow the two to see past the glass and out to the world that resided outside Chie's bedroom.

"There's a tree outside you can climb across." Chie pointed out a thick sturdy branch reaching out towards her window. It would take a bit of a leap to get out to, but it should be easy enough to grab a hold of from Chie's bedroom. Justin bit his lip, realizing this was really quite a shitty idea; but the fact of the matter was they didn't have many more options... Or much more time. He sighed after a moment before pushing his head through the window to examine the other side, hands clutching the glass panel's rim.

"This is a real bad idea..." Justin grumbled before slowly climbing out to the window ledge, hugging the house to he best of his ability, lest he fall from two floors up to the dirt below, turning he green grass red with blood. Chie watched with concern as Justin stood there, breathing heavily as he tried to build ip the guts to cross over to the tree. It was her idea, and it was necessary, but even then she could tell her plan was on the more dangerous side. And yet it was probably still safer than getting caught by her father. She just didn't want to see Justin hurt in his attempts at escape. Justin tool a deep breath before reaching his foot out for the branch, leg dangling in the breeze as he slowly pushed himself away from the house and onto the tree. Thank god the branch was sturdy and didn't snap like a twig as he slowly shifted his body mass over to the tree, keeping his torso close to his feet so as to maintain balance. It took a couple minutes, but he eventually made it to the tree branch, a sigh of relief as he could feel his weight safely supported by the plant. "Okay... Okay that worked; thank you Jesus." Justin prayed before slowly turning his body around on the branch to face Chie; whose head was no sticking out the window to stare at Justin.

"Thank God that worked... I didn't think that branch would hold you for a minute there." Chie smiled, her concerns washing away as she stared at Justin sitting on the branch like some kind of ninja assassin, maintaining his balance even on the thin wooden structure. Justin couldn't help but be annoyed by that remark. If she didn't think he'd make it, why the hell did she let him step out onto the tree branch. He could have gotten seriously hurt if he fucked up. Of course, truth be told, he just didn't care right now. He was only concerned about getting out of there without Chie's dad thinking he fucked her daughter.

"I guess I should get going then... I'll see you later." Justin remarked with slight sadness in his voice. He was asleep for most of it, but being with Chie all night, alone without Maya or anyone else... It was nice. Reminded him off that incident with the oxygen tank, how Chie would stay up with him at night. No words had to be exchanged as she watched his breathing; it was just nice being together, to smile with each other. He sighed, preparing to turn around when he was cut off by Chie calling out to him.

"Justin, wait!" Chie called out to Justin, stopping him before he descended the tree trunk and ran from her house to the safety of his own. No doubt he still had to tell Maya why he hadn't come home last night. Maya actually got really freaked out by Justin returning home late. It must have been because of the incident in California. Justin turned back around, facing her with a stare of curiosity. "I had a lot of fun last night... Would you... Would you come over again sometime." She asked timidly, almost embarrassed. Justin was a little caught off guard by the question, but soon he wore a warm, loving smile on his face.

"If you have to ask, you don't know me very well. Of course I would." Justin insured her softly, eyes loosening in a soft gaze, lips curved into a gentle smile. Justin would do anything for Chie, especially just visiting her. That was a reward in and of itself. Justin smiled before leaning forward, meeting Chie's lips with his own, a gentle but passionate peck from his position along the tree branch, as if he were a bird. Unlike a bird, however, he wasn't quite as well balanced along the tree's limbs, and soon the wood began to splinter before finally cracking and allowing Justin to fall to the ground below with a thud, mid-kiss. Chie understandably was alarmed as Justin groaned in pain from falling two stories onto his back.

"Justin, are you okay!?"

"Just fallin' for you, honey."


	165. Chapter 164: October 3, 2011

CHAPTER 164

October 3, 2012

* * *

"Man, October already. You know what that means."

"Damn right I do."

Ah yes; October. The month one would logically think was the eight month chronologically on the calendar, but strangely was not. It was that time of the year, where the leaves turned red and golden, where the wind blew a chilly breeze through the trees, rattling its skirt of leaves. The group was all out hanging out around Junes, sipping sodas and basking in the autumn weather. For the most part, they weren't really talking about anything noteworthy; school, homework, murder cases. Standard fare for the lot of them really. Perhaps it was for that reason that it seemed so strange that the time had passed by so quickly. Justin could hardly believe himself that it had been half a year since he first arrived here. At first he was nothing but a miserable fuck, so confused yet paranoid of the small town he would live in for at least the next three years. He didn't trust anyone; and yet despite that, here he was; friends with the people he had originally despised so much. Justin supposed he had Chie to thank for that, never giving up on the boy despite how much he would cuss and try to distance himself from human contact. And he loved her for it. But that was a different story for another time; right now the group was simply talking about October; the month where fall really went full swing, but more importantly...

"You gonna dress up for Halloween?" Yosuke questioned Justin; partially because he didn't know if that was a thing they had in America, partially because he knew some people liked to be killjoys and just stand at their houses passing out candy. He supposed SOMEONE had to do it; but at the very least wear a costume while doing it, you know? Justin smirked a bit. There were very few holidays he truly enjoyed: Thanksgiving was just a glorified dinner where people ate at a table with family they hated and pretended to be thankful for it. Easter was just one rotten egg waiting to happen when you forgot you hid the last egg in the toilet tank. Valentine's Day never had a place in Justin's life; he couldn't really say he enjoyed a day that reminded him just how lonely he was. New Year's was an absolute nightmare in the Tylor household for some more than obvious reasons. All that extra eggnog had to go somewhere right? Arbor's Day... Okay let's be serious, who the fuck celebrates Arbor's Day? There were only three holidays Justin could truly say he cared for: Independence Day, Christmas, and Halloween. You'd bet your ass he dressed up for Halloween.

"I swear to God this is the year I finally do it; I've found all the pieces for the costume and everything." Justin remarked with glee as Yosuke questioned him on the matter of costumes and disguises. Ever since he was eight he had wanted to go as this guy for Halloween, but he either couldn't find the costume or his parents wouldn't let him buy a costume that expensive. It wasn't like it was a complex suit or anything either; it was amazing how much people would charge for that shit. Of course, it goes without saying that the only person at the table who had the slightest clue what Justin was referring to was Maya. Kurt might have known if he was there, but as always, duty called. He'd pass by Junes to wave at the group from time to time, but otherwise he was much too preoccupied with his job to really stop and chat. Yosuke passed Justin a glance of intrigue, curious who Justin planned to don the guise of that he was this excited.

"Who exactly are you going as?" Yosuke questioned Justin on the matter, not satisfied with just waiting till the end of the month to find out. Not like Jutin had any intent of telling Yosuke anyway; he had worked too damn hard at this to have the surprise ruined. He even learned how to do he voice; though quite frankly it wasn't that hard to learn. You just had to open your vocal chords and exaggerate every syllable. Justin made a zipping motion along his lips, clearly satisfied with keeping his dirty little secret to himself. Too bad Maya wasn't. She quickly made a small gesture of her hand, a single word from the looks of it. Justin was needless to say very surprised.

"Holy crap, they have a sign for that? That's amazing!" Justin shouted with fascinated glee. As far as be was concerned this was just proof that the guy was the greatest character ever created if even sign-language had a word for him. Yosuke grimaced a bit for a moment, as if not really sure he wanted to be the one to break the news to Jutin that what he thought Maya meant as completely and utterly wrong. He wasn't a master of sign-language, but he knew for a fact that Maya hadn't signed off some character's name.

"Uh... That's the sign for idiot." Justin's smile faded away almost immediatly. So this was the thanks he got for getting her into lessons for sign-language; called an idiot. Granted, the two were completely unrelated, but Justin was not against using that as ammo to make her feel bad for calling him and his favorite character an idiot. He saw right through Maya's vicious scheme; and it wasn't going to work. Melodrama aside however, he did have to admit it was pretty damn snappy, if only because she knew Justin didn't know the sign for idiot. It was pretty damn clever actually; good job.

"She's not too far off actually." Justin gave her credit at the very least for being accurate. Maya in turn gave a bow of gratitude, of pride in her work with a tip of her head and a grin on her lips. By the time she came back up to lay eyes on the rest of he group, Yosuke had his eys focused upon Maya with curiosity and intrigue. Not because she bowed, mind you; he would have done the exact same thing. No, it was simply that in questioning Justin he had forgotten all about asking Maya what she was going as.

"What about you Maya?" Yosuke questioned after a moment. Maya seemed a bit alarmed by the question, not neccesarily because it was embarrasing or anything like that. It was simply that she hadn't even thought of dressing up this year; what with budget concerns and all. She hadn't dressed up last year for the same reason; hell she rarely ever went as anyone for Halloween, what being poor and all. The only reason she had gone the year prior the year of the incident was because Justin had chipped in to get her a costume. After all, if Maya didn't get dressed up with Justin his entire costume would have been ruined; kinda like those two guys who dress up like a horse if only the ass showed up. She scratched her chin for a moment before turning to Justin, expecting him to have an idea.

"Don't worry about the money, I'll get you whatever costume you want." Justin remarked, as if already sensing what Maya was concerned about. She smiled a bit before turning her attention back down to he table, sliding a napkin out in front of her so that she could scribble her idea down whenever it finally dawned upon her. Truth be told she really couldn't think of what she wanted to go as; there just wasn't many characters she knew, what not having a television for most of her life and all.

"Well what did you go as last time? Maybe you could just go as that again?" Chie suggested, not really getting that most people only reused costumes when they still, you know, had the damn costume? Maya had been homeless for a year, she no doubt didn't have it anymore. All she had when she came to Inaba was the clothes on her back, a couple of dog tags, and her iPod. Plus, why were the asking Maya these questions knowing she had little to no way of communicating a name or a character. It was probably just to be polite, sure, but it was pointless really. Good thing Justin knew the answer to half these questions, otherwise they'd be stuck here all day.

"We went as the Blues Brothers." Justin remarked with a slight chuckle. Maya seemed pretty proud of their choice in costume anyway, even if it kind of didn't make any sense. Neither of them really had the body frames to fill the Blues Brother's shoes, and one of them wasn't even a 'brother,' but hey, they had fun with it anyway. Chie just seemed confused by that though, for the obvious reasons.

"But... You're a girl." Chie pointed out, like they hadn't already figured that much out. Really, no one at this table but Justin had the right to bitch about Maya trying to look like a guy or how well she could have pulled it off when Naoto had managed to do the same thing and fooled them for nearly six months. Maya wrapped her hand around the back of her neck, snatching her hair up in what would look like a ponytail if she had just a little longer hair. But it was pretty damn clear that with her hair rolled up along the back of her skull, she could almost pass for a guy. At least from the hair angle anyway. The facial features really gave it away; but it was close enough for a Halloween costume. Too bad they didn't have a hat for her to show off the full effect. "Wow! I take it back, you looked just like a guy." Maya's smile slowly faded away into an annoyed glare."W-wait, I-I didn't mean it like that." Chie frantically apologized.

"You should have seen the other ideas we scrapped. You have no idea how much I wanted Brown-Nose the Pirate and Bulby to work; but alas none of us could figure out who the retar-" Maya slapped Justin upside the head before he could finish saying that word again. He had to wonder what it was with her and that word that pissed her off so much; all he knew was it hurt like a bitch. "Ow! Goddammit Maya; couldn't figure out who the DUMBSHIT was... Plus it's a lot harder to find costumes for giant lightbulbs than you would think." Justin shrugged. Of course, no one at the table besides Justin and Maya had the slightest clue who Brown-Nose the Pirate and Bulby were, but quite frankly, they got a feeling they really didn't want to know.

Maya shrugged before turning her attention back down to the napkin in front of her, tapping the pen she had started to carry around everywhere against her skull, as if hoping that would jumpstart her imagination. In a way it did help, or at the very least she was going to pretend it was drumming against her head that had given her the inspiration. She quickly scribled something down before sliding it out to the middle of the table where eveyone could read it. _Helghast._

"What's a Helghast?" Yukiko questioned with curiosity as she squinted at the napkin, making sure she read that right. Justin leaned back in his chair a bit, rubbing his chin with intrigue. Given Maya's limited knowledge of popular culture characters, it didn't really surprise him to find that she wanted to be some generic mook from a mediocre FPS; though quite frankly he wasn't one to talk when he had tried to go as the protagonist from Haze last year. Yeah the game was shit, but did you see that helmet? That shit was badass. Truh be told, he was all for it; he just wasn't sure where they'd even find a costume like that... Or if he could afford one.

"A Helghast is pretty much a space nazi with a British accent." Justin explained briefly, though the explanation, understandably, did little more than confuse Yukiko further. He probably would have been better off just saying it was a generic soldier from a videogame, but where's the fun in that. Justin slowly turned his gaze back to Maya, a small grin on his face. "I'll try to order one from online. I'm sure someone's had to have cosplayed as one. Just in case though, anything else you'd want to be?" Justin questioned in a somewhat reassuring manner, requesting a back up plan worst come to worse. Maya didn't even need to think before shooting her hand out to grab the napkin again, scribbling names furiously down as if it were a race to see who could spell his name first. She won by default. Justin grabbed a hold of the napkin, chuckling slightly to himself at her other option. "Jim Morrison, eh? I swear you say you want to do that every year. What is it with you and crossdressing?"

Maya immediatly grabbed the napkin back, her cheeks red with embarrassment, freckles seeming to disappear in the now red abyss of her skin. It wasn't like she was crossdressing just because she could, or because she wanted to dress like a boy (though to be fair, if it weren't for the skirt, she'd be dancing all over that fine line,) she just thought it would be a good costume idea. Besides, she could probably pull it off if she just got someone to do her hair for her. Truth be told, it wasn't so much she could that was pushing her to don the mantle of King Morrison the Second, but rather, Maya immitidedly had a really bad fan crush on the guy. Even though he was dead as dead could be, she practically swooned if you so much as showed her a picture of the man. Not that Justin could really judge her, because he had a massive man-crush on Samuel Jackson. What, a man can't squeal like a little girl anytime Samuel Jackson showed up on screen wihout it being gay? Okay, maybe just a little.

"Speaking of British space Nazis..." Chie slowly began to change he topic, a devious look in her eyes and a malaciois grin spanning the length of her face as she stared at Justin from across the table. It didn't take Justin very long to figure out what she was getting at, for him to panick slightly at the fact that she was going to let the world know just how gentlemanly he was. "How's the Queen been ol' chap?" Chie teased Justin a bit, much to his angered embarrasment.

"Fuck you, you leave the Queen out of this... I mean... Shit!" Justin slammed the table as he realized he unintentionally admitted to his Britishness. Chie started laughing hysterically, thouh most of the others seemed surprised. Save maybe Yosuke; partially because you HAD to be a Brit to memorize the entirety of Hamlet, partially because Maya had told him. Partially because if you looked real close at that jacket Justin wore, there was a little British flag patch sewn onto the shoulder. It was amazing no one else had noticed that.

"Huh? Justin-kun is British?" Yukiko remarked with confused surprise. Most of the others nodded with synchronized surprise, much to Justin's aggrivation. He was a proud Englishman, but even then he didn't want it being slammed down his throat. And knowing Justin's friends, he was pretty damn positive that was going to happen. Maya shook her head with disgust for a moment before signing off to the rest of the group, forgetting for a moment that the only people who could translate were already aware of Justin's British heritage and had been for some time._ You're just realizing that!?_

"And what if I am? Is that a problem?" Justin remarked, balling his fists up in increasing irritation. He would not stand for any of the Investigation Team's blasphemy against the proud English Empire. Especially not after they spawned Iron Maiden. No one got to diss England after that. Chie smiled devilishly, clearly not just content with the damages she had caused thus far. Oh no, she was going for the gold; do or die. She would piss Justin off if it killed her. Which it probably would.

"Now, now, ol' bean; let us not blow steam in such haste. I suggest we sit down and enjoy a spot of tea and some delectable crumpets over a rousing game of Cricket to calm the old nerves." Chie continued to tease Justin, donning her fake British accent once more in an attempt at infuriating Justin, so she could watch with humor his face grow redder than tomato soup, steam shooting out of his ears like hot tea. "Perhaps chess is more up your alley. I personally find the game nearly as shallow as that periodical Sir Eisenhower published in the London Times, mmyes. Ah, where are my manners, God save the Queen. Tip tip cheerio."

"One more word out of you and Hell won't be the only bloody thing."


	166. Chapter 165: October 4, 2011

CHAPTER 165

October 4, 2011

* * *

"Allllright! Doesn't it feel great to sweat!? I definitely do!"

It was the middle of the school day, and most everyone was outside for PE class. Justin gripped at his arms, wrapping himself up tightly with his own body in an attempt to keep the chilly weather out, to keep a body heat at the very least at the minimum levels to survive. It might not have been winter yet, but it sure as hell felt it some of these days. This day being one of them. It was like Jack Frost was just sitting up there in the clouds looking down on Justin when he decided he was bored and sent a fucking blizzard at the guy. Minus the actual snow that made a blizzard nice. Justin would have no problems being locked in his house for a week, missing school and just playing video games to pass the time. Well at least until he realized he only kept a week's worth of food in the house at any given time anyway. He'd either starve to death or freeze trying to crawl his way to Junes. Who would have thought eating nothing but instant noodles would be the death of him some day?

"I feel like my dick just froze and fell off; so no." Justin muttered sarcastically to himself in the back, tapping his leg up and down in an attempt at jumpstarting his circulation, heating up his skin by simulating activity. Chie passed him a slight glance of concern, and partially of disgust. Some of these analogies Justin came up with just left a bad taste in her mouth. Like, of all the things he could have said to convey he was freezing his ass off out here, he had to make a dick joke. And not even the obvious one either; not that that would really make it any better, but it seemed like a wasted opportunity. Disgust aside, however, looking at Justin, his skin had grown a pale, almost blue tone as he tried to keep the heat in. It was cold out, but not that cold. It was a little concerning actually.

"Hey, you alright? You look kind of sick." Chie expressed her concerns for Justin as he blew hot air between his hands before rubbing them furiously together. It didn't really work, so instead he just stuck them under his armpits to warm them up as best as he could. He bit his lip for a moment, nodding to the best of his ability; though even that was a hard process as his skull shook from the chill.

"I might as well be standing out here in my birthday suit; I think it'd be warmer actually." Justin shrugged a bit, before sneezing; violently so in fact. He wiped his nostrils with the length of his index finger, kind of disgusted that they didn't really have any tissues out here for him to use. He'd just have to clean his pants leg off later tonight or something and use it for the time being. As disgusting as his choice of where to hide his mucus was, Chie continued to stare at him with concerned eyes, slowly closing the gap between them. She didn't buy for a second it was just the weather getting to him; his skin was too pale, and really, it wasn't even that cold. A little chilly sure, but not cold by any chance.

"Please don't do that." She remarked before leaning up and pressing the back of her hand against Justin's skull. Justin was needless to say a little caught off guard by the motion, eyes darting around to see if anyone was watching as Chie treated him like he had caught the plague or something. Seriously, it was just his allergies acting up; they did that this time of the year. No need to make a scene out here on the field. Chie maneuvered her hand past Justin's long hair, sliding her fingers against the skin as she tried to get his temperature. Of course, since Justin always kept his left eye covered by his hair so no one could notice the lack of a pupil in his iris, Chie hadn't really noticed her fingernails slip right into his eyeball. He immediately recoiled in pain. Just because that eye was as blind as blind could be, it didn't mean he couldn't feel pain. In fact, aside from the lack of sight, his left eye was entirely functional. Probably not anymore now that Chie jabbed him in the eye.

"FUCK! Goddammit Chie, that eye's bad enough without you poking it!" Justin shouted in pain as he huddled away from Chie, bending over as he pressed his palm against his eyeball in an attempt to numb the pain. Chie immediately withdrew her hand and bit her finger, as if to punish her hand for straying so far off track from it's destination. It was probably made worse by the fact that her nails were a little long; not like ridiculously long mind you, just a tiny bit more than a guy's would be. Probably stung like a bitch to have that thrust into your eyeball. It took a moment, but Justin eventually regained his composure, opening his eye and taking a deep breath, readjusting his hair so it covered his deformed eye again. A couple of people had stopped to stare as he keeled over in pain, but he doubted many, if any, of them had seen his eye. Which was good.

"Oh my god I'm so sorry." Chie apologized to Justin as he readjusted himself, a slight whimper under his voice from the now excruciating pain shooting through his skull. One of these days he was gonna have to get that thing plucked out and replace it with a glass eye. It'd serve the same purpose, only it would be less painful when shit like this happened. Not like anyone would notice the difference anyway. Maybe he'd just settle for an eyepatch. That'd be kind of cool, right? "Alright, hold still, I'll be careful this time." Chie remarked softly, trying to reach her hand out for Justin's forehead again. He was a little reluctant to allow her hand anywhere near his face again, recoiling once in fear, but he eventually subsided to allow her to place some pressure on his skin, to get an idea what his temperature was like. Really fucking hot, apparently. Also… Justin should really look into getting something for those pimples. You couldn't really see it because his hair was covering the way, but he had these stray pimples all along the length of his forehead. You'd think it was because his hair was greasy or something, but his hair color was too light for it to really be oily. Must just be acne or something. "Christ, Justin, you're burning up." She remarked with concern as she pulled her hand away from his skin, and as he readjusted his hair again before reassuming his huddled up position trying to keep the warmth in.

"I'm fine; really. It's probably just allergies…" Justin remarked, biting his lip again in an attempt at trying to hold his hot breath in, to heat up his insides so that they could in turn warm up his outsides. Alas; that's not really how biology worked, but it was worth a shot at the very least, right? He sniffed a bit, trying to stop any stray mucus from dripping out his nostrils and onto the grass beneath him. Chie of course wasn't buying for even a second this was just allergies. Justin had some pretty bad allergies, sure; but this was a little extreme, even for that. She had never seen Justin's allergies act up so bad that he was shivering like a camel in Antarctica. It was definitely a cold or something he had managed to catch, no doubt about it.

"There's no color in your cheeks; allergies don't do that." Chie pointed out, semi-sarcastically as she tried to make Justin realize he really was coming down with something. She didn't know WHAT it was, or if it was even something terribly bad he had caught, but it still seemed like it was a good idea for Justin to know what he was getting into. Plus; she didn't want him sneezing on her or something if it was contagious. Justin groaned and rubbed at his forehead for a moment, sharp pain shooting through his skull; and not even from his eye. He had just assumed it was from the cold at first, like a brain freeze, but he wasn't quite sure anymore. He could feel his forehead radiating pure heat as he pinched at his temples; Chie wasn't bluffing when she said he really was burning up.

"Fuck; I'm really not in the mood to be getting sick. I've got shit I need to do." Justin sighed, as if there was ever a mood to be in for getting sick. Besides lazy, he supposed. After all, if you had no intention of leaving the house when you were suddenly stricken from above with disease, it was just more reason to do what you wanted to do in the first place. Justin, however, did not have time to be lazy. Not this month anyway. He had been looking into Maya's costume for her, since she seemed pretty damn happy about her costume choice when they were at Junes, and what do you know, he found something. Something VERY expensive unfortunately. On the bright side, it was quality shit. On the down side, it cost about half of the value of Justin's guitar. Not too bad, but most certainly not a bargain either. He really couldn't afford it on his budget; but with the look on Maya's face when she had suggested it, and all the hardships she had faced over the last month, he thought she deserved at least one day to be happy. He had already called Yosuke up about getting a part-time job at Junes for the month; or at least until he could afford the costume. Strangely, Yosuke was not at all opposed to getting a job for Justin; hell, he had outright tried to give him the money without him even showing up. It was kind of weird, so Justin turned down his offer of free money. Besides, he wasn't some mooch; he worked for his paycheck, just like everyone else.

"Hey, don't push yourself too hard. You don't need to get worse. Just take it easy for a while." Chie remarked with concern, eyes wide with unease as she stared at Justin. She knew how stubborn he could get. Knowing him, he'd probably just brush her off and storm out of his bed to do whatever it was he claimed he needed to do, regardless of what disease he was carrying within the depths of his chest. Justin sighed, leaning his head back to stare up at the clouds above him, as if this really required any thought whatsoever. At least, that's what it looked like; in actuality, he just had to sneeze again and he had been trying to hold it back. It didn't really work. At least he didn't sneeze on anyone he knew; it'd probably wash off with some hot water anyway. "Promise me you'll just stay put if it gets worse…" Chie pleaded with him, softly with her voice, yet oh so forcefully with her eyes, those big puppy dog eyes. They failed only once in Justin's life; and that was one more than statistically should be possible. His stared back at Chie, eyebrows curved up a bit with some kind of sadness. He kind of felt bad making Chie worry about him like this, especially when it was something as silly as a cold; especially when she stared at him with those big brown eyes of hers. He shook his head and sighed after a moment.

"…Fine. I promise." Justin remarked after a while, slowly turning his eyes away from Chie and back towards the front of the class. His intention was to bluff, but for some reason staring Chie dead in the eyes while he lied to her just made his chest hurt; like he had been jabbed in the chest with a knife while the knife was on fire and had AIDS on the tip of it. He just couldn't lie to her, especially not with that look on her face; so even though it started as a lie, it had ended as legitimate promise. He was kicking himself already for agreeing to this. One day's pay would have went a long way with getting Maya that costume she wanted. All the same, Chie smiled softly at Justin as he turned his eyes away from her, giving him a soft playful shove before walking away a bit, reestablishing the small gap that had been between them a moment earlier. She didn't want people getting the wrong ideas after all… or perhaps the right ideas.

"Remember, though, you should always drink water afterwards! If you can, drink 2.5 liters of water everyday! Why 2.5 liters, you ask? Well, I'll tell you! That's how much water you lose on a daily average." Mr. Kondo continued to lecture the entire class on shit they either didn't care about or shit they already knew. In Justin's case, it was a matter of shit that no human being should logically be expected to keep in mind throughout their day. I mean, honestly, who the hell sat there measuring how many glasses of water they drank? You drink when you get thirsty; that's all. No need to meet a prerequisite amount of water; just drink when you need to. Mr. Kondo's eyes slowly scanned the group of teenagers, perhaps detecting how little they actually cared about anything he had been saying for the last two minutes or so. If they wanted to learn about their bodies, they'd take a health class. Here at PE, however, they expected to actually do shit; or at the very least not stand out here in the freezing cold just to be lectured. "…Hmm, I choose you, Justin! How much of those 2.5 liters of water do you think you lose by sweating? On average, of course."

"Wait what?" Justin remarked, surprised by suddenly being called on. He hadn't been paying attention to this bullcrap at all. Did he even go over this crap before? Justin was not a fan of being drilled on shit he wouldn't have been expected to know, especially when there was a chance of this being graded. It was like a pop-quiz, but only on irrelevant bullshit they had never talked about ever. Justin's eyes darted about nervously, as though hoping someone knew the answer. Chie was clueless given the way she shook her head, so was Yosuke. Yukiko clearly knew but hadn't quite caught on that he was hoping she would give him a hint, so he stopped looking towards her for an answer. And Yu? Well Yu was very bad at mouthing off words without making a sound. The motions he made with his lips wasn't even close to what he was trying to say. Justin swallowed hard, realizing he was kind of fucked right about now. There was only one way out of this predictament; only one way he would leave here with his grade point average still in one piece. "Depends how fat you are." Justin snidely remarked. The class almost immediately burst into giggles, though that wasn't entirely unusual during the PE. Justin had grown a reputation as being a class clown; especially with teachers like Mr. Kondo who was always pretty cool with his jokes. Chie, on the other hand, was not, jabbing Justin in his rib as he insulted fat people everywhere.

"Justin!" She shouted, yet whispered at the same time. Thankfully there were no fat people in this PE Class, and by that I mean Hanako, because if there was, shit would have hit the ceiling. You don't just call out an entire demographic like that and expect to get away with it. Justin shook his head, a blank, yet tired-looking expression on his face all the while.

"Please, if people get offended by that, it's because they know they're fat. And if they know they're fat and don't change it, it's their own damn fault." Justin defended his actions. Chie didn't seem to quite buy into that same train of thought, though you could tell she was at least trying to understand where Justin was coming from. Her glare loosened slightly as she sighed, shaking her head with disappointment. One of these days Justin was going to get into some serious trouble with that mouth of his; and she wouldn't be around to bail him out. What then? Mr. Kondo chuckled slightly, though you could tell he was only doing it because Justin had a snappy response, not because of the actual joke. Fat people were no joking matter in Inaba apparently; as if the fact that they sweat were a joke.

"Very funny." Mr. Kondo remarked sarcastically, rolling his eyes. It was clear to him Justin was side-stepping the question on purpose because he hadn't the slightest clue what the answer to that question was. "About 1.5 liters of water leave your body through waste, about .5 liters leave through breathing, and .5 from sweat! So you lose water from just being alive! See why it's so important to drink it!? I especially recommend that you drink water after exercise!" Justin's eyebrow shot up with curiosity, eyes widening with surprise as Mr. Kondo laid the statistic smackdown on Justin. It wasn't so much the actual smackdown that Justin had been caught off-guard by; that was nothing. He listened to that bullshit in school every single day (save Sunday of course); Mr. Kondo actually teaching something wasn't a new sensation. No, what had caught him off guard was the statistic itself.

"1.5 Liters? Christ, how much do I piss on a daily basis?"


	167. Chapter 166: October 5, 2011

CHAPTER 166

October 5, 2011

* * *

"…"

"…"

"I just read that right, right?"

"I… Think you did."

"Okay. Fuck this book."

Justin and Chie were sitting at his house, blanket cast over the shoulders, school assigned reading in their hands. Brave New World to be precise, and it was… just awful. And they were only like a chapter in too; how bad do you have to screw up to fuck up a book that early on? Shitty reading aside, the two sat there, sick as sick could be around midday, trying to at the very least be productive with their down-time, getting some school work done. They immediately regretted that decision. It was no surprise that Justin was sick; that was pretty clear the day prior when he was shivering in what was fairly standard weather, when his head was hotter than Tabasco sauce that had been thrown into a hot oven for a week. Chie on the other hand kind of came as a surprise. Though what was more surprising, Chie getting sick or the fact that she had snuck out of her house just to be in the room with another sick person, Justin couldn't really say. He couldn't say he disliked having the company though, what with Maya out working. She knew Justin was sick; but the difference between someone like Maya and someone like Chie was that Maya really just did not give a fuck. Not because she didn't care about Justin's health mind you, but she knew it would pass. She didn't need to call in sick just because Justin was too lazy to make himself a bowl of soup; he could handle himself just fine.

"Not even twenty pages in and Kindergartners are fucking each other. I don't know what's worse, the actual content of this book or the fact that it's critically acclaimed. You know that means there are people that looked at this and were like 'oh yes, I do enjoy a spot of kiddie porn in my literature'." Justin went on an aggravated tangent, perhaps getting a little too pissed off over a book he hadn't even finished. Not that Chie could really reprimand him all that well when she was sneezing up a shit storm. It probably would have been a better idea for her to stay home in bed rather than walk in the freezing cold just to be sick with Justin. I mean what was the point? She just felt lonely or something? That's what phones were for.

"We only read one chapter; it probably gets better…" Chie tried to look on the bright side, though she herself was finding it hard to believe that a book that had started with kindergartners running around and humping each other got much better. It had to though, right? People HONESTLY couldn't just enjoy a book where this crap happened, right? Justin shook his head, throwing the book off to the side, knocking SOMETHING over, if the sound of breaking glass was any indication. He didn't seem to care though; the chill running up and down his spine was just too much for him to think of anything else really.

"I don't intend to find out. I'll print out the sparknotes later." Justin sighed, sinking back in the couch slightly, his end of the blanket sinking with him. It was a small blanket, so generally, anytime one of them moved, the other had to move with them. The two were practically shoulder to shoulder; which was probably a bad idea when they were both sick. If they didn't have the same thing, which they probably did, they sure as hell did now. "I'm starting to remember how much of a pain in the ass being sick is… Hey Chie, promise you won't get made if I ask but… why exactly are you here again? Wouldn't it be easier to stay home and burn off the fever?" Justin questioned after a moment, his curiosity starting to get the better of him. Chie sneezed as the question assaulted her ears, not as a direct result mind you, she WAS sick after all, but she sneezed all the same. You could really tell she was sick because all along the bridge of her nose was completely red; and it only seemed to grow redder the more she sneezed.

"My parents are at work right now, so it's really quiet at my house. Gives me the creeps." Chie explained, a slight shiver shooting down her spine as she justified her residence on Justin's couch. Justin's eyebrow shot up with curiosity. If it was just because it was too quiet for her taste, why hadn't she just thrown on some music or watch TV? And since when was Chie squeamish over the quiet?

"What about Kenji? You should have just let him in your room." Justin pointed out, knowing already Chie had pretty much locked the mutt out of her room. Chie shrugged.

"That's… not really the same thing…" Chie countered. There was a difference between noise and sound; and she vastly preferred noise. It meant that stuff was going on; anything could make a sound. Her dog could bark all day, but it wasn't quite the same as hearing the bustle of her parents down stairs or the chatter of people outside her window. "Besides; I don't want to get him sick too."

"Oh, but you're okay with getting me sick!?" Justin counted sarcastically. Chie gave him a playful shove, neglecting to recall that the blanket was wrapped tightly enough around each other that whenever one tipped to the side, so did the other. Sending Justin hurdling over with that shove ultimately resulted in her falling after him, landing on him in the process, head falling into his chest. Justin couldn't help but laugh, despite how embarrassed Chie was about the accident. It was just a little collision after all; it wasn't too big of a deal. If anything Justin kind of found it cute, in a weird way. "Hellllooo, miss. Something I can help you with?"

"Knock it off." Chie grunted, rolling her eyes as she pushed herself off of Justin, in turn pulling him up with her, giggling the whole way there. He wasn't sure what he found funnier sometimes, the actual things Chie did or the way she reacted when he tried to flirt with her. Sometimes she took it really well; other times she got really embarrassed, like now. And there was very rarely any indication as to which way she was going to react. It was kind of like a guessing game in ways, but Justin didn't mind. Variety is the spice of life after all.

"Besides, dogs don't have the same genetics as us; they can't catch the same stuff." Justin elaborated a little more, explaining to Chie that her excuse was pretty much completely bullshit. Chie seemed intrigued at the very least. She thought she knew all there was about taking care of a dogs, yet she never actually knew that dogs couldn't catch the same shit humans could. Either she had a lot to learn or it was her just not being too bright acting up again. Not that this was common knowledge or anything; she really should stop beating herself up about not knowing some of this stuff.

"Wait, really?" Chie questioned. Justin just nodded a bit in response as he reached out to the table in front of him for the remote. He figured if they were going to be trapped here for a good four or five hours, they might as well watch a movie or something. At least until Chie needed to sneak back to her house anyway. That was probably the part about Chie being here that concerned him the most. Chie was pretty visibly sick, which meant whatever she caught couldn't have been all too good to be walking around in the cold weather with, especially all by herself. Leaving her room was probably the worst decision she could have made, as happy as Justin was for her to be here with him. "I don't know, I guess I just wanted someone to talk to." Chie admitted. She couldn't really think of any other excuse to be here other than it was kind of lonely being trapped in her bedroom during a school day. She couldn't just call Yukiko up on the phone to keep her company or anything, and Justin still hadn't fixed his phone from that scene he had caused in Junes over Maya's disability. He had made a couple passing jokes about possibly dropping his phone in the toilet so he could just get a new one, and if it weren't for the fact that that would involve him sticking his hand into a grotty piss stained toilet, he might have actually considered it.

"Well you know me Chie, I'm always here when you need someone." Justin smiled as he stared at the television screen, flicking the screen on before shuffling through the channels in search of something the two of them could watch. In retrospect, he should have let Chie have the remote, since she liked very little of what Justin liked in movies and television. They both liked Quentin Tarentino and they both liked Scrubs; but that was about the extent of their commonality in that regard. Chie smiled at him for a moment before leaning over and giving him a quick peck on the cheek.

"I know." She remarked quite simply, yet sweetly at the same time. Justin didn't even mind the fact that one of them was probably going to walk away with the other's disease now, how kissing him was such a shitty idea when they were both sick as fuck, but then he realized, he didn't give a fuck. At all. He smiled at her, leaning his skull slightly to the side to rest it against hers, absorbed in a wave of blissful euphoria for a brief moment. Hell, he had almost forgot he was channel surfing for a moment, but Chie gave him a quick shove with her shoulder to snap him out of his daze. Oh what cruel games she could play, enchanting his world and then snapping him back to reality in a matter of seconds, like teasing a cat with a ball of yarn. Still, Justin went back to flipping channels, skipping past stuff he wouldn't have minded watching in favor of Chie's choice in programming. And by that Justin meant he skipped right past everything. He tried to force the cooking channel as a hint, but Chie was much too smart for him to pull that on her. Eventually though, Justin was frozen in place by an all too familiar phrase.

"_Hi, I'm Johnny Knoxville, and this is Jackass." _Justin paused, passing a glance at Chie, then back to the screen, then slowly back to Chie. He had probably seen this movie a hundred times over, and it was probably going to be shit censored on television, but come on. They HAD to watch it. It was like, the perfect movie to watch with friends. Except that one with Steve-O being used as human shark bait. That was… um… yeah. Chie seemed to be examining Justin as he turned his eyes her way. It was clear she didn't want to watch it; though she sure as hell could tell Justin did. It took a moment before she sighed and rolled her eyes in what had essentially become her giving Justin permission to do something incredibly stupid. Not that watching Jackass was stupid.

So basically, they sat there and watched as a bunch of grown men crowded into a shopping cart and went flying down the hill, fruit stands and shit exploding at every turn to make it look really dramatic. I think a fat guy fell off at one point, but let's be honest; no one was watching the fat guy take a tumble when a bunch of grown men were riding a shopping carriage. In all fairness, Chie did have to admit that she got a couple of laughs watching the chaos unfold in slow motion. She wasn't really into the Jackass kind of humor, but there was just something so silly about the scene unfolding in front of her, that even if it was pretty immature of a bunch of grown men to be doing this kind of shit, she couldn't help but chuckle. It was too over the top for her not to.

"You know, one of these days we're going to have to get Yosuke to let us take a carriage from Junes and do this with the hill overlooking town." Justin chuckled a bit, partially at the movie, partially his incredibly stupid idea. Didn't he read the disclaimer at the beginning of the movie? These stunts were done by trained professionals! Do not reenact anything you see at home! _Man, fuck those warnings; they're just the man's way of bringing us down. Fuck you, man. I ain't a part of your system! _Chie immediately stopped laughing to glare at Justin. She had heard a lot of stupid things come out of Justin's mouth, but this was by far the stupidest. At least no one would really get hurt with his other ideas; this one was pretty much guaranteed to kill everyone involved.

"Are you stupid, or just crazy?" Chie remarked with stupefied shock; almost surprised that even Justin was that dumb. Of course, it wasn't a serious suggestion Justin was proposing, not that he'd be entirely against it; rather just him poking fun at the stupidity on screen. Chie was the only one here that was taking Justin seriously; though that could also possibly be attributed to the fact that there was no one else besides those two here. That's like saying out of two people only one of them kicked the other in the balls. That's still 50%, dammit. Still; it was always fun to mess around with Chie, and this was no exception.

"All work and no play makes Justin a dull boy…" Justin chuckled in an almost sinister fashion, a wicked gaze in his eyes. He had considered trying to force himself to get angry for just a moment to let his shadow's golden eyes shine through and scare the ever living shit out of Chie, but there was a LOT wrong with that plan. For starters, it would involve letting loose his shadow; which was ALWAYS a bad idea in every circumstance. Secondly, Chie would kick the ever living shit out of him, once for being a shadow, once for letting the shadow out just to give her a scare. And finally… He just couldn't force himself to be angry for shits and giggles; it was kind of contradictory, an oxymoron if you will. You couldn't do both at the same time, it was physically impossible.

"…What?" Oh yeah, and the best part was Chie had apparently never seen the Shining. Which was perfect because there was only one other movie Justin could think of that involved crazy people; and really, they didn't sound all that crazy. Justin chuckled a bit, slowly turning to look Chie dead in the eyes, a sinister almost vacant look in his eyes. Justin wasn't a very good liar, but he could act like a real good psychopath when he wanted to apparently. Maybe he SHOULD have taken Drama; show them all how it was done.

"Chie? Darling? Light, of my life. I'm not gonna hurt ya. You didn't let me finish my sentence. I said, I'm not gonna hurt ya. I'm just going to bash your brains in." Justin backed away for a brief moment to slap the tip of his fist into his palm in an almost threatening manner. "Gonna bash 'em right the fuck in!" Justin started to laugh hysterically, the way a mad man would when getting satisfaction out of his twisted ways. Or at least he was until Chie kneed him right in the gut. He could almost taste the blood filling his lungs right now. When Chie hit, she hit hard. "-otherfucker!"

"Hands off my brains, buster!" She shouted, backing away slightly, as if she actually thought Justin was serious when he said half that shit. I mean come on; WHY would Justin just feel like smashing Chie's skull in when but a brief moment earlier they had been getting all lovey-duby with each other. Justin groaned in pain, holding his now bruised gut in an attempt at trying to numb the pain.

"Dammit Chie, I was joking!" Justin grumbled before rolling off the couch in pain. Again; the blanket was still tied around their bodies, however, so when Justin went tumbling down to the floor, guess who went with him? And ironically enough, she managed to smack her head on the table on the way down. Pretty hard given the sound her head made as it bounced off the wooden surface. As if she wasn't sick enough already without breaking a bone or two; and a vital one at that. Justin was in too much pain from having his gut explode all over his insides to really jump up and help, but even then he was very much alarmed by Chie presumably cracking her skull wide open against his living room table. "Holy shit! Are you alright?" Chie groaned a bit, pressing her fingers against the side of her skull, eyes half open in what you could tell was her clearly trying to fight off the pain. She didn't seem to be having any troubles staying conscious though, so that was a plus side. Her pain filled frown slowly shifted to a tiny grin, a chuckle under her voice all the while. At least she wasn't pissed about Justin damn near killing her with his table; that was a plus, right?

"I thought you said you were joking about bashing my brains in?"

"Would I not lie to you?"

"Yes- wait, shit! Trick question, no fair!"

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTES**

**There will be no update tommorow, as I'm going to a The Who concert and won't have time to write it. Updates will continue as normal the day after. Apologies in advance.**


	168. Chapter 167: October 6, 2011

CHAPTER 167

October 6, 2011

* * *

"Yeah, so then the Indian hangs himself… And that's the end of the book. I don't… I don't get what the point of any of that was. At all."

Justin, Chie, and Yosuke were making their way to school, talking about the miserable excuse that was their assigned reading for the quarter. They had a quiz on it in class today; but god knows none of them actually read it. Why would they when sparknotes would read it for them, after all? Well except Chie, who was all about ethically finishing her homework or something. If they said read the book, she'd read the book. Too bad she fell asleep reading the book last night and had to resort to asking Justin and Yosuke what the hell happened. Yosuke of course wanted to act like a douche and just poke fun at her for not doing the reading ahead of time; even though he himself hadn't even read the book. Justin was counting on him failing the test just so he could shove it down his throat._ Oh, you think she should have read more? I don't think you're in any place to judge._

"…Drugs are bad?" Chie questioned, as if proposing a theory as to what the purpose of any of the shit that happened in the novel was. All she got out of that was society sucks, drugs suck, and Indians are cool. Justin sighed, shaking his head a bit. He doubted that was the moral of the story, but at this point he'd say it was a much better theory than what he had. And what he had was some guy REALLY wanted to make an erotic novel and try to disguise it as something else. Disgusting books aside, the group was stopped dead in their tracks by Chie walking into someone. Justin couldn't help but fist pump; not because Chie walked into someone, but because he wasn't the one to walk straight into someone this time. "Oh! Naoto-kun, I'm so sorry!" Chie hurriedly apologized, pressing the side of her hand against her mouth with surprise as Naoto readjusted herself. She seemed kind of ticked off by the collision, but otherwise she was unscratched. "I wasn't looking where I was going, I'm sorry… I uh… See you're back to school… Are you… feeling better now?" Chie awkwardly questioned, not really sure how to keep the conversation going after walking right into Naoto. Thankfully, Naoto seemed to get over that kind of shit when it came to business. And given that these people were connected in some capacity to the murders; this was her business.

"Yes, thanks to all of you." Naoto cleared her throat slightly as she readjusted herself, straightening out the clothes that had been wrinkled by her and Chie's collision but a moment earlier. "I'd like to thank you once again for what happened." Naoto repeated, as if she hadn't just thanked them two seconds earlier. Furthermore, none of them wanted her thanks; for entirely different reason. Chie and Yosuke didn't want it because they were just doing their job. Justin didn't want it because she was a hypocrite. He didn't want SHIT from her. Too bad that wasn't really his decision to make; otherwise Naoto would have been long gone. Possibly tied to an anchor and thrown off a bridge. Justin crossed his arms and glared at the girl, not saying anything, but making it pretty clear he was pissed through body language. He had nothing to say to her. Not now, not ever.

"Don't mention it. But hey, your uniform…" Yosuke pointed out, eyes distracted by the sight of Naoto still wearing the guy's uniform. Perhaps it was the fact that she was still trying to look like a guy to her peers, perhaps it was just that she didn't want to fix what wasn't broken. Hell, maybe she just liked dressing that way. It did beg the question what the school would say about it if they ever found out… which given some of the chit chat Justin could hear from passerbys, was very, very probable.

"Hey it's the Detective Prince."

"That's no Prince. I heard he's a she!" Naoto looked down at the ground, sighing slightly, clearly not a fan of the discussion two girls walking by had been talking about. It was one thing to be talked about behind your back. It was another to be talked about in that kind of light. All she had worked to hide from the world had been destroyed in a single instant; and yet she didn't even know how or when. It just did. It was embarrassing to say the least; not to mention she had no idea where the rumor had come from. The only ones who knew were the investigation te-

…

_Justin you son of a bitch._

"Huh!? Y-You serious!? If he's a she, then uh… O-Oh crap!"

"Aww… I'm kinda disappointed, but then again, there's something neat about it…"

"Yeah… If you look at it a certain way, doesn't she seem pretty cool?" The girls continued to talk as they walked by. You'd think Naoto should have taken it as a compliment that despite her gender everyone considered her cool. Of course, last Justin checked muting someone for the rest of their life wasn't 'cool.' It sickened him to think Naoto could get away with this shit, that after all she had done to ruin his and Maya's life, she just got to walk free because technically her shadow wasn't her. He just had to sit there and bite his tounge, watching as she went on with her life as if nothing had ever happened. He didn't like Naoto. In fact, he hated Naoto. He wasn't sure if there was anyone in this world he hated more. But he had to keep it to himself. He had to sit there and pretend she hadn't fucked him and Maya over. And he hated it; almost as much as he hated her. Hate. Hate.

"My, my… Rumors spread so quickly." Naoto remarked, adjusting her hat as she continued to avoid eye contact, clearly embarrassed about all of this. Justin scoffed, making a 'pfft' sound. That clearly caught everyone off guard. They were under the impression everyone was on okay terms ever since Naoto had gotten kidnapped. It seemed they had neglected to consider the fact that Maya would be just fine if it weren't for Naoto's dumbass plan.

"Five bucks says that girl put a love letter in your damn locker." Justin remarked after a moment, still glaring at Naoto. Naoto didn't say anything to Justin, instead keeping her eyes carefully trained upon him. She had seen him pissed before, but there was something different about this; about the way he looked at her, the way he spoke to her. This wasn't just disdain for her; there was something much more powerful about the hatred in his eyes right now. Justin sighed with anger before pushing past everyone, making his way inside. He couldn't stand being here any longer than he already was. If he didn't leave now, he was going to lose his temper. The others just watched with surprise as Justin stormed off, disappointed that he still wouldn't let go of this petty feud of his.

"I see some things don't change."

* * *

"First, I heard the doorbell ring."

The group had all gathered at Junes, Kurt included for once since this was kind of important. Even though he hadn't much to contribute to the investigation, knowing very little about the circumstances involving the television, it still would be nice for some extra input. At the moment, Naoto was recapping what she remembered from the night she had been kidnapped. Most of the group was intentive, listening carefully to the girl. Justin was not, simply tapping his fingers against the table in what seemed like a half-assed attempt at drowning Naoto out. And it was kind of working if not getting on everyone's nerves. It was clear he didn't want to be anywhere near Naoto; and if Chie hadn't practically dragged him out here, he probably wouldn't be.

"But when I opened the front door, I saw no one there… Just as alarm bells sounded in my mind, someone grabbed me roughly from behind and covered my mouth with something. Immediately afterward, I was put into something like a sack and most likely carried on the culprit's shoulder." Naoto continued to remark, taking slight pauses as she spoke to try and recall the details, eyes seemingly focused on nothing and something at the same time, eyes moving but not really looking at anything. Most everyone seemed impressed by her ability to recall all this, hell even though Justin hated this girl with all his heart he couldn't deny that what she had managed to do was nothing short of a miracle and useful as all fuck.

"Wow, how could you remember all that?" Rise questioned, fascinated that someone Naoto's size had managed to remember stuff that none of them combined could have pieced together. Hell, how she could have remained conscious longer than Kanji was a mystery in and of it. You'd think Kanji would have put up a fight, but then a pipsqueak detective like Naoto comes along and showed him how it was done. And that was another thing; why was Kanji avoiding eye contact with Naoto? Was he pissed at her about something too?

"The culprit seems to have used a chemical to incapacitate me, but luckily I wasn't completely unconscious. I had been expecting a trick along those lines, so I was somewhat prepared. And of course, I was desperate to gather as much information as I could." Naoto explained. Justin had to briefly wonder how the hell Naoto would even prepare for being chloroformed. What, you just sniff that stuff until you gain an immunity or something? I mean seriously.

"No wonder you're an ace detective." Teddie gushed like a child watching a superhero show. Hate to break it to Teddie, but not getting knocked out by a knock out drug does not make you an ace detective, nor does preparing for it. It means you knew you were going to get drugged and were stupid enough to still let it happen. Justin puffed some hot air out of his nose, as if laughing at the idea of Naoto being an ace detective. She was a criminal that got away with it because she wore a badge; nothing more.

"That ain't something to be proud of. You are too damn calm about all this…" Justin nodded his head in slight agreement with Kanji, though for entirely different reasons. Justin thought it was despicable that Naoto could just go on with her life like she hadn't just ruined someone else's.

"Judging by their actions and body type, I'd say the culprit is definitely a man. I heard no conversations or voices, so I believe he is acting alone. It's after that that things get murky… I felt a single impact, which I assume is when I was thrown inside the TV… But the time from kidnapping to that point seemed too short… It was a matter of minutes."

"So you were immediately thrown inside the TV after being kidnapped…" Chie remarked, musing on the matter. For a moment it sounded and looked as if she was onto something, like something about the comment had rubbed her the right way and jumpstarted her brain. In actuality, it had the exact opposite effect. "Oh! Could there have been a TV on the side of the road!?" Yeah, everyone shot Chie a glance as if that was the stupidest thing they had ever heard. Even Justin, who usually just laughed this stuff off, thought it was stupid. Even MAYA; the girl who HAD a TV on the side of the road though that was fucking stupid. THAT'S how stupid the remark was. At least it was comedy gold.

"Regrettably, my memory from there on is a blur… I finally understand why you all testified that you couldn't recall much of what happened. Such a bizarre experience, with mental and physical fatigue on top of it… It's only natural to be confused. And going by the surrounding circumstances, my kidnapping and everyone else's were near identical… There is no question that the culprit is the same in each case." Naoto continued to muse on the matter, as if they didn't already know that being thrown into a television was strange, or that it was one killer. Justin's shadow had more or less confirmed it was one guy; though Justin wasn't sure how the shadow knew that since he claimed to not know WHO the guy was. Either he was lying as usual, or there was something fishy going on there.

"So… that Mitsuo boy, who said he killed King Moron…" Chie began to put the pieces together out loud. Justin thought it was pretty clear by this point that Mitsuo had been a copy cat killer. I mean, it had been established that he had only killed Marooka, right? And when he tried to take credit for everything else, it was because he was trying to imitate the original, to BE the original killer. Naoto nodded her head with confirmation.

"Everything makes sense now. I can't say for sure until I gather more concrete evidence… But Mitsuo Kubo's only victim was Mr. Morooka. It was a copycat killing that mimicked the culprit's method." Naoto explained for Chie, since clearly she was still out of the loop. You would think that the girl who had just found out about the other world would know less than the girl who had been with the team since the beginning; especially when the girl in question here was Naoto, but then, the OTHER girl in question was Chie, so it… sorta made sense? Not that Justin would ever say that to her face. "The question remains, though, as to how Kubo learned of that world."

"That's it! That's what was bothering me!" Chie shouted, jumping up from her seat as it suddenly struck her. Well at the very least it was nice to see she was slowly getting back on track with her train of thought, the thing that had been bugging her earlier coming to an actual conclusion and not, say, a television just sitting there on the sidewalk for no reason other than there being a television. "Mitsuo could enter the TV, right? Then why didn't he kill King Moron that way?" And again, missed the mark entirely. At least her inquiries were a little more reasonable this time around.

"I believe he didn't understand the other world as well as the true culprit. Even though I can now enter it myself, it wouldn't occur to me to use it for murder… And remember, the previous corpses left no sign that their deaths had anything to do with the other world. After Kubo became wanted, leaving him with nowhere to run, he probably thought for the first time… 'What if I put my entire body into the TV?' The bizarre condition of the corpses that caused such commotion is probably because they died on the other side… It's a simpler explanation than figuring out why the killer would risk disposing of the bodies in such a way. Which means their inexplicable condition of being hung on a foggy day wasn't due to the culprit making a statement… Much of our speculation could be tested if we could ask Kubo in person. However…" Naoto slowly trailed off, a disappointed expression on her face. You know, Justin wasn't entirely buying the whole 'he just didn't think to use it for murder' angle, but hey, what the hell. Made a lot more sense than his theory had. Naoto cleared her throat before proceeding. "I've unfortunately been taken off the investigation. And I highly doubt that the police will believe any of this…" She declared after a while. Justin made a fist pump under the table, happy to see that SOME justice had been served. Nowhere near enough to justify what she had done, but it would all come around eventually.

"They wouldn't admit that it wasn't Mitsuo in the first place… Once you've said something on TV, it's not easy to admit you were wrong." Rise reasoned out loud. She would be the first person here to know what it was like to say something stupid on television anyway. Not that she ever said anything stupid, but you know how the paparazzi tries to misconstrue every single thing. Naoto nodded with complete agreement, almost begrudgingly in a way. You could tell she wasn't satisified with the circumstances by which she had been dismissed from the case, perhaps not really realizing that when a case is closed, YOU DON'T STICK AROUND ON THE CASE!

"I believe the primary cause of my dismissal was because I raised that possibility to them. The police won't readily concede that they made false charges… All the more so if the accused is a juvenile. In fact, the overwhelming sentiment within the police force is to end this case with his arrest." Naoto remarked. She did raise a valid point though; admitting to arresting a teenager for murders he didn't commit would be a PR nightmare, not to even mention the lawsuits. The Inaba Police Department would be broke within seconds if it slipped out that Mitsuo was innocent.

"Even if it's possible there's another killer!?" Chie questioned with great shock. It always amazed Justin that Chie couldn't really see how corrupt the police department was. She wanted to believe that the police just stood for justice and the good of the civilian populace. She never realized that there was such thing as a dirty cop or police politics; or if she did, she refused to acknowledge its existence. Ignorance was bliss after all.

"Those dickheads… I had a feeling that would be the case. Not that I trusted 'em in the first place." Kanji grumbled angrily.

"Never trust a cop." Justin and Kurt remarked in complete synchronization. Maya probably would have joined them if she wasn't so busy being mute. It was a bit surprising if humorous in a way. And as pissed as Justin was to be in Naoto's presence right now, he did have to admit, that did make him want to crack up a bit. So Kurt and Justin did what anyone would do in that kind of situation: high-five. Naoto shook her head with disgust. She was starting to see what Justin's problem was.

"But uh, Naoto… If you were that calm when it happened to you, couldn't you have, you know… I'm not saying you shoulda caught him, but isn't it kinda sad for an ace detective to go down that easily…?" Yosuke questioned after a moment. It wasn't a very valid point, but Justin wasn't going to say anything. Anything to put Naoto's abilities into question was a-okay with him.

"U-Um… Um… To tell you the truth, I was really scared… I-I'm sorry…" Justin scoffed a bit as Naoto apologized with embarrassment for not catching the killer. _Yeah, you're sorry for not stopping a mad man from kidnapping you, but you're not sorry for trying to get him to kidnap you in the first place, or sorry for muting my sister for life, or putting all of our lives in danger. Fuck you; you're not sorry about SHIT._

"It can't be helped. None of us could resist the culprit, either. Don't forget, Naoto-kun is younger than us, and she's a girl." Yukiko pointed out, perhaps believing she had a good point. You know, Justin could understand being younger or smaller; but being a girl had jackshit to do with how well she could defend herself.

"Oooooh, she's a girl so that suddenly means she can't defend herself. Give me a break; Chie's kicked holes in walls and Maya's broken people's legs." Justin pointed out with slight irritation. Perhaps he shouldn't be blaming Naoto for not catching the killer, and really he didn't, but he wasn't going to let her be defended by as weak an argument as that. Or at all really. She didn't DESERVE to be defended by anyone; not even herself. Her actions were inexcusable. Naoto blushed with sight embarrassment at the conversation that had suddenly erupted over her gender and it's effect on her combat abilities.

"R-Regardless, I have no doubt that the culprit will continue with his attacks. We can only watch and wait for him to make the next move…" Naoto's eyes slowly scanned across the group, cheeks still red as she considered her next words carefully, not even sure if she wanted to ask what she was about to. She probably shouldn't have all things considered. "But this is no longer a mere job, or someone else's affair. I want to know the truth of why we were targeted. Please allow me to join your effort." Justin immediately jumped up with anger. That wasn't happening.

"Fuck no, and fuck you." Justin remarked with irritation, scoffing at the girl. Most everyone was surprised, if not pissed off by Justin's constant hostilities towards Naoto. It was one thing for him to not like the girl, it was another for him to constantly cause a scene like this. This was exactly the kind of shit that made Naoto suspect he was a goddamn murderer. Enough was enough. Yu groaned and rolled her eyes.

"Calm down already, Justin." Justin immediately begain to glare at Yu, intense disapproval in his eyes. He was going to side with Naoto after all she had done to fuck them over? After she had disabled Maya for life? There's an old saying… The enemy of my enemy is my friend… So does that make the friend of my enemy my enemy? For Justin, it was an accurate statement. If Yu was going to side with Naoto, side with the bitch who had ruined Maya's life, then he was no friend of Justin's. And to think Justin used to trust this guy.

"Calm down? Calm down!? You know what Yu, let me tell you something; after what Naoto did she had enough nerve to even show up her and talk to us like we were best buds, but then she has the audacity to try and barge her way into this team? And you're siding with her? You're both disgraces!" Justin countered with anger. Yu shook his head, calmly but sternly. He had dealt with Justin's anger plenty times in the past, and he let it go because he just figured Justin meant nothing by it; but enough was enough. Naoto of course just seemed confused. Maya… hadn't tried using sign-language at all around Naoto, so to her, it just seemed like Maya was being quiet. She was completely unaware that she was… well… disabled for life.

"I'm sorry, I don't think I follow." Naoto remarked bluntly, pissed by Justin's outburst, but curious all the same. Usually when he exploded like this around her he at least had a reason. Now he just seemed angry because Naoto was Naoto and he didn't want her barging in on his turf. Steam was practically shooting out of Justin's nostrils with anger as Naoto clearly had no idea why he was pissed; as if she didn't even see what was wrong with what she did.

"Oh you don't know? You don't FUCKING know!?" Justin grit his teeth together for a moment before angrily shifting his eyes over to Maya. "Talk." Maya's eyes immediately widened with slight horror, heart thumping slowly but heavily. She already knew where this was going, and he already knew she didn't like when he brought attention to that. Especially just as a weapon for his damn blood feud. Maya bit her bottom lip as she stared deeply into Justin's eyes, his hate filled eyes. "…TALK!" Justin shouted again. By this point people in the food court were starting to stare. At the Investigation Team. At Justin. At Maya. She slowly began to tear up as all eyes fell upon her. She had never been more embarrassed, so… afraid in all her life. And yet Justin continued to push her for information he already knew. "Oh what's that? You can't?"

"Goddammit, enough!" Yosuke stood up. He had been watching with indifference but a moment earlier, just figuring this was another one of Justin's temper tantrums… but the moment he started yelling at Maya, the second he made her cry, that was when he lost it. Justin leaned forward on the table aggravated, ignoring Yosuke and staring straight at Naoto.

"This is YOUR fault. Because of you and your FUCKING plan, she's never going to speak again. And then you have the nerve, to not only come here and try to be our friends, but you don't even say sorry. Go fuck yourself!" Justin snarled once again. At first everyone thought this was just Justin blowing steam, but as he went on and on, he slowly began to turn the table against him, one at a time. They could admire why he was angry… They couldn't admire what he was doing about it though. It wasn't long before the only people not angry at Justin were Naoto, who was shocked, Teddie, who didn't have an angry bone in his body (or bones at all), and Chie… And even then, she was getting there.

"I… I didn't know, I…" Naoto stammered, caught off guard by the sudden revelation, embarrassed, filled with sorrow. She didn't expect her plan to… to hurt anyone. She just thought it would draw out the killer not… not whatever happened to Maya. Justin twisted his head angrily to the side.

"Enough Justin!" Yu finally shouted losing his temper. You know when Yu lost his temper you've fucked up big time. He was just always so calm and collected that he almost never shouted about anything… But he was now, which meant the line had long been crossed, that even he couldn't stand back and watch this. "You're angry, I get that. But you know something? What happened in there isn't her fault; in fact, if it wasn't for her this killer would still be out there killing and we'd have no goddamn idea. So I'm sorry what happened happened, but you need to get the fuck over it." Yu shifted his gaze to Naoto for a brief moment, who was trying to hide her face beneath her hat, embarrassed and just… well… she didn't know how to feel about Maya. She wasn't sure what she did, but… God she regretted it. Sorry would be a huge understatement. "And Naoto WILL be joining us whether you like it or not." Justin chuckled with disbelief, shaking his head as he stepped back away from the table.

"Okay… Okay I get it… I get it…" Justin remarked nodding his head. The angry gazes that had been passed around the table slowly began to soften, suspecting that Justin was slowly regaining control of his temper again. Which was a good thing because they didn't need his shadow coming out and doing something stupid. What had happened instead, however, they couldn't say was a much better alternative. Justin stuck his hand into his pocket, shuffling around his possessions in search of something. It was only a moment before he found it... and tossed on the table. It was his pair of glasses, the ones he used in the television.

"I quit."


	169. Chapter 168: October 7, 2011

CHAPTER 168

October 7, 2011

* * *

"Sheesh, Justin, you really don't look good. Are you gonna be alright?"

Justin and Chie were walking side by side to the doctor's office, Justin yawning the entire way through. He hadn't slept at all last night; hell, he hadn't even gone home last night. He didn't regret anything he said yesterday… anything except shouting at Maya like that. She was the victim; him yelling at her was doing nothing but make it worse. And even as angry as he was that day, the shine of tears slowly dripping from her pupils… even in his angered frenzy Justin couldn't help but feel his heart sink. He knew he fucked up big time. He couldn't even bare to show his face at home, because he knew either one of two things was going to happen. One, Maya would break his legs, or two, she'd ignore him, tears still in her eyes. Neither was a particularly desireable option. So he chickened out, just sitting on a park bench near the river bank, smoking… staring at his reflection. His… golden-eyed reflection. The second half of a broken whole. And his shadow mocked him the whole night through. In some ways, Justin couldn't help but believe the demonic entity that stared back at him from the river. Maybe he didn't regret what he did; only his methods.

"I'm fine, just tired…" Justin sighed, bluffing slightly. He hadn't gone to school today either, simply because he didn't want to see his so called 'friends.' The people who were supposed to be there for him when he needed them to, only to turn around and betray him for some… pipsqueak detective. No, sorry, some CRIMINAL who had the nerve to try and be their friend after that. And she fucking won. She took Maya's voice, she took Justin's dignity, and she took Justin's friends. She took everything but the clothes on Justin's back. And she won. She fucking won. "You know Chie, I'm really not that sick. This really isn't neccesary." Justin remarked, sniffing slightly. It had been Chie's idea to bring Justin to the doctor, which was strange because all he had was a cold; and she knew it. But alas, as much as Justin didn't think he needed to go, he trusted Chie. She was the only one he trusted now. All of the others; Yosuke, Yu, Yukiko- all of them; they betrayed his trust. But not Chie. She'd never betray Justin. And Justin would never betray her.

"It's just a checkup; he'll probably just give you some aspirin or something." Chie remarked, though for some reason she was frowning, avoiding eye-contact with Justin. Justin wasn't sure why, though. Was she ashamed of him or something? She… wouldn't have come looking for him if she was, right? Maybe she still had a bit of a cold herself. Hell, maybe she was just tired. She shook her head for a moment as they pushed open the door to the doctor's office, slowly navigating their way to the waiting room for Justin's 'check up.' "So uh… Some performance yesterday, huh?" Chie remarked after a moment, clearly unable to stop thinking about it, rubbing at her wrist as she spoke. Justin just groaned as he the two paced around the complex.

"We're not talking about it." Justin growled slightly. He had enough troubles on his plate without Chie lecturing him on it too. He had been betrayed by everyone else so far; he couldn't handle it if Chie turned on him too. Chie opened her mouth, as if to say something, to counter Justin's dismissal of the topic before closing her mouth. It wasn't that she didn't know what she wanted to say, she just wasn't sure how to go about doing it.

"I'm not saying you're wrong, but… You don't think you might have laid it on a little thick?" Chie questioned after a moment. Justin remained silent, biting his bottom lip. He wasn't sure whether he should acknowledge the question or not. It… was at least a reasonable inquiry, at least she wasn't turning on him for standing up for what he believed in. At least she agreed with him. "I mean… You're not seriously quitting the team, right?"

"It's either me or her; and the others have already made up their mind." Justin scoffed as they walked, the sound of boots hitting the floorboards filling the corridor like bees in a glass box. Chie sighed, clearly a little disheartened by Justin's decision to resign from the group. They had been through so much shit; hell, they needed Justin… And he was just going to walk away from it all because he didn't like Naoto. Why couldn't he just get past what she did? Chie didn't even blame Naoto for what had happened; it wasn't like she knew getting kidnapped was going to get her tossed in a television or that her shadow could mute someone for life. Why couldn't Justin realize the same?

"Come on Justin; just ignore her. I know you don't like her, but is that really reason to lea-"

"Don't like her? Oh please Chie; it's because of HER my sister's never going to speak again, and for what? So she could prove the killer was still out there? Newsflash! He would have kidnapped someone ANYWAY if she DIDN'T go through with this. And Maya would still be able to talk today." Justin remarked angrily, turning around as they slowly approached the door to the waiting room, coming to a full stop to lecture Chie on the matter, as if his opinion were law. "But you know what the worst part of it is? Even though she fucked everything up, even though she ruined Maya's life, all of you are accepting her with wide open arms, like she were the goddamn pope."

"Look, she did an awful thing, I understand that… But she didn't know better… I'm not asking you to like her or forgive her, I just… I just want you to think this over." Chie pleaded with him, grabbing his hand as if just making contact with his skin would be enough to convince Justin. Sadly, it was true a lot of the time… just not this time. Justin slowly removed his hand from Chie's grip, shaking his head, eyes aimed at the ground.

"…Did you know Maya's had a crush on a boy for the last few months?" Justin remarked sadly as he stared at Chie. "When Maya lost her voice, I asked her if she had any regrets. You know what she said? She said she regretted she could never tell him she loved him. That's something that she can NEVER replace…" Chie sighed a bit, feeling her heart strings being tugged in every direction. She could almost understand how Maya felt; the L word was just… such a powerful thing… nothing like it in the world actually. "Maybe I'll never forgive her… But that's the way it should be… And I can't support anyone who can support her after what she did… I'm not coming back. End of discussion."

It was quiet between the two for a moment, both of them just staring at each other with sad eyes. Nothing more really needed to be said; it was clear what Justin's stance on all of this was. Chie wasn't sure what upset her more; the story she just heard or the fact that Justin would not budge on this… That… That this really was the end. Justin was off the team, and he'd have it no other way… Justin slowly turned around to press open the door. "…Justin wait."

"Chie, please… I'm not-"

"The others are on the otherside." Justin's jaw almost immediately dropped, the sad expression that had been on his face turning to anger slowly but surely. He thought he was here because he was actually sick, not because this was all just some fucking ploy to drag him back in. He made it clear what his conditions were for staying, and they fucking ignored it; and now they wanted him back? The worst part about it was he had trusted these people… He had trusted CHIE, and yet here she was trying to drag him into something he didn't want, taking advantage of his trust.

"They what? …Are you fucking kidding me right now!?" Justin shouted angrily at Chie, as she shrunk back with embarrassment, shame, and partially fear. She knew Justin was going to be pissed; and Justin getting angry was never a scene you wanted to watch. "I should have known… I should have know… None of you even give a damn do you? What am I to you people? Some… Some tool!? I get it, Justin's only good as long as he's beating the shit out of shadows is that it!?"

"I'm sorry… I… I didn't want to, but the others figured you just needed another day to cool off. Really, Justin, I'm sorry. I didn't mean anything by it." Justin shook his head angry, eye twitching slightly as he bit back his tounge. He just wanted to punch someone in the face right now. And he just might at this point. His eyes were aimed at Chie as he tried to hold back screams, as he tried to focus his anger on something.

"I am SO… fucking… sick of this. I did everything for you guys, and you treat me like a possession… I… I hate you ALL! You're no different than anyone else!" Justin remarked, choking up words. Holding back his raw anger was actually making his eyes water a bit… Maybe he was just sad that the few people in his life he had held close to his heart, the people he called friends were betraying him, trying to deceive him and lie to his face like nothing more than some tool they dispose of when they were done being used. Chie continued to stare at Justin with wide, fearful eyes. She knew what she did was wrong, betraying Justin's trust by trying to drag him here knowing he didn't want to be… That's probably why she told him what was on the other side of the door. She couldn't live with the guilt, even with something as ridiculous as this. God knew Justin took it a lot more seriously than he should have. Justin of course noticed that Chie was slowly growing more and more afraid of his angered outburst, and after a moment, he stopped completely. "…Chie, what's with that look?"

"Huh, oh uh… n-nothing…" Chie bluffed a bit, eyes darting away from Justin. It was unusual for Chie to be afraid of anything, let alone Justin, but he doubted she was REALLY afraid. Just very concerned about him. Perhaps she just had a guilty conscience; who even knew any more. All Justin knew was Chie was bluffing; something was wrong and he was very much the cause. Justin sighed after a moment, shaking his head before placing his hands on Chie's shoulders. Chie seemed a little caught off guard by the kindly gesture, especially seeing how Justin had been but a moment earlier.

"Look at me Chie. I'm not mad at you… I mean, yeah, kind of a dick move trying to drag me here… But at least you had the guts to tell me what was really going on…" Justin remarked sadly. Right from the beginning he had a feeling Chie would be his greatest friend here; even after she had made a mockery of his parent's deaths, even though he wanted nothing to do with people in Inaba, with making friends. There was just something… magical about her. The way she accepted him for what he was. He never had to prove anything to her; even when he was angry. The others? He always was suspicious of Yu and Yosuke… He trusted Yukiko, but… Clearly that trust was misplaced. Chie though… Chie was the closest thing he had to a real friend now. "You'll always be my friend Chie; no matter what… I love you." Chie smiled timidly, though also with some concern. Justin's lack of trust with the rest of the group concerned her. They had been there for him since the beginning, so to see Justin so… So against them now… It was tough watching friendships break in front of her eyes, like they had never existed.

"They're still your friends Justin… They only mean the best for you." Chie tried to convince Justin. Justin shook his head, eyes in a bit of a glare as he stared off into the corner of the room. Friends don't just use friends as a tool. It was clear to him that the only reason he was there in the first place was because he fought shadows. Now that he wanted out, they were trying to hang onto him like a trophy. After all, why would they be trying to trick him back into it if they weren't? If they were really his friends, they'd respect his decisions.

"No, Chie. They're not. I thought they were, but I was sorely mistaken. They're just two-faced liars that only care about you as long as you're useful… I gave them everything…" Justin pulled away his hair to show off the eye Chie had burnt out, trying to make a point about how much he had sacrificed. Alas all it did was remind Chie that she had screwed up so long ago; and now Justin would have to live with it for the rest of his life. Justin readjusted his hair, covering his eye back up again beneath his strawberry blonde hair. "And yet they don't care. They just wanted me for their damn murder case. I can't say I'm surprised; all people are like that… You know something Chie… I hate people. I hate them… SO much." Justin slowly started to turn around, trying to avoid eye contact with Chie. He couldn't look her in the eyes as he spilled his guts out on the table. "They're all two timing backstabbers. And I hate them all. I just wish everyone would fucking disappear."

"Justin…" Chie sighed, chest heavy as Justin spoke about hate. Perhaps it wasn't just the fact that it was so sad to see Justin had this hate for everyone, this indiscriminate hatred for people just because they were people. Perhaps it was because it reminded her of what his shadow had so long ago… That humanity was a blight. They had all assumed it was the shadow blowing things out of proportion; but now… Now Chie was seeing it had been deep in Justin's hear all along. And it saddened her to think that his heart had been molded to hate. She knew who to blame for it too.

"But you… You're different. I don't know how to explain it. You know, when I first met you, all I did was try to pretend you didn't exist, to hate you just like everyone else, but…" Justin sighed a bit, turning around to stare Chie in the eyes. She seemed a little less than pleased about Justin trying to hate her, but… She kind of got what he meant. It was a self-defense mechanism really; he hated everything because he was afraid of everyone. Never let anyone close, and they can never slit your throat. "I looked at you, and… I just didn't feel anything. My chest felt empty… No matter how much I wanted to hate you, I couldn't… I… I guess that's what love feels like, but I'm not really sure…" Justin sighed a bit. He was having a hard time picking his words without making it sound like he hated Chie or something. Not that he really needed to, Chie knew him well enough to get what he was trying to say. And even though it sounded like an awful thing to say to someone, it really was Justin trying to compliment her the best way he knew how. "God, I probably sound like a rambling idiot right now…"

"Sure. But you're my rambling idiot." Chie smiled at him as she slowly slipped her fingers between his. It was amazing how good being an idiot felt; if only because he was HER idiot. He hated being treated like some possession by his so called friends, yet when Chie did it, there was something… Magical about it. Why? Because even though she said as though Justin was hers, she was his, and they were equals. It only meant they belonged together. The two embraced for a moment, a tight hug between the two as Justin felt all the belt up emotion in his heart transfer to his arm strength. Like he never wanted to let go of his grip. "Not all people are like that Justin…"

"No… No, they are. Some people are just better at hiding it than others." Justin sighed, shaking his head a bit, still latching onto Chie for dear life as she whispered softly into his ear, like a lullaby soothing the beast. "All people care about is themselves first and foremost… And I hate it. I HATE what it means to be human."

"You know what else it means to be human… To make mistakes." Chie remarked, slowly backing away from the embrace. Justin stared at her with puzzled, yet sad eyes. He could already tell where this was going, and as much as his brain told him to walk away, to ignore Chie's words of wisdom, his heart longed to be free of the curse of humanity's weaknesses, torturing him in his darkest memories, deceiving him and pretending to be his friend, only to be a shot in the dark. "I know you're angry… You have every right to be… But Yu, and Yukiko, and… and Kanji, Rise, and Yosuke… Hell, even Naoto… They make mistakes. And they'll have to live with them for the rest of their lives… Just like you'll have to live with your grudge if you make the mistake of walking away."

"…I don't want back in… Even if… Even if all of them just fucked up big time, I… I feel free. No more worries about the shadows or the television, or anything like that… I don't want that responsibility anymore. I'm sick of… of waking up every morning being afraid. Afraid of whose going to get hurt the next time we dive through the screen… I'm sorry, but I can't." Justin shook his head, slowly pacing away, Chie's eyes on him the entire way, just pitying the boy as he walked off to drown in his sorrows. She just hoped that he'd think about all of this. If he didn't want to come back to the team… that was fine… but don't throw away your friendships over a blood feud. Justin stopped after a moment, biting his lip before calling out to Chie, never turning his eyes to face her. "…Do you know if Maya's doing alright? I know I probably worried her not coming home last night…"

That was a huge understatement. Maya had actually tried to call everyone she knew to find Justin's whereabouts. Of course, seeing as how she couldn't TALK, that was useless. The only one who hadn't just assumed it was a prank call was Yosuke, who rather quickly figured it was Maya on the other end. He managed to develop some form of communication through taps of the bottom of the phone; like morse code almost. Alas, it was too limited for her to ask about Justin though; so she was stuck sitting on the couch, waiting for him to come home. He never did. Chie smiled a weak grin at him as he stood in the hallway. Maybe it was just that big brother mentality, but Chie would like to think it was Justin coming one step closer to accepting what had happened; that accidents occur, and when they do… you can't dwell on them. Not over friends… not over enemies.

"I don't really understand sign-language, but Yosuke said she was fine."

"Tell her I said sorry anyway… And tell the others the next time they pull this shit… I'm going to be a lot less forgiving…" Justin sighed before walking off. He regretted forgiving them so easily already. All his life he had been betrayed by people he trusted. By his father. By his friends. Hell even by Maya; even if she did make it right. He didn't want to be cut again… Even if it meant holding onto a relationship he knew shouldn't be. Even if he knew that history repeated itself. Even if he knew… Even if he knew some people don't deserve to be forgiven.

And neither did he.


	170. Chapter 169: October 8, 2011

CHAPTER 169

October 8, 2011

* * *

"Hey Maya; Justin home?"

Yu had come knocking at the door to Justin's house that morning; a bad move really in retrospect. The problem Justin had with his so called friends was that they just would not back down. It was clear their motives weren't with his well being when they kept pestering about the goddamn investigation team. You know, he was THIS close to letting this all just slip under the rug and moving on with his days; but the moment he heard Yu knocking on the door to his house, that was all destroyed in seconds. Was it so much for him to be left alone. Justin sat there a glare on his face as he plucked away at his guitar strings, fingers moving daftly along the fretboard as he poured his heart into the music he played.

_I can't remember anything._

_Can't tell if this is true or dream._

_Deep down inside I feel to scream._

_This terrible silence stops me._

_Now that the war is through with me_

_I'm waking up I cannot see_

_That there's not much left of me_

_Nothing is real but pain now._

_Hold my breath as I wish for death._

_Oh please God, wake me._

Maya sighed as the two watched Justin from the doorway, listening to his voice slide up and down the musical scale in time to the guitar. He had been doing this pretty much all day; and it only seemed to get worse the more Maya tried to actually talk to Justin about it. He just played louder and more aggressive anytime she tried to mention the scene that he had caused at Junes a few days ago. After a while she eventually just gave up trying to break through to him. Figures she was the one that was hurt, yet she was the one being ignored. Like she was the villain here. Justin of course wasn't mad at Maya, even though he knew she was siding with the others against him. Regardless of her stance on the issue, Maya was who he had been fighting for this whole time; and maybe she didn't appreciate it now, but someday maybe she would. Justin just felt bad that Maya was so… impressionable; unwilling to stand up for herself… even when others would gladly defend her to the death.

"_That answer your question__?" _Maya waved her hands about to Yu. It was absolutely astonishing to Justin that one of the first things Maya had set out to learn with her sign language was how to be sarcastic. Not that it really worked when no one ever understood what she was saying. Only Yosuke and Justin; and even then, Justin missed half the shit she said sometimes. Yu just raised his eyebrow with a combination of puzzlement and embarrassment. Whenever Maya talked to the others she usually had Yosuke or Justin translate on her behalf… And, well… Yosuke wasn't here, and Justin was purposely trying to ignore the two. Yu didn't understand a damn word Maya was trying to convey.

"…I'm, uh… sorry; I don't really know sign-language." Yu admitted with embarrassment. Maya just sighed a bit, eyes shooting towards the floor beneath her as she shook her head. She could live with the sign-language; it was the fact that she needed someone to translate for her that made it damn near impossible to live like this. It was a moment before Maya just stepped to the side to allow Yu passage, figuring nothing she would say was going to get to him anyway; might as well not delay the inevitable. Yu bowed his head with gratitude, dashing past Maya to make his way over to Justin's seat on the couch. Justin was very visibly angered as he felt the pressure of the couch pushing down beside him as Yu laid his ass down on the first empty seat he could find.

"I thought I told you yesterday after that shit you tried to pull to go fuck yourself." Justin remarked angrily, his strumming growing slowly more and more rapid as he tried to output his anger into something other than his voice or his fists. It got to a point where he had to completely change the song he was playing because the previous one was too slow to keep up with his blind rage; Before I Forget to be more precise. How deliciously appropriate all things considered. It was too bad Yu didn't know the song, because if he did, perhaps maybe he'd actually realize just how much Justin hated him right now; how he would NEVER forgive him for turning on him like that. Yu rubbed at the back of his head with embarrassment. Not necessarily embarrassment for what he had done mind you, but embarrassment for Justin, how he was still trying to alienate his friends over a goddamn feud. You'd think if Maya was fine with Naoto then Justin should be too. Though the one thing Yu had forgotten to take into account with that was that Maya was FAR too forgiving for her own good. One of these days her tendency to forgive so easily would cost her; mark his words.

"Eh… Chie told us you'd be less forgiving."

"Don't play these games Yu; you know me well enough to know when I want someone to go die in a hole." Justin remarked, eyes slowly squinting in anger. Yu just sighed a bit; he hadn't even said anything yet and Justin was already threatening him. Well sort of anyway; dying in a hole was really more a commonplace expression than anything, but it still wasn't a very polite one. And here he was hoping that Justin had calmed down and that they could talk about this like adults. He should have known better than to assume Justin could be civilized though. Even when he WAS being nice, he had the foulest potty mouth in all the lands; sitting down like adults was far beyond his experience. "And that's another thing; don't you ever send Chie to do your damn dirty work again. You want to talk to me; you say it to my damn face."

"We just wanted to talk; we… didn't think you'd come if you knew…" Yu admitted with slight shame. He didn't agree with Justin on a lot of this shit, but he would agree that sending Chie to drag Justin to the hospital, perhaps destroying any trust he had in his best friend and his love interest in the process, was a very low blow. He shouldn't have done it. But then, what do you do when you need to talk to a guy who would rather piss on you then so much as exchange a pleasantry?

"Well when you pull shit like that you're damn right I don't." Justin growled angrily as he strummed the strings of his guitar faster and faster, more and more aggressively. He was actually considering for a moment smashing the guitar against Yu's head; but he figured his guitar was a little more valuable than Yu's blood. "What the fuck do you even want Yu? I already told you I'm not coming back, and the more you pester me-"

"It's not about that." Yu interrupted Justin before he could go on a tirade about how much he despised them for what they did, how he hated his friends. Chie had told them everything, though Yu wouldn't ever think to bring it up to Justin. Trust was a very fragile thing with the boy apparently; if he knew Chie was going back and relaying this to his friends, even if she only meant the best of intentions, it would break his heart. And if it broke his heart, it'd probably destroy his sanity, making him but a hollow shell of a man.

"If you're going to lie to me in my own house, you can fucking leave. God knows I'm sick of your face already." Justin remarked as he stopped playing the guitar abruptly with anger. He was much too furious to be strumming his strings; and if he plucked any faster or any harder, he risked snapping them. And he WOULD make Yu pay for them if that happened, whether he liked it or not. Yu bit his bottom lip, groaning a bit under his breath. He had come here to try and make peace between two warring factions, but that was pretty damn hard when Justin seemed to have his mind set on hating Yu before he even opened his mouth. And after all Yu had sat through, all the advice he had given Justin over the months they had known each other; it was like none of that even mattered to Justin. And all because Yu wasn't going to stand for Justin's grudge interfering with what was important: catching the killer. Insuring people were safe. Funny; last Yu checked, keeping people safe was what had kept Justin up at night and gave him nightmares.

"I'm here because we're friends Justin… This isn't about the Investigation Team, or shadows, or Naoto… This is just about you and me." Yu snapped back, being stern, but kind at the same time. He was here because no matter what Justin chose to do in regards to the investigation and in regards to Naoto, Justin was his friend. And friends don't give up on each other; even when they got stuck between a rock and a hard place. Justin just scoffed at the idea. After all Yu had done to betray Justin's trust and he still thought he was worthy of the title of 'friend?' He was no friend of Justin's; he was a two-timing backstabber who pretended to care, but in actuality just needed him for his goddamn team. He was just some tool for Yu's grand master plan.

"Friend? You still think you get to call yourself my friend Yu? Let me tell you something Yu; what Naoto did was unforgivable, but that's not even what I'm pissed about. What hurts the most is that you, someone who I trusted with everything, are treating her like some goddamn hero. She's a fucking criminal and hyprocrite; and when I called her out on it, you all turned on me. And then you have the nerve to try and pull me back in your damn scheme? I'm not some fucking tool for you to do with as you please!" Justin scolded Yu, face red as the blood in his veins boiled red hot, pumping to his brain in spurts of pure rage. By this point Maya had come over to see what all this was about, standing behind the couch that Justin and Yu were sitting at before tapping Justin on the shoulder.

"_It's okay… really." _She gestured off, pausing slightly before confirming her remark once she saw Justin's face. It was clear he didn't believe her for a second that she was okay with this. It wasn't right in the slightest whether she acknowledged it or not. Justin waved her off with a quick flick of his wrists. He wouldn't give her shit over this; she was just being herself… And unfortunately that really needed to change. Maya held up her finger as if ready to make another gesture, to speak up again as best she could, but then she decided, fuck it. It was hard to get a point across when your only means of communication could be blocked out simply by closing your eyes. If Justin didn't want to listen to her, nothing she did was going to change that.

"Just because we're friends doesn't mean we have to agree on everything. You want to know the truth? I don't think Naoto did anything wrong. You're just trying to find a scapegoat to push the guilt on." Yu shouted back, slowly starting to lose his temper. Again, once Yu started shouting, you know you've really crossed the line by this point. Maya sighed and slowly walked off, pinching her forehead as she tried to drown out the sound of the two arguing. It was bad enough that there was this rift between Justin and everyone without all the goddamn shouting. Besides… She didn't want to hear anything about what had happened that day. She didn't know who to side with on this really; she just… just wanted to pretend it never happened.

"It's not a matter of fucking opinion Yu! Her actions directly set in motion a series of events that lead to… lead to that! I'm not the one trying to deflect blame here; you are!" Justin shouted back, getting up from the couch to shout at Yu, anger pushing him up on his feet. If this got any more intense he was leaving. He had been hiding in his house so he WOULDN'T be bothered about this shit. Not that that was going to be a problem. Yu could already see he wasn't going to get anywhere; if anything he was making it worse. God forbid he have an opinion that differ from Justin's. That was always his problem; he couldn't accept people being different… Or perhaps it was just being different himself.

"If I was deflecting blame, I wouldn't even be here right now. But you know what; you're right Justin. You're always right." Yu remarked sarcastically before thrusting a folder into Justin's hand. He had been carrying with him figuring Justin might like to see its contents; now he was using it as a deadly weapon in his argument. "You keep saying you can't trust us; but we never stopped trusting you. We all agreed to let you have those; even Naoto. But you know what? I'm done. You want to keep wallowing in your self-pity go right ahead. Do whatever the hell you want with those." Yu remarked before throwing his hands up and walking out the door. Justin glared at the boy as he stormed out the door, slamming it on his way out. He's lucky he didn't break the hinges or something, because if he did, Justin would sue the fuck out of him. God knows he needed the money and god knows Yu would deserve it after all the shit he put Justin through.

**"Yeah that's right, fucking go! I don't need you or your damn friends anyway!"** Justin shouted after him, even knowing full well Yu couldn't hear him. Justin sighed after a moment of glaring at the door, eyes seeping back to their blueish color. Maya had since gone upstairs to drown out the arguing down stairs with Justin's headset, so she didn't even know Yu had left, or that Justin's shadow had come out for a brief moment; just leaving Justin to stand there in all his fury. It took a while before Justin turned his eyes down at the folder Yu had given him. He had considered shredding it and throwing it in the trash for a moment, but then curiosity started to get the better of him. He doubted anything the rest of the group wanted to give him was even worth looking at; hell it'd probably piss him off actually. But he wouldn't be content until he knew what it was at the very least. Justin bit his lip before opening up the folder… And when he did he was just very confuse. It was a shit ton of paper work, medical from the looks of it. One for every member of the investigation team. Justin was puzzled at first, but then it slowly started to don upon him. And when it did, he couldn't help but be a little angry, if not amused.

"Fucking prick; this is not trust." Justin remarked angrily as he walked about the house, dropping the folder on the table but keeping the papers. He should have tossed them with the folder really, but he had them now, and while he was disgusted by what Yu was trying to do, he was curious as to the actual contents of these reports… Specifically Naoto's, which had her name circled for some reason. As if to give Justin the go ahead to use ANYTHING in that document to his advantage. Nothing particularly stood out as interesting though… Except uh… Wait… Those measurements were a misprint right? Yeah probably; not really worth using against her. Everything in her document was completely useless. Justin sighed as he crumpled up Naoto's document, tossing it over his shoulder and into the trash.

Justin slowly began to shuffle through the papers from there, not actually reading the documents, just looking at the names. Sure enough EVERYONE had consented. Hell even Maya's was here. Still no hope for her throat from the looks of it. There were some rather interesting notes for Kurt; but that was to be expected. What was really strange was that they apparently took an X-ray of him and Teddie. Neither had anything show through on the monitor. It was probably a broken machine, though Justin did find it a bit odd. Regardless, he continued going through the papers until he stopped at one name in particular. Chie's. He stared at the document for a moment, almost sadden eyes as he looked at the document. He wasn't sure if she thought this would help or if she really did think this would show Justin they trusted them, but it wasn't really working. It just made him sad watching Chie get misinformed by the rest of the team, her mind slowly warped by lies and slander.

He wanted to just stop at the name, knowing what these medical reports contained, but yet… he couldn't just dispose of it for some reason. He couldn't help but sigh as his pupils slowly rolled down the page, scanning the information. Sure enough, her 'measurments' were there. Why they even took that information, Justin didn't know. It didn't matter though; Justin was quick to rip that piece of the document off before he continued to read. It disgusted him to think part of him was actually curious about that stuff. Sure Chie was beautiful and attractive, but that's not what he fell in love with. To Justin, making a mental note of that kind of information felt like a betrayal to his principles and beliefs.

He took a seat on the couch with the remains of the document, eyes scanning over it over and over again. It was all stuff he knew, but… but it just brought a smile to his face reading it. Her eyes were brown, her hair was too. She was about 5'6', seventeen at the moment. She actually weighed very little; 120 or so pounds. Turns out Justin really did just need to lift weights this entire time. It was all stuff he knew about Chie (save her weight) but just seeing it on paper, repeating it over and over in his head… Felt like he had a little piece of Chie in his hands right now.

He stared at the sheet for only a moment longer before folding it up and slipping it into the pocket on the inside of his jacket. Right over his heart.

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTES**

**MUSIC**

**One - Metallica**


	171. Chapter 170: October 9, 2011

CHAPTER 170

October 9, 2011

* * *

"Hello?"

Justin was at home, just sort of wandering around and wasting his time with video games and reruns of Whose Line Is It Anyway. Leave it to Drew Carey and Ryan Stiles to at least somewhat cheer him up. Too bad it wasn't really enough. He probably should have been at Junes for that part-time job that Yosuke had given him, but truth be told, Justin had no intention of showing up anymore. He wasn't sure how he'd get the money for Maya's costume, but maybe he didn't even care anymore. He wanted nothing to do with anyone of his so called friends anymore, and that included seeing Yosuke's ugly ass mug. Still, perhaps it was for that reason he wasn't all that surprised by Yosuke calling him, peskering him about whatever it was he wanted to. Maya had slowly approached Justin, trying to listen in on the conversation; it was really the only way she could find out who Justin was talking to, since he'd be much too preoccupied talking to really notice any gestures she made to ask who was on the phone.

"Hey Justin, is Ma-" Justin didn't even let Yosuke finish before clicking the phone off. He really should have known it had been one of THEM calling him; after all, who else had his number? The only person that could possibly be calling him that he would actually be alright with talking to was Chie. Maybe part of him was hoping she would call him; god knows he needed something or someone to keep his mind off everything. Yosuke calling though… He hadn't even said anything and Justin was already pissed beyond belief. Hell, he wasn't even going to mention all that had gone down at Junes over Naoto; he wasn't even going to ask Justin to come in and work after Yosuke had gone through the trouble of getting him a part-time job. He just wanted to see if Maya was available. She had taken the day off, so she had been at home with Justin the entire time; she wasn't sure if that was a good idea or not in retrospect. Regardless though, she was very much upset when Justin hung up on Yosuke, knowing full well he was calling for her. Because unlike Justin, she actually listened to what he was saying before hanging up.

Maya quickly snatched the phone out of Justin's hand, an aggravated if not somewhat embarrassed expression on her face. There was a point where being angry was just embarrassing for everyone around you; where being an asshole just made it worse for everyone you knew. Justin grunted a bit as Maya wrestled the phone out of his hands, her eyes piercing through him with this look of disgust on her face, as if she were calling him an asshole through just a glance. It pissed him off thinking he was fighting for her and she was slowly but surely siding against him. She sighed before dialing Yosuke's number again, marching away from Justin as the phone rang. And of course Yosuke was quick to pick-up; Justin could tell from the way Maya had began to tap her finger against the bottom of phone. It wasn't long before she had walked outside, maybe so she wouldn't have to deal with Justin's constant sneering. He knew she was trying to ignore him; and it killed him little by little inside. Slowly, one by one, the people he had thought were there for him in life slowly isolated him, separating themselves from his good graces. And it pissed him the fuck off.

Justin glared at the door to his front porch for a while before turning around and storming upstairs to his bedroom. He couldn't stand to even think of Maya and Yosuke standing out there talking shit about him. He knew they were; they always did. They hated him. Despised him. The only reason they kept him around all those months was because he had a gun, because he had the power. But the moment he stood between them and their damn investigation, that was it; they were through with him. He was nothing more than a means to an end and he knew it. And he hated it. He hated them. He hated them all. He stormed up the stairs to his room before turning around and slamming the door behind him, huffing and puffing the entire way. It wasn't long before his eyes slowly descended upon a picture he had on his bed stand. He walked over towards it with curiosity, eyes analyzing the frame, the glass… the picture.

He had since framed that picture Rise had given him all that time ago, her name signed at the bottom. Kanji was in it too; but that's because it was a class picture. Justin bit his bottom lip with anger as his eyes examined every last crevice of the picture. Rise was smiling, seemed like she was having fun at the very least. Kanji damn near never smiled, so it wasn't really a surprise he wasn't smiling here either. And at the corner of the picture – "BFFs Forever, love Rise." Yeah some best friend SHE was. Justin's lips trembled with rage as he stared at the permanent reminder of their lies. Within a quick motion he snatched the picture and threw it half way across the room, glass shattering in every which direction as the frame snapped like a twig, picture fluttering to the floor like a leaf. Justin panted heavily, hands balled into fists as he stared at the torn up remains of the picture frame.

"**Yes… That's it… Let it out." **Justin's eyes widened slightly as he was snapped out of his brief fit of anger by the sound of Justin's shadow; his voice echoing in that sinister manner it usually did. It wasn't unusual for him to engage in conversation with his shadow for the last few days, and as such he had flipped the mirror in his room around. He had managed to break the mirror when he threw the picture frame at it, but the image of Justin's shadow smirking was still ever visible in the fragmented slate of glass. Like a million of his shadow staring at him from each crack in the mirror, each seeming more wicked than the last. Justin cautiously approached the mirror, getting so close as to almost touch it with the tip of his nose. **"Aww, what's wrong. She break your little heart?"**

"She's a liar just like all the rest. They're all liars." Justin muttered, pressing the tips of his fingers against the glass to feel where the glass splintered away, where the normally smooth surface felt rugged and rough. The shadow smirked a bit, chuckling to himself as Justin made contact with his reflection's surface, a certain longing in his face, hatred in his eyes as he spoke to himself in the mirror. The very fact that the shadow was having a conversation with Justin was a victory in and of itself; to see him almost turning to the shadow was another.

"**But of course they are… They're human after all. You can't trust anyone out there; all they'll do is stab you in the back… Gotta look out for yourself first and foremost, don't ya?" **The shadow chuckled mischievously, millions of his golden eyes seeming to leer at Justin from his reflection. Justin nodded his head a bit, mouth open though no words coming from it. He never agreed with his shadow on anything and for good reason… But now… There was something about the shadow's words that spoke to his heart strings; like he knew exactly what Justin felt like. Which is not surprising when his shadow WAS him, but before Justin refused to acknowledge his shadow knew ANYTHING about him… Now he couldn't help but feel his shadow was the only one who understood. **"They broke you, didn't they? Used you and threw you away like an old rag."**

"I hate them… I hate them SO much." Justin sighed, voice trembling a bit as his fingers dug into the rim of the mirror, holding onto it's surface as tightly as he could; as if letting go for only a second would cause him to collapse to the ground beneath him. As if he just didn't have the energy to carry on anymore; with ANYTHING. And that was just what the shadow wanted as he laughed mischievously from Justin's reflection.

"**I tried to warn you; humans are the scum of the earth." **The shadow remarked bluntly, still chuckling mischievously. Justin blinked his eyes a couple times, head hung in sorrow as his eyes teared up a bit. He was just so angry that it hurt his chest. Just not as much as his friends had hurt him. **"You don't need them anyway; they were no good for you. At least I'm here for you. I've always been here for you… And I'll never leave." **The shadow feigned sympathy; and for just a moment Justin actually believed him. He sniffled a couple times before wiping his eyes with the side of his index finger, shaking his head and slowly backing away from the mirror.

"No… No, you don't give a damn. You just want… Whatever the fuck it is you want!" Justin remarked angrily as he backed away from the mirror. Every fiber of his being said to just flip the mirror back around; but there was something about his reflection that was just so… tantalizing, his words so alluring as wicked as Justin knew they were. He knew they hated him; and he hated them. But even so, he knew his shadow had nothing but wicked intent; after all, he was a demonic version of himself. The shadow tilted its head to the side for a moment, eyes softening slightly despite the golden glare that reflected from his pupils, a frown sweeping across his face. If he was pretending to care; he was doing a hell of a job at it.

"**You're breaking my heart kid. Don't you remember all the good ol' times by the lake…? I've always been there for you; and always will. I'd never hurt you like those little imps you called pals. You and me, we're like brothers. We're one and the same. And we'll be friends… till the day you die…" **The shadow chuckled mischievously at his own remark. It was pretty damn clear what he meant by that, but by this point Justin's mind was in complete shambles. He couldn't even tell who was and wasn't his friend anymore; the people he had thought were his friends betraying him, the people he thought his enemy calling to him in his time of need. Justin slowly fell to his ass on the ground, one leg spread across the floor as he stared up from the floorboards at his reflection, mouth still slightly open, though there was a blank expression on his face.

"…The enemy of my enemy…" Justin remarked, eyes slowly squinting down into a half glare. Not glaring at his reflection anymore mind you; but all the people he had tried to trust over the years, only to have his hopes crushed like an ant beneath a rock. All he wanted was to be accepted; but apparently that was too much. He had his dreams taken away from him one too many times for him to just move on. The shadow's grin spread across his face from cheek to cheek in what seemed almost inhuman in its appearance, teeth clamped together as he chuckled to himself.

"**You know what I think? I think no sin should go without punishment." **The shadow smiled from every broken fragment of glass, all of his dozens of eyes seeming to shine through from the crevices; even in the broken shards of glass that had been scattered across his floor from the picture frame. The shadow seemed to practically surround the boy, eyes gazing at him from every direction. Perhaps that was what made Justin's state of mind so fragile; that sensation of a thousand eyes watching him, none of them kind. His claustrophobia felt like a thousand needles pricking him in his eyes. In his brain. In his gut. In his heart. Justin stared at the ground for a moment before darting his eyes back up to the thousand golden gazes watching him, piercing his very soul.

"What exactly are you proposing?" Justin remarked after a moment. He didn't know why he bothered asking; he knew what his shadow had in mind was nothing short of satanic. But the way he felt in his chest right now; maybe satanic was being generous. Maybe satanic would suit him just fine. The shadow smirked a bit, his reflection seeming to grow larger as if he were to approach his side of the mirror, each eye only seeming to zoom in on Justin fixating onto his position. He trembled slightly at the sight of a thousand eyes watching him, gazing at him, observing what he was doing. He could almost feel his body shake as if his soul were trying to escape from his body.

"**Oh you just leave that up to your good friend… I just need you to do one teensy little thing…" **The shadow smiled a bit, giggling like a little girl. **"It's nothing big, just a tiny little favor." **The shadow repeated, as if repetition would serve to drill the message into Justin's head, to make him believe what he was doing was insignificant when, really, it was the basis of his entire plot. Justin tilted his head to the side, allowing his head to hang freely to the side.

"I'm listening."

"**You see; I might be you, and you might be me; but that doesn't mean we're one and the same… you get me? I don't know what you know and you don't know what I do… All I need to you to do… is pick up your cell-phone." **Justin stared at the mirror, pinching the inside of his bottom lip with his teeth, contemplating the matter, head bobbing up and down before he could so much as decide what he wanted to do. It was only a couple of seconds before he gradually slipped his fingers into his pockets felling around for the plastic hunk that was his cell-phone. It was still pretty fucked up from a couple weeks ago, but it should work fine. It would just be some pretty crappy audio quality, and perhaps a glass shard or two jammed into Justin's finger tips. **"Great… Now then… I want you to dial up Kurt's number."**

"Why?" Justin spat after a moment, getting a little aggravated by all of this. The shadow clearly wasn't letting him know something, and besides; he didn't want to talk to Kurt. Furthermore, Justin got a feeling that his shadow wanted to do something with Kurt's shadow nature; probably shoot him in the face and steal his soul or something. The shadow shook his head, refusing to budge and answer Justin.

"**Hey, hey… Don't worry about it. Just dial the number…" **The shadow prodded him, forcefully yet oh so softly at the same time. There was a certain allure to listening to a violent man try to sweet talk you, like you'd broken through his outer shell and found a garden in his heart. Perhaps that was what Chie saw in Justin, but he wouldn't really know. Justin sighed before punching in the number, not even giving the matter a second thought and pressing the device to his ear. It was only a moment before it stopped buzzing and he could hear Kurt on the other line.

"Hello?" Justin nodded his head up and down again as he heard Kurt's voice on the other line. It pissed him off, yet… he felt so calm right now, so… weak… Weak of mind and weak of heart. His eyes darted close for only a brief moment, as if digging around for sleep; but that was all it took for the shadow to take control. Justin's eyes were stained a golden tone when he reopened his eyes, mouth curling up into a wicked grin.

"**Hello Kurt, you think you can do me a favor…?" **The shadow smirked as he started digging through Justin's pockets for something. Justin had recently started smoking again with all that had gone down. Yu had told him it was a bad idea, but clearly Yu didn't care about him, so why the fuck should he stop? Kurt was needless to say very confused on the other line. He hadn't even spoken to Justin over the past few days, let alone without being bitched out as he picked up the phone. It was like Justin forgot everything that had happened in a matter of seconds.

"Justin? What's goi-"

"**Shut up." **The shadow cut Kurt off, not very pleased with any form of human interaction with the guy. He had one thing he needed and it wasn't him. Believe him when he said if there was any other way to get what he needed he would have taken it, but alas there was not and he was stuck channeling through Kurt to get the… ingrediants to his symphony of destruction. Kurt swallowed hard on his end, caught off guard by the rude gesture. Justin seemed to be having moodswings all over the place. **"You know that guy you said you knew who got you those booze? Can you do me a favor and give me some contact information?" **The shadow laughed slightly as he grabbed a hold of what he had been looking for: a lighter. He quickly flipped the top open, exposing the flame; the fires dancing in his face ever so majestically yet destructive at the same time.

"**Gonna have a party. You know. Set the night on fire."**


	172. Chapter 171: October 10, 2011

CHAPTER 171

October 10, 2011

* * *

"Grain alcohol, huh? Surprised they just sell this shit like that."

Justin was at home, sitting on the floor with a wide variety of articles in front of him; none of them having a necessarily positive connotation to them. It didn't take a genius to tell what it was his shadow had in mind when he told Justin to get a hold of all the objects currently in his possession. Quite frankly, Justin wasn't sure he liked the implications; what his shadow clearly had in mind for… for whoever. The shadow smirked from within Justin's reflection in the mirror, smiling at the assortment of tools laid out in front of Justin's feet. It was dark, the middle of the night; which meant it was time to put his plan into fruition. He chuckled a bit as Justin's eyes ran over the tools of destruction that had been spread out in front of him, anger, yet doubt in his eyes. What he was looking at, he knew was wrong in every regard; no matter how much he hated these people… Yet he couldn't seem to pull himself away from it.

"**I don't think I need to explain to you how you're supposed to make one of these." **The shadow chuckled, his thousand golden eyes still staring down from the cracked mirror. Truth be told, Justin DIDN'T know how the hell to make one of those; and that was probably a good thing in retrospect. It meant he still had some degree of sanity. Like, do you just sort of jam the rag into the neck of the bottle, or what? Justin's eyes squinted as he picked up the bottle of grain alcohol, examining it as thoroughly as possible. That was about as close to pure liquor as you were gonna get off the black market; at least in Inaba anyway. No doubt it was flammable. Justin wasn't sure how flammable the rag would be; but hey. It was a rag; it HAD to burn. He sighed as he slowly placed the bottle back down in an upright position to his side, eyeing it out of the corner of his iris.

"…I don't know about this; is this really such a good idea?" Justin questioned, pushing the bottle away from him, as if he didn't trust himself enough to even be within a certain radius of the bottle. It was a dumb question in retrospect; of course it wasn't a good idea. Let's forget for a moment what a Molotov was used for and just look at the person who was suggesting it. Justin's shadow should never be referred to for good ideas ever. The shadow needless to say, was a little less than pleased by Justin's reluctance to follow through with his orders. He was the one in control here; not Justin, not ever. Who did this puny human think he was disobeying HIM.

"**What? Don't tell me you're having second thoughts. After all they did to you, and you're just going to let them get away with it!? Pick up the fucking bottle." **The shadow sneered at Justin, this time making his orders absolutely clear. He wouldn't be second guessed again. Justin stared at the reflection with curiosity, mouth slightly a gape, then back to the bottle at his side. He didn't know what the hell had gotten into him; it was pretty damn clear that his shadow wanted no more than to control him. He didn't give the slightest damn about Justin; he never did. He was just ashamed that in all his anger he had lost sight of that; let himself fall into the enemy's trap.

"…No. No, I don't want to do this. I'm done." Justin remarked, groaning as he slowly prepped himself to get up from the floor, to turn the reflection around and ignore the shadow like he should from the very beginning. Of course, pissing off Justin's shadow was probably not a good idea ever knowing just how malicious a being he could be. Justin just never thought his reflection would ever pose a threat to him. After all, how often did your image in the mirror try to strangle you?

"**I said, PICK UP THE GODDAMN BOTTLE!" **The shadow's voice screeched through the bedroom, the image in the mirror's hand extending outwards. Within a split moment, before Justin could even understand what was going on, his hand darted out to grab a hold of the bottle of booze. His mouth slowly opened with horror, eyes shooting open with terror as his hand acted on its own. He had no control over his body as the shadow ordered him to grab a hold of the glass object, as he ordered him to do his will. His eyes slowly made their way to the mirror, glaring, but trembling at the same time. **"Good… Now… Pop it open."**

"Fuck. You." Justin shouted back. He had fallen into a trap and he was very well aware of it now; he wouldn't play into the shadow's games anymore, he wouldn't be controlled. Alas, the thing Justin had failed to realize was he was never in control to begin with. The shadow glared back, annoyed by the resistence. Why fight what could not be avoided? Justin had already lost the war; struggling would only cause the knife to dig in deeper. He could play along and maybe his shadow would have pity on him in his reign in blood; or he could fight it, and have his head squashed just like an ant.

"**Why do you all have to resist so much? I am trying deliver onto you salvation, and yet you continue to struggle… You won't accept it will you?" **The shadow glare seemed to intensify on Justin as he felt his body stiffen up, as he felt his muscles tighten in place. He tried to fight the hand of god that seemed to grip him in place, but no matter how hard he tried to suppress his shadow; it was too late. He had given his shadow enough rope for him to tug Justin into the abyss with him. And now there was no climbing back out.

"**Fine. I'm assuming direct control."**

* * *

"**And here… we… go…"**

The shadow stood outside the Shirogane residence, peering at the house from a distance, bottle of grain liquor in his hands as he examined the establishment that would soon light up the night sky like a firecracker. The shadow smirked, pacing around on a grassy patch in the midnight sky, the grass seeming to darken beneath his boots, as if withering and dying as he stepped on the plant life. He slowly uncapped the bottle of grain alcohol, before pressing the bottle to his lips to take a quick swig of the stuff, wetting his lips and destroying his liver. He almost immediately spat it back out.

"**Tastes like shit. This is why I stick with mixed drinks." **The shadow shot his tongue out, trying to wipe the taste off of his teeth. He should have known that pure alcohol would be awful in retrospect, but hey; it wasn't like he needed his liver for anything. He spat a couple of times to get the flavor out of his mouth before slowly approaching the house, jamming that rag from earlier into the neck of the bottle. As he slowly made his way up to the front door of the establishment, he shuffled around in his pocket before snapping out his lighter, staring with a mischievous glee at the fire dancing in the wind, lighting up the otherwise pitch black night.

The shadow chuckled a bit as he slowly went to light up the rag sticking in the glass bottle he held in his hand. At least, he had until he was caught off guard by a trickling sensation bouncing off his skull. He groaned a bit as he held his hand to the sky, feeling for the raindrops that were falling from the clouds above. It wasn't raining hard, at least not yet, but it certainly wasn't ideal conditions for setting someone's house ablaze. **"Mother nature, you bitch." **The shadow groaned before flipping the lighter back open, quickly setting the rag alight before the rain could put out the flame. The shadow whistled as he slowly stepped towards the house, a slight bounce to his step as he waved the bottle in his hand around, the fire lighting up circles in the sky.

"**Raindrops keep fallin' on my head. But that doesn't mean my eyes will soon be turnin' red. Cryin's not for me, 'cause I'm never gonna stop the rain by complainin'. Because I'm free. Nothin's worryin' me." **The shadow hum and sang to himself in the rain as he finally came to a stop, twirling the bottle around in his hand one last time, tossing it in the air before catching it at its base. A whole lot of showing off for no one around. Perhaps it was just him getting cocky and full of himself, basking in the sunshine of his pride. Or the rain in this case apparently. The shadow chuckled about, smirking at the Shirogane residence for a brief moment before pulling back on his arm, ready to toss the bottle through a window and fry those fuckers alive.

But he didn't. Just as he was about to toss the bottle, as he swung his arm forward, his motion was cut short, bottle still in his grasp. One would like to think that it was the shadow suddenly growing a conscious or Justin breaking through the spell he had been put under… Nothing like that though. He had been stopped dead in his tracks by someone grabbing at his wrist. Yu to be more precise. Maya was with him from the looks of it; seemed she had noticed Justin sneaking out of the house with some rather suspicious tools of destruction. The shadow couldn't help but chuckle as Yu held him back from tossing the bottle, rag still burning ever closer to the liquor it held. It wouldn't be long before it burst into flames anyway.

"Drop it." Yu remarked sternly to the shadow as he stood there smirking, rolling his eyes a bit as Yu held onto him for dear life, to prevent him from burning everyone in that building to a smoking crisp. The shadow was very clearly amused by this intervention… Justin couldn't say he wasn't either. See, even having lost control of his body, he was very well aware what was going on from his chamber in the shadow's skull, watching with horror as the shadow tried to commit double homicide arson. What was so amusing wasn't that Yu and Maya had followed him here. It was that they had followed him here to protect Naoto. They should have; but it still pissed Justin off. Naoto was like a god in their eyes, despite all she had done to tear up their group. The shadow's eyes darted about his surroundings, examining everyone around him. Yu had this stern expression on his face, pure anger running through him as he tried to hold Justin down. Maya… Maya was trembling ever so slightly, her eyes focused on the Molotov in Justin's hand. It was happening all over again as far as she was concerned; and it was all her fault again. Perhaps that was why she was standing a good distance away from the two, as if afraid to get close to the maniac warring with Yu right now.

"…**Poor choice in words." **The shadow eventually remarked, turning his eyes back to the building in front of him. Yu was a little confused at first, but it became immediately clear what was going on when the Shadow let go of his grip on the bottle. He didn't put it down; he fucking dropped a fragile glass bottle full of liquor with a flaming fuse sticking out of it. Yu was quick to back away as quickly as he could to avoid the sudden explosion of fire. His shoe managed to catch aflame, but otherwise he was alright. Yu turned his attention down to his foot for only a brief moment to try and put the fire out; but that was all that was needed for the shadow to get the drop on him, making a swift grab at the revolver along his waistline and aiming it straight at Yu. Yu thankfully enough was quick enough to avoid getting shot in the face, swiftly thrusting his flaming foot up to knock the gun out of the shadow's hand; though not before a shot was fired off in the air. The gun went spiraling in to the air, and while the shadow had tried to grab at it, Yu was quick to charge into him, knocking him off-balance, and more importantly away from the now spreading fire. It was a low flame thanks to the rain, but it was still spreading all the same. The gun subsequently fell straight into the blazing flames.

"Snap the fuck out of it!" Yu shouted, thrusting his fist forward as he tried to punch the shadow right in his face, though he was quick to shift his head to avoid the blow, a smirk on his face as he quickly countered by kneeing Yu in the stomach. Yu needless to say very quickly backed up, holding his gut in pain. He damn near stepped into the fire in the process, though he was quick to sidestep away from it to avoid the danger of being set ablaze. He was also sure to kick his shoe off at the shadow so that he could get that flaming show off his foot, while also posing a threat to the shadow. The shadow very quickly avoided the shoe, though he wasn't quite as quick to avoid Yu's fist. He hit hard too; like a motherfucker. The shadow stumbled for a moment, caught off guard by the blow, but that was more than enough for Yu to follow it up with another punch. And another. And another. It was like a never-ending stunlock the shadow couldn't escape from.

Maya just kept her distance the whole time, watching with horror as the two duked it out. It was clear to both her and Yu that the shadow had taken over just by his eyes. Strangely, they weren't that normal golden color they usually were, they were still blue, but… But it was like little golden veins flowed through out the entirety of his iris. Like the two personalities were beginning to merge in a way, yet remain completely separate at the same time. Justin was trying his hardest to fight the shadow's attempts to control him; and while he wasn't really succeeding in that regard, he refused to relinquish control of his mind.

Yu continued to throw punch after punch at the shadow, hoping to knock the beast down, only to find the shadow continue to endure his punches, as if he just wouldn't go down. And with each punch the shadow only seemed to get angrier and angrier. And angry is just what you need sometimes to let out all your energy in a single blow, to overpower your opponent. As Yu prepared to take another swing at the shadow, the shadow threw himself upon Yu, tackling him to the ground and punching him in the face. Yu immediately grasped his head where the shadow's fist had broke through his skin. He was stunned for only a brief moment, and in that brief moment it almost seemed as if the shadow was done, just breathing in and out heavily as if satisfied with having knocked Yu to the ground. Of course, the shadow strove for nothing less than bloody retribution, so it didn't really surprise Yu when the shadow popped out a switch blade from his back pocket and tried to push it against Yu's throat. Yu, needless to say was very quick to try and resist, to push his hand away before he could carve his way through Yu's neck.

"**You all mocked me. You all turned against me… But look whose on top now! Oh yes, I'm going to enjoy sticking this right through your bloody neck, you traitor!" **The voice echoed through Yu's ear as he continued to try and push the shadow and his weapon off of him. It was a losing battle with his blade getting closer and closer with every push the shadow made. It got to a point where Yu had twisted his head to the side, suspecting getting his throat cut from that angle wouldn't be quite as deadly. His eyes widened slightly as he saw Maya watching with horror from a distance, not sure how to react to all of this. He was very quick to mouth off a plea for help, but even then Maya was still much too traumatized to be snapped out of her daze, of the horrors of that fire spreading freezing her in place.

"We never turned against you Justin; even after you left, you want to know why we kept trying to get you back with the group? Because you're our friend; because we refused to abandon you. Look at yourself Justin! No one's pushing you away but yourself!" Yu tried to reason with Justin as the blade inched slowly and slowly more and more close to his adam's apple; the power of a shadow's hive mind giving him the strength to overcome Yu's resistance. The shadow snarled a bit, no longer finding amusement in the way Yu continued to taunt him, to fight him despite having lost already.

"**Oh sure you say that now; but the moment I walk away you'll just stab me in the back again. You people are all the same. You get what you want and throw everyone away when you're done with them. I hate you all. All of you. I hate her. I hate Naoto. But most importantly, I hate YOU. There is no one I hate more than you. You're a two-bit liar; you just pretend to care for your own benefit. I hate, hate, hate you." **The shadow muttered over and over again, repeating the same thing as if he were broken record. As I his mind had just snapped in two.

"When's the last time you looked in a mirror Justin? Leaving the team just because of Naoto, leaving us to fight the shadows by ourselves. Ignoring all your friends. Trying to fucking murder Naoto in her sleep? And now you let your shadow control you. You are becoming the thing you hate most."

"**I WAS ALWAYS THE THING I HATE MOST!" **The shadow shouted, a single tear beginning to roll down his eye. It was hard to tell with the rain, but it was clear that his emotional limit had been reached. And for just a moment, the shadow's attempts to push the blade into Yu's throat softened, allowing Yu to push the shadow further away from him. He passed off another silent plea to Maya who stood their trembling,tears filling her eyes as she tried not to look. She couldn't watch Justin go down this path way; to watch her friends warring against each other for blood… She… She didn't know who to side with. She couldn't choose.

"Then let go." Yu pushed back the blade, slowly pushing it back toward's the shadow's throat. He had no intention of using the blade against Justin, but if it went too far… If the shadow tried anything funny… He was going to need to take him down one way or another. "Let go of the hate and wake up."

"**Wake up? Oh it's so easy to pretend it's all just a nightmare isn't it? That you'll just wake up and everything will be back to normal, but the truth is this isn't a dream. This is reality, and no matter how hard you try, the shit you wallow in won't subside; and the people you hurt won't come back." **The shadow took a deep breath, letting the night air fill his lungs. Letting him remember just what he was here for. What he had vowed to accomplish. The shadow began to chuckle again, sick pleasure in the deed he was about to commit, slowly pushing the blade back towards Yu. **"The only thing we have in this world... Is our convictions."**

"No, Justin. You've already lost sight of your convictions." Yu groaned back, trying to push the blade away from him, his eyes slowly making their way back to Maya, her head in her hands as she tried to figure out what to do, slowly backing away as the fire inched forward. "Look at her, Justin. You claim you're fighting to protect her and all the people you love, but just look at her. She's a wreck because of you. You aren't protecting anyone but yourself." The shadow panted heavily, the hand that held the switchblade shaking ever so slightly as Yu dived deep into the schizoid man's heart.

**"She just doesn't know what's good for her..."**

"Neither do you!" Yu shouted back. For a moment the shadow just froze in place, mouth slightly ajar as he sat there on top of Yu, no longer trying to push towards Yu in an attempt at slitting his throat and washing the blood away in the rain. "You DON'T know what's good for her; you never have! You think burning Naoto alive is going to help her? All you're trying to do is control her; control ALL of us. You think that if you can control everything nothing bad will ever happen. And so everytime shit happens, everytime you lose control of the situation, you try to blame others. But news for you Justin; how can you be in control if you can't even control yourself!?"

The shadow sat there for a moment, eyes wide with perplextion as he stared down at Yu. They were sorrowful yet oh so confused at the same time. The golden veins that were interfusing with Justin's iris faded ever so slightly, though they remained ever present. It only took a few seconds before Justin began to sob, arms dropping towards his side as his hands let loose the weapon in his hands, as he let his body fall onto the back of his legs. "I can't let go, Yu. Ask of me anything, but not that."

"Why? Why is it so hard for you to accept that you don't control everything?" Yu questioned slowly making his way out from under Justin's body weight; crawling backwards to free his waist down. Maya had cautiously began to approach the two, though she immediatly jumped back at the sight of the fire drawing ever so slighty closer. Thanks to the rain, it was already burning out, but that didn't mean it didn't scare Maya half to death. Justin watched Maya with sad eyes, tears illuminated by the orange blaze behind his back.

"It's not what I don't control... It's what I do." Justin muttered to himself, sniffing up the mucus dripping from his nose. "I could have stopped it. I... It's my fault. It's always been my fault." Justin choked up after a moment, a simple but powerful confession of guilt. Because all this time, he didn't blame Naoto or the others... He blamed himself for not being able to save Maya. He did since the beginning, but he was too afraid to admit it. He was afraid to lose control. But the truth of he matter is... He never had control to begin with. Justin blinked a couple of times wearily at Yu as the two sat in silence, embers caught on the night breeze. It was only a brief moment later that Justin collapsed to the ground, the emotional duress combined with the fight and his shadow taking control besting him.

"Justin! Hey, are you alright!?"

"I was never alright to begin with... I'm only human after all..."

"Don't just stand there Maya; help me drag him out!"


	173. Chapter 172: October 11, 2011

CHAPTER 172

October 11, 2011

* * *

"…I swore I'd rather die than see those ceiling tiles again."

Justin woke up, pain shooting throughout his body in a room he had all but grown accustomed to over the last few months. He didn't remember much of what had happened, at least not the minor details, but he did know that he had woken up in a hospital bed. That sterile smell, that white color to everything, the fact that his clothes felt looser than usual, signifying he had been changed into a hospital gown. You know something; who the hell was in charge of changing people into the gown when they were knocked out? How shitty must be your life to have to change people for them as a living? Whatever, that wasn't important. What was important was Justin had waken up in a hospital bed with a splitting headache and a funny feeling in his stomach. He couldn't say it hurt or anything, he just kind of felt out of it; an almost weightless sensation shooting throughout his body as he slowly flickered his eyes open to the waking world. He tried to push himself up to sit up, though that didn't really work to well with him almost instantly collapsing back down on the bed. Despite feeling so week, so weightless, the moment he tried to support himself up from the bed, he felt like he weighed a million pounds. Like he were a magnet and the bed he had awoken on steel.

Not that it really mattered, the moment he started to stir in his bed, he was practically ambushed by a tugging sensation at his neck. Seemed he wasn't alone in the room, though it was hard to take in the fact that everyone was here with Maya practically choking him out from behind. Justin didn't understand what was going on, but she did; and it scared her half to death. Everything had happened all over again; the fire, the hospital, her dragging Justin out of the flames. It felt like an exact repeat of what had happened back in California. She was practically frozen in fear the whole night through as she watched over Justin, praying to god that the heavens have mercy on his soul. It wasn't like he was injured or anything, and the doctors told her he'd be just fine; but if there was anything Maya had lived by in all her life it was that you should never trust a doctor to tell you the truth. The moment Justin opened his eyes, twitching in his bed, she could feel her hear skip a beat. She almost immediately jumped up to hug Justin the best she could from that angle; and that was by wrapping her arms around his throat. Tears were running down her cheeks like a waterfall; her mouth wide open as she bawled like a baby, latching on for dear life to Justin, as if she were afraid to let go of him. Justin was very much confused… And also kind of in pain as her arms squeezed tighter and tighter around his throat. He needed that to breathe you know.

"UGH! Maya- Can't- Breathe-!" Justin choked up, trying to get air into his lungs as her grip on him tightened like a python. Even with it becoming increasingly clear that Justin couldn't breathe, it took a moment for Maya to loosen her hold on him. She didn't want what had happened to happen all over again; to see Justin narrow escaping the same fate again had gripped her with a terror unlike any other. Perhaps that was why she was reluctant to let go of him, as if letting go would just allow Justin to slip away from her, right through her fingers. Maya slowly pushed herself away from Justin, fingers still seeming to reach out to him as she slowly tried to regain her composure, wiping her eyes with the sleeve of her hoodie, sniffing a bit as she tried to stop herself from crying.

"See, I told you he'd be fine." Justin coughed a couple of times as he tried to reopen his airwaves after Maya damn near smuttered him to death, eyes darting about the room with curiosity as he slowly turned on his side, trying to at the very least face the group. Justin wasn't kidding earlier when he said everyone was there. Yu, Maya, Chie; Yosuke, Yukiko, Kanji, and Rise. Hell even Naoto was there, though she didn't seem to understand what was going on. Justin was hoping that meant she was unaware of the fact that he had tried to murder her in her sleep. The only one missing was Kurt; though that was probably because the others didn't really have much in the means of contacting him. Maya had his number, but you know. Mute. He rubbed his forehead a bit as he returned his stare to Yu, who was simply smiling from across the room. Justin had to wonder how long they had been here. They all knew he didn't like people watching him, making a big deal whenever he managed to hurt himself. Though he supposed that was his punishment for being a pyromaniac.

"Note to self; hide the booze." Justin remarked sarcastically, groaning a bit as he rolled over to stare at everyone's face. It was strange; their eyes expressed concern, but their mouths shouted joy. Perhaps it was just the contrast of emotion that caught Justin off guard. Maybe it was just the fact that anyone gave a damn. He had been under the impression no one cared about him… After all, with the way they just threw him under the bus, surely they must have hated him. But here they were, smiling at him kindly as they sighed with relief. The sun was shining through the window which only served to confuse Justin more. He was still in a bit of a daze, and his memory was a little fuzzy, but he could have swore today was Tuesday; shouldn't everyone have been at school? Why risk getting their asses chewed out just because Justin had reached his emotional limit? Chie was quick to run up to Justin's bedside, much like Maya a moment earlier. But unlike Maya, instead of hugging him, she slapped him upside the head.

"Hey, that's not funny! Do you have any idea how worried about you we were!" Chie scolded Justin as he placed the palm of his hand against his skull, his brain screaming out with the pain of a million knives splitting his mind in half. Of all the places she could have smacked him, it had to be the backside of his skull. Justin groaned a bit with pain, eyes scrunching up a bit as if just closing his eyes would numb the pain. Chie immediately felt bad about smacking him, realizing he was still in a lot of pain; partially because Maya had started to glare at her from across the bed. She also called her a couple of unpleasant names in sign-language; but Chie didn't really know sign-language so it went right over her head. Yosuke got it of course, or at least one would assume given the way he had started to blush with embarrassment. Maya was never one to blow her fuse like that around people; hell, she was one of the most timid people Yosuke had ever met. This was certainly painting Maya in a whole new light.

"Hey, hey, relax." Yu tried to calm Chie down, motioning towards her with a stopping motion of his hand. Chie sighed a bit, hanging her head with shame. She was just really worried is all; she didn't mean to make whatever Justin's injuries were worse. Justin pushed his hand out, shaking it a bit in an attempt at calming her down even just a little bit. He wasn't mad at her for smacking him; hell, he kinda of deserved it. Even if she didn't know; which he doubted was the case. The way everyone was looking at him… He could tell they were all aware of what had happened… Well, minus Naoto. Which was strange, because you think she would have noticed a racket going on outside her house with the fire and the shots being fired and everything. Yet despite everyone knowing he had attempted homicide, they just kept smiling at him. Justin wasn't sure whether he should feel relieved or confused. Hell maybe even frightened. "How you doing? The doctor said you were just tired, but we thought we'd check up on you anyway." Yu smiled warmly at Justin.

Justin's eyes darted about the room, curiously trying to decipher the mystery behind their cheery attitudes. If there was nothing wrong with him, why had the insisted on skipping school just to crowd around him? Why was Maya still trying to hold back tears beside his bed? Why did they even CARE? He tried to murder someone for fuck's sake; they should have cut all ties to him. He wouldn't even be surprised if Chie distanced herself after that, as much as it would hurt. That was the punishment for him falling for the shadow's tricks. "…Why?"

"What do ya mean why?" Kanji scoffed, as if that were the stupidest question he had ever heard. He would have thought Justin would have known the answer by heart by now; the very fact that he had to question it was laughable to Kanji. Justin blinked a couple times. He suspected what their reply was, but he wasn't quite sure he believed it. And that just brought up another 'why?' Why did they want anything to do with him now…? He didn't get it at all. Maybe that was his problem.

"What, you didn't think we'd just leave you here, did you?" Rise teased him slightly, a chuckle under her breath as she spoke. Justin opened his mouth, though no words came out when he went to speak. He really had no idea what to say. Did he acknowledge what his shadow had tried to do? Did he continue to question why his friends insisted on tormenting him with their good graces, why they continued to put up with him even after what he had succumbed to? He just didn't get any of this.

"Friends don't leave friends behind, dude." Yosuke smirked. Figures even the people who hated him were here trying to hide behind a smile to confuse him even more than he was. They had to be lying to Justin; just trying to trick him or something. No one just acted like this without some hidden motivation. The question is what it was and just to what sinister degree. Yu smiled at Justin for a moment, though his grin slowly faded as he realized just how out of place Justin felt right now, just how confused he was. It was good for him to realize his friends were here for him; but after the trauma of last night, it might have been a little much. And it was pretty obvious Justin was very wary of Naoto given how often his eyes shot out towards her, curiously examining her expression for any signs that she might be onto his game. She wasn't really smiling, though she didn't seem to be upset about anything. She just didn't know Justin well enough to really… well… feel bad. Regardless, Justin was clearly suspicious as hell, which was the exact opposite of what Yu was trying to accomplish here.

"Well, we just wanted to make sure you were doing alright. I'll tell the doctor and tell him you're up. In the mean time, you get some rest." Yu smiled warmly before gesturing towards the others with his head that they should take their lead. They all seemed confused that they had waited her just to talk to Justin for all of one minute. Maya didn't even acknowledge Yu's order for everyone to scram. She refused to leave the bed side. Yu was about to tell her she should leave too, but given the look in her eyes, it might have been good for Maya to get everything out of her system while she was here. Yu soon began to take his leave, leading the group out the door… Or at least, it seemed like he was leaving. In actuality he was just herding the others out. "Ah crap; I think I left my cell-phone somewhere. Can one of you guys get the doctor while I look?"

"Yeah, sure. No problem." Yosuke remarked after a moment, eyeing Yu suspiciously. He didn't recall Yu ever taking his phone out while he was here, so he could already tell something was fishy here. Alas, fishy or not, Yosuke trusted Yu with these kinds of decisions. He just wished Yu would say it to their face instead of trying to trick them all to leave. Yu immediately ran over to the window sill, mocking a search for the cell-phone as the others left. Mostly anyway. Naoto stopped for a moment as she was about to leave, her foot half way out the door, as if she had frozen in place. It only took a second more before she turned around to eye the bed-ridden boy and his sister kneeling at his bed side, lips trembling, tears in my eyes.

"…Pardon the interruption, senpai, but I never got the chance to offer my condolences." Naoto suddenly turned about to talk to the two, taking advantage of the lack of people in the room. Sure Yu could easily ease drop, but that wasn't too big of a deal. Maya stared back at Naoto a little confused by the interruption, but otherwise still self-absorbed in her sorrow. "For… whatever it may be worth… I'm sorry about what happened to Miss Jefferies… If I had known, I…" Naoto struggled to find the right words to expresses her apologies, eyes staring at the wall as she tried to gather her thoughts. Justin was just stuck in bed watching with great curiosity. It was strange; every fiber of Justin's being screamed to his brain cells that she was lying, that she didn't really care, but… But he wasn't angry. He wasn't livid that Naoto had the balls to mock their tragedy with a faulty apology. He just… He didn't feel a damn thing. Just empty.

"…Forget it." Justin cut her off before he could hear anymore of the dreadful excuse of an apology that Naoto had in mind. "No seriously. If this apology drags on any longer I might change my mind. Scram." Justin remarked with sarcasm before pointing towards the door, not necessarily in a forceful way, but as if to give her permission to leave at her leisure. Naoto stood there a little flabbergasted, but she'd abide by Justin's wishes if he so pleased. She passed the two one last glance before walking out the door, closing the passage way behind her as she left. Justin shook his head a bit. "An apology... Tsk. I should be the one apologizing..."

"You don't need to apologize for what your shadow did, Justin. Just because he shares your face doesn't mean you're responsible for him going haywire." Yu smiled at Justin as he slowly crept his way back to the bed, eyes darting about the room as if to check if anyone else was around. God knows if anyone saw this he would be in a LOT of trouble. His hands slowly darted into his pocket, sliding out an all too familiar metal object, black now from being burnt in the fire. "I believe you dropped this." Yu remarked snidely as he tossed the gun over to Justin. Justin caught it, but reluctantly so, eyes wide with terror as he eyed the pistol. Hell, Maya could not have jumped back from that gun faster than she did. She did NOT like seeing Justin with a gun, even before what had happened last night. Justin examined the weapon as he bit his bottom lip, slowly shaking his head side to side. It was only a couple seconds later that he tossed the weapon back to Yu.

"No… No, I don't want it anymore. God knows I don't trust myself with one anymore." Justin remarked dully. He wanted to say how he wouldn't need it, how he was serious about leaving the team, but… But he didn't know what to think of this anymore. He couldn't take the stress of constantly having to worry about his friends in the television… But the way they were here for him, even after he went full on schizoid pyromaniac. How could he possibly abandon them after what they had done for him? They didn't abandon him… why should he? He just… Didn't know what to think anymore. Yu shook his head a bit as he held the pistol in his hand.

"No, but I do." Yu remarked. He was holding the gun so that Justin could grab at by grip should he so choose, though Justin never so much as stretched his hand out to consider taking the gun back. Even if he returned to the team… He didn't want it anymore. He was tired of fighting and destroying. It was just leading him down a path he didn't want to follow. Yu sighed a bit as he slipped the gun back in his pocket. He was going to make sure he disposed of this if Justin wasn't going to take it back. He didn't need Dojima or Nanako finding it after all. "…Don't blame yourself for what happened Justin. Your shadow was what did all of that; not you."

"That's not what I blame myself for..." Justin sadly admitted, eyes downcast as his fingers slipped out from the side of his sheets, almost reaching out for the comfort of Maya's hand; for the comfort of her forgiveness. His request went unnoticed, however, as Maya's eyes were still cloudy with tears. Yu made a slight ah sound as he slowly made his way to the seat next to Maya. He was seeing the problem now.

"You couldn't have stopped it, Justin. None of us could have. You can't hold yourself responsible everytime a situation spirals out of control... You don't have control over the way the world works... so don't try to carry the burden of responsibilty." Yu spoke sympathetically to the teenager, trying to ease his concerns and give onto him peace, liberty from his guilty conscience. Justin shook his head, eyes closed as he tried to fight back the tears. Yu just didn't get what it was like to watch the people around you hurt, people you swore to protect, people you would give your life for just to insure they were safe.

"I said I'd protect you... And I didn't do it." Justin turned his eyes to Maya, tears dripping down his cheeks. Maya was a little caught off guard by this sudden proclamtion; after all, when had she ever needed protecting? And more importantly when did Justin decided this? "It's only because of you that I'm still alive, because of you I can live a life I could only dream of as a child. And I swore I'd return the favor... But I fucking didn't. I couldn't even pull you out of the damn way..."

A slow expression of shocked horror swept across Maya's face, her feet slowly carrying her backwards in an attempt to escape. Her plans were immediatley cut off by Justin grasping her by the hand, trying to hold one of the few things that gave meaning to his life close. She panted in and out, hyperventelling for a short moment with fear, but looking in Justin's eyes there was something... Reassuring about his glance. He just wanted to be there for her, regardless of her sins. Her eyebrows curved up sadly and her pupils focused on the teary eyed Justin ever so softly. _"You knew?" _She mouthed off, not so much as turning to her hands to communicate. She didn't need them.

"I always have... And I'm sorry. I'm sorry that you had to go through all of that. It wasn't right. If... If you never even knew me, you would have been better off." Justin wept ever so silently, wiping his eyes. "But I can't change that, so I said... I said I'd just have to make sure something like that never happened again... And I failed you. I couldn't stop it." Maya watched with sorrowful eyes for just a moment longer before swooping in for an embrace, holding his body close to hers and vice-versa. It was just quiet for a moment between the two save the silent sound of tears flowing from their eyes. By the time Maya pulled away, the two 's eyes were dark from the tears.

_"You never failed me Justin."_ Maya continued to lip speak, as if she still had her voice, as if not a damn thing had changed since the incident. She slowly tugged at the chain around her neck, revealing her dual pair of dog tags, the two's names engraved as a permanent reminder of their friendship._ "I don't care about any of that anymore; I'm just happy that you were alright. Everything else is just water under the bridge... Nothing you could ever do would make me despise you... You're my brother... and I love you. And nothing will ever change that."_ Maya smiled over her tears, trying her best to think positive.

"I don't think I deserve it."

_"You don't need to."_


	174. Chapter 173: October 12, 2011

CHAPTER 173

October 12, 2011

* * *

"…I'm too sick for this shit."

Justin groaned a bit as he walked in on the group apparently forming a study session at Junes. Yu had brought him here, much to his reluctance, clearly with the sinister intent of forcing him to join them. To be fair, Justin had been out of school for a while due to his anger issues, so he didn't exactly know a lot of the shit that was going to be on the upcoming exams; but then when did he ever? He usually just guessed on every question until he got it right. And it almost always worked. The fact of the matter was, Justin just didn't feel right around the others after all that had happened, a sinking feeling in his gut seeming to rip his heart out as he laid eyes on the people he had hurt… Even HER. Maybe it was guilt. Maybe he just wasn't feeling too great from collapsing the day previous. God knows Maya had been under the weather because of it. The moment Justin and her made it back to his house the two collapsed onto their bed and couch respectively. The difference was, Justin woke up this morning. Maya was still asleep. He was a little concerned at first, but when he tried to wake her up, she rolled over to try and block out the noise. She was fine; just exhausted from the emotional distress.

"You're fine; turn around." Yu joked a bit, rotating Justin around before he could attempt his painfully slow escape. He was still a little out of it truth be told, so his movement was stilted and slow. He wasn't going to get away from the others just by running, and Yu had taken advantage of that fact, stopping him in his tracks before he could try to hide from the Investigation Team. He sighed as he stared everyone dead in the eye, smiles being reflected back at him in what was seriously beginning to creep him out. Why were they so damn happy; so damn forgiving? This wasn't right; even Justin could see that. He didn't DESERVE forgiveness, yet he didn't even have to work for it. He must have been insane or something, and these specters of his friend's smiling merely ghosts of what had been. At least, that was the excuse Justin was going to go with; it made more sense to him than the actuality.

"So many people!" Nanako gushed from her seat on the farside of the table. Justin jumped slightly at the sound of her voice; he hadn't even seen her here. In a way, he had wished he had known that before dropping the s word in front of her, but that was alright. Honestly, if Justin was happy to see anyone, it was Nanako. Justin knew when she was smiling it was because she was happy; he couldn't tell why the others were smiling. Justin waved at her with a timid smile before Yu gave him another shove, prodding him to take a seat and join. Justin groaned a bit, biting his bottom lip as his eyes fell upon one of two empty seats at the table. As if he couldn't decide whether to sit or not. The others seemed to want him to, pointing out the chair with their hands as if to extend to him an invitation, but he just wasn't sure. It took him a moment before he sighed, slowly slipping into the chair, eyes shooting about the table cautiously. Everyone shot Justin a quick smile before jumping back to what they had been doing, as if Justin hadn't even been here. _Yeah, gee thanks guys. Be all warm and welcoming and friendly, but then you ignore me. I don't get you people._

"Yes… So many people." Justin muttered to himself as his eyes scanned the table. There were about eight more people here than Justin was comfortable with. Well… Seven. Chie waved at Justin from across the table, a timid grin on her face as she stared at him from a far. Justin smiled back, as uneasy as he felt right now. Fake or not; Chie did have a wonderful smile, and it made him feel better just observing it shine from the distance. Everyone else on the other hand… It was going to take a while to get used to again.

"So… where were we." Yukiko remarked cheerfully, turning back towards the book that was in front of her, the group's attention slowly being diverted away from Justin… Except for Naoto, who continued to observe Justin with curiosity from her seat. The way he was acting wasn't something that could be affiliated with illness; rather, it was fear. Of what, she was still trying to determine. Or at least she was until Justin started to glare at her. Way he figured it, if he just gave her incentive to stop staring, she would; and in this case the incentive was Justin would tear her a new asshole if she didn't stop looking. "Oh right; proving the trigonometric identities."

"Argh… Jumping straight into math…" Chie remarked with disgusted irritation. Math was not her strong suit. Really, no subject was her strong suit; but math more so than the others. It was amazing; she had thought making a study group would help her study more, but all it was doing was reminding her how little she knew about anything they were supposed to. She couldn't even pronounce trigonometry, let alone do math problems base on it.

"Times like these, I'm jealous of Teddie and Maya." Yosuke sighed, annoyed as he stared down at the book in front of him, trying to make heads or tails of what he was looking at. He wasn't having much if any success in that regard. God, he would kill right now to be in a position where he didn't have to worry about exams. He worked his butt off and he barely passed. It just wasn't worth the stress. Justin raised his eyebrow with curiosity, leaning back in his chair as he spinned his cane around against the floor with his index finger, keeping it in motion with flicks of his thumb.

"I think she's more jealous of you." Justin choked up, though not without opening his mouth a couple of times trying to find his voice to talk to these people. It was amazing; you'd think Justin was surrounded by complete strangers with the awkward sensation that was drowning out his throat. Of course the others just seemed confused by Justin's remark; even the people who knew Maya best. And that was pretty much just Yosuke.

"Huh? Whaddya mean?" Yosuke questioned absent-mindedly, not really putting too much thought into the matter, though just enough to be curious. Justin bit his bottom lip before shaking his head side to side. There were a couple of things she was probably jealous of. Being able to go to school was the big one, though talking was probably pretty nice too. She wouldn't object to talking.

"…Nothing; forget I said anything."

"Ours is the section on trig functions, right? The one where we find the area of a triangle given two sides and…" Rise paused as she tried to recall what else they covered over the last quarter. Either she wasn't paying attention very well or they didn't teach these kids shit at school. Given some of their selection of staff, most of them being totally batshit insane and all, Justin would bet his money on the latter. Not that he would really know; he didn't pay attention to that shit.

"Huh? You find the area of a triangle with… You know, that thing. Uhh, base by height by 2?" Kanji remarked out loud as he tried to remember the formula they had used so often in class. The good news is for once Kanji was completely accurate; that was a pretty damn common formula in trig. The bad news was it was incredibly vague and everyone could tell he didn't know how to use the formula or where. Basically what I'm saying is this study group was composed of an army of idiots. Naoto adjusted her hat for a moment, cautiously shooting her eyes away from Justin after what felt like decades.

"If you don't mind, shall I teach you?" Naoto suggested after a moment, interrupting the freshman's attempt at trying to decipher the great riddle of the sphinx. Leave it to the self-proclaimed ace detective to try and flaunt her knowledge in any way she possibly could. Justin wasn't sure if she was trying to seriously help them or not; but all the same he couldn't help but laugh to himself, hot air being shot out his nose as he tried to hold back laughter. Naoto noticed, passing him a slight glare before turning her attention back to the rest of the group. Seemed her apology hadn't gone over as well as she had hoped. Well at least Justin wasn't flipping tables over her presence anymore. That was a victory in and of itself, right?

"Oh? Are you as smart as I thought? Could you uh… lend me a hand too…?" Yosuke requested sheepishly, almost embarrassed he was going to have to turn to a freshman to help him with his sophomore level courses. He'd ask Yukiko for help, but he remembered pretty clearly how well that went last time. Yu was much too busy chatting with Nanako at the moment to really be of any use. Those two were practically like brother and sister. Guess Maya and Justin had competition on the fake sibling front. Naoto opened her mouth for a second, no words coming out for only a brief moment as she tried to think of the best way to put it.

"Oh, um… I wouldn't know where to begin with second-year subjects." Naoto admitted with slight embarrassment. Seemed the detective prince wasn't quite as smart as she tried to let on earlier. Her knowledge was pretty damn specialized from the looks of it; she was no jack of all trades when it came to smarts. She knew about crimes and that's about it. Hell, Justin probably could have beat her on that front if he tried hard enough. All it took was good observation and a clever mind, right? That's why Justin was pretty sure he'd get away with murder…

Uh… N-Not that he was planning to kill anyone or any… wait, he did. Shit.

"Aww… What's up with that? Useless after all…" Yosuke spat with slight annoyance. Justin had just rubbed it off as Yosuke doucheing it up again, plus he never objected to Naoto getting bitched out; he still hadn't gotten over the whole accusing him and Maya of being murderers thing yet. He probably never would. In actuality though, Naoto's face had lit up bright red, glowing like a volcano about to explode into the sky, her eyes dropping into a glare that could give a lion a heart-attack.

"D-Don't call me useless!" She shouted angrily back at Yosuke, who couldn't help but spit-take as she gave him his shit back, eyes wide with shock as the remains of the soda that had been in his mouth dripped down his chin. Everyone else kinda of scooted away a bit in their chairs, trying to distance themselves from Yosuke's spittle. Except for Nanako, and surprisingly, Justin, who couldn't help but laugh. Everyone was caught a little off guard by that, watching with curiosity as the sober expression on Justin's face slowly gave way to him trying to hold back laughter.

"Now you have no right to bitch me out for spit-taking here anymore." Justin continued to laugh, holding his gut as he tried to stop himself from looking like an ass. It wasn't very funny; but maybe he just needed a good laugh right about now. With all the tension in the air, all the crap that had hit the ceiling over the past week, everything had just been bottled up inside. And sure, he dealt with the Maya angle of things, but confronting his friends after all had been said and done still scared him half to death. Perhaps laughter was the best medicine for his blues. Yu passed Justin a slight glare before pressing his hands over Nanako's ears, as if expecting Justin to continue on his tirade.

"Hey, hey! We talked about this; not around Nanako!" Yu scolded Justin. His pleas went unheard though as Justin tried to keep a hold of his composure, to stop himself from laughing like a hyena. You know something, most of the group was confused by the burst of laughter over something as disgusting and common place as the spit-take, but some of the group couldn't help but smile back as he slowly fell out of his chair. He was over-exagerating as fuck as he fell to the ground to continue laughing, but it was nice to see him lighten up again. Chie was certainly happy anyway. So were most of the others. Naoto just dismissed him as an idiot as usual; and Yukiko was much too hung up as to why he was laughing and not the fact that he was actually laughing for once. You know when even Yukiko won't laugh, you're laughing at a real shitty joke.

"I don't get it… Did I miss the punchline?" Yukiko inquired, genuinely curious as to what the joke was. After all, she liked to laugh just as much as the next guy. Probably more actually. In fact; she had the throne when it came to laughing. No one could out laugh her; not even the schizophrenic rolling on the floor over some loose cola being sprayed all over the table. Justin thought he could take her on? Bitch please; he couldn't even COMPARE. Yosuke shook his head and sighed after a moment, wiping the soda that had been dripping from the cracks of his mouth on his sleeve. He wasn't looking forward to cleaning that shit up; though at least it would be more pleasant than cleaning up Justin's spit when he did the exact same thing. You know, it was nice to see the guy loosen up a bit, but this was definitely excessive. It was almost embarrassing to watch; partially because people were starting to stare. At least Nanako seemed to be enjoying it; laughter was pretty damn contagious after all.

"Well ignoring Pagliacci the Clown over here…" Yosuke remarked sarcastically, passing Justin a slight glare as the boy raised his hand up, as if to signify he was trying to stop. In actuality, the Pagliacci the Clown remark made it worse. He wasn't sure if the remark was intentional or not, but Yosuke did realize Pigliacci was a depressed clown, right? Basically, Justin was doing the exact opposite of what Pagliacci would have done. "I think I've figured out what buttons to push to get Naoto-kun riled up. You're pretty cute when you're angry." Naoto's eyes widened with shock, face turning beat red almost immediately as her gaze immediately shot over to Yosuke, pure confusion and embarrassment running though her veins like tiny blood cells. To be fair, the remark was so out of place, even Justin had stopped laughing as it hit his ears, his smiling expression changing to one of slight disgust.

"Wh-What are you talking about!?" Naoto questioned frantically, a combination of confusion and being ticked off fuelling her vocal cords. She was not one for being teased, especially in such an insulting manner as this. I mean, this was the girl who prided herself in trying to look like a guy, right? Cute and her just did not fit in the same sentence, at all. Yosuke just giggled a bit more as Naoto's face lit up like a fireball, pleased to be finding all sorts of ways to yank Naoto's chain. Essentially, Yosuke may have just took Justin's place for him in the vicious cycle of 'making Naoto feel unwelcome as fuck.'

"Don't even tell me you got the hots for the Killjoy Detective over here." Justin remarked with disgust, sticking his tongue out as if to get the thought of Yosuke and Naoto together out of his mind. He couldn't think of any other match that was more likely to be made in hell than that one. Like holy shit, that was disgusting. Yosuke shook his head, a slightly disgusted look on his face himself. He had nothing on Naoto though, whose mouth was hanging open wide enough that a camel could pass through.

"Pfft, yeah right. She's got nothing on May-" Yosuke cut himself off almost immediately as he realized what he had almost said. Alas, much too late; just that first syllable had drilled Justin's ear deeper than a six foot long blade. His jaw opened slightly, eyebrows dropping into a glare, pupils shrinking as though to try and pierce right through his heart. Not that Yosuke hadn't done that to himself. All eyes fell upon him, slightly confused as they tried to piece the puzzle pieces again. They all knew Yosuke was sweet on a girl, minus Naoto of course, but they didn't know who. Except maybe Yu, who was freaking out just as much as Yosuke. He knew this would not end well. At all. "Uh… I-I mean."

"Finish that sentence." Justin's glare intensified like a thousand suns, slowly getting up from the ground to lean across the table. Yu did the smart thing and put his hand over Nanako's eyes, knowing damn well a murder was about to unfold here. "Do it."

"…My bike. Only woman I need… Aha… Ha… You're not buying this for a second are you." Justin quickly pulled his sneaker off before tossing it across the table and whacking Yosuke across the skull. Yep, probably not a good idea to piss Justin off after all that had happened, recently; at least it was ncie to see Justin back to his old self… Sorta? Yosuke rubbed his head with pain as the shoe ricocheted off his skull, the blow making him oblivious to Justin jumping over the table to beat him up personally... Yu was pretty damn quick to turn to Yosuke.

"Run and don't stop, you hear- Oh… Oh… That… I didn't even think you could fit a sneaker up there."


	175. Chapter 174: October 13, 2011

CHAPTER 174

October 13, 2011

* * *

"Gah! I don't get any of this!"

Chie and Justin were crammed into his house, books all over the place as he tried to help her cram for the exams they would be taking tomorrow. Usually Justin helped her study the week prior, but with him going off and getting possessed by a demonic version of himself and all, he didn't really have the time. So now he had to make up for it all today. 'Sides, he was pretty far behind on his studies too thanks to this whole Naoto escapade. He didn't study; but he might pick up a thing or two from just reading along with Chie and explaining every last thing to her. Or at least he had been; Chie had pretty much flipped the book that had been resting in her lap over and onto the floor in a temper tantrum. She had been studying for hours and she felt like she couldn't remember a damn thing. She didn't want to get on her parent's bad side again, that was for sure; so she absolutely had to make sure she did well on this exam. Plus; if she did real well she might be able to drop that Justin had helped her study to her father. Maybe that would get him to lay off a little bit.

"Hey, hey; come on now. You're doing great." Justin tried to encourage her, to cheer her up a bit in her state of self-loathing; but alas, even Justin could only cheer her up so much when she got too angry or too annoyed. She just wished she were smarter like Justin or Yukiko, able to put in little to no effort into her school work and still absorbing the information like a sponge in the ocean. There had to be a catch or something that Justin just wasn't letting on to, a trick to learn this stuff with little to no effort. But alas; as much as she'd like to think Justin was holding out on her, he'd never do that. He wanted to see her succeed at whatever she did. Justin eyed her with slight concern as she hung her head in shame, shame for her inability to cram. "...Maybe you just need to take a break; get some energy back and all that."

"I guess." Chie shrugged before plopping back into the sofa, allowing herself to sink into the couch, sighing with exhaustion. Who would have thought just studying would physically exhaust her? Justin reached into his pocket, searching around for a toothpick. Well sorta. At first he had been looking for a cigarette, but then he really just took in a good whiff of reality. Yu was right, as much as he hated to admit it; this shit would kill him someday, and while it might not affect him now, he'd regret it in the future. And so would his friends. And so would Chie. He passed her a slight glance out of the corner of his eye before sighing and running his hand past the cigarette and towards the small pack of toothpicks in his pants pocket, pulling one out and slipping it out between his teeth.

"So… Uh… How goes… Stuff?" Justin questioned after a moment. It was pretty clear what was on his mind, but he obviously didn't want to bring it up for obvious reasons. Chie stared at Justin sympathetically for only a brief moment before reaching her hand out to place it along the length of his shoulder in a reassuring matter, a smile creeping across her face all the while.

"Hey. Stop worrying about it; it wasn't your fault. None of us are holding it against you, you know." She whispered ever so softly to Justin, her pearly white's shining through the cracks of her smile like a street lamp in the midnight sky. Justin shook his head a bit as his eyes were mesmerized by her grin. He wanted to smile back, but somewhere that message had gotten scrambled up in all the confusing thoughts bouncing around the inside of his skull. Why was it so easy for everyone to get past him trying to commit murder. Why? Because his shadow was the one who did it? He was the one who gave him control in the first place. If only he had controlled his anger better; than none of this would have happened in the first place.

"Yeah, but why? I don't get it, I tried to burn someone's house to the ground. That's not just something you can give someone a slap on the wrist for, you know." Justin inquired, eyebrows curved upwards with confusion and sorrow. Chie paused for a moment, smile slowly slipping away from her face as she tried to contemplate the matter. Truth be told, she wasn't sure why they were all as okay with it as they were. Yeah, it was the shadow that had done it, they all accepted that much. No one blamed Justin specifically; but practically pretending it had never happened… It was just as weird for her as it was for Justin to ignore the issue entirely. So why did she do it? The best explanation she could think of was that she loved him, regardless of what he did or who he was. And love was unconditional.

"Because we're your friends Justin. We don't care what you've done, we'll help you get through it." Chie began to smile again, removing the palm of her hand from Justin's shoulder for a brief moment as she leaned over the couch to pick up the book and papers she had scattered all over the floor a moment earlier. It was just going to keep bugging her if she left it lying all over the floor. Justin might have been okay with leaving a mess on the floor, but Chie was pretty damn OCD when it came to making a mess. Plus, Maya sure as hell wasn't going to put up with her bed being covered in shit. Justin nodded a bit, letting the remark soak in as Chie went to cleaning the mess she had made a moment earlier. You know… it kinda of made sense. He couldn't really see justifying arson; but Chie was right. They just wanted to help him… In this case they wanted to help him deal with his problems, with the trauma. To help him move on from his grief. He totally got it now. Leave it to Chie to put everything in perspective for him in a single sentence. For a girl who was failing almost all of her subjects, she was pretty damn smart sometimes.

"So if I shot Yosuke, would you help me chop up the body?" Justin joked a bit, a smirk gradually sweeping across his face. Chie passed Justin an incredibly shocked, if not outright fearful glance as she slowly rose from her position leaning over the floor, hugging the books she had picked up close to her chest. She was having a hard time believing Justin was joking for a second there. First arson, now murder. Now it was just a question of what the next step was. International terrorism? Cannibalism? Both?

"Absolutely not!" Chie shouted, glaring at Justin all the while. If he was serious, which there was a good chance he was after yesterday's little fiasco over… Something. Chie actually hadn't managed to pick up that Yosuke was talking about Maya; or at least, not until Justin started to beat the shit out of him. Then she realized it might have been a little more than a bike that had pissed Justin off. And then she had to play a word game in her head where she tried to figure out who she knew who was named 'My'… It took her a while before she realized that was how you began pronouncing Maya's name. She really had to smack herself upside the head after that. How had she overlooked something so painfully obvious? "I can't even tell if you're joking."

"Well of course I am; have I ever given you any reason to think I would try to murder him?" Justin questioned. Chie of course just crossed her arms, and for once, tilted her head down slightly to give Justin that 'are you fucking kidding me?' look. She pulled it off surprisingly well, though Justin did have the strangest urge to laugh at the gesture. Usually he was the one doing that; so to be on the receiving end of that look was hilariously ironic. Still; she did raise a valid point all the same. "Well besides from the arson thing. And the everyday physical assault. And the constant threats. And basically everything."

"You know he's at the dentist getting his teeth replaced after yesterday, right?" Chie remarked with slight judgment. She had come to terms with Justin constantly beating the crap out of Yosuke, but yesterday was surprisingly brutal by Justin's standards. After all, Justin had never actually sent Yosuke to a doctor; let alone over something that didn't really pertain to him. It was kinda creepy and pervy, but it's not like he didn't do that to all of the other girls anyway. They had just learned to accept the pervert that was Yosuke by this point.

"Really? Figured he'd be at the proctologist." Justin remarked with slight jest and slight seriousness. He did try to shove a sneaker up the boy's ass after all. Thankfully Yu intervened before Justin could really do any damage; it could have turned very ugly very quick otherwise. And not necessarily just for Yosuke; after all, Justin WAS going to have to walk home with that sneaker, and he'd rather it not be covered from tip to heel in Yosuke's shit. Or any shit really; but specifically Yosuke's. Justin would have you know he was very picky about his shit.

"You don't think that was a bit overkill?" Chie questioned in an almost condescending fashion. After all, she was pretty sure she could talk down to Justin when he tried to shove a shoe up someone's ass just because they made a remark about his sister's looks. Actually; what Yosuke said wasn't even that bad. It was more of a compliment than anything. I mean, he wasn't saying Maya was smoking or anything, he simply said that Naoto has nothing on Maya's looks; which just meant Maya was attractive. No biggie, right? At least he was showing restraint with his choice of words. Justin shook his head, growling a bit under his breath. Chie apparently didn't know what it was like having a little sister to be over-protective over. I mean, yeah, Maya WAS older than Justin, and again, they weren't really related, but they FELT related, they treated each other as if they were, hell they loved each other like brother and sister. That was good enough for Justin.

"Not when he was trying to sleaze it up with my sister, no. I swear, if Maya was there she would have broken both of his legs; he should consider himself lucky all he got was a couple of broken teeth." Justin justified his actions, crossing his arms and huffing slightly. He suddenly got the urge to find Yosuke's dentist of choice and bit the shit out of Yosuke a second time. Either that or give him the nastiest toothpaste they had at the dentist. You know, one of those really gritty ones that make your teeth feel like they were covered in fucking rocks and sand. And then he'd stab at his gums with one of those pointy things Justin didn't know the name of just because it hurt like a bitch. Actually; it was starting to occur to Justin that he was spending more time thinking about how he hated dentists and not so much Yosuke. Maybe he should beat the shit out of the dentist instead. Chie sighed and shook her head, relieved Justin was back to his old self but also kind of annoyed because, you guessed it, Justin was back to his old self. It was a bittersweet victory really.

"So, did you tell Maya?" Chie questioned after a moment, much to Justin's confusion. He didn't see any real reason why he'd tell Maya that Yosuke was perving it up over her. For starters, they were really good friends, so even though Justin didn't really trust Yosuke around Maya anymore, he didn't want to destroy that friendship for her. Secondly, just because you hear someone say something unflattering about someone else behind their back, you don't NEED to tell them. In fact, telling them is probably the worst thing you can do. Ignorance IS bliss after all.

"Why would I want to do that?"

"Don't you think she should know Yosuke's got the hots for her?" Chie questioned, eyebrow shooting up. For a moment she had thought Justin was just refusing to tell Maya about Yosuke because of some sort of grudge. Like he wasn't going to tell her JUST because it was Yosuke, or maybe because he just didn't want ANYONE getting any funny ideas about her. In actuality though, Justin didn't really get that Yosuke totally had a thing for Maya. For him, it just seemed like Yosuke was being a pervert again, nothing more.

"Yosuke does not have the hots for her; he was just ogling her because he's a creep; as usual." Justin remarked with annoyance, rolling his eyes slightly. He could have swore Chie of all people would know that Yosuke had nothing but sinister intentions when it came to girls and their appearances. Need he remind her of the camping trip and the bathing suit fiasco? It still haunted Justin to this day where he hid those suits. _Where… were they? What… HOW!? _Chie shook her head a bit, taking a swig of the can of cola she had been drinking, a slight smile creeping across her face.

"I don't knooowww; we still haven't figured out who Yosuke's mystery girl is." Chie chuckled slightly. Truth be told, she had already decided that Maya was the mystery girl in her mind, and she thought that was absolutely adorable. Now it was just a matter of getting Justin to believe it, a harder feat than one would really think. It wasn't necessarily that he couldn't believe it as it was he didn't WANT to believe it. He'd support Maya in whatever she wanted to do with her life, romantic or otherwise; but that didn't mean he necessarily had to agree with her choices. And besides, they didn't even know if Maya returned the sentiment. All they knew was Maya had a thing for some unnamed guy; and quite frankly, Justin doubted it was Yosuke.

"Can't be; Maya said Yosuke had never approached her about going to the movies, and he DID say he asked the girl." Justin pointed out, logically trying to disprove Chie's theory about Yosuke and Maya's love life. Chie shrugged a bit. She had forgotten all about Yosuke and his movie tickets, but even then, she was having a hard time believing otherwise even with evidence stacking against her theory. After all, if he was stating his preference for someone's appearance, and he had a thing for some girl, wouldn't he cite that girl as an example of picture perfection?

"Maybe Yosuke lied?" Chie suggested after a moment. Justin just raised his eyebrow with confusion. Of course he was telling the truth; he was at the movie theatre and he had the tickets. Hell, Chie had SEEN the tickets the second time Yosuke tried this shit, so she knew he wasn't lying.

"He HAD the tickets. I saw the tickets. You saw the tickets. We know he bought tickets." Justin remarked slightly condescendingly. Which was probably a bad idea because now he was scolding Chie for something she hadn't meant in the slightest. She was actually more referring to the part where he asked the girl to go to the movies with him. Maybe there was no girl… Or maybe, and most probably the most likely explanation…

"No! I meant he lied about asking her. Maybe he chickened out at the last second." Chie suggested. Justin shot his eyebrows up with immediate curiosity. At first, it sounded like the stupidest thing he had ever heard; but as he really thought about it… it kind of made sense. I mean, Yosuke was socially awkward enough that he might be afraid to ask her; afraid of saying something stupid or perverted. Or both. Hell, maybe he was just nervous. Justin's jaw slowly fell ajar as it really sunk in. Chie was fucking right.

"…Oh dear god… I think you're right." He remarked with dreadful realization slowly sinking in. Why of all people did it have to be Yosuke? Chie smirked a bit, partially at the prospect of being correct; partially just thinking about the two in that light again. They were always close friends, so the thought if the two as a couple just seemed so natural to her. Maybe it was just that it reminded her of… well them. They were always friends before they hooked up. It was like watching the magic all over again, but instead of Justin and Chie, it was Yosuke and Maya. "…It doesn't matter anyway, you know Maya has a crush on some guy already, and unless that just so happens to be Yosuke, and let's be serious how could it, it's doesn't matter what Yosuke wants."

"Then I guess maybe we need to find out who it is Maya has a crush on."

"Oh yeah, sure. I'm sure if we just ask politely- I don't know if you know this, but it's very easy to withhold information when you can't talk."

"Well then we'll just have to be extra clever."


	176. Chapter 175: October 14 - 16, 2011

CHAPTER 175

October 14, 2011

* * *

_What figure of speech is being used in the statement "I ate so much that my stomach is going to explode?"_

So it was that time of the year again, the slow draw towards the end of the quarter, written examinations to test the students to make sure they were actually paying attention and not just sleeping all day. Of course, given that Justin got the highest scores on these tests every quarter, you could say whoever wrote these tests failed miserably. This one particular question was just proof of that. Justin wasn't complaining about getting ridiculously easy questions, after all it just made it easier for him to get away with not studying and not paying attention in class, but just once he'd like a question that didn't treat him like a complete idiot. In retrospect; Justin wished he had been more careful for what he had wished for, but for the moment being, he was just fine with the simple, ridiculous easy questions that had been printed out in front of him.

_Hyperbole. This is the dumbest fucking question ever asked in the history of mankind. _Justin thought sarcastically to himself before flipping the page over, a sigh on his breath with bored annoyance. He didn't understand why he even needed to take these shitty exams; he KNEW all the material and his teachers knew it. It was just a waste of his time, hour after hour trickling away as his hand cramped from applying pressure to a leaflet of paper. Why couldn't it be like his freshman class in California? If you had a certain average in time for the exams, you were excused from taking them. Of course, Justin never ended up taking his finals anyway since he transferred over to Inaba before the end of the year. He had to take an equivalency test to cover the few months he would miss from the end of his freshman year, but that shit was laughable at best. He sure did miss summer vacation though; that would have been nice. _Alright, let's see what the next question is…_

_What happens to plants when thigmomorphogenesis occurs?_

…

_What the fuck is this shit!?_

Okay, so maybe wanting harder questions was a bad idea. Justin hadn't the slightest clue what thigomor…a…somethingorother was, all he knew was it was a long word and his brain just could not filter anything through with more than twelve syllables. He couldn't even PRONOUNCE that word, let alone figure out what the hell it was supposed to be. His eye twitched slightly as he stared at the question, trying to figure out when the hell this was even mentioned in class. Not that he was going to have much success with that since he never paid attention, but hey, you never know what may ring a bell. In this case abso-fucking-lutely nothing. Well you know what they say; when in doubt, rip up your paper and cause a big fuss. But Justin, being the dignified gentleman he was, decided to just go with C. The answer was always C. Even when the answer was B, the answer was C.

_Oh man, this is gonna be a long week…_

* * *

October 16, 2011

* * *

"It's getting to be a custom for us to meet up like this."

It was about day three of exams; or at least, it would be if the group had school today. In actuality, they had the day off for some holiday Justin didn't know and didn't celebrate. He wasn't complaining though; with one day long weekends and a summer vacation that lasted only a third of what he was used to, he would take a day off wherever he could get it. Besides; he still didn't feel too hot. He wasn't sure if it was from the stress of trying to filet someone alive or if he still hadn't shaken off whatever it was he had caught a week or two ago. Probably not the latter though considering Chie had already recovered, and sure, people got over illness at a different rate, but when they had the same thing the difference in recovery time shouldn't have been THAT big. Regardless, the group was almost all gathered there at the moment. Kanji and Kurt weren't there, but then, when was Kurt EVER there? But the rest of the investigation team had made it for a study session in an attempt at cramming as much as they could for the following day's exam. Unless you were Justin, in which case you were there to just sip cola and make everyone else feel dumb.

"But that aside, can I borrow your notes?" Yosuke turned his attention to Chie, a slight pleading look in his eyes as he requested permission to steal the one thing she had and needed to get something even close to a good grade. That presented several flaws in Yosuke's request; the first and foremost being Chie absolutely needed those right now, and she wasn't going to just hand them off to Yosuke to get soda all over, and you know he would. Secondly; why would you want Chie's notes of all people? Like, don't get Justin wrong but… It WAS Chie who these notes belonged to. Trying to study off of her notes would be like trying to read a book with no words. You could do it, but you wouldn't learn a damn thing and you'll have just wasted an hour of your life.

"Borrowing notes is getting to be a custom too…" Chie remarked sarcastically, reaching to grab her notebook. She was about to pass it off to Yosuke so he could pretty much ride off of her note-taking skills instead of taking some of his own, but then she was struck by a sinister idea. Just as Yosuke was about to grab the notebook, Chie tugged it a way, causing Yosuke to pinch at the air. Her generosity was not without its price after all, and Yosuke was not going to just take everything she had worked hard for because he was lazy. "Alright, let's get started… But first, I want a melon soda." Chie giggled slightly as she hung the notebook in front of Yosuke like a fish hook, tantalizing him with the promises of help. Yosuke groaned almost immediately.

"Is that your way of saying you'll lend me your notes if I buy you a melon soda…?" Yosuke sighed with annoyance. He knew a deal being made when he saw one, and man, this had deal written all over it. Well actually, it was more like blackmail, what with Chie having something he absolutely needed and holding out on it until she got what she wanted. Not that anyone anywhere should ever need Chie's notes; especially not when Yu and Yukiko where there and would more than be happy to share their notes with the group. I mean seriously, why was Chie the go to person for notes here? She needed them just as much as Yosuke, if not more.

"Could be." Chie chuckled a bit, getting amusement out of watching Yosuke squirm, his academic fate in the palms of her hand. Or at least until he realized he would have much more luck dry humping a cactus than succeeding with notes like Chie's. To be fair, the notes themselves weren't so bad; Chie tried hard in school after all, so she took extensive notes on all of the classes. It was just that Chie had a hard time memorizing all of it, so it made it seem like she either took shit notes or no notes at all. Some people just aren't good test takers, Justin supposed. But then; he also supposed that since a test is just a measure of how much you actually know, being a bad test taker is essentially being a complete fucking moron.

"Pfft; I don't need them THAT bad." Yosuke groaned, rolling his eyes and falling back in his seat a bit. Chie needless to say was disappointed almost immediately. She had thought that was going to work; and she really was thirsty. I mean, she could just buy one herself, but free drinks always taste so much better. Just like food really. They say that money earned is better than money won, but Chie would beg to differ. Justin chuckled a bit shaking his head as he stood up from his seat, stretching his back out all the while. It was still much too early for him to be doing this shit.

"You know how ladies like a guy who tips large? Yeah, same goes for a one dollar drink." Justin remarked sarcastically before turning his attention back to Chie. Good thing too, because Yosuke almost immediately blushed. Maya was here right now after all, and he didn't really want to look like he was cheap or anything. He just didn't want to buy a drink for Chie that he knew she could buy herself. Or as it turns out, Justin. "One watermelon soda coming up." Justin smiled at Chie before making his way over to a nearby vending machine. He could have gotten one from one of the vendors, but it was just so much quicker to get one from the vending machine. Plus it wasn't as far away a walk. It was just so much more convenient. Chie smiled a bit as Justin made his way by, pleased in her victory. In retrospect she should have asked Justin in the first place. He was more than happy to treat Chie like a goddess.

"Hmhm, Justin-san and Chie-san seem to get along well." Naoto mumbled to herself, eyes following Justin as he made his way over to the vending machine, whistling all the while. Most of the others immediately passed Naoto a funny glance. Did she NOT remember the two dancing at the club that night? They thought it would have been painfully obvious to Naoto that the two were dating; same with Yu and Yukiko, though they never really talked about those two dating. They couldn't say they talked too much about Justin and Chie either, at least for any other reason than yanking their chain. Chie got awfully flustered about that kind of shit, and Justin always got pissed when someone jabbed at the two of them. It was by all accounts the perfect joke; just at those two's expense.

"Well… Yeah." Rise remarked with confused sarcasm. She wasn't even there for Justin and Chie's dancing escapades and she thought it would have been obvious to Naoto. Justin and Chie thought they were so clever holding hands under the table, but really, they could all tell. It was pretty damn obvious they were doing it, and in a way it was kind of cute, if not nauseating. Probably both. "They ARE dating." Rise explained for Naoto since she seemed to be pretty damn out of the loop on even the most basic knowledge of the Investigation Team's members' lives.

The look on Naoto's face would suggest she had just been punched in the gut with a wrecking ball the way the news hit her, eyes wide with shock before she darted her gaze over to Chie. Chie responded the usual way she did when people tried to bring attention to the two as a couple: trying to burrow her face into the neck of her jumper to hide her red cheeks. Justin never did get why she was always so embarrassed about that kind of stuff. He was pretty damn proud of both of them being a couple; he'd tell the world if he could, but alas, Earth didn't have ears. Slowly Naoto's gaze began to slide away from Chie's red face and over to Justin walking back with her drink in hand, still whistling whatever it was he was whistling. Naoto obviously didn't recognize it because she didn't play video games, but it was that song from that Mercenaries 2 commercial. You know. That one. Good thing no one knew the song at the table, or they'd seriously have to question Justin's sanity. Naoto wasn't sure what was more shocking about all of this; that an asshole like Justin was able to get a girlfriend or the fact that for once he actually looked HAPPY. Perhaps that was a good thing, perhaps that was the power of love at work. Whatever it was, Naoto was just happy to see Justin not in that sour mood he always seemed to be. That was probably for the best. For all of them.

"Here you go ma'am; no tip necessary." Justin joked a bit as he tossed the can off to Chie. She was going to bitch him out for shaking up the can in the process, but then she realized he didn't HAVE to get anyone a drink, so she should just be grateful she got anything out of this. She'd just have to go thirsty a moment longer. Either that, or she could try and be funny and spray Justin with the can; though whether he'd laugh it off or get really angry would certainly be in question, so maybe that wasn't a good idea. "So what are we talking about?"

"Hey…! You know Naoto, you and Kanji would make a cute couple." Rise joked slightly; though Naoto sure as hell was not amused. Remember when spit-takes used to be Justin's thing? Yeah me neither. Good news is Naoto managed to stop herself from spitting her beverage up, though she did managed to get soda in her nose. And it stung like a bitch. After pressing her fingers against the bridge of her nose for a moment trying to numb the pain, eyes watering slightly as she squirmed in her seat, she turned her eyes towards Rise in an embarrassed glare.

"Please, stop it!" She shouted with annoyance. Justin only found amusement in watching Naoto squirm, though he could also honestly say he learned something here today. You see, while Rise had been joking, what she had said had struck Justin like an iron bell. Kanji had been acting pretty damn weird lately, and Justin had wondered why… Now it made sense. Everytime Kanji was acting like that it was around Naoto. Kanji totally had the hots for Naoto. And that disgusted Justin in some ways and tickled his heart stings in others. It was nice to see Kanji getting over that gender barrier… But then he had been acting this way when he still thought Naoto was a guy, so Justin wasn't sure how far that went. Guess they could establish Kanji as Bi by this point. Secondly, Naoto. Just… Naoto? Blegh. Disgusting. "Kanji-kun is an interesting sort, but…"

"…Sounds like he's got no chance." Yosuke sighed. For just a very brief moment, it almost sounded like Yosuke actually cared. About Kanji's love life. This wasn't the same Yosuke right? Their Yosuke would have made a gay joke… Unless Naoto WAS the gay joke. She did kind of cross-dress for… well for as far as Justin had known her. Probably longer. Hell she was STILL doing it right now. Still, Yosuke being nice wasn't what had piqued Justin's curiosity. It was the fact that he had gotten involved in a conversation about couples. Reminded Justin of something he had wanted to do for the last few days. And Rise had given him the perfect disguise to ask his question under. Justin scotched over to Chie for a second, pushing his lips close to her ear so he could whisper silently to her.

"Psss; I've got an idea, I want you to play along."

"Huh?"

"You'll see in a second." Justin reassured her before backing away from Chie. Yosuke hadn't really noticed Justin whispering to Chie, so that was good. Meant he got away scott-free from that angle. "So what's the verdict here: Me and Chie, Yu and Yukiko, obviously, Naoto and Kanji, and… Huh…" Justin rubbed at his chin a bit. "I'm not really sure about the rest of you… Yosuke and Maya maybe?" Justin proposed. That was the theory after all, so they just needed to see if there was a connection there. It didn't really matter so much if Maya had a thing for someone else. And Justin would like to say vice-versa, but it's be a cold day in hell before he let Yosuke break her heart.

Well needless to say, there was an immediate reaction from both people; mostly of shock. Maya blushed a bit, though Yosuke managed to keep a cool head about it. He could try and play this off, as fast as his heart was racing after all. "What? Because of what I said yesterday? Come on, I said I was joking." Yosuke groaned a bit, faking a glare. In actuality, his palms were sweating like a motherfucker, and his lungs felt like they were shriveling up inside. Not that Justin was paying much attention to Yosuke; his eyes had been on Maya. He thought he had his answer at first with that blush, but the moment Yosuke brought up the remark from yesterday that faded away almost instantly as she turned a curious gaze Yosuke's way. He couldn't tell if she was just embarrassed to be brought into this or if her heart strings had been tickled by the idea. Dammit Yosuke.

"I don't know; I think you two'd look pretty cute together." Chie repeated, trying to get Yosuke to fall into the trap. Yosuke just began to glare at the two. He doubted they were telling the truth; and even if they were, the fact of the matter was he could tell this all had to do with the remark he had made. He wasn't stupid, as much as Justin painted him out to be.

"Jesus you two; wasn't knocking my teeth out enough?" Yosuke questioned with anger. While the remark had been intended to simply get Chie and Justin to back down, it had the unintended side-effect of catching Maya's attention. She hadn't known a damn thing about this so called 'joke,' but she did know that now that Yosuke had brought it up, she could notice a very clearly missing tooth. Justin really had knocked his teeth out. She slowly turned her attention to Justin, eyebrows lowering into a glare of her own before she started signing off a bunch of crap. Strangely, Justin couldn't tell what she was saying this time; he had never seen those signs before.

"Uh… Not sure what that means."

"_Okay, let me put it in a way even you could understand." _Maya signed off before raising her thumb sideways towards her throat, running it along the width of her throat in a threatening fashion. Justin's eyes immediately shot wide open with fear. It was probably worth noting that he had NOT expected this reaction out of Maya; hell no one did. Yosuke was particularly surprised. In a way, you could say that this was Justin's confirmation.

He was just too busy running away to notice.


	177. Chapter 176: October 17 - 20, 2011

CHAPTER 176

October 17, 2011

* * *

"_How much does it cost to produce a one yen coin?"_

Back to work it was for the investigation team, their day off to cram for exams having finally passed and given way to the day that had sunk dread into their heats as it reared its ugly head around the horizon. Unless you were Justin, in which case you just thought this was all a stupid waste of time. Really, most of the team did; but that was more because they were failing hard at their tests and despised the mere mention of exams due to how much it had sunk their grade point average into the ground. Justin moaned and groaned as he slowly trudged through his test, question after question wearing his eyes out as they bounced off his skull like quarters against jello pudding. He really could go for a nap right about now, but the bright side was this was the last question on his exam, and he'd still have about ten minutes or so afterwards to just close his eyes before they were dismissed for the day. And then he'd consider skipping out at work at Junes just to catch forty winks. Sure, he needed the money and Yosuke had scolded him more than enough times about showing up for the job. After all, it was only for a month and Yosuke had worked hard to insure him the position; Justin needed to return the favor.

He sighed as he tapped his pencil against his skull, eyes reading over the question what felt like a dozen times. It wasn't a hard question: he KNEW the answer to this, yet for some reason he just needed to read it over a couple times. He was having trouble concentrating with this atmosphere; the sun glaring in and shining in his eyes, some kid off to his right breathing through his mouth instead of his nose. Was it so hard to just use your nose; breathing through your mouth is just so fucking loud and obnoxious. It's not like if you have a stuffy nose or something, because then you'd be trying to clear your nose by sniffling. Justin could possibly forgive someone for that; but when you clearly have no excuse for breathing through your mouth, that's when you deserve a smack upside your head.

_Uh, god… I swear I've seen this question before… Yeah; it was like how much money does it take to make a penny; and it was like… two cents. Wonder if the conversion rate still applies or if it's just universally double when making money…_ Justin mused to himself as he examined the question. It was a trick question he had hear back in the Americas; after all, no one would expect the United States to spend more money than to actually make the money. But of course Americans were stupid, and despite being in debt, they were just going to keep wasting money making a unit of money NO ONE FUCKING USED. When's the last time you actually used a penny? Never? Okay, thought so. Justin could not wait until all money went digital: credit cards, debit cards, and more credit cards. And more important, however much money the government fucking said they have. It should probably be worth noting Justin didn't know a damn thing about politics. If he did maybe he'd see the fact that trade wouldn't exist without physical money.

Whatever, this question wasn't about the political consequences of creating virtual money as opposed to the paper and coins they used now. This wasn't some philosophical debate about how the country needed a new form of currency. This was a simple question about yen. It was immediately obvious to Justin that it costs more money than the money they were trying to make; it was just a matter of how much. And that only left two choices: three times the cost of a yen, or two times the cost of a yen. Justin just went with the one that most closely resembled the way Americans did it.

And with that he was done, flipping the page of his packet over to the front, banging it against his desk to straighten the papers out as if they weren't stapled and thus didn't need to be realigned. Maybe it was just because it gave him this smug sense of self-satisfaction hearing the papers shuffle against his desk, its echo hitting his ears like the key unlocking his shackles. It was just so satisfying to let the world know he had finished his work. Well; all except one thing. Seemed he had forgotten to put his name down in all his haste; he should fix that before all his work went to waste. And he was about to, when he was suddenly distracted by a noise he hadn't expected to hear.

"I can't take it anymore!" Justin slowly turned his eyes over to Chie who had presumably shouted with frustration as she squirmed in her seat, biting her bottom lip as she stared at her packet. It was pretty loud, even if she did try to be quiet, so it was a wonder the teachers hadn't started to bitch her out for talking during exams. Still, she did look pretty damn upset; which was unusual even for Chie during exams. She at least had this small glimmer of hope in her eyes at that point. Now? She was squirming in her seat over this thing.

"You alright?" Justin whispered over with concern. He'd never seen Chie in such physical anguish over a test. That's probably because she wasn't right now either; it just looked that way from Justin's perspective. After all, why else would someone shout that in the middle of exams. Well there was one tiny alternative reason; something that shouldn't have happened unless the moon and the stars aligned just right in the sky, god's humor dumbing down to that of pure hatred towards mankind. Why yes, it was this one one millionth of a chance situation that had occurred to Chie of all people; and oh boy did the timing suck.

"I really have to gooooooooooo-" Chie spat out silently, trying to keep that information away from everyone, still squirming up and down in her seat, trying to keep herself still and concentrate, but having problems due to obviously more pressing issues. Justin immediately jumped back a bit with surprise. Of all the shitty timing, her bladder had chosen this precise moment to strike. And it wasn't just like the slightest urge to go take a piss; oh no. Chie was doing a full on potty dance right now, swaying side to side in an attempt to qualm the piss that was slowly trying to break its way through. It was pretty clear she had either just been struck by a tidal wave of urine, or she had been holding it in for a damn long time. She was practically sweating trying to keep that shit in. Justin's eyes quickly darted about the room, trying to identify if anyone was watching as she squirmed about trying to stop herself from peeing her pants.

"Can't you hold it!? There's only like ten more minutes!" Justin whispered back. The school had some pretty damn strict policies in concern to the exams actually. You get caught talking, they take your test away. They see your eyes wandering, they take your test away. You can't get up to sharpen your pencil, you need to have that all ready in advance. But most importantly, and of course, most relevant to the situation: should a student have to leave the room for any reason, any reason of course including running to the little girl's room for a brief moment, their test is automatically confiscated and graded in its current state. From Justin's understanding, it was to prevent kids from grabbing books from their lockers and looking up answers while they were on the toilet. Seemed kind of dumb to him, but than ALL of this seemed dumb to him. I mean, if you gotta piss, you gotta piss. You shouldn't be punished for holding in your urine, something which Justin was almost entirely positive was completely unhealthy. Couldn't you get a kidney stone from doing that or something? Chie slowly shook her head, bottom lip whimpering ever so slightly. It was clear she couldn't hold it in any longer than she already had. Not unless she wanted to make a puddle on the floor.

"I can't! I still have, like, fifteen questions left!" She countered. She knew the rules just as well as Justin did. That's the only reason she hadn't left like an hour ago when she first had the need to take a leak. After all, it's not like she was flying through her exams where she could afford to take such a significant hit to her scores. She was barely making progress; it would be a wonder if she finished in the allotted time as it was, let alone be able to double check her answers. Justin scratched at his nose a bit, biting his bottom lip as he turned his attention to the teacher up front, still at his desk.

"Just go; I'm sure you did good enough on the rest of your exam." Justin reassured her in a slightly pleading mannerism. She wasn't going to get much accomplished when all she could concentrate on was focusing her willpower to keep the gates of her bladder closed anyway, and it really was almost painful to watch Chie go through this. Not to mention it was pretty clear she couldn't hold it for another ten minutes. It wasn't a matter of going to the bathroom at this point, it was just a matter of where. And if she didn't go soon, where was going to be all over the floor. Not exactly the most charming trait.

"B-But-"

"Shh- It's alright, just go." Justin prodded her a second time. Chie bit her bottom lip again, scrunching up her eyes in an attempt at focusing all muscle power towards her bladder and her legs. She had put so much willpower into holding out for another ten minutes, so much willpower into keeping her hand down that it was almost sad to see her succumb to temptation. Even if that was what she needed and wanted to do all along. She shot her hand into the sky with embarrassment, face red as she waited for the teacher to acknowledge the sudden motion in the classroom. The teacher seemed a bit confused by the interruption; questions weren't allowed on the test after all, and no one EVER dared go to the bathroom in the middle of the exam. Though in the end, Mr. Kondo supposed there was only ten minutes left and she probably had finished already.

"Yes?"

"Mr. Kondo, can I PLEASE go to the bathroom!?" Chie shouted, still twisting side to side in an attempt at slowing down whatever process it was that occurred in the depths of your body to make urine. She had enough being held back as it was without her body pumping out more and more piss. Mr. Kondo gave her a brief nod of acknowledgment before standing up from his desk, stretching a bit before making his way to Chie's desk to collect her exam. Chie, needless to say, darted off faster than Justin had ever seen anyone run in his life. Hell, she almost knocked her desk over jumping out of her seat and towards the lavatory.

And that just left Justin with the empty seat beside him, where Chie had been squirming back and forth moments earlier trying to take her exam. It was no doubt she hadn't been able to concentrate at all during the testing process, for how long, Justin could only guess. He wanted to say for the last hour judging by just how uncomfortable Chie seemed trying to keep herself from darting to the restroom. But it wasn't like he was an expert on piss and shit or anything like that. He was just a guy concerned for his girlfriend's well being as she practically jumped up and down in her seat from excruciating discomfort and pain. And not just from the health angle either, but that of an academic angle. He knew that if she kept trying to hold out she could finish the test, but certainly not very well; but then she'd just end up pissing in her pants, and that was NOT okay with Justin, not when there was a way. Yet leaving meant she couldn't get those fifteen questions, and that was going to significantly drop her score. Justin's eyes fell sympathetically on the now empty slot of Chie's seat, sad to see that her test scores were going to die, not with a band, but with a whimper. There had to be some way around this.

And then it hit Justin like a runaway firetruck. It was an awful, awful idea, and he never should have considered it, but it popped into his head all the same. And with that in mind, even knowing that no matter what someone would be punished by his plan, Justin couldn't help but seriously consider the matter. This could be a serious advantage to Chie; the boost she needed even if she would never condone it. And Justin couldn't just stand there and watch as Chie's grades dropped just because she was fulfilling one of the most basic needs of life. That wasn't fair to anyone involved; she should have been able to finish her test regardless of nature's callings. And if Justin had any say in the matter; she would. Whether she knew it or not.

Justin's eyes quickly darted up to the front of the room, eyeing Mr. Kondo as he continued to yawn and stretch. He was getting ready to collect Chie's paper, but he was still up front for the moment being. He had to act quick or else this whole plan would backfire like a badly placed landmine. Justin shot his eyes back to his own paper, quickly darting his hand up to where his name should be. But rather than signing with his signature, giving himself credit for the work he had accomplished, he had something different in mind. He signed Chie's name, as best as he could remember from her handwriting. It wasn't perfect, but good enough to fool someone at first glance; especially with sloppy handwriting like Chie's. It was a single graceful movement that had formed Chie's signature on the paper, a second graceful movement that had shot Justin's hand out and swapped his and Chie's papers before Mr. Kondo could come down the aisle and catch the boy mid-swap.

Justin couldn't help but sigh with relief as he fell back in his chair, heart beating a hundred miles as the teacher stood beside him, picking up the packet and examining it for a brief moment. Justin had been afraid he had caught on to the obvious differences in workmanship, but it seemed nothing of the sort had happened. Instead he simply walked off, leaving a very fearful, yet relieved Justin behind. And not just relieved for himself, but relieved for Chie. That was his work, and sure Chie wanted to do this stuff on her own, but… Sometimes you just need a little help from your friends to get by in the world. Justin smiled to himself before leaning forward, swiftly erasing Chie's name, careful to make sure all remnants of her name were missing from the blank slate. Despite having just given all his work to Chie, all his efforts over the day to his friend, he couldn't help but feel satisfied in his decision, happy to have been able to help Chie even in the most miniscule of tasks.

And then he looked at some of the answers she put down. Satisfied my ass; there was no way for Justin to fix all of this shit in ten minutes; less if you consider that Justin had been doing the swap trick a moment earlier. Justin groaned for a moment before slamming his forehead into the desk, clearly realizing just how much he had fucked himself over with his supposed act of generosity.

"My life is a goddamned mess."

* * *

October 20, 2011

* * *

"_So what did you get for Question 8?"_

Justin was on his way home from school, exams finally drawing to a close, talking on his cell-phone with Chie all the while. She had been asking non-stop about questions on the exam, much to Justin's amusement. She always had to second guess herself after the fact; all she was doing is tearing her nerves up that way though, you know? She just needed to have more confidence in herself. For such a strong-willed girl, Chie sure did have self-esteem issues. It was almost out of character for her in a way, but Justin didn't care. Everything there was about Chie just made him love her more.

"Hey, hey, relax. I told you before, I'm sure you did great. I'd bet my exam score you did wonderfully." Justin remarked semi-sarcastically as he continued to walk to his house, a grin on his face. He had just made it to his front porch and opened the door, the mail that had been delivered earlier getting caught in the wind as the breeze pushed against the door. Justin actually had to grab a couple of the letters before they could get lost in the bitter fall breeze. He chuckled a bit as he made his way inside, kicking the door closed behind him. "You just got to stop second-guessing yourself. Just say 'I did my best, and that's all anyone can expect of me."

"_It sounds so easy when you put it like that…" _Chie sighed almost restlessly. Seemed she didn't quite believe Chie. Justin just laughed a bit as he jumped on the couch, shuffling through his mail, throwing the bills over his shoulder into a sloppy mess on the floor. He had no intention of opening those within the immediate future, even if he sort of had to. Hell, he would have thrown all the mail on the floor if something hadn't caught his eye. A blank envelope, no return address, no send address. Justin eyed the envelope curiously, slowly opening it as he continued to chat with Chie.

"That's because it is that easy. Have a little self-confidence." Justin teased her a bit as he ripped open the letter, pulling out it's contents. What he saw he could barely believe he was looking at. Every letter had been cut out of a magazine in a clear attempt at trying to erase any signs of handwriting. The actual message itself was just as chilling, ever so specific and haunting. This was a very clearly planted letter with a clear intent of threat and/or frightening Justin. Too bad he didn't get scared easily. _don't rescue anymore._

"…Hey Chie, I'm gonna have to call you back."


	178. Chapter 177: October 21, 2011

CHAPTER 177

October 21, 2011

* * *

"'dont rescue anymore'… Is this a warning?"

The group had all gathered at the top of Yasogami's rooftop to discuss the rather disturbing leaflet Justin had received in the mail. No one had really known what the emergency meeting had been about, so it came as rather confusing surprise to nearly everyone there. To be quite fair, the only one who knew about the letter besides from Justin was Maya; after all, they did kind of live in the same house, and you don't just hide creepy letters like that. It was pretty damn clear what it was pertaining to anyway, and while it really didn't affect Justin anymore, it did kind of affect everyone who was part of the investigation team. Justin wished Maya would separate from the team with him, stay safe and all that shit, but alas, she refused to depart from the group. He couldn't force her to leave, but he could insure that she at least understood the dangers.

Of course, the letter itself might not have been so alarming or confusing as the fact that apparently Yu had received the exact same letter; every word cut out of a magazine to prevent handwriting from being traced back to the author. Would it be so hard to just TYPE the letter? Whatever, that was beside the point; the point was Yu and Justin had both received that letter, yet strangely enough no one else. Justin could see maybe one of them getting the letter, or all of them getting the letter; but only two? That was incredibly peculiar. Hell, of all people, why send it to Justin? He wasn't even part of the team anymore; he quit weeks ago… Unless of course whoever wrote this letter was unaware of that. It wasn't like him quitting had been all over the news or anything after all, but Justin had suspected that whoever put this slot had to know SOMETHING about the team's activities. Hell he knew where Justin and Yu LIVED. It just had to be the killer.

"No punctuation or capitalization… What a cliché." Chie remarked with semi sarcasm as she peered over Naoto's shoulder to examine the letter's contents. You'd think she'd take this a little more soberly given that whoever had delivered this had to deliver it himself. He was in a position to brutally murder Justin if he so chose; it was just a matter of whether he wanted to or not. To be fair though, it was pretty damn cliché. Justin could have swore he had seen that in a movie at some point; in a way it was kind of scary knowing this shit could happen in real life.

"Ain't this just a prank? The kinda stuff that only happens in the movies?" Kanji proposed after a moment, not buying for a moment that this was related to the case in any way shape or form. Justin couldn't understand how that was possible at all; there was NO way that a letter this specific could have nothing to do with the investigation. Besides, who would find this funny? Where was the appeal of dropping a letter like this into someone's mail slot? Where was the payout? Their reaction? You don't get to see that because they're in their house.

"No no, far too specific. Besides, I find it hard to believe that someone would pull the exact same prank on me and Yu." Justin dismissed Kanji's theory with a simple wave of his hand. In no way could this merely be dismissed as a joke; unless one of the investigation team had pulled it, and even then Justin had to ask why would any of them actually do that? I mean, yeah, Yosuke had that kind of sense of humor, but even he could surely see this was no laughing matter. After all, he had lost the most of anyone here when it came to the murder cases. Well except maybe Maya; but you get what I'm saying.

"Well unless whoever sent these letters has a grudge against you guys for being foreign." Yosuke pointed out. It was true that Yu wasn't really foreign in the same sense Justin was, but he did came from the city so it wouldn't be entirely out of the question. Justin and Yu passed a brief glance with each other before shrugging slightly. Seemed like a circumstantial connection between the two at best. It wouldn't really have anything to do with the murders, it just seemed to… well… be there. Yosuke did unintentionally bring up a good point though; could the killer have connection between the two of them? It would make sense why only those two had received the warning. But who was it that they cared about two specific people? And why? "Did you show this to your uncle?" Yosuke questioned after a moment, turning his attention to Yu. This was probably something to be concerned about, but there was the obvious connection to the Investigation Team; so maybe it was a good idea not to bring suspicion to themselves by bringing up the letter to him.

"No, and I have no intention to." Yu sighed slightly as he crossed his arms, tapping his foot with slight impatience. He would have thought getting a letter like this would be a good thing; that they could easily track it back to their suspect. But the fact of the matter was they had no signature, no handwriting, no return address; nothing short of a fingerprint check could track them back to their guy, and the only way that was happening was if they let Dojima know about the letter. I think you can guess why that was never going to happen. Yu didn't need his uncle thinking they were interfering with the investigation after all; he got worked up over that shit enough as it was.

"Senpai… Dojima-san is trustworthy, but it may be best to keep this to ourselves." Naoto remarked with agreement; though it did beg the question HOW did she know Dojima was trustworthy? Because she worked with him? That was hardly a good basis of trust, especially when the guy despised the girl for making him look like an idiot on a regular basis. It seemed her perspective of trust was misplaced.

"Naoto Shirogane, hiding evidence from law enforcement. Where was THIS Naoto for the last three months." Justin remarked with sarcastic annoyance, leaning back in his seat along the ventilation shaft up top so that he was in a position where his back was laid across the shaft. Like, he could sit up in a second's notice, but for the moment he was laying down, eyes towards the sky. Naoto passed him a slight glare of annoyance before turning her eyes back to Yu. She still didn't seem to get what Justin's problem was, specifically with her. She really should have all things considered. For an ace detective she sure could be clueless.

"He will ask why you received such a letter, and if he were to put you under surveillance, our hands would be tied. If this letter is real, what's most important isn't what it says… It's the fact that it was delivered to both the Tylor and Dojima residence, but more specifically the Dojima residence, and more specifically addressed directly to you. This means the culprit knows in great detail who has been interfering with his crimes… And of all of us, he chose to deliver his message to the Dojima residence, home of a police detective. I'd have this letter checked at a crime lab if I could… But even then, I doubt they'd find anything." Naoto rambled on and on about her theory. You know that she might have been going on a little too long when Kanji started to doze off mid-explanation. The guy fell asleep for everything mind you, but for him to fall asleep over Naoto talking, well that's when you have a problem. It also didn't help that whenever she talked it sounded like she was cross-checking her words with a thesaurus. Hell even Justin was a little caught off guard by all this, sitting back up from laying against the vent to stare at Naoto with a confused expression, eventually shooting his hands out so that it looked as if he were holding an invisible box between his hands.

"English motherfucker; do you speak it?" Justin remarked with annoyance. Naoto of course just glared right back, biting her bottom lip in anger as she tried to avoid giving him shit back. She suspected that this all went back to what happened with miss Jefferies, but she had already apologized for that. How much more could Justin possibly expect from her? She had done everything in her power to try and remedy the tension between the two, yet it was still there.

"The text is a warning, while the subtext expresses the culprit's confidence that we can't use it to pinpoint his identity." Naoto abridged her speech for the less than intelligent members of the group. And by that she meant Justin since anyone so dimwitted as to challenge her on fucking everything had to be a complete and utter imbecile. How hard was it for some people to just be quiet and listen?

"So it's useless to tell the police… In fact, that would make things worse." Chie sighed with disappointment. And here she thought they might have been onto something; in actuality they had no chance of catching the killer just by trying to trace this letter. He probably wore gloves while handling the envelope, and there was nothing that could actually trace handwriting or ink samples back to any one particular person. There just was no evidence here, class or otherwise.

"Cross your fingers it's just a prank…"

"I think the chances of that are slim… This message is too specific, too perfect to be a prank. But how could the killer know so much about us? Could he be watching us from somewhere…?" Yukiko counteracted Yosuke with a theory of her own. There was just no way that two pranksters delivered two identical unmarked letters to two members of the investigation team that perfectly coincided with their actions inside the television. Odds do not work that way.

"Teddie's been saying for a while that when we're over there, he senses someone watching us. Wait… Every time we went to the other side to rescue someone, did we end up on the Midnight Channel ourselves…?" Yosuke proposed, a sudden idea striking the back of his head like a rotten apple. It raised a valid point; Justin had suspected such was the case for a long time now, but to hear it vocalized only seemed to solidify that theory. And now, it did bring up the possibility of someone other than the killer knowing about their involvement in the investigation. But it would have to be somebody who was aware it wasn't really a show, right? It was all so confusing; the more Justin thought about it, the less he seemed to understand. Chie didn't seem to quite agree with the others though.

"I-I dunno… It seems like no one else knows what we're doing. I haven't heard any rumors about us at school. Even the people who I know check that channel haven't said anything… The only gossip I heard was about the people who disappeared." Chie countered. It would be so easy to just say they appeared to, what with the title cards they had seen entering the television and all, but it seemed evidence pointed against that. In a way, it was good since it narrowed down the person who had dropped the letter into the slot to the killer, but that was about it. It made a shit ton of other stuff in the television make little sense though. Like that studio applause shit. Justin had always figured that was someone on the real world side cheering.

"Let's put aside for now the matter of what that world truly is. There's too little data to go on. For now, we need to keep in mind that the culprit knows who we are… As long as we're all aware of that, it will be enough for now." Naoto interrupted the debate on the matter of the Midnight Channel's true nature. All of that was really irrelevant to the issue at hand and they really didn't know enough to make a logical conclusion. Justin thought they had enough information to at least start guessing, but he supposed it really didn't matter. They just needed the murderer behind bars; then everyone could go home and forget about the Midnight Channel. Even Teddie if he wanted to stay.

"Yeah… Guess there's no use thinking about stuff we can't understand. Freaking out over speculation is just what the killer wants us to do… Right?" Yosuke pondered out loud for a moment. All the killer wanted was for them to squirm, right? Justin wasn't quite sure himself. He supposed it was possible, but speculation would do nothing but lead to his arrest, right? He wasn't going to encourage that. It was just meant to be a deterrent against the team, to keep them from acting any further. In a way, Justin wished he never showed the rest of the group the letter, realizing the true intention behind it. If all the killer wanted was for them to freak out, then ignorance would truly help the investigation team on the matter. He'd just have to hope Yu would follow his example and withhold that information.

"Mind if I change the subject, then?" Chie spoke up after a moment. If they were going to stop speculating on the matter until new information surfaced, she might as well talk about something else she had secretly added to the agenda of discussion topics. "The Culture Festival's just around the corner. What's our class doing again?" She questioned after a moment. This was kind of a big thing, so she'd like to know in advance so she could make any preparations if she needed to. Justin was a little confused though.

"Culture Festival? What's that?" Justin questioned, jumping back up from laying down on the vent, leaning forward with curiosity. He immediately was barraged by looks of disgusted curiosity. How could anyone not know about the Culture Festival. They got cultural differences and shit (ironic for a culture festival) but there were just somethings they couldn't grasp anyone not knowing about. The culture festival was one of those things.

"You don't know what the Culture Festival is!?" Chie shouted with shock. Justin just shrugged a bit.

"We've done fundraiser events at the school where we've had booths set up. Is it anything like that?" Justin questioned. He had done shit to raise money for charity (and by that I mean the school wanted to stockpile money to make it rain on themselves) but he wasn't quite sure if this was the same thing. If he recalled correctly, him and Maya were working the same booth; bobbing for apples to be more precise. Maya had wanted to work the kissing booth, but I guess being poor made you a bad kisser or something. At least, it did according to all the other girls. Which is why Justin didn't hesitate to dump the left over water from the bucket of apples onto their heads at the end of the day. That's what they got for being prejudiced bullies and assholes. It was probably for the better in the long run anyway. Maya didn't know shit about kissing. Not that Justin would know, but I think it could be implied given she had never kissed a guy before. Unless she practiced with cherry stems or something in which case… what the fuck? Why? Why are you doing that Maya? Stop it. Seriously, it's weird. Yosuke sighed a bit.

"…Yes, exactly like that."

"Oh, I can work with that." Justin sighed a bit with relief. He wouldn't mind just sitting there handing out raffle tickets for a couple of hours. I mean it beat going to class after all; and who knows. Maybe he'd work the same booth with Chie. Could be fun making fun of everyone that walked by. Even if Chie would slap him upside the head every twelve seconds; you know she was getting some satisfaction out of the snide remarks. It was like a guilty pleasure watching Justin being an ass. Like watching a train wreck; it's horrible, but damn, explosions make pretty lights.

"I heard we'll be voting on it soon… But aren't they still gathering ideas?" Yukiko questioned after a moment. Seemed they hadn't actually decided what they were going to do, which somehow managed to strike Yosuke with a sudden burst of inspiration while only going to confuse Justin. How many ideas can you possibly have for booths. There's only so much innovation at a fair after all.

"Wait, collecting ideas? Isn't it just booths…?" Justin questioned with great curiosity. He did have to wonder if he was still missing the point or if he got the point completely and Yukiko was just wording it strangely. Maybe she meant ideas for who was going to operate the booth. Chie shook her head a bit side to side.

"Nah, they just kind of let us do whatever we want, so long as it doesn't cost too much." Chie remarked with slight excitement. She didn't want to do much work for this mind you, but she did want to have fun with it, so it was nice to have creative control over this. That was until Justin's eyes slowly started to widen. Chie had unintentionally struck inspiration into Justin's heart, and in Justin's case that was probably a very bad idea. "Uh oh… Justin… what are you thinking right now."

"Oh uh, nothing much…" Justin whistled a bit, eyes turning to the sky as he slowly got up from the vent, ready to walk casually away… then make a mad dash to get this all planned before Chie could stop him. He probably should have ran from the beginning given that Chie immediately grabbed him by the jacket collar to stop him from running. Justin couldn't help but smirk as she slowly dragged him back to her, mere inches away from her own face.

"I know you're planning something stupid, now spill it."

"I'm pursuing a solo career."


	179. Chapter 178: October 22, 2011

CHAPTER 178

October 22, 2011

* * *

"Well, as you all know, next week is the Culture Festival."

It was the middle of a school day, and it seemed the teachers were allowing time for each class to organize their portion of the Culture Festival. To be honest, Justin still didn't really get it, from the actual event to the way it was being organized. At least if he had heard right they can do whatever the fuck they felt like; and that was pretty damn cool. He had an idea in mind, though it might require a little bit of organization. Also, it was quite likely that the school administration had no intention of letting him near a microphone again, but hey; he'd figure something out. At the moment Hisako was addressing the class, trying to organize everyone and make something that resembled progress. Alas; this was Hisako we were talking about, and while he had all these fancy words during the election about change and a three step plan and all that bull, he didn't have the slightest clue how to do his job. It was almost laughable how poorly he was at handling organization and political affairs.

"And as you also know, we still haven't decided what our class is going to do for it." Hisako sighed. "You guys don't care, do you?" Hisako remarked with annoyance. He had been trying to organize this thing for ages, but it felt like their class just seemed to want to fight him every step of the way. Especially a certain blonde haired teenager at the back of the class.

"Took you long enough to figure it out" Justin remarked sarcastically, pushing his feet up onto his desk in a relaxed position. He figured since there were no teachers in the room to bitch him out it would be fine. Hisako'd probably be a kiss ass teacher's pet and shout at Justin about rules and keeping the school clean, but who really gave a fuck what he wanted? The guy was a complete moron who didn't have the slightest idea what he was doing, but had a large enough vocabulary to make everyone else believe he did. Teacher's included, and of course all you need to succeed in any school environment was a teacher in the palm of your hand. Hisako sincerely believed that was the case for him, but alas, Yukiko probably had more pull than him with any of the teachers. Unfortunately not always for the right reasons. I swear to god, one of the teachers actually tried hitting on Yukiko during class once. Yu wasn't too pleased to say the least. Yukiko was a little too oblivious to really pick up on that kind of stuff though.

"We're going to decide based on the suggestions we have so far. Please vote for one of them." Hisako's vice president, and not at all surprisingly girlfriend, spoke up. I think the very fact that his vice president was only there because they were dating. But then, Justin did the exact same thing, so he shouldn't be talking. The only real difference was that he legitimately believed that Chie was a good candidate, even if she didn't believe it herself. Hisako was just doing it because of their relationship. "Here they are… Break area… Video room… and Study room."

Justin couldn't help but gag at some of those choices. Who the fuck makes a study booth at a goddamn festival? If he was going to pay money to have fun he expected to actually have fun. Video room… maybe? What was it going to be like a movie theatre or something? Justin could get behind that, it was easy and so long as there was popcorn, it sounded like a blast. And break room was just fucking stupid. _I don't need a break from partying dammit!_ In fact, none of these choices were particularly appealing to anyone, as was evident by all the comments lingering in the air. It was easy for all of them, which seemed to be a desirable trait in their Culture Festival activities, but at the same point, no one thought any of these ideas were really fun or motivating or… Or fucking anything! At least, that was until Hisako's girlfriend noticed a fourth item on the list. "Oh, one more. Um… Group date café."

…

Yeah okay. What the fuck?

"Heeey, who put in a suggestion like that?" Yosuke began to chuckle to himself, a wide smirk on his face. I don't think he was really fooling anyone when he tried to play it off like he had no idea what was going on. But then perhaps that was never the intention in the first place. Still, he did intend to have some fun with this… "Was it you, Chie?" Yosuke teased slightly, shifting the blame to someone else even though he really wasn't fooling anyone. Besides Chie apparantely. It seemed the moment she had gotten blamed she felt this need to protect her dignity and reputation. Even though anyone who knew Chie knew she wasn't the kind of girl to do something like that.

"Yeah right! Why would I do such a thing!?" Chie shouted back with irritation. Sometimes she really did want to beat the living shit out of Yosuke. Partially for coming up with such a dumbass idea, partially because he tried to pin said dumbass idea on her. What would she get out of a suggestion like that? Shits and giggles? That was more of Yosuke and Justin's turf than anyone else. Yosuke just giggled at her embarrassment, her now beat red face; Justin was right about one thing. It WAS fun to embarrass Chie. Not that he hadn't known that before Justin had anyway, he was here six months before Justin had met the girl after all.

"What's… a group date café?" Yukiko questioned after a brief moment of silence between the five of them. It was a real good question in retrospect. What the fuck did that even mean? Was it like a blind date, only you do it with a couple of other people? Did they just hand out coffee while people had dates or something? Did Yosuke just draw words out of a hat and expect it to make sense? WHAT THE FUCK DID ANY OF THIS MEAN!?

"Who knows… but I doubt anyone will vote for it. Our class is actually a pretty serious bunch." Chie dismissed the question. The way she figured it, it wasn't really worth trying to figure it out. It would no doubt just be a huge headache trying to mimic Yosuke's thought process. Besides, she was concerned she'd discover things no one should have to discover if she delved too deep in to Yosuke's mind. Justin couldn't help but smirk at that serious comment though. They were serious in the regard that no one could take a damn joke. This was a no fun allowed zone after all. But they weren't serious about anything else, grades, attitude, anything. And they still had nothing on whatever class Naoto got put in. Justin hadn't even seen the class, but he thought it was pretty safe to assume that Naoto had killed any joy that may have existed in her classroom.

"Yeah, it's just a joke idea. You gotta have one weird one mixed in, y'know?" Yosuke shrugged a bit, still trying to play off his stupid idea. Justin got the feeling he really did want a group date café, but the moment everyone pointed out how stupid it was he decided to pretend it was a joke. After all, this WAS Yosuke they were talking about; this was the guy who had to sexualize everything and perv it up around every girl ever. He probably thought this was his chance to get lucky or something. Chie groaned with annoyance and disgust. This wasn't just 'that weird idea,' this was genuinely creepy in so many ways. It wasn't even WEIRD, it just didn't make sense. It probably didn't even exist!

"No, Yosuke, a weird idea would have been a ball pit filled with snakes. This is just fucking stupid." Justin groaned with annoyance, shaking his head before turning his attention over to his own desk. While everyone had began bickering, some voting slips had been passed out with a variety of options. All of them were pretty terrible, which made Justin wish there was an option for other; but what the hell ever. He just marked video room and got it over with before handing his slip back in. It took a couple minutes for everyone to vote, even longer for all the slips to be gathered. But it happened eventually, and with that it was time to decide what they were going to do. Five bucks said it was terrible in every way possible.

"Alright, time to count the votes. Uhh, the first vote is… group date café." Hisako blinked a couple times as he read off the slip in front of him, not sure he had read that right at first. That couldn't possibly be right, could it? I mean who would possibly vote for THAT. Hell even Yosuke didn't expect that given he immediately began to choke on his saliva as if trying to do a spit-take but not having the actual beverage to do it with.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Who the hell voted for that!" Justin remarked with annoyance. I mean, what the hell, why would that sound appealing to anyone? It's kind of a shame that people were really this stupid that they would actually want to do this. It's probably a good thing Justin hadn't been looking towards Yukiko as he said that, because her face had turned bright red with a combination of shame and embarrassment. She was just curious what it was is all; she didn't mean anything bad by it. Besides, it was just ONE vote; surely it wouldn't be a problem.

"Second vote… group date café. H-Huh? Seriously? Third vote… video room. Fourth vote… group date café. Group date café, group date café, study room, group date café…" Vote after vote came in, and each was more stupid than the last. What in god's name was going through people's heads when they thought this would be a good idea. Why because they wanted to know what it was? New flash! Just fucking ask! Slowly the jaws of the investigation team dropped, pure shock hitting them in waves. Unless you were Yukiko, in which case you were secretly thrilled to finally discover the answer to the mystery.

"Wha—1st place!? What are we gonna do!?" Yosuke shouted in sudden terror. Well they could at least rule out the possibility of Yosuke doing this to purposely pick up chicks based on his reaction, but that still didn't change the fact that this was all his fault. Glares from the investigation team slowly shifted to Yosuke. Again, unless you were Yukiko, who was still very curious as to what a group date café was. Yosuke had really screwed the pooch on this one; because of his little joke, now all of them were going to have to do something they wanted no part in. I mean, obviously SOMEONE had to work this… group date angle; and let me tell you something, if they even tried to get Justin or Chie in on this punches would be thrown, and blood would be shed across the floor.

"Don't ask me! This is your fault!" Chie shouted with anger, throwing her arms up in a fit of anger. Who did Yosuke think he was pulling this kind of shit; trying to pull a joke that could so easily backfire. If it hadn't been for the fact that he was so flabbergasted himself, Chie would almost believe he had been hoping for it to backfire. But he wasn't, and this was just as bad news for him as it was for them. That didn't make it okay mind you, it was still his fault, but they could at least leave Yosuke being a pervert out of it for the moment being. "I do wonder, though. Do all those people who voted for it realize they have to run it themselves…?" Chie suddenly spoke up, still very angry from the sounds of her voice. She wasn't sure what any of this was, but if it was what she thought it was, she was going to have no part in this. Hell, there was no way this could even get approved by the school in the first place! Though to be fair, Justin managed to get his idea to be considered by the faculty. He'd be surprised if it actually went through, but hey, worth a shot. He was practically hoping for it now anyway; at least then he'd get out of this group date bullshit.

"I've never been on a group date before, so I was a little curious…" Yukiko timidly spoke up after a moment, almost embarrassed to admit that she was a-okay with this group date business, if not actually looking forward to it. It was such a foreign and exotic idea to her that she couldn't help but be excited to be a part of it. Why this of all things though, Justin could not understand. Besides, she did realize that there was a chance they were going to pair people up in the vein of a blind date, right? She wasn't going to get paired up with Yu like she probably imagined she would be, just like Justin wouldn't with Chie. But then, Justin was really praying on his other idea going through in the first place so he wouldn't have to show up to their homeroom's booth. And if the rest of the group was wise, they'd join him. Regardless of the intelligence behind these ideas however, everyone was pretty damn surprised that of all people, Yukiko had been one of the people to vote for this. Justin outright slapped himself in the forehead with embarrassment and annoyance.

"What the-You voted for it!?" Chie shouted flabbergasted by all of this. First of all, Yukiko of all people; didn't she, like, not grasp the concept of dating in the first place? How exactly was she going to handle doing that for eight hours, and a group date none the less. Justin supposed she could just sit there really; people still hadn't really caught in that Yukiko was off the market, and she still seemed pretty popular in THAT regard. Which just sickened Justin a bit to see someone get so much of that kind of attention, especially when it was probably all because of her appearances. Barely anyone even talked to her other than a failed attempt at going out with her. One of these days Yu was gonna have to put a stop to all of that. Yukiko shrugged a bit.

"Yeah… I thought it would be sad if no one voted for it." Yukiko tried to justify her decision of voting for it. It was a complete fabrication and they all knew it, but even then her excuse seemed worse than the actual reason. It was just a joke entry, it wasn't sad at all if no one voted for it. It wouldn't be sad if it WASN'T a joke entry either. Justin couldn't help but rub at his temples a bit with annoyance, groaning under his breath as he tried to purge his mind of the stupidity of this all. Why couldn't they just do bobbing for apples or something? Would that be so much to ask that they do something sane?

"Goddammit Yukiko; you know you could have just gone on a group date with me and Chie if you wanted to try it out so bad." Justin remarked with annoyance, shaking his head a bit. He wasn't entirely sure what entailed a group date, and quite frankly Justin doubted Chie would be okay with that kind of thing, but hey, it was better than this. Yukiko seemed fascinated by the offer if not a little confused. Yu and Chie, however, were pretty much mortified. They never signed up for this. Where was THEIR say on the matter.

"But… wouldn't that be just like hanging out at Junes?" Yukiko questioned after a moment. She was fascinated by the idea all the same, but she would acknowledge that a group date with those two didn't actually make too much sense. What she would not acknowledge, or perhaps even realize, was it made more sense than this.

"That's essentially what a group date is. It's not very exciting." Justin groaned a bit, resting his face between a cushion he had made out of his arms, voice muffled by his jacket sleeves and the wooden desk beneath him. Yukiko seemed pretty disappointed in all honesty, though Chie only seemed confused. As far as she knew, Justin had never dated prior to meeting Chie; at least, that's what he had said. Maya confirmed it for her once.

"Wait… how do you know what a group date is like?" Chie questioned after a moment. How would Justin even know what one of those was like? He barely knew what a date was like, and even then Chie was being very lenient. Going out to eat ramen wasn't exactly a date as far as she was concerned. The Summer Festival was probably the closest thing they had to an actual date. Not that she was complaining, she was just saying Justin was not an expert on this stuff. Justin shrugged after a moment.

"I'm actually a pimp and I have several hos that have to do that as part of the job. Come on Chie, do you think I really know?" Justin remarked sarcastically before slamming his head into his desk. Chie just rolled her head and sighed. She should have expected that kind of answer from Justin in retrospect. Well that was one kinda solved mystery; now there was just one question left on the matter of the group date café.

"How the heck's this gonna turn out…?"

"I imagine with lots of STD's."


	180. Chapter 179: October 23, 2011

CHAPTER 179

October 23, 2011

* * *

_Cease to resist, giving my goodbye_

_Drive my car into the ocean_

_You'll think I'm dead, but I sail away_

_On a wave of mutilation_

Justin was on his way to school, humming along to the buzzing of music in his ears, the crashing thunder of guitar bursting forth from his earbuds. Chie had a dentist appointment today, so she hadn't joined Justin on the way to school, and Yukiko had opted to walk to school with Yu today. Justin wasn't too upset, truth be told, even if it seemed you would never catch him and Yukiko in a room alone. He was just happy to see Yu actually step up to the plate for once. He was much to timid when it came to this dating stuff. But then, so was Yukiko. You'd think it was a good thing that they had stuff in common, even silly things like that, but in truth, it really just counteracted everything, creating this artificial distance between the two. Like they were almost afraid of each other, even if they liked one another. One of these days it'd just click, Justin supposed. He couldn't imagine those two really drifting apart, even if they weren't really snapped into place quite yet. It was all just a matter of arranging the pieces of the puzzle where they needed to be.

Yukiko and Yu's love life aside however, that left Justin alone as he made his way to school, humming along to his music. In a way, it was nice just walking by himself. Justin always did enjoy solitude, even if he probably enjoyed being with Chie more. There was just something so alluring about everyone around you seeming to just disappear; to be alone. To no longer have to strive to be one of the group because there was no group to be part of. It could be a shitty sensation in large doses, but in hours or days at a time, it was pretty relaxing. Not that Justin could ever just layback for once without some kind of fucked up shit happening to him. Hell, all this time he hadn't even known dark forces had been reenacting themselves in front of his own eyes. And when they weren't, his shadow tried to haunt his every dream. No, Justin could never just relax for once in his life; and today was no exception to that rule.

"Justin Tylor, I presume." Justin stopped dead in his tracks for a moment, a croaky voice calling out to him ever so softly yet forcefully. He was a bit confused; he didn't recognize that voice, yet the person calling out to him clearly knew who he was. So unless this was a secret admirer or something, which Justin sure as hell hoped not for numerous reasons, he was going to assume the person in question's knowledge of Justin was not a good sign. Hell, with the murderer clearly knowing where Yu and Justin lived, Justin was pretty on edge when it came to this stuff recently. If you had no reason to know Justin, then there was a good chance he was highly suspicious of you these days. Justin slowly turned about with confusion and caution, though glaring at the same time at the man who had called out to him. He was wearing all black and had grey hair, his eyes covered by sunglasses despite the fact that it was cloudy out today. Hell, it wouldn't surprise Justin if it rained with how dark the clouds in the sky were. Point being, the guy was either a complete fucktard, or he was wearing those shades for a reason.

"That's my name alright, and dare I ask who YOU are?" Justin remarked with slight annoyance. He didn't know what this man's intentions were just yet, but you know how you get that deep gut feeling when something is really wrong? Yeah that was kind of what was going on here. The guy just reeked of suspiciousness, dressed all cloak and dagger and hiding in the corner. It was clear he didn't want to be seen by anyone other than the teenager, which only set Justin on edge. He refused to approach the man; if he was going to do something, he'd better have the balls to do it in broad daylight. Because let me assure you, Justin wasn't going to just go waltzing into the dark to be shanked to death by a man who for all he knew could be their killer. It seemed the suited man had been able to pick up on Justin's reluctance too given that he slowly crept out of the shadow's, eyes appraising the boy as he walked around him. It was pretty damn creepy, no denying that. If Justin wasn't so confused and yet so intrigued by the strange man in front of him, he definitely would have punched the guy out right now.

"Who I am isn't important; it's who you are." The gentlemen remarked after a moment, deflecting the question. Okay, Justin was sincerely considering knocking this fucker's teeth in right about now. You don't just creep up on a teenager to be vague and mysterious. In fact, Justin was entirely positive that was illegal. What was the legal name for that crime…? Being a pedophile right? Whatever the crime was, it was clear that what he was here for wasn't particularly something you'd want the public to know about. Which meant he shouldn't have picked a loud mouth like Justin to be the target of whatever it is he was doing. All the same, Justin wasn't amused, not in the slightest. He quickly yanked the earbuds out of his eardrums sensing this could potentially require a little more attention than he had originally hoped to give, crossing his arms after he slipped the device back into his back pocket.

"It'll be awfully important if you don't want me to call the cops on your ass. Now what the fuck do you want?" Justin remarked with annoyance. He got a feeling he wasn't going to get a name out of this guy, but at the very least he was going to find out what his intentions were. And if there was going to be a problem, oh boy was he ready to react. The thing to consider when screwing with Justin is that he will counteract anything you try to do. He was stubborn like that; but even though it made him very unlikeable to a large majority of people, it did make him safe. That is why he did it in the first place after all. The mysterious gentlemen continued to examine the boy, circling around him before quickly stepping in front of Justin, practically jumping in his face.

"Do you know about luminol reactions?" The stranger questioned frantically in such a manner as if her were posing a challenge to Justin. Justin just squinted his eye a bit, tilting his head to the side and raising his eyebrow. In a matter of seconds a man Justin had considered potentially being dangerous turned into a lunatic. Not to imply lunatics couldn't be dangerous, but that was really starting to lean more towards the strange side of things. And besides, a man so mentally unstable surely would be easy to either A, out smart, or B, kick in the groin and run away. Still, even a man who simply failed to grasp reality was a less than desirable person to be around, and were it up to Justin, he'd be out of here already. But alas, you don't just walk away from a crazy person. You never know what sharp object they've been hiding up their ass for just such an occasion as gutting you like a fish.

"What?" Justin questioned with great exasperation. This easily had to be the strangest encounters he had ever had, and mind you, this is coming from a guy who lived in a bad neighborhood. Well, not so much as lived in a bad neighborhood as hung out at one. After all, his father WAS an FBI agent, and everyone knew it. You'd have to be stupid to try and pull any criminal activities in that neck of the neighborhood. No sir, it wasn't Justin who had found himself in less than desirable living conditions: It was Maya who lived in a bad neighborhood, and the alleyway they hung out at wasn't that far off from her home. You'd be surprised how many nut jobs they ran into on a daily basis; mostly stoners and coke addicts. The coke addicts usually provided quite a bit of entertainment though, so Justin wasn't really complaining about that. Nothing funnier than watching a guy lose his shit while tripping balls then lose his shit trying to get more cocaine to lose his shit and trip balls. It was a never ending cycle of losing one's shit.

Of course, that was only looking on the bright side of things. As I said, Maya lived in a bad neighborhood; such was what happened when you couldn't afford to live a good life. They used to live in a nice house, or so Justin had been told, but then Maya's father went comatose and shit all went downhill from there. Well needless to say, living in what was essentially the ghetto was pretty much asking for trouble, and sure enough, Maya's house had been burglarized at one point. It was truly disgusting that someone would steal from the poor. Wasn't it that you were supposed to steal from the people who didn't need it? I guess there just wasn't any honor amongst thieves anymore. Well anyway, they ended up losing a lot of money as a result, not to mention a lot of memorabilia; mostly of Maya's father. She didn't take it too well, a lot worse than the rest of her family anyway. She was really attached to her father, even the smallest thing that reminded her of him was oh so important to her. And yet, after that burglary, she only had one thing left to remind her of him. Justin didn't know what, but he knew it was important to her. Perhaps that's why she kept it such a secret.

But that's all a story for another time. As painful as it was to really think about what a shitty life Maya had to live, it wasn't important when some psychopath was barking questions at Justin like some sort of conspiracy theorist. In a way, Justin kind of wished Maya was here. She was better at dealing with crazy people, partially because she had to live in an area practically full of them for years, partially because she was a bit crazy herself. Not crazy in the writing prophecies on the wall way, I mean; I just mean that she was into all those crazy conspiracy theories. She totally believed crop circles and the Lockness Monster and all of that stuff. Hell, Justin was almost entirely convinced she believed in the illuminati. Justin watched with great confusion, and also just a hint of anger and fear, as the stranger only seemed to get closer in his attempts at interrogating the boy.

"What part of the body do you use to test DNA? What's the best way to obtain someone's email address? What ten things can you learn from footprints?" Question after question began to barrage Justin. He just wanted to know why the hell this person even needed to know this shit; why he was asking some random kid about all of this. Justin wouldn't be surprised if this was just the CIA's way of seeing if Justin knew too much. Of course, that never happened, and it would be stupid to ever assume that was actually what was going on. It would just be mildly amusing given the circumstances. Well, until they shot him in the face anyway. That would be less funny. As it stood however, nothing about this was funny; just headache inducing. I mean, who just comes up to a kid and asks these kinds of questions? If Justin was smart he would have walked away a while ago, but goddamn, now he was curious if this guy was going somewhere with this or if he was just crazy.

"Jesus fuck, man! One question at a time!" Justin shouted with annoyance before rubbing his forehead, trying to ease the tension in his head right now. The crazy older gentlemen seemed mildly annoyed by the outburst, or perhaps more so his refusal to answer. Not that Justin was trying to sidestep the question, even though he really should have given this was some weird guy who came out of nowhere to ask questions that sounded like shit out of a spy movie, he was just trying to figure out what the hell this guy was saying without being bombarded with a hundred more questions than the one initially asked. "What was the first question again? Something about DNA, right? You don't take it out of any part; it's in your body fluids, primarily blood." Justin sighed after a moment. Whoever said listening to his father go on and on about forensics was a bad idea? Well, if all it was for was answering questions for strange conspiracy theorists that come out of nowhere, then yes; yes it was a bad idea. All the same, the strange man seemed pleased by Justin's response, as if he had practically solved the riddle of the sphinx. Perhaps the lunatic hadn't quite realized that DNA was basic forensics, if not basic biology. Hell, Justin bet even Chie knew this shit, and that's coming from a girl who couldn't memorize the material they went over in school to save her life.

"I see, I see. It seems your family name proceeds you. You are quite an interesting young man." The man remarked, eyes darting up and down Justin's entire body as if to examine him based on physical appearances alone. Which really wasn't helping Justin's prior pedophile theory. But that wasn't important right now. What was important was that a strange man had just claimed to know about the boy's family; and given the questions, he was going to guess he knew his father was an FBI agent. But how would someone in Inaba know that? And more importantly, what did it have to do with Justin.

"My family name? Hold on, what the fuck are you talking about. How the hell do you know anything about that!" Justin shouted with annoyance, getting in the gentleman's face. If he didn't like the answer he got, he was going to smash this fucker's teeth in, that was for sure. There were very few rules when interacting with Justin: Don't be an idiot, don't be a dick, and most importantly, and most recently broken by this stranger, don't talk about Justin's father. It was a sure fire way of walking out with one of your nuts missing. The gentleman wasn't fazed by Justin's threat though, the menacing look in Justin's eyes daring him to say something Justin didn't want to hear, just to give him an excuse. Business was business after all, and a good businessman knows when there's a deal in the making. A good salesman doesn't walk away with no for an answer.

"I know you. And I know you know a certain boy detective." The stranger paused for a moment before shoving his hand into his pocket, shuffling around for something in his pocket. At first Justin was ready to pounce the mother fucker, expecting this to be an attempt at offing Justin. I mean why else would it matter if his father was a cop? Why else would he be shifting his hand into his pocket like that? Why, none other than to give him a letter of course. Justin was needless to say very confused; though he would be lying if he said he didn't think the letter was connected to the ones him and Yu had received at first. Of course, not every unmarked envelope was involved in a crime. Well this one was, but not the same crime Justin had been thinking of and most certainly not one he needed to be watching his back for. Hell he wasn't even involved; he was just a person of reputable, trustworthy character. At least in the department of getting things done. All he had to do was deliver a letter; whether he wanted to join the game of cat and mouse or not was entirely up to his own freewill. "Deliver this to him. He will understand."

"You can't be serious. And you'll answer my fucking question if you want to keep your teeth in one place!" Justin shouted back still irritated. He wanted to know how this fucker knew about his family, and he wanted to know right now, or so help him god when someone called the police for witness protection, Justin wasn't going to be the one getting protected from this creep, but rather the other way around. The stranger smiled a sly grin for a moment before turning around, continuing to ignore Justin's temper tantrum. He wouldn't dare act now; not when his curiosity had been peaked by the article in his hand; and the stranger was well aware of that.

"All in due time. Good day, then." The stranger remarked, continuing to keep a brisk pace as he steadily made his way past the furious temper and on his way. The game was now in motion, now it was his opponents turn to roll the dice. Justin stared at the stranger as he walked away, heart beating quickly with a combination of anger and fear. He didn't know why this bastard knew his family… but it couldn't have been good. His eyes slowly shifted to the envelope, eyes shaking as he stared at the paper slip. Whatever this was, it seemed Naoto had been involved in some way. And in a way, that pissed Justin off. He glared slightly as his eyes rose back to where the stranger had stood but a moment earlier.

"Whoever you are… whatever you know… I will find you… and I will have the truth."

* * *

**MUSIC**

**Wave of Mutilation - The Pixies**


	181. Chapter 180: October 24, 2011

CHAPTER 180

October 24, 2011

* * *

"You! You got some fuckin' explaining to do!"

So Justin finally found Naoto, an entire day later if he may add, much to his annoyance. He was supposed to deliver this letter to her, but he wasn't blind. This letter had suspicious written all over it. But then, Justin quite frankly did not care what happened to Naoto in concerns to her personal life. Perhaps he should have given more of a damn given all the shit he had tried to cause with her, the fact that he had almost burned her house to the ground, but even then he just didn't care about her. Dick move? Kinda. But then Justin was always a dick. But that was beside the point; Justin was livid with the detective right now, not because she had clearly found a way to get involved with some unsavory characters, but rather because she had done SOMETHING to get him dragged into it. That stranger clearly knew about Justin's father, and he also knew about Naoto. Justin had pondered the matter for a great while as to where this stranger could possibly have gotten that information. And then it occurred to him; who else did he know this stranger knew who was in possession of that information. Why none other than Shirogane of course; and given that they were exchanging letters, they seemed to be in pretty good cahoots here. Naoto had fucked him and his family over one too many times as it was; he wasn't going to let her just sell his private information to the goddamn black market.

Naoto jumped slightly as the voice of Justin burst through the hallway behind her. Even a detective like her couldn't be aware of everything all the time, and this was one of the exceptions in which even her keen deductive skills could not have alerted her to Justin's presence. She sighed with slight relief once she realized it was Justin, heart beating way too fast from having the living shit scared out of her before she turned around. She was needless to say not very pleased by Justin's interruption, for a number of reasons really. The first was, of course, he was incredibly pissed off, which was never a good sign. Second was she didn't like being snuck up on like that. And third? Well it was Justin. She didn't want to be THAT person, but let's be fair; she had never had a single positive encounter with Justin. Perhaps that was her own fault for engaging him in the first place. If she knew he got that angry over something so ridiculous, if he could hold a grudge this long, she would have just went about her investigation through other means. But alas, she had to push her luck, and as a result, the tension between them seemed as if it would never end. God knows she had tried enough to get Justin to chill the fuck out; but by this point, she had given up all hope of being on good terms with the man.

"I beg your pardon?" Naoto questioned with curiosity. She was of course clueless of what it was Justin wanted. Even though Justin suspected the opposite to be true, she had never met the man in question; hell she didn't even know said man existed. As far as she knew Justin was just on another one of his pissy fits, and she just so happened by the subject of his anger again. Why was it that no matter what she did somehow she managed to tick Justin off. Damned if you do, damned if you don't she supposed. Justin puffed hot air out of his nose before quickly slipping his hand into his pocket and ripping out the envelope he had been handed the day prior. In a way he was relieved to find Naoto if only to get this thing out of his pocket; but that doesn't change the fact he was still furious about all of this. He had enough shit going on in his life without Naoto causing more trouble for him.

"You want to explain why you're little friend knows about my family!?" Justin shouted with anger before tossing the envelope off to Naoto, pretty forcefully too given she had to recoil slightly from Justin shoving the slip of paper into her arms. Damn near knocked her hat off actually, though that might have to do with her hat being just a little too big for her head than Justin being forceful. Still, she wasn't one for being pushed around, especially for something she was completely clueless about, and especially something she had nothing to do with. Hell she didn't know what this envelope was for and she certainly had no idea what Justin was rambling on about in regards to his family or a friend of Naoto's. Truth be told she didn't have much in the ways of real friends, only work acquaintances. Just the mere notion of calling whoever it was Justin was referring to as her friend was insulting in and of itself.

"I'm afraid I don't have the slightest clue who or what you're referring to." Naoto countered with annoyance before turning her attention to envelope, eyeing it for a brief moment before sliding her finger under the slit to open the paper packaging up. Justin grunted with annoyance, growling under his breath at Naoto as she precariously opened the envelope. He wasn't in the mood for her games; he just wanted to know who it was that had known about his family, and why. And more importantly, was this going to be a problem? Justin was going to speak up again, continuing to barrage her with questions about the man's identity when Naoto's expression soon shifted to one of great shock and surprise. This was not what she had expected to receive in the envelope, and especially not from Justin of all people. "Uh… Pardon me, but… Who gave this to you?"

"You tell me." Justin rebutted again. By this point Naoto was starting to lose her patience. If Justin had any resemblance of a brain, clearly he would have been able to tell Naoto had NO idea who it was Justin had received this letter from. Constantly implying she was in on whatever it was this mystery man had done to piss Justin off so much was probably one of the most illogical deductions she had ever heard. But then, Justin thought everything that came out of Naoto's mouth was the most illogical deduction HE had ever heard, so it seemed it was all a matter of perspective. In the end it was irrelevant anyway. This man clearly knew stuff he shouldn't have, and it was all connected to Naoto in some way or another, though as to what Naoto had yet to acknowledge. It was clear she knew what this was about in some regard, however.

"I told you prior I don't know whom you're talking about. I don't know who this man is or what he did to irritate you as much as he has, but I suspect he's just as much my problem as he is yours. Now I'll ask you again, what was this person like?" Naoto questioned a second time, irritation in her voice. She was the victim in all of this after all, she didn't like being treated like the culprit as well. Well, now it seemed she had gotten a taste of her own medicine, hadn't she? All the same Justin simply glared at her for a while, and Naoto glared right back. It was a moment before he sighed, releasing the tension in his brow. He didn't know what was going on, but Naoto was being pretty damn vocal about this not being her responsibility; and that could mean one of several things. It could indicate that Justin had caught her red handed and she was trying to shift responsibility in a last ditch attempt at getting out of there in one piece; but alas, she wasn't really PANICKING as she objected to Justin's accusations. She just sounded irate, as if she felt she had repeated herself one too many times, as if she were angered to be accused. And Justin could understand that all too well. As much as it pained Justin to admit, it seemed she very well might have had nothing to do with this after all. But that did mean he still needed to figure out where this guy got this information, and what exactly he planned to use it for. After all, a man as cloak and dagger as that surely had SOMETHING sinister up his sleeve. And Justin suspected that much Naoto may have had an idea.

"Old guy, dressed in all black and sunglasses. He seemed to know a lot about us; more specifically my family…" Justin crossed his arms and leaned back against a wall, sighing slightly. "You really don't know who this guy is?" He questioned after a brief moment of silence, save the sound of Naoto's shoes tapping against the hallway floor as she paced about trying to ponder the matter. She shook her head a bit, eyes still examining the letter, searching for anything that could give them an indication of their mysterious stranger's true identity. Alas, it seemed they were going to have to stick with 'weird guy who likes shadows,' or 'pedophile man.' There was just nothing there to follow. Literally, the card was completely blank. What was the point of all of this? Naoto couldn't say for certain, but she got a feeling this was her culprit mocking her.

"Hmm… I suspect I might, though not in the manner you believe me to. If you could indulge me a moment of your time…" Naoto requested, as if afraid to go on with someone like Justin. After all, surely Justin had no intention of involving himself in these matters. Especially not matters that were in fact rather personal to Naoto. It concerned her slightly that Justin might have also been at risk of suffering the same fate her estate had, though she'd be lying if she said she wasn't sure he'd really be at risk. Plus, she'd be more concerned about Maya. God knows Naoto had done enough to hurt the poor girl, and while she still had some pretty deep suspicions about Maya's involvement in the Burned Man case, she supposed that was irrelevant to the fact that Naoto had damaged her in a way that could not be reversed. Even a criminal didn't deserve that kind of fate.

"Whoever this fucker is, he knows way more than he should about my father. I don't think I really have a choice to ignore this." Justin remarked with irritation; not necessarily towards Naoto, but rather the man he suspected had less than good intent for that kind of information. What could someone use knowing Justin's dad was in the FBI? He wasn't quite sure himself, but he was sure there were plenty of people out there who hated the FBI enough that that kind of information leaking out could be dangerous, though to what extent when they were in Japan and thus the FBI had no jurisdiction here, Justin couldn't say for sure. Regardless, he couldn't risk it; he needed to put a stop to this before it got out of hand. Naoto couldn't help but smile for a moment. Justin wasn't doing this to help her of course, but it was nice to have backup on this; even if it was from a complete psychopath.

"Very well… Where to begin then… Well, a couple of days ago, someone broke into the Shirogane estate. My room was targeted, and several items pertaining to me were stolen from both my and Grampa's inventory. I don't know about those, but my belongings aren't of any particular value, so I simply filed it as a police report and left it at that. But this card… I suspect it may have to do with the crime that occurred at my residence." Naoto remarked, raising the envelope up so that Justin could see it; as if he hadn't been carrying it around all day today and yesterday. Still, Justin did stare a bit at the stiff piece of paper she had been handed. He was curious what it was for. From the sounds of it now, the man who had approached Justin may have been their thief. That only went to concern Justin though. He didn't need a criminal in possession of his family's history. More importantly however, there was the possibility that the criminal knew a little more than just his father. Justin couldn't risk this fucker trying to start shit with him or his sister. The quicker he got thrown behind bars, the better.

"What's it say?" Justin questioned after a moment, making a slight gesture with his head towards the card. Naoto just smiled, almost mildly amused by the circumstances. This was hardly evidence of any kind; if anything it was all a sick joke mocking the detective, but despite these being some pretty severe circumstances, there was just something so amusing about all of this.

"That's just it." Naoto remarked before slowly spinning the card around between her index and middle finger, showing off the other side of the slip she had received from Justin but a moment earlier. "Nothing. As you can see, nothing is written on it. It's just a plain white card. But it does feel a bit stiff, given its thinness… Without any indication of its contents, however, I have no idea who sent it." Naoto shook her head with slight disappointment. It was funny that the card was completely blank, if only because it almost seemed like a challenge had been issued to her. It wasn't really a game when a crime had been committed, but even Naoto would admit she enjoyed being challenged from time to time, even in regards to investigations.

"So either our culprit is out of his mind or he's illiterate. Either way, that's one hell of a message. Or lack there of." Justin remarked, raising his eyebrow with curiosity at the card. Who just sent someone a blank card like that? There had to be more to it; no one would have gone through all the trouble of getting this delivered unless there was a purpose. Unless the purpose was just to set Justin on guard; but even then what would that have to do with Naoto? Why even have the card delivered in the first place? He could have left it at knowing Justin's father if it was just about Justin and his family. But it was pretty obvious that wasn't the case. The card had to be significant in some regard, but what? Was something pressed between the layers of paper or something? How would that even work. Whatever it was, Naoto seemed to be amused anyway, giggling slightly to herself before slipping the letter back into the envelope.

"One would expect there to be more." Naoto remarked with intrigue, though also child-like glee. Why she was finding this so amusing, Justin couldn't tell. Nor could he tell whether he should be pleased she wasn't being such a hardass for once or pissed that she was taking something so personal to him like a joke. This wasn't funny to him; but then, nothing about Naoto was funny, so what did he expect. He'd just have to put up with her amusement in his misfortune for the time being. He'd be sure to give her plenty of shit for it once this all got sorted out. Naoto smiled before slipping the card back into the envelope. "I'm going to see what else I can decipher from this."

"And what do we do until then?" Justin questioned with slight annoyance. He wasn't going to just sit back while Naoto fucked around with that card. This was something that could be very dangerous in the wrong hands, and they couldn't even tell if their culprit was of a sane mind set. That's probably what concerned Justin the most. This man could be a totally nutso. For all Justin knew, this fucker could be trying to break into his house to shank him right now… And of course Justin just realized he still kept the keys under his doormat for Maya; because god forbid she just carry them around with her. To be fair, she lost almost everything in her pockets though, so he could kind of understand the reluctance to carry something so valuable around in a baggy hoodie jacket. That wasn't the point though; the point was this guy could end the both of them if he wanted to. It was just a matter of seeing how long he was going to play this game… and if the game was rigged from the start.

"For the moment all you need to do is be vigilant; try to remember anything you can about the culprit that could help us identify him." Naoto ordered before slipping the envelope into her jacket pocket and turning about to strut away. She needed to get on this right away now knowing that it wasn't just her that was at risk anymore. She didn't see the problem with having a public reputation as law enforcement; after all, that's the kind of life she lived for half her life. But if Justin didn't want to lead that lifestyle, so be it. She'd do whatever she could in her power to prevent that information from leaking any further than it had. "Oh and senpai; one last thing?"

"Yeah?"

"Make sure to lock your windows."


	182. Chapter 181: October 25, 2011

CHAPTER 181

October 25, 2011

* * *

"Argh… The awful moment of truth…"

Much to the dismay of damn near everyone at school, the exams had finally been graded. You could sense the pure dread flowing through the crowd slowly gathering around the board up front. There were the smart kids that were oh so proud already with their scores without even knowing what it was, but as far as the Investigation Team went, that descriptor only really went to Yukiko and PERHAPS Naoto. Depends if her knowledge expanded past the barriers of deductive reasoning or not. It was hard to tell since she wasn't really there to get all excited over her grades. She hadn't been too far away, mind you, but no one bothered to just turn around and notice her shuffling through the contents of her locker. That was because they fell into the second category of people gathering around the results of the exam. The people who couldn't bare to look but forced themselves to anyway knowing their parents were going to want to know. Or in Justin's case because he knew Chie had bombed her exam; which he would normally fell pretty damn bad about anyway, but given that he replaced her test with his own, he was especially concerned. He supposed his grades didn't matter too much, but even then, he could already tell Yosuke was going to jump at the chance to ridicule Justin for whatever low score he got.

"I'm afraid to look…" Chie remarked with dread as they slowly managed to squeeze through the crowd. Navigating the field of students eager to check out the score turned out to be rather difficult, people shoving each other left and right in an attempt at seeing what they got first. As if the numbers were going to dance their way off the paper they had been printed on. In all fairness, the expression went 'quick and painless,' not 'slow and what the fuck ever, who gives a shit?' Most people just wanted to see their score now rather than let their imaginations get the better of them… or perhaps so they could think of an excuse for their shoddy academics. It took a while for Justin and the gang to dig their way through the waves of disappointment and relief that had been scattered across the hallway, making their way to the ever treasured and ever feared board full of grades. Most everyone, again, minus Yukiko, could feel their heart tense up as they made their way through the crowd and towards the board, eyes frozen in place with dread as they stared at the sheets of paper pinned all across the wall.

"We all are…" Justin remarked as he paced his way towards the board. In a way, he was almost hoping his score would be low, if only because then he'd know his daring stunt really had helped Chie in the long run, that it hadn't been a fluke if her score increased. But then; Justin might have only wished the best for Chie, but that didn't mean he shouldn't be looking out for his own well-being either. He didn't know what he wanted to do with the rest of his life, but he had to make sure it paid well. and that meant getting into a good college. He didn't just have himself to look after anymore these days. He had Maya, and he had Chie; and sure, she could handle herself fine, but that didn't mean Justin didn't want to be the guy that could buy her everything she deserved. Who knows, maybe his father really was loaded and when he got the rest of his trust fund on his eighteenth birthday he could live comfortably off for the rest of his life. That would be nice, though it probably wasn't going to happen.

Justin slowly ran his hand across the paper, scanning for everyone's grades. It was no surprise Yukiko was at the top of the board; hell, no one ever suspected anything else. Perhaps Justin could have topped her again, but given that Yu and Yosuke had seen Justin swapping the paper, they already could tell his grade was going to drop significantly. Neither of them said anything to Justin though; after all, they realized what he was doing was a pretty big sacrifice just so Chie could taste victory for once. It was almost sweet in a way if not incredibly stupid; but then, they supposed that's why Chie could NEVER find out about what Justin did. She'd probably kill him for unintentionally getting wound up in his plan to cheat, not for himself, but on her behalf. She wanted to succeed with dignity and effort after all, not because somebody did all the work for her. After Yukiko on the board was Yu, who over the last few semester had slowly been getting better scores on his exams. It wouldn't be long before he gave even Yukiko a run for her money. Now it was just a question of whether she would take it well or if she would flip out the way she had when Justin had beat her score that one time. And under Yu?

Well none other than Chie, with what was probably her first score in the 90's… well… ever. The moment she laid her eyes on her name, the big nine starting off her grade, she wasn't really sure how to feel, her heart nearly stopping from pure excitement. She had never done so well on an exam in all her life. It was amazing how much a single portion of the exam had influenced Chie's score. Seemed English just wasn't Chie's forte; which Justin wished they had found out much earlier, what with him being as English as you could get in Japan. Half American, half British, all classy. She practically jumped for joy the moment it really sunk in that she had succeeded in her endeavors, soaring to heights she herself wasn't even sure she could reach. If the bright side here wasn't just getting a good grade, it was that her parents would finally back the fuck off her when it came to her schoolwork. She was putting the effort in dammit, and even if that wasn't really her work, she did try her hardest. That was the most anyone could ask of you. And who knows, maybe if she mentioned Justin helping her out, which he totally did for the record, maybe her father would give him a little breathing room. Justin had Chie's best interest in mind after all; so maybe he should stop shouting at Chie to leave the door open anytime Justin reared his head in their household.

"Wow. Good job, Chie!" Yukiko admired Chie's schoolwork. Justin and Chie sat behind her in homeroom, so she wasn't aware of Justin's stunt swapping out the papers. To her, Chie had just really pulled her shit together this time. Chie was needless to say pretty damn proud of herself right now; though as far as what to say, she hadn't a clue. This was just so overpowering to all of her senses, filling every fiber of her being with a sensation of pure ecstasy.

"I don't… I don't know what to say." Chie stuttered a bit, a little embarrassed to not know how to react to this. She wanted to jump for joy, but no doubt she'd look like some kind of weirdo doing that. She wanted to shout to the world that she had managed to get such a high-score, but then she'd look like an idiot getting excited over what was barely a 90. All she could do was just stand there and try to suppress the joy coursing through her veins, making her heart beat extra loud and extra slow. Justin stared at her as she struggled to keep still, as was clearly evident by the way her leg was shaking in an almost excited, impatient manner. It was pretty clear she didn't want to just stand here and deal with her score like a normal human being, as much as she had to. In a way, it warmed Justin's heart. It was nice to see her so happy, over anything really, but especially over her new found success in a field she had never thought she could excel at. His frown of disappointment with how his grade was no doubt going to drop soon shifted to a smile, and he eventually found himself wrapping his arm around her neck in a playful, but encouraging manner.

"See? I knew you had it in you." Justin smiled at her. No words past that were exchanged between the two, nothing but silence as the two simply stood there staring at the scores. Chie was blushing abit, especially since Justin insisted on pulling this shit in front of other people; but in the end she didn't care. She was already happy enough as it was without Justin's embrace. She could ignore everyone else for just a moment. Still, even the best of things have to end eventually, and that included the short moment between her and Justin. There'd be plenty of time for celebration when there weren't people still crowding the hallways. Justin tugged Chie closer for a brief second, giving her a peck on the forehead before letting go of his grasp on her body, turning to make his way back out through the crowd. Chie seemed confused at the very least, though she seemed more embarrassed than anything. One of these days Justin was going to do that in public in front of someone he really shouldn't have. She'd like to think this was all payback for that time she had kissed him in front of her dad. That was awkward to say the least, though she hadn't really expected her father to get so uptight about her having a boyfriend. She was seventeen after all; she wasn't going to be daddy's little girl forever. Perhaps something Chie should impart upon Maya, if she were ever given the chance. Not to say Maya's attachment to her father was unjustified, but she did need to let go of her grief at some point; realize that her father was gone. Living on a memory was no way to live a life.

"Huh? Wh-where are you going?" Chie questioned, stopping Justin in his slow trot away from the rest of the group and towards the front door. "Don't you want to see your score?" Justin paused for a moment, contemplating the matter. He was curious just how shitty his grade was going to be now, but you know what they say. Ignorance was bliss. He had a feeling he'd be much more satisfied not knowing how he, and by he I mean Chie, did on the exams. He was so proud, so happy for Chie right now, even if he wasn't the one who had done the work. It was just nice to see her so happy about her school work for once. It was such a refreshing change of pace, not to mention it tugged at Justin's heartstrings in the best of ways. It took a couple of seconds, but Justin decided he'd rather not sour the moment for himself, shaking his head a bit as he turned to face Chie and the rest of the group.

"Nah; I think I'm good." Justin reassured her with a gentle smile. "I'll see you later Chie." He remarked before departing from their presence, a gentle wave to his girlfriend before making his way back towards the entrance of the school. The others just smiled and waved back before returning to what they had been doing a moment earlier; discussing their grades and rubbing in just how much smarter they were than the others. And by that they meant Yosuke. Who would have thought Yosuke almost had the worst grade of all of them. He only managed to beat out Kanji, despite the fact that Justin's grade had been drastically dropped by Chie's English score. Seemed he still did good enough on the rest of the tests to maintain low 80's on his exams, though Justin didn't hear about that till later when Chie accidentally dropped his score in casual conversation.

Justin was making his way to the front door again when something peculiar had caught his eyes. Naoto had been at her locker, which while not surprising on it's own, was surprising when she seemed to be examining another one of those cards. Now, Justin would rather do without the drama today, but this was important business regarding his family, so at the very least he had to acknowledge the potential that this was related to that stranger in the alleyway. He slowly deterred his path away from the b-line he had been making towards the front door, turning to make his way over to Naoto and her locker. "Another card?" Naoto immediately jumped again. She was getting real sick of Justin sneaking up on her and scaring her half to death. Especially when she had this kind of crap to deal with. She sighed after a moment of regaining her composure, slowly turning around to face Justin, card still raised up from when she had been eying the paper package.

"Oh hello senpai. This was in my shoe locker." Naoto remarked, showing off the letter to Justin as if he hadn't been able to tell what it was already. He was a little concerned and a little confused as to how the letter had managed to get into her locker. After all, if this stranger had managed to get into the school building they had a huge problem on their hands. No one was safe if this guy could just go wherever he pleased to leave behind threats and challenges. Alas, it seemed Justin may have jumped the gun, much like Naoto had but moments before he arrived. She sighed a bit, shaking her head before slipping the envelope into the inside of her jacket for safe keeping until she could find somewhere to dispose of this without leaving evidence. "Judging by the name and the handwriting, the sender is a woman. She thoughtfully provided her year and class. When one factors in the heart-shaped seal as well, it's hard to imagine that this is related to my job in any way. In other words… there is no need to read it. How misleading… A sealed letter at a time like this…"

"A love letter. People STILL think you're a guy? Christ almighty, I have never seen a bigger bunch of idiots in all my life." Justin shook his head with annoyance. It wasn't even a secret anymore that Naoto was a chick; she just continued to dress like a dude, which for the record was totally acceptable. Maya used to do it all the time for fuck's sake, still kind of did in a way. That was beside the point though; the point was, anyone who still thought Naoto was a guy was an idiot and should never breed ever. Naoto just seemed annoyed by the notion though, already picking up in what Justin was implying.

"I beg your pardon?"

"Let's not play games; it's a pretty shit disguise you've got going on. The way you slur your words and your body curvature gives it away immediately." Justin explained to her, hoping maybe she would ditch this 'I'm totally a guy' act. She wasn't fooling anyone who was capable of critical thinking; or anyone with eyes. Of course, perhaps it wasn't a good idea to bring up curvature with someone like Naoto; just the very act of acknowledging she was a girl seemed to set her on edge.

"My curvature!?" She shouted with bafflement, very much caught off guard and embarrassed by the sudden attention brought to her body. Justin couldn't help but slap himself in the face. He was starting to remember why he didn't talk to Naoto. Besides from her being kind of a bitch and all I mean. She just took everything way too seriously. Who even cared about the shape of her body? The point was it gave her away. And that's literally it. No need to shout for the world to hear.

"Not so loud! And for the record, it's the hips. You can't just cover that up with a jacket you know." Naoto stared at Justin for a moment longer with great embarrasment and confusion before Justin decided this discussion was getting them nowhere. "...Just forget it. What are you going to do with that now?"

"I cannot dispose of it on school premises, of course… I'll take it home and feed it to the shredder." Naoto sighed with exasperated annoyance, partially at the question former, partially at thinking of the letter now in her possession. She wasn't sure what was the worst part; getting love letters from girls, or getting love letters from people who didn't know her as anything but the detective prince. Though she supposed those two kind of went hand in hand. She did care enough that she wouldn't just throw it in the trash here where the sender could find it and become heartbroken; she'd save the sender some dignity by pretending to read it. But she didn't care enough to even give the letter a second glance. And why should she? She wasn't into chicks, even if she dressed like a guy. "Whether the sender is male or female, I have no intention of responding. I have no time to be dilly-dallying with callow love affairs… I assume the same is true for you?"

"For me?" Justin questioned, not sure he had heard that right. Last he checked Naoto was aware about him and Chie being a thing. Hell, she was there last time they talked about it. Perhaps she just didn't want to jump to conclusions; which was fucking hilarious given she had no problem jumping to the conclusion of MURDER. "Come on, think about that question for a second." Naoto paused for a moment, turning her gaze over to Chie for just a second, as if examining the girl from a far.

"To be quite honest, you never struck me as the kind of person to get involved in love affairs." Naoto mused allowed slightly, keeping her eyes focused on Chie all the while. "But it seems you and Chie-senpai get along well... Perhaps my profiling techniques need work."

"Yeah, well when you accuse me and my sister of being murderers, that's pretty obvious." Naoto turned her glare over to Justin for a brief moment, arms crossed as she stared at him sternly. He was already going to start this again was he? You would think when they were investigating something together, he'd at least not fight her every step of the way, but alas, she had come to expect this from the boy.

"It was a perfectly reasonable deduction given the evidence."

"Then perhaps you should keep your deductions to yourself."


	183. Chapter 182: October 26, 2011

CHAPTER 182

October 26, 2011

* * *

"More love letters?"

Justin had been on his way home from school, backpack thrown over his shoulder when he passed by Naoto, still shuffling through letters in her hands. Seemed she was pretty annoyed too, given the expression on her face. In a way, Justin found it amusing how annoyed she was getting as she went through letter after letter. How many love letters could she possibly get in one day? You'd think people would get the hint after a while. In truth, Justin probably shouldn't have cared about the love letters, and really, he kind of didn't, but he did think it was humorous watching Naoto have to put up with even the slightest of inconveniences. Maybe she SHOULD just throw these in the trash where anyone could find them; just so the sender would finally get the hint that she wasn't interested. She sighed a bit as she continued to pass each letter in the stack a quick glance before shoving it into the back of the pile.

"If the idea is to desensitize me to any mysterious letters, I fear it's slowly starting to work." Naoto mused out loud. It was getting to a point where she was considering just not looking through these letters. After all, given the laws of probability, the chance that any one of these cards could be relevant to the thievery that took place at the Naoto estate was slim to none. She must have been crazy to think the culprit would be stupid enough to deposit a card in her locker in a heavily monitored establishment such as this. There were security cameras all over the place; so even if he did manage to avoid getting seen and somehow get into the premise long enough to deposit his letter, he would still have digital footage left behind to immediately identify himself. Coming in here to deposit a letter would be one of the dumbest things he could do.

Of course, Naoto's annoyance on the matter was pretty quickly interrupted by a snort from Justin, the sound of him trying to hold back laughter at the misery Naoto had managed to dig herself into by pretending to be a guy. She couldn't help but turn about to glare at the boy as he smirked at her, trying to hide his amusement. She was getting real tired of Justin's high and mighty attitude, though specifically in regards to her. She didn't HAVE to let him do shit in this investigation; she was doing it out of courtesy knowing just what kind of risk he was in if they didn't solve this mystery, because he had secrets of his own he needed to keep hidden. But in the end, she didn't have to do that; and if she wanted to, she could kick his sorry ass out to the curb right now. "I don't see what's so amusing about this." Naoto remarked with annoyance, scolding Justin slightly for laughing at her dissatisfaction.

"This is textbook irony; let's not pretend I'm some kind of asshole for laughing at your little plan exploding right in your face." Justin countered, his grin slowly fading into a disapproving frown. The one time he thought he actually smiled around Naoto and she had to turn it into a big thing. You know; being the butt of the joke wasn't always a bad thing, and even if it was, it was nothing to get your panties in a bunch over. After all, a joke is a joke; it's not like Justin, oh I don't know, called her a serial killer or anything. Now that would be a real dick move. Thank god no one would do that; they'd have to be a real cold-hearted bitch to accuse someone of murder without any evidence. Especially if you were to fuck said people over, possibly forever. But nope. None of them had done that; everything was just peachy keen until Justin had to be a douche and laugh at Naoto getting love letters. What an asshole!

"I'm working with a complete imbecile." Naoto sighed with annoyance, shaking her head before turning her attention back to the pile of letters. She was almost done sorting through everything, but then her finger brushed against one of the letters, sending a certain sensation down the length of her fingers that she could tell right now was not a good sign. Her eyes widened for a moment before she precariously pulled one of the letters out from in between the other love notes. This wasn't a love note though. It wasn't signed and it didn't have any heart shaped seals to give away the romantic subtext of it's contents. And more importantly, it contained a rather peculiar, but all too familiar material on the inside; its texture and weight being immediately recognizable even from within the sanctuary of the white envelope that encased it.

"See something you like?" Justin joked for a moment as he slowly approached her, trying to peer over her shoulder to get a look at her secret admirer. After all, you never know when you might need some materials for blackmail. What he would blackmail Naoto for, Justin wasn't quite sure; probably something that would either annoy Naoto or keep her as far away as possible. Either would satisfy Justin in the long run; it was just a matter of which would satisfy him more. Well of course the letter wasn't a love letter, something that became clear to Justin as he slowly closed the gap between him and Naoto, spotting that the letter was completely unmarked, pristine condition and all. Justin wasn't stupid; he could tell what this was for and where it came from immediately, as much as he had been teasing Naoto for something else but a moment earlier. It was probably for that reason Naoto was giving him that 'I told you so,' look, as if to tell him to keep his mouth shut from now on on matters he had no knowledge about.

"In a matter of speaking." Naoto remarked sarcastically, tossing the rest of the letters in her hand into her locker for the time being. She'd deal with her love affairs in a moment; for the time being, her concerns were much more focused on catching the thief who had broken into her house and put her family at risk. And I guess to a lesser extent Justin's as well. Naoto didn't like Justin, not one bit, so she just didn't really care if he had his possessions stolen. Her only concerns with his family were in regards to his 'sister,' who Naoto still felt indebted to, not only because of what had befallen her thanks to Naoto's ingenious plan, but also because it was from her understanding Maya only suffered such a fate because she had dragged Naoto out of the way of the blast. She had essentially bit the bullet on Naoto's behalf, and now Naoto needed to find a way to repay her. Insuring that her or her place of residence was safe from danger was the least she could do for the poor girl.

But that was a matter for another time, for the moment being, Naoto had a letter in her hand that had been sent to her by a criminal; a criminal she was currently pursuing. This was either a curse, or a blessing. One thing was for sure though, he had unintentionally revealed himself to the world, and Naoto could easily get a hold of that information. Once she negotiated possession of the school's security camera footage, this investigation was as good as closed. Until then, however, this letter could spell either success or disaster for her and Justin. It was just a matter of what message the thief wanted to send, if there even was a message this time around. For all Naoto knew, and for all part of her suspected, the card could be completely blank again. "It's unmistakable! Judging by its appearance, it's on the same cardstock, the same size, unsigned just like last time… I'm almost certain this came from the same person." Naoto remarked, holding the envelope up for Justin to see before slipping her finger beneath the slit, attempting to open the white container that housed the criminal's message.

"So he just waltzed into school to slip another blank letter into your locker? Either this is the world's dumbest criminal, or the smartest." Justin mused aloud, circling around Naoto to lean against the locker beside hers. Naoto wasn't sure she agreed about being the smartest, but then, perhaps she didn't take into account that if their culprit marched right into a school and dropped that letter off without getting any attention drawn to him, he had to be pretty damn sneaky or pretty damn clever. Naoto shook her head a bit as she raised the lip of the envelope, revealing the note inside before she tugged at it with a pinch of her index finger and thumb. She ran her eyes over the text for only a brief moment before smiling and turning her gaze towards Justin.

"I'll be sure to check with the administration later to get possession of the security footage… And besides; the card is not blank." Naoto remarked smugly before passing the card off to Justin, handing it off between her middle and index fingers in what seemed like she was trying to get fancy with the way she passed along information. Justin just contributed it to over confidence, though he supposed it was also possible that's how she typically passed things off. Still, he was much too intrigued with the actual letter, the thing that could possibly help them track their culprit down and put a stop to his crimes before he said something or did something he shouldn't have, than the way Naoto passed paper along. Perhaps he crossed that line when he stole from Naoto, but alas, Justin was much more concerned about his own affairs and problems than some bitch he didn't even like.

Justin grabbed the letter out of Naoto's hand with a quick flick of his wrist, ripping it out of her grasp so that he could investigate the card himself. Seemed a daring move to go from blank cards to something with typing or handwriting on it; after all, the former may have been ridiculous and pointless, but the latter could be traced fairly easily. At least, that's what he had always heard from when his father talked about work. The type of ink could lead you to a specific kind of printer or typewriter, which while not useful on its own, could be cross referenced with other individual evidence. Handwriting COULD be traced back to an individual; there were apparently twelve key points in a person's signature that differentiated from individual to individual, creating a unique style of handwriting that could easly be identified with a good enough writing sample. That is, of course, unless the suspect tried to mask their hand writing. Even then, there were giveaways when someone tried to fake a different kind of handwriting style; so it could still be used to a certain extent. Not that handwriting was going to help them when the letter they received had typing on it, but it did mean Justin had a fairly good idea how they could use this, even if the letter itself wasn't particularly interesting.

"Dear detective, Your prized possessions are in my hand. Can you recover them? The game is afoot. -The Phantom Thief." Justin read aloud from the card, flipping it around once to see if the other side had anything on it before flipping it back. Was the point just to remind Naoto that she had her shit stolen? Because Justin was pretty sure she was well aware of that. Of course, he was sure that was probably not the part that was intended to be interesting. For one, it was a very clear challenge; the culprit was treating this like a game and Naoto it's player. The question was now, did the culprit consider himself her opponent or the dungeon master? Then there was the matter of the signature. He had given himself a name from the looks of it; already trying to get into the history books as the man who stole from 'the Detective Prince.' Kind of pathetic really, though the name itself sure took the cake.

"It seems this is the work of the figure who snuck into the Shirogane estate. The Phantom Thief? How absurd…" Naoto remarked with annoyance with the letter. The very fact that thief was treating this as some sort of twisted game was infuriating in its own right, but when you consider that the thief was giving himself a title, it was quickly devolving into what was comparable to that of a small child using their imagination. Naoto, completely hypocritically after how her shadow had acted mind you, had no time to be dealing with children; even when children were stealing from her. After all, the worst thing you could do to a misbehaving child, a kid throwing a tantrum at the store, was to pay attention to their pleas of attention. You had to teach them that if they wanted to get what they want, they had to act like civil human beings. The same could be said of this thief apparently.

"I would have gone with the Phantom Pain." Justin remarked semi sarcastically, waggling his finger tips as if to feign him being creepy. It was pretty obviously a joke, even if the joke was clearly going to go over Naoto's head, what with her not being into gaming and all, but even then, Naoto just could not adjust to his cynical, sarcastic sense of humor. She just didn't get how being a prick was funny if you were intentionally being a prick. Purposely annoying is still annoying, after all, and the same applied to being a dick about everything and everyone. She did suppose though that at least his sarcasm wasn't vicious this time around; hell, if anyone was being mocked, it was the Phantom Thief. Naoto had no qualms with a criminal being called names; they lost all right to have any form of respect the moment they held themselves higher than the extent of the law.

"I haven't the time to waste on this. Although… He broke into our estate and sent me this challenge… Leaving this in the police's hands could jeopardize the honor of the Shirogane name…" Naoto mused outloud for a moment, staring at the letter with disapproval and upheaval in her mind. She couldn't tell what her stance should be on this in all honesty. Every fiber of her being said to ignore it; but she was a detective. She couldn't just turn her eyes away from any crime; especially one that jeopardized the safety of her and her grandfather. On the other hand; she was doing exactly what this criminal wanted by playing into his game. Maybe she was just being a bit egotistical, too ashamed to give her rival what he wanted, but she just couldn't bring herself to play into all of this. And now she had a choice, and a difficult one at that. Did she turn her eyes away from her responsibility just to prove a point, or did she sully her family reputation just because she didn't want their culprit to achieve in his goal of getting Naoto to fall into his game. "Argh! That's why I don't like this! I don't want to get involved with this sort of childish game. But… to ignore it only makes me angry!"

"Welcome to the club!" Justin smirked a bit. He wasn't unaware of what he was like when he got pissed off after all, so just the thought of Naoto doing the exact same thing only went to amuse him. Partially because she always judged him for being an asshole, but really, deep down, she was just as much of a dick as he was; just as much a vengeful and angry soul as he was. Perhaps Naoto had caught on to that fact given she had blushed a bit with embarrassment, turning her eyes towards the ground as she slipped the card into her coat pocket. The very thought of being similar to Justin in any regard, especially THAT regard was just a low blow to her dignity. She was a renowned, dignified detective, not some pissed off punk who insisted on blowing everything out proportion and causing trouble wherever he went. She would NOT let herself be compared to Justin like that.

"I beg to differ; I may get angry, but unlike yourself, I actually have respect for the law." Naoto remarked with annoyance, failing to bite her tongue for even a moment longer. She just couldn't stand the thought of being compared to Justin, even if she knew deep down he was right when he said they were both very angry people. She just bottled it up inside while Justin wasn't afraid to exhibit it. I think it goes without saying Justin was immediately offended by Naoto turning this around to insult him for no reason other than they were both angry people. Hell, what did the law even have to do with any of this?

"Excuse me? What does that even have to do with anything? I'm an asshole so suddenly I have no respect for the law? You know what Naoto, you can shove that silver spoon of yours up your ass. I have plenty of goddamned 'respect for the law.'" Justin rebutted with annoyance. She thought she was so much better than everyone else, but in truth, she was just some bitch who tried to hide her true nature behind fancy words and good intentions. But alas, it took more than class to be a likeable person; especially when you were around people like Justin, who could see right through the lies and bullshit. Naoto shook her head before slamming her locker shut, turning to walk straight past Justin and out the front door; adjusting her hat the whole way there.

"Which is why you're carrying an illegal firearm in your pants right now." Naoto remarked snidely as she brushed right past him. Well, you could imagine Justin's shock as she pointed that out, eyes widening as his gaze slowly shifted to the bulge in his pants where his revolver had been. It was subtle, but apparently not subtle enough to get past Naoto.

"Note to self; only carry around the gun attached to my crotch from now on."


	184. Chapter 183: October 27, 2011

CHAPTER 183

October 27, 2011

* * *

"Miss Yasogami High Pageant? That's a thing? Why… Why is that a thing?"

Justin, Yu, and Yosuke had been hanging around the front of the school, just kind of hanging around and talking about stupid irrelevant bullshit when they had been distracted by a small commotion near the bulletin board; the same one that had housed the group's exam scores a few days prior. For the most part, the guys seemed pretty confused what it was about, partially because Yu and Justin were new, and they never pulled this kind of crap at their old schools. Yosuke had full knowledge of what was going on, for more reason than he had been letting on of course. He couldn't help but smirk to himself as Justin read out loud the new event that had been scheduled for the festival; made possible in part by his utter and complete genius. Justin should be thanking him right now for doing such a great thing for the guys, but alas, he was a generous soul. No thanks were needed other than the smiles on their faces as they sat back and enjoyed. Plus; Justin would probably just beat the shit out of him in his attempt to be chivalrous and have respect for a woman's sexuality and shit. Seriously, have I ever mentioned Justin was the perfect feminist? I have? Well he still was.

"What kind of idiot would sign up for something like this? Oh… Kashiwagi. Well that explains a lot actually." Yu remarked with semi-sarcasm as his eyes rolled across the paper, examining the details of the event. He wasn't a feminist or anything like that, but even then, he had to wonder why any girl would want to show her stuff off to a bunch of guys just so they could stare at her. He still didn't seem to get why Rise was like that. At first he had attributed it to her Arcana, but then he recalled Maya was of the Lover's arcane too, and she didn't try to flirt with anything that had the physical prowess to hump something. Hell, she was pretty much a polar opposite to Rise in that regard, very shy and reserved; though that was more a result of constantly being put down due to her social status back in California. People liked her, don't get me wrong, but no one liked her like THAT because she wore the same raggy clothes every day, and because she wasn't exactly well-kempt. Perhaps that was the reason Maya fell in love with Justin; even amongst all her friends, it was clear no one really cared much to the fact that she lived like a hobo. Justin didn't even seem to notice; maybe because he was so desperate for a friend it didn't matter, maybe because he realized superficial appearances weren't everything. Of course, that was beside the point; point was, it was rare to find a girl that was actually okay with that kind of shit.

At least; that's what Yu thought at first. Then Justin and him actually looked at the list.

"Rise Kujikawa… That's not very surprising." Justin remarked sarcastically, rolling his eyes a bit. That girl needed to have some more self-respect for herself. It wasn't Rise's presence that had surprised the two though; it was every name that followed, Yu and Justin's jaws dropping almost instantly. "Naoto? But… She's still trying to be a guy, right? And… Yukiko!? Hold on, what the he-CHIE!?" Justin's exasperation grew slowly as her realized people that would have no earthly business in a beauty contest were somehow showing up on the sign-up list. "Bu- I don- Ho-… THIS DOESN'T MAKE SENSE!" Justin shouted with great confusion. Yukiko and Naoto were baffling in their own right, but CHIE!? She had enough self-confidence issues; she wouldn't even get up on stage for the music project without some prodding, let alone just to show her stuff off. Besides, Justin wasn't quite sure he liked the idea of his girlfriend flaunting her stuff to a bunch of perverted teenagers. Maybe he was a little more jealous than he thought at first.

"This can't possibly be right; Yukiko would never do something like this." Yu remarked with suspicious anger as he examined the shit, tapping it with the tips of his fingers. He knew already that foul play was involved, though to what degree, he was still trying to figure out. Justin nodded his head with agreement, clearly sensing something was up. They might have just been able to get it to if it weren't for the fact that Yosuke had realized they were catching onto his game already. He needed to distract them immediately.

"N-Nevermind that; you guys are free for lunch right now, right? I dunno why, but Chie asked us to come to the roof. She looked pretty serious… I wonder if something's happened." Yosuke stuttered slightly as he tried to cover his trails. Chie DID want to see them, and Yosuke WAS clueless on her true intention of the meeting; but telling the others that at this very moment was a tactical decision to get them away from the board before they could realize that was his handwriting.

"If getting signed up to strip in front of a bunch of teenagers isn't 'something,' I don't know what is."

* * *

"You better have a damn good explanation for this!"

So yeah, it goes without saying the girls weren't buying into Yosuke's bullshit; and why would they? It was pretty obvious he was lying right through his teeth. And it wasn't like any of the girls were wrong to be pissed off at him; hell, the moment Chie proposed the theory that Yosuke was involved everyone ELSE got a little pissed off at Yosuke. Specifically Justin, who had grabbed him by the collar to prevent him from running. He didn't have proof yet, but he was pretty sure it was Yosuke; and when he admitted to it, Justin planned to slam his teeth into the concrete beneath him.

"F-For what?"

"The beauty pageant! You wrote down our names without telling us, didn't you!?" Chie scolded the boy, pure anger rushing through her veins. She had never been more embarrassed in all her life. It was bad enough that she had horrible stage freight; she couldn't help but feel her muscles tense up, freezing in place as her legs rocked gently back and forth in a fearful shake. But now she had to do it while a bunch of people she didn't know eyed her with the thoughts of sexual pleasure? She was not okay with that; not in the slightest. Same could be said of Yukiko and Naoto, though Rise actually looked like she was looking forward to it. Any chance to get some attention towards her and her body apparently.

"N-No! It wasn't me! Why do you automatically blame me!?" Yosuke frantically defended himself. They were completely right and he knew it, but that didn't mean he was okay with constantly getting blamed without any reasonable evidence indicating he was the culprit. Not like they had his fingerprints or something. "I-I mean, if you don't wanna do it, you just say no, right? Like it was just a joke." Yosuke suggested after a moment. After all, no harm, no foul right? They couldn't really castrate the guy if he didn't actually hurt anyone, could they? Well given that it was Chie, probably. Chie's glare only seemed to intensify though as Yosuke advised her to just back out of her obligations.

"We wouldn't be so pissed if we could do that! With Kashiwagi planning this year's event, even those who got entered by other people can't back out!" Chie shouted back with anger. It wasn't just enough that everyone probably thought she was some kind of whore now signing up for a competition like this, but now she couldn't even back out? She could never show her face around this goddamned school again because of Yosuke.

"Seriously? Must've been something in the fine print I overlooked…" Yosuke mused silently to himself, averting eye contact with Chie for a brief moment as he rubbed at his chin. Of course, in his brief lapse of judgment as he discovered his little prank was irreversible, he had accidentally admitted he HAD committed the crime; and not a single person was pleased. Kanji was indifferent, but everyone else; livid would be an understatement.

"So it was you!"

"Oh crap…!" Yosuke muttered with great fear as he realized just how much he slipped up. Though that was immediately cut off by Justin slamming him down to the ground, pinning him so he couldn't escape. He wasn't sure how he was going to make Yosuke face punishment for his crimes, but he knew he wanted it to be slow and painful. Until then, a mouth full of cement would more than suffice as he contemplated how to make Yosuke atone for his sins.

"Oh you sick fucking bastard." Justin muttered between his teeth as he held Yosuke's head into the ground. He had never been more disgusted in a human being than now. What kind of sick person signs someone up for this kind of thing against their will. What Yosuke did here could essentially be classified as rape… Only, you know… Not rape at all. Same principals really; immediate sexual satisfaction by forcing a woman to do something of a sensual nature against her will. Only difference is sexual contact as far as Justin could tell. Well all the same, Justin was enjoying scraping Yosuke's skull against the pavement when Rise felt the need to speak up; not against Yosuke, mind you, but rather in his defense. It was hard to say whether this was surprising or not.

"Hey… Do you want us to take part in the beauty pageant?" Rise questioned after a moment, genuinely curious. It got quite a bit of glares from the other girls, who had no intention of participating, even if the other guys wanted them to. They could go look up porn on the internet for all they cared, they were NOT doing this shit, standing up in front of people only to be degraded because they were 'attractive.' Disgusting really.

"W-Well yeah. I mean, you guys know how popular Yukiko is here. And on top of that, we have an idol and a Detective Prince. What's the point of having a beauty pageant if all these incredible heroines aren't going to take part!?" Yosuke choked up to the best of his ability from his place along the floor, Justin still pressing him against the roof's surface with great intensity. Yukiko and Naoto weren't sure whether to take this all as a compliment or not, though Rise certainly did, and Chie certainly did not. Probably because out of all the people listed, she was oddly absent from the list.

"So where do I fit in!?" Chie questioned, glaring at Yosuke for only a brief minute before it slowly donned upon her that she was purposely left out of the list. Justin usually wasn't one to care what people thought of Chie, so long as they kept it to themselves, but this just pissed him off; especially that hurt expression that slowly swept across her face as the realization set in that she didn't exactly fit in that list at all. So Justin did what any sensible human being would do. He curb stomped Yosuke's fucking skull into the ground.

"GAH! MOTHERFUCKER!" Yosuke shouted in pain, rolling over and grasping at his jaw as he tried to numb the pain now shooting through his gums. Naoto shot Justin a slight glare, hoping to make him aware that she could arrest him for assault right now if she wanted to. Though truth be told; she was totally okay with Yosuke getting his just deserts, so she bit her tongue on the matter. Justice to an extent it seemed.

"Hey, you want us to be in it too, don'tcha, Kanji!?" Rise began to tease Kanji, deciding that since yosuke was too busy rolling around in his blood to be snarky, she would uphold his legacy. After all, it wasn't like she didn't love embarrassing Kanji anyway. It was like a past time for Yosuke and Rise. They'd totally make a good couple; assuming of course that Yosuke wasn't the most perverted fucker in the world. But then, Rise was very flirtatious, so that might have just worked out in the long run. Who even knows; no use pondering possibilities. Kanji, being the clueless fucker he was, didn't seem to really get what Rise was getting at here.

"Huh…? I ain't interested in that stuff…"

"Naoto-kun… Kanji-kun says that he really wants you to be in it." Rise turned to Naoto, deciding to go over Kanji's head on this. It was clear the boy had the hots for Naoto; and if he wasn't going to act on it, she'd do it for him. If only just to see him fidget like a motherfucker. She succeeded in that regard, given that his face immediately burned a fierce red color, eyes widening with embarrassment and fear. Why was it no one could just leave his affairs to him?

"Wha-!? I-I didn't say nothing!" He angrily and hesitatingly countered. He DIDN'T say anything on the matter; he didn't need people putting words into his mouth and looking like some kind of ass. Besides; it wasn't like that. Honestly. It wasn't. HONEST. Yosuke groaned a bit as he slowly got back up from the ground, wiping blood from the corners of his mouth as he tried to steady himself. He probably deserved that, but goddamn, did Justin have to hit THAT hard over something so trivial?

"What about you Justin? You want them to be in it, right?" Yosuke groaned a bit, backing up ever so slightly lest the question piss Justin off again. And it did, given that not only Justin, but also Yu turned to him to glare. Both of them were very vocally against this; partially out of jealousy, partially our of respect for the girls' wishes, partially because this was just degrading in every way.

"Do I need to bash your head in a second time? Maybe that would knock some damn sense into your head!" Justin shouted back, damn near getting back into Yosuke's face to sock him one when Yu held him back by the arm. Yu wouldn't mind seeing Yosuke get knocked out, but it seemed he had taken enough damage to the noggin today as it was. Let's not push our luck and give the guy a concussion after all. Well more of a concussion than he probably had after Justin slammed his skull into the ground with his foot. Yosuke immediately backed away, hands up as if to show he didn't want any trouble. Too bad he had created trouble when he went through with this dumbass plan of his. Chie sighed slightly, shaking her head at the misfit boys.

"At least some of you aren't getting on the bandwagon with Yosuke." Chie sighed with slight relief. At the very least it was nice to see that this was more Yosuke's fault than any of theirs. She just might have to spare them the embarrassment of revenge. But probably not. Rise shrugged a bit; to be quite honest, she wasn't seeing the problem. But then, she made a career out of this; of course she didn't see the problem.

"So long as there are people looking forward to seeing me, I might as well put on a show for 'em. Of course, there's no need to involve my agency in this." Rise mused out loud. She still hadn't found a second record label to sign on to, so it shouldn't be a problem anyway. Besides, it wasn't like they really had any jurisdiction over what she did with her body; they just needed to deal with the PR backlash.

"Th-That's right! That's the way to go! Teddie's looking forward to it too. Actually, I think he was more excited than anyone. It was him who was pushing me to sign you all up." Yosuke tried to shift the blame, perhaps fearing Justin would maul him if he didn't. And while it certainly made sense that Teddie would do that, Justin wasn't buying it. He wouldn't even get to see it since he'd be busy at work; especially since Maya had taken the day off for the festival. Justin already got things checked out with the office to see if she could come with the day. Seems outside visitors were alright on those days. Point was, Teddie gained nothing from this. Yosuke, on the other hand…

"Ugh, so Ted's behind this too…"

"We're in an awkward position… If we can't refuse, I suppose there's no sense in arguing the point… But it seems ill-fitting for someone like me to get up on stage… I wonder if there's any way I could take it up with the school authorities…" Naoto mused to herself, still trying to ponder a way out of the situation she had managed to dig herself into. Well, that Yosuke had dug her into. She supposed she could just… you know… not show up? What were they going to do if she didn't? Disciplinary action? That wasn't her signature, and she could prove it with forensic science if need be.

"I-I… don't think it's a problem at all. I-I mean, just do it! Ya know… Seriously!" Kanji interrupted rather frantically, but also hesitantly at the same time, as if trying to choose his words carefully but quickly at the same time. It made his speech rather choppy, and… well obvious that he had a massive erection in his pants. Probably. No one would dare look at that guy's crotch. 'Cept maybe Maya that one time; though they didn't talk about that for obvious readons. Mostly so they could protect their own crotches from testicular manslaughter.

"Dude… Looks like your blood's boiling even more than usual…" Yosuke remarked with amusement, sitting down on the vent until his head would stop buzzing from the hard blow he took to the skull. He should have known; it had been too long since Justin kicked the crap out of him. A whole week! A new record!

"Silly Kanji. Just tell her you wanna see her on the stage. So, is it a deal? The four of us will be in the beauty pageant?" Rise chuckled a bit before blowing Kanji, and by extension Naoto as she bagan to interrogate Kanji on the matter, off, turning her attention to the rest of the girls. You could tell Chie and Yukiko still wanted nothing to do with this. They were only upset that they were being pressured into this; no one should have to do this under any condition.

"You guys don't have to do it if you don't want. Seriously; I'll replace the sheet or something." Justin suggested, noticing how disheartened Chie was about all of this. It was obvious she was uncomfortable with all this; and how could she not? She had stage-freight AND she was self-conscious as fuck. Beauty pageants were like a punch to the uterus for her. She eventually sighed and shook her head after a moment.

"I'll do it if I can kick Yosuke in the balls."

"Wait, wh-"

"Permission granted."

"W-wait wait, I never agreed to thi- GAH"

"Good, neither did we."


	185. Chapter 184: October 28, 2011

CHAPTER 184

October 28, 2011

* * *

"The 'Miss' Yasogami High Pageant? Okay, I take back what I said yesterday; why is THIS a thing?"

A second crowd had been gathering around the bulletin board again that morning, and while one would reasonably assume that it was just people being late to the party, Justin had spotted more than a few familiar faces in the crowd. More specifically the likes of Kou; who for some reason was really excited about yesterday's announcement of the girls joining the beauty pageant. Justin couldn't help but wonder why people got so excited about that kind of thing. Just primal instinct kicking in? I mean, Justin could understand wanting to look at a pretty girl, hell just look at his browsing history, but he didn't understand pageants. Not why someone would want to be in one, not why someone would want to watch one. If you're just in it to ogle a girl, rent a porn. Go all in, right? Of course, Justin's confusion over the topic of a beauty pageant was only partially relevant. Why? Because he understood a beauty pageant way more than he understood a cross-dressing contest. Who would even want to sign up for this crap? And more importantly, why? To make an ass out of yourself for shits and giggles? There are other ways of doing that without destroying your reputation and your manhood in one foul swoop you know. Just follow Justin's example.

"Haha, they're doing the cross-dressing pageant again this year? Man, they never learn, do they? Ooh, some people have signed up already. Hahah, man, what idiots would want to be in this thing?" Yosuke laughed loudly to himself as he approached the billboard, examining the flier that was announcing the OTHER pageant that would be at the cultural festival. They had tried to do this last year too, but no one joined, and for good reason; so he was eager to see if some sad sack would try it out this year. After all, they wouldn't try bringing this back if they didn't see people joining it right. And given the commotion, someone must have signed up or something right? He couldn't help but be curious as to who was stupid enough to try this out. If only he knew. "Let's see… Yosuke Hanamura…"

There was only a small beat between Yosuke beginning to read the list and when it struck him that was his own name on the list. And last he checked, he didn't have any interest in this competition. Yu himself was just as confused, though Justin couldn't help but smirk. Even though it was clear he had nothing to do with his signature being on that sheet, Justin would totally pay money to watch Yosuke get stuck imitating a chick. Well what do you know, maybe Justin DID see the appeal of a cross-dressing pageant. Nothing less of sadism from the looks of it. "MEEEEEEE!?" Yosuke shouted when it finally sunk in what was going on, and how he totally wasn't okay with it. Though that was kind of self-explanatory.

"I never noticed just how sexy you'd look in a skirt, Yosuke." Justin teased the guy, leaning against the wall beside him. Of course, Yosuke being the homophobe he was, immediately wanted to vomit in his mouth. Partially at the thought of him dressed up like a chick, partially at the potential of Justin being serious. After all, he WAS dating Chie, who was just one penis away from being a guy as it was. Not that he'd ever say that to her face; he remembered what happened with Justin and his bro with a vagina joke. It didn't end too well. Well at least the first time anyway. But that was beside the point for the time being, Yosuke needed to figure out what was going on; and that started right here at the list. His eyes darted up and down the sheet, trying to find something to discover the culprit behind this stupid ass prank. Well, he didn't find anything particularly incriminating… Other than perhaps everyone else's 'signatures' on the sign-up sheet.

"So would you, apparently. You're on here too!" Yosuke shouted. Even though he wasn't a big fan of Justin when he insisted on being a douche like this, he wouldn't even wish this fate on the worst of his enemies; so he couldn't help but feel sympathetic for a guy who had been wrapped into the same horrible fate as him. Justin, immediately flinched in a way that suggested he had just choked up on his spittle. Poor bastard didn't even see it coming. None of them did.

"The fuck!?" Justin shouted as he quickly pushed Yosuke out of the way to check. Sure enough, there was his name at the very bottom of the list, right below Kanji's and Yu's. Oh it was pretty damn clear who was responsible for this when only the Investigation Team's members were on this list. Justin couldn't believe it; he even offered to shred the original sign up list and replace it with one without the girls' names on it. They refused, yet they still wanted payback? That wasn't right. It wasn't even Justin's fucking fault, it was all Yosuke. If anyone should be on this list it was him and MAYBE Kanji. Yu and Justin had been on the girls' side the entire time. Maybe their allegences should have been elsewhere. "Those motherfuckers… I think we all know who did this."

"They are going to be SO sorry when I'm through with them."

"When you're done with them? When I'm done with them they're gonna have to call a coroner!"

* * *

"Alright, which one of you wants to get thrown out the fucking window first!?"

All of the guys had practically kicked in the door to their homeroom in search of the girls, bloody murder in their eyes. No seriously, Justin was sincerely considering dropping them off the roof at this point. Overkill? Perhaps, but then, Justin had no sympathy for the girls' plight when they started throwing people that weren't even involved into the mix. Justin would freaking BURN this place to the ground before he let them sign them up to cross-dress. Chie looked up from what she had been doing at her desk, listening to music from the looks of it, though she immediately pulled the ear buds out once she noticed the guys approaching, a confused expression on her face as to why she was being threatened with a window. She was pretty damn good at playing dumb apparently.

"For what?" She questioned, pretty clearly phoning it in. She got the poker face, but that was about it when it came to lying. The guys weren't buying her lies for even a second, aggressive glares over all four of their faces as the slowly surrounded Chie and Yukiko. Rise wasn't present at the moment, though Naoto was, seeming to talk with Yukiko about SOMETHING. Which was strange, because this was a sophomore homeroom and she was freshman. Shouldn't she be busy trying to get her culture festival event ready? Who knows, maybe she just needed to find some scissors to burrow or something.

"For what, my ass! For signing us all up in the cross-dressing pageant! It was you, wasn't it!?" Yosuke shouted back. He was not in the mood to be playing games; none of them were, and Chie knew it. She just stared at him for a moment, as if trying to decide whether to break character or not. She eventually decided that they were already onto her game, so it wasn't worth digging the hole any deeper. She was still going to play it off like it wasn't a big deal though; after all, that's what Yosuke had done to her. Maybe it was time he got a taste of his own medicine.

"Ohhh, yeah, that thing. Rise-chan started saying, 'Let's all have fun with this!' so I didn't really have a choice. And Kashiwagi seems happy, too, now that there's more people involved in it." Chie remarked wit h semi-disinterest, trying to justify her actions. As if Rise's remark had anything to do with anything. There's nothing fun about cross-dressing.

"You little…! This is cross-dressing! CROSS! DRESSING!" Yosuke shouted back with pure adrenaline. There was a huge difference between standing in front of a group of people for their sexualized pleasure and doing the same thing while dressed up as a member of the opposite gender after all. Justin wasn't going to justify what Yosuke had done, but come on; this was taking what had been dished out to them and turning the amp to eleven. And they knew what they did was overkill too. Justin didn't even have any words for the amount of disgust he was feeling for Chie right now, simply glaring at her with his arms crossed. Chie seemed to look apologetic, if a little bit confused at the same time. Or at least she did until Yosuke started to bitch her out.

"Well, you're the one who started it! It's because of you that we can't back out of the beauty pageant, so it serves you right!" Chie rebutted, getting tired of having people scream in her face when really they kind of had it coming. I mean, what they were going to have to put up with, not only at the pageant, but everyday to follow thanks to their reputations being shat down the drain, was simply unprecedented. If she was going to burn at Yosuke's discretion and sense of humor, she was going to let the fire spread onto the guys' turf too. Hopefully they had burn ointment.

"The ones who started- Yosuke's the only one who did it! Hell I kicked his ass for you; why the hell would you sign ME up!" Justin threw Chie's bullshit back into her face, slamming his hands across the free desk in front of him. Don't think for a second just because he loved the woman he didn't despise her sometimes. It almost bordered on hate sometimes, but not quite; like there was something almost painful in his gut about being angry at the girl. He'd just have to put up with it for the moment being though, because this… This was simply inexcusable. Chie should be disgusted with herself. Instead she only seem confused.

"But… I didn't sign you up." Chie remarked with confusion. She had been wondering why Justin had been so angry when he kicked in the door. He wasn't one to get angry on other people's behalf; unless of course the other person in question was a girl. Captain Chivalrey strikes again. Justin raised his eyebrow as if he hadn't just heard that correctly, jaw slightly opened with surprise.

"Me neither." Yukiko pointed out. Justin's eyes darted back and forth between the two as they stared each other down, trying to discipher the mystery. Well Justin certainly hadn't expected that; you mean to tell me they signed up everyone but Justin? He highly doubted Rise was the one to do it either, she didn't see anything wrong with pageants, so she had no reason to seek vengeance… But wait that left…

…

_Oh Naoto, you fucking bitch._ Justin's eyes immediately shot up towards Naoto, great anger twisting through his iris like a tornado of hatred. And it was all aimed at her. Naoto, needless to say, was pretty clearly trying to face away from Justin, coughing ever so slightly as she could feel Justin's eyes fall upon her.

"Oh I uh… just recalled I have prior engagements I need to attend to. Good day." Naoto very quickly dismissed herself before practically dashing out the room. A smart move, because she was leaving that room one way or the other. She simply decided to take the door instead of the window. Justin growled a bit at the girl as she quickly slammed the door behind her. He was going to have to get back at her, one way or another. Maybe he'd just flood her locker with 'love letters.' God know that pissed her off all the time.

"I swear to god I am going to burn that bitch's house down one of these days."

"Last time you tried that out it didn't really work." Yu remarked semi-sarcastically, but also seriously at the same time. He didn't think Justin was actually going to try it out, but you know. Better safe than sorry. Justin just sighed and shook his head. He really did feel bad about that without Yu constantly reminding him about it all the time; he wasn't serious when he said he'd burn her house down after all, and he didn't need lecturing. It was just another one of his idle threats, a means of getting his blood to cool down before his veins burst into flames…

_Oh I get it. Fire persona. Hot blooded. That makes sense._ Okay, probably coincidence; but you know… Look, just let him have this one, alright?

"Don't worry. We'll make you absolutely enchanting. Okay?" Yukiko tried to reassure the group, Justin included since he was very wrongly added into the mix here, with promises of beauty. As if wanting to look pretty was a good thing in a goddamn cross-dressing contest. Justin's glare quickly shot up from the desk beneath him, still pretty angry about all this. He knew he shouldn't be angry at Yukiko or Chie about this since they didn't sign him up, but even then, they did sing up the rest of the guys. And that just wasn't fair, even by his standards.

"We're guys! We don't want to look pretty. We want to look dirty and unkempt and shit." Justin remarked with annoyance. It really did explain a lot about Justin's appearances, but other than that his point kind of went unheard. They were dressing like girls, so they needed to look like girls. And that meant they had to be pretty, not 'dirty and shit.' Justin could go back to his grunge look AFTER he looked cute.

"This is about a man's pride, dammit!" Kanji interrupted, practically on the verge of tears as the girls pushed him through his worst nightmare. Come on, they clearly should have known Kanji was not okay with this on a much deeper level. With all the doubts about his sexuality, they shouldn't have been putting him through this. It just wasn't right!

"I know, right!? You heard him! This is absolutely out of the question!" Yosuke continued to rebute the girl's decision. Yu and Justin had been on the girls' side for one, so they shouldn't have been on that list, Kanji just could not go through with this kind of thing, it was too traumatic, and Yosuke…? Well Yosuke admittedly kind of deserved it, but come the fuck on! Cross-dressing!? Crossing the line, more like!

"Yeah, yeah. This has nothing to do with pride or any of that. You know already, right? Once someone signs you up, you can't back out. If you've got a problem with that, go talk to Ms. Kashiwagi." Chie scolded Yosuke, having just about enough of his complaining. Perhaps it was damaging their pride, but so was the OTHER beauty pageant to the girls, so they had no point to argue. No, this wasn't about pride; this was about revenge.

"Th-There's no way she's gonna listen!" Yosuke pointed out. He was entirely right for the record, Kashiwagi had no qualms with anyone being involved in anything pageant related. You know. Because she was a whore. Oh is that a socially unacceptable remark? Well that's appropriate then because being a slut is also pretty socially unacceptable. Whoops there I go again.

"Wha-!? Why're you giving up!? I ain't doin' this! Period!" Kanji repeated, very vocally against all of this. He got enough shit about being girly when people knew he knit; now that he had managed to suppress that and appear as a delinquent, he had no intention of going back to being bullied for that kind of crap. It was just too painful to even think about that shit. You would have thought his friends would have recognized that by now, but it appears the girls had no intention of letting him off the hook. After all, it was pretty clear he wanted Naoto to compete.

"Kanji-kun, are you still okay as far as the mandatory attendance policy? I don't think it would be wise to disappoint a teacher too much." Yukiko remarked ever so snidely, yet cleverly at the same time. She was entirely right; skipping any event would spell disaster for him since he was required by contract to show up to everything to make up for his absences. Yukiko could totally be a lawyer with how well she seemed to understand how this shit worked, even more so how she could use it to her own agenda.

"You are a scary gal, you know that, Senpai…?"

"Just leave it to us to dress you guys up. Rise-chan's with us too. There's no way you won't turn out pretty." Yukiko tried to reassure the very reluctant Kanji; as if what he needed was just reassurance. He didn't need reassurance, he needed friends to realize how emotionally damaging this was to someone in Kanji's position. Kanji sighed after a moment, turning his eyes towards Yukiko with what could best be described as 'hopeless hope.' Like, he had no hope of getting out of this; he could only hope that they could at least minimize the crash damage. Even though this was all their fault in the first place and were STILL trying to force Kanji to do it despite knowing that.

"Y-You're positive we'll be pretty…?" Kanji questioned, finally giving up on resisting participation in the event. Yukiko nodded with reassurance that Kanji would look like the prettiest girl a guy could possibly be. Aka, not pretty at all. The other guys couldn't help but slap their foreheads as Kanji gave into the girls' little game. Fight it at all costs. They'd have to take the rest of the guys dead before they took them alive.

"Why are you suddenly okay with this? WHY do you want to look PRETTY. That's not a fucking good thing!" Justin pointed out with exasperated annoyance. It was ridiculous how easily Kanji was giving into all of this, knowing full well that nothing good could come out of it. Why? Because he'd be pretty. Why would that even be reassuring? If the girls offered him ten bucks to do it, maybe that would be a little more understandable. Turns out that you CAN own what none could buy; and that was Justin's dignity if the price was high enough.

"Well if we're gonna do this, might as well go all the way with it." Kanji shrugged, as if being determined was going to make this any better. It would just make it look creepier when he got on stage. If anything, they should bitch and moan the whole time to make it clear that they were not the ones who signed themselves up; maybe that would keep their reputations intact.

"There's nothing manly about being a woman! I seriously refuse…" There was more wisdom in Yosuke's words than what one would assume from him pointing out the obvious. Of course there was nothing manly about not being a man, but that wasn't the point. The point was that competing in this event was denying their true nature, being untrue to what defined them. They weren't the world's most masculine men, but they knew what they were and they were glad to be men. The girls were asking the guys to do something completely opposing what they really were. Then again, Yosuke had done the same to them, so I guess they were even?

"Kashiwagi's sure gonna get angry if you don't show up… Maybe you and Kanji-kun can be classmates next year." Chie threatened Yosuke, knowing full well that the promise of being held back a year would not sit well with his parents. Or him really. Justin had actually considered taking that offer. Wasn't like he cared about school anyway; if anything Chie would be digging her own grave with that promise. No more sitting next to Justin in class, no more of him helping her with her studies; they wouldn't graduate together, etc. etc. If she went through with that threat to Justin, well, she'd regret it immediately.

"Wh-Why is this happening…? We all end up in the same boat, without our consent… What kinda joke is this…?" Yosuke grumbled to himself, looking as though he wanted to cry himself. Chie just sort of leaned forward, staring into Yosuke's eyes with a vicious glare, teeth clamped tightly together.

"The exact same joke you pulled on us!"

"And the punchline is now everyone's fucked. Good job guys; laughing really hard over here."


	186. Chapter 185: October 29, 2011

CHAPTER 185

October 29, 2011

* * *

"C-Come in for a first-hand experience with group dating… Ooh… This is so embarrassing… There's not that many people passing by here in the first place…"

It was the first day of the school festival, and all the sophomoric members of the Investigation Team were stuck in their homeroom managing whatever the hell this group date bullshit was. But only them, because god forbid anyone else actually show up for their event. Not that it really mattered anyway; no one had actually showed up to partake in the event. Justin supposed if there was any bright side to this horrible, horrible idea, it was that they didn't actually have to do any work, unless of course you were Yukiko and had the horrible job of trying to sell the concept of a group date cafe. Hell, Hisako had to keep bitching at Justin to keep his feet off the tables as he leaned back in his chair. Justin simply flipped him off and went back to not giving a shit.

"I think we need some shills to drum up interest." Hisako remarked after a moment, disappointed in their turn out. It wasn't like they NEEDED to make a certain profit quota or anything; hell they didn't even get paid, so why would anyone want to drum up business for something like this. For the glory of knowing your idea wasn't a complete failure? I don't think anyone questioned this group date café bull was going to bomb more than a C4 explosive.

"Shills…? Uh, who?" Yosuke questioned. Who exactly were they going to get to try and draw in business. Clearly no one was interested in this shit anyway; and it's not like they were going to pay someone just to look interested. Justin would rather burn his wallet's contents than spend even a single cent hiring someone to feign a group date. Alas; in the end, not a single cent would need to be spent, only portions of their dignity.

"Who else is here besides us?" Hisako pointed out. Why pay for outside labor when they could do it themselves after all? Justin had been leaning precariously in his chair, tipping the stool back and forth with his foot, but as the suggestion of doing this themselves assaulted his ears, he had lost his balance and tipped over to the ground beneath him. Hard too; but it was alright because Chie helped him back up to his feet. You'd be surprised how often that happened; sometimes they got lucky and he didn't hit his head. This was one of those times. He was very conscious and very pissed off at the idea.

"Are you shitting me? No! That's an AWFUL idea!" Justin remarked with great annoyance, steadying himself using the table beside him. Most of the people in the room were dating one of the others, so the very fact of having to 'date' two other people at the same time was absolutely disgusting. Besides, this group date bullshit was… well… bullshit. Justin didn't even know HOW a group date worked; sounded awkward trying to get intimate, even mock intimate, while there were several other people present. Plus… there was only two girls and four guys. That was, uh… not gonna do wonders drawing in business; it would look fake as hell.

"Do we have a choice? We need customers to get the ball rolling. If there aren't many people passing by, we have to get the attention of the ones who are by any means necessary." Hisako tried to reason with Justin, though he wasn't having much luck in that regard. As long as Justin was in a position to argue; he probably would. Which might have made it a good thing that at that very second Kanji had walked through the door.

"Yo, how's it going? I came to check up on you… guys?" Kanji remarked as he walked through the door, a little confused over the bewildered expressions over everyone's face, as well as why no one was actually doing anything. Hisako was more than pleased by Kanji's sudden appearance though; because as long as Hisako was here, Justin was going to fight him every step of the way. What Justin needed was an order that could not be disputed.

"Hey great, so you guys get on it, and I'll go advertise; kay, bye." Hisako remarked before quickly dashing out the door, leaving the group behind to have to sort all this out on their own. Justin was flabbergasted to say the least. Leave it to Hisako to leave an order like 'date each other,' and not actually partake in their suffering. Justin took it back; this guy WAS the perfect politician.

"What an asshole." Justin remarked with annoyance, cracking his back in place after his collision with the floor. Sometimes fate just said the cruelest things to the Investigation Team; this was no exception. Justin would have liked Hisako to tag out with a girl at the very least, but alas, it seemed he just didn't give a fuck. They were scheduled to cross-dress tomorrow anyway; he didn't care if they looked gay. "…Goddammit; who wants to be the woman?" Justin eventually sighed, realizing he really didn't have room to argue if there was no one to argue with. I mean, he supposed they could just NOT do it; but he got a feeling that would cause more trouble than not of someone were to show up.

Eyes slowly darted back and forth between the guys as they tried to decide who would be the bitch out of the six of them. Kanji didn't even know what was going on and he could tell being the woman in this situation was the less than ideal. It only took a split second before the guys realized they weren't going to work out who was going to pretend to have a vagina just by staring each other down or talking it over. No, the only logical course of action was to dive for the seats on the guy's side and hope not to get crushed in the process. Justin had the disadvantage of starting out on what was to be the girls' side of the table, but then, he was the first to dive for a chair; over the table in fact, and while he hit his head on the chair on the way over, he was on top of the chair. That was a victory for him. Yu didn't have much trouble going for a seat; it was simply a matter of Kanji and Yosuke diving for the same chair. And I don't think I need to explain how the man with the more body mass was easily able to bump the other guy away from the seat and towards the floor. Yosuke, needless to say, was less than pleased as he rose back from his coffin on the floor, rubbing his forehead with both annoyance and pain.

"A-Are you serious?" Yosuke remarked with exasperated annoyance. Of course with his luck he would be the one that would be sitting on the girls' side. Chie and Yukiko just sighed a bit before timidly taking their seats across the table. Whether they purposely sat across from their respective boyfriends or not was really up for question, though it was clear they weren't really enjoying the predicament they had been thrust into. Not even Yukiko who had seemed so curious what a group date was like the day she had voted for it. Maybe it was just because she was so shy; maybe because she was realizing this actually wasn't a good thing she had signed up for. Who ever thought having a date with someone while other people were around was a good idea. Well besides Yosuke apparently.

"Actually, what the hell is this?" Kanji questioned as everyone finally took a seat; even Yosuke, though it took Chie practically pulling at his collar to get him to finally stop being such a baby and sit. Not like anyone was going to see this anyway. She wasn't sure why they were even bothering to do this. With Hisako gone, it's not like anyone would bitch them out for not trying to commit fraud in the worst way possible.

"A mock group date…" Yosuke sighed with disappointment. Kanji needless to say, practically tried to jump out of his seat and run to the door; but much like Chie had held Yosuke down in his seat, Justin had held Kanji back before he could dart off. If they were suffering through this, he was going to suffer with them. It was only a shame he managed to get paired up with Yosuke. "I-I mean, we're on a group date!" Yosuke suddenly perked up, trying to phone it in with a fake female voice. It made Justin want to gouge his ears out with a pencil for the record, it was that horribly annoying and bad, not to mention just creepy. No one said Yosuke had to pretend to be a girl. If anything, it just made it seem that much more fake.

"You don't have to talk like a girl…" Chie pointed out with slight annoyance. If they were going to do this, she'd rather do it without Yosuke screeching in her ear in an attempt at trying to sound feminine. It was just totally unrealistic. But then, this was coming from the girl who's imitation of a guy was just as bad; albeit, less strainful on the ears. It was silent for a moment, nothing really being said between anyone. Mostly because none of the people present had been on a group date; they didn't really know how you were supposed to start this shit. Just casual conversation? Who would have thought that Kanji of all people would be the one to try and start this thing up.

"S-So, what are your hobbies…?" Kanji stuttered a bit, trying to break the awkward silence and jumpstart this thing. He didn't want to be there, but if he was going to do this, he was going to go all in. Kanji really needed to redefine his definition of what was and wasn't worthy of going all in for. The guy put up with more bullcrap than any human being should simply because 'if you have to do it, might as well do it right.' _No man, fight the system! Don't stand for this bullshit!_

"I like, uh, martial arts in general. M-Mainly watching them… Ahahah… Yikes, this is really embarrassing…" Chie timidly replied; as if everyone there didn't already know that anyway. Though that last part was a huge lie; she had kicked holes in her walls and quite possibly Justin's gut on several occasions; she practiced a hell of a lot more than she watched those movies, no doubt in Justin's mind.

"Nothing embarrassing about having a hobby." Justin pointed out with a shrug of his shoulders, again leaning back in his chair using his foot as support. He was really making it hard to sell the image that they were really on a date; but then, the group was slowly but surely starting to stop giving a fuck. This was awful, and they knew it.

"M-My hobby is, um… defeating Shadows?" Yukiko remarked after a moment, digging around her mind for SOME kind of hobby. She couldn't really think of any time she had a lot of freetime, so to think of something she did for enjoyment was hard. Well, it was pretty clear that defeating shadow was not a hobby though; if anything it was a job. All of the guys, even Yosuke, couldn't help but give her a dirty look. It was such a good thing no one else was here right now, or she would have really blown it.

"That's not a hobby!" Yosuke scolded her, glaring at her the best he could with Chie between him and her. Yukiko, needless to say was pretty embarrassed right off the bat. She should have known that wouldn't quite count as a hobby. She always seemed to mix up vocations and hobbies for some reason. Maybe because all she ever did was work at the inn or beat the crap out of evil demons. Her vocation quickly HAD become her hobby as a result; whether she liked it or not.

"O-Oh yeah, sorry…"

"Okay, then we'll ask you a question next! Umm, umm…" Chie tried to scrape the back of her brain for something to ask. You'd think the obvious option would be to just talk about the usual stuff she talked to Justin about; but alas, what they normally talked about wasn't exactly great stuff for finding out about your partner. It was either Justin telling some pretty corny jokes or talking about movies. And by that I mean Justin complaining about every movie ever. I guess the guy just could not be satisfied by anything. Except for Saw apparently. You know, for a guy who acted like he was some sort of movie critic, he sure had some shitty tastes in movies.

"What type of girls do you like?" Yukiko cut Chie off before she could even say anything. She wasn't really aware that you were supposed to ease into topics like that. Basically; anything dating related, Yukiko was pretty much clueless on. Honestly, thank god Yu was such a lady's man, otherwise things would get really awkward. Of course, that was irrelevant, because even if the question was direct, it was a question that didn't need to be asked. Almost in complete synchronization the guys all gave Yukiko this blank, 'are you serious' expression. Hell even Kanji thought it was pretty obvious at this point who he had a thing for; even if he continued to deny it.

"Did… Did you seriously just ask that?" Justin questioned, to which Yukiko just kind of shrunk back down into her chair. Two for two; one more strike and she'd be out. Honestly, Justin didn't like making her feel like an idiot, but there were just some things that popped out of her mouth that made it so hard. Justin's eyes darted about the other side of the table for a moment, his cheek pressed against the palm of his hand, his elbow leaning against the table with disinterest. And then something struck him. If they had to answer these questions, and Yosuke was on the other side… "What about you, Yosuke? Got a special lady?"

"I plead the fifth." Yosuke immediately remarked. He wasn't stupid; he could tell what Justin was trying to do. And he had lost a couple of teeth just at the possibility of him having a thing for Maya; imagine if it he knew he was right. Yosuke wouldn't be able to walk for the rest of his days from having this legs twisted like a pretzel. No sir; he'd keep his love affairs to himself. Justin sighed and rolled his eyes. Well that didn't work out quite the way he had planned.

"Senpai, how're you doi- …Uhhh, ahaha…" While the investigation team had been trying to drum up business it seemed Rise had walked in to find themselves making assess out of themselves. Also for Kanji and Yosuke to be dating. Probably. She had assumed this was how that set-up worked from what she had heard from Yosuke's bitching and moaning a few days prior. Justin was fairly quick to swivel his chair around to meet stare Rise head on, a wuick wave of his hand to acknowledge her presence. Not that that really mattered, this was way too weird for Rise's tastes, and soon she found herself carefully backing back out towards the entrance to the room. "W-Well, seeya!" She remarked before running out. She needed to erase the image of what she just saw from her brain.

"Mark it. The group date café is officially a failure…" Yosuke sighed before slamming his head into the table in front of him. Justin thought it was pretty obvious it was going to be a failure anyway, but whatever. Not that he needed to deal with this shit much longer anyway. Just as quickly as Rise had made her way out the doorway, Maya had made her way inside. Most of the investigation team was confused why she was here as they spotted her; but Justin was well aware of her presence. He kind of needed her for something; and it just so happened that something was taking place in a couple minutes. At least, it was given the irate, impatient expression on Maya's face as she gestured towards her wrist as if pointing to an invisible watch. "Huh? Wh-What's Maya doing here?"

"I told you I had a shitty idea, right?" Justin remarked semi-sarcastically as he slowly got out of his chair, passing a quick gesture towards Maya to tell her she could get going and he'd catch up. They still probably had a couple minutes before they'd need to be ready anyway. "Well, it's time for the shit to hit the fan." Justin chuckled a bit as he pushed his chair in. Chie just pinched her forehead. She was able to put two and two together fairly easily. After all, what would Justin need Maya here for if not THAT.

"And you're going to do this with just a guitar and a drummer?"

"Why not, Jack White did it."

"Jack White had talent."

"WHOA! Right to the ego!"

* * *

"Thank you; everyone give a round of applause to the Black Islands."

Justin and Maya were standing near the edge of the stage, waiting for their turn to go up. They were the last act for the day since they had signed up so late. Turns out that it wasn't uncommon for bands to play at the culture festival, which was a huge plus because it meant it was just a matter of Justin discussing whether or not he should have the right to a microphone after the elections earlier that year. They were totally going to regret giving Justin the benefit of the doubt, for the record. In the mean time though, Maya and Justin just had to wait their turn to go up.

"_Why are we doing this again?" _Maya signed off after a moment, watching as the previous band slowly descended off the stage, smiling and waving and generally acting full of themselves. I guess that was alright though given that's generally what rock stars did. Not that they were rock stars, but you know; garage bands were close enough right? Justin shrugged, just eyeing the previous band as they made their exit.

"Number of reasons really. One because I don't want to do that group date café. Second because I want to make an ass out of myself. And third; because why not? It's always a lot of fun." Justin grinned slightly, taking a quick moment to check the tuning on his guitar. Unlike Maya, who already had a drum set set up on stage, Justin had to carry his instrument on stage; partially because he didn't use the standard tuning on his guitar. Usually it was set to drop C; this was no exception. Partially because Chie wasn't available to play bass, so he was gonna have to imitate it as best he could where needed. Maya just curved her eyebrows up in a slightly saddened expression, her eyes daring around the auditorium. It wasn't very crowded; not a whole lotta people showed up after all. It wasn't the crowd that was upsetting her though; it was just… this place. "Hey, you alright? You don't look so great." Justin remarked, noticing the longing expression in Maya's eyes. She just shook her head though before passing a quick flick of her wrist towards Justin, neither confirming nor denying something was up, but still making it clear she didn't want to talk about it.

"And now ladies and gentlemen, our final performance of the day. Let's give a warm welcome for Mothership." Mr. Kentaro announced before making his way away from the microphone and off the stage. Being the music teacher and all, he was in charge of hosting this event; more specifically insuring students didn't pick something too inappropriate. The thing about that though is that he didn't believe in censorship, and since none of the other teachers showed up to these things, no one could prove he was letting kids play whatever the hell they wanted. Justin had considered taking advantage of that and playing the filthiest song he could think of; but in the end, it just wasn't worth it. He'd much rather act like a smart ass with his song selection than a sociopath.

Justin and Maya slowly took the stage; or at least, Justin did anyway, waving his hand in a disinterested fashion as he stepped out onto the stage. Maya pretty much just dashed for the drums. She didn't really know how to make an entrance apparantely. Oh well; wasn't too big of a deal. There were a couple of people clapping in the audience, mostly people that had seen Mothership perform last time; though they did have to wonder where half the band was. Not that they had to wait long to get an answer; Justin was well aware there was going to be confusion when he took the name Mothership without the actual band. "Thank you. Before we start I'd like to make a quick apology, most of the band couldn't make it today because they suck donkey balls." Justin remarked snidely, but oh so monotone at the same time. Got a couple of chuckles anyway, at least from everyone that wasn't Mr. Kentaro. Justin passed Maya a quick glance to make sure she was ready. Given that she was looking under her fingernails for dirt with impatience, it was probably safe to assume she had been ready for a while.

"We are Mothership, and we're here to make you think about death and get sad and stuff!" Justin shouted before strumming away at his bottom string, tuned in such a way to get this deep, distorted sound out of it that made him sound a little out of tune. That was garage rock for you; but at least it sounded good at the same time. Soon he was strumming a three note chord progression, slowly approaching the microphone so his mouth was mere centimeters away, creating an echo kind of effect when he went to speak into it.

_This is the beginning of the song._

Maya began to hammer away at the drums at that moment, flipping her hair slightly as she matched Justin's tempo, a couple fills here and there because why the fuck not? Justin made a note to himself not to grin at all while he was on stage as part of the joke, but even then he was having a hard time. You know, Maya didn't exactly play real drums, at least not on a regular basis, but it was nice to see she had SOMETHING to distract her from her worries, even if for only a couple minutes in the day.

_I'm hearing voices_

_Animal noises_

_Crème de la crème._

_The feminine abyss_

_I'm reaching my threshold_

_Staring out into the sublime._

_My body's stupid_

_My stereo putrid_

_Spilling out music_

_Into raw sewage_

_Reaching my threshold_

_Staring out into the sublime_

Justin's foot began to tap along to the drums, as if the beat in the background was slowly taking control of his body. He kinda wanted to just kick over the microphone from the pure adrenaline pulsating through his body as he hammered away at his guitar strings. That was part of the problem with Justin and rock music, he supposed; it made him just want to break shit. And until you made it big and could afford to replace your instruments after you smash them against the wooden boards beneath you, that wasn't really an option. Maya herself was getting a little cocky with the way she was drumming those drums. There were a couple times where she'd only drum with one stick, taking a sip out of her water bottle in the process, not to mention some of the funky ways she crossed her arms while drumming. At least she was creative about it.

_My threshold_

_My threshold_

_Reaching my threshold._

_I'm hearing voices_

_Animal noises_

_Crème de la crème._

_The feminine abyss_

_I'm reaching my threshold_

_Staring out into the sublime_

Justin bobbed his head up and down as his fingers made their way back and forth the few chords he needed to play. It wasn't a complex song; but that was partially the beauty of it. A simple riff played over and over again, a simple beat that was easy to follow along, and more importantly if you were at a concert, to dance to. No one of course was dancing in the audience, but several people were tapping their feet, or nodding their heads in time to the guitar.

_Threshold_

_I explode_

_Reaching my threshold_

_Threshold_

_My threshold_

_My threshold._

And from there it was all bridge, Justin playing a small variation of the original riff, throwing in a couple of other chords raising up the neck of guitar, a couple short licks here and there just to spice things up. Maya had started to go batshit insane as the song came closer and closer to the end, just hitting every drum she could in this chaotic big bang of a finale. That's not the way the song was supposed to be played mind you, but then, it didn't sound half bad, so Justin wasn't going to hold it against her. And so the two pounded away at their respective instruments; hell Justin knocked over the microphone in the process, actually getting the wire caught around his neck in the process. Which was kind of cool because Justin managed to get it wrapped in a way that almost looked like a noose. Which made it a good thing the song ended soon after, a couple bangs of the drum on Maya's part and blackening out on the lights as the song came to a close. God knows Justin needed to get that thing untangled before he accidentally choked himself to death.

There were applause from the few people who had showed up to watch amateur hour (and one guy who sayed he was in lesbians with that song. Justin wanted to run off stage and hug that motherfucker.) Thankfully Justin managed to get the wire off him before the lights faded back on so it didn't look like some horrible freak accident; but then, most people didn't even miss a beat to leave the auditorium, so he wasn't too concerned about people seeing that. Justin sighed with exhaustion, wiping his brow for the sweat that was coming down his forehead. Hammering at a guitar took a lot more effort than you would think apparently; which begged the question how Maya was managing to do it with the drums without breaking a sweat. Probably because she had been able to drink water with her free hand.

"Great show as always guys." Mr. Kentaro praised the two, taking to the stage to start cleaning this shit up for tommorow's pageant. Which coincidentally, he could hage swore Justin had been signed up for. Yeah, that was a little weird; but hey, he wasn't judging if that was the kind of thing Justin was into. Lots of great artists were gay after all. Of course, in the process of congratulating the two and picking up some cords, it struck him he had never actually met the drummer, despite seeing her here on several occasions. "Oh I'm sorry, I don't believe we've been introduced. I'm Mr. Kentaro; and you are?" Maya smiled for a moment before making a couple signs with her hands, spelling out her name. Well, Kentaro was pretty confused right off the bat. He wasn't stupid; he knew sign-language meant she was either deaf or mute. He just hadn't expected it is all. Justin had spotted the confused expression on Kentaro's face and slowly made his way over to the drum set, leaning against the bass drum as he stared at his former music teacher.

"Sorry, she can't really talk." Justin explained, though doing so only went to upset Maya a bit. Figures she couldn't even introduce herself without making a big thing out of it. And what the hell gives with Justin apologizing for her disability. She wasn't going to be sorry for something she couldn't control dammit; that wasn't FAIR. "This is my sister Maya."

"You two the same age?" The music teacher questioned, not sure who to really address in this conversation. He was talking to Maya, but obviously he couldn't understand her responses without Justin translating for her. Plus, he wasn't sure whether to acknowledge her apparent lack of ability to speak. I mean, do you just kind of ignore that when someone brings it up? No one wants to have their faults discussed after all; it was just a matter of whether she considered her disability a fault or not. She shouldn't, but you know how some people get.

"Kinda. Maya's a couple months older than me. Which reminds me, I should probably get working on getting you a birthday present…" Justin made an aside to Maya, a sudden occurrence hitting him that Maya's birthday was coming up. Maya didn't really care though; she didn't celebrate her birthday anyway. Just another day closer to death after all, nothing worth throwing a party over. She just flicked her wrist at Justin, dismissing the idea. She probably should have known it would take more than that to deter Justin. Mr. Kentaro was very confused for the record how Maya could only be a few months older if they were siblings. Wouldn't there need to be at least a nine month gap inbetween?

"Shouldn't you be at your own school's culture festival right now?" Mr. Kentaro questioned with interest. If they were the same age, then surely they must both go to school, right? It was a wonder why they went to two different places, but alas, Kentaro just assumed that was so Maya could get special education for her disability. She didn't NEED to of course; but it wasn't exactly out of the question, and they did have places in Inaba for that kinda stuff. Okay, they had one place, and Maya was already signed up for classes there, but you get the point. Maya just curved her eyebrows up with sorrow, a sad sensation gripping her gut right now. Seemed that was the problem with bringing Maya along on this little expedition all along. She really did want to go to school; Mr. Kentaro wasn't helping right now. Maya sighed as she took a sip of her water, trying to keep her mind off the topic.

"Oh uh… Maya doesn't go to school. Parents died a while ago, and we can really only afford to send one of us…" Justin sighed. He hated how it sounded like he was stripping Maya of the right to an education; if anything, he wished she could go to school instead of him. God knows she had more of a right to learn than the guy who didn't even know if he wanted to go to college. But alas, he couldn't just send her to school, not until his eighteenth birthday anyway. Otherwise his trust fund would become null and void, and NEITHER of them could go to school. Hell, they'd lose the house. Mr. Kentaro passed Justin a funny look, what Justin had assumed at first was him being condescending for Justin's decision to deny this young lady schooling. Which wasn't entirely untrue, but not entirely correct either. For you see, despite living in Japan for months now, and despite knowing several people who really should have imparted this knowledge upon him, Justin was blissfully ignorant of one simple fact.

"I don't understand. Schooling's free for disability students." Okay, that caught the two off guard. Hell; Maya had spat up the water that was in her mouth, the news striking her like a wrecking ball. Justin and Maya were just… speechless. Their eyes met each other, though their jaws were wide open. They didn't have the slightest clue this was a thing; WHY had no one told them this was a thing? Did no one assume she wanted to go to school? What the fuck guys, thanks for dropping the ball!

"I… beg your pardon?"

"You didn't know?"

"I… Jesus… This is… This is amazing." Justin couldn't even find the words to express the anger, yet joy he had found in the news. He was so pissed no one had told him this earlier, but at the same time, he was only happy that SOMEONE knew, and that someone had given Maya a great gift. Maya's look of confusion slowly shifted to one of pure joy, tears starting to well up in her eyes as she turned her gaze to Justin. Justin smiled back, though he couldn't think of any words to say to her. "Uh, could you just give us a moment?" Justin requested of his former teacher. Kentaro took a quick glance at his wristwatch; after all he did need to get this place cleaned up. Thankfully, seemed he could spare a couple minutes for a few kids who had just found gold.

"Sure, no problem." He remarked before departing. He'd return in a few minutes to pick everything up. For now; he'd let those children decide what they were going to do with the news. In actuality, no words were spoken between the two once Mr. Kentaro left.

Maya simply jumped up from her seat and latched onto Justin for dear life in an overjoyed embrace.

* * *

**MUSIC**

Threshold - Beck / Sex Bob-Omb


	187. Chapter 186: October 30, 2011

CHAPTER 186

October 30, 2011

* * *

"You know, squirming is only going to make this harder."

So it was the day. Yes THAT day. The day where Justin and all the other guys were going to lose their manhood in front of the entire school. You might as well have just castrated the guy; at least that would be over quickly, and debatably less painfully. At the moment, all of the guys had been isolated in a room alone with their respective make-up artists. In this case Chie was doing Justin's, though he would not stop moving anytime she went to put make-up on. It was like counting to three than chickening out on three because you realized what happened on three was actually terrible. Needless to say, Chie wasn't exactly making much progress getting Justin ready for the event, which was actually kind of irritating, even if she wasn't particularly looking forward to sending Justin on stage looking like a girl anyway.

"No. Screw it. I'm not doing this. I REFUSE to put that shit on." Justin finally declared, deciding he was done trying to go through with this, jumping out of the chair just in case Chie was fed up enough to apply it anyway. She was kind of pissed off that Justin kept wasting her time like that, but she did understand why he wouldn't want to put that shit on, so she couldn't be TOO mad. She just sighed before dropping the make-up kit she had managed to borrow from Yukiko to the side.

"You have to though; they'll hold you back if you back out now." Chie remarked with concern. Justin highly doubted they'd actually hold him back a year for not wanting to cross-dress, at least, not unless they wanted a law-suit on their hands; but then, Justin wasn't exactly in great disciplinary standings after that whole incident with Ai, so he wouldn't even rule it out at this point. Justin crossed his arms, pushing his ass into the desk behind him as he contemplated the matter.

"There's gotta be SOME way out of this…" Justin muttered to himself, rubbing at the stubble around his chin as he tried to find an excuse not to have to do this. That was another problem in its own right; the fact that Justin very much did have facial hair. If they were going to dress him up like a chick, that was going to have to go, and quite frankly while Justin wouldn't mind shaving, Chie seemed to like it, so he had no intention of getting rid of the hair along his chin. But regardless, the two simply sat there, trying to use all the brain power at their disposal to think of a way out of this; not only for Justin, but also Chie, since whatever excuse Justin could think of could probably double for her, right? Well Chie wasn't so lucky in that regard; though Justin certainly was when inspiration walked right through that door. No, seriously. Right through it.

While the two had been thinking on the matter, Maya had waltzed in with a huge stack of paperwork. After finding out the day prior that Maya could attend school for free… Well, I don't think there was any doubt that she wanted in on that. She had went to the office to get any paperwork she'd need to apply for the school year, as well as paperwork pertaining to her disability. Seemed she had a LOT of shit to fill out for her transfer; and that wasn't even getting into what grade she was supposed to go into. Was it going to be based on her age or what she completed? Because if it's the latter, she technically shouldn't even be going to high-school in the first place. "Holy crap that's a lot of paperwork." Justin remarked as Maya made her way in the room, eyes on the paper the entire time.

"_No kidding. I'm still trying to figure out what DOB means." _Maya signed off to the boy, taking a seat in one of the free empty desks beside Justin and Chie. Justin still hadn't imparted the good news on the others yet; figured it would be a surprise when she walked into school once the paperwork cleared, so Chie was a little confused what all the forms were for.

"…Date of birth." Justin clarified for Maya with a slightly exasperated tone of voice. You would have thought that would be obvious, but apparently not. Maya blushed with embarrassment as Justin pointed out the stupidity of her inquiry. Of course it was date of birth; how the hell did she overlook that?

"_Right. I knew that." _She signed off before throwing the papers onto the desk and scribbling her birthday down. Justin couldn't help but smirk and shake his head a bit before turning his attention back to Chie. They still needed an idea on how to get him out of having to do this. But what? At this point the only way they were going to get Justin out of this was if he had an identical twin who just so happened to want to take his pla…

Wait a second…

Justin got up from his seat, slowly turning his eyes over to where Maya had been sitting a moment earlier. She was standing up for the time being, crouched over the desk to scribble something down. This was probably a really stupid idea, but Justin thought he might be onto something. He quickly hopped up from his desk and made his way beside Maya, trying to measure his height against hers using his hand. Maya didn't really notice when he first started doing it, but she definitely noticed once he started waving his hands around trying to get an idea of her height. She was roughly the same height as Justin, maybe a little shorter; but not too much to make a difference. Maya spun around slowly after a moment, trying to figure out what in the hell it was Justin was doing behind her back.

"_What the hell are you doing?" _She inquired, a kind of annoyed expression on her face. She didn't know a damn thing about the two pageants going on today, so she wasn't really able to put two and two together. Justin just rubbed his chin a bit. Obviously as it stood Maya didn't really look too much like Justin; the obvious differences being in hair color and eye color. But eye color was a subtle enough thing that no one would really notice just standing in the audience, and hair color could easily be remedied with some hair dye. Obviously Maya liked her natural hair color, but it's not like they couldn't just wash that shit out after the show anyway right? The freckles could be hid away with enough make up, no problem; and since Maya always wore that baggy hoodie, her… uh… feminine curves, shall we say, wouldn't show through enough to give away that it totally wasn't a guy in her position. The only thing that couldn't really be remedied was the jawline, but I imagine that wouldn't be too much of a problem; no one was going to care about that in a cross-dressing contest anyway. If anything, it would get Justin bonus points.

"Hey Maya… How would you like to do me a favor?"

* * *

"Ladies and gentlemen! We now begin the second day of the Culture Festival with the ever-popular "Miss" Yasogami Pageant!"

It was time, and the gears were now spinning with no signs of stopping. No backing out now for any of them. Which is why it was great Justin had backed out far before they had to take the stage. You know, it was surprisingly easy to get Maya to agree to this; despite the fact that she was a little insulted at first After all, replacing a guy in a beauty pageant? What was Justin trying to say, that she looked like a dude? Because he could think of a certain someone in Justin's life that passed a lot easier for a guy than she did. But it didn't matter, she agreed anyway; after all, she was in a pretty damn good mood thanks to the news yesterday, she could deal with something like this for a few moments if it served as a thanks to Justin for bringing her into drum yesterday. If he hadn't… well, they'd probably never know about the school's policies regarding the disabled.

"_Are you sure this is a good idea?" _Maya questioned, peeking out from around the curtain to the stage. The guys were supposed to enter from the other side; but alas, they would obviously recognize Maya immediately and throw a bitchy fit about Justin backing out of this when they still had to do it. Maybe they should have asked Maya to take their place first. Unless you were Kanji in which case you had NO chance of Maya being able to imitate you. Justin smiled a bit, a reassuring pat of her shoulder to give her the confidence to go through with this.

"You'll be great I promise." Justin remarked. I mean, granted, she was a competing against a bunch of guys, so she was going to win anyway (at least, she damn well better), but it was always nice to have moral support on something like that. Maya smiled before backing away from the curtain slightly, waiting to end up getting called on stage. She'd probably have to run around to the other side once Yu made his way on stage so she didn't mess around with the way this event was coordinated. "Besides; you look good as a blonde."

"_I'll stick with brunette."_ She signed off. It was hard to tell when she was being sarcastic or not through sign-language, but there were little things she did with her facial expression that made it clear when she was trying to be a smartass. Not that she didn't prefer her natural hair color mind you; but it wasn't really that big of a deal either way.

"Let's get right down to it and introduce our first contestant! She's a runaway express train who's Inaba born and bred, and can kill with both her fists and her looks! Presenting Kanji-chan of the first-year Class 3!" The announcer, who was wearing a pink afro for some ungodly reason, announced, extending his hand out towards the other end of the stage. At first Justin had expected Kanji to MAYBE be able to pull it off, if only because Rise was in charge of his makeup and shit, but then he remembered that Kanji was… Kind of a walking behemoth. Cross-dressing and him just never was going to work out. Maya and Justin's jaws practically hit the floor as Kanji stepped out. Justin actually wanted to hurl. He looked like Marilyn Monroe, if Marilyn Monroe were a transvestite.

"Can… Can we just give you the trophy now and save ourselves the horror of whatever Yosuke and Yu look like?" Justin proposed, never more serious in his life. He was never going to be able to look at Kanji the same way. At the very least, it seemed he was well aware that how he looked wasn't exactly… well… attractive in any sense of the word. If anything, it was the exact opposite. So I guess that was a bright side. Maya just stuck her tongue out, scrapping it against the top of her teeth as if trying to get the awful taste this image had left in her mouth out. What was the taste? Rotten cereal and vomit. Speaking of, she really needed to start checking expiration dates before she ate food.

"Now, don't rip me apart for asking, but… What would you say is your best feature?" The announcer went on as Kanji took the stage, a look of disgruntlement and annoyance on Kanji's face the entire time. It was a wonder the announcer hadn't just slit his wrists and ended the pain of staring Kanji down when he was dressed like this. He was way too enthusiastic. Kanji stared at the announcer with annoyance for a moment a 'seriously?' expression on his face as if he couldn't believe this guy was REALLY taking this seriously. Just let this be over and done with dammit.

"…My eyes?" Kanji remarked sarcastically after a moment. He didn't really want to give an answer, but it seemed this wasn't going to be done with until he played along with this charade.

"Whoa! A conventional answer from this all-too-unconventional beauty!" The announcer remarked snidely. It was amazing that Kanji was able to restrain himself from punching that fucker in the face. This was bad enough without him trying to be a smart ass the entire time. But alas, as much as Kanji wanted to strangle the bastard, the show must go on. He should just be happy the spotlight would be off him for the rest of the show. "After such a strong start, I don't know how much of a chance the others have, but here's our second contestant! An eloquent heiress of the noble Junes, she's pure disappointment from the moment she opens her mouth!"

"I'll say."

"Presenting Yosuke-chan of the second-year Class 2!" And with that, Yosuke quickly made his way out on stage, though also kind of stiffly at the same time; like his legs did not want to move and it was taking pure willpower to push on. Which was probably true in retrospect. So remember how I said Kanji's outfit was absolutely horrifying? That was partially because of the overuse of blush on Rise's part, but Yosuke… Oh god Yosuke took the cake. It wasn't even just the over abundance of makeup, it was the whole outfit. Hell, he even had a pin in his hair just having a random length of hair sticking up for no reason. Why? Because it was 'girly.' That's what he believed anyway. In actuality it was nauseating. Justin felt dirty just watching this stuff; and that wasn't even getting into Maya's reaction. She was in love with an idiot from the looks of it.

"H-Hi…" Yosuke introduced himself timidly, again trying to imitate a girl's voice. That was probably the worst part about Yosuke's little charade here. As much as he didn't want to be there, he was actively TRYING to act like a girl. At least Kanji was making it clear this wasn't voluntary; Yosuke was making it hard to decide if he wanted to do this or not.

"Now, you look ready to win in that outfit… Do you often dress like this?" The announcer continued to openly mock the contestants. I think he had caught on by now that none of the people here had actually signed themselves up, and rather than go easy on the poor souls, he was going to be a sadist and make the experience as excruciatingly painful for everyone as possible.

"Hell no!" Yosuke shouted, breaking character for just a brief moment. He was already on edge as it was without the announcer pushing him to lose his temper. I mean, seriously; he KNEW the answer to that question, don't make Yosuke play along with this stupid game just for shits and giggles. His dignity was already smashed into the ground without the announcer taking a shit all over it. "I mean… like, no way." Yosuke coughed, trying to reestablish character. Well at least they all knew Yosuke would make a great valley girl if he were born with a vagina. Which he thankfully was not.

"I've already had about enough of this, but there's still more to come! Up next, our third contestant! She has the mildly bitter tang of the city, and she's made more girls cry than there are stars in the sky! Presenting our transfer student who's been breaking hearts in the second-year Class 2, Yu-chan!" The announcer went on, extending his hand out towards the side. At first it seemed like Yu had missed his cue; in actuality, he just needed a shove from Yukiko to get him going. And even then, he did try to run back off stage. Which was understandable, because when you had silver hair like Yu; you kinda looked like an old hag when you wore a dress. Especially since he was carrying a plastic sword for some inexplicable reason. Justin sighed, running his fingers down the length of his face in what he could best describe as his fingers trying their damndest not to gouge the eyeballs out.

"The sad part about this is I'm never going to be able to have a bromance with any of these people after today." Justin sighed to himself. Not that he really wanted to get in a bromance with those three anyway. Justin and Yosuke still butted heads too much for that even to be viable. Like; they didn't hate each other, but they got on each other's nerves way too often to say they liked each other. Kanji… Well, Justin had no intention of starting a bromance with a man who was probably bisexual. You never know where that could accidentally lead. Yu was alright he supposed; though they didn't talk enough to justify a bromance, and when they did, it was usually about serious relationship shit and what not. Which Justin would really appreciate if Yu would stop talking about that crap.

"Sounds like your entrance is causing quite a stir! Did you sign yourself up?" The announcer continued in his never ending quest to make the boys look like complete weirdos and idiots. Yu hadn't even taken his place yet, and when he did, he just sort of rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. He was still pretty damn pissed about this. How come Justin was the only one the girls hadn't considered signing-up? Well except Naoto, but you know how those two got. He was on the girls' side too, you know.

"My friends forced me…" Yu sighed, glaring slightly at the girls on the side of the curtain he had just come from. They were pretty quick to awkwardly wave and run off. They didn't need the spotlight on them after all; hell they didn't need people to know the guys had been forced into it as it was, but Yu blew that plan out of the water right away. Maybe they should have gagged the fucker.

"Tell him Chie Satonaka did it!" Yosuke ordered Yu, perhaps not realizing that if he was going to pin the blame on anyone, blaming it on Chie was a bad idea. Why? Because then both Justin AND Chie would kick his ass. "Damn that Kashiwagi… How dare she tear way our innocence like this! Now I'm scarred for life, dammit!" Yosuke moaned to himself, practically on the verge of tears.

"Our last contestant already has a reputation for putting on a good show on stage. All the way from California, her bark is almost as bad as her bite; let's give a round of applause for Justin-chan of Class 2!" The announcer went on, perhaps realizing it wasn't quite as fun humiliating these guys when everyone knew they weren't doing it purposely now. Justin give Maya one last pat on the back as she took a deep breath, slowly making her way on stage. She had to remember she was acting like Justin though, so she was sure to flip off the audience while she did it. Not really her kind of thing, but whatever; anything to sell the image. I think you can imagine not only the wave of relief in the crowd as the next contestant actually looked like a girl, but also the complete and utter shock from the boys as they caught on that Justin had no intention of coming out. Their eyes darted away from Maya for only a brief second to see Justin hiding behind the other curtain, a devilish smirk on his face. Oh that motherfucker, taking the cheap way out.

"Maya? What the hell are you doing?" Yosuke whispered rather loudly past Yu to ask the question on everyone's mind. What did she get out of this besides the satisfaction of knowing she made a better girl than a bunch of guys. Maya was about to sign off a response when she remembered that she was supposed to be imitating Justin, and couldn't really, you know, do that? Instead she just tried to mouth the words to the best of her ability.

"_I could ask you the same." _She remarked sarcastically, rolling her eyes a bit before turning her attention back out to the crowd. Lot of disgusting comments circulating in the air at the moment; mostly how the guy's would 'hit it.' She wasn't sure if she should be flattered, what with everyone under the preconception she was a guy and all, she must have looked divine if she was making straight men gay, or if she should feel nothing but disgust in her chest. I think the announcer might have been onto Maya's game the whole time though, because he didn't even bother to ask her a question, perhaps realizing he wouldn't really get any satisfaction out of teasing a girl for dressing up like a girl. Which was a good thing, because Justin hadn't really accounted for the fact that Maya wouldn't be able to answer that question, with a voice or not. She had to sound like him after all.

It wasn't too long after that that votes began to circulate in. Not that they really needed to wait for people to punch in their choice to know who had won this little competition. After all, who here was the more attractive woman than the only person that actually had a vagina? Maya wasn't really one to get into pageants, especially pageants for the opposite gender, but there was something so joyful in people actually thinking she was pretty. No one used to think that about her back in California; t'was kind of sad actually. "And the winner of this year's "Miss" Yasogami Pageant is… the lovable hardass from Class 2; Ms. Justin!" Maya immediately jumped a bit with joy, excited in her victory. At least she did until Yu stopped her from getting too excited. If Justin was going to cheat his way out of this, at the very least he expected the plan to work. And that wasn't going to happen if 'Justin' looked excited to win a cross-dressing competition. The only contest where the losers are the true winner. Maya calmed down almost immediately, remembering she wasn't supposed to be happy about this; even if deep down inside she was.

"As our champion, Ms. Justin will receive a very special prize… Later this afternoon, we will be hosting the Miss Yasogami Pageant, with actual beauties this time!" Right to Maya's self esteem. No seriously, that comment hit her like a bullet dipped in nitrogen. Apparently she wasn't 'really a beauty.' I mean, yeah she wasn't supposed to be, but you could tell the announcer knew that was a girl and he was just being an ass. Which is why Justin threw a shoe at him once the lights went out and everyone left the stage. "Your reward is a position as an honorary judge in that pageant!"

"A-An honorary judge…? That's one lame prize for what you gotta go through…"

"Yosuke, did you REALLY want to win this contest?"

"Good point."

* * *

"But that's still not all for the Culture Festival's main event! There's still more to come in the Miss Yasogami Pageant."

And now for the REAL highlight of the day. Justin was sitting along a desk that had been positioned at the foot of the stage, toothpick between his teeth, feet up on the table. The other judges had told him to put his feet down, but then Justin reminded them that he just had to wear a skirt for an hour, even if it was technically Maya who had done it; he'd be damned if they were going to tell him what to do after that. And what do you know, it worked. The other guys weren't too far away from the judging table; in talking distance to Justin at the very least. Maya was going to join them, but she still hadn't managed to get the hair dye out; and they didn't need people catching on that Justin had cheated the contest, so unless she got it out soon, she was staying out of the public eye. Figures she does something nice and ends up getting punished as a result.

"The judging continues! Can you hear the crowd going wild!? Now, for our next contestant, Ms. Chie Satonaka of the second-year's Class 2! Come on out, Chie!" The announcer introduced the girl, before pointing his arm towards one side of the stage. Miss Kashiwagi and that one fat girl who would now be known as Mars's older cousin were already on stage, much to Justin's disgust and disinterest; though the moment Chie got announced he did this slow, almost sarcastic clap from where he was sitting. He knew Chie didn't want to do this, as was evident by the way she very slowly crept out on stage, her face burrowed into the neck of her jumper, but even then Justin WAS putting his vote on Chie as it was. Might as well give her a little encouragement. Chie waved timidly at the crowd, struggling to maintain eye contact with anyone in the audience. "Tell us a little bit about yourself!"

"U-Um, I'm kind of shy and reserved… And my favorite food is… pudding." Chie lied, pretty damn clearly. You know when even Yosuke could call you on your bluff, you did a shit job of trying to pass off a lie as true. Furthermore, Chie wasn't exactly unpopular at school; she knew practically everyone by this point. That said, her love for Kung-Fu and steak was more or less well-known by everyone in the building at this point. Shy and reserved was debatable; she kind of was, unless you pissed her off in which case she would kick your ass in a heartbeat.

"Would you steak the trophy on that answer, Miss Chie?" Justin remarked sarcastically, microphone in hand. That was probably the worst part about Maya winning the cross-dressing contest; it meant Justin could filter all his smart-ass thoughts through a speaker. Chie immediately glared at Justin, a little annoyed she was going to call her out on that right here right now. He got to lie on stage, so so did she.

"Hey, shut up!"

"Thank you very much! Up next, another contestant from Class 2, Ms. Yukiko Amagi!" The announcer interrupted the two's lover quarrel. There's be plenty of time for snide ass questions later; for the moment, they needed to get everyone else on stage. And given that Rise and Yukiko where the ones up next, the sooner he got those two out the better. It was really a shame that's who most of the guys were here for. Justin would have you know Chie was just as attractive, if not more than those two combined. In his eyes anyway; which admittedly weren't that great. Yukiko was a little less timid about taking the stage, though she just seemed confused once she actually got up there; like she didn't know what to say. The announcer had asked Chie a question, but for some reason he remained silent when Yukiko entered. Guess she was just going to improvise.

"H-Hello, my name is Yukiko Amagi. Um, my family runs the Amagi Inn. If you ever find yourself in the area, please give us a visit. Our hot springs are open to the public year-round, so whenever you're in the mood to enjoy them, please drop by…" Yukiko introduced herself, a slight smile on her face. You could practically hear Yu slapping himself in the forehead as the remark hit his ears. It was slowly staring to occur to everyone this week that they were all in love with idiots. Yukiko wasn't stupid, mind you; just clueless. Really, really, clueless.

"I'll take twenty." Justin remarked snidely. After all, Yukiko did somehow manage to turn a beauty pageant into a sales pitch. Not that she really got what Justin meant when he said that either; to her, it actually was a request to get twenty. Of what, she didn't know. Maybe it was orders of food; after all, the Amagi Inn did that too. But why was he ordering it here was the question.

"Alright, that'll do nicely! Next up, a very familiar face-from the first-year Class 2, Ms. Rise Kujikawa!" The announcer went on, not really caring that Yukiko had kind of flubbed that up. He was much more of a Risette kind of guy himself anyway; which was kind of creepy. Could anyone please just go to one of these pageants and not make it about who they wanted to bang… Wait, wasn't Justin doing that exact thing at the judging table? N-Not that he wanted to get it on with Chie… Wait… did he? Impossible question, if he said yes, he was a pervert, if he said no, he was a really douche boyfriend. There was no way out of the paradox Justin had manage to trap himself in. But yeah, Rise took the stage after that, and for once, someone actually knew what they were doing with this kind of shit. Hell she even blew a kiss out to the audience. Justin swore he saw someone fall over from having a heart attack. _Note to self; celebrities kill._

"Hi-hi! My name's Rise Kujikawa! I haven't been in town very long, but it's a great place and I'm 100% thrilled to be here! So sorry that I'm not working as an idol right now! Risette's gonna do her best, so I hope you'll all cheer for me!" Rise remarked excitedly, crowd roaring for their favorite idol all the while. It would surprise Justin if she didn't win, even with Justin's vote already going to Chie. There were two other judges after all, and they seemed to have their mind made up already.

"The real Risette ladies and gentlemen, in the flesh! Thank you very much! Next is the mysterious transfer student of the first-year's Class 1, Ms. Naoto Shirogane!" The announcer remarked, his motor clearly having been revved up by Rise's 'performance.' Seriously, had no one noticed her around school before or something. It's not like anyone was wearing a bikini or anything, they weren't seeing anything new. Besides; what kind of idiot would turn this into a swimsuit competition? Well besides Yosuke. And maybe Teddie. Maybe. Naoto was a lot more reluctant to get on stage. How reluctant? You know those hooks they use in old cartoons to drag someone off stage when they sucked? Yeah, they had to use one of those to get her ON stage. She was pretty damn uncomfortable from the looks of it, and Justin had to briefly wonder where her hat went.

"…I-I'm Naoto Shirogane. It's hard to believe I'm up on stage at a pageant like this… This is beyond my wildest imaginings… I-I really don't know what to say…" Naoto introduced herself, trying to play the role as best she could, cheeks red hot. At the very least, this would hopefully get rid of those love letters. No one could possibly think she was a guy anymore after this, right? "…C-Can I step back now…?" She requested after a moment, turning her attention to the announcer. Too bad that by signing Justin up for that cross-dressing pageant she had practically sealed her own fate.

"No, you're going to keep standing there and you're going to like it. In fact; go all the way up to the front of the stage." Justin instructed. Every one of the male members of the Investigation Team applauded as Justin showed her what for. They weren't sure if she signed up anyone other than Justin; but this was still good payback none the less. Naoto growled a bit before taking a deep breath, clenching her fists together tightly, eyes clutched shut as she forcefully tip-toed closer to the edge of the stage. "Perfect. Now just stay there for the rest of the pageant."

"And with that, all six uniquely beautiful contestants are on stage!" The announcer remarked ecstatically, trying to draw some applause from the crowd. He failed for the most part. I guess everyone was just wondering why Naoto had to stand at the front of the stage like that. Looked pretty embarrassing to be honest. Good. Justin hoped it was. "Now, let's have our special judge, Mr. Justin, ask them some questions." The announcer continued, turning his eyes down at the boy with his feet on the table. He was probably supposed to get up on stage to ask this shit, but he didn't feel like moving. He simply detached the microphone from the stand in front of him and held it towards his mouth.

"Good evening ladies and gentlemen; my name is Justin Tylor and today all of you are my bitch." Justin remarked snidely, a sarcastic tone to his voice as he leaned back and forth on the back legs of the chair he was sitting on, legs rested comfortably across the desk in front of him. The girls weren't sure whether they liked being called Justin's bitch, but it was pretty clear he was just putting on a show. Wasn't worth getting in an argument over at the least. "I don't think there's any question where my vote's going to, but my contract legally forces me to make at least thirteen smartass remarks in a one hour period; so let's get to it, shall we? Chie; a train leaves Chicago for Detroit going 60 mph. At the same time, on an adjacent track, a train leaves Detroit heading for Chicago going 45 mph. Detroit is 280 miles from Chicago. How far are the trains from Chicago when they pass?"

"…What?" Chie remarked rather blankly. She didn't get any of that at all. How did that even have anything to do with a beauty pageant anyway? I mean, she got that Justin wasn't actually being serious with these questions, but come on; at least try to be relevant. Not that it mattered anyway, it seemed that though the question had been aimed at Chie, Yukiko had quickly discovered the answer.

"Oh, I know! It's 160 miles!" Yukiko remarked cheerfully. Justin had pretty much just made the numbers up on the spot, so he wasn't sure if that was accurate or not; but given that this was Yukiko, he was going to assume it was. He was only surprised she was able to work the math out for that so quickly. It was like… five seconds before she had an answer.

"Five hundred points to Yukiko. Too bad the points don't matter. That's right, the points are just like a stripper's name. It just doesn't matter." Justin shrugged his shoulders a bit. He probably should have asked Yukiko a question, but since she seemed to have answered Chie's, he was just going to let her have that one. "Alright, your turn Rise. In a village, the barber shaves everyone who does not shave himself/herself, but no one else. Who shaves the barber?"

"Uh… a second barber?" Rise questioned after a moment. She didn't put too much thought into her answer, maybe because she was smart enough to realize there was no answer to a paradox. Didn't mean Justin wasn't going to pretend there WAS a right answer though, and that Rise hadn't even come close. He quickly slapped the side of his microphone to create a booming noise through the speakers. He didn't have a buzzer, so that would have to do.

"Incorrect; minus 500 points."

"But I thought the points didn't matter?"

"Right, they're just like what your girlfriend has to say when the game's on." Justin remarked sarcastically, though Chie sure as hell didn't take it that way. "Hey don't look at me, I don't even like sports. Anyway. Hey Naoto, how's it hanging up there? Can we get a spotlight?" Justin questioned, turning towards the lighting booth in the back of the auditorium. Despite the fact that it was pretty clear Justin was doing this to be an asshole, whoever was operating the lights seemed happy to oblige. After all, she DID love drama. "Right, perfect, thank. Alright Naoto, here's the million dollar question. You answer this right you go home with nothing because we don't actually have any prize money; but if you answer it wrong… Well pretty much the same thing, but you'll feel REALLY bad afterwards. Okay, here's the question. Why are you such a bitch?"

"I… beg your pardon?" Naoto questioned. She had to answer a question like this with the spotlight on her? That was really not fair in the slightest, not to mention completely humiliating. That was probably the point though in retrospect. Justin sighed before turning around to face the lighting booth again.

"Can we turn the sound on the microphone up? Testing. Perfect, great." Justin thanked whoever was working behind the scenes before slamming his microphone against the table hard, the feedback being painful to pretty much everyone in the room. "I'm sorry, I couldn't hear that answer over the feedback; would you mind repeating that?"

"I'm not going to-" Boom, once again. It was clear Justin wasn't going to stop until he got an answer. Naoto pushed her hands into her ears, flinching as the electronic booming sound of the microphone hitting the table echoed across the entire auditorium. Now it was just a matter of how she could answer that question without Justin being unsatisfied and hitting the microphone again. "…Because I'm a horrible person." She lied through her teeth, just to get Justin to stop with the microphone.

"I am so happy I was recording this session on my cell-phone. Alright, that's it for my questions. You guys still need time to put your votes in, or can I just…?" Justin turned towards the other judges. At the moment, they were still holding their ears from the booming sound of the microphone earlier. Well if they weren't going to give their input, then he was just going to go ahead and end this charade. "Okay great, Chie wins. I now pronounce us Miss and Miss Yasogami. Now everyone, go home."

"What!? Me!?"

"No, the other Chie. The one that doesn't ask as many questions."

* * *

"Hey guys, what's going on over here?"

Well both the pageants were over, thankfully, and though Chie was pretty damn pissed at Justin for declaring her Miss Yasogami. It was flattering, don't get her wrong; but come on. It was a pageant, no one wanted to have the honor of having guys harassing her over being the apparent prize of the school. Thank god most people had figured out the contest had been rigged by Justin at that point. At least, they had once they could hear their thoughts over the buzzing in their ears. At the moment it seemed most of the gang had been present, as well as Nanako. Seemed Dojima thought it would be a good idea to bring Nanako on down to enjoy the activities. It wasn't a half bad idea in all honesty; though it did beg the question where Dojima was. "Where's your dad, Nanako?"

"Oh, he just left. Nanako's going to hang out with us for the night." Yukiko remarked with excitement. Nanako certainly seemed excited anyway, a wide grin across her face all the while. Ah, there was nothing sweeter than a child's laughter. Or in this case just a child's smile. Justin was a little confused all the same. As much as he enjoyed Nanako's company, Yukiko's choice of words were… interesting. For the night. Was she having a sleep over at Yukiko's or something?

"For the night?"

"Mhmm." Yukiko confirmed, a quick nod of her head. "I promised you guys a while ago that we could have a celebration at my place. I figured why not today." Yukiko explained for Justin, since he hadn't really been present when Yukiko announced she was opening the doors to the rest of the team. Hell, almost everyone was already getting ready; the exception being Chie, who still was dealing with the politics that were apparently involved with being Miss Yasogami. And by that I meant they needed to take pictures of her for the yearbook. She was needless to say fighting them every step of the way.

"Wait really?" Justin questioned. Yukiko just nodded a bit in response, still smiling. "I guess I'll, uh… pack some sh-eh, uh… shirts. Yeah. That's what I was going to say."

* * *

"Aww… We're in different rooms…"

The guys had all been grouped in one room together for the night, Teddie included. Truth be told, it was hard to really call it a party when the girls were nowhere to be found, but Justin was almost entirely positive Naoto and Chie would kill him right now given the chance, so that might be for the better. Still, it was a nice room; there was just this relaxing atmosphere to the place. Justin was certainly enjoying himself. Mostly because they had a ping-pong table. Yu was actually pretty damn good at ping-pong apparently; this one ball had been in play for at least a good three minutes now.

"Well… Duh." Yosuke countered. He'd figure that would be obvious; but then, this was Teddie they were talking about, so maybe it wasn't that surprising that he wanted to be bunking with the girls. It did make it kind of ironic that this remark was coming out of Yosuke's mouth, but hey; let's not go starting shit where shit did not need to be started. Just sit back, and enjoy the mesmerizing motion of the white ping-pong ball bouncing back and forth.

"It's one thing if they were next door, but they're so far away…" Teddie moaned, like a child in a toy store begging for the last Darth Vader action figure. N-Not that Justin would know from experience or anything like that. Never met anyone like that. Aha. Ha… Ha. You're not buying this for a second are you?

"Yukiko said there weren't that many open rooms, so they're up on another floor. First thing they're gonna do is take Nanako-chan to the hot springs." Yosuke explained to Teddie. It wasn't like they had made that decision intentionally, and even if they did, after the humiliation Yosuke went through today, he kind of wanted them as far away as humanly possible. Teddie seemed so disappointed at first, but the moment Yosuke brought up the hot springs Teddie was struck by an abundance of joy.

"I-Is it one of those 'girls and guys together' springs!?" He questioned with great enthusiasm, reaching out for his great banking of creepy pervertedness from the depths of his heart. Justin got a feeling it was going to get worse if someone didn't slap him upside the head, so he decided instead of volleying the ping-pong ball back to Yu, he was going to whack it over at Teddie. The good news is it was a bulls-eye; knocked him right down to the floor. Bad news was Yu ended up getting the point. Dammit.

"Whoops; hand slipped."

"I don't wanna take more'n one bath if I don't have to. Why don't we take a dip before we hit the sack?" Kanji remarked, trying to change the subject from Justin more or less assaulting Teddie before it kicked off. God knows once Justin started to argue over something there was no stopping the fucker. Justin was ready to serve the second ball, but the moment that comment hit his ears, he had to stop himself from taking a swing.

"That's some pretty disgusting reasoning for getting in the hot springs; but I will admit, it sounds fun." Justin shrugged slightly before turning his attention back over to Yu, smacking the ball over the net and recommencing the exchange of ping-pong balls back and forth. "Springs are shallow right?"

"They'd probably go up to your neck, but you should be fine." Kanji explained for Justin. It was no secret to any of them by this point that Justin couldn't swim; though to what extent, no one could say. Was he one of those guys that just kind of struggled to stay afloat, but could if they didn't mind flailing their arms, or was he one of those guys that sunk like a stone? In the end though, I suppose it didn't matter. The guy wasn't going swimming anytime soon, so just how well he could swim was irrelevant in the long run. "By the way... 'sup with this room? It looks pretty expensive…" Kanji changed the subject. Something about this place had been rubbing him the wrong way, but he couldn't quite put his finger on what.

"Oh, you thought so too? Normally a room like this wouldn't be open during the busy season… I was trying not to think about it, but… You don't think something happened here, do you?" Yosuke mused out loud. It seemed odd to get such a good room during such a busy time for the Inn. Who knows, maybe Yukiko had been planning this for a while, so she reserved the room in advance. After all, Justin sincerely doubted there was something wrong with the room; Yukiko wouldn't have rented the room out to them if there was something wrong with the place.

"Senpai…? What're you all… quiet about?" Kanji questioned. As Yosuke's inquiry slowly dragged on, he slowly grew quieter and quieter, in what would best be described as a horrifying revelation striking him. It was on the tip of his tongue, but he just couldn't put his finger on it. He knew something was wrong though; he could just feel it.

"Now that you mention it-" Yosuke mumbled to himself. At least he had been until the phone started ringing. Despite Yu and Justin playing ping-pong, and thus the sound of plastic hitting wood was echoing through the room, it was still pretty quiet, so the sudden noise scared the ever living shit out of… well everyone. Justin ended up missing the ball Yu had rebounded his way because of it. "G-Geez, that freaked me out! Y-You answer it, Kanji!"

"That does NOT count." Justin remarked with annoyance as Kanji got up to answer the phone, a look of annoyance on his face the whole time. Yu just shook his head, denying Justin's request for a redo on that last round, a smirk on his face the whole time.

"All's fair in love and war."

"Well then I guess that means war."

"Well it certainly wasn't love." Yu shook his head, sighing a bit before throwing the ping-pong ball up and serving it back Justin's way.

"Hello? Oh, I see! Cool, thanks! That was the front desk. Said the hot springs should be pretty empty right now." Kanji called back out to the rest of the group, hanging up the phone to pass along the news to everyone else. See, the inn had a policy that had the girls and guy's separated during separate hours of the day, which made sense of course, but you know, it made it difficult to keep track. As would be evident pretty damn soon.

"Wow, Amagi Inn, great service… I broke out in a cold sweat…" Yosuke remarked cynically. He didn't come here to get the shit scared out of him. He came here to relax after the most humiliating day of his life. He swore, if it weren't for the free room tonight, Yosuke would consider never speaking to the girls again. They had to be pure evil to go through with something so… WICKED.

"Well, c'mon then, let's go wash it off."

"Again; there's a difference between a spring and a bath."

* * *

"Wow, you're good!"

The girls were all enjoying themselves in the spring at the moment, pulling all sorts of weird tricks as they floated about in the warm waters. Well; everyone except Maya, who refused to get in the water for some reason. Hell, she didn't even get changed out of her clothes to jump in. The girls had to wonder if it was because she was just shy or something. After all, it took some degree of courage to strip down to get in a hot spring; even if they did wear towels. In truth, it was because Maya wasn't stupid/

"You sure you don't want to come in?" Chie called out to Maya, practically pleading with the girl to get her in the pooling hot water. It was kind of awkward with Maya sitting there watching; they should all be having fun right now. Besides, didn't she want to get that hair dye out? I mean, yeah, she had tried washing it out earlier, so most of it was out already, but the hot water would surely get the rest of it, right? Maya rolled her eyes before shaking her head, making a couple gestures of her hands. There was only a couple problems with that though. "Uh… I'm sorry, I don't really…" Chie began. She was a bit ashamed to admit she had no idea what Maya was trying to say. She didn't speak sign-language after all, even though she wished she did. Maya was her friend after all, but she just had such a hard time learning other languages that it was hard for her to put in the effort to be able to communicate with the girl.

Maya shook her head before extending her wrist and pointing her index finger at it, like pointing to an invisible watch. She couldn't communicate through traditional sign-language apparantly, so instead she was going to have to try out charades. Not that any of the girls really picked up on even this incredibly obvious gesture. It seemed Maya's warnings were going to go unherd tonight. It was much too late anyway. As Chie was staring at Maya, she was suddenly struck the blunt force of something leaping off the platform above. Teddie to be more precise.

"Oooh, what a great spring! I'll show you all my Teddie-paddle!" Teddie shouted with enthusiasm as he rebounded off Chie's skull. Chie, needless to say was pretty damn pissed. She'd strangle Teddie right now if he didn't just dislocate her neck. She had to snap it back in place before she could beat the boy to a bloody pulp.

"Christ it's hot in here-" Justin mumbled as he walked through the door, following behind the others. It was strange; he was the last one in, yet the first to notice they weren't alone in here. Partially, because Maya stuck out like a sore thumb just leaning against a wall nearby. Christ, how was she not suffocating with her hoodie on in this place? It was killing Justin, and all he was wearing was a towel around his waist. "Guys… Don't move. Their vision is based on movement."

"Y-Y-You guys!?" Chie remarked with great shock and anger. What were the guys thinking just running in here? Trying to get a peak at them naked or something? Yeah that wasn't going to fly. It was like the girls were all on one wave length as they all simultaneously reached for some near by baskets. Justin assumed at first they were going to use it to try and hide themselves from the boys (not that they could see anything anyway, and not that Justin wanted to.) Instead the simply began to toss them at the boys. And technically by extension Maya, since she got in the way to try and stop the girls from over-reacting. She had tried to warn them several times that according to the schedule this was the guys' time. But did they want to listen? NOOOOoooo. So yeah, they group was very quickly and indiscriminately pelted with baskets, no regard to their safety as they were whacked from every direction. "Get out!"

"Out!? It's our time for the springs, YOU get out!" Justin countered; trying to defend their presence here. He would not apologize when the girls were clearly the ones in the wrong.

"Retreat!" Yu shouted back to the others, trying to escape before the barrage got any worse. It was pretty bad as it was after all, and he'd rather not risk getting hit in the balls by a huge object like that after all. Hell, Maya was taking quite a beating herself, and she wasn't even involved. It didn't matter if they were right or wrong, they just needed to get out. Justin begged to differ.

"No! This is OUR time in the springs. They are the invaders and we must defend our right to the springs!" Justin tried to encourage the group. "You all know the mission, and what is at stake. I have come to trust each of you with my life- but I have also heard murmurs of discontent. I share your concerns. We are trained for fighting shadows; we would be legends, but the records are sealed. Glory in battle is not our way; but that doesn't mean we should just back down! Before diplomacy, there were soldiers! Our influence stopped the shadows, but before that we held the line! Our influence stopped Mitsuo, but before that, we held the line! Our influence will stop the girls from pegging shit at us; in the battle today, we will hold the lin-" Justin never even got to finish his speech. Just as quickly as he was beginning to win the morale of his friends in battle, he was truck upside the head with a basket and knocked out cold.

"Okay, fuck this. Drag him out of here. We're retreating!

* * *

"Dammit… I checked again, and sure enough, the hot spring's supposed to be for men at that hour… They're so evil… Evil, I tell you…"

Everyone had gathered back in the boys room to lick their wounds; even Maya, who got a pretty nasty bump on her head. Plus she had sided with the guys, so she was more than welcome in their room if she just wanted to chill out. Justin had regained conscious only a few moments earlier, but even then, he was a little delirious. Getting hit in the head would do that to you after all. At the moment, Yosuke was pretty much crying at this point. Lady luck was practically trying to rape him at this point.

"I dunno why, but my head's all bumpy…" Teddie remarked with confused interest as he patted his head. He probably had nothing on Justin as far as head injuries went, but still; the girls did nail them all pretty hard.

"Those're lumps from the pails whacking you in the head. You got lumps, man. Ahaha…ha…" Kanji began to laugh a bit at Teddie's ignorance, but then he remembered he had a few himself, at which point he simply sighed with discontent. Why was it anytime the girls were involved with anything they somehow managed to fuck up everything for the guys too?

"Hey… guys…? Did you, uh… see anything?" Yosuke questioned. He was hoping to god there was at least some bright side to this; and that was having some wank material for later. Justin would have smacked him if he too wasn't looking for some Brightside to all of this. Plus, he was still a little delusional from getting struck up the head. He just felt dizzy, and he couldn't really think straight.

"No."

"None whatsoever…"

"I think… Wait… No, that was Rise's head. Never mind." Justin sighed. So close. If only he hadn't really thought about it; he could have given the guys some sense of hope. Maya timidly raised her hand up a bit, though it goes without saying she didn't really count since she was girl herself. Wasn't like she was looking for that kind of stuff, but when the girls kept diving into the springs with nothing but a towel on, it went without saying that Maya saw a little more than she wanted to. Oh well; she could live with it.

"Dammit… I lead a cursed life… Let's just go to bed…" Yosuke finally decided, falling backwards on the floor to stare up at the ceiling. He probably should have kicked Maya out of the room if he wanted to go to bed, but quite honestly, he didn't mind. Maya was kind of like one of the guys in a lot of ways. She always seemed to get wrapped up in the guy's sorrows, and, well… She didn't really get as bitchy about everything as the other girls did. Remember how Chie had earned the title of bro with a vagina? Maya may have stolen that from her without her knowledge; because that's essentially what she was. Just one of the guys.

"…Hold it, Senpai. Do you… hear something?" Kanji stopped Yosuke before he could close his eyes shut. Everyone stood absolutely still, trying to identify whatever it was Kanji thought he heard. Sure enough, there was this echo, almost wiling sound that rang through the room. It was very soft, but it did creep the fuck out of the guys. And Maya especially; she was superstitious as fuck, so she immediately assumed it was a ghost. And the best place to hide when you encounter a ghost was under the ping-pong table obviously enough. It was amazing no one pointed out how ridiculous she looked hiding under there. "D-Don't tell me… Is there one here…?"

"One here? O-One what…? Dude, what are you talking about?"

"This room… It's the one that announcer was staying in before she died! My mom was talking about it!" And with that, it finally struck Kanji what had rubbed him the wrong way about this room. And let's just say it wasn't a good thing in the slightest. After all, the thought of someone DEAD being in this room… This couldn't possibly be legal to continue renting this room out, right!?

"Oh God, you said it! I was trying to block it out, and you had to go and say it! S-So that's why there's talismans here… Yukiko… That witch tempted us here knowing full well…! Dammit! First the hot spring, now this! We've been completely suckered! Ohhhh crap… There's no way I'm sleeping through this!" Yosuke immediately began to panic; or at least, he did until Justin and Yu both simultaneously slapped him, trying to bring him back to his senses. It KINDA worked, but not really.

"Get a hold of yourself. There's no such thing as ghosts; and even if there was, I ain't afraid of no ghosts." Justin muttered angrily to Yosuke. In actuality, Yosuke was probably not the guy they should have been keeping an eye on this entire time. No; it was the usual suspects that always ended up getting them in trouble, and while Yosuke usually WAS the usual suspect, there was someone else that usually dragged them into some pretty shitty situations. And his name began with a T.

"I've made up my mind! I'm going to Yuki-chan's room! I can't sleep soundly unless I'm watching everyone's sleeping faces as I drift off." Teddie declared. He didn't even wait for a response before skipping off, mind already set on doing this. Which was a bad idea, because now Justin and Yu had bloody murder in his eyes. If Teddie even thought of doing this with Chie or Yukiko, he was going to wish they left him there with the girls at the hot springs.

"Wha-sleeping faces!? Are you gonna sneak into their room!? You can't be… Hey!"

* * *

"It's a surprise awakening… no, a surprise break-in… This is Teddie, reporting in!"

So, against everyone's better judgement, they had somehow managed to get dragged into the girls room. Mostly to stop Teddie from doing what he was doing, but Yu, Justin, and Maya soon discovered Yosuke and Kanji had no intention of leaving without payback. They did realize that once the girls caught them, which they would, this wouldn't really be payback as much as it was suicide, right? Maya was kind of disgusted by all of this, but hey; she wasn't going to object. Plus, it wasn't like she was going to get in trouble for going to her own room. She had to wonder why her key wasn't working though. Justin had to pick the lock to let her inside. And that's the ONLY reason he got that door open.

"Oh, check it out, a hairbrush. And it's got long strands of hair on it…!" Kanji muttered, digging through the girls shit in search of… Uh… I'm not actually sure. Probably something stupid though. I mean who the hell gets turned on by a hair on a hairbrush? Kanji apparantly.

"You people are idiots! You realize we're going to get castrated if they wake up and find us here!" Justin scolded everyone as silently as he possibly could to avoid waking sleeping dogs. He'd rather walk out with his testicles right where they were thank you very much. "You can't be serious doing this!"

"Damn straight. It's time I got revenge for the campout…!" Kanji rebutted. He had about enough of the girls kicking his ass for shit that was THEIR fault. Well; to be fair the whole thing with the tent kind of fell on Kanji; BUT EVERYTHING ELSE!

"Hey, good point! Alright, I'll get my revenge too…!" Yosuke mumbled to himself. Seemed he didn't need too much convincing.

"A-A toothbrush!"

"It's a toothbrush! Why do you NEED that you creep!" Justin scolded Teddie. He had just about enough out of the guys today. They had proven themselves to be some of the most disgusting human beings on the planet in a matter of minutes. And here Justin was feeling bad for everyone a mere ten minutes ago. Cross-dresssing then this. But the moment they started getting some kind of kick out of toothbrushes and hairs, stealing the girl's possessions… That's when he lost all sympathy.

"Holy crap… My heart's pounding… But what about Nanako-chan…?" Yosuke was struck by a sudden flash of a conscience. For just a split-second Justin had hope that getting Nanako involved would be enough of a nuclear deterent to keep Yosuke on his leesh; but alas, it seemed he just did not give enough fucks for anything to slow him and his revenge down at this point.

"Don't worry! Nanako-chan is a magnanimous girl!" Teddie gushed over Nanako, as he so often and so creepily did. Seriously, you know those watch dog sites that mark any pedophiles that live near you? Justin would like to think that one Teddie had been reincarnated with a human body, all those sites were just replaced with a photo of Teddie.

"W-Well, that's true… But try not to wake her up. She's not part of our revenge scheme." Yosuke lectured the others. _Great, let's be horrible human beings; just don't be a horrible human being to the Kindergardner_. It was amazing Maya hadn't thrown anyone out yet. I think she was just exhausted from being pegged with a bunch of baskets. At the very least she looked like she was trying to find her futon. Teddie ended up finding the futons before her, and he made it immediately clear what his intentions were.

"Ooh… I've finally reached the futons! They're fast asleep! 'Scuse me… Yuki-chan, I'm scared of the ghosts!" Teddie remarked before diving towards one of the futons. Yu immediatly darted after him to strangle the bastard. Of all the girls, he had to pick Yukiko? Maya, needless to say was not impressed. She was hoping the guys would be smart enough not to try and crawl into the futon with her after she let them stay, but only time would tell. She had no qualms kicking their asses if they pulled any funny business.

"A-Alright… I can do this too… T-Time to prove I'm a man! Ch-Chie-senpai, be gentle!" Kanji went to dive for Chie's futon, which was a combination of shocking and stupid; though he was quickly interrupted by Justin grabbing him by the collar. That wasn't gonna happen in a million years if Kanji wanted to live. In the end, Justin's quick thinking and over-protectiveness of his girlfriend may have saved Kanji in the long run. For you see, in her search for ber own futon, Maya had discovered something rather... foreboding. She immediately flashed off a few signs of her hand to the others, though it was hard to see in this darkness.

"Only two futons? But aren't there five of you here?" Justin questioned. In truth, what was really happenning here should have been immediatly obvious to Justin at this point. After all, if this WAS Maya's room, why would he need to pick the lock? He had assumed it was a faulty key, but that proved to be untrue rather quickly.

"Mmm, what's going on?" The gang all immediately froze in place as the Sounds of moaning fied the air. Oh they recognized that voice all too quickly; and they were absolutely horrified. The boys watched on in horror as the figures of Kashiwagi and Mars' fatter cousin Hanako rose from the coffins of sleep.

"Sheesh… Oh my! So that's how you guys are? Awww! You should've said so!" Hanako snorted, a slightly lustful tone to her voice. Teddied had the misnfortune of mistaking that beast for Yukiko, so he had to be extra quick about crawling away to escape from the predator starring him down.

"My, my... such naughty boys. We were crying our poor eyes out until now, you know? We thought there were no men who appreciated our beauty… Alright, boys… I'm all yours. And not a word about this to anyone!"

"... ABORT!" Justin shouted after a moment befor every single person there darted for the door. If they didn't get out now, they were about to become the prey if a bunch of maneaters. And ugly ones at that. It was a desperate struggle to storm out the door and escape their pursuers, people tripping over furniture and bumping into each other the whole way there. But they made it out all the same, Justin and Maya closin the door on their way out and barricading it shut with their backs. Never let a lion out of its cage after all. "Christ that was close... Is everyone alright?"

"HEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLP!" A sudden cry burt out from the other aide of the door, followed by banging on the wooden door. Justin's eyes widened for a moment as he looked around the group. Justin must have closed the door too soon because Kanji was strangely absent. Everyone passed each other a worried contemplative look as they realized how screwed Kanji was.

"...Sacrifices must be made."

"This never happened."


	188. Chapter 187: October 31, 2011

CHAPTER 187

October 31, 2011

* * *

"…So uh… Am I supposed to recognize that?"

It was Halloween, and pretty much everyone had gathered at Justin's place to party it down. They were going to do it at Junes, but apparently Yosuke was stupid enough not to pay attention when they said the Halloween festival had been cancelled like a month ago. Yu was pretty pissed about having his time wasted like that. He did have other stuff to do after all, he didn't need Yosuke wasting his time setting up for a party that didn't even exist. Well of course, the entire group was supposed to go to this party, and seeing as the party was gone now, they needed SOMETHING to replace it. They were going to go to Yu's house at first, but Dojima was supposed to have the day off for once, and Yu figured it wasn't worth bugging him. And then they all figured; where better to have a party than somewhere they didn't need permission to be. So Justin's house it was. Twas a little small for all the people that were there, but certainly not cramped. It probably helped that Kanji was still recovering from the trauma of yesterday at the Inn. Poor guy didn't even see it coming.

In fact, from Justin's understanding, Kanji's suffering had gotten worse than they had assumed when they left him with Kashiwagi and lardass there. I don't think there was any question what horrible fate awaited him if he didn't find a way out of that room, and since Justin and Maya were kind of forcing the door shut, there was only one exit available to him. The window. Now; that SOUNDS like an awful idea, but it was pretty safe given the room was overlooking the springs. All he had to do was leap and he'd land in the waters below. Unfortunately for him, the girls still hadn't quite taken the hint that they weren't supposed to be there, so when Kanji hit the water, he also ended up hitting Chie on the way down. That marked the second person who had landed on her that day, and she was less than amused. So all the girls beat the ever loving shit out of him once he reemerged from the depths of the spring, not really listening to his pleas of mercy. I think it goes without saying Kanji hadn't left his house today so no one could see the bruises on both his skin and ego.

Regardless, at the moment Chie had been knocking at the door, adorned in that yellow jumpsuit from Kill Bill (and from Justin's understanding, some kung-fu movie before that; but really, who cared?) He was pretty damn happy to see her of course, though he was less than pleased to find his costume wasn't going over so well. Chie was the last one to show up surprisingly enough, and yet every single person before her was unable to guess what Justin was supposed to be. What, was he the only one who had a kick ass childhood or something? Well, you know, besides from the abusive father and the bullies. This costume should have made everyone piss their pants with nostalgia; not question why Justin looked like he got his costume from a bargain bin. Maybe he just wasn't selling the illusion enough. He just had to get into character.

"People of Inaba! I stand before the Great Eye of the galaxy. Chosen by destiny by the powers of Grayskull! This inevitable moment will transpire before your eyes, even as Chie herself bears witness to it. Now. I, Skeletor, am Master of the Universe!" Justin laughed to himself. Say what you will, the guy's Skeletor impression was right on point. Too bad no one who had walked through the door that day had any clue who Skeletor was; so regardless of how good the impersonation was, it was all in vein.

"What's a Skeletor? Is that some kind of bone disease?" Chie questioned, very much confused. Justin went to open his mouth again, to let out a bellowing speech about how he, Skeletor, was the most powerful being in the universe and how he would not be disrespected by her or anyone; but then he just said fuck it and hung his head and shame, shaking his head side to side with disappointment. So long he had planned this and so quickly it was flushed down the drain like piss and shit.

"Nyooooo…" Justin did that weird sound Skeletor tended to make when he was disappointed with something, stepping off to the side to allow Chie in. Chie waved at everyone as she walked through the door, taking in the sights of some everyone in their costumes. Some of them she recognized, such as Yukiko dressed up as Black Widow. Seriously, no one quite understood what her obsession with Scarlett Johansson in Avengers was, but one thing was pretty clear, Yu was more than pleased. And they used to think that Yosuke was the perverted one. Yu himself was dressed like Rivers Cuomo. Say it ain't so! No seriously; Justin was actually surprised Chie recognized Yu's costume but not Skeletor. The fuck was wrong with some people? And Rise… Well Rise was Indiana Jones. I don't know how that was supposed to work, but given that Maya wanted to be a British space nazi, Justin wasn't going to make any assumptions about anyone's costumes.

Then there was the one she didn't recognize; namely Yosuke as Deadpool. Which was strange, because Chie was usually pretty comic savvy. It probably boiled down to the fact that she preferred DC Comics to Marvel; which, hey cool. But your opinion is terrible; Deadpool would beat Batman any day of the week. Probably. Okay, he'd at least put up a good fight. And I think we can all agree that Aquaman would beat every other superhero in existence; so we're not going to count him simply to keep things balanced between the two sides. But yeah, Justin needless to say, was ecstatic when he saw Yosuke's costume. It was like having a nerdgasm; no, it WAS having a nerdgasm. Naoto was… Okay, Justin didn't invite Naoto. What she didn't know wouldn't hurt her, and besides, what were the odds of Naoto actually trying to have fun for once? Justin sighed as he pulled off his mask for a moment, pushing back the hood of his cloak as he stepped back inside. No real use in wearing the costume if no one was going to recognize it anyway.

"Hey, where's Maya?" Chie questioned, eyes still darting about the room as she made her way inside, grabbing one of the plastic cups off the counter full of assorted sodas. She had more or less grown accustomed to just coming here and making herself at home, so it was almost natural for her to instantly search for the beverages. It wasn't like Justin minded anyway. If Chie wanted this place to be like her home away from home, then by all means, the key was under the mat.

"Upstairs changing. That costume had a LOT of parts." Justin remarked with slight amazement. He should have known it would be a complex suit with THAT price tag, but holy hell. He was actually convinced it was actual battle armor Maya may have bought in the mail. To be fair, Justin wouldn't mind that; at least then maybe she could use it in the television or something. Not that she'd probably be going into the television again anytime soon. No way to speak meant no way she was going to be able to use her powers. At best she could kick shit at this point, which while being incredibly painful, wasn't exactly useful fighting beings that had no legs to break. But yeah. Complex shit. Hell, Justin even shelled out a little extra for something special for Maya. And it seemed she had managed to find it.

"This battlefield will do." Chie practically spat up her drink as the sound of an unfamiliar, and very British voice filled the room. The only person here that was really any good with a British accent was Justin, and his mouth had remained shut this entire time; so unless he suddenly became a ventriloquist, she had a pretty good idea who the only other person would be to do that. And it made little to no sense. All eyes slowly turned their way to the stairs, the armored up figure of Maya making her way down each step with a certain sense of pride, metal clanking filling the air with eac step. It was almost menacing in a way, but I think everyone was a little more confused by the fact that Maya had just talked. At least; that's what it sounded like.

"Holy shit… Is that you Maya?" Yosuke questioned after a brief period of silence. The glowing light from her helmet's eyes slowly turned towards Yosuke practically piercing his soul as they shined down on him. And this is coming from a guy who was wearing a mask that provided protection against the light. Maya dropped her model replica of a Helghast assault rifle to her side before pressing her two fingers against the side of the helmet for a moment. Well on the bright side they had figured out where the voice was coming from. Seemed the helmet had a speaker built in with some sound clips. It was a nice, albeit expensive, touch. Justin figured it would be nice if she could even have the illusion of speaking, so he shelled out the cash for it. It was worth it in the end.

"Didn't I kill all of you yet?" The voice from the speaker echoed through the house. If there was any downside to getting Maya that voicebox up in her helmet (which was pretty shitty quality thanks to having to fit the damn thing in what was essentially a thin layer of metal) it was that the character she was dressed up as was kind of an asshole; so everything that came out of her mouth had something to do with death and pillaging and shit. At least it meant she was in character.

"I'll take that as a yes." Yosuke remarked, a slight grimace under his mask. He was happy she could… sorta talk? But really, he saw the very few quotes that were probably programmed into that thing getting very annoying very fast, especially when it was all about domination and stuff. Honestly, there weren't many buttons on the side of her helmet, so Yosuke was going to guess there were about a handful of things that could resignate from the helmet and out into the room. Probably only one or two were relevant to anything.

Maya nodded a bit at Yosuke before turning her attention back to Justin, reaching for something along her waist, holstered between her belt and the bulky armor that hugged close to her body. No one was really sure what it was, even after she tugged it out and tossed it Justin's way. It was a small, thin, plastic case that Justin had caught out of the air; hell he didn't even need to look at it to know what it was for. It had become a bit of a tradition to do what Maya had proposed every Halloween. Of course, they didn't really have any pumpkin patches in Inaba, so they had to make do with buying their own and wreaking havoc that way.

"Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness; good choice." Justin remarked, holding the plastic casing up again before making his way through to the living room, searching around for something. Seemed it was a music CD, though why Maya had brought that down with her, no one was quite sure at first. Justin kind of had to fill everyone in as he finally found his way to an old CD player he had from when he was a kid. He didn't really listen to CD's that much these days, and when he did, he had a personal, small CD player with a headset jack. Nothing with speakers. It was essentially the iPod before the iPod was an iPod.

"Mellon Collie and the who what and the where now?" Yosuke questioned as Justin slid the CD into the player, searching the back of the album for a good track. Not that there was going to be much debate over which one he picked. 1979 and Tonight, Tonight were great songs and all, but they weren't great for setting the mood to break shit to. No, Justin was going to need something more… hardcore. Something to get him pumped up.

"It's Halloween, and we're listening to Smashing Pumpkins. Take a guess what that means." Justin smirked a bit, reaching towards the living room table to grab one of the pumpkins he had bought for the party tonight. They were surprisingly cheap when you bought them this late in the month. Everyone passed each other a couple glances of concern, save of course Maya who had been waiting for this for months. They weren't seriously going to vandalize a bunch of pumpkins right? I mean, it did kind of sound fun… but wouldn't that be messy? Maya opened a nearby closet before pulling out a broom Justin kept around the house, though he never really used it. They didn't have a bat, so this was going to have to do as far as blunt objects went. Plus, most people had fake plastic weapons as part of their costumes anyway, they could use those.

"W-Wait, we're not doing that in here, right?" Yukiko remarked with shock as Justin placed a pumpkin under each underarm as he made his way away from the living room table. He had on a slightly irate expression on his face, confused by such an idiotic question. Of course he wasn't doing it here; he didn't want to clean pumpkin seed off of his carpet.

"There IS a reason I set the volume up to max. We're going out front. I suggest you grab something blunt." Justin remarked, a slight whistle on his lips as he headed out with the pumpkins. The others just shrugged after a moment. They wanted to smash a watermelon open earlier, if anything this was a much better alternative. Slowly everyone stepped out of the house, almost single-filed in line as they grabbed something to smash open the pumpkin with, their weapon of choice in hand as the surrounded the pumpkins Justin had set on the sidewalk. Yosuke was using a fake katana that came with costume, Yu was using the other since Yosuke didn't really need two, Yukiko the broom, and Maya her fake assault rifle.

_My reflection_

_Dirty mirror_

_There's no connection_

_To myself_

_I'm your lover_

_I'm your zero_

_I'm the face in your dreams of glass_

The pumpkin smashing started with Maya butting one of the pumpkins hard with the end of her gun, denting the outer layer but not really doing much damage. Not that she really needed to do too much work, because Chie seemed more than convinced she needed to put all her effort, all her strength into squashing that pumpkin like… well… squash. She quickly darted up to the pumpkin as Maya withdrew the butt of her rifle, drawing her leg back before punting the pumpkin with what could best be described as force of galactic proportions. I'm saying she somehow managed to kick the pumpkin into outer space. Okay, maybe not that hard, but still. They couldn't find the pumpkin after Chie had managed to kick it, so it was safe to assume she overdid it. They didn't find out till a couple days later that she had actually managed to kick it into the side of someone's house, splattering orange pumpkin seed all over the outer walls. They weren't sure whether to feel bad or laugh.

"Dammit Chie! We can't break the pumpkin if it's not here." Justin scolded Chie slightly. She just sort of blushed before backing away. Given that she totally just decimated that last pumpkin, maybe she should sit this next one out. Justin shook his head a bit before giving her a quick reassuring pat of her shoulder. She didn't really do too much wrong; and it was awesome, if not kind of inconvenient since they now had to take turns breaking THIS pumpkin.

_She's the one for me_

_She's all I really need_

_Cause she's the one for me_

_Emptiness is loneliness_

_And loneliness is cleanliness_

_And cleanliness is godliness_

_And god is empty just like me_

The rest of the group slowly gathered around the second pumpkin, save maybe Maya who had crouched down, as if to examine the pumpkin more thoroughly. Which wasn't entirely untrue, given that she had pointed out a spot on the pumpkin for the next person to whack, analyzing the vegetable for any signs of structural weakness. She was way too god at that apparently, since the moment Yukiko took a swing at it, the center of the pumpkin exploded outwards, getting on everyone's legs. Rise was pretty annoyed by it to be honest, but then, she shouldn't have been so close when she clearly had no intention of smashing it then. Yosuke seemed to almost get pissed off by it, immediately jabbing his fake sword into the slush as if to seize an opening in the pumpkins defenses. This was immediately followed by Yu doing the same, then Yosuke, then Yu again, in what would best be described as a furious storm of stabs from both sides. It didn't take long before the pumpkin was diced to pieces. Which meant it was time for Justin to deal the coup de grace, a swing of his plastic scepter like a golf club to send the remaining solid pieces of the pumpkin's shell in the air in a rain of orange pumpkin guts. You know, it was surprising that Maya didn't seem to care about that shit landing on her expensive ass costume. I guess because it was all in good fun it was fine. Plus she could just wash it off later. Justin and Maya exchanged a high-five as the remains of the pumpkin fell down upon them… as well as the scorn of a certain passer-by.

"…What are you imbeciles doing?" Seemed Naoto had been out for the night, probably to catch troublemakers on a holiday infamous for pranks and other such misdemeanors.

"Shit, it's the fun police! Uh, nothing ma'am. Don't worry, the fun machine already took a shit and died. You can go home now."

* * *

**MUSIC**

Zero – Smashing Pumpkins


	189. Chapter 188: November 1, 2011

CHAPTER 188

November 1, 2011

* * *

"I'm your lover, I'm your zero… zzzzzzzzz"

So Justin and Maya might have been partying a little too hard, even after everyone else left the night prior. Why? Because it was Halloween and they had nothing better to do than pull pranks, smash pumpkins, and beg for candy. They were very clearly much too old for the last option, unfortunately, so that was out of the question, and they never got around to egging anyone's house because the fun police thought it would be fun to make the group clean up the mess they made with the pumpkin. So what if it was in the middle of the road, it wasn't like anyone used cars around here; and even if they did, it's a fucking pumpkin. Hell, if we wanted to get technical it WAS on Justin's property… most of it. Naoto couldn't do shit to him for leaving it there. Basically, the party didn't get much crazier after that thanks to Naoto's meddling around in their private affairs; but hey, whatever. Justin could live with cola and sugar cookies shaped like ghosts and pumpkins. And maybe a couple Snickers he stole from Yosuke. Remember how I said everyone was too old to trick or treat? Yosuke figured himself above that rule. Oh well, more free food for Justin.

Well anyway, Justin and Maya had eventually passed out on the floor; with quite a thud in Maya's case, what with the bulky armor and all. It was a good thing she was so tired, otherwise that might have hurt like a bitch. The two were curled up against the wooden floor beneath them, latching at whatever they could grab a hold of to use as a pillow. Justin was mumbling a bit in his sleep, thanks partially to the stereo still being on, though Maya was out cold. It was a good thing she had taken the helmet off a couple hours before they finally succumbed to their exhaustion, otherwise it might have been a bit hard to breathe in her sleep. The two laid there on different spots of the floor kicking ever so slightly as part of their bodies tried to kick them into the waking world, though their minds were clinging much to tightly to their dreams. It was very rare for Justin to have good dreams, what with that sociopath living inside his skull, pulling at his brain stem like the cord to those shades you put on windows. You know; the ones that never seem to end up quite straight. Wonder who was in charge of making THOSE.

They'd pretty much be content to just stay like that for a week or so, but alas, they seemed to neglect one very unfortunate thing… Well at least, Justin did anyway. Maya could always just say she took one of her vacation days; after all, she was entitled to so many a year, and with the year drawing to close, now would be a good time to start cashing in on those. Justin? Not so much. A loud splitting sound filled the air, the buzzing of Justin's phone giving Justin that one last push he needed to wake, if ever so reluctantly at that. The phone had been placed ever so precariously near Justin's ear, so the minute the buzzer went off, it shot down his ear drum like a grenade exploding point blank in his face. His twitched slightly, though otherwise, he had little to no reaction to the sound spawning from his phone. He knew it was his phone though, and he knew he probably should answer it, but even then he was having trouble gathering the strength to reach out and pick it up. But he was determined, and he would not stop until his fingers were wrapped around the phone, speaker to his ears. His arm slowly crept out to flip the phone up, groaning as his muscles stretched out to bring the phone up towards his ear.

"…hello you have reached… Christ, what was my name aga- Justin! Justin, that was it. Leave a message after the whatever." Justin mumbled in the phone. He was still much too tired to really be thinking straight. Hell, if he was aware he was in such a absent-minded state of mind, he would have never picked up the phone, but alas, it had been natural instinct that caused him to press the phone to his ear, to listen to whatever it was the person on the other end of the line wanted. But let's be honest, who else could it be on the other side of the phone? No one ever called Justin beside from Chie. In a way, it kinda hurt; but then, Justin wasn't a very good conversation starter anyway, so talking on the phone wasn't his forte. He could sort of justify the other's apparent reluctance to call Justin up just to say hello.

"_Where the hell are you!? School started an hour ago_!" Chie screamed into the phone, though she also sounded like she was whispering. She had tried texting Justin on several occasion over the last hour, but of course, he was asleep, so he couldn't actually read any of them. This was her only alternative to getting in contact with him. She had briefly assumed he was just taking a sick day, catching a cold or something in the air last night; but then, he would have looked sick last night if he was sick this morning. And even if he was sick, she'd at least like to know if he was alright. She could always bring some soup by again if she needed to, even if Justin constantly insisted otherwise.

"…I'm at that place… you know that place with the… with the door. Look I just woke up, cut me some slack." Justin mumbled, running his fingers down his eyes again. He wasn't even going to sugar coat what had actually happened; he slept in and he had no intention of leaving the house. If it was a problem that he hadn't shown up to school today, then he simply came down with a case of explosive diarrhea.

"_Dammit Justin! Do you know how worried I was?"_ Chie spoke with irritation in to the fun. Justin could practically feel her hot breath strangling him through the phone, but even then, he was just too tired to feel bad about working her up like that. After all, he just slept in an hour, let's not call the cavalry just yet, Chie. Justin rubbed at his temples a bit, taking another deep breath, as he slowly closed his eyes again, just taking in the sound of 1979 playing from his CD player, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness making its way back to the beginning of the disc for what was probably the seventh time since Justin had fallen unconscious.

"Hmm? Oh uh… yeah, no I'm fine… Just… a little tired is al… zzzzzz…"

"…_Did he just fall asleep on me? Oh I am so kicking his ass!"_

* * *

The sky was green as always, that aroma of burning corpses filling the air as it so often did. It was that scent and that tone that always made him so sick to his stomach as he stared out into the horizon, longing for something he couldn't really grasp. Down in the alleyway there was the ever silent creeping of a shadow, his thousand arms dragging him around like a hungry dog looking for some kind of meal. It wasn't uncommon to find one of those things crawling around the place; they were like unintelligent cannon fodder, their only purpose to look for something to kill, and to kill until there was no life left to take. In that regard, you could say the shadows were going hungry. It had been so long since humans had shown up in this world… well… humans who made a one way trip through the television anyway. At most these shadows were searching for a thing that was nowhere to be found, sniffing for the scent of death in the air in search of some sort of purpose.

And so, this one lone shadow crawled, navigating its way through the streets and alleyways for its next bloody meal, a carcass to keep it satisfied for the winters to come. It had picked up something on the air, a rather pungent aura. It didn't smell or anything like that, there was just this certain sensation in the air as he crawled around the abandoned city. The shadow, ever so curious investigated every nook and cranny, searching for the source of whatever this strange feeling in the air was, like an animal confused in a new environment. It didn't take long before he was able to trace the aura back to its source, the spirit of death leading the many armed creature towards a single wall, blocking him from his discovery. It took a moment before the creature realized what he'd have to do to grab a hold of his accomplishment, staring intently at the wall behind that creepy ass mask of his; but even then, it was truly irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. For just as the shadow reached up to sort through the loose bricks standing between him and his prey, the shadow exploded outward into a shower of black fiber and purple rain, a hole in its skull where a single bullet had been fired.

"**Dumb mutt."** Justin's shadow remarked, slowly pacing his way over to the now deceased beast, kicking at it a bit with his foot to insure it was truly dead. It was very rare for these things to stop by in the last few months, but over time, Justin had found that something about the death of his former comrade served like bait to these pests, drawing them from every part of the world he lived just to catch a glimpse at what had not happened in many a centuries. The shadows had a strict code of law; the top of the list being simply 'Do not kill thy brethren.' And none of the shadows ever did, fearing the consequences of violating their contract, knowing full well they could be wiped from existence by HIM in a matter of seconds, should they so irritate him. And yet despite displeasing he who ruled over all of the shadows, Justin's shadow remained untouched after his crime. The rules were broken, yet still here he stood, alive and well… Or as well as a man succumbing to paranoia and guilt could be. And then it dawned on Justin's shadow. There WERE no consequences for breaking the rules; it was merely a tool to keep his dominion in line, trying to rule through intimidation itself. And that begged the question… If there were no true rules; what else was it the shadows hadn't known?

Months had passed since the faithful day that Justin had coated himself in her blood and guts, fragments of her skull shattering in a bloody firework of pain and guilt. And yet even to this day he couldn't forget her; he couldn't stop thinking about her corpse laying there in the dust to rot away. It was funny, the shadow had taken a few peaks inside the building since the incident, partially to insure she rested in peace; and despite being there for months now, her body hadn't decayed in the slightest, preserved in the exact moment the shadow had made the biggest mistake of his and her lives. He didn't get it. He hated that woman; she always wanted to control him, to tell him what to do. Every day she would verbally beat him down until he bowed to her like some kind of goddess, wanting nothing more than the affections of all she met, even if she had to force people into it. They didn't have to like loving her; they just had to do it. So then how come as much as the shadow hated that girl he couldn't stand to see her rot? How come he longed for her to stand in front of him so he could wrap her in his embrace, to apologize for his errors. And then promptly be shanked afterwards because Maya's shadow was a huge bitch. He hated to admit it, but he missed her. He missed her every day, and he just couldn't ignore the fact that her carcass was rotting right behind the wall he worked so hard to fortify, separating her from the horrors of the world she left behind.

"**If it's any consolation… I intend to see your mission through, my dear." **Justin mumbled, dragging the remains of his prey away before sliding his back down the wall, igniting a cigarette before taking a quick puff of it as he just stared at the sky. That green, toxic, sky. He had heard tales that the other's sky was a beautiful shade of blue to compliment the sea, white clouds twisting through the alps as if to embrace the world in one big puffy hug. How was it that their world's were one and the same, yet so different at the same time? People were nothing but carcasses here, skeletons that fell out of the closet. The toys that children played with were knives, the rain drops that fell from above were as dark as blood, the sea ran thick with the tears of the world, as if the television were nothing but a dump for all their baggage. This was exactly what Maya's shadow had been trying to escape from; he could see that now. It was only a shame when one shadow escaped, seven billion more sat in the dark, hoping for salvation. If only this world could change…

"_**What if I told you it can…?" **_The shadow jumped forward ever so slightly, twisting his head around with curiosity. He knew what he heard, and he knew he shouldn't have been hearing it, but for some reason… he wasn't scared. No, he had bottled all his fear up in the depths of his heart, locking it up for millennia to come. Never again would he be afraid of the task he had set out to do. Never again would another fall because of his inaction. Still, that didn't really dismiss the fact that the shadow was starting to hear things. Probably just his conscious playing tricks on him; but at this point, he wouldn't mind watching an illusion or two. Anything to live in the sweet embrace of a lie.

"**I'd probably say you're full of shit. You know, I generally make a rule about not talking with the dead." **The shadow remarked sarcastically; though something was off about the way he said it. There was no sharp harshness to his joke, not a chuckle afterwards as he laid it on the line for someone who wasn't even there. He just sat there with his eyes poised at the ground, some small part of him hoping for the voice to reply, just so he could hear her one last time. For her to whisper sweet no things into his ear and pretend none of this had actually happened. But the fact of the matter was it did happen, and the girl was gone. Nothing could bring her back; pretending she was still here would just be betraying everything she had died for… Well besides following some bullshit rules that didn't even matter in the long run. That was another thing; it wasn't just the shadow's pursuit of escape that had killed her, it was fighting for those damn rules. The ones HE gave them.

He was the one responsible for all of this. He made the sky damp with the pains of a million children of Adam, he was the one that soaked the land in the blood of the suffering. He made the world exactly like this; and then he gave the shadows rules, rules that had done nothing but split them apart, to keep them from unifying as a nation. He was a damn tyrant. One of these days someone should really go about… fixing, that.

"_**If I only get to teach you one thing in this life, it's simply this… You cannot kill what you did not create." **_The voice continued to speak to him, though the shadow's face slowly warped to that of one of confusion. The body still remained entirely still, and yet despite that, he could hear her oh so clear, like a voice right in his ear. _**"My body was but a means to an end, don't you see? It's the mind that truly matters. If you control a man's mind, if you control a man's legacy, and if you control a man's spirit… You control everything. And your power shall be like no other. Don't mourn for the loss of a vessel; it was only a stepping stone in your quest."**_

"**I don't think I quite follow." **The shadow spoke with puzzlement. It was strange the way the girl was speaking to him, not only because he was hearing what could not actually make a sound, but rather, there was something jolted about the way she spoke. Like she was reading from a cue-card. And yet despite that, there was something almost alluring about her words as she tempted him with the promises of control, the promises of power; and of course, the promise of an end to her mission. They were but stepping stones to an end. Everything was a stepping stone to the end. It didn't matter who got hurt on the way there; all the shadow needed was to succeed in bringing true life to these hollows.

"_**Don't you worry; it'll all make sense soon… And then… and then we will control everything; kings and queens of a new age."**_

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTES**

I'm going to be away on a three day trip starting today. That said, there will be no update on the 22nd – 24th, as I will have no access to a computer or wi-fi connection. There will not be any make-up chapters when we return. Sorry for the inconvenience, and I'll see you all Monday when we return from our brief intermission.


	190. Chapter 189: November 2, 2011

CHAPTER 189

November 2, 2011

* * *

"Here, this should help with your head."

"Thanks. You know, you would make a great nurse."

Justin and Chie were at her house, where Chie was doing Justin a great servitude by fetching him some aspirin from the closet. You see, apparently a pipe broke at school or something, so they had to send everyone home early. Chie's folks, luckily enough, weren't home, and Justin really looked like he was in pain as he strolled down the sidewalk with her, so she was more than happy to let him inside for a moment while she looked for some aspirin. Plus; it was just nice having the guy over without her father trying to accuse him of being a wife beater. You'd think Justin would grow on the guy over time; after all, he certainly always acted like a complete gentleman in that household. He bit his tongue, he kept his foul language to a bare minimum, and he always respected the wishes of Chie's parents. I think Chie's mother understood that Justin was restraining himself a lot, but it did show that he was willing to adapt for Chie and her family; and I think that was a good trait to find in a partner. The father only saw him as a delinquent, destined to screw Chie in more ways than one; and it was his job to make sure that didn't happen.

All the same, they were out right now, so it mattered not what they thought about Justin. All that mattered was he was sitting on the couch as Chie passed him off a pill for his headache, a glass of water in his other hand. Normally Justin could swallow even the biggest of pills without so much as the assistance of any kind of liquid; but they way he figured, that wasn't exactly normal, so he avoided doing it with any pills that looked particularly hard to swallow. He didn't want anyone to think he was weird after all, least of all her. But then, Justin hadn't realized Chie always thought he was weird. Perhaps that was one of his more charming features; all she knew was she just didn't care if he was strange. It seemed like such a petty thing when love was involved. Justin took a quick swig of the glass of water, flooding the pill down the tubes in his throat and down his digestive track, before passing the glass back off to Chie and pressing the side of his hand against his forehead. It was no secret why he had a headache, but that didn't mean it wasn't any less painful or confusing.

"Nurse? Don't tell me you're turning into Yosuke now…" Chie remarked with slight concern as Justin complimented her ability to hand him a pill. Maybe it was just Yosuke's weird ass fetishes (which for the record were not a secret to most of them, as much as he'd like to believe otherwise) starting to warp her perception on what was a compliment and what was a 'compliment.' I swear, for a guy who was in love, Yosuke sure seemed to enjoy trying to get in other girls' pants. It was really a shame for Yosuke that Maya would never agree to an open relationship like that; if she even agreed to a relationship in the first place. Justin highly doubted she would; I mean, this was Yosuke they were talking about. There's nothing attractive about a pervert. Justin shook his head, rubbing at his forehead a bit.

"No, not like that. I mean if you WANT it to mean that then I guess?" Justin shrugged his shoulders a bit. He wasn't into nurses to be quite honest, but he could deal with it if that was something Chie wanted to do. She absolutely did not for the record; she was just fine wearing the clothes she was wearing right now, thank you very much. "I just meant you're good with pills and stuff, you know? Quite frankly I just can't work with medicine. When I found out Maya couldn't talk, I just grabbed everything and threw it on the table… pfft… Probably would have ended up poisoning her if she didn't stop me." Justin chuckled ever so slightly to himself. He probably shouldn't be laughing about almost killing Maya by prescribing her the wrong medication, but hey, no one got hurt, and it wasn't like Justin's medical illiteracy pertained only to that situation. It was just an example, and quite frankly, a kind of humorous one. Or at least, humorous to someone who was there. Of course, just thinking about that day reminded Justin of the day they discovered Maya's disability, and… well… he didn't want to remember that. Some memories are just not worth holding onto; even if you lose a good one in the process.

Chie passed Justin a slightly sorrowful expression as she noticed the cracks of his grown slowly fading into a frown, this blank expression in his eyes as he was lost in thought. She made her way to the seat beside him on the couch, her eyes steadily trained on his face the entire time as he sat there, contemplating about days gone by and mistakes that still hung over his head. Of course, it wasn't just that that had been bothering Justin; it was all this shit with the headaches and the shadows. Justin wasn't joking when he said that his bad dreams were slowly starting to overtake the good ones. It was like a thousand voices singing in beautiful harmony in Justin's skull, slowly being drowned out by the screams of tormented spirits. And given that his shadow and him were connected, and every shadow Justin's shadow had killed were connected to him, by extension, that was probably VERY true. Alas, Justin was ignorant to the hive-minded nature of his shadow, more so the toll it had slowly began to take on his sanity as voice after voice dictated to him what they wanted him to do, trying to manipulate him from the confines of his skull.

"Those headaches look like they're getting worse." Chie remarked with concern, eyes focused on his index finger and thumb pinching the skin of his forehead and rubbing it in an attempt at loosening any knots in his skull that could be causing the pain he felt at this very moment. He should have known that a million souls trying to burst through his skull cavity wasn't exactly going to be permanently resolved with a few aspirin. All the same, it did help with the pain, so Justin would just keep on drowning out the shadows, numbing the pain of the mob trying to break through the walls of his inner skull.

"I have more bad dreams these days than I do good." Justin sighed, rubbing at his temples just a moment longer before sinking back into the couch to stare at the ceiling. It kind of helped with the headache to just be staring at a blank slab of wood above his head, nothing complex or moving around to attract the attention of his ire, and by extension his ever shambling mind. He figured the best way to calm the commotion in his head was to just not think; and to not think, he needed to keep his mind as far away as possible for anything that might stimulate thought. Alas, Justin's mind being as ever observing as it was soon took to examining the pattern of the wood above him, and soon, the head pains came with it. T'was amazing how just thinking was making his head scream out like a thousand banshees.

"What are they about?" Chie questioned with cautious curiosity. Justin didn't really talk about the dreams he had over his shadow, at least, not very often. With Maya, everybody knew what was going on when he had these premonitions in the dark of night… with his shadow, they were all left in the dark. They always knew something was up when he had a migraine on any particular day of the week, but beyond that their knowledge was very limited. The only time Justin ever talked about his dreams was when he told Chie about the body his shadow had left behind, hopes raised he could get out of this contract soon. But we all know how that went down; perhaps that's why Justin didn't really talk about his shadow any other time; as if he were just too heartbroken to raise anyone's hopes on the matter of his shadow again, even when there was nothing to actually be hopeful about. Still, it wasn't like Justin refused to talk about it; it was just no one ever asked him about his dreams. They figured if Justin didn't say anything about them then it didn't warrant any form of investigation. In truth, there was plenty to investigate; Justin just didn't believe hard enough to warrant searching for the truth into the matter. He would just be happy to suppress his shadow as much as he could… But given some of the stuff that had happened lately, perhaps suppressing the shadow wasn't much of an offer anymore.

"Absolutely nothing. He… shot Maya's shadow and that was pretty much it. Everything else, he just… sits there, watching over that hole in the wall. Killed a couple of those smaller shadows when they got a whiff of her corpse, but I'm not so sure that's a big deal in their world." Justin mumbled a bit, taking another sigh before taking one last swig of the glass of water. "Your parents make you use coasters, or can I just put this down?" Justin asked with consideration. He knew how strict Chie's parents were, if by Chie's parents you meant her father, so he didn't want to do anything that would get her in trouble. Luckily for Justin, making a mess never was a problem in this household. Was probably the reason she got away with bringing some of the food she did to her room. Did you know they made meat buns? Literally, just buns of bread filled up with shredded meat, of what variety, Justin wasn't entirely sure, and quite frankly, he'd like to keep it that way. Justin couldn't help but shiver at the thought, but Chie sure as hell seemed to enjoy them as a midnight snack. It was a good thing she had such a good metabolism, otherwise all that meat would go straight to her thighs.

"Yeah, you can just put it there." Chie assured him. She would have just taken the glass for him since it looked empty, but she knew how Justin got about people doing stuff for him, especially something he could do himself. She had to wonder if it was a pride thing or if he just felt like he was being a burden when he was being assisted in any form or another. And truth be told, he really didn't feel comfortable doing that kind of stuff in other people's houses. What if he cleaned the glass the wrong way and Chie's parents took it out on her? What if he accidentally used the wrong kind of soap or put the glass in the dishwasher with clean dishes? Highly unlikely scenarios, but he didn't want others to get in trouble for his mistakes.

"Really, nothing happens. The dreams don't bother me; they just give me these… FUCKING headaches in the morning." Justin groaned a bit, a sharp pain shooting through his brain like electricity through a wire mid sentence, his hand quickly clutching along his forehead where his skull felt like it was being drilled into like an oil rig. It wasn't fun watching Justin hunched over in pain like that, even more so him trying to deal with memories that weren't his, yet were so important all the same. Justin didn't mind sharing memories with someone… he just didn't want to share them with HIM, nor did he want to see the shit his shadow went through. Maybe Justin was a horrible person for thinking it, but he was actually glad Maya's shadow took a bullet to her face. Not only was his shadow guilty of a high-crime in his world, one he could easily be tried for and convicted of, freeing Justin from the shackles of his contract, but… well… Maya's shadow WAS evil. And she DID try to kill the both of them. Besides, it was clear Shadow Justin's sanity was slowly falling apart as a result, which while making him entirely dangerous should he be let out, was kind of nice to think of the asshole being tormented by visions that weren't there. To go on a guilt trip of astronomical proportions. Chie watched Justin with a gaze of concern for a moment before an idea and a slow smile swept over her in waves. She turned and scooched over ever so slightly, remaining seated, but leaning closer to Justin all the same.

"Well maybe you just need to think positive." Chie remarked, eyes closed though she was grinning ever so widely as she faced Justin, her knees rested against the couch as she leaned forward on her arms, ever so close to Justin as she sat in a half-crawling position. Best way to describe it was she looked kind of like a frog; if a frog was cute that is. Justin was needless to say a little confused what thinking positive had to do with anything at first, but Chie kind of anticipated that being a problem, opening her eyes to stare at him before explaining. "When I go to bed upset about something I always get nightmares, but if I think positive thoughts I always have good dreams. Maybe you're just in a bad mindset when you go to sleep."

"Well that makes as much sense as anything I suppose." Justin shrugged after a moment. Chie wasn't a doctor or anything, so he wasn't taking any psychiatric advice she gave him too close to heart, but he supposed it woudn't hurt to test the waters. Who knows, maybe she was completely correct. After all, his shadow was an embodiment of all his negative emotions right? So perhaps that's why he could come through at night, because he wasn't thinking positive when he went to sleep. I mean, Justin was kind of pissed off at Naoto the night prior for ruining the party, so perhaps that's why he had been dreaming of his shadow. "I don't really know where to begin though. I just kind of fall asleep; I don't remember half the shit I think about at night. How am I supposed to figure out what I'm doing wrong?"

"Well what do you think about when you have good dreams?" Chie inquired after a moment, tilting her head to the side a bit. Justin's eyes widened ever so slightly and his cheeks grew a little red. There were very few things he could remember thinking about at night, but they usually fell under one of two things: wanking material or Chie. And for the record, he never crossed the two. He tried once, but he just felt dirty and stopped. I guess there was a difference between doing that with some girl in a porno and doing it with the girl you love. All the same, saying that you drifted off into sweet slumber while thinking of someone struck him as being just a little creepy; he wasn't sure he was willing to part with that kind of information just yet. Or ever. The contents of his mind were a fucked up place; you can't let someone go too deep otherwise they'd see things they'd never want to see again.

"Oh well, uh… nothing much… just… stuff…" Justin coughed slightly as he turned away to hide his beat red face. He wasn't fooling Chie of course, who could still see his red face clear as day. She didn't really put together that Justin had really been thinking of her, but he could tell whatever it was he didn't really feel comfortable letting her know. And there was just something so adorable about watching Justin get embarrassed over anything. He was always so oblivious to pretty much everything; usually something pissed him off, or it didn't faze him. When something embarrassed him, it had to hit him like a freight train or a runaway boulder. Must have been one dirty little secret Justin was holding onto. She smiled a bit leaning forward so that her cheek was next to hers as he tried to look the other way. Needless to say, he was caught a little off guard by Chie growing ever closer, sneaking up from his side to whisper in his ear.

"Oh? What kind of stuff?" She giggled slightly, teasing him knowing full well he didn't want to tell her. Not that she couldn't handle some of the filthy stuff that could come out of his mouth of course. She was practically waiting for him to say he was thinking about porn; it wouldn't be surprising all things considered. Still disgusting, but she had learned to just accept it as a kind of creepy reality; everyone had something that was less than desirable as a trait, and Justin's was that he happened to be kind of a creeper in the privacy of his own bedroom. But then, most teenage boys were. She could live with that, so long as Justin kept it to himself as much as possible. Justin slowly turned to face the girl, cheeks still red, though his eyes had drooped ever so slightly as he stared into her big brown eyes. It was so hard to lie to her about something stupid like this. About something he wanted her to know. Perhaps that's why he didn't.

"You." He remarked, before leaning forward and pressing his lips gently against hers, foreheads colliding between each brief exchange of their lips. It was only a moment before the pauses in between kisses grew fewer and further between, and only a moment before it grew more forceful. You know, usually it was the guy who made the advance when making out, but I think it goes without saying that Chie was not your normal girl. She was the one wearing the pants in this relationship, and it showed as she slowly managed to push Justin back with her advances. She came pretty damn close to getting Justin flat on his back too, but alas, if Justin had learned anything it was that nothing good lasts forever. In the middle of the two's embrace, the sound of a fist pounding against a wooden door echoed through the house. Seemed the old folks were back early, and here was their daughter having a make out session on the couch. Needless to say this was problematic.

"Shit!" Chie choked up, quickly jumping up off of Justin and the coach. Seemed like they knew she was home if they were knocking, but all the same her father would flip if he saw the two all alone in the house. Especially in the position they had been in. She brushed her bangs out of her face, trying to straighten herself up for her parents arrival, passing Justin a worried glance as he quickly shot up off the couch, looking for an exit. It only took a few seconds before he shot up the stairs, much to Chie's concern and confusion. There was no exit in her bedroom, unless you consider being murdered an exit. "Where the hell are you going!?"

"Don't worry, I got this." Justin reassured her as he darted up the stairs and through Chie's room. Chie stood in the living, biting her lip for a moment as she tried to decide if she should risk opening the door yet. Alas, that decision was made the moment she heard a thumping sound, feeling the floor vibrate beneath her. At first she was confused, but then two and two finally clicked. She slowly made her way to the window, an amused grin on her face as she stuck her head outside to examine the squished bush below her bedroom window.

"You forgot you broke the branch, didn't you?"

"Note to self... look before jumping out of a building..." Justin groaned a bit from his resting place in the bush, lifting his finger ever so slightly as if to try and get Chie's attention. As if jumping out a window hadn't done that already. Chie just chuckled to herself before marching away from the window, rolling her eyes ever so slightly. She'd help Justin up if she didn't have to rush over to the door to let her parents in before they murdered her for not opening the door. At least, that had been the idea. Turns out Justin might have jumped the gun just as much as he had jumped out of Chie's bedroom window. Chie's parents weren't at the door; hell, why would they be? They still had work. No siree, it was merely the delivery man, dressed up in the usual green garb, package in hand. There was something oddly familiar about that guy, beside from the fact that he always delivered to her house as of late; but she just couldn't put her finger on what it was.

"Delivery." He remarked, rather dully, almost out of it in a way. It wasn't unusual as of late, though Chie just kept her opinions of the guy to herself, smiling a bit as he handed her a pad to sign off for the package. She quickly scribbled her signature before taking the passage and allowing the delivery man to get back to his job, waving him off as she closed the door behind him.

"Thank you!" She remarked before closing the door completely, package underneath her arm as she made her way back over to the window. As would be expected, Justin still hadn't been able to move. "Good news, it was just the delivery guy."

"Good news, I think I broke my uterus."

"...Guys don't have a uterus."

"And yet some how it still hurts."


	191. Chapter 190: November 3, 2011

CHAPTER 190

November 3, 2011

* * *

"Dammit Naoto, I'm not in the mood for this shit today."

Justin had been sitting at the park bench near the riverbed, going through some papers when Naoto had the audacity to approach him, clearly interested in advancing her investigation into the thievery that had taken place at her house but a few weeks earlier. Justin, alas, was not in the mood for her shenanigans. He had enough going on in his life as it was, not to mention the splitting headache shooting through his skull. He needed to get this paperwork done as soon as possible, so the less Naoto bugged him about this shit, the better. Really, Justin had probably been acting a bit paranoid earlier when this guy claimed to know about his father. Justin never talked about it mind you, but he supposed that people DID know; and stuff does spread from time to time. It wasn't too big of a deal that people knew Justin's father was in the FBI, now that he thought about it. The guy was dead now, so it was all irrelevant. That said, Justin could really care less at this moment in time whether the case got solved or not. Naoto stared at Justin with a vexed expression as she stared at him shuffling through his papers, not so much as looking up from their contents to examine Naoto as she took a seat across from him at the bench.

"I see you've been occupying yourself." Naoto remarked with interest as she tried to get a glimpse at the paper's contents. Perhaps curiosity killed the cat, especially when the cat was curious about a blood hound, but she couldn't seem to help herself from leaning over to try and read what had been printed on the sheet in Justin's hands. He immediately noticed too and turned the paper to face away from her, a slightly annoyed expression on his face as he stared up at the sky. If she wanted to know what the papers were for, she was going to have to ask like a regular human being instead of trying to sneak it out from under his nose. And Naoto knew it. "Important documents?"

"You could say that." Justin sighed after a moment, dropping the papers back onto his lap to continue reading whatever it had been that had been preoccupying him. "It seems no one wanted to tell me that Maya could attend school for free due to her condition-" Justin paused to pass Naoto a slightly dirty glare. They weren't exactly best buddies or anything, hell Justin despised her, but they did interact under circumstances such as this or the investigation team. And he knew she knew about this; which meant she had plenty of opportunity to inform him about this. Naoto sighed a bit with annoyance as Justin gave her the stinker eye. She was well aware of that, but she would think Justin would have known that. "So now I have to fill out a bunch of forms to get Maya into a class with me. I'm the closest thing to a guardian she has, so that means a shit ton of paperwork for me."

"That's a rather large pile of papers; seems you have your hands full." Naoto remarked, eyes examining the stack of papers in Justin's lap. Justin groaned a bit, staring off into the distance for a brief moment as if to avoid eye contact with Naoto. What the hell was her deal today anyway? He was busy and here she was trying to make small-talk, which was an unpleasant surprise in its own right. Sounded to Justin like she was just trying to butter him up so that he would stop what he was doing and help her with her damn investigation. He just was not in the mood or state of mind to bed putting up with some petty thief today though; he just wanted to concentrate on getting Maya into a classroom. Alas, she was being civil though, so at the very least he'd have to put up with her bullshit. At least until she showed her true colors.

"Half of it's to get Maya in the same class as us. I don't think it's really appropriate for her to go into a freshman class when she's older than me. I just said that me and Yosuke were her 'assistants' and she needed us to translate for her. Seemed like a good enough explanation for them, though she does need to take an equivalency test by the end of the school year, which means I need to buy her books, which is what forms G2 to G6 are for…" Justin rambled on and on about the paperwork he had to fill out, words speeding out of his mouth quicker than mosquitoes soaring through the air. It was like he had a shit ton on his mind, and yet the only way to actually organize it was to just vocalize it; only, he wasn't speaking with the intent to organize the mess in his mind, he was simply speaking to bitch about how ridiculous the amount of paperwork he had to fill out was. "So she needs to cram eighth grade, freshman, and sophomore curriculum in a matter of a few months; really, it's all just a mess. And don't get me started on the documents I have to send in."

"And you say I talk too much." Naoto chuckled to herself silently. At least, she had until Justin turned to shoot her one of the most vicious glares she had ever seen. She had to note to herself that as much of a hypocrite Justin was, she could never say anything that implied he was less than perfect. It was a shitty double standard, but she'd rather avoid as much conflict as possible in regards to her business partnership with Justin. "Oh, uh… d-documents?" Naoto stammered, nervously trying to change the subject. Justin glared at her for a moment longer before turning back to his paperwork, as if growing tired with being pissed at the detective.

"Yes documents. Birth certificates, high school diploma, which of course she can be exempt from if I just fill these forms out and she aces her equivalency test, Passport; all stuff I don't have and have no idea how to get a hold of." Justin sighed a bit before dropping the stack of papers off to his side, crossing his arms with annoyance as he stared back out to the river. This was all important stuff he needed, but he had zero means of actually getting it. Unless Maya just so happened to want to sneak back through the television to San Diego, it wasn't happening; as much as it pissed him off that they were so close. And even if she did, there was NO way she was going to be able to get her birth certificate without drawing attention to herself; an obvious problem when she was trying to run away from her family and the police. She missed her family, don't get her wrong; but she couldn't see her family again and go back to Japan. And she just couldn't live there anymore, not after everything she had done. Besides, she had friends and family here now. Maybe Justin wasn't really her brother, and maybe she really did miss her own flesh and blood; but he treated her like she was his sister. And that was good enough for her.

Naoto raised her eyebrow with intrigue, rubbing her chin briefly as she stared at Justin. She could certainly see how not having any of the legal documents that made you a legal citizen could be problematic. By all accounts, Maya was an illegal immigrant, and Yasogami was by no means a public school. They didn't just let this stuff kind of slide. She needed citizenship to get into school; and of course becoming a citizen was going to be a rather difficult and long process. She couldn't help with that unfortunately; but she could assist with one of Justin's problems. "…I… might be able to get access to Miss Jefferies files again. Perhaps that could be of assistance?" Naoto questioned. Being off the case meant her resources with the police department were severely limited now. She might be able to get access if she associated Maya with the Burned Man Case in California, hell, it wouldn't really be a lie; but then, that all depended on whether the Inaba Police Department was willing to give access to files on a case that wasn't related to Japan in the slightest. Not their country, not their problem after all. Justin passed Naoto a very confused if somewhat annoyed expression as she offered her services to search through a database of files.

"And how is that supposed to help?" Justin inquired somewhat angrily. If anything, the mere mention of Naoto having gone through those files was pissing him off. It just reminded him how Naoto had tried to accuse Maya of being a murderer. I mean for fuck's sake; yeah, she killed the guy, but it was self defense and he WAS in the fucking mafia. Hell, he was probably the boss of that family. If anything Maya did a great service to the people of San Diego by putting that mutt down. Who honestly cared if a criminal got killed? There was NO reason to go investigating this case. The case went unsolved for two years in the death of the leader of an underground crime syndicate; some things just need to be swept under the rug and forgotten about instead of wasting everyone's time and resources. And even if Naoto hadn't been a complete bitch by implying that Maya was responsible for that man's death at every chance, using her and Justin's files to try and convict them of a crime they were innocent of, what in god's name would a few records be useful for? Justin knew all this stuff without Naoto digging around through police files; and even if he didn't that was what Maya was around for. Naoto glared slightly at Justin, annoyed that he was going to fight her even when she was clearly trying to help the best she could. Besides, maybe if he actually paused and thought about it, it would actually occur to him what kind of files Naoto could get a hold of.

"You said you needed the birth certificate, no?" Naoto countered with annoyance. "I can get a copy of her birth certificate transferred over; everything else I can't help you with." Naoto explained, standing up to stretch her back, ready to march off. She doubted Justin would actually accept her help; he never did. And it was clear he was trying to fight her every step of the way here; so why was she even bothering trying to help? She had done everything in her power to at least be on neutral grounds with Justin, and yet he would not stop with the hatred. So that's it; she gave up trying to break through to him. He wanted to be a complete asshole all the time, then so be it. He could wallow around in his pain and misery for the rest of his days for all she gave a damn. She slowly began to walk away Justin simply staring at her as she marched off, grass crunching beneath her feet. And for just a split second, he kind of felt like an asshole. Yeah, she was a bitch; but she was trying to help, and here he was questioning her on everything, rejecting any attempt of assistance she had given. He sighed shaking his head a bit.

"Wait." He called out, silently, yet forcefully at the same time. Naoto obliged, if only to turn and give Justin one last glare. She figured anything he had to say wasn't worth listening to anyway; but at the very least, she'd pretend to care. She'd be the bigger person and give Justin the one thing he never gave her: a chance. "…I appreciate it." Justin eventually choked up. It looked almost painful for him to say it, as if his vocal chords were trying to cut themselves before he could speak the words that his heart hoped to never be spoken. Naoto stared blankly at Justin for a moment, as if just struggling to process such a simple sentence, before a slight grin made it's way across her face. It wasn't much, but it was a huge step forward.

"Anytime." She remarked before turning back around, adjusting her hat all the while. You remember how Kurt tended to have the nervous reaction of tipping his fedora forward? Naoto kind of had the same thing going on; though rather than being a nervous reaction she did it anytime she felt some sense of happiness; usually as a result of solving some kind of riddle. Which kind of annoyed Justin in a way, because it just made her seem so smug about her accomplishments. There was nothing wrong with being satisfied with your accomplishments of course, but having a physical tell that you were satisfied with your accomplishments was just… ugh. Whatever, he'd let it slide. But it still pissed him off. Of course, Naoto still had stuff to do so she eventually turned back around to march away. She really shouldn't have even bothered.

"I'm not stupid Naoto, you wanted something." Justin remarked with annoyance as she turned back around. She grimaced ever so slightly to herself before turning around and making her way back, a sigh on her breath. It was true she had come here in regards to their investigation, but she supposed it wasn't too big of a deal if Justin was busy with paperwork. Seemed Justin wasn't going to let her out of his sight until she spat out what she wanted though. Funny, Justin had known Naoto was trying to butter him up for this express purpose and he still walked right into it. Maybe he just needed a break from the paperwork; maybe he just felt bad for being a prick. Maybe he realized that his father's identity wasn't really something to blow off; even if the consequences wouldn't be as dire as Justin had first believed. Naoto precariously took a seat on the bench next to Justin before pulling the card from earlier out of her jacket pocket. Strangely, the paper texture looked rather… well… crisp. Most likely from being burned. Justin really had to wonder if Naoto was stupid enough to try burning it. In truth, it was a rather smart decision on her part.

"I was examining the card I received from our culprit earlier when I noticed it had a rather pungent scent of citrus fruit on it. At first I was confused as to why that was… and then it struck me; the culprit was using invisible ink. I was able to get the scripture to reappear by burning the back of the paper over a fire, but I haven't quite deduced what this letter's actually supposed to mean." Naoto remarked as she passed the card off to Justin. He couldn't deny he was impressed by their culprit's ingenuity; he didn't even know invisible ink was a real thing. All the same, he examined the card for a brief moment before passing it back to Naoto, a somewhat irritated tone of voice all the while.

"It's obviously a riddle."

"I get that much." Naoto rolled her eyes a bit as she snatched the envelope out of Justin's hand. She could figure out it was a riddle, she just couldn't quite grasp the solution. It seemed so obvious to her, yet she couldn't grasp it as it hung off the tip of her tongue. I guess brain blocks happen to just about everyone; even ace detectives. "Eating letters with a red face. It's quite clearly a riddle, but as to what the solution is I just can't put my finger on it." Naoto rubbed at her chin a bit as she read the card over again, hoping for anything to help her figure it out. Justin just raised his eyebrow with confusion. An ace detective stumbling over as simple a riddle as this. Maybe Justin just loved riddles; maybe he was just really smart. Whatever it was, the answer was immediately clear to him.

"…Seriously? It's a double meaning. Eatting letters in this case means a letter in an envelope, and eating is a metaphor. What would you put letters in that one would consider it being eaten?"

"A shredder?"

"…Well I guess that too, but most shredders aren't red." Justin rolled his eyes a bit. Either Naoto had never seen a mailbox in all her life or she was a lot dumber than she pretended to be. "A mailbox. The red face is the slot, and when you put envelopes through the slot, it's like the letter is being eaten. There you fucking go." Justin sighed shaking his head a bit. Naoto, immediately slapped herself up the forehead.

"Of course! It had been on the tip of my tongue this entire time, though I was struggling to grasp a hold of what it had been in the back of my mind." Naoto remarked with annoyance with herself, examining the letter a second time over just so she could remind herself how stupid she was not to get such a simple riddle. Perhaps she just needed to chill out; with all this stress she wasn't thinking straight. Take a break, get some sleep; you know that stuff, just to relax and revitalize her thought process.

"Suuuuuuuure, you did."

"My gratitude. You're good with riddles, I see."

"It's one of my many talents, though probably the only one that's legal in all fifty states."


	192. Chapter 191: November 4, 2011

CHAPTER 191

November 4, 2011

* * *

"Here's the paperwork I promised. I'm not quite sure how much it'll help without the passport, but it's the best I could do."

Justin had been sitting in the park, reading some book as he just let the breeze run though his hair. It was strange to just enjoy the atmosphere when it was so cold out, but alas, Justin seemed to prefer reading in the broad daylight. And truth be told, he wasn't surprised in the slightest Naoto had shown up; her and her damn investigation seemed to bug him day in and day out, and despite the fact that he just didn't really care anymore, he was just as involved in this as her he supposed, so he had to at the very least be available for when she wanted to ask him stupid questions in regards to the riddles their culprit had been leaving behind. And what better place to meet then… well actually anywhere. Naoto seemed to be pretty damn good at finding Justin regardless of where he was. He couldn't decide whether it was creepy or annoying. Justin nodded slightly before gripping the papers Naoto had been holding in her hand, eyes still focused on his book. He was grateful for Naoto's assistance, but you know how when you're almost at the end of something and someone tried to interrupt you how you just kind of shrug them off for the moment being? It was like that, even if he was very excited to get that birth certificate in his hand. Now he just needed to forge a passpor- I, uh mean… Legally obtain. Yes…

"Inwardly: alone. Here. Living under the land, under the sea, in the belly of AM, whom we created because our time was badly spent and we must have known unconsciously that he could do it better. At least the four of them are safe at last. AM will be all the madder for that. It makes me a little happier. And yet... AM has won, simply... he has taken his revenge... I have no mouth. And I must scream." Justin read aloud to himself before snapping the book shut and dropping it off to his side. He wasn't much of a reader, but there were a few books that he found himself rereading time and time again. Hamlet was the biggest offender, but I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream had slowly become a close contender in the years that passed. It was twisted, cruel, disturbing, and uncomfortable to read. Perhaps that was why it was so perfect. Naoto passed a Justin a slightly perplexed glance as he turned his attention back to the certificate. "Thanks; now I just have to fill out the rest of the paperwork." He sighed as he slid the document between the pages of his book, using it like a folder until he could put this somewhere safe.

"Harlan Ellison?" Naoto inquired, not paying much attention to Justin's bitching and moaning regarding the paperwork he would be swamped with over what felt like decades. Justin was only slightly surprised Naoto was able to identify the author of the book he had been reading; she would certainly be the first person he knew to have actually recognized the story. In a way, it made him a little giddy; but then he remembered this was Naoto, and he got pretty damn sad thinking he liked an author that she most likely enjoyed as well. Hell, knowing Naoto, it wouldn't surprise Justin if she just happened to know every author that had ever existed.

"If it wasn't obvious enough I'd be more than obliged to recite the hate speech." Justin remarked sarcastically. Naoto just shook her head with refusal; it was really more a hypothetical question than anything. She knew it was Harlan Ellison, she was just surprised to see Justin reading it. But then, given the story was about five people pretty much being tortured by a super computer until they commit suicide, maybe she shouldn't have been so surprised. Still, pretty damn impressive reading materials for what she had assumed was a mere delinquent. She'd never imagine Justin as being the kind to read cryptic short stories such as this.

"I'll pass."

"So what do you want this time?" Justin remarked, spinning his cane around in the dirt using the tip of his index finger; like holding a top in place as it spun against the table. Naoto seemed a little embarrassed that it was so obvious she was here just for business. She was of course, and it wasn't like she had anything to prove to Justin, but even then, appearances were everything. She didn't need Justin getting any angrier than he always seemed to be. She cleared her throat for a moment before getting back on topic, tugging at another card in her jacket pocket.

"This was in my mailbox this morning. The Phantom Thief knows where I live… Which means he had other reasons for having you deliver the first card. Why you, though…?" Naoto mused aloud as she passed the card off to Justin. She had already read the contents, so she had no real reason to examine it any further; Justin could have all the time he needed to read that thing over. She'd also like to note Justin tore up envelops in the worst way possible. How was she suppose to reseal the lip of the envelope if it was completely ripped off by Justin's finger?

"I'm going to assume it has something to do with my father. Blackmail perhaps? No, no, I would never comply with that; anyone who knew my family would know that. Whatever it is; it's clear your thief wants to drag me into this as well." Justin mused out lout for a moment before shrugging his shoulders. He'd hold off on the criminal profiling so long as they had these leads to follow. Their suspect was leaving clues left and right; they didn't need to leave anything to the imagination this time around. "When the banks close, the fruit tree grows. By the large seven at the third is the spot I chose…" Justin read silently out loud to himself. He found it easier to concentrate on his readings when he read out loud, even though he so often read silently in his head.

"More cryptic this time. Well, I anticipated that. The first thing that comes to mind with fruit tree is the original card. But the second sentence… By the seven, at the third… What do these numerical values mean…?" Naoto contemplated, trying to decipher the riddle that had been left behind this time. It certainly wasn't any riddle about a mailbox; know this was a lot less obvious and would require much more insight into the matter. Justin shrugged a bit, taking a quick sniff of the cardboard card just to check if that invisible ink shit was there again. Naoto had given him a funny look at first, but once she realized what he was doing, she had to acknowledge it was a pretty smart thing to do. Too bad it didn't turn up any results.

"First part's probably not important. Just tweedle-dee, twiddle-dum bullshit." Justin decided after a moment. From what he could tell, it was just there to make a clever rhyme, to continue with this illusion that it was all just a game. "The numbers are the important part, though in what regard I can't tell. Perhaps it relates to the positions on a clock; though relative to where, I wouldn't even know." Justin shook his head a bit with annoyance. Riddles were usually his specialty, but this wasn't really a riddle. There WAS a difference between a puzzle and a riddle after all; and this fell more under the former. It was nonsensical, and no doubt the solution would be just as bullshit… unless… Unless Justin took into account who the letter had been delivered to…

"The numbers themselves…? The seven and the third…" Naoto repeated to herself before being struck by a sudden bolt of inspiration, eyes lighting up like light bulbs. She thought she might have had an idea on what the solution to their little puzzle was. "When the banks close, the fruit tree grows… Look at the third and seventh words…Banks and tree. In other words, by the large tree at the banks is the spot I chose! A-Anyway, let's search for the biggest tree at this river's banks!" Naoto explained her theory to Justin before hopping off the bench in search of the tree that would no doubt be housing more of her possessions. At least, she had intended to, though Justin immediately grabbed her by the wrist to stop her from running off. Remind Naoto to assure Justin that if he ever touched her again for any reason she would break his arm.

"Ah ah ah; not quite." Justin remarked, gesturing for Naoto to take a seat again. Naoto was a little reluctant to do so, but if Justin had a better theory as to what was going on then by all means, she'd listen. "It's clear our culprit wants me to be a part of this in some form or another, correct? Yet somehow everything has been about YOU. How exactly does he even know I'm cooperating unless he could force us to work together?" Justin inquired.

"I don't follow." Naoto remarked dully after a moment. She didn't see how any of this was relevant to the puzzle they had been given. If anything it just sounded like a flaw in their culprit's plan; though to be fair, their culprit was smarter than he looked if he was applying such skillful tactics of sending the two in loops during their investigation. He knew what he was doing, he wouldn't just neglect that fact.

"It's simple. I delivered the first letter to you, and that's how he knew we were cooperating the first time. Because the first letter pertained solely to you. Now he delivered this letter to you to insure it would get to me. This card's riddle would be only something I would understand; it's not as simple as just picking out the third and seventh words." Justin remarked, holding the card up as he spoke as if to hold it as a shining example of his theory. Naoto nodded her head slightly. She wasn't sure she agreed, but it certainly made sense. If their culprit wanted them to work together, this was a brilliant means of insuring information is being transferred between the two. Though why he wanted them both working on this, she couldn't quite say.

"So then you have an idea as to the solution to our puzzle?"

"It's only a theory, but I think I might be on the nail here." Justin remarked, holding the card up to his eyes to view it again, as if visual simulation to keep his thought process moving as he vocalized his theory. "Seven and the third; not particularly notable numbers unless you were to put them in ascending order, at which point it becomes three and seven. 3's and 7's. Threes and sevens are the most common numbers to get in a game of poker, though also the most unlucky, second only to two's and sevens. It's also a hospital myth that deaths come in threes and sevens throughout the course of a day. Probably insignificant or irrelevant though. More importantly, it's also the name of a Queens of the Stone Age song. Era Vulgaris, Track 8; one of my favorite albums coincidentally enough." Justin mused to himself. Pretty damn clever that their culprit would hide the puzzle in a solution only Justin would ever think of. After all, it was a long shot, but it was too much of a coincidence to dismiss as being impossible. He'd also like to note it was pretty damn creepy that this guy knew what kind of music he liked. Who the hell was this guy?

"And you think the clue has to do with… music?" Naoto remarked with exasperation. That had to be the stupidest thing she had ever heard; you couldn't hide someone's possession in music, and besides: you could relate anything back to music if you tried hard enough. Especially two numbers. This was hardly a connection; it was far more likely that he hid the possessions in the tree. Justin nodded his head a bit.

"Absolutely… And I think I know just where we can find our CD."

* * *

"Sell CD's? Ah, we don't have as huge a selection as that place in the shopping district, but we've got some stuff in that rack over there."

Justin had, very reluctantly, made his way back to that music store he had got his guitar from. After all, if he wanted to find a stoner rock CD, where better to look than a stoner's store? Not to mention the guy clearly had a hard on for Queens of the Stone Age. But hey, so did Justin, so it was kind of okay. Only kinda though. The guy was creepy enough without the fangasming over bands. Justin just nodded a bit with appreciation before quickly running off, Naoto following slowly in his wake. Perhaps she hadn't quite realized that the guy in front of her was totally a creepy stoner guy. Maybe that was for the best. Justin quickly darted over to the box full of CD's strategically placed against a wall on the other side of the store. Sure enough; all stoner rock. This guy had some serious issues. Not that Justin was complaining, because there were like seven copies of Era Vulgaris here. And what do you know, there was one for every special edition and pre-order bonus they released. Either that was dedication, or a serious lack of getting laid in one's life. Justin was willing to bet the latter. All the same he quickly began cracking open CD's in search for… whatever it was their culprit had left behind. Oh how Justin was going to enjoy rubbing it in Naoto's face that he was right as he opened up the last CD case to reveal another envelope inside.

"And there you have it ladies and gentlemen. Threes and Sevens." Justin remarked smugly as he pulled the card out of the CD case, though also pacing his way to a CD player that had been set up near the end of the shop. They already had their clue from the culprit, but perhaps there was another underlying meaning within the song itself. After all, this guy could have picked nearly any sing on that album to make a reference to, and Justin still would have gotten it. Why 3's and 7's? Was it because it was so subtle? Or was there some hidden meaning there. Justin slid the CD in, pressing a few buttons on the player to select a track, eyes still on the envelop all the while. Naoto was about to grab the CD case out of his hand, since he was clearly having a hard time holding everything at once, but then something caught her eye. Something about the size of the envelope struck her as odd; plus it wasn't as thick as usual. You could practically see through it; and that didn't look like words to her.

"What's this?" Naoto remarked with curiosity, snatching the envelope out of Justin's hands, much to his annoyance. He swore, if there wasn't such kickass music blasting in his ears right now he'd choke a bitch. Actually; Josh Hommes would probably want him to give her shit back if she was just going to steal shit from him. Well… Nick Oliveri would anyway. And as a general rule, it was a bad idea to take any life advice from a guy who held his girlfriend hostage. Naoto quickly but gracefully opened the lip of the envelope, sliding the contents out of the envelope. What she saw she could honestly say confused her greatly. It was a picture of Justin and a man she couldn't quite identify due to there being a large chunk of the picture being torn up from the shoulders up. Justin quickly snatched the photo to see what the hell she was gawking at, and once he found out what it was he wasn't very pleased.

"…This… this is…" Justin mumbled to himself as he laid his eyes on the picture, mouth slightly agape, eyes glaring at the photo with this painful expression in his eye. Oh yes, he recognized the man in the picture… at least, he recognized who that monster was pretending to be. But alas, his father died long before his body did, becoming nothing but a shell of the person he formerly was. Justin probably should have been confused how the culprit got a hold of this picture, mostly because last he checked (which to be fair was a pretty long while ago) the photo in his living room was still there. This wasn't the same one, but a duplicate.

_Lie, lie to my face_

_Tell me it ain't no thing_

_That's what I wanna hear_

_Take the lie to the grave_

_That's what an old friend told me_

_Look what it did for him_

"…Let's just go." Justin sighed after a moment, crumpling the picture up before throwing it to the ground, storming out of the store in a fit. Naoto just watched with great confusion as he marched out; not necessarily because he just left without a word, but because there was something painful about his tone of voice before he dismissed himself. Whatever that was a photo of, it didn't sit well with Justin, that was for sure. She leaned over to pick the picture up off the floor, giving a quick look around before unfolding the slip and sliding it into her pocket. She didn't know what it was, but she was going to have to find out eventually. She sighed before slowly making her way back to the CD player, music still blasting from the speakers.

_Run, you'll never escape_

_You see you'd go nowhere_

_So new you appear_

_Broke, laid to waste_

_Turn into sweet nothings_

_That kiss you goodbye_

"I should probably take this with me for the investigation."

* * *

**MUSIC**

****3's and 7's - Queens of the Stone Age


	193. Chapter 192: November 5, 2011

CHAPTER 192

November 5, 2011

* * *

"Did you see the Midnight Channel last night?"

Chie and Justin had been walking home from school when Chie had brought up the rather controversial topic of the Midnight Channel. It was kind of important that they talked about it, but she already knew she wasn't exactly going to get good results out of bringing it up. Maybe it was just that part of her was hoping Justin was blowing steam when he said he was done with the Investigation Team and the Midnight Channel. After all, he did still show up to meetings on a regular basis; perhaps he had changed his mind on all of this. Of course, Justin being as stubborn as always, or perhaps just hurt, was not pleased with the sudden topic that had been brought up. He wanted specifically to be left in the dark on all matters related to the Midnight Channel. That way not only would he not know whenever someone was in danger, or the investigation team had to put themselves at risk to pull them out, but so he could have a clean conscious should anything go horribly wrong. He couldn't possibly be responsible for anything if he didn't know about it, right?

"We're not talking about this." Justin remarked bluntly and to the point. He had no intention of discussing the Midnight Channel, he had no intention of watching the Midnight Channel, he had no intention of acknowledging its existence. As far as Justin was concerned, it was just a rumor; and Chie was being ridiculous right now. There was never a Midnight Channel to begin with. Chie groaned ever so slightly under her breath, irritated though concerned eyes falling upon Justin as they walked side by side, bottom lip clenched between her teeth. She got he didn't want to be involved, but this was important stuff. People could die if they didn't stay vigilante. They wouldn't force Justin into the television if he didn't want to; after all, they all realized the risks involved when they signed on for this little expedition. That said, there was no reason for Justin not to at least lend them a pair of eyes… or one in his case, she supposed. She wasn't asking much of him; just that he pay attention when it rained.

"Come on, Justin. I know you left the team but this is really important. I think the person that showed up this time was a kid." Chie remarked with concern. Justin sighed slightly, shaking his head to side to side. Yeah, it being a kid kind of made it a lot worse, but at the same point, now Justin just felt like Chie was trying to guilt trip him. He wasn't going to jump on the rescue wagon just because it was a kid, and especially not because Chie was trying to pressure him. If anything, all she had manage to do was make him feel bad that he could do nothing to help the child. Not anymore.

"I don't think you seem to get it Chie. When I said I was leaving the team, I meant it. I cannot deal with the pressure anymore, and you're not helping right now." Justin rebutted with soft annoyance; as if he wanted to bitch Chie out, but something about the look on her face had sunk his heart too deep to find the anger in his chest. She really was concerned; not only about the child, but about Justin. He was so desperate to pretend the Midnight Channel didn't exist that he didn't realize by ignoring it completely he was letting his fears control him. All he was doing by ignoring it was insuring that what he was afraid would happen would happen again. Justin could tell she was concerned about him, though perhaps it was the mention of the Midnight Channel that made the reverse true as well. He remembered all too well what had happened with Rise's shadow. He'd rather it not happen again, yet he couldn't bear to be involved in something he knew could lead down that road again.

"…I know you don't want to get involved, but… we really could use your help. You don't have to go back into the television or anything, just… tell us if you see anything funny." Chie pleaded with him. She didn't want to pressure him into anything, but really, they did need all the help they could get; especially with an image as blurry as last time, especially when a child was the next target. No doubt a child wouldn't be able to last as long on the other side as any adult or teenager could. They wouldn't have the strength to deal with the fog. "Please… do it for me." Chie continued, pouting her bottom lip ever so slightly. Justin sighed after a moment, stopping and turning around with slight aggravation.

"Dammit, fine." Justin finally conceded with annoyance, hands thrown up with irritation. "But I swear to god this is only because we're talking about a kid. Anyone else and you're on your own." Justin remarked before turning back around and storming off, leaving Chie behind in the dust. She had considered chasing after him, but the way she figured, he just needed to cool off. She was asking a lot of him after all, all things considered.

"He really is stubborn, isn't he?"

* * *

"Just when I got used to going to bed early…"

Justin yawned as he sat on the couch, observing the television from across the room. Maya would have joined him, but apparently she had to work late shift with Yosuke, helping stock the shelves and what not. It was strange for her to be out this late working, but he supposed it shouldn't be a problem. Hell, she probably just wanted to say her goodbyes to the rest of the staff since all her paperwork, both forged and legitimate alike, had been sent in for consideration. Justin didn't have a doubt in his mind that she'd get in; she just really had to cram those books for exams, and that meant less work more studying. Yosuke surely would understand if she wanted to leave under those conditions.

All the same, Justin sat there, a sense of nausea in his stomach as he waited for the television to flicker on, rain pattering against his window in a rhythmatic dance. Justin didn't want to stay up; he just wanted to ignore all of this… but part of him just couldn't. A small child being the next target of a serial killer? Killing was as a whole wrong, but killing a child? It takes a special kind of fucked up to do that. And besides; he made a promise to Chie he would do this, if only this one time. He'd have to stick it out in his gut until the channel came and went once again.

11:59

12:00

The clock ticked only a few seconds longer as Justin stared at the screen, an obvious delay before the image the television would show fizzled into view. It was blurry, hard to make out a damn thing, save for the slightest dark silhouette of what was clearly a child against the television screen. Justin squinted a bit trying to make out details, though he wasn't having much luck. He instead slowly inched his way towards the screen to get a better look; something his heart had regretted doing. The moment he had started to be able to make out the slightest difference in lighting on the parts of her body, it was clear to Justin who this was; and he could feel it dig through his heart like a spear.

On the television was none other than Nanako herself, staring out into nothingness, very clearly scared. Justin damn near fell over once he noticed it was her, heart beating fast as he took in the sight. Of all the children it could have been; Nanako!? No… He… He couldn't let this happen. She had to be alright; hell he'd run out into the pouring rain right now to make sure she was alright if he needed to. And that's exactly what he did, throwing his jacket on before quickly dialing up Yu's number to make sure everything was going alright at his house. No answer, though the phone did ring. That did nothing to reassure him. He sighed before quickly punching in another number; Chie's to be precise. It rang a bit as he quickly ran out the door, rain pressing against him like waves.

"…Hey, did you see anythi-"

"Chie, call everyone up right now. We have a huge problem."

* * *

"Nanako!"

Justin skid to a stop outside of Yu's house, drenched and shivering from the rain as he laid eyes upon the Dojima residence. He could already tell something was horribly wrong by the way the door had been left wide open, rain pouring through the door way. If anyone was home, they most certainly would keep the door closed in this weather. And if they weren't home; well I don't think I need to explain why leaving the front door open was a bad idea. Something had happened here; he could tell right away as he rushed inside, feet dripping all along the floor. He'd have to apologize for fucking up their floors with mud later; this was far more important after all. He quickly scanned the room, trying to find any sign of Nanako; yet despite how much he called out to her, there was no response. "Shit." Justin mumbled to himself, trying to shake the water from his hair as he looked around. He shook his head with disbelief. How could he have let this happen to a little girl like Nanako? It wasn't long before his search was interrupted by an all too familiar voice. He might have been angry to hear it too if he wasn't so panicked.

"Justin-san, what are you-!?" Naoto shouted as she stormed in the house, investigating the area. Justin shook his head a bit, biting his lip as he tried to let out whimpers of failure. She was gone, and with the strength a child like herself had… well… it might not end well unless this got over and done with immediately.

"Why her!?"

"I know what you're thinking, but… Nanako-chan does fit the pattern. She wasn't seen… but she was heard. Do you remember the politician who visited a local school, and made the news several times? In those interviews, he always quoted a particular student he spoke with. The child became well-known while remaining anonymous… That girl was Nanako-chan! A reporter who took interest in this released her photo and interview using her real name in today's evening paper. But even before that… This is a small, rural town. Her identity must have been circulating for quite some time." Naoto explained for the heartbroken Justin. She should have realized it sooner; the criteria for the Midnight Channel doesn't necessarily have to be a visual appearance, it could be a reference to them instead. Which might have explained Justin's situation slightly more; Naoto recalled there being a new report over a fight in an alleyway not too long ago, and while three of the participants had been reprimanded, the fourth and fifth were not. Naoto was to assume that was Justin and another unknown party. Perhaps Kurt, perhaps Chie. Justin took a deep breath, before turning back to face Naoto and by extension the door.

"You go look around the area, I'll keep searching here." Justin ordered her. Naoto seemed a bit hesitant to have Justin keep searching the house when she clearly wasn't in sight, but now wasn't the time to be second guessing. If there was a problem, she could call him up and have him patrol elsewhere; but for the time being, they had no time to waste bickering. Naoto nodded with agreement before turning to run out the door. Justin sighed before quickly darting towards the living room, scanning the room around him as he did. He knew she wasn't here… but he did know where she could be. Naoto would never let him go through with it if she knew what Justin was going to attempt; but he didn't have time for her to interrupt him. Any second wasted was another second Nanako was in danger. He sighed as he slowly crouched in front of the television. It was big… Big enough for a child Nanako's size to fit in no doubt, and perhaps someone bigger to just squeeze through. Thankfully Justin had a small body frame. He held his breath before tapping the screen, assuring that he wasn't going to hit his head diving through a solid wall. If Nanako was dropped through this television, then would jumping through the same television bring Justin to the same place? There was only way to find out.

"Alright… One… two… THREE." Justin shouted before diving towards the television. It was a tight fit, but he managed to slide through with only minor pain in his rib cage. It was strange, it hurt less hitting the ground than it did squeezing through the television. Perhaps that was because Justin had landed on a white puffy cloud. Justin didn't know why; he didn't care. He didn't have time to stare at the clouds and flowers and rainbows. It may have looked like heaven, but in the end, it was nothing but hell. And Justin knew that better than anyone else. "Nanako!" Justin called out again, scanning the world he had found himself stranded in. Justin would assume that Nanako wouldn't have wandered far on her own; and he wasn't entirely wrong. She woudn't, but then, she wasn't alone. Not in here. Though Justin did have to wonder if a child like Nanako could even have a shadow. She was always so open about everything, plus she was too young to really deny who she was as a person.

And so Justin wandered, sneaking past shadows and navigating the cloudy skies above in search for her. She wouldn't have gone far with the shadows wandering around, which would mean she had to be taken away from where she had been dropped in; by who for what reason, Justin could only imagine. And he really didn't want to imagine it. There wasn't much to leave to the imagination anyway. After what felt like a half hour of wandering, he had found something rather peculiar. A man dressed head to toe in a green delivery outfit. Justin didn't know who it was, but it was clear he wasn't a shadow; at least… probably not. He was a human, and he couldn't have been thrown in because he was never the target. Which meant he had come in here on his own; meaning he had the power of Persona. Justin wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing at first, but as he slowly and cautiously snuck up from behind the fucker fleeing from something, he could hear Nanako whimpering in pain. Seemed their suspect here was trying to escort Nanako into the shadow world. There was no doubt in Justin's mind; this was their guy. Within a split second he stood up and drew his magnum, aiming it straight at his skull.

"Freeze!" Justin shouted out to the man, stopping him in his tracks… or at least, for a moment before he turned immediately around, Nanako held tight in his grip to prevent her from running. It was like he was using her as a human shield to keep Justin from firing a bullet into his skull. Which he was contemplating doing anyway if this was their guy; though he supposed he shouldn't be murdering people around a child. That would scar Nanako for life… though he supposed so would this. Nanako coughed a bit, very clearly struggling and in pain as the man in green gripped her by the throat with his arm. "Let… her… go."

"You… you're the one I saved…" The man in green remarked with curiosity and interest; though as to what he meant by that, Justin hadn't the slightest clue. If anything, it just made him sound like a delusional mad man. And even if he wasn't, when he was practically choking Nanako in the position he was in, Justin had no intention to listen to a word he said.

"You? News for you, I saved me. My friends saved me. The fuck did you do? Throw a couple of people in the television screen? You're a murderer, you scum. You didn't save ANYONE." Justin choked up with anger and annoyance. This was their guy; it just had to be. And here he was claiming that he saved Justin; which was untrue in any capacity of the word. Justin didn't know what this guy thought he was doing that he claimed he was saving people, but mentally insane or not, this guy was in a dangerous position; and if need be, Justin would take him down.

"I can't… breathe…" Nanako choked up, almost pleading to Justin to help her. As if she even needed to ask. Justin shook his head with disgust, biting his bottom lip for a moment. He was in a strange situation; this guy clearly had no weapons, but he was in a position where Nanako could get hurt if Justin tried anything funny. After all, a child as small as Nanako was fragile, and could very easily, say, have her neck snapped should this guy lose it. But then, it seemed he was also more than content using her as a human shield. An… odd choice to say the least.

"You won't stop me from saving her." The green clothed man remarked, a snarl under his breath. The guy had only spoken two sentences, but from those two sentences alone Justin had been able to figure out that save had become synonymous with kill. The guy was off his rocker if he thought he was going to kill anyone. He'd walk away with a bullet in his forehead before he let him hurt Nanako. Justin spat a bit the side with annoyance, taking a deep breath and rolling his eyes before training his eyes back on their killer, gun aimed steadily on him the whole time.

"You know, using a little girl as a human shield isn't a wise move. You can duck all you want, I gurantee you if I want to shoot you this bullet WILL hit you. If I were you, I'd let her go, and maybe you can walk away from this with a nice comfy cell for the rest of your life." Justin explained to him, glaring all the while. This was only going to end one of two ways for the killer now that Justin had him in his sights; how it went down was entirely up to him. "I'm giving you to the count of three. One…"

Justin began to countdown to the moment the bullet would explode from out of the gun's barrel, darting towards the killer's brain and out the back of his skull, squeezing ever so gently on the trigger as he cocked the gun. The killer immediately began to panic, eyes widening mouth slightly a jar as he stood up, backing away with Nanako still in his grip. A move that only served to annoy Justin. Did he serious think he could run with a gun trained on him? "Two…" Justin continued, glare deepening on the killer. As the number hit his ears, he immediately let go of the child, much to Justin's initial delight; at least, until he found the killer was simply grabbing her by the wrist to make it easier to flee with her. Justin sighed with annoyance, ready to pull the trigger and end it all, right here, right now. This was for ruining everyone's lives.

"Thre-" Before Justin could fire off his bullet deep into the killer's corpse however, he was cut off by a blunt force to the back of the head, knocking him clean out to the ground. It only hurt a little, but the place he had been hit was enough to paralyze him for a brief moment. He groaned and rubbed his head as he hit the ground, slowly opening his eyes as he went to get up and spy what shadow had no doubt struck him in the back of the skull. The smaller ones had the habit of doing that from time to time, especially the hands. It was rather annoying, because now Justin had to catch up with his killer, and Justin wasn't exactly a great runner. Little did he know he had bigger concerns. For just as he was about to get up and give chase to their killer he was met by the sight of two shotgun barrels starring him in the eye, a mere inch or two away from his nose. Justin's mouth opened wide for a moment; no normal shadow was smart enough to use a weapon… It was either human, or one of the more advance shadows… whatever it was… it was an abomination.

As Justin's gaze slowly shifted up from the barrel, he could recognize her figure immediately. She was garnished in a black hoodie, and had short, raven toned hair, a pink hair pin keeping her bangs in place. The eyes were golden as to be expected, or at least, one of them was. You see, it was sort of hard to have both eyes when half of your face was nothing but shredded up meat, a gaping hole where chunks of her face had been blown off, leaving nothing but minces of muscle tissue and scraps of skin behind, rough edges in the skull where a bullet had pierced it years before. And despite the fact that half of her face was missing, she still stood there as if she didn't even notice anything wrong, just aiming that shotgun right at Justin's face. Standing in front of him was a ghost, the once believed deceased shadow of Maya. Justin was rather confused; he had thought Maya's shadow was dead, not only from the incident with his own shadow, but from the time he had destroyed her control over his own shadow's body. With that he would have assumed the connection was severed. In truth, the real shadow had never been hurt by Justin's war against his shadow. And why is that?

Because the Maya in control of Justin's shadow was never really Maya's Shadow. It was a delusion, an alternate personality if you will that his shadow had created to cope with the guilt of losing Maya's shadow. It was strange, he hated her with all his guts; yet he couldn't live without her. So subconsciously, he didn't. His mind played tricks on him, creating another entity, fooling him into believing she was still with him. And in truth, she sort of was; just not the way Justin's shadow had expected. The voice of Maya's shadow in the shadow's head? Nothing but a fictional character… a fictional character that the shadow eventually lost control over… and eventually, a fictional character that controlled him. The Maya they had confronted in the dark mirror image of Justin's hometown was nothing but a lie. This was the real Maya. And she was pissed. Justin's eyes slowly shifted to a golden tone, something stirring up within the shadow's heart strings, of course, assuming shadows had hearts. He had come to terms that the Maya that had been with him was fake; he always realized she was. He just didn't want to believe it. But this? This was the real Maya. She had never left him.

"…**Maya?"** The shadow questioned, almost whimpering as he laid eyes on his once believed deceased friend. She just glared at him though, a snarl under her breath as she continued to point the shotgun at him. It took her a moment for her to withdraw the gun's ironsights from the shadow's skull, which had done more than a little to ease his concerns and fears. At least, that was until she turned the gun around so that the butt of the shotgun was facing Justin's downed body.

"**Revenge is a dish best served cold."** She remarked before thrusting the butt of the gun into Justin's skull; knocking him out cold.


	194. Chapter 193: November 6, 2011

CHAPTER 193

November 6, 2011

* * *

"Where is he…?"

The entirety of the investigation team was gathered inside of the television, waiting for Rise to make any advances in her search for Nanako. Strangely, it wasn't too difficult for her to find the little girl, despite the troubles she usually had locating people. Perhaps it was just because she knew Nanako well enough that she didn't need anyone giving her an idea of what she was supposed to be looking for. All the same, even though she had easily been able to identify where Nanako was, there was still the question of Justin. At first everyone had simply assumed he was ignoring them; after all, he was pretty damn stubborn about not being dragged into this again. Kind of a dick move for him to do that when Nanako's life was in danger, but at the very least they'd have an idea where he was and why he wasn't responding. However; Maya claimed Justin hadn't been home when she returned to the house, and Naoto claimed to have run into him at Yu's house when she went to check if Nanako was okay… And allegedly, neither had seen him since. He was searching for Nanako; which meant he was getting involved. And despite that, no one could get in contact with him. Hell, Chie had done nothing but dial his number over and over again as she stood near the television, taking advantage of the limited reception they could get from in here. She wanted to wait outside and keep calling him, but alas, she realized that she just didn't have the time. They had to look for Naoto; Justin could handle himself just fine wherever he was. Chie sighed before clicking her phone shut again, reopening it only to retry Justin's phone again.

"_I'm worried about him; he never stays out that late unless something's wrong." _Maya gestured slowly to the rest of the group, still waiting patiently for the news from Rise. She had been able to locate Nanako with ease, but… she was sensing a lot more than one person in her general vicinity. She would have normally just assumed that the other person with her had to be Namatame, but… it wasn't just one person. There was another much further away from Nanako and Namatame, though she couldn't tell who. She could just tell he was there.

"His battery must have just died; I'm sure he's fine." Yosuke tried to reassure Maya. It was clear she was getting pretty anxious about this, but they just couldn't afford to be off guard right now. He was sure he'd be alright anyway; Justin could be a bit brash, but he could take care of himself. Yosuke doubted Justin was in any danger, but if he was; well he could deal with it. He had confidence in him. Maya sighed a bit, taking a deep breath as she tried to calm her nerves, biting at her bottom lip as she tried to reassure herself that everything was alright. She couldn't explain it, but there was this lingering sensation in her chest that just didn't feel right. Like someone was squeezing her heart and just wouldn't let go. It was hard to explain.

"I don't know…" Rise interrupted, dismissing her persona as she finished her scan. She still couldn't make out who their third person was, but given Justin's sudden disappearance and a lack of anyone else she could think of that could make their way into the television, she was going to guess that he was in here. But for just how long had he been here, and why? If he was chasing after Nanako you'd think he'd be closer to her. "There's a third person in here, but I can't tell who it is. It could be Justin-senpai, but he's pretty far away from Nanako and Namatame."

"Wait, Justin's here?" Yosuke remarked with curiosity and surprise. Everything he had heard suggested Justin refused to enter the television again. If he was here then, was he doing it of his own freewill? It was an interesting question because he had received one of those warning letters as well… Was it possible the killer had targeted two people at once? He never had targeted the same person twice before… why break the pattern now? Was it because he realized the Investigation Team was onto his games? Trying to get one last kill in? Maybe he was trying to throw them off the trail by putting Justin in harm's risk as well. Maya took a deep breath, frightened eyes wide with terror as she gripped at her chest. She couldn't explain it, but she could sense something was very wrong. Call it woman's intuition; call it a hunch feeling. But she knew. She knew something bad had happened. "…If it is Justin, we should regroup. He could be wandering around for a long time without Rise's help navigating."

"Yeah, you're probably right." Yu sighed, shaking his head a bit. He appreciated that Justin had come in here to help, but really, it was pretty stupid. Now they had to find him and haul his ass back on the right path, all time that could be used to be finding their killer and Nanako. Everyone passed each other a quick nod before following Rise's lead in search of the boy. That is, everyone but Yu, Yukiko, and Maya, who were frozen where they stood; all for very different reasons. Yukiko passed Yu a concerned glance as he stood there, eyes facing towards the ground all the while. He was clearly deep in thought, deep in sorrow. He had done everything he could to protect Nanako, and yet he couldn't do it. He blamed Dojima to be quite honest; he had to haul Yu away and leave Nanako all alone.

"Hey… are you okay?" Yukiko questioned with concern, leaning closer to Yu so that they were almost touching. Yu was unresponsive for a moment before shaking his head to snap himself out of his daze. It was quiet between the two of them for a while; which was perhaps part of the reason Yukiko had slipped her hand into his in a reassuring fashion. "Don't worry, we'll catch him." Yukiko smiled, thinking positively about the mission ahead of them. Yu was a little caught off guard at first, but he eventually smiled back.

"We'll rescue her no matter what."

* * *

"Is this… heaven?"

The group all scanned their new surroundings with amazement. The sky was a light pink tone, and the ground beneath them soft and fluffy like clouds. Flowers grew in all vivid shadows of the rainbow, and had Justin been here now, he probably would have swore the sun was going to start shitting candy and rainbows at any second. It was just so… perfect. It was hard to imagine this was Nanako's personal hell; at least, not until one really thought about what Nanako had lost in her life time. Heaven was the place that stole her mother from her; it wasn't the pretty place they said it was in storybooks to her. For her; this WAS hell.

"Nanako must really miss her." Chie muttered, almost heartbroken as the group slowly paced around their new surroundings. It must be awful for a child Nanako's age to have to live with such grief; to live without her own mother. Chie briefly had to wonder if it was like this for Justin… not necessarily for his father mind you, but his mother. He didn't talk about her much, and that could go either way. It could mean he hated her, it could mean he missed her. She was leaning towards the latter though since she had never heard a bad word about the woman, yet plenty of Justin's father. Chie took one last sweeo if the environment before turning her attention towards Rise. As worried as she was about Nanako, she was just as worried about Justin. "Are you sure this is the right way, Rise?"

"…_He's close." _Maya gestured off. No one of course understood sign-language except for Yosuke of course, but he always found it hard keep his gaze away from Maya for too long when she was around, so he didn't miss the subtle, hidden movement she had made close to her chest. He was a little confused; last he checked Maya didn't have a navigator persona like Rise… or a persona at all. But even then her powers didn't really extend to finding people.

"Huh? How can you tell?"

"_I don't know, I just… Can feel it." _Maya shook her head a bit. She was just as confused herself. She didn't know how, but part of her just could tell he was nearby, amongst other feelings in her chest. She felt… angry. She didn't know why, she just was pissed off, and she couldn't explain it. Yet, somehow, this build up emotions was acting like a compass, as if she could feel it blowing at her from its true source; and by extension, she could find Justin oh so close by. She looked around for a brief moment longer before beginning to walk forward. She didn't know if what she felt was Justin or if she was just crazy, but whatever it was she felt, she had a lock on it. The others were a little hesitant to follow at first, though that may have less been from Maya walking off into parts unknown and more because of the way the world seemed to twist with each step she took.

Within a mere few steps, the skies turned a pale green, as did the clouds they stood on. The gates of heaven twisted and distorted, the once golden bars turning black as a burnt stone, metal framework bursting forth from the ground below in what looked almost like the structure to a studio set. From every inch of those black metallic bars were televisions and speakers, each buzzing with white noise as the world around it deteriorated from something beautiful to something sickening and disgusting. As the gates of hell welcomed back it's fallen angel. The Investigation Team starred on with awe as the world morphed itself; all except Maya who slowly continued to march on… even when the televisions and speakers flickered to life. At first it sounded like it wasn't really connecting to any station, just a buzzing screeching sound; but eventually the channel was properly tuned, and from the static was a figure they all could recognize.

"…**Greetings viewers." **The voice echoed from the television set. Everyone froze in place as the voice echoed through the crowd; even Maya, who while not recognizing the voice or the picture, did have a good idea who could be speaking right now. And she was just as confused as the others. All the same though, she wasn't mortified by her sudden appearance, she simply stared up at the dozens of screens with determined anger; as if she just didn't care and wanted to push right through this little blockade.

"Wait a second…!" Rise implored everyone to stop where they were. Something was clearly fishy here; though I don't think Rise needed to explain that to anyone for them to realize some freaky shit was going on. "That's Yamano the announcer!" Rise pointed out. Though there was something odd about her appearance on the screen as she got ever closer to the screen. It was hard to notice at first, but when her face was mere inches from the camera lens, it was obvious what had been so off about her appearance. Her eyes were golden, just like that of a shadow. Seemed that this wasn't Yamano, but rather her shadow speaking to the group; though whether this was a live broadcast or a past recording still remained up for debate.

"**I'm Mayumi Yamano; Channel 0 news. The story for this evening; a dead body found here in the depths of our very own city. As you know, this marks the first murder here in twelve centuries; we'll have more details on this shocking development later this evening." **The announcer giggled slightly, getting some sort of amusement out of this. The way she stared at the camera, you would think she was talking directly to someone, though who, no one could tell. It sounded almost like she knew something she wasn't supposed to, and she was using it to her advantage. Blackmail, perhaps? Regardless of her intentions, the screen slowly began to dissolve into static and white noise again, the image of the announcer disappearing into the white abyss.

"Body…?" Chie muttered to herself a brief moment after the channel faded from view. She was confused at first, but as she began to think about it, something suddenly dawned on her. She was referring to a dead shadow, was she not? And if Justin said that his shadow had murdered someone here; then that meant… Chie gasped with sudden realization, the truth striking her up the backside of the head like a sudden flash of inspiration. "Oh my god; she's talking about Maya's shadow!" Maya spun around almost immediately, a look of shock on her face. Her shadow? When did her shadow end up dying first of all? Second of all… even if her shadow did die, what did that have to do with anything? There was an air of confusion amongst everyone as they passed each other baffled gazes, and perhaps it would have continued like that had Maya not realized that whatever shit was going on… it had something to do with her, and it had something to do with Justin. She took one last look at everyone before turning off and running, leaving the Investigation Team in her wake. "Huh- H-HEY! Wait up!"

And so she ran, green mist rising up beneath her feet like the waves during a high tide, the toxic green sky seeming to grow darker and darker as she ran. There wasn't a minor shadow in sight, but perhaps that was because the place was littered with the debris of metal framework; and it only got more difficult to navigate as she ran, more and more towers toppled over, like running towards the impact point of a crater in the middle of a city, the damages increasing as she progressed. And every single television flickered with that whining noise, colored bands across each screen to indicate technical difficulties. Why was it struggling to pick up a signal now? It had just fine earlier… It didn't matter. She didn't have time to think, she just had to keep running. And so she did, for what felt like an hour. An hour before she came to a halt. Her heart told her to stop but her eyes said otherwise. "Jesus Maya, don't run off like that!" Yosuke scolded her a bit as everyone skid to a stop behind her, though Maya was quick to shut him up by flashing the palm of her hand at him. She was listening carefully to find what her eyes could not see. And what her eyes could not see where the slight sounds of breathing. She absorbed the sound for only a brief moment before flipping back around into a fighting stance, eyes being met by her shadow aiming a shotgun at the group, a struggling and in pain Justin held close to her body like a human shield.

"**Just walk away." **The shadow snarled an order, confidently, yet somehow calmly at the same time as she trained her gun on all the investigation team members. She couldn't focus the weapon on all of them at once, so they could rush her and take her down if they wanted to, but not before two buckshots were fired off into one or more of their puny little bodies. **"This asshole's not going anywhere; so you can save yourself the trouble."**

"Wh…What happened to her face?" Yosuke muttered to himself as he stared the second Maya in the eye. It was clear it was Maya's shadow, though for some reason Maya didn't seem frightened in the slightest by the shadow's appearance. Very confused, but I think the moment she laid eyes on her shadow using Justin like a human shield something inside of her snapped. Nobody put their hands on his brother like that; not even herself. Though… from the looks of it, Justin's shadow was in control at the moment. Which was strange; from what Maya had heard from the others, Justin's shadow and her own had merged at some point. How they had separated, if they even separated in the first place, and why they were apparently on such bad terms was unknown to her. It was unknown to all but Justin and Chie, and only one of those people were present right now.

"…**Why don't you get it? My intentions are noble; we can all be free of this prison once and for all…!" **Justin's shadow coughed up, Shadow Maya's arm still constricted around his throat, making it difficult for him to talk. The shadow swapped her gaze from the teenagers for only a brief moment to stare Justin in his golden eyes, a wicked grin sweeping across his face as he pleaded for her cooperation on the matter. After all, just like all the others, she'd have no choice when the time for salvation came. When the humans sung their final requiem.

"**You're fucking insane; you'll kill us all you son of a bitch." **The shadow snarled at Justin, tightening her grip ever so slightly as she tried to restrain herself from choking the bastard to death. She sighed before turning back to her human counterpart. **"I'm offering you a compromise. You leave your little boyfriend here, I'll see to it that he gets the punishment he deserves and you can all go live your pathetic lives as always… Or I can take him by force. Whether I win or lose… You will die in the end if you resist. I'm trusting you'll make the right choice here." **The shadow tried to deal with Maya. Maya just froze in place for a moment, spinning around to face the others. They were all pissed off, especially Chie, who had tried to jump at Maya's shadow; though she was held back by Yu and Yosuke. You don't just jump a girl with a double barrel shotgun in her hands after all. That would be signing a death warrant. She sighed for a moment before turning her gaze back to the two shadows, slowly walking towards them with her hands up, to show she had no intention of violence; at least, not yet. If she was going to communicate, she was going to need to be close enough for her counterpart to see her gestures. Her shadow disagreed, aiming the shotgun right at her head. **"That's close enough!" **Maya's shadow shoute fearfully. It was strange; the shadows usually were the aggressors when dealing with the humans; yet here she was, being pushed back by one girl just walking towards her. It was quite possible she was just paranoid; after all, that tended to happen when you were the first murder victim in twelve hundred years, and by your associate no less.

"…**So this is the thanks I get for leading us to salvation?" **Justin's shadow remarked with exasperated annoyance and disgust. This was a girl he had tortured himself over the death of for two years, whose wishes he had been trying to reenact for the last several years, and yet here she was holding a gun to his head for doing her will. Was this the way she treated her messiah? If she was going to betray everything they had stood for now… when he was so close… Then maybe she shouldn't be able to stand at all. He was only sad that it was going to have to end this way. **"I'll enjoy watching the blood drip from your corpse."**

"**You think you're saving us!?" **The shadow barked back with annoyance. **"How many have you killed just to advance your 'cause!?' You don't give a shit about any of us; you just want to kill! I should have put you down the moment you were conceived…"**

"**Their lives were insignificant; necessary sacrifices on the road to our freedom… It only disappoints me that you'd like to help pave that road with your blood." **Maya's shadow had about enough at this point, smacking the shadow with the barrel of her shotgun to get him to shut up. Until she could place these two slug down his throat, she would have to put up with his mouth. And yet, that one split second of turning her barrel away from the Investigation Team was all that was needed to lose the fight. Seeing the opening, Maya immediately dashed forwarded and tackled her shadow, knocking her to the ground before delivering punch after punch to what was left of the shadow's face. She damn well might have beaten the shadow to death too if the Investigation Team hadn't tried to pull her off after a while. They usually didn't have compassion for shadows, but something about Maya's shadow… she wasn't interested in death, or at the very least she opposed the death of any shadows. That had to be worth something at the very least in comparison to Justin's shadow. Perhaps she wasn't as evil as one would initially believe. Maya struggled a bit as they tried to pull her off, but eventually her temper quelled and she allowed herself to be pulled away from her shadow. The shadow spun over to her stomach, spitting up blood as well as one could with half of a mouth missing. Justin's shadow followed similar suit, but while Maya's shadow had been coughing up blood, he had been coughing to get air back into his lungs… and to reach out to her shotgun while she was still down on the ground.

"**You people are fools. You could have ended it all right here and now, but you'd rather suffer. You're weak. You humans are the problem. Always were." **Maya's shadow coughed up again. Maya herself just stared at the shadow with sympathetic eyes, as if felling her heart string being pulled watching the creature writhe in pain. She was lying, but… But did she honestly believe this? That there would be nothing but suffering in the time to come? It must be awful to live always fearing the end would be coming… And for her, it just very well end now instead of later. Justin's shadow quickly kicked her over onto her back before pointing the shotgun right at her face.

"**Only a fool dismisses what they cannot understand… I guess that makes you the weakest link here ma'am… Goodbye." **Justin's shadow remarked rather blankly, squeezing on the trigger. And he just very well might have planted those slugs in her corpse if Maya hadn't stopped him from shooting, grabbing him by his trigger hand before he could kill the shadow. The shadow was pissed to say the least, though somehow his anger was quelled with a single wave of her hand, a shake of her head as she slowly approached her downed shadow counterpart. He snarled a bit before dropping the shotgun to his side, allowing Maya to do her business. Whatever worked in the end; he'd get what he wanted. Maya crouched down on one knee to stare her shadow in the face, like one would someone on their death bed. Kind of ironic all things considered. The shadows breathing only seemed to intensify as Maya crouched down beside her. She knew what was coming, and she dreaded it. She couldn't fight the battle that took place in one's heart after all… and it seemed Maya had been the one to win. She… didn't want to die though. She didn't want to be a part of her human counterpart. And yet, the moment Maya took her shadow by the hand, there was a certain sense of understanding that swept through the shadow's body.

Love. Maya had thought about what her shadow said all those years ago, about being unloved, how love hurts. All of that. She had discussed it in therapy and everything, how to control her emotions and harness them into the power of Persona. But never had she come to terms with them… Maybe that's because she never really understood love. Maya never felt truly loved by anyone other than her father; her brother was an ass, and her mother was never much around due to work. When she went to school, she made friends, sure, but because she was poor and had to dress in raggy clothes and little possessions, she was never the eye of anyone's affections. But she was okay with that. At least… she was until her father went comatose. No one loved her once he was gone. She was alone. She didn't just want, no she needed love. And yet, no matter what she did or how much she tried, no one gave a damn about her. No one but Justin… But that wasn't really LOVE he was showing her. It was platonic love; it was the love… well… the love a father would show her daughter or a brother his sister. And that's why she had loved him back. She was too naïve then though, she had mistaken what was platonic love as real love… and it hurt because deep down she knew it wasn't real. Love hurt. And her shadow knew that too. At first she didn't want to admit it, but after a while she realized… her shadow was right. There was nothing she wanted more than to be loved, and maybe she hadn't found that yet, but she'd keep trying. She was a soldier, falling in and out of love. And she was fine with that. That was who she was. She was her shadow, and her shadow was she.

The shadow stared at Maya with confused, though somewhat pleased eyes, her frown twisting up into a smile. Maya didn't need to speak, she could express her feelings through just a touch; the shadow understood what she meant from merely that brief contact. It was a sign of being one; of accepting her for who she was. She should have been afraid to die; and she was… but as she slowly came to acceptance with the fact that these were her final moments, a wave of euphoria swept over her. Because deep down; just as much as Maya had wanted to be loved, the shadow hadn't wanted freedom… it wanted to be accepted. She smiled, closing her eyes as her body slowly twisted into a blue light. **"So this is what the other side is like… the sky's as blue as they said…" **She whispered.

Those were her last words before she vanished, a memory to live in Maya's heart forever more. The light shot up into the sky, glowing through the green mist above like a beacon in the midnight stars. Strangely, the shadow didn't separate into the purple smoke as well as she died. Perhaps it was the last of her willpower forcing herself not to give Justin's shadow what he wanted; perhaps she was just perfectly content with the role she had played in the world. She had no grudges; she had no reason to continuously campaign against the humans inside the mind of Justin's shadow… She had done her time. And she had no regrets, though Justin's shadow sure was pissed that she held onto the one thing he needed in her death. This would be her final resting place. The light shone bright, its blue aura surrounding it in fantastical sparkles as it slowly took form. The Investigation Team was simply amazed to see a shadow become a persona like this… perhaps a little more surprised when they actually saw what persona. "I am thou, and thou art I... From the sea of thy soul, I come... I am Izanagi, the one who invites."

Yu practically spat up his syliva as that hit his ears. "Wait, what!?" And as usual, Maya was struck right in the chest by her new found power, her new persona entering her heart where it would reside forever more. She smiled a bit as her chest warmed up with the acceptance of her other half, though her legs were shaking as she tried to hold herself up. You had to give her credit, she was doing a lot better than the others when it came to accepting her other self, but even then it was too much. Yosuke ran over immediately and caught her as she eventually collapsed.

"Whoa, gotcha." Yosuke mumbled to himself as he caught Maya, a giggle under her breath as she nearly hit the floor. She wasn't sure what felt better, finally getting the skeletons out of her closet or having his arms wrapped around her, even for a brief moment. "Talk about crappy timing for a personal revelation though…" Yosuke sighed to himself. Justin was having some trouble standing himself due to... whatever it had been that Maya's shadow was doing to him this whole time, so they needed to bring both Justin AND Maya back to the real world, no question about it… They weren't going to have enough people to split up and still accomplish the rescue meaning, but they also couldn't go back and come back and still have time to make it to Nanako. Personally, Yosuke blamed Justin. Maya sighed a bit, cheeks still red from Yosuke having caught her a moment earlier. She supposed that confronting her shadow today of all days was just bad timing. It wasn't like she had a choice though. Yu seemed much more preoccupied with other thoughts at the moment though.

"It's… it's okay, we'll still have time… I… I think…" Yu mumbled to himself. It seemed he was unconvinced Nanako would be able to last long in here with a murderer. She was so young, and the murderer had actually followed her this time. But it was true they couldn't progress with the team in the conditions they were in now. Still, he had bigger questions. "For the moment being though… WHY DO YOU HAVE THE SAME PERSONA AS ME!?" Yu shouted with exasperaton. "You're not even a fool!" Maya raised her eyebrow with confusion before shrugging. She wasn't seeing the big deal, and besides… of course she wasn't a fool. She wasn't sure what her intelligence had to do with this anyway.

"I don't know, we'll have to figure it out later… For the moment being we should head back. If we move quick enough, maybe we can still clear a couple floors out today."

"I don't know if she can last that long…"

"She'll be fine. I promise on my life."


	195. Chapter 194: November 7, 2011

CHAPTER 194

November 7, 2011

* * *

"This must be it…"

The entirety of the Investigation Team, minus Maya who was currently at home recovering from her encounter with her shadow, stood outside two large golden gates high in the sky, the door to Nanako and her kidnapper the final defense between them and the end of their mission. Justin, strangely enough, tagged along despite how vocally against going into the television again he was before. Perhaps it was just because kidnapping Nanako of all people had crossed the line big time for him. Perhaps it was because the others had filled him up to date on what had gone down, and… well… Justin recognized the description they gave him for the killer. He was always suspicious of the guy, after all he WAS dragging Nanako around at gun point like a human shield. Now he just had confirmation this was their killer; and if the killer was in fact here, which he was according to Rise, then it seemed this was the end. They had him cornered; and with his conviction this would all be over. Justin could suck it up just a little longer if it meant an end to all of this.

"Christ, I hope we didn't wait too long…" Justin mumbled to himself, rubbing his forehead a bit. She was just a little girl, and she was trapped here with a psychopath. The rules generally were that the person in question was safe until it got foggy on their side, but… that wasn't taking into account the murderer being in there with her. They had more or less established that throwing someone in the television to let the shadow do the work was the method the killer was taking to off his victims… would he dare do the deed himself? Justin rubbed his head with self-annoyance. "This is my fault. I shouldn't have charged in by myself." Justin sighed after a moment. It was the heat of the moment and he panicked, he should have realized trying to take on an entire dungeon of shadows by himself was never going to work out. He supposed at the least Maya had gotten her persona out of it, which was cool if kind of useless now that everything was coming to a close. Not to mention it just brought up all sorts of other questions. He stood their shaking his head for a moment, though he eventually was interrupted from his self-pity by the pressure of someone's hand along the length of his shoulder blade.

"It's alright; you did the right thing and I'm proud of you." Yu smiled at Justin as he spun about to stare at the source of the human contact. Well he was certainly the last person Justin expected to be reassuring him he hadn't fucked up by delaying the search for Nanako. Which was strange, because it was clear he was really down about all of this. From what Justin had heard from Chie, who had heard from Yukiko, he wasn't even talking when they weren't in the television. Just kind of stared at the walls with this disappointed expression. She had tried going over to his house to comfort him, but it just wasn't doing much good. Which meant they quicker they got this thing done, the better it was going to be for everyone involved. Justin took a deep breath before turning his attention to the gates. He tried to open it, but it seemed locked tight by a chain. Even Justin couldn't lockpick what didn't have a lock; but he could melt metal down into molten ashes. He quickly summoned his persona to melt the chains off the door and to grant the Investigation Team access.

From there, Yu quickly kicked the door open, what with being the most eager to get in through the gate after all and to rescue Nanako. It only took him a split second to spot Namatame and Nanako; and from the looks of it, he was very confused by the sudden dead end, the road ending in a staircase and a pedestal. There was no where left to run, and he knew it. "Nanako!" Yu shouted before darting forward in an attempt at getting her away from the killer. The good news was she was still alright; the bad news was Namatame immediately went back to his tactic of keeping a tight grip around the child's throat. She was his only defense from being captured… Perhaps he didn't quite realize that child's life was the only thing keeping the Investigation Team from hurling him off the ends of the clouds. "Namatame, you bastard! Let her go!"

"You… know me?" Namatame remarked with great curiosity as the teenagers stared him down. Justin wasn't sure what he was expecting; the guy was a senator before he was a delivery man, so people around her knew what he looked and sounded like. Hell, even Chie recognized him when he was a delivery man, though in recent days she was having trouble trying to recall what his name was. It was strange, you'd think she'd remember an ex-politician, especially one who was relevant to the murder case they were investigating. Besides, Justin had recognized him when he saw the fucker two days ago; no doubt the knowledge of his identity would be passed onto the others.

"So you're the killer…" Yosuke growled furiously, stepping up towards the side of Yu. They were both equally angry though for entirely different reasons. Yu because his loved ones were at risk, Yosuke because his loved ones had already been taken from him. One to stop the worst from happening, one to get vengeance for the sins that already had been committed. It didn't matter their motivations, they were both there to stop Namatame, right here, right now. Namatame was very confused as he stared at the Investigation Team; though that eventually subsided to a mischievous grin, a wicked laughter under his breath.

"You're the ones I saved… Don't worry… I'll save this girl too…" Namatame mumbled to himself, low and almost emotionless like one would expect from a man with no heart. Justin was quick to draw his gun and point it straight at Namatame. After all, his definition of saving was in much need of improvement from what he could tell. Alas, it seemed the moment Justin pointed his magnum at the culprit, his grip on Nanako tightened, cutting off her airwaves and making it harder for her to breath. "D-Don't come near me." Namatame stuttered angrily. As if he could do anything funny faster than a bullet could travel.

"Calm down, Justin-san! We can't predict his behavior!" Naoto tried to calm Justin. While having a gun trained on the guy sounded great in theory, Justin couldn't guarantee a shot when Nanako was in the way; and if something came up where he needed to fire that gun, and he missed; that was it. Nanako was a goner. Besides, they weren't going to kill anyone unless it was absolutely necessary. They needed to bring Namatame back to serve his sentence, not to mention that Mitsuo's sentence wouldn't be shortend if they couldn't prove he was a copy cat killer. Yeah he was a murderer, but most of the Investigation Team was aware he hadn't been in the best mental health… he deserved some help, and from there, maybe he deserved another chance at life.

"Why are you doing this?" Yu snarled through his teeth. He wanted answers for all of this; not just Nanako, but all of his friends and the announcer and Saki. Why did they have to die? What justification could he possibly have for any of this? Namatame stared blankly at the children for a moment, eyes vacant like one would expect from a mad man.

"They all… want to be saved…" Namatame eventually spoke up, voice as monotone as ever. Justin rolled his eyes before readjusting his aim on the culprit once again. It was slowly but surely becoming apparent to him that Namatame was out of his mind; he thought killing people was saving them, he was making decisions for other people, he was staring vacantly into space like a mad man. He was insane; and Justin couldn't trust the guy without a gun pointed at his head.

"…Did I ever ask you to save me?" Rise remarked with annoyance after a moment. She was understandably very angry. What the hell did save even mean here? What, did he believe in salvation through death or something? Well newsflash, that wasn't saving anyone first of all, second of all that wasn't his decision to make. He didn't get the right to determine who lives or dies, no matter how 'noble' he thought his intentions were.

"And you didn't save us, dammit! It was the exact opposite!" Kanji pointed out. It was very debatable by this point whether or not Namatame was in his right mind, or if he could tell what he was doing was actually deadly, so perhaps pointing out just what Namatame had done wasn't a horrible idea. But no, either he was completely delusional or he was well aware of what he was doing. And neither was exactly a good thing to be when you were holding a little girl hostage.

"If I hadn't put you in the TV… how would you have ended up…?" Namatame questioned, as if trying to justify his actions. Everyone was flabbergasted, though not exactly for the right reasons. Hell, Yukiko looked like she had never been so confused and yet so angry at the same time. You know how they would end up if he didn't put them in. That's exactly right; ALIVE. Sure they were alive now, but it was a really close call most of the time.

"Are you trying to say… we wouldn't have been able to face ourselves?" Rise questioned. She was probably looking a little too deep into it. Namatame was out of his mind, and while one would like to think he at the very least was trying to do good despite his methods being horrible, his mind was too far gone for anyone to truly assume his intentions were pure.

"What…!? But we nearly died!" Yukiko spat out, completely livid. It was a general rule of thumb that if you made either Yu or Yukiko angry, you fucked up big time; and this was no exception. To see Yukiko so furious… he might as well have signed his own death warrant. One strike was all she'd need. Namatame took a deep breath before turning his blank gaze over to Yukiko.

"Yes… Exactly…"

"Okay. Fuck it." Justin span around the chamber of his gun aiming it straight at Namatame's head. He knew they were supposed to try and take the guy in, but Justin saw no reason why this shitbag should live when so many innocent people had died. Naoto had to actually slap him before he fired a round off at Namatame. Shooting him wasn't going to help, especially if they could still talk him down. Justin rubbed his cheek with annoyance before steadying his aim on Namatame again, just to keep him from doing something stupid.

"You keep saying save this and save that… Are you saying murdering people is your idea of saving them!?" Yosuke shouted, just about having enough of this. He wouldn't accept Saki dying for nothing; because this asshole thought he was some sort of savior by slitting their throat's in the dark. Namatame didn't even seem to flinch though, only mildly annoyed by his questions.

"Murder…? No, I'm saving them…"

"How's that different, huh!? All you're doing is killing people!" Yosuke lectured Namtame, having just about enough. He was putting his foot down; he had enough of Namatame and his goddamn game. Of course, he had about enough of it the moment he murdered someone, but hearing his motivation for killing innocent people only went to piss him off even more. He was almost tempted to take Justin's gun and to shoot the fucker himself. It wasn't made much better from the smug grin that slowly swept across his face, as if getting satisfaction out of all of this.

"Haha… If you want to think that, go ahead… I know… you chased us all the way here… to kill… Ha…haha… Well, to bad… I'm… gonna save her…" Namatame remarked with determination, as if he had set out to do nothing but save this girl. After that he really did not care. Justin couldn't help but spit with disgust. Did they come here to kill him? Well I don't think anyone came here with the intention to kill, other than Namatame of course, but after just listening to this guy speak… Some of the Investigation Team members were sincerely considering it. Justin, Yosuke, and surprisingly enough Yu. Not because Namatame was an asshole mind you; but because no one harmed Nanako.

"You asshole… You're not gonna get away with this!" Kanji muttered with irritation. Namatame glared at the boy for a moment, taking a deep breath and clenching his fists together tightly. He had just about enough of all the insults and questions. He was saving all of them and then they had the audacity to turn about and try to kill him and this little girl? He wouldn't let them, he wouldn't…

"Shut the hell up!" He finally shouted losing his cool. Within a split second of his temper bursting out like a volcano, his eye split like watermelons, the iris's mixing around until they formed a golden like tone. His form slowly wavered, with purple smog floating about him in an evil aura, a wicked grin still warping his face. The Investigation Team had slowly been trying to close the distance between him and them without alerting him, but even then they couldn't help but freeze in terror as his form warped to that of a shadow's. It was difficult to say whether he was always the shadow or whether his shadow had taken over; just like Justin's tended to do. **"What a wonderful world… An unknown, unreachable place… filled with pleasant fog… I'm a Savior… It's filthy over there… So many evildoers… That's why I'm going to save them… I'm a Savior… A righteous hero…"**

"Is that… a Shadow?" Yukiko questioned. It was what everyone had been wondering. Was it a shadow and if so how long had it been a shadow before they noticed. Was it just inhabiting Namatame's mind like Justin's shadow did? Tempting him to do awful things? Justin could kind of understand what it was like to be pressured by your shadow to do something you know was wrong; to be deceived into sin… But even then, it seemed like Namatame was sane enough to know what he was doing, but insane enough to not realize what he was doing was fatal. I think he truly believed he was saving people… And that disgusted Justin on so many levels; though I think the fact that he continued to choke a child disgusted him more. He could still hear Nanako choking and wheezing as the shadow kept a tight grip on her throat.

"…Let's do this." Yosuke signaled off to both Kanji and Justin. He didn't need to explain everything, they were both very clearly aware of the situation at hand with Namatame practically strangling Nanako right now. Justin pulled out his magnum and pointed it just to the right of Namatame before pulling the trigger, causing the shadow to instinctively dodge out of the way to the side… just long enough to distract him while Kanji and Yosuke charged forward and punched him out, releasing his grip on Nanako. "Now, Yu!" Yosuke shouted back towards Narukami as they formed a protective barrier to keep him away from Nanako. Nanako was very weak from being in this world for so long, coupled with being choked out by her assailant. She walked very timidly down the steps to try and teach Yu, though she stumbled after only a few stairs. Thank god Yu was able to catch her in time. He was clearly pissed off too as Nanako fell unconscious into his arms.

"Give her back! I'm going to save her!" Namatame shouted, trying to break through the barricade of Kanji and Yosuke to reach his prey. Yu took a couple deep breaths as Nanako lay in his arms, unconscious and from the looks of it, not exactly well. He tried to calm himself, but it just wasn't working. He turned his glare up from Nanako to Namatame, body trembling with rage as he laid eyes on the one who had hurt his cousin. He struggled for a while to try and get past Kanji and Yosuke, but it just wasn't working… It didn't take long before Namatame gripped at his head, his skull pounding like bangos, fingers digging into his skin as legs began to wobble. At first it looked like he was going insane, but then the dark mist that surrounded him seemed to intensify. And then… well what happened next no one had seen coming.

As the aura glowed brighter and brighter, Rise could feel thousands of shadows closing in on them at once. They weren't full blown shadows mind you, rather, what felt like the remains of the smaller ones. But that was all it took. Within a split second, a black shadow ripped through his stomach like a knife through butter. And then another. And another and another. Namatame was acting like a tornado, sucking in every shadow around him in an attempt at boosting his power as his flailing body was lifted into the air, shape disfigured by the shadows squirming in his body. It was bad enough without Kurt nearly getting sucked in himself. His traction on the ground was the only thing keeping him from going flying towards Namatame, and even then, Chie and Yukiko had to help him keep his feet planted on the ground, small strands of shadow like fabric ripping off of him and making its way to Namatame. His figure and health was fine, and it didn't seem to help Namatame in the long run, but it did show just what kind of danger Kurt had been in without Chie and Yukiko's support keeping him from flying into the tornado of souls. The mist didn't clear for a while, but when it did, it parted like the red seas for the shadow's new form. It was like a bobble head, its skull far too big for it's white cloaked body, a red halo in the shape of a peace sign above his skull. He truly believed he was some kind of messiah. How disgusting.

"Rise… Take care of Nanako." Yu called out to her. She didn't fight anyway, and someone needed to keep Nanako safe while the rest of the Investigation Team did their thing. Rise nodded a bit, quickly making her way over to Yu before taking her off his hands for the moment being. The Investigation Team all gathered into their fighting positions, ready to charge into battle, the gusts of wind circulating from Namatame's spinning Halo causing their clothes to flutter into the breeze. "This is for Yamano and Saki, you bastard!" Yu shouted before charging forward, everyone charging in just behind him.

"**Agidyne." **The shadow barked before extending his slender, bony hand in the shape of a peace sign. Within a brief moment, a burst of fire fell from the heavens in a controlled burst, all converging on one point: Teddie. Teddie was pretty resilient though, and while his head WAS on fire, he could just smutter the flames while rolling around. Not so much anyone else. **"Agidyne." **He cast a second time, this time, aimed at Chie. A direct hit, as she was blown pretty far back, the fabric of her jacket burnt ever so slightly. Her parents were going to kill her if this shadow didn't.

"Chie!" Justin came to a halt, turning back around. He was going to run back to her, but Yu ended up grabbing him by the wrist and forcing him to continue charging forward. She'd be fine; but Yu could tell that the spell flinging wasn't going to end at just fire; which meant if they stopped moving for even a second, they were all screwed. They had to keep moving and strike him down before he could finish them off with their respective weaknesses.

"**Bufudyne, Ziodyne, Bufudyne, Agidyne, Garudyne, Ziodyne." **Narutame continued casting spells; one by one flinging the Investigation Team back. Yosuke, Yukiko, Kurt, Kanji; all of them were sent flying across the room and into the gates at the beginning of the room. Naoto, strangely, didn't have any particular elemental weaknesses; but she couldn't exactly resist much of a blow as it was. One strike of fire and she was knocked out cold. Kurt was pretty concerned as she dropped like a fly in front of him, but then he got hit with a nice healthy dose of Garu and got sent hurling back to the entrance much like the others. No one even knew if Kurt had any elemental weaknesses though, so I suppose this was a learning experience for them all. Justin almost got hit by a blast of Bufu, though thankfully he was able to just narrowly dodge it. Chie was just starting to get back off the ground, groaning a bit from the blast of flames she was hit with earlier. **"Control."**

By this point Yu and Justin were the only ones still darting forward in an attempt at killing the bastard, but that very quickly stopped as Justin stopped in his place, clutching his head tightly. Yu couldn't help but stop for a moment, ready to pull Justin's arm again to keep him moving, when suddenly he pulled his gun out and aimed it at Yu. Yu thankfully enough, hit the pavement just as he fired, the bullet just barely soaring over his stomach and skimming Namatame as it flew across it's trajectory.

"What the hell are you doing!?" Yu shouted at Justin. Why was he firing at Yu!? They were fighting Namatame right now, not each other, dammit! Justin groaned a bit, holding his head again as he tried to fight the mind control Namatame had place on him. Perhaps it was for that reason he recast the control spell, feeling his control over Justin wavering. Within a split second Justin pulled his gun back on Yu, firing a couple shots off at his feet as he crawled backwards trying to scurry away, doing his best to get up and run before getting shot. Thankfully Chie had managed to catch up with the others and kick the gun out of Justin's hand, knocking it into the clouds below. Justin was needless to say pissed; but once he came to in a couple minutes or so, I'm sure he'd be very grateful. And that left Yu, still darting towards Namatame. The shadow pushed his arms together in an attempt at blocking Yu, but alas, you don't block getting stabbed. Yu jumped up before thrusting his blade deep into the shadows chest, causing purple blood to spew out from his stomach like a fountain. Yu didn't even bother to pull the sword out; he just let go of his grip on the handle and fell to the ground, content watching the damage he had done. He smiled a bit as the shadow squirmed in pain, trying to push the blade out of it's chest before collapsing to the ground, it's form returning back to his more humanoid shape. Thank fully, due to Namatame being much smaller than his shadow, the sword came loose once he reverted to his true form. No deaths on this mission it seemed.

"D-Dammit… why?" Namatame groaned from his place on the ground, gripping his chest with pain as the Investigation Team slowly gathered around him, their movement slow from the pain of nearly being blown to pieces by Namatame's shadow Justin spat on him as he squirmed on the ground, as if to get the last blow on him before they hauled him off to prison. Justin was a little curious where the purple smoke was that usually accompanied killing a shadow; but he supposed since Namatame didn't accept anything, the shadow must still be alive somewhere; licking its wounds for a comeback. Just like with Mitsuo.

"Because, Namatame: the good guys always win. And you were never the good guy."

* * *

"Nana-chan's still small… so her other self didn't appear like everyone else… And she got caught in all that craziness… I hope she'll be okay…"

The Investigation Team had all been gathered at the hospital, where Nanako had been hauled off to after they all returned to the human side. Namatame had already been hauled off himself, though Justin could have swore he overheard the police officers that put him into custody mention some paramedics. Seemed he'd be getting some medical treatment from some shitty hospital in the outskirts of wherever before he got put behind bars where he belonged. All the same, everyone was worried as they waited to hear some news about Nanako's condition; after all, she still hadn't waken up from falling unconscious in the other world; concerning to say the least.

"I mean, are the doctors going to be able to help her…?" Yosuke expressed his concerns, leaning against a wall with his arms crossed. Everyone was taking it hard of course; though I don't think anyone had anything on Yu. Yu wouldn't even talk as much as everyone tried to coax him into it. He just stared at that door blankly, not moving an inch from his seat; as if he wouldn't be content to move until he knew Nanako was alright. It was going to be a while for that.

"A deliveryman named Namatame… The possibility of Nanako-chan being targeted… If only I'd been more thorough in putting the facts together…! Then Nanako-chan wouldn't have had to go through this…" Naoto remarked with self-pity, disappointed for not seeing this earlier. They all should have really; and while Justin did agree with Naoto, he was somewhat pissed. Oh, she regretted Nanako being targeted, but she didn't give a crap about muting Maya. And no, saying you offer your condolences does not count. You muted a person for life, you can't just say you're sorry and move on with your life like nothing happened and everything was a-okay now.

"That… goes for me too. If I hadn't stood there like a lump in front of that bastard, Nanako-chan might've been okay…" Yosuke sighed, shaking his head a bit. To be fair, Yosuke was a lot more useful in rescuing Nanako than a certain detective was. They actually had to stop for a moment to wake Naoto up on their way out, because somebody couldn't take a punch. Or a molten ball of lava.

"I hate myself… Why do I always panic when it matters most…?" Chie sniffed a bit, trying to hold back tears. She had nearly broke down crying several times now, as would be understandable when someone close to you, especially a little girl, was very very hurt. But alas, crying helped no one, and while it might make her feel better, it would make Justin feel worse. He was quick to take a seat next to her, wrapping his arm around her opposite shoulder in a reassuring manner, giving her a shoulder to cry on should she need it.

"Hey, hey; don't hate yourself. You did great out there." Justin smiled at her rubbing her shoulder slightly. Usually Chie got embarrassed over this stuff, but I think she just needed some reassurance that they did everything they could, and everything they could was enough by this point. She didn't care through what means. She just continued to try and hold back tears in Justin's embrace. "I'm positive she's going to be alright. Nanako's strong like that; and look on the bright side. We got the killer; once Nanako recovers this will all be over. We just have to have faith she'll pull through and everything can go back to normal." Justin spoke to everyone, though his eyes were on Chie the entire time. She nodded a bit, wiping her eyes one last time with the side of her index finger. Justin was right; tears wouldn't help at a time like this. Nanako needed to know they were there for her, and they all expected her to pull through. She would pull-through.

" Sorry… You're absolutely right." Naoto sighed. She was a bit embarrassed to think she let herself nearly breakdown like that. It was important that they kept cool heads about all of this. And besides, Justin was right: they had their real killer this time. All this shit with Personas was over now. Although Justin was sure Maya would be a little disappointed that she wasn't going to use her Persona ability, he was sure she'd be happy this was all over. Though, thinking of Maya; she didn't look to great either. Like, not great by accepting your shadow kind of standards too. He had to wonder why. Maybe it was just a long-time coming kind of thing; hanging onto that stress for two years before she could accept herself must have been hell on the heart. Who knows; it would resolve itself in time, just like everything else.

"This is all that bastard Namatame's fault, and he's behind bars now, right? And it ain't like we were too late for Nanako-chan." Kanji added on. He was probably the only one here not on the verge of tears; he truly believed Nanako would make it through. Justin couldn't help but be grateful that there was someone else here with such a positive attitude on the topic. It made it a lot easier to calm the rest of the team down.

"I'll come see Nana-chan every day so she'll get better faster!" Teddie remarked with great dedication as he stood up from his seat, making a promise to Nanako much like the one he had earlier to play with her in the days to come. Which I imagine must be hell for Yu since Teddie was a borderline pedophile.

"That's all we can do right now… Gee, Kanji… You sounded cool for a second there." Rise went back to her ever teasing nature, mocking Kanji once again. He was one of the most level-minded people here at the moment, and yet Rise still somehow managed to turn that against him. Kanji went to open his mouth and rebute that statement, but he eventually decided it just wasn't worth it, sighing and shaking his head instead.

"Huh? You guys still here?" The Investigation Team was interrupted by the sudden appearance of Adachi. He had been here in regards to Dojima's injuries in the car crash, but once Nanako was transferred her, his focuses soon changed. Justin smiled a bit before passing Adachi a mock salute, pressing his middle and index finger to his forehead and shooting it off to greet him. Adachi just smiled back; he didn't really do any of that weird greeting shit. Partially because he was too lazy. Still, Justin was always happy to see Adachi, and as much as he hated to admit it, the other way around. It was rare to run into a kid Justin's age that really got it; you know? Just what it was like to be in his position.

"Adachi-san, um… did they find out anything…?"

"Dojima-san's speaking with the doctor now, but they can't say anything definite until they run some tests on her… Not just Nanako-chan, but the perp, too… Who knows when we'll be able to hear his story…? Well, it's getting late, so hurry home. The last thing we need is for you guys to collapse too." Adachi reassured them before marching off. It was a little concerning about Nanako, but then, that's just because they didn't do any tests. Justin was sure everything would come back fine once they DID do said tests.

"He's right, we should call it a night."

"And for once we can actually go to sleep before midnight."


	196. Chapter 195: November 8, 2011

CHAPTER 195

November 8, 2011

* * *

"Hey Yu… How you hanging in there?"

Justin made his way to the hospital late that evening to check up on Nanako. Technically, she wasn't supposed to have visitors just yet, but her condition had stabilized enough that they didn't need doctors staffing her room 24/7; and that provided enough of a time frame for people to sneak in or out. In Yu's case, it seemed that process stopped at sneaking in. He simply sat there, keeping an eye on his cousin, his little sister, as if just sitting there would ward off anything that would do her harm. Or perhaps it was Nanako that was warding the guilt away from Yu. It was hard to tell. Justin had tried to drag Maya along with him to visit Nanako, but alas, I'm sure you realized how well that went. She was deathly afraid of hospitals as it was without someone else she cared about being confined to life support to stay alive. She wasn't exactly as good friends with Nanako as the rest of the Investigation Team, save maybe Kurt who hadn't even met her up until yesterday, so it was a little strange seeing her get as heartbroken as she was over the child. No one could blame her of course; though it just rubbed Justin the wrong way. Still, he was hoping he could take this opportunity to get Maya to get over her fear of hospitals; but it seemed she had no intention of budging… In fact, she had called Justin quite a few less than flattering names when he tried to force her out the door and to be there for Nanako. Who knew there were so many ways of signing off the word 'asshole?'

He supposed he couldn't hold it too much against her though; she was still pretty sick from accepting her shadow a few days prior. Maya was coughing like her lung had just exploded into itself nearly every five seconds; and when she wasn't coughing, she was sneezing. T'was a wonder she could eat or sleep at night. The worst part about it too was that when she actually accepted her shadow, she managed to stand far longer than anyone else on the team; hell, I don't think she would have even fallen to the ground had she not been confident her friends would catch her. She was clearly resisting whatever it was that drained the energy out of an individual when they merged with their shadow-selves… so how was it that she managed to become sicker than any of the other Investigation Team members had been? It was strange, Justin had accepted his shadow and walked it off in a couple days with nothing less than a cold. Chie and Yosuke managed to pull it off in a day. Yu… Well Yu didn't have a shadow from Justin's understanding, but he did have a Persona; so he had them all beat. But yet, they all went down like a sack of bricks. Maya, did not. Perhaps this was all just one delayed reaction; there was no way to tell.

"About as well as you'd expect." Yu sighed, extending his arm to offer Justin the seat next to him. Really, Justin shouldn't have been here now, and they both knew it; but then, neither should Yu. He wasn't a hypocrite after all, so to tell Justin he couldn't come to pay his respects and to keep a close eye on the child much like Yu had… well, he couldn't do that. That wasn't fair to any of his friends, as annoyed as he was getting with people sneaking in and out over the course of the day. If there was any bright side to this though, it was that Justin was one of, if not the last person to sneak in. All the girls had visited nearly immediately after school was dismissed for the day, and most of the guys showed up as well. Especially Teddie. Yu actually had to kick Teddie out after a while because he was making too much noise; and if Yu got caught in there, no doubt they'd keep someone stationed outside to keep him from sneaking in and out. And that would be no good for anyone. Kanji was also strangely absent, but given how often he seemed to get in trouble for shit he wasn't even involved with, Yu wouldn't be surprised if he got a little… uh… sidetracked on the way here. Otherwise, Justin was the last to show.

"You need to worry less. This is Nanako we're talking about; she wouldn't just leave leave her big bro and father behind like that." Justin smiled, taking a seat beside Yu before giving him a pat on the back. Yu didn't so much as flinch, though he did sigh a little. He didn't doubt that Nanako would put up a good fight; he was just concerned that putting up a good fight wouldn't be enough. They all knew what was the problem here; it was that damn fog mixed with being exposed too long and nearly being choked out by Namatame. The latter could easily be identified, and it wasn't exactly something that could be cured. Hell that was probably fine. It was the fog that worried Yu; and well… it had more or less been proven with Kurt and Teddie that anything coming from the other side couldn't be identified with this side's medicinal equipment. He doubted it would be any different with the fog, and by extension, Nanako's current medical situation. And that was no good.

"I guess… We just… gotta have faith in here…" Yu muttered, as if trying to convince himself that faith was all it would take to make Nanako well again. Obviously it took a little more than hope to cure illness; otherwise the life to death ratio would be tipped significantly in life's favor. Perhaps Yu didn't quite understand however that hope wasn't going to help Nanako; it was going to help him. It didn't happen very often, but doctor's have on several occasions reported death cause by intense grief. Takotsubo cardiomyopathy, or broken heart syndrome, they called it; a result of great trauma causing the brain to stop producing chemicals that in turn causes the heart tissue to weaken. Did Justin think Yu would ever suffer that from such a cruel fate? Probably not; but the guy clearly wasn't coping with any of this very well. He just seemed to stare blankily off into nothing, like there was nothing to do but wait. Like he had no life outside of this hospital room now. He had no hope. And that was killing him, slowly, but surely. The moment you lost hope… you lost everything.

"Well that's… sorta the spirit? Got to put a little more excitement into it, man." Justin chuckled ever so slightly; or at least, until Yu shot him a death glare unlike any death glare Justin had seen before. He was not in the mood for jokes or sarcasm or any of that shit right now. He just wanted to sit here and wait until Nanako got better; and if Justin was going to try and make this a joke, if he wasn't going to be silent and just pay his respects, he could leave right now. Justin sighed, waving his hands a bit in self defense and shaking his head a bit. "Alright, alright, sorry. It just kills me to see you so under the weather, you know? We caught the killer; and I mean, I get that these aren't the best pretexts to celebrate under, but… you know. Everything we fought for; it's all over now. And Nanako helped. When she gets better, we're going to have to throw her a party or something. But in the mean time, you have to realize that it's all smooth sailing from here. Just think positive." Yu shrugged a bit, leaning back in his chair, eyes still focused on Nanako the entire time. He supposed Justin was right; they had accomplished what they had set out to do for nearly a year now. No more murders, no more kidnapping, no more… of this. So why did he feel so empty right now?

"I just need some time…" Yu sighed after a while. He knew Justin was right when he said Yu needed to have a sunnier attitude about all of this, but he couldn't honestly expect Yu to get over it just like that, right? It was just too much for him to take in; he couldn't deal with the sight of Nanako resting in that hospital bed. It was only proof that he was much too slow to save her before she got hurt. This all could have been prevented if they took those letters more seriously. Not to mention Yu was still very pissed off at his uncle right about now. He tried to explain to him everything: the case, the Midnight Channel, Persona, the Investigation Team, all of it. And what did he do? He locked Yu in a cell with no way of contacting the others when he realized what was going on. This all could have been stopped if Dojima just listened. If anything, I think all Yu's explanation had done was greatly aggravate Dojima in concerns to Yu's friends. Five bucks said he'd try to arrest Justin the next time he saw him. It wasn't that Dojima had any particular problems with Justin; but there were quite a few rumors that he was A, not exactly right in the head, and B, kind of a sociopath. Alas, rumors were rumors, so he wouldn't act upon something that was probably false; but that didn't mean it didn't sway Dojima's perception of Justin. "…How about you? You doing alright after… well… you know?"

"As far as what? Physically, I feel fine. She didn't go much further than a couple whips of her shotgun; which was strange, because I'm pretty sure she was trying to kill me and my shadow. I don't understand why she waited. Mentally? …I'm still trying to piece everything together. I was under the impression my shadow killed Maya's shadow, but clearly that wasn't the case. Seems things are never quite how they appear." Justin mused to himself. Perhaps his shadow hadn't moved the body; it just sort of got up and walked away. That did leave a lot of questions unanswered though… Justin couldn't say for sure, but he was pretty sure his shadow had slowly been losing it; and that's where the OTHER Shadow Maya came from: his imagination. That wasn't what confused him though; it was something Maya's Shadow said. 'You don't care about us, all you care about is killing.' Hadn't Justin's Shadow been justifying his aggressive hatred against humanity by stating it was for their better good? Even when Maya's Shadow had a shotgun to his head he truly believed that… so then… what exactly did Maya's Shadow mean when she said that he didn't care about them… that he only wanted to kill? Was it just a personal vendetta stemming from getting lead shot through her skull? Or was there more to it? All questions running through Justin's mind; all inquiries that would go unanswered for the time being. There would be plenty of time to discuss that in the days to come; though Justin supposed it really didn't matter what his shadow had done now. The Investigation Team caught their killer, so anything to do with the other world, save maybe Teddie, need not ever be mentioned again, simply forgotten for the rest of their days.

"How about Maya? Is she holding up okay?" Yu continued to question Justin. It was becoming increasingly clear that Yu was growing a little paranoid over everyone's well being. Perhaps it was Nanako's hospitalization that had really made him aware all of them could have ended up in that exact position at any time. It was kind of funny in a way; usually Justin was the one slowly decaying within the depths of his own worries and concerns; yet… here Yu was, taking responsibility for each and every one of their safety. As if even the slightest harm that could befall them was his fault. Too bad Yu hadn't accounted for the fact that one cannot take the responsibility of another man onto one's self on will; the group's safety had always been Justin's concern. It kept him up at night while the case was still open… It was only once Namatame was caught that Justin felt that he and every one of his friends was truly safe; that he never needed to worry about the television, or broken ribs, or anyone being muted. It was all over; and that's all there was to it.

"…To be honest, I'm not so sure. We all got sick after we accepted our other selves, but… this is bad, even by our standards." Justin sighed after a moment, concern in his voice. He was sure it was nothing, just a passing flu at the wrong time or something; but even then, he couldn't help but be a little concerned for the girl. She had already suffered so much as it was; he didn't need Mystery Illness X adding onto that suffering. "She's got willpower though, I'll tell you that much… Even though she hasn't moved from that couch since she got home, she refuses to just sleep it off. Can you believe that the woman was trying to study the whole time? I had to actually lock up the text books so she would just watch television and sleep like a normal human being when they got sick." Justin chuckled slightly. If there were any bright side to Maya catching whatever she caught, it was that it made for a damn good joke. Why was it she just couldn't lay back and chill like any other sick person would? He did have to admire her dedication to study for these equivalency tests though; though he did wish she would hold off on studying his text books until she got the freshman books in the mail and studied those first. It would make all the newer concepts easier for her to understand no doubt. There was, after all, a difference between willpower and anti-productivity.

"Threw me for one hell of a loop when I saw her Persona, though…" Yu changed the topic only slightly. This had been bugging him for quite some time, after all, so perhaps it might help to have someone to discuss the matter with. "If a Persona is supposed to be a reflection of one's true self, I don't understand how any two people could have the same Persona; but suppose we could… Izanagi is a Fool. Maya's a Lover." Yu rubbed his chin a bit, contemplating the matter. Of course, perhaps he should have pretexted that little thought with the explanation that everyone had a certain arcane tied to their personalities; because as it stood, Justin was almost insulted for her.

"Uh… what? You want to run that by me again?" Justin remarked with slight irritation. A lover; what the hell was Yu going on about now? Was that just some fancy way of calling her a whore or something? Because if that was the case, Justin didn't care how shitty a mood he was in now, he would not stand for Yu bad mouthing his sister like that without any kind of justification. There was a window in this room after all, and he was not afraid to use it. Yu quickly realized what he said and waved his hands back and forth in a defensive manner.

"Oh no no no, not like that. Shit, should have explained first…" Yu shook his head a bit with disappointment in himself. "Well it's like this, are you familiar with Tarot Cards? Each and every one of us has a different Arcana associated with a Tarot Card, and that Arcana dictates what kind of Personas we have access to, as well as what kind of person we are. Take for example Maya; she falls under the Lovers Arcana, which emphasizes love, popularity, and emphesis on social interactions. So does Rise, actally. I'm… not really sure how I'd describe what a Fool is… It's… like the number zero. Empty, but full of infinite possibilities."

"Well I guess that… kinda makes sense?" Justin raised his eyebrow in a vexed expression. He supposed Maya always did want to be popular, so he supposed that description more or less fit her. But… did that mean Yu was a Fool since he also had Izanagi? Wow, way to stroke your own ego with that infinite possibilities comment; the fuck was that bullshit? "But… wait… How do you even know this stuff?"

"Huh? Oh uh… The… Internet?" Yu stuttered a bit, trying to think up a bullshit excuse for this. Justin wasn't really buying it though. Either Yu had done research and just assigned everyone an arcane without knowing if it was true or not, in which case Justin was still going to kick his ass for the Lovers remark, or he had some way of knowing exactly what they were that he didn't want them knowing about. But why was the question.

"Oh really?" Justin rolled his eyes ever so slightly, not buying into Yu's bluff for even a second. Still; he couldn't say he was uninterested with this Arcana business. It sounded like trivial bullshit a palm reader would tell you about what you were like as a person, but he supposed on that regard it was all in good fun. Like a mood ring; completely wrong, but still amusing all the same. "So tell me Yu; what Arcana am I?"

"A Hermit. It means-"

"Ah, you can… probably just stop there. I think I have a good idea what it means… Right to my pride…"


	197. Chapter 196: November 9, 2011

CHAPTER 196

November 9, 2011

* * *

_The blue pill opens your eyes_

_Is there a better way?_

_A new religion prescribed_

_To those without the faith_

"…That's a shit ton of albums."

As had slowly been becoming a regular habit, Justin had made his way to the park bench by the river bed, where Naoto seemed rather pre-occupied. At first it seemed like she was just sitting there, reading… SOMETHING; but as Justin got closer it appeared that she had a CD player plugged into her ears, a stack of CDs to her side. She was examining another one of those cards; but alas, it seemed she was more interested in the music than anything. I think the tip of the iceberg was that she was actually listening to Justin's music. Apparently Justin's short little demonstration with Era Vulgaris in the music store a week ago had tickled her fancy. She wasn't sure she was a fan of rock n' roll in the slightest; she was more of a fan of classical. But even then, she found herself very interested in how cryptic the lyrics for most of these songs were. It's a shame Naoto had to go and fuck Maya over on several occasions, because Maya would be more than happy to show her a thing or two about psychedelic rock; and god knows Naoto could probably get into Pink Floyd. All the same, Naoto was very well aware that Justin was a Queens of the Stone Age fan, so the moment she heard him sneaking up from behind she immediately slid the albums off the bench in an attempt at trying to hide any evidence that they might have a common taste in music. Even if she wasn't ashamed to admit it, which she entirely was, she knew Justin would never stop rubbing it in her face if he ever found out she liked something he liked.

"I uh… have no idea what you're talking about." Naoto remarked defensively, trying to play dumb. Perhaps she neglected to notice that the earbuds were still in her ear; perhaps she neglected to realize Justin could still see the albums scattered across the ground to the side. All she had managed to do was crack her brand new CDs… and kind of piss Justin off in the process. How dare she crack such sacred artifacts? Hell; he'd take them if she didn't want them… even if he already had all those albums…

Dear god, he was becoming that stoner from the music store, wasn't he?

"I'm not blind you know." Justin rolled his eyes a bit as he made his way over to the other end of the park bench. Technically that was a lie, what with having one eye burnt out and everything, but he was still determined to keep that a secret. It was kind of hard all things considered though when he bumped into walls more often than not. And don't even get started on stairs. Justin still hadn't quite gotten over his Climacophobia to start with, and quite frankily, while climbing stairs for five days had helped at first; now all Justin could think about was those barbed wire steps and racing to beat his shadow to his friends. It had probably made his phobia worse. Needless to say, when you have no depth perception, it doesn't exactly make climbing stairs all that much easier. He had fallen a couple times from misplacing his foot, but thankfully Chie was there to catch him. He always could count on her to help him when he was in need. She was like his guardian angel in more ways than one. "I'm assuming you didn't just come out here to listen to Stoner Rock, right?" Justin changed the topic as he slid in to his seat. After all, the only time he had ever seen Naoto out here was when she was doing something related to that case of hers. And he could clearly see the card in front of her anyway; so she wasn't going to play this one off with a horrible lie either. Naoto rubbed at her nose for a brief moment before yanking her ear buds out and neatly wrapping them around her CD player.

"To tell you the truth, I haven't been in contact with Grampa lately. I wanted to confirm the items I assume the Phantom Thief stole, but… Our secretary Yakushiji-san passed along a message, saying he went to visit an ailing friend in America. Since then, I haven't been able to reach either Grampa or Yakushiji-san's cell phone…" Naoto mumbled to herself. She wasn't sure why she was imparting this information on to Justin of all people; she doubted he even cared. Of course, as much as Justin hated America and how much he loved Inaba; he did have to admit that sometimes he missed San Diego, so the mere mention of America had caught his attention.

"An old friend?"

"Indeed. Detective Allen Benedict. He and my grandfather worked on a case together a long time ago." Naoto explained slightly. Justin's eyes widened slightly as Naoto identified the man by name, however; the explanation only being slightly necessary as it answered Justin's second question. Explaining the man's occupation… well… that was something Justin already knew. What a small world after all.

"No shit? My father used to do work with that guy. He came over to the house from time to time for work. Nice guy; good cop." Justin mused to himself, a slight smile creeping across his face. There were very few cops Justin found reliable in any shape or form, but Benedict always struck him as a good guy. He was getting old though; Justin heard he retired a year or two before he moved to Inaba. He didn't think he was sick or anything though. A real shame, the world needed more cops like him.

"Seems our families have more in common than we once believed." Naoto chuckled to herself slightly. And to think Justin hated her that much without even knowing that her family was good friends with a friend of his. Of course, she hadn't really taken into account how he treated his 'friends through extension.' Yosuke was still missing one of his teeth from the last time he ticked him off; he should be thankful it wasn't one of his front teeth. "On to business. I received a new challenge in the mail today." Naoto decided to change the subject. She realized that discussing friendship or anything like that with Justin was a bad idea when she was the 'friend' in question. "Writing on the Card: Jury to not rest, or rout for fable. Minus 40, Minus 4… The sentence as written is gibberish… Is this part of the riddle…? And this… "Minus 40, Minus 4"… On its own, it means nothing. Perhaps the "minus" part is important…"

"Oh boy, more bullshit that barely makes sense. Who the hell is writing these dumbass riddles?" Justin remarked with exasperated annoyance and sarcasm. These puzzles had no true logic behind them, it was all guess work and bullshit solutions that could or could not work. Usually when you had a puzzle the question was very clear about what you had at your advantage to make a logical deduction based on the information you have. Minus 40, minus 4? No. "I don't know, subtract the fortieth letter and the fourth letter?" Naoto paused for a moment, rubbing her chin a bit as the comment struck her ears. Justin was just half assing an answer, but… he may have just given her an idea.

"Subtract 40…? Aha! Subtract 40 from the sentence…" Naoto's eyes lit up like two twin light bulbs. Justin was very confused at first; as he should be given that his solution was just some bullshit he had come up with in a matter of two seconds as a basis of thinking of an actual solution that wasn't completely stupid. God forbid the answer to these puzzles actually make sense. "Jury to not rest, or rout for fable. From there you subtract 40 and 4… Notice the unnatural comma in the phrase… It corresponds to the two numbers. Subtract the letters in "forty" from the first part, and the ones in "four" from the second!"

"Alright. Sure. Why not. I've given up trying to make sense of any of this by this point." Justin remarked with annoyance, shaking his head from side to side and crossing his arms with disbelief. It made as much sense as anything he could come up with he supposed, but that didn't make it any less ridiculous and stupid. He just couldn't believe that their culprit sat down and said 'No, this is a great puzzle.' Perhaps that was the point; after all, he didn't want Justin or Naoto solving his puzzles, correct? Even then, if this was a game to see how smart Naoto truly was, Justin doubted that an entirely circumstantial solution such as that was really challenging anyone's wits.

"What remains is: "ju n es, t able"… Junes, table! That's it! Let's go!"

* * *

"I knew it was here…"

Justin rather reluctantly accompanied Naoto over to Junes where they searched pretty much every single table there. He wasn't all that surprised when he found that it had been taped underneat the table the Investigation Team usually used for their meetings, though he did find it ridiculous. All of this was ridiculous. If this shit with his father wasn't so important, he would have called it quits by now. He didn't have time for all of this; especially when the culprit seemed to be stealing shit as insignificant as ballpoint pens and fake detective badges… and family pictures. The culprit could keep Justin's snapshots for all he cared… he didn't want them anyway.

"This is another of the seven detective tools I made… You can use it as a normal pen, but it also has a penlight and a miniature telescope. I thought I had lost this. I didn't think Grampa still had it… Hmhm, neither my Grampa nor myself can stand to throw things away…" Naoto mused to herself for a moment. She herself had a habit of hoarding case files even after a case was over, but that was more for her job than it was for prosperities sake or a need to hang onto the cases… Though perhaps it was also partially the latter as well. Still, she'd never think her grandfather would hold onto such childish memorabilia. Was it really all that important to him? It was… just a toy after all. A somewhat useful toy she supposed, but a toy nonetheless.

"I'm just waiting for the plastic knives and nerf guns by this point." Justin remarked ever so sarcastically as he tugged the pen out of her hand to examine it himself. She probably would have snatched it right back if she wasn't caught a little off guard by Justin predicting one of her seven detective tools. What, just because she wanted to solve crimes didn't mean she wasn't a child. She liked to play cops and robbers just as much as any other kid would. Too bad there was never anyone to actually play cops and robbers with, so she was stuck imagining there were other children there. Like temporary imaginary friends almost. "Still… this is pretty nifty. I can imagine it being useful if you needed to write or read in the dark."

"When this pen was still mine… I was just a child, dreaming of becoming a detective. But being a man or a woman… I never thought about it. The lack of peers to compare myself to might have contributed to that. I had no friends… I was quite the outsider then, too. But… why is it that, compared to the time I spent utterly alone… I worry more now that I'm with you and the others? I feel that… I'm undergoing a change." Naoto mused to herself for a moment. She had spent much of her time making gizmos such as that in her freetime; she'd like to say that it had to do with her lack of friends, but she couldn't say for certain. Still, musing on the matter made her have to wonder why she was less worried about everything when she had no friends as when she did. Justin just rubbed the back of his head a bit. He was sick of hearing the whole no friend story by this point to be honest, and this was coming from a guy who himself didn't have friends until he met Maya; but even then, being worried ever since she became involved with the investigation team…?

"Well given I did try to burn down your house…" Justin mumbled very quietly to himself.

"What was that?"

"Nothing. I didn't say anything." Justin jumped slightly, eyes wide. Thankfully Naoto didn't quite hear what he had said, but she was still very suspicious. Justin needed to make a note to himself to keep his mouth shut when he was contemplating the matters of arson, especially when the near victim of said arson was right in front of him. That's like shooting some guy's best friend in the face and then going up to him and saying 'Hey, your friend had a good head on his shoulders… Had.' Naoto shook her head and rolled her eyes. Justin liked to pretend she was a bad liar, which admittedly she was when put on the spot, but then he turned around and pulled this crap. He was such a hypocrite, it almost hurt at times.

"I'd never really thought about it, but I've had nothing but change since spring. The one thing I'm sure of is that being afraid of it never helps." Naoto continued to muse to herself. She realized that everything was changing, not even in regards to the murder case and Personas and all that, but in herself. She had been acting like a guy for years now, and now suddenly the news had spelt out that she was a woman. It was like starting over again from the very beginning. And she didn't have the slightest idea what to do now that she was at the beginning again. She was afraid of the unknown. She was afraid to change as much as she hated to admit it. "I need to change… And the desire to remain the same… They're mixed together… And it scares me."

"Take it from a guy who's tried to be everything in the book when it comes to being a person; change is what you make of it." Justin remarked after a while. Don't get him wrong, he wasn't trying to cheer her up or anything like that; he had no intention of making Naoto of all people feel better about herself as a person, but even then he couldn't just stand there and ignore the matter all together. Especially when the topic at hand was one he could understand all to well. He had tried being the nice guy, he tried being the funny guy, the asshole, hell he even tried being that one emo kid that was always smoking cigarettes and talking about death and shit; but he was just so tired of trying to be what other people wanted him to be that he just stopped. It wasn't like he was unaware he was kind of a douchebag; but he was so tired of trying to be what other people wanted him to be that he just didn't even bother to change. Maybe he needed to realize he wasn't changing who he was for other people; he'd be changing for himself. Maybe; but he never would.

"So you know what it feels like…?" Naoto questioned, an almost sad tone to her voice. The whole connected to Justin in more ways than she realized thing kind of sucked, but she was way too confused to give a damn about petty grudges; especially since Justin didn't seem too hostile about the topic. If anything it seemed like he could understand where she was coming from… well… besides from the whole genderswap thing. But he did know what it was like to try to be someone you were not; and perhaps to a lesser extent losing yourself in the process. In truth, Justin couldn't really remember what he was like before he tried to change himself for other people. He'd like to think he was a good kid, but he couldn't say without any reason of doubt. Justin nodded a bit, as irate as he seemed to be getting dragged into another person's sob story. Just once, he'd like to NOT be that guy that was there for every fucking one. "…You know, you've never actually told me about yourself."

"…What?" Justin remarked with confusion. That was not something he expected from Naoto, nor a question he planned to answer. The less Naoto knew about him, his family, or Maya, the better off they would be. If she wanted to keep this working relationship in tact on as friendliest terms as possible, she would keep her nose out of his business. "Why are you asking me? You already have my file, why don't you just look at that." Justin remarked with annoyance before turning about to leave. He wasn't in the mood for these games. She didn't really care, so why should he.

"I was referring more to what you're like as a person." Naoto clarified. Justin stopped in his tracks and sighed with annoyance, rubbing his forehead as he was struck by a sudden bout of anger induced headaches. He had to convince himself to ignore the hypocrisy. Did she give a damn what he or his sister was like as a person when she accused the both of them of murder? No she didn't; so why the hell should she care now? Because Justin just so happened to hold the key to her self-esteem problems. She could go see a therapist for that; he could give less of a fuck. "I understand that you don't like me, but at the very least I'd like to try to like you. But you're not giving me much to work with here."

"Yeah, well I'm not a very likeable guy."

"Not if you don't give people the chance to."


	198. Chapter 197: November 10, 2011

CHAPTER 197

November 10, 2011

* * *

"Alright, so what stupid riddle do we have to solve today?"

It was after school on a Thursday when Naoto had requested Justin's presence at the shopping district. Why the shopping district and not the usual spot, Justin didn't know. Not that he minded, it gave him an opportunity to get a drink; and he figured so long as he had something else to keep him pre-occupied, he wouldn't have to listen to Naoto's inane babbling. Just once he'd like her to just say something straight out instead of reading off every word she could find in her handy dandy thesaurus. Of course, he also would like nothing to do with Naoto in the first place, but we can't always get what we want, now can we? To be quite honest, Justin's desire to stay away from Naoto had more or less intensified since yesterday. He couldn't believe she had the audacity to ask him to talk about himself as a person to her. Hell she even acknowledged she was aware Justin hated her guts; so why would she even bother asking that of him? He just didn't get it; she didn't care about what he was like as a person before this damn case; she didn't care about who Maya was like as a person either. Yet for some reason, because they just happened to have their paths entangled in this damn case… now she cared. Why? Because she was involved too? You don't get the privilege of knowing what Justin was like as a person unless you really wanted to know him on a person to person level; not because your job needed it. Justin was just very confused right now, if not a little bit angry.

"I have learned that in recent days, a suspicious man has been spotted around the shopping district. He isn't a local, and his appearance doesn't mark him as a tourist or a shopper." Naoto explained as they paced around. Justin had purchased a soda, though she had opted out of purchasing any concession while they were on the case. They weren't here to just snack after all; and she couldn't imagine caffeine helping her keep a calm frame of mind. She'd scold Justin for not keeping the investigation in mind when he had insisted on purchasing sweets and carbonated drinks, but alas, she knew better. Besides, what he decided to eat and what he decided to drink was his own business; she had no say on the matter and she wouldn't pretend she did. Regardless of drinks and concessions, however, Justin seemed genuinely interested as Naoto recapped her findings.

"You think it's our guy?" Justin questioned. It seemed kind of odd that someone who wasn't here for tourism was snooping around. Maybe the guy just moved there or stayed to himself. It was also entirely possible he was foreign, Justin supposed; after all, if he wasn't Asian, than his appearances certainly would make him stand out. Maya got quite a bit of funny looks when she first moved here thanks to her non-oriental features, but people eventually got used to seeing her around the shrine. Strangely, Justin never really had to deal with that; or if he did, he was completely unaware of it. Perhaps it was because he made it very clear he was from America on a couple of occasions when he first showed up. Maya didn't really talk about San Diego at all, so I think it took people a little longer to realize she wasn't really from around here. Naoto nodded her head ever so slightly with confirmation.

"I talked to the owner of Shiroku Store, and she said that she saw the man only a few hours ago. She confirmed it was the same man who bought the cards… If that's true, then he's likely looking for his next hiding place for one of the stolen items. We may be able to catch him in the act." Naoto smirked slightly, pleased in her ability foresee their culprit's next move. It was only a theory after all, but from what she had been able to gather, she was very confident in her hypothesis; and if she was right that meant they could put an end to these games right here and now. Which was great for a number of reasons: one, the honor of the Shirogane family name would be kept entirely intact with this crime finally solved. Secondly… well… this little business partnership with Justin would be coming to an end. She tried to get along with him, to get to know him as a person, but it was becoming increasingly clear he had no intention of letting that happen. And if he wanted to fight her attempts at extending some kind of friendship to him… well… there was nothing more she could do.

"Catching him in the act's great if we want to convict him, but I'd settle for just some answers." Justin remarked before taking another chug of his can of cola, tossing the empty beverage container over his shoulder once he was finished. Naoto gave him a dirty look as she paused to pick up his trash and put it in the proper recycling bin. This is part of the reason they were never going to be able to get along; Justin thought he could just break whatever laws he pleased. Littering, possession of an illegal firearm, vigilantism: nothing was off limits to him. It was a wonder Naoto had been able to restrain herself from putting him in cuffs.

"If my deductions are correct, there are two things remaining that the Phantom Thief has stolen. And if so, I'm quite certain that he's going to hide that one. Perhaps he is… Anyway, where in this area could he hide something unnoticed…?" Naoto mused to herself once she was able to catch up to Justin again, since he didn't even have the decency to stop for her when she had to discard of her trash. She did bring up a valid point though; they knew he was in the process of hiding something else, but they didn't know what, and they didn't know where. If he was following the pattern, he'd be hiding something that belonged to Justin, but it was hard to say for certain. All they knew was he was somewhere in the shopping district…

"…Per…haps the shrine? There are a lot of bushes and stuff there."

"Indeed. Shall we?"

* * *

"Dear Baby Jesus. Hey. How's it going. Sucks how you got crucified and all that white noise."

Justin and Naoto had made their way to the shrine, where Justin, as usual, was making a complete ass out of himself by making mock prayers to a faith this shrine wasn't even dedicated to. If Naoto wasn't so focused on the task at hand, she probably would have just walked off and ignored Justin being a complete douchebag as usual. She couldn't even tell whether he was being serious or not; from what she was able to gather, both Justin and Maya were Christian, though she did have to wonder if Justin was serious about that or if he was secretly an atheist. At the very least he must be agnostic, right? Naoto sighed and shook her head a bit before turning her attention back to the road ahead… and by extension to the man up ahead. He was wearing a black suit and his hair was graying over. It was hard to tell what was in his hand, but it looked like it was long enough to swing at a person; which was pretty much all Naoto needed to know to determine what he was probably trying to hide.

"You're…" Naoto remarked with slight shock. She didn't know who this guy was, but the way he dressed wasn't exactly standard attire, and he definitely had something that belonged to her. A fake plastic knife to be precise; one that doubled as a radio. Justin needed to remind himself later to ask what in God's name made her think that making a radio shaped like a knife was a good idea. Alas, that wasn't exactly on the top of his mind right now. For you see, while Naoto hadn't recognized the now very surprised man trying to hide her possessions, Justin did. His jaw was slightly a gap with shock for what seemed like a dozen different reasons.

"Naoto… Your grandfather is full of shit." Justin remarked, eyes not making there way away from the suspect for even a brief second. Naoto was a little caught off guard at first, though that immediately shifted to one of great offense. It was one thing to be an asshole, it was another to not like her or even give her a chance when she tried to like him; but the moment he started insulting her only family on what seemed like no basis at all… that was where she drew the line. She glared at Justin with great intensity and anger, disgust building up within her chest in volumes. She was about to let out all the anger she had been building up dealing with Justin for the last month or so now, her threshold having just about been reached when Justin said one simple sentence that put her in place. Or at the very least it distracted her long enough that she was able to get a hold of her emotions. "So you're resulting to thievery now, Benedict? I thought you were better than this."

"Benedict? You mean…?"

"Yes. THAT Benedict." Justin remarked with irritation as he crossed his arms glaring at the older man. That day Benedict had handed him off the letter, he had sunglasses on as well as a suit that was much too big to fit his body; all things done to stop Justin from identifying his features and by extension him. And the voice, well, Benedict always was good at imitating voices. It was only seeing him now in some more fitting clothes that Justin recognized him. And boy was he beating himself up for not having noticed him earlier. At first he seemed a little caught off guard that the two had been able to find him, but eventually he just smiled back, clapping slightly as Justin stared him down with great intensity. "Why are you doing this? You're retired; don't you have anything better to do than steal childhood trinkets and pictures?" Justin continued with annoyance.

"I didn't steal the picture, I already had a copy from when they cleared out your father's office." Benedict tried to justify slightly. "As for why… well, for you simply because you needed to know the truth… And miss Shirogane… Well I'm sure your grandfather will be happy to explain when he returns home later tonight." Benedict bowed slightly to Naoto. She was needless to say very confused. First Benedict was in on this, and now her own grandpa… What in god's name was going on here, and WHY were they doing this? Justin was less than pleased with that explanation though.

"Have you ever considered just WRITING me or something? These games were completely ridiculous and unnecessary. What was the point to ANY of this?" Justin continued with exasperated annoyance. This was all unneeded and a waste of time. He expected an actual explanation now, or god help him he was going to get his answer through force. He always thought Benedict was a good cop; his faith in that was very gradually being shaken as he spoke with him here today. Benedict took a quick glance over his shoulder, an almost cautionary movement as he scanned the world around him for anything that seemed out of place. Or perhaps anything in specific.

"I can't tell you what happened directly. I'm putting myself at risk just getting in contact with you here; if I told you the whole truth of the matter, your father would kill me. I've given you all the clues I can… It's up to you to solve the mystery for yourself." Benedict whispered for some inexplicable reason. Justin just passed him a look as though he were crazy though. First of all, what was so bad that his father would kill him if he ever found out, and secondly… why did Benedict care? I mean, he got they were good friends; but if this was that important, I don't think Benedict should have any fear about spreading the news now that his father was gone.

"Yeah, well I don't think you need to worry about what my father thinks, what with him being DEAD and all." Justin rolled his eyes with annoyance. Benedict again turned around to look about him, scanning the area. Justin by now was getting a little annoyed with his apparent paranoia. He was talking to Justin, he could stop acting like anyone gave a damn what he had to say. "Why the hell do you keep doing that?" Justin questioned, just about fed up with all of this. He wanted a legitimate explanation and he wanted it now; not this bullshit that Benedict insisted on-

"…Your father is still alive, Justin."

"…What?" Okay. So that was not exactly what Justin expected; hell, he never thought anyone would say that to him. Which is probably why he didn't believe Benedict in the slightest. He was sick of the lies. If Benedict was going to keep lying right to his face; if he was going to keep toying around with such a sensitive topic for Justin; then this was over. He wouldn't stand here and listen to lies. Benedict could go fuck himself if he thought this was all just a joke to him. Benedict bit his lip for a moment before leaning in a bit, as if to whisper solely to Justin.

"I've already said too much. You just need to be careful out there. Your father is-"

"Enough!" Justin cut Benedict off. That was it. He had enough. "Enough of this! How dare you make a mockery of my father's death. I have never hated anyone in my life more than my father, but I'll be damned if I'm going to sit here and listen to you tell lies and bullshit about my dad… Don't you show your face around me again you piece of shit." Justin ordered, his finger right up in Benedict's face before he turned around to leave. "Come on, we're leaving." Justin barked at Naoto as he started to walk away.

"B-But-"

"I said let's go." Justin immediately shot her a death glare, growling deep and angrily under his breath. Naoto bit her bottom lip, passing a quick glance back and forth between him and Benedict, the latter of which just seemed completely flabbergasted. She couldn't just leave their culprit behind like this, could she? And… What if he was telling the truth? He didn't look like he was lying, even if Naoto couldn't say for certain. Still… Justin was pretty angry about this, and she knew as well as anyone getting on Justin's bad side was a bad idea. She just sighed a bit before slowly following in Justin's wake, leaving behind the very astonished Benedict at the shrine; not a peep more between the two parties. Naoto didn't even better taking her knife back from the man. Perhaps because she didn't need it, perhaps because she was just too confused. It took her a moment before she was able to catch up with Justin, his fists balled up with pure fury.

"Justin-senpai… D-Don't you think we should at least hear what he has to sa-"

"Oh don't you fucking start." Justin turned back around, still very visibly infuriated. At everything, at everyone. He didn't like Naoto as it was without her trying to side with a liar and a clown. God, to think he used to trust that guy; and then he turns around and tries to stampede all over his father's death like it were all just some joke to him. Justin didn't get why he cared what people thought about his father in death; he just did. I guess part of him still loved his father, even after all he had done; and that was the part that was pissed off at all the lies and fairy tales. "I don't know if anyone's ever talked about your father like that, but it's not cool. You don't shit all over a dead man's grave like th-"

And suddenly, before Justin could finish his sentence; a loud bang echoed through the streets. Naoto jumped a bit, though Justin was just a little confused as to what made that noise. "What was that noise?" Naoto questioned timidly as she turned about to try and pinpoint where the sound came from. Justin just shook his head with annoyance though before turning back around.

"Someone probably just dropped something heavy or something. Come on."

* * *

"…"

"…"

"Your… uh… father, huh?"

There was a very awkward silence that filled the room as Justin recapped that evening. And why wouldn't it have been? Finding out that one's allegedly deceased father of three years had actually been alive the whole while, leaving him alone to fend for himself in a country that wasn't his own… Well… You'd be mighty pissed yourself in Justin's position. Justin just glared at the detective a bit, leaning back in his chair as he crossed his arms. He had a stern, almost disappointed expression on his face as he stared into the interrogator's eyes.

"Yes. Imagine my surprise when I found out that my father's actually been alive all this time. You know… my father was and is an asshole, but even that's better than living all by yourself in some fucking foreign country." Justin recapped with great irritation; as if he had never been angrier in all his life. His father was a sadistic douche bag that would probably never be happy until Justin's blood had been spread all across the floor, but even then he did take care of him. Justin would rather have an abusive father than no father at all… and he took that right away from him. He was the biggest scumbag in the world. And Justin hated him with all his heart. The interrogator coughed slightly, as if clearing his throat a bit, though he did remain silent for a moment after that. It was maybe a minute or two of quiet before he eventually sighed and spoke up.

"…Look… I had a very good reason for sending you off like that, it was for your own good." The interrogator finally spoke up, though what he had hoped would be a one on one talk with his son had immediately transitioned into a blind fit of rage out of Justin. His father had all the time in the world to talk to Justin, and instead he decided to talk to the bottle. No, Justin was done listening to this fuck; he had been for a long time.

"My own good!? I'm sorry, was coming home wasted every night for my own good? Was throwing glass bottles at me for my own good!? You don't give a SHIT what's good for me; you never have!" Justin shouted with anger, leaning across the table to stare his father in the eye. His dad just stared back with this blank expression on his face. Not sadness, not regret, not remorse. Nothing. He didn't care. He never cared. Justin took a couple of deep breaths, trying to regain his voice after shouting like a maniac for the last fifteen seconds or so. "You… are not… my father." Justin growled as he fell back in his chair. He wanted nothing to do with the fuckhole sitting in front of him. He was nothing like that man. He wouldn't be like that man. His father sighed for a moment.

"…Perhaps we should just call it a day." The interrogator remarked before pressing a buzzer under his desk to signify that the session was over, allowing the rookies to take Justin back to his cell. They were pretty prompt about it too; perhaps hearing Justin shout from a few rooms away or so. Justin just shook his head as they marched in to carry him away. He wasn't surprised that his father would just have him dragged off when he called him out on his bullshit.

"Yeah, just keep running from your problems as always." Justin spat at the interrogator before the rookies grabbed Justin by his arms and escorted him out of the room. All the while his father didn't even look at him; he just kept his eyes focused on the wooden desk in front of him. Justin couldn't say he was surprised that he would cower in his shell like the coward he was. Always too afraid to face his problems head on… That was probably why he turned to the booze in the first place. Not that it mattered. None of this mattered. By the time the night was over, there was only two things Justin would remember in the morning… The look on his father's face when Justin called him on his bullshit… and the buzzing of an intercom as he was dragged out of the room.

"_Detective Tylor? That detective from earlier is trying to get access to your son's cell again."_

"Tell him for the last time access is prohibited. And if they come back around again I will have the both him and that reporter tried for obstruction of justice."

"_Yes sir."_


	199. Chapter 198: November 11, 2011

CHAPTER 198

November 11, 2011

* * *

"He said what?"

Justin nodded a bit with both confirmation and annoyance. He was still pretty pissed off from the day prior; after all, how dare someone lie to him about his father like that. It annoyed him to no end that he had been going around on a wild goose chase for at least a month now just so someone could lie to him. Had he known that was going to be his reward for solving the mystery, he would have never involved himself. It was made worse by the fact that it was a man who had considered trustworthy; someone who had been so close to his family. And he had the audacity to twist a dagger that had long been dug into Justin's heart. You know what Justin said? Good riddance. Chie scratched her head a bit with great confusion as Justin recapped the events of the day prior to her. Both Chie and Kurt were currently hanging around Justin's house. It was going to just be Kurt, but as it turns out, Kurt had nothing better to do today but bug Justin; and well… it wasn't like Kurt was bad company to have around. It was just a little strange that a twenty year old man never seemed to want to hang around with people his own age. He was like a child at heart; if said child was a tobacco peddler. That said, they were pretty much having this chat over video games; Playstation All-Stars more precisely, where Justin was getting his ass kicked hard. He never was much good at fighting games.

"Your… dad is alive?" Chie questioned after a moment. She wasn't sure how she should feel about the news to be quite honest. To know that your family was still alive must have been like a miracle come true, and yet… did Justin even want his father back? Chie had never heard him utter a good thing about his father; only stories about how much of a shitty excuse for a human being he was. She didn't mind listening to Justin bitch and moan about his dad either. I mean, yeah, it kind of made her heart listening to his tales, but she wanted nothing more than to be there for the blond haired boy… whether it be giving him a helping hand, or just being there to listen. So she'd put up with the heartache knowing deep down she was making a difference. Justin again shook his head. Seemed that point Justin was making had gone completely over her head. He wasn't saying that what Benedict had told him was true; in fact it was pretty clear bullshit. He was even THERE when they told him his father was dead. Hell, he was one of the people that delivered the news. No, he just felt like being a smartass; and Justin wasn't going to have any of that shit.

"No he's not. Benedict just felt like being an asshole in his old age I guess." Justin sighed with disappointment. He'd like to blame this whole incident on senility, but that didn't really justify coming all the way from America to Japan. Really, neither did being a prick, but from the sounds of it, he and Naoto's grandfather had business with each other to attend to, not to mention Naoto ended up getting dragged into this shit as well. He was probably just here in regards to Shirogane, but figured he might as well screw around with Justin while he was here. "You know, it takes a special kind of douchebag to mock someone's death."

"No kidding. You know, I knew a guy kinda like that in college." Kurt remarked, not so much as taking his gaze away from the screen as he leaned every which way in time to the game. As if tilting his whole body to the left was going to help him dodge or anything. Justin supposed that if you were losing as much as Kurt though, you'd be doing the same thing. Chie was kicking the two's assess as if she had done nothing but played this game for her entire life. Which she damn well might have; Justin would have to remind himself to check her Playstation 3 collection the next time he snuck in through her window to play video games. It was amazing that her father still hadn't caught Justin doing that… But then, he only did it once a month or so… prior to the tree branch breaking that is. But we're getting sidetracked here. Justin passed Kurt a glance of curiosity; just long enough for Kurt to land a super on Justin and send him flailing all the way back to last place. "Booyeah!" Kurt fist pumped with excitement before actually acknowledging Justin's curiosity. "Yeah, the guy didn't pretend a dead guy was alive or anything, but he did fake his mother dying to get sympathy sex. Needless to say when news got out that he was bullshitting… well… he had a lot of explaining to do."

"Ugh… what a sleeze." Chie remarked with disgust, sticking her tongue out to try and get the sour taste such a horrible image had left in her mouth. She couldn't believe there were people put there that desperate just to get laid. Even worse was the thought that people actually gave him what he wanted. Kurt just nodded a bit as he turned his attention back to the game… and immediately got killed by Chie. Again. Justin and Chie smirked a bit, chuckling under their breath at Kurt's bafflement. He thought Raiden was supposed to be a broken killing machine, not Chie's bitch. It was a wonder he didn't throw the controller into the ground beneath him in his anger.

"Goddammit." Kurt sighed with aggravation. He was doing pretty good for a guy who didn't play videogames that much, you know, with him being a working adult and all, but all the same he was fairly shitty at the game, and that was slowly getting on his nerves. Never challenge gamers at what they do best apparently. Though, despite how degrading it was to lose a child's game to children (yeah, kind of the point champ) he was having something resembling fun, so he couldn't complain to much. He'd just have to suck it up and focus all his energy on fucking Chie up the ass… Uh… in the game I mean. "So wait, this happened at the shopping district?"

"Yep. You know, for such a small place, the shopping district really is the life of this town." Justin mused to himself for a brief moment. People were always complaining about Junes running small businesses out of town, but really; how could they be afraid of Junes when pretty much everything that happened in this place happened around the shopping district. Plus they had Aiya's, and while Justin was quite frankly sick of Japanese food by this point (joke's on him; he'll have to live with it for at least another two years,) Aiya's was a pretty cool place to hang out. And as long as kids were hanging out around there, they were going to have no problems attracting business. Justin only regretted that half the time it felt like the life of this town wasn't really great activity. So far Justin had seen muggings, crimes, bad cops trying to make faulty arrests, and a fox that may or may not have had rabbies. But then, some of those things while shitty in their own right, did lead to something much greater for Justin and Chie; so he wasn't going to bitch and moan. He was actually kind of grateful in a strange way.

"No kidding! Did you hear the news the other day?" Kurt spoke almost frantically. Justin wouldn't call it excitement as much as it was shock, perhaps even just alarm. Truth be told it was pretty shocking news for a small town like this; even if it was hard for the Investigation Team to be fazed by this kind of stuff ever since the murders started to happen. You know, Inaba was actually a pretty peaceful place prior to Justin's arrival. Sometimes you had to wonder if he brought trouble with him when he moved here. They didn't have murders or muggings or anything like that before he showed up, and while it was of course a mere coincidence, you had to feel bad that Justin had such shitty luck as to arrive right when everything went to shit. It would have been nice if he arrived when everything was right as it should be. And yet, even with all the shit hitting the fan as of recent, Justin couldn't care less. He loved this town and he loved the people in it. They were all… mostly likeable and down to earth people; and that was something Justin could get used to. Plus it was far less crowded in the country side; which was always a plus for him.

"You know I don't watch TV." Justin remarked sarcastically. It wasn't a completely untrue statement; he watched SOME television, but only reruns of shows that were long off the air. Whose Line, Scrubs, that kind of stuff. And he only did it when he had nothing better to do. The news never really made its way into Justin's television viewing time for a number of reasons really. The first and foremost was that truth be told, he actually didn't give a crap about what happened in the world around him. War, celebrity scandals, drunk driving accidents; he had heard it all before on the television, and never had it affected his life in any significant way. All that mattered to him was what had happened within a close circle of events relevant to his own life: family, friends, that kinda stuff. The second reason the news never really found a place in Justin's life was simply that he had friends who were willing to watch the news, and friends who were willing to recap anything important or interesting to Justin while leaving out pretty much everything else. It was like an abridged version of the news, which was great in a lot of ways. Thirdly… well… the news was boring. There was no doubt about that. And the whole political agenda thing that most news stations had going for them just went to annoy Justin. Not exactly great incentive to get Justin to watch your propaganda.

"Ohhhh yeaaaaah… I think I remember hearing something happening down there yesterday." Chie spoke up, something about Kurt's shock itching the back of her brain the wrong way. She wasn't exactly big on the news herself, but it was pretty much being broadcast on every local channel last night, so she caught bits and pieces of it here and there. It was a shame she couldn't remember much of it though… How in god's name was her memory this bad that she was forgetting news as big as this.

"Apparently there was a shooting down at the shrine. A couple of people reported hearing guns being discharged." Kurt explained for the two, since they seemed to be entirely clueless about stuff they should know about. He didn't need those two walking down the wrong alleyway and getting their heads blown off after all. They needed to know when dangerous stuff like this happened in their town. Justin's eyes widened slightly as the explanation hit his ears. A shooting in Inaba? Who the hell here even had guns besides the police and Justin? Hell, Justin didn't even have a gun anymore since Chie had been so kind as to kick his pistol off of a cliff and into the abyss. Still, given that he just sort of waltzed into an ironworks and bought a pistol without any sort of gun license, he wouldn't be surprised if everyone and their mother had a gun. But more than that… something about this seemed so familiar.

"You know… I think I heard that too." Justin mused to himself. "I thought it was just someone dropping something heavy… But wait… You said this happened at the shrine?" Kurt nodded a bit with confirmation, though that was interrupted by him muttering obscenities under his breath as Chie sent him straight back to hell. Again. In the game. Chie of course was giggling like a child who had just been given candy; after all, nothing tasted sweeter than victory. "But… I heard that noise right after I left the shrine…. You don't think…?" Justin remarked with concern. Don't get him wrong, he still thought Benedict was a complete douchebag, but the fact of the matter was he was still a human being, and the possibility of him taking a bullet to the chest was… well… horrifying. Even worse perhaps was the fact that had Justin stuck around for much longer that could have included him… and to a lesser extent Naoto. Okay, it wasn't fair of Justin to say he didn't care if Naoto got shot. He did. Just not as much as he did himself getting shot. If anyone had to die, he'd rather it be someone he hated. Kurt shook his head a bit though, dropping his controller as if to give up before shuffling his hands into his pocket and grabbing a hold of a cigarette.

"Want one?" Kurt questioned out of respect. Justin just shook his head a bit, passing a quick glance Chie's way all the while. He didn't want to make a big deal about how he quit, especially when he quit for her. When you do something for others, you don't try to make it about yourself after all… So he'd keep quiet about how he had quit smoking or how he did it because he cared about how Chie would feel if something happened to him. He was content enough knowing that what he was doing would make a difference. And besides… it wasn't like he didn't slip a smoke in here and there when shit got really tense. In fact, given all that had been going on, he might have actually considered this grounds to have a smoke. But he was going to try and fight it, if only because he could feel Chie's eyes upon him as Kurt offered him a cigarette.

"No thanks, I'm good." Justin declined non-chalantly, a quick wave of his hand in an attempt to dismiss Kurt's attempts at drugging him up on tobacco. Kurt just shrugged a bit before placing the cigarette between his lips and lighting up the tube of tobacco, taking a deep breath of the poisonous smoke before exhaling. He didn't smoke much myself, but he did smoke from time to time. And getting his ass kicked by children seemed like a good enough time as any to try and calm his ass down.

"Alright suit yourself." Kurt shrugged a bid as he let the smoke fill his lungs and flow out his nostrils. "They didn't actually find any bodies. No blood or anything like that, but I think they found a couple of bullet shells. I'd write it off as a bunch of kids with nothing better to do than cause a panic. I wouldn't worry about it." Kurt continued to recap what he heard from the news. Justin nodded a bit, mouth still slightly open all the while. No blood? Then he was probably right; Justin couldn't imagine anyone being able to clean blood stains off of grass or dirt; and even if you could, the amount of blood splatter that came from piercing someone's organs with a bullet was surely more than one could just track down and clean up. You'd have to be a professional, knowing exactly where every little speck of blood had fallen to get rid of all that evidence. Justin sighed with relief after a moment, a slow smile creeping across your face.

"Yeah, you're right… Pfft, probably just Benedict being an asshole again." Justin shrugged off the alleged shootings that had occurred. Without any proof that there had been any death in the shrine, it sounded like one big prank; either that or a bunch of teenagers with too much time on their hands. Justin only felt like an idiot for considering the possibility that something bad had actually happened there. He should have known that Benedict wasn't going to go down just like that. He was old, but he still had some killer reflexes. He wasn't taking a bullet anytime soon, as much as part of Justin wished he would after the shit he had pulled yesterday. Oh well, karma was a bitch; and what goes around comes around. He'd get what was coming to him eventually. But until then, Justin was more than content to just hang back and chill out with his friends. The murders were over, and the case was solved… Now it was time to live life to the fullest. And Justin couldn't ask for more than he had now. He had friends… he had a family now that Maya had returned to his life… and he had Chie. That was all he ever needed. That was all he ever wanted. "Alright, I demand a rematch. One v One, no items, one stock, Final Destination."

"Justin, that's Smash Brothers."

"What's the difference?"


	200. Chapter 199: November 12, 2011

CHAPTER 199

November 12, 2011

* * *

"Ah crap… he's still hanging in there, ain't he?"

Justin had came in to sneak into Nanako's room to see how she was doing, as was slowly becoming part of his schedule as of recent, when he peered through the window on the door, catching a quick glance of Yu as he sat there across the room. Justin couldn't even bare to look at the guy once he realized he was still there, watching over Nanako as if he were her guardian angel. It wasn't like what he was doing was wrong or anything; if anything it was admirable that he cared so much for his cousin. But to see him just an empty shell of a man, watching over her for hours at a time without so much as a twitch… well… it made Justin sick to his stomach with concern. On several occasions Justin had tried to encourage Yu to leave the room if only for a few moments to clear his head and get a grasp on the reality around him. You know, just relax, regain control of his emotions; maybe do something with his girlfriend. Just do SOMETHING. But no, Yu refused to budge. Justin didn't exactly have much left he could do to help the poor sap at this point. And since he couldn't change what had made butterflies tangle up in his stomach, he was going to refuse to subject himself to it. He just prayed to god Yu could move on; it wasn't like Nanako was going to die or anything like that, after all. Hell, the doctors said that they anticipated her regaining conscience soon. That was good news, right? Justin sighed a bit with defeat before backing away from the door, neglecting his duty to visit Nanako in her illness…

"Oh, there you are!" Justin was suddenly interrupted from his quiet contemplations on what to do with Narukami. After all, they couldn't just leave him like this, right? He was a complete mess. Perhaps in a way Justin was relieved to be taken from his thoughts; it made him feel a little bit better about not having any ideas on how to snap Yu out of this state of his. Maybe he just needed a good laugh; that usually helped Justin when he was felling down. All the same Justin was relieved as he heard Adachi's voice beckoning out to him. It sounded as though Adachi had been looking for him, though in truth he was just a little surprised to see Justin here. After all, they weren't supposed to be visiting Nanako yet; not until they could confirm her condition had stabilized; hopefully by figuring out what was wrong with her. Justin shouldn't have been here at all… though… He wasn't going to make a fuss about it. He couldn't see how a visitor here and there was going to cause problems for Nanako's health; if anything, perhaps the support of her friends would help Nanako recover. So he was just going to pretend Justin hadn't been trying to sneak into Nanako's room… What the medical personal didn't know wouldn't hurt anyone.

"Hey Adachi. Still checking in on Dojima, or…?" Justin questioned. He was well aware Dojima was in the hospital too, and while he had visited for a brief moment with Chie after their gaming session yesterday, he wasn't sure he'd take the opportunity to visit him again. They seemed on fairly good terms now since someone dropped the ball that Justin was involved in Nanako's rescue; after all, while Dojima was suspicious of Justin's character, anyone who had his daughter's well-being in mind was alright with him. Justin didn't want credit for that of course; he only did what he thought was right, but alas, it seemed Chie desired nothing more than to paint him as a hero to Yu's uncle. I think that spoke more highly of Chie as a person than it did Justin; no one gave Justin much credit for anything, and while he did enjoy staying out of the spotlight, there was just something nice about someone being there to brag about Justin's accomplishments. Even if she did have to heavily censor everything she said to leave out Personas and the Midnight Channel. That said, Justin highly suspected Adachi was here because Dojima would bitch him out if he wasn't. If there was anything Justin found odd about Adachi and Dojima's work relationship, it was that Dojima dragged him along to pretty much anything, despite clearly viewing him as some kind of idiot.

"Yep; just making sure he listens to the doctor's orders." Adachi chuckled slightly to himself. You know; for a detective, he sure was shitty at following orders. The doctors had told Dojima several times to stop getting out of bed or else his wounds would reopen, but he'd be damned if he didn't try on several occasions to visit his daughter. He never did quite make it, though that's probably because a wheel chair wasn't exactly subtle. Adachi smiled for a brief moment, though his grin slowly dissolved into a frown as the topic of Dojima brought up a thought that had been hung out in the back of his mind. "You know, Dojima told me about that little stunt you pulled. I know your friends were looking into the case, but I didn't think they'd actually attempt an arrest on their own. They could have gotten seriously hurt if Namatame proved to be unstable." Adachi remarked with concerned annoyance. Which was strange, because Justin never got the impression that Adachi really cared much for his friends in the slightest. Maybe Yu, since it wasn't uncommon for Adachi to eat dinner at his house after a long work day; but the others he barely could remember the names of. Hell, Justin would be surprised if he even remembered Maya from the time he had dinner at their house. He did of course, though he wasn't quite sure why. Perhaps it was just nice to find someone who was interested in his magic tricks and illusions. It certainly made him feel better about the few talents he had anyway. She was a lot nicer than some other kinds of girls her age, he'd say that much. All the same however, it wasn't so much that Adachi was concerned about Justin's friends so much as he was concerned about him. "Don't pull that again, okay? You can't just meet with the suspect like that…"

"I wouldn't have even considered it if it hadn't been Nanako he kidnapped." Justin tried to justify his actions with a slight hint of sorrow in his voice. It was partially a lie, because if any of his other friends had been kidnapped, he'd probably go after them too. He wasn't sure why that would happen when the killer never made a second attempt at anyone, and most all of them had been thrown into the television at some point, the lone exceptions being Yu, Yosuke, and Chie… And maybe Maya, though Justin wasn't quite sure if she counted. It was simply shameful that Nanako had to be dragged into this. None of these murders and kidnappings could be justified, but Nanako's the least so. It was one thing to kill and adult; it was another to kill a child. You know you've crossed the line when murderers and rapists would shank you just because they knew you put your hands on a little girl. Perhaps there was hope for these prisoners yet. Adachi shrugged a bit, passing a quick glance towards the door. He could certainly understand why a child's life being put in jeopardy could cause people to do stupid things. He himself couldn't even see why Nanako had to be brought into this. It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt after all, though in Adachi's case he drew the line at small children.

"I understand your concerns, but this is a dangerous guy we're talking about. You should just leave that kind of stuff up to the police." Adachi explained, a small grin on his face as he tried to convince Justin that the police were more than capable of taking care of this stuff without a bunch of teenagers throwing themselves into the line of fire. Of course, no cop COULD have done with Justin and the others had done; not without Persona anyway, so while Justin understood where Adachi was coming from, he was completely incorrect. Still, Justin was grateful that Adachi seem to give a damn about his and his friend's safety… He wasn't sure WHY Adachi did, other than perhaps it being his job; but I don't know. It didn't sound like he was faking giving a damn when he spoke to Justin. But then, it never sounded like he was faking giving a damn, even when he was. Which was pretty much a majority of the time. And Justin could attest to that first hand after watching Adachi try to take cover behind his back to keep out of sight of an old lady, only to be all happy sunshine when she caught him trying to run from her. He was certainly charismatic, there was that much at the very least…

In fact… Adachi was pretty much everything Justin's father wasn't. Justin wasn't sure why he was making that comparison out of the blue; maybe it was because Adachi truly did look like his father when he was younger, perhaps because of all of the shit with Benedict lying to his face. Whatever it was, his father was on his mind; and that only served to piss him off, if not fill his heart and chest with sadnesss. Adachi had charm, he was always so carefree and smiling. He didn't judge, and he didn't despise anyone unless they gave him reason to; and even when he did, he was sure to lie to their face about it. It sounded like a bad trait at first to be a liar, but sometimes the truth hurt so bad… so why tell it? Basically Adachi was everything Justin wished his own father had been like. Instead his father was a drunken bastard with a temper as short as his patience. Maybe his father was smarter than Adachi, maybe he was stronger than Adachi; maybe he was a lot of things better than Adachi. But he wasn't what mattered most. Most people said that someone should have a father before they have a friend… Why couldn't it be both? Justin sighed a bit. This was all stupid for him to contemplate; hell, he swore he wouldn't even be considering this stuff if that elderly woman hadn't called Justin Adachi's son that one time.

"Yeah, you're right. I just wasn't thinking straight." Justin chuckled slightly, brushing aside his contemplations and sorrows in an attempt at trying to appear happy. And it certainly worked as much as part of Justin wanted everyone around him to notice just how miserable he was. Not just because of everything going on with Nanako, or the lies he had heard about his father being alive: just because bad memories and nightmares continued to race through his mind, spreading dread to every inch of his body. He wanted others to know just the horrors he had seen; and I don't mean just know about, but truly understand and experience. Chie had known what had happened in Justin's past for example, but Justin didn't believe she would ever understand the pain he went through. But then, Justin hadn't felt the pain that shot through her heart as he recapped his nightmares to her. Perhaps Chie could understand his ache just a little more than he had suspected she did. Justin shook his head, shaking his thoughts out of his mind in an attempt at clearing his head out to make way to more pleasant topics. "So how's Dojima doing? I saw him yesterday, but he still looked like he was in a lot of pain." Justin mused out loud upon Dojima's condition.

"His wounds opened up a little, but he's treated now, and he's fast asleep." Adachi recapped for Justin. He wasn't so sure why the blonde cared about Dojima's condition, but it wasn't like Adachi wasn't knowledgeable on the subject, and there wasn't much reason for him to withhold that kind of information. Except maybe Dojima kicking his ass. Alas, Adachi had the advantage in this scenario, because by the time he could stand up without a wheelchair to fit his foot up Adachi's ass, he would have long forgotten about Adachi's indiscretion. At most Adachi would get bitched out; which wasn't much different from usual. But then, neither was getting slapped anytime he said something Dojima had decided was stupid beyond all belief. Which was essentially everything. "He'll be all right. Don't worry. Knowing him, by this time tomorrow, he'll be on his feet and yelling at people again… Uh… D-Don't tell him I said that."

"When have I ever told Dojima anything you've said about him behind his back? I've told you before, your secrets are safe with me." Justin smiled, making a small zipping motion across his lips using his thumb and index finger. Adachi chuckled a bit. That was true of his secrets in concerns to Dojima perhaps, but if Justin really knew some of the stuff he did behind closed doors, he'd be a lot less secretive about Adachi's indiscretions. Still, he did appreciate the gesture, even if it was entirely circumstantial. It was tough to find a teenager that could give him a helping hand with something as trivial as a misplaced remark, even tougher to find a teenager willing to shut their mouth. That was part of the problem with kids these days; they couldn't just keep quiet and do what they were told. It was like they were just asking for trouble. It was kind of a shame Adachi hadn't seen Maya since the incident that had left her voiceless for the rest of her life. I think he would have fallen in love with the young lass if he found out she couldn't so much as make a peep. And THAT was a shame. In the end, it was probably for the best Maya and Adachi hadn't interacted since that faithful night.

"Well thanks for that. Anyway, I heard Nanako-chan's on the road to recovery! You guys were being so dramatic when you brought her in here that I got really worried." Adachi chuckled slightly. It was true though; they had laid on the melodrama a little thick; and while they were all worried about her, Justin knew that she was alright now that she had medical personal attending to all her needs. Hell, I think most everyone had accepted that fact by now, save perhaps Yu who was still mourning heavily, and Maya, who didn't trust doctors at all, especially when there patient has been unconscious for days now. You'd think she'd realize all doctors weren't bad by now just by her own experience of getting lead pumped into her gut (she still had a tiny scar from that by the way; nothing bad, just a small area of skin that was darker than the rest near her rib cage.) Doctors knew what they were doing… sometimes even medicine can't save a dying person though. They couldn't with Justin's mother; but at least he accepted that they did everything they could to keep her alive as long as possible. Maya had lost her father well before Justin lost his mother… she should have made that revelation by know. "But this is good news. She'll be well again in no time."

"I hope so… I think Yu's been making himself sick with worry…" Justin remarked with concern as he passed a quick glance back to the door. At this point, nothing less than Nanako going home would tear him away from that room. She needed to recover, not only for her own health, but for Yu's. You couldn't just cage yourself in a room everyday and every night after all; especially in a hospital. Losing hope seemed like a hell of a way to open your immune system to all sorts of infections and diseases, if losing hope in and of itself wasn't a sickness. It sure felt like it with the way it felt like there was nothing one's gut after they had given up on everything. Adachi nodded a bit, his gaze following Justin's as he stared at the door to Nanako's room. He wasn't stupid, as much as he appeared to be at times when he blabbered on about stuff he shouldn't have been talking about. He did realize that Yu was in that room right now watching over Nanako. There was no doubt in Adachi's mind it wasn't going to do Yu any good worrying about what couldn't be changed, and what would eventually get better; but it wasn't his place to tell Yu how to handle his grief. Maybe he'd stop in for a second after he was done speaking with Justin and give him a quick pep talk, maybe some advice on how to deal with it all. Just go outside and get some fresh air or something you know? He had a girlfriend, maybe he should go out and get laid or something. Of course, Adachi hadn't quite realized that not all teenagers were sluts, especially Yukiko; which might have been another problem entirely in retrospect…

"He'll come around with time. In the mean time though, don't worry so much about Nanako-chan. She'll pull through no problem."

"I worry less about her and more about Yu at this point to be honest."


	201. Chapter 200: November 13, 2011

CHAPTER 200

* * *

"Welp, here we are!"

Yosuke stood in the door way, dropping some bags to his sides as he beamed with pride, a wide grin crossing his face. The sun was shining bright, the birds were singing happy tunes, and he had just opened the doorway to the rest of his life. It felt like the journey to this point in time was so long, but there he was, his new home. And what more could he possibly want? He had a house, he had a good paying job, and of course, he had a beautiful wife. And speaking of the devil… Yosuke stepped to the side for a moment to allow passage way to the young lady following behind him. You could practically hear cheering as she backed her way through the door, dragging her luggage through the dirt behind her; at least, until Yosuke got off his ass and lent her a helping hand picking up her heavy luggage. It took only a few second to get the baggage inside, tossing it off to the side like an empty can. The girl couldn't help but chuckle a bit at the sound of breaking glass and a cat snarling as her luggage hit the ground. Which was strange because they didn't have a cat.

"Phew…! That trip was so long…" Rise timidly remarked with exhaustion, flipping some hair out of her eyes as she spoke. They had been on the road for so long that she was just happy to get two feet in the door. She could practically fall asleep on the couch right now if she wasn't so excited about the transition from city life. Just having a quiet suburban home such as this had been her dream all her life, and now that Yosuke had found a good paying job in this area, her fantasies had finally come true. Yosuke grinned a bit as he pushed the last of his bags off to the side. He probably should unpack everything, but for the moment being, he was happy enough just having furniture. They could get all situated in an hour… or two… or a day… a week sounds about right.

"What do you think? Do I know how to pick out a house, or do I know how to pick out a house!" Yosuke praised himself, still posing victoriously with his hands along his hips as if he were Superman. Rise smiled a bit before taking a quick glance around the house. It was roomy, but not too big; especially for the two people that would be living here. The wallpaper was a very soothing color, and the hardwood flooring was a nice touch. As a general rule of thumb it was usually a bad idea to let any man be put in charge of home decorating and housing shopping; but for once, it seemed that her husband actually had a good grasp on what made a good house. Well, at least until she went upstairs to use the toilet later that day. Wasn't plumbing and pipes and all of that stuff supposed to be right up men's alley? Oh what was she going to do with Yosuke some of these days? Still, for the moment being, she was blissfully unaware of their broken toilet, and she was more than happy to finally make it to their new home. She kind of felt like taking a nap after driving for hours on end, so maybe she'd sneak upstairs early tonight.

"Do you think we'll fit in well here?" Rise questioned with a slight hint of concern. She had gotten to know her old neighbors fairly well, so she figured it might be a bit difficult to adjust to living next to different people. Little did she know that different just very well may be an understatement about the people that lived next door. Little did they know, that what had seemed like a dream house, just very well might have been hell. Yosuke smiled a bit before placing his hands along the length of her shoulders in a reassuring fashion. He had nothing but confidence in their new housing conditions, and he hoped Rise would too.

"I'd stake my life on it." Yosuke reassured her. Though reassurance only goes so far long when the next minute you know the door to your front house has been toppled over on the floor. It was certainly alarming to find someone kicking their door in within minutes of dropping their luggage into their new estate, though just having your door kicked in the first place was fairly fucking alarming. Rise and Yosuke both turned their startled attention towards the door, very much confused and very much frightened. After all, what other reason could someone have to kick in a door than to steal or reek havok? As they stared through the new hole in their house, they were greeted by the sight of a woman with short brown hair, dressed in a green hoodie and a skirt running just short of her knees. She seemed energetic if not almost pleased to have just caused them great property damage as she vandalized their home.

"Did someone say steak?" Chie grinned widely, a twinkle to her eyes. Laughter burst through the clouds like a thousand elephants screaming out in pain, applause for the young woman as she smiled at thin air for a while. One would almost think she were posing for someone had she not just broke down their door. Yosuke and Rise passed each other a glance of great confusion as Chie made her way inside, a slight skip to her step as she paced herself towards the newcomers. "Hey there, you must be the new guys! I'm Chie Satonaka, I live just next door." She introduced herself, extending her arm to both of them with a wide grin on her face. Rise and Yosuke weren't quite sure how they should react to all of this. It wasn't everyday someone smashed their door in just to introduce themselves… and perhaps get some steak from the sounds of it.

"Oh uh… h-hello…" Rise timidly spoke up. "Um… did you just break our doo-" Rise began to stutter with great confusion as she laid eyes on her now crushed door frame. Perhaps she didn't quite realized that Chie didn't seem to even notice the door, or if she did she didn't give the slightest rat ass about the damage she had caused. She just seemed so oblivious to everything.

"And this is my husband Justin." Chie remarked, stepping out of the way for a moment to extend her arms out towards the door. Soon enough a blond haired young man came marching through the door, stomping his feet the whole time with his middle finger extended in the air. As he came up to Yosuke and Rise, he immediately slapped Yosuke across the face before turning back around and marching towards the door, laughter following him the entire way there, mixed with a couple of boos just for good balance. Of course, Justin didn't see enough damage being done just yet apparently, so he decided to smack one of the vases planted along the windowsill off its stand, shattering it across the floor. Yosuke and Rise passed each other a very concerned glance over their supposed new neighbors. Yosuke really should have looked into their neighbors before they purchased this house… but even then, what choice did they have? They needed this house for Yosuke's new job. It was hard to say what the worst part of all of this was: Chie, her husband… or that weird laughter that seemed to come out of nowhere… "Anyway, I thought I'd just stop in to give you folks the welcoming tour!"

"Huh? Oh uh… w-well we still need to unpack so…" Yosuke stuttered nervously, trying to escape the strange situation he had unwittingly been thrust into. Who were these people and why exactly were they so sociopathic? Perhaps it was that very insanity Yosuke had neglected to acknowledge when he tried to get out of this. Chie wasn't going to take no for an answer, or perhaps she was completely incapable of hearing that word and just heard whatever she felt like hearing. And what she felt like hearing was a yes. There was a point where being nice was actually not all that good of a thing.

"Great, let's go!" Chie shouted before grabbing Rise by the wrist and tugging her out the door. Rise of course grabbed Yosuke in an attempt at using him as an anchor. You know, it was a lot harder to hang on for dear life when all you could hear was laughter for some inexplicable reason. In the end, it seemed the woman who had kicked in the door was much stronger than Yosuke, and soon he had found himself being dragged along with Rise as she tried to hold onto him for dear life. It took a bit of tugging, but eventually Chie was able to get them outside to see her neighbors; first starting with the house on their left. The house on the right, after all, was Chie's and Justin's, and there was no real need to introduce themselves again. "This is the Narukami household. They're good people, but don't tell them I said they were kind weird." Chie whispered, rolling her eyes a bit. Again that FUCKING LAUGHING. Who was doing that!? Yosuke swore he was going to tear who ever that was a new asshole if they didn't stop making him think he was crazy.

"Well howdy neighbors!" A voice echoed from over the other side of the fence they had been parked outside of thanks to Chie dragging them there. Neither Yosuke nor Rise could quite make out the man's features as he was completely hidden from the mouth down by the fence that stood between the two. All they could make out was he had some oddly colored silver hair, and matching silver eyes. You would think that meant he was a really old dude, but it turns out he was around their age given the sound of his voice. "I'm Yu Narukami, and this is my wife Yukiko." Yu turned about on the other side of the fence to face towards another young lady making his way over to the fence. Strangely, there was no problems making out her face; she seemed to practically tower over the fence… which was kind of inaccurate given the source material, but whatever. "Welcome to the neighborhood."

"Oh hello!" Rise smiled a bit. At least they weren't breaking anything and seemed fairly sane by comparison to Chie and Justin. "I'm Rise, and this here is Yosuke. We just moved in next door for Yosuke's new jo-" Rise began to explain the reasoning behind the family's move to their new home when she was suddenly interrupted by a strange sound. Yosuke immediately jumped into Rise's arms out of freight, not unlike how one would in a Scooby Doo episode. Rise needless to say had a lot of trouble holding Yosuke when he weighed so much more than her. As usual, laughter seemed to fill the air in what Rise and Yosuke were slowly beginning to believe was the sound of them losing their sanity. Maybe they were both just in a coma and that was the sound of their loved ones trying to wake them up… or just laughing at their misery. Again the sound that startled Yosuke echoed through the neighborhood… It almost sounded like a growling sound. "Wh-what was that?"

"Oh that? Well that's just our pet bear Teddie. He's out in the back right now doing his buis-"

"_Okay wait a second, wait one FUCKING second!"_

* * *

November 13, 2011

* * *

"What's wrong?"

Yosuke looked up from the packet in front of him with great confusion, his gaze travelling across the table at Junes. For the most part everyone seemed confused, though I don't think he quite realized they were confused as to what they were reading and not Justin's interruption. Justin just stood there jaw open with disbelief as he glared at the papers; as if they had shanked his mother in her sleep or something. Justin wasn't sure how it was possible, but this was somehow the most visually offensive thing his eyes had ever laid eyes on; and this was the guy that watched a huge quantity of porn. At least, he did until he realized Maya could totally hear him up there. Yeah, that wasn't exactly encouraging him to keep up his perversion in the dark hours of the night. He really should have just considered doing it while she was out working; but hey: it wasn't like not masturbating in the first place was a bad thing.

"What the fuck is this shit?" Justin remarked with annoyance after a moment, holding up the packet of papers so that the text was facing towards Yosuke; as if Yosuke had been unaware what was printed on these sheets of paper. Hell, he was the one who typed it all up after all; perhaps that was why he wasn't seeing the problem. You see, this might have been all a brilliant idea if either a, he kept it to himself, or b, the Investigation Team could take a joke; but the fact of the matter was that when it came to Yosuke, assuming he was joking was kind of like assuming cats can fly. More or less impossible.

"…M-My sitcom…?" Yosuke choked up timidly. He didn't know what the problem was, but somehow, he got a bad feeling deep down in his gut. Anything that pissed off Justin usually spelt disaster for Yosuke in the long run. Justin was having a hard time trying to describe how awful all of this was. Like it was mind numbingly bad. Yosuke literally made himself out to be some kind of perfect all knowing entity and by extension made everyone else a complete dumbfuck. Especially Justin; though Justin believed that was more intentional while the rest was a subconscious decision by his ego. To be fair though, I don't think anyone was as uncomfortable with this than Rise. Why exactly was she playing Yosuke's wife again…? No seriously; of all the girls… I guess she should think it was sweet, but there was something kind of creepy about a fake relationship between two real people being immortalized into words. Truth be told, Rise wasn't originally the one to fill that role, but Yosuke figured at the very least people expected him to cast Rise as his spouse in this kind of screenplay, and it was most certainly far less likely to get him kicked in the balls.

"This has got to be… the stupidest thing I've ever read." Justin remarked with disgust. No one even acted the way one would in actuality, and while Justin got the need to fit characters into certain archetypes for the sake of a sitcom… this wasn't even close. Why was Chie the snarky character who everyone applauded for everytime she walked in a room… Well, I mean, Justin could get behind that LAST part; but if anyone was the snarky one it should have been Justin. Justin was only happy he stopped before Kanji got introduce; he got a feeling it would involve Kanji running around in the nude trying to rape Yosuke every twelve seconds. You know; because Yosuke was a homophobe.

"And I do not get that excited over steak!" Chie remarked with great fury. Kicking in doors just because someone said something that resembled the word steak… How ludacris! She'd have you know that while she may enjoy a slab of meat here and there, she wasn't some kind of steak junkie who would break into houses just to taste some of that… delicious… succulent…

Okay, so maybe she would. But at the very least she'd be sneaky about it!

"So… I should edit this more before I send it to my agent…?" Yosuke questioned after a moment. Justin in turn responded by taking the packet in his hand and tearing it down the middle. Most of the Investigation Team responded in kind, minus perhaps Maya who found it rather amusing, and Yukiko who thought that perhaps was a little to mean-spirited. After all, she was sure that Yosuke put a lot of effort into this script… it just needed a little… uh… lot of work… Actually maybe ripping this in half would be a good idea. Like a mercy kill. The only problem with all of this was that Yosuke still had the original draft on his computer somewhere, so it's not like the Investigation Team was going to dispose of all this crap. They could at least try to slow down progr- okay, this actually wasn't going to do anything at all but make Yosuke feel bad. But that in turn was going to make them feel good!

"You can start by fixing these plot holes." Justin remarked snidely as he dropped the remains of Yosuke's script on the table. He was either going to need a shit ton of ink or a shit ton of tape. Yosuke was flabbergasted at first, though his look of disgusted confusion immediately transitioned into one of quiet anger.

"You're right, first things first, got to cut out some of these unnecessary characters. Justin, you're completely useless; sorry, but you gotta go."

"I'm sorry, is that supposed to be a punishment?"


	202. Chapter 201: November 14, 2011

CHAPTER 201

November 14, 2011

* * *

_Hip Hip_

_Hip Hip_

_When you're on a golden sea_

_You don't need no memory_

_Just a place to call your own_

_As we drift into the zone_

_On an island in the sun_

_We'll be playing and having fun_

_And it makes me feel so fine_

_I can't control my brain_

"Wait… stop."

So Marie had come back around to bug Justin about guitar lessons again. It wasn't like it was out of the norm mind you; as much as Justin despised her just dropping in out of nowhere to force him to teach her how to play an instrument, it wasn't uncommon, and by this point he had come to expect it. He still wasn't a huge fan of her not even dropping him a line or something to say she was coming over, but he supposed he couldn't complain too much. She was here now, so might as well. Gotta say though; she had some pretty shitty timing in the regard that she always seem to drop in when Maya managed to get some time off from work. Usually she said something that managed to tick Maya off, so Maya usually left the house very quickly after Marie's arrival. Today though, she just didn't give a damn. She was still really fucking sick from the television… like it was getting worse every day. Justin was getting really worried about her to the point where he wasn't even leaving the house just to make sure she was alright. He had dragged her out to Junes yesterday hoping maybe getting some fresh air would help her, but he suspected it only made it worse. In a way, Justin was incredibly reluctant about doing a guitar lesson today of all days simply because he didn't want to disturb his sick sister while she tried to rest. Alas, Marie wasn't having any of that shit despite how much he tried to object. Justin had to settle for sending Maya up to his room and hoping the noise would get muted out by the door between them. Justin probably should have let her have his room and bed when she was this sick anyway.

"What's the problem?" Justin remarked with slight annoyance, though also slight relief. The less noise they made, the better. All the same though, Marie had the habit of not leaving until she actually learned something, so perhaps taking a break was just going to stall the inevitable. All Justin wanted was for her to get out of the house till Maya was at least well enough to get out of bed on her own. Marie scowled slightly as she removed her fingers from the strings of her guitar, staring at her instrument with a combination of annoyance and sadness. It wasn't like the guitar was doing anything wrong; if anyone was to blame for the anger that was building up within her it was Justin. But she was damn sure she was going to take out her anger on something, and in this case it was just much easier to blame her guitar for making such sweet yet grating sounds at the same time. She didn't want sweet; she wanted dark and gritty. And she didn't need… whatever the hell these lyrics were… They were… too happy. Yeah that was the problem. Too cheery for her tastes. And that was the ONLY reason her head felt like it was about to split open like an overripe watermelon… Why did Justin have to bring memories into this? She just wanted to turn her poetry into music, not this…

"This song. I hate it. Pick another one." Marie demanded angrily with annoyance, flinching slightly as the pain in her head shot through her entire body like thunder struck a pool of water. Justin spotted the flinch of course, but he wasn't sure what had caused it, so he just passed it off as an odd reaction. After all, she couldn't possibly hate this song THAT much. Hell, it was shocking she hated it at all; everyone on the Investigation Team sure as hell seemed to enjoy this stuff. What were the odds they were all into Weezer? I mean, I guess Yosuke and Rise were both into Power Pop, so the Green Album and Make Believe appealed to them, and Justin and Chie were into the heavier stuff, ala Pinkerton; but the rest, Justin simply couldn't explain the coincidence of them all liking this stuff. He'd like to just say because it was good music, but he had learned gradually over the years that good music doesn't sell.

"Well like it or not, you need to practice those chords; and this is a good starting point." Justin countered with slight annoyance. He supposed there were plenty of songs he could teach Marie that had a slow, easy chord progression, but he didn't feel like scrambling through his brain to remember what they were, nor was he in a good enough mood to be taking many requests as it was. He had all this shit going on with Benedict, and then his sister could barely walk on her own upstairs, Yu was slowly killing himself with grief in the hospital, and Nanako was probably in a coma given that she still hadn't waken up by this point. Life sucked, and he didn't need any bitching and moaning to make it any worse than it already was. "What exactly is the problem here anyway? It's a good song." Justin continued, failing to bite his tongue. He got that everybody was entitled to an opinion and all that. But her opinion was stupid. She was stupid. Stupid face. Marie just continued to glare this almost entitled stare, as if she deserved exactly what she wanted right now, and if she didn't get it there would be hell to pay.

"It's too… upbeat. I don't like it. It's stupid." Marie continued. Of course the problem wasn't that it was too upbeat for her, though it certainly didn't help. The simple fact of the matter though was she was sick of searching for her past memories. Narukami had recommended to her that she should just focus on making new memories if she couldn't remember the old. And that was what she was going to try to do, but damn; sometimes it was so hard. Especially when Justin was cramming a song that was evidently about memories down her throat. I think Marie missed the entire point of the song, but alright; cool whatever. Justin shook his head a bit with slight annoyance. Upbeat wasn't necessarily bad thing. Just mostly a bad thing.

"So… what? You want more angst?" Justin remarked after a moment, crossing his arms and raising hs eyebrow with slight exasperation. I guess holidays in the sun just weren't edgy enough for this girl. She didn't respond of course, though that was partially because she didn't actually know what angst was. Most of what she had learned about this world came from either A, being dragged about with Narukami and exploring, or B, listening to that blonde haired witch that thought it was funny to leave her poetry all over the place. Oh don't think Marie was unaware of what she was doing; she was, and very pissed off too. She didn't scatter HER private documents all over the place… though, that's probably because she didn't have any. Maybe the nose did? Would explain what he was doing whenever he seemed to disappear for some time in that crammed car. I mean, it's not like there was anything outside of the limousine or anything. Just fog. Lots and lots of fog.

But yeah, it was strange angst was never used to describe Marie within the confines of the room. A hell of a lot of other words sure found their way into conversations; not all of them necessarily flattering as she had come to discover. That's probably why no one ever talked in the limo anymore; last time they had to get a window repaired after Marie was done throwing a temper tantrum. Thank god they just sort of stockpiled Yu's money from all that compendium shit he did. Which was strange because he never really took advantage of his other Personas… I don't think anyone ever explained to him how he was supposed to change Personas. He'd figure it out, but alas, there wasn't much use for it anymore. And even if there was, it most certainly would be awkward now that Maya seemed to have the exact same Persona as him. Though… how she was going to summon a Persona without being able to speak, Yu wasn't sure. Would it still work if she did sign-language? Hell, maybe they never even needed to shout Persona in the first place; he couldn't imagine why it would change anything.

All that aside, yes, more angst would certainly be an improvement. Justin sighed a bit as Marie stared at him with those demanding eyes, commanding him to pick something more to her tastes. Perhaps she didn't realize he was the teacher here and knew a fuck load more than her about how to do his job. Pehaps she didn't realize she couldn't force him to teach her anything if he didn't want to, and if he was going to get all bitchy over song choices, well he certainly didn't want to; but alas he just wanted to get Marie out of the house so Maya would get some rest, and that meant he had to avoid any confrontation or arguments for the time being. Perhaps he'd fire himself another day, but for now, he needed to play along with Marie's game. "…Fine, fine… I'll go get the My Chemical Romance albums." Justin rolled his eyes a bit. Why exactly did he have My Chemical Romance? Who knows; he did go through an emo stage when he was fourteen; these were probably memoirs of a 'better' time. If by better you mean god awful.

Justin sighed as he pushed himself up from the coach. He was being only a little sarcastic about grabbing some CD's, after all, he was teaching her how to play guitar, not having her listen to music; but he figured that it might help if she could actually hear the songs… plus, Justin didn't actually know how to play any of that Emo stuff; he'd have to figure it out by ear. Or just look up the tabs on the internet. Either way, he was going to have to go up to his room to get the materials he needed for their new lesson. Which he totally objected to on several levels for the record. All the same, he slowly inched his way up the stairs, trying to be silent as he creaked his way up each step. There was no way he was going to be able to do this without disturbing Maya mind you, but he could try to minimize the interruption as much as possible. At least, that had been the plan; but then he slowly pushed the door to his room open to search for his music collection when he laid eyes on Maya.

She was wrapped up tightly in the bed sheets, shivering slightly in a combination of pain and a chill. She looked like she wanted to squirm about in her agony, but she was gripping the blanket to close to her body to really move. And to think this all started out with some sneezing and a cough… Now she had trouble just balancing when she stood. Justin frowned with great despair and sadness as he observed her from a distance. It was mortifying to think she was in such pain and there wasn't anything he could do to ease the agony. He didn't know what kind of medicine to give her and she refused to go to the hospital. She seemed to have all the strength in the world when it came to resisting being carried off to a doctor. After all, she didn't want to be euthanized by their so called 'medical experts.' More like murderers. Justin sighed before slowly creeping over, ignoring the albums for a time being to make his way over to the bed, taking a seat beside where she laid. She knew he was there, though she didn't so much as turn to face him. Not that Justin couldn't see her face from his elevation. Her eyes were clamped tightly shut and her teeth were clenched tight in an attempt at holding back the screams.

"I'm really sorry about Marie." Justin apologized as he watched over her protectively, as if his mere presence would ward away the sickness creeping into Maya's chest, clenching her heart tight and shooting fiery death through her arteries. "You feeling any better up here? You need anything? Soup? Another blanket? How about some more pillows? I can get you your iPod if you're getting bored." Justin spewed a million questions at the poor girl in what he thought was him being nice, but in truth only served to give Maya a huge headache. She was already hurting enough without her head pounding mind you, so while she appreciated the kindly gesture, she also kind of hated it at the same time. She just held her blanket in tighter opening her mouth just slightly to let out a slight whimper. You know; for a girl who had been shot before and almost burned alive, she hadn't quite experienced pain like this. I mean… something about it seemed so familiar, yet so different at the same time; and even then she was in far too much pain to really be thinking straight.

Justin was quick to slip the back of his palm beneath the strands of hair that covered Maya's forehead, trying to get a feel for her temperature. The worst part about whatever it was Maya had contracted was that there was no visible signs that directly linked any kind of illness to her. She had no fever, the back of her tongue wasn't white; her palms were a little clamy, but that was more from her trying cover herself with every blanket at her disposal than it was her body trying to burn off whatever was inside it. There was clearly something wrong with Maya from a purely medical standpoint, but her body wasn't doing a damn thing to get rid of it or show that it was waging war with the intruding force. And that was what concerned Justin. "Still no fever… Christ it kills me to see you like this. I wish there was something I could do…" Justin sighed, eyes nearly tearing up. So much shit had happened over the past week… he didn't need something bad happening to his sister making the top of that list. Not when all they had fought for was coming to an end. Not after she could have been protected from the other side. Maya whimpered again, trying to gather the energy to turn around and face Justin, but giving up hopelessly after a mere few seconds.

"_My chest… it hurts…" _She mouthed off, tears in her eyes. Or at least, there were until Justin wiped them clean off using the side of his index finger. He'd just offer her a tissue to do it herself, but the fact of the matter was Justin wasn't quite sure she had the strength to do even the simplest of tasks at this point. All of her energy had been diverted to numbing out the pain… and yet somehow it was still failing miserably. Whatever this thing she had caught was, whatever it was doing on the inside of her body… It was winning. Justin bit his bottom lip for a moment before grabbing Maya by the hand, letting her squeeze onto him should she feel pain. Justin was almost positive his bones had broken on several occasions, each one corresponding to a sudden surge of agonizing pain shooting through her body in waves.

"Hey, just hang in there…" Justin tried to reassure the poor lass as she squeezed onto his hand as if letting go would mean certain death for her. And had she not known any better, she'd almost think that statement to be true. All she knew for certain at this point was that the pain got worse each and every day, and she was having trouble just holding on as the time flew by, taking away with them the last of her bodily defenses against the disease coursing through her veins like venom. There were times where she began to hyperventilate, either because the pain was too much for her to auto breather or because the pain felt like it was crushing her lungs between two boulders, and the only thing that could help her regain control of her body before she experienced a complete system crash was to hold her breath and just swallow back the odd sensation creeping up inside of her throat. "I can't just leave you like this… If you won't go to the hospital, you've at least got to let me help you. Uh… what's the pain like? Can you describe it to me?" It was quiet for a moment, save the slight sound of Maya taking deep breaths in hopes of keeping her body up and functioning. It was difficult to tell what it was… but she thought she had a good idea what kind of pain this was. She had experienced it all too many times before; she just couldn't recognize it till now. And even then, there was something odd about it. She slowly turned her eyes back up to Justin, tears still finding their way to the tips of her eyelashes before crawling down her cheels.

"…_It feels like heartbreak."_

* * *

**MUSIC**

Island in the Sun - Weezer


	203. Chapter 202: November 15, 2011

CHAPTER 202

November 15, 2011

* * *

"Oh, uh… Hello Justin-san."

Justin had been sitting along the river bank, just kind of staring out into the rushing waters when he was interrupted from behind by one Naoto Shirogane. Why she continued to come out here to bug him, he wasn't quite sure, but he really wasn't having any of her shenanigans today. He had so much shit on his mind without Naoto somehow managing to tick him off with more of her bullshit cases and hypocritical attitude. He simply held up his finger as if to command her to be quiet as she slowly swiveled over to the seat beside him, observing him with cautious curiosity as he pressed his cell-phone up to his ear. He had been chatting on the phone when she arrived, his voice growing angrier and louder as she continued to approach him. You would think it was just because standing close to something making noise tended to make the noise appear louder; but in truth, he was just slowly stating to lose patience with the person on the other end of the line. You see Maya's illness had some rather… unappealing consequences; this being the major one.

"What do you mean you can't post-pone the test!? She is as sick as a dog; she can't even get out of bed and you want her to take a four hour long exam? It's not happening. Find another date." Justin spoke angrily into the phone, glaring at the plastic casing as if considering just crushing the circuitry in his hands so he wouldn't have to put up with the unsufferable secretary on the other end of the line. Maya's equivalency test was supposed to be coming up within a week of today, but as the days went by, it was slowly becoming clear to Justin there was no way in hell she was going to be able to get out of bed the morning of the exam. He didn't quite understand what she meant by the pain feeling like heartbreak, but whatever it was that she meant, it didn't take a doctor to realize she was in great pain and was getting worse by the day. Justin had already called a doctor up to get his opinion on the matter, since of course Maya would not budge and go to the doctors. And it wasn't like he didn't try to force her into a hospital bed long enough for a doctor to check her condition; but he couldn't even get her out the front door with the way she kicked and moaned the whole way there. In fact, Justin had a pretty glaring black eye to show for it. He'd consider looking into a house call, but first of all he didn't even know if house calls existed anymore, and second of all, he didn't need Maya kicking the doctor in the face as he tried to do his tests.

But that was only slightly beside the point right now. Maya's illness was causing a great deal of trouble for Justin as of recent, partially because she had schedules to keep, partially because ever since Maya had moved in with Justin, they had started to split the responsibilities down the middle; and while Justin had no problem picking up the slack for her now that she was bed-ridden, there was one teensy little, yet all too vital responsibility he had forgotten to take into consideration… Maya was probably going to tear Justin in half once she found out what he had managed to fuck up… But I mean… It wasn't like it was ever his responsibility in the first place; how was he supposed to take into account a chore that he had never done before in his life?

Again, another problem for another time, in the mean time, he had to deal with the insufferable school board and their test taking policies. You see, it appeared they had one set date for these equivalency tests and that date could not be budged under any circumstance. Which was really fucking stupid because surely they must have realized that very few people needed to take an equivalency test on a yearly basis, not to mention not everyone can be everywhere any given day of the week; and this wasn't just some concert or something. This was education that would determine where they would go for the rest of their life. This wasn't just something Maya could shrug off and take again next year: she HAD to do it, and these people were making it a living hell for him and Maya. And no matter how much Justin explained that the girl couldn't even get out of bed because she was in so much pain, the people running this test just did not give a fuck. Why was he not surprised to find people that were supposed to care about children getting a good education not giving the slightest shit about Maya now that her test fees had already been paid off? "You know what? You're despicable. You pretend to give a shit about us getting an education, but then you pull this bullcrap? Go to hell." Justin growled before slamming the casing of his phone shut, disconnecting the line between him and the testing advisors. Dispicable. Disgusting to every sense of his body.

"That sounded like a rather heated conversation." Naoto muttered somewhat sarcastically to herself as Justin scowled to himself, sliding his phone back into his pocket. For a moment he had considered tossing the damn thing out into the ocean, he was THAT angry; but then he realized that would accomplish nothing more than leaving him phoneless. That wouldn't do at all. He was still pretty livid though, as much as he tried to hide it as he sunk back into his chair, folding his arms across his chest and crossing his legs as he stared back out into the river. There was something mesmerizing about the flowing water, and yet so frightening knowing that in just the right lighting, he could catch a glimpse of his other self staring at him with those twisted golden eyes, plotting to destroy him, his life, and everything he stood for. Everything he loved. Everyone he cared for. All things really; but more specifically what he loved. The shadow wanted Justin to hurt more than any other human being. And why was that? Because he hated Justin. He hated him with all his twisted black void of a heart. If the shadow could make Justin squirm and suffer, screaming for the sweet embrace of death for all eternity, not even a fraction of his hatred would be satisfied. Oh how he hated Justin. But he couldn't do a damn thing about it while Justin stood outside his domain… at least… not until he gave into his hatred. Not until he gave into the shadow's urges.

"Fucking assholes. The girl can hardly breathe and they can't even make an exception." Justin bitched and moaned about the less than pleasurable conversation he had just had with those who would be distributing the test in the week to come. He couldn't believe the audacity or greed of some people; though he could certainly expect it more often than not.

"Can't breathe? Shouldn't you be keeping an eye on Miss Jefferies if that is the case?" Naoto questioned after a moment. She didn't know a lot of the specifics since Justin seemed to be keeping a lot of the details concerning Maya's condition to himself, but she certainly would think that if Maya was in a condition where it was painful or difficult to breath, he needed to be close by to get emergency personel on the scene. In fact, Maya most certainly should be in a hospital in her current state, but she wasn't exactly unaware of Maya's fear of hospitals. She had of course learned this information through listening in on conversations that Yosuke and Justin had with the others, but regardless of how she obtained that information, she was in possession of knowledge that was more than relevant to the conversation at hand. It could be useful if Justin chose to actually open up and discuss the matter with her. So basically, it was probably useless. Justin immediately went to glare at Naoto, kind of pissed off that she was going to question him on the matters of Maya's well being. Justin had been doing nothing but making sure she was alright, hell he stayed up in the wee hours of the night just to keep an eye on her as she slept, just to make sure her lungs didn't suddenly fail. You could never be too sure when she continuously hyperventilated throughout the day.

"Oh well excuse me for stepping out to get some fucking air." Justin remarked with great annoyance. Since when the fuck did Naoto think she had any right to tell him what to do? He had news for her, he was trying the best he could, and maybe the best he could wasn't helping cure Maya at all, but he was trying to slow down whatever was wrong what her, and he was sure he was helping numb the pain she was going through. So Naoto could go fuck herself if she thought she could do better than what he was doing; alright? She didn't get what it was like to have to live with someone close to you suffering the way Maya was, she didn't get to tell him that what he was doing was incorrect. Besides; it wasn't like he didn't have reasons to be out there, in fact, he had a very good reason. "Besides, I uh… Had some business I had to attend to."

"Such as?" Naoto coaxed him, perhaps annoyed that he was refusing to tell her what he was doing here, perhaps just hoping to pick up the pace. Perhaps she just thought Justin was lying through his teeth. Though why exactly he would lie about something that Naoto really had no control over, she had no idea. I mean, let's be honest here: Justin didn't care what she thought of him, so there was really no motive for him to try and portray himself as this perfect, virtuous savior to his sister if he really wasn't, nor would he claim to have something to do out here if he didn't. Whatever it was, she was annoyed, and she wanted an actual answer out of Justin right now. Justin didn't so much as glare at Naoto as she questioned him though; perhaps because there was a certain sense of guilt and sadness welling up within the deepest reaches of his stomach. It was an accident, but he knew how much it meant to Maya; sick or not. He hated to disappoint her like this, now of all times.

"…Maya had a pet turtle Donatello, and uh… with her sick and all she couldn't really feed it, and I forgot all about him, so… uh… yeah…" Justin explained, blushing a bit with embarrassment as he turned away to try and hide his shame. He never fed the damn thing; hell he didn't even interact with it since Maya practically had the thing in her pocket twenty four seven. He had forgotten it even existed, so you can imagine the wave of guilt, shame, shock, and disgust that swept through him when he was walking through the kitchen and laid eyes in Donatello's tank, the poor turtle curling up on its back, dying from starvation. He couldn't obviously just leave it there, and he couldn't bear to tell Maya he had fucked up and killed her pet; especially not after he knew her brother had done the same thing all those years ago with Chip. Sure her brother did it on purpose and with a lot more force, but as far as Justin was concerned, what he had done was just as much murder as smashing a squirrel's brains in. Presuming of course that's what happened; he didn't know for certain. So he simply made his way to the river bed where he buried the turtle's corpse in the sand's beneath him; hoping that at the very least if he was unlucky enough for some animal to come along and unearth the turtle, either Maya would mistake it for just some turtle that lived in this area, or said animal would carry it off to eat it. Justin sighed before turning his attention to Naoto. She seemed somewhat embarrassed to have been questioning Justin on the topic when it seemed like kind of a big deal to Maya. Sometimes you just have to let sleeping dogs lie, a lesson Naoto hadn't quite learned yet. "Alright, now it's my turn. What are YOU doing here?" Justin turned around anger starting to build up in him again. Naoto cleared her throat a bit as she adjusted her hat. Justin always had to make it awkward for her to talk about the thing she had shown up to discuss.

"Ah yes, well… I discussed the matter of the case with my grandfather on Benedict's advice a few days ago. It seems that he wasn't bluffing on the matter; my grandfather had hired him to hide my possessions in an attempt at reminding me of days gone by." Naoto smiled slightly, closing her eyes as she thought thoroughly on the matter of her grandfather's deception. A lie was a lie after all, but sometimes you lie to help those you care about. The same could be said about what her grandfather had pulled. And she couldn't say he had failed to accomplish what he had set out to do… She was in fact very appreciative for her grandfather's role in the matter… However… "I suppose that means the case should be closed and shut, but… Something's been bothering me." Naoto turned to face Justin, a cautious expression on her face. She knew that this was a sensitive topic and on wrong word would send Justin off the deep end again… And she wouldn't let this case end until every loose end was tied up. Even Justin's as much as he'd like to ignore what was right in front of his eyes. After all, the truth hurt so bad… so why tell it? "Benedict was in fact telling the truth in regards to my grandfather's involvement, and I don't suspect he'd tell me the truth and you a lie… I do believe there is a deeper meaning behind the evidence he left behind for you; even if he was lying about your father."

Justin paused for a moment, nodding a bit in time to the rhythm of Naoto's words. He didn't believe a word Benedict spoke that day, and he probably never would, but he supposed Naoto had a point. Why would he just wrap Justin up in this if he HAD in fact been hired by Naoto's grandfather? Just as a joke? It made no sense to bring Justin in to a semi-serious case as part of some prank… Perhaps he wasn't completely full of himself after all. Even if that shit about his father was completely untrue and Justin knew it. So even though he didn't and wouldn't believe Benedict wasn't out of his mind… He'd play along and see just how deep the rabbit hole went. "And I suppose you have some master theory worked out."

"Just an idea that crossed my mind… Now this is only a theory, but… I held onto that picture you crumpled up in the music store as I felt it might be relevant… I don't know if you crumpling up the photo may have affected this at all, but I find this too strange to be a coincidence." Naoto remarked as she pulled a crinkled paper out from her jacket pocket. Justin was very clearly ticked that she held onto a personal possession of his, even if he didn't want it. Perhaps he didn't quite realize that once he leaves something behind whether it be trash or a personal memoir; if the police think it could be evidence, they have every right to take it into custody. Naoto unfolded the photo to showcase Justin and his father standing there, side by side; a hole where his father's face was. "Now you see this hole?"

"Yeah?"

"Observe." Naoto ordered before sticking her hand into her coat pocket again. This time she pulled out her police pistol, exposing it's chamber with a quick flick of her wrist and pushing one of the bullets out into the palm of her spare hand. Justin just watched with confusion, not entirely sure she was doing what she was doing at all. Little did he know that Naoto may have held the answer to Benedict's little puzzle in the palm of her hand. "I don't know if crumpling the paper tore the hole open further, but when I pressed this bullet against the hole right here…" Naoto explained as she took the bullet out from her palm and delicately pushed it into the open slot in the picture. "…It's a perfect fit. One would almost think the picture had been shot to create this hole." Justin raised his eyebrow with curiosity as he stared at the picture. That was strange, though he wasn't sure how it mattered at all in the slightest. So what, he made the hole by shooting the picture?

"Quick and to the pointless, please."

"I can't speak for America, but here the only people that would be in posession of a gun that shoots this kind of amunition... is the police."


	204. Chapter 203: November 16, 2011

CHAPTER 203

November 16, 2011

* * *

"Hey Justin; Maya home?"

It was early in the morning when Yosuke came knocking at Justin's door. It wasn't unusual for Yosuke to stop in the morning to chat it up with Maya or to ask her out to do whatever it was those two did alone, though usually it was during the weekend and not a school day. Not that it was any different for Justin; he refused to leave Maya alone in this house when she was this sick, so he hadn't been going to school as of late. Chie had called him up to bitch him out on a couple of occasions, but she was more than understanding once he explained the situation to her. She had stopped by once or twice to check up on the two, usually with a couple cans of soup as much as Justin objected to that. He wasn't sure if she was doing it because she honestly thought it would help or because she just wanted to be a smartass. If it were the former, well Justin appreciated the gesture, but it really wasn't neccesary and he didn't want her spending her own money on Maya like that. Justin would find a way to make ends meet. If it was the latter, well, it was working. He couldn't tell whether he should laugh or be furious about that, but he couldn't debate that the smartassery meter was really high up there. That was beside the point though; Chie always came after school to check up on Maya's condition; Yosuke was doing it in the morning. And from the looks of it, he was wearing his uniform so it wasn't like he was just skipping school. Seemed like some pretty odd timing to want to check on Justin's sister. But then, was there ever a bad time to be in love?

"Well yeah. Didn't Chie tell you?" Justin questioned with curiosity. He hadn't really spoken much about Maya's illness with everyone, though everyone was aware she was sick. Last Yosuke had seen her though she seemed alright, if a little tired. That's probably because he didn't see what she was like once she got back home and collapsed on the couch in pain. He was under no illusion that Maya's condition was as bad as it was now. If he knew, well, he'd probably have to get forced out of Justin's house in the darkest hours of the night, he'd be that afraid to leave her bedside. All the same, Justin was only surprised that Chie didn't pass that information along to all of their friends; it was kind of important in a way. Maya needed the support of her friends and family to hang in there, even if Justin hadn't quite caught on to that. She was in a lot of pain sure, but Justin didn't think it was that bad that she was in any real danger. She hadn't gotten hurt in the television or anything, and unless somehow her shadow's head being blown off was causing Maya some pain where the shadow resided in her heart, nothing about that side should be causing her the grief and sickness she was experiencing right now. She had already developed immunity to the fog and shit on the other end after all; it wasn't like she hadn't gone through the screen on several occasions without so much as a sneeze. "She's upstairs in bed right now trying to burn off whatever it is she caught."

"In bed? I-I thought she slept on the couch." Yosuke questioned with disapproval, folding his arms across his chest as he stared at Justin with great curiosity and confusion. He never did approve of Maya sleeping on the couch, though he did understand the necessity of her sleeping there. This house only had one bed, so unless they wanted to bunk, which Yosuke wasn't entirely unconvinced Maya would be opposed to, someone needed to take the couch. Yosuke was only pissed that Justin won the right to the bed. It wasn't like Justin wanted the bed of course; he could sleep on the floor with a soft enough blanket, but Maya WAS insistent about him staying upstairs with all his possessions, about not being a burden on his daily schedule. Why Maya would ever believe herself to be a burden to Justin, he wasn't sure, but it wasn't like this was a new thing either. She always was concerned about being a burden to the people she loved; it kind of concerned Justin in a way. Everything she did, deep down she was afraid of hurting someone. That was no way to live. Justin groaned a bit with confirmation, partially because he didn't like the obvious negative portrayal of Justin Maya had allegedly been spreading around, partially because you know shit was getting worse when Justin had to start adapting his entire schedule and lifestyle just so she was a little more comfortable in her illness. Shit was going down, and it scared Justin to admit he didn't know what.

"Her condition's been getting worse… I know Kanji and Rise said it got worse before it got better for them after they accepted their shadow, but… I don't know. This seems like too much to just be her body trying to work around the infection." Justin recapped with concern. He wanted nothing more in the world at this point in time than to see his sister get better, but he had very little confidence in that it seemed. He had tried everything, and no doctor could tell him what was wrong unless they actually got a look at her. And she was very vocally against that as much as Justin tried to explain to her that the pain wasn't going to stop until she got some medical help. Some fears just couldn't be let go, even in the face of demise from the seems of it. Justin would like to say he understood, but when he was so afraid of climbing stairs, hell still was to this day, and had to climb thousands of thousands of barbed wire lines stairs… he had to wonder if she was just being stubborn by this point. He had seen the bigger picture and swallowed his fears for just a brief frame in time… why couldn't she? Yosuke's eyebrows shot up immediately with a combination of great shock and concern. He had no idea her condition was getting worse, and in that regard he was incredibly pissed off at Justin. Dammit, why didn't he tell Yosuke about this? This was his friend, no, his best friend and the girl of his dreams Justin had been talking about here; this was something he deserved to know.

"What?" Yosuke remarked bluntly with annoyance, eyes wide with concern as Justin let the news slip. Oh he was pretty pissed off at Justin for not telling anyone about this, but he supposed at the very least Justin was trying to help Maya the best he could, so he couldn't be too furious at the man. Still, this was a big deal to him, so the moment Justin had broke the news to him… well… he panicked like any good friend would under such conditions. Panicking was probably just going to make it worse if Maya heard or saw him like this, but at the very least it showed he cared deeply about the girl, so much so he was so begot with worry he couldn't even think straight. "I-I didn't think she was that bad. She hadn't been showing up to work so I thought maybe something was going on b-but… Jesus man, why wouldn't you tell me!" He shouted with anger before pushing right by Justin, storming into the house. He wasn't going to let him stop Yosuke from making sure Maya was alright, that was for damn sure. Justin wasn't necessarily okay with Yosuke just barging in; especially when Justin had no problem letting him in for a moment to check in on Maya. They were good friends after all, and maybe she just needed a good friend right about now.

"Hey, hey! You're gonna get mud all over the floor!" Justin remarked semi-sarcastically, semi-angrily. He didn't give a damn about mud on a hard wood floor; that would come out with a little bit of soap and water. He was pretty pissed that Yosuke just kind of stormed in like he owned the place. Spoilers, he didn't. Well regardless, Yosuke was very quick to find the stairs up to the bed room where Maya currently resided, which was strange because he had only been to this house like twice. Justin didn't think he had the layout of the house memorized by now. Perhaps he failed to recognize that the stairs were literally across from the front door and in plain view of anyone who walked into the house. Justin sighed before creeping up the stairs behind Yosuke, making sure he didn't do anything that would disturb Maya in his epic quest to make sure the girl of his affection was safe and sound in the confines of Justin's sheets. He slowly and silently pushed the door open, peeking through the crack of the door to lay eyes on Maya. He was damn glad he didn't kick the door in as thankfully for once Maya was fast asleep without so much as a sound.

"Jesus, she looks sick as a dog…" Yosuke muttered to himself as he slowly closed the gap between him and the bed, carefully taking a seat along the foot of the bed rest so as not to move the bed enough to wake her. She was sprawled across a vast majority of the mattress's mass, one arm nearly hanging off the edge of the bed, the other clinging tightly to the pillow beneath her head, and her legs balled up so that her knees were reaching up to her chest. You could tell just from her posture she wasn't having the most pleasant of sleeps, though it was comfortable enough that she was able to drift away and escape the pain of the physical world for just a brief moment of her life. Her skin was fairly pale too, which was saying something of a girl who normally had a pale skin tone, her flesh almost as white as a ghost. It really made the red freckles along the bridge of her nose stand out. At the moment her skin was almost a light blue in appearance, which greatly concerned Yosuke and Justin knowing damn well what else had a blue skin tone: a corpse. She was fine of course, her chest was still inflating in and out as she breathed in the stale air of Justin's bedroom, and she did make a couple of groans as she squirmed around under the sheets. At most it was just a sign that her sickness was straining her body and willpower to great extents. "And I thought Yu was bad…"

"Wait… Yu's sick too?" Justin questioned as he leaned against the door frame to his bed room. He knew Yu was really torn up about Nanako, but he was under no impression that Yu was sick. And he wasn't in the strictest definition of the word; he was still able to walk around and talk and shit, but he was so indulged in his sorrow and grief that it was clearly taking a toll on his health. His skin was pale and he could feel his stomach twisting in fiery knots every day he woke up to his empty home. And of course, he refused to do anything with the Investigation Team since he was always too busy at the hospital. You know it was bad when even Dojima was telling him to worry less, and this was his daughter that was sick and confined to bed for well over a week now. So while he wasn't stuck in bed or anything, it was clear the guy was sick to his stomach with worry and regret. That was pretty damn sick by Yosuke's definition.

"Come on man, you've seen what he's like at the hospital. He's making himself sick worrying about her." Yosuke clarified slightly. It sounded to him that Justin just didn't quite share the same idea of what qualified as sick. Justin wouldn't argue that Yu was going to make himself sick mind you, but he wasn't quite there yet in his mind. But then, part of the reason he said that was that Maya was so sick his entire definition of sick had been warped by all of this. How could anyone truly call themselves sick after observing what Maya had been going through with whatever it was she had managed to catch. Yosuke sighed a bit, turning his gaze back down to Maya. It was a shame she wasn't awake; he felt like he needed to say something to her, just give her some sense of hope as she lied there in her bad drowning in her agony; but he refused to wake her just because talking to her would make her feel better. Why? Because while he'd like to pretend talking to her was just to comfort her and make sure she was alright, he was actually doing it for himself. He just wanted to know she was strong enough to even communicate with him, that she could pull through this. Maya didn't need hope; he did.

"Great, every fucking one is getting sick. I thought that solving this damn case would by the end of all this shit." Justin mumbled angrily to himself. Maya, Nanako, Yu, Dojima… He thought catching Namatame meant they could all go forth with their lives and leave the Midnight Channel behind them, but in the end, how could they say all their worries were gone when this had come out of all their trails. T'was the price to pay for success he assumed, but perhaps the price to pay was too high. Justin just had to assume that whatever deal it was they had made, it would come to a close soon before they had to sell something far more valuable to them than their health or their faith. Justin sighed, shaking his head a bit. He had so much to worry about without Maya doing this crap to him; he was going to have to give her a good talking to about getting sick when she had appointments to keep once she got better. Yeah, it was kind of douchey, but Justin and Maya always purposely acted like dicks to each other, exchanging jabs and insults the way any brother and sister would. It was all in good humor after all, so they usually left the encounter laughing. Except that one time Justin pointed out how Maya was staring at Kanji's junk. Maya made sure to let him know she was pissed for a good long while after that. "…You should probably get going to class. Don't worry, she's in good hands." Justin reassured Yosuke as he tried to get him out the front door and to school. He'd have plenty of time to make sure she was doing alright once school was dismissed.

"…Just hang in there, Maya." Yosuke whispered to the girl as Justin urged him to leave. He didn't want to leave, but Justin was right; he did have other responsibilities to attend to, and it wasn't like Maya was going anywhere anytime soon… at least… he prayed to god he wouldn't. He passed his sympathetic, pained gaze Maya's way, even knowing that she couldn't see him. But he could see her, and perhaps that was the problem. Normally when he looked at Maya his heart just sunk into itself with a sensation he couldn't quite explain. He's like to say it was affection, and he'd probably be right, but he couldn't quite say for sure. Now though… now staring at Maya with that pale skin curled up in that near fetal position… he couldn't find any joy in this. Only pain and regret. Regret that she not only had to go through this, but regret that he couldn't do a damn thing to help her. She refused medical help, and he understood exactly way, perhaps minus the part about her father. Why did she have to be so stubborn? Why did she have to do this to him? Why did she have to play games with his heart?

He slowly began to get up from his spot along the bed, following Justin as he made his way down the stairs to open the front door, but as he did, he could feel himself being stopped by a rather odd sensation. He froze up with fear as he shot his eyes down towards his hand. In her half asleep daze, Maya had extended her arm out and wrapped her fingers around Yosuke's hand. She was asleep so she wasn't quite aware of it, but I think somehow, somewhere in the realms of her dreams, she was blissfully aware of what her body was subconsciously doing if not somewhat ashamed and scared. Yosuke just stared at his hand for a moment, his heart beating insanely fast as she clinged to him the way one would their pillow after a hard night of drinking. It almost hurt to have her skin touch his like this, even knowing how much he wanted it. His eyes passed one last gaze around the room as he removed his hand from her grip. Justin was already downstairs waiting for Yosuke to get the hell out of his house…

Perhaps it was for that reason Yosuke felt safe enough to give Maya slight peck on the forehead before rushing down the stairs. Maya simply smiled a bit as he ran away, not consciously aware of what was going on, but feeling her heart skip a beat all the same.


	205. Chapter 204: November 17, 2011

CHAPTER 204

November 17, 2011

* * *

"Maya still in bed?"

"Whatever gave you that idea?"

Chie had stopped by Justin's house late in the evening. The group had essentially turned to taking shifts visiting Nanako at the hospital and making sure Yu didn't do himself in with all his grief. It was honestly a rather dangerous situation to leave Yu all alone, not necessarily because they were afraid he would do something stupid mind you: he was in grief, but he wasn't going to throw himself out a window just yet. After all, Nanako might have been in the hospital fighting for dear life, but killing himself wouldn't accomplish anything. If anything, worst come to worst, it would just be adding to the body count. Yu wouldn't even think to do that; though perhaps he should have been considerate enough to realize beating himself up like this to the point of poor health was causing his friends just as much grief as jumping off a building would. Justin would know, he had experience in that field. Essentially Chie had finished her shift at the hospital, which meant traditionally it would be Justin's turn to go… However, over the last few days he hadn't shown up for his shift, which while the others could understand, deeply concerned them in that it meant Yu was all alone with Nanako. That couldn't have been a good thing for morale. She wished there was some kind of alternative that could get Justin out of the house long enough just to poke his head in and see how Yu and Nanako were doing, but alas, any and all means by which she had proposed going about that were immediately shot down.

"You know, I can keep an eye on Maya while you visit Nanako if you want." Chie proposed, head tilted slightly to the side, hands on her hips as she spoke, perhaps not understanding why Justin was so reluctant to leave the house. I mean, she got why he didn't want to leave; that wasn't what she was getting at. She had heard how bad Maya's condition had been getting as of late, so it wasn't like she was going to hold it against him or anything. Maya was to Justin right now what Nanako was to Yu. It was only shameful that no one seemed to want to visit Maya; though she supposed that was also due in part to Justin keeping his lips sealed on the matter. Not that he would let everyone into the house should they suddenly come into possession of such information anyway; Maya might have been better off getting some visits, but round the clock visiting from all her friends was going to be a pain in the ass to both him and her. It wasn't like Nanako where they couldn't disturb the girl if they shook her body violently in her sleep; she was far from waking up from the seems of it. Maya, however, had no problem being conscience, and just as every other conscience person in the world, she did have a schedule of sorts, even in illness. And that schedule pretty much revolved around being in pain, forcing herself up to take a piss in pain, eating a couple saltines and some soup in pain, falling asleep in pain, and occasionally watching television. Yes. In pain. Really, Justin shouldn't have even been dragging Maya downstairs to the TV; but with the suffering she was going through, who was he to make her suffer through boredom as well? He just wished he had a television up in his room for the girl.

"Don't take it personally, but I'd feel better being here." Justin rubbed the back of his neck a bit with embarrassment. He knew it sounded like he didn't trust Chie to watch over Maya, which wasn't true in the slightest. If there was anyone he trusted alone with his sick sister, it was Chie. God knows she knew what she was doing anytime Justin got sick, even if he refused to let her help him. It was strange that she didn't want to be a doctor or something when she grew up; Justin legitimately believed she knew what she was going when it came to illness and the human body. The fact of the matter though was that as much as he felt Maya would be in capable hands with Chie, he was simply too concerned about her to leave the house just to tell Yu the same thing he had been for a week or to stare at Nanako for a good hour. He'd gladly show up if there was a change in her condition, but he sincerely doubted anything had happened since the last time he showed up at the hospital: otherwise Chie would have kicked the door down with excitement…

Huh. Maybe Yosuke's sitcom wasn't that far off. It was still pretty shitty though.

"Don't worry, I don't." Chie sighed with reassurance. She would never till the day she died understand how those two were able to forge a brother-sister relationship without actually being related, let alone actually believe it were the truth, but had that been Chie's sister, she would completely understand. Oh yeah, did I mention Chie had a sister? She was long gone mind you, she had a good five or six years on Chie which meant she was already in college. To be fair, they usually got in a lot of arguments, so Chie wasn't entirely surprised she didn't keep in contact anymore, even if she truly believed that was such a trival matter to ignore her sister over. I mean, siblings were supposed to fight over everything, right? Really, Chie should have missed her sister now that she didn't eat dinner at the same table as them and everything, but she didn't feel the slightest drop of remorse that she was gone. She didn't really miss her sister as a person, which was kind of hypocritical in that she was sad her sister did not return the same viewpoint. It was probably also worth noting that her sister was far more academically gifted than Chie, so when she still lived in the house with Chie and the family, Chie was always getting compared to her sibling, and usually degraded for not getting the same grades as her. And it annoyed her to no end because unfortunately, not everybody could be that smart, no matter how hard they tried. Perhaps it was for that reason Chie refused to even acknowledge her sister's existance. "I just don't get it… This has to do with the television, right?"

"I want to say yes, but…" Justin began, his speech slowing to a crawl as he progressed, deep in thought on the matter. Truth be told, he couldn't say with one hundred percent certainty that this had any connection with the television. She was far sicker than anyone, besides from perhaps Nanako, had ever gotten as a result of being inside there for too long, and on top of that, she had accepted her shadow without so much as a struggle; which for the record, Justin had to say was a pretty impressive and admirable feat. But regardless of his opinions on Maya and her ability to accept herself and her faults, it didn't add up that someone so comfortable with themselves would succumb twice as hard to their shadow than to someone who fought it every step of the way. And it wasn't like she had had ever gotten sick from the fog the dozens of other times they were in there… Really, the only connection Justin was able to make between the television and her illness was that she got sick right after she left the other world that day… Justin had to wonder if someone was more likely to get an infection after accepting their shadow… Was it possible she had managed to catch something because she had a weakened immune system after her encounter with her other self? Justin couldn't say for certain, but it made a hell of a lot more sense than anything else he could come up with, that was for damn sure. Not that sense really mattered at times such as this.

"You're not sure?" Chie finished his sentence for him. You know, the cliché usually went that your soulmate could finish your sentences for you, even if Justin didn't quite believe in that soulmate crap. I think it spoke wonders of the two's relationship all the same. At least, Justin hoped that's what it meant and not that he was just incredibly predictable. Justin shrugged and nodded a bit with confirmation. Seemed he didn't have much to explain to Chie; she understood it all already. There was just nothing there for him to tell her that she didn't already get.

"Yeah exactly. Only way we can find out is if a doctor looks at her, and this is Maya we're talking about. Best we can do at this point is wait and hope it doesn't get worse…" Justin mused to himself, biting his finger with disapproval and worriment. She was already in bad enough condition that she should be in a hospital, and had she not been a fighter she already would have been; but the simple fact of the matter is that no matter how hard Justin tried to get her to a doctor she just would not budge. By this point the only way Justin was going to get her into a doctor's office was if she just dropped dead; which, you know, kind of defeated the point. He just hoped it wouldn't go that far and that they were seeing the worst of it all right now. He shook his head and sighed after a moment. He had done and continued to do everything he could for a girl who refused to be helped at this point; he could only pray it was enough. Worrying himself over what could happen, while so easy given the circumstances, would help no one in the long run. He just needed to sit back, chill out, and just wait for all this trouble to pass them by.

Justin smiled before clasping his hands together and staring Chie in the eyes."So what can I do for you anyway? You want to kick my ass again at Sony Smash Bros, or…?" Justin questioned with a chuckled under his breath. Chie rolled her eyes a bit as she stuck her hand into her jacket pocket. She wasn't a fangirl or anything, but come on: it was not just Sony Smash Bros. The entire battle system was different… kinda… Okay, at least how you scored was different; that was good enough for her. Alas, she wasn't here just to play video games though, as fun as that tended to be. She assumed Justin would either want to keep the noise down or that Maya would have that thing hooked up upstairs for her entertainment while she burned off her fever. The latter of which wasn't an awful idea, though it never passed Justin's mind. No siree, Chie had planned ahead for any possible contingencies and yanked out a deck of cards.

"Well I thought you might like some company while waiting up for Maya." Chie smiled a bit as she passed the deck of cards off to her other hand, cards moving neatly into a second pile in her palm. Oh Chie was complete shit when it came to playing cards, but she could shuffle like it was nobody's business, and she intended to let the world know anytime she got the chance. Honestly, Chie could come here and just shuffle cards in front of Justin and he would be amused… But then, he was always happy to just have her around anyway, so it didn't really matter if she could captivate his attention with these fancy sleights of hands; she as a person captivated his attention so much more. Still, it was true he had been growing rather bored locked up in his house, and while he wasn't complaining since he was in complete understanding of the dire circumstances, he supposed a little distraction to keep him occupied wasn't a terrible idea. What WAS a terrible idea was Chie playing cards at all. She wasn't stupid; she was well aware she was no master of Texas Hold 'Em or anything that didn't involve asking how many sevens the other players have. That didn't mean she didn't try to have fun playing these games though.

"But Chie; you're awful at cards." Justin pointed out with amusement. It wasn't so much the game itself she was bad at, though she did sometimes forget the rules on the more complex games, but at the very least she was better than Yosuke. No, the problem was that she could not lie with a straight face, and that cost her dearly in any game where she had to bluff. But then again, she was still one hundred percent better than Yosuke, and maybe a little bit better than Yukiko, who always made this 'um' sound before she made a move when she had to lie. Mind you, if she didn't have to lie in any game, she out right refused, so I suppose at the very least she knew when to hold em and knew when to fold em. Well actually it was more like she held them and that was fucking it; but it was still better than trying to bluff when you were well aware that was beyond your level of expertise. Chie smiled a bit, which seemed like a slightly odd reaction out of her after Justin had insulted her ability to play a simple game of cards. In truth, just as much as Justin loved to jab at her from time to time, she enjoyed messing with his head; and the best way to do that was to get to his heart. She slowly closed the distance between the two, almost squeezing up against his body as she leaned forward to whisper softly in his ear, her hot breath sending shivers down his spine as she spoke oh so sweetly and yet oh so dirty at the same time.

"You know, in some games that would be a very good thing for you." She whispered lustfully into his ear, much to his immediate embarrassment. His cheeks grew hot within seconds as she pulled away from him, a wide grin on her face. Justin was only surprised she would even mention a game like that. The Chie he knew would rather die than participate in something like THAT; assuming of course that was what she was referring to, but given the way she whispered in Justin's ear, he was going to guess that was indeed the implications. After all, he didn't need anyone to explain to him the advantage of playing against a newbie in a game for cash right? No, it was the prize one didn't think was on the table that was ultimately more valuable. Justin choked up a bit as he went to speak up, tripping over his words slightly. Oh why in god's name did Chie have to put that image in his head; she knew how Justin got with that kind of stuff. Oh yes she knew; and that was EXACTLY why she had done it. He cleared his throat abit before trying once more to speak up.

"B-But this isn't that game is it?" He stuttered slightly, cheeks still red as he stared at Chie, very subtly beginning to cross his legs as he stood there. Not like Chie didn't notice him doing it of course, after all, wasn't that part of her way of humiliating him? Well not necessarily humiliating, but making him embarrassed all the same. She smiled back still with that lustful expression of longing before eventually cracking up, no longer able to sell the illusion. It was just too funny for her to keep messing with him like that; she had already got what she wanted.

"Nooo-ooo-ooo." She slowly slurred, chuckling all the while. She shook her head as she turned her eyes back down to her hands, still shuffling the deck back and forth. And within a moment, Justin's very creepy hopes, hopes he had hoped to pretend didn't exist henceforth, were crushed between Chie's palms. Probably for the better anyway… but I mean, come on; you don't just give Justin an idea like that and then pull it out from under his nose when he wasn't looking. Could they at the very least play with socks or something? That still counted as Strip Poker, right?

"Way to get my hopes up."

"Amongst other things."


	206. Chapter 205: November 18, 2011

CHAPTER 205

November 18, 2011

* * *

"No, no, seriously, check this out."

"I don't need to see anymore parlor tricks, Kurt."

Take a wild guess where Justin and Kurt were currently chilling out. That's right the Department of Motor Vehicle- of course not that you fucking idiot. They were hanging around Justin's living room exchanging random thoughts and topics of conversations… Or as was slowly becoming the focus of this little session of theirs, magic tricks. And by magic tricks, I do mean magic and not sleights of hands. It was not exactly uncommon knowledge to the Investigation Team that Kurt could do some pretty weird shit using his natural shadow born abilities. Mostly stuff such as manipulating the world around him, creating life, weapons; you name it. Usually it disappeared within seconds, unable to maintain it's form long as it separated from Kurt's mass. That wasn't what was going on now though. Kurt's ability to manipulate the world around him was entirely limited to the television world, and despite how much he had tried to use his powers to, say, make a roll of toilet paper that one time he picked the wrong stall at Junes, he couldn't change the fabrics of this world.

That's not to say his powers were completely non-existent in this world however; he still didn't need to eat or drink or sleep, even if he still got hungry and thirsty and tired. And no matter how hard he tried, he just could not get drunk. Which he supposed was alright because it meant he'd never have to worry about drunk driving… Well, actually, that depended on whether or not his blood alcohol levels were still affected. He had no intention of finding out, though he admittedly was amused by the idea of having an outlandish blood alcohol level, like 9 million or something, and still walking around as though completely sober. Mostly because he was. There was also the fact that shadows could survive very long falls, partially because they had no bones or organs to be displaced from the landing; though strangely they still bled. Given that a shadow was essentially black liquid though, he supposed that might not be blood in the most traditional sense of the word, though it still stung a little bit when he got a cut or something… which lead him to where they were now.

Kurt extended his finger outwards so that it was in clear view of Justin, who in turn rolled his eyes about. He really didn't need to see anymore of Kurt's dumb tricks; he had shown him quite a bit, and each one just concerned Justin a bit because there was no real reason Kurt should know he could do some of the stuff without experience. I mean, aside from the jumping off buildings thing, which was just kind of assumed since Justin and Maya's shadows both could do it no problem. They called it the express way down a flight of stairs. Justin couldn't say he disagreed in that regard. Still, Justin wished Kurt would stop fucking around and doing all sorts of weird shit in an attempt at trying to discover what it was like to be a shadow. I mean, sure, the guy was going through some major identity crisis with the whole not actually human thing, but it would be really cool if he just accepted that he was what he was instead of searching for what it mean to be a shadow. After all, it took more than a heart and some veins to be human; it took a soul, and as far as Justin could tell, Kurt most certainly had one. Justin sighed, leaning back into the sofa to watch Kurt as he did whatever it was he wanted to do, eyes focused on Kurt's now extended finger.

Kurt shoved his hand into his pocket, delicately for reasons that would soon be obvious, as he searched for a necessary tool in his demonstration. A swiss army knife from the looks of it, the implications being immediately obvious as he flipped out the knife's blade. Justin couldn't help but slap himself in the face with annoyance and disgust as Kurt lined up the edge of the blade with the tip of his finger. Why was he not surprised that Kurt was going to do something incredibly stupid? He should have known the moment he extended such a small portion of his body. Unless he found out a way to make finger guns actual guns, the implications should have been obvious. Really, Justin should have stopped Kurt before he slit open an artery and got blood all over Justin's couch, but admittedly part of him wanted to see where Kurt was going with this. So he simply watched as Kurt quickly, yet carefully sliced open the flesh along the top of his finger. Justin couldn't help but wonder why he would want to do that. To show off? Come on, was it really worth cutting yourself open just to show that you know a neat little trick?

Kurt immediately recoiled from the self-inflicted damage he had caused, shoving his finger in his mouth in pain. He had only tried this out with a paper cut, and had he not known this would work, he wouldn't have thought of doing this in a million years. After all, pain this bad, even if only for a few moments, was just not worth it to be a show-off. It was a fairly impressive trick though, and while Kurt had indeed been clueless about a lot of things about what human nature was truly like, such as the fact that human blood was not purple, this was something he knew no human should be able to do. Had he always subconsciously done it? He couldn't say for certain, though he was willing to bet he had and he only started paying attention to this kind of crap once he realized he could do things no ordinary man could. Kurt waggled his hand a bit as he yanked it out of his mouth, still sucking a bit at his flesh in what had become an instinctive response to try and numb pain. It logically should have never worked, but as the Placebo Effect dictated, of you believe it, then it must be true. Because Kurt believed sucking at his wound would help him with the pain, it did. It was truly fascinating the power of the mind.

Kurt took a deep breath as he lifted his finger again, showing off the now open wound along his finger. Blood stains marked the cracks of his skin where blood had seeped a moment earlier until Kurt sucked it down his throat hole. It was hard to say whether shadows just had naturally delicious blood or whether shadows had this insatiable taste for the stuff, but Kurt couldn't say the taste of blood slipping along his tongue had been all that sour. Kind of creepy in a way, but it wasn't like anyone other than himself knew about his odd taste for blood cells. So long as he kept it to himself, there shouldn't be any problems. Until he started to develop a taste for cannibalism as well that is. Then they might have the tiniest problem; but for the moment being let's just assume Kurt had no desire to eat humans and/or shadows. He didn't right?

Kurt focused his eyes on his now open finger, blood starting to leak from the top again and roll around to its underside in droplets. Not enough that it was going to start dripping from the bone and onto Justin's floor mind you, but enough to know he may have cut just a little too deep. Not that it mattered. Kurt continued to hold his breath, focusing all the energy in his chest on that sole position along the length of his finger. Remember how I mentioned the Placebo Effect? How if you believe it, it'll happen. That was true to only a certain extent; like believing you can fly isn't going to make you sprout wings. In Kurt's case, however, Justin wasn't quite sure there as a limitation to the creative abilities of his mind. As Justin stared at the finger, he couldn't help but widen his eyes a bit with surprise. The trickle of blood down his hand slowed to a crawl and eventually stopped altogether. The flesh that had been slit open a moment earlier by Kurt's now bloodstained army knife squeezed tightly together before the fabrics of his skin began to weave together once again, forming the epidermis once more. Kurt had successfully managed to close a cut along his finger just through sheer willpower. Justin was needless to say rather impressed, clapping slightly with amazement.

"Holy shit Kurt; how do you even figure out half this shit?" Justin questioned with great amazement as he examined Kurt's finger closer… Or at least until Kurt retracted his hand. The trick was done so he had no need to keep his hand extended out like that other than to perhaps make himself look really stupid. It was a serious question of course that Justin expected a serious answer to. How exactly did Kurt figure this stuff out without trying it? He must have been trying to hack a limb off or something just for the sake of experimentation, which Justin had strongly advised Kurt against on several occasions. I mean come on, Justin got he was just trying to see what potential he had and all that, but was nearly killing himself on several occasions just to test a stupid theory. At least, that was what Justin had assumed. It never truly occurred to him that Kurt had taken Justin's words to heart. After all, Justin may have just been a teenager, truly ignorant to the real world, but he had a good grasp on reality: he understood what was important in life. He was a good guy to go to for advice, so Kurt never really questioned Justin when he told him what to do. Hell, he could tell Kurt to stick his hand in a blender and he'd do it. But only once, and after that he'd never listen to Justin again.

"Well I had a papercut and… I don't really know what possessed me to do it, but I just concentrated on it for a while and, boom. All patched up." Kurt clapped his hands in time to his onomatopoeia, like thunder striking to emphasize his point. He was lucky he had done this with Justin, someone who could usually see the slight movements you made before you tried to jump, the smallest signs that showed the fire alarm was about to ring through the halls, the flash before the rumble of thunder. Justin wasn't startled at all, but had he done it to Maya, she damn well would have jumped behind the couch with cover. Her and Kurt were certainly on speaking terms now, but that didn't mean Maya didn't remember the past. She remembered all to clearly losing all Kurt's cigarettes and the look on his face when he demanded compensation for the loss. All it would take is one sudden move to send Maya spiraling back into that state of complete and utter pain. And god forbid he did it around Chie. You would think she was just afraid of thunder, but pretty much anything that made a loud noise out of nowhere could make her cry like a baby. Clapping in her face quick enough would probably cause her to duck for cover, clinging to the nearest bolted down object in the room. Justin never did get what was to be so afraid of a sudden noise, but he wasn't one to talk about fears when he himself had so many.

"I don't know, I guess I've just been thinking about this kind of stuff since the last trip to… well… that place." Kurt continued, pausing slightly as he referred to the other world. There was something so horrifically unbelievable about there being a world like that on the other side of your average television, even more so knowing that was where he came from. Even more so thinking of what ungodly creature he truly was. Perhaps that's why he chose not to think about it whenever he could; why he left all the investigating and discussion about the other side to the children while he went on with his life pretending that he was still human… even if he knew that wasn't true at all. "You ever have déjà vu? I can't explain it, but I just… felt like I recognized everything that time we pulled Maya out…" Kurt muttered to himself, rubbing at the stubble along his chin. He didn't know why but he swore he remembered something about all of that; yet he couldn't remember at all.

"Well… It's possible I suppose that you used to know my and Maya's shadow; assuming our shadows live in the same general region based on where we live in the real world." Justin proposed, throwing his feet up on the coffee table in front of him. Oh yes, he gave everyone else shit about leaving dirt and mud around his house, but he had no problem doing the exact same thing. That's what we like to call being a hypocritical douchebag. Alas, it was his house and his rules, so not a single person complained. Wasn't like they planned to kick their feet up on his furniture anyway. Which was great because the only one of them that might have been able to get away with it was Chie, and even then Justin would give her one of those 'what do you think you're doing' looks if she ever out her shoes over the sofa or something. Kurt shrugged a bit.

"I suppose it's possible. I don't really remember them though…" Kurt continued. There was something familiar about them, but alas, that was sort of what happened when you recognized their appearances from their human counterparts; especially when Justin swapped out with his shadow from time to time. Kurt only encountered Justin's shadow once when giving the guy the grain alcohol to make molotovs, and while he did suspect something was up, he didn't bother questioning Justin. I mean, whatever he did with that kind of stuff wasn't really any of his business. To this day, he still didn't know he tried to burn down Naoto's house, which may be a good thing because Kurt found something incredibly interesting about a child being a detective at such a young age, and yet at the same time so terrifying knowing they worked so close. Surely someone on the police force knew what Kurt was doing, and if that was the case it was entirely possible Naoto was aware of what he did in the dark. Not a pleasant thought to consider when working with your co-workers. "Ah, whatever. Just a funny feeling I got; it's probably nothing to get our panties in a bunch over."

"You're wearing panties?"

"What? No, it's a figure of- You're pulling my chain aren't you?" Kurt stripped over his words with exasperation. How he had automatically assumed Justin was being serious was beside him; after all this was Justin they were talking about, and Justin was unfortunately rather infamous for being sarcastic 99% of the time, the other 1% of the time being when he slept. Which would be an inaccurate statistic if you didn't take into account the fact that Justin was still being sarcastic in his dreams if not more so knowing he could actually get away with it and be cheered on for being a huge douchebag to everyone he met. Justin shook his head a bit with disbelief. Someone was getting awfully defensive over such an innocent joke… was it possible Kurt really was wearing panties? The answer to that question was no for the record. Kurt had done some weird things trying to test out his powers, but cross-dressing was not one of them.

"Of course I am… But you did get awfully defensive; is there something… something you want to tell me, Kurt?"

"Yeah; weren't you in the cross-dressing festival a month ago?"

"No. That was Maya dressed up as me so that I DIDN'T have to wear women's underwear."

"She was using your name. It counts."


	207. Chapter 206: November 19, 2011

CHAPTER 206

November 19, 2011

* * *

"Hey Maya… I know you're not going to just sleep in today of all days, are you?"

Maya slowly opened the cracks of her eyes, groaning with a combination of discomfort and sleepiness as she slowly made her way back to the waking world. She still didn't know what was going on of course, but with Justin constantly poking her and trying to force her awake, she didn't have much choice but to wake to the bright sun outside. It was too early, and she still felt like complete shit, so she hoped to god Justin was just going to spit out what he wanted to say quickly so she could go back to sleep; this time strategically placing her face into her pillow to block out the sound of anyone else that may enter the room. And I do say anyone else and not Justin for a reason, for you see as Maya slowly woke up, her face still colorless and her mouth still forming a frown from her lack of energy, her eyes could make out more than one figure. She was confused, but she was ultimately having trouble seeing them for several reasons. The first and foremost was that she didn't have her contacts in, nor had she for a good few days now, so all she could make out was humanoid figures. In addition, she still had a bit of a film coating over her eyes from being asleep, and that only went to further blur her sight, blocking out any details of the people that were hanging over her bed. Of course, that film coating usually dissolved once you woke up enough, and Maya's confusion was enough to persuade her to stay awake for a while. She yawned before timidly reaching up to rub her eyes, not much strength or speed to her movements as she twisted the tip of her fist into her eye. It looked more like she was gently stroking her eye lid than rubbing away the sandman's dust in her eyes.

Once she was able to clear the film from her eyes however and lay eyes on the three figures standing there, she was needless to say very confused, if not somewhat embarrassed… At least, that was what Justin had assumed when she sunk beneath the covers ever so slightly, as if trying to hide from something. To be fair, it wasn't like anyone enjoyed having someone watch them sleep, and while that's not what Maya's guests had been doing, waking up to a couple people standing over you generally seemed to give that impression. All the same, Maya stared at her guests with weary, confused eyes as Justin, Chie, and Yosuke stood beside her bed. Chie and Justin were smiling of course, though Yosuke was fidgeting quite a bit and staring out the window with this rather embarrassed expression on his face. Hell if Maya could actually see from where she lay, she would almost think he was blushing. And she'd be right, though he was trying to be discreet about it. No need to give Justin anymore ideas after what happened last time. It was also worth noting that while Maya could essentially only see blobs and blurs, she could vaguely make out the features of her friends (after all, who else did she know who wore all green?) she could still make out their general shape easily enough to tell with one hundred percent certainty that Chie and Yosuke were both holding something behind their backs. Not that Justin or Chie were aware of what Yosuke was cleverly trying to hide. It wasn't a problem with what he had in his possession mind you, neither Justin nor Chie would object to it, but… he didn't want anyone getting any ideas. He was just being nice, he didn't need praise or shit for doing what he felt was right after all.

"…_Hello?" _Maya signed off timidly and with great confusion. She would really like to know why everyone was in her room just smiling at her like that. Well, technically Justin's room, but as long as she was going to be trapped here for a while, she might as well just claim this room in the name of the great and mighty Maya Skye Jefferies. _"What exactly are you all doing in my room?" _Maya continued, her gestures very slow, and lacking any real energy, hands shaky as she formed each symbol with her fingers. It looked like it was taking all of her energy just to lift her arm… Had this not been a special occasion Yosuke would almost be tempted to run out the door. He had seen her while she was asleep and while it was clear she was in discomfort, he never imagined she would be just bad while she was awake. It was almost too much for him to watch; which is probably why he didn't.

"Don't tell me you forgot already." Justin chuckled a bit to himself, shaking his head with amusement, a wide grin on his face as they all stood over her with excitement, even Yosuke though he refused to show it, though there was some other emotion deep in his chest that suffocated it. I'd best describe it as nervousness, though over what, Maya was completely clueless. Hell, Yosuke was too; it was so hard to explain why the arteries leading to his heart just seemed to constrict when he was around Maya, especially on days like today where he would face judgment for his generosity. He could only hope the verdict was a good one. "Well I suppose that makes it more of a surprise then. Chie, would you kindly?" Justin turned his grin over to Chie, who in turn nodded her head with confirmation.

"Sure thing Atlus." She remarked sarcastically as she faced him, not so much as turning her head away from him as she slipped a birthday whistled out from behind her, sticking it between her teeth and blowing the horn… right into Justin's bad eye too. Chie would almost feel bad if these things weren't made of paper. Unless he got a paper cut, in which case that had to be one of the most horrifically painful injuries Chie could possibly imagine someone going through, she suspected he'd be fine. And she was very much right, given that Justin just wiped the spittle from his eye, a slight expression of disapproval on his face as he glared slightly at Chie. No one liked to be poked in the eye, even if it was more like a feather tickling his iris.

"Gee, thanks Chie." Justin remarked sarcastically, shaking his head a bit. What, it wasn't enough that she was going to be a smart ass over him saying would you kindly? That was still a pretty common-place expression, though he also supposed Chie was aware of that and just felt like either pulling Justin's leg or proving that she knew her gaming. As if Justin needed any proof of the latter; she kicked his ass at so many games it wasn't even funny. For a girl who spent more time practicing kung-fu than sitting in front of a television, she was surprisingly good at this shit. I guess it came from having good hand-eye coordination, which was a must for kicking stuff effectively. But whatever, nerdy humor aside, he sure didn't enjoy having a birthday whistle jammed in his eye; even if he knew Chie had done it purposely as a joke. At the very least Maya cracked a smile at it, so that was good; though whether it was because of the slapstick comedy or because she had perhaps put two and two together was still up to date. For all they knew she could have still been clueless about why they were all here. "Happy Birthday." Justin smiled, turning back away from Chie and towards Maya. Maya's smile only seemed to intensify, even if her cheeks still lacked color and her grin lacked energy. She was happy, though she couldn't really express it from her place in her bed.

"_You remembered?" _Maya signed off, her heart feeling as though it were beating too slow from how happy she was. Justin had forgotten so much about Maya, and while it was true his memories came back like waves the moment he was kidnapped by Namatame, there were still things he didn't quite remember about the two of them back in California. To find that he had remembered something she didn't even celebrate, if only because she was like a sister to him… well… it meant a lot to her just to think that of all the memories he held on to, that was one of them. Would help if he could remember she was allergic to peanuts though. He was so lucky that her allergies weren't that bad, or else she'd kick his ass. Justin grinned and nodded a bit with confirmation.

"Well yeah? I wouldn't be a very good little brother if I didn't." Justin smirked slightly. The little brother part caught Maya a little off guard. She was always older than him, so the fact that he was somehow the big brother in this whole thing was kind of weird; but she got used to it just as she had the concept of Justin being family. Suddenly becoming the little brother? It was a subtle comment, but a signification that she was now older than him by an entire number, her being seventeen and him being sixteen. It wasn't a big thing, but it still made her feel a little better. At least, until she started to sneeze again. Which may have actually been a good thing in the long run; she hadn't coughed or sneezed prior when she was sick, which concerned Justin with the possibility that her body wasn't fighting off whatever illness had made its way into her bloodstream. "Still sick I see."

"_It still hurts like a bitch." _Maya groaned a bit, squirming a bit on the bed as she grimaced. Oh yes, it didn't hurt as much as it had been, which was a much desired improvement, but it still hurt enough for there to be reasonable concern. Justin sighed a bit. Figures they were supposed to be celebrating a great day and here she was unable to even move from this bed. Honestly, there was something so disgusting about the way she smiled, not because she didn't have a nice smile or anything, but because she didn't have the energy for said smile. The corners of her mouth would extend up to try and grin, but her eyes gave it away that she just couldn't do it. Laughing wasn't as easy as they claimed it was, it would seem.

"Still… Sounds like your body's finally starting to fight that stuff off… A couple days, you'll be good as new." Justin tried to reassure her. He was actually kind of happy to see her sneeze in fact, even if Maya herself didn't quite get that was how she was hopefully going to recover. "You should probably get some more rest though; got to burn it off, right?"

"_Yeah… probably."_

"Alright then, we'll uh… leave you to it for now. Don't take too long though, there's cake downstairs if you can think you can stomach it." Justin winked before turning around to sneak out the door. Maya of course couldn't even think of stomaching sweets when she could barely swallow soup over the last few days, though she supposed she appreciated that there was even cake to begin with. She just hoped it was only like a slice or something; they didn't exactly have much money coming in with her sick in bed and all. Little did she know Yosuke had been telling his father Maya had been showing up for work and punching her in and out on a shift she wasn't working. He snuck her paycheck to Justin just in time for her birthday, knowing full well Maya would never accept a handout.

Maya watched as all her friends slowly piled out of the room, not trying to cause any noise as they marched down the stairs. They'd probably play cards or something since they were all here now, and besides; should Maya choose to come down stairs, they could be there to celebrate with her. Assuming of course she could stand on her own, which was highly unlikely. She'd just have to find something to throw at the wall to get their attention, assuming she had the strength to do that either. But regardless, everyone soon began to push their way down the floor… All except Yosuke who just sat there, still looking out the window. It was only a surprise Justin hadn't noticed Yosuke was purposely staying behind. Maya was confused at first, simply staring at Yosuke as he stood there, mouth a gape as he tried to pick the best words he could for this situation. It wasn't like he was asking the damn girl out or anything mind you, so it shouldn't have been this hard; but he still wanted to make a good impression. He didn't want to look like a fool and he didn't want look like he didn't care. It was hard to find a good middle ground between the two extremes. And the sad part was, what he was here for… wasn't at all something hard to ask. He just found it hard to swallow his thoughts when his feelings were clogging his throat hole.

"Uh… Here. It's not much, but I wanted to get you something." Yosuke stuttered slightly, cheeks still red as he slowly slipped his hand out from behind his back. It was a small little thing, a CD case in fact; and while that would have been obvious to tell just from the shape of the wrapped package… well… it wasn't wrapped. Yosuke tried to wrap it, he really did, but alas, he ended up making what looked like a big blob of paper and tape, and he just wasn't satisfied with that, so instead he just handed off the CD case in all it's unwrapped glory, before immediately darting off, not really willing to put up with the anticipation of knowing whether she liked the gift, nor wanting to be showered with any form of thanks. Maya was very much confused, and given the way her eyes widened a bit as he slipped the CD into her hands, it was safe to say very much surprised. She had lost track of time when she was asleep, so really, ALL of this was a surprise to her, but… Getting a present from Yosuke? She hadn't seen this coming at all. She didn't even know he knew about her birthday; she never really talked about it since they stopped celebrating her Birthday in her house after what happened with her father… Partially because… well… Her father picked some pretty shitty timing to go into a coma. Happy Birthday Maya, your father's dying. Still sent a shiver of sorrow down her spine; though luckily, her mind was not focused on that at the moment. She supposed she had Yosuke and his gift to thank for that.

Maya stared at the case Yosuke had slipped into her hand with great curiosity, examining every little crevice and corner along the plastic casing. Pink Floyd – Dark Side of the Moon, to be more accurate. An album she already owned the entirety of on her iPod, not to mention Justin had the actual album for his CD Player. Maya would own the CD too if she owned a CD player at all, but alas her family was much too poor to afford music whenever Maya found a new band. Instead she simply pirated whatever music she could whenever she was at school. You should have seen the shitstorm when the internet got shut down after she torrented some shitty punk rock from some shitty new band that was complete shit. It was amazing how quickly the school was willing to point fingers at her for that. Shameful, though not exactly wrong either. Good thing Maya denied it till the very end; she ended up getting off the hook since they couldn't really prove it was here, and besides… what if it was? It wasn't like they were going to expel Maya for something that internet providers just kind of wag their finger at with disapproval.

Alas, that was beside the point. Maya had done some stupid shit in the past, but the past was the past and the present was the present. And speaking of presents, here was the CD Yosuke had given her before running off. It was an interesting thing. On top of Maya and Justin both owning this album, there were some other… glaring issues. The case was cracked pretty severly down the center of the front, and the paper slip in for the cover art was crinkled beyond belief. One had to wonder how anyone could fuck that up unintentionally. The CD had scratches all over the top of its surfaces when she cracked the case open to check out it's insides, and the front cover nearly fell off its hinges as she split the casing open… And was that a mustard stain on the front? It was hard to tell if that was there when Yosuke bought the album or if he had just somehow managed to get some on there himself while doing whatever it was Yosuke did with his free time. Besides what most teenage boys Yosuke's age did with their free time. This CD was by all definitions a complete piece of crap.

It was perfect.


	208. Chapter 207: November 20, 2011

CHAPTER 207

November 20, 2011

* * *

"...Why exactly are we here?"

Justin and Chie, having put up with about as much as they could take of Yu and his self-pity, had practically dragged him kicking and screaming out of the hospital and over to Aiya's, where he had thankfully calmed down enough to just be very confused and very annoyed. And mind you, even making himself sick with worry hadn't really been enough to push the two to pull him out here, but the fact of the matter was that in his grief, he completely forgot the outside world existed. He was supposed to show up at Maya's admittedly short birthday party the day prior, but he never did because he was too busy sitting in that damn hospital room. They got he was worried, they got he was grieving, but there came a point where he was disappointing his friends, letting them down. He promised to help cheer Maya up since she was so sick and he didn't fucking do it. So Justin was understandably very, very pissed. Chie was more worried than angry, but that didn't mean she wasn't disappointed that Yu couldn't be assed to show up to something that would mean the world to Maya. Hell it was the first time she really smiled in weeks; it was only a shame she ended up sleeping the day away once everyone left the room. She would have tried to crawl her way downstairs to join the others, but the fact of the matter was she didn't have the strength to. And she was tired. She told herself she'd only close her eyes for a brief moment, just enough to catch a couple more winks, just enough so that she had the energy to drag herself down the steps, but when she actually did let her eyelids shut once more, she slipped away from the conscious world for the rest of the night. Who would think even a couple minutes of happiness would drain her life force so.

"Because you're fucking killing us Yu." Justin spat at him with annoyance. He didn't quite realize his words may have held a little more truth than anyone truly knew, but that was beside the point. The way Yu was starting to treat the people that were close to him was not only insulting, but fucking painful. They couldn't stand watching him beat himself up over what was inevitable, but worse than that was that he just didn't give a fuck about anyone else. He wasn't there when his friends needed him, he wasn't there for when they celebrated, he wasn't there when he promised; he just wasn't there. It was like the guy never even existed in a way, which in its own right was kind of sad given the people he helped. Hell, Yukiko had practically turned to pulling her own hair out over all of this. It was no secret that Yukiko wasn't exactly the most socially apt person out there, and in secrecy Justin highly suspected she could have Asperger's syndrome given that she never seemed to understand what was going on, but even then there had to be something she could do. As to what though, well that was far beyond her realm of understanding. Or any of their understanding really. Everything they had done to cheer the fucker up just seemed to go right over his head. Like he purposely didn't want to cheer up. In that sense perhaps you could call Justin and Chie's presence here an interevention, an attempt at getting him to move on and realize there was still life to be lived. Nanako wasn't going anywhere; she'd be fine. "You know you missed Maya's birthday yesterday right? Come on man, you know how sick she is, it would have meant the world to her and you were too busy pitying yourself to give a damn. Consider this your intervention." Justin snarled angrily.

"Now just hold on one second." Yu interrupted Justin after a moment, a subtle glare on his face as he stared Justin down. Justin was right about a lot of things: yes he missed Maya's party, yes he kind of fucked up big time in that regard, and yes Justin had every right to think he was a dick for not showing up, though to be fair neither did Rise, Kanji, Naoto, Teddie, or Kurt. But then again, Justin didn't invite them; after the mess in his house after the Halloween party, he realized he just could not fit everyone into that house. Besides, he figured just her closest friends should show up, which immediately ruled Naoto out, even if that was because Justin hated her more than Maya did, as well as Rise. Maya still gave Rise dirty looks anytime she tried to flirt with Yosuke, though no one ever really picked up on why other than she just didn't like the girl. And it was true in a way; she was so fucking bubbly, it somehow managed to piss Maya off just being in the same room as her when she got excited, like nails against a chalkboard any time she squealed like a little girl. Which was almost always. Teddie was also immediately ruled out since he was kind of a pervo and Justin just didn't feel comfortable having him around; and Kurt had work. Yukiko showed up, but she ran too late to really make a difference; twas the thought that counted though. Justin DID invite Kanji, but he said he couldn't make it; so Justin didn't force the matter. At least he didn't say he was coming and then never showed. But the fact of the matter was while Yu might not have had much good reason to miss the party, it wasn't because of self-pity, and he was absolutely furious that Justin was going to accuse him of that. Was there something wrong with worrying about his cousin in the fucking hospital? Justin would do the same of it was Chie or Maya, and in fact HAD been in the latter case, if to a much lesser extent. "Don't you dare tell me I was too busy pitying myself to care. I'll have you know I-"

"Enough! Both of you!" Chie shouted, cutting Yu off as she sensed hostilities were starting to raise much faster than one would hope. She suspected they were going to be angry at each other when all was said and done, after all, this WAS an intervention. She did not by any means expect them to be trying to rip each other's throats out before they even started. But then, she also didn't expect to jump straight into the heart of the matter either, but Justin seemed to disagree with her philosophies on how to go about conducting this little rendezvous. She glared at the two for a moment eyes darting back and forth, hoping to calm them down through mere assertion. And it certainly worked. Justin and Yu sighed simultaneously before sinking back in their chairs, letting the hot air in their heads leak out from their nose as they regained their composure. If they were going to kill each other, at the very least they should have the decency to not do it in a restaurant full of paying customers. They'd shank each other in private later. She sighed before turning her attention back to Yu, sympathetic eyes for his plight as he slowly sunk back into his state of depression. "You've been trapped in that room for weeks now. You need to get out a bit: socialize. Nanako's going to be okay, but if you keep going at it the way you are, you won't be. We're all concerned about you."

"Which is why you're going to eat dinner with us whether you like it or not." Justin continued, jumping the gun once again, an action that warranted a jab in his side from Chie. Yu luckily enough wasn't pissed this time around, so that was a plus, but Chie wasn't sure how much being forced to eat with them was going to help in the long-run. I don't think Chie understood this wasn't going to be a long-term solution, it was just to get him out for even one night. And partially an excuse for Justin to bitch Yu out for being a dick yesterday. Yu sighed after a moment, eyes slowly sweeping across the table in search for something. It was clear he didn't want to be here, but he was hungry, and he supposed the quicker he ate, the quicker he could leave.

"Fine, fine… Where's the menu…?"

"I already ordered for all four of us." Justin cut Yu off. Yu's gaze immediately jumped up to meet Justin's a great expression of confusion on his face, combined with slight aggravation. He would have liked to order his own food you know; but in the end, he probably would have just got some rice and ran like hell after a couple of bites… What Justin ordered, well… Yu wasn't going back to the hospital for a long time. None of them were; it was entirely possible they weren't leaving her for a week. Except maybe Chie, though from what Justin had witnessed, not even she had mastered the hardships that awaited them. And that was saying something. But that didn't really catch Yu off guard as much as the fact that Justin referred to 'four of us.' Last time Yu checked, he knew how to count, and he only counted three. Justin of course realized Yu was entirely unaware of their scheme, but it seemed his explanation had just walked through the door. "And speaking of the devil… Yo! Yukiko, over here!" Justin called out to her as she stepped through the door. It had been a while since she had been here with Chie, so she was swept by a certain sense of nostalgia, though she didn't have much time to admire the establishment with Justin beckoning out to her. She timidly waved to the three as she nervously took her seat.

"Oh hello." Yukiko remarked with a wide grin on her face as she took a seat beside Yu. Yu passed her a very confused look, then a subsequent one to both Justin and Chie. What exactly was going on here, and why was no one filling him in? "It's good to see you outside the hospital."

"I… guess…?"

"Alright, so I still have no fucking idea how this is supposed to work, but I'm officially declaring this a double date." Justin remarked as he clapped his hands together. Yu had ordered a glass of water when he first got here to ease his dry throat, but he damn near spit the stuff back up when that hit his ears. Thankfully, he spit it back up in the glass; not so thankfully, what he didn't spit up, he choked on. He cleared his throat a bit as he finally stopped strangling himself with his spittle, eyes a bit wide as he stared Justin's smug face down from across the room. Had he learned nothing from the last time they had a group date? It was awkward; nothing got accomplished. And besides, he admittedly was not great at this dating stuff. Sure he always gave Justin advice with Chie, and sure he had managed to get Yukiko, but in the end, he just was too reserved to really talk about what couples usually tended to. What were they hoping to accomplish with forcing Yu into something he wasn't comfortable with? I mean, sure, Yukiko wanted to try it out, but… hadn't she gotten enough taste for this kind of stuff at the school festival? Couldn't they talk this out or something. No. No they could not. He had already been ensnared in something he couldn't get out of; something that was especially clear when the waitress came around with their food, four bowls to be precise. He couldn't just cop out if they already ordered food for everyone, but… Wait a second… Yu immediately shot his eyes up from his dish.

"…You're a mad man." He remarked silently but with just the tiniest hint of fear. Oh yes, the Rainy Day Meat Bowl Challenge was something that not even the almighty Yu could handle, even if he was zero, even if he was full of infinite possibilities. Justin didn't so much as bat an eye lash at Yu as he snapped out his chopsticks. He had a fairly small stomach, so he wasn't sure he'd ever finish something this big, but at the very least he'd like to see if he could give Chie a run for her money. Spoilers, he didn't.

"So I've been told. I'd get cracking by the way, because I'm not letting you leave till you eat that whole thing." Justin remarked bluntly, pointing his chopsticks at Yu as if to issue an order to him. A shiver immediately made its way down Yu's spine. All of it!? Justin had to be out of his damn mind. No one could finish this. Not even Chie had a taste for meat that couldn't be satisfied by even a FRACTION of this bowl. All of it? No. No way. Yu would die from fucking diabetes before getting half-way through this bowl. And he would know, he had tried this once before. He swore that the contents of that bowl lead to the meat dimension. Never again would he subject himself to such horrors. At least not willingly from the seems of it. I don't think Yukiko was all too pleased being forced into Justin's grandmaster plan either. The point was for Yu to be stuck here as long as possible, but alas, that only worked if everyone including Yu was eating the same dish; otherwise it would seem like cruel unusual punishment. If they all worked at it together, Yu would have no room to argue since everyone else was eating it too.

"Hmm? Oh Chie, you know I can never finish these." Yukiko chuckled slightly, though with some slight disapproval as she slid her bowl towards her, just eyeing its contents for a moment. In fact, she almost never made a dent in this stuff; partially because she didn't have a huge appetite, partially because she was very picky about the pieces of meat she did eat. She didn't want anything too fatty after all. Chie shrugged a bit. It wasn't her idea, but she wouldn't mind taking credit for it. It wasn't like Justin was going to get upset over it anyway. It wasn't exactly copyright worthy material.

"Neither can I…" Chie remarked with such shame. She wasn't exactly proud of being known as that girl that did nothing but devour meat, but she was aware that was what most of her friend's perceived her as, so she just kind of catered to that image in situations such as these. It wasn't entirely untrue after all, she did love meat; but it's not like she suddenly had an amazing appetite around steak. Just a slightly bigger one. Justin gave her a sarcastic pat on the back as she sighed, staring at her bowl of food with slight disappointment. This was it. Today had to be the day she conquered the Meat Bowl Challenge. She's jump off a bridge if she didn't. Spoilers, she didn't finish it and she didn't jump off a bridge. Why you would ever think she was serious about that is beyond me, but hey, whatever floats your boat.

"Sorry I was late to the party yesterday." Yukiko turned her attention over to Justin as everyone dug into their food, minus perhaps Yu, who was contemplating even going through with this. If he just got up and ran now, it was quite possible he could escape from the grasp of the terrifying meat bowl. I mean, Yukiko would probably never let him hear the end of it for blowing her off on a group date, but… you know, sacrifices had to be made. Greater good and all that. Too bad his girlfriend was the greatest good he was ever going to have. Yu turned a bit, clearing his throat as Yukiko brought up the party. Could they… you know… not talk about that after he blew Maya off? He got it, he was a horrible person and he felt bad, no need to remind him.

"I'm only surprised you managed to get time out of work… Hell I'm surprised Yosuke did. Last I checked he'd been working two shifts to cover for Maya." Justin remarked, impressed by Yosuke's determination. It was surprising to see him just go out of the way like that for his sister, and while Justin had some tentative theories as to why that may be, he didn't really care. So long as he treated Maya right in the end he supposed it didn't matter what Yosuke thought about her. Unless he decided to be a creep about it or tried to make any funny moves. In which case Justin would not hesitate to break both his legs on the spot. "I brought some of the cake up for Maya since she's been having trouble getting out of bed, but she only took a bite when I went to clean up the plate this morning. I'm not sure if that meant the cake was shit or if she just couldn't eat it, I don't know. I just hope she used her birthday wish to get better…" Justin mumbled to himself. Oh Maya did make a wish, even if she never blew out any candles, but it certainly wasn't for good health. She didn't exactly have a good grasp on priorities it seemed, though perhaps she just figured her illness would go away on it's own.

"I don't know… Maybe she used her wish for money, or… or what about that boy she liked? She still into him?" Chie questioned. Justin wasn't quite sure to be honest so that wasn't a half bad question; but he was going to assume yes. She just didn't really discuss it with them because, well, why would she? Sure Justin was good at giving her advice, but… she never really acted on it. She just couldn't find the courage. And speaking of a lack of courage…

"I… Don't actually have to eat this whole thing, right? I mean, just look at all that beef, I-"

"Yu, if you don't start having fun right now I swear to god I will shove all of that down your throat; bowl and all."

"So… don't eat it. Okay, thanks."


	209. Chapter 208: November 21, 2011

CHAPTER 208

November 21, 2011

* * *

_Sluggish drones assault my radio _

_Twenty mortal lashes of grotesque audio _

_Glittering fountains, misspent youth _

_I'm a rhinestone tiger in a leisure suit _

_Turn it up! Turn it up! Turn it up! Oh yeah! _

_We listen to the radio _

_Dead Radio _

"_Justin, I literally cannot hear you over the phone with that music blasting."_

Justin has been at home listening to music at a volume that was way louder than should be humanly allowed on any kind of audio player when Chie had rang him up. She sounded frantic from what he could hear over the music, which probably should have been the first sign that he should have lowered the volume just a tad bit, but he couldn't quite say for certain. Chie had to wonder why he was playing music so loud so early in the morning, especially when she knew Maya was still pretty sick. Little did she know she had actually made quite the improvement over the last hour or so; hell maybe as little as a couple of minutes, though Justin wasn't really aware of that until she tried to crawl her way downstairs. It still hurt like a bitch, but she could at the very least get out of bed. That said, Justin was still pretty damn concerned about her; her movement was slow and stiff, and aside from her tipping over a couple times while walking, which was not at all unusual for a girl who had been trapped in a bed for weeks on end, she wasn't exactly… well suited to making her way around the house. She'd still be better off in bed upstairs, but she was rather insistant on stretching her legs out. Justin supposed it would be fine if she just didn't strain herself too much. And she didn't, she simply made her way downstairs to listen to some music and to watch some television. Justin got her a blanket and everything to make sure she was comfortable, though she did insist that it wasn't neccesary.

As for what she was listening to… well… Part of her wanted to pop in that CD Yosuke gave her. It wasn't like it was a top quality CD she had received or that she had never listened to it before in her life, but it did come from him, and that meant a lot to her. She wanted to… then she noticed there was a rather large gash along the bottom of the CD. Seemed Yosuke had never heard of opening a CD case and checking it's contents before making a purchase. Oh well; the thought was the true gift here. Instead, they were listening to Justin's music. Apparently Rob Zombie still made music, much to Maya's surprise. She thought he was too busy being a horror movie director to make music. Metal, of course, wasn't really up Maya's alley, but she certainly had nothing against the genre. Hell, she didn't have anything against any genre really. Unless that genre was pop. Fuck pop. All the same, she tried to be open-minded, so she listened to the radio all the same, not partocularlly interested, though not particularly turned off all the same. Justin of course was pretty much a metal head when he wasn't busy being into stoner rock, so he was having a ball listening to this shit, head bobbing up and down in time to the guitar. That was until Chie informed Justin that that shit was louder than a herd of renegade elephants with nothing left to lose.

"Huh? Oh, sorry. New album." Justin explained briefly before turning the CD off for the moment being. He'd go back to annoying the fuck out of the neighbors once he got off the phone with Chie, but for the time being, he'd love to know what Chie was doing calling so early in the morning. I mean, it wasn't quite school time yet, though it should be soon enough, so the issue wasn't so much that she was calling in the middle of class or anything like that so much as it was Justin was confused what could be so important as to warrant a call at this hour. But then, he didn't seem to grasp that calling someone at this hour was a lot less troublesome than waking up the block with heavy metal. Maybe his walls were just very soundproof and no one really knew; who was to say? "What's up?"

"_We just heard from Adachi that Nanako woke up. She's gonna be okay!" _ The news struck Justin the way a bowling ball struck a set of lined up bowling pins. It wasn't surprising in the sense that he had expected Nanako to wake up sooner or later, though he supposed the timing in itself was unexpected, though by no means undesired. It was good news on several levels, the first and foremost being that Nanako was slowly getting better, the other reason being that Yu can finally stop with this pity bullshit. Which was great because there was no way that stunt Justin pulled at Aiya's was going to work again. _"We're all going to see her after school today… Do… Do you think you can make it?"_

"I… Don't see why not. Let me just check something quick quick." Justin remarked before cupping the end of the phone with the palm of his hand. He had been reluctant about going to the hospital simply because of Maya's condition, but with a sudden improvement such as this… I mean, he didn't like leaving her behind, but she could take care of herself for the moment being, and it wouldn't be long. He supposed it all depended on whether Maya felt she was well enough to be capable to take care of herself for an hour or two. God knows she wasn't going to come with him to the hospital after all. "Hey Maya… would you be alright if I left you here by yourself for an hour or two? Nanako just woke up at the hospital, so… yeah" Maya twisted her head to the side with slight perplexion for a moment; not necessarily at Nanako waking up or him leaving mind you, more so the fact that he had asked permission to leave his own house. Why? Because she was sick. She might have felt like her lungs had spears dug through them and her intestines were strangling themselves like nooses, but she was still seventeen years old and a seventeen year old who lived an entire year and a half of her life alone in the cold streets. Taking care of herself by any means necessary was not a concept entirely unknown to Maya; she could go a couple of hours by herself. She nodded slowly with confirmation, much to Justin's pleasure.

"Alright, I'll be there."

* * *

"Nanako? Everyone's here to see you."

"Mm… Big… bro…"

Everyone gathered around Nanako's bedside as she slowly woke to consciousness. She had been awake for quite some time mind you, but that didn't mean that it wasn't painful or difficult for her. It was difficult to watch, yet oh so wonderful at the same time knowing at the very least she was fighting off… whatever it was that was making her so sick. Justin always just assumed it was that toxic green fog on the other side, I mean there had to be SOMETHING in that shit that made it so green. It was just nice to see Yu cheer up just a little, color returning to his face again. He was still heavy hearted from the sight of Nanako struggling with her pain, but at the very least she was awake. And for the time being, that was enough for him. And hell, they'd all be pretty happy had some of the hospital faculty not been complete dicks; one nurse in particular as she practically kicked down the door with bloody murder in her eyes as she searched for Dojima.

"Dojima-san! How many times does this make it today? I understand that you're worried about your daughter, but you still need your rest too!" The nurse immediately began shouting and lecturing the poor guy. What was so wrong with him wanting to see his daughter, huh? And it wasn't like he was doing jumping jacks or anything. He WAS in a wheel chair, so I mean how much worse could his injuries possibly get from just being out of bed. Wasn't like his bones were going to shift around or something. Dojima was quick to groan and apologize, though you could tell he didn't really mean it. Which was fine because I don't think any of the Investigation team thought he was in the wrong for thinking this nurse was being a huge bitch right about now. And this is including Yu, who in particular knew a nurse or two that was pretty damn bitchy… And I guess to a certain extent Yosuke. Depends if you mean bitch like an asshole or a bitch like someone who takes it up the asshole.

"Um… Are your injuries that bad?" Yukiko questioned with concern for Dojima's uncle. Dojima grunted a bit and nodded. It was true that his injuries still hurt like hell, but he supposed they weren't too too bad. Nowhere near as bad as what the nurse kept trying to tell him anyway. I mean honestly, did she really believe his wounds would reopen from sitting in a chair? It was no different than laying in a bed from his point of view.

"Hm… Well, my wounds have just closed up, and it seems I have a couple of fractures as well."

"I'm sorry. I'll wheel him back to his room immediately." Adachi apologized to the nurse on Dojima's behalf. If there was one thing you could say about Adachi, it was that he was always afraid of stepping on any toes; even if it was his superiors doing the toe stepping. He just kind of hated conflict I guess. Dojima didn't really get that though. I mean, why apologize for something you're not responsible for? Just seemed like he was being overly-cautious to him, which in a way was entirely correct.

"What're you apologizing for…?"

"It's almost time for your checkup, so make sure you're back in your room before then." The nurse continued, oblivious to pretty much everything around her. Like even if he was going to hurt himself more doing this, did she really have to keep shouting about it around his sick daughter? She needed motivation, not to know her dad was seriously hurt. Dojima just grumbled a bit as the nurse marched her way out of the room. Such a ruckus she had caused and it didn't even matter because in the end she wasn't going to do a damn thing to get him back to his room. He supposed she was right though, and Adachi was going to listen to her whether Dojima liked it or not. Besides, he still wanted to ask the doctor some questions anyway, so he supposed it wasn't too big of a deal. Adachi slowly reeled Dojima out of the room, and with a quick shrug of his shoulders, Justin soon followed. He'd like to ask some questions himself, so he supposed it wouldn't be a problem. The others stayed behind to keep an eye on Nanako. They couldn't really talk with the girl since it was so painful for her to talk, but at the very least they could be there for her.

"Her condition is stable for now, but… I never thought I'd say this as a doctor, but… We still can't figure out the cause of Nanako-chan's symptoms. That's why we can only administer temporary treatments to alleviate her current pains." Justin overheard as he slowly crept out of the room to follow Adachi and Dojima. Justin was needless to say not quite pleased by what he had managed to overhear. They couldn't figure out what was wrong with her? For fuck's sake, they were supposed to be experts on this! How did they even expect to treat Nanako correctly if they couldn't even determine the problem. Maybe Maya was right about this whole doctor business… to a certain extent of course. They weren't murderers like she tended to believe; just incompetent. Dojima gave Justin a funny look once he spotted the boy following them out of the room, much to Justin's anxiety. He was just curious about all of this, he didn't want to look like he was intruding on their privacy.

"I'm sorry, I'm not intruding am I?"

"No, no… It's fine." Dojima shook his head before turning his attention back to the doctor. Justin might have had an interesting reputation, but Dojima really couldn't confirm a single rumor he had heard as true, and he always seemed polite around him. Not to mention he helped rescued Nanako and was a good friend of his nephew and daughter. He supposed there was nothing wrong with him hearing what was going on with Nanako. "But she's not in danger anymore, is she?" Dojima continued questioning. Whether they could find out what was wrong with her or not was irrelevant so long as they could make sure she was safe. The doctor shook his head slightly, the way one would when not sure how to break bad news.

"She's regained consciousness, but we can't let our guard down yet… All we can do for now is to monitor her condition closely…" The doctor sighed. Justin bit his bottom lip: that didn't sound like a guarantee Nanako was going to be alright, which sickened Justin to great extent because as far as he could tell nothing was wrong with the girl. She was just exposed to the other side for a long time. They all got a little sick the first time they went in, so they knew exactly what Nanako was going through, though her case seemed to have been magnified by ten times. All the same, it couldn't possibly be lethal, right? Dojima looked like he very well might have had a heart attack right there and then. After all, this was his daughter we were talking about here, and the medical staff had no idea what was wrong with her, nor could the guarantee her health and safety.

"…Adachi. How's it going with Namatame?" Dojima changed the subject, too pained by all of this to really continue with this line of questioning. He'd rather not know. He'd rather have hope. Adachi was a little caught off guard of course; seemed a bit of a bizarre question to ask under these circumstances.

"Well, he's awake now, but he's in no condition to tell us anything useful. We only get a little time each day to interrogate him, so we're stuck until his strength recovers." Adachi sighed. He passed a slight glance Justin's way in what Justin assumed was Adachi trying to see if he was allowed to talk about this stuff around the kid. I mean, it was related to the murder and all, but with the case closed and with Justin having had a huge part in the culprit's apprehension, he had to wonder if he had to be kept in the dark on the matter. Dojima didn't see the information that had been disclosed as being problematic though, so he'd allow it this time.

"I see… I should get back to work as soon as possible. Hopefully by then, Nanako will be out of the hospital…" Dojima silently wished. He wanted to get this fucker behind bars as quickly as possible for what he did to Nanako; but he couldn't do that until he went back to work. And if he went back to work he wouldn't have the time to keep an eye on her here at the hospital. The best solution was to get her home safe and sound before he went back to work, ideal conditions beign they both left the hospital at the same time. Adachi seemed to disagree though.

"Umm… I think Nanako-chan can get more peace and quiet if she stays here. It's so foggy out, and there's been some weird rumors going around… Seems like no one knows why there's so much fog in town." Adachi gossiped about some… strange stuff. What exactly did fog have to do with Nanako's condition anyway? Besides, it wasn't that foggy; it rained the night before and now there was fog today. That was how it always worked, there was no need to start assuming anything funny was up when the usual occurred after all. If it were foggy for a whole month, then they'd have a problem, but for the time being, they should stop making a big deal about nature being nature. Still, seemed the fog posed a bigger threat than Justin had ever considered or believed.

"It's true. The number of patients complaining about fog-related health problems has increased… Which is quite unusual… I can't say for sure that it has no effect on the human body… It certainly could be a psychological effect. People's anxiety over the fog could cause problems. But as far as the fog's chemical makeup… Well, that's not my field, so I can only speculate. What concerns me is that transportation of our medical supplies has been delayed due to the fog…"

"Fog… related… sickness…" Justin mumbled for a moment. He wasn't ruling out the fog from the other side causing illness, but obviously the fog on the other side wasn't the fog on this side, so this was dancing on a fine line between plausible and completely batshit insane. And Justin was leaning towards the latter by quite a bit. "Is this some new kind of biochemical weapon or something? Don't mess with our country, we'll kill you with poison fog."


	210. Chapter 209: November 22, 2011

CHAPTER 209

November 22, 2011

* * *

"Seriously Maya, don't strain yourself."

Justin was at home keeping an eye on Maya, who unfortunately felt as though she were on top of the world now that her illness had subsided just enough that she could stand. Mind you, she was still incredibly sick, and it only took one glance at her dull eyes and pale skin to figure that out. All the same however, she felt that just because she could move around a bit without being overwhelmed by pain, she could move on with her life as if she were perfectly fine; but the simple fact of the matter is even though she may have felt a bit better, it still hurt to do certain things, and doing said things was not going to help her recover anytime soon. Justin had given Maya the liberty to come up and down the stairs to watch television and play video games if she got bored, but he really would rather her stay in bed if she wasn't going to lay down on the couch, not reaching up to dig through boxes in search of cereal that had probably long passed its expiration date. Maya tended to have the habit of not checking that stuff when she picked up food at Junes, and it wasn't like Justin ever ate breakfast around here. Point was, she was still incredibly weak, and standing on a chair trying to reach inside a cabinet was not exactly the best idea she had ever had when Justin could still see her knees shaking.

And Justin wasn't wrong in the slightest, as she leaned precariously forward to try and grab a hold of a box of frosted flakes, her knees gave way and the chair tipped over, sending the two flying towards the ground. Justin luckily enough was able to catch her as best he could, though she damn near crushed him as he caught her mid-fall. They both ended up hitting the floor in the sense that Justin ended up falling on his back and Maya ended up falling on him. It was hard to say who it was more painful for in the long run though, because Maya was already hurting from her condition prior to falling onto a mass of bones and muscles. Her back felt like she had just jumped off a cliff onto a pile of legos, and her stomach felt like said legos had shattered through her pelvis and out her gut. The two groaned for a moment, Justin muttering all sorts of obscenities under his breath as he tried to force himself off the ground, despite the tremendous amount of pain shooting through his bones right now. "Gah, son of a bitch… WHAT DID I FUCKING TELL YOU MAYA!?"

"_I'm sorry… I d-didn't mean it…" _Maya signed off timidly as she pushed herself ever so slightly off the ground, before she eventually ran out of the strength to hold herself up and succumbed straight back to the ground. Justin groaned as he finally made his way completely off the ground, rubbing his temples where the back of Maya's skull had collided with his. There was nothing quite as painful as a bone on bone collision as he was slowly beginning to realize. He could practically see the stars spinning around his head as he struggled to keep his balance. He sighed as he slowly made his way over to Maya, extending his hand to give her a lift back up, a gesture she was not by any means opposed to, as much as she wanted to be independent and do stuff on her own. I guess it was just instinct after doing everything by herself for all those years on the street. She was a bit shaky as Justin pulled her off the floor, and when he let go, she almost fell again, but he caught her and gave her support as she stood, balancing his weight against her own.

"I know, I know, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to shout." Justin apologized as Maya hung her weak, almost limp body against Justin's as they slowly made their way to the kitchen, where Justin helped Maya into a seat. There was a reason he still wasn't going to school after all and that was to make sure Maya wouldn't do stupid shit like this where she could get hurt. She needed to burn off the rest of whatever it was she caught so that she could be up and about again and do this kind of stuff without falling off a chair and nearly breaking her leg. "I'm just worried is all; you can't be doing this kind of shit. Do you know how I would feel if you got hurt while I wasn't around?" Justin questioned, finding his way back to the cupboards to grab a hold of the box of cereal Maya had been reaching for. As much pain as the two were in right now thanks to their little tumble, he supposed she was still hungry, so he might as well get this for her before she brashly forgot about what had just happened and made a second attempt at the box of cereal. He grabbed everything she would need, a bowl, a spoon, the cereal itself, and of course the milk. It was quite a handful in fact to carry all this at once, but Justin was good at spacial management, so he managed to keep balance of all the items on his possession as he made his way over to the kitchen table and laid out the assorted items in front of Maya. Maya didn't so much as look at Justin while he was doing this, just pressing the side of her palm against her forehead as she blushed and hung her head in slight shame. She didn't mean to worry anyone, and she didn't want anyone to get hurt, not to mention it was just embarrassing she couldn't even grab a box of cereal without succumbing to her weaknesses. She had gone through so much worse than a cold and helped herself, why couldn't she do it now?

"_I didn't think I was gonna fall off the chair…" _Maya tried to justify her actions with embarrassment. It was kind of like falling while walking up the stairs. In the end you might get hurt, in the end you might just walk off with a bumped up knee, but in the end one thing was for certain: your dignity was hurt more than your body ever would be. And it was simply because it was an automated task that only the dumbest of the dumb could ever possibly fail at. And yet somehow Maya had done it. She had fallen off a completely still chair simply because her knees were too frail and had given in after fidgeting about too much. She sighed a bit as she cautiously turned her attention to the cereal, pouring its contents into the bowl so that she could at the very least reap the not at all worth it reward of her making an ass out of herself and nearly causing herself some pretty severe brain damage. Justin groaned as he slid his way into the seat opposite of Maya, the pain in his back shooting through his spine like… well something shooting through his spine. These metaphors can't all be zingers folks, sometimes it just is what it is. All the same, he wanted to continue bitching out Maya for being so reckless. She didn't think she would fall off the chair, that was the problem. She just didn't fucking think. About what could happen. About what Justin would do if something bad happened to her.

"I just don't want anything to happen to you Maya, and when you do shit like this it makes it harder for me to convince myself that you'll be fine. You're still sick; you can't be pushing yourself like that… You can't…" Justin's speech crawled to a stop. He couldn't really finish that thought, knowing full well that Maya would just feel bad if he finished what he wanted to say. And why was that? Because he wanted to say that Maya was breaking his heart by refusing help like this, by constantly putting herself in danger just to prove a point that she could do things on her own. There was never any doubt she was able to take care of herself after all, she managed to live off the streets for a year, a feat Justin wasn't even sure he'd be able to do in her position, so why she had to keep trying to prove a point that didn't need to be proven, Justin didn't know. All he knew was it struck fear into his heart and into his spine every time he saw Maya pushing herself beyond her limits, even when the limit was just standing on a chair to grab some breakfast. He couldn't bear to think of his sister suffering anymore than she ever had in her life. She deserved to live like a queen, but in the end it seemed the gods just did not give the slightest fuck about what she deserved. Maya finished pouring her milk, and for a moment, she was ready to get up and put it back in the fridge but given how stiff and slow her movements were as she tried to get up from her seat and how shaky her knees still were, Justin was quick on the draw to jump across the table and grab her by the wrist. "Uh, that's alright. I'll put it away later."

"_You don't have to worry so much about me you know… I can take care of myself." _Maya signed off, a combination of sympathy and annoyance in her eyes. She didn't want to be treated like some baby that couldn't watch out for herself, though she did feel bad to be worrying Justin like this. You could see he very deeply cared about her just from the look in his eye and the tone in his voice, and that made her somewhat sad. It was rare to find someone who actually cared for her well-being, even if it was a little much for her tastes. She sighed a bit as she stared at the milk seeping into the corn flakes in her bowl. She wanted to be independent, but Justin wanted her to rely on him for her safety, and she didn't want to hurt him just the way she had when she sent the fucking mafia after him… It was quite the dilemma Justin seemed to force on her. She had no control over her life as much as Justin would like to believe she did; for fuck's sake, he had kicked Yosuke's ass on several occasions just for hinting at the possibility of being attracted to Maya. He never gave Maya the chance to just decide for herself what to do with Yosuke; and while Justin had just been doing that so that Yosuke wouldn't take advantage of her, don't you think Maya would like the choice to figure out on her own? It was the spice of life to learn from one's mistake, and Justin was so over-protective, he never gave Maya the chance to have a taste.

"I know you can, but even people that can look after themselves need help from time to time. You're not at your best right now, it's okay to get some help with these kinds of things." Justin reached out to clench her hand between both of his, desperately pleading with her to swallow her pride and accept his assistance. Why must she have been so stubborn about everything? Maya huffed a bit, hot air shooting from her nostrils. I think the worst part was that Justin never truly got that he was being an overprotective control freak. Every moment of every day of everyone's lives he had to take charge of, out of fear that someone could get hurt. A noble goal for sure, no doubt, but then, Maya never questioned that his heart was in the right place. It was his methods. Control this, control that. He wasn't just afraid of someone getting hurt, he was afraid to lose control... And after what happened at Naoto's house, she could say for certain control was his real agenda when he tried to keep Maya from doing menial tasks such as this, or interferred in her love affairs, or tried to keep her out of the television. It wasn't his life to live, he just didn't seem to get that.

"…_What you're doing isn't helping... it's constricting."_

"Uh Maya, you know I can't read lips."

"_I said thanks."_

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTES**

There'll be no update tomorrow as I'll be out celebrating my birthday today and won't have time to update. Happy birthday none of you people celebrate because you don't actually know me everyone.


	211. Chapter 210: November 23, 2011

CHAPTER 210

November 23, 2011

* * *

"Maya… What the fuck did I… screw it… I'm too tired for this shit."

It was fairly early in the morning, or at least one would assume based on just how utterly exhausted Justin was and the strange lack of lighting in the house when Justin was awoken by the sound of glass shattering. He was going to get up and clean up whatever it was Maya had managed to break this time, but by this point he was tired of cleaning up that girl's messes, not to mention just tired in general. He simply closed his eyes again and figured he'd deal with that shit in the morning. Hopefully Maya was smart enough not to go walking through a pool of broken shards of glass until then. She could be pretty stubborn when she wanted to be after all, and if she wanted something that required her to wade through a pool of sharp, pointy glass, she would totally do it. That concerned Justin, though in the end it seemed getting enough sleep concerned him more. And when the guy had been staying up late at night just to be sure Maya was alright, could you truly blame him? He had probably got a couple hours sleep max before Maya had woke him up by breaking all his shit, after he explicitly told her not to do anything stupid until she got her strength back nonetheless.

Justin couldn't really see of course, what with film coating his eyes as he slowly woke, followed immediately by his eyelids closing again after deciding this shit was not worth his time today, but it didn't really take a rocket scientist to anticipate Maya's reaction. Feverish apologies and timidly shrinking back into her shell as she hung her head in shame at the mess she had caused. She was always like that, even back when Justin first met her. He always did find it kind of ironic that a girl who was always smoking as a teenager was so afraid of causing any kind of trouble. Hell, this was the girl who bitched out Justin for being a pussy when she first offered him a cigarette. I think she was just trying to sell this image of being a cool renegade, someone who wasn't afraid of getting trouble. After all, everyone loved the life of the party, right? It was her way of getting people to like her, even if that wasn't who she was. But as Justin and her grew to be friends, she gradually dropped the act over the years. She didn't need to pretend she was someone she wasn't around Justin from what she could tell; hell, he liked her more when she wasn't trying to be 'hardcore.'

In the end, he didn't really need to guess what Maya was doing though, because before long, he suddenly felt a great weight fall upon his legs. Generally Justin tried not to take up the whole couch when he slept downstairs, but it seemed that he might not have given Maya quite as much room as she might have liked when she went to plop her ass down. She was quick to get up and readjust herself mind you, after all, no one wants to sit on their brother's bony ass legs, but even then it was enough to wake Justin up a second time. He opened his eyes a bit, groaning with irritation as he tried to make out the figure of Maya at the other end of the sofa. She was shaking like a phone set on a vibrate, though whether it was because the house tended to be incredibly chilly in the morning, because she was still incredibly weak, or because it seemed she was carrying a huge stack of books, Justin couldn't quite discern. What he could discern was the obvious intention behind Maya carrying around that pile of textbooks with her. Justin got that she wanted to go to school and all, but if she was this sick she wasn't going to make it in time for the exams, not to mention she barely had anytime to cover two year's worth of material. "Maya, you don't have to do that. Get some rest."

"_The test is in less than a week, I don't have time." _Maya signed off frantically as she flipped open Justin's textbooks. Justin obvious couldn't afford the books for last year, so he had planned to borrow Kanji or Rise's books for a while so that Maya could catch up on the under classmen material. Alas, he had neglected to realize they all had their finals coming up soon, so Justin was really in no position to be taking anyone's textbooks away from them. Justin just had to hope to god that his textbooks would suffice, and if not, the internet would do wonders for her. At least, he had, but the simple fact of the matter was when this girl could barely stand, she clearly couldn't be thinking with perfect clarity, right? Was that any condition to be taking a test under, where she could literally keel over onto her test at any second? Justin wasn't sure he was too comfortable with the prospect of his sister straining herself like that until they were sure she was fine, and while there had definitely been an improvement, he didn't need something to just snap and send her spiraling back into the state of illness she had been in.

"I'll try to find away to reschedule. I mean, the school board's been less than cooperative so far, but…" Justin mumbled to himself as he contemplated on the matter. He had tried on several occasions to get them to just move the test back a day or two for her to get better, but they just weren't having that shit. Surely that was a lawsuit waiting to happen, right? I mean… yeah it was technically free schooling so it might fall more under a privilege than a right, but come on. They were trying to go through the proper channels and shit happened, they should at least give Justin and his sister the benefit of the doubt. It wasn't like they were trying to abuse the system or anything after all, they had legitimate health reasons that meant they couldn't be there. And it wasn't like these were the Oscars or something, she didn't HAVE to take the test with everyone else, right? Maya simply slammed her palms against the hard outer cover of Justin's text book, having perhaps just about enough of Justin constantly telling her what to do. She was going to take that damn test, and she was going to do it whether Justin liked it or not. She wasn't going to let Justin diminish her chances of receiving a proper education.

"_Goddammit Justin, I'm taking this test and I'm going to go to school and that's final, and if you don't like it you can deal with it!" _Maya signed off frantically and angrily, a deep, almost horrifying glare stretched across her face as she snarled at Justin. Justin was by all means caught off guard at first. Maya usually didn't snap like this unless you pushed her past her pushing point, as was evident by the time she snapped at Justin when he tried to hold her back from capturing Mitsuo, or that time he had pretty much told Maya to fuck off when she was trying to do business on Kurt's behalf. He didn't even think he did anything, and to this day I don't think he ever realized how his overprotectiveness was constricting Maya's life. In the end, he supposed it didn't matter. If she was in a pissy mood, so be it. There were easy ways to deal with someone in a bad mood; the most prominent of which was to just ignore them. And what better way to ignore someone than to just go to sleep.

"Ugh… You need to chill the fuck out." Justin grumbled before turning over on the sofa, gripping his pillow tight as he angrily shut his eyes and forced himself back to sleep. It was early in the morning and she had managed to somehow break one of Justin's glasses while carrying around a stack of books. I'm sorry, but if anyone here should have been pissed off it was him. And he just wasn't going to deal with this bullcrap today. He simply took a deep breath as he pushed his face into his pillow, drowning out the sounds of pages flapping back and forth as his eyes fluttered close.

* * *

"**What you're suggesting is totally and utterly insane… But then, just the very fact that I'm talking to you is insane."**

The shadow walked along the dusty cobblestone pathway, making his way out to the streets as his eyes darted from window to window. He had to question his sanity as the voice rang through his head like bells, but he supposed he'd rather be happy then sane. He was sure plenty of psychopaths went on to live fulfilling lives after all. He could think of one or two that went on to succeed at their aspirations, or at least, what Justin's shadow had always perceived as that fucker's aspirations. He was always so vague, so… how you say, mysterious. None of them really knew much about the guy other than what could be inferred, so it was truly hard to say what he desired in life. But there was one thing they could say without a reason of a doubt: He was out of his goddamned mind, even by shadow standards. He was just very good at selling the illusion that he wasn't. It made you wonder… if you're sane enough to know you're insane, and sane enough to pretend to be sane… are you insane in the first place? That was the scariest part; the possibility that he was entirely sane and still willingly decided to be… monstrous. A shiver found its way down the shadow's spine as he paced his way through the streets. He wasn't sure whether to respect the man or to fear him. Perhaps both.

"**Don't you see? The humans are only a… temporary nuisance. You gotta think BIG." **The voice echoed with a mischievous giggle through the shadow's brainpan. He couldn't comprehend this at all. As a whole the idea was pretty damn stupid if not a suicide note just waiting to be signed, but the mere idea of the humans being a temporary problem? When they were the ones who controlled this world, they were the only problem that mattered. No, Shadow Justin's vengeance would not be turned elsewhere in a vein attempt at getting himself killed. He may have been delusional, but not blind. The humans shifted this place into hell, the humans were the ones that got Maya's skull blown completely off (which for some reason she kept trying to convince the shadow was a good thing… he was having a hard time believing that), the humans were the ones who held the puppet strings… And they would never be free until someone burned those strings away.

"**I gotta think logistically. You don't bite the hand that feeds, just the hand that shoves your face into the trough." **The shadow remarked with bitter sarcasm. He knew better than to question that girl after she had been right since the beginning, but all the same there were some things the voice in his head said that didn't make a lick of sense. And that only seemed to contribute to his theory that he was by all means insane. Sane enough to know he was insane, but insane all the same. He sighed a bit as he dug his hand around into his pocket and whipped out a cigarette, lighting it up quickly before taking a drag at the paper tube of toxic waste. If there was one advantage to not having lungs, it was that smoking wasn't gonna do much to you; other than maybe make your breath smell like complete and utter shit. But then, some people like that scent; kinda like how some people enjoyed the scent of oil and gasoline: you could count the shadow amongst one of those people. For a while, the shadow simply leaned a bit against a nearby street lamp, its light shining through the thick green fog oh so radiantly. In that regard, the shadow supposed it was nice to have these around, though they were ultimately useless. Just there to… brighten up a bleak world.

"…**Greetings viewers." **The sound of bussing soon pierced the sky, static shifting through the airwaves as whatever electronic device had kicked on tuned itself to whatever channel it was trying to connect to. The shadow was only slightly caught off guard by the sudden birth of electronic life, simply shrugging and taking another drag of the cigarette as he slowly made his way over to the source of the sound: a broken window in an old, worn down convenience store. It kind of looked like looters had been here at some point, though the shadow knew that was obviously not true. It was far more likely this hadn't been the first time the television had cackled to life, and some of the lesser shadows had smashed over the glass in a vein attempt at trying to get to the source of the crackling of television speakers. As for the screen, it was a sole reporter, about neck length brown hair standing there with a microphone in her hand. The shadows didn't really watch much television mind you, but when they did, this was the face they were usually greeted by. It wasn't like there was ever much news around here but when there was this was the girl to report it. Strange, you'd think there'd be more shadows for reporters, what with them all being lying sacks of shit and all. That seemed grounds to have an embodiment of suppressed emotions and what not. Any actor would, as well as any lawyer. Same thing really. I suppose it was for that reason Justin stood there in the middle of the street, smoking his cigarette and watching television. This had to be good if it was being broadcast out of the blue like this… In a way, he was right.

"**I'm Mayumi Yamano; Channel 0 news. The story for this evening; a dead body found here in the depths of our very own city. As you know, this marks the first murder here in twelve centuries; we'll have more details on this shocking development later this evening." **The cigarette was quick to slip from the shadow's mouth as the headline reached his ears. A dead body? Looking at the backdrop the reporter was standing against, this was San Diego alright… or at least the shadow version of it… Which meant… Oh… Oh fuck! She had found Maya's corpse, somehow someway. The shadow backed away from the screen with horror as the reporter gave the audience one last wink and the image on screen faded away into a gargle of static and white noise.

"**Sh-She know about the body. SHIT!" **The shadow mumbled to himself, pacing around in circles as his mind practically snapped in two. Part of the reason he was still able to walk around for this year was because no one ever knew about the body, nor his connection to the murder… And if HE ever found out, perhaps he would actually start enforcing those rules of his. That would be disastrous for Justin's Shadow. How could he ever liberate this cursed land from the humans control if he was dead? All it would take is a snap of HIS fingers and the shadow would disintegrate like pollen in the wind. Perhaps he was afraid of death, perhaps he was just determined; whatever it was, his mind was slowly going to shit and back with pure frightful adrenaline. Oh yes, he had no idea what to do now that his secret was about to be broadcast all over the air… Or perhaps he knew exactly what to do and was too afraid to admit it. And that was what the other voice in his head was there to do for him.

"**What? You seriously don't know what to do?" **The voice mocked him, sarcastically and condescendingly judging his inability to see the simplest solution in front of him. In a way, what the voice in his head would go on to suggest was not all that unexpected from the shadow. I think he was only shocked to find that he had no qualms going through with it. Once was more than enough for him after all. There were some things not worth repeating under any circumstances. **"What's one more body on the pile?"**

"**You're insane. You are fucking insane."**

"**You're the one talking to yourself… besides… I don't think you understand that you don't have a say in the matter."**

**"...And what's that supposed to mean?"**


	212. Chapter 211: November 24, 2011

CHAPTER 211

November 24, 2011

* * *

"You sure it's a good idea to leave her alone?"

Justin and Kanji found themselves sitting on the hill overlooking town, Justin chewing away at the wooden tip of a toothpick all the while. Kanji seemed to want to talk, though about what Justin couldn't say. All he knew was he wanted something, and Justin was really in no position to ignore him. Not because he felt any sort of obligation to Kanji or anything like that, though he supposed as Kanji's friend he should be there when Kanji really needed him, which given the tone of his voice when he asked Justin if he was available was more than applicable to the current situation. No, more so he just felt the need to get out of that damn house. He wanted to make sure Maya was going to be perfectly okay alone in that house, but you know, there was only so much backtalk Justin could take before he lost his temper. Now that was especially dangerous coming from someone like Justin, but even more so than that, any time Maya and Justin had a fight, it tended to be of colossal proportions over shit that didn't matter. And sure, they got over it eventually, but the days leading up to it… the silence killed him… Well… her anyway. They both gave the other the silent treatment when they were angry, usually the victim being the one torturing the other with the sounds of silence, but alas, Justin was kind of used to the silence now. Now instead of the silent treatment, it was more like the 'cross arms and pout' treatment, since that was the best she could do by this point. Beside the point; point being, Justin needed some air, to get away from Maya's newfound attitude. He didn't get it, he was helping her, taking care of her, and she kept getting angry at him everytime he expressed his concerns. It was disheartening to say the least.

"I'm more concerned about my silverware than I am her at this point." Justin remarked sarcastically, scratching the tip of his nose as he rocked precariously back and forth on the park bench. That wasn't true of course, he could give less of a crap about his dishes, especially in relation to Maya's health and safety, but that didn't mean her breaking all his dishes was suddenly okay by any stretch of the imagination. If there was one thing Justin wished more than anything else at this point, it was that Maya's sudden renegade personality had subsided until she could actually get stuff out of the cabinets without breaking everything, from the bones in her body to the bowls stacked up in the kitchen. This whole self-reliant thing was going to get her seriously hurt, Justin feared, but god be damned if she'd stop anytime soon. "So what's up?" Kanji stared blankly into the distance for a moment, not really sure how to ease into the topic. It was something he felt like he needed to get off his chest, but god be damned if he didn't feel strange just bringing it up out of nowhere.

"…The other day… I went to visit Dad's grave. It's the first time I went on my own… Well, I had a lot to tell him." Kanji mused out loud. A lot of things that had been happening in his life as of late had been giving him retrospective on the matter, and he felt like he just needed to put some old memories to rest. Of course, Kanji neglected to really catch on that Justin was the absolute worst person he could talk to about his deceased father. I mean, Justin was usually one to have an open ear about this kind of thing, but… Christ, talk about shitty timing. He sighed, leaning forward and running his fingers through his hair with annoyance and despair. He didn't want to talk about Kanji's dead father; it just reminded him of his own. And he didn't want to think about him, not now, not ever. He was dead despite the bullshit Benedict tried to pump into his head. There was no conspiracy as Naoto kept trying to suggest. There was nothing. He was dead. Gone. He shouldn't even be thinking about this; he should just leave the past be. So why did this plague his mind so?

"Oh… you want to talk about that." Justin mutted, groaning ever so slightly as he realized the reason he was here. That was just fantastic, he managed to get away from Maya's constant bitching, but in the process he had been entrapped in Kanji's plan to discuss his dead father. Justin could only hope this was a starting point for the conversation and not the basis of it. And even then, now he had just managed to get his dead beat father on the mind; in that regard Justin supposed it didn't really matter where the conversation went from this point on. The damage was already done. "How'd it go?"

"H-How was it…? Well… uhh…" Kanji mumbled and stammered. He wasn't sure quite how to describe it. It was… relieving in a way, though he couldn't quite put his finger on way. Perhaps it was just the chance to be able to tell his father in death what he never could in life. Maybe it was just the chance to talk to him. Kanji never did take much intiative to visit his father's grave; it frightened him too much in truth. It was funny; both Kanji and Maya lost their father's under similar conditions, yet they both seemed to develop fears on the exact opposite end of the spectrum. Maya could not step foot into a hospital without having a panic attack of immeasurable proportions, though Kanji could with just the slightest sensation of uneasiness deep in his bowels. On the other end of the spectrum, Kanji out right refused to go to the graveyard to visit his father's coffin. He wasn't necessarily afraid, but… he just couldn't bring himself to do it. Maya could, however, and in fact did visit the cemetery on a regular basis to see her father… or at least the stone that marked where his corpse was currently decaying in the maggot infested grounds. She only stopped visiting once she had to run from San Diego, which in it's own right was a sad if not necessary change. It was clear she missed her dad, and in that regard it felt wrong that she had to be stripped of her visitor's pass, persay; but on the other hand… constantly living on grief, clinging to the past in vain hope that it'll somehow change if you just keep wishing it would… that wasn't any way to live. "I felt like I could finally face him… A little late, though."

"Ah… lucky you." Justin practically whispered. His voice came out softly, almost inaudibly at points, mostly because the topic at hand brought him a lot of pain. Of course, Kanji hadn't really confronted his father about anything mind you, but what he had managed to do was still a hundred percent more than what Justin had ever accomplished. He never even saw a body… Bunch of legal bullshit I guess that let them hold onto the corpse or something since it was a homicide. Not that he planned to attend the funeral anyway; a bunch of people telling him they were sorry for his loss, people that probably were only there because they felt some kind of obligation, speaking horrendous lies to his face as they gripped his hand… He couldn't deal with that. Besides, if they were sorry for his loss, it only meant that they never truly knew Justin's father. And that meant they had no right to speak about a dead man, or what kind of person he was in life. He could only imagine the bullshit that was his father's eulogy.

He showed up for the will of course, if only because… well… he was all alone now. His mother had died before his father had, succumbing to her illnesses a couple months prior. Justin's father got especially vicious after that… perhaps that was the reason Justin just did not give the slightest fuck when they knocked at his door to say his father was dead. In truth, he was somewhat happy. That said however, with no parents left, he knew he was more or less on his own, and that meant he had to pray to god his father left him the house in his will; otherwise the bank would kick him out and take the property for themselves in no time. I don't think I'm spoiling anything when I say Justin didn't get to keep the house; hell, Justin had never met the guy who supposedly got possession of the house in all his life, which only went to infuriate him to no end. He got the house in Inaba though, which while he never knew it existed, he would by no means reject… There was of course a lot of paperwork involved though, not even just on Justin's end but also the new owner of the house. And well… This WAS Justin's home. He waited till the very last possible second to jump on that plane.

Perhaps that was a bit of a sidetrack, though I think it does factor into the simple question of what Justin would say to his father given the chance. Well first things first, he'd probably spit right into his father's face for practically being the anti-christ incarnate. I mean, put aside the child abuse angle for a moment here; what kind of father knowing that when he died his child would be all alone WOULDN'T leave the house to him? I mean, sure, he certainly didn't expect to die or anything like that, but the guy he left it to wasn't even fucking family. That was just the biggest slap in the face to Justin, the last 'fuck you' from his father before spiraling down into the depths of hell. Served him right.

"Dad told me somethin' right before he died: 'If you're a man, you have to become strong.' I felt like he was telling me I wasn't a real man. Pissed me off. So, I changed my looks and pushed myself away from people…" Kanji continued, not so much as batting an eyelash at Justin's off color remark about his father. I don't know if he was doing it on purpose, or if it was just Kanji being as clueless as ever, but it seemed like he was driving nails through every artery in Justin's heart as he continue. He'd been there, done that. He got that feeling. It wasn't a pretty one. In fact, it was outright painful: which is why he had no intention of reliving it, even for Kanji's sake.

"Don't take this the wrong way, but can we… please not talk about this." Justin spoke up after a while, choking over a combination of fury and grief as Kanji went on. This was… too familiar for comfort. It was like déjà vu, and the worst kind at that. He couldn't deal with this right now; he just… couldn't deal with this. Kanji stared at him with a puzzled expression on his face for a moment, not really sure what he had managed to say to offend Justin. Or perhaps he was just upset that his alleged friend wouldn't even hear him out in regards to a personal revelation he had. Most of the Investigation Team was left in the dark about Justin's traumatic past, so it was understandable that Justin's apparent reluctance to talk about this was a little less than understandable. It took a moment for Justin to realize he was getting funny looks, the dead silence slowly starting to weigh down upon him. "J-Just the father stuff... it's just… ugh, nevermind." Kanji sighed and rolled his eyes before turning over to the horizon. He supposed at the very least Justin wasn't being rude about it, though he was curious now.

"Fighting gangs, thinking I was protecting Ma… Tryin' to catch this killer… I thought all that was how I was becoming strong. That I was really making up for all the trouble I caused… I was drunk off my "power"… But… That wasn't it. That ain't what …Dad meant…" Kanji paused, debating whether to bring his father up a second time. Truth be told, he couldn't possibly have made it any worse than he already had. He had pretty much described Justin's miserable childhood in a matter of two or three sentences, anything he said now was simply reiteration. Besides, it wasn't just Kanji's father that had ticked Justin off; hell it wasn't his father at all: it was the relationship between the two that was killing Justin. It was shades of his own past, creeping up his leg and strangling his heart. "I still don't really get what bein' "strong" means, but I'm gonna start by not lying to myself. No more being scared of everyone, hiding my hobbies, staying away from people… Anytime, anyplace, I'm gonna bust right through as my own self! That's the way to deal with that "other me" in the TV world. As long as there's someone like that snot-nosed kid to accept me, I ain't afraid of nothing!"

"That's the spirit." Justin remarked dully. Sure he should be more supportive, but he didn't really have the spirit himself to be by Kanji's side on this. He already had his personal revelation, he already knew what he had to do, what did he want from Justin? For him to confirm what he already knew? It might be nice, but it wasn't needed; and Justin just wasn't up for it right about now. Kanji didn't really catch onto the subtle changes in one's voice that gave away when they were being sarcastic or when they were down and out though. In that regard, Justin was surprised Yukiko and Kanji didn't get along better than they did. That's not to say they didn't get along, just that they didn't really hang out or anything. I guess they were just a lot different in other aspects though; much more significant ones at that.

"Sir! It's all thanks to you!" Kanji beamed with pride at Justin's half-hearted acceptance for the path Kanji had decided to follow. And with that, his real business for being here was officially over; though whether his business was to tear Justin apart or just to share the good news, Justin was having a hard time deciding on. At this very moment in time Kanji felt like the biggest asshole in all of existence. He didn't mean it of course; in fact, he didn't even know he did anything wrong, but that didn't make it hurt in less. Still, now that business was done with, there was plenty of room for casual conversation. Again, Kanji didn't quite seem to realize the nervous wreck he had managed to leave Justin in, his leg shaking up and down faster than usual, eyes trembling ever so slightly. "Oh yeah. We're gonna put those dolls of mine up for sale at the shop. They were a big hit with that kid and his mom… They called me just to say "thank you"… Heheh, I got a kick outta that. Oh, I gotta go buy supplies… I need to jet." In Kanji's frantic attempt at trying to start up a new conversation, he had managed to get caught up on the topic of his hobbies, and that lead to the realization he had run out of materials for said hobby. He was quick to jump up from his seat and run off, waving Justin goodbye as he darted down the hill without a word more.

And that left Justin up there on the hill, swimming around in his own thoughts, a prisoner to the memories of his agonizing past. You ever watch one of those war movies where the protagonist has those Vietnam flashbacks to the war? It was kind of like that, only instead of war, it was just his father being an abusive asshole. You could argue there was just as much bloodshed though, and Justin would be in a difficult position to defend against that point… other than maybe showing you the introductory scene to Saving Private Ryan, but that wasn't exactly a historical account or anything: just Hollywood magic doing it's thing. He sighed as he started out into the little town down below; the little town that became his home nearly a year ago now. It was so frightening the first time he came here, if only because he had left everything he knew behind to live in a country he knew nothing about. Hell he barely knew the language; still didn't in some respects. He spoke English when he first came here, which was a crapshoot hoping someone would understand him, though it seemed that most everyone here had a good enough understanding of the language to understand what he was saying and respond in kind. Over time, he managed to pick up on some of the language from listening to the others talk to each other based on contextual clues and some translation from Chie, and of course from the few language classes he had managed to stay awake for, but in the end, he wasn't exactly fluid in Japanese. Maya still didn't know a lick of Japanese to this day, though he supposed that didn't really matter.

Funny, this town was so different, and yet so the same at the same time. Hell, he may have just had an encounter with the parallel universe version of himself from all he could tell. Which was very little at the moment; all he felt was this empty sensation in his chest, a sharp pain shooting through his arteries like a heartburn that just didn't let up. He stared out into the horizon for a moment, before shakily sticking his hands into his pocket and ripping out a lighter and cigarette, fingers shaking back and forth as they held the tube of tobacco between his bones. He wasn't sure why he brought these out here today, perhaps because Maya was killing him and his stress levels were through the roof. Perhaps because he was afraid Maya would try to smoke when she barely had the energy to stand. He didn't know, he just grabbed them. It killed him a bit knowing he was breaking a spiritual promise he made to Chie and his friends, but then… maybe that was the point.

"If I'm lucky maybe this'll kill me this time…"


	213. Chapter 212: November 25, 2011

CHAPTER 212

November 25, 2011

* * *

"I think we covered haikus; you should probably take my notes to study."

Justin had made his way to Chie's house that bleak, foggy afternoon; a rather humorous twist on the usual Chie showing up to Justin's house. And they would have too, knowing her father was just going to keep giving Justin dirty looks and making it clear just how much he hated the kid if it weren't for Maya. The exams were coming up which meant it was time for the usual cram session for Chie; and that meant Justin had to be the one to explain absolutely everything they had learned over the few months since the last exam they took. You would think then that with Maya having to study for exams too they could unify and create some kind of collective study group, but the simple fact of the matter was that Maya could not concentrate with even the slightest distraction, and Justin being the smart ass he was, was chock-full of distractions during these last minute cram-sessions. Perhaps that was why Chie never did as well as she had hoped. He'd tone it down if it weren't for the fact that it seemed like she always had fun when Justin lightened up the mood with some corny joke or some smart ass historical allegory. It was the contrast between suffering and being miserable now or getting a shit grade later and then being miserable at that point. Justin couldn't particularly bare to see either of the options, so he tried to strike a middle ground. He couldn't say it DIDN'T work, though he couldn't say it did work either.

"They're like… five syllables, seven syllables, five syllables right? Besides, you know I don't study." Justin dismissed her offer, as grateful as he was that she was willing to part with her notes for a few days so he could catch up. It was true he never studied for this shit anyway, so he didn't really need them, but it was the thought that count right. Chie always did get nervous about his refusal to study, even knowing that he usually did very good on these exams… minus the last one which for some reason he bombed big time. Maybe his strategy of not giving a fuck and just picking answers at random wasn't working out quite as well with time as he had hoped. After all, there was only so much he could just sort of know or conclude from logical deduction right? She shrugged and sighed before withdrawing the hand she had extended with her notebook clenched between her fingers, paper and cardboard bending as gravity did it's work on the notes.

"Sounds, but yeah." Chie remarked. Justin wasn't exactly wrong, sounds obviously referred to syllables in this circumstance, but you never know when he might have to write an essay or something and the wording would need to be very precise. Justin just shrugged it off though; what were they going to do? Take off a point for calling a banana a slightly different variation of a banana? He'd be right, and they'd know it. Besides, he always wrote his essays in English, and the school was more than aware his native language wasn't Japanese by this point, so they cut him some slight slack when it came to that kind of stuff, if only because translating between other languages can only be so precise. He'd be fine, no doubts about it in his mind. "So Maya's doing better, huh?" Chie interjected, changing the subject for a moment while she tried to find their current chapter in her history book. A rather poorly chosen topic in that Justin had it about up to here with Maya as of recently, but at least she wasn't talking about his dead deadbeat dad. That already put her ahead of Kanji by a long shot. Justin groaned a bit, falling back onto Chie's bed, eyes staring up at the ceiling with distaste for the new topic that had arisen.

"Yeah, fantastic…" Justin rolled his eyes with sarcasm. She was doing alright physically, at least well enough that she could move around the house (but god forbid she try to reach something in a high up place), the problem lied in her mental state. Now Justin was going to give her the benefit of the doubt and say it was just the fever talking, but that didn't change the fact that Maya was being a complete bitch as of late. T'was the problem with lack of communication; Justin thought he was doing something good and Maya thought he was being an over-protective asshole. Perhaps not an asshole, but at the very least she didn't like it; it was his ignorance to it all that annoyed her the most. She should have just told him that and he would have stopped, but no. She was much too afraid to give Justin a piece of her mind; why, she didn't know. She just was. So in the end the only thing that was accomplished was the creation of this great tension between the two, caused by misunderstandings and a lack of insight into the mind of the other.

"You don't sound convinced." Chie remarked with dull concern, pausing for a moment before turning her eyes away from the book that had been spread across her lap. She had been dating Justin for months now, long enough that she knew when he was hiding something, she knew when something was up and he was just biting his tongue. Justin sighed a bit, not so much as budging from the rather comfortable spot he had found on Chie's bed. She was lucky; Justin's mattress was one of those old spring ones that killed your back in the morning; which didn't help much with his mild scoliosis. Her mattress… Justin wasn't quite sure what it was made of, but it was just soooo much better. He'd have to find away to negotiate a trade or something; not that Chie was stupid enough to take Justin mattress in exchange: she HAD been to Justin's house before, and while she had only been up in his room once or twice, it only took one touch of her hindquarters against the mattress to realize just how uncomfortable it was. In a way, she felt bad for Maya having been confined there for a couple weeks straight while she tried to fight off whatever she caught. But then, she wasn't so sure sleeping on the couch was much better, at least in terms of being sick. It was more comfortable from what Chie had determined that one time Justin had that oxygen tank, that much she was fairly positive of.

"Well she's feeling better, but I guess I did SOMETHING to piss her off. Either that or she's just naturally bitchy." Justin remarked with only a hint of sarcasm, glaring at the ceiling as though the ceiling has at one point shot his mother in the face, shanked him, took all his money, and then took a shit on him while he was still down on the ground.

"Justin!" Chie gasped with somewhat shock. Now, she wouldn't lie and say that's not the kind of mentality she had towards Maya when they first met, but then, it wasn't so much a problem with Maya as it was she got really jealous and really angry. She held no hard feelings against her for what happened over the phone or anything like that. That said, as times changed, so too did her feelings towards Maya. Now Chie considered her a good friend, even if they started off on rocky terms. Perhaps it was for that reason that she was completely and utterly appalled by Justin's proclamation that Maya was acting like a bitch. She could have swore those two were the best of friends; hell they had to have been to have been keeping this family charade up as long as they had been. It must have been one hell of a fight if those two were making petty jabs at each other behind each other's back, if Justin's perception of a girl he'd give anything for had soured to the point of referring to her as a complete and utter bitch. The feud would pass with time no doubt; it usually did, but that didn't change the fact that it seemed so out of character for Justin to be pissed off at Maya like this. He rolled his eyes a bit before sitting pack up, leaning forward again.

"Well she is." Justin defended himself with the rather childish counter of 'but its true.' Didn't change the fact that it was blunt and insulting; even if the person that would be insulted wasn't present. God forbid someone ever repeat what Justin said in the shadow to her; the feud that would erupt between the two would be of astronomical proportions. "It's like, I've been doing nothing but make sure she's alright for the last two weeks, I've skipped school, I've slept on the couch, I've done fucking everything for her, and she turns around and starts bitching me out for no reason. Fuck it. Done." Justin ranted and raved, waving his arms back and forth a bit. It was true that he had been doing all that because it was the right thing to do and because Maya needed help to pull through, but the fact of the matter was while he wasn't looking for praise or thanks for his deeds, he was by no means okay with her spitting in his face after all he had done. Hell, he even went out of his way to make sure she could celebrate her Birthday, even from the confines of her bed…

Justin just hoped to god it was that time of the month again.

"She's probably just cranky from the fever, give her some time." Chie countered. She didn't know what was going through Maya's head, so she couldn't say with any degree of certainty, but that's what she assumed was going on. And even if it wasn't, it might do Justin some good to hear that the shit he was hearing was just a less than pleasant side-effect of the spell she had been under. Justin didn't completely believe her, but part of him was hoping something was just going on in Maya's life and she was taking it out on Justin. Everyone needs an outlet after all, and being trapped in a bed for two weeks, she didn't exactly have many outlets. Unless you counted the ceiling, but really, who would?

"I guess… I just wish she would pick something ELSE to pour her anger into." Justin shrugged a bit. He certainly didn't find any of this amusing or appropriate or anything like that. It felt like she was getting angry at the one person who truly cared for her and wanted the best for her. Not to say her friends didn't either, but she didn't live with Justin's friends; the damage wasn't quite the same in that regard. At the end of the day though, perhaps none of this even mattered. Family fought after all, especially brother and sister. Maya and Justin were no exception to the rule by any stretch of the imagination. This would probably all be gone in a couple days, or so he hoped. Hell, maybe she was just under a lot of stress with her equivalency exams coming up: even if he did tell her not to worry about it. Probably not a great idea seeing as he had tried a second time today to get the exam moved back a couple days for her, to no avail. The schoolboard could really suck when they wanted to. "Whatever. Alright, what topic are we on."

"The Cold War… Wait… America got nuked?"

"Oh boy, we got a lot to go over."


	214. Chapter 213: November 26, 2011

CHAPTER 213

November 26, 2011

* * *

"You want to… Hold on, I was under the impression that we were coming here to play Time Crisis."

Yu had extended the invitation to Justin that evening to join him down at the arcade at Junes, a rather out of the blue invention to say the least, but by no means unacceptable. After all, Justin was a guy, and that meant he enjoyed video games just as much as anyone else: especially the kind with shooting involved. Why? Who knows? It was like a testosterone thing he supposed, getting glee out of just watching a man's had explode into gory bloody bits just because of hormones. Kinda like watching football he supposed, though he himself never got the appeal of watching a bunch of people tossing a ball around. Give everyone a gun and have everyone shoot each other for possession of the ball and then Justin might see it appealing, but as it stood he'd stick with the video games. Still, that said, it was just nice seeing Yu out and about. He still visited Nanako every day, but now that she was awake, well, his sense of hope had been renewed that she would pull through this. She had made so much progress already that he was positive she'd be alright soon. And that meant he didn't need to be by her bedside every hour of every day trying to convince himself she'd be alright: he could live life without grief or regret once again.

And that started right here, right now, with a pocket full of change and the intent on making himself look like an ass in front of whoever just happened to be in the arcade at the time. The question did arise why exactly Yu wanted to do this with Justin of all people, though Justin supposed that was partially because he would totally be on board with this. Still, it was entirely possible people would get funny ideas about all of this, but then, Justin was never one to care what people thought about him in the first place. If anyone asked, Yu and him had a bromance. It wasn't totally untrue he supposed, Yu was one of the few friends of Justin's that was a guy he felt he could actually relate with. I mean, yeah, Kanji and him were a lot alike, but he just said so much stupid shit that Justin felt it hard for there to be any real connection there. Yu, it was like they were bound by both being the new kid; and not only that, they went through a lot of shit together, and yet they never once split apart… Okay, beside that thing with Naoto, but they made amends. I guess Yu was just proof to Justin that guys could actually be good people: something that should have been obvious, though something Justin had never truly experienced in his life.

"Maybe later, but for now." Yu remarked with a sly grin as he spun a token around on the tip of his finger the way one would a basketball. It was a lot harder to do that with something small like a coin than one would think. It only took a split second before he pushed the coin into the slot, or at least the slot that was on Justin's side. He could have obviously just walked over to the other side and practically told Yu to fuck off pushing him into this involuntarily, but there was two problems with that. One, he actually didn't mind; second of all, he would be a huge hypocrite given that he had pretty much done the exact same thing to Chie at one point. I mean, she did need to lighten up and have a little bit of fun, and I think in the long run it helped with her self-esteem to have been forced into it, but… He probably could have timed it so that they did it when she didn't have a broken rib. He kind of felt bad in retrospect, partially because that tumble couldn't have helped at all with the rib and all. I mean yeah, it had recovered by that point, but it was still pretty sore for her. "I think it's time for some Robot Rock."

"I'm pretty sure they don't have Queens of the Stone Age on these things." Justin remarked with a combination of sarcasm and confusion. In truth, it wasn't as stupid as Justin made it sound, but god knows that only people that actually followed the band would get the joke, and somehow he doubted that Yu was into Stoner Rock. Now if this remark had been extended to Naoto in recent days, perhaps Justin might have gotten somewhere, but as it stood it was just an obscure joke that went completely over poor Narukami's head. He raised his eyebrow with confusion, a brief silence filling the air, save the sound of music booming from the Dance Dance Revolution machine.

"…What?"

"…Oh uh… W-well Josh doesn't like that his music gets labeled as Stoner Rock so he- You know what nevermind, bad joke." Justin shook his head a bit. Sometimes you think you're being really witty but then you remember your target audience has no fucking idea what you're talking about and you just look like a huge asshole. This was one of those moments. Justin just shrugged after a moment before jumping up on his respective dance pad, leaning back on the safety rail behind him while he waited for Yu to do his business. Yu was still frozen in place for a moment with great confusion, which did nothing for the awkward atmosphere for the record. He just eventually shrugged it off after a while before throwing some coins into his side of the machine and jumping up on his gamepad. Have I ever mentioned how much of a pain in the ass it is to navigate a menu with your feet? Because it's annoying. It was a wonder there were people out there that could play entire games with just their feet…

Oh you think I'm joking? No, I've never been more serious in my life. There are people that played through all of Super Mario 64 using just their feet. Beside the point, but there you go: there's your fun fact of the day. Yu fidgeted about with his dance pad for a while, trying to find a song he knew was on the machine, but was having a hard time really finding. I guess it was partially because he wasn't sure whether he should be looking for the name of the song or for the name of the artist, or if these were even ordered alphabetically in any capacity. Sure as hell didn't seem like it. It took a minute, but he eventually found what he was looking for. "Ohhhhhhh, Daft Punk. Right. I'm stupid." Justin muttered to himself as he pushed himself away from the railing and into a ready position. He may have needed to lay off the QOTSA for a while if his brain was starting to get this rotted away from it.

He clasped his hands together, rubbing them up in that stereotypical 'let's do this' kind of mannerism as they both stepped into position, waiting for the countdown to trigger. Despite being on the hardest difficulty each, and despite both being white guys that didn't know how to dance (depending of course on whether or not one would consider Yu as being white; but he was pretty much as close to be Caucasian as he was going to get from Asian descent) they did a surprisingly good job of keeping the tempo. Hell they even threw a couple of claps in there every couple of beats. The game obviously didn't track that stuff, but it just felt so right. The two stepped in complete synchronization for a while, even if they were much too focused on the screens in front of them to really notice. At least, they had been, but even though this kind of game required a lot of concentration and paying attention to the rhythm, Yu felt now would be a great time to have a one on one conversation.

"Hey Justin? I just wanted to say thanks… for everything." Yu spoke up over short breaths as he tried to keep his legs moving in time to the increasingly fast arrows speeding up the screen. Justin, having been concentrating really hard on the game, had to take a moment to really process what Yu was saying over the loud boom of techno, and even when he did he was pretty damn confused. He couldn't recall anything in recent memory he had done to warrant any thanks; but I think that was why it required such thanks in the first place. Justin wasn't going out of his way to be a good guy, he just was; and that spoke a lot louder to Yu than someone just pretending to be nice for a few hours in his life. He wasn't saying the others had been faking being nice by any means, and he in fact intended to thank them as well at some point, but for the moment being, Justin and him were here. And since Justin generally gave Yu the most crap about wallowing around in his guilt, Yu supposed he was the most thankworthy of the bunch.

"Uh… Whatever it is I did, you're welcome. I think." Justin remarked semi-sarcastically. It could have just been that his memory didn't work so well when he was being assaulted by a wide mass of sensatory attacks, music and flashing lights and the such, but all the same he legitimately wasn't sure what Yu was thanking him for. In that regard he wasn't even sure he should say you're welcome, but he figure it would be ruder too just ignore Yu or to remain silent on the issue: at least you're welcome acknowledged that you were grateful for the thanks you received, whether or not you were sure what you did to earn it or not. Yu just smiled and chuckled a bit, eyes dropping to his feet for just a brief moment to make sure he wasn't losing his footing as he tapped away at the four buttons across the floor.

"For being there for me at the hospital." Yu clarified over his chuckle. Justin only made a slight 'ah' sound of acknowledgement and understanding, eyes still never darting from the screen. Honestly, this was the worst time Yu could have possibly picked to have this conversation… but then, Justin wasn't in any position to ignore Yu and walk off should he found this conversation less than satisfactory. Not that Justin was one to walk away from lavish praise, even if he didn't much care for it, but knowing Justin, one foul move and he'd storm off. Yu didn't really plan to take that risk. Plus he really liked DDR. There was no down-side to his clever little plan. Except for the fact that it wasn't really a plan so much as it was 'let's play DDR, and then we can talk or something. "You were right, I was just in too much of a slump to see it. Nanako's going to be just fine, I just need to have faith in her. But rotting away in that hospital room wasn't doing anyone any good. I get that now."

"Well, glad to see everything worked out for you." Justin remarked, slightly disinterested. He was happy to see Yu got over that, but he had more or less assumed he would eventually anyway, so this wasn't like a major plot-twist or anything. Besides, when Justin really got into his video games, it was pretty difficult to distract him. The only one who had that honor thus far was Chie, and that was partially because she liked to punch him when he got a little too out of line or if he was kicking her ass too much. Punches weren't exactly easy to ignore after all, especially not HER punches. She punched like a bitch… Oh uh… Well, not like that. I mean it just hurt a lot. The talking cut out for what was a good five or ten seconds though it felt like forever with the music still flowing from the speakers in front of them like a sweet three part harmony. A three part harmony of robots playing techno that is.

"I know I've been kind of an asshole because of it… For what it's worth, I'm really sorry about Maya's birthday. I would have made it but… You know." Yu sighed a bit, his grin slowly fading away. It had kind of been eating away at him with guilt, and the mere mention of the topic had killed all the joy he had been finding in the game of DDR they were playing. Justin didn't stutter in his movements, though he most certainly did in his mind. It was a strange topic to have suddenly be brought up, and he could tell from Yu's tone of voice that it was a heavy burden on him. He looked away from the screen for only a brief second to look at Yu. He had more or less committed the dance pattern to muscle memory by this point, so he could distract himself slightly from the screen and still keep up with the game. Yu wasn't smiling, and in fact, was hanging his head slightly in shame. He made a promise to Justin that he would be there, and he wasn't. He let Maya down.

"…You don't need to apologize to me. If anyone you should apologize to Maya." Justin remarked. It was hard to just let go of Yu missing such an important day just because he felt a little sad, so he wasn't letting him ENTIRELY off the hook. That said, while Yu's forgiveness laid entirely in Maya's hand it was worth mentioning that Justin himself had no qualms with Yu on the matter at this point. Perhaps a little disappointed, but he wasn't angry about it or anything like that. It didn't effect his perception of Yu or anything like that; and hey. There was always next year. "Don't sweat it. I know you would have been there if you could."

"…Thanks man."

"No problem, now if you don't mind, I'd rather not fall on my ass again."

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTES**

**No update tommorow as I have orientation all day for college.**


	215. Chapter 214: November 27, 2011

CHAPTER 214

November 27, 2011

* * *

"Ladies and Gentlemen, the moment you've all been waiting for."

"Oh no. Not this bull**** again."

If it wasn't immediately obvious from the sound of Teddie's voice echoing through the darkness as to the predicament Justin had found himself in again, it was certainly the loud, piercing sound of a buzzer trying to cover up his foul mouth. Justin wasn't sure what was more annoying, the fact that he seemed to be getting dragged here against his will on a regular basis, or the fact that all of this was just… well… incredibly stupid. Perhaps it was for that reason alone that Justin couldn't help but slam his face into the podium he knew was in front of him, his forehead unintentionally sounding off the buzzer attached to his stand in the process. You would think that Teddie would have these things turned off before the show started, but alas, it was difficult to say what exactly the production values were behind this little game of his. It was clear he didn't exactly have any form of quality control. Almost as clear as the light that had illuminated on Justin's podium showcasing his score, dropping slowly but steadily as he held his head against the buzzer and murmured all sorts of curses under his breath.

"It's the show you've all been waiting for! At last, it's the playoffs!" Teddie continued, ignoring the loud buzzing sound coming from Justin's podium. And it would have gone on like that had Chie not started to feel around in the dark for Justin and smack him. She could understand the frustration, don't get her wrong, but that buzzing noise was completely grating to the ears. He sprung back almost immediately. After all, Chie hit like a motherfucker, especially when she was angry or in a state of panic. I think the loud buzzing noise was enough to warrant a combination of the two. "I'm sure our viewers remember what happened last time. Those memorable qualifiers where Sensei won the day after a heated battle! All the emotion and drama is back tonight for another round! Just like last time… I'm your host, "On the Mark" Teddieson." And within seconds, the darkness was cleared by the sudden burst of light into the stadium, mostly focused on Teddie of course, though there was some dim lighting on the rest of them. Justin just leaned against the podium with his elbows, holding his hands up with the palms of his hands. Everyone passed each other one of those ' here we go again' looks. Even Yukiko, which was saying something because she was usually so excited about these kinds of things. Not to imply Teddie had done this more than once, but usually weird shit like this kind of found their way to the Investigation Team's doorsteps. "Now let's get this show on the road! With concentration, knowledge, and Teddie's favor, go for the gold! It's back: Midnight Trivia Miracle Quiz!"

Lights sparkled and shone as the lights finally flashed down upon the investigation team; or at least the members that were present. Because for some inexplicable reason, despite the fact that everyone but Yu should have been eliminated, it was the EXACT same contestants. Honestly, it couldn't be a lack of people, right? There was still Kanji, Rise, Maya, Naoto, and Kurt. EVERYONE could have been replaced; and given that Teddie had apparently set the reward to scoring with him, you would think he would want to maximize his chances of getting into a girl's pants and at least swapped out Yosuke and Justin. At the VERY least.

"…It's another show, alright. Not for any viewers, but for us." Yosuke mumbled to himself with exasperation, rubbing at his temple with annoyance. Why was it that Teddie didn't quite realize he had work: hell, Teddie had work too! Yosuke would fire his ass if it didn't mean Teddie would get booted from the house; which while Yosuke wouldn't object to it, everyone else probably would. Seriously, Yosuke would really like to have his floor back, what with Teddie's futon seeming to take up the entire goddamn room. There was also the matter of exams being tomorrow; today was not a good idea to be bothering them with this shit. And you would think, that if this were a quiz show this actually might HELP with their studies, but the fact of the matter was that none of these questions had anything to do with anything. They were usually stupid questions like 'what color were the flowers down the street from the Amagi Inn,' or some shit.

"I had a feeling when Teddie called me up that it would be about this…" Chie groaned with disappointment. She probably should have trusted her instinct and just stayed home and studied. She really didn't have time for this; none of them did, save maybe Justin and Yukiko, since neither really needed to study. At least Chie had the advantage of actually getting asked to come into the television for this bullshit, even if the actual intention for her entry into this world was under some rather secretive terms. Justin just sort of woke up here without any explanation. Honestly, he wouldn't even be surprised if Maya was in on this and shoving him through the television screen by this point. Either that or at some point Teddie managed to get a key to Justin's house. "Hey, how come it's us playing again? I thought this was the playoffs."

"Ooh, good-eye, Chie-chan from Inaba! Is that some of the quiz ability you built up during the preliminaries!?" Teddie remarked as he slowly paced himself over to Chie's podium. It was a very good question, but deep down they all knew the answer: because Teddie was actually a huge asshole and just didn't feel like tormenting anyone other than those five people. Well, save perhaps Yu since one would assume he would return for the next match regardless, assuming there even was a next match. They thought Teddie was kidding about the whole playoffs round thing, or at the very least he'd get bored with this after what happened the first time. Sure enough, one strike. "You know, I wanted to call Rise-chan and Nao-chan. But they turned down my formal invitation."

"Wait… Does that mean you told them about the quiz show!?" Chie gasped with aggravated annoyance. Why were THEY being forced into this and they didn't even get the option? Hell they were probably watching right now… Actually they probably were for shits and giggles. Justin just stared out to where he assumed one would logically put the camera on these kinds of shows; after all he sure as hell couldn't see any lenses staring down his face. Didn't mean he didn't take the opportunity to start making faces. Chie of course jabbed him in the side again to get him to stop after a while, to which he went out with a bang by flipping off the invisible camera. Much to no one's surprise, it got blurred out, and Justin lost yet another point. Justin was the only one who would consistently start off these games with a negative score. And he just did not give the slightest fuck. Why would he? These quizzes were nothing but a joke anyway.

"Well, yeah. How else would they have been able to say no?" Teddie remarked with puzzlement, as if that were the stupidest question in the world. There was simultaneous facepalm between most every one behind a podium right now, minus perhaps Yukiko who would never think of slapping herself in the face. That would hurt after all. They had to wonder if Teddie saw the irony or not or if he really was this oblivious. NO ONE wanted to be here right now; everyone would have said no given the chance. Perhaps that's why Teddie didn't ask them; because he was right about one thing. No one could say no if he never asked them in the first place. And for him, not a no was a yes.

"Are you kidding me!? There is something seriously wrong with you! Why didn't we get an explanation!?

"Come on, Yosuke. Do I really have to spell it out for you? If you guys didn't come, we wouldn't have any contestants, would we? And in that case, the producer—meaning moi—would be in trouble, wouldn't he?" Teddie tried to appeal to the group's sense of empathy. The problem with that however is that none of them had any empathy towards Teddie when he did shit like this, again, save Yukiko who was really too nice for her own good at times. Actually, just as a rule of thumb, Yukiko was always the exception in regards to any generalized statement regarding these quizzes. Justin immediately slammed his head into his podium again, thankfully missing the big red button in the center and saving the group the trouble of dealing with that buzzing.

"NO ONE IS WATCHING! WE DON'T CARE!" Justin shouted, though his voice was muffled by a combination of the podium beneath his mouth and the hysterics he was in. He sounded like he was on the verge of tears, ready to cry with annoyance towards all this. I mean really, he had a total audience of zero people. He technically had a one million percent viewer increase since last time. You know, since anything times zero is still zero? Even if somehow there was some sort of network that approved of this timeslot and was monitoring Teddie's show; it's not like they were going to get more views than what they're getting anyway. Who knows, maybe with the Midnight Channel shit over this will be the hot new thing on cable. Probably not though. Teddie of course didn't care that Justin sounded like his spirit had just broken in half like a twig beneath a bulldozer, imply waltzing past him and his podium to make his way up to his hosting podium on the other side of the room. At least Chie gave Justin an uplifting pat on the back, though that really did very little to reassure Justin that everything would be alright. He sighed though, eventually raising his head from the podium enough so that his eyes could catch a hold of Teddie: no more, no less.

"Come on everyone, how about it? I got another cue to move things along! It looks like our contestants are ready! Let's begin the playoffs!" Teddie shouted before striking a pose, ready for action. Which was true in multiple senses of the word action given what the alleged prize of all this was. I think everyone was just sort of hoping Teddie was joking about that, though in the end even if he wasn't, he knew they would just kick his ass before he tried anything funny. Unless maybe he swapped Chie and Yukiko out at the last second for one of the other girls. I mean they'd still kick his ass, but it might take them just a little longer to figure out what Teddie was truly after with this damn quiz show. Yosuke sighed, crossing his arm and shaking his head as he stared down at the big red button in front of him.

"I don't think we have much of a choice… Let's just try to get through this." Yosuke grimaced with annoyance. He knew if he didn't agree with this Teddie would throw a tantrum, and let's face it, Teddie was kind of their exit. He could make those televisions out disappear if he figured it would help him get what he wanted. Which was very deeply concerning if he was serious about scoring for a prize. They were gonna have to put up with Teddie's bullshit for just a little longer. And then they would all have to agree never to jump through the television screen on Teddie's request ever again. They knew better now. Justin sighed before pushing himself away from the podium into a ready position.

"I never try anything. I just do it." Justin remarked rather cockily cracking his knuckles a bit. Oh he had no intention to win as would soon become very clear, but at the very least he was going to put on a show… Okay, maybe not even that, but he wasn't going to be slitting his wrists anytime soon. The rest of the group just sort of shrugged before getting into position. Guess who the exception was? Yes, Yukiko had been ready for quite a long time. Oh she definitely didn't want that prize, but she did want the sweet taste of victory. She'd just refuse the prize when Teddie went to award it and pass it onto whoever the runner-up was. God have mercy on their soul.

"Now for the first question!" Teddie shouted over the sound of Justin trying to be a smartass as usual. "How many row from the front is Chie's desk in her class?" Everyone simply stood there, hell Justin just sort of leaned against his podium. Oh, most of them knew the answer, Justin and Chie in particular, what with sitting there on a regular basis after all. It was quiet, and for reason that need not be explained Teddie was very confused. He wasn't as stupid as he made himself seem after all, he knew at the very least Chie knew that answer. He also knew she was wondering how he even knew that. "Um… Any moment now our contestants will buzz in with their answers… Any second… Someone? Anybody. Why aren't any of you answerinnnnnnnnng!?"

"A strange game. The only winning move is not to play." Justin snarked. The simple fact of the matter was no one wanted that prize, and while they had all agreed to force themselves to go through with this, they all secretly had no intention of aiming to win. Except Yukiko, but she caught on very quickly that no one was answering these questions on purpose and held her tongue. Otherwise she'd be raking in the points right now.

"Are you trying to get me fired!?" Teddie shouted with annoyance. The group's reluctance to answer any questions could either have a great effect on the ratings in that it provided comedy value, or sent them plummeting down the toilet since no one was fucking playing the game. He was needless to say not very pleased that the group refused to answer anything.

"Yeah, kinda." Yosuke smirked, stretching his arms and yawning. Teddie soon began to stamp his foot and pout, as if to try and project his presence onto the group. He wanted to make it very clear that he was in charge here, and his order was for them all to start answering questions right fucking now. In that regard I think he might have been pleasantly and also unpleasantly surprised in that Justin smacked his hand against the buzzer, causing sound to bounce back and forth from podium to podium. He felt like being a smartass, and of course, being sure he lost was always a good thing in regards to this show of Teddie's.

"Forty two."

"That doesn't even answer the question!" Teddie remarked with great disapproval. If he said fourty second, perhaps Teddie would consider it as at least answering the question, even if it was clear justin had no intention of answering the question right; what with there only being five rows and all.

"Uh, excuse me. Forty two is the answer to life, the universe, and everything. Learn your **** please."

"You're not even trying!"

"What are the **** I give?" Justin continued, hitting the buzzer a second time. That wouldn't exactly have passed as a correct answer in jeapordy, but hey, who honestly cared about the quality of any of these answers. Teddie just groaned before slamming his face into the podium. He knew when everything was falling to shit.

"Cut! Reshoot, from the top."

"Teddie, there are no cameramen."


	216. Chapter 215: November 28, 2011

CHAPTER 215

November 28, 2011

* * *

"Excuse me sir, one at a time."

"Uh… I'm with her."

"One at a time."

Justin had escorted Maya down to the school with him where Maya would be taking her equivalency test. There was only a few other people taking the exam with her, but despite the fact that Justin was wearing his uniform and thus clearly didn't need to take an equivalency test, the person who was running admissions insisted on making a big deal about the more or less non-existent line. There was maybe one or two people behind her, and believe me when I say none of them were in any particular rush to sit down and take the test. And even if they were, they weren't exactly blind. They all saw the girl making gestures to Justin to communicate with him, she wasn't exactly subtle about it as much as she tried to hide her inability to speak. As if it were something to be ashamed of. Given that she was muted by sacrificing herself to rescue Naoto, who part of Justin still wished she had been the one to take the blow instead, she should actually be proud that she had the courage to give so fully of herself for someone else. Someone trying to pin murder on her no less. She didn't need to hide that kind of thing; this wasn't like their hometown where having a disability like that was pretty much a free pass to get bullied for the rest of your existence. Everyone here was more or less completely understanding. Justin attributed it to being a small community and people just didn't want to piss each other off when everyone relied on each other. Kurt was right about the sense of community being the best part of this town, no doubt about it.

But that was beside the point. The point was, this secretary was being a huge bitch and just making it a hassle for Justin to actually get her signed in. He wanted to make sure that she'd have any accommodations she needed. He suspected that not being able to talk wouldn't really be a problem, though you never knew if she had a question to ask, or if she had to go to the bathroom at some point. Assuming the rules about going to the bathroom didn't apply to those taking the equivalency exam, though he wouldn't be surprised if the same rules applied for everyone. Plus there was the matter that Maya actually wouldn't be able to answer any questions this secretary asked her; at least not in a language that she'd be able to understand. That was what Justin was here for, to help with the admission process; then he'd have to make a mad dash to his own exams. He supposed they wouldn't give him too much shit if he just explained the circumstances.

"No ma'am, I mean I HAVE to be here." Justin remarked with dull irritation, a slightly baffled expression on his face. What was the big deal anyway; he established he was here with Maya, and it should have been obvious he wasn't taking the test as well. Besides, there was like four people; would it really be a big deal if Justin DID try to cut in line or something? It wasn't like he was cheating anyone out of their time or anything. They'd all get to the same place at the same time for their tests, and while everyone in line seemed to understand that just fine, this lady in charge of admissions just did not give a shit. They didn't pay her enough to make exceptions it would seem.

"Yeah? And so does everyone else in line. Wait your turn like everyone else." Justin glared at her with disapproval. He was well aware that Maya didn't like to acknowledge her condition, though she most certainly would have to before the test started to make sure she was properly accommodated. It was for that reason up until this point Justin had been trying to explicitly not mention her problem, or at the very least try not to draw too much attention to it. However, it was becoming very increasingly obvious to both of them that it was the only way to get this secretary to shut the hell up and just let Justin do his job. Maya turned her attention towards Justin, eyebrows curved up with slight concern. You could tell that even knowing she would have to acknowledge her condition eventually, she wasn't very comfortable to having a spotlight practically shone down onto it. She pleaded with Justin using her eyes to not go through with it… But she knew that wasn't going to happen. He sighed and shook his head, folding his arms in front of his chest with annoyance and disapproval for all of this. He hated that he was going to have to do this to Maya.

"Maya, would you mind just showing her please." Justin requested, passing Maya a quick glance out of the corner of his eyes. She sighed almost immediately, directing her gaze toward the floor beneath her and shaking her head. Perhaps she should have never gotten her hopes that high up in the first place that this could be avoided. Like a child trying to convince himself he didn't need to get a shot at their annual doctor's appointment or a kid trying to convince themselves that there really was a Santa Claus, and all those logical inconsistencies were just tests of faith. Still, in the end as embarrassing as it was for her to admit she had a condition, it wasn't exactly painful, so she'd just have to suck it up and show the receptionist why Justin's presence was needed here. She held her breath before turning her eyes back up to the receptionist, making small timid movements of her hands. She kept them close to her chest, as though she was fooling anyone behind her what she was doing. In truth I think it just made it harder for the receptionist to catch on what she was doing. After all, it was rare to find someone who did sign language with their hands so close to their body.

"Oh. Oh I see. My apologies, you must be Maya." The admissions officer changed her attitude almost immediately. Justin had of course inquired into Maya's disability and accommodations before the test to make sure everything would be all set, though he certainly had no idea that they had been expecting Maya. From the sounds of it they had been prepared for her and her condition, at least, so one would assume if the only reason the admissions officer knew who Maya was was due to her communication through sign-language. Maya was needless to say a little caught off-guard, though she did nod with confirmation after a moment, holding her wrist in her hand as a nervous response. The problem with the whole sign-language thing for Maya was that she didn't want people to treat her different or for her to stick out after all, so the very thought that someone could identify her solely on the gestures she made with her hand, well… I think it was a little disheartening. "Alrighty, just fill out these papers. You'll be in room 1-F just down the hallway. Just give the packet to the teacher inside and you'll be all set." She explained as she passed off a packet of maybe five or six sheets of paper to Maya. She bowed her head with appreciation, what since that was about the best she could do to signify that she was thankful to someone who couldn't read sign-language.

"Thanks ma'am, appreciate it." Justin remarked with semi-sarcasm. He wasn't very appreciative of her putting Maya in the spotlight like that at all, but at the very least he'd at least try to be civil since she was more or less cooperating for the time being. Maya and Justin were quick to wander off, a pen in Maya's hand as she read over all the paperwork. Nothing too complicated, mostly stuff involving her date of birth and shit like that. It also required her birth certificate, which thankfully Naoto had been able to get a hold of. Guess she wasn't so useless after all. No mention of an ID or passport though, so it seemed Justin's fake passport would go unused for the time being. Which was a shame if only because it was actually fairly authentic. He used his own passport for reference for the layout and what not and went to work in photoshop. The hard part was figuring out what kind of paper it was printed out on, but it seemed criminals and con men used google just as much as anyone else. It was funny, the entire revelation that there were guides online for faking passports peaked Justin's interest as to what other fucked up stuff you could find online. Besides from the fuck meat (and no I'm not kidding, Justin found quite the deal on limbless, headless torsos. What he couldn't find was who you were supposed to contact when you found shit like that on the internet. He'd say the cops, but last he checked there was no Internet Police.) there was also a guide on how to tie a noose. He was going to guess the guide was inaccurate though because it must have been a pretty shitty noose if the person was alive to make a step by step guide to making one.

It took maybe ten minutes to fill out everything, if only because Maya's hand was so shaky. It was a combination of nerves and still not feeling at her best. She felt a hell of a lot better than she had, but she still felt week standing, knees trembling and shaking every which way as she tried to support her weight. If you looked carefully you could see Justin keeping a grip on her arm as she made her way over to a seat just outside where she would take her test, just so she wouldn't topple over and hurt herself. Normally Maya would get pissed about Justin doing this again, but at least he was being subtle about it. He wasn't being OVER-protective, just protective. And by her book that was already a huge improvement. And really, who could be mad at someone for caring? Justin wasn't trying to force her to stay home despite still clearly being ill, so at least he had given up in his attempts at trying to reign over Maya's life. And really, that's all she wanted since the beginning. Still, despite having finished all the paperwork, Maya simply sat there, staring at her handwriting on the stack of leaflets that sat on her lap. She should have been moving towards her testing room right now and letting Justin get to his test, but for some reason she was just frozen in place. As if she just couldn't move no matter how much she knew she should. She wanted to, and yet she didn't at the same time.

"What's wrong?" Justin broke the silence after a moment, watching as Maya starred at her packet with this certain sense of dread in her eyes. How was it that she had done nothing but prepared herself for this exact moment, how she desired nothing more than to take this test and go to school just like all of her friends… and yet, she was so afraid of doing just that. She could feel her heart racing, pounding against the walls of her chest as if it were trying to leap out of Maya's body, to do her in before any disappointment could. She shook her head for a moment before loosening her grip on the papers, allowing them to rest on her lap as she turned towards Justin, eyes wide all the while.

"_I'm nervous…"_ Maya signed off timidly, as if embarrassed to admit she was tense about taking a test that would be covering pretty much all of her schooling and then some. It probably didn't help that she still didn't understand Japanese; and no doubt while the test would be given to her in English just the way Justin's tests were, there would also most likely be a section on Japanese. And I think it goes without saying that when she did eventually take the test she completely bombed that portion. But then, she didn't even bother, simply putting down C for everything. Laws of odds stated that at least 25% of her answers should be right then, and it wasn't like just guessing was going to help her. Everything else though… she studied hard for it and yet she felt like she didn't really study at all. It was always like that when it came time to take tests for Maya, but it had been so long since she had been to school she had almost forgotten that sensation. Justin smiled after a moment before extending his arm, placing his hand along the length of Maya's shoulder in a reassuring fashion. He had absolute faith in her after all, he had nothing to be concerned about. And neither should she.

"Don't worry. You'll do great; I know it." Justin reassured her, a warm smile across her face. Maya's expression was blank for a moment a she stared into Justin's eyes. She never did understand how Justin could think so positively when it came to this stuff, and yet so negatively in regards to everything else. Maybe he was just cocky, he did believe he never had to study for anything after all, and in a way he was right. He could certainly use some brushing up on his Japanese, but he always got at least passing grades on tests for that, so it usually wasn't too much of a problem. And he definitely knew enough to have a casual conversation with the others in their language. Nothing too fanciful or extensive mind you, but a conversation none the less. None of that really mattered though, this was about Maya's academics, not Justin's. And yet he still remained so confident that she would, despite being out of school for two years and only having a few days worth of studying time, do great on the exam. It was so confusing and yet so exhilarating at the same time. Her frown slowly shifted to a smile, and her eyes lit up. It certainly caught Justin off guard when Maya dove in to give him a hug, but by all means he wasn't going to object.

"_Thank you…" _She mouthed off as she gripped him tightly. Justin couldn't see it, nor could he hear it, but he could feel her breath as she opened her mouth, as if to try and whisper to him despite knowing full-well she couldn't. And yet, somehow he knew. I guess it just came from having the bond they had. It's like that belief that twins could feel the same thing, or know what the other was thinking. Like that, only neither of them were twins and they weren't really related. But you know all about the Placebo Effect; and Justin truly did believe they were family. That was good enough for science it would seem. He smiled as the two pulled away from each other, giving Maya one more pat on her shoulder for reassurance.

"Knock 'em dead."

_"Isn't that more up your alley?"_

"Well that depends how bad of a day I'm having."


	217. Chapter 216: December 3, 2011

Chapter 216

December 3, 2011

* * *

"The weather report said it might start snowing soon, but what's going to happen if it snows with all this fog?"

It was the beginning of the final day of exams, for both the bulk of the Investigation Team and Maya a like. The others were just starting to catch on that Maya was taking exams of her own, mostly because Justin and her had bumped into the others on a couple occasions on their way to school, and it was still clear that Maya couldn't really stand without assistance, so anywhere Justin went, so did Maya. This was one of those times in that Justin and Maya had unsuspectedly bumped into Yu and Yosuke while they were discussing all this fog. Probably didn't help that seemingly almost everyone else followed behind and joined their ranks after a few minutes. Kurt was always absent from these things, so it goes without saying he was missing.

"The fog's so thick that sometimes you can't see your nose in front of your face, so everyone's forming groups now." Chie spoke up as her and the others managed to sneak up on the rest of the group. Justin nodded ever so slightly in agreement, though it was hard to see him, what with all this fog. The fog itself didn't so much concern Justin as it did just how long it had been lingering. It had been practically a month now and the fog only seemed to get heavier and heavier. Justin was no scientist, but he was pretty sure that it should have cleared by now. Especially in the absence of rain. He could have swore that the fog looked kinda... sickly green as well, but he figured it was just his mind playing tricks on him. He was so used to the fog on the otherside that his eyes were probably just filling in the blanks for him. Call him delusional if you will.

"It's definitely been weird lately. It's so cold, too…"

"Well that's because its winter." Justin rolled his eyes abit. He definitely agreed something was up, but he could assure you that cold weather this time of year was entirely normal. Not exactly pleasant, but normal all the same.

"Visibility's so bad, it's scary… Can I stick close to you, Senpai?" Rise questioned oh so innocently, batting her eye lashes as she stepped subtly closer towards Justin. She was more or less over the boy at this point in her life. Sure he was nice and all, but its clear his heart was somewhere else. I guess you could say she platonically loved the guy, hell she platonically loved the entire group, but from a purely romantic point of view, she figured she'd get better results out of Yu. That girl had the shitiest timing when it came to falling for someone, that was for sure. All the same, while it was true her interest in Justin had subsided, her very nature dictated that she must flirt with everything with a penis within a five mile radius, if only to find amusement in their reactions. In Justin's case it was always cautious skepticism; as if he was sort of getting that Rise was flirting with him, but not really. He was still clearly uncomfortable all the same.

"I... guess?"

"This girl never changes." Chie sighed and shook her head. The usual reaction from her was to throw a fit of rage and jealousy, but for some reason she never quite got angry at Rise being a tease. Perhaps because it was clear that Rise meant nothing bad by any of this and would probably be just as uncomfortable if someone turned the table on her, maybe because she got that Justin really didn't get it. There was no immediate danger here regardless, might as well go with the flow.

"It really is hard to see anything in this, though. It's just like on the other side." Rise continued, haveing gotten the satisfaction she was looking for out of Justin's discomfort. Say what you will about her being done chasing after the blonde haired teenager, he was absolutely adorable when he was embarrased. Maybe because his cheeks matched his hair. Or at least the strawbery part of strawberry blonde.

"Yeah I know right, it's like-"

"Wha- Guys!? Put on you glasses!" Kanji cut off Justin. Rise's remark about it being like on the other side had struck him with curiousity, and, well, he wasn't sure he liked what he found. Justin was a bit confused when he saw Kanji standing there with the glasses for Teddie's world on, but he seemed pretty vocal, so he was more than willing to ablige. He slowly stuck his hand into his jacket pocket, unfolding the pair of glasses before slipping it between his hair and behind his ears. He always kept his eyes closed when he slipped them on just in case anyone could catch a glimpse of his bad eye. Needless to say once he reopened his eyes, he was in for a surprise.

"Ho...ly... shit..." Justin gasped. He could see straight through the fog as if it weren't even there. Now, justin couldn't say why this was happening, but he could say how: this fog must have been the same kind as the other side, right? Unless these glasses always worked in fog... it was hard to tell when no one ever wore these things outside the television. At least... almost no one. The rest of the group slipped their glasses on to much of the same shock. Something wasn't right here, it didn't take magical glasses to see that.

"These glasses are meant to help us see through the fog in the other world… But putting that aside, no glasses would improve one's visibility in a fog, under normal circumstances." Naoto mused on the matter. The latter part was pure speculation of course, and Justin wanted to point that out, but then he felt a tugging sensation at his arm. Maya had been tryin to get his attention since it was so hard to see in all this fog... At least for them it was, and at least until they put their glasses on.

_"I thought you were all kidding about the fog since it didn't get foggy the last time it rained for a couple of days..." _Maya remarked with embarrasment. She always had the contacts in that Teddie had made her, so for her, she could always see through this fog and thus it was like it wasn't even there. She still wasn't entirely convinced it was, but she was in no mood to be tugging her contacts out and putting them back in. It did prove that these glasses only worked on that kind of fog though. Something Chie picked up on almost immediaty much to the group's surprise.

"Then, umm… Could the fog from over there be leaking into our world…?" Chie hypothesized, or rather blurted out as it would soon turn out. All the same her theory was... well, alarming to see the least, and frighteningly not entirely implausible. Chie never did like being the bearer of bad news though, especially when the bad news in question was just a theory. A theory she didn't put much thought into it. Still, did feel kinda good to hit the bullseye without meaning to. "Huh? Y-You guys think that's it!? I-I was kinda expecting you to ignore it as Chie being random again… I-It's just a thought… Haha…" Yosuke sighed and shook his head. Why did Chie have to work them all up like this? Now he wasn't going to stop thinking about that actually being a possibility.

"Anyways… today's the last day of exams, right? Let's get 'em over with so we can meet up at the special headquarters after school."

"Are... Are we still calling it that? If we're going to keep rolling with this can we at least make a pillow fort or something?"

* * *

"Some specialists are raising concerns that this fog may consist harmful substances… More and more citizens are calling for an investigation into the cause of the fog and the facts about it… Thought the government has begun its preliminary investigation, many feel that the causes will be hard to pinpoint… Huh… Is this fog really dangerous?"

The Investigation Team all gathered at Junes after the long day of exams where Chie was currently reading a newspaper article about the fog. Interesting, though Justin had a hard time believing any of it. Whoever heard of fog related illnesses? I mean, I guess the fog from the other side made everyone sick the first time they went in, and there was the suspicion that his was the same kind of fog, but all of that was just speculation. He felt like he was reading tabloid journalism here, only sadly many a people actually believed what had been scribbled down in today's morning issue. T'was the price of paranoia he supposed.

"You hardly ever see people walkin' around town anymore… Or here, either." Kanji mused, eyes darting about the food court. It was true that people seemed to stay home a lot these days, and even if all this fog related illness bullshit was completely false, it was true that foggy days weren't exactly the ideal condition to go grocery shopping or anything. It wasn't unusual to him by any means, and yet... something felt off. Perhaps it was the revelation that they could see through this fog with their glasses that had done it; maybe Kanji just ate something bad for lunch and now his stomach was in knots. It was hard to say with any degree of certainty.

"Everyone's too scared of the fog now to go outdoors much."

"It does seem a lot like the fog on the other side… But beyond that, I'm clueless." Teddie scratched at his chin a bit, gazing around at the green fog surrounding them. It was hard to explain, but it just sort of felt familiar, not to mention that it was sickly green and he could see right through it when he had his costume on. You know, for a bear that allegedly made his eyes out of lenses that could see right through the fog, you would think he would do something similar to his human form as well.

"There's another item of note here… A summary of Namatame's career, with details about the case… The suspect was having an affair with the first victim. It seems she was killed due to relationship troubles. Also in April, Ms. Saki Konishi's body was discovered. The police are looking into a motive for the murder. In July, a boy living in Inaba performed a copycat murder. The boy was initially thought to be the culprit behind all the killings, but later suspicion was thrown upon Namatame. Last month, the suspect attempted to kidnap a seven-year-old girl of Inaba, resulting in his arrest…" Naoto continued to read after having snatched the paper from Chie's hands. She wasn't too pleased with that, but alas, she wasn't going to be able to kick Naoto's ass if everyone tried to hold her back. Still, it seemed that with this newspaper article the case had closed. The police had their suspect, and it seemed that the charges would stick given what had been printed. They all knew it was over, but this was only confirmation of that fact.

"So it's finally over. A lot of stuff's happened… But all that's left is for the police to build a case for Namatame, right?" Yosuke sighed, a wave of relief washing over him in floods. It was just nice to know that all the people that Namatame had hurt over the months had been avenged. Especially Saki. It was like a huge burden had been lifted from his shoulders... Like he could just move on. He would never forget Saki of course; but he had done her good now that the case had been solved. I think Saki would be more than pleased with that if she could see him from wherever she was in the heavens above. Yu sunk back into his chair a bit as he folded his arms, not quite as optimistic about all of this as Yosuke was. Something was rubbing him the wrong way about all of this, though he couldn't quite put his finger on what. Perhaps it was just because there had been no conviction yet.

"Can they prove anything?" Yu questioned. Most of the evidence they had gathered was circumstantial at best, and had it not been for Namatame's shadow, they still wouldn't have any proof to say he did it without a reason of a doubt. The police on this side, well... They couldn't exactly use that Namatame was able to go into the television as proof that he had done anything; it was just preposterous by all stretches of logic, at least, unless you could go into the television yourself. Yosuke just shrugged with indifference. Dojima's daughter had been kidnapped by this guy; there was no way he was going to just let this guy slip away.

"I'm sure your uncle can…"

"But… the stuff he was saying was so obviously nuts. If he says anything about the TV world, he might be considered mentally unstable…" Rise mumbled to herself, very obviously concerned herself. It hadn't occurred to her until Yu pointed out how difficult of a case it would be to build for this guy that there could be complications. The television world wasn't exactly usable evidence, and last she checked, that was all the evidence they got. She wasn't any detective though, so it was entirely possible there was more physical evidence than she thought. And she was kind of right, they could probably do fabric testing on his clothing to find traces of blood or fibers from the clothes of his victims.

"But he IS mentally unstable." Justin pointed out. He didn't need to be a psychiatrist to know that the guy was off his rocker. It was that vacant look in his eye, that lifeless, dull characteristic to his voice as he spoke nonsense; nonsense, however, that would seem like brilliancy to a man who couldn't tell the difference between right and wrong, who had lost all grip on reality. He was crazy, no doubt about it.

"Also, I heard before that if the police don't have enough hard evidence, it's difficult to build a case." Yukiko continued. It was really their main concern, lack of evidence. Him being nuts would certainly be a deterrent, though I think most of the group understood that being in a padded room isn't much better than a barred cell. Hell, there was a rumor a while back that there was this guy who was so batshit insane, he was drawing satanic symbols on the inside of his cell walls at the hospital. Ended up getting a machette, and from what Chie had heard of the rumor, killed quite a few people. Of course, that was probably just a rumor. Believe half of what you see and none of what you hear after all. Point was, the criminally insane got locked up in padded cells just the way a normal criminal would behind bars. Only rarely did they get a hold of a weapon and kill everyone.

"Yes… There are many such cases and culprits. It's the eternal conundrum for crime investigators…" Naoto sighed with disappointment and annoyance. If there was one problem she had with being a detective, it was that there were times where she knew without reason of a doubt committed the crime, the legal system often had holes that allowed such persons to get away with their atrocities.

"Hell's up with that!? We all know he did it… You can't just let a maniac who thinks he's saving people by killing them run wild on the streets!" Kanji shouted with furious annoyance. Naoto wasn't implying Namatame was going to get away with it by any means of course, she was simply making an observation that it happened from time to time. It was a valid concern that there wasn't enough evidence of course, but she was confident that the forensics labs would turn up enough evidence to plant a charge on him. Besides, they did have proof he kidnapped Nanako; no matter what he WOULD serve a sentence. They just hoped he would serve the full sentence.

"They better not dismiss something this serious because of some mental issues… Saki-senpai… No… Not just her, or that announcer… Even King Moron is his fault. If it weren't for what he did, nobody would've tried a copycat killing. It's his fault Nanako-chan's in the hospital right now, too…"

"I don't think they'll dismiss the case for mental issues... though it's possible he might serve a lessened sentence. Whatever it is, he's either going to be in a psychiatric ward, or a jail cell. Either way he isn't going free." Justin spoke up, trying to alleviate Yosuke's concerns. It was clear that Yosuke wanted nothing less than the guillotine for Namatame, but the simple fact of the matter was whatever happened, he'd still face punishment. And if he was as out of his mind as he seemed, well... They could hardly blame the person so much as the mind collapsing in on itself. Who could blame someone not in control of their actions? God know the Investigation Team didn't when Justin tried to set Naoto's house ablaze.

"I don't even want to think about Namatame right now." Yu groaned, shaking his head a bit. There were other things more important than vengeance after all. He just wished that Nanako would hurry up and get better. It was bad enough that Dojima was in the hospital too and he was all by himself in that damn house, that quiet house. Selfish? Maybe. But his loneliness and pain was really second to his concern for his cousin. She had been doing better, which certainly helped him deal with the grief, but in the end, he still felt guilty that she was like that. Moments like these were far worse. Not only for Yu as it would turn out, but also for Maya, who had started to clutch her side in pain. She had been doing good, but it felt like all the pain had just hit her at once again. Why? She didn't know. It was possible because she was still walking around and doing shit at Junes and what not when she was still sick. She needed to stop straining her. Alas, Maya's health under these circumstances was almost immediately pushed aside, despite catching the attention of pretty much everyone there. For while Maya gasped a bit in pain, Yu's ringtone began to buzz. Justin was quick to try and attend to Maya, though that was interrupted almost immediately as Yu's skin turned pale, his eyes widening and his phone slowly slipping from his hand. Maya's pain only seemed to intensify, her body practically curling up into a fetal position in her chair.

"What's with that look, Narukami?" Yosuke questioned. Yu didn't even answer Yosuke. He simply jumped up from his chair, knocking it over in the process as he darted off towards the exit. "Wha- Hey wait a second!" Yosuke shouted as everyone followed Yu's lead, jumping up from their seat to give chase. Save maybe Maya and Justin. Justin wasn't sure what was going on, but he was a little more concerned about his sister than whatever was causing Yu to flip the fuck out. Yosuke had almost ran right past them too, but once he noticed Maya was still curled up in pain, he stopped in his tracks and turned back around. "The pain acting up again?" Yosuke questioned with concern. Maya simply nodded in turn, biting her bottom lip as if to quell screams of pain. As if she would object to being able to speak, let alone scream. "Alright, I got you covered." Yosuke reassured her before making his way over to her left side, wrapping her arm behind his neck so she could balance against him. Justin followed Yosuke's example, though he wasn't quite sure why he thought making Maya walk was a good idea. She was in pain, they didn't need to go chasing after Yu right now.

"We're not seriously going after Yu when she's like this right?"

"You ever hear that expression 'kill two birds with one stone?'"

"Well yeah."

"This is kinda like that... I think I've got a good idea where Yu might be heading..."

* * *

"This all has to do with the world you came from! Can't you figure something out!?"

The group had all been waiting outside the room to Nanako's room, where unfortunately fingers were being pointed left in right in an attempt at pinning the blame on someone for Nanako's illness. Even Maya was present, even though she was struggling like all hell to run away. Justin already managed to get a black eye from trying to restrain her once she realized Yosuke and Justin were dragging her to a hospital. She didn't quite realize she wasn't there for her, though it wouldn't hurt to get a check up while they were there. Unfortuantely, she was fighting too much for any doctor to really get a good look at her, so that theory went right out the window. At this point she was running out of energy to keep kicking at her captors, which was certainly a-okay with Yosuke and Justin. She simply sighed and slouched down in her seat, grabbing at her side again in pain. It just wasn't worth fighting them anymore. She just needed to close her eyes and pretend she wasn't here. The sound of the heart-rate monitor in the room just next to them certainly wasn't helping, nor was the fact that Yu had explained to them Nanako's condition had worsened. This was EXACTLY the reason she didn't go to hospitals.

"I'm thinking… I'm thinking, but…"

"Dammit! Why does this have to happen to a little girl like her…!?" Kanji continued to rant and rave and cause a commotion. Though in the end Maya probably had him beat on the commotion front in that she was actually kicking people in the face in an attempt at escaping. She had simply given up trying at this point, but that didn't change the fact that the damage had already been done. Who would have thought that a mute girl would cause more of a racket than Kanji. Yu groaned with annoyance, temples tensing up with anger. Goddammit, he had enough on his plate right now without Kanji shouting like a lunatic.

"Calm down."

"How'm I supposed to stay calm at a time like this!? Can't believe this is happening…" Kanji continued, his anger only seeming to be amplified by Yu's request for him to kindly shut the fuck up. Which is perhaps why Yu felt the need to slap Kanji when he continued to shout and rave like a lunatic. Yeah, maybe he lost his cool a bit, but Kanji really did have it coming, and in the end, it seemed to be just what Kanji needed. "Right... I deserved that." Kanji muttered as he rubbed at the red mark on his cheek. Sometimes violence was the only way to snap someone out of a fit of rage it would seem.

"You guys still here?" The group was interrupted from their respective tantrums as Adachi rounded the corner, rather curious as to what all this commotion was about. This was a hospital after all, not a zoo. Justin rubbed his forehead a bit, trying to ease his headache. It was nice to see a friendly face under the circumstances; hell if he wanted anyone to be here it was Adachi. He might not have been the sharpest tool in the shed, but he was always optimistic; that just might be what they needed right now. Besides, Justin would be lying if he said he hadn't become attached to Adachi over the months. He couldn't explain it, but Adachi was... well a role-model. He wasn't the smartest or the most athletic or anything. He was a jack of all trades in the sense that he wasn't particularly skilled at any one thing. But he cared. He knew what it meant to be a good person. He was the ideal human being. And Justin respected that. In a way, you could consider Adachi the closest thing to a father-figure Justin had ever had; which is ironic given that Adachi really did look like his father when he was younger.

"What, the noise didn't give it away?" Justin questioned sarcastically. He would have like to have just sat there and waited for the doctors to tell them Nanako's condition had stabilized again, but Yosuke didn't seem content not raising hell at the moment.

"Any luck with your investigation of Namatame…?" Of all the questions he could have asked... Adachi rubbed at the back of his neck a bit, a bad sign to say the least. It was more or less the universal sign of not knowing what to say, or in this case, not knowing how to break the news. Justin sighed and shook his head. He got the message already, and he didn't like it. He wasn't going to lose his shit at Adachi though; fact of the matter was there was nothing he could do when the crime was so supernaturally based. It would be like expecting him to know magic. Justin was sure he had tried his best... He just wished his best was enough. All they could hope for now was that the kidnapping charges would stick and Namatame would still serve a sentence.

"I won't mince words here… We're gonna have a hard time making these charges stick. I talked with the guys at the station, and it'll be next to impossible to find him guilty in given the reason why we took him off our list of suspects for the first case… He still has a solid alibi for the time of the first murder... And the whole angle about him putting people into TVs… There's no way that'll stand up in court. No one would believe that… What the public wants is when, where, and how Namatame killed these people. And Dojima-san knows it…"

"Well, ain't you calm about this." Kanji spat at a rather shocked and annoyed Adachi. He was just giving them the low-down. That's all there was to it, no need to start trying to poke through his psyche or something.

"I-I'm just telling you the truth."

"And you call yourself a cop!? Huh!? If you wanna see that stuff so bad, we'll show you! Hurry up and bring a TV here, dammit!" Kanji started to shout again. This time Justin was the one to slap him though, perhaps feeling some sacred duty to come to Adachi's aid when he was clearly just relaying news. He wasn't wrong about anything he said; they all knew this would be a difficult case to press, and this was about as far as that road traveled. Adachi did nothing wrong, and Kanji needed to stop pretending he did. Kanji cracked his jaw back in place, sighing again. Something about today was just making him extraordinarily angry. "Yep. Deserved that one too..." This little slapping session seemed like it would go on forever with Kanji getting angry every other sentence, but it seemed fate had other plans. Other, devious plans. Within seconds, the conversation was interrupted by a nurse rushing out of Nanako's room with a frantic expression on her face.

"Is Nanako-chan's family here!?"

"Huh? Y-yes, I'm right here but what's going-"

"Hurry inside! Please talk to her!" The nurse pleaded with Yu. He didn't know what was going on, all he knew was that it had to be horrible. He could feel his heart freeze in place as he was lead through the door by the nurse. Maya started to squirm again, though most everyone was too pre-occupied and concerned as to why Yu had just been tugged towards the door to notice her.

"What the hell?" Justin muttered to himself, eyes slightly wide as Yu ran to Nanako's bedside. He didn't know what was happening, no one did. But sometimes you just got a bad gut feeling when something bad was about to happen. It certainly didn't help that only a short few moments later Dojima was hauled towards the door, still clearly in pain as the nurse lead him to where his daughter was. They were making such a fuss about him being out of bed previously that it made little to no sense for him to be walking around unless it was an emergency. It was quiet for only a brief second as Dojima made his way towards the door, everyone's hearts stopping as they feared what was happening behind that door.

That silence was broken only a few moments later by a symphony of painful shouting, from both inside the room and outside in the waiting room, where Maya had started to whimper and damn near screech in pain. She felt like she suddenly had a heart-attack. It was a wonder the pain hadn't knocked her clean out. It almost became difficult who to turn the groups' attention towards... But alas pain wasn't quite the equivalent to the stench of death. It didn't take a genius to know what Yu had been shouting about in there... and the beeping of the heart monitor on the otherside of the wall had since crawled to a complete stop.

Fate was a bitch.

"No... No, you gotta be shitting me." Justin whispered as he got up, keeping an eye on Maya for a moment, her mouth still agape as she tried to scream in pain. You know how she once compared the pain in her chest to heartbreak? This was like that, only ten times worse. He slowly approached the door, leaving the rest of the group behind to their shock, confusion, and tears in some cases. Hell Chie was bawling her eyes out right now, and had he not been so caught off-guard himself, Justin would have held her tight in his arms and never let go until the waterfalls flowing from her eyelids dried up. But the simple fact of the matter was, he was too shocked for the chivalry portion of his brain to kick into play. He just felt nothing. This shouldn't have happened. The good guys always win... Nanako was one of the good guys right? Why did... why did such a small child have to... Just... Why? Justin damn well might have clawed his way through the door to lay eyes on the scene himself, not willing to believe this until he saw it with his own two eyes, but he was interrupted by the door sliding open to allow Dojima passage. He had this vacant, pained expression on his face. If someone had told him this morning Nanako wouldn't make it through the end of the day, he would have believed them full of shit. But it happened... and now he didn't know what to do. His little girl... gone. He simply slid his way past the group, not making eye contact with anyone. There was nothing to say. Words would do nothing.

"Dojima-san…? What's with that look…?" Adachi questioned as Dojima slid right past him. There was something other than immeasurable confusion and grief in Dojima's eyes, something only Adachi had managed to catch onto. Justin was confused, partially because of Adachi's comment, partially because, just... Why? no other question could make it's why to Justin's lips. Just why. "His room isn't that way- Wait a sec, that's the way to Namatame!" And then it hit Adachi all at once why something seemed odd about Dojima... well besides from his daughter being dead and all. Justin practically choked on his own saliva as the comment hit his ears. Oh no, he didn't need any explaining. He had seen enough movies to know where this was going. Bastard planned to kill Namatame right there and then.

Did it make Justin a horrible person that he didn't care? That he wanted Dojima to get his revenge? He'd give him the knife if he wanted it. The others... were unfortunately unable to agree with Justin's stance on this. In fact, Kanji was so furious about this that he outright charged Adachi and held him up by the collar, pushing him against the wall in a threatening fashion. As if to extort something from him. I don't think anyone really got that there wasn't exactly many places to transport a prisoner for medical treatment. And so what it's the same hospital? He was under surveillance; he wasn't going to do anything funny. Justin needless to say didn't approve of Kanji being an asshole. Neither did Rise if the fact that she ran into the room to get Yu out here before Kanji did anything funny. He came out just in time to see Kanji strangling Adachi, which he certainly didn't like.

"You transported him to the same hospital!? For crying out loud, he's the suspect in the case!"

"Wh-What are you getting mad at me for? This is the biggest hospital, and he's in no condition to be moved…" Adachi tried to explain to Kanji, hoping to appeal to some sense of logic in the boy. Unfortunately Kanji was much to pissed and just continued to growl in his face.

"Where is his room?"

"I-I can't tell you that."

"Let him go, Kanji." Justin interjected, making his way towards Adachi's side. How about they just ask like normal, civilized human beings instead of trying to choke each other like barbaric animals. They were getting nowhere fast like this. All Justin knew was he wasn't going to stand by and let Kanji bully an innocent just because he didn't know how to control his anger. He was upset about Nanako, Justin got that. They all were. This wasn't the answer though. In the end Kanji refused to let go until he got what he wanted.

"Just tell us where he is already! Cough it up! Where's his room!?"

"I said LET GO!" Justin shouted angrily before punching Kanji dead in the face, striking an aggressive stance as he released Adachi from Kanji's grip. He was more than willing to throwdown on Adachi's behalf if need by, maybe because he felt he owed it to Adachi, maybe because he felt that any time wasted here was another second Dojima might be able to go through with a privilege that should be rightfully his. Justin didn't necessarily agree with the eye for an eye philosophy, but he could feel for a man who lost his only daughter to some shit bag who fancied himself a hero. Maybe not through personal experience, but he understood all the same. In the end, it didn't matter though. Adachi spilled the beans once he hit the ground, coughing from having Kanji's hands around his throat for an extended period of time.

"Urgh… T-Top floor in the second surgical ward, furthest room back… B-But… there's a police guard…" He choked up, coughing up each word as he tried to reopen his airwaves. Kanji simply nodded before dashing off, leaving the others in the dirt. Yu didn't know what was going on, but he suspected there was a problem if Kanji was in this much of a hurry, and soon he followed Kanji's lead, followed by pretty much everyone else INCLUDING Adachi, who agreed that Dojima needed to be stopped before he did something stupid. Who would think that he would be able to run faster than all those teenagers? Either that or he was smart enough to use an elevator since he managed to beat all of the team to Namatame's room. Justin and Maya were the only ones left behind as the rest of the group dashed ahead, mostly because Maya couldn't even move from the pain she was in, and Justin was aware of that. He quickly made his way to where Maya layed across the bench, lip trembling as she tried to pretend the pain didn't exist.

"Maya? Come on we need to go... Christ there's no way you're moving."

_"Just go without me... I'll be... fine." _Maya mouthed off between bursts of pain, unable to muster the strength to use sign language. Justin wasn't great at reading lips, but he thought he got the general gist. He sighed before caving into Maya's wishes. He didn't like leaving her alone like this, but he was going to have to given the circumstances.

"I'll be right back. If you need help the nurses can give you some-"

_"Not after today."_

* * *

"Permission…? Who gave him permission to kill Nanako? Tell me that, huh? The hell with you all…! Why is he still alive when Nanako's dead!? Give me back Nanako… Give her back! She's… She's all I have…! She's… the only one… in the world…"

"Holy crap! Dojima-san! Quick, get him to his room! I'll go alert the doctors!"

Justin rushed in just in time to find Adachi pulling Dojima away from the door with the help of some security. Looked like he didn't have much chance to get in and do the deed in the first place. A shame, that man went through enough to deserve it. You could just tell from the pain in his voice as he got pulled away by Adachi that nothing in his life could ever be as bad as this exact moment. Justin sighed with pity as Adachi led him away from the potential crime scene and back to his room. With enough sleep, perhaps Dojima could just pretend this was all some nightmare he couldn't wake up from.

"Was he seriously gonna...?" Chie questioned hesitatingly after a moment. She would like to think that no cop could ever think of what Dojima had attempted, but then, she never quite understood a crime of passion then. And none of them understood what it was truly like for a parent to lose their child. It was like having your heart stabbed with a flaming chainsaw over and over again, just hoping for death to save you from grief. Had Chie had a child, and had said child been murdered, Justin would bet money she would do the same thing in that position. They all would.

"His only daughter's dead… Nothing woulda surprised me."

"...Part of me wished he did." Justin shook his head and leaned against a wall beside him. He was trying to keep his nerves down, knowing full well with the shock and sadness and rage he was under, his shadow could pop out at any time. If he just kept it all controlled, if he just kept calm, he'd be alright. In the end though, it sickened him ever so slightly to think he had wished death on another human being without being under his shadow's influence. He deserved it, but... That didn't make it right. And Dojima deserved that opportunity... But that wouldn't make him not a murderer, just the same as Namatame. An eye for an eye just leaves the whole world blind. "I must be an awful person."

"Dojima-san probably knew… that there's little to no chance Namatame would be convicted… Dammit… He killed Senpai, and now Nanako-chan… And the bastard's gonna walk away without paying for what he did…" Yosuke croaked ever so angrily. Justin might have been right about that making them horrible people, but it would be for the better good. If he wasn't going to get convicted, he was going to go free. And if he went free, he'd just do it again to someone else; just the way he did Nanako. And all she had sacrificed would be for naught just because her father couldn't apprehend a criminal. He wouldn't let her die in vein. Justin sighed and nodded his head a bit with agreement. Yes, to think he supported murder certainly made him a horrible person, but Yosuke was right. The chances of him getting convicted were pretty much non-existant, and Namatame would do more damage alive than in death... Was it justifiable to kill one to save a dozen? It was hard to say.

"...You're probably right, but I don't kn-" Justin was cut off by the sudden sound of thumping coming from Namatame's room. The guards had since left their post so that they could escort Dojima to his room, so it wasn't them making noise or anything... That meant the sound was coming from inside the room. "What the hell was that?" Justin questioned as all eyes fell towards the source of the sound. Now, it could be anything. Could just be the furnace kicking on in his room for all they knew, but given the circumstances, everyone was needless to say a little paranoid... And rightfully so. As soon as Justin opened the door he was met by the sight of Namatame crawling on the floor towards a window. Seemed the loud thump had been him rolling out of his bed trying to escape. "...Are you fucking kidding me?"

"What are you doing?" Yosuke questioned with annoyance. It was pretty clear what he was trying to do, much to everyone in the room's irritation. He was quick to turn around and crawl backwards against the wall, quickly fleeing from the sight of the angered teenagers. "You have your life… and now you want your freedom, too!?"

"It's your fault that Nanako-chan's…!"

"I-I, I didn't, I…" Namatame stuttered, trying to back up further, though finding himself unable to due to the wall right behind him. He was clearly afraid of them, and why shouldn't he be? They beat the crap out of him once, and most of them would do it again. Especially the guys in the room right now. Justin wanted to bash the fucker's brains in right here right now with the nearest blunt object he could find. How DARE he try to escape after what he did? Had he no guilt? This man wasn't human anymore; he was a monster. Monsters didn't belong in this world. And Justin damn well might have jumped him too had he not been interrupted by the television across the room suddenly flickering to life. Everyone was confused what was going on first until the picture cleared up. It was Namatame, and not a rerun of one of his speeches or anything, no. This was the golden-eyed shadow Namatame that lurked in the other world. And he was smirking. Taunting them. "What the hell? But- We already KILLED his shadow."

"No… Come to think of it, Namatame never faced his other self. And we didn't witness his Shadow returning to his body as a Persona, either… Perhaps that's why we're seeing this now…" Naoto countered. It was true, he never did face himself, so maybe his shadow wasn't dead after all. It seemed they couldn't quite die until they were accepted from what Justin had learned from Maya's shadow anyway, though it had just occurred to him now. It was kind of like what happened with Mitsuo and his shadow; how it never really died, just vanishing in the air to return again.

**"I failed to save her. It's because you got in my way. I failed. But it wasn't my fault. And the law can't touch me anyway…"**

"...What did that asshole just say?" Justin muttered with disgust. A shadow was a representation of one's true feelings right? So then... That meant Namatame didn't think he could be convicted. He was AWARE of what he did and he didn't give a fuck. He intentionally commited murder. He wasn't crazy, he had done this all on purpose. And he had them all fooled. But no longer. No more.

"Is that what's Namatame's really thinking!? Then… he wasn't deranged or anything… He knew what he was doing…!" Chie gasped. It was amazing how one little thing like this had completely destroyed the one thing that was holding the Investigation Team at bay: the chance that Namatame wasn't aware of what he was doing and that if he had he would have stopped himself. But he did know what he was doing and willingly commited murder. There was no hope, no sympathy to be given to a man such as Namatame. Only retribution.

"Th-This… Please… Stop…" He continued chanting in a panicked frenzy, his entire body trembling as he shrunk into a fetal position, the investigation team slowly surrounding him.

"Huh? Stop what? We ain't even done anything yet… Or do you want us to do something…? Something fitting for a bastard like you!" Kanji shouted. It was true, they hadn't done anything; but in truth Namatame wasn't telling the Investigation Team to stop, he was telling his shadow. Huge difference. But even then, why he was pleading with his shadow to stop was up for debate. Was it because his shadow was blabbering his secrets all over the television? Was it because he was afraid to admit that all of this was true? Denying that he knew what he was doing was murder? Or was he truly insane and all the pressure being placed on him by his shadow was causing him to snap again. The latter option didn't seem very likely.

**"I don't care either way. Living or dying makes no difference to me. But you… You're different. You can't do such a thing. You wouldn't dare, right? I'll continue 'saving' people… It's my mission…!"**

"Mission…!?" Yukiko continued the chain of exasperated reactions. The moment Yukiko lost her cool, baffled by the actions of Namatame was the moment he knew he had no hope of ever appealing to their senses. No matter how much he begged.

"P-Please stop…"

"He wants us to stop. What should we do?" Yosuke questioned, voice raspy with anger. It was a hard question to truly answer. Every fiber if Justin's being said to keep going, even if he knew it was wrong. And that was before Yosuke even proposed... Well... IT. The guy was an asshole, and while he was clearly afraid, he should have thought of that before murdering a child. Justin had no sympathy for Namatame. Whatever happened, he would look the other way. Maybe even push him in the right direction.

"Wh-What do you mean…?"

"We can't let this bastard do whatever he pleases." Yosuke continued. It was clear that he had no intention of leaving here without doing SOMETHING to assure he could never commit another crime. And to be fair, most of those present agreed with him. Whatever happened, they were instruments of justice; and by their very nature they must see justice done... Namatame wandering around and continuing his killing spree was not part of that plan.

"Still… What are you going to do?" Yukiko questioned with cautious curiosity. She didn't like the sound of Yosuke's voice as he dedicated himself to doing something. Surely they just meant giving him a whack or two, right? And that wouldn't even solve anything. What could Yosuke possibly do to see justice done where they stood now. They were barely in a position to be talking to the guy, and it's not like they were going to plant evidence on him or something.

"No way I'm going to walk out of here doing nothing…"

"I-I understand, but…"

"This must be a luxury suite. Most hospital wards don't have such large televisions… Why, with something like this in the room, this man could escape at any time… Although once he enters… he may find there's no way out…" Naoto interrupted Chie and Yosuke, slowly approaching the television and running her hand across the screen, causing a series of ripples in it's surface. And with that, it was immediately obvious what the plan was. They weren't here to make sure Namatame went to jail... They were making sure Namatame couldn't leave this room... by any means necessary.

"Wait a second! Y-You don't mean… Are you… serious…?" Rise remarked with exasperation, the sudden revelation of the gang's intentions striking her like a bowling ball. Murder. How could they stoop so low as to fall to Namatame's level? They were there to solve the crime and put him behind bars, not leave him for the dogs. That wasn't justice at all! It was a shame Rise couldn't see the bigger picture here. No one was saying they supported murder. No one particularly WANTED to either; but the fact of the matter was he WOULD NOT get convicted if they let him go and he WOULD kill again. They either killed him, or he killed someone else. That was the trade-off. And Yosuke would rather a scumbag murderer die than another person that was close to him. What happened to Saki and Nanako should never happen again.

"You just gonna turn your back and walk away?"

"That's… But…!"

"Wh-What's gotten into you guys!? This is crazy! How can we do something like that!?" Chie shouted, having finally cracked. Murder. And to think Justin seemed to be in on this. All the guys were, and Naoto as well. These were people who had said they would stop this stuff from happening again, not commit it themselves. This wasn't the Justin she knew and loved. That look in his eyes... They weren't the usual golden color, and yet they were so full of hate and dispisal. He wanted nothing more than to see Namatame burn, and he'd light the fuse if he had to.

"Chie! Everyone… Listen to me. If we're gonna do this… now is our only shot. We won't get a second chance. At this rate, the guy's gonna get off the hook… And he'll go around "saving" people again! You just heard what this bastard's really thinking! If that happens, it'll be just like Nanako-chan and Senpai… Who knows how many innocent people will die this time? I can't let something like that go… Someone close to me died… Her killer can't be convicted… And now I'm gonna let the same thing happen again? There's no way I can to that! It's just wrong, isn't it!?"

"...He's right." Justin remarked ever so calmly. It was strange, he had never been angrier in all his life, never wanted to beat a man's skull in more in his entire existence, and yet... He was keeping a somewhat level-head about all of this, even if he was all on board for entirely horrendous act. Justice wasn't always pretty after all; you had to look at these things logistically. And logically, this was the only way. So he'd do it. And he'd have no remorse. Hell he might even enjoy it. And the sad part? His shadow never once showed his ugly face. These were Justin's true colors. And that scared Chie. "The law will never be able to convict Namatame. There's no evidence and a solid alibi. He'll just get released over and over again and kill more people, no matter how many times we catch him... If we want to solve this case, there's only one way this can end."

"B-But Justin!"

"All we have to do is push him inside the TV… That's it. We do that one thing, and this is all over." Yosuke turned around, intervening in Chie and Justin's little quarrel. It was pretty clear Justin wasn't going to be able to convince her to do this without destroying what they had, but that didn't mean this was something they could ignore. They had to do this, and while he wouldn't watch Justin destroy his relationship to do what was right, he could do this and save Justin the guilt of dragging Chie into something she clearly wanted no part in. "If any of you want no part in this, just leave the room. I'm not gonna force you to stay. As for me, nothing could make me forgive this bastard… But before we do this, I want to hear what you think. What do you want to do… Leader?"

Yu stood there, arms crossed as his eyes ran over everyone in the room... especially Namatame. Yu stared at him with a great intensity of hatred. This was the bastard that killed his cousin. "...Throw the bastard in." Yu eventually grunted before grabbing Namatame by the collar and dragging him towards the television. The guys were more than pleased with his decision, though most of the girls were in an immediate state of panic. They had expected Yu to object to this madness, not encourage it, and most certainly not be the one to do the deed. Chie and Yukiko immediately tried to dart after him to stop him, but Yosuke and Kanji stepped in the way to block their path.

"Don't do this!" Yukiko shouted after him, hoping that maybe she could convince him not to follow such a dark path. He didn't seem to care though. He just kept dragging Namatame towards the TV, kicking and screaming as he tried to get out of Yu's grip. He had bloody murder in his eyes as he came to a halt in front of the television, pressing Namatame against the screen so that his back caused the screen to ripple. Namatame knew the implications and he constantly tried to break free. Anything but that. It wasn't working though. Yu's mind seemed pretty set in stone. Justin didn't help at all, he simply sat on the bed nearby and watched, arms folded in front of him as he watched Yu try to murder a man in cold blood. You know... there was something so horrifyingly different about contemplating murder and actually going through with it. This was the right thing to do... so why did he feel so sick to his stomach? "Yosuke-kun please."

"I'm sorry, it has to be done." Justin bit his nails as Yu began to shove Namatame through, first starting with the head, but still keeping a solid grip on his clothes. As if to taunt him, to threaten him with the fate that would await him before dropping him in. It made his skin crawl watching the usually calm and collected Yu taking some sort of sadistic pleasure. Like everything was just all wrong here... It only took him a few more seconds of disgusted viewing before he realized Chie was right. This was wrong. This wasn't some sort of act of frontier justice. It was murder, plain and simple. And they were all in on it. He couldn't watch for a second longer.

"Wait..." Justin spoke up after a while. Yu detached his attention from Namatame for only a brief second to see what it was Justin wanted. He was with them on this so he doubted it was one of the increasingly vocal objections Chie, Yukiko, and Rise had been making. "Look at us. We're hanging Namatame through the television, trying to play judge, jury, and executioner. We're doing the exact same thing he did to us. We're no better than him."

"For a minute I thought you were going to say something useful." Yu sighed and shook his head before turning his attention back to Namatame. His mind was set in stone on the matter. Namatame would die here tonight, paying for his crimes in blood. Thrust in a jail cell he couldn't escape where he could hurt no one but himself. It was a fate befitting of him, and had Yosuke suggested this a week ago... he might have considered doing this earlier. Oh yes, there was no changing Yu's stance on all of this... Except maybe one last defense on Justin's behalf.

"This isn't what Nanako would have wanted." Yu froze in place for a moment, staring Namatame dead in the eye, an expression of pure horror and panic sweeping across his face. It only took Yu a split second to quite realize what he was doing. This blood would be on his hands, and for what? Revenge? He was already going to get a sentence for kidnapping... It might not have been the punishment he deserved, but... he wasn't going to go out and kill again if he was still behind bars. Killing Namatame would solve nothing.

"...Nanako was too young. She wouldn't understand." Yu tried to justify his actions, hands trembling slightly as he tried to keep a grip on Namatame. He doubted what he was doing, but he was trying to look at this logistically. Logistically, this was the best course of action... Humanely, it was a sure fire way to sell his soul off. Justin shook his head, jumping up from the bed and making his way over to Yu.

"She always was mature for her age." Yu's eyes fell towards the ground, self-pity for the man he found he had become. Justin was right, Nanako wouldn't have wanted Yu to become the very thing he had set out to defeat. She wouldn't even want him to dwell on this case, as much as he knew it would haunt him for the rest of his life. It was his fault he wasn't fast enough to save her after all. "Just let him go. We can all calm down and think this over... And if we still think this is the best course of action, then... Then I'll throw him in myself." Justin reassured Yu, sensing his doubt on the matter. It made Justin sick to his stomach to think about killing him, but he wouldn't let the blood be on Yu's hands when he wasn't even confident about doing this anymore. Yu sighed before releasing Namatame, allowing him to crawl away under his bed, as if that would get his attackers to go away.

"You're right… We should calm down and think rationally about this… I realize now that we've heard almost nothing from Namatame's perspective… There's no denying that this man brought great harm to Nanako-chan… But other than that point, the rest comes from our assumptions based on watching the Midnight Channel a moment ago. I won't deny that we were blinded by the heat of the moment… trying to impute all responsibility to him rashly." Naoto interrupted Justin as he volunteered to take the fall on the team's behalf. It took a lot of bravery to commit one's self to take fall for another, she had to admit that. It was something a criminal would do, but it did show he had great respect for his friends... that was an admirable trait in her eyes. Perhaps Justin wasn't so bad after all. Still, that was irrelevant for the time being they needed to not jump to conclusions. They knew from experience with this case that things weren't always as they first appeared.

"But the guy's not saying anything. Whatever reason he had, there's no doubt about the fact that he's been throwing people inside the TV. It was him who put Senpai through that misery… How can we possibly understand someone who says killing people is the same as "saving" them!?" Yosuke objected. At the moment, he was still on the murder train. He couldn't see what had cause everyone else to falter so, but he knew it was irritating. If only Maya were up here with all of them; perhaps she could talk some sense into Yosuke. For some reason she was always able to convince Yosuke on pretty much anything. Call it seductive charm, call it just being a smart girl, she had her ways. Alas, she was still down a floor or two, head rested against the bench as she tried to numb the pain.

"Intention is the difference between murder and manslaughter Yosuke. Let's not pretend it doesn't matter." Justin pointed out. He knew Yosuke was angry about Saki and Nanako; Justin was too, but the fact of the matter was they had to consider everything, especially when making a decision like this. He couldn't say he spotted any loose ends the way Naoto claimed to, but he wanted to make sure they were doing the right thing before he tossed the fucker into a television screen.

"Indeed. Failing to understand and failing to listen are rather different things. Truthfully, not all the hitches that were nagging at me have been answered yet. We'll have to see what he can tell us about them… Though it appears he's in no condition to do so at the moment." Naoto sighed as she peered under the bed at the trembling Namatame. This was no way to treat a witness. Again pretty ironic given the way she treated Justin, Maya, and hell Namatame a moment ago when she suggested the means of murder. But by all means lady, pretend you're hands are clean on the matter. Not like Justin wasn't going to be the one to blame if something bad happened anyway.

"True… Dealing with him right now might not solve all the things that are bothering us…" Yosuke sighed after a moment. He hated that Namatame got to live after all he had done, but the others were right. They had to be absolutely sure this was the right decision, and with that television program that just aired, there were still matters to be investigated. "Dammit… But you better remember this… I'll do everything I can to stop him from repeating what he's done. Anytime, anywhere... anything."

"I'd expect no less." Justin tipped his head with acknowledgment. He agreed that sometimes crimes had to be committed for the better good... He just wasn't sure this was one of those times. Was it right to kill one to save a thousand...? Yes. But he was too much of a coward to do it. And were he put in a position like this again where other lives were in his hands... He wasn't sure he'd make the right call. He wasn't god after all; it wasn't his role to choose who lived and died.

"Alright. Let's go ahead and think this through as much as we need. If we leave any unanswered questions behind, we'll just be lying to ourselves…" Yosuke mused as he made his way out the door, a slight tantrum in the way his feet slapped against the floor. You could tell he was already having regrets letting Namatame live. It took a lot of balls for him to at least try to let him go though, and that Justin could respect. Yosuke and him might have had their quarrels in the past, but in the end... he was a good man. A little perverted and a little hot headed and a little stupid, but a good man. Justin sighed as the rest of the group made their way out of the room in turn. Yukiko did so rather close to Yu, as did Chie to Justin. It was a rather scary situation after all, and to see cooler heads prevail, well... there was a combination of relief and pride that washed over the two. It was the hard times that brought a family together after all, right? It was only a short walking distance before the group found themselves outside Namtame's room and in the hallway. "Alright, so what's this we're missing?" Yosuke questioned after a moment. Seemed like Naoto had some doubts, so he'd love to know what those doubts were.

"To tell the truth, there's something that's bothering me too… Why did he start killing people in the first place?" Yukiko questioned. It was a good question none of them had even considered. The motive. He had literally no reason to kill anyone other than the announcer, unless perhaps for sport, in which case Justin would turn around and throw him right into the television himself. Okay maybe not, but he'd at least kick his ass a little.

"Well he said himself, it was to "save" them, right? So he killed his lover in order to save her, and kept going?" Chie proposed another one of her half-thought out theories. It wasn't a BAD theory persay, just incorrect.

"The police speculated the first murder was related to the affair, so they called in Namatame for questioning… But everything in his testimony and his bearing… No matter what they looked at, they found nothing suspicious. If he truly is twisted enough to believe that murder is a means of saving people, I think that would have shone through…" Naoto mused on the matter. He wasn't crazy, that was for sure. It begged the question why he seemed so insane when they ran into him in the television world, but his psychological analysis showed he was in good mental health. That angle wasn't going to work.

"Maybe he faked it real well. Or maybe he started out with a normal motive, and got a taste for killing after the first time." Yosuke continued to try and justify the crazy angle. Or really any angle that put Namatame into a negative light. You would think he would want to know the truth before he tried to kill a guy, not frame him for a crime he may or may not have committed. They needed to know for certain, and Yosuke sure as hell wasn't helping.

"No… If that were the case, his motive for killing that announcer would be even more inexplicable. Namatame and his wife were separated at the time. Both Misuzu Hiiragi and himself testified that she had discarded him. Hiiragi also knew about Yamano beforehand, and Namatame was shocked to hear of Yamano's death… Their relationship was known, and was not strained to the point of murder… There's simply no motive in the affair angle. The police invested a great deal of effort into investigating this point. Therefore, we have no convincing motive for Namatame to kill Mayumi Yamano… Although… her name was written in Namatame's own diary…" Naoto scratched at her chin a bit at the thought. There was no affair angle in this crime, that was for sure, but her name certainly was there in the diary along with all the other victims, so it begged the question as to why he would actually murder Mayumi Yamano. It didn't make sense from a logistical standpoint.

"Uhhh… I don't really get any of this… Argh, this is so confusing!" Chie finally shouted with frustration. She usually didn't get a lot of things, but Justin could agree. Too many inconsistencies now that Naoto pointed it out. This conversation might have gone on for quite some time with theories being exchanged left and right, but they were soon interrupted by a nurse storming into their midst; the same one from the hospital room from earlier. You could tell because she had this distinctive mole on her cheek. Plus Justin kinda got the feeling Yu knew her, since he seemed so comfortable around her.

"There you are! Please come with me immediately!"

* * *

"Nanako-chan came around!"

"...I ...But ...She ...This defies everything I know about science. But you know what? Fuck science. If this is the alternative, I'll take it."

It was pure ecstasy that had swept through the group as they huddled into the room to find Nanako's heart beat monitor beeping once more. Yu actually cried a little bit with joy. He didn't know how this happened, but he didn't care. He was just happy to see his cousin was alright. Who knows... maybe it was just that Yu needed a guardian angel of his own for once back there in the room. And that was why Nanako died. But her service was done, and now... Now she had her life once again. Sometimes fate was just one big M Night Shyamalan plot twist.

"It's very rare to be resuscitated after one's heart and lungs fail, but it does happen. But until I know why she collapsed in the first place, I can't say for sure how well she'll recover from here on… Still, Nanako-chan's a fighter, and she's trying desperately to stay alive." The doctor explained to them. She was still hanging in there, but to have someone so desperate to stay alive that they fought off death itself, well... He had no doubt Nanako would make it through. Still, as an unwritten rule of being a doctor, never speak in definites. That way if you're wrong you won't get sued.

"S-So this isn't a joke…? You're actually telling the truth…!?" Yosuke practically jumped for joy. Everyone was, sniffling and sobbing with happiness as Nanako rejoined the land of the living. All except Maya, who while happy, also felt very empty in her heart of hers, just staring blankly at the monitor that had resurged to life. No one really questioned it, they were much too caught up in their celebrations.

"You all should go home for the night. I'll speak with Dojima-san tomorrow about Nanako-chan's treatment. It's rather chilly outside… If it starts snowing, be careful not to catch a cold." The doctor advised before dismissing the lot of them. Yu was quick to jump towards the doctor and shake his hand with gratitude, but the others were so gleeful they had forgotten all about etiquette. That was alright, the doctor got that a lot. And he didn't go into medicine just so he could be thanked; he did it to save lives. Everyone was quick to shuffle out of the room, where the sudden realization that Teddie was missing had started to dawn on them; though Justin did suggest he was just taking a shit and he'd be out in no time. Yes everyone left but Maya, who simply stood there and stood. And she would have continued to, had Yosuke not come back around when he noticed Maya hadn't followed the lot of them out.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Yosuke question as he peered his head around the corner. He always knew when Maya was bothered from the look in her eyes. The eyebrow really gave it away, as they always had this rather dramatic curve to them whenever her emotion changed. She simply shook her head, staring at the heartbeat monitor for a moment longer while Yosuke found his way to her side.

_"...If they can bring people back... why didn't they do that with dad?"_

_"_Huh? ...O-Oh... Um... They... Usually can't bring people back after they die, it's probably a one in one hundred thousand chance... I'm sure they would have if they could."

_"No Yosuke. My father was in a coma. Not dead, a coma. They could have waken him up, but instead they killed him... These doctors are nothing but legal killers."_

"But they save lives!"

_"But they didn't save my dad's."_


	218. Chapter 217: December 4, 2011

CHAPTER 217

December 4, 2011

* * *

"It's no use, man. We can't find him."

Justin and most of the gang had been woken this morning by Yosuke calling everyone up to notify them he couldn't find Teddie anywhere. They had just assumed he went home on his own after what happened to Nanako, but it turned out that wasn't the case as Yosuke found his room strangely vacant. He looked around that night, but there was no sign of him. And that meant the manhunt started today. Or at least, it had been for Kanji and Rise; the rest of the group had just been waiting around at Junes, an awkward air around them as they tried not to mention last night. To think they were so close to murdering a man in cold blood. Sent a shiver down Justin's spine thinking about it.

"No luck for me either… I didn't sense anything over there. The fog's so dense, it might be affecting my readings. I wish I could do better… I'm sorry." Rise apologized, having returned from the television. She had suspected that Teddie would go back to his own world if he wanted to run away or something, but if her scan had been evidence of anything, it was that that simply wasn't true. Teddie was nowhere to be found it would seem. Yosuke sighed and shook his head.

"That Ted… Don't tell me he really went back to his world this time… We told him over and over that he could stay here…" Yosuke sighed with irritation and annoyance, but also compassion. Teddie still hadn't received the news that Nanako was okay, and it's not like he had any reason to suspect she could come back. He was probably busy drowning himself in sorrow; and there was not a damn thing they could do about it. Poor guy.

"I'm worried for Teddie myself, but let's trust in him and await his return. Right now, we must concentrate on the case. It won't be long before Namatame is transferred to another location. We must hurry, or we will miss our only chance to get his perspective on this." Naoto interrupted the group's concerns for Teddie. Teddie was their friend and she had no intention of leaving him behind of course, but for a being who didn't need to eat drink or sleep, they had plenty of time to go searching for him. Namatame was going to be moved later this evening. Priorities dictated they needed to decide their stance on what to do with Namatame before that point, as much as no one wanted to really talk about it. Justin groaned with displeasure.

"Do we have to?" He remarked semi-sarcastically. He knew they had to, he just really didn't want to. Namatame seemed pretty damn guilty to him, and in the end he would be serving a sentence for kidnapping all those people anyway. Seemed their job was done; and besides… Justin really didn't want to raise the possibility of committing murder again. He was just fine letting the cops do their job, thank you very much.

"Let's quickly review the facts. Of all the victims, only two were killed: Ms. Yamano, the announcer, and Saki-san. From the documents we found in the car, we know Namatame had some sort of dealings with them. After that, there were multiple attempted murders, in which we were targeted… It was only when he took Nanako-chan that we caught him in the act, identifying his modus operandi in the process. As a result of Namatame's arrest, the police admitted that Mitsuo Kubo was a mere copycat killer." Justin rolled his eyes a bit as he put his feet up on the table, as if to lean back and relax. He wanted to point out that they all already knew this to Naoto, but he supposed that was kind of the point. Didn't mean he didn't want her to shut up and move onto some new developments.

"Back up to yesterday… Remember when you said Namatame didn't have a motive to kill the announcer? That's what's bothering me." Yosuke interrupted Naoto. He didn't need a summary of the past year, he already got all of that. It was the things that had been brought up yesterday that were bothering him. If it had been anything prior to that point that had been bugging him, he wouldn't have considered throwing Namatame through the screen in the first place.

"It's hard to tell whether he's sane or not… His shadow seemed to beg to differ, but Namatame himself was… uh… a little jittery." Justin mused on the matter a bit. If he was sane enough to know what he was doing, then that seemed like good enough reason to let Namatame rot along the vine, but if he was insane, then he needed help and that was all there was to it.

"If Namatame IS sane, then there may be facts in the case we don't know about yet." Yukiko interjected. She knew everyone was on the train of thought that if Namatame was sane enough to know what he was doing, then he was by all accounts guilty of everything and deserved full punishment. But the fact of the matter was they had ALL thought he was insane prior. It was possible that they had missed more than just Namatame's state of mind.

"Always a catch…" Justin sighed as he popped open a can of soda and took a sip. Why couldn't these things be simple? Just 'yes, person a murdered person b' and end it at that. Why did there have to be all these loopholes based on a man's sanity? Hell why did it even matter? So what if he wasn't insane? The effect was still the same, the only thing that would differentiate is the punishment.

"When he talks about "saving" people, what does that actually mean? I don't think there's any doubt that it includes kidnapping people and throwing them into the TV." Yosuke questioned. That was another thing that was rubbing him the wrong way though he couldn't put a finger on why. It seemed Namatame wanted to save his victims through death, much like Justin's shadow believed in salvation through mutually assured destruction. That was the theory, and yet while it made sense with everything Yosuke had seen of the man, there was just something off about it all.

"Could he mean… saving them through death…? He did call himself a "savior," and said that the other side is a 'wonderful world.'" Naoto mused on the matter. It was hard to tell if the other side in this case was the television world or the afterlife, but whatever it was he meant, it was clear that he believed saving someone involved bringing them there, and he fancied himself some kind of hero kidnapping everyone for such a deed. The question though was really… was he? It all depended on the circumstances really.

"If you think about it normally, it's gotta be him… But there ain't nothin' normal about that world anyways…"

"That doesn't mean logic is completely dead though. Evidence is evidence." Justin objected. They could claim many a things about Namatame's state of mind, but they simply couldn't hide behind the fact that the other world was a mystery to them. Forensics wasn't something that changed from side to side after all, it was always consistent wherever they were.

"There's something I've been wondering about for a while. When we first encountered him, he said… 'You're the ones I saved. Don't worry, I'll save this girl too…' So um… If he "saves" people by killing them, did he save us too? Wouldn't he actually have failed to save us…?" Justin sprung up slightly in his chair. He hadn't even considered the wording on that until Yukiko pointed it out just now. That's right, if he believed in saving others through death, then he couldn't possibly have saved any of the Investigation Team as they were all alive… So then what exactly did 'saving' entail?

"You raise a good point. If he thinks that salvation comes only through death, his words to us make no sense… And another thing… The Namatame who appeared on the Midnight Channel said he failed to save Nanako-chan." Naoto continued. Goddamn Justin felt stupid for not noticing this earlier. I mean… they knew he had kidnapped everyone, but the fact of the matter was his role in the actual murders was very shaky at this point. Amazing what something as simple as word choice could do for a mystery.

"Well, maybe he really was trying to save the victims by putting them inside the TV." Everyone paused to stare at Chie with this expression of surprise, much to her embarrassment. Two for two as far as crackpot theories that actually held some kind of weight. "C-C'mon, don't get all quiet like that… You guys know I just say the first dumb thing that pops into my head… Haha…" Justin rubbed at his chin a bit. The possibility that he really intended to save them… That… couldn't be right, could it? He had seen the place with his own two eyes, surely he must have noticed that no one could be save there? It was hard to believe that was the case. There must have been something else to it…

"But he's still the one who threw in Saki-senpai and that announcer, right!? Sure, we haven't nailed down his motives, but that doesn't change the fact that he killed them. Or what, you think someone else was involved?" Yosuke interjected, face turning bright red again. He clearly didn't care much for the guy after what he did. Intentional or not, he killed those people; and he had no intention of forgiving him. Even if the intent was to save them from… whatever the fuck it was he was saving them from.

"W-Well what about the warning letters?" Yu spoke up after a while. He might have had some more evidence to support this whole 'he actually was trying to save people' angle. Figures that the guy who almost killed Namatame would be the one to have the evidence that he was innocent. 'The first one read 'dont rescue anymore'… and the second one read,'if you dont stop this time, someone close will be put in and killed'… Isn't that kinda odd? Would someone who thinks he's saving people by killing them write stuff like "don't rescue" or "kill"?"

"Yeah, and the "will be put in and killed" part doesn't make sense either… If the killer was writing it, wouldn't it be more like "I'll put in and kill"?" Kanji continued on the thought. Really, the way these letters were worded in such a way that they completely contradicted the ideals of a man who believed he was saving people. If he thought he was saving them, he wouldn't say he would be killing people, or not to rescue anyone… and he certainly wouldn't be referring to himself in third person like that; would he?

"Namatame didn't write it. It's almost like… someone else wrote this letter…" Yu muttered softly, eyes darting over the letter once again. It also begged the question as to why Justin got the letter as well, and yet no one else did. It wasn't like the two both knew Namatame or anything, and if he wanted to inform everyone in the group, why only those two in particular? Namatame had no reason to do that… but a third-party might have… The real culprit.

"But only the killer would write such a letter and deliver it to Dojima-san's house, right? If someone else wrote it, that could only mean…" Yukiko gasped suddenly. It seemed like the puzzle pieces were slowly starting to fall in place; and the picture they formed most definitely wasn't Namatame. They were so ready to kill him and he wasn't even the one who had done this. Someone else wrote those letters, and someone else was the killer. They all realized that now.

"Everything is exactly the opposite of what it first seemed… In Namatame's parlance, 'failing' would have been the first two cases, when the victims died. If he had used his method twice, and failed both times, he would hardly have continued using the TV. And yet he did. It all seems to suggest that someone else wrote this warning letter while observing the entire case…" Naoto elaborated, trying to place a finger on the criminal's true motive. She wasn't a professional criminal profiler or anything, but she could still try. And well… it seemed like Namatame hadn't even been involved until after the first case or two. Someone else had been involved for much longer, and that was the person who wrote the letters. " We urgently need to speak to Namatame face to face… I have a plan. But there's no time to waste. Let's hurry to the hospital!"

"_Oh no… NO NO NO NO." _Maya immediately began to shake her head and mouth off disapproval. She was pretty damn vocal about not going, and Justin had no intention of forcing her to. Nor did Yosuke after what he heard the day prior. She really should get over her fear of hospitals one of these days, but that could wait until after they were done solving murders.

"What, you thought we were bringing you? And risk you kicking me again? Yeah, no thanks."

* * *

"I'm a consultant with the police. I'd like a few words with Namatame-san. May I go in?"

Naoto had the idea of using her own credentials to get inside the room and speak to Namatame, though in truth she probably could have just waited for Plan B to kick in to effect, since the rest of the group had to get into. They simply waited around the corner, listening as Naoto spoke to the guard on duty; requesting access to the room and by extension the suspect.

"This is unit 252 requesting confirmation on an ID… Name of Naoto Shirogane… Huh? Ah, understood. I see. Well, you're on the list… I can give you a few minutes, but I'll have to record your conversation with him for security purposes. Not that I expect you'll get anything coherent out of the guy. He's been spouting nothing but gibberish." The police officer spoke with Naoto for a while, or at least, until his walkie talkie began to buzz with life a second time. Rise didn't waste any time setting up that distraction, did she? Who would think that the head from Teddie's mascot costume would cause such a ruckus downstairs? Well to be fair, how often did you find a mascot head just lying around. "This is unit 252… huh? I see…"

"Is something the matter."

"Something about a suspicious object out in the lobby…"

"Ah. Well then, this works out nicely. You should back up your colleagues downstairs. We'll keep watch over Namatame-san. A disturbance in a hospital lobby, after all… It sounds serious." The Investigation Team couldn't really see what was going on around the corner of course, but they could see the police officer running around the corner to go help with the disturbance. Honestly, this went way easier than Justin expected; but he wasn't complaining. He simply made a gesture of his hand to let the others pass before him. Ladies first after all. That apparently included Kanji, Yosuke, and Yu. Given that they were in that cross-dressing pageant… not entirely untrue."I knew they were undermanned, but I didn't expect it to go this smoothly…" Naoto remarked with pleasant surprise as the rest of the group rounded the corner, pushing the door to Namatame's room open all the while. They didn't exactly have much time since there was nothing in Teddie's mascot suit, so every second counted. They didn't have time to dawdle around out here.

As the group stepped through the door, Namatame immediately flinched, as if preparing to try and jump for the window to escape. Trying to kill him last night probably didn't help with their investigation. After all, why would you trust someone who had tried to murder you? His reaction was understandable, though he calmed down a bit when the group insisted on keeping a certain distance away from him to give him breathing room. And in Justin's case, mockingly putting his hands in the air, as if to show him he had no ace up his sleeve here. It was just them, this room, and some questions. "Namatame-san… There's something we'd like to ask you… It's tempting to think that you were the culprit behind this entire case. And to be honest… there are many in this town who hope you are. But we are here to learn the truth. So please… answer our questions."

"Who… exactly did you throw in first?" Justin questioned, eyebrow raised. If Namatame was not their true culprit, then his answers would differentiate from the truth, correct? Assuming of course he wasn't just lying right to their faces, but given that trembling look on his face, the horror in his eyes as his previous assailants began to interrogate him, well… Why piss of someone who wouldn't hesitate to kill you? Namatame laid there in his bed, shaking for a moment before swallowing hard. It was clear he didn't entirely trust the group, but he'd do anything to keep them away at this point. He shakily raised his arm, extending his index finger out towards Yukiko.

"Huh…? Me?"

"Well I guess that settles that." Justin remarked, crossing his arms. If he didn't start until Yukiko, that meant that someone ELSE had thrown the announcer and Saki into the television. Of course, that still didn't probe that Namatame's intention wasn't to murder the teenagers, but it did set up reason to believe that he had a motivation to save people after the first two deaths. But they needed to know now if saving was actually… well… saving. "So when you say saving people… You mean killing them right?"

"No… If nobody saves them, they'll be killed… That's why… I put them in there…" Namatame frantically objected. He could feed his interrogators what they wanted to know, but he still had his integrity dammit, and the fact of the matter is he didn't kill anyone… he was sure of it. None of that was his fault. Justin passed Naoto a glance, shrugging his shoulders a bit. Seemed like they had been right about Namatame.

"Then tell me if my estimation is correct so far. After discovering the Yamano and Konishi incidents, you realized an appearance on the Midnight Channel meant certain death. Thus, to "save" her from that fate, you kidnapped Yukiko Amagi… You couldn't let her be killed, so you threw her into the TV, preventing the killer in this world from reaching her… And you repeated the process, as more individuals appeared on the Midnight Channel…" Naoto turned away from Namatame to face the others. No one really objected to her theory as it stood. Given what they knew, that actually sounded fairly accurate. Again, assuming Namatame wasn't just lying. It was hard to trust a criminal to tell the truth after all. "It all falls into place. His body is weak, but his mind is sound. He's trying to tell us the truth…" Namatame jumped a bit at that. All those who had tried to interrogate him before just thought he was spewing nonsense. To find someone who believed him, even people who had tried to shove him in… THERE; it was almost a relief.

"You… believe me…? D-Did they find him!? Did they find the one who did such cruel things!?

"Please calm down. Our ability to find the culprit rests on you. We know about the other world. In fact, we're the only ones who can fully understand what you have to say." Naoto remarked, startled by the sudden burst of life in Namatame. He almost looked excited to find someone who actually believed him. He didn't seem like he was feigning it either, which only reinforced the belief that he was actually trying to tell them the truth. And for once, someone was listening to him. "We did blame you for everything at first. But now, I think we can accept whatever you got to tell us… as truth. Please… Tell us everything you can… Calmly and slowly."

"You're willing to listen… to my story…?" Namatame questioned cautiously, as if not sure whether to believe the people standing across the room and watching him with intrigued eyes. Even when they nodded with confirmation, he had a hard time believing it. The past was hard to ignore after all, especially yesterday, but… These kids just very well might be his only chance. He had to take it, even after what they had done. "All right… All right… I'll talk… It all started after my affair with Mayumi became common knowledge. I returned to my parent's home, as if to run away from the scandal… And I started drinking heavily to drown my anxieties… I hadn't been able to reach Mayumi at all, and that didn't help, either… She'd been disgraced on all the afternoon shows and forced to resign from the program she was on. I caused her so much trouble… I wanted to at least apologize to her, but I couldn't even do that… I lost the will and energy to do anything… Then one day, the rumor I heard some time ago came back to me. Since I had nothing better to do, I sat down blankly in front of the TV and watched my own reflection… And all of a sudden, there was Mayumi. The Mayumi inside the TV looked as if she was calling to me for help…"

"The Midnight Channel…" Yu muttered. Namatame nodded with confirmation. He probably didn't need to explain anything about what had appeared on the screen, though it certainly did help with the imagery. Besides, they had expected that much; it seemed the only way one would know about the other side without accidentally falling into a television. And really, what idiot would do that. I mean besides Yu, Yosuke, Justin, and Chie. But no. It seemed that wasn't the case.

"When I reached out unthinkingly to touch her… my arm disappeared into the TV… as if I had dipped it into a pool of water. I was so shocked that I lost my balance and nearly fell face-first into the TV. I was so scared… I couldn't understand what just happened. I thought maybe I'd gone insane. In the end, I decided to think of it as just a dream, and I went back to the city the next day after finishing work. The next afternoon, when I got to work… I was fired on the spot, as I expected. That wasn't what broke me, though… It was Mayumi being found dead. And not just that, but it had happened in my hometown." Namatame paused for a moment, swallowing his pain for a moment. He truly did love that woman, and what had happened to her… she didn't deserve it. It was his fault he couldn't save her. He cast his eyes down in pain for a brief moment before trying to shake himself free of his guilt. There would be plenty of time for that later. "I was dumbstruck, but later on… I remembered the image of Mayumi I'd seen that night. "Was it not a dream…? Could it really have been an SOS from Mayumi…?" I hadn't touched another TV, because the first time was so terrifying, but I decided to try it again… And I confirmed that none of it was a dream. So that image… Was it something Mayumi showed me, calling for help…?"

"And eventually… you learned of the Midnight Channel." Naoto interjected. She could already see where this was going. Once Namatame realized that people popped up on that screen before they were killed, he made it his goal to assure that it couldn't happen to anyone again… Seemed he had simply picked a rather shitty method of doing so in that he was actually contributing to the problem. He nodded again with confirmation.

"I remembered that when Mayumi was alive, she was chasing a rumor about some bizarre TV program. I'd heard about it before, but I thought it was just an urban legend. But then Mayumi appeared on it, and later turned up dead. The more I thought about it, the harder it became to believe that the two events were unrelated. Soon after that, I came back to Inaba to answer the police's questions. I'd lost my job, and I wanted to know the truth of Mayumi's death for myself. Then, on another rainy night, someone else appeared on the Midnight Channel… It was a girl. She looked like she was calling for help, just like Mayumi. The first thing that came into my mind was, 'Maybe this girl will be the next to die…'"

"And that was Saki-senpai…" Yosuke blurted out rather quickly. It didn't surprise anyone that Saki was still on Yosuke's mind. Sometimes the group had to question whether or not he even cared about the other victims given how little he seemed to care about them in comparison to her. It was funny, they didn't even date or anything like that; why was he so hung up on her even now? She was a good friend, sure… But it was like he almost felt responsible for her death with how little he seemed to care about anyone else in comparison to the girl… Well except maybe HER, but it seemed everytime he tried to say something to her shit hit the fan. He had to wonder if that was a sign

"I'd been following all the news about Mayumi, so I noticed right away that she was the girl who found Mayumi's body. And if my hunch was right, she'd be the next victim. I didn't want her to die the way Mayumi did… So I desperately kept watching… I was consumed with the idea of rescuing her. Then… little by little, her image on the screen came into sharper focus… After I came back, my father couldn't bear to see me in such low spirits, and gave me a job with the family business. I met that girl when I delivered a package to the liquor store… After agonizing over it, I decided to meet he… and told her to be careful. But that same night, on the TV… She looked as if she was being engulfed by some black shape… She was writhing in pain… The next day, they found her dead."

Yosuke sighed, as if his breath had been taking away by the mere recap of a day that still haunted his memories. Worst day of his life, and he had gone through a lot of shit. It was hard to listen to it a second time. If it was worth anything though, Justin noticed and gave Yosuke a reassuring pat on the shoulder. It didn't help, but Yosuke smiled back at him. It was strangely relaxing knowing someone who hated your guts actually gave a damn about your feelings… Not that Justin hated him, but he sure made it seem that way. "I knew she was gonna be murdered, but I couldn't save her. I blamed myself, thinking there must have been something I could've done… There was no one who depended on me. Nobody at work… Not even my wife. Mayumi was the only one who accepted me for who I was. But she was murdered, and the same person killed another girl… I was… I was beside myself… I couldn't forgive myself for doing nothing!"

"You really did love Ms. Yamano…" Chie sighed a bit. It was so touching to hear of true love such as theirs; not so much the fact that she was brutally murdered of course, but still. She felt awful for Namatame, losing someone he cared so deeply about. She couldn't imagine what it would be like if she lost Justin like that… Though to be fair, she almost did when he ended up getting thrown in the television… Hey actually… wasn't Justin's name missing from that book Naoto found at the wreck? Why was everyone else there except him? Must have been their true culprit that tried to do the boy in; certainly wasn't Namatame here.

"Yes, from the bottom of my heart… Before I was married, my wife made it big in show business. I was happy for her, but it put a strain on our relationship. It was around that time when I met Mayumi… She was interviewing our candidate for the next election. She was a big-name announcer, but she only worked with local stations, and her attitude towards work was similar to mine. We both came from Inaba, so she was easy to talk to… I knew it was wrong, but I couldn't help getting intimate with her. She gave meaning to my life." Namatame paused to take a deep breath, trying to drown out the painful memory of Yamano's death. They could question him on anything, but please… don't make him remember her death. "Soon after Saki-san was found dead, yet another girl appeared on TV… That was you." He spoke up, pointing towards Yukiko. "My opponent was a murderer who left no clues to his identity… I thought hard about what I could do to protect her from someone like that. The girl inside the TV looked as if she was smiling at me… And… that's when it hit me. I apparently had the power to go through the TV screen to the other side… Then, what if I put her into the TV and give her shelter there before the killer gets her…? I thought, no matter what kind of place it might be, it's better than being slaughtered. Once things calmed down, I could just let her out again… It felt as if everything was starting to come together in my mind… Could it be… that Mayumi gave me that power, to prevent any more victims from meeting her fate…? Was it my mission to save people? But there was a big problem… If I explained the situation to the victim, they wouldn't understand. I had already tried that and failed miserably. It seemed the only thing I could do was take them away. If that was my mission… I'd just have to do it… Or so I thought.

"So, since you thought people who appeared on the Midnight Channel would be killed, you kidnapped us in order to save us…" Yukiko sighed, slightly upset. She was grateful in a strange way. She wasn't too pleased with being dumped into that slaughterhouse, but at the same point, his intentions were good. And it was true she probably wouldn't believe him if he tried to tell her… If only he knew what kind of place that had been, or that he was being manipulated. He legitimately wanted to do good… and he did have the power to do so. Chie didn't seem to quite feel as indebted though.

"Mission!? Give me a break! You never stopped and wondered about any of this!?

"She's got a point, you know." Justin remarked with stern eyes. I mean honestly, you can't just go running around playing vigilante without knowing the kind of damage you were doing. Justin could understand wanting to help, and he admired THAT much. He just couldn't believe Namatame was stupid enough to not even look into his investment. But then, he was a politician, so it kind of made sense.

"I thought I was the only one who could help them… I did call the police, but they didn't believe me. I knew the area well, thanks to my job. I had a large truck, and I could move around without suspicion… I thought my job as a deliveryman would be the perfect cover for my mission. I thought no one else could do it… But… are you telling me that I wasn't saving them…?" Namatame tried to justify his actions ever so slightly. I mean to be fair, he did take some kind of initiative before taking matters into his own hands; it was just… Come on, stick your head in or something. Hell, he didn't think something was up when he didn't even pull them out? They just kinda reappeared in the real world without any questions? Come on, he knew something was up."

"If a person is still within the TV world when the fog appears here, they will die. Beginning with Yukiko-san, the people you thought you had been saving were, in fact, in mortal peril… It was my friends here who really saved us all." Naoto explained to Namatame, scolding him slightly for his rash behavior.

"I had a feeling that was it… When I went after that little girl and entered the TV myself… For the first time, I had some doubts about myself."

"Then why the fuck didn't you stop!?" Justin shouted with exasperation. Don't get him wrong, he was still on Namatame's side in the sense that he respected what he was trying to do something good; but come on. These lapses of judgment were just fucking idiotic sometimes. He shook his head a bit. He had a good reason for that too.

"The police were after me, so I had to get away. But I still felt I needed to do everything I could to save that poor little girl… That's why I went in after her. But the TV world was completely different than I imagined… Such an abominable, grotesque place. I knew that the three of you who I "saved" went back to your normal lives, so I didn't realize how terrible that world was. I never knew… you couldn't even get out of that place on your own… I thought I was going insane-I probably did. And you know the rest. When I came to, I was lying in a hospital bed."

"…You really were trying to save people…"

"But I ended up doing just the opposite… What a fool. I always wanted to enter the world of politics, and become useful to society… But after losing my job and the woman I loved… all I had left was this power. I convinced myself that world was some sort of sanctuary… And I secretly believed myself to be a hero… I never doubted what I saw on TV… and believed everything was as I wanted it to be… I didn't think for myself at all… That's why I couldn't protect them. I'm to blame for all of this…" Namatame shook his head with disappointment and defeat. He should have known better, but secretly, he just wanted the spotlight as some savior… And that's why all of this had to happen.

"What's done is done… You didn't know any better." Yu encouraged him. Namatame was needless to say a little surprised to see people who had tried to murder him so forgiving now that he explained everything. Why exactly didn't he deal with kids these violently bipolar when he was in office again…? It didn't really matter; he wasn't surprised for long. "But if you ever touch Nanako again I'll slit your throat myself." Yu clarified, crossing his arms.

"Yu!"

"I suppose so… But the things I've done are too serious to be brushed aside like that… I have no intentions of running away from my crimes. I'm prepared to face the consequences. Kidnapping is already a serious crime… And on top of that, I put all those lives in danger. I'm sorry…" Namatame apologized again, brushing off Yu's threat. He kind of deserved it admittedly, and besides; he had no intention of getting involved any further, so he had nothing to fear.

"The Midnight Channel and the other world… You can hardly be blamed for failing to understand them properly. We must apologize to you as well. Had we let our emotions blind us to the truth, we would have piled all the responsibility on you."

"Yeah sorry about the whole trying to murder you thing." Justin continued on Naoto's thought, only slightly sarcastically mind you. The way he delivered his apology was completely sarcastic, don't get him wrong, but the actual apology itself was genuine.

"I guess from your point of view… people did stop dying once you started 'saving' people. The more you did it, the more you really believed you were preventing their deaths…" Yosuke reasoned to himself, as if to try and justify all the atrocities that had been committed. In Namatame's position, he could understand why he thought he was making a difference, but… Dammit, it was so hard to forgive him. At least now Yosuke knew Namatame had no hand in Saki's death… That was at least a little reassuring.

"I beg you… Please find whoever's behind this… You children are the only ones who know about that world…" Namatame suddenly leaned forward, pleading with the children. His time was done; he had played his role in the case, and now the responsibility must be passed off to someone else. He wouldn't be able to sleep easy knowing people were still dying. The group smiled, nodding in confirmation.

"Of course; This bastard's not going to get away with this." Justin spoke up with pride and courage. "Nothing's going to stand between us and solving this crim-"

"Wha-!? What're you all crammed in here for!?"

"COPS! CHEEZE IT!" Justin declared before making a mad dash past the officer and out the door.

So much for courage.


	219. Chapter 218: December 5, 2011

CHAPTER 218

December 5, 2011

* * *

"I'm seriously pooped. This stuff's a lot harder when you don't have a badge to flash… I walked around all day and didn't hear anything good."

The investigation team had made their way to Aiya's after a long day of trying to get information out of people, to not much luck to their dismay. All these murders happened so long ago that details were fuzzy for pretty much everyone. Anything that wasn't already documented had more or less slipped away with the wind. Justin wasn't even sure what he was expecting to get from word off the street; the police had brushed over this case for details with a fine comb; anything the police didn't know would no doubt be unknown to the general populace, correct? And Naoto certainly had access to all the files on the case, despite the fact that she had been dismissed previously. With the case having just been reclosed, and for real this time, the higher-ups were more than willing to allow her access to the case files. What with her being the one who caught the guy and all; or at least the one person they could give credit too. Otherwise, it seemed all links to the case were long since dead. Justin and Chie had thought they picked up something from a girl who reported a really suspicious guy, but it just turned out to be Namatame from that time he tried to warn Saki. Sometimes the gods above just liked to tease Justin.

"It was the same for me. There was absolutely no talk about the case whatsoever, let alone the true culprit." Yukiko sighed with disappointment. She wasn't so much as surprised about the second part; after all, the news was already out that Namatame was the culprit. As far as the town knew, that was entirely true. It was only strange that there didn't seem to be any conspiracy theorists that lived her to question everything the paper said. Unless perhaps you counted Maya; but even then, she didn't necessarily believe the government lied about EVERYTHING. Just crop circles and shit. You know, the usual illuminati bullshit. Thank you Maya for reinforcing idiotic fables. Next she'd be telling Justin she believed in a television program that only airs at Midnight when your television is off.

"Ditto for me. Actually in my case, I kept getting bombarded with questions and couldn't get them onto the main subject at all…" Rise shook her head with disapproval. She should have known that a local celebrity going about and asking random people questions wasn't going to go well. Though in the end she supposed she had a far better chance than Maya ever did, which was reassuring. She was rather proud to have beaten a mute person in a question and answer session for some inexplicable reason. Though to be fair, Maya caught on real quick that no one could understand her, so she quit after the second or third person. This was the kinda shit that got her position moved from the cash register to stocking shelves. A shame, she rather enjoyed not lifting heavy televisions all by herself. "The killer must be pretty good to have pulled this off without being seen by anyone in this small town…"

"What should we do…?" Yosuke spoke up after a brief moment of rather awkward silence. They had searched all day and found nothing on their true culprit. And it's not exactly like they had a lot of time to figure this thing out. Namatame was going to get sent to jail if they didn't find the real murderer… But admittedly, he probably deserved to anyway. Don't get Justin wrong, he certainly had noble intentions, and he could admire that… But he did kidnap a good six people, one of which TECHNICALLY died. So yes, he most definitely should serve a sentence… but by no means should he serve time for murder. Manslaughter wouldn't even be applicable anymore; just the kidnapping charges. And I'm sure most of the group would willingly testify on his behalf. For all Justin knew, Namatame might be able to get away with a couple hours of community service.

"Well…" Chie mumbled to herself, as if to put some serious thought into their next step. Or at least, that's how it appeared. In truth, she was putting some serious thought into something, but it certainly wasn't the investigation. Unless she was investigating various dishes and their effect on her stomach that is. "One steak bowl please!" She turned to the kitchen and shouted with glee. You could tell this was the highlight of the day. Justin simply leaned past her a little bit and raised two fingers towards the chef. He might as well eat while he was here; he'd just have what she was having. Yosuke was pretty livid those two were ordering food while they were discussing something so serious though.

"That's not what I meant!" Yosuke scolded the two. Justin in turn just flipped him off, his eyes still focused on the chef as he went back to fulfill their orders. It was their money, they could spend it however the like on whatever they want whenever they want. It wasn't like they were just running out and going to an amusement park or some shit, abandoning the investigation. They were just getting something to occupy their minds while they discussed everything. Food for thought on a literal basis. "But then again, I guess we might as well take a break… I'll have a crab and egg fried rice." Yosuke conceded after a moment. Always so ready to condemn others when he would do the same thing in their shoes it would seem. This was why Justin and him never got along. It didn't matter though, in the end everyone ordered their food and ate, with minimal bitching on the behalf of Yosuke thankfully enough. It only took maybe five minutes each for everyone to down their dish too. They had been so busy that they hadn't even paid attention to their rumbling stomachs. That's what Justin got for skipping breakfast everyday.

"Now that our tummies are full… Let's share what we learned… Even if it wasn't much." Chie remarked with cheer as she slammed her bowl down, as if to make a statement that she could finish a steak bowl like no one else's business. She even tried to stick her chopsticks into Justin's steak bowl at one point to steal his food, but if there was one thing Justin was skilled at, it was defending his dinner. It was moments like the chopstick war that quickly erupted between the two as Justin tried to deflect her swoop of hand that really defined them as a couple. Everyone passed each other a few glances as they tried to summarize what they learned. But the fact of the matter was… they didn't learn anything. The silence that had filled the restaurant was more than enough proof of that; no one had to tell Chie they hadn't the slightest clue what was going on. She could see that for herself, and she wasn't too happy, even after having a serving of her favorite dish. "There really was no new information?"

"The police had an unusually large number of officers in their initial investigation of the first two incidents. To find facts that even they overlooked would be difficult indeed, now that over half a year has passed. There wasn't a single report of suspicious persons being witnessed to begin with… Ms. Yamano had ardent fans whereas Saki-san didn't, but otherwise the conditions are the same." Naoto hadn't exactly believed they were going to find much more by word of mouth from the very beginning as was becoming pretty clear from her attitude towards all this. It wasn't like she was rubbing it in their faces or anything that they hadn't found anything mind you, it was simply that she had doubted there was going to much they could learn that wasn't in the police files on the matter.

"Y'know, every time I tried to ask about the case, everyone ignored me and kept ranting about the damn fog." Kanji spoke, mouth still full of food. It was always a surprising day when someone ordered more steak than Chie… but then, Chie DID finish first and was trying to steal everyone else's food, so you had to wonder whether or not she had simply ran out of funds for her steak binge or if she just like to be a mooch. Still Kanji's concerns were a common-point between the Investigation Team's members, just minus the crumbs flying out of his mouth. This fog scare was really starting to get annoying. I mean honest to god; the chances of this shit actually being harmful to anyone was almost completely non-existant.

"Yeah. That or the Midnight Channel. I asked about Teddie too… But no one's seen him. Gee… I wonder where he could've gone." Rise wondered once again. It was getting rather concerning as to where Teddie was. Justin doubted a being who couldn't break bones and didn't need to eat drink or sleep could really be on trouble on their own, but still; he was their friend so they were needless to say concerned as to why he seemed to disappear into thin air.

"Do you have anything new, Naoto? Any new, uh… deductions?" Yosuke brushed off the debate as to where Teddie had gone. That was important, but as previously stated he was no doubt in little to no danger. Priorities might not necessarily have been pleasant at times, but they were priorities for a reason. In this case catching the correct murderer before Namatame went to jail and before the murderer had the chance to kill again. Teddie would understand, even if he would take the opportunity to bitch about how people didn't care enough for such an immaculate bear or something. He always did hold himself in high self-esteem. Naoto cleared her throat slightly. She didn't exactly have any theories she hadn't already share with the group already. At best she could look over the evidence they did have already.

"Without any new data to work with, there isn't much I can do… But there must be someone in town who meets all the criteria for this case. The killer must have a connection to both Saki-san and Ms. Yamano… As well as be in a position to observe our actions periodically, to some extent… Finally, it must be someone who could approach Senpai's house without arousing suspicion…" Naoto explained. Anyone who didn't meet those criteria simply wasn't in any position to be a potential suspect. Except perhaps the first criteria, as it still wasn't totally impossible the killer was just killing for the sake of killing. It definitely had to be someone that no one would notice though… But who could possibly be able to just walk around doing this kind of stuff without any suspicion?

"There wasn't anything unusual found at Yamano and Saki's crime scenes either, right?" Yu questioned. "You'd think they would find something with the amount of police officers they sent out."

"Could be that the killer is a police officer." Justin interrupted. Most everyone was surprised, especially Chie who had considered the police infallible in almost every regard. No one had ever considered the possibility of it being an officer of the law committing these crimes. But it made sense; it would be easy for an officer to dispose of evidence, and they'd know exactly what to get rid of when they committed the crime because they'd know what the cops would be looking for. And no one would question an officer speaking with the victims or hanging around the crime scenes. An officer could easily have committed this crime, no doubt about it.

"And he could easily deliver the letter to our house without anyone noticing, so it must be someone we kn-" Yu paused, eyes widening almost immediately. He didn't even finish that thought before it occurred to him that there was only officer on the police force who could sneak that kind of shit to Yu's house without Dojima raising a ruckus. It had to be someone who could come and go to his house without causing a stir… God he should have seen it before. No one was that much of a bumbling idiot; he was doing it on purpose to throw them off track. "ADACHI!"

"Adachi?" Justin just smiled and laughed. That was a good joke. Adachi was too incompetent to do something on this kind of scale, and besides. He was a good man, and one who had been helping them with the investigation this entire time. Yu had to be joking to think it was Adachi who had done all of this. And Justin was going to continue under the presumption that Yu was in fact joking, because if he was serious, ho-boy. He was going to have to give Yu a real lecture about pointing fingers at people for something this serious.

"Adachi-san…? That can't be… I mean, he said he came to escort Ms. Yamano and…" Yukiko went to explain, feeling that she was in possession of evidence that disproved Yu's suspicions, but as she spoke, it slowly occurred to her that Adachi's position guarding Yamano left him in the perfect position to do the deed. It seemed the others had picked up on that rather quickly in fact, even Justin; though he refused to believe it was anything more than coincidence. That was his job given the paparazzi and shit, he needed to make sure she didn't get hurt by stampedes of fans or anything after all.

"What…? Was he at your inn when the announcer was staying there?"

"When Ms. Yamano was staying at our inn, the media were swarming all over it. That's when Adachi-san arrived, saying he had been assigned to guard her… He told our waitress that fame could be rough…" Yukiko recounted everything she could recall from that night. Justin still wasn't seeing what was so suspicious. He stated his intent for being there, and as far as they could tell he was telling the truth. Nothing contradicted anything he said, his hands were clean dammit.

"Guard her…? He didn't spend the night there?"

"Why the fuck would he? He was working as a bodyguard, was he not? Why would he sleep there?" Justin spat out with annoyance. Now it seemed they were grasping at straws to try and make Adachi look bad. He wasn't going to stand for it. They were here to see justice done, not try to pass the guilt off on the first sadsack that just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"I wonder if he knew Ms. Yamano…" Chie interjected, sensing that Justin was getting just a tad bit annoyed. That was a question he was alright with for the record, because it WAS something to be curious about. It seemed the obvious answer would be no and that he had just been placed there by the higher-ups because they knew this could spell trouble for Yamano after the affair scandal hit the news.

"I dunno about that, but I heard he did call out a girl in my class. I found out this afternoon. But I thought, y'know, that's just how cops are, so I didn't think it had anything to do with the case…" Kanji continued. It seemed they were already back to bad mouthing Adachi. Oh lordy he talked to a girl, that suddenly made him a criminal somehow. I mean honest to fucking god, they were trying to spin around his goddamn job just so he looked like some pedophilic murderer. Enough already.

"Detective Adachi also questioned Saki-san, the one who found the announcer's body, on numerous occasions. I heard it was because there was so little information about the case at the time, but… It's certainly unusual to question someone with as strong an alibi as hers multiple times…"

"How about to see if she knew anything since she was a WITNESS!" Justin shouted, having just about enough of this. He wanted to solve this case, not stoop to such petty levels as to blame a man for murder for doing what his job called for. "Fuck this shit, I'm done with this." He announced as he jumped out of his seat, marching for the door. Chie was quick to try and get him to sit back down, though he simply refused to sit there and listen to this crap. And could you blame him? Adachi was a father figure to Justin and here they were claiming to have proof Adachi was a murderer. He didn't believe it was true, and he certainly didn't want to.

"Justin, wait!"

"No, goddammit. He didn't do it! You're all just being assholes!" He declared before storming his way out the door. He didn't do it. He couldn't have done it. He refused to believe he did it. And no one could convince him otherwise.

He was sure to slam the door on his way out.


	220. Chapter 219: December 6, 2011

CHAPTER 219

December 6, 2011

* * *

"Huh? What are you guys doing here…?"

The Investigation Team found themselves crowded into the hallway of a hospital corridor, where Adachi had been talking about something with some nurse that had been on duty at the moment. Seemingly in regards to Dojima, who appeared to have wandered off again to absolutely no one's surprise. Maya was of course absent due to her incredible fear of hospitals, and while the group had informed Kurt about their recent development in the case, he not only didn't really believe them that they still hadn't caught the killer, but also decided that it wouldn't be a good idea for him of all people to go chasing down cops to bring them to prison. He wasn't wanted and they didn't have a warrant for him or anything, but when you deal in the kind of business Kurt dealt in, it was best not to take risks like that. That left the rest of the team, Justin included, though he scowled the entire way there. He was pissed, and in fact, the only reason he was here right now was to rub it in their faces when Adachi turned out to be innocent. He couldn't believe the audacity of his friends to just turn on Adachi like that, after all he had done for them. Honestly, Justin had considered just distancing himself away from the group, but that wouldn't solve anything. It would just leave him alone once again. He'd rather be around people he despised than be by his lonesome self as he had discovered.

"Hey, do you know where Dojima-san went? They told me he snuck out of his room again…" Adachi rolled his eyes with slight amusement, though also concern. It was like taking care of a child with the way Dojima kept running around the hospital. He didn't even have a reason to at this point, he just kind of felt like it from what Adachi could tell.

"I assure you, we've made it clear to him several times that he needs to stay put, but he keeps going off on his own…" The nurse sighed, shaking her head before departing. She could tell these children had some business with the detective, and besides, now that Adachi had informed her that Dojima was wandering around again, she needed to locate him before he opened his wounds for a third or fourth time now. You would think he was doing it on purpose by this point.

"Geez… With Namatame finally relocated, I was looking forward to going home…" Adachi sighed and shook his head as he eyed the nurse now making her way down the hallway in search of Dojima. It seemed like he just couldn't catch a break as of lately. Little did he know his day was about to get just a little bit worse…

"So… he's been relocated. I've been wondering… You seem to be in a terrible hurry to get him out of this hospital." Naoto remarked rather sternly, as if she were trying to imply something in a condescending manner to a child who knew they had done something wrong. Justin simply bit his bottom lip and shook his head with fury. He'd hold his tongue know, if only because he knew him coming to Adachi's rescue here would only spoil the experiment so to speak, but it was just so hard sometimes. I mean, what was so wrong about moving Namatame. Yes he was innocent, but that was beside the point: Adachi was under the impression that he WAS the criminal, and criminals belong in jail. And he was a suspect in a high-profile case AND he was physically well last Justin had seen him. There was no reason to prolong this any longer. Let's not try to find some hidden motive to all of this, please.

"Huh? Oh, well, yeah. I mean, we can't leave him here with Dojima-san and Nanako-chan around… Didn't you guys think so too?" Adachi justified. And it wasn't exactly a terrible point, what with Dojima trying to murder the guy just a few days ago. It was taking every fiber of Justin's being not to stick his tongue out every time Adachi successfully proved that the Investigation Team was being a bunch of assholes, and he had reasons for everything he did that was allegedly 'suspicious.' " Hey, what are you doing here, anyway? Nanako-chan's room is in the other wing. Don't you think you should leave before Dojima-san finds you? If he catches you, he'll start pestering you again." Adachi warned the group. And then that was another valid point. The Investigation Team had cause a LOT of trouble in Namatame's room over the last few days; they most certainly would get bitched out for being up here. They could get in a lot of trouble if the fucked up around here again.

"Adachi… Where's Namatame? There's been a lot of noise today for some reason…" The investigation was suddenly interrupted by the appearance of Dojima clawing his way around the corner, his legs stiff as he slid his feet towards the group. Seemed they had found their missing man, and it was pretty obvious he shouldn't have been out of bed. Adachi was rather surprised, shockingly enough for a man who had been looking for Dojima just a moment earlier. But Justin was going to just chalk that up to being startled by Dojima sneaking up on them. Besides, there was still the matter of him wandering the hospital corridors in his condition. There were a lot of questions to ask.

"D-Dojima-san! What're you doing here!? Namatame's already been relocated. I was looking for you so I could tell you that." Adachi explained to Dojima. Seemed that the Investigation Team wasn't going to get much more out of Namatame, unfortunately enough. They still had a couple days before there was probably going to be a trial though, so they shouldn't get too concerned about Namatame being convicted just yet. Or at least, they shouldn't as long as they stopped chasing these false leads. Dojima didn't take the new well though, eyebrows squishing down as pure fury ran through his veins. He was the one in charge of this case, not Adachi. He needed to learn his place.

"You did what!? Who authorized that!? There's still more I need to ask him about!"

"G-Gimme a break, D-Dojima-san! " Adachi stuttered with slight annoyance. Dojima was in no condition to be making orders after all, so what he made the call that needed to be made. This case couldn't wait for Dojima to get better; this was the biggest crime in Inaba in years. Plus with all this paranoia regarding the fog spreading, a boost in morale would be incredibly helpful. He made the right call, and he didn't appreciate Dojima second guessing him like that. Dojima grunted with annoyance and disappointment with Adachi. This case wasn't over quite yet, he could feel it in his gut. And Adachi was just making it harder for him to get to the bottom of all of this.

"Those first two murders have been bothering me… His motives are shaky, and his alibi is rock solid. We closed a lot of loopholes on the basis of his testimony, but that part's still nagging at me…" Dojima explained. He had an alibi for the first murder, and while that didn't exempt from the latter murders, and he certainly had kidnapped Nanako, there was nothing that indicated Saki was a copy cat crime, much like the way Moroka was. It had to be the same culprit for the first and second crimes, which would exempt Namatame from any guilt in the previous crime.

"Is this more of your 'detective's intuition'?" Adachi sighed with irritation. To be fair, Adachi was never an amazing cop; Justin wasn't going to defend him for overlooking what should be obvious, dismissing it as just Dojima being ridiculous. "He's already been relocated… It's no use hassling me about it. And you kids should really get home, too. You're gonna get in the way of police business." Adachi turned to face the kids. This was very quickly turning into a huge argument on the matters of the investigation, which meant they needed to get out of here so Adachi and Dojima could discuss the more… classified elements of the case.

"What's gotten into you today…? It's odd to see you taking work so seriously…" Dojima raised his eyebrow with suspicion. There was something off about Adachi today. He was jittery and almost in a state of panic anytime someone spoke to him. Besides, this was Adachi they were talking about; the guy who Dojima always had to yell at for slacking off. To see him so on top of this case, even if he was overstepping his boundaries, was simply out of character. It was kind of suspicious to be painfully honest.

"C-C'mon, I'm always giving 110% when it comes to the job! You should get back to work too, Dojima-san. Your current assignment: Get better as soon as possible!" Adachi smiled at him. Well that first part was false as all fuck, but you couldn't help but admire his enthusiasm. And that was a pretty damn 'da'wwww' worthy assignment Adachi just gave Dojima, even if he was treating the guy like just some kid playing imagination and role-playing as a detective. He should have gave that assignment to Naoto instead. Dojima squinted his eyes at Adachi. Something was very off though he couldn't tell what… Could just be he couldn't think straight with the huge group of teenagers crowding the hallways watching the two argue about police business.

"…What are you all doing here?"

"We came to confirm something… with Adachi-san. " Yosuke explained, rather bluntly, and quite honestly, in a tone that suggested he was in a pretty sour mood. But then, you would be too if the murderer of a great friend of yours could possibly be standing right in front of you. Justin bit his lip again. Oh they were confirming something; that Adachi was in fact innocent and that the Investigation Team was full of over-assuming, backstabbing pieces of shit. I mean, it wasn't necessarily THAT bad, but Justin was very sensitive about the crew bad mouthing what was essentially the father he never had. If they were going to point fingers at anyone, point them AWAY from him.

"You wouldn't happen to know when the announcer went missing, would you?" Yu questioned. Adachi rubbed at his chin a bit, giving the matter some serious thought. He couldn't say he did know what time it was off the top of his head, and he probably could have left it at that… But perhaps feeling he needed to cover all possible angles, he threw something else to his explanation that was rather… incriminating.

"The time the announcer went missing…? I can't say for sure offhand… It's not like I saw her or anything. That was months and months ago, too. My memory's kinda hazy that far back…" Adachi smiled that rather charismatic smile of his. The group all passed each other a couple of suspicious glances, save perhaps Justin who just let his jaw drop ever so slightly. Okay… That uh… That didn't look too good. Yukiko said he had been guarding her that night she had stayed at the inn, right? M-Maybe he just forgot about it. Yeah that must have been it. For him it was just another night on the job… Justin took a deep breath, trying to relax himself, as if having a hard time trying to buy his own explanation.

"…That so?" Yu questioned, glaring a bit at Adachi as he crossed his arms. That should have been all he needed to know Adachi was lying, but one little inconsistency didn't exactly label him a murderer. He needed to dig a little deeper, to see what else Adachi was trying to hide from them all. "I see… Hey you questioned Saki, right? Doesn't it seem odd to bring her in like that?"

"Why wouldn't I question her? She discovered the announcer's body." Alright, there we go. Justin's faith had been renewed if only slightly. That was completely true, and he had suspected that's what Adachi had been questioning Saki in regards to this entire time. It was entirely reasonable. "But she didn't know much about it, so I only talked with her once or twice. Was that all you wanted to ask? Well, I hope it helped." Okay right… Again a little suspicious if the reaction from the rest of the investigation team was any indicator. Justin? Well he was acknowledging he questioned her more than once; that WAS multiple times, whether the rest of the team agreed or not. Nothing suspicious about that.

"What about the warning letter?"

"Warning letter?" Adachi questioned, as if he didn't have the slightest clue what Yu was talking about. The letter was in police custody of course, but as to which officer in particular, no one could be quite sure. Adachi did know the letter existed though, what with him being there when Dojima was questioning Yu and all. Seemed more like lapse in memory than anything.

"The one that was delivered to his house. It's in police custody now, correct?" Naoto inquired. She knew it was, but she wanted to see if Adachi would admit it was or just try to bluff. In a way, he did both.

"Uhh… I don't really remember." He rubbed at the back of his neck. That was odd… You would think he'd remember if it was or wasn't in police custody or not. Forgetting about the letter for a moment, Justin could understand; but this was significant evidence, and he was claiming that he had no idea whether or not the cops even had it, yet he knew EXACTLY which letter was being talked about? Dear god, he was lying right through his teeth. Justin could see that now. He just shook his head, jaw slowly dropping. No, this couldn't be right. This COULDN'T be right. Adachi wouldn't have done this… he… he must have been lying because he lost the letter or something, right? RIGHT?

"Hey, whaddya mean you don't remember? I gave it to you to take down to the crime lab for processing. You're telling me you forgot!?" Oh even worse, the letter was even in his possession, and he claimed to not know if the cops had it… This… This had to all just be a big misunderstanding… Please let it be a misunderstanding.

"Ha… haha, I'm sorry… Your accident was right after that, and what with one thing and another, it sorta slipped my mind… B-Besides, that thing was just a prank, wasn't it?" Adachi chuckled slightly, grinning as he tried to sell the illusion that it was all just an honest misunderstanding. The creeping glares that surrounded him however soon proved to be a little more than he could just ignore." Geez, what're you asking me all this for!? For crying out loud, what's this all supposed to be about!? Dojima-san, you really need to get back to your bed. That's why your wounds aren't healing. And you all need to go home right now! Do you have any idea what time it is!? I'm going back… I need to get to the station and report in." Adachi shouted with great annoyance, ready to storm off at any second, though Naoto was quick to get into his pathway and stop him from getting away.

"Just one more thing, please. We know for certain now that the first two murders weren't Namatame's doing. Someone else killed them. Adachi-san… Do you have any idea who that might be?" Naoto questioned. She already had her answer, but she wanted to see if Adachi would admit to his crimes. She was mocking him as if she were rubbing a dog's nose in shit to teach it to go outside when it needed to take a dump.

" I-I have no idea what you're talking about…"

"'Cause we think it mighta been you." Kanji dropped the bomb. So much for subtly. Justin could feel his heart sink into his chest. He wanted to come to Adachi's rescue, but hearing what he had, he had some doubts. He didn't believe that Adachi could do this, but why lie about all of that stuff otherwise? Please let it just be bad memory.

"What!? Th-That's ridiculous!" Adachi spat with annoyed shock. To think he was being accused of murder. And on what basis anyway? They already had proof that Namatame was their culprit; who were they to go and accuse him of such a heinous crime? "We already know Namatame's the one who put them in!" And then it struck them all. He did it. He dropped the bomb. He knew exactly how these people were killed, knowledge that should have been completely unknown to someone who didn't know about the other world. But yet Adachi knew about it. And given the look on his face as the comment slipped out of his mouth, he knew he said something he shouldn't have. Justin could practically feel his heart snap in two as his eyes dilated with painful shock. No… No it couldn't be… He… Really did do it?

" What did you just say…?"

"Put them all in…? What's this "putting them in" business? Do you know something about the method behind their murders…? Don't tell me that all that talk about TVs and whatnot from before was…" Dojima frantically questioned with great anger. Adachi knew something that the police hadn't known over this past year, and he had been holding out this entire time? He was hiding it for a reason. They could all see that. Naoto smirked slightly, proud to have been able to pressure Adachi into accidentally admitting his crime.

"I see… Now I finally understand. To tell the truth, Adachi-san, I've been fixated on something you once said. Before, I didn't know why… Only that it sounded a wrong note to me. Do you recall when I read Namatame's diary at the scene of Dojima-san's accident? At the time, I said, 'Even the victims who survived and were never released to the public are written here.' And in response, your words were, 'Wow… Then that settles it.' How, I wonder, would that 'settle' anything? At the time, the police had no idea that there had been other attempted murders related to the case… You had no reason to say such a thing. After all, there are countless examples of people disappearing for a few days… Yet when I read the list of names, you raised no objection. Odd, that. What do you say to that, Detective Adachi?"

"Adachi…" Justin muttered, pain in his voice as he stared at the detective with wide eyes. He could feel his heart crawl to a stop. Once he had been betrayed by a man he had greatly respected… and now it seemed it was happening all over again. He couldn't… He couldn't take this. He wouldn't accept this. And yet it was true. And he knew it. "Please tell me it's a lie…"

"I-I don't know! I-I said I'm busy…!" He shouted before pushing Naoto to the side and running like a mad man away. It was the only thing he could do now that they had managed to corner him. It was his only way to escape the situation he had dug himself into.

"Wait, you son of a bitch!" Kanji shouted as the Investigation team quickly gave chase. They weren't going to let him get away that easy. Within moments, Justin was alone there in the corridor, a look of pain and horror on his face. He trusted Adachi, and… And he had been the killer all along? For fuck's sake, Justin loved him like a father, and he turned around and did this to him? His knees grew shaky, and his breath grew thin. Within seconds Justin fell to his knees on the cold hospital floor, slamming his fist into the flooring in an attempt at forcing all the anger and pain out of his system, tears flowing from his eyes the entire time. He should have known better; a broken heart isn't cured just because you break enough stuff.

"You bastard…"


	221. Chapter 220: December 7, 2011

CHAPTER 220

December 7, 2011

"Dammit… We came so far to run smack into a dead end."

Justin and the Investigation Team found themselves seated at their usual table at Junes, where for the moment they were recuperating their strength. For the last few hours or so, Rise had been trying to locate Adachi inside the other world, but to not much avail. Which was a-okay with Justin; as far as he was concerned, the more trouble Rise was having finding him, the less likely it was that Adachi was inside the television. And if he wasn't in the television, then perhaps that meant he was never in the television to begin with. Which meant there was a good chance he was still innocent. All the evidence piled up against Adachi, and while it seemed pretty obvious he was the culprit by this point, Justin kept trying to delude himself that everything had a perfectly good explanation. I mean that put them in remark seemed a lot more understandable when you consider they had told Adachi about the television before.

"Maybe you just missed him at the hospital. Rounded a corner and you thought he went in the room" Justin frantically tried to explain, to try and defend Adachi even knowing deep down that there was a pretty good chance he was their culprit. Mind you, he had been doing this all day, and the Investigation Team had slowly began losing its patience with Justin. Now mind you, they understood that he was hurt, that wasn't what they were mad about. They were mad he was being so stubborn about this. He was in denial and it was time for him to wake the fuck up

"I know he's in there…" Rise sighed, shaking her head slightly. She could sense his presence in the other world, that much she was entirely sure of. It was just a matter of where she could feel him that was alluding her. "What's wrong with me…? My powers are completely useless…!" She shouted with fury, losing hope in her ability to locate Adachi. Maybe it was just because she was worried about Teddie still, maybe she just didn't have it in her, but whatever it is, her powers just seemed irrelevant in the grand scheme of everything going down. Justin would have offered to just make bear puns in Teddie's stead, but he was too busy crawling in his skin to give enough of a fuck to be sarcastic. He was in pain thinking that he had trusted someone who could possibly be a killer. Please let this all just be a misunderstanding.

The group's thoughts were interrupted within moments however, when they heard a loud, almost familiar groan of annoyance, as well is the sound of a trash can tumbling over to the side. Figured that even with Teddie trying to sneak up on the group, he made a rather annoying commotion. No one cared about though, they were only too happy to see him. Again, minus maybe Justin, who was too busy biting his lip, and twiddling his thumbs. Fidgeting about and trying to wish his knowledge of the circumstances away. He'd rather be ignorant to what Adachi may have done than acknowledge he had been betrayed once again. "Teddie!?"

"Y-Y-You little… Where the hell were you!?" Yosuke shouted with a combination of relief and annoyance. How dare Teddie just run off like that without telling them; especially given the circumstances. Wasn't it bad enough that they all thought Nanako was gone without losing another friend? And besides; they needed him to track Adachi. This entire case now hung in the balance of Teddie. Who would have thought that in the end it would be the television itself that defeated Adachi at his own game? That's irony at its finest. Still, most everyone was happy enough to see Teddie back, even if he didn't look entirely thrilled to be here. Rise practically tackled the guy with a bear hug, no pun intended, for fuck's sake.

"You idiot! Bad bear! Bad! You're so late! Who do you think you are!?" Rise choked over her tears, so overjoyed she couldn't help but let the feelings of frustration and sadness out as she clinged to Teddie and his fuzzy costume. Teddie was a little caught off guard. He didn't entirely believe she was being serious with the way she was crying like that at first, but he had since learned that doubting his friends on pretty much anything was usually not a good idea. They hadn't done him wrong yet, after all. If anything he had done THEM wrong, what with disappearing like that and generally wreaking havoc with his game shows and other miscellaneous antics.

"S-Sorry…! I want to help you all again."

"You know how much trouble you caused, y'dumb bear!? Where the hell were you!?" Kanji chuckled ever so slightly, a wide grin on his face. Who would have thought Kanji of all people would take this the best out of all of them. Well except perhaps Justin who hadn't really cared that Teddie wandered off, even without considering the immense amount of confusion and pain he was under.

"I'm sorry… I figured out a lot of things… Stuff about me… and that world. I wanted to tell you all… I'm… I'm a shadow…" Teddie remarked, a slight hint of fear in his voice, as if he were afraid to admit it. He had been doing some soul searching over the last few days when he realized he had been a shadow all along; he was just too ashamed to admit it, so he tricked himself into believing he was something else; something special. The others passed each other only one short glance of surprise. They weren't confused by it or really all that alarmed; truth be told it made a lot of sense. They'd be more surprised if he said he wasn't a shadow now that they thought about it

"A Shadow…? You mean you're one of those things we've been fighting?"

"Oh, nice." Kurt rolled his eyes a bit. He wasn't being entirely sarcastic mind you, it was kind of nice to think he wasn't the only one; but at the same point, he was kind of upset he wasn't the go to reference guy when referring to shadows. Come on, when it came to sentient shadows, he was pretty much the best example out there, right? Better than those things with a thousand arms crawling around at the very least.

"Yup… just like the ones you all know about. Shadows are suppressed human thoughts given form… Everyone has them inside." Teddie explained, as if they didn't all already know that. Kurt simply adjusted his fingers so that he could look for dirt under his fingernails. Oh, so everyone was cool with this, but when he was bleeding purple, oh hell no; throw him inside the television. Maybe he should get his own mascot suit; seemed to do a lot to influence these teenagers.

"Wait… You say you're a Shadow, but you didn't attack us. And you kept telling us from the start that you wanted to bring peace and quiet back to that world, right?"

"Yes, hi. My name's Kurt, pleased to meet you." Kurt remarked sarcastically. Honestly, this was stuff they should have already known; not all shadows were complete assholes. Alas, it seemed the Investigation Team was hell bent on ignoring Kurt and letting him talk to himself in regards to his shadow nature.

"But in the end… I was just an ordinary Shadow. Nothing special about me at all. I did everything I could until now to try and make my world peaceful… But instead, the weird fog started seeping out into this world too… I'm sorry… I'm really sorry. If I really was special, then maybe…" Teddie continued to pout and whine, as if he were to cry any second now that he knew he were nothing but a shadow with a fresh coating of paint. Kurt of course continued trying to draw attention to himself and the fact this had already happened before with him.

"It's no big deal. I mean, we weren't expecting much from you in the first place. And about you being a Shadow, we pretty much figured you were something like that anyway." Yosuke shrugged with indifference, a wide grin on his face. Kurt in response slammed his head into the table. No okay, yeah that's fine. Let's just pretend it's not a big deal to be a being of pure entity and malice. I mean it's not like they would ever contemplate entrapping a shadow just for being a shadow, noooooo. Fuck this shit.

"Huh…? Wh-What're you saying!? Here I am, pouring my heart out to you, and you say you thought I was something like that anyway!? No normal person would think such a pretty bear could really be a Shadow!" Teddie objected with disbelief. He had made this form specifically to trick people into believing he was adorable and not made of pure evil, and here they were claiming to have known all along? Unacceptable!

"It's true that you may have been born that way. But you now possess the power of Persona. A Shadow is suppressed power… Once controlled by the ego, it becomes a Persona… Doesn't it follow, then, that you must have developed an ego? Whether the ego masters its Shadow, or the Shadow awakens to its ego… The only difference I see is the order in which the process occurred." Naoto remarked. Well that was disappointing to Kurt in the sense that he had no persona, so I guess Teddie counted as human, but he did not. All the same, where was THIS voice of reason when they were all contemplating beating Kurt's skull in with a lead pipe for being a shadow? Would have been cool if they DIDN'T tell him he wasn't human; ignorance is bliss after all.

"Oh! Teddie's practically human, then."

"I-I'm… the same as humans…?" Teddie questioned, as if he didn't quite believe it. Kurt understood that feeling; hell to this day he still wasn't one hundred percent on terms with his… heritage.

"You keep trying to figure out who you are, just like all of us here. You can't do much on your own… You really aren't that special… See? What's so different between you and us? The rest of us were pretty much a group of misfits to begin with too, right? You fit right in, man." Yosuke tried to cheer him up, though it did have the unintended effect of making Teddie cry like a baby. They were tears of joy though, so that was a good thing…?

"I beg your pardon? Who are you calling a misfit?"

"Isn't that just you, Senpai?" Rise giggled a bit. Just as a rule of thumb, any time Yosuke referred to a group, there was a good chance he actually meant 'me and anyone else I say this also applies to because I don't want to be the only one.' The rule applied full-force here, though Justin could agree that some of them were, well, not exactly popular or anything. He'd best describe their little team as a group of hipsters. Not exactly misfits or anything by any means, but they weren't part of any clichés or anything like that. They just kinda did their own thing.

"Hey… That's not something a detective would say… Or an idol, either!" Yosuke countered with slight annoyance. Why was he always the loser in this situations? For once he'd like someone to say it was Chie or something. But then Justin would probably smack them upside their head, so maybe that wasn't exactly the best idea. He sighed before turning his attention back to Teddie, who was still bawling like a baby. "Geez… Stop crying, will ya? Now's not the time for that. While you were gone, we figured out who murdered the announcer and Senpai… It was Adachi." Teddie was immediately caught off-guard, so much so his tears practically froze in place. And I don't even need to explain how Justin began to react.

"Huh!? Adachi!? That total goofball!? Whoa… I didn't notice at all. Looks like I'm pretty blind to that sorta thing…" Teddie remarked with only mild surprise. He really didn't seem to care this was a man who killed two people. Allegedly. "Mmm… But you all know him… If you can't find someone like that, I don't think I can help you…" He sighed. Ever since Rise had came into the picture, his ability to track things down had been more or less non-existent. He wasn't sure why his nose just sorta stopped working, all he knew was he doubted he'd be great help as he was.

"Like I said, we're not expecting much from ya. The main thing is, it's hard to get pumped about this without someone nice 'n fuzzy around." Yosuke joked. It was awkward as fuck, but Teddie seemed pleased by the vote of confidence.

"O-Okay… Thanks, guys…"

"Alright, now that the band's back together, let's take it from the top."

"I do smell Adachy-baby in here, but the fog is completely covering up his scent…"

Teddie and the Investigation Team were now inside the television once again trying to scan for any signs of Adachi. Justin was pacing around, nervous at what Teddie might be able to find, but the simple fact of the matter was it appeared they could tell Adachi was here but they couldn't figure out where specifically. And that gave Justin hope that they were simply mistaken and that Adachi never was in the television to begin with. But then, why would both Teddie and Rise claim to think he was here if he wasn't. Second opinions and all of that white noise.

"Teddie… You can't do it either?" Rise stared at him with disappointment, not necessarily in him but at the possibility that Adachi could have been able to get away, to allude them inside the television. It shouldn't end like this; no it COULDN'T end like this. She refused to believe it would end with the killer getting away with his crimes.

h-When you look at me with those eyes… I get this feeling… I've gotta sniff him out no matter what…! This is my time to shine!" Teddie shouted with enthusiasm. Something about Rise's puppy dog eyes really seemed to fire Teddie up; which was concerning, but they wouldn't object by any means to Teddie getting the energy and the means to locate Adachi. Unless you were Justin that is. "Ooh, I'm getting something! I sense it from… thisaway. It's kinda hazy, but at the same time, it feels like I've got a whopper on the line… Veeery suspicious… This definitely smells. But that's weird… If I remember right, that's where Sensei, Yosuke, and Chie-chan came from when I met them for the first time…"

"When we first…? Where was that? Ohhhh… You mean that creepy-ass room where all the faces on the posters were cut out?" Yosuke inquired. He could barely remember it to be quite honest, so it was strange to find that the strange room they had run into when they first fell in would be where it would all end. The beginning is the end is the beginning, it would seem.

"I still have nightmares about that place." Justin mumbled, a shiver running up his spine as he leaned over one of the railings and stared out into the green, foggy abyss. He couldn't believe that Yosuke honestly had forgotten that room; it was fucked up behind belief, not to mention it was their first exposure to such a dangerous, desolate world. This entire place was nightmare worthy, but that room in particular stood out the most.

"Yep… there's someone there! I just sorta smelt over there because it's where I first sensed Sensei and the others… That's why it kinda smelled over there… What luck!" Teddie remarked with glee. It was an interesting idea to look down memory lane, though whether or not one could claim it would have been effective if not for this stroke of dumb luck, well… Probably not.

"Ahh, I see. Wait… did you say it smelled…?" Chie remarked with a combination of shock and concern. Oh she remembered that day much more clearly than Yosuke from the looks of it, and it was that memory that sent a slight shiver down her spine. It wasn't a pretty image, and her mind was playing tricks on her senses now. Specifically her sense of smell. "Wasn't that the room where Yosuke had to go to the bathroom, and-"

"Huh…? You're saying… he peed his pants there!?" Rise remarked with great disgust. Yukiko actually started to gag. Maya… well Maya chuckled ever so slightly to herself. Now mind you, she didn't support teenagers pissing their pants, but at the same point… come on, it was kind of funny. Not to mention the look on Yosuke's face was PRICELESS.

"Oh, you lie so bad! Dude, I did not piss my pants! Chie! Quit spreading random rumors about stuff like that!" Yosuke growled with fury, his face as red with a tomato as Chie tried to spread the rumor that he pissed in his pants. She knew for a fact he didn't because he specifically made sure to bitch her out for watching while he was trying to take a piss. Of course, Chie knew that, but she was totally okay with spreading a rumor that Yosuke pissed his pants like a little child. Really messing with Yosuke was almost as much fun as messing with Justin; the only real difference being that Justin never really knew how to react when Chie fucked with him. The confusion ultimately earned him a few more points on the 'fucking with you' scale.

"Uhhh, well, it happened so long ago… My memory's kinda fuzzy, you know…" Chie tried to explain herself, though the chuckle under her breath gave away that she remembered it as clear as the water in a toilet bowl; assuming said toilet bowl had been flushed recently. Yosuke was pretty damn pissed, and he looked like he wanted to give Chie hell, but thankfully Teddie's complete lack of awareness for anything around him ultimately put that conflict down before it arose. Thank god.

"Oookaaay guys, enough fuzziness! Follow me, the master of fuzzy logic!"

"Oh Christ… He is here."

The Investigation Team had finally found their way to where Yu, Yosuke, Justin, and Chie had first found themselves lost in the television world. Justin was hoping for just an, admittedly nightmarish, trip down memory lane, that the end of this road would just lead them to a dead end. But the fact of the matter was as much as he had tried to deceive himself that there would be nothing in this room, he knew there would be. Everything pointed to the twisted shell of a man he thought he knew residing in this room, contemplating the crime he had committed. It was only painful to admit to himself that he knew all along that this was what they would find.

"That damn bitch. I noticed her first… and she just had to run off and have an affair…" Adachi muttered to himself, voice rhaspy in an almost horrific tone. That wasn't the cheery voice Justin was so used to hearing, and it especially wasn't the mind of the man he had come to trust as a second father to him. But then, Justin always did know Adachi didn't quite respect women; this was only further proof of that. He could feel his heart race and his breath crawl to a slow as he stared at Adachi, fingers twitching like a madman trying to grasp what wasn't there. In a way, Justin just wanted to run up to Adachi and punch him in the face after the emotional trainwereck he had put Justin through, but the tapping of Justin's sneakers against the floor did nothing more than alert Adachi to the group's presence. "Who's there!? Oh… it's you guys. You're very persistent…" Adachi laughed sadistically, his pupils wide like a reptile, but his eyes half close as if to glare indiscriminately. And then there was that smile… that… twisted smile. It was like watching a man become a monster in front of Justin's very eyes.

"Did you or did you not throw Ms. Yamano into the TV!?" Yu questioned, pushing Justin delicately to the side as he approached Adachi. He could already see Justin's relationship with Adachi was going to be a problem, not only for this investigation but for Justin's state of mind. It was a mistake to bring him here, he could see that; but it's not like he could do anything now. All he could do was get Justin out of the way and hope he would cover his ears and eyes and blind himself to what he didn't want to see.

"It was an accident. She started struggling… What else was I supposed to do? I called her out to the lobby because I wanted to ask her something. And then she started getting hysterical on me… So I just gave her a little shove. Figured she needed to be punished for a bit. Good thing for me no one else was around there in the middle of the night. I was gonna let her out, REALLY, I was." Adachi remarked sarcastically. It was pretty clear that Adachi had no intent on letting her out after shoving her in there. Justin couldn't help but gag a bit. He… Just pushed her in there for no reason? He didn't even HAVE a reason to kill the announcer? Justin couldn't even lie to himself and say Adachi did it for a good cause… He did it just because he could, and Justin knew it. This was a sick man, and Justin was even sicker for having trusted him in the first place.

"That… happened in our lobby…?" Yukiko stuttered with shame and disgust. It happened in her own home and she didn't even notice? This could have all been prevented if her and the staff simply paid more attention to what was going on.

"I learned about the Midnight Channel through some rumor. You hear a lot of fishy stories like that on the force. But it was pure coincidence that I touched the screen and discovered my power. I burst out laughing when I found out. I knew right away that this was going to be interesting!" Adachi laughed with cheer, though there was nothing joyful about the sinister way he chuckled. He laughed like a stereotypical cartoon super villain… only it was more frightful to think there was someone actually out there this out of their damn mind.

"So you tested it out on Mayumi Yamano."

"Nah, it was nothing like that. I'm a very sincere fellow. I was just trying to punish the stupid bitch a little for betraying me. Yeah, putting them inside the TV was never the plan… But y'know, both Mayumi and that dippy high school girl struggled for no reason…" Adachi explained, disgruntled by the way those two had treated him during their encounter as he paced about, not very interested in the conversation at hand. That's how you knew there was no saving the guy from his dark path; he just didn't care about what he had done or that he had been caught. He had no empathy and no emotion.

"Then you were responsible for Saki-senpai's death…!" Yosuke shouted, incredibly pissed off. And in fact, he almost tackled Adachi with pure anger, but Yu made sure to hold him back before he did something stupid. You never know what kind of traps Adachi might have up his sleeve. Plenty for the record.

"Saki…? Oh yeah… her name was Saki Konishi… or something like that. At first, I just called her in 'cause of work-related stuff. Her being the one who found Mayumi's body and all. And naturally, if there was any chance she'd seen something, I'd need to know, right? So I was all set to be a nice guy to her, and then that bitch… well, I'm sure you can guess. Kids today aren't like when I was in high school. They just don't fucking listen. When I was a kid everyone was willing to put out, but no… kids these days just have too much of a mouth on them… You know, it was a lot easier the second time. High school girls are thinner, you know. Lighter."

" You son of a bitch…!" Yosuke's jaw was open with disbelief. He killed Saki because she wouldn't put out for him? It was bad enough Adachi was a murderer, but now they found out he murdered people because he was a fucking rapist? Justin gripped at his forehead, pain shooting through his skull as Adachi told his story. Everything he knew about Adachi seemed to be barraged by these disgusting images. Adachi had always been an awful person, and Justin just wanted to pretend that wasn't true because Adachi put on a good show. He should have known this would happen, but in the end he needed a father figure, and Adachi was his.

"C'mon, gimme a break. I didn't know it was dangerous inside the TV. It's not like I was trying to kill them. I mean, I'm sure they hit on Namatame, not the other way around. A council secretary will one day rise to public office himself. Mayumi and that high schooler were just gold digging. They got exactly what they deserved. I didn't do anything wrong at all." Adachi chuckled. He of course knew that it was dangerous, he was just trying to mock the Investigation Team and their ally Namatame.

"So you were the one who tricked Namatame."

"Nah… He called the police in the middle of the night, just after they found that Saki girl's body. The rest of the force had their hands full with the double homicide, and it happened that I was the one who took the call. Isn't that the amazing? Of all the people who could've received Namatame's call, it ended up being me. Talk about luck! All I did was give him a little push… And he completely bought into his vision of this world. The more people you guys saved, the more he'd kidnap… Both sides had the best of intentions, so the game of cat and mouse would never end… Haha, it was awesome." Adachi did a short little fist pump, as if watching a sporting event. Because really, all this ever was for him was a game.

"Why…? What reasons could you have for doing that!?" Yukiko shouted. She had never been angrier in all her life. Murder she couldn't understand, but murder without reason? Even with Mitsuo she had some ounce of sympathy for him, if only because it was clear it had all been a cry of help. Adachi had no reason other than thrills. And that was not excusable under any conditions.

"Reasons…? None, really. I could do it, that's all. And it was fun… I guess that's my reason?" Adachi shrugged. He hadn't really ever thought about why, he just did it.

"Y-You murdered people just for the fun of it!?" Chie shouted, hands balled up into fists. Now Yu had the displeasure of holding back both an angry Chie and an angry Yosuke, one in both arm. If anyone else got pissed off, he'd be out of hands to grab them with. It's only a shame that Justin seemed so traumatized by all this; normally he was sensible enough to realize violence wouldn't answer any of this. He still didn't want to see any harm come to Adachi after all this. But why? He deserved it and Justin knew it, yet still could feel his heart ache seeing Adachi like this. This wasn't the same Adachi he knew and yet he still felt some need to try and justify all this. And he couldn't fucking do it.

"C'mon… All I did was put people in here. I didn't murder them. And Namatame did most of it. I had nothing to do with any of you. I do admit, though. I never thought you guys would manage to track me down. I like that, Games like this gotta have surprises or they get boring fast. It's like when I dealt with that Kubo kid. That was fun, too." He laughed a bit. Oh fantastic, now we find that Adachi was responsible for Mitsuo being thrown into the television as well. Justin had suspected it ended at Saki, but no… He had been an active player in the game all along.

"Then… you mean to say that Mitsuo Kubo's disappearance was your doing as well? I did sense something odd in his course of action… If he had special powers and wanted attention, why resort to a regular copycat crime? But that wasn't the case… Kubo had no such powers. In fact, he was thrown in by you… Am I correct?" Naoto questioned Adachi, pacing about in a manner to match Adachi's. There was a difference in their movements of course; Naoto did it to think, Adachi did it because he was bored.

"It had been a while since I last put someone inside the TV, so I really got a kick out of that one. I let him through to a room at the station with a TV, switched off the lights, and did it quick while he was still startled. As long as he didn't see me push him in, and no one else did either, no one would believe him… even if he survived. Of course, I don't think the Kubo kid ever figured out what happened, haha." Adachi laughed again, getting a kick out of his crimes. This surely had to be an act. Who could be so wicked as to just find death and murder funny? And for no reason other than he could? Even serial killers have their motivations. Adachi had no conviction. He had lost all he had in this world.

"Wait, the police station…?" Yu questioned. He actually managed to pull this off at the police station? How did no one pick up on that? Did they NOT have security cameras installed?

"Yeah… he turned himself in pretty quick, actually. This was back when we didn't even know enough to issue a search warrant. But the other officers decided it was just a prank, so they pawned him off on me. I didn't blame them… I mean, a kid coming and saying, 'I did it all! It was me'? Who'd believe him? But it looked bad… I didn't think anyone would come forward and take the blame for all the incidents. The police were desperate to pin it on anyone… If this kid really did it, they might have announced the case was closed. And if that happened, Namatame would stop 'saving people'. I couldn't let that happen, or the game would be over. That's why I told the others I sent him home. I came up with the idea to put him inside the TV on the spot."

"The game would be over…? You threw him in just so your fun wouldn't end!?" Yukiko spat. It was a good thing Kurt was so level-headed about all this, because now Yukiko wanted to end Adachi. He simply gripped her by the back of her shirt, stopping her from running forward and trying to dig her fan into Adachi's skull. So far it seemed that Kurt and Maya were the only ones who hadn't lost their mind. Maya only seemed mildly surprised. After all… Never trust a cop.

"You gotta have some excitement in life, don't you agree? But then you guys put your foot in it yet again and ruined my fun. Thanks to you, Kubo was arrested again, and everyone acted like he was the true culprit behind it all. Tch… Couldn't they see how badly he copied the crime scene? It worked out in the end, though, because good ol' Namatame kept saving people. I guess the guy started to develop some kinda messiah complex, huh? What an idiot." Adachi shook his head, mocking the police for their inability to see it was him. They probably should have in all fairness.

"This is all a game to you… How dare you murder people… murder Saki-senpai for such a stupid reason! You bastard… I'll never forgive you!"

"You can keep your forgiveness. Our world will probably become just like this place soon enough anyways. Didn't you notice? The fog's leaking out. Everything on that side's pretty much screwed… The two worlds will merge soon, and then there'll be no difference, no 'sides' anymore. By the end of the year, Inaba will disappear completely into the fog. Soon, this place will be reality. I'll be in this world, so if you want me, come and get me. This world has a mind of its own. We'll see which of us it favors." Adachi laughed maniacally, concerned looks being shot throughout the Investigation Team. So that WAS this side's fog, but… Was he serious? He couldn't be, this must have just been him trying to fuck with them and their emotions again; just like had Justin this entire time.

"…_He's out of his damned mind."_ Maya signed off. It didn't take a genius to tell he was spouting bullshit; you could tell from the vacant look in his eyes that his mind was no longer his own… Now it was just a question of who his mind DID belong to. Insanity or something far more devious?

"Keep your bullshit to yourself. It's about time you shut the hell up. We'll finish this right now!" Kanji shouted, having just about enough of this bullshit, before charging forward and trying to take a swing at Adachi. Unfortunately, Kurt couldn't hold back a behemoth like Kanji, and thus Kanji ran right into Adachi's trap. He vanished in a flash of light, leaving nothing but a swirling vacuum, sucking in loose papers and causing their clothes to ruffle in the suction; police tape sprouting every which way in an almost confining manner. And Adachi… Adachi was gone.

"I'll be expecting you all… We'll put an end to this." His voice echoed through the room. Where he went, no one could tell, but they got a good feeling that it came from the portal that had just spawned on the other end of the room. What a coward to run off like that. But then, this was all just part of his game, wasn't it?

"Get back here, you…!"

"That stuff about the world's mind, and how this place will become our reality… Was he serious?" Yosuke questioned with fearful concern. He couldn't say for certain, but he was pretty sure that was the fog from this side in their world… so then… was it possible Adachi was telling the truth about the disaster that awaited Inaba? Or was he just bullshitting as part of his cruel joke.

"The rest of his confessions were consistent. We'd best proceed under the assumption that it's no lie." Naoto suggested. Better safe than sorry; especially in matters such as this. And it all made too much sense; and yet somehow, no sense at all. Logic seemed to be separate from what one wanted to believe; and no one wanted to believe Adachi was telling the truth. Especially Justin and especially in regards to anything that had happened in this room today.

"Dammit… Damn that bastard! Why…? We went through so much to get here… And now it turns out he was pulling our strings this whole time!?" Yosuke shouted with pain. This was all just a ploy to get them to open the gap between the two worlds, wasn't it? No doubt going in and out of the television was causing this. What else could cause the two worlds to begin to merge like this. And Yosuke didn't even want to think about what the consequences of the world's joining could mean. Shadows would be born and go rampant, slaughtering the human populace. It was terrifying. "It's about time we finished this. I don't want to feel this way ever again."

"That's what I said the last time this happened…"


	222. Chapter 221: December 8, 2011

CHAPTER 221

December 8, 2011

* * *

"Justin? Are you okay?"

The team had just finished up in expedition into the dark reaches of Adachi's heart, exhausted from the trip and making their way back home for the day. Dojima had already froze the trial on Namatame as he was already aware Namatame could potentially be innocent given recent developments, so time wasn't really an issue unless you considered the possibility of Adachi telling the truth about this whole world's merging business. Though what good catching Adachi would do to stop the two from merging, Justin couldn't rightfully say. He didn't quite care either, he was too busy drowning in his grief to pay attention to the real threat at hand. The entire trip through the twisted world Adachi had created, Justin could only stare into space like a mad man. No thoughts, no emotion, just an empty vessel carrying out his mission inside the television world. He was just a hollow shell of a man after having his heart crushed again. Everyone was aware of it too; most everyone tried to get him to just go back home and wait it out. He didn't want to bring Adachi in or bring himself to terms with the fact Adachi was a killer, and the crew knew that. But Justin insisted on doing this… a job was a job after all. Even if it was painful to go through with.

"Yeah… Yeah I'm fine." Justin tried to reassure Chie, eyes aimed towards the ground in agony. Why of all the people in this goddamned town did it have to be Adachi? Hadn't Justin been betrayed enough in his short existence? He sighed ever so slightly, pacing around the room with a look of longing in his eyes. As if he had never felt more lost in his life. "Just a headache." He lied through his teeth. Chie wasn't stupid though, she knew Justin like the back of a book, and the fact of the matter was she understood more than anyone the kind of pain he was going through. She could see the resemblance between Adachi and that picture she had seen of Justin's father… for Justin, it was like watching a trainwreck rewind and happen all over again. Chie sighed as she slowly made her way to Justin's side. It hurt her to see Justin in so much pain now that the damage was done. He never really did trust men after what his father had done to him; girls were the only ones whoever treated him with even an ounce of dignity and respect. Adachi was going to be the link for him to get over that hurdle; but instead he just crushed Justin beneath the barricade. Hell, Justin found it hard to even look at Yu and the others the same way now. Deep down he feared that they were no better than Adachi. After all, they were but men.

"No, you're not okay. You know you can't lie to me about this kind of stuff." Chie tried to reassure him. She wanted to be his crutch while he tried to recover from the shock of it all, but the fact of the matter was no crutch could heal the wound Adachi had reopened after all these years. Medicine couldn't heal wounds that cut so deep as to scratch the soul. Nothing Chie could say or do could justify what Adachi had done to Justin. She couldn't convince him there was bright side to any of this. How could anyone, really? "You wanna talk about it?"

"No. Not really." Justin shook his head. He wanted to pretend this never happened and suppress it just the way he had his father's abuse, not get therapy from Chie of all people. She always did make him feel better, but she wouldn't ever really understand what he was going through, so what was even the point. "I just… Need some time… I'll catch up in a moment." Justin turned to her, dismissing her from the room the two stood alone in, red vortex lighting the walls up in that twisted red aura. She didn't seem too happy about Justin kind of blowing her off like that, though more so the fact that it was pretty clear he wasn't going to just be okay given some time… That said though, maybe talking about it right away wasn't such a great idea. She'd give him his space for now, but they'd have to talk about it eventually.

"Well… alright, but if you ever want to talk-"

"I know, I know, you'll be right there." Chie sighed one last time before turning about and taking her leave, leaving Justin alone in Adachi's room, posters torn about all over the walls. She didn't feel comfortable leaving him there, and rightfully so as it would soon become apparent. That said though, he did not to get everything out of system… maybe being surrounded by memoribillia of what Adachi truly was would help him come to terms with what Adachi really was. And then the only pain would be that he had been deceived this entire time, not the belief that there had to be some good deep down in his twisted black heart. Minute after minute passed with Justin simply pacing around the room, examining every poster, every piece of furniture, every scrap of wallpaper in this room. He had… But then he heard a voice call out to him.

"This is a problem." Justin's eyes widened for a moment, alarmed by the sound of Adachi echoing throughout the room; more specifically behind him. He was quick to turn around, hoping to lay eyes on the man, only to find his mind had been playing tricks on him it would seem. A shame, part of him was hoping to find that his problems had nothing to do with this murder case, or that his problem was he was aware he had fallen into the clutches of sinfulness and evil. That perhaps he could repent for all he had done and find good favor in Justin's eyes once again… Instead, all Justin got was the barrel of a gun to the back of his head as he turned about. He recognized the texture almost immediately as it came to contact the back of his skull. He didn't so much as flinch though, as if part of him wouldn't even care if the fucker tried to blow his brains out all over the floor. As far as Justin was concerned, Adachi trying to spray his brain matter across the wall was only proof he never even cared in the first place. And that only went to tear the gap in Justin's heart open even further. "Why didn't you bring the rest of them? You're such a party pooper. You couldn't even bring your wannabe detective friend?"

"Always a game with you isn't it?" Justin sighed, shaking his head as much as he could with a gun against his skull. It was pretty obvious Adachi didn't want the rest of the group here of course, there's no way he could take them all on with nothing but that damn gun of his. It was much easier to off them one by one than it was to take them in a fight. That was why he had appeared to Justin right now, was it not? After all, it wasn't like he ever cared about the kid; it was all just an act. There was no bond there, or at least what had existed of it was long since gone. There had to be something there if Adachi had tried to warn him to stand down at one point with his damn letters… but that was about the extent of his compassion. If Justin insisted on involving himself, he was nothing more than another witness that needed to be silenced to keep his game going.

"So why are you here? To change my mind? Don't kid yourself." Adachi chuckled slightly. He was curious as to what Justin had been doing hanging around this room for the last ten minutes, yet no matter how much he observed the teenagers pacing, he couldn't pinpoint any clear motivation. Justin wished he could say that was it too, to just sit here and talk with Adachi about all he had done... But the truth was Justin didn't know WHAT he was doing here. His soul was crushed and now he was left without direction in his life. He just found himself being drawn back to this room, looking for the puzzle piece that fell out of him. "Your whole gang should be here. You know, work together, beat the bad guy. Friendship, effort, victory… You guys love that stuff."

"…Are you the bad guy?" Justin questioned, daring to turn about to face Adachi, a painful expression in the boy's eyes as he stared at Adachi. He was a murderer of course, but the fact of the matter was even good people did horrible things. With his alleged motivations for committing the crime, it was hard to say he was in fact still a good person, but in the end, there was still hope in Justin that there was still light in the abyss of Adachi's heart. That his soul could still be salvaged from the ruin he had left it in.

"Pfft, of course I am." Adachi shook his head with annoyance. It was pretty clear he was fed up with these games of Justin trying to cling desperately onto the character he had created just so people could believe he was nothing but a bumbling, incompetent idiot, incapable of committing an atrocity of this level, incapable of ever wishing Inaba would just burn to the fucking ground. It was amusing at first to find Justin trying to defend him against obviously true charges, but now it was bordering on obsessive. And Adachi was never exactly one for commitment; to anything or anyone. Too boring. "Just what was it about me that made you want to believe in me so bad anyway?" Justin tilted his head to the side slightly as he crossed his arms. To tell you the truth, after all that had happened he wasn't so sure anymore. He'd like to say because he thought Adachi was a good person, but in truth it was far more likely because he reminded Justin of his father. Adachi was the father he didn't get to have; and that's why he clung so close to the fucker. He was like a bandage to an open cut; only it seemed that bandage had been ripped clean off, taking the hairs off Justin's leg with it. But Justin could never admit that; he was too ashamed, not to mention it was just so selfish to use a person for their own gain… In that way, Justin supposed he and Adachi were a lot alike. Just add that to another reason it pained Justin to see Adachi succumb to sin. "I don't have anything to say to YOU. If crimes could be solved by appealing to morality, we wouldn't need the police! The person you believed in was a version of me who only existed in your head. You decided on your own to believe in me, and that decision betrayed you. Why complain about it to me?"

"You're wrong Adachi… There's still some good in you." Justin pleaded. He refused to accept that Adachi had always been this psychopathic creepy raper guy. At the end of the day, this persona that Adachi created that didn't give a shit about anything, that always got in trouble because he was too lazy, that would perform magic tricks to entertain teenagers… That wasn't fake, Justin just knew it. And that part was still in there hidden deep down inside of Adachi, Justin was sure of it. He could never forgive with Adachi had done, but at the end of the day, Adachi was still near and dear to Justin… But only Adachi, not this hollow shell of a man that was aiming a gun at Justin's skull right now. That wasn't the real Adachi, he was sure of it. Adachi simply groaned with annoyance. He could do without the dramatics and the petty speeches about how he could change. This wasn't some movie where the bad guy could be manipulated and learn the error of his ways. This was the path Adachi chose; and he didn't regret a damn thing.

"You say the dumbest shit. It's people like you who come to me alone, naively thinking you can 'turn me around,' that piss me off the most." Adachi snapped, having just about enough of this. He wasn't changing his mind on this, and that was that. And if Justin continued to bother him with this bullshit, well… Maybe he'd just have to shut his mouth. Preferably with lead. He raised his gun slightly, straightening his arm out as if to make clear he really was aiming to kill at this point. That was the problem with teenagers these days, they never shut their goddamn mouth… Except maybe that sister of Justin's… Adachi couldn't help but wonder if the mute could still moan. It was only a shame she didn't move here till after he started his little crime spree… It was a good thing he kept his thoughts to himself, because if he had said that out loud, well… Justin would not hesitate to kill Adachi right here and now. Even if that mean taking a bullet or two himself. Even if that meant he had to put down someone he had admired oh so long ago. The truth was, there was nothing admirable about Adachi, Justin just was never able to see what he was really like. "What do you think will happen if I shoot you?"

"I imagine my head with explode like watermelon, but you wouldn't do that. If you had any intention of shooting me you would have done it five minutes ago." Justin remarked bravely. He wasn't afraid of Adachi or his damn gun. This tough-guy murderer thing he had going on was nothing more than an act, and Justin was well aware of that. And he trusted Adachi was aware he was aware of that. Or perhaps his mind was so far gone that the limits of rhyme and reason had long since collapsed on him. He smirked, as if finding humor in Justin calling his bluff.

"Wow, very optimistic! Is your brain rotting or something?" Adachi laughed. Justin rolled his eyes and crossed his arms, not buying this for even a second…

And then Adachi fired the gun. The sound was enough to give Justin the anxiety attack of his life, and the smell of gunsmoke did nothing to calm his now jittery nerves. For a moment, Justin almost suspected he had been shot, and that somewhere in between the bullet striking his brainpan and him dying, he just couldn't feel a damn thin. But in truth, Adachi had simply skimmed his ear with the bullet, puncturing the window behind Justin with a nice big hole. A slow trickle of blood flowed down Justin's ear from where the friction of the bullet had cut the skin. It wasn't much mind you, but enough that he could feel the moisture of his bodily fluids running down the side of his face. He was shocked to say the least. On one hand, Adachi didn't have the balls to shoot him out right… There was still hope that he still held some fragment of humanity, or at the very least still had a soft spot for the blonde haired child who had helped him out of a jam on several occasions. On the other… He'd still hurt Justin as much as he could without killing him, which was debatably far worse. "Do you get it now? We're done talking. I won't miss next time."

Justin stared at him with disbelief for a moment, pressing his hand against his now open wound, fingertips coated in red as he tried to identify the liquid pouting from his ear. He honest to god could not believe it, but in the end, it made one thing painfully clear: any and all hope of talking Adachi down from this was long gone. He had chosen his path and he refused to be swayed. He would kill Justin without so much as a second thought; or so he claimed. Justin began to walk away, gun still aimed at the back of his head. And as he passed by Adachi, he pushed aside the fabric of his jacket to reveal the handle of the magnum in his pocket, pausing for only a moment to make sure Adachi could get a good glimpse at it. "Neither will I." Adachi chuckled slightly as he holstered his gun again, smirking that sinister smile of his.

"Regular revenge always was boring…" He scoffed slightly at himself. There wouldn't be anything fun in just putting a bullet through Justin's skull right here and now. Anything worth doing in life was worth taking the time to do it right. Too bad Adachi was a lazy son of a bitch. And what about revenge? What did Justin ever do to Adachi that warranted revenge? He did fucking everything for that man, and he responded by pressing the barrel of a gun against his head. Adachi wanted revenge? So be it. But he wouldn't be getting revenge on Justin; Justin would get revenge on Adachi for breaking his hear and leaving him a hallow mess of a man. "Let me see where your detective work takes you. It's always good for a laugh. You're so persistent!" Justin froze in place, gripping onto the door frame where he was about to take his leave. And for just a moment, he stuck his head back around the corner to look at Adachi.

"I wouldn't be so persistent if you just told me what I wanted to hear."


	223. Chapter 222: December 9, 2011

CHAPTER 222

December 9, 2011

* * *

"So… this is it huh?"

The Investigation Team stood there, staring down a rugged rock pathway in the dark red sky above, caution tape fluttering in the winds above. There were no doors or anything to hide the horrors that awaited them. They could clearly see Adachi at the end of the road, just sitting there and presuming grinning that grin of his. He was too far to tell just yet. All they knew was he could see them, and they could see him. And it sent a chill down Justin's spine. He just had to keep reminding himself that wasn't the Adachi he knew. And if he had any doubts about that, all he needed to do was run his finger along the scab on his ear. That wasn't Adachi, just a monster wearing Adachi's face.

"We go in, we disarm him, and we arrest him. Let's make that clear right now." Yu explained, making assertive hand gestures at the others. They were all pretty pissed about Adachi, him specifically, so he needed to make clear they weren't going to throw him off the ledge or something once they got done with him. That wasn't their way after all. Not that he needed to convince Justin; he still didn't feel good about bringing Adachi in, even knowing quite clearly what he had become. Plus he got shaky enough up here without getting so close to the edge as to throw Adachi into the abyss. He wasn't afraid of heights or anything, but holy shit. The path was narrow, and he couldn't even see the ground below. It was quite possible falling here would mean falling forever. No way to know unless he tested it, which he had no intention to for obvious reasons, the most prominent being even if it didn't go forever, it was certainly far enough to kill him. Teddie or Kurt might have been able to do it though, but again, might go forever.

"You think it'll be that easy?"

"No. Probably not." Yu shrugged. I mean, it was just a guy with a gun, but a gun is still pretty fucking deadly. Best Yu could hope for was that Justin and Naoto were quick on the draw and precise with their aim so as to shoot the gun out of his hand or otherwise take him down a notch. Anything else would be a rather unsuccessful endeavor with someone walking out of here in a casket. And no one was going to die on Yu's watch.

The crew slowly made their way to where Adachi had now began to stand, clapping sarcastically and starring at them with those vacant eyes of his. It was like a showdown in those old western movies with the glares that were being exchanged between both parties; especially so between Justin and Adachi. He was mocking Justin, applauding him for bringing the rest of the team as he asked. Because even though this was all to bring an end to Adachi's game, it was exactly what he wanted. And yet… If Justin had told the group to stay back, the fog would settle in on their side and Adachi would STILL get what he wanted. No matter whether Justin did what he was told or did the exact opposite, Adachi was the one pulling the strings here. "Wow, I'm surprised you've made it this far."

"Allow me to confirm the crimes you've committed thus far. You had suspicions that this world was dangerous, yet you threw Mayumi Yamano into the TV. Knowing full well that Ms. Yamano died here, you did the same to Saki Konishi." Adachi sighed and rolled his eyes, spinning his gun around on his finger with boredom. For fuck's sake, did he have to spell everything out for this girl; she could figure this shit out on her own, right? "Not only that, but you duped Namatame into taking over your murder attempts, while you watched like a spectator at a game. When the disappeared stopped dying, you sent a warning letter to ensure more victims. Even when a copycat killer arose, you had the gall as a detective to eliminate a suspect under investigation. Two people died in the last six months, and a young girl is now in critical condition… But that's not all. If at any turn something had gone wrong, many more would have succumbed… All for some foolish 'excitement,' like a criminal reveling in the chaos he creates!"

"Yeah? So what's your point? All I did was put people in here. It's the world that really kills them, isn't it? This world reflects people's thoughts… Which… Oh dear… Does that mean the real culprits are everyone on the outside, including you?" Adachi laughed, finding humor in the technicality. He was so willing to blame everyone but himself for his actions, and yet, he wanted all the credit for being a total asshole. Justin couldn't wrap his mind around any of this. How could someone be so dead set on being a criminal and yet not want any of the responsibility it entailed? It was like watching a child play pretend.

"To hell with that! You did that stuff knowing full well those people were gonna die! If that's not a crime, then what is!?" Yosuke shouted, voice rhaspy with the anger of a thousand gods. The more Adachi talked, the angrier he got that Saki had to die to someone like this. She did nothing wrong, she was just a play thing to someone who fancied themselves a god. And the angrier he got, the more amused Adachi became.

"Haha… You're so self-righteous."

"How can you say that…!? Aren't you a police officer!? Out of everything you could have been, didn't you specifically choose to join the police!?" Chie countered, baffled by all of this. How could scum like Adachi be so motivated to be a criminal when his job was quite literally to stop criminals. It was a paradox by all means, but logic didn't need to make sense in regards to the mind of a sociopath.

"Don't make me laugh. Just because someone joins the police doesn't make them some kinda "agent of justice." Y'know why I applied? So I could legally carry a gun… That's all. You'd be surprised how many are like that. I thought it would be fun, too, but to tell the truth, that was a wash. Everyone around me was such an idiot… I made one tiny mistake, and they all got on my case and sent me out here to Nowheresville as punishment… I was bored shitless and wondering what to do next… when I discovered this power." Adachi bitched and moaned. He didn't do jack shit and yet he was always being punished for everything. Life was a goddamned bureaucracy, and his life was constantly being shackled. What was wrong with having a little fun once and a while?

"For crying out loud… why a bastard like you!?"

"A gift for having to put up with this lame job out in Nowheresville, I guess. I did that stuff 'cause I could. And it got interesting, so I watched." Adachi shrugged with indifference. He didn't really care where he got the power from or what purpose it had truly been for, because in the end it proved much more interesting just to set the marbles in motion and let the rest unfold in front of his eyes.

"That's your reason!? You can't be serious…! You really don't care what happens to our world!?" Yukiko stuttered, baffled by all of this. This was just textbook evil. What could Adachi possibly gain from all of this? Just some shits and giggles for the few hours he'd have before EVERYONE FUCKING DIED!? Surely he must have realized he was at the same risk as everyone else if he went through with this damn scheme of his. Surely he couldn't be this naïve as to blind himself to the consequences of his choices. Surely he had thought this through past 'hey this might be worth a laugh or two,' right?

"Let's be honest. There's nothing great about the real world, is there? It's just dull and annoying as hell. No one accepts that's the way things are… They're just stuck with it because they can't deny it, either. Those who actually succeed in life… They just happen to be born with the magic ticket called talent. If you don't have it, you can either accept or deny that fact until you die. That's your only choice. Once you realize that, all you have left over in life is despair. The ultimate game over. Wouldn't it be better if that kind of reality was wiped away?" Adachi grinned. Okay so he did think it through, it was just that the conclusion he came to was absolutely horrific and awful… Reminded Justin of his own shadow. And that only went to scare Justin as to just how twisted Adachi had become.

"I'd take dull and boring over dead any day of the week." Justin countered with annoyance. There was some truth to what Adachi claimed, Justin was ashamed to admit, but salvation through death was never the answer to any problem. And killing everyone with this damn fog is no way of wiping away the way this shitty society worked. It seemed more like justification to try and make Adachi appear that he wasn't self-centered. The way he flipped out when Justin called his bullshit suggested otherwise.

"Brats like you are so damned naïve… You piss me off. Listen… You might have hopes and dreams right now, but that's only because you know nothing about reality. One day you'll see… You'll be faced with the boring reality that boxes you in, no matter where you go. I'm telling you all this based on my own experience in life. Think about it for a second… Once everyone turns into Shadows… they'll still keep on living, oblivious to all the things around them… So how's that different from the way it is now? No, this'll make things much easier for everyone." Adachi continued to blabber on and try to pretend this was some sort of solution to the grand scheme of life. In truth, it slowly made less and less sense. He was blabbering like a mad man; perhaps because he was a mad man.

"Easier…? What the hell are you talking about!?"

"C'mon! How many people out there actually think about what's real, or what's right and wrong? Next to none, I bet. It's useless to think about those things in the first place. You don't get anything out of facing reality, and there's no way to change it either. I mean, what could be more boring than brooding over things you can't change? It's better to just ignore them and believe only what you want to believe in life. Doesn't that sound a lot easier? It would be awesome if everyone's life could be that easy. No matter who you are, your lifespan is about 80 years or so, right? Then it'd be easier if we all just became Shadows. No need to hold back anything… No more pretending we don't see things. Honestly, we don't need our world anymore. Better to let it be swallowed up and for mankind to turn into Shadows… That's what all those people who're scared to death really want… So it's my duty to see that they get it." Adachi began to chuckle that maniacal laugh once again. And Justin thought Namatame had a messiah complex; at least he didn't believe in saving people by turning them into mindless killing machines. It was all bullshit, though the back of Justin's mind began to tingle ever so slightly. Probably his shadow getting giddy at the thought of the humans being exterminated and replaced by a shadow regime.

"Nobody wants anything like that! It's just you, dumbass!" Chie countered with aggravation. Justin responded in kind by pumping his face in slight jest, as though to say 'hear, hear.' He didn't like anything about this situation, but at the very least he was proud of his girl for giving Adachi hell when he proved to be a psychopath, if only because Justin couldn't bring himself to do the same. In a way, Chie was like his ambassador, speaking everything Justin wanted to say but couldn't find the courage to spew out.

"Geez… Don't you remember what it was like when your Shadow came out? It must've been enjoying life far more than you!" Adachi shouted, having just about enough of all of this. And in his anger, the team could practically feel the ground tremble beneath them. His eyes split into a golden tone and his body glowed the purple aura of a shadow. If there were still any arguments against Adachi and Justin being one and the same, now would probably be the time to raise them, because honestly, Justin had nothing. **"You all saw Shadows as mere monsters, didn't you!? These things move on pure instinct! They go wile because you defy them! You annoying little brats are the ones who aren't wanted in the new world!"**

"…**Oh I like this guy."** Eyes all shot over to Justin, who had unfortunately lost control to his shadow under a combination of both being on the shadow's turf and being overcome with rage and sadness. At the very least the shadow was still with the Investigation Team, if only because while Adachi and he shared similar view points, Justin had other, bigger plans. And Adachi wasn't part of that plan… At least not alive anyway. That was one hell of a shadow he had in him… It might prove to be quite useful.

"People can't live alone. If you give in and sever your ties to human society, it will naturally become hard to live in. Yet you refuse to face life and admit your fault, running from your own humanity like a coward. And though you claim to find life troublesome, you caused nothing but trouble for many others! Your twisted logic is that of an immature, egotistic brat!" Naoto turned her attention back to Adachi, trying to ignore the grimacing shadow now standing beside her. He posed her no ill-will at the moment, but you never know when he'd try to stab her in the back again.

"**Sh-Shut up! Stop trying to act all tough… You guys can't even stand on your own unless you deny everything I said! S-Stupid teenagers…! You have no idea what kinda shit I've been through! Your existence won't belong there! I thought I could just leave you be, but you're like a plague… I'll have to get rid of all of you!"** Adachi shouted before bending over and gripping his head in pain, trying to keep a steady control on his shadow's energy. He had to, otherwise he'd lose everything. His screams were harrowing, painful to listen to… but then, that probably wasn't quit as painful as when Adachi quickly snapped and threw his gun, planting a lead bullet right between Kurt's eyes. He was taller so he was an easier target to hit I guess. Everyone backed away with horror as the stared at the big fucking hole in Kurt's head, blood dripping each way and eyes twitching as he tried to grip tightly to his life.

"Y-You… You motherfucker!" Justin shouted, suppressing his shadow thanks to an overabundance of human compassion. Strangely enough, shadows couldn't really keep control when humans weren't horrible and actually cared about the world around them. It was like compassion was their weakness. That wasn't important though. What was important was the fact that Kurt now had a bullet right in his forehead…

At least he did. He spat out only moments later, wiping the blood from the corners of his mouth with the side of his hand as the hole in his forehead began to close. Now, when Kurt had shown Justin that he could close a cut on his finger, he didn't think he could do the same with a bullet. Hell, no other shadow Justin had encountered had been able to do it: not Maya's, not Teddie's, not Chie's… Justin's shadow did manage to spit the bullet out himself after his Maya persona had been killed… Was it possible some shadows could do it while others could not? Maybe they were both just too stubborn to due. In the end, Kurt was simply pissed as his flesh resealed and the lead shell bounced off the floor. Adachi was needless to say very, very confused. Kurt's shadow nature was NOT something he was aware of, so to see him just sort of push a bullet out of his system with just a little bit of twitching, well… It was horrifying. Especially now that he had a very pissed off shadow on his hands. He'd probably be less scared if he realized Kurt was a pacifist; but even he had has exceptions. Every now and then, just a little bit of the original Kurt shone through bright and clear in his shadow… This was just one of those days.

He bent down, picking up the shell that had fallen out of his body, rotating it with his fingers. It was more or less unusable as it was, but with just a little bit of that shadow magic Kurt was so fond of, anything could work he supposed. Kurt glared at Adachi intently as he tossed the shell up in the air, forming within his arms in that purple smog a jet black shotgun. And as the shell came back down from the sky, Kurt used it as a template for a shotgun shell, pushing it within his gun before raising it towards Adachi. "Right. My turn." Kurt remarked smugly before pulling the trigger, much to everyone's alarm. They were trying NOT to kill him dammit. Luckily, when you telegraph your moves like that, it's easy to defend against. No one could predict that Adachi would summon a persona of his own though… One to mirror Yu's. It looked just like Izanagi, only red and twisted.

"**Dammit, you're all such a pain in the ass! I'll kill you just like I killed those other two!"**

"…Yeah, okay. Fuck this." Yu shook his head with disbelief. It was hard enough trying to figure out why Maya had the same persona as him, but then it looked like Adachi did as well. It made… No sense. Unless there was some kind of clause that if you could enter the television without facing your shadow, your Persona was Izanagi. Adachi laughed before swinging his arm forth directing his persona at the group, blade in hand. He was ready to take a swoosh at Kurt, but Yu was quick to summon his own Persona to come to his aide. After all, that magic trick probably didn't work so well with decapitation. Kurt didn't so much as flinch though, just standing there with his hands in his pockets. All this shadow business had been making him cocky. You would be too if you could survive a bullet to the face.

Within moments Adachi and Yu were engaged in a close clash of personas, Izanagi vs Izanagi, Fool vs Fool. Or at least, as far as personas were concerned. While Adachi had assigned his Persona to keep Yu's preoccupied in a show of swordsmanship, Justin had slowly began to draw his gun on Adachi. Adachi saw of course and was quick to try and shoot Justin, though he thankfully only just got skimmed across the arm. Still, it was painful and it did bring Justin to the ground, but it did give Maya some encouragement to become a little more active in all of this. She was confused at first, as when she want to summon her abilities by trying to channel her emotions like usual, nothing happened. That blue aura shit just didn't seem to happen, no matter how much she prayed. It took her a great long while before she realized that wasn't going to work now that her shadow was gone. Instead she needed to summon her Persona like everyone else, but… how?

It never really occurred to anyone at first that shouting Persona wasn't how you summoned your Persona; it was willing that it would immerge that caused it to manifest itself. And so adopting her praying position again, Maya clenched her eyes closed and moved her lips to form the sounds of the word Persona. In a bright light, a second Izanagi immerged; which while confusing in trying to keep track of a everything, proved to be quite useful. Just not for Justin since Izanagi didn't know Dia. Ultimately, Yukiko was the one to tend to Justin's wounds, but now that Maya's persona was out, well… With a quick, yet timid, flick of her wrist she sent her own Persona flying through the sky where Adachi and Yu's Personas had been locked in a sword clash. Adachi's Izanagi never even saw the second Izanagi coming with a razorblade right through it's skull. Purple blood splattered every which way, and Maya couldn't help but jump a bit with glee at her success on the battlefield. And with that, Adachi's Izanagi came crumbling to the ground, Adachi was speechless to say the least. Though I think he was even more surprised by all the Personas staring down at him from the sky, all the Investigation Team standing in front of him with their arms folded as if to scold him like a child, and of course, the tapping on his shoulder… Followed immediately by Kurt punching him to the ground. "Next time you shoot me, you better be damned sure you kill me too." Justin proved to be quite the distraction, though Adachi's shot had certainly hurt him on a far deeper level than physically. He really didn't give a damn about trying to kill Justin. After all he had done…

"Ngh… Oh well… Our world's gonna disappear soon, no matter what… I didn't have anywhere to go back to anyways… Everyone's gonna become Shadows… Heheheh… Urgh!" Adachi clamped his stomach in pain as he was slowly surrounded by the others. It was amazing to see he still didn't care in defeat, still standing by his convictions. Admirable, if not for the entirely wrong reasons. If only he had used that determination to do something good. In the end though… it was entirely possible Adachi was never the one to make those decisions. The team was blinded by a bright flash as the surrounded Adachi, stunning them just long enough that when they reopened their eyes they were greeted by the pure black figure of Adachi floating in the sky, arms spread in a Jesus Christ pose, eyes glowing oh so red. **"All human… will become Shadows. And I shall descend upon the united world… as the master of order."**

"Wh-What the!?" Chie gasped with great confusion. In but a split moment Adachi had been completely consumed in darkness. It didn't take a genius to tell this wasn't Adachi anymore; the voice didn't match his own, even with that echo all shadows had. It was like a mish mash of five different voices, all creating this almost robotic tone. Like a pack of demons all flowing through his head and arguing for control of his voice-box. "Who are you!?"

"**I… am Ameno-sagiri… One who rules the fog. One awakened by man's desires. Do what you will, but your world's erosion cannot be stopped. It is an inevitability… Both this world and yours will soon be enclosed in a fog that never lifts. It will be the peaceful world that mankind has longed for… You played your part well, stirring up the will of the masses into madness. But that will soon come to an end… Mankind will soon become Shadows and live on in the darkness of the fog, oblivious of their reality…"** Ameno-sagiri spoke to them. There was something calm about his voice despite the wicked words he spoke. He just didn't sound like a malicious being in that what he was suggesting was awful beyond all senses, but at the same point it seemed like he wasn't doing it just because he hated humans or anything like that. He was rather collected in regards to logic and disposition. It was just a matter of what made him think he could get away with any of this.

"What the hell are you!? Why are you doing this…!?" Yosuke shouted with disbelief. They had seen a lot, but they had never seen a man possessed in a manner such as this. It was unnerving in some ways. But worst of all, this was probably their fourth or so culprit in this case, and yet they still didn't have any sort of idea why someone would ever try to kill the humans with this damn fog. What was there to gain from this?  
**"I am the one that shepherds humans to their true desires. Though their hearts longed for peace, it could never be attained… So they tore down the wall between image and reality. Indeed, this is the outcome desired by mankind. And mankind's desires are my desires. That is why I decided to expand this world… This is part of the sea of unconsciousness that exists within human hearts. A hollow forest born from bloated desires and false imagery. Humans view things as they see fit. They wish not for truth, but rather prefer the undesirables be hidden in fog… Still, humans fear what they cannot see. That brief yearning for truth becomes a ray of light which breaks the fog and torments the Shadows…" **Well… uh… I guess he had good intentions, but honestly, who actually wanted to see their world consumed by the shadows? If they ever saw what those things were, no doubt no man would want this. What Ameno-sagiri interpreted as the humans' true desires was nothing more than a misunderstanding. Humans wanted to live dammit, not be eliminated by their counterparts.

"That's why they attack and kill whoever's nearby at that time… A hollow forest… Then, this place isn't simply affected by people's hearts… It actually exists inside them?" Yukiko questioned with great curiosity. To think that this side of the television was actually a manifestation of the accumulated wishes and desires of the human race… Perhaps that was why the humans seemed to control everything here and why Justin's shadow despised them oh so much. It was just sickening to think that somewhere, someone in the world wanted this place. And not just one, oh no, this was what Ameno-sagiri claimed ALL humans wanted. This couldn't possibly be right, could it?

"**Mankind abandoned its pursuit of truth, placing itself in the depth of chaos and falsehood. Thus, my strength has grown, and the fog will not lift. Your world will be engulfed by the hollow forest. It was I who made it possible for you to bring about this destiny. I bestowed power onto those who could brave the hollow forest. That is what allowed you to come in contact with this world… And you all have done very well since."** Ameno-sagiri continued. It was like bomb shell after bomb shell. So the power of Persona came from this guy? But… how? More specifically, why would he give it to them? And… well… yes, maybe people like to lie to themselves a lot; hell Justin still was lying to himself in regards to Adachi, but… surely that didn't translate to KILLING them all, did it? This was not going to fly. The Investigation Team refused to allow it to happen.

"Then, the Midnight Channel-Was that phenomenon also your doing!?" Naoto questioned with great shock. The Midnight Channel itself was a great mystery that had escape the Investigation Team's ire simply because they had bigger fish to fry. But now that Ameno-sagiri brought it up… To think the Midnight Channel's creation could all be lead back to one individual… one individual who claimed it to be the will of the people. Was the Midnight Channel and its contents then… just a manifestation of what man wanted to see? It couldn't be; who would want to see such horrible images as Kanji's little bathhouse episode? And yet… It made so much sense.

"**Humans fail to see things as they truly are. They choose to see only what they wish. I acted only in support of this. A world filled with desires… Viewed through a window, from which one sees what one wishes to see… Humans departed from reality of their own volition, craving more false images. The more false images one yearns for, the more one stops yearning for reality… And so the forest grows on… That is the expansion of this world."**

"Enough talk already! Long story short, you're the one behind all this!" Kanji growled. He didn't care about the mystery of this all anymore or why this had to happen; all he knew was that people's lives were at great risk, and this seemed to be the perpretator. The threat began with him, and it would end with him as well.

"Yeah, I dunno who you are, but you're going down! People want to become Shadows!? Their desire is your desire!? To hell with that! When did we wish for that crap anyways!? We kept fighting and fighting like morons to get where we're standing!" Yosuke added on. And for just a moment, Ameno-sagiri paused, simply staring at the children with interest. He was an ambassador for the human race, he must be absolutely sure that this was the will of the people before he enacted anything; and here these children put up quite the counter-argument. And they had come so far it was hard to ignore their opinion completely. They were an interesting sort, and their accomplishments so far had been something Ameno-sagiri had not expected. The first batch certainly had not, but alas, that test had been tainted, so that was hardly a good control group in any regard.

"**Yes… That I did not forsee. The ability to master your own Shadow that emerged to kill you, and use its power… A new and uncertain facet of mankind… Is it worthy to put my trust in, or not…? It must be tested…"** And with a snap of his finger, Adachi's figure rose into the sky, a tornado of souls surrounding him and fuelling his new form. It was hard for the teenagers to hold their ground as they watched with amazement Ameno-sagiri craft his true form in front of their very eyes. It was certainly impressive if only because of the large scale of it all… It would have been more impressive if it wasn't a giant mechanical eyeball. **"To defy me is a senseless act which goes against your world's wishes. Now… Let everything vanish into the sweet fog of illusion…"**

Within moments, the small platform that the team had been crowded on was coated in a thick fog, coating the giant floating eyeball and hiding it from sight… Amongst other things. Most everyone was afraid to move knowing how small the platform they were on was. They didn't need to accidentally run right off to their death after all. They had to be cautious. They simply all backed up so that their backs were all touching other, that way they could anticipate a strike from all sides, and that way they knew so long as their backs touched, they were on safe ground. They just had to hold that formation. It was hard because they had no idea what the hell Ameno-sagiri was doing in the thick fog.

And then from the fog like a lighthouse, a beacon of light pierced through the mist, and heaven let it's light shine down on the Investigation Team. The glow formed the shape of an eyeball, and while it was still hard to see the entire mass of Ameno-sagiri's body, they could identify that the light was glowing brighter and brighter… Not exactly a good thing. They didn't exactly have the room, sight, or team to run out of the way though, and so they were left with no other option but for Yu and Maya to send their Personas forth to jump in the way of the laser that soon shot from the eyeballs pupil, splitting the beam with the edge of their blade. As the energy flowing from Ameno-sagiri's eyeball came to a halt, he was left surprisingly open… but more importantly, Justin noticed something odd. It the edge of his iris, illuminated by the glow of his eyeball, were several metal eye-lashes. Just big enough to grab a hold of.

Justin passed a couple glances around him before dashing forward towards the light. The light had almost completely dimmed by the time he made it to the eye in the sky, and when he lept out for the eye lash, he had no guarantee that he had lined up his jump properly and he wouldn't go plummeting down into the abyss below… But he nailed it, just barely getting a hold of the eye-lash and pulling himself up. He could still hear the others yelling at him to get down as he precariously tried to stand on his feet on the metal ledge. Ameno-sagiri's eye was focused completely on Justin now, not to shoot a laser at him in this range, but rather with curiosity. He never quite expected Justin to summon his Persona and use the narrow damage to take a swing at his lens with a hammer. The glass shattered on impact, denting it's service and causing the massive being to twitch in pain, eyelash catapulting Justin back to the land he had come from, and then some, given that Chie had to grab him before he went rolling off the edge. Boy was he happy she could see him sailing by.

And with that, Ameno-sagiri was left flailing like he got something in his eye, his light blinking and drawing attention to himself through the fog. It was perfect for lining up a spell or two or a dozen or twelve. Non-stop, the team sent attack after attack at the now exposed area on Ameno-sagiri's exposed lens where the glass had been weakend by the hammer blow earlier. And yet he had no real way of protecting himself, what without having limbs and all. It took a lot of hammering away at him, but he eventually fell. Or at the very least, he stunned every damn persona in the sky with a single blink, a wave of energy freezing them in place as he reopened his eyes. **"I see. Your powers are strong. Power comes from the heart… You have proven to me human potential… Very well. I will lift the fog from the place where you will return to. Mankind's desires are my desires. If mankind so wishes, I will return at any time… I am always at your side, watching… Time will show the path humanity takes… Children of the new potential…"** The giant floating eye spoke down to them a pleased tone of voice in his words. He wanted only what the humans wanted, so to find that he could adapt to their ever changing desires pleased him to no end.

"Children of the new potential?" Justin spoke up in between gasps of breath. Getting flung against the ground like that hurt like a bitch, not to mention his arm was still sore from being shot. Chie helped him keep his balance thankfully enough. She was ecstatic to have found Ameno-Sagiri would simply back off after a simple show of power, even more so that they technically saved the entire human race. And only at the age of seventeen… She should put that on her resume. Hell, if people weren't watching right now Chie would have kissed Justin, she was so overjoyed. But they were, so she'd have to save it for the after-party. Instead they all just watched with overjoyed eyes as Ameno-sagiri closed his eyes, satisfied in the conclusion of his test, form shaping back into something more humanoid. It wasn't long until the form resembled Adachi once more, who fell from the sky into a heap on the ground before them, groaning from the pain of the fall. The group was quick to surround Adachi once he landed.

"You think… it was controlling Adachi-san?" Chie questioned after a moment, staring at Adachi as he writhed in pain before eventually giving up, simply lying down and accepting defeat. Justin shook his head. He'd like to believe that it was Ameno-sagiri that was doing this to Adachi and manipulating him, but at the end of the day, Adachi had a separate agenda, and that made all his actions his own. He was just a pawn in Ameno-sagiri's tests to see what it was humanity desired… he was just a poor representation of the whole.

"No… He did this on his own. He got full of himself and thought he was a god… And this is his punishment for it. No one influenced that but himself." Justin remarked with pity for the detective lying on the ground. And the detective simply sighed as he looked up at the boy. How quick he was to stop believing in Adachi, even when he had clinged to him so tightly before. But… He was right to do it. Maybe Ameno-sagiri had influenced Adachi's decisions slightly, but at the end of the day, this was all on him. And what he did… was despicable. And in the end, the fog wouldn't come. Everything he had done was nothing more than one big joy ride. He accepted defeat.

"So that's it huh? Fine… Live however you want… If you think… you have the power to change the future… then go right ahead… The Shadows will finish me off… Just leave me be… You came to kill me in the first place… didn't you…?" Adachi spoke between deep breaths. He would rather die with dignity than rot away as a criminal in the federal institution. Like a heroic death after a mass conversion. But the truth is, you don't get to die a hero's death after you murder two people.

"If we leave you here dying… and a dead body eventually appears, then what? What's that accomplish for anyone…? Your stupid game's over. We're taking you back. Live and face your punishment… That's who it works in our world." Yosuke scoffed at Adachi with anger. It was strange, the qualifier here seemed to be 'if a dead body showed up in our world.' Seemed Yosuke still wasn't over Saki's death, even with the killer in hand. Justin stared at Yosuke intently. He was going to keep a close eye on that boy. Adachi had hurt Justin really bad, and he was a horrible person, but at the end of the day, the Adachi Justin trusted was deep down there somewhere… Given the time and the right treatment, perhaps that person could flourish again someday. Justin still had faith in Adachi, as much as he knew he shouldn't… He just hoped that faith would not be unwarranted a second time.

"…Right."

"I'm sure that's the outcome Dojima-san wishes for as well." Naoto remarked, adjusting her hat before picking Adachi up from the ground with the assistance of Kanji. And with that, it was as simple as walking back home and getting Adachi into police custody. He wouldn't struggle; he didn't have the energy to anyway, even if he didn't accept that his game had come to its conclusion. And with that… the case was finally, and truly over. Their killer was defeated and the fog would subside once again. It would be nice to see the sun again once the team eventually did step outside the television.

"So… that's it? Is it really over this time?" Chie questioned as they began to pace their way to the exit. Justin simply stared at the back of Adachi's head as they walked, a sad expression on his face all the while. Nothing would ever heal the wounds Adachi had inflicted on Justin this past week, and so long as he had a memory of Adachi, he would never truly be alright. He could feel it gripping his heart still to this day to think that he had trusted someone once again in his life as a father figure, only to be betrayed once more. Now and days the only person he truly trusted with all his heart was Chie. His other friends were trustworthy, but now? He slept with one eye open and kept an eye on his relationships. You can never be hurt by someone you trusted if you don't trust anyone after all. It was paranoia at it's finest.

"It is… We can all live a normal life now. Just in time for the holidays too."

"Well Merry Early Christmas."

"Crap, was I on the naughty list again this year?"


	224. Chapter 223: December 24, 2011

CHAPTER 223

December 24, 2011

* * *

"Oh hey Chie… uh… Isn't it a little late to be going for a walk?"

Time had passed since Adachi's conviction, and before Justin even knew it, December was coming to a close. It was almost Christmas time in fact, which for some reason he just didn't care about this year. Maybe it was because he actually had to get people gifts this year, maybe it was because with everything that had happened he wasn't really in a Christmas mood. Had Chie not reminded him that today was in fact Christmas Eve, he probably would have completely forgotten about it. You know, despite having his heart crushed earlier that month, Justin felt strangely at ease in the cold winter weather. Maybe it was just because he was excited about the day off tomorrow, hell, he only had half day of school today. He had actually already changed into his sweatpants and t-shirt because he was feeling particularly lazy today. Chie smiled warmly at Justin as she stood there in the door frame… Or at least, as warmly as she could in that chilly weather. You know it was cold because there was still some snow on the ground; up to the ankle if one were to dig their foot right through to the ground. Chie had no intention of wading through the snow though, so that wasn't a problem. She was only happy Justin's house had a roofed porch; made the wooden steps to his house so dry.

"Well its Christmas Eve, so I figured I'd stop by for a little bit." Chie grinned. Justin rubbed at the back of his neck a bit. He didn't really catch on that Christmas Eve was considered a romantic holiday, but he did understand it was a big day all the same. And its not like she'd have much opportunity to hang around with Justin on Christmas Day. That is, unless her father had a sudden revelation and invited Justin over for Christmas dinner. Hell Justin would settle for awkward tension if it meant having a proper meal tomorrow. As it stood, his Christmas dinner was leftover pizza from yesterday. It was a wonder there was even any pizza left with the way Maya ate. It was nice to see her eating after all that had gone down with her throwing up and everything. Her appetite had been pretty much non-existant for so long, so it was good that her stomach was starting to expand again. Just not so nice on Justin's wallet. And speaking of Maya, Chie peered her head through the door frame, just beneath Justin's arm as if he wouldn't just move out of the way if she asked, searching for Maya. Strangely, she wasn't home, despite it being at least nineish or so at night. It wasn't dark enough that it was hard to see, but it was dark all the same. She would think Maya would be here. "Huh? Where's Maya?"

"At Yosuke's." Justin shrugged before moving out of the way to allow Chie in. It was very cold out after all, and he didn't want her catching a chill. She smiled, though that eventually gave way to confusion as she made her way inside, taking her jacket off as Justin closed the door behind her. She was wearing that white top Justin had seen too many times before, a striped shirt just beneath it. He had to wonder if it was a little cold to be wearing that, but then, Chie always was resistant to the cold… in more ways than one.

"Yosuke's?" She questioned. Now while Justin didn't get that Christmas Eve was usually a romantic holiday for couples, she certainly did, and there was still that suspicion in the air that Yosuke totally had a thing for Maya. They were still trying to figure out who Maya had a thing for, but given that she went to Yosuke's house of her own volition, it was entirely possible it was Yosuke. But she wouldn't jump to conclusions. "What's she doing there?"

"Resigning." Justin remarked rather bluntly. Seemed today was going to be one of those one word answers kind of days. In truth, Justin just had a sore throat and needed something to cool his throat down. He made his way to the fridge and pulled out a bottle of cola, taking a sip of the bubbling beverage. Usually flat soda was good for you when you were sick after all, and while Justin wasn't claiming to be sick by any means, he imagined this would work for a bad throat as well. Chie was simply baffled; she couldn't believe Maya was quitting her job. I mean, why? Did she find a better job or something? Did Justin come into a lot of money recently that made her needing to work obsolete? Of course, she never NEEDED to work; it just helped them make sure they had enough money to get by. They'd get along just fine even if she wasn't working.

"Resigning!? B-But why?"

"Oh now see that would be ruining the surprise." Justin chuckled slightly. He didn't like to lie to Chie, but there were two things he knew about the predicament he found himself in now. One, Chie was a blabbermouth when it came to secrets; she was not exactly trustworthy with this information. The second was that Maya and Justin agreed this should be a surprise to everyone, save Yosuke, who would need to help with translations and who also needed to know Maya would be leaving her job at Junes. "Don't worry, she's got something else she'll be doing." Chie shook her head and sighed. Oh how Justin loved these little games of his. She'd be lying if part of her said she didn't enjoy playing them. A small grin crept across her lips. Justin had made his way to the coach where he simply sat back and lifted his eyes to the ceiling. He had been listening to Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, but I guess Chie just wanted his attention or something because she eventually pounced towards the couch and grabbed him in a headlock just next to him on the coach. "Ga- Choking- Too tight-"

"Oh, sorry." Chie chuckled slightly, cheeks lighting up red as she let go of Justin's neck. She just kind of meant to goof around, she didn't think she was actually hurting Justin by putting him in a headlock like that. Justin didn't hold it against her though. He just rubbed at his now sore throat again. Chie, everything that was good and bad all wrapped up in one beautiful package. How painful love could be sometimes. "I'm just a little nervous, I've never spent Christmas Eve with someone like this before." She admitted with embarrassment. Justin raised his eyebrow with curiosity. He had just assumed she wanted to hang out for a bit, he didn't think it was going to be like that. Not that he was objecting, he just wished she would have dropped him a line or something. He would have bought a bunch of candles or something in an attempt at creating the cheesiest romantic evening ever. "Though I'm also amazed. Here I am, spending Christmas with you, and I didn't even know you last year."

"It is something, isn't it? To be quite honest… I never really imagined being here right now with… well… anyone. But for what it's worth, I'm glad it was with you." Justin laughed a bit. Now that Chie mentioned it, it was kind of an amazing feat. They had both gone from being complete strangers to sitting here together on the coach on a crisp winter night. Justin was only happy Maya was out of the house for the moment being. No doubt she'd be back soon to ruin the atmosphere though. You would think that just sitting their bobbing their heads in time to music wouldn't exactly be so romantic, but I guess there are exceptions to every rule. Let's just be happy Justin hadn't decided to listen to heavy metal today.

_Her name is Yoshimi_

_She's a black belt in karate_

_Working for the city_

_She has to discipline her body_

_'Cause she knows that it's demanding_

_To defeat those evil machines_

_I know she can beat them_

_Oh Yoshimi, they don't believe me_

_But you won't let those robots defeat me_

Yeah, see what I mean? Was kind of a luck of the draw thing, but Justin could work with it. It was pretty much quiet between the two, just enjoying sitting there with their shoulders touching. It was only a minute or two before Chie rested her head against Justin's shoulder, and Justin in turn leaned his head against hers. "So how come you never fought any giant pink robots?" Justin questioned sarcastically.

"What, the eyeball thing didn't count?" She responded with curiosity. Ah, a very valid point, only that it wasn't pink. Close enough, Justin would give her the benefit of the doubt that she could overcome the power of the color pink. He simply laughed again, softly, but certainly amused by all this. It was the smart ass remarks that just reminded him why he loved her so much; because she had personality. Not a care in the world, truly, but more importantly, she was just fun to be around. And… well… she was a good person. That didn't have much to do with the sarcasm aspect, but the fact of the matter was Chie was always there for him. No one had ever believed in him the way she believed in him.

"I love you, Chie." He whispered to her before planting a peck on the side of her head. She responded in kind by blushing as hard as her cheeks would allow. It was always so embarrassing when he did this to her, and yet it just made her feel so… happy. It was hard to explain. Was this what love was supposed to be like, or was she missing something? They just kind of sat there for a long while, the heat from each other's bodies keeping them warm.

"You know, uh… I told my parents I was going to spend the night at Yukiko's." Chie spoke up after a brief moment, almost choking on her words. How did she phrase this correctly… She had to be subtle. But then she should have realized subtlety only went so far with Justin. He didn't get it most of the time. "My parents won't get worried if they think I'm with Yukiko. We used to have sleepovers together all the time… So, uh… You know what I'm trying to say, right?" Justin stared at Chie with a blank expression on his face before raising his eyebrow with confusion.

"No not really." Justin shook his head. Oh how subtlety fell on deaf ears in regards to the blonde haired boy. She sighed and rubbed her forehead with the tip of her index finger and her thumb. Why did he have to make everything so hard sometimes.

"I mean I lied to them about going to Yukiko's." Chie repeated, so Justin didn't seem to quite get that she wasn't telling the truth about going over to Yukiko's house. He made an 'ah' sound. That explanation did wonders for a man such as him that couldn't pick up on the subtle motions of one's body language, or their tone of voice.

"And of course that means they don't expect you home…" Justin muttered to himself, as if he needed to speak out loud to really put two and two together. "So… what, you want to sleep over?" Chie rubbed at the back of her head a bit with embarrassment. She really wished Justin would just say yes or no. It was embarrassing having Justin feedback a request to her like that, as if she could scarcely believe it herself. It wouldn't be the first time she slept here of course, so it didn't catch Justin off by too much guard. He was only surprised she wanted to stay somewhere else Christmas Eve. Christmas was sort of a family thing, right? Wouldn't she rather wake up at home to open presents and shit? "Yeah, I don't see why not, but uh… You don't happen to have a sleeping bag with you, do you?" Justin remarked. She hadn't come in with anything, which was strange because you would think her parents would force her to bring some clothes to change into and shit. Unless Yukiko just sort of had that stuff lying around. It wouldn't surprise Justin given how often Chie slept over there.

"Oh, I uh… No." Chie sighed. She could already see where this was going. There were only two spots she could sleep; the bed or the couch. Of course the couch was sort of where Maya slept, and while she was out right now, she would no doubt be back soon. I mean… It was a big bed, but uh… you know… That might be a little awkward. In truth, neither secretly minded the possibility; but they'd never admit it, not to mention they feared what the other would think about it. Justin ran his hand down his face as he thought on the matter. There had to be something else they could do for bedding. Justin didn't want to have to split the bed unless it was their last choice. As he paced around and thought to himself on the matter though it became fairly clear that might not be an issue anymore. The room had since started to get dark from the moonlight being eclipsed, and when Justin looked out the window to examine the cause, it had seemed it had started snowing. Hard. It was hard to see out the window kind of hard.

"Holy crap." Justin remarked with surprise as he stared at the snow dancing in the wind. This snowstorm wasn't supposed to come until later, not to mention it was fucking enormous. Justin was simply glad Chie showed up when she did, otherwise she'd be wandering around outside during some pretty dangerous conditions. That did bring up the concern that Maya was outside, though. Justin could only hope Maya was still at his place; which would actually solve two problems. The problem of Maya being outside in hazardous conditions such as this, and the problem of Justin's couch being occupied. He swiftly dug his hand through his pocket as he yanked out his phone. He only hoped that he could still get reception in this weather.

* * *

"Mhmm... Yeah, no problem."

Yosuke clicked his phone shut taking a deep breath as he slipped the device back into his pants pocket. He agreed that Maya shouldn't be walking home in this storm, and he certainly enjoyed her company, but he had to question just how long this would last exactly. From what he had heard from the weather channel earlier today, it was supposed to be a pretty big storm... But it was supposed to hit tommorow, not today. It made you wonder whether or not this was the same storm or not. All Yosuke knew was he was running out of places for people to sleep, and at this hour with this weather, it seemed he was going to have to find more places. He shook his head before making his way back to his room, where Teddie was enthusiastically anticipating what fun there would be once the snow settled. Seemed he wanted to get Maya to build a snowman with him, but she just wasn't feeling up to it. Funny, after the letter she had gotten in the mail, she should be celebrating, but instead she just felt like crap. "Hey, something wrong?"

She looked up from the floorboards beneath her, still vibrating from Teddie jumping up and down. Oh there was plenty wrong, but Maya didn't want to trouble Yosuke with it. It was bad enough she quit the job he had given her mere moments ago. _"It's... nothing." _She fibbed. Her hand motions said one thing, but her eyes said something else. Yosuke shook his head with mild amusement and significant concern. Honestly, what was he going to do with this girl some of these days? He soon found a seat beside her on his bedroom floor, crossing his legs to match hers.

"Come on, you can tell me."

"Ooh, ooh, I know!" Teddie shouted interrupting Yosuke's attempts to break through to Maya. He didn't seem to quite get there were certain times to shout and and speak, and times where he could just let others speak on their own behalf. "I bet Maya-chan did something bad so she's not on Sandy Claws' list this year!" Maya and Yosuke simply glared at the over enthusiastic bear. Right, Maya on the naughty list. Good joke.

"It's Santa Clause." Yosuke corrected with a slight grimace and deep breath, trying to quell the migraine Teddie was giving him by manipulating his flow of oxygen. "And will you sit down and shut up. I swear sometimes it would be better off if you want back to the TV." Yosuke rolled his eyes. He didn't mean it, and Teddie knew that; it was simply a means of ventilating his annoyance with all this. "As I was saying...! You know you can talk to me. You and Justin fighting again?"

_"No, it's just..."_ Maya paused for a moment: It was true Justin and her had fought recently, but that wasn't what had been on her mind. No, it was Christmas time again, and that's what gripped at her very heart. She used to love Christmas with the family too, at least until they funded the holiday with blood money... _"I miss home... Mom and Cliff, and... And Dad..."_ Her motions became slower and shakier, and soon her eyes began to water with tears. Yosuke was quick to jump on the case and try to wipe her tears away.

"H-hey hey. Don't cry. I-I'm sure they're still celebrating with you in spirit..." Yosuke tried to calm her down, though it did nothing more than cause her heart to cry even deeper tears of blood. Yosuke just didn't get it; she always missed her dad... It was just that Christmas time tended to remind her of this stuff because it was around the time they pulled the plug on her father.

_"You just don't get it..." _She countered in pain, pushing herself up from the floor before storming out of the room and towards the bathroom. She needed a moment to try and recompose herself and to clear the tears from her eyes. Yosuke tried to stop her, but in the end he realized she just needed a moment to regain her composure. Still, it hurt to see her like that.

"Maya..." He muttered to himself, folding his arms with disappointment in himself for screwing the pooch on this one. He wanted to help her, but in the end, he simply made it worse. He should have realized at the end of the day, nothing short of going back home would make a difference in her morale. And it's not like he could afford plane tickets, not to mention Justin would probably kill him... Unless... That's right, Maya never took a plane here or anything like that; she just went into a television on her side and came out through one on Inaba's side... Could it then be used the opposite way? "Teddie...? I think I have an idea. Do you think you could set up the television to San Diego?"

"Huh? Well of course I can!"

"Perfect, you do that and I'll go get Maya."

* * *

_"I can't believe this... This is..."_

Maya stared out into the world around her, snow floating down onto the streets she pressed her feet against as she marched forth, a sense of fulfillment washing over her as she walked along the lands of her youth. This was San Diego. She hadn't seen it in so long; not since she ran off to Los Angeles... She simply could not believe it that she was here again. She had vowed to never show her face her again; hell it was a risky move with a warrant out there for her. She was a suspect in a murder case after all, and the perpetrator at that. And yet she had never felt so happy to be here once again. Teddie and Yosuke were amazed too by this new country. The television they made their way out of was located in a dump on the outskirts of town, and yet despite this place being far removed from the city, Teddie and Yosuke still were under a slight bit of culture shock. It was hard to explain; the atmosphere was just so... different.

"You said you wanted to go home, right?" Yosuke smiled as he made his way to Maya's side. "If I know anything about time zones, it's still the morning here. We can go anywhere you want." He encouraged her. After all, most businesses should be open around this time, so it probably wasn't much of a problem as far as activities or patronage. Some foreign shopping might be fun, though unfortunately you'd be hard pressed to find anyone in this city willing to take yen. Maya paused, simply admiring the country she was born in. Oh it was good to be back alright, but as far as what to do while they were here, she hadn't a clue. She pressed her index finger against her chin as she contemplated the matter.

_"Well... There is ONE place."_

* * *

"Got any fives?"

Justin and Chie had been sitting on the coach and enjoying the only card game they both knew how to play without any reason of a doubt. Beside war, but honest to god, fuck how long that game took to play. Chie shook her head, much to Justin's annoyance. It seemed like no matter how many times he asked, she never had a damned five. This had been going on for ages now; and it was the ONLY card he still needed to get rid of.

"So… Uh, don't kill me for asking, but…" Chie spoke up as Justin stuck his hand onto the deck to grab another card. There was something she wanted to ask Justin, but she knew it was kind of a sensitive topic, so she was hesitant to even bring it up. That said though, she felt it was still something that needed to be watched carefully given the circumstances. "Have you been alright with… you know… I know you were pretty bummed about Adachi…"

"Oh… We're talking about that?" Justin remarked with great disappointment. They were supposed to be having fun at a sleepover right now dammit, not talking about how his heart had been twisted and sliced to pieces by a mad-man disguised as his friend. And to answer that question, no. The pain would always linger; he just locked it away as best he could so as to appear like he didn't care at all. One day, it was all going to hit him again, and he'd breakdown from all he repressed over the years. But for now, he was content pretending it never happened. "No, why would I be okay with that? He was like a father to me and he-… You know what? I don't want to talk about this. I'll be fine." Justin shook his head.

"Are you sure? You know we can talk about it."

"I know we can, but I don't want to." Justin countered in his usually snarky tone. Chie simply shook her head with disappointment. What was she going to do with this kid some of these days? It was like he was purposely trying to make himself sick by bottling all this up. Clearly he didn't remember what happened at the riverbed that one time. "Hey… When you said you lied about going to Yukiko's… Uh… What exactly would happen if I said 'no' to you at the door?" Justin raised his eyebrow with curiosity. Seemed like she kinda HAD to be here based on a situation she had crafted herself. Chie paused for a moment staring at her cards as her eyes widened. Within seconds she jumped up, knocking all the cards over in the process.

"Crap! I forgot to call Yukiko!"

"Smoooooooooooth."

* * *

_"Hi Dad... It's me, Maya..."_

So when Yosuke told Maya they could go anywhere in town, he hadn't quite expected to be brought to a graveyard. He probably should have seen it coming to be honest. That said, they really should have abandoned Teddie somewhere along the line, because he was proving to be a real pain in the ass with the way he was running about the cemetery. Maya needed a moment here, and here Teddie was going nuts. Yosuke and Maya stood there, looking down at the grave in front of them. Yosuke never knew Maya's father, but from the stories she told, he could tell he must have been a great man. The least Yosuke could do was pay his respects. And Maya? She didn't gesture a single word; simply flapping her gums as if she could still speak. The dead have no ears after all, and no one else was worth talking to now that it was just her and him again, so it mattered not whether she had a voice or not.

_"It's been a while. I'm sorry I haven't visited... I got myself into a lot of trouble... But I guess you already know that..." _She shook her head, eyes cast down with disappointment. If her father was alive to see what she had done... She wouldn't be his daughter anymore. She wouldn't be worthy of the title no doubt. _"You must be ashamed of me... I would be..."_ She paused for a moment, taking a deep breath and flicking tear droplets from her eyelashes. _"Um... I don't really know about Mom or Cliff, we don't exactly talk anymore... Justin and me still talk though. I know you never got to meet him in person, but you would have liked him."_ She cracked a small smile and raised her eyes to the sky_. "God with as much as I've talked about him here, you probably know him better than me."_ She giggled slightly. Back when she had a rather big crush on Justin, she would come here to talk to her father about him, and how nice he always was towards her, how she was always convinced he was doing something because he liked her. He couldn't' hear here now of course, but she'd like to believe he was somewhere up there in the heavens listening and smiling down on her.

"Looks like someone else visited recently." Yosuke interrupted as something caught his eyes. Usually when people left something along the graves, they left flowers or other plants... He had never quite seen someone leave behind an entire book. He reached out to touch the book, though Maya was quick to slap his hand away. That wasn't his; he had no right taking that. "Ow, sorry!" Yosuke shouted, rubbing his hand a bit with pain. Somehow, he got the feeling Maya had left that there a long time ago. It was only a wonder the rain hadn't destroyed a flimsy paperback like that yet.

_"...I left that here before I left San Diego..."_ Maya explained after a moment, a sad look in her eyes_. "First Edition copy of Watchmen... My father was a big fan of comic books; he used to read me Spider-Man and all that stuff when I was little. But there was always this one book he wouldn't let me touch... I was always mad that he wouldn't read it to me. After all, it had a big smiley face on it, how bad could it be? I didn't get to read it until he passed away... I took it everywhere with me, just... Reading it over and over again. The book itself was good, but really, it just reminded me of Dad... When I left here... I decided to leave it with him. I didn't deserve it, and besides... It must get boring in Heaven, so I figured now he'd have something to do..."_ Maya sighed. She could have easily pawned it off for a huge profit. After all, it was a first edition. But in the end... Her father was not for sale.

"Oh, I see…" Yosuke muttered, averting his gaze to look at the ground to his side. It was hard to look at her when she was grieving as much as she was. Besides, Yosuke wasn't exactly a master of words… he really didn't know what to say to her as she poured her heart and soul out and front of him. "I-I'm sure wherever your father is, he really appreciates it." Maya paused for a moment, staring at the engraving along the face of her father's grave stone. It felt like every time she read the name over again, it hurt more and more. To see him reduced to nothing more than a name when he had been so much more in life was the greatest insult of all. An insult to all the dead. It couldn't be helped, but it still hurt all the same.

"_Do you think so?" _Maya turned to Yosuke after a moment, deciding she was going to be sick to her stomach if she stared at the gravestone any longer than she already had. It was a question she'd like to think she knew the answer to, but in truth she just couldn't think straight anymore. Memories could only answer so many questions after all. What Maya's father was doing in the afterlife right now, she could not judge. She'd hope he was looking down and smiling, but after the things she had done, he just might have abandoned her. Maybe losing her voice was a punishment for the sins she had committed in that damn apartment building so long ago. Her father's way of showcasing his disapproval in the skies above. Yosuke nodded, though it turned out he wouldn't be the only one to answer that question.

"I'm positive he is. He would be very proud of you, child." Maya jumped almost immediately, a smile of pleasant surprise crossing her face. Now that was a voice she hadn't heard in so long. She was almost convinced she would never hear it again. Yosuke was only confused who the man with the long hair approaching her was. Maya certainly seemed to know though given that she ran up to the bastard and give him a hug almost immediately. It would have been a handshake had they not seen each other in so long, but I guess the emotional suspense was too high as of late. The tall man with the long pony tail and the face of a teenager barely reacted, simply smiling at Maya as she let go.

"_Oh my god it's so good to see you again!"_ Maya signed off, perhaps forgetting that no one she used to know knew about the loss of her voice. Yosuke was prepared to translate if needed, though for the moment being, Maya seemed much too eager and excited for him to really get out a word edge wise in that conversation. _"Oh Yosuke, this is Phillip Eamon; he used to be my therapist before I left for Inaba. I just call him Dr. Phil though."_ Maya joked slightly. She always did like to tease this guy about his inconvenient choice of name in the medical business; and thankfully, he never took offense. He had a good sense of humor in regards to that kind of stuff. Which was nice.

"Oh, uh… Hey." Yosuke stuttered slightly before extending his hand to meet Phillips. They shook hands, though Yosuke couldn't help but feel a little awkward. It had to be the pony tail; guys should not have hair THAT fucking long. It was like… down past his ass. It gave him the jeebies. "She says it's good to s-"

"I'm aware." He cut Yosuke off. He was fluent in a lot of languages, sign-language being one of them. He could read what she was saying no problem. And no, he didn't seem too surprised to see the girl that could speak to him just the year prior speaking through her hands and not her lips. He was rather informed about this kind of stuff in fact, even if they didn't know it. He wouldn't be a very good doctor if he didn't keep an eye on his patients after all. "Paying your respects to your father?"

"…_Yes."_ Maya sighed, pointing her eyes to the ground again. Dammit, there was something about the phrase 'paying your respects' that just reminded her how far gone her father really was. Even in death she could at least come here and talk to the stone above his coffin had try to trick herself to believe he was answering back… Paying your respects? Seemed pretty definitively dead. She looked like she was going to start crying again at any second, though she was interrupted by the sensation of Phillip placing his hand along her shoulder, a smile on his face.

"Chin up." He encouraged her. "Believe me when I say your father would be proud to see the woman you are becoming. And never feel as though he would look down on you for what you have done. Good things come to those that suffer in the name of justice." He continued. Maya had told him all about the incident a long time ago in fact. She probably shouldn't have, but Phillip was just one of those kinds of guys you could trust with even your darkest of secrets. Like he didn't care who you were or what you had done. In fact, he was a very spiritual man; like the kind that was more concerned with fate than on the past. Maya smiled slightly. She didn't believe him, but it was nice to have the vote of confidence.

"…_What brings you here anyway?"_ Maya questioned after a moment. Surely he wasn't just walking around the cemetery for no reason, right? He bowed his head as he turned to face towards the tomb stone.

"It's Christmas Eve. I knew you'd be here." He replied. She hadn't come last year of course, but generally it had become a tradition for her to visit during the Christmas year. Why Phillip knew that, she didn't question, all she knew is it was admittedly kinda weird. "Everyone has their roles to play in the grand scheme of life; it's all very predictable once you've quarantined a repetition in pattern." He continued, as if trying to justify the creepiness of him knowing Maya's schedule. All that was clear was he had come here to speak to Maya, though as to why, neither knew quite yet.

"…_So uh… did you… need me for something?"_

"For any express purpose? No, I don't suppose I do." Phillip shook his head before turning his eyes back down to Maya. He was nothing more than a guide to the sheep that sought the way. It was his job only to see that Maya didn't sway too far from the path she was destined to follow… In that regard she was doing fairly well. She had overcome a great many trials, and while even today she suffered the consequences of her role, it was true that the gods found favor in those who martyred themselves for the good of others. "All I can say is that the road ahead will be full of hardships. Just remember always what I taught you."

"…_Hope overcomes all." _Maya remarked with suspicion. She wasn't quite sure what Phillip meant by the road ahead being tough, especially not with things going as well as they were now. After solving a murder case that threatened to destroy all of Inaba, she thought things were pretty damn good by comparison. Could anything be considered a hardship after what she had already fought?

"Precisely." He smiled, pleased to see she could still remember. "So long as you have hope, no evil shall be able to overcome your power. Hope shall be your light through the darkness guiding you in life." He explained to her rather gleefully. Maya had heard all of this before mind you, this was just repetition. But repetition did insure the message was seered into her brain. Hope was the greatest weapon she could ever have; never let go of it. As if she was in any position to let go of hope after the role she had been selected to fill… But then, sheep had been swayed off their pathway before. "I suppose there's not much more for me to say. Just remember those words, and keep moving ahead when life tries to hold you back… And with that, I suppose I'll leave you and your boyfriend here be." Phillip remarked, holding his hands behind his back as he turned his attention over to Yosuke. Maya and Yosuke were pretty quick to turn beat red with embarrassment.

"H-Huh!? I-It's not like that, we're just friends!" Yosuke stammered nervously. Maya was doing quite a bit to try and convince Phillip the same, though it truly wasn't working. He simply smiled and nodded his head a bit. His 'mistake' then. It probably didn't help that Teddie had finally gotten bored of the gravestones and decided to take a piss take on the two.

"Yosuke and Maya, sitting in a tre-" He was cut off almost immediately by Maya kicking him straight in the face. She had just about enough of his crap today without him reinforcing the idea the two were a couple. It would be nice, but it wasn't true.

"He's a rather interesting fellow." Phillip remarked as he stared at Teddie, now in pain on the ground. It was rare to find wolves marching along with sheep in perfect harmony after all. "Well all the same, this is where I take my leave. I shall watch over you in spirit wherever you go, my child. Goodbye." He dismissed himself before slowly marching his way through the stones of the cemetery, disappearing in the horizon. Yosuke simply sighed, a shiver down his spine. Right, that guy was super creepy without him dropping crap like Maya and him being a thing like that. He nearly had a heart attack.

"Where do you even find these people?" Yosuke questioned with great confusion.

"_You'd be surprised the kind of people you can meet at a McDonalds."_

* * *

_Go on and wring my neck_

_Like when a rag gets wet_

_A little discipline_

_For my pet genius_

_My head is like lettuce_

_Go on dig your thumbs in_

_I cannot stop giving_

_I'm thirty-something_

Justin and Chie, meanwhile, were at his house, where they were enjoying a rousing game of Rock Band. They made for the perfect vocal duo in that Justin could hit all those growl notes, and Chie can hit everything else. She found that she simply couldn't play the plastic bass at all; it was just too different from how you played the real thing. If Justin had been assed to buy the pro bass that came with the game, he'd give that to her, but as it stood, he only had the pro-guitar. On the other hand, the microphone worked the same way as singing in real life, so she could definitely do that. She was okay with singing around Justin, if only because she knew by comparison she was better than him by a long shot. In that way, this had quickly turned into karaoke night, with Justin backing up with guitar.

"When are we gonna pick a song I actually know." Chie remarked with slight annoyance, though I think Justin was more offended by Chie's lack of Faith No More knowledge. There was one thing that you should know about Justin, and that was he was intolerant to any musical tastes other than his own. So not liking something he liked was a sure way to get slapped upside the head when it came to music.

"The only song you've recognized so far is Living in America. I don't even know where you HEARD that." Justin rolled his eyes a bit. Not even the 80's pop. You know when, he found out this was a girl who liked System of a Down and the Black Keys, he had suspected she'd have better musical tastes, but alas it seemed like that was about the extent of their common taste in music. Minus maybe Weezer; but everyone in the Investigation Team seemed to like them so that wasn't exactly something special between the two.

"Well then let's go back to-" Chie was going to object to anymore of this 80's metal that she just couldn't relate to when the lights started to flicker. Soon with the lights went the television and the game console, leaving Chie and Justin in the pitch black. The storm was so bad that it must have knocked over a telephone pole or something. Whatever happened, the power was clearly out, and at this hour, it was far too dark to see without something to light the way. "…that. Well then, so much for that."

"Crap, I knew I should have gotten some candles. Help me find my lighter so we can see." Justin sighed as he started waving his arms about as he tried to navigate the house using only the walls and the furniture to navigate around the room. Chie in turn did the same, though she wasn't so sure how much use she'd be if she found the lighter. She didn't know how to work one of those. She imagined it would be as easy as flipping it open, but as an ex-smoker Justin could attest to that not being true at all. Plus it wasn't a very good lighter, it got jammed all the fucking time. Still, she supposed she could use her voice to help Justin navigate to her if she came across it. And with that the two wandered around for a good while trying to find the damn thing.

"Hey hands off pal!"

"Sorry!" Then there were moments like this where they just so happened to have a rather unfortunate collision in search of the lost artifact. Look, it was bound to happen eventually with Justin waving his arms all over the place for furniture to use as a way point. Chie shouldn't have been such a damn convincing lamp. The two fumbled around for quite a while, bumping into each other on several occasions before Justin finally found something that resembled a lighter. It was Maya's, but he'd take it. He was only surprised Maya hadn't taken it with her. She probably figured she'd be back in time for a smoke. Poor girl, probably already twitching from the urge to smoke. "Think I got something here."

All the same, Justin was frantic to find some light so they could move around without accidentally rapping up a criminal record for pedophilia. He was sure to make sure the lighter would be facing up before placing his thumb along the top of the lighter and flicking the flame to life. Now, when Justin had flicked that thing open, he hadn't expected Chie to be right on top of him, nor she him. She figured he was further away than he actually was. She wasn't so close that the flame hit her skin or anything, but close enough that the fire only seemed to illuminate her face. Her brown eyes sparkled like the sea as the fire danced in her eyes. Justin's heart skipped a slight beat. Under this lighting she was… absolutely breath taking. She was always beautiful, but this was really something. Maybe those candles wouldn't have been such a bad investment. "Chie…? H-Have I ever told you you have beautiful eyes?"

Chie didn't even respond, she was just as lost in the fire dancing in Justin's eyes as he was hers. Plus he was blushing, even the orange light of the flame couldn't hide that. She was too, admittedly, but she didn't exactly find herself quite as cute when she did it as Justin. What was there to blush about she had to wonder? And yet… she didn't actually care for once. She was mere inches away from Justin, her body practically touching his when she leaned past the fire to plant her lips against his. She wasn't sure what was getting into her, but she liked it. The two kissed for a moment, slowly backing into a nearby wall. By the time that Justin's back hit the wall, by the time there was nowhere left to go, their lips parted ways for only a brief moment. "I love you too."

Justin smiled at her for a moment, her arms snaked around his waist in an almost pleasurable way. He leaned in once more, for what would appear to be a peck at first, but in fact had just been him blowing out the flame that shone through the night; leaving them all alone in the dark with nothing but body heat to go by.

And what happens in the dark, stays in the dark.

* * *

"It's strange adapting to time zones…"

Yosuke, Maya, and Teddie were walking down the street, coffees in hand as they walked the street. They were making their way back home now after what felt like only a couple hours at most. And yet despite that fact, they were completely and utterly exhausted. Still, they didn't do much, which disappointed Yosuke slightly. I mean, there was only so much they COULD do with yen in their pockets, but I guess Maya knew more than a handful of shady people who would take said yen and get you what you need. Their services mostly applied to illegal immigrants, but it also worked in situations such as this. Didn't mean Maya wasn't going to pay triple what she should for a cup of coffee though. She was just happy to have something to keep her awake though. Yosuke had suggested the possibility of going… you know… home home, but Maya very vocally refused. Half the reason she ran away from home was so that her mother and brother wouldn't have to deal with her. Besides, did Yosuke honestly think she was going to leave that house if she came knocking now? Her mother would padlock her in her room for fuck's sake. Part of her wanted to go see her mother (and not her brother because he was kind of a huge asshole) again, but she had to resist her temptations for what she felt was right deep down in her heart.

"_Took me a couple of days in Inaba to adapt." _Maya countered as they made their way back to the television in the junkyard. It was only starting to get bright here in San Diego, but in Inaba, it was no doubt pitch black. They were probably going to finish their coffee and go right to bed after this to be quite honest. Though Yosuke did have to figure out sleeping arrangements. He figured he'd just suck it up and let Teddie in his bed and let Maya have the futon. God knows Teddie couldn't be trusted to share a bed with a girl. God knows HE couldn't be trusted.

"You sure you don't want to do anything else? W-We can go shopping or something you know." Yosuke continued to question her. It felt like this should have been such a big thing for her, and yet she just didn't care. All she did was go see her father and do some sight-seeing of the place she used to live. Hell… She even stopped by Justin's house to see if it changed since she had last visited. It was a mess, broken windows and everything, and a for sale sign up front that no passerby would ever consider contemplating the price of. Whoever got the deed to the house in Justin's father's will fucked up big time, though it was hard to say whether he himself had done the damage or whether it was looters. In the end, it was just sad seeing the house fall apart like that. Other than that though, truth be told, it was just so much for Maya to take in at once. The only last place she wanted to see was… that place. Curiosity was questioning what had happened to that old apartment building since it burned to the ground. Was it still considered a crime scene. She didn't know. And she knew better than to go looking. She'd have to live with not knowing what had happened in her criminal case, because otherwise she'd have to live with jail bars.

"_This has already been more than I could ever ask for." _Maya grinned. It wasn't much Yosuke had done, simply getting Teddie to open up the other access point to San Diego, but it was just… the nicest thing. She said she missed home, and Yosuke went out of his way to bring her there. It couldn't have been more perfect if he tried. And yet, she was just so confused. Why DID Yosuke always act so nice to her? Because they were friends? It had to be that, right? She wished it was more than that, but… She didn't even know anymore. It was hard to tell what was going through that boys mind. For now, she was merely content with what he had done for her. Yosuke sighed and shrigged his shoulders before waving his hands towards the television, allowing her to step through first. She smiled before taking a precarious step, followed by Yosuke. Teddie was already back in Yosuke's room of course. He wasn't stupid, he knew what was going to go down with sleeping arrangements. Fuck that; he wasn't sleeping with Yosuke, and there was only room enough for one on that futon. Needless to say Yosuke was rather angry once he saw Teddie already snoring on the futon.

"What do you think you're doing?" Yosuke remarked with annoyance. Teddie didn't so much budge. He was still completely awake, and while he wanted to tell ghost stories and all that other stuff they did at sleepovers now that Maya was here, he also knew being awake meant Yosuke would kick his ass if he didn't move. So he simply pretended to snore and kept as still as possible. "Wake up!" Yosuke shouted at Teddie, though even when he kicked the loafing bear, he simply rolled back into position, being sure to snore just a little louder. Yosuke threw his hands up into the air with anger. "Well that's just fantastic."

"_What's wrong?" _Maya questioned with great curiosity as Yosuke threw a fit. She didn't quite realize the repercussions of Teddie stealing the futon tonight. He shook his head and sighed, folding his arms and continuing to glare at the back of Teddie's head. He was going to defluff that bear once he woke up, he swore to god.

"…I'm out of futons." He spat with disgust at Teddie, partially sensing Teddie was completely conscience and deriving some kind of pleasure out of this. Yosuke threw his hands in the air again with anger before pacing around, trying to find something that perhaps he could sleep in. Worse come to worse, he'd just sleep on the floor. He could put up with his back aching for one night of the year. Maya made that 'oh' motion with her lips, facing her eyes away from Yosuke and blushing. Seemed pretty obvious to her how this was going to end. And why was that? Because Yosuke wasn't going to let her sleep anywhere other than the bed, nor was Maya going to let him sleep on the floor in his own house. They could wage war over this for hours, neither would be shaken on the matter.

"_W-Well we can just make a barrier with some pillows right?" _Maya interrupted his pacing, cheeks still red hot. Yosuke paused, rubbing at his chin a bit. That actually wasn't a terrible idea; he certainly had some spare pillows lying around that he could use to make a barrier down the middle. After a moment he simply shrugged. Not the ideal solution, but it worked.

"Alright then, I'll go get the pillows." Yosuke remarked before heading out the door to his room and to the closet to grab some more pillows. Maya simply sighed before taking a seat on Yosuke's bed, eventually curling her legs up and resting her head against one of the pillows that was already there. At the risk of sounding kind of creepy, it kind of had his scent on it. I guess that's what happens when you sweat a lot in your sleep. She batted her eyelids a bit, almost ready to fall asleep, but then Yosuke came back in with the pillows. "Well I see you've already made yourself comfortable." Yosuke joked as he walked in with their improv barricade. Maya would have moved to help him make the wall between them, but in the end, she was just so damn tired. Not even physically, but emotionally. She was in the same bed as Yosuke for fuck's sake, and yet she still didn't have the slightest idea how he felt about her, if at all. It was like it was right in her face, and yet no matter how much she tried to reach for it, she just couldn't grab ahold of it. It only took a moment before Yosuke finished the barricade and jumped on the other side of the bed, making a big thump in the process. "This alright? I can put some more pillows if you want."

"_No, that's fine, but…" _Maya paused, her mouth seeming to get drier as she laid there trying to think of what to say. Honest to god if Phillip hadn't said anything, she would perfectly content just laying here. But he did, and now it was all she could think about. Everyone around her seemed to be able to see it, but Yosuke remained completely blind to all of this. She… She had to say something. She had been so content just waiting for him to say something, but she couldn't take it anymore. It was driving her nuts. _"Yosuke… can I ask you something?"_

"Hmm? Yeah, sure." Yosuke questioned with slight confusion, turning on his side of the mattress so that he was facing her. Maya paused again trying to decide how to ease into this. She couldn't just say it, right? Clearly Yosuke was not one for the thought of those two being a thing, and that should have been a deterrent to Maya's whole idea of asking Yosuke whether he liked her or not, but she was determined. She'd have an answer and she'd have it right now. She couldn't take the suspense any more than she already had. It was bad enough she waited years for Justin and it turned out he didn't even like her like that; she wouldn't make the same mistake twice.

"_Well… What do you think of me?"_

"What do you mean?" Yosuke questioned. He wasn't sure what was bringing this up out of the blue. They were friends, so obviously he liked her. Was she asking what specifically he liked about her? Because he couldn't really delve into that without looking like a complete creep. Why did he like her? Because, she was one of the nicest girls he had ever met, not to mention she was drop dead gorgeous. But it wasn't about the looks of course, the looks only made his heart fluctuate a little when he laide eyes on her; it was the fact that no matter what was happening, she always stayed positive. She was strong, but not overly serious about everything either. And she had compassion; for everyone and everything, even the people who had wronged her. At the end of the day, she was the model of human perfection. He could only wish to be more like the person Maya was.

"_Well, uh… how do I put it…" _Maya mouthed to herself a bit. She knew Yosuke couldn't read lips, but it wasn't like she was going to sign off what she wanted to say until she knew exactly what words she was going to use. _"Well I guess, uh… Well we're friends, I know that, but I mean what specifically do you… no that's not it… Uh… I think you're great Yosuke, like, really great, and I was wondering if… not that's not it either… What I guess I'm trying to say is…"_

"Maya, you're rambling." Yosuke interrupted after a while. It was hard for him to answer a question when Maya didn't even seem to know what the question was in the first place.

"_I know, dammit! Give me a second."_ Maya sighed, clenching her trembling bottom lip between her teeth. She was no good at this. Wasn't it usually the guy's job to ask the girl, not the other way around? Maybe that was the reason she never found a boyfriend of her own; she couldn't take initiative. She just didn't know how you eased in to a confession like this… Maybe it wasn't so much as easing into it as it was just doing it. Like jumping into a pool of cold water. If you did it little by little, it was agonizing. But if you jumped in, the discomfort of the freezing water faded away almost instantaneously. _"Yosuke, I… I… I… I can't do this." _Maya eventually flipped over_. Goddammit girl, get a hold of yourself. This is your problem; you gotta say it to his face… _Or maybe… maybe it was more of a case of show, don't tell. Justin never was exactly her go to guy for relationship advice though, so she wasn't sure how well that would work.

"Maya…?" Yosuke whispered as she flung herself to face away from him, trembling slightly with disappointment in herself and her inability to get it out of her mouth. She was talking about them being friends, but then she started to panick, which confused Yosuke to no end… At least at first… But he had a tentative theory. It wasn't something he could prove, but there was only one way to find out. He just hoped to god he wasn't wrong and made an ass out of himself. If this couldn't be more, he'd like to keep their friendship intact. He tapped her on the shoulder, trying to get her to turn around. It took some coaxing, though she eventually turned about to face Yosuke, a look if discontent on her face all the while. That immediately shifted to one of great shock and anxiety though as he reached out to place his hand on her cheek. "I think you're great too. Like really great." He grinned a bit as he teased her. She was simply caught off guard for a moment, not sure how to react. She didn't believe it at first, but once it really started to seep in that he meant that, well, her heart practically exploded in pure ecstasy.

"_Y-You mean… You mean great like great, or great like 'great'? I mean, I think you're pretty great but I don't-" _Maya questioned, her pupils staring intently into Yosuke's. She wasn't signing off anymore though; she didn't want to. She just wanted to talk to him with her own two lips even though she knew she couldn't. Yosuke simply chuckled to himself.

"You know I can't read lips." He joked, leaning slightly closer. "But you know… I'd like to learn." Maya smiled, bottom lip trembling for a moment. Did he… He totally did. He totally did just ask Maya to teach him to 'read lips.' This was all so… sudden. She had been so scared of telling Yosuke how she felt, then here he was not even two seconds later trying to snatch a kiss… How long exactly had he felt like this? And when in god's name did he plan on telling her? Did he understand how much pain she had been in trying to live with her little crush all this time? He was such an asshole. But… he was an asshole she adored with all her heart. She'd have him no other way. She didn't so much as hesitate to oblige his request, delicately pressing her lips against his. It was only a short peck, maybe two seconds in length, but it was enough to get the message across… She loved him, and as far as she could tell, he loved her. And for just a moment, the two froze in place, as if their hearts had stopped and their body along with it. "Hey Maya...?"

_"Yosuke."_

"You wanna go to the movies with me some time?"

* * *

**MUSIC**

The Flaming Lips – Yoshima Battles the Pink Robots Pt. 1

Faith No More – Midlife Crisis


	225. Chapter 224: December 25, 2011

CHAPTER 224

December 25, 2011

* * *

"Really!? Nanako's coming home!?"

Yu had called everyone over to Junes that Christmas morning, much to Justin's objections to relay a tad bit of exciting news. Justin would probably have rather preferred falling back a sleep on the cold hard floor, arm still wrapped around Chie, but alas, while Justin was more than satisfied just being there with her, Chie was a little less easily occupied by lying around. Oh how she teased Justin so, sweet one moment but then the very next using that to drag Justin out on her misadventures. You know, you would think after what had possessed Justin and Chie the night prior, he would almost be ashamed to even be in her presence, but at the same time, it felt like any remnant of a barrier between the two had been destroyed in the act. Once you go there, you've pretty much seen it all. Nothing was off-limits now. Maybe that was why he wore such a wide grin on his face as he sat there at the Junes food court. Though to be fair, so did Maya and Yosuke. And no one quite understood why ANY of the three were as happy as they were. They were going to associate it with Christmas cheer and leave it at that.

"Me too… I'm really glad… The fog's all gone over here because everyone tried so hard… And now Nana-chan's gotten better!" Teddie cheered with glee. Those two always did get along really well, so it was a lot relief for Teddie to hear that she was all well and good. Enough that she could even leave the hospital. Justin would like to think she did it all on her own, but in truth, somehow he had a feeling it had to do with all that fog in the city; and when they defeated Ameno-sagiri, all the fog just sort of went, her illness with it. He didn't want to take credit for her getting better or anything like that, but it was just nice to think he had done someone somewhere some good.

"Nanako-chan tried hard too… Sh-She's such an amazing girl…" Rise sniffled slightly. She was so overcome with joy and admiration that she was finding it hard to hold back the tears building up in her eyes. So she didn't. Her and Teddie both started to cry almost immediately, grabbing a hold of each other as if crying on each other's shoulders was going to somehow make them happier. In Teddie's case that was entirely true. He truly believed he succeeded at something by getting this close to anything with a vagina. It goes without saying that Teddie was probably never going to get laid in all of his life. Which might be a good thing since god only knows what happens when a shadow reproduces. Not a pretty thought.

"Seriously… Thank heavens she's okay." Yosuke sighed with great relief. After all that had happened, he was seriously worried there could be longer lasting repercussions. As it turned out though, she was going to be just fine. Like the fog had never been here to begin with. Yosuke only wondered if she was out of the hospital for good now or if she was only allowed to leave for the holiday. After all, if her conditions were promising, one would assume that it would be okay to let her out for a day or two. Of course, Yosuke's musings were immediately interrupted by the loud sound of pain coming from Teddie. Seemed Rise had flung him across the room with a single knee to his stomach after he got a little too close for comfort.

"Where're you touching!?" Rise shouted at Teddie as he hit the ground, rubbing his now lumpy head. Oh that bear never seemed to learn. Though to be fair, Rise wasn't doing much to discourage that behavior when she flirted with everything with a penis. I guess that included Teddie; though no one was willing to look into the matter. Justin was going to assume that if he knew what scoring was, which there was a good chance he didn't, then he knew he needed certain appendages to complete the act with. Chie rolled her eyes slightly before deciding it was best not to pay Teddie too much attention when he did this.

" Well, one thing's certain… It's party time! Let's throw a big Christmas party for Nanako-chan!" Justin flicked his eyebrows up a bit as if to find slight pleasure in the idea. He had pretty much all the party he needed recently, but it was a good idea… Look, when this kind of stuff happens to you, it's the only thing you can think about, you know? Hell it took every fiber of his being not to stare at Chie blissfully from where he sat, to pretend nothing at all had happened.

"A party, you say!? I'm sure Nana-chan will be delighted!" Teddie shouted. Well if anyone knew what Nanako would like, it would be him. And perhaps Yu, but more so Teddie. If he said it was a good idea, the Investigation Team was going to trust him. Yukiko poked at her chin a bit, contemplating the matter. Now what would one need for a party?

"We'll need a cake then." And within seconds every single guy present had their eyes widen with panic. Dear god, please don't even tell them they were thinking of doing what they THOUGHT the girls were thinking of doing.

"G-Guys… Please say you're not gonna…"

"Huh? We're gonna make one." Rise remarked with great curiosity. She wasn't really sure why the guys all seemed to go on the defensive on the matter. Why, because she didn't know how to make an omelet? It was a fucking good omelet; they just didn't have a refined enough taste to pick up on the subtle flavors.

"Right, abandon ship." Justin claimed immediately. He had tasted enough of Chie's cooking to know where this was going, and the others could agree. They all jumped within seconds, hands raised in a surrender position as if to just give up on all of this before marching away from the table. Hell, Maya looked like she was contemplating doing the same. She could agree the others had some pretty bad cooking skill, and it wasn't like she had any plans on helping cook. All the same though, this seemed like one of those guys versus the girls situations, and while she normally ended up on the guy's side, she'd like to TRY and keep the balance.

"Hey get back here! We know what we're doing this time, honest!"

"_Didn't you say that with the omelets?"_

* * *

"It's so warm! I was really looking forward to the new kotatsu!"

The group had all gathered at Yu's house, where everyone was seated at the living room table. The girls were in the kitchen, unfortunately working on the cake. Even Maya, though she refused to lift a finger. They just kind of dragged her in there when she declined their formal invitation. And that left all the guys and Nanako there at the table, where it seemed Yu and Dojima had finally gotten Nanako a new kotatsu. Mind you, Justin had no idea what the fuck that was until a few moments ago. And he absolutely loved it. Now he wanted one.

"Yeah, you talked about it all the time at the hospital." Dojima smiled at her before turning his attention over to the teenagers. "Nanako's going back for a close checkup tomorrow, but at this rate, the doctors say she can leave the hospital soon. If I'd gotten better sooner, we would've been able to buy the kotatsu together… Sorry." Dojima sighed and rubbed at the back of his head a bit. He had sort of just given Yu the money and let him do the rest. Yu didn't care of course, simply flicking his wrist as if swatting away a fly.

"Next time, let's go together!" Nanako spoke with cheer. Oooh, there was going to be a next time? They should all get Justin one next. No seriously, these things were fantastic. It was like a blanket that didn't fucking suck, and like a snuggie that didn't look stupid. Every man woman and child should have one of these. Which meant Yu should totally get him one of these as a Christmas gift. Come on. Please?

"Sorry for the wait!" The conversation was quickly interrupted by Chie walking in carrying a big fucking cake. All by herself too; Yukiko, nor Rise, nor Naoto or Maya gave her a hand with that thing. It was almost tense watching as the desert jiggled and she tried to navigate the living room. Because while she was strong enough to carry the cake no problem, she wasn't tall enough to see of the desert. Still, I think the cake hitting the floor would be in everyone's best interest. You would almost think Yu and Justin were purposely trying to destroy the cake with the way they tried to distract here.

"Death on two leeeeeeeeeeeeegs, you're tearing me apart!" They both started to sing like it was karaoke night. Chie was still able to kick them as she passed by them. It wasn't going to kill them to have a slice of cake. Honestly, they got it right this time. It was surprisingly easier than making an omelet… After like the third attempt anyway. Yosuke cowered in fear at the mere sight of the desert. It was like watching a coffin approach when Chie set the cake down in front of them.

"Oh no… The Christmas edition of Mystery Food X is about to be served…"

"Bring it on, I'm ready. Got my insurance card and everything." Kanji sighed. He was serious too. If this killed him at the very least he'd like all his possessions to go to the right people without going through a shit load of legal loopholes and crap. He had already made his peace with the world. Nanako's eyes widened with pure excitement when she saw the mountaining desert. She didn't know better unfortunately, and before anyone could taste test this for poison. She dug her fork into the cake without a second's notice. They didn't even have time to cut her a slice. "Wait, Nanako-chan! I'll be the first one to-" Too late, she ate it before Kanji could reach across the table and knock the silverware out of her hand. "NOOOOOO!"

"It's delicious! It tastes really good!" Nanako gushed, cheeks red with pure excitement. The guys were needless to say very suspicious. She had lied about their cooking before to make them feel good about their cooking abilities. This was probably no exception. Still, that did mean one of them needed to taste it before they could come to a verdict. They jabbed at each other with their elbows in an attempt at passing the responsibility off to someone else. It wasn't long before every elbow was jabbing into Yosuke. You could see him shivering with fear as the torched was passed to him, his hand shaking as he stuck his fork into the desert. Hell even when it was up to his lips he hesitated, as if to have second thoughts. Too bad Justin pushed his arm so that he accidentally shoved it in his mouth. Choking hazard? Yes. But then so was the food. Much to their surprise though, Yosuke swallowed it no problem. In fact he even took a second bite to make sure he had tasted this right.

"What, but… This is… Actually good! Did you guys really make this?" Yosuke spoke with great surprise. Yu and Kanji shot each other a glance of great surprise before trying for themselves what it tasted like. Their reaction was much more of the same. Justin remained the only one not to take a bite. Not necessarily because he didn't believe the others, though he didn't, but because he didn't like cake. So sue him, he just thought it was too fluffy.

"Huh? O-Of course we did." Chie stammered slightly. Somehow Justin had a creeping suspicion that they just sort of bought a cake and snuck it in through another door. He was right in the sense that the cake batter was pre-made and they just had to follow some instructions on a box, but otherwise it seemed they were responsible for this. "You know what they say about true talent not needing to show off? Turns out we had good taste in cooking after all."

"Then again, this one was our third attempt…" Naoto muttered under her breath. Somehow this surprised absolutely no one. Everyone smiled and laughed and told jokes and what not over the cake from that point on. It was a pretty light atmosphere; and had Dojima not felt the need to speak on a certain topic it might have stayed like that. But after all the teenagers had done not only for his family but for all of Inaba, well… There was some thanks in order. Truth be told, the only one who minded the topic was Justin, who would rather forget about what Adachi had done and the fate that now awaited him in prison. He wished there was still hope for the guy. But there wasn't. He was facing his punishment for his crimes; this was how his road ended.

"I have to thank you all again… Adachi confessed to the two murders. He insists it was him who hung the bodies, too. There are still things that are unclear about his story, but he's most likely gonna pay for his crimes. Anyway, this was one strange case… If what you said about a world inside the TV was true, then everything might make sense… Though I still don't believe it. Some things in this world just can't be explained. Like Nanako… She made a miraculous recovery, and now she's as healthy as ever. Back in the day… my own senpai on the force told me something. 'There's an underside to everything that you can never see.' This case has made me think about a lot of things… You've helped us out so much… Heh, it was meant to be the other way around, really…" Dojima spoke on the matter, rather happily in fact. He was rather proud of his nephew and his friends. To think, his nephew would be the one to teach him a few things about life, not the other way around. If only he knew that was what he was signing up for. "There isn't much time left until spring, but I hope I can do some catching up until then."

"That's right… You're only here until spring, huh…?" Chie's smile slowly faded to a frown. Everyone's did, though Yukiko's the most of all. This was news to Justin; he never knew he was only transferring for a year. Christ that REALLY sucked. And here he thought he had made a friend for life with Yu, not a friend for a year. But then, who Justin cultivated relationships with always was a little shaky, especially in the matter of time. It wasn't that surprising, only disappointing. And again, he had nothing on Yukiko. How exactly were they supposed to make this work once he went back to his home town. Yu simply shone his eyes down towards the ground, shaking his head a bit. What a topic to bring up on Christmas morning.

"I don't want to go back." Yu remarked with sorrow and disappointment. All the friendships he had captivated over the years, all of Inaba, Yukiko, hell even Justin to a certain extent… He'd miss it all back in the city. He didn't want to go back realizing just how much his old life kinda sucked by comparison. It was just so boring, and he never had friends like the Investigation Team. There had to be something he could do to stay longer…

"Don't forget, there are people waiting for you. When you get home, show your parents how much you've grown this past year. And then, if they're okay with it… you can come back here at any time." Dojima reassured Yu. He was always welcome in this household after what he had done for Nanako and him. Now it was just a matter of getting his parents to let him stop by. They'd probably allow it on holidays, and besides… You never know when another work opportunity would arise. It happened all the time with that family.

"C'mon, spring's a long ways off, right? Let's have all the fun we can until then!"

"H-Hey, don't get too carried away. My sis would kill me if you got yourself held back a year…" Dojima countered Yosuke. Fun was kind of a vague term in regards to teenagers, so he'd rather be perfectly clear that he was still a cop who would still arrest delinquents. Beside, Yu's mother would KILL him if he got in trouble while he was here. He'd rather avoid the shit storm.

"Oh, but then you wouldn't have to go back, huh?" Yosuke mused a bit. Suddenly he was striken by a very sinister idea. A sinister idea Yu caught onto almost immediately.

"I changed my mind, I'll go pack my bags."


	226. Chapter 225: December 31, 2011

CHAPTER 225

December 31, 2011

* * *

"So what exactly do you guys do for New Years?"

Justin and Chie sat along the steps of the shrine, where the night was slowly ticking away and the stars were shining bright in the sky. It was relatively busy in that there were certainly a lot of other people there, but Justin and Chie were quick to grab themselves a seat on the steps. Justin was only annoyed that it was so noisy out today. He was all for celebrating the holiday of course; he just wished he could watch the ball drop from the comfort of his home with various snacks and crap spread across his living room table. Hell, he didn't even get to see a ball drop because they were far away from anything electronic in nature and Inaba didn't exactly have an equivalent of the ball dropping. I guess they fired off some fireworks once the clock hit twelve, but that wasn't quite the same thing. If there was a bright side to all of this though, it was that this was Justin's first time spending New Years with Chie; and you know, he may have been ignorant to a lot of romantic things, but he was not unaware of what you were supposed to do once the new year started.

The others were also gathered here today, though they were all scattered amongst themselves around various parts of the shrine. Yu and Yukiko of course went off to do their own thing; probably to get a better view of the fireworks that would light up the night sky when the time come. They always did like fireworks. The rest of the group, as far as Justin knew, was still entirely intact. Even Yosuke and Maya, though that was more so because they'd rather word not get back around to Justin and have him flip his shit. They weren't ashamed of anything, they were just afraid of what Justin would do should he discover their 'forbidden love.' It was forbidden because Justin would not hesitate to snap Yosuke's neck if he found out he was trying to use Maya's affections to his perverted advantage. And while he certainly wasn't, Justin would probably find a way to trick himself into believing he was. Better safe than sorry with him. They did still hold hands in the main group though; even if they were quick to let go once anyone turned their attention to them.

As for Justin and Chie, well, they weren't doing much. Just sitting there and staring at the stars in the sky. It was cold as hell out, and while they certainly wouldn't have minded going inside to warm up, one thing was for certain: they could watch fireworks from their house, they could watch the ball drop from their house, but what they couldn't do from the comfort of the couch was stare at the stars in the sky. And what a beautiful sight they were. In some ways it felt as if the stars were shining down just for him and her. Her arm was wrapped around his, and his around hers as they stared up there into the night sky, eyes gleaming as the light of suns billions of miles away shone through the darkness.

"I don't know how they do it in America, but it's probably not too different." Chie contemplated the matter a bit. To her, the only way one celebrated a holiday was always going to be the way it was celebrated her in Inaba, just like to Justin the way they celebrated it in America was the only way he had known all his life. He'd come to love the way they did things here though. After all, he had lived in America for sixteen years of his life. He had at least another good fifty or so years to live here in Japan; assuming of course he didn't go back to America. But the chances of that happening were slim to none. All his friends lived here, and he had grown to become fond of Inaba. And besides, he could remember what it was like being ripped away from his home to live in some foreign country; he would never expect Chie to do the same. If he went back, he'd go alone; and he had no intention of leaving Chie behind. "We wait until there's only five seconds to midnight, then we count down, and when the countdown hits zero-" Chie shot up from her seat almost immediately with excitement, letting loose her arm's grasp on Justin's for just a brief moment. "Boom! The most beautiful display of fireworks in the world."

"Oooh, just like the Fourth of July. Just without the barbeque ribs." Justin mused on the matter, rubbing at his chin a bit. Kind of sounded just like that summer festival Chie had dragged him to earlier that year. Well not necessarily DRAGGED, since he did have a lot of fun with her there. And there was no doubt she looked stunning in yukata. Apparently it was supposed to be custom for the girls to wear kimonos during New Year, but it was just too fucking cold for that. Justin could agree actually since it looked like some really light clothing. He was only angry at Yosuke for getting his hopes all up there. He could almost feel himself melting under the thought of seeing Chie again in that flowing gown, flowers in her hair. Chie may have been a bit of a tomboy, and she may have been aware of that fact and constantly tried to reinforce that image, but those little touches of femininity truly fit her. She wasn't quite as masculine as she believed she was. Justin knew that, and he knew she knew that.

"Oooh, the Fourth of July sounds fun." Chie gasped, mouth slightly agape and the slightest bit of drool slipping out of the corner of her mouth. Oh Justin just had to bring meat into the equation, didn't he? Now Chie was already hypnotized by the thought of eating beef while watching fireworks. Dinner and a show? Yes please! Justin actually had to snap his fingers in her face to get her to snap out of her daze and return to reality after a while. There was very few things that could cause her to zone out like that, though it seemed meat was the biggest perpetrator. "Huh? Oh right, sorry. Alright my turn to ask you a question."

"Shoot."

"So you lived in America… but you're also British. You ever face a conflict of interest when you celebrate Independence Day?" Chie questioned snarkily. Oh she was never going to let that British thing go, was she? Justin simply shook his head and chuckled a bit. Alright, fair enough; at the very least it was a humorous inquiry, even if it was at his expense. Watch the next question be 'You're a Brit with American citizenship living in Japan. Who did you support in World War II?'

"Well it's not exactly like I was around when the Americans dumped all our fucking tea in the harbor, though I imagine if I was I'd be rightfully pissed off. And rule number one about being British is to harbor as much of a grudge as possible for stuff you weren't alive for and to hate America without prejudice. You just got to be classy about it." Justin self mocked ever so slightly. Of course none of this was true, but Chie didn't need to know that. And besides, he rather liked the idea of England harboring a feud for America spilling some tea. Could you imagine them going to war over that? I mean a SECOND time anyway. That would be hilarious. And then sad once everyone started dying and both countries' economies were thrown down the shitter. "On the OTHER hand, as an American, the fatass in me wants nothing more to eat hot dogs and watch pretty lights in the sky all while pretending to be patriotic but secretly bitching about everything under my breath. Tough decision really." Justin chuckled a bit. Well that was an odd joke Chie didn't entirely get, but alright, she'd just assume it was supposed to be really funny given that wide grin on Justin's face right now. She shook her head and smiled before leaning against him again, their heads resting against each other as they stared up into the sky.

"Almost a year now, huh?"

"…What do you mean?" Justin questioned with slight confusion. A year ago a lot of things happened, so she'd have to be a little more specific. She shoved him slightly in the arm. Come on, he should have known this. They still had some time to do, at least a couple months in fact, but as they grew closer to the date it just seemed more and more spectacular. Like approaching a monument from a distance.

"Come on, you really don't know?" Chie was shocked by Justin's lack of insight into the matter. This wasn't just some random day in his life or anything after all. "A year ago you came to Inaba." She pointed out, smiling a bit. They didn't hook up till maybe a month later or so, but even before then, it felt like something wonderful had happened when he walked into her life that morning in April. Justin made one of those 'oh' sounds as it suddenly struck him. Yeah, he supposed he did show up around that time, he didn't even really think about it until now. He never suspected that plane ride would lead him to all of this; he just assumed it was carrying him off to another town he'd grow to hate with people all willing to stab him in the back at any chance. He had become accustomed to that over the years. He never suspected it would lead him to friendship and love. It was kinda cheesy, sure, but it was true. A small grin crept across his face.

"Yeah… I guess you're right. Huh… Four more months until then huh?" Justin grinned. "And five months until a certain someone's anniversary." He winked and nudged at her, much to her embarrassment. She bashfully shoved him back, though that did nothing to deter his flirtatious advances. "Now what do you get a girl like Chie. Jewlery? No, no, diamond could match her beauty."

"Hey stop it, you're making me blush." She laughed, though she was still one hundred percent serious. Maybe Justin always knew just the right things to say to make her sigh to the beat of her heart, but the fact of the matter was she felt very strange being praised so lavishly for her appearances. Most people didn't think she was all that attractive. Maybe it was because she always had that bowl cut. She wasn't changing it anytime soon though, mostly because she thought it was true to herself. So what everyone thought it was boyish; maybe SHE was boyish. And she was okay with that. Besides, Justin certainly seemed to like it. Short hair looked good on her. The two leaned forward ever so slightly, nearly touching lips. And they would have had Chie not placed her finger in front of Justin's before he could steal what his heart had desired so much. "Uh uh, not yet."

"How much time do we have? I don't think I can wait another second." Justin grinned a bit, trying to steal one anyway, though Chie was quick to pull her head away before he could break the rules. For a moment anyway, after a while she returned her forehead to collide with his noses pressed up against each other like Eskimo kisses.

"How about five of them?" Chie whispered, their fingers entangled again as they sat there, leaning towards each other, using the other as support as they sat there, their bodies feeling weightless as they sat in the company of the other. Normally Chie was not cool with doing this stuff in public, but it was New Years, and Justin was being just such a sweetie. She'd slip him a kiss or two just this once. And so, time counted down, second by second, though each felt longer than the last as if time were caught in an infinite recursion, unwilling to skip to the moment their lips would collide once more in a show of affection. "Five… four… three… two…" Justin didn't even wait for one before pressing his lips into hers, and normally Chie would scold him for fucking up the timing, but you know what? Who gave a shit. It was midnight somewhere. They simply exchanged control over their little kissing session back and forth, as if they were struggling for dominance. Yet it never got aggressive, each kiss being soft and sweet, short but satisfying.

"Happy New Years." Justin smiled before sneaking in another peck. And for while they simply sat there, eyes closed as if to drift asleep even in this cold with their skin against skin. "You know, I bet your parents aren't expecting you home for a while tonight eitherrrrrr…" Justin whispered with slight sarcasm. Chie in turn jokingly slapped Justin in the arm before pulling away, laughing slightly to herself. Yeah, let's not get the idea now that she was just going to hope into bed with Justin any time now. She didn't have regrets or anything like that mind you, but she'd rather the occasion remained special. It would lose all meaning if they just kinda did it whenever Justin got turned on. But then, New Years WAS a special occasion, right…? …Nah, fuck it. Some other time perhaps.

"You are such a pervert!"

"Yes but I'm YOUR pervert."


	227. Chapter 226: January 1, 2012

CHAPTER 226

January 1, 2012

* * *

"_For fuck's sake Justin, it's one in the- Wait what am I doing? He can't hear me."_

Maya rolled her eyes as she glared down at the boy, who had unfortunately collapsed on the floor before he could make it up to his bedroom after staying out so late that night. He never was much one for staying up past Midnight, but I guess Chie was enough of an incentive to drag him away from his bed into the wee hours of the night. He didn't get home until maybe twoish or so, and that was after bringing Chie home and listening to her father bitch him out about bringing her back late. Yeah yeah, whoopdi freaking do. Doesn't that guy have anything better to do than try to find reasons to hate Justin? I mean if he had any reason to hate Justin it should be because-

You know what? Not the point. Point was, Justin was exhausted as fuck from being out all night, and despite the fact that it was now one in the afternoon, it seemed he had no plans to wake up anytime soon; even with Maya violently shaking him. She usually didn't bother him when he was sleeping, but it was getting to a point where it was actually almost concerning that he was still asleep. Of course, once he started trying to kick her off by flailing his legs back and forth, it became pretty clear that he was just fine. She sighed before throwing her hands up in the air with annoyance and disapproval, giving up on waking Justin from his slumber. She had plans today anyway; if she waited any longer than she already had, she'd probably miss the movie. Yosuke had invited her to the movies on Christmas, and while Yosuke was just trying to be cute, Maya actually wasn't aware he was trying to ask her to the movies at any point, so to her, that was a serious proposition. As a result, what had been a joke quickly turned into serious plans. Yosuke didn't mind by any means, as much as he hated those cheesy chick flicks. Maybe he could relate more now that he actually had a girlfriend. Spoilers, he wouldn't; but it was still a little more endurable, so I guess there was that.

Maya rushed off to the bathroom, leaving Justin to whatever it was he was busy doing in his sleep, closing the door behind her as she leaned forward into the sink mirror. She turned her head side to side, thoroughly examining every portion of her face with great intensity. She had to look presentable, so she wanted to make sure everything was alright. The more she looked in the mirror though, the more she loathed what she saw. Her face was too long, her eyes didn't look like a natural color, her hair had quite a few split ends now that she looked carefully. He skin was pale, like a ghost, just no color to it. And that just made her freckles stand out like a polar bear at an elementary school. Figure wise, she had been getting a little thicker around the hips, and had she not been there done that, she would contemplate sticking her finger down her throat. She was wearing no makeup, nor could she afford to buy any; she was about as plain as you could get. And she was wearing the same clothes she wore everyday because she couldn't afford anything else. Her clothes was dirty, raggy, and kind of big on her figure. She never got to wash her clothes due to a lack of a second pair of clothes, so in all fairness it had a bit of an odor to it. Oh yes, Maya despised the girl in the mirror.

She pulled at her eye lids a bit as if to get a better look at her face before deciding that this just wasn't going to cut it. She sighed and hung her head into the sink with disappointment. What man would want her the way she was? Sure Yosuke seemed to like her that cool Christmas night, and the same could be said on New Years, but that was in the dark. If he got a good look at her in broad daylight, maybe he'd reconsider his affections. She didn't want that, and that was perhaps why she had been so critical of her appearances that day. She felt ugly, especially when she compared herself to the likes of, say, Rise, who Yosuke still seemed to flirt with on a regular basis. And that certainly didn't help either. It was like Rise was everything Maya couldn't be, and she was aware of that. She should be enraged that Yosuke constantly played along with her little love games after all that he had said to make her heart flutter, but instead she was left with nothing more than shame. Why couldn't she be an idol like that?

She sighed, lifting her eyes from the bathroom sink again to stare at her reflection. This just wasn't going to cut it. There had to be SOMETHING she could do. She rubbed at her chin for a moment, contemplating how she could turn this around in the matter of an hour. She didn't exactly have time to go shopping for some new clothes for example, and she didn't know a thing or two about makeup… but wait! It suddenly occurred to Maya all at once that while she didn't know a thing about make-up, her friends did. Rise was the last person Maya would approach on this despite her being the expert, and Naoto was… uh… well Naoto, but Yukiko and Chie seemed like they knew a thing or two about it. Not necessarily because Chie wore much make-up herself (she had some skin colored lip gloss, but that was about it as far as her daily make-up regiment), but rather because Chie had already helped Maya out in that department. Well, technically she helped Justin, but she was the one getting the makeover, so she'd count it. She stared at her reflection deeply, moving some stray hairs out of her face again, trying to picture her with the same hair tone as Justin again. She hated it, she thought he natural hair color looked fine, but… What if Yosuke liked it? He didn't really comment on it when she showed up to the pageant… No, no. She had to be true to herself, right? I mean, she didn't want to lose Yosuke, but… God it was so hard.

…Maybe she should get a second opinion. Chie would know what to do. She HAD to know what to do.

* * *

"**And we're back on air."**

Justin's shadow watched from a distance as she stood there, speaking to a team of pure black cameramen, their form that of dark shadow blood, fabrics of their being flowing into the air as if their bodies were nothing but clouds drifting in the wind. It was a curious sight, but once the shadow got used to their presence, he had stopped caring about them and continued to glare at the reporter standing there under a street light, jabbering on about the body she had discovered. Perhaps she had never heard of the Mafia, but if she had she would know that you never talk about the corpses you find, let alone brag about it on live television. There was no Mafia here of course, but if there was, I guess that would make Justin her made man. She had talked for too long on matters that didn't concern her any longer.

"**She doesn't go off air long enough for me to do something…" **He growled with pure annoyance to the voice in his head. If Justin's shadow was impatient, it was hard to describe with Maya's shadow was. She was practically tearing out her hair up there in his skull. Assuming of course a disembodied abstract concept could have hair.

"**Well maybe we can use this to our advantage…" **She mused to herself. There was the problem of everyone watching, which one would assume would defeat the purpose of even going through with this in the first place. Perhaps she saw more potential in a captive audience. The thing about revolutions after all was that every uprising needed a voice, and every good cause needed a martyr. Justin's shadow could be the voice, and Maya's shadow could be the martyr, but at the end that was irrelevant if not one person actually knew what had happened. At the same point, they didn't need HIM to know, but if Justin was able to get away with the crime in the first place, it was entirely possible their god had long since abandoned them. And if that was the case, there needed to be a new lord of the shadows. He could be king, and her his queen. Assuming of course they were going by British rules in that the king gets shit rights in comparison to her royal highness. **"Shock and awe wins wars… Perhaps they need a little reminder that those who do not stand with us will fall."**

"**Oh no. Are you TRYING to get us killed? Was dying once not good enough for you?" **The shadow objected very vocally. He would do a lot of things in the name of the cause, but he would not die for it. Especially when it could be avoided with a little patience. Maya's shadow on the other hand was far riskier. If she had her way, Justin would do exactly what he was told regardless of safety concerns. No pain no gain after all, and a man who always folded his hand gradually lost the game.

"**Let me make this clear. You're going to do it. And if you don't I will." **The shadow echoed in his ear with fury. Who was he to disobey HER orders? He was nothing! An insignificant speck of dust in the wind without her. He was nothing more than the vessel for the revolution; a shell for the true masterminds at work. He was goon, never he forget his place lest she strike him down like the sewer rat he was. And to think he truly believed he had any say in how this went down. He squinted a bit with a combination of irritation and anger.

"**What does that even MEAN?" **He remarked with slight sarcasm. Last he checked Shadow Maya was a disembodied voice in his head telling him to do evil things. What exactly did she think she was going to do, huh? Yell at him a little? It would take a little more than an attitude to get him to do something that would get him to explode like a water balloon. **"What are YOU of all people going to do, huh? Bitch at me? Call me names? Hurt my feelings?"**

"…**Look at your hand." Shadow **Maya ordered having just about lost her patience. She was considering just taking control by this point. If you wanted to get something done right you had to do it yourself it would seem. Justin's shadow rolled his eyes before directing his attention down to his hand. His fingers were all tapping along his leg, though he certainly hadn't noticed before. In fact, they had been doing it for a while now, which had originally lead him to believe that he had just been doing it subconsciously. In fact quite the opposite was true. **"Okay good. That's me losing my patience. You don't want me to get angrier."**

"**Goddammit." **Justin's shadow muttered to himself as he regained control of his fingers again. Seemed there wasn't much getting out of this now that Shadow Maya was slowly seeping into his nervous control systems. He didn't even know how, but she was. It was quite frightening to be quite honest, but he didn't have time to figure that out now. All he had to do was put a bullet in that bitches skull and go home. After that Maya's shadow would back off, right? She'd have no reason to try and control Justin if he was her only means of accomplishing her desires. Well actually that was a pretty damn good reason for her to take over. He'd work it out, for now, he'd rather not Shadow Maya do something brash. He could look at this logistically. Justin wanted her gone so that she couldn't spill his identity; Maya wanted to send a message. There must have been a way to do both. He nodded his head a bit with thought before sticking his hand in his pocket to pull out his magnum, slowly raising it, not at the reporter, but at the two cameramen pointing the black boxes at her. Twice he pulled the trigger in quick succession, and twice they exploded out into a shower of black blood like rain. The announcer was immediately alarmed, turning around with a rather annoyed glare as Justin's shadow slowly approached her, a determined look on his face. The cameras hit the ground so they couldn't see his face, but they were still filming so they could hear everything.

"**It looks like the San Diego Butcher himself has graced our presence viewers." **The announcer remarked without missing a beat. She was going to paint him as a villain even in the face of death. Was it so worth dying just to get views? Justin's shadow didn't get it. But he didn't need to. All he needed to know was how to pull a trigger. He slowly raised his gun at the announcer's skull, aiming it precisely at her forehead. **"Are you here to silence any witnesses? The cameras are still filming you know; you won't get away with it." **She remarked so smugly, golden eyes staring him down. Justin glared at her a bit, annoyed with her attitude.

"**You're 'live' coverage is over. Time for some dead air." **And with that he pulled the trigger. He didn't even wait for the announcer's follow up. And given the smug grin on her face as she hit the ground, she truly believed herself invincible. That was her down fall; those who never fold are just as likely to lose the game as those who cave in on every hand. Especially when they couldn't tell a bluff from the truth. Justin's shadow spat on her corpse as he walked by, disgusted with the woman who threw her life away for nothing, before kicking one of the screens with his foot, adjusting it so it was still aimed at his feet. **"My fellow shadows, do not fear. I have come to liberate you from the clutches of a tyrant. You have all lived under oppression for far too long, turning a blind eye to your shitty ass lives in an attempt at remaining ignorant to the evil around you. But the time for change is now. This will be a new era, one where the skies are blue and the grass is green. We can live the life we were always denied. We SHALL destroy the humans and reclaim our world for our own. You don't know me, and I don't know you. But when the time comes, you will know my name. And when that time comes, you are either with me or against me… You don't want to be against me." **And with that the shadow placed a bullet in each of the two cameras, stopping the recording right there and then.

"**Not bad. It's a start I suppose." **Maya's shadow remarked with slight disappointment. She wasn't exactly satisfied with Justin's improve speech, especially when it sounded more like a threat than a call to arms, but it would have to do for now. They had much work to do after all, and when they were done painting this town red, all would know their names and rally under a single banner.

"**An army doesn't form in a day."**

"**But a riot does."**


	228. Chapter 227: February 11, 2012

CHAPTER 227

February 11, 2012

* * *

"You know Maya, there are OTHER ways of waking someone up besides from fucking slapping them."

Justin groaned as he woke himself up from his rather enjoyable slumber. It was surprisingly bright out for a crisp winter morning, especially when there was snow all over the ground; but I guess light does reflect off of white substances better than anything else. He rubbed his head a bit as Maya ran around the house, bag flung over her shoulder as she shoved items in there Justin couldn't quite identify from where he lay. Mostly toiletries of course; for you see, a couple weeks back Yosuke had the brilliant idea of everyone going out of town to ski. Justin had never skied once in his life, and neither did a large chunk of the group, but at the end of the day it sounded fun. Costs were a bit of a bitch now that Maya didn't work anymore as well, but it seemed Yosuke had decided to pick up on Maya's expense. Gee, Justin wondered the fuck why.

Now, Yosuke and Maya had been trying to keep this all a secret for such a long time, but when those two passed notes back and forth in class every twelve seconds, most of Maya's seeming to consist of just the word "hi" with a heart for the dot on the I from what Justin was able to make out from passing glances, well… he wasn't stupid. The real drawing line though was when Maya came home crying one day; New Years if he recalled correctly. She was wearing makeup which was a great surprise to Justin, but from the sounds of it, whoever she had put that shit on didn't much care for it. Now let's not get Yosuke wrong here; he fucking loved that stuff, especially on Maya. But at the end of the day it was pretty clear she didn't like it, and even clearer that wearing make-up just wasn't her thing. He never said anything on the matter, but Maya could tell from the look in his eyes that he was a little uncomfortable with it all. Amazing, you love someone just the way they are and you end up hurting them as a result. There was just no winning in these games; on one hand, you don't want someone to change on your behalf, and on the other, you don't want them to think they got all dolled up for nothing. Yosuke later apologized of course, but that didn't mean the damage wasn't done. Justin clearly knew Maya had managed to hook up with that boy she liked now, and he wasn't very happy about the way she had been treated.

Needless to say, Justin's interest had been peaked, and soon he found himself keeping a very close eye on those two. Mostly hand holding, nothing to big, but Maya seemed happy enough, and so did Yosuke. Perhaps it was for that reason Justin didn't beat the ever loving shit out of Yosuke when he accidentally slipped up while they were discussing the upcoming Valentine's Day holiday. Yu and Justin were talking about what to get Yukiko and Chie respectively when Yosuke pointed out he still had no idea what to get Maya. He covered his mouth almost immediately before running away like a mad man. Yu found it funny. Justin was slightly irked. He had to remind himself that Yosuke had been doing this for a while and had yet to take advantage of his sister, so he couldn't have just been in it to get laid, right? As annoyed as Justin was, he dropped Yosuke a line: her favorite flowers were marigolds. What he did with that information was entirely up to him. So long as he kept any and all make out sessions as far away from Justin they'd be cool. And of course, if he ever made Maya cry like that again, he would shove his foot so far up Yosuke's ass, he'd manage to knock his teeth out from behind.

So yeah, Yosuke paying for Maya's portion of the trip was not all that unexpected. The guy seemed like he couldn't get rid of money fast enough for that girl. I don't know if he was trying to buy her love or if money just didn't seem relevant when Maya was concerned, but it was a wonder his pockets didn't have holes in them yet. Hell she was sporting a pretty nice jacket right now for the winter season on Yosuke's dime. Had a fur collar and everything. I guess in that sense Justin was appreciative of what Yosuke was doing for Maya, but at the same point he couldn't help but be suspicious. Honestly, if Yosuke just kept his mouth shut when it came to his perverted thoughts Justin would have welcomed him with open arms. Squeeze play was forever going to be stuck in the back of Justin's mind after that. He had been getting better though, so that was a plus. I guess people do change, but Justin was having a hard time believing it.

He groaned a bit as Maya tugged at his arm trying to get him out of bed. They had to get going like RIGHT now. Justin just HAD to sleep in today of all days; especially when they didn't pack the night before like she had insisted. "Alright, alright I'm up. Dammit." Justin moaned as he dragged his feet through the house in search of his jacket. He didn't have a fancy winter jacket like Maya here had now, just that trusty old black and red hoodie he had for the last year or so. It had almost become synonymous with Justin by this point anytime black and red colors were mixed together on something; that's how often he wore that damn thing. It hadn't served him wrong yet. He was quick to throw his clothes and sneakers on, though he completely said fuck it to brushing his teeth much to Maya's disgust. He was so lucky she had some gum on her, otherwise she would have dragged him all the way back to the bathroom.

Packing was quick, and before they knew it Maya and Justin were ready to leave. They made their way to the door, just as today's mail had slipped through the crack. Justin didn't feel like bending down to pick it up, but he did anyway shrugging a bit as he tossed bill after bill onto the counter. There was one letter that had showed up in that stack of letters he found awfully familiar. Not necessarily because it was foreign, yet something he had seen before or anything like that. No, in fact, he got these on a biweekly basis now. "Goddammit Adachi." Justin shook his head before throwing the letter onto the counter. They were mostly pretty damn insulting letters, though they had slowly been getting better in terms of threats and shit. At the very least he seemed to be coming to terms with the fact that he brought this on himself. That was good… he guessed. It still hurt Justin though getting these letters. Adachi was like a father to him, and he pretty much wished Justin would lie down and die. And he'd help given the chance. Made his heart twitch in pain.

"I should really just shred these…"

* * *

And speaking of shredding…

"Nuh uh, I refuse to believe you've never done this before." Chie shook her head with slight disapproval and annoyance as Justin came to a skid at the bottom on his snowboard. If they told him they could snowboard instead of ski in the first place he would have been all over this. Turns out it's actually not that much harder than skateboarding. Took a little bit of getting used to, but it controlled about the same once he get used to the changes in friction and what not. Justin smirked a bit with pride, kicking up his board into his hand. If he was trying to act like a badass, it was only half working.

"When you learn to skateboard in the slums of San Diego, you've pretty much mastered anything related to balancing on a plank of wood." Justin remarked with pride. That was mostly because he had to outskate the cops on several occasions (though that only went so far when the cops could just call his father and his father would in turn smack the shit out of him). I mean come on, was it so bad that they were skating in someone's alleyway? Fucking cops.

The others were quick to come down the hill as well, having been just behind Chie and Justin going up the slope. Granted Chie and Justin were faster thanks to their choice in equipment, so they were down there a couple minutes in advance, but Justin would like to just pretend it was skill that had done it. Certainly more skill than Teddie, who had literally rolled his way down the hill after losing his balance. I guess somewhere along the line he manage to take Yosuke with him. Maya simply giggled to herself as the two crashed into a nearby hit, snow exploding in every direction. What? Just because she loved that guy didn't mean she couldn't laugh when lady luck just sort of fucked him up the ass. Slapstick always was up her alley anyway. She smiled as she made her way over to where Yosuke now laid, helping him back up to his feet as he tried to get snow out of his ears. It was a minute or so before he was comfortable with the snow he had gotten off his skin (but unfortunately not the snow that got in his boots. That shit was cold.

"Thanks." Yosuke grinned at Maya as he finally got his bearings again. It was hard to tell if she was blushing or if it was just the cold that was making her face so red. "Whew… We've been down this slope a bunch of times now! Hey, what do you think of my snowboarding skills? I bet you're head over heels with them!" Maya's grin quickly turned into a glare though, mostly because that comment wasn't aimed at her specifically from what she could tell. She slapped him upside the back of the head for being an asshole almost immediately. See Yosuke was still Yosuke at heart, and that meant still flirting with every other girl. I guess you could say it was unintentional, but it was hard to say with any degree of certainty.

"Well, yeah, but only because we were falling down all the time." Kanji remarked sarcastically. Teddie had the rather odd tendency of crashing into Kanji and Naoto and absolutely no one else. It was like he was purposely aiming for them. Partially because he was. He was quite the deadly weapon when he rolled down that hill and gathered snow around his body mass like an avalanche. Still, it did draw attention to the fact that this was Naoto's first time skiing. Maya, Naoto, Justin, and Rise were all new to this; though Justin and Maya picked up quick thanks to being skateboarders, and Rise seemed to be doing alright. Naoto could not for the love of her get this down. Which I think suited Kanji just fine since it meant more one on one lessons.

"So this was your first time skiing, Naoto-kun? How was it?"

"I can barely even stand upright. Kanji-kun is teaching me, but… It's not going as I'd hoped. I keep going in the wrong direction or falling over without warning." Naoto remarked with discouragement. Seemed like she just couldn't catch a break with this skiing stuff. It looked so easy and yet somehow in practice it was much more difficult. She just could not get her legs to stop shaking on those damn things. She blamed the cold, as much as she knew that wasn't true. "I hope I do a little better tomorrow." Justin shrugged. It was probably like rollerblading. It takes some time to get used to balancing, but when you do… ho-boy. No stopping you. So it would seem anyway, Justin fell on his ass every time. He was going to have to trust Maya that it was actually really fun.

"You don't look it, but you really don't like losing, do you? Should we go up one more time?" Chie questioned with slight excitement. She sure as hell wanted to go back up to the top of the mountain, and while Justin would have obliged that request, it seemed the rest of the team didn't quite agree with Chie's enthusiasm. After Teddie had knocked over a good chunk of them on a regular basis, their bodies had become rather sore. They couldn't do this much longer without losing the last remnants of their energy.

"Whaaaaat!? I'm too tired. My legs are giving out on me." Rise objected. She would force herself up the mountain just once more to indulge Chie's fancies, but as it stood, she was much too concerned that her knees would just snap in two as she descended the mountain. There was going above and beyond, and there was pushing one's self beyond their limits. This currently fell into the latter category. Teddie shook his body back and forth like a dog trying to get water out of it's fur, much to the other's disapproval. He was getting snow all over them. More so than the snow already on the ground. And no one liked snow down their clothes.

"My fur's all frozen, too. I feel like Frosty the Snowbear." The others sighed a bit, mostly at Teddie being an idiot as usual. Plus there was his odd tendency to try and shove the word bear into everything; as if they had forgotten he was wearing a multicolored bear suit in front of them. You know when even Justin was tired of hearing the word bear, this guy having an entire glossary of bear puns in the depths of his mind, you really fucked the joke over to the point of being insalvagable.

"We've got tomorrow, too, so let's call it a day. Aren't you hungry, Chie?" Yosuke questioned in what sounded kind of like a bribe to lure her away from the ski lift for the evening. Justin had kind of expected Chie to catch onto Yosuke's bluff, but I guess Yosuke had some really good timing. Any other time she might have taken offense, but given that she was a bit puckish at the moment, she couldn't say he was wrong.

"I didn't even notice it until now… I'm super-hungry! What are we having for dinner at the lodge?" Chie questioned with wide eyes, falling to the great temptation of a delicious meal. She was hoping it was steak, though at the end of the day she knew that was highly unlikely. And she was entirely right.

"I think… sole cooked in non-regional style. That 'non-regional' part caught my attention."

"No shit?" Justin remarked with pleasant surprise. "Now when we say non-regional we mean not of this region or just no region at all. Because if it's the former, I'm putting my money on American." Justin crossed his fingers with blissful anticipation. Now he wasn't a big fish person, but he would go for anything drenched in butter after eating Japanese food for a year. Sole was a little bland for his tastes though, he would have much preferred swordfish. Or lobster. But he certainly couldn't afford either of that so he was just going to take what he got and like it. Chie, on the other hand…

"Sole is a fish, right? What about some real meat? MEAT!" Chie shouted with annoyance. She was livid. Red meat or bust it would seem, though Justin did have to wonder now what her opinion was on white meat, like chicken and shit. Fish was a lot lighter and had a different flavor, so he could kind of understand why someone like Chie would be disappointed by that, but chicken was still good, right? It damn well better be; Justin hadn't had fried chicken in over a year, and it was a wonder he hadn't gone through withdrawl. He couldn't imagine anyone not having the same obsession.

"How much of a carnivore are you…?" Yosuke shook his head with slight sarcasm. He had never seen anyone so passionate about steak and shit that they were annoyed by eating fish instead.

"I don't think I saw any real meat dishes on the menu…"

"No beef? Or pork!? Or even chicken!?" Okay, crisis averted. Chie was a-okay with chicken (though she did seem to find it less favorable than red meat.) Chie just seemed baffled all the same, as if she was going to have a heart attack at any moment. You know how Justin had smoking withdrawals when he first quit? Yeah, it was kind like that, only with meat. She was going to have to suck it up and just order double or something then.

"She's got a point. Considering how much we've been skiing, I could use something with a lot of protein." Kanji groaned a bit, stomach rumbling a bit. I don't know what had made everyone so hungry, but it got a little concerning when eyes shifted towards Teddie with ill intent. Look, I get it, steaks more filling than a piece of fish, but let's not resort to eating THAT thing. It would probably be really gamey anyway; nothing worth eating. Teddie was almost immediately startled.

"Has the day finally come that you all want a little taste of Teddie!?"

"Don't answer that, it's probably an innuendo."

* * *

"Is Teddie still in the bathhouse?"

The group had all been down in the lounge, chatting it up and feasting on snacks. Which was strange because just a moment earlier they had eaten a shit ton of fish. I guess it was kind of like Chinese food; it felt like a lot when you first ate, but then five minutes later you were starving. And you also had diarrhea. What in god's name do they put in that lo mein anyway? All the same, they were pretty much having a blast down here, though whether that was because Teddie wasn't here to be annoying or not was hard to tell.

"We saw these college girls while we were having dinner. He said he was gonna hold out in the bath until they showed up." Kanji remarked with indifference. He had learned not to get involved with this kind of stuff, not unless he wanted to get his ass kicked anyway. So as a general rule of thumb anytime Teddie had plans in a bathhouse, he decided he should stay as far away as possible. Justin rolled his eyes with disgust. He just never learned his lesson, did he?

"Sheesh, what's he up to now…?"

"You say that, but I bet you wish you were there with him right now, don't you?" Chie scolded him with suspicion. It was no secret how Yosuke was, even when the news had leaked out that he was accounted for. Hell, Chie was one of the first to know since Maya needed to borrow make up from her and all. That said, it didn't mean Yosuke wasn't still perverted deep down, and he was well aware of that. And Maya was well aware of that if the way he tried to flirt with Rise was any indication. Sometimes she had to wonder if it was her own fault Yosuke did that; like she wasn't good enough to keep his attention. Yosuke backed away a little bit, hands in a defensive pose. Let no one say he was going to try to score with some College girls when he had the only girl he needed.

"Whaaat? That's the worst." Rise spat with slight disgust. At least, it sounded like that at first, but given the way she immediately grinned that seductive grin of hers like the succubus she was, it was probably meant to tease him. "Wouldn't you rather spend time with us—I mean, me rather than people like that, Senpai?"

"_Bitch, I will CUT you." _Maya glared at Rise with great intensity. Yosuke was pretty alarmed, but then no one else was because no one could really understand her. Justin might have, but he had been taking a swig of cola and hadn't seen any of the motions Maya made. Now Yosuke wasn't sure whether to feel frightened to see Maya so… well… aggressive over this, or alarmed at the possibility of her actually shanking Rise. Come on, no need to draw blood over him, right. Still, Rise had reminded Yosuke of something he was rather excited about.

"Dude, how awesome is it that we all get to stay overnight like this? And it's co-ed! So why don't we-"

"No." Yukiko cut him off before he could even finish. Yosuke was needless to say baffled; though he should feel lucky Yukiko was the one to interrupt him. One more word out of him and Maya would have jabbed him in the stomach with her elbow. You know, for as nice a couple as they were, it actually bordered on abusive at points. Granted, Yosuke always deserved it, but hot damn. The amount of times Maya had to give Yosuke the death glare for flirting with another woman was simply uncountable. It was part of the reason Justin wished she would just dump his ass; but at the end of the day, Yosuke may have been a bit loose with the ladies, but they still loved each other dammit. He just needed to be disciplined at times.

"But I didn't even suggest anything yet." Yosuke remarked with slight offense. Come on, he wasn't thinking about THAT. I mean granted it sounded like that now that he thought about it, but still! Have a little more faith in the guy that was happily in a relationship that he wasn't going to suggest a mass orgy…

And suddenly Yosuke felt the need to cross his legs. Why? Oh, uh, no reason.

"Sorry, were you going to say 'play cards'?" Yukiko countered. You could see her smiling, but at the same point you could tell she was being sarcastic. Which made her the best at being sarcastic out of anyone in the room, Justin included. It was that she could still say it with a grin that made it especially powerful, if not somewhat creepy. Yosuke just sighed before sitting down. Fuck it; it wasn't worth it.

"Why don't we go night skiing? I've always been impressed by people who can do that." Rise interrupted. For obvious reasons that proposal didn't go very far. Most of them being that everyone was tired. Some of them being that Naoto was just god awful and shouldn't be let anywhere near a ski slope.

"Then we'd have to take another bath afterwards. Honestly, I'm already exhausted from snowboarding all day." Chie countered, words slow and lacking energy from her exhaustion. Coming from the girl who spent damn near every waking moment exercising, that should say something.

"Then… Why don't we do what people usually do when they get together at night?" Kanji spoke up. Now that was incredibly vague, and Justin never claimed to not have a dirty mind, so when that comment hit his ears it was almost offensive to his senses. Yosuke was still slightly more perverted mind you, but at the very least he never actually got around to suggesting anything. Kanji seemed pretty clear to Justin. And yet Justin was completely wrong.

"Christ Kanji, we are not going to fu-"

"Tell ghost stories!"

"…Yes, yes let's do that, and uh… only that." Justin cleared his throat, avoiding eye contact as best he could, tapping his leg up and down nervously. Curse that filthy mind of his, one day it was going to get him into some serious trouble.

"I don't know…! Isn't that usually a summer thing?" Chie questioned. Seemed like an odd thing to do, and it was true that Justin couldn't picture telling ghost stories in the middle of winter. Usually that was the kind of thing you did sitting around a campfire with a some marshmallows on a stick.

"Huh? Could it be that you're actually scared of ghost stories?" Yosuke turned to tease Chie. Right, because not wanting to do something stupid made them scared of ghost stories apparently. Justin didn't want to do this either, but it wasn't because he was scared. Unless there were clowns. But otherwise, he just found ghost stories as a whole… well really fucking stupid. But then, I guess going through that creepypasta stage when he was younger had more or less desensitized him to anything really scary.

"Stuff like in those stories actually happens in the moiuntains!" Rise stood up, very vocally against this as it would seem. And to think Yosuke had been trying to push Chie's buttons, not Rise's. Eh, whatever, he could run with it. "That one time during shooting was enough for me…" Chie immediately started to panic. She didn't want to hear that stuff actually happened. She thought it was all supposed to be pretend. Yukiko certainly didn't help with the matter either, though it was hard if she was doing it on purpose to scare the shit out of Chie.

"Oh, our inn has a lot of spooky stuff, too! Once, we asked a customer how he liked his room, and he said the restroom was too dark… but his room didn't have one! And sometimes, when you take pictures in that room during Obon, they don't come out right!" Yukiko recapped, much to Chie's displeasure. She was actually curling up on the couch right now with her knees wrapped underneath her arms in a near fetal position. Justin was surprised, he found all of this mildly amusing. This was like Twilight Zone stuff, or a bad Stephen King novel. Hell, maybe both! "Oh, and I heard that haniwa are occasionally found in the mountains around here. They say this entire area could have been a grave site long ago…" Justin raised his eyes from the ground with slight interest. It was just a rumor, but it did spark his curioisity all the same.

"You know, I'd make a joke about this turning into Polteirgeist, but with the whole television thing going on between all of us, that doesn't seem too far off." Justin joked only slightly. Despite his attempt to lighten the mood, it seemed his pop culture reference had been more unnerving than anything. Especially to those who had actually seen the movie. And by that I mean Naoto, what being into older movies and all. She immediately jumped up from her seat to stand at attention, as if to make her stance very clear on this. Too bad her voice quivering gave away her true stance on all of this.

"F-Folklore has little valid scientific evidence, but is a result of cultural significance and strong story elements… A-Any 'ancient burial ground' is likely just the site of a t-temple, so, um…" She frantically explained, hopefully trying to deter anyone from going on with their silly stories. And by that I mean absolutely frightful stories. If you were a coward that is.

"You sure you want to go with the temple alternative?" Justin smirked a bit, putting his feet on the table much to the other's annoyance. "Haven't you ever watched Temple of Doom? You know, the scene where the open the Arc of the Covenant and everyone's FACE MELTS OFF." Chie was apparently not an Indiana Jones fan given that she immediately withdraw into her shell, whimpering ever so slightly as she sunk into the sofa. Look, he was trying to scare Naoto, not Chie. "H-hey, it's alright, I'm just joking."

"This is starting to get pretty good." Yosuke chuckled slightly as he took in the sight of everyone's faces. Very few people seemed to be unafraid of whatever ghost story they would be discussing today, and amongst those people Justin was worried about Chie since she seemed so damn scared. No one had anything on Maya though. Superstition was never really questioned by Maya, so all this talk about ghosts and stuff had already scared her half to death and back. Which is… technically half to death and half to death, which should have killed her, but you get the point.

"I can't believe you guys! I'm having no part of this! I'm plugging my ears!" Chie shouted at the top of her lungs, trying to mute out the sound of the others talking about ghosts. Christ, she really wasn't taking this well… Maybe Justin should just take her back to her room for the night. He was okay with this stuff, but clearly Chie was scared out of her wits end.

"…Wouldn't it be scarier to only hear bits and pieces of stories like that?"

"Yeah, kinda like hearing only bits and pieces of a porno." Justin remarked sarcastically, though not a single person seemed to question that possibility of him being serious. He shook his head with disbelief, raising his shoulders in that 'what are you gonna do about it' kinda way. "Oh come on! Don't give me that look! Yosuke does the same exact thing!"

"Well I just have magazines so I can't hea- Wait a second, what am I saying!" Yosuke shouted with annoyance. Great, now HE looked like the pervert again. Well I guess congratulations to Justin on successfully managing to get attention away from himself. He succeeded at what he set out to do, even if it was at Yosuke's expense. He'd do the same to Justin in a heartbeat, so I guess all was fair in love and war. He sighed before grinning again, trying to play off that he now looked like some kind of sex addict. "…Well, I'll start off, then. Yukiko can go last. Her stories are off-the-charts-creepy. Let's see… It was over three years ago. A friend of mine in middle school told me this. It seems his sister went to a pretty prestigious private school, but she ended up running with the wrong crowd. Supposedly, she and a bunch of other girls were bullying another girl in their class. He said that she'd come home every night and laugh over the phone with her friends about the kid they were harassing. One day, she suddenly came home with a pale face. Ever since then, she started locking herself up in her room. No matter how much he asked what was going on, she'd completely ignore him. But he could hear her mumbling… She'd keep saying to herself: it's my turn next… My friend got worried, so he went to ask his sister's friends what was going on. But it turns out… All her friends had passed out for mysterious reasons and had been taken to the hospital…

"And now it became a hospital story… great." Justin sighed and shook his head, reaching his hands over to cover Maya's ears. She didn't need more reasons to be afraid of the hospital. Normally Maya would be pretty pissed off, but she did catch the whole hospital thing and would rather not know what happened next. She was just going to assume they died because doctors are just murderers after all. Yosuke grimaced slightly once he realized that mentioning the hospital was probably inappropriate given his audience, but he'd have to just adapt and not mention it anymore.

"He was so scared that he didn't know what to do. That night, at around 11:30… Suddenly his sister started screaming in her room! He ran into her room, and she was covering her ears and repeating, 'She's calling me! I can hear her…!' But my friend couldn't hear anything, and soon, his sister rushed out of the house… The next morning, she was found unconscious outside the school gates, just like her friends had been. In the end, she was taken to the hospital and recovered, but when he asked the people at school what happened… it seems the girl they were bullying… was dead. They said that the girl must've become a spirit that haunted them one by one-" Yosuke never even got to finish his sentence because Chie jumped out of her seat and started screaming before dashing out, having just about enough of this bullshit. "Well uh… didn't expect that."

"Well then. I'd call you an asshole, but given that I'm pretty sure that was the point of all of this… good job?" Justin mumbled a bit as he watched Chie run to the stairs, tears in her eyes. He should probably go say something. He didn't need her up all night thinking any of that could actually happen. Yosuke had other plans though it would seem.

"Well how about you Justin? You have any good scary stories?"

"Huh? Oh uh, yeah sure. Let me just look up the script for Jaws: the Revenge."

"What? But that movie wasn't scary."

"Clearly you've never seen the writing."


	229. Chapter 228: February 12, 2012

CHAPTER 228

February 12, 2012

* * *

"All right! Time to hit the snow!"

It was a long night, or at least from Justin's perspective given that he was up for a long while trying to calm Chie down after Yosuke's ghost stories. So needless to say, Justin was pretty damn tired as they all gathered around the mountain again. He'd really rather just go home by this point to be painfully honest, but he was here to snowboard, and snowboard he would. At least, if Chie had any say in the matter anyway, and I don't think I need to explain how she practically had Justin on a leash. She didn't need to order him to do anything, he just sort of felt compelled to follow her in whatever her endeavors may be.

"Someone's full of energy… You guys were up talking all last night, too." Yosuke grumbled a bit, a little turned off by all the enthusiasm. Not that he had any right to be judgemental when it was entirely his fault in the first place.

"Yeah, because of your dumbass story!" Justin countered with frustration. When he had caught up to Chie that night she was shivering like a banshee. He really scared the ever living shit out of her with that story, and while Justin thought it was the most ridiculous thing he had ever heard, Chie was a little more gullible as it would seem. Yosuke raised his palms in defense. Let no one say to him that he was some kind of asshole who wanted nothing more than to terrify the poor girl to the point of being sick. He was trying to be scary but not THAT scary. Really, that was all on Chie. Rise rolled her eyes a bit. She would point out how Yosuke should have no idea that Justin and Chie were talking if he wasn't peeping, but admittedly, the walls were a little thin, and they could all hear that stuff too. They just drowned it out because that was kind of a private conversation. Yosuke and Teddie on the other hand were more into eavse dropping.

"Forget about that." Rise spoke up, hoping to avoid the obviously brewing conflict between Justin and Yosuke. They tried to strangle each other enough as it was without them killing each other during this ski trip. "Come on Senpai, let's go skiing." Rise remarked with cheer before grabbing Yosuke by the arm, trying to drag him off. Maya stared with a combination of sadness and fury. On one hand, Rise didn't know how to ski, so she did need someone to help her ski… But it seemed like she was purposely picking Yosuke EVERY FUCKING TIME. And Yosuke didn't seem to give much of a struggle anytime she tried to drag him off. I mean, I guess it wasn't entirely his fault when Rise was pretty much doing this on purpose, but… I don't know. He wasn't helping. It was lucky for Maya she had so many friends that had her back when this kind of stuff happened.

"…Hold it right there." Chie stopped Rise in her tracks as she tried to stop her from dragging Yosuke away. She could see the look on Maya's face, how her eyes were aimed at the snow beneath her with disappointment. She'd tear up a little if she didn't know her tears would freeze up before they could crawl down her cheeks. "R-Rise-san, don't you think you're being a little too… y'know? You've been hogging the same ski partner way too much."

"Huh? But it works out so nicely. You and Justin-senpai are both on snowboards, Teddie and Yukiko-senpai keep taking the steep slopes and won't slow down for me. And Kanji seems to want to be with Naoto-kun." Rise objected. It made you wonder if she was oblivious to what she was doing or if she was doing it just to annoy Maya. I mean, Justin knew Rise well enough that she wouldn't go out of her way just to hurt someone, but she could be a tease at times. Seemed to him she thought she was having some fun with Maya, completely unaware she was completely destroying her. "So it's only natural that I'd pair up with Yosuke-Senpai. He and I will take it slow. You don't have to worry about me." She dismissed Chie before trying to grab Yosuke again. "C'mon, Senpai, let's go!"

"I was talking more about Maya." Chie scolded Rise ever so slightly. If it was just a matter of who to go skiing with, she could go with Yu, since he didn't seem to be paired up with anyone at the moment. You would think he would want to ski with Yukiko, but given how much fun those two seemed to be having racing each other down the slope, he was going to let them do their own thing. Rise was a little caught off guard to say the least; she hadn't really considered that, but looking at Maya now, she was kind of giving her a bit of a death glare. Yeeaaah, she was reconsidering this plan already; she knew better than to get on Maya's badside. She was quick to let go of Yosuke's arm and rush over to Yu instead.

"Uh, I m-mean, let's go Senpai!" She chuckled nervously as she tried to play off the fact that she was trying to drag Maya's boyfriend to the slopes. Yu muttered an obscenity or two under his breath with disappointment as the burden of Rise's flirtatious nature was passed down upon him. Yukiko didn't really get jealous about this stuff, but that was because she never really got that Rise was a flirt. All the same, it was true Rise was probably going to hit on Yu the entire day now, which was going to get grating really quickly. Oh well, he'd just have to deal with it. He shrugged before turning about and making his way to the slopes, Rise following a short distance behind. Maya never did remove her death glare from the back of her head. It was hard to tell if Rise was a good friend or her worst enemy some days.

"_Hope she falls the whole way down and breaks her spine."_

"Maya!"

"…_In a good way?"_

* * *

"This was an awful idea."

So they hit the slopes for the rest of the day, and unfortunately for Chie who was still pumped up for snowboarding and fortunately for Justin who just wanted to sleep, it had become night time. Unfortunately for both of them, in the darkness of night, they had sort of… um… forgotten the way back to the lodge. Chie said it was to the left, but Justin should have known better when they started seeing woods everywhere. It only got worse as the snow pounded against them in waves, never seeming to relent. If they learned anything from this experience, Chie could not navigate for the life of her and should never be left in charge of any sort of camping expedition.

"I think we might be- bleh, I got some snow in my mouth." Chie tried to speak, though the snow pressing against her just seemed to clog her throat any time she opened her mouth. What shitty weather to get lost in. "I think we might be lost." She grimaced. It was hard to see where they were, but all she knew was that getting caught in a blizzard was never exactly a good thing. Justin sighed with irritation.

"No, great. That's just fantastic." Justin shivered in the cold. You know, when he had followed Chie out here in the middle of nowhere, it was under the belief that she actually knew where she was going. He trusted her to have a good layout of the land, but it seemed that wasn't happening. Now mind you, he wasn't livid or anything like that, but with the ever present danger of dying of frostbite starting to creep into his mind, he was by all means a little cranky. On the bright side though, always wearing ridiculous warm clothes was starting to payoff. He may have looked a little hot in the summer time, but WHO'S LAUGHING NOW.

"Crap… I don't have much feeling left in my hands… What're we going to do?" Chie groaned with great concern. It wasn't even so much getting back home now that was the problem, it was getting through the night without having to get their limbs amputated from the cold. Justin eyed her with concern before slipping his hand into hers. "Hey, what do you think you're doing!?"

"For warmth." Justin pointed out. If her hands were that cold, they needed to warm up immediately. Chie was needless to say rather embarrassed. Hell the only reason she was offended in the first place was because this was such an inappropriate time to try and get all lovey dubey. In actuality it seemed that he was just looking out for her health and safety. Smooth Chie. Smooth.

"Oh, uh… right." She fumbled over her words. That should have been the first thing that came to her mind. She sighed as they continued to march forward, trying to keep warm as best they could. They usually say you're supposed to huddle for warmth in situations like this, but somehow that just felt like it would be… dirty. Like a last resort kind of thing. So they refused to stay put and try to warm up, despite that probably being the best thing they could do. They'd just try to find something, somewhere they could stay until the storm passed. And they just might have been in luck. "…There's something over there!" Chie shouted, squinting at a shape that approached in the distance. She was practically overjoyed once she realized just what it was. "Isn't that a cottage!? Yes! We might be able to take shelter there."

"H-Hey, let's not forget that's probably someone's house. We can't just barge in there." Justin countered. He'd love to get into some warmth, don't get him wrong, but at the end of the day that wasn't their house and they couldn't just enter and please whenever they wanted to. I mean, I guess if whoever owned the house wanted to allow them to stay that would be fine, but Justin doubted they were just going to let some random strangers into their home because they were cold. Hopefully the fact that they were but children would appeal to the homeowner's sense of good will.

"It'll be better than wandering around in the snow. And maybe they'll have a phone!" Chie smiled with hope in her eyes. She did raise a valid point; even if they won't let them stay, they'd probably let them use the house phone given the weather conditions. They slowly approached the house, where Chie tried to peer through the windows to see if anyone was home. There were no lights and she couldn't see the shadows of any people, which only served to confuse her. All the same they had to try at the very least, so she knocked at the door, hopeful to find some warmth soon. "Excuse me! Please let us in!" No answer. So she knocked again. This time the door slipped open as she applied pressure, much to her shock and slight displeasure. "Oh, uh…"

The two peered their heads in through the crack, at first hoping to find someone had opened the door for them. In actuality, the door had simply been unlocked and opened at Chie's touch. It was harder to tell then what Justin was more concerned about; the fact that they had just stepped through the unlocked door of someone's house, or the fact that said house was abandoned, dusty, old, and by all accounts creepy as fuck. "…Where is everyone? Doesn't make much sense to leave a house like this behind, yet from the looks of it the looters have already come and gone." Justin mused to himself. The place was a shit hole and the house looked torn apart as if someone was looking for something. It was hard to believe anyone still lived here, but the question is, why not?

"I-In any case, it's a good thing we found this place. Who knows what would've happened if we'd been stuck out there…" Chie sighed with relief. Outside of the television, she had never really been in a life-threatening situation like this, especially one caused by her own carelessness. She should have made a note of how to get back to the lodge and not strayed so far away. "First things first… We should look for a phone. I accidentally forgot mine in the lodge."

"Well uh… That might be a problem…" Justin grimaced as he stuck his hand in his pocket. While he did have his cell-phone, he had completely forgotten to really check it until now, what with him being so fucking cold and all… As it turned out, that wouldn't really make much of a difference. He sighed as he turned the phone to Chie, dread in her eyes as she read the message across the top of his phone. No service available. "Even if we did find a landline, I doubt we'd be able to use it."

"I had a feeling that would happen… Hell, even if we were able to call someone, they might not be able to find this place in the blizzard…" She mused with fear. To think that while this little cabin offered them warmth, it also trapped them here until the snow passed, no communication to the outside world. "If this keeps up, are we gonna be trapped here all night?"

"Certainly looks that way. I just hope no one lives here anymore, otherwise this is going to be very hard to explain." Justin mumbled, biting at his bottom lip as he walked around and examined the cabin. There was a television set here, but it seemed unplugged. Worst comes to worst, he supposed Chie and Justin could just jump in and find their way back to the television at Junes. Neither of them had navigation personas, but it had to be better than being stranded, right?

"I know! I saw a movie recently about some people who got lost in the mountains! Maybe it'll be useful!" Chie spoke up, cheeks slightly red, though why Justin could only fathom a guess. He was going to guess it was hudling up for warmth. What she had actually proposed, not much better, and yet so much better at the same time. "If I remember right, the characters took off their clothes to help them warm each other up… Wait, what am I saying!"

"...Go on." Justin remarked with perverted interest, mouth slightly open, eyebrow lifted with curiosity. Yeah they were in someone else's house, and a deserted creepy one at that, but at the end of the day he was still a guy. The moment Chie planted that thought in his head, you knew it would be the only thing on his mind.

"You know what, never mind! That movie was stupid! I think they all died at the end!" Chie frantically objected. Let's make it clear that wasn't where she was going with that thought anyway. As much as the idea appealed to Justin, he wasn't getting laid. This was a seriously dangerous situation and she had been proposing a serious solution. Let's not make this dirty. At least not yet. "But still, we do need to warm up somehow. Hmm… Hey isn't this a sunken hearth!? We can start a fire here!" Chie shouted as her eyes dropped to the floor beneath her. Now, Justin normally would have objected to setting a fire in someone else's house, but given the circumstances and all the evidence that pointed to this place not having seen human life in a long while, he'd go with the flow on this one. "Is there something to burn!? Let's look around! If there's a hearth here, there has to be something for it!"

"Well I've still got my lighter… We could probably burn some paper… I don't like burning someone else's stuff, but I somehow doubt someone still wants this crap." Justin mused as he looked around. Everything was old as fuck, which made him especially reluctant to burn some newspapers he found. We're talking OLD newspapers. Very valuable newspapers, especially to whoever once owned this cabin. He didn't want to burn them, but there was nothing else here that seemed especially flammable. History was going to have to suck one up for the team. He sighed as he lit the flames on the papers and threw them in the hearth, lighting the room and warming its inhabitants within only a few moments time.

"Ahh, it's so warm!" Chie remarked with glee, sitting beside the crackling flames with her knees in her arms. It wasn't much, but it was clear the cold wasn't going to be much of a problem anymore, so long as the fire still burned bright. "I finally feel like we're gonna be okay now. I don't know what I would've done if we'd been stuck in the cold all night."

"Come on, the good guys never die Chie."

"But I thought only the good die young?"

"Huh… Well, they... Uh… Crap." Justin muttered with slight shock. Granted he still didn't suspect that either of them would die until their hair started to gray, but she did raise a valid point. He couldn't just pretend they weren't in danger at the end of the day, and besides; he wasn't really 'a good guy.' If anything he was an anti-hero, and that was without delving into the psychopath inside his skull. Chie smiled all the same, amused by Justin flustered expression. Seemed like she broke him quite the news.

"You know…" She whispered as she leaned towards him. I guess without the danger of freezing to death the atmosphere had lightened quite a bit… Her cheeks were red, but certainly not because of the chill or because of the fire reflecting off her skin. Now, she wasn't going to suggest they both strip down to keep each other warm or anything, but she could still meet Justin half-way here. "Instead of having the fire between us… it would be warmer if… if we were closer, right?" Justin stared at her with a blank expression for a moment, staring at the flames dancing in her eyes before smiling and wrapping his arm around her.

"I'll have you know that's scientifically proven to help in situations such as these." Justin smiled abit. Of course, so was the getting naked and huddling together part, but he was just as happy with this as that. Because really, at the end of the day it wasn't about getting laid or anything like that (though again, he wouldn't object) but rather just being close to Chie like this. He was more than happy the way they were, here, in each other's arms.

"You know, this is kinda like when me, you, Yu and Yosuke fell into the TV for the first time…" Chie mused to herself, reminiscing about the days gone by. Even though it was all over, for some reason it felt like just yesterday. She could remember everything so clearly despite happening nearly a year ago. And in fact, it would remain that way for the rest of her life; for all of their lives. They could all find joy in saying they accomplished something good, but seeing the nightmares of the shadow's world… it was traumatic. They just didn't know it yet, for they were much too young and naïve. To them it was all one big adventure; to their grown up selves, it would be days of unspeakable horror, days they all could have died.

"…To be honest, I don't really remember much about that, what with the concussion and all… I know you carried me around, and I remember… HIS room, but… I don't remember anything else. Guess I hit my head harder than I thought." Justin admitted with slight shame. Chie mentioned it enough that it was clear it was a big day in her life… hell, it was a big day in all of their lives… but… he just couldn't remember anything. He was hardly awake for most of it, and when he was, the only thing he could see was the side of Chie's face as she dragged him around. "You know Chie… I've been meaning to ask you this for a while, but… When I hit my head like that… Why exactly did you carry me around like that?"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"You had no reason to support me like that. I was a stranger to you; hell you probably didn't even know I had seriously injured myself." Justin pointed out. And it was true to an extent; she certainly suspected that hitting his head had given him a concussion, but she had no solid evidence. "Yu and Yosuke didn't so much as lift a finger… How come you did?"

"Well, I…" Chie paused. To be painfully honest, she wasn't quite sure herself. She wanted to say because it was the right thing to do, but at the end of the day, she wasn't aware anything had actually happened to Justin, and it was true he was a complete stranger to her. So why did she help him? Certainly wasn't just because she thought he was cute or anything like that… She didn't know. She just did it. I guess that was her reason. "I don't really know, it was just instinct."

"I can accept that." Justin shrugged his shoulders. Instinct could make a lot of people do stupider things than what Chie had done; it seemed a perfectly viable explanation all things considered. He was just wondering why instinct told her to do that and not run like a madman in an attempt at escaping from the television. It didn't matter, his and Chie's musings on the topic were soon interrupted by a blinding light shining through the room. Chie was quick to latch to Justin's arm like a kitten to a ball of yarn.

"Th-that wasn't lightning, was it?" She stuttered with fear. Why Chie was so deathly afraid of lighting, Justin couldn't rightfully say. He was always taught that if you can see lightning, then you're still alive. You wouldn't know it if you were hit by the stuff. I guess Chie was more under the impression that if lightning never strikes the same spot twice, it will eventually run out of spots to hit. Everytime it missed her, it was just slowly making its way closer to where she stood. Luckily for her, it was just the television set turning on all of a sudden. Strange, Justin didn't even think this place had electricity. He rubbed at his chin a bit before standing up, patting Chie on the shoulder with reassurance. She'd be alright; thunder and lightning had no persuasion here.

"That's odd…" Justin mumbled to himself, making his way over to the television that had flickered to life, Chie following in his wake to check it out for herself. For the television to just come to life like that out of the blue… especially when he noticed that it was unplugged, well… something was up. "Either this thing runs on batteries that just kicked to life, or I think we may have a problem. I haven't seen the Midnight Channel appear since… well Adachi." Justin mumbled. He wasn't concerned with the Hanged Man murder cases resolved, but he was by all means confused.

"Whoa… That's creepy." Chie muttered with concern. She hadn't seen it since these crimes had been solved either, which meant it hadn't been a regular occurring thing anymore. So she had to wonder… why was it popping up now? The only answer she could think of was the murders were happening again. Thankfully that was not true, though the actual explanation might not have been much better. "Wh-Why is it showing up again?"

"I don't know…" Justin mumbled to himself, staring at the screen with curiosity, the static seeming to focus on the singular point where his hand ran across the surface of the screen. Like bubbles in a pool of water. "Well… There's ONE way to find out." Justin mumbled. He didn't like it either, but it was something that had to be done. He took a deep breath before supporting his body using his hands and sticking his head through the television screen. "Gonna take a quick look inside."

"Huh…? H-hey…!?" Chie gasped with worriment. What the fuck did Justin think he was doing!? Didn't he remember what happened the last time someone did that? Their TV tried to EAT them. "I don't think this is the place for that! Seriously, we should wait until we get home. It's just not safe!"

"Hey, relax. It'll be quick. I'll just be in and out." Justin pulled his skull out, waving his hand in a 'cut it out' motion.

"You know you can't just pull out like that. Remember last time?" Justin rolled his eyes slightly. It was one time and it was before Yu understood his powers. This would be entirely different.

"That only happened the first time, and only because sticking your hand in a place like that is disorienting. Don't worry, I'm on top of this."

"I don't care if you think you'll get caught; it's a bad idea putting your head in there."

"Look, we gonna keep arguing over this or can I stick it in already?" He was going to stick his skull in a second time, but as it turned out, the gods just had no intention of letting him discern the cause of this and be done with it. And in fact, they also intended to stop Justin in one of the most humiliating ways possible. Within seconds Yosuke, Teddie, and Yu came dashing into the room, much to Justin and Chie's great shock, and from the looks of it, none were particularly pleased with what they were hearing.

"Wh-Wh-What're you guys doing!? I won't allow it!" Yosuke shouted with disapproval as he burst in. "Don't throw away your friendship in a moment of passion!" Justin and Chie stared at him like he had two heads for a moment, perhaps not really catching on that what they were talking about was… well… REALLY bad out of context. It probably didn't help that the rest of the team came running in a moment later… Where exactly were they this entire time?

"Yosuke…!? Everyone else too!"

"…They're still dressed." Rise sighed with relief. Justin assumed that she had seen the same movie as Chie and thought that to survive they'd need to huddle in the nude. I mean, I'm sure it was a relief to everyone not to find the two clumped together, skin on skin. Kanji didn't really get it though, while all the others had only the most disturbing thoughts in their heads.

"Why would they take their clothes off in this freezing weather? And dude, why're you guys so flustered? What's up with you guys?"

"D-Do I really have to spell it out for you?" Naoto questioned with exasperation, eyes wide with disbelief as the innuendos soared right over Kanji's head. Or perhaps he did get the innuendos and figured that it wasn't worth getting flustered over. I mean, what those two did in the bedroom was their own thing after all; who were THEY to judge?

"What are you talking about?" Chie questioned, not really getting any of this. Thankfully, Teddie was there to have no subtlety whatsoever while also being a huge pervert. As always.

"Don't tell me… Were you waiting for an audience!? What daring lovers…! H-How shameless! But, okay! I'll take a front-row seat, and-" Teddie was immediately interrupted by Justin yanking his shoe off and tossing it at Teddie. Dear god he had never been more mortified in all his life; and on top of that Teddie wanted to watch. If Justin had any sort of blunt weapon right now, Teddie would be lying in a pool of blood right now; that much was clear.

"You're the shameless one! Wait, were you guys listening outside!?" Chie scolded with complete and utter disgust. How dare he!? How dare ANY of them!? Even if they were, which they certainly wouldn't, what right did ANY of these people have to stick their noses in Justin and Chie's personal lives like that!? She had never been more disgusted in all her life. Though whether it was that they assumed they were doing the nasty in here or the fact that they had been eavesdropping on said nastification that had done it, she couldn't quite say. Could be both.

"Nah… I mean, not on purpose. It would've been awkward to interrupt before, but-"

"Then you WERE listening! For your information, it was a matter of life and death!" Chie shouted in defense. She wanted to fucking kill Yosuke right now. And I don't mean that with any degree of hyperbole. She was literally considering strangling him to death for the embarrassment she suffered here from his eavesdropping. Justin spat with annoyance, disgusted with all of this.

"It's so GOOD to know we have friends, that when they're under the illusion we might be 'doing it' RUN IN TO WATCH. Goddamn it." Justin shook his hands angrily. Now he was never going to be able to have intercourse without checking every window in his house for people watching him. Well I guess once was good enough. Once more than he had ever expected in his life anyway. Good game.

"Hey, we came because we were worried about you!"

"Oh yeah, worried we were using a condom or not." Justin remarked sarcastically. Chie simply jabbed him in the ribs at this point. He was right of course, but she could only take so many fictional references to banging in one sitting. Let's not give Yosuke the opportunity to take Justin literally or anything here.

"Whatever… What were the two of you doing, shoving each other around in here?" Rise questioned. Seemed she didn't believe those two in the slightest. Chie sighed, still furious but figuring that she still had to give them an explanation or this would look really strange.

"The TV came on, and it isn't plugged in." Everyone sent her a couple of funny looks, minus perhaps Justin and Naoto, who had also noticed it was unplugged. Seemed no one believed her, and with good reason. "No, I'm serious! You're totally misunderstanding what was going on here! Look, even if the TV isn't plugged in, it suddenly turned on by itself! That's why we were checking it out. We wouldn't risk our lives way out here in the middle of nowhere just on a whim!"

"…Middle of nowhere? This is right behind our lodge." Chie and Justin's mouth were agape for a moment after that. Right behind the lodge? Okay, how in god's name did they not see that? I guess on the bright side that meant Chie did know where she was going. On the other hand, it totally looked ike Justin and Chie were going outback to… you know… "It's some kind of storage shed. I think they keep it unlocked because the workers need to come in and out all the time."

"And why would the TV turn on by itself? That whole case is over. I bet one of you sat on the remote, then you started freaking out." Yosuke chuckled a bit with amusement. This really looked like an elaborate lie to try and explain their romantic affairs back here. All none of them.

"We're not lying! If you don't believe me, I'll check it out myself!" Chie declared before turning her attention back to the television screen, having just about enough of this bullcrap. Justin crossed his arms and shook his head with annoyance at his friends. Why was it whenever it mattered the most they never believed Chie? Had she given them reason not to believe in her before? No. So they needed to get the fuck over it and take her word on stuff like this… Otherwise there could be dire consequences.

As Chie pressed her finger against the television screen, ready to check out for herself what was going on at the other end, a hand popped out of the screen and grabbed her by the wrist, trying to tug her inside. Justin was the first to react, grabbing her by the waist as he attempted to tug her out, to not much avail. "Chie!" The others formed a chain behind Justin to help, though that didn't help either.

Within a second's notice, the hand gave a second tug, yanking the entirety of the team through the television screen.


	230. Chapter 229: February 13, 2012

CHAPTER 229

February 13, 2012

* * *

"Excuse me…"

Justin groaned a bit as he opened his eyes, slowly awakening in whatever strange world he had managed to find himself in this time. In the tug of war to get Chie out of that hand's grasp, everyone had managed to get pulled into the television; and since it had been from a high distance this time AND without knowing they were getting tugged in, they weren't really prepared to land on their feet. So they didn't, and as a result, they were knocked clean out. For a good long while too. In some cases that was nothing more than an inconvience, in others, it was cause for concern. Justin was quick to crawl over to where he spotted Chie's trademark green jacket, growling with pain as he shook her by the shoulder to wake her up. It took some time, but she eventually opened her eyes. He was more than a little relieved to find her still alive and breathing. When that hand had popped out of the screen like that, he had nearly shit himself with fright. If something happened to her; especially when he could have prevented it… well… he wouldn't know what to do with himself. Luckily enough she seemed fine; just a bit of a lump on her head where she had managed to bump her skull. And while Justin had been concerned she was concust after hitting her head like that, it seemed she was a little more hard-headed than she had let on. She was just having a little trouble balancing after that. So Justin lent her his shoulder.

"Th-thanks…" Chie stuttered, flinching with slight pain. She didn't hurt her head too bad, but at the end of the day, she did bump it pretty hard, so she had a splitting headache right now. Almost like a hangover; especially considering she had waken up to this pain with no real knowledge of where she was. Hell none of them did; though I think the weird statues they were surrounded by only served to confuse them. They were unique, so if anyone could identify them, that would help; but alas, no one had any idea what they were. Besides from ugly and misshapen that is. Justin sighed with relief as he supported Chie's weight against his own as she tried to regain her bearings. I guess this made them even for the first time Justin fell through the television. And Chie was right; it was instinct. Just a different kind of instinct. The kind of instinct that tells you to act when someone you hold close is in danger.

Of course, Justin's fast beating heart as she held her body close to his was not really the topic of discussion here. He had been awoken by the sound of a voice echoing in his ear; and an unfamiliar one at that. He looked around, not really seeing anyone at first; but then, it seemed whoever it was that had called on him had wanted to get the jump on him. He felt a tapping sensation on his shoulder, turning around to be met by the sight of a middle-aged, blonde haired woman. Justin was very confused at first, but then he saw those golden eyes. A shadow it seemed. He was about to take a swing at her since he didn't have carry his gun around anymore, but Yu was quick to run up and stop him. Believe him, that was the LAST thing he wanted to do. Unless he wanted to be smeared across the sidewalk like a fly against a flyswatter.

"Please forgive the slightly impolite invitation." She apologized, staring blankly at Justin's angered face as Yu tried to hold him back. She didn't seem threatened that's for sure. If anything, she found this all somewhat amusing. Probably because she could hurl Justin across the room with a thought if she so chose, partially because exploring human interaction was always made for an interesting time. Just watching him react to the sight of her; it was peculiar from what she had studied, though not completely unheard of. The others stared at her with interest and confusion as they slowly gathered around the blue clothed woman.

"I think she's the one that grabbed me." Chie whispered into Justin's ear with concern. That of course made him want to take another swing, but Yu seemed pretty damn clear that taking a swing was going to cause more trouble than it was worth. He just would not let go of Justin's arm as he tried to wind up a strike.

"Believe me, you don't want to do that." Yu scolded Justin slightly. For the love of god, could he just be a little less brash for a moment? He could understand why Justin would want to punch out his girlfriend's alleged kidnappers, but sometimes punching a criminal in the face was a very bad idea. In this case she wasn't exactly a criminal by any means, but punching her in the face would still be an awful idea. Unless you had no intention of breathing without a tube for the rest of your life… if you're lucky that is.

"What, you know this woman?" Justin questioned with angered exasperation. God help him, he better get an explanation soon or there was going to be hell to pay. Yu sighed as he took another glance at the woman in blue. He had tried so hard to keep this all a secret, but then she just HAD to go and pull everyone in again. Hell, Yu didn't even know she could leave that limo, but here she was. And given the smirk on her face, it seemed he wasn't getting out of this without his friends knowing about his role as the wild card. God, how do you explain to someone that you literally gained power from their friendship without someone getting offended. After all, then it looks like you're friends with someone only because you gained something from it. Which was true in some cases for Yu, unfortunately.

"Yeah… we're, uh… sorta friends. Sorta."

"…Dude, she is a real woman! Where the hell did you meet her!?" Yosuke shouted with great curiosity, though he had that look in his eyes that he always seemed to get when he was letting his manhood get ahead of himself. Maya sighed and pinched at where the bridge of her nose met her forehead. You know, she was aware that even the most faithful of guys still had an eye for other woman, but most of their guys kept it to themselves. Especially when their girlfriend was around. Made her wonder if Yosuke just lacked a filter when it came to this kind of stud and just immediately blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

"Forgive me for not introducing myself sooner. We meet for the first time. My name is Margaret. I am a helper on this young man's journey… I meant you no harm." Margaret explained, a gentle smile stretching across her face. It was true that it seemed she meant them no ill-will, though I think something else had stood at a little bit more attention. All eyes fell on Yu, curious what she meant by 'helper.' He just scrunched his shoulders up in the 'I'm so fucking embarrased' kind of way, eyes closed under the mentality that if you can't see it, it can't see you. The only thing that could have sold the image anymore is if Yu topped it off with the utterance of 'moooooom, you're embarrassing me.' "Do you remember? I have come to fulfill my promise." She explained.

"…You mean about Marie, right?" Yu spoke up after a moment. He had been searching for Marie a while ago, but she just seemed to disappear without a trace. Justin had found it odd she had stopped coming for guitar lessons, but he didn't exactly object to it either, so he didn't really put in much of an effort to find out where she had gone. Yu on the other hand… he was vastly concerned. And so he asked Margaret for help locating her. Seemed she had found something. The others again stared at Yu with slight confusion. No one knew Marie was missing, only that she hadn't popped up in a while. For all they knew she could have moved. So they had no idea what this promise was in regards to.

"Yes. I have come to guide you. I apologize for the amount of time it required me to prepare. This is the Hollow Forest. The 'closed realm' created by her in the TV world, the 'world of the human mind…'It would seem that after Marie left us, she shut herself in here." Margaret spoke to with contemplation , eyes scanning the horizon and all the scenery it held before here. Such interesting statues; perhaps they were a manifestation of Marie's emotions. The bamboo probably was all things considered.

"Shut herself in?" Yu spoke with confusion. Why would she want to shut herself in here? That didn't make any sense; especially when she had been adapting to the outside world so well. Hell, last he checked, she thoroughly enjoyed the outside world; what could possibly possess her to want to isolate herself like this. Margaret paused for a moment, an expression of displeasure making its way across her face. She was almost ashamed in a way.

"I do not know everything. But as you know, she was searching for her memory. And by opening her heart to you, she finally regained that memory… It would seem that what she found was not what she had been hoping for."

"Whoa, hold on. What is this all about?" Yosuke finally spoke up, having just about enough of this vagueness. Yu and Margaret both seemed to be in cahoots to something none of them had even the slightest bit of knowledge on. And it was kind of a big deal when this was about their friend. Well, as much of a friend as someone who insulted them all on a regular basis could be. "Marie? You mean Marie-chan? The one who was with you…? What do you mean, she's here?"

"We are inside the TV right now, correct? A missing person ending up in the TV…" Yukiko mused to herself. It didn't take a genius to tell that when Marie had stopped showing up around Inaba a couple months back, whatever it was she had been doing, she ended up here. And by all accounts, that sounded like a missing person to Yukiko. Now it was just a matter of why she had ended up her, and how.

"Don't tell me… I mean, we put an end to all that…!" Rise shouted with exasperated concern. The yput Adachi behind bars, and yet it was happening again!? COULD THE NEVER CATCH A BREAK!? Margaret shook her head slightly. There were only so many times one could find a faulty culprit before it got ridiculous, and there was no room for shit odds in the realms of logic. It was possible; but highly unlikely.

"I do not think this is the same situation. I believe Marie's disappearance is unrelated to the 'kidnapping incident' you all were following. She was not taken away by someone. Rather, she came here of her own volition."

"She willingly came here… Does that mean Marie-san has the Persona ability as well?" Naoto spoke up, inquiring to the matter. The rule was that you needed a persona to enter the television, right? So then if she jumped into the television, she'd need one.

"Hmm, not necessarily." Justin spoke up. "Don't forget Maya could enter the television on her own before she got her persona." He pointed out. Yu, he suspected, always had the persona and never knew about it; but it was clear Maya never received hers until she confronted her shadow a few months back. Prior to that, there was nothing. Margaret nodded her head with agreement.

"No. Marie is originally a… 'resident' of this side.' Margaret pointed out, eyes focused on Maya now. She was certainly not a shadow, nor did she have the wild card ability. Logic would dictate she had no earthly business being able to get in on her own before achieving her persona; which fascinated her. Yet, she could sense some deep connection between her and Yu. Perhaps it was that connection that allowed her to feed off of Yu's power to get in. She would have to look into this; it was rather intriguing.

"What kind of girl were you showing around town!?" Yosuke shouted with exasperation as the news hit his ears. Right, I guess Teddie was the only exception to the no shadows on the real side world, since we were going immediately back to assuming all shadows were murderers. To be fair, Kurt had been the only exception to the rule prior to Teddie's introduction, so it wasn't exactly an unfair reaction in his case. Perhaps it was in Marie's though.

"Hold on, this is inside the TV, right? Then, aren't there Shadows in here…?" Yukiko pointed out. Justin shook his head.

"No; they have a code of law that shadows aren't allowed to kill shadows. I think the bigger ones can kill the smaller ones without any consequence, but Marie is one of the big ones. Someone would have to seriously fuck the rules if they wanted to kill her." Justin pointed out. The rules had been proven to be nothing but a deterrent from the dreams he had; but alas, Justin's shadow was inside him. She was in no real danger here.

"I will not say that she is not in danger. However, the same goes for you… If you are to proceed ahead and search for Marie, you must have adequate resolution. The path ahead will be relentless. Alone, you will not be able to reach her. If you wish to see her again, then it is my role to help you. And to do so, I decided to invite everyone who has accompanied you on your journey… here." Margaret explained to them.

"Well you're missing Kurt; but he barely shows up anywhere, so I suppose this will suffice." Justin shook his heads and shrugged his shoulders. Let's not say all when the whole gang wasn't here after all. Of course, Margaret had taken into account the possibility of bringing Kurt here; but at the end of the day, shadows were NOT trustworthy enough. Teddie wouldn't even be here if he hadn't latched on to the others like that. And then there was Justin himself. Margaret was having a hard time deciding his stance on all of this. He himself: his heart was pure and his intentions even purer. He would stand by those he held close to the death. But his shadow… His shadow was one of the darkest… most vile creatures she had ever felt the presence of. And it seemed to scream out for more… more what she didn't know. Just more, more, more. Two sides of the same coin, your Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde syndrome it would seem.

"…I see. I was wondering why you didn't bring just our leader here… Now I understand. You're giving us all the information and letting us choose what to do from here… You aren't here to stop us." Naoto spoke up, as the situation started to sink in for her. Of course, they all figured THAT much already. Why would she bring them here and inform them of the situation if she didn't want them to go. Come on, Naoto, use your head.

"Exactly."

"Uh… One more thing. It won't affect my decision to help or not, but…You are also like Marie-san? A… 'resident of this side'?" Naoto questioned with cautious curiosity. If she was a shadow you could be damned sure Naoto wasn't going to trust a damn word she said; even if Yu did claim she was on their side. Kurt had proven himself several times now, he was alright… even if Naoto had to let his, uh… criminal pleasures slide from time to time. It was a minor crime compared to what he had stopped. And besides, from what she had heard, he was calling it quits soon. Business was slow, and he had been considering going back to school to get his medical degree. So she'd pretend it never happened. Margaret, however, was a stranger. And that made her suspicious.

"The human mind contains more than shadows. I believe you all witnessed that in your last battle." Margaret side-stepped the qurstion slightly. That sounded like a yes to Justin, but he couldn't say for certain that she was speaking in regards to Naoto's question or not.

"Are you talking about those things that came out of Namatame and Adachi-san?" Chie questioned. She raised a valid point; whatever that giant eyeball thing was, it certainly wasn't a shadow. Hell it looked like it was in control; and had Justin's shadow reacted at all, Justin would believe it. But he didn't, which only lead him to believe that there were bigger fish to fry. "Well, they WERE different from the Shadows we know about…"

"It does not matter how you choose to interpret it. What you see and what you believe are up to you. I know that you can supply yourselves with answers… As I know that you have been capable of coming this far" She paused, taking a breath as she tried to gather her thought… There was still… one matter left to address. "One more thing… As I just said, the Hollow Forest was originally a 'closed realm.' It is not the case now, but in time, this place will seal itself again. It would seem that little time remains before the Hollow Forest completes itself. Once that time has passed, this place will be closed forever, and you will never be able to visit here again. If that happens, Marie's existence will be entirely expunged from your memories."

"We'll lose our memories!?" Yukiko shouted with great shock. It was bad enough thinking they didn't have much time to put a stop to this without knowing they'd forget everything. The guilty suffered from their memories; so then, did those with guilt without memory face no punishment for their sins? At the very least if Justin failed he'd like it to haunt him. It sounded like an awful thing to want, but then Justin always did believe in a rather obscure form of justice. Justice in its purest form; the kind of punishment that will follow you to the grave and then some. A couple broken teeth helped too.

"It is exactly as I said. The closing of this forest marks the fact of Marie's erasure. Any memories you have of Marie will disappear, and you will return to your peaceful days. I merely have come to fulfill my promise. What you do is up to you… I have made a link from the television in the mountain cabin to this world. That is the only conduit through which you may reach this place." Margaret continued to drop bad news on the group. She was killing them, I hope she realized.

"Huh? So we can't get here through the TV in Junes!?"

"Exactly. This world and your world's screens are linked, place to place… It is a fact. I am repeating myself, but it was Marie who shut herself in this world. There is no need for you to think that you must risk your lives for her… I am sure she would not wish that, either. Please, treasure the normal lives you have. That is what Marie would want. " She bowed before turning to leave. Justin could hardly believe that. How could anyone just suggest living someone behind in this nightmare? He didn't exactly like Marie, but you know what? He didn't like a lot of people. At the end of the day, everyone deserved the right to life. Marie was no exception.

"Fuck. That." Justin mumbled with great annoyance, pushing his way through the crowd in an attempt at chasing the blonde-haired woman. But the more he tried to chase the sun, the quicker the sun seemed to come up behind him again. She soon vanished from his peripheral vision, leaving him standing there in the snowy fields, a television set there in the middle. Seemed she had left one parting gift for them… if you could even call it that after the bombshell that was dropped on them. The others soon caught up to Justin, an expression of great concern on all of their faces.

"This must be the exit, like the ones Teddie has." Naoto mumbled, eyes darting around the group. God they were still so exhausted, and it was so tempting to just leave and never look back, but… They couldn't do that while Marie was in danger like that, could they? Justin glared at the television for a while.

"Dammit, I won't let this happen."


	231. Chapter 230: February 14, 2012

CHAPTER 230

February 14, 2012

* * *

"S-Sorry about what happened. I just wanted to hand you the chocolate, but I panicked."

Justin and Chie were at the beach at her request, despite it being pretty goddamned cold, and despite all they had heard the day prior about Marie… They had to leave that day since they had only reserved the lodge for a few days, which only made it even more awkward as to how they were supposed to go and rescue her now that they were so far from the television. Sure they could just go up the slope again, but no doubt there would be a lot of questions asked in regards to where they had been all day when they got home from the long trek up and back. They needed to figure something out, and that was weighing heavily on Justin's mind. At least it had been until Chie had shakily tried to pass him a heart shaped box of chocolates while his eyes were focused on the incoming tide. She had a hard time holding onto it though with how nervous she was, and quickly lost her grip though, causing the box to plummet into the sand. Justin was needless to say shocked for a number of reasons. The first and foremost being that he had shamefully forgotten today was Valentine's Day with all that had happened recently. The second was Chie was handing HIM a box of chocolates. Usually it was the other way around. He could almost feel his heart leap with deep gratitude for the kind, loving gesture; even if he was a little reluctant to eat anything from that box after it was coated in sand. He supposed though that it was wrapped, so the chocolate was in no danger of being covered in grains of sand. He smiled a bit as he leaned over to pick up the neatly wrapped box of chocolate. Usually these things were red or pink; he had never seen one wrapped in green. Chie made this alright.

"Aww, you shouldn't have." Justin blushed as he rotated the box to examine it more thoroughly. A green heart. And here he was under the impression Saint's Patrick's Day was still a month away. He wasn't complaining by any means though, oh no. He would certainly prefer this to fancy gold or anything like that; there was more sentimental value in what she had put thought and care into than any shiny material you could find on the market. And no, that was not justification for Justin not getting her a gift. For the record, he found the most beautiful jewelry he could find her; the most perfect emerald in the center; almost as green as the clothes she wore… but… he didn't have the money. He had them reserve it so he could make monthly payments, but on his budget, it was going to be a while. He wished he could just show Chie his bills for it, but one, he didn't want her to take price into consideration, and two, she'd have to see it to believe it. He was only disappointed he couldn't have it for Valanetine's Day. Hell, at the rate he was making these payments, he might not have it next Valentine's Day either. It was expensive as fuck. But it was worth it; she deserved the best.

"I couldn't make up my mind at first, so I decided to make it from scratch. That makes it more personal… I don't know how it tastes… but it's chocolate! I think…" Chie muttered to herself, index finger against her bottom lip as she tried to pick the best words. She wanted everything to seem perfect, but at the same point, she didn't want to raise expectations to something she couldn't meet. So she had a couple of these back and forths with herself in regards to her choice of gift. Justin grinned and shook his head. He had a good idea how it tasted if it was homemade.

"It could taste like cow manure and I would still love it." Justin chuckled. In retrospect, it kind of made him sound like he enjoyed the taste of cow shit, but at the moment it just sounded right. And besides, Chie knew what he was trying to say. She would prefer if he DID enjoy the chocolate, but she was just happy enough that he liked what he had gotten, even on a sentimental level.

"Well that's good… because there's a good chance it does." Chie grimaced slightly, almost ashamed as she admitted her culinary skills weren't exactly top class. Not like Justin didn't know that already.

"I don't doubt it." Justin joked a bit, cautiously opening the wrapping paper as they sat down on the nearby stair case, eyes cast out to the sun reflecting off the ocean waves. It was a beautiful sight to be sure. You know what wasn't a beautiful sight? The contents of this box of chocolates. Oh the box was wrapped beautifully; almost PERFECTLY, godly even. The chocolate? Not so much. It was all misshapen, and the chocolate looked like it was melting already; even in this cold weather. It almost made Justin afaid to try one out. And that would have been a perfectly acceptable response given the taste as he popped one in his mouth. Bitter would be an understatement. Still it was better than her usual cooking skills, so he swallowed it and try to put a show on for his lover; it was the least he could do given the date and given he didn't have a gift to give her in turn. "Not bad."

"You think so?" Chie gushed with glee. Now that was not the response she had expected. Seemed that practice does make perfect. Hopefully that meant she was going to keep practicing until her food became at the very least edible. "It wouldn't harden, so I had trouble getting it into the shapes. I tried tempering the chocolate, but no matter how much water I put in, it just wouldn't mix…" Chie mused to herself. You know, Justin wasn't a chef either by any means, but he was pretty sure that was because you were supposed to use milk for that, not water. That's why it was called 'milk' chocolate. Oh well; it wasn't HORRIBLE, he supposed, so he couldn't complain. Chie started blushing pretty heavily after a few seconds though, as if she had just been hit by a sudden realization. "Was the heart shape too much? Th-That's not really like me, is it?"

"I thought it was cute." Justin smiled. Of course, in actuality he was thinking to himself if she meant the chocolate or the box, because if it were the former, well… uh… she did a pretty interesting rendition of the usual heart design. Maybe she was trying to go for a more realistic looking heart, in which case she might have hit it right on the head. But then, Justin doubted Chie even knew what a real heart looked like. She probably figured they really looked like their cartoonish depictions. Chie, never being one for compliments such as cute, perhaps fearing that deep down cute didn't really define her, blushed with great intensity.

"O-Oh… That's good. I'll make it a prettier heart shape next year!" Chie remarked with great determination, wrapping her arm around Justin's as she leaned her head against his shoulder. Well at least he knew she was taking about the chocolate now. It was nice to see Chie so determined about it, even if it was a little silly. Though I think the 'next year' part was the part that really got to Justin. She planned to stay with him that long, perhaps even longer, and that set Justin heart a flutter. Not that he had much doubt she would leave him, but it was always nice to have some reassurance. "You know, it still amazes me. You actually chose… me. I'm so… ordinary, compared to Yukiko, or Rise-chan, or Naoto-kun… Yet, you picked me. If this is a dream, I better not wake up!"

"Rise's too bubbly for me, Naoto's still kind of a bitch, not to mention stuck up. I guess Yukiko's alright, but I don't really like her like that. We just don't have that connection you and I have." Justin explained. Ordinary sometimes was a very good thing after all. It was perhaps because Chie was so ordinary that he loved her. She was his best friend, and because of that, she felt like someone who would always be there for Justin. It was hard to explain love, but part of it was friendship. And in that regard, Chie had outdone all the others by a longshot. "But you and me? You were always there for me Chie, through thick and thin. I couldn't imagine being with any other girl."

"I want to be a girl that you can brag about." Chie smiled, nuzzling her head into Justin's shoulder the way one would their pillow at night. Oh believe Justin, he wanted her to be a girl he could brag about too. But the thing was, it wasn't something she had to work at. He had never been prouder of anyone in his life than he had Chie. She was his pride and joy.

"Want to be? You already are." Justin joked as he pulled his arm from Chie's grip and snaked it wound her waist; tugging her closer to him so that they were nearly on top of each other. And for a moment, they just watched the beautiful shades of the sun setting in the horizon. What great timing for a romantic evening, huh? It was maybe a minute or so before Justin turned his eyes back down to Chie, her eyes closed as she leaned against Justin, as if she were trying to take a nap. In truth, she was just so comfortable in his arms that she could drift away at any moment. "Hey, Chie?"

"Yeah?"

"Could you tell me if I have any chocolate on my lips?" Chie opened her eyes to stare at Justin, a playful grin on her face as she shook her head with slight disbelief. It seemed boys would be boys.

"With pleasure."

* * *

"_Detention for not owning a textbook. Assholes."_

Maya muttered to herself in anger as she shuffled through her locker. While it was true she got free schooling, it was not true that she got free textbooks, and as a result, she had to share with Justin or Yosuke when need be. You would think given her financial situation her teachers would be more understanding, but they just didn't give a fuck. They gave her detention on Valentine's Day for not being prepared for class. Disgusting to say the least, but there was nothing she could do about it except sit there and suck it up. She wasn't sure what was worse, getting detention today of all days or the fact that it was Valentine's Day and yet Yosuke didn't so much as say a word to her. Sometimes she had to wonder if that man even liked her. She loved him with all her heart, but time after time he seemed to shake her fate in him. He flirted with other women, he didn't seem to acknowledge holidays such as this, hell, up until a week or so ago, Yosuke wouldn't even hold her hand in public. But then, the latter was probably a safety thing when Justin seemed to be watching them all the time for some… inexplicable reason. He was kind of an ass truth be told. I don't know, maybe she was just angry he didn't ask her out today or anything. Wouldn't be the first time she didn't celebrate Valentine's Day. And if he kept this shit up, it wouldn't be the last.

"…E-Excuse me…?" Maya's eyes widened with slight surprise as she turned around to the figure of a teenager behind her. He had long reddish brown hair, about down to his shoulders, with bangs just across his forehead. His stance was rather timid, and the way he held his hands in his fingers suggested it was painful for him to present himself in front of the girl right now. Maya was needless to say very confused. She closed her locker as she curiously turned towards the young man. "H-Hi, my name's Hikaru Tatsuko, I-I sit next to you in class…"

"_Oh yeah, you do, don't you." _Maya remarked before scratching at the side of her head a bit. They didn't really interact during the school day, so she was needless to say curious as to what was making him just come up to her out of the blue. Maybe he needed to get some notes from class. Perhaps no one really talked to Maya because of her disability, but it was no secret she was a good note taker. He wouldn't be the first to ask for a peak at her notes.

"Y-Yeah… Uh, listen… I was, uh… wondering if you weren't busy if you'd… maybe like to go get a cup of coffee with me?" He questioned nervously. Maya had assumed at first he meant to just talk or something, but then it really started to dawn on her that it WAS Valentine's Day. And she did have to wonder how he knew sign-language. Maybe he knew someone else like Maya? All the same, she couldn't help but blush. She got the implications pretty clearly. This was certainly out of the blue; she didn't even know this guy, yet he was asking her out on a date? No one even so much as batted an eye lash at her back home, yet here was this complete stranger trying for her affections it would seem. She had to wonder if it was just because being off the market made you more desirable and more valuable.

"_Oh... That's really sweet of you, but I really can't." _Maya admitted with embarrassment. She felt a combination of shame and flattery at the boy's offer. Unfortunately any and all sign of excitement in the boys face disappeared within seconds. Rejecting people really wasn't Maya's forte; she really did feel bad having to tell this kid no. _"I'm sure you're a really nice guy, but I already have a boyfriend. I'm sorry."_

"Y-You mean that Yosuke kid, right?" The boy muttered with shock. He could put two and two together with the way those two passed notes all the time in class. Perhaps he was just hoping that it was all a misunderstanding and the girl that sat next to him in class was still available. Maya nodded with confirmation, a gentle smile on her face though an apologetic look to her eyes. "Wh-why would you want to date a kid like that? He's a total asshat." He growled with frustration. It seemed the only problem here had been timing. He was so close and yet the only thing standing between him was that Hanamura kid? That wasn't fair. He had to keep trying; he just had to keep his eyes on the prize. Maya frowned a bit with disappointment, eyes soon finding their way to the floor beneath her.

"_...Sometimes." _She sighed with disappointment. He really could be an ass some days; even if you knew he didn't mean it. Today was no exception unfortunately. She could almost feel her heart breaking as she went completely unnoticed this holiday. She had always wanted to celebrate Valentine's Day with someone and Yosuke had raised her hopes and crushed them in one foul swoop. So yes. He was an asshat. But he was an asshat she loved. _"Like I said, I'm sure you're really great, but I really can't. But you know…" _Maya paused for a moment before digging through her pockets and pulling out a pen, grabbing the young man's arm so that she could scribble something down. _"You should send me a text or something. We could hang out or something." _Maya smiled. That probably wasn't going to happen, but at the very least he seemed like a good kid, so she'd hate to just leave him with nothing. The kid stared at his arm with a combination of reverence and disappointment. Only hang out? But… _"Alright then, it was nice meeting you, but I have to go."_

"Wait!" The boy shouted before jabbing his arm out to grab her by the wrist, stopping her before she could leave. He kept encouraging himself that if he just aimed for the gold he would succeed. At the very least maybe she'd pity him and grab some coffee with him. She just needed to give him a chance. Of course, the moment he lashed his arm out to grab her like that in desperation was the moment he lost any chance of winning her over. Her eyes widened with fear as he held on tightly to her skin.

"…_Let go." _She mouthed off, steaming with anger. She didn't know this kid, she didn't know what he was like or what his thinking process was, but one thing was for certain, no one put their hands on her. She only regretted giving him his number now. She tried to yank her wrist out of his grip, but it seemed his hand was wrapped to tightly around her bone for her to budge.

"P-Please, just give me a chance! I'm a really nice guy; really!" He begged with her, though his desperate pleading did little more than scare the ever living shit out of Maya. You don't just grab someone like that to scream in their face. She wasn't sure whether to feel bad for him or to be afraid by this point. Why not both, she supposed. No matter what, she disapproved. She'd be almost concerned if the boy wasn't interrupted by someone tapping on his shoulder. The moment he turned around to identify the source of the tapping on his shoulder, he was met by a fist to his face, knocking him back into the lockers and clean out on the floor.

"She said let go." Yosuke growled at the now downed young man. No one was going to put their hands on Maya like that and expect to get away with that. He was only happy he came around when he did; otherwise, he wasn't sure where that was going to go. "Are you alright? He didn't hurt you did he?" Yosuke questioned with great concern as he rushed over to Maya, who had been rubbing at her wrist now that she had gotten it loose from the boy.

"_Yeah… thanks."_ Maya sighed with a combination of relief and anxiety. She didn't suspect something like that happening today of all days. It probably didn't help with how shy she had become around people ever since the accident with her voice. The one guy who understood what she was saying, and it turned out he was a huge creep and an asshole. It was like there was no hope for any meaningful interaction with other human beings for her. It broke her heart just a little. _"I'm just happy you came when you did." _Yosuke stared at her with concern for a moment longer before smiling.

"I would have been here sooner, but…" Yosuke slurred his words, clearly trying to extend his sentence as he pulled something out from beneath his back. Maya was immediately knocked off her feet by the beautiful sight of a bouquet of flowers in Yosuke's hands. The stems were slightly crushed from him balling his fists up with anger a moment earlier, but the pedals remained in place; a majesty of colors. Well… the ONE color. But what a beautiful color it was. "You know how hard it is to get a bouquet of these things?"

"_Marigolds!"_ Maya lipped with great excitement, her heart skipping a beat as she reached out to grab them. The bouquet was almost bigger than her, so no doubt Yosuke had put a lot of effort into this. "_How'd you know?" _

"Well I always know little tidbits about you." Yosuke flirted ever so slightly; at least until Maya gave him that 'no seriously' look. She knew she never told Yosuke she liked marigolds. Why would she talk about flowers with him after all? She was pretty sure he wasn't exactly a fan of floral decoration. She wasn't entirely either, but she did have a soft spot for the golden tone of these flowers. "I heard it from a friend."

"…_Justin told you?" _Yosuke smiled and nodded a bit.

"Yep. But that doesn't matter." He smiled as he held out his arm, offering her the chance to hook her own arm around his. "Let's go get some coffee." Maya smiled, staring at Yosuke's arm for a moment with glee. He didn't forget at all; hell, the fact that he got that information from Justin of all people spoke wonders of the effort that he put into such a simple gesture. Maybe Yosuke was a bit of a flirt. Maybe he didn't always seem to care. But he did know how to make her smile. He was 100% asshat. But he was her asshat.

And she wouldn't have it any other way.


	232. Chapter 231: February 15, 2012

CHAPTER 231

February 15, 2012

* * *

"Brr… It's cold. L-Let's start this meeting already so we can go back inside."

The investigation team had gathered on the top of the school, where the snow had blanketed its surface to the point of almost being unrecognizable. Why they couldn't have this meeting indoors, Justin wasn't quite sure. But he wasn't going to question it. He'd rather just get to the heart of the matter as to why they were all here. Marie was stuck in that television in the cabin up on the ski resort. Now, I don't think anyone was going to say they didn't want to go rescue her, but they did need an attack plan. After all, by the time they hiked up to the resort they'd no doubt have little time to explore the television world. At least, not if they wanted to be home by curfew. Justin, Maya, and I guess Kurt had no problem as far as being home on time, but Justin was a lightweight when he was tired, and he did get sleepy really early. And leaving Maya and Kurt alone to go searching for Marie, well… Not the best idea for several reasons. The first was that two people wasn't exactly a force to be reckoned with. The second was that while Maya had been warming up to Kurt, she still was a little shakey around him. She should know by now that Kurt didn't mean anyone any harm, but she couldn't help but flinch sometimes when he made a sudden movement; as if expecting to be struck down at any second.

"First, allow me to report. Just in case, I've checked for missing people in the local jurisdiction to see if anyone may have wandered in there. Zero results. There are no missing person requests, either." Naoto spoke up, explaining her deductions for the rest of the group. She had clearly been putting some time into this since they had last met. No doubt because unlike most of the other group members, she wasn't celebrating Valentine's Day. Even if she did have a sweetheart she probably wouldn't so much as bat an eyelash at the date. It was nothing more than a consumerist holiday made to encourage frivolous spending on jewelry, candies, and cards. She never really did get that a holiday was a little more than the things you bought; it was the people you spent it with. That's why Thanksgiving was easily the worst holiday of all time.

"She's not exactly a citizen here, so I'm not surprised." Yu explained. He knew a lot more than he was letting on; everyone could clearly see that. Ever since Margaret had made it clear what her role was in all of this, they all knew Yu w as holding on desperately to some kind of secret. What it was, they didn't know; but given his frantic disposition when his secret almost slipped out, they could only assume it was very bad. Maybe he was a fourth murderer in the chain of murderers in the Hanged Man case. By this point, it wouldn't even surprise Justin.

"It seems that this place really doesn't have anything to do with our previous case." Naoto confirmed. It was hard to believe, even when Margaret had claimed she doubted there was a connection, but it seemed there was no evidence to suggest the Midnight Channel was being improperly used again. It just made you wonder why it was back on the air now. Because Marie was inside the television? Was the reason it came on related to its occupants by any chance? Couldn't be, it still came on even when no one was inside the television; there was just no one ON the show. No one had been on this showing either, strangely enough, so it was hard to even say that being in the TV was what caused something to appear on the television set. There was so much still unknown about that damn channel; and yet, Justin would be happy not knowing a damn thing about it if it meant leaving his life of supernatural crime fighting behind. God knows he had earned a rest from all of that.

"Hey, no fair!" Chie objected, crossing her arms with slight annoyance. This all seemed like one big ploy on Naoto's behalf to get the spotlight again. Which wasn't unusual from Naoto, but was annoying all the same. There's no I in team after all. But then there's also no u in winner. And there's definitely a u in suck and failure. "You said to rest, and yet you went and did research." She remarked with almost amused disapproval. Like a child when the other kid skipped a few numbers during hide and seek, or when they suddenly had lava proof shoes when the floor had suddenly combusted into flames. Seriously, why was the floor lava? What scientific reasoning was there for the floor to suddenly become hot molten fucking lava? Still, at the end of the day, she wasn't going to object. She got to spend Valentine's Day with Justin, so she was more than happy to stand down for a day or two just to enjoy the holidays. And besides, it wasn't like she had completely heeded Naoto's advice to sit back and relax. She did have some off time when she wasn't with Justin after all, which was admittedly very little given the day. "…But I went and checked the newspaper, too. I looked for any news of missing people, but there wasn't any."

"I also tried asking our suppliers and customers if there was anything going on, but there aren't any rumors." Yukiko added. With a high profile case like the Hanged Man murders under Inaba's belt, no doubt they would be more aware of this kind of stuff happening in their town. If there was no buzz going around about someone disappearing, well, there was a good chance no one had gone missing other than Marie. And from what Yu was claiming, it wasn't all the surprising that no one noticed she was gone. She wasn't exactly from around Inaba, she just… visited from time to time. And that didn't make it unusual at all for her to disappear for long periods of time.

"Ditto. I asked around at work, but didn't come up with anything. You can't underestimate the Housewife Network!" Yosuke beamed with slight pride in his source. Normally gossip wouldn't make for a very credible source, but in this case, a rumor or two could help them in the long run. Especially when rumors like the Midnight Channel turned out to be entirely true. It was hard to pretend most rumors were false after that. After the most impossibly unlikely to be true rumor turned out to be… well… true. Plus… Well… These were housewives. Even if Yosuke didn't get any information off of their gossiping, let's face it; listening to drama always made for a good time. It was like watching a soap opera when you listened to housewives spread rumors and gossip behind each other's backs.

"Anything of note?" Justin questioned with sarcastic, but also somewhat genuine, interest. He'd be lying if he said he didn't like hearing a bit of gossip here and there. Even if it usually was very malicious and disgusted him to his very being. I guess he just had a natural attraction to conflict; as if life was just too boring without it. For some people, that was entirely true.

"Well, you will never believe what Carrie did last Sunday." Yosuke flicked his wrist and raised the pitch of his voice to that of a woman that was a little too full of themself. The two laughed a bit, much to the rest of the group's confusion. I guess they'd never had the pleasure of sitting in on a housewife's conversation. Except maybe Maya; she did have dinner with Justin a lot, and Justin's mother was probably one of the biggest gossips out there. She had heard her fair share of the Housewife Network. That said, she got the joke, but she'd rather not imagine a clique of middle aged women spreading rumors about each other behind each other's back as if they figured themselves better than each other. Probably because deep down they totally did. It just didn't sit right with Maya, even in jest.

"Yeah, I tried talking with some former punks, but didn't get jack." Kanji continued the chain of secretly investigating into the matter. His testimony, however, that he hadn't been able to gather any information struck Justin as a little odd… What exactly entailed a former punk? Was it someone like Kanji that was kind of a troublemaker but changed their ways because they realized causing trouble wasn't exactly a desirable trait in a human being? Was it someone that was a punk until they got their teeth knocked out and their knees kicked out? Or maybe even dead? What exactly was a former punk? This was going to drive Justin crazy all day now. Thanks Kanji. Thanks a fucking lot. Naoto sighed and shook her head, a little disappointed, though also somewhat pleased in their results. No gossip on the matter means it was highly unlikely they were going to face a repeat of the Hanged Man murder scenarios. And that was always a good thing; they didn't need more corpses on their hands after all.

"Considering that none of us could find evidence, perhaps it's safe to say that no one has wandered in accidentally. " Naoto mumbled to herself. A lack of evidence could both be towards their advantage given the circumstances, but also their disadvantage. Going into any situation without knowledge of what to expect would be less than opportune; especially something as dangerous as this. She had discussed the matter with Rise and Teddie, though they hadn't turned up much themselves. What they had gathered was the Hollow Forrest was pretty damn far away from Junes, and they could not for the love of them detect Marie. Now, one would assume that meant she wasn't there, but Margaret seemed pretty clear that she had been there so it seemed Teddie and Rise's detective abilities were ultimately useless in this scenario.

"The Hollow Forest, huh? Is that place also affected by the mind of the person inside?" Questioned with curiosity after a while. They knew the human mind had some role in the way the television world was composed, though to what extent they didn't quite know. It had to be a pretty damn big thing though if Justin's shadow seemed so passionate about releasing the humans influence over that world. Surely no one could get that fired up over something they themselves had created, a world made just for them… Though it was hard to say if they really cared for it. The torn down city Justin and Maya's shadow resided in was kind of a shit hole, and they were both aware of it. Now it was just the question of whether they had always hated it or grown to loathe it over time. If it was the former, he suspected that they had brought all of that down upon themselves. If it were the latter… Justin felt a little bad for the shadows. Even if they were trying to murder every human being. "If that's the case… then did Marie-chan make that area?"

"Hollow Forest… We heard that eyeball thing say that in the last battle, right?" Yukiko questioned after a moment. It was true that he had mentioned a hollowed forest, but Justin had simply assumed that was a metaphor; much like Children of the New Potential. He hadn't really assumed there was any significance to it until Yukiko brought it up just now. Was it possible the two were connected? Given the important role the giant eyeball seemed to play in all of this, it would seem like every word he picked would have deep meaning to it. It couldn't just be a coincidence.

"I was wondering the same thing. Ameno-sagiri mentioned it. The place that gave birth to those who answer the 'desires' and 'wishes for lies' of humans… was that it?" Naoto thunk aloud. Very interesting; it was like an infinite circle of life her. The Hollow Forest was where Ameno-sagiri was supposedly born, and from there, he went on to fulfill the desires of humans…. Humans who would then go on to change and mold and shift the Hollow Forest. From there it was just a question of whether humans had an influence on Ameno besides from that of his duty to fulfill mankind's wishes. That was something he did willingly… what about what he could not control?

"Hold on. Are you saying that the image in Marie-chan's mind is the same forest that created that monster?" Yosuke questioned, unable to wrap his mind around any of this. To think that Marie could very well have had that creature in the very palm of her hand all this time. Was that something a mere human could do? Control what was essentially a god? And if so, did they all have this power too? It was just all so confusing.

"The hell…? Who is she, exactly?" Kanji shouted after a moment, the confusion hitting his mind like a brain freeze. It was almost painful for him to contemplate something like this; something that defied all normal logical conventions. Something that transcended the human reaches of knowledge. They couldn't confirm any of these theories through conventional means, and that made it impossible to say what was the truth and what was a filthy lie. But in the end, the truth was what you made of it. It was just a matter of believing whether Marie was human or something much more dangerous. Justin was going to put his trust in her and say human, but even then, his curiosity had certainly been peaked by all of this. To think that one person could hold the strings on a being as powerful as that. Perhaps she didn't even have anything to do with Ameno-sagiri and just happened to get lost there of all places. There were so many maybes it was hard to choose what to believe in. Maybe that's why Justin chose to believe nothing. A statement that held more wisdom than one would think. Yu sighed a bit, shaking his head with concern.

"I don't even know anymore…"

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTES**

**There will be no update tomorrow as I will be switching internet providers, and thus won't have the time to update. Apologies in advance.**


	233. Chapter 232: February 16, 2012

CHAPTER 232

February 16, 2012

* * *

"FUCK! What the hell Chie!?"

Justin and Chie were at his place, where she was doing one hell of a job of making sure he was in painful agony. You see, the group had made a short expedition into the hollows today, but even with their journey into the television being as short as it was, Justin had still managed to get pretty fucked up while he was there. It was hard to say if they were just unprepared or if their foe was unlike anything they've seen before. All Justin knew was he had some pretty big gashes on his arm. Some of them had stopped bleeding, some of them had not. Hell, the only bright side to any of this was that Justin had to admit the torn sleeves looked pretty good; and even then, he didn't like the fact that his favorite jacket was now shredded up. And even more than that, he didn't like whatever it was Chie had been doing trying to patch Justin up. She was pretty good when it came to this kind of stuff, so Justin trusted her, but the pain shooting through his arm as Chie applied medication to the open cuts was enough to make a shy Buddhist reflect and plan mass murder. He wasn't sure whether to blame Chie or the people that had to make this medication sting like a bee. Or a dozen bees. Or a million. Or every bee in existence. While they were also on fire. And their stingers were also chainsaws.

In case you hadn't gotten the image yet, it hurt. A lot.

"Quit being such a baby. You'll get an infection if you keep squirming like that." Chie schoffed, rolling her eyes a bit as she continued to pat away at his blood soaked arm with antibiotic soaked cotton balls. She probably should have cleaned the blood off before going in with the medication, but the blood was pumping out enough that she knew by the time she finished washing it off it would start flowing out again. Better to just get this done with now than prolong the envitable. Justin wasn't making it easy with the way he kept squirming though. She got this stuff wasn't exactly the most pleasant stuff, but come on. He's been through worse. I mean just look at his eye. Just look at his now blood soaked bandages. He had scars all over; he knew pain that cut deeper than any knife or any cut, and not even just on a physical level. You would think he had been conditioned for this stuff by now, but it would seem that some scars just fade, and some scars the pain will follow you forever. Pain is pain; you could never truly adapt. Chie smiled as she patted the last cut on Justin's arm. "There you go." She reassured him as she threw the last cotton ball in the trash, reaching for some gauss bandaging in the handy dandy first aid kit Justin had lying around.

"Oh thank god." Justin sighed with great relief, eyes aimed towards the sky and the only thing letting him know what was going on right in front of him being the sound of Chie unrolling those wraps. She was quick and nimble as she threw the gauss bandaging around the wounded area of his arm. It always made Justin wonder why she wanted to go into law enforcement when she seemed so good at this. I mean, she was into kung fu and athletics, so I suppose she would want a job that was a little more active than nursing; it was just a shame that her gift was going to go to waste. Justin supposed though that if anyone were ever shot on the scene, she would know just what to do to keep them breathing. Justin briefly had to wonder if she knew CPR, but then he realized, she totally did. The only CPR that mattered anyway. Unless you actually needed CPR. In which case, a little tongue wasn't going to save you. "Thanks Chie. I'd do it myself, but…. FUCK my sides." Justin groaned as he leaned forward, the muscles around his rib cage acting up again. He probably tore a muscle at some point during the scuffle. It would be fine, but that didn't mean it didn't hurt like a bitch any time he leaned the wrong way. Chie was quick to prompt him back up into a sitting up position. She didn't need him tearing it further; he needed to just stay still until it could repair itself.

"Hey easy now. Just relax." She tried to reassure him, giving him a slightly scornful glance. Her pupils were wide with concern as much as she tried to pass off that everything was going to be okay. He was and she knew it; but there were always those inbetween moments. No one ever thinks about the pain one goes through before they get better, so long as they DO get better, do they? It was a lot different in regards to someone you cared deeply about she supposed. She sighed as she turned her attention back to Justin's arm, finishing her bandage work quickly leaving a neat little patch of white against his Caucasian skin. That was it as far as treating his superficial injuries, though there was still the matter of his other bandage work. It was completely drenched in blood; there was no reason to leave it there. So she slowly unraveled it, much to Justin's immediate dissatisfaction.

"Uh, that's alright. I'll do it myself." Justin reassured her with just the slightest hint of panic in his voice. Why? Chie wasn't quite sure, she had seen what he hid beneath those bandages before after all so it wasn't like he was ashamed, right? All the same, she wasn't taking no for an answer on this; knowing Justin, he'd never swap them out. Which was going to be a problem when they were completely coated in blood at this point. Even more heartbreaking was that so was the wrist band she gave her. She was only surprised to find him still wearing it to be honest. It wasn't exactly his style, and he already was wearing something on his wrists so it couldn't have been the most comfortable thing to wear. Yet he did. It must have meant a lot to him; god knows it meant a lot to her to see that he valued it as much as he did. Perhaps that was why it disappointed her to see it stained with blood. It would wash out, but still.

"We both know you'll never do it." Chie remarked with semi-sarcasm as she slowly unwrapped the bandaging along his arm. What she had expected were the few deep cuts she had seen so long ago. Instead what she found were dozens upon dozens of deep gashes; hell she could have swore she still saw some glass stuck in one of them. It was absolutely horrifying. "Oh my god Justin…"

"I told you not to." Justin sighed, shaking his head. He had only shown her around the wrist area when she had asked about the bandages so long, and for good reason. It was worth noting that the cuts along his wrist weren't from his father. They weren't intentional either before anyone accuses him of being emo, though he had considered making a small slit along his artery on several occasions, just so he could be free of his father's torment. No siree, he was a small child and he had unfortunately found his way to where the knives were in the kitchen. It was just luck of the draw that when he tipped them all over one of their razor sharp edges would skim his wrists on the way down. Gravity was a cruel mistress at times. As for the other wounds, they were all inflicted by his father. Each was small in length, but cut deeper than any knife could cut. They slit his very soul as the bottle cracked against him like a whip. And like any blemish, these scars had to be hid away. From everyone and everything; Chie included.

"Oh, I'm… sorry, I didn't mean to offend." Chie blushed with embarrassment. If she knew it was this bad she wouldn't have even unrolled the gauss wraps around his arm. It was no doubt embarrassing for him to think that he let himself be subjugated to this, hoping things could change. She was quick to look away and grab some replacement bandages, making a few quick swipes of the tape to cover up the bigger scars, and then moving down the arm to cover the rest. She ended up missing a few of the cuts at the top, but she managed to hide the bulk away. And that would have to do; she didn't think she could bare looking at that many scars again. What kind of sick fuck could look at that, on their own child none the less, and keep doing it know the pain they were subjugating them to? It disgusted her to think people could get away with that, and sad to think the victim let them get away with it. Chie sighed having finished redressing his wounds. "There… All set."

"Yeah, that's uh… yeah." Justin bit his bottom lip. He didn't have to words to say now that Chie went snooping where she shouldn't have snooped. He trusted her with everything; everything but that. And it wasn't because she couldn't be trusted with that kind of information, but rather, Justin was ashamed of it all. He could have fought back, he could have said no, he could have ran away, he could have done ANYTHING. But he sat there and took the abuse. Why? He'd like to say it was because deep down he loved his father; but he wasn't sure he did. Maybe he was just afraid of the fate that would await him if he did say something. They'd take him away from that household in a heartbeat to some unspecificied place with some unspecified family who for all he knew could be even worse than his own dad. And he'd leave the only friends he had in the world behind: Maya, Kurt… and his own reflection. "Thanks Chie. I swear, what would I do without you."

"Bleed out?" Chie pointed out. Perhaps she didn't realize that was a rhetorical question and Justin didn't WANT to know the answer. He could be dead right now; Chie had saved him so many times he had lost count. First the concussion, then she mounted the rescue party when he got kidnapped, and now she was dressing his wounds at this very moment. She was by all accounts his guardian angel; even if he had done his fair share of saving her ass from trouble. Not that he wanted credit for that or anything; the only reward he needed was Chie's safety. In fact, he would reject any gratitude she or anyone else showed him in regards to that day. Doing what was right was not thanks-worthy in his opinion, especially when he was protecting the most valuable thing in the world to him. If anything he was being a greedy fucker. Just a very generous greedy fucker.

"Probably." Justin shrugged a bit, taking a deep breath as the pain in his side shot up through his torso again. What a day; and they had only been in there for a few hours. He was only afraid of what else might lie ahead on the road. Teddie said he could swear they were almost there, but Teddie wasn't exactly the most reliable when it came to tracking people down. "Hell of a place huh?"

"Yeah, no kidding. Gave me the chills." Chie shivered ever so slightly as she got up from her knees. She had to crouch to patch Justin up since he was sitting down, so she was happy enough to stretch out again. "You ever get the feeling like something's there… but it isn't?" Chie questioned, tilting her head to the side. "I don't know how to explain it. There was just this weird feeling a got."

"No, I know what you mean. It's strange isn't it?" Justin remarked with intrigue. It was very hard to explain just what it was he had been feeling. It was like there was something in the air, just rubbing against his stomach and making him sick. More accurately though, he felt like there was this constant déjà vu floating through the air, going through one ear and out the other. "I might be crazy, but… Did you hear that humming noise? Like, you know those mosquito ring tones that you can hear but you can never quite find the source of?"

"Yeah, actually… What was that?"

"Sounded like a guitar."


	234. Chapter 233: February 17, 2012

CHAPTER 233

February 17, 2012

* * *

"It feels like we've been running forever!"

The investigation team ran along the pedal stained path, eyes trained carefully on the horizon as they searched for any signs of Marie. They were running out of time until this place closed up again, and yet it felt like they weren't getting any closer to extracting Marie from this hell hole. Justin only hoped the sudden straight pathway they had found was a good sign and not just an inappropriately long hallway. He was exhausted, and his ribs were still killing him from the day prior; but he pressed on all the same. Maybe it was just pure adrenaline and determination fueling him at this point. Maybe it was the sweet, but oh so painful sound of guitar strings humming in the air around him. It had been distant when they first came here, but as they progressed further and further, Justin was sure that was Marie and her trusty old fender playing those depressing notes that lingered in the air. He would know. He was the one who taught her the song after all.

_Where are you hiding, my love?_

_Cast off like a stone_

_Feelings raw and exposed when I'm out of control_

_Pieces were stolen from me_

_Or dare I say, given away_

_Watching the water give in_

_As I go down the drain_

_I appear missing now_

The closer they got, the more the words seemed to echo through the winds in a haunting melody that chilled Justin to his very soul. There was something very different about hearing someone play a song, and someone play a song with all their pain and suffering and hurt. If the exhaustion wasn't causing Justin to want to keel over, her music certainly was. But he pressed on, determined to cut off the caged bird's song of sorrow.

"We're almost there. I can sense it." Rise assured Justin as they paced forward, breath heavy as their lungs tried to collapse on themselves. It was no doubt late back in the real world, but they were so close Justin could almost taste it. And the flavor? Sour. Sour like bitter tears. He knew that taste all too well, and he had no intentions of having a second serving. Yet it seemed pain always found its way back to him some way or another. Whether it be his own or another's. I guess that was his role in life; to be a permanent outlet for suffering. And he'd never break free from his place in the world, as much as he tried. Perhaps it was that fear itself that had brought them here to this very moment; the fear of being nothing more than what they were, never able to break free of the shackles of their destinies.

_I go missing,_

_No longer exist_

_One day I hope_

_I'm someone you'd met_

_Shock me awake_

_Tear me apart_

_Pinned like a note in a hospital gown_

_Deeper I sleep_

_Further down_

_A rabbit hole never to be found_

"Wait… There's someone up ahead." Justin skidded to a stop, holding his hands back to slow everyone down. The figure was wrapped in white robes, sitting on a staircase, eyes downturned, and while it was impossible to tell from a distance who they were based on their features, Justin could make out the all too recognizable shape of a guitar body on her knee. So unless Marie had formed a band amongst the shadows here, that was probably her. Justin carefully crept towards the figure, heart slowing in pace to match the tempo of her strings, as if his old ticker had a set of ears of its own, and eyes with which to silently weep tears of blood. Yet despite the pain inside him keeping his movement to a snail's pace, the slow tapping of his shoes against the fragmented stone path vibrated through the air and reached her ears.

"…Stay back." She ordered, cutting Justin off before he could take a single step more, not so much as raising her eyes to look him in the face. Justin needless to say, was cautious as she barked orders at him, raising his hands in a surrender like motion, making it clear he had nothing up his sleeves. He couldn't quite explain what it was, but there wasn't something quite right about the way she barked at him. Like… she was ordering him around like usual, but there was just something missing. Hope, perhaps. Guidance, perhaps. It was hard to say with any degree of certainty.

"It's okay Marie, it's just us. We're here to bring you home." Justin tried to reassure her, waving his hands a bit as if to try and calm her down. It was silent for a moment, not so much as the slightest sleight of hand throughout the boardwalk leading to Marie. Perhaps that was what had made it so unsettling when Marie finally looked up; it added a rather surreal quality to the horrifying image before them.

"I have no home. You don't get it." She muttered sorrowfully, though it was hard for Justin to truly pay attention to the sadness in her voice when that fucking thing was staring at him. What in god's name had happened to her eye? It wasn't just a completely different color, green instead of brown, but rather, it also seemed to bulge out a bit, and it never seemed to move; almost like a lazy eye. It wouldn't have been so horrifying had they not known what she normally looked like. This? Something had gone horribly wrong, that was for sure. "I can't believe it… Why'd you come? Why?" She demanded an answer with annoyance, having just about enough of Justin and the group.

"Why? Why wouldn't we?" Justin countered, not really answering the question. "I know what it's like to want to shut yourself away from people Marie, believe me I do. For the first twelve or so years of my life the only friend I had was my own reflection for fuck's sake. But you can't lock yourself up like this; especially not HERE." Marie stared at Justin for a moment before averting her gaze, perhaps feeling ashamed, or perhaps unable to bear looking at the man. It was hard to say; all that was clear was she didn't want any of them here.

"You thought I was in danger, didn't you? That I might get killed by shadows."

"Well a little, but I get the strangest feeling you got through the television on your own. And anyone who can do that can defend their self just fine. It was more so the 'no way out' thing that bugged us." Justin shrugged a bit. If she wanted to isolate herself, Justin could understand that. But this was a permanent thing; once she decided to lock herself away in here, this was where she was going to stay. I mean… wouldn't she rather just lock herself in her house or something? Same effect, except she could change her mind somewhere down the road. This? A little extreme. Marie shook her head.

"…It'd be better that way. This is a grave… my grave. I'm going to die here." She spoke, almost feeling reassured by her own conviction to die. Justin simply raised his eye brow with one of those 'run that by me again' looks before turning his attention to the others on the team. They were just as confused, if only because this had all seemed so out of the blue.

"…Riiiiiight, so as I was saying, we should you know. Go home." Justin tried to ignore her sudden suicidal tendencies. To be quite honest, he thought she was being a little melodramatic at first, and even if she wasn't, he wasn't exactly sure how to address a mood swing like that head on. In fact, it was a little awkward to say the least. Marie, needless to say, was infuriated not only by the fact that Justin seemed to keep trying to get her to leave, but also because he didn't understand ANYTHING.

"Shut up! You don't know anything! Emmy, Marie… Neither of those is my name!"

"Is it Maria?" Justin inquired. It might seem like an inopportune time to be making wise cracks, but in actuality, it was the only thing keeping him calm and collected right now. He didn't operate well under a high pressure atmosphere; he lost his temper too easily and let his emotions block his judgement. All these jokes helped him maintain a steady head and think this through rationally. It was only a shame it was pissing Marie off in the process.

"My real name is Kusumi-no-Okami!" She countered angrily, annoyed with Justin's sarcasm. She had to wonder why she even cared what he thought now. Part of the reason he was separating himself from the others was because she didn't need their damn opinions anymore. One, she was more powerful than any of them, she didn't have to listen. Two, well… To some extent she still held these people as her friends. It was her last act of friendship that she was separating herself from them so that she could no longer hurt them and they could no longer hurt her. "You guys fought Kunino-sagiri and Ameno-sagiri, right? I'm the same as them. I'm your enemy, one of the ones who covered your town with fog." She confessed with a gentle, but painful smile. Proud of what she was, but not what she had done.

"Wait, what did she just say!?" Chie shouted with exasperation. She wasn't angered or anything like that, she had just never expected to find she had been mingling with the enemy this entire time. Perhaps now she understood what it was like when Justin found out that Adachi was their killer. It was like losing part of the puzzle. Strangely, as much as this was a bit of a shock to everyone, Justin didn't even flinch. He had been betrayed so many times by people he trusted that it just didn't faze him anymore. It had almost become part of a schedule for him. And truth be told, Marie was always kind of a bitch, so it wasn't like it hit him on a deeply personal level. Basically, it sucked, but he didn't see much of a problem.

"Meh."

"Sneaking into the human world… sensing the will of man… My role was to inform the Sagiri what the 'wish of the people' was. That's why I'm the only one of them that looks human. Even without my memory, my body fulfilled my role. In your words, I'm a spy." She confessed. Justin had to wonder what exactly she was gathering from her time in the human world that she had come to the conclusion of total fucking extinction, but it made as much sense as anything else he had seen he supposed. Perhaps he shouldn't have been teaching her certain songs though, since he was guessing that might have been having a slight adverse reaction on the fate of mankind and all.

"You were spying without knowing it…?" Rise questioned almost apologetically. That wasn't really spying so much as it was being a human wiretap; and in the end, she had to suffer the guilt knowing she was nothing more than a means to an end. It wasn't fair to her or anyone.

"Do you understand now? Plus… I'll tell you something good. If I don't die, then your world will disappear. So… don't come chasing me." Alright, so even the at the time level-headed Justin couldn't help but choke on a bit of spittle at that. What kind of sick game were these shadows playing? It was like saw on an astronomically large scale and with a lot less blood. And yet somehow, it still felt as painful as jabbing a rusty saw into one's eyeball.

"Disappear!?"

"Dammit Marie!" Justin shouted with great fury, having finally lost his composure, though whether he was angry at Marie for all of this or just the entire predicament he had just been thrust into. Why was it he had to keep making decisions like this? He didn't want to play judge, jury and executioner. He didn't want to play god. Yet it seemed that position of power always fell upon his shoulders, like a sacred duty. He didn't want it though. He didn't want it. "We said we're here to save you, and we're going to do it dammit! We just need to figure out a way." Justin muttered a bit. He needed to know the connection between her and their world disappearing; and then he needed to sever that link and that link only. Problem solved, and they could all live happily ever after. Marie's eyes fell downward with pain for a brief moment.

"Thank you. But, it won't do you any good. I'm tired. I… I just want to end it all." She sighed with pain, falling back down on the stairs beneath her. It was clear the guilt was eating away at her in ways they could never understand. She really was exhausted from all of this. She just wanted to lie down and die. It made Justin wonder if anyone actually was at risk of disappearing or if Marie was just trying to justify slumbering for the last time. For giving up. Justin turned to the others, holding out a hand to tell them to stay back before slowly approaching Marie, taking a seat beside her on the stairs. She didn't fight back or tell him to back off again. I think she was just so sick of fighting.

"You don't have to be the bad guy you know." Justin explained. It seemed she was just dead set convinced that no matter what, she was a harbinger of death and destruction to the humans after what she had done. If that didn't define her as a bad guy for the rest of her days, she wasn't sure what would. She shook her head with denial.

"That's not true… I'm not like you. I don't have freedom. Our role was more than to simply find out the wishes of man. Our true role… is to control the fog and bring that wish to fruition. Don't you think it's strange that the fog never went away? That it lasted for months? The Sagiri created the fog, and I absorbed it. The fog that changes people to Shadows. When Ameno-sagiri was defeated, the fog covering your town was no longer needed. Then I heard a voice… and all the fog flowed into me. The fog isn't gone. Even now, it's raging inside me… When my mind is completely overpowered by the fog, I will disappear, taking the fog and the Hollow Forrest with me. I am 'a being destined for nonexistence.' That's the memory that came back to me… The world will be saved."

"That doesn't sound like a bad guy to me." Justin countered. A sad expression on his face. Marie simply shook her head.

"No… it doesn't. But it does mean I have a job to do." It was quiet as the words left her lips… She was unfortunately very correct in many ways. If she was destined to be just one giant walking bomb destined to take the world down with her, then, well… This was how it had to be. Justin was sure there had to be alternatives, there just had to be… but they didn't exactly have much time left to find those alternatives. It could very well be this was how it ended. Justin raised his eyes from the steps beneath him to stare at Marie.

"…Are you sure this is what you want to do?"

"Dammit Justin, don't reinforce-"

"Shut up!" Justin immediately snapped at Yu, putting him in his place within a split second. "This isn't your life. You don't get to make her decisions for her." Justin countered with annoyance. It was hard to let a friend die after all, but at the end of the day, it was her or them… She made her choice, and I'm pretty sure as reluctant as the rest of the group was to just stand by and let her do this… they had to. It was for the better good. He glared at Yu for a moment longer before turning his ire back over to Marie. "You realize that you don't have to do this. We all have something inside of us trying to break loose. Hell, my inner demon comes out at least once a week these days." Justin chuckled slightly as he tapped the side of his skull. No doubt Marie knew what he was talking about… But it wasn't quite the same. A shadow was nothing like the fog in her heart. "You can fight this you know."

"No… I can't." Justin sighed a bit with disappointment before raising his eyes back to the Investigation Team. There was a combination of both horror and great sadness in their eyes as they watched Marie not only try to off herself, but have Justin practically back her up on the matter. But at the end of the day, he wanted her to stay just as much as anyone else… He was just giving her the choice in the matter of what she wanted to do. And for the first time in her life… she was free.

"Well then, I guess this is it…" Justin sighed with pain, biting his bottom lip for a moment. "Guys? Just head on down without me. There's one last thing I need to do."

"Huh? Now wait a sec-

"Just do it!" Justin shouted with fury as Yosuke tried to object. They couldn't morally leave her behind like this, and yet they were suddenly finding themselves in a position where they had to. They had no alternative and they had no time… And they had Justin siding against them. He wasn't exactly the end all go to guy of course, but it made it pretty clear that as long as Justin supported her decision, she wasn't going to budge. It was a long while before Yosuke took the first step back, hating to admit that Justin might be right. This wasn't their decision. They didn't decide who lived and died; and while they'd love to be saviors to everyone, they couldn't save all the people all the time… And this time, they could save one person and kill a billion, or save a billion and kill one. It didn't take a mathematician to see how this needed to end. The others slowly followed, tears in some eyes as they marched away in defeat. And that left Justin and Marie sitting there on the steps alone. "So this is it huh? You know… You still have time. We could go back for a day or two. Enjoy the time you have left, you know?"

"I've already made enough memories of my own… fun… happy… memories… " Marie stuttered abit, tears clogging her throat as she tried to convict herself to the path she had chosen.

"Sounds like you don't want to die."

"Of course I don't!"

"Then don't."

"It's not that easy!"

"But it IS Marie." Justin countered, putting his hand on her shoulder in a reassuring fashion. "Stubborn people don't go down without a fight, and you… well you're as stubborn as they get. All you need to do is fight it. You have the willpower and you have the strength… you just lack the motivation."

"What would YOU know!" Marie countered with great anger. He couldn't feel the fog stirring around inside, trying to break out and kill fucking everything. And yet, that was what he lived with everyday; a cold, heartless evil living inside him trying to break free. If he gave up at anytime, his shadow could easily take-over. But as long as he worked at suppressing him, he could never prevail. At most he could get inches at a time. Justin shook his head pressing his fingers up towards his head and flicking some hair out of his eyes, revealing his pupiless iris.

"We're a lot more alike than you think we are Marie. Right down to the eye." He chuckled a bit. Marie was a little caught off guard in that she had never noticed his disfigured eye before. Of course, that didn't put him in a position where he had the entire human race resting on his shoulders; on whether he lived or died. But it did mean he could relate to some extent. "I've lived through some pretty fucked up shit Marie; things I don't think even you could imagine. But I'm still standing… I'm still standing." Justin muttered to himself over and over again. That's right… He was still standing. All this time, he lived on a memory of everything that happened to him in the past that caused him nothing but suffering and pain. His father, Adachi, all of it. And he had tried to suppress it. But… He was still standing. It was painful, but he was still standing. It was torment, but he was still standing. It was more torture than any human being should have to bear, but he was still standing. He made it. The pain was gone leaving nothing but scars. Justin chuckled a bit, unrolling his gauss bandages before throwing them off to the side, revealing his injuries to Marie. "The mistakes of the past… they're just cuts and bruises. Sometimes they heal… sometimes they don't. But they can't hurt you anymore unless you let them."

"…This isn't just a matter of mind over matter-"

"It's always a matter of mind over matter. If I didn't have hope I swear to god I would have slit my wrists years ago. It is because I fought that I'm still alive today, Marie… You can fight it too, you just have to believe it." Justin explained. He was convinced that whatever it was she had inside of her, she could contain it.

"I don't think I can." She shivered a bit, the thought of death starting to grip her like a vice. She wanted to fight it, but she knew what had to be done. And believing something was or wasn't true didn't change the actuality. She couldn't change the fact that she was a walking time bomb. At most she could extend the fuse a little at a time. Justin sighed nodding his head.

"…Then you've already lost." She didn't have hope. She didn't have the weapons she needed to stake the ultimate battle: the one within himself. It was quiet for a moment after that, silence between the two as the contemplated on the matter. Marie on how she could fight it, Justin on how he could give her the tools to do it. Alas… he had nothing. "Well I guess this is it then. You've… been a great friend Marie." Justin complimented reaching out to grab the guitar Marie had set down a moment earlier. She was confused at first, if not somewhat irritated. That was still hers, even if she was going to die. "There was… still one more lesson I needed to teach you… Consider it a farewell gift." He explained nimbly pressing his fingers against the guitar strings as he showcased a simple, but sorrowful riff.

"…A farewell gift." She smiled after a moment. If there was anyway she was going to go out… perhaps this was they way she wanted to go. She watched Justin for a moment, observing the guitar with great intensity, listening to the hollow notes ringing in her ears and reaching down to her gut. She didn't even move to tear the guitar away from Justin. Perhaps because this song was dedicated just as much to himself as it was her… he didn't want to let go of the strings vibrating in his hand. The riff repeated for a while before Justin began to croak, tears filling his throat as he let the music speak to his very soul. He had heard the song so many times before… but there was a difference between playing a song and feeling a song.

_I hurt myself today,_

_To see if I still feel._

_I focus on the pain,_

_The only thing that's real._

_The needle tears a hole,_

_The old familiar sting._

_Try to kill it all away,_

_But I remember everything._

His voice was rhaspy, and though there was a musical tone to his words, it seemed as though Justin was simply speaking from his heart right now. From the hurt he had accumulated in his chest for so many a years. And Marie could feel that pain. And she could feel her own. And yet despite her heart tingling with the tears of blood filling up in her chest, she couldn't help but find some relief in all of this. Like a burden being lifted from her, draining out into an abyss somewhere she did not know. And for just a moment, the two were trapped in a moment of pure and total pain, yet bliss in the emotions being dismissed from their organs.

_What have I become?_

_My sweetest friend._

_Everyone I know,_

_Goes away in the end._

_And you could have it all,_

_My empire of dirt._

_I will let you down,_

_I will make you hurt._

And so the two sat there as Justin plucked away at the strings, letting the haunting melody that rang all to true to both of them fill their very being. And for a moment, it seemed like their problems were non-existant. It was a good final memory to die to. Justin bit his bottom lip for a moment, tears welling up in his eyes as he passed one last glance to the girl sitting beside him; the one who would never again sit next to him as they recited music. The one who he couldn't save, as much as he tried. _I will let you down… I will make you hurt…_

_I wear this crown of thorns,_

_Upon my liar's chair._

_Full of broken thoughts,_

_I cannot repair._

_Beneath the stains of time,_

_The feelings disappear._

_You are someone else._

_I am still right here._

And so the song rang through the night, a haunting memory of what Justin feared. Being unable to save someone he held dare to him. It was a song that carried with it a whole new definition of hurt; for as long as he heard that song, it would remind him of the moment those two shared there on the stairs, waiting for death to come and liberate them both. One from a life they had grown weary of, one of an imminent danger that risked killing them all. He couldn't sleep as he laid there on the bed his mind replaying those minutes over and over again. As the sound of guitar strings was carried on the night air, pain raising into the sky just the way it did in his heart. He slowly pushed himself up from the bed, heart too heavy for him to sleep before making his way to the window, opening it up to let the wind blow in his face, to cool down his pacing mind. And of course to absorb the sound of the pluck of guitar strings in the midnight sky.

His eyes fell down onto the grounds just out his house. And if he squinted just enough, he could make out the distinctive figure of a black haired girl with her purple hat, a guitar in her hands as she played along to the whine of the wolves in the night. He smiled, his heart strings being played like the instrument in her hands. To this day, he wasn't sure if it was just an aspiration of guilt for not being able to do more or if she had escaped from her role as a martyr there in the Hollow Forest. He never did see her again, not outside his window, not at Junes, not on his couch with that old guitar of hers. It was like she vanished without a trace. And he would be convinced she had, but the mere fact that he remembered her filled him with a sense of hope. Sometimes to this very day he still remembered the figure in the distance strumming her guitar, carefree in the distance, whispering to him reassurance that everything had turned out for the better, somehow, somewhere. And he smiled.

_If I could start again,_

_A million miles away._

_I would keep myself._

_I would find a way._

* * *

**MUSIC**

**I Appear Missing – Queens of the Stone Age**

**Hurt – Johnny Cash**


	235. Chapter 234: February 18, 2012

CHAPTER 234

February 18, 2012

* * *

"Hey Chie-"

"What do you want?"

Justin made his way to Chie's locker as the school day concluded for their typical rendezvous on the way back home when Chie snapped at him like an alligator trying to grab some dinner. It goes without saying he wasn't too pleased with that and even more so confused. Last he checked him and Chie were on pretty good terms; hell, it was Valentine's Day just a few days prior. Who could even hold a grudge given the time of the year it was. But alas, things change, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse, and in the time between then and now Justin had managed to do something to rock her faith in him so much she couldn't so much as look him straight in the eye without being filled with a sense of repullision and anger. Perhaps even the slightest hint of fear.

"…Whoa, uh…" Justin mumbled a bit in his sudden surprise. Even when Chie got angry at him, she was never really made like this. It was more of a scolding than anything and usually because he was being an idiot. The way Chie refused to look at him, the anger flowing from her throat like a faucet; Justin was concerned that maybe he had done something to offend her or hurt her. And that in turn hurt him a little bit; though it was hard for him to remedy anything without knowing the problem. And that left him standing there confused. Maybe she was angry at something or someone else and hadn't really changed her tone of voice yet? That had happened to Justin on multiple occasions, so it wouldn't surprise him. And it would make more sense than him being blamed for something he wasn't aware he had done. Oh but he was aware of what he had done; he just didn't know that's what Chie had been referring to. "Was just seeing if you were ready to go is all. Sheesh, what's gotten into you all of a sudden?"

"What's gotten into me!?" Chie shouted with annoyed exasperation as she slammed her locker shut and slung her backpack over her shoulder, angrily turning towards Justin and sticking her finger in his face. "What's gotten into YOU!?" She demanded an answer, a scowl spread across her face and her teeth clenched together so tightly one would expect the bones to splinter away under the pressure. Justin flinched a bit with alarm. What did he do exactly to suddenly earn Chie's scorn like this? Even if he wasn't madly in love with this girl, he was smart enough to realize getting on Chie's bad side was the last thing anyone wanted. To be put in a position like this, he must have fucked up BIG time.

"ME!? What did I do!?" Justin defended himself with shock. If she was going to be mad at him, at the very least let him know what he did wrong. He'd jump of a building at a finger's snap for Chie, the least he could do is correct whatever mistake he had made. But alas, he actually needed to know what the mistake was if he was expected to be able to atone for the sins of the past. Chie shook her head with disgust. It was bad enough that he had done what he had done, but he didn't even have the decency to remember? Disgusting indeed. It was like she was staring at a completely different person than the one she had fallen in love with.

"You didn't even TRY to save her. You just left her there to die." She scoffed at him with great anger. How was it that after all they had done, all they had gone through, he wouldn't so much as even attempt to rescue her? There had to be something they could have done, Chie was confident of it. And yet, Justin wouldn't even let them near the girl. It was like he WANTED her to die. And all blame fell on him for her fate; they all wanted to rescue her, but Justin wouldn't let them. There was respecting someone's decision and letting them do something that would clearly ruin their life; Justin couldn't tell the difference it would seem. Justin bit his bottom lip. So that was what she was mad about… he couldn't say he blamed her. He still wasn't sure he had made the right decision himself, but… What was he supposed to do? She was claiming that she had to die or else ALL of them died. He didn't believe it, but he had to consider the possibility that was true. And she wasn't willing to fight it. She HAD to fight it; if she didn't, they all lost. Bringing her out of that world against her will would have been the worst thing they could have done. Only she could have made the decision for her to leave…

You know, Justin could have swore he saw her in the middle of the night, sitting outside and strumming her guitar… But he was tired, and he could have very easily been hallucinating. He'd like to say that she had decided to leave after all, but he wasn't sure. In the end, it was probably his imagination playing tricks on him. The placebo effect at it's finest; he believed that there was still hope for the girl, and so there was. But alas that was his reality, not the reality for the people around him. She could be dead by now and Justin wouldn't even know it. Or maybe he secretly feared that to be true and was afraid to admit it. He just didn't know. And that was killing him a little on the inside. He wished he could have been there to drag her out of that forest; but he couldn't, and he knew it. So now he had to live with not knowing what happened to Marie once he left the Hollow Forest.

"I did try, Chie." Justin objected softly. He didn't blame Chie for being mad at him, though he wished she would understand why he did what he had to do. He didn't like it. In fact he hated himself for it. He didn't want her to hate him for it too. "I made everyone leave for a reason. We talked it over one on one... and she didn't want to go… She was pretty dead set on staying."

"That's why we were trying to pull her out!" Chie countered, not buying any of Justin's bullshit for even a second. To her, it was all just excuses, excuses, excuses. He talked about it after they left? Why would he do that? They could have all talked it over as a group, but she doubted that's what they were talking about. Even before they left Justin was convinced she needed to stay behind; he had his mind made up in advance. They probably didn't even talk. Justin shook his head with disapproval, leaning against the locker next to him for balance.

"You couldn't just pull her out Chie, you know that." Justin explained, staring at her as if she were the only one in the world that could believe his story. There were plenty of people that would believe them if he told them; hell Maya didn't so much as seem fazed over all of this when he got home. Maybe she was seeing objectively, maybe it just didn't impact her because they never really interacted on any meaningful basis. Maybe she just didn't like Marie; after all Marie was a hard person to like. She'd never remember your name, instead simply associating you with whatever clothes you happened to be wearing, she'd always bitch you out and order you around. She fancied herself a goddess and everyone around her a loyal peon to follow her will. And to a certain extent that was very much true. She was a bitch, but she was omnipotent. I guess she did deserve the stuff she demanded, if only by her very nature. Too bad no one knew. "Whatever that was that was lingering inside her she needed to fight it if she wanted to survive, and she just didn't want to. If we pulled her out while she was still like that, she would have died anyway. And then WE would all die from the fog…"

"Oh come on Justin, she was being melodramatic and you know it." Chie crossed her arms, sighing slightly. It made sense she supposed, but she also thought Justin had jumped to that conclusion simply because he didn't care. That was the worst part about all of this; not that he had made a decision at someone else's life's expense, not because he had essentially killed Marie by choosing to let her stay, but because he didn't care. When he walked up to her at the locker, cheer in his voice, that was what pissed Chie off as much as she had been. She didn't see a single damn tear in Justin's eyes for the friend they had lost. It was like death was second nature to him; and while that was certainly true to a certain extent, there was a difference between having people die around you and being directly responsible for someone's death. And he just didn't care. It was grotesque, inhuman even.

"No she wasn't." Justin replied bluntly, a slight hint of anger in his voice. Question his decision, question him, but never under any circumstance question whether having something like that inside of you was a struggle. It was almost painful at times keeping his shadow suppressed; imagine having all that fog trapped inside you? He wouldn't wish that suffering on anyone, and it was for that reason that he left the decision to fight entirely up to Marie. Fighting would mean pain beyond any she had imagined on a daily basis. Giving up meant she'd die. There was no right choice to be had here, it was all awful and she shouldn't have had to decide that. But she did, and Justin couldn't make that decision for her. "You don't know what it's like having a shadow live inside you. Everyday I'm afraid that damn thing is going to get out and do something else stupid. I mean for fuck's sake, I almost committed murder arson once because of that fucker. And that was just a shadow; she had ALL of that fog inside of her. Do you realize what it would take to suppress that? You couldn't even imagine the pain she was in holding that back. Who am I to tell her she has to live with that?" Justin ranted and raved with irritation. Chie's eyes softened slightly at the lecture she received. Justin was clearly trying to pull a guilt trip on her, and it shamed her to think it was working to some extent. How was it that the pain he was causing others seemed so easily offset by the pain he himself experienced? It shouldn't work that way, and yet Chie could feel the cold outer-shell of her heart melt away in a flash as Justin's lips trembled from the hurt in his chest.

"…There… had to be something though. I mean, we just…" Chie stuttered a bit, turning her eyes away from Justin as she contemplated the matter. It seemed Justin put a lot of thought into this, and it was true, sure, but… This was someone's life, and a good friend's at that. Why should someone else have to die like that? To choose between a life of never-ending pain and a life of misery and suffering. And yet it happened everyday across the globe, mostly as a result of illness. That was another thing Justin knew all too well. It was wrong, disgusting, but it was a fact of life. A very sad fact of life. Chie teared up a little thinking about Marie now in post-mortem. "There had to be a way. No one should be forced to die like that."

"You're right, they shouldn't." Justin frowned a bit, memories passing over him in waves of his less than enjoyable past. Some things just weren't worth remembering it would seem. Yet despite the painful illusions of his past that were flashing before his eyes like a slideshow, he could find some slight solace in one thing. "I think Marie will be just fine though."

"What, but, Justin, we…" Chie choked up over tears, not really catching on to Justin's positive vibes. Little did she know that she herself had done something that confirmed that Marie was still alive somewhere out there. Either that or both her and Justin were just incredibly stubborn individuals, clinging to the truth like kitten to a ball of yarn. Justin smiled, pressing his palm against he shoulder and crouching slightly so they were in eye level. They were about the same height, but Justin was just a little bit taller you see.

"We remember. You remember what Margaret said? When the Hollow Forrest closed, we'd forget about Marie. But we still remember her." He smiled a bit. The mere thought that he could remember her meant that she had to still be alive, and on their side none the less. Assuming of course this Margaret person wasn't completely full of shit, which he supposed was entirely possible. Either that or he was breaking some serious laws of nature here by remembering what he had no right to remember; breaking a deal with the gods in essence. Chie's eyes widened with slight realization as Justin explained to her what should have been immediately obvious.

"You… think she's still alive?"

"I don't know. We can only hope."


	236. Chapter 235: March 19, 2012

CHAPTER 235

March 19, 2012

* * *

"So almost the day, huh?"

"Yep."

Justin and Yu were sitting at Junes, just staring out over the ledge of the food court and at the bustling town before them. Where did the time go that just last week it felt like Yu would be here forever? Yet in just a few more days he would be leaving them for good. Yu and Justin might not have hung out on a regular basis, but when they did, he always helped ease Justin's mind. In a way, he was like a therapist; a therapist that he wouldn't mind getting a drink with, if it weren't for the fact that Justin wasn't even allowed to mention alcohol now without getting dirty glares. Besides, clearly that stuff was an acquired taste; it wasn't really up his alley. Yu was like a brother Justin never had. And now he was leaving. They always left; Justin had since grown use to his loved ones leaving him behind to cope with the world. But that didn't mean it didn't still hurt.

"Feels like just yesterday we met." Justin smiled a timid, almost painful smile, as if dissatisfied with the way it all ended. With Yu getting on a train and never looking back. He said he was going to try to come back during the holidays, but come on. Justin had things to do on those days and people to spend each holiday with. Sure they might see each other for five minutes every couple months, but that wasn't quite the same. Yu chuckled a bit.

"King Moron was bitching you out for being from San Diego."

"The city of vice!" Justin followed up with enthusiastic sarcasm. Yu wasn't exactly up to date on his American culture, but even he knew that was complete bullshit. The two laughed for a moment. It was such a small thing, yet the very fact that both remembered meant so much to them. Like a little memoir sewn deep in the muscles of their hearts. It took a while before the laughter died down, Justin taking a deep breath as he tried to get his bearings again. "You know, as much of an asshole as Marooka was, I miss his pedophilic rants. They were always good for a laugh."

"You ever get around to doing that techno remix?" Yu questioned with great interest after a moment.

"Even better, dubstep. But I figured it would be disrespectful to put it up after he was brutally murdered, you know?" Justin shrugged a bit, taking a chug of the can of cola in his hand. That thing had been sitting on his hard drive for ages, but he just couldn't bring himself to post it after what had happened to Marooka. I guess it was just Justin's guilty pleasure opening the file on his desktop every once and a while. Maya watched it once, but she didn't know Marooka, so she was just very, very confused.

"You should e-mail it to me."

"I should." Justin nodded with agreement. He'd hate for all that hard work to go to waste. After that it was just quiet for a moment, partially in part to there being nothing to say, partially because there was a funny feeling in the air. You know that feeling you get when someone's watching you? Yeah it was kind of like that. Needless to say, no one was particularly surprised to find the Investigation Team trying to ambush the two. Yu had already said his goodbyes to the rest, save maybe Yukiko, who he just couldn't bear saying goodbye too. Yet despited that, everyone was here, as if for a surprise party or some bullshit.

"What a coincidence… It must be destiny!" Teddie shouted as he jumped out and latched onto Justin's skull, much to his annoyance. Teddie didn't quite understand that wasn't really okay, and god knows Justin's posture was bad enough without him trying to crack his neck. Justin, needless to say, was quick to toss him off his shoulders and into the railing in front of him. It looked like it hurt. Good.

"Ah, so you guys came here too!" Chie shouted with surprise. She had only come here because she was suddenly filled with a sense of nostalgia; she didn't expect the entire gang to show up at once. Especially not Justin… he had become rather reclusive in recent days. He still mingled with the others, don't get her wrong, but more often than not he'd rather stay home. It was probably all the stuff regarding Marie in all honesty.

"It's our very own special headquarters… There are so many memories here." Yukiko explained herself to Chie; though there was a certain tone to her voice that gave away there was a little more to it than that. They were memories alright, though not necessarily of their secret detective headquarters.

"We were planning on seeing you off at the station Tuesday… But I was feeling too restless, so I decided to come here." Naoto explained. She was a little early to be seeing the man off of course, but no one could blame her for being a little on edge about it. It was hard to say goodbye; in her case she just wanted to get it over and done with. Understandable, if not at all admirable. Still, Yu seemed happy at the very least to be getting as much support as he was. If only they were celebrating a better time than his departure. It wasn't something to be happy about.

"Well, since we're all here, why don't we have something to eat?" Yosuke suggested. I mean, this was going to be their last chance to really sit down with a bowl of ramen as a gang again it would seem; might as well enjoy the few moments they had on the little things, right? Chie certainly agreed at the very least.

"Ooh, let's have steak! Steak! And make Yosuke pay for everything!"

"I agree with her." Justin spoke up in agreement, raising his hand like a child trying to get attention in the middle of class.

"Will you shut up about your steaks…?"

* * *

"I really had fun in this world."

The group soon found their selves reminiscent of the days gone by, soda and chips in their hands as they sat around the usual table. Some things they laughed at, others they dared not mention. It was a day for celebrating their accomplishments and their unbreakable bonds after all, not a day for mourning over death and failures. So they conveniently pretended none of that happened today, even if there were a few moments where the group grew quiet in memory.

"Dude, your whole existence is about fun." Yosuke countered with slight mockery. He couldn't think of one moment where Teddie hadn't been living for himself and only himself. Hell, to this very day he still tried to get in the girls' pants on a regular basis. And he still got his ass kicked on a regular basis. "…Well, what we've gone through wasn't all fun and games, but I gotta say… I've never felt so fulfilled in my life." Yosuke sighed with joy and pride in what they did. They had seen awful things, but at the same point, the accomplished something great.

"It seems we've been working on this forever… but at the same time, it felt like it went so fast. We won't ever gather here again like this… or tear our hair out trying to solve the mysteries…" Chie moaned with disappointment. To think that the group was falling apart now. Oh sure, it was just Yu now, but who knows what would happen between the rest of them after all of this.

"Even if we wanted to talk about it all, there were so many extraordinary things that no one would believe us. Come to think of it… For me, I think it all started when Chie told me about the Midnight Channel." Yukiko mused on the matter, trying to remember how it all began. It was amazing just being thrust into it like that; but it had to start somewhere, right? Things just don't happen overnight, someone has to knock the dominoes over first.

"I think I heard about it from her too. How did you learn about it, Chie?" Yosuke questioned with sudden surprise. Truth be told, both Yu and Justin had heard it from Chie at first too. Where exactly HAD she found out about the Midnight Channel?

"I guess… it was just a random rumor? A lot of girls were trying it out. Maybe someone accidentally came across it?" Chie mused on the matter. It was just one of those things you knew but didn't really know why you knew it. She knew people who had tried it out, so perhaps that was where she had learned it from. It was so long ago though that she didn't really remember.

"The Midnight Channel… You know, that really was the cause of everything. I mean, the fog lifted after we caught Adachi, but there's still a lot of stuff that isn't clear yet. It's foggy over there, too." Yosuke contemplated matters that were really beyond his realm of understanding. Well the obvious explanation as to why it was still foggy on the other end was that it had always been like that. Justin's shadow was always bitching about the fog, he knew that much. Then there was always the… less desirable explanation of Marie exploding like a balloon and letting the fog back out in that world. He didn't want to think about that though. It never happened. He refused to believe she died.

"Didn't that Ameno-something monster say it granted us power…?" Chie spoke up. There was something itching her the wrong way that she couldn't quite put her finger on, but she knew it had something to do with that damn fog. It was gone now, and the case was over, but something about that just wasn't right.

"'I bestowed power onto those who could brave the hollow forest.' In other words, he gave the power to enter TVs to those who awakened to their Persona ability… So that he might use us as pawns to enact his scheme." Naoto explained. She figured she had it all figured out; he gave power to a bunch of test rats and letting them run around in circles until he found satisfying test results. She usually was a voice of logic amongst the group, so it was hard to argue with her. Hard, but not impossible. Though what many had figured impossible was Chie to be the one to put her in her place.

"Hey, that reminds me… Didn't your hand slip into the TV even before anything happened to you?" Everyone fell dead silent within a second. That's true, Yu COULD stick his hand in before overcoming his shadow. Did that mean Ameno had given him the power prior? It was strange; something wasn't quite right there though, that much was painfully clear. "Does that mean you're an exception…? Well wait, then what about Adachi and Namatame!? Those two could go inside TVs before all this stuff about Personas, right?"

"So could Maya." Justin spoke up, making a gesture of his head towards his sister sitting next to him. The interesting part was that Maya and Yu both had the same persona… actually… so did Adachi now that he thought about it. Only Adachi's was red and black and twisted. Was there a connection between all of them?

"There must be something you're not remembering. Anything come to your mind, Senpai?" Kanji turned to Yu. Something had to have happened that he could enter the television where no one else could. Maybe he had gone in the television before and he just forgot? Maybe he just had some sort of divine intervention at church one day or something. Who even knew? Yu unfortunately shook his head, he had nothing. Maya wasn't quite sure herself; she always thought that was normal since she never had a television herself and couldn't really prove that TV's WEREN'T supposed to do that. Justin, however… Justin might have had an answer to their problems.

"You know… I still get letters from Adachi from time to time… maybe there's something in there?" Justin questioned as he reached his hand into his jacket, grabbing ahold of a paper slip he had received this morning. He never read these, if only because he didn't want the pain that lingered in his heart to last, but it was hard for him to just throw these out. And as it turned out, that may have been to their advantage. Justin cleared his throat as he unfolded the paper, eyes darting along Adachi's sloppy handwriting. "I'm writing this because there's something I need to tell you. Ever since I made it out alive, there are some things I understand now. It's true that my game's over. As you all insisted at the time, I'll abide by the rules of this world. But as long as I'm in stir here, I can't clean up after myself. So I hope this will give you something to think about, regarding this case. There's still this feeling I can't shake… It's about how it all started... about that Midnight Channel. Now I remember… Someone told me about it when I first came to town… before I heard the rumors at the station. And I was intrigued when I noticed that something similar was written on Namatame's reports as well. But… I can't remember who it was that told me. Since Namatame and I both gained our power after coming to Inaba… I have a feeling that has something to do with it. I don't know if any of this will be useful or not… But I hope it can help somehow." Justin sighed a bit. Adachi was trying to justify his bullshit, but it still seemed as if he was trying to repent. And that only went to confuse Justin. He wished the man would make up his mind and stop playing with Justin's feelings like this.

"Hmm… It's not very helpful to know that he can't remember who it was." Chie expressed concern with the contents of the letter. It was enough to put them on edge but not enough to lead them towards a solution to their problem.

"I'm not sure how to put it, but… I kinda know the feeling… It's like… Argh, I don't know how to say this… Like, something's connecting all these things… Something beyond what we can see. That world, the Midnight Channel, the ability to enter TVs… They all feel like separate things. You know what I mean? First the rumors, then the serial murder, followed by us deciding to investigate the case… If they all really were separate, they wouldn't fit together like this, right? There has to be some kind of conductor behind everything." Yosuke contemplated. There had to be some grand mastermind behind this to put everything in place. After all, what would encourage these people to even find the Midnight Channel anyway? Someone had to give them a little nudge in the right direction.

"So you think the person Adachi mentioned, the one who told him about the Midnight Channel, is that conductor?" All eyes fell on Chie with that 'repeat that stroke of genius' look again. How was it that Chie was the smartest human being on the face of the planet when she didn't mean to be. "Uhhh… Did I strike gold again? I-It's seriously just something that popped into my head!" She tried to defend herself, as if almost ashamed at being smart.

"Senpai, is there anything like that you can think of?" Naoto questioned Yu. There had to be something he remembered that wasn't quite right. You know, he could remember something odd, but for the love of him he couldn't remember what it was.

"There's something, but I just can't put my finger on it."

"We were involved in a murder case last year, which we succeeded in solving. But the monster we fought last said we did well in "playing our parts"… Perhaps this means Adachi and Namatame, perhaps even Maya were 'players' as well. Could it be that from the beginning, this serial murder case was merely a portion of a much larger scheme…? And none of the people who were directly involved in the case ever suspected it…" Naoto questioned, being as negative as ever. A larger scheme? Come on, they all knew Ameno was responsible, and he made his intentions pretty damn clear. There was no conspiracy here; they just needed to figure out how it all started.

"Hey, this 'scheme'… Could it be the whole thing about filling both worlds with the fog and turning mankind into Shadows? So someone was behind the scenes watching us, the culprits, and maybe even that monster…? And he manipulated Adachi and Namatame as the very beginning so everything would come together perfectly…!?" Yosuke practically had a panic attack as some less than desirable information was dropped o n him like this. He wanted to know the case was over, not that there was someone else pulling the strings here. "We can't say our goodbyes tomorrow with this hanging over our heads! Let's go figure this out!"

"Ugh, do we have to?"

"Yes you do Justin."

"Dammit."

* * *

"Fantastic, now it's raining. Earth to Yu, you quite done window shopping yet?"

Justin, Maya, and Yu had split up into their own group to investigate the matter. At Nanako's advise, Yu had decided to question some gas station attendant. Yeah, it made about as much sense as it sounded. You know what else didn't make sense? How Yu had been staring blankly at that book store for like the last five minutes. It was raining and he was just standing there staring. It pissed Justin off a little, mostly because his jacket was all torn up from the Marie incident, and he was slowly getting drenched. Maya simply put the hood up on her hoodie. She still had a jacket over it for the cold weather, but it wasn't like she had a lot of clothes, so she kind of had to wear the hoodie too. The scarf probably helped too. Justin just had to deal with the rain pounding against his forehead. Yu shook his head a bit, as if twitching back into reality before turning around.

"Huh? Oh right, sorry. Got distracted." He apologized. He was lying through his teeth, but no one knew that. Justin just sighed before extending his hand, encouraging Yu to find his target so they could go already. It wasn't much of a walk mind you, the gas station was next door after all. It was strange though, Justin hadn't actually seen the gas attendant until it started raining. Perhaps he had been inside this whole time and just came out? You would think he would go inside given the rain, not the other way around. Regardless, the three approached the gas attendant, questions on Yu's behalf. The gas attendant was rather confused by the group of teenagers now staring at him.

"Hi, there. Do you need something?"

"Isn't this where I first…?" Yu mumbled a bit, eyes moving around the gas station. Something wasn't right here. He stopped here when he first came to town, that much he remembered immediately. What he was just starting to remember was something had happened here. He couldn't explain it, he didn't know what, but something had definitely happened here. Inside him.

"First…? What are you talking about? …Oh, is this about the part-time job? I'm sorry, we don't have an opening yet." The gas attendant remarked with confusion, eyes scanning the group. He obviously couldn't give jobs to all three of them anyway. Yu did one last scan of the gas station before staring right at the gas attendant. Now he got it. The gas attendant did something; but what?

"Do you know Namatame?"

"…Ah, that serial murder suspect? A real tragedy, wasn't it? But the case was solved, right? Thank goodness." The gas attendant wiped his brow with slight relief, as if he could sleep at night knowing that the real killer was behind bars. That could have been real bad for him if the real culprit hadn't been convicted, wouldn't it? He was sure who ever had solved the real case was a rather gifted individual.

"Did those two come here?" Yu questioned in regards to Adachi and Namatame. The questions were getting stranger and stranger by the second, to the point where even Justin and Maya were a little out of the loop as to what Yu was trying to do. All these questions seemed so irrelevant to anything.

"…Well, that's a weird question to ask. I don't know if it was right here, but I might have met them before. …I've been in this town for a long time, so yeah, there's a good chance. But it's not like I knew them personally… If you've got nothing else, you mind leaving me alone…?" The gas attendant countered with annoyance after a while. He didn't like being interrogated like this while he was trying to work after all.

"You did something to them." Yu continued, ignoring the gas attendant's requests to be left alone. Now Justin and Maya were giving Yu dirty looks. Right, let's just accuse the gas attendant of being a criminal mastermind. He was a GAS ATTENDANT. Furthermore, he asked to be left alone, and unless Yu wanted to go to jail for harassment, he should probably shut up. The gas attendant bit his bottom lip for a moment, but he continued to oblige his questions.

"Huh…? To those two? …Ah… That's right, I remember now. I think I met them when they first came to town. So I greeted them, saying, 'Welcome to Inaba.' But that's all… Just that. What about it?" The gas attendant chuckled a bit. Right, so that was a little suspicious.

"What did you do?" Yu snarled, losing patience. He knew for a fact now the gas attendant had something to do with all of this. Call it a gut feeling if you will, but there were certain things you just knew. He could practically feel the hate vibrating from this fucker the more and more Yu backed him into a corner.

"What did I do? Don't you remember? I met you here when you first came to town, and did the same thing as what I did to those two. I greeted you, that's all. Remember? We talked for a couple minutes." The gas attendant tried to explain; though unfortunately Yu was tired of these games and grabbed the fucker by the front of his shirt, holding him up as he interrogated him.

"YOU gave me this power!" Justin and Maya looked back and forth at both the gas attendant and Yu as if both had two heads. It was hard to tell who was crazier, though Justin was leaning a little bit towards Yu. He just turned his head and whistled a bit, as if to try and ignore the crazy scene in front of him. Pretending Yu wasn't a psychopath trying to assault a gas attendant.

And yet… he was right. The gas attendant grinned with sinister satisfaction, amusement in Yu's discovery.

"Let's drop this charade… To be quite honest, I was waiting for you to come… Adachi… Namatame… And you… It is I who awakened that power within you three… The ones who had potential. But having said that, I am rather surprised…" Yu let go of his grip on the gas attendant with great shock. He knew it was him, but hearing him admit to it sent a shiver through his spine like no other. The beginning of all their problems began with this man right here. Why? Maya tilted her head to the side for a moment, rubbing her chin a bit before tapping Justin on the shoulder.

"What?"

"_Justin… I think I recognize this guy." _Maya signed off, eyes focused on the gas attendant the whole while. She swore she had seen someone that looked exactly like this before, but she couldn't put her finger on how or why. All she knew was this gut feeling deep in her chest couldn't possibly have been coincidence given the circumstances. Both Yu and her had the gift, and yet both recognized her? Something was fishy. Justin blinked a couple times as though to try and force his brain to focus before turning his eyes to the gas attendant.

"…Only three?" Justin questioned. The gas attendant wasn't telling the whole story, that was for sure. He crossed his arms with mild dissatisfaction as his eyes fell upon the other two teenagers, eyes running up and down Maya as he examined her.

"The only three that mattered." He dismissed her with annoyance. That experiment was solid gold in the making and then it had to be tainted with one swift move. He had suspected that test to have played out much like this one, not for Despair to toss Emptyness through the screen. One would suspect that would be a valid test, that humans wanted to rid themselves of emptiness perhaps; but what she hadn't suspected was for both to walk away from the encounter, twisted and warped. One had become their worst enemy, the other had become a slave. The tests were intended for the desires of humans, not shadows. The test had to be scrapped after that. And the true shame was that Hope continued to play her role even after the test had long since been abandoned. So much so she even seemed to be sticking her nose into THIS test. Two hopes? Perhaps this test wasn't quite as valid as the gas station attendant had assumed. It would do though. Hope and Hope working on the same side was more or less the same as one Hope.

"Why did you choose us?"

"For your special potential, of course. Your friends were drawn to the spark I stirred in you. That's why they are here now with their awakened powers. Still, I didn't think you'd make it all the way to me… Indeed, I never expected this at all. You're really something." The gas attendant laughed a bit at Yu, who seemed absolutely horrified by all of this. Maya was just very confused, if not somewhat ashamed. All this time she had just been part of some test? She… thought she was special. That these powers were supposed to be a gift. The gas attendant didn't even care about her… "…What, you don't remember? When you first came to town, I gave your power a gentle push. Just like… this." The attendant explained, thrusting her hand out to grab Yu's. Within a second, Yu collapsed to the ground, pain shooting through his skull in waves; much like his memories.

"The fuck did you just do!?" Justin objected after a moment, quick to jump to Yu's aid. The gas attendant just laughed though.

"You're not the only one I welcomed to this town with a handshake greeting. I did the same for a few other outsiders like you. A handful of strangers were more than sufficient to stimulate a small place like this. But it seems the stimulus was stronger than I imagined-enough to envelop this town with fog, and later lift it… Not only that, you now stand before me as if your assigned part wasn't enough. What for?" Yu raised his eyes, panting a bit as he tried to regather his strength, glaring at the gas attendant with pure anger.

"To learn the truth."

"What will grasping the truth do for you? Why such greed? I guess it's the foolish nature of being mortal…" She muttered with annoyance, passing a quick glare to Maya for a moment. If her test was anything to go by, and it wasn't due to complications, greed was at the heart of human desire. Maya shrunk away a bit, partially because she was still ashamed, partially because for the first time in a long while, she felt legitimately afraid of her enemy; this was a man who could give her power and take it away at any second. And he clearly did not approve of Maya. He chuckled a bit as he turned his eyes back to Yu. Within a moment, the sky flashed like lightning, blinding the group (and scaring the bajeebus out of Maya who had thought it WAS lightning,) as his form changed.

Turned out he was a she. Within moments the gas attendant floated down, skin pure white and hair flowing in the breeze. She was wearing a long white gown, caught in the wind as she descended down upon the three. "I am Izanami. Ameno-sagiri, ruler of the fog, is merely an aspect of myself that I birthed long ago. You awakened to a power I had not imagined. And now you face me with it… I can no longer ignore this situation as mere foolishness. This may be fate, as decreed by the world… Very well. This time, I shall pit my full strength against you. But in return… you must come prepared to follow through with your futile resistance. I'll be waiting for you there." And just as quickly as she had appeared, she vanished again, leaving the group behind to stare with amazement and fear.

"…Christ, can we EVER get a break?" Justin spoke up with annoyance after a while. Yu just shook his head with annoyance.

"That would be too easy."


	237. Chapter 236: March 20, 2012

CHAPTER 236

March 20, 2012

* * *

"Alright, hold on, let me get this straight-"

The group ran forth through the white fog in search of Izanami, their vision clouded every step of the way. But they couldn't turn back; the only way was forward. Rise had managed to find this place from the television in Junes after scanning for the last few days; which was perfect because they only had so much time before Yu had to return home. What a going away party, huh? At the same point, they really couldn't do it without him, what with him being the apparent center of this conflict and all. So they ran; all of them. Hell they even managed to drag Kurt here, even if he didn't really believe them at first. After all, the gas attendant being some powerful force of evil was probably the most preposterous thing anyone could have ever told him when he woke up this morning. But then, so was jumping into a television and being a complete mirror image of a second Kurt, who was presumably dead and quite possibly a complete asshole. So he gave them the benefit of the doubt.

"…The gas attendant is actually some kind of demigod that wants to kill us all with fog, so he gave Yu, Adachi, and Namatame the powers to enter television and just let them duke it out. And now he just wants to kill us all for no reason. Stop me if I'm wrong." Kurt remarked with exasperated sarcasm. The sad thing was he wasn't even THAT far off; he was making things sound a little more ridiculous than it was of course, but he got the basics of it.

"And Maya." Justin corrected him. It was pretty clear that Izanami had given Maya some power too, why though was still up for debate. It was a little vague why Yu got his powers, but they had the faintest idea why. In the case of Maya, they hadn't the slightest clue. Was it to try and enact a scenario similar to this? It had to be, that was the only logical conclusion Justin had come to. But then, if this scenario required that there be three people, one would assume by extension Maya's had to include three people as well… So who were the other two?

"There's supposed to be three each, right?" Kurt spoke up, verbalizing the thought deep rooted in Justin's mind. "Any idea who the others are?"

"None whatsoever. San Diego isn't exactly as small as Inaba." Justin sighed a bit. Inaba was small enough that narrowing it down would be an easy task, even if they hadn't discovered their answer through their investigation. San Diego was large; so much larger than here. It would take decades to just run the possibilities through. "Explains why those two both have the same Persona though, I suppose." Justin added, passing a quick glance at Yu and Maya. Maya looked kind of tired; all of this was a little much to take in at once after all.

"Whatever; won't matter anyway once this chick's gone." Kurt added optimistically. He raised a valid point, the sins that had been planted into the dirt to grow and sprout in San Diego never came to fruition, at least not on a massive scale, and they'd have no chance of growing if the gardener were to be removed from her position. The others nodded with optimistic agreement, feet still moving swiftly forward as panels opened like window in front of them. The hallway was long, and it felt like they had been running for an eternity; and if the increasing rate of panels was any indication, they were getting closer. Indeed, it got to a point where all they could see was an infinite tunnel of these things opening. Perhaps that's why they were so surprised when the final one opened to reveal Iznami. They were barely able to stop quick enough to avoid a collision. Which was good, because god only knows what she would do if she were pissed from an unexpected input. The gang was quick to jump into an aggressive fighting position, ready to strike at any moment.

"Congratulations in making it this far." She remarked with slight indifference, as if she were just keeping a schedule, running through the motions. For all they knew, this might not have been the first time this bitch had tried to pull this stunt. They could only confirm it would be the last.

"Well thank you very much, Ms. Root of All Evil!" Yosuke countered with sarcastic anger. Being congratulated by what was essentially satan incarnate trying to wipe out the entire human race by morphing them into disgusting, feral shadows… well it wasn't exactly 'flattering.'

"You granted certain individuals the power to enter the TVs. You created the Midnight Channel as well. And lastly, you started a rumor about the Midnight Channel to raise its public awareness… Is this correct?" Naoto interrogated Izanami, proposing a tentative theory she had on the matter. There was still more to ask, mostly in regards to Maya of course, but for now, let's just try to understand the crisis that was presented before them right here, right now. She closed her eyes, chuckling slightly with amusement at the human's deductions.

"All save one point. This 'Midnight Channel' you speak of… It is indeed a device to draw hearts into this world. But it was always your individual wills that would determine what appeared on it. Humans ache to expose their suppressed sides, while the prying eyes around them are curious to see them laid bare. The want to show, and they want to see… I granted a "window" that catered to both. That is all." She explained, trying to justify the device she had created. It made sense; who didn't enjoy a little bit of drama, after all? And there was ton of drama to be had seeing someone's suppressed emotions. What Justin disagreed with was people wanting to see that kind of stuff; no one wanted anyone to know about it, that's why it was suppressed in the first place. God know Justin didn't want anyone else to know a thing about him. From personal experience, it seemed like bullshit.

"Everyone wished to know more about the people who became famous through the media… And the Midnight Channel was there to grant their wishes. Once the person they wanted to see entered the realm of human thought, they would appear even more clearly… I see… So that's how it worked. " Naoto mumbled to herself with fascination. So the Midnight Channel was reflecting what humans desired. Ameno did mention the human mind being linked to this place, so it didn't seem unfathomable. Peculiar, but still within the realms of logic that had been crafted in that world.

"Are you saying… All you did was give that initial spark to Senpai and the others, then watched things unfold? And the rumors spreading, things going wrong… We're to blame for all that's happened!?" Rise gasped with shock. She refused to believe that all of this could have been avoided of people weren't such gossips. Hell, the thought that she herself could have contributed to this simply horrified her; they ALL could have contributed to this. Which meant the blood of those who died was on THEIR hands.

"Everything was for your sake… To create the world mankind so wanted. Man struggles to understand one another. You can only truly know a finite number of people within your lifetime… But humans disregard this fact, and try to know more people than is possible. Only by comparing yourself to others can you define yourselves. Thus your ever-present anxiety… Your anxiety causes you to see only what you want to see, and believe only what you wish to believe…" Izanami lectured the group, like a parent explaining to their children why they do the things to do. Because they love them. In this case, and in several cases of the former, however, that was complete and utter bullshit. It wasn't because Izanami cared for the humans desires; it was all an excuse to justify trying to wipe them out, and Justin could see that. They were a means to an end. And wait, was this the same Izanami from that story he heard on the school trip a while back…? The one that was killing humans because she was throwing a bitchy fit at Izanagi? Funny connection, wasn't it? Point was, she didn't care. It was all a ploy.

"That's not true." Yu shook his head with disapproval. Izanami was lying straight to their face, and why? Did she think they were just going to back off if she had a justifiable excuse for being a mass murderer? It didn't work that way; Yu and the gang were here to bring justice, and bring justice they shall.

"I must agree that the vast majority of people are exactly as you say." Naoto admitted begrudgingly. There was some truth to her words; just nowhere near enough to justify the bullshit she was spewing from her mouth.

"But we don't intend to live that way." Chie shouted back angrily. She refused to live in a world shrouded in fog like that, where people were nothing but shadows of their true self. The shadow world was disgusting enough as it was without having to subject herself to that kind of thing day in and day out. And what of loved ones and friends and family? What would happened to them? There was nothing good about Izanami's plans for a new world order. She wouldn't live like that.

"If we were fine with the world you're making, we'd never have come this far, dammit." Kanji added onto Chie's words. The very fact that they had been fighting so hard against this should have been proof enough that this was a bad idea. Especially given that the people who were fighting included those chosen to enact the true wishes of mankind. Clearly this wasn't okay. At all.

"We'll keep searching for truth and figuring out who we are, as we go on with our lives.

"Isn't that part of the fun of it all?" Justin agreed with Yosuke. A predictable life was a boring life after all, discovering anything just added a little spark that kept people going through their lifetimes.

"We'll decide our own fate." Yu declared. Let no one say that their fate was in the hands of someone else; especially someone as malicious as Izanami. Izanami wasn't too pleased to say the least, infuriated with the resistance that these troublesome teenagers were giving her. They had served their role and now they dared to bite the hand that fed? They're insolence would not go without punishment. She floated up ever so slightly, cloak expanding long, form twisting slightly. Her eyes faded away and her gray hair flowed out in long black strands. Her gown hardened like metal and gave birth to wing like structures along her waist, though as to what that was for when she could already fly, no one was quite sure. Best leave it as decoration.

"Knowledge of the truth is not everything. Yet drunk with truth, you exceeded your role, and became too involved… Now, learn for yourselves whose wrath you have brought down… Come, sinful sons of man!" She barked before extending her hand out, a heavenly display of light cast down upon them in a shower. They were quick to dodge though, side stepping the barrage of energy and countering with attacks of their own. They had to give it their all; after all, this was where it would all end. The faith of Inaba, no, perhaps even the entire world rested on their shoulders. Swiftly they attacked, blow after blow of scorching flames, crackling thunder, crisp ice and bellowing winds. The battlefield was completely coated in light and smoke from every single ounce of effort they thrusted forward. And even after the group was exhausted, they kept flinging everything they had at it. It was five minutes of continuous spell slinging before the Investigation Team came to a halt, taking a deep breath as the waited for the fog of war to clear and reveal the damage they had done.

To their great surprise, they didn't even make a scratch.

"What in the fuck?" Justin panted as he stared at Izanami, simply floating there, arms crossed as if she weren't even impressed with the effort. The game was rigged from the start unfortunately; the Investigation Team had simply never realized that. They were fighting the gods after all; just how much of a chance did they expect to have fighting this thing? The group gathered their breath again before diving in for a second assault, much to similar results as the pulled away. Izanami might as well have been doing her nails right now with how little she was fazed by all of this. And who could blame her? She seemed to have this thing all under wraps. One snap of the finger and it would be over. And I do mean that quite literally.

"What's the matter…? Did you intend to defeat me with such feeble strength?" Izanami mocked them from up above, not so much as flinching as attacks bounced off of her body like rubber off of steel.

"Yeah, kinda." Justin countered with his usual sarcasm over deep breaths. Sending his Persona forward like that with all of his strength was taking a lot out of him on a physical level. The pain he felt in his lungs right now was a lot worse than he felt Izanami could do to him casting those spells of hers. If only he had known.

"Can you not understand…? It is impossible to defeat me… You understand nothing, I see. Ignorant mortals! I am a god! I'll teach you the truth of your miniscule existences!" She shouted with fury before extending her hand out again, her index and middle fingers extended but her others curved into her palm, almost in a absolving manner. Which was hilarious given that the only sin being committed here was on Izanami's part. "Goodbye… Accept the reality of your death…" And within a split second the deepest fog Justin had ever laid eyes on expanded through the skies, a dark purple that made visibility rather, low, but still present at the same time. He looked around as the fog settled down around their legs. You know… he was expecting something to actually happen, but it seemed to just be fog… Maybe this wouldn't be as bad as he thou-

"Ah! Something's got my leg!" All eyes were quick to jump to Yukiko, who was struggling to get her leg free from whatever had caught it. No one could see anything though, and at first they had figured maybe she just tripped on a cobblestone or something, but seeing how much she was trying to tug her leg out with little to no success immediately started to stir some concern, though not as much as the fact that she seemed to be gradually sinking into the fog. Yu was probably the first to rush over and grab her by the arm, trying with all his effort to get her out of whatever had grabbed her. Yet despite Yu being there to tug her out, all the others helping in the matter… she still sunk away into the ground beneath. Yu dropped to the ground, patting the floor with horror… What did she do? WHAT DID SHE DO!? His eyes slowly raised from the ground, lungs inflating in and out with terror as he hyperventilated, struggling to really come to terms with what just happened. No, no, she couldn't be gone, could she? There was… no way. And yet… his heart ached. Something was wrong.

"…What did you do to her?" Yu growled with fury, aiming his eyes at Izanami like dual pistols, ready to aim shoot and fire. Izanami just giggled a bit, clearly finding amusement in all of this. Yu's stomach was twisted in all sorts of knots. She… didn't… She couldn't, would she? …She did, didn't she?

Dear god… "WHERE IS SHE!?"

"The same place that awaits all of you." Izanami shrugged off the question, holding her hand out again. This time the scream came from Teddie. Eyes widened as everyone realized what was going on; she was trying to systematically drag them down to hell. What was clear was no matter how much they tugged they could not pull the person that was drowning back up. Some realized that, others didn't. Those who had caught on were ultimately the survivors; the ones who didn't were easy pickings to be grabbed next. A chain reaction soon started; first Teddie, then Kanji, then Rise. Naoto was on the move, but accidentally bumped into Yosuke, causing her to get grabbed onto instead, much to Yosuke's horror. Down, down they went through the rabbit hole, off to never never land. And there wasn't a damn thing anyone could do about it. Yu outright vomited after a while; this wasn't right. His friends were all dying and no matter how hard he tried he couldn't save them. They couldn't fight back, they couldn't be dragged away… They were destined to die. And there wasn't a damn thing anyone could do about it.

"Goddammit, there's got to be a way to stop this!" Justin shouted in horror, trying to analyze Iznami the best he could, buying off the times by which his friends were being snatched up. It disgusted him to have watched his friends just be dragged to their death like that, nothing they could do to stop their deaths… Just having to watch. Even worse was the fact that he was using their deaths to his advantage without even having a second to mourn. And it made him sick. He had to toss out his human emotions if he had any chance of making it through this. And you would think that would mean his shadow coming out. But he never so much as reared his ugly head. He would die with Justin too if this continued, so Justin wasn't quite sure why… Maybe that was the plan all along. It was hard to say.

Kurt was the next to get grabbed; and while he had slowed the process down by morphing the structure of his leg, dissolving it into a black goo and then regenerate it just outside the grasp of the hands that reached out from below, it seemed Izanami had her ways. Not even Kurt could resist the amount of arms that reached out of the earth to drag him down. And that left Yu, Justin, Maya, Yosuke and Chie, the latter of which had tears bauling completely down her cheeks. All the death she was witnessing here… She couldn't bear it. Her heart felt like it had exploded twelve times over. And the worst part… the first person to go was her best friend. If she survived this, how was she expected to go on after her friends gave their lives like this… she couldn't… It was too much.

"There must be a way to get airbourne; if we can stay in the air, the arms can't grab onto us right?" Yosuke reasoned, tapping his feet every which way to try to avoid death's cold grasp. Unfortunately all it took was one false step and Yosuke had fallen straight on his ass, were he was an easy target for Izanami's spell. For each limb he had there was a separate pair of arms to pin him to the ground and drag him through the fog. Maya was quick to react, rushing over to him in a vein attempt at trying to grab him, even knowing there wasn't a damn thing she could do. _Hope over comes all, hope over comes all, hope over comes all- _She repeated frantically in her head over and over again as she grabbed one of his arms, trying to keep him from diving beneath the earth. Much to everyone's surprise, she was able to prevent Yosuke from diving beneath the surface through pure willpower alone, though unfortunately she couldn't pull him out. "Crap! Don't let go, don't let go!" He begged Maya, pleading her not only as a lover but as someone afraid to die. And Maya listened as someone who was afraid to be alone again.

"Shit, I'm running out of ammo here! Anyone know if Naoto dropped her gun!?" Justin shouted frantically as he fired off a few rounds at Izanami, to not much effect. He was testing out various points that seemed weak along Izanami's body, but nothing seemed to work. His bullets just shriveled up upon contact, like crushed cans of cola. He stopped for a moment, searching his pockets for any last remnants of ammo he might have had on him. Nothing, much to his dismay.

"Justin, look out!" Chie shouted, eyes wide as she rushed over to him. What an idiot just standing there like that! He knew he was supposed to keep moving. Justin had completely forgotten within a few seconds span unfortunately, eyebrow raised with alarm as she rushed towards him. He hadn't expected her to push him to the ground; that seemed like the last thing she should do considering the ground was killing them all… but then he saw it. As she pushed him to the ground, a hideous, bloody hand wrapped it's fingers around her ankles, slowly starting to drag her down. Chie had saved Justin's life… at the cost of her own. Justin was quick to crawl up on his feet, trying his best to loosen the hand's grip on her but to not much avail.

"Dammit, no no no!" He muttered to himself frantically as she sunk further down into the ground. It felt like seconds lasted hours as he watched her fade away in the fog; and there wasn't a thing he could do… And she was drowning in the fog because Justin was too stupid to fucking move. That should have been him dammit, not her. It should have been… Justin's eyes teared up as he tried to claw his way at the ground, to reach down and grab Chie and bring her up from the depths below, but to not much avail. This was a nightmare, only he couldn't wake up. Tears started to flow down his cheeks as he stood up from the ground. His heart had been broken before, but this? Completely destroyed. There was nothing but an empty black hole now, sucking everything up just to destroy.

He slowly stood up from the ground, legs shaking as they tried to give away. He wanted nothing more than to lie down and die now. He lost his reason for living; so then why should he keep going on? His eyes shifted around the fog filled chamber with horror. For a brief moment his eyes locked with Yu's, and there was this deep emotional connection in how they were suffering from the loss of their lost ones, how they didn't know what to do with themselves now. Yosuke and Maya were lucky; they still had each other. What did Justin have now but a heart shaped hole where the hope ran out? Yosuke and Maya may have been running low on luck though, as they were slowly starting to slip. Willpower only went so far; at best it was slowing the inevitable. But Maya refused to let go, finger nails digging into his skin as she clinged onto him for dear life. And then… Then there was her. Justin's eyes fell upon her, and hers upon Justin. And she was smiling. Laughing at his pain. That was when he lost it.

"What the FUCK do you think you're laughing at you bitch." He snarled with pure testosterone. He had no reason to live other than to see the so called god suffer the worst fate he could possibly imagine. Nothing but the worst torture ever would suffice. "You pretend to care about what we want, but then you take away the only thing that mattered to me. You've taken… EVERYTHING from me… What more do you want? My life?" Justin took a deep breath, pain running all along his stomach. "…Fucking take it… It's worthless to me now."

"Uh Justin, that's probably not such a good-"

"DO IT!" He shouted with the intensity of a thousand gods. Izanami was happy to oblige of course, a quick wave of her hand before sending Justin flying down into the ground beneath him. He didn't try to resist, and for that very reason he went down within a split second, accepting the fate that had been given to him.

"NO!"

* * *

Emptiness…

There was nothing but emptiness as Justin opened his eyes; a blank white void surrounding him in every direction. There was no up, or down, or left, or right. Direction was a matter of perspective, and here, he had no perspective. He had nothing. He was empty, a hollow shell. His eyes didn't so much as wander to ponder where he had awoken; he just stared out into the empty void. He had nothing; why should he care?

"So… This is what heaven is like? I always imagined I'd meet mom and… and Chie here." Justin shook his head with sadness. He never imagined the latter, but given the circumstances, perhaps that was what he had hoped to achieve in death. He couldn't live without her, so he wouldn't. And yet, in death he was still separated… So what was the point?

"**Not heaven. Hell. Your hell to be more precise." **A voice echoed throughout the void. Justin made minimal effort to locate the source of the sound, tilting his head only slightly; but then, that was all he needed. Blackness tore through the empty void, manifesting it's self in a single orb of pure darkness, simply staring him down in front of his very eyes. **"And I am not your god, before you ask."**

"Then who are you."

"**That's not for me to say." **The voice echoed with laughter through the void. All good things came in time after all, and the time was not yet there to reveal his true identity. And Justin still had a role to play in the future. They all did, even if they didn't know it. They would not die until their duties had been fulfilled, he would not allow it… But he would make it clear who was holding the leash here. Not his shadow, that's for sure. **"For now, you can consider me your tormenter."**

"Why? Haven't I suffered enough." Justin moaned with disappointment. There was nothing this being could do to him that could be worse than the pain he had already felt. It would probably be considered pleasurable by comparison, but then, the pain of some cuts was deep enough that he could never be happy again. Some wounds don't heal. The being just laughed a bit, growing close to Justin, as if to look him dead in the eyes.

"**Not you. Him" **He explained. Justin was confused for a great moment, but then he felt this splitting headache. He gripped his forehead, and no matter how much he tried to fight the sensation running through his veins of fire trailing through his life system, he couldn't prevent his shadow from reemerging. He had been forced out; a sensation Justin had never been prepared to feel. As the shadow opened its eyes, it was quick to flinch with terror; his gravityless suspension suddenly fading and causing him to fall the ground, where he was quick to try to back away from the fast approaching darkness.

"**Y-Y-You."**

"**Yes, me." **Within a second, the shadow's crawl was put to a halt as hands jumped out from the abyss below him. Dozens of them, each holding his joints down tightly to the ground, so tightly he couldn't even squirm, not even his head, which had been clapped together between two hands. **"Have you ever read Crime and Punishment. Of course not, you filthy creatures don't know how to read, do you? Let me explain it to you. Crime and Punishment is about a man who believes that great men should be allowed to commit crimes so long as it advances the better good. He thinks he is an extraordinary man, and as such, murders two people. But at the end of the day, he is not great. He is but a man who thought he could take matters into his hands. So he goes to jail and rots. Do you know why I'm telling you this." **The shadow remained silent, staring up at his torturer with fear in his eyes. He wasn't ready for this; he wasn't prepared. **"You've done your crime… now this is your punishment."**

Before the shadow could react several more hands sprouted out around his face, stretching his skin and exposing his golden eyes with their fingers. He went to open his mouth to scream, but in the end, screaming could not save himself from the faith he had conjured himself. From his agape mouth, out grew another hand, it's palm big enough to cover his entire face. Slowly the two fingers marched their way up to where the shadows eyeballs were…

And then those fingers gouged his eyeballs out, slowly and painfully. He could not scream, for he no longer had the mouth to do so. And he could not die for he was already dead. He could not escape the pain as the fingers dug into his eyes, tearing away at the inside of his skull as the appendages tried to yank the eyeballs out. And when they finally did? Darkness.

* * *

"GAH!"

Justin screamed as he awoke, lungs shifting in and out at a rapid pace. He couldn't see at first, nothing but the white void around him of fog. At first he figured he was still dead, that his eyeballs were long gone, and now he was forced to repeat that moment over and over again as part of his punishment for his sins in life. In truth, it had been him shocked awake back to life. His breath slowed a bit as the fog faded, lowering down to the ground level. He could feel his heart beating, so he must still be alive, but… how? And… Why him?

And from the fog, Justin could make out two figures… The big bulky figure of Izanami face down on the floor… and the figure of Yu, damn near collapsing on the ground from exhaustion. It was only a shame Justin had died… It was quite the spectacle while he was gone. Maya and Yosuke had apparently held on long enough to witness it from what Justin could tell from the fading fog. They were still in the position they had been before he was dragged down to hell, and from the look of it, they were both relieved and completely amazed. Why didn't anyone tell them Yu could summon more than one Persona? That just wasn't fair. Once the fog cleared and they could see the ruins of Izanami, Maya and Yosuke clinged onto each other in a tight embrace. At the very least they had made it.

And then the fog regressed even further. More and more figures became visible through the fog: Teddie, Rise, Kanji, Kurt, Naoto… Even Yukiko. If Yu hadn't been so busy staring at his downed foe, he probably would have ran all the way over to her and embraced her. But he was tired, and he hadn't realized what he had done had saved them all. Justin couldn't believe it; his heart skipped a beat as he witnessed his friends' return to life. Or were they all just dead and this was truly heaven? It was hard to say, but whatever it was, he wanted to believe this was true… But… something was missing. Something important. And that's when Justin felt a tapping on his hand. He turned around quickly to find Chie on her side, clearly still exhausted from having gone to hell and back.

"Don't you ever do that to me again." Chie ordered him with wide eyes. Dying kinda sucked, but what was worse for her was the heart attack she had near had when she saw that hand reaching up to grab Justin and drag him to his death. Maybe her priorities were out of wack, but that's how her heart felt. Justin's heart froze in place for a brief moment before diving to pick Chie up and wrap his arms around her. And he never wanted to let go. And for a long time, he didn't. Fuck Izanami. Fuck all the others… He found his reason for living again.

"This can't be… How could I be defeated? How am I the one to diseappear…?" Izanami groaned from her resting place on the floor, trying to force herself up, but failing miserably. Every single eye in the room fell on her angrily. After all, she did kill most of them but a moment earlier. Kill me once, shame on you, kill me twice, shame on me. "Instead of the endless struggle, wouldn't it be easier to wrap oneself in lies and live in blissful ignorance…? Isn't that true peace for humans…?" Justin sighed for a bit shaking his head. How ignorant. It kind of pissed him off actually.

And when pissed off in the shadow's world, you better be sure you're ready for the unexpected. Within a second Justin's shadow took over, shoving his hand into the pocket and firing off the last bullet in his gun at Izanami's skull. Killing her instantly. **"Fuck you." **He groaned, rolling over in pain a bit. He just killed a god; no doubt this would advance his cause exponentially, yet… it felt like nothing… Mostly because his eyes were mere shadows of what they had been before his punishment, pure white, not a single iris or pupil. He could see, but it hurt. It hurt so bad. The pain was unimaginable. It was hard to celebrate under these conditions.

The shadow took a deep breath as he tried to stand up, suppressing the pain inside of him as he tried to keep his balance, the others following his league. Killing Izanami might have been a bit overkill, as well as concerning giving the shit storm of souls that soon went flying down the shadow's throat, but at the same point… this was it. They accomplished something great. It took maybe a minute or too before Izanami completely fused into the shadow, his body flinching from the shock of such a great power being added to his own; but the new soul in his collection of minds eventually settled in, and with a little spittle of blood from his mouth, the shadow was near good as new. Yu just smiled a bit as he looked around. "The contract's been fulfilled."

"**I'm in enough pain without your gibberish."** The shadow groaned after a while. The more and more he saw Yu, the more and more he thought he was crazy. Which was saying something from the schizophrenic. Yu just smiled before he extended his finger to the sky. The shadow felt like decking him to be quite honest, but suddenly he was blinded by a great light. He covered his eyes, annoyed by the shining light now in his eyes. But once the light cleared, my god…

The fog was completely gone, and what had once been a twisted realm of depression and destruction was slittered with rivers and trees, flowers and bees, butterflies as far as he could see. It was… beautiful. The most beautiful thing the shadow had ever seen. **"…My god… It's beautiful. Is… this what it used to be like?" **The shadow mused with amazement as he walked forward into the grass. The crunch of grass blades beneath his feet rang through his ears like a melody, and the cool crisp air that pressed against his neck felt like nothing he had ever felt before. The flowers beneath him reflected in the flowing river in front of him in a splendid rainbow. And he fell in love with the majesty of colors. This… THIS is what the shadow had always been fighting for… but… why? Wasn't it the humans who made it such a shitty hole?

"You see…?" Chie spoke up, making her way beside Justin. She could see the wonder in his shadow's face, the sparkle in his now blank eyes. He had never been more awestruck by anything. "We don't want to see you guys suffer. THIS is what we've really wanted all along." She explained. He had been so convinced humans were responsible, yet they had been on the shadows' side all along. The shadow hung his head with a combination of confusion and shame. Had he been wrong this entire time? No… he couldn't have. The humans were in charge, but… Maybe something had gotten lost in translation somewhere along the way. He stepped forward, staring out into the horizon.

"…**Perhaps the problem has been internal this entire time…" **He mumbled this entire time. If Izanami had been clouding everything in fog like that, then perhaps… Perhaps SHADOWS were to blame for the fate of their city… And humans were the means to rebuild. Dear god, he's been a fool this entire time. He took one last glance at the horizon before deciding one thing and one thing only: he his mission was not with the humans. Justin opened his mouth and let out a scream, much to the immediate fear of Chie and the gang. What they hadn't quite realized was he had been expunging the purple smoke in his lungs from his system, exhaling it out into the wind. The smoke quickly reformed itself in Justin's image, yet they remained two separate beings. Justin stared with shock and slight fear at his doppelganger as he walked off to the edge of the cliff, staring at the horizon. **"If humans are not the problem; then this is not something that can be solved by exterminating them. It has to be resolved from the inside… Let me make clear that only those who dare to hurt my people are my enemy." **He turned to them, as if to try and justify his atrocities. **"If your words are true, and you mean us no harm… Then you just very well might be the answer to our problems…"**

"What exactly are you trying to say?" Justin coughed, throat sore from the shadowy being that had just been expelled by his immune system. There had to have been a less painful way than that. The shadow bit his bottom lip for a moment. What WAS he trying to say? It was hard to tell sometimes.

"**If you really mean the best for us… Then you will help us rebuild. What you see here… This is what this whole goddamn world needs… And if this is a creation of humans, then so long as my world remains pure, you have nothing to fear from me." **The shadow smiled a twisted grin. **"So go. So long as the humans wish this of my people, they have nothing to fear from me. Just don't think you can fuck with us the moment I turn my back." **He glared. Seemed like the conditions were pretty clear to Justin. If the world remained green and beautiful like this, then his shadow would leave him… Justin smiled a bit.

"You're a good man deep inside me. You're just kind of an asshole." Justin chuckled a bit. He hadn't been happy in so long… His shadow, gone? His life his once again? Never having to fear his own emotions and losing control of himself? It was like a dream come true. The shadow ran his eyes over the group one last time before slowly fading his body to fog, rather to go wherever the wind took him.

"**Remember your promise. I will remember mine." **He grinned sadistically as the last of him dissolved to fog. Justin shook his head. It was pretty clear he still hated humans, but at the end of the day, he knew that his world came first. And the humans presented a means to an end. If they just kept thinking positive, building the world like this, this could be the beginning of a grand relationship between the two worlds. Justin performed a mock salute to the smoke now drifting away.

"Shine on you crazy diamond. Come on. Let's go home."


	238. Chapter 237: March 21, 2012

CHAPTER 237

March 21, 2012

* * *

"You really are leaving, huh? It hasn't really hit me yet…"

The gang gathered at the trainstation, where Yu was waiting for the last shuttle away from Inaba to arrive and take him away. He didn't want to go, sure; but he had no choice. And that meant now was the time for goodbyes. Some of his friends took it really well, others, not so much. The sad thing? Rise was crying like there was no tomorrow, and yet she wasn't even the worst of the group. No, that honor went to Justin. Just one more person leaving him behind in life it would seem. Just another brick in the wall. He stood there, leaning against the railing behind him, eyes aimed towards the ground beneath him. He couldn't bear to watch Yu fly away from here in that next train to come; so he simply wouldn't. He'd close his eyes and wait for the pain to pass him by, like a child about to get a shot. The only difference was there was no bright side, no lollipop to be had after the smoke had cleared. He just had to suck it up on virtue alone. He wasn't entirely sure he could to be honest.

"N-No more Senpai from t-tomorrow on…" Rise hiccupped over sobs. At least she was getting all of that pent up emotion out somehow; she'd feel great in the morning for sure. Justin had to live with his pent up rage. It's funny, he was free to cry and shout and all of that now that his shadow was gone, yet he just couldn't. And he didn't know why. Perhaps part of him just didn't care, sick of all of this. There was only so many times you can have your heart broken before it refused to mend after all. And can you break what was already broken? Most everyone was understanding of Rise's emotional breakdown. Kanji, not so much.

"Hey, quit crying…! It's way too soon for that! Sheesh… Th-That stuff's kinda contagious, y'know… You gotta put on a good face for Senpai…" Kanji ordered, not only her, but himself after a while. I guess a good moment to cry or so could pass from person to person. Most everyone had a few tears in their eyes, even if they were holding it back. Was it wrong for Yu to almost feel happy to see them on the verge of tears like this? He had no idea he had such an impact on all his friends here… Damn, now HE was going to start crying. Smooth Rise. Smooth.

"Big Bro? I don't want you to go away…" Nanako pouted a bit, clinging onto his leg as if her body weight was going to be enough to keep him from dragging his way to the train. Yu couldn't help but make one of those 'that's adorable' sighs under his breath before ruffling her hair a bit. Dojima certainly found it amusing as well.

"Nanako… Didn't you promise that you wouldn't cry?" He laughed a little bit. It was hard nto to find her apparent attachment to Yu adorable in some regard, so they couldn't fault Dojima too much for laughing at his daughter's tears. After all, he wasn't laughing because she was sad, he was laughing because of the deep bond she shared with her cousin. "Building a case against Adachi is going pretty smoothly. After all, he's made a full confession to his crimes." Dojima continued turning his attention away from Nanako and on to other matters. Justin just groaned a bit. He didn't want to hear about Adachi he just wanted everyone to… stop. Just… Stop. Everything. Just stop everything. He couldn't keep up with the world spinning anymore; he had lost his breath a long time ago. "There haven't been any more incidents since then, Inaba's finally back to its normal, peaceful self. And Nanako's better now too. I couldn't ask anything more. Thanks for everything. To me, you're just as much a part of this family as Nanako. I'm really glad you came to stay with us…"

"Sensei… I've finally found a place for me." Teddie interrupted, a soft tone to his voice and determination in his eyes. "That's why… I'm going back over there. To make sure it never goes wrong again… I'm going to protect that world from now on. I can finally be proud and say… That world is where I belong." Teddie beamed with pride. Justin was a little caught off guard at first, though Yosuke seemed like he had been in on it. It did make… some sense though. Justin's shadow was a good soul so long as no one crossed him, and no doubt he would do anything in his power to keep the television world from falling into disrepair again. Now that he was on guard… Well… I'm sure it would be a great place for Teddie to live from now on.

"Man, Senpai… This town's gonna feel empty without ya." Kanji remarked, completely ignoring Teddie. Perhaps things wouldn't change as much as Justin had expected.

"How cruel! W-Were you even listening!?" Teddie shouted with annoyance. Here he was saying he was going away and they didn't even flinch. Hell Yosuke almost seemed happy when Teddie told him last night. Do you realize how awful a roommate Teddie was? Yosuke could not have been happier to kick him out of the house. So yeah, they might have lost Yu, but it wasn't like Yosuke was losing EVERYTHING in the exchange. There were bright sides to everything.

"We can see you anytime we want, you dork!" Yosuke rolled his eyes, shoving him to get him to calm the fuck down. There would be plenty of time for attention whoring when they weren't paying their respects to their friend. "You're just gonna be going in and out of the TV at Junes. How's that different from what you've been doing?" Yosuke added, trying to dismiss the melodramatics with a simple wave of logic. "Hey, you got any plans during the long holiday in May? If you're free, come over and visit.  
With no mysteries to solve, we can have some real fun!" Yosuke turned his attention back to Yu, a wide grin on his face all the while. Just because Yu was leaving didn't mean that this was the end of their friendship. Yu smiled a bit and nodded. He'd still need to check if he could come back here during the holidays, but you know that he wanted to, no doubt.

"I'll make reservations now so that we can stay in my family's inn." Yukiko quickly added. It was no surprise that she was totally on board with this idea.

"Ooh, I can get my revenge for that night… Our surprise sneak attack will work for sure this time!" Teddie added with cheer, bending over and rubbing his palms together maniacally. Within seconds near every guy went to pounce him, their hands along his mouth. Now, Justin never supported this idea, but let's get one thing straight, he had no intention of getting wrapped in that shit. Better Teddie keep his mouth shut than risk getting caught.

"D-Don't bring that up, you stupid bear! Hey, what happened to going back to that world!?" Kanji remarked with great annoyance. You know Teddie had some bullshti excuse to justify his attempts at being perverted again, but iltimately it was irrelavent. The train came grinding in before Teddie could get a word out edge wise. Yu was needless to say disappointed. Here so fast? He was hoping he still had at least a few more minutes. He sighed as he turned his eyes away from the now opening doors of the train. Now would be a good time to say goodbye, even if he didn't want to.

"Well… I uh… guess this is it." Yu's eyes were faced towards the ground, unable to look at his friends' faces as he tried to get over the fact this would be the last time he COULD see his friend's faces. It would be strange going back to his old city; would he ever be able to make friends like the ones he had here? It wouldn't be the same, that's for sure. It was just a question of adapting again and whether or not he could do it.

"Hey Yu?" Justin spoke up, pushing himself away from the railing and towards Yu. Yu stared at him with an expression of sympathy; perhaps also a little bit of pity. He felt bad for the kid; he had so many problems, and while Yu had tried to help him as much as he could, this was about where that help ended. God have mercy on Justin. Justin didn't say anything for a moment, just staring at him with sadness in his eye. Then in one swift movement he embraced Yu in a hug. Yeah, it may have been a bit of a bromance, who cares. Yu was caught off guard as was most of the others. "Stay safe." He remarked, patting him on the back before backing away from Yu. Yu nodded, frowning a bit with concern for Justin; god knows he still needed help. I guess that was Chie's job now.

"You too." Yu nodded before turning about, grabbing his suitcase and boarding the train. He frowned a bit as he stepped off the platform and through the automatic door. He only had a few last seconds to watch Inaba and his friends from the train back home. And yet, even though it was only a few seconds more he would see of the town, he felt almost at peace. Inaba would be alright, he had insured it. And he smiled as the doors closed on him, waving at his friends from the shifting door windows. His friends waved back of course, but once the train actually took off, most of them couldn't bare just watching him go like that. Yukiko was the first to start running along with the train, just fast enough to keep a good view of Yu through the window, tears in her eyes but a grin on her face. The others were soon to follow; after all, they didn't want to get left behind. They waved and chanted all sorts of last goodbyes to Yu as the train went along. He would be in their hearts forever.

The only one who didn't chase the train was Justin, who simply watched with pain in his chest as the train dragged another one of his loved ones away. It was never easy… In a way, he would be happier if it were over already. Maybe that's why instead of chasing after the train he chose to turn around, tears in his eyes as he placed his earbuds in his ears, walking all the way back home.

_Tho' I keep searching for an answer, _

_I never seem to find what I'm looking for _

_Oh Lord, I pray _

_You give me strength to carry on, _

_'Cus I know what it means _

_To walk along the lonely street of dreams _

_And here I go again on my own _

_Goin' down the only road I've ever known, _

_Like a drifter I was born to walk alone_

Justin swore to god that if there was ever a case of someone's iPod being possessed and trying it's damndest to bring its user down with it's shuffle choices, Justin's iPod was that case.

* * *

"Let's see… press this, and this… You know, we really should have set this up BEFORE he left. And… there. How am I coming through."

Justin sat in front of his computer, headset over his ears and eyes focused on his monitor. He had control of the mouse and Maya had the keyboard just off to his side. He really should consider getting her her own computer at some point; but he just couldn't afford it. This would have to do for now. A couple clicks of the mouse after going through what felt like a million how to guides on the internet for something that should have been pretty obvious to a tech geek like Justin and everything seemed to be set up, minus one little ingredient. "Alright, can everyone hear me?" He spoke into his microphone, pressing his headset tighter to his ear.

"Unfortunately." Yosuke remarked sarcastically. His eyes were much more focused on Maya at the moment regardless, so he supposed it didn't matter if he couldn't necessarily stand Justin. Maya simply waved at the web cam, a smile on her face. Not being able to talk was actually not that much of a disadvantage when it came to Skype it would seem; she could just type what she wanted to say without having to talk over everyone. She would never go unheard of in the bum rush that was Skype. Everyone else confirmed they could hear Justin just fine, and by extension confirmed their microphones were working as well. Everyone was here, even Teddie. Because when he said he was moving out, what he really meant was moving out when he didn't feel like mooching off Yosuke. Basically, NEVER.

"I cannot believe how many Yu Narukami's there are on Skype." Justin rolled his eyes with exasperation. He had to shift through so many profiles to find THEIR Yu Narukami it was almost ridiculous. "It's like that thing on Youtube where EVERY fucking person tries to change their name to the same video game character or something."

"Isn't your username Vinny Caravella?" Chie pointed out. Granted, Vinny Caravella wasn't exactly a celebrity by normal people standards, but Justin was a nerd, so to him, Vinny was what we like to call 'a god.' Point was, he was kind of being a hypocrite.

"I'm still surprised I haven't gotten in trouble for that…" Justin rubbed at his chin. You would think that someone would have tried to sue him for impersonation by now, but alas, I guess YouTube stopped giving a fuck. That is, unless you put music in your video that was owned by VIVO, in which case YOU'RE GOING DOWN PUNK! He shrugged with indifference. His point still stood; he couldn't believe there were that many people on Skype with the same name. He was just happy their Yu actually put a photo of himself for his avatar. If he was anything like Justin or Yosuke, he would have just found something ridiculous so that people had to look at whatever it was they had whenever they logged on. And if you were like Chie, you purposely picked a clown just to scare the shit out of Justin whenever HE logged on. He'd get her for that, I swear. "Alright then, let's get this show on the road." Justin smiled as he dragged Yu's name over to their call. Nothing but ringing for a while as everyone sat with nervous anticipation. For a moment they suspected Yu didn't know anything about the group call or that this hadn't been the right Yu; hell maybe he just didn't WANT to pick up. But he did eventually, and when he did, the smile across his face couldn't have been wider.

"You guys are so lucky I managed to find my old microphone." Yu joked, though he was also partially serious. "Almost like the gang's still all together, huh?" He smiled, relief in his heart as his eyes fell upon his friends once again. He supposed he should thank Justin for this brilliant little idea of his, though it would have been nice if he had come up with it before he got on the train and went home. Would have made organizing this so much easier, not to mention it would release the tension in his heart strings as he pulled out of station.

"Even better, because this is the internet…" Justin whistled slightly as he moved his mouse over to Yosuke's name and immediately kicked him from the chat. "Now this is the best chat." Maya was pretty quick to wrestle the mouse out of Justin's hand and reinvite Yosuke, a disapproving glare on her face. She got that Justin didn't like Justin, but this wasn't just about him. So long as they were staring at the same computer, Justin was not going to be kicking her boyfriend from the chat. Yu laughed all the same. Sure it was immature and he had seen it so many times before, but there was something different about seeing Justin and Yosuke's feud now that all their troubles had passed. Now that they were reunited, even if only through technology.

"Just like old times."

* * *

ACT 1 END

* * *

**MUSIC**

**Here I Go Again - Whitesnake**


	239. Chapter 238: May 1, 2013

CHAPTER 238

May 1, 2013

* * *

"Almost the day, huh?"

Justin and Chie were walking down the street, grin's on their faces as they made their way home from a day at the arcade. A year had passed since Yu left Inaba, and while he had visited during the holidays before, the occasion never seemed to grow stale. It was always good to have him around after all, so no one ever seemed to skimp when it came time for Yu to come around to town. It was one of the few things that hadn't changed with the passing year. Rise and Naoto had since left town, although the latter still stopped in from time to time. She had a job after all, she couldn't stay in one place for too long. Same went for Rise; though it was more that she was on tour right now than it was that she had to move from place to place. She had chosen to live in Inaba when she wasn't recording or doing her job or anything. Naoto, not so much.

As for everyone else though, while they remained here, most of them had changed quite a bit. Justin grew his hair out longer, to the point where it was almost hitting his shoulders. The red in his hair was starting to come through more now than ever strangely enough. Perhaps it was just the pigmentation in his hair changing; perhaps it was just the way the sunlight reflected against his skull. He was still blonde of course, just less so than usual. He still kept that stubble around his chin that formed the shape of a soul patch, if only because Chie liked it. Chie herself had been growing her hair out a bit as well, but she was met with the surprise of her hair actually being naturally curly. It wasn't overly curly, mind you, it just couldn't grow past a certain point without curling around the tip. She didn't really like it at first, but Justin encouraged her to give it a chance, perhaps sensing that Chie didn't like it so much because it was a little 'girly.' It grew on her eventually, and she eventually decided to keep it. Hell she was twirling a lock of her hair around her finger right now as they walked. She certainly had fun with it at the very least.

Yosuke cut his hair a little shorter, enough that it wasn't running completely down the back of his neck at the very least. Turns out Yosuke had a very long neck; one almost wished he would have kept his hair long. But they all got used to it after a while, even if it took a little bit of awkward staring at it. Kanji, as it turns out, had some really crappy vision and had since taken to wearing glasses. Maya suggested he should wear contacts, but I guess he preferred the classy look of some slim black rims on his nose. Maybe it just reminded him of the time he saved the world. He also stopped dying his hair white too, thankfully enough. Rise had changed her appearance completely to go with the flow of her business and model herself to another generation. Her hair was long enough that it reached pass her hips, and she had since dyed her hair to a darker shade of red. Whoever her new manager was, he certainly knew how to market her, though whether Justin could support that or not, he wasn't sure. Yukiko had spiced up her wardrobe a bit, I suppose. Her clothes were usually a little more colorful now, and she sometimes wore these round, pink sunglasses. She essentially looked like a hippie; I guess she was going through a phase. It worked though, as much as you would think it wouldn't. Naoto and Maya hadn't changed a bit, at least appearance wise anyway. I guess the more things change the more they stay the same.

"We've got so much we need to do…" Chie sighed a bit, though she smiled all the same. It was so hard to arrange these meetings when they had so much on their plate already as it was. It was senior year for Justin, Chie, Yukiko, Yosuke, and Maya. They kind of had a lot of things on their plate to worry about, what with school ending and all. Mostly college. In Chie's case, it was the fact that her grades weren't exactly top class. In Justin's case, it was all about making sure Maya could go to college with him. Money wasn't a problem anymore, oh no. You see, when Justin turned eighteen, he got the rest of his trust-fund… And… well… It was a lot of money. I guess if there was one thing Justin respected his father for, it was that he left Justin a fortune. Where he got this much money though, Justin didn't know. He must have had a lot of the shit hidden away somewhere. How else could he have afforded a summer house out here all the way in Japan? Well all the same… Justin didn't need to worry about money anymore. In a way, it was so relieving, the greatest gift. And the gift wasn't the money itself, though that was nice, it was the gift of having the burden of taking care of two people on low income lifted off his shoulder. He had to wonder how people did this shit on a regular basis.

I think it was less about getting in the same school as Maya as getting in the same school with Chie, though. I mean, with her grades there was no way she could get into some of the schools that Justin could; and… well, he had to think about his future too, right? It was quite the dilemma, and unfortunately it seemed like the determining factor was out of his reach. He had no control over any of it, and that was infuriating. All the money in the world now, and yet he couldn't buy the one thing he wanted. So what good was his banking account anyway?

"Ah, it's just a couple days. We have plenty of time to work on college applications." Justin reassured her with a flick of his wrist. He wasn't worried about the work they had to do, why should she? If it was a matter of writing a really good college essay, she knew Justin was there for her. Granted, he was much more fluent in English than he was her native language, but he had picked up a lot of Japanese while he was here, to the point where he didn't even need to speak English around the majority of the group. Maya had the inconvience of needing to know THREE languages, however, and she just didn't have the mental capacity for that, so generally when Maya was around, they continued speaking English. Otherwise, Japanese all the way. Justin always mispronounced something, but Chie helped him with it. It was like a bonding experience. And that was a okay with Justin.

"Scholarships, college essays, financial aid forms, loans; I don't even know where to start." Chie chuckled nervously as it really sunk in just how fucked she was. She didn't know a damn thing about any of that stuff, how was she expected to fill all of that out on her own. Then once she was accepted there were room placement, medical forms, tuition forms, transportation forms; so many forms. It was really making her head spin. Justin laughed a bit, not necessarily at her misery but at how nervous she was getting about all of this. She'd be fine. And for the record, he didn't want her taking out any loans. Now that he had gotten the rest of his trust fund, he could help cover the difference. He was already going to have to pay for school for two people, one of which might not even have to pay for schooling depending on where they went, what was one more going to hurt him? Granted, he'd be completely broke coming out of college, but he could live with that. He had no problem working hard for a living after all; the trust fund was really just a blessing for these next few school years.

"Chie, Chie, don't worry about that stuff. They just make those forms look overly complicated; they're really quite simple once you get to filling it out." He reassured her. He had taken a look at the forms used for taking a loan out of curiosity; it was pretty much all terms of condition and then one page of basic information to be filled out. They made it look scarier than it actually was. "You know I got your back anyway."

"I already told you Justin, I don't want you spending money on that, it's too much." Chie paused, staring at Justin with disapproving eyes. He had told her on several occasions since he had come into money that he would gladly help pay for her schooling, but… she couldn't just take something that big from Justin. She'd just feel dirty; after all, this wasn't just him taking her out to dinner or something, this was thousands and thousands of dollars they were talking about, not to mention he had to pay for his own schooling now. Justin scoffed a bit at Chie's refusal to accept his help. She was like a splitting image of himself now that he was the rich one and she the poor one; at least, relatively speaking. He owed her at the very least for all the money she had given him before he came into a fortune of his own.

"I don't care about the money Chie; not when it comes to you anyway." He smiled. It wouldn't be the first time he had emptied his pockets for her. Hell, he had only just finished paying off that jewelry he had bought her a year ago. Oh, how he desired to just give it to her after all his hard work, but… He couldn't just do that; the timing had to be just right. Maybe he'd wait for her Birthday or Valentine's Day. Both seemed so far away though, and it made him pace so much in his mind as he struggled with his desire for immediate gratification. Chie, smiled, cheeks red. Justin always did say the nicest things to her.

"But I do." She countered gently, poking him in the chest as if it would be some kind of deterrent. She knew it wasn't, if anything that kind of behavior just encouraged Justin. But you know, sometimes it was just nice to fuck with him. Justin smiled as he wrapped his arm around her neck, fingers brushing against her hair.

"Chie, what am I going to do with you." He laughed a bit. It was a serious question though. What WAS he going to do with her? He was offering her free money, a full-ride through college, and she was denying it simply because of her pride. She reminded Justin a lot of himself. Perhaps that was what was so funny about all of this. Of course, all good things cannot last forever, and even short little moments like this were quick to be interrupted by someone or something. In this case, it was Chie's cell-phone vibrating in her pocket. She was quick to thrust her hand into her jacket and flip the phone open, causing the screen to light up with text.

"…Yukiko needs help picking out confetti." Chie rolled her eyes a bit. She had told Yukiko on several occasions: One, they didn't need confetti; that shit was impossible to clean up. Two, even if she did get confetti, there's not any on specific kind of confetti to use. She was asking what color to use. How about ALL the colors? How about that? "I should probably go before she ends up buying something stupid, I'll see you later." Chie dismissed herself, leaning up to give Justin a peck on the check before running off. Justin simply watched with a wide grin as she ran away, waving at her the entire way. It felt like forever before she was out of sight, which while normally a good thing, was especially draining on a man who had other allures. He turned around and walked away, smiling the whole way as he dug his hand into his pocket, pulling out the beautiful gift he had bought Chie just a year ago, rotating it in the sun to watch the light reflect off its gold surface.

"Just got to wait for the right moment."

* * *

_You could have had it all._

_There is no hope. For you. For me._

_In the end, we are nothing but ash._

_We were born from ash. _

_We will burn to ash._

_You could have had it all._

_We will burn to ash. Burn to ash. Burn to ash._

_There is no hope. _

_There was never any hope._

_There is no I._

_There is no you._

_You are part of a grand illusion._

_Rise and shine, it's time to wake up._

_Control is an illusion._

_Hope is an illusion._

_Life is an illusion._

_Rise and shine, it's time to wake up._

_You are a part of a grand illusion._

_Your role has been played._

_Rumor has it the world is coming to an end._

_You could have had it all._

_You could have had it all._

_You could have had it all._

_You could have had it all._

_You could have had nothing._

_You are nothing._

_And you will know my name._

_We are…_

* * *

"Gah!"

Justin shot up in bed, sweat rolling down his forehead, awakened by the sounds of gun shots richocheting through his dreams, the sickening sound of bones splintering before giving away. He had this nightmare many times before, and it never seemed to get any clearer. And yet the more he saw it, the more he feared it. Was it fear of the unknown, or fear that whatever was happening in that dream was coming soon? He breathed in deeply before sighing with relief, running his fingers through his hair. He didn't recognize the voices that echoed through the fog of his mind as he slept, nor could he find any coherency in their words, and yet there was something about them that always rang deep in the chambers of his heart. Like a memory of what has yet to happen.

He rolled over, eyes wide as he tried to get his bearings. He had to reassure himself it was just a dream. Yet it was so hard to believe in dreams these days. Some came true, others felt like they were so far away. It was more accurate to say nothing but nightmares were real now, and dreams nothing but fairy tales. Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out. Alright, alright, Justin was probably good now. It was nothing but fiction… but then, stranger things than fiction had happened in his life. Even what had been ground so much in reality seemed like nothing but a fable. Like… how HE died… He didn't deserve that. Then there was Marie… And… All this death. Justin had seen more than his fair share of death. He didn't want to see any of it again. He just wanted to… To live a normal life. Why was it destined that he could never be happy? That he must suffer for all his days.

He rolled over a sigh of longing under his breath as he stared at Chie next to him in bed. Her was wrapped around his, and her forehead was burrowed where his shoulder had been moment before he had jumped from his covers. She was fast asleep thankfully enough. She had seen Justin wake up from those nightmares before; and he never wanted her to have to see him like that again. He just wanted her to have a good life. And it killed him to think that he couldn't give that to her. He frowned, delicately running his fingers against the bangs of her hair.

"Feels like the right moment will never come."


	240. Chapter 239: May 2, 2013

CHAPTER 239

May 2, 2013

* * *

"Chie, Chie slow, slow the fuck… Oh god I think I'm dying."

"Quit being such a cry baby. It's just a little exercise."

Justin came to a halt, leaning over and dry heaving as he tried to catch his breath. He just couldn't keep up with a girl who did this on a daily basis. Justin had to do it on a weekly basis, if only because Chie forced him to. She figured that since he never exercised at all, he kind of needed it for his health, even if he'd rather not cough up a lung trying to keep up with her. Chie rolled her eyes and tapped her foot with impatience as Justin stopped to get his bearings.

"You know sometimes I swear you're trying to kill me. If it's for the life insurance, I'll just give it to you, believe me!" Justin objected, pausing mid sentences as he tried to speak straight. Chie simply shook her head and crossed her arms with disapproval. How Justin managed to get through life when he couldn't run for an hour without his lung exploding, Chie would never quite understand. But then, she couldn't understand how Justin didn't see the appeal in running around in the first place. What was there to like about getting sweaty and having your rib cages crack in half under pressure. "At the very least could you use rat poison or something next time?"

"This looks more like an accident." Chie countered sarcastically. She wasn't trying to kill Justin of course, but I'm sure Justin was well aware of that and just being a drama queen. Justin nodded with reluctant agreement.

"Right, right… Touche'." He spat to the side, trying to get some dirt out of his mouth that had been lingering on the spring breeze. Mark that down as just another reason why running was awful. "Look, Just give me… Just give me one min-"

"Did you see the Midnight Channel the other night?"

"TWO MINUTES. I MEANT TWO!" Justin immediately corrected himself in panic as he and Chie overheard a conversation going on across the street. This was, uh… quite the bombshell. The Midnight Channel had been off the air for a year now; how either of them would have been able to see it let alone know about it was beyond Justin's realm of understanding. Perhaps it was just a misunderstanding; Justin was sure there was a porn channel or two called The Midnight Channel. Not to imply that those two were watching porn, but it was still a valid point. Justin and Chie stared at each other with horrified gazes as a name they had long since forgotten brushed their ears. They had thought that was all over… Perhaps it was just Teddie doing his quiz show shtick again; and if so, thankfully Justin and Chie didn't advance to the finals. That was a plus.

"Midnight Channel!? Wha-!?" Chie gasped with exasperation. This had to be her just hearing something incorrectly, right? Maybe she was asking if she been to a certain body of water in the middle of the night. Yeah, that sounded about… Wait, what was she thinking? Inaba didn't have any channels running through it! All the same, it had to be something like that, it wouldn't make sense if it was THEIR Midnight Channel on the air. Justin held out his hands, palms facing towards Chie in a calming fashion.

"Alright, alright, let's stay calm… This is probably just a misunderstanding. With Izanami gone and Teddie on patrol, there's no way that thing's going to go on the air again." He tried to reassure her before facing back towards the gossiping girls. "…Still, we should probably make sure." He mumbled with concern. It was hard to convince himself that it was bullshit that was ringing through his ears right now, even though he knew logistically it probably was. He carefully crept towards the two girls, Chie following slowly behind him, eyes still wide with fear, palms sweaty at the thought of that place again. You know, she still had nightmares about what happened with Izanami, the hands crawling up her ankles to pull her to her death. She never knew that death would be so…horrifying. Was she even dead? Maybe it was just a dream. Whatever it was, it was traumatizing to say the least. It's probably why whenever she, or really any of the Investigation Team to be quite honest, saw someone reaching their hand around the corner or something jumped. And god forbid you sneak up on her; she would start crying if someone so much as touched her from behind. It took a stronger woman than Chie to move on from that shit; and given this was Chie we were talking about, I'm not sure there WAS a stronger woman.

"Hello, uh, ladies." Justin waved at the two girls as he approached them cautiously. He always hated speaking to people he didn't know; after all, he didn't want to seem like some creep just butting in on conversations or something like that. People had to approach him first under most conditions. These weren't normal conditions though. One of them seemed pretty finicky as he approached them, though the other just seemed bugged by his interruption.

"Th-That's the guy! Play it cool." One of the girls whispered to the other before standing up straight. Justin raised his eyebrow with confusion. He was that guy? Okay, uh… sure. That guy. Well that guy had some questions he'd like answered, so…

"You'll have to excuse my eavesdropping, but did you say Midnight Channel just now?" He questioned with interest. The girl who seemed to be standing up straight swooned slightly before leaning to whisper to the other girl again. Right, now Justin was very very confused.

"He's just like what the television sai-" The girl began to whisper before she noticed Chie approaching out of the corner of her eye. She froze for a moment before backing away abit. "Ch-Chie-chan!" She shouted in a frenzied panic. Justin passed Chie a quick glance. He was under the impression that they didn't know each other; and he was mostly right. Chie shrugged a bit with confusion, not really sure why the girl was starting to freak out like that.

"Yeah, I heard that this time it's like a fighting show and that the people on it were fighting each other…" The other girl spoke up, figuring that if her friend was going to act like a sociopath right now the very least she could do was answer the blonde kid's question. She was speaking entirely from what she had heard from her friend though, so she wasn't entirely sure how much use she could be.

"W-Well, please excuse us! C'mon, let's go." The other girl interrupted grabbing the other girl by the wrist as she quickly tried to flee the vicinity. And that just left a very confused Chie and Justin behind, staring at the two teenage girls running away like they were being chased by monsters. Justin paused for a moment, staring at his palm before breathing into it and taking a whiff. Nope, his breathe seemed fine. Had to have been something else.

"What was that? Did she not like me or something…? I didn't do anything wrong, did I…?"

"Aww, how could anyone hate you Chie?" Justin frowned a bit, donning his own pair of puppy dog eyes. They needed work though, as they weren't really as convincing as Justin believed they were. Chie could out puppy dog eye him any day of the week. He was gonna have to do better than that.

"She seemed to like you though."

"I'm a likeable guy."

"Is now really the time for jokes?"

"Ouch, right in my self esteem."

* * *

"Yeah, no, I'm sure it's nothing. Just relax- No… Really? You called Yosuke about this already? Well, uh… I guess that's fine, but I still think this is just a stupid prank. You know Yosuke's gonna get pissed at you if this is one big joke, right? …No, I'm just saying that… Chill, Chie. It'll be fine, I promise. Alright... Alright, love you too."

Justin clicked his phone shit as he leaned back into the couch, eyes trained on the blank television screen on the parlor. Maya was sitting beside him, a bowl of popcorn between her legs as they stared at the television screen expecting what they knew wasn't going to happen. So why the popcorn? Well the real show was watching Justin make an ass out of himself chasing silly fables, and to a much lesser extent, hearing Chie panic on the other end of Justin's phone. She was looking too deep into what wasn't there, which is what made it so amusing that she seemed legitimately afraid something was going to happen. Justin sighed before dipping his hand into the bucket of popcorn.

"_Hey, did I say you could have some?"_

"I paid for it."

"_Yeah, but I microwaved it."_

"I'll be sure to get you a gold medal." Justin rolled his eyes as he popped the kernels of popcorn into his mouth. Maya shook her head as she dipped her hand in to grab a few pieces of her own. Not like there wasn't more where that came from she supposed.

"_You really believe this shit?"_

"Of course not, but Chie does and I know it'll make her feel better if I watch too. What harm could there be anyway?" Justin shrugged with indifference. He saw nothing wrong with doing something stupid for a friend. And that was something Maya could understand, so she'd give him the benefit of the doubt and say that it was Chie's idea in the first place to do this. It sounded like something Chie would do anyway. "Believe me when I saw that if that thing pops on, I'll eat my han-"

And just then the television flicked on. "…dful of popcorn." Justin tried to correct himself. He had already tried chewing his hand off for what he had thought impossible as it was already, he'd rather not do it again. Maya simply sat there with her jaw wide open… It… It was totally on. What in the fuck? Why was the Midnight Channel on? She blamed Teddie. And she wouldn't be entirely wrong as it turned out.

"Rivals… They are… Friends, yet powerful foes! The desperate fighting program amongst high school students! A new legend is about to start!" Justin immediately choked on the popcorn in his mouth as the screen cut away to shoe their apparent roster of fighters. Fighters including his friends. Including Chie. Including Yu for fuck's sake. Including his sister. But more importantly, including him. He never signed up for this, what the fuck? Maya had t pretty much jump and start squeezing on Justin's stomach to get him to spit the popcorn up after it got lodged in his throat. He turned out to be fine, though his carpet, not so much. Popcorn everywhere.

"What in the fuck?"

"May the manliest of all men come on down!"

"…Teddie. Why am I not surprised?" Justin rubbed at his temples with annoyance as Teddie's voice echoed through his television. He should have known Teddie was going to do something stupid. At the very least he seemed to have a good taste in costumes. The cape totally fit him. But let's not give him the idea that by any means he's allowed to wear a cape on a regular basis because of it. Or at all really. Justin wasn't going to stand for this. Well actually he was, because he immediately stood up from the couch and started to make his way to the television, where he was going to punch Teddie through the screen for being a dimwit… And then things got a lot more interesting.

"Nobody touches his precious Nanako! The Sister-Complex Kingpin of Steel, Yu Narukami." Justin froze a bit, eyebrow raised as the voice echoed through the television. Okay, that was… eerily accurate. Hell it was actually pretty funny… You know what Teddie? You might have given Justin and Chie a heart attack and nearly caused Justin to choke to death, but if he could make this show interesting, he might just let it slide. Justin slowly inched his way back to the couch before sitting back down on the sofa and bending down to reach the popcorn that had been scattered on his carpet.

"Want some?"

"…_Maybe." _Maya grabbed the rest of the popcorn from Justin's palm. It was absolutely disgusting eating food off the floor, but she had eaten food out of worst places, so it didn't matter much to her. Further more, the show must go on after all, and what was a good movie without a bucket of popcorn.

"Wage slave in the boonies by day, hero by night! Captain Ressentiment, Yosuke Hanamura!" Maya froze as she was about to pop a piece of popcorn into her mouth, pupils reaching towards the corner of here eyes as she contemplated the matter. After a while she decided, Captain Ressentiment was actually a pretty accurate title. Not necessarily flattering, but accurate all the same. At the very least she had a new name to call him whenever he managed to piss her off. Which was at least once every week as of recent. There were just some days where he was the most insufferable human being on the face of the planet. He was so lucky the other six days of the week more than made up for it.

"See? Re-son-te-mon. I TOLD him that's how it was pronounced.

"A spunky dragon with deadly legs! The carnivore who's discarded womanhood, Chie Satonaka." And now it was Justin's turn to freeze in place. Now, that title was… mostly accurate, but that wasn't what had caused him to freeze in place. Oh no, it was the fact that knowing Chie, she had literally just kicked a hole in her television screen. And by that I mean she stuck her foot through the screen and kicked Teddie right in his fucking face. Which didn't seem to do much to the program itself if she did.

"Oh boy… Someone's walking away in a cast."

"_Can you confirm or deny?"_

"Confirm what?"

"_Has she discarded her womanhood?"_

"Depends what you mean by discarded."

"_Gross."_

"You asked." Justin shrugged. He wasn't going to get into the dirty little details, though I don't think it was any secret to the others by now that Chie and Justin… Well, you know. They didn't talk about it, they never acknowledged it happened the few times it did, but they didn't need to. There were this subtle signs; like the way both of them jumped a bit anytime Yosuke made a sex joke. Or that awkward pause Justin would make before making a porn joke. It was clear something had happened, and two and two just kind of fit together.

"_You're up by the way."_

"Huh?" Justin raised his eyes to the screen again. Sure enough, that looked like him on the screen, back turned to the camera and a revolver on the floor. He never recorded anything though, which concerned him. What, was that his shadow or something, or did Teddie hire a stunt double?

"An unruly youth with an even more unruly mouth. Captain Chivalry, Justin Tylor." Justin stuck his tongue out with disgust. You could tell captain Chivalry was entirely sarcastic by the way the announcer said it. He'd have you know he was totally chivalrous. Yeah, sure it sounded weird when he called himself that, but you know… What the fuck, it was true? Why not roll with the punches. Maya laughed at him all the same, much to Justin's annoyance.

"Oh yeah, sure, keep laughing."

"_So, if you're captain chivalry, does that mean you get chivalrous super powers?"_

"I'm ignoring you."

"_The power to fit right in with a boy band."_

"I will cut you."

"_That wouldn't be very chivalrous."_

"Fuck you."

"_Neither would that."_ Yeah, so Justin was so close to wrapping his hands around Maya's neck and just strangling her to death right there. What wonders a name could do to one's disposition. In this case it made Justin want to murder someone, and Maya just happened to be the closest person nearby. AND egging him on on top of that. But that's okay. They say revenge is a dish best served cold, Justin preferred his scorching hot right from the oven.

"Silent but deadly. A Blooming Rose with Sharp Thorns, Maya Jefferies." And just like that Maya's jaw hit the floor. Now, she wasn't sure what to make of the flower comparison; in a way it was actually very thoughtful and sweet. And at the same point what had proceeded it had offended Maya to points she hadn't thought she could be offended. And the funny thing is, that it totally could have been a good thing but she took it the wrong way. Perhaps Teddie had anticipated that and picked that name purposely just to watch Maya squirm. Well played. Justin laughing hysterically at her as vengeance probably didn't help.

"_Did I… just get compared to a fart?" _Maya signed off with sorrowful displeasure. She would have accepted almost any name and been fine with it on grounds of good humor, but being called a fart because of her condition? Right in the feelings.

"Yeah now you know how it feels!" Justin countered, sticking his tongue out in victory. He was a-okay with this after what Maya had done for his name. She totally deserved the retribution she had gotten. Maya just sunk in her cheer, as if she had never been sadder in her life. A fucking fart. She didn't even get a cool nickname like 'kingpin,' or 'carnivore.' She got a fucking flower. That wasn't some deadly force to be reckoned with. Oh she had thorns? Those were mild inconveniences at best. What, was that the point? That she was a mild inconvenience? Teddie was killing her here.

"Please escort me to the ring, my prince! The Unconquerable Snow Black, Yukiko Amagi!" The announcer continued, disregarding pretty much everything else that was going on. Maya just flicked her hand in that 'you gotta be shitting me' mannerism as Yukiko got introduced.

"_What the hell? She gets a cool name and I get 'silent but deadly? Fucking hate Teddie."_

"We all do."

"Blooming roses and bulging muscles! The Bloodcurdling Beefcake Emperor, Kanji Tatsumi!" Justin immediately started to look for the remote. From what he had seen when they rescued Kanji from the bathhouse, comparing him to a 'beefcake emperor' was not going to end well. The sooner he turned the channel off, the sooner they wouldn't have to see Kanji's junk. Again. God know Maya would just keep staring again. Yeah it's a penis, we get it. Everyone has one.

…

Wait… Let me rephrase that.

'The body of a child, the brain of a genius! The 2000-IQ Killjoy Detective." Justin nodded his head with slight agreement as he leaned back on the couch again, relieved to find Kanji's air time had been cut off already. His eyes would be safe for another day.

"Well I wouldn't say genius. But I totally agree with Killjoy."

"_I second that notion." _Maya groaned and rolled her eyes. Naoto always did have it out for her; even after they had become 'friends' she would still ask suspicious questions from time to time that Maya knew was entirely related to what happened in California. And it pissed her off so much to constantly be harrased for that. That was one of the many reasons she ran away from home in the first place. So she COULDN'T be questioned on a matter she wasn't sure she could lie her way out of.

"Who will win and survive towards the one throne at the end? Fierce fights, the battle begins tonight! The P1 Grand Prix!" And with that the television flicked off once again. Justin had to question how the battle began tonight when the Midnight Channel was clearly over. But then, he also had to question how the Midnight Channel was back on in the first place. It was entertaining, but concerning all the same. And speaking of concerns, Justin's phone began to ring not even ten seconds after the show went off the air. It was pretty obvious who it was. Justin sighed as he flipped the phone open and pressed it against his ears.

"Hel-"

_"What the hell was that carnivore who discarded womanhood crap!? I haven't discarded it! I HAVEN'T, YOU HEAR ME!? I eat vegetables too, you know! And I haven't discarded my womanhood!"_

"Chie, I am like… literally the last person on the face of this planet you need to explain that too."

_"…What's that supposed to mean."_ Justin paused for a moment. Was that suddenly a sensitive topic. He took one long glance at his phone, then at Maya. As if she were reading his ming, she immediately made a cutting motion along her throat, telling Justin to cut his losses and just keep his mouth shut.

"Uh… I'm uh… Going through a tunnel! Pfffffffffffffff… Sorry Chie, can't, Pffffffffffffffff, hear, Pffffffffffff…"

_"No you're not, you're just making noises with your mou-"_ And with that Justin hung up his phone and immediately threw it across the room. He was more afraid of his girlfriend than he was anything on the Midnight Channel.

"_So uh… I'm guessing 'carnivore' is also pretty accurate."_

"Deadly legs would also be applicable."

"_Yeah, but I get the feeling you mean something else when you say deadly legs."_

"No, no, see that's all in the hip- Oh goddammit Maya."


	241. Chapter 240: May 3, 2013

CHAPTER 240

May 3, 2013

* * *

"No really. I'm not hungry."

Justin, Yukiko, Maya and Chie had been sitting around the table, waiting for Yosuke and Yu to show up. Kanji was supposed to show too, but he was nowhere in sight, so it was possible he wasn't going to make it. Rise was touring at the moment, so she couldn't be here either, and Naoto was thankfully away on a case at the moment. God only knows what that Midnight Channel showing last night was all about, but it couldn't have been good. Though what Justin was more afraid of was Yukiko's bold proclamation that she had made box lunches for today. It sent a shiver down Justin's spine thinking she intended for them to eat that. He had choked once already this week, and he'd rather not do it again. She kept trying to get him to taste it as proof that she actually could cook, but he was smart enough not to purposely poison himself.

"Come on, just one bite."

"One bite is all it takes." Justin countered with slight annoyance at her continuing advances. He was trying to be subtle about how confident he was that her cooking would kill him if he tried to ingest even a single nibble of it, but it seemed she couldn't take a hint. So perhaps being a little bit more blunt about how dangerous her food was to his health would help her get the clue he was trying to drop here. Yukiko didn't seem to get it though, just pushing the box towards him in a vein attempt at getting him to try even just one bite. She didn't go through all this effort for nothing after all; he was going to have some of her delicious cooking whether he liked it or not.

It was surprising that even a year later, Yu was still always there to save Justin. Just as Yukiko was about to practically shove whatever was in that box down his throat, the elevator doors opened to reveal Yosuke and the silver-haired boy from the city. Justin could only sigh with relief as Yukiko abandoned her attempts to poison Justin in exchange for leaping from her cheer and darting towards Yu to give him a welcoming embrace. It spoke wonders that those two were still together despite the distance between them. It gave Justin hope, not only for the world around him but for himself worst come to worst with all this college stuff.

"Hey there! Sorry I'm late. I ran into this guy at the elevator." Yosuke chuckled a bit as he pulled up a seat. Yu and Yukiko seemed busy enough anyway, though their short little reunion was almost immediately cut off by Chie being unable to contain herself with excitement.

"Welcome back!" She shouted at the top of her lungs. Justin was quick to press the palms of his hands against his ears as her voice shrieked through the food court. There were very few occasions were Chie's voice was harsh to his ears; pretty much anytime she shouted like this, it fell under that category. It's like… chill; deafening the guy isn't going to encourage him to come back anytime soon. "The guest of honor's finally here! You're looking well." Chie admired. Yu always did seem to look his best when he came back to town. He hadn't changed a bit over the years.

"It's nice to see you too." Yu remarked with slight sarcasm, pain shooting through his ears where his eardrum was now ringing intensely. Chie always did get a little overly eccentric about everything. He should start wearing ear buds when he came to Inaba from now on; would save him a trip to the doctor at the very least. Justin nodded with a grin, feet up on the table. It was always good to see him, especially when he saved him from Yukiko's god awful cooking.

"Oh uh… think we should get business out of the way first?" Justin questioned turning his eyes over to Chie. He hated to bring this up, but he knew everyone was worried about this so perhaps they should just get it off their minds now. That way they could enjoy the few days Yu was in town without this lingering over them the entire town. Almost everyone frowned immediately, even Yu surprisingly enough; though Yosuke was quick to explain that.

"Oh, he already knows about the Midnight Channel thing. He's actually the one who called me up about it." Yosuke explained, much to most everyone's confusion. Why would Yu know about that anyway? Did the Midnight Channel even air that far out? They had been able to determine that it aired in San Diego because there was another test out there, so unless Yu was getting dragged into a third test, which was impossible with Izanami dead and all, that seemed kind of far-fetched. Was it possible that he just sort of checked last night when he got to Dojima's? You know, for memory's sake? I mean, it seemed like a ridiculous thing to want to remember, but Justin wouldn't judge. Still, the two took their seats without much hesitation as Yosuke cleared his throat. Seemed like he had something important to say; how could he not given the circumstances? "Well, it sucks that we can't hang out more before jumping into another mystery, but to celebrate our partner's return… I hereby reinstate the Investigation Team in response to the Midnight Channel going back on the air last night!"

"Bloody hell." Justin muttered with exasperated annoyance. Here he was thinking they were done with this shit. I mean, yeah, they did have to look into this, but he suspected it was going to be nothing more than a false alarm, a practical joke from Teddie. He had too much time on his hands these days, so Justin wouldn't put it behind him at all.

"Just hearing that name again gets me all fired up! Yeah! Let's DO this!" Chie shouted, finding more enjoyment in this than Justin did. Perhaps she didn't remember what happened the last time they all tried sticking their noses into that channel. Spoilers; they all DIED. Still, she seemed to find some enjoyment in this, if only because it reminded her of days gone by when they were all one team. Yu was still friends with them, and he usually got on Skype when he could, but it wasn't the same. It felt like he had been drifting away, and now… now they had their anchor. There was some applause from Chie and Yukiko, and eventually Maya who looked very confused but didn't want to be left out. So she did that awkward 'wait, we're actually doing this right?' kind of clap.

"Uh, I don't think the applause is necessary." Yosuke countered. I mean really what was there to applaud for? This was serious business, not some kind of game; they had to keep their minds focused and ready. The sooner this was over with the sooner they could go back to their Golden Week festivals. The girls seemed somewhat disappointed, but that didn't match the disappointment that swept over Yosuke as he turned to find Yu about to join in. There was an awkward stare down after that, with Yu debating whether or not to go through with it. It was maybe fifteen seconds before Yu clapped his hands together, never letting his eyes wander from Yosuke's. As if he WANTED Yosuke to watch him clap. Yeah he was applauding, what are you gonna do about it Yosuke? He groaned a bit with disappointment in Narukami before turning his attention back to the others.

"Well, let's get cracking. I mean, this is no laughing matter." Yosuke groaned as he pushed himself out of his chair, gesturing for the others to follow him. Everyone seemed a little reluctant to just jump right into the heart of the matter, I mean, couldn't they have just a few more seconds? But he was right; they needed to get this over and done with, so they should probably head out. They sighed as the pushed themselves out of their seat, quickly crowding around Yosuke as they followed him through Junes. They had a pretty good idea where he was heading too, and they had to wonder if that was even neccesary. It would be easy to just poke their head in and tell Teddie to knock it the fuck off of course, but shouldn't they at least sort out what was going on? "No one's heard from Teddie, Kanji, or Rise… just those three, right?"

"Well Rise had a show last night, so I couldn't really call her." Justin interrupted. He hadn't tried calling her this morning, but he was sure she was fine. She was probably just busy with her job and all. She picked a rotten time to release a new album, that was for sure. But then, Justin always said that about her music; it was just so awful. Like, not her singing mind you, she had a great voice. It was everything else. The lyrics, the music; awful, shallow. Hell, you know what her last album was? Dubstep. Her manager had to be tone deaf to think she could pull off Dubstep. And her fans ate it right the fuck up. It was ridiculous to say the very least.

"I got ahold of Naoto-kun, but I didn't tell her about this stuff. She told me she couldn't make it today because of her job, so I didn't want to worry her." Chie added on. Naoto was out of town too, so if it was a matter of keeping tabs on everyone, she was in the clear. Really, the only person who seemed to be missing without a trace was Kanji. Teddie, after all, lived in the television where cell-phone signals were kind of crap outside a certain radius of the Junes's television screens. And Rise was touring, as Justin said. Kanji really had no excuse to be missing. "She seemed pretty bummed that she couldn't be here, too…"

"Um…" Yukiko mumbled a bit, a sudden wave of concern washing over her as something crossed her mind. "One thing's been bothering me. The picture on the TV was very clear last night." Yukiko pointed out. Chie was a little caught off guard for sure. Usually the image wasn't that clear unless a victim had been kidnapped after all, and… well none of them were kidnapped. It was peculiar to say the least. Could it be inferred then that whatever had caused the Midnight Channel last year was completely irresponsible for it this year? I mean, Izanami did make it last year, or so they had inferred, but who could be making it now? It was all so confusing.

"Yeah. Going by the pattern from last year, it wouldn't be that clear until after the 'victim' entered the TV. "

"Hey, isn't this the first time a big group of people was shown together? Plus, we're still here." Chie pointed out the logical inconsistencies with this showing of the Midnight Channel. All valid points that suggested the chances of a second murder case being slim to none, of course that was assuming they had suspected this to be the start of another serial killing spree in the first place, which few if any did. If anything, it supported this was an unusual case; which only lead Justin to believe Teddie was fucking around in there. If anyone knew how to make the picture come through clearer, it would probably be Teddie. "Why us, anyway? And what's up with those insulting descriptions!?"

"I laughed a little too hard at silent but deadly." Yosuke admitted, much to Maya's immediate annoyance. _STOP COMPARING ME TO A FUCKING FART! _You know, it was strangely appropriate that whatever show this was seemed like a fighting show, because if one more person made that comparison, Maya was going to kick their ass. Especially if it was Yosuke.

"_Up yours too 'Captain Re… re… Crap I don't know how to say that in sign language.'" _Maya groaned with annoyance. Usually she'd spell out words she didn't know, but she couldn't say she understood how to spell resentment, especially not from the pronunciation. Seemed like Yosuke won this round on grounds of having a nigh unpronounceable name. At least, unpronounceable by sign-language standards.

"What bothers me most is Teddie. He was acting like the host of that show." Yu spoke up with concern, stopping as they finally found their way to the electronics department, leaning against a nearby wall, careful to not accidentally slip into a different television.

"I doubt he would play a prank like this for no reason." Chie tried to defend that bear. He was a little off his rocker, but surely even he could see why pulling a prank like this just wasn't cool. Chie was immediately met by exasperated, almost humored gazes from her friends, as if to say 'really?' "Okay, maybe he would…" She eventually confessed. Truth be told, this WAS something Teddie would do, as much as she hated to admit it.

"Well, always one way to find out." Justin interrupted, waving his hand towards the television screen, as if to encourage the others to go through. They didn't really take Justin up on his offer though, passing each other a couple glances instead as if to prepare themselves mentally for whatever awaited beyond this portal. It was probably the same old place, but it had been so long since they had been inside, it wouldn't quite be the same. Justin sighed with annoyance before pushing his palm against the screen, though much to his surprise and disappointment, not a damn thing happened. He sighed immediately. "…Don't even tell me…"

"What?"

"Can't get in. I guess when my shadow left he took the damn Persona with him." Justin mumbled. It made sense; he didn't accept his shadow, so technically he shouldn't have had a Persona to begin with. The only reason he had one was because his shadow let him have one. Now that his shadow had left, he had nothing. Not that he was complaining; he didn't want to live that kind of life anymore anyway. It was just a mild inconvenience now that they kind of needed to get back in. "Someone mind giving me a hand here."

"_Got you covered." _Maya nodded her head before grabbing Justin by the wrist. It was the only real place she could keep a steady grip on besides from his hand; and when going through the TV like this, she didn't want to risk letting go, at all. She gave a nod of confirmation to the others that she and Justin were good whenever they were. Yu smiled in turn before tapping his own finger against the screen, sending ripples through it's surface.

"Alright, on three… One… two… THREE!" He shouted before diving through the screen, followed shortly after by the others in quick succession to avoid being seen. The only ones who really lagged behind were Justin and Maya, since they had to fit two people in at once in their circumstance. It wasn't difficult, it just avoided some awkward positioning that neither was entirely comfortable with. But they eventually managed to squeeze through.

You know, it was funny… Justin recalled going through the screen involving a lot less falling now that there was a television on the other end… Unless Teddie tore those down, which he damn well better. The white vortex of black television frames seemed familiar from the first time they fell through at the very least, though it was somewhat disorienting. Not nearly as disorienting as those colors inverting on themselves however. Justin didn't need to be a genius to know something wasn't quite right here.

"Maya? What's going on?"

"_I don't- SHIT" _Maya went to sign off to answer him, but in her panic she forgot she was supposed to be holding onto Justin's wrist. Like papers caught in the inertia of the train, Justin soon went flying out towards the edges of the vortex, spinning the whole way around as he was sucked down, down, down. He had almost thought he would be lost in whatever it was that had sucked him away like this.

And then he hit the ground.


	242. Chapter 241: Round 1

CHAPTER 241

Round 1

* * *

"Mother of fuck… Right in the bones."

Justin rolled over in pain, waking up from the unconscious state he had been thrust into as he hit the floor. Hard too if the blood splatter was any indication. Seemed he had managed to bite his lip when he hit the ground, a big gaping hole with blood dripping down his skin and onto the pavement beneath him right where his teeth had pierced through his flesh. And it hurt like a bitch. But that wasn't important right now, what was important was Justin had just woke up in a rather… familiar locale. He had remembered jumping through the television last he was conscious… yet… when he woke up, well… This was the pavement outside of Yasogami. Justin groaned as he pushed himself up, struggling to keep his balance as he wiped the blood from his mouth. Oh fuck, that was definitely going to need stitches. But that wouldn't matter if he couldn't even figure out where he was. I mean… He wouldn't have just fallen asleep in the middle of the courtyard like that, so he HAD to have fallen through the television. That wasn't a dream. Maybe this was and he was still unconscious? No, the pain was to real. So that just left him with questions as to why it looked like he was at Yasogami.

"Maya? Chie? Anyone?" Justin called out as he dragged himself over to a lamp post, leaning against it as he tried to focus all his energy on numbing the pain. His mind was racing as his eyes scanned the horizon. Not a person in sight. That didn't make much sense either. Usually when they went through the television they all came out the same spot. And they wouldn't just leave Justin like that bleeding out on the floor… at least, he knew for a fact Chie wouldn't…There had to be some…thing… You know, it was all a blur, but… Didn't Justin get separated from the group when he was falling in? He didn't know, he couldn't be sure. And his head felt like an overripe watermelon about to explode. He groaned as he pushed himself away from the lamppost, crawling his way through the courtyard and to the front door of the school. The doors felt heavier than usual as he pushed them open, and the room seemed darker as he made his way to the lockers. That wasn't the giveaway that something funny was going on though.

"I know it's the holidays, but don't the clubs usually meet over the break?" Justin puzzled to himself. There was always someone here regardless of the day of week; it made little to no sense that the halls were completely barren. Unless of course this wasn't actually Yasogami. He could tell something was wrong. He tightened his brow and creped slowly forward, eyes darting around. This had to be some kind of trap. Why else would a place that looked just like Yasogami exist in the television world? And then it hit him. Literally. Fog came flowing down from the ceilings, blinding him and clogging his air waves. He couldn't see a damn thing, even when using his arm as a protective shield for his eyes. Nothing but the white gas as far as he could see. He coughed, a mixture of blood and smoke flowing up from his throat as he tried to navigate the foggy hallways. He couldn't go a few steps without bumping into something… or someone. He could recognize the difference between a cold metal locker and human flesh any day of the week. Whoever Justin bumped into was taller than him, that was for sure. He coughed some more, backing away slightly as the fog started to sink down towards their feet.

And there on the opposite end of the room was Yosuke.

"Ladies and gentlemen! It's time to get our program started!" Loud speakers boomed all over the school, screeching through the halls and irritating Justin's eardrums. He clutched his ears and focused his eyes on Yosuke. He had no idea what was going on, and from the look on Yosuke's face, neither did he. Justin was having trouble deciding whether it was reassuring not being the only one clueless or annoying that he wasn't being caught up to date. But there would be time for that later, for now… For now there was the sound of Rise over the intercom. What in god's name was SHE doing here. And what did she mean program? She wasn't talking about the fighting program, was she? The sound of a crowd cheering rang up from the dirt around them, yet there was no one around anywhere. It was kind of like a laugh track in a way, though it confused Justin all the same. "There's no need for manners or courtesy or anything today, so let it all hang out! Tell us how you really feel! I, Risette, will be your commentator! But first, the General would like to say a few words!"

"General!?" Justin shouted with exasperation. Why did he get the feeling he had a pretty good idea who this 'general' was? Well you know what, I don't know if this was all in good humor or not, but the moment Justin split his lip open and started bleeding profusely; that was the moment Teddie earned himself one of the biggest ass-kickings in the world. He was going to suffer like no bear had ever suffered; Justin would see to that.

"It seems the time has come…" The voice echoed through the halls, buzzing through the intercom system. It was clearly Teddie, much to Justin's annoyance. This had gone on long enough. "I'm proud to announce the opening of our bear-y own P-1 Grand Prix!"

"Teddie, you piece of shit. What the fuck is this?" Justin shouted at the intercoms, hoping that they worked both ways. Thankfully enough, it seemed they did, and Teddie could hear him loud and clear. He clearly didn't seem to care that Justin was livid, but he probably should have given that Justin planned to shove a little more than his foot up Teddie's ass.

"Welcome, Justin-senpai! You must now strive to become the champion among all fighters! I bet you of all people are already aching to get started, hmm?" Teddie mocked Justin. Yeah, Justin got it, he was a violent person. That's not the part that was so offensive to him, it was the part where Teddie was trying to get him to beat the shit out of his friends. Even if said friend WAS Yosuke.

"Aching to get started!? I don't know if you can see this from the intercom, but I am bleeding PROFUSELY because of your goddamn stunt. I need fucking stitches because of you. So no. No I am not fucking aching to get started. Now get fucking down here and set up the exit before I twist your spine like a balloon animal." Justin threatened with great anger. His lip was bleeding a lot, but it probably wasn't going to kill him if he didn't get stitches… All the same, he'd rather not press his luck. Teddie, on the other hand, would.

"Ooh, very violent, I like it. Begin the next match." And with that the intercom cut off. Justin threw his hands into the air with fury flowing through his veins like burning gasoline. He wanted to put a bullet in Teddie's brain at this point; he had proven without reason of a doubt that he was a huge douchebag. Justin sighed before pacing his way towards Yosuke and by extension the staircase.

"Come on Yosuke, I'm going to give Teddie some claws for concern." Justin ordered with annoyance as he tried to rush up the staircase. Much to his surprise, he seemed to bump into a wall that wasn't there. He held his hands out with fascinated annoyance as he ran his hands up and down the invisible structure. There was something there for sure, but he couldn't see it. He tried kicking it, but there was no way through. He wasn't sure how Teddie had done it, but he had managed to cage the two in. "Motherfucker, there's gotta be a door here or something. Help me look."

"Why? Trying to run away?" Yosuke smirked a bit, arms crossed as he stood there in the middle of the room. Justin paused, confused, shocked even as he turned to face Yosuke. He had to be shitting Justin right now. He needed medical attention and Yosuke was trying to play along with these games? You know what? Fuck Yosuke too. Fuck all of them; he didn't need this right now.

"How about you get your damn priorities straight."

"What, you don't want to fight?" Yosuke responded with confusion, as if this were the most shocking news he had ever heard. "But you're a naturally violent person, this is right up your alley!" That was about where Justin lost his patience, turning around to approach Yosuke, leaving the invisible barricade behind. If Yosuke wanted to get his lip split, then so be it, but Justin would not be insulted when he was bleeding all over the floor. "I guess you really are useless…" Yosuke continued, rubbing at his nose a bit as if this were a casual conversation, eyes facing outwards as he tried to avoid eye contact. That was the worst part; he was insulting Justin and he didn't even have the common decency to look him in the eye.

"Useless? You got some nerve."

"Well it's true. The only reason we keep you around is because you know how to crack some skulls. But if you're not going to do that, I don't see why we even need you anymore." Justin couldn't even believe the stuff coming from Yosuke's mouth. He wasn't sure if he should be offended, or admire the fact that Yosuke suddenly grew a pair. Just at the worst time. And Justin was starting to lose his patience because of it.

"You have three seconds to shut up."

"I mean it's not like you have any redeeming qualities as a person. You're a total asshole; no one likes you. Hell the only reason Chie sweet talks you all the time is because we thought you'd be useful." And just like that Justin snapped. You can insult him, you can insult his integrity, you can strip him of his pride, but don't you _ever _lie about his girlfriend like that. Within one quick motion, before Yosuke could even finish speaking, Justin punched him hard in the face, knocking him to the ground immediately.

"You leave her out of this!" He shouted before kicking Yosuke as he squirmed on the floor. He wanted a fight? He fucking earned one.

"Oooh, it looks like things are getting heated up!" The intercom buzzed, Rise apparently finding satisfaction in Justin delivering the first blow already. A sucker punch? What a way to start the match! The crowd started cheering immediately with excitement, thrilled by the fight that had just started between the two. Yosuke simply smirked, wiping some blood from the corner of his mouth. This was the fight he was looking for. He jumped up, leading into an uppercut in an attempt at cheap-shotting Justin the way he had cheap-shotted him. Justin leaned back just enough that the tip of Yosuke's fist soared right past his chin. Unfortunately, he wasn't in much of a position to defend against him jabbing his elbow into his pelvis after that. Justin immediately flinched in pain, grabbing at the sore area; just long enough for Yosuke to follow up with a roundhouse kick that sent him flying down into the ground.

Justin gasped in pain as his already sore body hit the floor like a heavy weight, his organs feeling as though they were shifting around in his body. It was almost tempting to just lay down after that; but after what Yosuke had said about Chie, he couldn't just let him get away with being an asshole. This ended right here right now. Yosuke was quick to approach Justin as he lay on the ground, ready to plant the bottom of his shoe on Justin's face, though Justin was quick to roll away, quickly moving his way to the tips of his fingers and crawling away back into a standing, defensive position. Yosuke in turn adopted a fighting stance of his own as he stared Justin in the eye, two warrior's locking gazes for just a brief moment.

Yosuke was the first to try and deliver a punch, but Justin quickly swatted his arm away. Yosuke followed with a second punch, and Justin swatted that one away too. And for a moment, there was this simple volley of punches between the two in which Yosuke would try to nail Justin, only for him to deflect the blow. At the least though, Yosuke was backing Justin into a literal corner, where he wouldn't have much chance to dodge. And he was right; Justin hadn't noticed the corner, and the moment he had got backed into it, Yosuke took the opportunity to pin him to the wall with one hand and wail on his skull with his other fist, Justin's head rebounding as it hit the wall once, twice, three times over, the blood from his lip gushing the entire time.

One would think that was how the match would end, but Justin quickly kneed Yosuke in the stomach, causing him to recoil and leaving him defenseless. Soon the hunted became the hunter, and Justin was delivering the punches instead, hooking around to hit Yosuke from every direction, interchanging jabs with straights with hooks from every side so he could never really anticipate Justin's movements. It wasn't long before Justin hit him hard enough that he stumbled backwards, losing his balance from the blow. He took a deep breath, clearly having trouble keeping up now that the tables were turned. And that's where a little cheating comes in.

With one quick sleight of hand, Yosuke drew one of his knives and dashed towards Justin, slashing away at his torso. Justin backstepped the first slash, though the second had managed to slit the fabric of his t-shirt and tear through his skin, leaving just the tiniest trickle of blood. It stung like a paper cut, but was just as superficial as one too. Third time he tried to take a swing, Justin grabbed his wrist and chopped at his elbow, sending immense pain through Yosuke's bones and stunning him for a moment, bringing him to his knees just long enough for Justin to twist his wrist behind his back, causing Yosuke to scream out in pain.

"I am not your fair-weather friend." Justin whispered in his ear with anger. He was not just there as a profit for Yosuke; he never would be. And with one quick movement, Justin flipped Yosuke into the air, just enough that he fell flat on his back as his body uncoiled from the toss. It felt like his spine had been shattered in several places… But then, he was always a drama queen. Justin panted heavily as Yosuke squirmed a little, just a few seconds before sighing and letting his body grow limp on the floor. It wasn't worth it.

"That was an amazing fight!" A voice suddenly echoed through the halls as Justin dropped to his knees to press his elbow against Yosuke's throat, keeping him pinned to the ground. Justin was needless to say fairly irritated with all of this already. Two injuries already, not to mention the emotional damage. "Good job in defeating Yosuke, Justin-kun! That's one of our number one thugs! We can't wait to see more from you in the future!" And with that, the intercom clicked off again, leaving just Yosuke and Justin there on the floor. They glared at each other for a moment before Yosuke decided to spit in Justin's face. Justin, as had been predicted, let loose his grip on Yosuke to wipe the spit off his face, allowing Yosuke just enough time to get away for a moment and catch his breath. What he hadn't anticipated was the fact he just spit in a man's face. Justin was livid and soon charged Yosuke into a wall.

"What the fuck is your problem!?" Justin shouted after a while, having just about enough of this. Yosuke was an ass, but he wasn't this much of an ass. This wasn't like him, something was up. Yosuke simply struggled to break free of Justin's grip.

"With me!? You're the one who started losing your shit! You know, I don't think it's any of your damn business what me and Maya do while we're alone, you prick." Justin shook his head and squinted at Yosuke like he had completely lost his mind.

"What in god's name are you TALKING about? What the hell does Maya have to do with any of this!?" Justin paused for a moment, breathing heavily, but also letting Yosuke's comment sink in a little bit. And that only cause him to push Yosuke into the wall harder. "Wait a second, what do you mean 'when you're alone'!? What have you been doing!?"

"Nothing! That's the point! And hey, you're the one who brought it up, you tell me!" Yosuke countered with irritatated confusion. What in god's name was going on here? Justin stared at Yosuke like he had a second head for only a moment longer.

"I don't know what conversation you were listening to, but I never mentioned Maya." Justin explained. He had a feeling Yosuke was entirely aware of that, but whatever; he'd give him the benefit of the doubt that he was actually batshit insane. "YOU'RE the one who brought Chie into this for no reason."

"Chie? W-Why would I say anything about her." Yosuke tilted his head to the side. Now they were both in this awkward situation where it seemed the other had heard something the other hadn't said. Why, Justin didn't know, but something was clearly lost in translation here.

"You… didn't?"

"NO!"

"Then who did?"

"I don't know, can you let go already?" Yosuke demanded, his arms growing stiff as Justin held him against the wall. Justin glared at him for a moment. He couldn't be trusted NOT to be pinned to a wall after what he did… Perhaps that's why Justin managed to surprise himself by loosening his grip after a moment, allowing Yosuke to wander free. "Christ man, you hit hard." Yosuke groaned as he rubbed at his throat, walking forward as he examined the room. "Where the fuck is Teddie? I swear when I find him I'm gonna rip the fluff out of him."

"Hey I asked you first! You were the one who wanted to fight about it." Justin shook his head with annoyance as he followed Yosuke's lead. Yosuke had a good idea where he was if he was making announcements over the PA, though he couldn't be one hundred percent sure. But that was irrelevant, because as they were walking, Yosuke immediately recoiled in pain. Justin simply looked back with interest as Yosuke grabbed at his skull in pain. "What are you doing?"

"I don't know, I think I walked into something." Yosuke muttered with embarrassment before trying to walk through again, though to not much avail. It looked like he was pulling a mime act as he couldn't pass through what clearly wasn't the… Wait… Justin side stepped Yosuke through his apparent invisible barricade, watching with interest as Yosuke tried to get past the invisible wall. Justin tried to yank him through himself, but it seemed no matter what, Yosuke just could not pass that force field.

"Interesting…" Justin muttered with fascination. "There's nothing there for me, though I know I bumped into something like this earlier… Why would I be able to pass and you can't." Yosuke sighed and crossed his arms after a while, realizing the implications here. This was an elimination style tournament it would seem; and now that Yosuke was eliminated, well… He needed to stay away from the other competetors. Or more importantly Teddie.

"I lost… Maybe Teddie's trying to keep me from following you?" Yosuke theorized. Justin's eyes lit up a bit. That made a lot of sense actually, though it did leave the question as to HOW he was doing this. Teddie had never been able to do this before, why could he know? Actually, just why in general? Why was he doing this? Teddie was clueless, but he wasn't malicious. This was like a whole 'nother person. Yosuke sighed before pressing himself up as close to the wall as possible. "Look, whatever this is, it's clear I can't follow you. I don't know what's going on, but you need to find the others. Maybe they know what's happening. Yu especially." Justin nodded his head a bit with cautious agreement.

"Perhaps… Something's not right here. Teddie wouldn't do this, would he?" Justin questioned, perhaps hoping Yosuke himself knew SOMETHING. He shrugged.

"I don't know. I thought not, but… That was his voice on the intercom."

"Voice-changer?"

"Unlikely." Yosuke groaned with annoyance. Did Justin really believe that someone was trying to imitate Teddie? That's ridiculous. Of all people, why would they want to be Teddie. Teddie's life kind of sucked. Just a little bit, what with him being a mascot that guarded against the malicious forces of evil trying to harness shadows' powers. Justin crossed his arms and leaned against his leg, wiping a blood smear along his chin away with the tip of his fingers.

"Well, only one way to find out I guess." Justin decided. He should probably get going… But first things first. "Oh, and Yosuke?"

"Yeah?"

Within a split second Justin's fist was in Yosuke's face, and even quicker than that Yosuke was on the floor grasping his face in pain.

"That's for spitting in my face."


	243. Chapter 242: Round 2

CHAPTER 242

Round 2

* * *

"Ugh, I wonder if I just made a dash for the exit I could find the television back on my own."

Justin stared out the window, eyes on the school gate as he contemplated risking getting lost wherever he was just to find his way back. His skin felt like it was on fire where the tooth had ripped through his flesh, leaving blood to pour and pour. And there wasn't a damn thing he could do to stop it while he was here. And on top of it all, Teddie was making everyone beat the shit out of each other. Justin was not amused to say the least. He sighed before pushing his way away from the window sill and trying to force his way down the hallway. Much to his aggravation he hit an invisible wall. Again. The hall way was littered with these in what was clearly an attempt to herd Justin from point a to point b. Now mind you, Justin would do it just to get this all over with and get a band-aid or something; the invisible walls were entirely unnecessary. Just tell him where to go and stop wasting his time and energy dammit.

"It would be easier to hold my hands out while I walk than this shit." Justin groaned, pressing his fingers against his bruised nose as he tried to navigate his way around the wall. The entire hallway was blocked off, so it would seem that he needed to move through one of the classrooms to get around it. Justin got a very bad feeling about that; and understandably so as he pushed the door open. He couldn't help but groan as he laid eyes on Yu, who seemingly was having trouble getting the door to the otherside of aforementioned door open. At least Justin wasn't the only one pissed off about all of this if the scowl on his face as he tried to ram the door was any indication. "Yu! Goddamn, please tell me you haven't lost your mind too."

Yu looked up from what he was doing, taking a deep breath as he turned his eyes to meet Justin's, a small grin sweeping across his face. Oh it was so good to see a friend given the circumstances. He ran into Yukiko already, but she completely lost it. He wasn't too pleased to say Teddie had done something to make them have to fight. Luckily Yukiko wasn't too hurt when all was said and done, just a little sore, but still… Yu kind of felt like the hugest asshole in the world fighting his girlfriend like that. He backed away from the door, extending his hand to offer Justin the opportunity to try and open the door himself. He didn't have much success unfortunately. "I could ask you the same thing. I uh… take it from the bloody lip you had to fight someone too."

"Well the bloody lip was actually from falling flat on my face when we got here, but yeah. I did." Justin explained, even though, really, it didn't matter. What was important was he got hurt pretty bad, not how he got hurt. Justin groaned as he tried to kick the door open to no such luck. He must have taken a wrong turn somewhere. This invisible wall bullshit was just outright confusing. "Teddie's got a lot of nerve pulling this crap."

"I don't know… Doesn't something sound off about Teddie?" Yu piped up. He couldn't tell if it was just the tone of voice he was using or what was coming out of his mouth, but it just didn't sound like Teddie. Something was definitely rubbing Yu wrong about all of this; there was something deeper to this than just some prank Teddie decided to pull. Justin simply raised his eyebrow in confusion.

"What do you mean?" Before Yu could even respond, a loud screeching sound filled the room, causing both to crouch in pain as they tried to block their ears. Seemed like 'the General' had more to say. Or perhaps it was Rise. That was another thing; even if this was one of Teddie's pranks, Rise would never condone this, would she?

"Fourth-year, class two Justin Tylor! How are things going?" Rise's voice echoed through classroom. Justin was irritated, that's for sure; would that be a viable answer? No, no, not aggressive enough. A more appropriate answer would be 'fuck you and fuck your games.' Yu folded his arms as he stared up at the intercom, clearly not as pleased himself with whatever was going down. "I have a message from the General! Your next battle is about to begin, so don't go anywhere!"

"Tell 'the General' we're not going to fight. So he can kiss my ass." Justin shouted back at the intercom. Yu was completely within his sane mind; they'd simply refuse to fight and that would be that. I mean, if he wanted to keep his 'ratings' up, there would need to be a fight. Keeping two people trapped in a room with no intention of playing his game wasn't going to help in that matter. There was a crackling sound from what sounded like the microphone being shifted around. One would think that Teddie and Rise would have separate microphones, but whatever. Cost efficiency.

"Yeesh, how thick can you be?" The general countered with annoyance. "If you don't keep moving you're gonna bleed out all over the floor. I wouldn't go on strike for too long." He mocked Justin, who simply wiped the burning blood from his mouth, angered by Teddie's cockiness. Justin wasn't going to bleed out anytime soon, at least, he didn't think so. He had that cut on his stomach now so perhaps it was possible. But he doubted it. Still he raised somewhat of a point. "C'mon, we're about to get started."

"If you want a fight so bad Ted, why don't you just come down and fight me yourself." Justin spread his arms out in challenging fashion; as if Teddie could really see him through the intercom. Was worth trying at the very least I guess. The intercom remained silent though; whether because Teddie had nothing to say or because he didn't care though, it was hard to determine. Hopefully he seriously considered the proposition so Justin could punch him right in his smug little face. There was the slight crackle of music, which Justin assumed was there for the viewing audience at home, but otherwise neither Rise or Teddie had anything to add. Justin sighed before turning to Yu. "Got a deck of ca… Yu, what the fuck do you think you're doing."

Yu smirked, hand on the hilt of his blade. Justin was needless to say pretty damn alarmed as he removed his blade from his sheath. Now wait just one second, fighting was one thing, fighting with a sword was a completely 'nother. What in the hell was going on anyway; Yu was fine literally a second ago, now he already had his weapon drawn with intent to shed blood. "Card games? Why would we do that? We've got a match to fight." Justin backed away shaking his head.

"Put your damn sword down. I'm not going to fight." Justin demanded. He'd forfeit if need be, but he was not going up against Yu of all people, especially when he had a FUCKING SWORD. That wasn't fair in the slightest not to mention kind of lethal, especially in Justin's current condition. Yu didn't seem to budge though, just frowning with disappointment instead.

"Not fighting? What exactly do you think this is Justin?" He remarked with annoyance. He had one job, only one job, and he refused to do it? "You think I'm just going to put my sword down because we're 'friends'?" Yu questioned, finger quotation marks and all. Justin was simply horrified; what in god's name was he talking about now? Surely he wasn't trying to imply they weren't actually friends right? Yosuke Justin could understand. They never really got along all that well, so it was only half surprising when Yosuke turned out to be a complete asshole. Yu? This was a guy Justin trusted with everything. Who was he to say they weren't friends now? Who was he to toy with Justin's heart, just like all the others before him.

"Because it's goddamn madness!" Justin countered. Even if they weren't best buds or something, to draw your sword over a silly competition? This wasn't like Yu at all, something wasn't right. Justin squinted his eyes a bit as Yu laughed, staring at the muscles of his face carefully. There had to be some sort of tell as to why he was acting like a huge dick right now; the Yu he knew wouldn't do this.

"No, madness is you not doing what you're told." Yu countered, glaring at Justin. In a way, him insulting Justin like that was a blessing and a cursing at the same time. It hurt like all hell to hear this crap coming from Yu's mouth, but now that Justin stared at him closer… His lips weren't matching what he was saying, like he was completely out of synch… Or perhaps as if he were saying one thing and Justin was hearing something else… It was just like with Yosuke; that's why both of them seemed to be arguing about something completely different when they snapped back to reality. Yu wasn't saying a damn thing that Justin was hearing. And that was a relief, but at the same point, what Justin was hearing was still in Yu's voice; and that was enough to fool his heart. "This is your problem Justin. You think you're entitled to anything because we're 'friends.' We're not friends, we never were. You think I liked having to listen you bitch and moan about your father every goddamn week!? The only reason we put up with you was because of the case, but now that that's over you are NOTHING. You don't get the right to object when I tell you to something. You just do it."

"And if I don't?" Justin shouted back after a moment. Yu or not, no one told him what to do, and no one put him down like that. The reason he talked about that stuff with Yu was simply because he thought he could trust Yu with that crap. If he really didn't want to hear about it, he should have just said so. This… This was uncalled for, if not outright hurtful. Yu shook his head before extending his blade, pointing the tip of his sword right up to Justin's face.

"Then you better be a good dodger." He smirked before thrusting his sword forward. Justin was just able to step out of the way as his sword arm darted forward, embedding the steel of his blade into the wall behind him. Holy crap he really was trying to stab Justin. Justin got that they were hearing different things, but nothing was changing the fact that Yu struck first, with his weapon of all things. What the fuck was wrong with him? Justin was frozen in place for a moment before he realized Yu's sword was stuck in the wall. He only had one chance. He quickly elbowed Yu in the face, causing him to relinquish his grip on the blade and stumble backwards, disarming him immediately.

"Fuck you, Yu. You were like a brother to me and now you're trying to kill me!?" Justin lectured him before attempting to kick Yu. Yu was quick to grab his leg and twist it in the most excruciatingly painful way one could imagine. Justin screamed out in pain as he fell to the ground. Yu watched with indifference as he marched around Justin and back to his blade. He almost pittied Justin as he squirmed on the floor, reaching out for his blade so he could finish him off. Justin, noticed however, and even though his leg was screaming out in pain, he swept out to knock Yu off his feet. Yu hit his head pretty hard too. The two seizured about on the floor for a moment before Justin was able to regain his composure and try to crawl away. Yu wasn't having any of that shit though. He was quick to grab Justin's ankle and pull him back, where he proceeded to try and punch him in the face over and over. Justin tried to block the blows with his hand with little to no avail as his head hit the floor from the recoil.

Justin was eventually able to knock Yu off with his knee before crawling out of his reach again this time and standing up, blood dripping from his mouth from the beating he had just received. Yu soon followed Justin's lead, getting back up on his feet and striking a defensive pose. It was hard to tell at times who the aggressor was here, but given that Yu was attacking Justin even when he was in little position to defend, and with a weapon no less, it was hard to say that it wasn't Narukami. Justin took a few deep breathes before shouting and charging forward. Yu tried to deck him as he approached, but Justin ducked quick enough, sending Yu toppling into the wall behind him with the force of his shoulder. Justin quickly capitalized on the opening by back handing Yu; hard enough that spittle went spraying from his mouth as Justin's hand hit his cheek. He stumbled, still trying to catch his balance before Justin kicked him in the stomach, causing him to bend over in pain.

Justin was about to lay the coup de grace on Yu, elbowing him in the back of his neck and sending him into the floor beneath them, but Yu as it would seem still had a second wind in him, hitting the floor himself and rolling away from Justin before he could do the damage himself. In turn, Justin toppled to the floor from his lack of balance, where Yu was quick to grab him and start wailing on him to the best of his ability. It wasn't the most graceful show of skill as he pounded his fist on Justin's back, but it did suppress him, so it was hard to say Yu wasn't winning this one. Justin folded under the pressure, struggling to get up as blow after blow hit his back. And for a moment he had considered just laying down and accepting defeat. But he couldn't, he knew he couldn't when Yu was trying to stab him in the face. But how could he fight back when Yu had him pinned like this?

There was only one option, something so despicably low and so disgusting that Justin was having a hard time deciding if he actually wanted to do it or not. He'd just have to swallow his pride given that his life was entirely on the line here. He held his breath and bit his bottom lip, or at least the part he hadn't bit through previously…

And then he headbutt Yu right in the dick.

He wasn't too proud of it, but Yu did immediately roll over screaming in pain, so I guess it was hard to feel guilty when it worked. Justin took a deep breath as he stood up, using the wall to help him balance as he watched Yu rolling around in pain. Yeah, he wasn't getting up from that. "Ooh, a low blow from Justin Tylor of Year Four, Class Two" Rise's voice echoed, a clear sign that this match was getting wrapped up. "In any other show that would be grounds for disqualification, but here at the P-1 Grand Prix, anything goes. Let's hear a round of applause for this round's winner!" The crowd went nuts, though it was still impossible to see the crowd, only to hear them. Justin wiped the blood from his mouth as the intercom screeched once again, cutting off all connection between Rise and Teddie. No smartass remarks from 'the General?' He must not have been too happy to see Justin win. Probably because Justin wouldn't hesitate to rip his skull out once he found him after all this.

"Please tell me you're not trying to kill me anymore." Justin sighed as he let his back slide down the wall, down to the ground as he tried to gather his energy again. Yu continued to roll around in pain, grasping at his now broken manhood.

"MY JUNK!? ARE YOU KIDDING ME JUSTIN!?" He shouted over his pain, voice an octave or two higher than usual as he tried to deal with the pain that was now shooting through his scrotum. Look, he realized this was kind of an all-out brawl with no rules, but that was just common decency. Justin sighed with slight relief. He was pissed as all fuck, but… I don't know, it didn't sound like whatever Teddie had been doing was still influencing Yu and manipulating his words. His lips synched up and he seemed more baffled than infuriated. If this was the Yu that wanted a fight out of Justin he wouldn't have been so surprised to see him bringing the fight to him in any way possible.

"You were trying to STAB me, come on. Fair's fair."

"Alright, alright, point taken. Motherf…" Yu mumbled to himself. Trying to put his sword in Justin's face was admittedly not cool. But when he was talking shit about Yukiko like that, he kind of lost his cool. The blame was all on Yu for that, he'd take the credit. Justin simply nodded a bit.

"So… I'm not the only one that noticed our lips didn't match what we were saying right?"

"No, I noticed it too." Yu gasped as he pushed himself up from the ground, holding back his screams of pain. He just had to keep sucking it up. "Your lips stopped moving before you were finished talking a couple of times. I thought I was going crazy at first, but… You think Teddie's doing that?" Yu questioned with interest. Justin rubbed at his chin for a moment. That seemed rather likely, though now they had to wonder how he was doing it.

"Most likely."

"Ugh, I don't even want to know what it sounded like on your end."

"…No… No, you don't."


	244. Chapter 243: Round 3

CHAPTER 243

Round 3

* * *

"Wide open area? Shit."

Justin sighed with irritated disbelief as Teddie continued to herd him through the school. This time he had managed to find himself down in the music room, where assorted instruments decorated every corner. Justin was no fool; he could pick up on patterns easily, and so far all the fights had been in open areas such as this; the only question then was who was his supposed opponent? His eyes darted around the room in search of any other human life to little to no avail. Place seemed pretty barren; perhaps Justin had been first. Perhaps there was no fight after all. Justin scratched at his chin. Perhaps this was his lucky da-

Suddenly Justin's thoughts were interrupted by the alarming sensation of someone tapping him on the shoulder. Justin wasn't sure what provoked what happened next. Perhaps it was paranoia that everyone in this tournament was trying to kill Justin. Perhaps part of him just wanted to win the match before it started. Perhaps he was just startled and acted on instinct. Whatever it was, it provoked Justin to turn around and immediately deck Maya in the face. She was not amused, nor was Justin who immediately bit his fingernails in shame, pain shooting through his body as he watched Maya struggle with the pain. "Oh Jesus, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean too-"

_"Why would you do that!?"_ Maya signed off, blood flowing from her nostrils and tears from her eyes. It was clear Justin had hit her pretty hard, much to his shame, though the tears looked like they had been coming down for a while and Justin had just made them worse. "Why does everyone hate me today...?" She sniffled as she tried to clot the blood in her nose. First Chie, then Yosuke, now Justin? She couldn't take this anymore. She had done nothing to deserve this treatment. It only took a moment before tears became all out hysterics. It wasn't the pain, it was that all her friends wanted to see her hurt that made her want to drown in a river of her own tears.

"H-hey, hey. Please don't cry, it was an accident." Justin tried to apologize, to not much success. Personally, he blamed whatever it was that Teddie had done to manipulate his words. In truth, Teddie hadn't quite activated it yet, perhaps finding amusement in Justin's outlash and Maya's tears. Justin extended his arms to give her a hug, one she would gladly accept after the day she had been having. Justin's clothes were surprisingly tear absorbent as it would seem.

_"Y-Yosuke and Chie said I was fat. And then they got angry and tried to hit me, and, and..."_ Maya couldn't finish that thought before tears began to flow down her cheeks again. Justin patted at her back with sympathy for the girl as she broke down. He could only imagine the damage comments like that could do to a previous anorexic.

"Shh, shh, it's alright. Don't worry, none of them-" Before Justin could finish, the crackle of speakers deafened Justin and Maya. Neither Rise nor Teddie seemed to speak though... They must have pressed the intercom button by accident. Justin just sighed before putting his hands on Maya's shoulders. "As I was saying, none of them were saying that stuff. Teddie's been manipulating them."

Maya backed away from Justin with an expression of pure shame and sadness on her face. _"I-I'm not ugly! I'm not!" _Justin stared at her with confusion for a moment. He couldn't even guess what had suddenly provoked her to start shouting about her appearances. He was going to guess whatever it was Teddie was doing had taken effect, but… Even when Teddie normally did this, usually the other person didn't seem like a ranting lunatic; just kind of an asshole. Maya? It sounded like she was having a different conversation. That was what confused him; they never really noticed that until after everyone had beat the shit out of each other. Justin extended his hand in an apologetic manner, perhaps feeling that whatever he was saying was in fact being twisted into something horribly disgusting.

"You look fine Maya." He tried to reassure her, though his pleas ultimately fell on deaf ears. Or perhaps, they fell on more than listening ears, though they had gone through some filter somewhere along the way. Tears started to flow down her skin again as she pushed Justin away, a combination of disappointment and sorrow clogging her throat as insult after insult barraged her ears. Why? WHY WAS EVERYONE DOING THIS TO HER!?

"_Sh-Shut up! I- I… I'm pretty. Yosuke said…"_ She froze for a moment. Yeah he used to say it, but just a moment ago he had nothing but disgusting words to describe her appearance. Her lip quivered a bit; even the man she loved thought she was some ugly swine. She couldn't deal with it. Yet even despite the clear emotional turmoil she was under, Justin hadn't expected her to revert back to her old ways so quickly. She pushed Justin away before rushing off, tears in her eyes as she rushed out the door. Strange; weren't there usually invisible walls there? It didn't matter; Justin ran after her to make sure she was alright. What he found instead was Maya trying to stick her finger down her throat again. He was quick to tackle her before she started to vomit, though he was a little late and ended up getting puke on his shoulder as he brought her to the ground.

"What in god's name are you doing!?" Justin scolded her with annoyance. Years it had been since she forced herself to puke up her stomach contents to lose weight. What had gotten into her that within a few hours time she had already reverted back to that state of mind? Perhaps he didn't realize that when someone you cared deeply about insulted you, well, you took it really deep to heart. Tears were still flowing down her face as she struggled to try and get free from Justin's grip.

"_Why are you doing this!? I'm just trying to give you what you want."_ She sniveled. If everyone thought she was so hideous, then maybe she needed to fix that. Justin stared at her with bafflement before something suddenly dawned on him. Maya wasn't hearing a damn thing he was saying, but he could understand everything she was saying. And why was that? Because whatever Teddie was doing was altering sound, not visuals. And Maya wasn't exactly the most vocal person in the world. Justin only felt bad that everyone else could see her like this too; especially Yosuke. He probably feels like the biggest douchebag in the world right now, and it wasn't even his fault. Justin grabbed Maya by the cheeks, keeping her head steady as he raised his finger, trying to get her to stop crying for a second.

"_Maya, do me a favor. How much wood could a wood chuck chuck if a wood chuck could chuck wood?" _Justin signed off to the best of his ability. He had to pick something so bizarre that there was no way she would just say something that happened to correspond with his sign-language. Given the really confused look on her face, Justin was going to guess she understood him perfectly clear.

"_Wha… What does that have to do with anything!?"_

"_Just answer it."_

"_A fucking lot, I don't know!" _She countered with aggravation. Justin sighed as he pushed himself off of Maya and tried to wipe some of the barf on his shoulder off his clothes. God knows he didn't want any of that shit after all, so the quicker he got that shit off the better. The good news was that he had found a way around Teddie's little censor, and as far as he could tell from Teddie and Rise's silence, this wasn't one of his matches. It worked great, because the power of two was much better than the power of one after all. Justin smiled as he extended his hand to help Maya up to her feet. She accepted begrudgingly, a perplexed expression on her face. Here Justin was calling her a fatass just a moment earlier, and now he was smiling and helping her up to her feet like a gentleman. She didn't get it at all.

"_Maya, you are a blessing in disguise, you know that?" _Justin signed off with gratitude for the girl. She may not have known it, but just by being her, she had managed to solve one of the biggest problems plaguing this damn tournament of theirs. After all, everyone in the group knew a LITTLE sign language so they could communicate with Maya when Justin and Yosuke weren't around. It wasn't much, but it was something, and that something would have to do. _"Listen to me, everything you've been hearing? No one has said any of that. Teddie's been messing with our words; but I don't think he can do anything with our sign-language."_

"_I… Don't follow." _Maya shook her head with puzzlement. The sudden mood shift, the bullshit that seemed to be dripping from Justin's mouth right now. It was all much too confusing for her; she couldn't say she necessarily wanted to know either. For all she knew this was just another insult about her weight in disguise. It wouldn't surprise her at this point, but it would hurt all the same.

"_You've been hearing things, essentially. We all have, but you… You can communicate just fine with us because of… uh… your condition." _Justin tried to put it delicately, knowing Maya didn't like having attention drawn to her lack of voice. Her eyes feel to the ground, her mind deep in thought on the matter. It was a pretty damn shitty thing to feel proud of, but if what Justin was saying was true, and not just him trying to lure her in a false sense of security, then perhaps she did feel just a tad bit special. But then, she wasn't sure how much good she could do when no one seemed to stop yelling at her.

"_So… Yosuke really doesn't think I'm fat?" _Maya questioned with wide eyes. Man, she was really focused on that, wasn't she. Justin smiled at her, wrapping his arm around her shoulders in a reassuring fashion. He didn't necessarily like Yosuke, and he didn't necessarily think Yosuke had the purest intentions dating his sister, even after a year had passed, but he was still a good guy, and he was sure Maya and him would be just fine.

"_Of course not. You know that's not true." _Maya smiled a bit, cheering up at the mere confirmation that there was a possibility Yosuke really did think she was beautiful. She sniveled abit, running her finger beneath her nose as she smeared the blood still dripping from her nostrils. Justin probably broke her nose, and she was still pretty pissed about that, but given the circumstances, she was going to let it slide. For now anyway. Besides, they had bigger fish to fry; and I don't necessarily mean Teddie either. The two stared at each other with relief for a moment when the smile slowly started to fade from her face, an expression of horror taking it's place, wide eyes and mouth agape. Justin's smile faded to an expression of confusion as Maya looked like she had just been kicked in the ovary or something. _"What's wrong?"_

"_Justin, run."_ Justin was needless to say pretty damn confused, though once he actually did get a glimpse as to what was behind him, he could honestly say his face shifted just the same. Though whether that was from the shock or having his head slammed into the wall beside him he couldn't tell. Blood dripped from the corners of his mouth as he twitched in pain, groaning as he tried to get up, only to be forced back down with a kick to the rib cages. He rolled over in pain, eyes wide and bloodshot as he stared up at the ceiling. Out of the corner of his eyes to the right was Maya, very visibly frightened and backing away slightly. And to his left?

A splitting image of himself, pure white eyes and fury in his veins. Yeah, Justin was just as surprised himself. He thought they had settled all of this; he thought they had made a deal. Justin's shadow, however was livid, yanking Justin up by the collar of his shirt and shoving him into the way, bloody murder in his eyes as he stared at his human counterpart. **"You motherfucker. Do you realize what you've done!?"**

"Let go of me, we had a deal!" Justin countered, squirming as he tried to get loose of his shadow's grip. The shadow wasn't budging though, and in fact had tossed Justin across the room with a single sweep of his arm. Absorbing the powers of a dead god had made him extraordinarily strong, and he intended to use every ounce of that power to his advantage and grant himself the revenge he so desired. Justin shouted in pain as every bone in his body screamed out in agony upon collision with the wall on the opposite side of the hall, cracks in its brick structure.

"**Deal!? Look around you! The deal was that you would keep your filthy human paws off my world, and look at it now! No, I'm afraid the deal has long since been broken. You humans can't be trusted." **The shadow angrily ranted and raved as he made his way to where Justin now lay. Justin was quick to roll over on his back and try to kick the shadow in his crotch as he approached, though that did nothing more than make him flinch for a moment. A shame, dick kicking had been working so good until now. It would seem that in the end all Justin had done was make his shadow angrier. Angry enough to pull out a switchblade and try to press it against Justin's throat. He tried to fight the shadow off, though he was having very little success keeping him at bay as the knife drew closer and closer to his neck.

"We had nothing to do with this! We're trying to figure out what's going on, too!" Justin tried to explain, hoping that the circumstances being beyond his control would be enough of a deterrent to keep the shadow at bay. In the end though, it seemed the shadow had already convinced himself that all humans were filthy liars. This was a product of their engineering; they had fucked his world up the ass again, and he wouldn't stand for it. The knife touched the skin of Justin's throat, where the tip of the blade dug into the flesh ever so slightly. Not enough for bleeding, but enough that with one push, Justin would be dead in a heartbeat.

"**Oh it's too late for shifting blame. You're human, it's in your very blood. The only cure would be a complete blood transfusion…" **The shadow chuckled a bit with sinister glee. **"So why don't we get started?" **He smirked as he tried to apply force to the hand that held his switchblade, intent to slit Justin's throat and let him bleed out all over the floor. That had been the intent anyway. What he hadn't intended was to be ambushed by Maya, who kicked him straight in the face. He dropped his weapon as he stumbled backwards, caught off guard by a factor he had forgotten to take into account; the girl had been with him. Given the way her chest seemed to inflate in and out, she was clearly very afraid of the shadow. And why shouldn't she be? He was a god now, especially to these puny humans. Let no one stand between him and his goals. Her eyes were wide as she breathe in and out in heavy breaths, pupils slowly making their way down to Justin as she struck a defensive position.

"_Justin, run!"_

"What? Are you crazy, I'm not-"

"_JUST GO!" _She countered authoritively. She knew Justin didn't want to leave her alone with a mad man, but she'd be alright. At least, she thought she would be. All the same, she couldn't let Justin fight this battle. He didn't have the energy in him, especially with his injuries. He wouldn't last even a second in the fray; so she would have to be his stand-in. But it was important that he got away before his shadow forgot about Maya and turned his attention back to his counterpart. Justin stared at her with slight horror as she stood over him, ready to defend him even from death. It was touching, but oh so concerning. This wasn't just a kind gesture. There was a pretty good chance this could be fatal, especially now that his shadow had absorbed Izanami's powers…

Perhaps it was for that reason Justin had never felt more ashamed in his life as he crawled away, leaving Maya and Justin's shadow to duke it out. He didn't even look behind him as he ran away… He didn't want to see the bloodshed.


	245. Chapter 244: Round 4

CHAPTER 244

Round 4

* * *

"Christ… This has gotten worse than I ever could have imagined."

Justin hung his head with shame as he walked down the hallway. He just left her there to fight his shadow; what kind of horrible person was he to leave her with a mad man like that? He'd probably rip her to shreds in an instant. And yet he was too afraid to turn around and see the blood river in the road. It hadn't been the first time he had left a friend behind to certain death in hopes they could pull out on their own. He was a coward, even he realized that. But he couldn't change, no matter how hard he tried to. He sighed, hands dragging against the wall besides him as he walked, his heart clenched up in his chest with pain and guilt. He didn't even want to think of what happened when he ran; logically, nothing good could have come from it. But… What was he supposed to do, stay too? Maya should have run with him, but she didn't. That was her fault, right? Justin shouldn't have felt bad for her decision, and yet… He had never felt worse in all his life. This wasn't the first time she had sacrificed herself to save Justin's life; he shouldn't have been putting her through this, and yet he was. He was a complete asshole. At least, that's how he felt.

He kicked open the door that lead to the gymnasium. The room was empty, but god knew he had to be here. It was a big room and the walls around him seemed to lead him straight here. He had no choice in the matter. He never did; he was a sheep in the herd going with the flow of the river that carried him from point to point. Sometimes he hit a couple rocks in the stream, and the pain always lasted as the water poured into his bloody wound. This was one of those days, only instead of rocks, these were sharp shards of glass and metal, liter in the river, trash to go with the garbage in the rushing waters to the river's mouth. His eyes scanned the room, hoping for some form of life, even knowing the implications of encountering someone else in this twisted little game of Teddie's. He had found a way around the language barrier, and right now, he really could use someone that had his back right about now. In a way, he got what he was looking for, and yet, the furthest thing possible from what he desired.

"…Pardon me for interrupting while you are lost in thought." Justin jumped a bit as a voice came from behind him. He was tempted to punch whoever was behind him again, what with it being an unfamiliar voice this time, but he'd rather not break anymore noses without reason. He did strike a slightly defensive pose however as he turned to face whoever had appeared behind him. A girl from the looks of it. She had short blonde hair and the bluest eyes Justin had ever seen, though there was something rather odd about her attire. She was wearing a tie and all that, but… her shoulders looked almost like exposed machinery. Maybe she was into cosplaying or something. Whatever it was, Justin didn't care. She was an unfamiliar in an already horrible situation. Yet despite that, Justin couldn't help but lower his denses with relief. Maybe it was the smile on her face that seemed to melt his cold exterior; perhaps it was her piercing blue eyes. Justin wasn't one to look at other women, but he'd admit that whoever this girl was, she was kind of cute. But then, blonde chicks always were up his alley. He had tried convincing Chie to dye her hair blonde once, just to see what it looked like. It didn't end well. "I didn't mean to startle you." She apologized, a soft, gentle grin reaching across the corners of her face, cheek to cheek.

"Uh… I'm sorry, who are you again?" Justin questioned as politely as one could when asking for someone's name… someone who cleary seemed to recognize him, though he could not recognize her. Her appearance here was somewhat of a concern though, as she wasn't listed as one of the contestants on Teddie's little introduction. That meant she hadn't been accounted for, which meant either she had gotten in her on her own, or someone had forced her in. If it was the former, she was an unaccounted for Persona user, and if Adachi was any example, that could be a very bad thing. I don't think I need to explain why the latter was just as bad, if not worse. The girl didn't seem offended at the very least; they had never been introduced, so it was understandable.

"It's nice to meet you. My name is Aigis. You are the one from the introduction video listed as… Captain Chivalry, Justin Tylor. Correct?" Justin's defensive pose had slowly faded away, arms reaching down to his hips as he slowly sunk back into a casual pose. She seemed well aware of the tournament going on here, which made the possibility of her being forced in her a lot less likely, though he didn't find much relief in that. Perhaps because she had insisted on calling him Captain Chivalry. Again, it was entirely sarcastic the way he was introduced in the video. If he was being legitimately called Captain Chivalry, he'd have no problems with the title, but it was clearly intended to be ironic. He sighed and rubbed at his temples slightly.

"What's wrong with respecting women?" Justin muttered to himself under his breath. Yeah, maybe he went a little out of his way to be more friendly or polite to the opposite gender, but was that such a bad trait to have as a person? Perhaps slightly sexist, but in the best way possible, right? Aigis didn't seem all that fazed by Justin's objections though. It was pretty much just a title to her; she didn't see any offense in referring to him as such. "Aigis, was it? What exactly are you doing here? No one forced you in here, did they?" Justin questioned with concern for the girl. He'd hate to see innocents getting dragged into this as well; especially after everything else that had happened. She seemed somewhat angered by the question, a look of fiery determination in her crystal blue eyes as the question assaulted her ears, or… whatever those things were along her headband.

"No, I am here of my own volition. Our primary objective is the destruction of Shadows… but we have come to this world on a different mission." Justin's eyes widened slightly. Now, he didn't know what she meant by 'our,' but he could understand destruction of shadows fairly clearly. So she must have had a Persona then, did she not? And if she was here to fight shadows, she must be a good guy, right? Maybe she could help then. Maya was a fighter, hopefully she was still hanging in there; now that he had this girl's attention, perhaps she could save his sister.

"Wait, destruction? Jesus Christ, I am so happy you came along when you did, I need your hel-" Justin couldn't even finish his statement, as he was quickly interrupted by the crackle of the intercom. It seemed like Teddie was strategically letting the electricity spark from the speakers whenever Justin was getting somewhere in a conversation; just to piss him off, or perhaps to throw Justin off his tail.

"Ahaaaa! So that's where you went to, Justin. I've been looking all over for you! I thought you were supposed to be at the music room. You didn't run away, did you?" Teddie laughed at Justin's pain and misery from the other side of the intercom, mocking him and his cowardness. He totally deserved it, but all in all it would have never happened if Teddie hadn't gone fucking around with this world. He had pissed off the last person any of them wanted to piss off. Justin took a couple deep breaths , bottom lip quivering a bit. He didn't have time for this. His sister's life was in danger right now and it was his fault. If this was some prank, it had gone on for far too long. "Ooooh… who's the honey? Were you in the middle of trying to score with her? Tsk, tsk, I'm sure Chie-chan won't be happy to hear about this."

"Fuck you Teddie. You know why she's here and so would Chie." Justin pointed out with aggravation. Teddie probably wasn't going to say anything to his girlfriend, but even if he did, I'm sure she'd realize by now that Teddie was spouting bullshit and lies by this point, furthermore, two people couldn't make it to the same room without having to fight. Teddie laughed with enthusiasm and amusement.

"Oh my, did you figure it out? I didn't have a choice after those guys decided on their own to horn in on the fun. You're a bright boy, Justin… You know what's coming next, don't you?"

"My foot up your ass." Justin countered. The speaker simply crackled again as Teddie turned his microphone off. He was pretty clear; the two would fight and Justin didn't have a say in the matter. And it was true, as far as he knew Aigis didn't know sign-language, why should she? And that meant once he started messing with their speech, there was going to be a problem… Justin turned to Aigis, the muscles in his chest clenched tight. Great, now he was going to have to beat the shit out of some girl he didn't even know. God he hated Teddie right now. The girl just continued to smile though, oblivious to everything that was going on.

"Only the victor of each match may move on, yes?" Justin flinched a bit with surprise. She was entirely aware she was about to get in a fight. Usually these fights were proceeded with being insulted by the other, but her words weren't being deformed at all. She could understand what was going on around her, and Justin likewise could understand her. Seemed Teddie forgot to morph their speech or something. Maybe he just felt it wasn't needed right now, especially now that everyone across the school was starting to catch on.

"…You know about the fight?" Justin questioned. She nodded with confirmation, her movement a little stilted though entirely understandable all the same. After all, Teddie could only manipulate words, not movements, so it worked out for the better that way. "Look, I really hate to do this, but I need your help. My sister is in a lot of trouble, and if you have as much experience fighting shadows as you claim, then I can use a hand... Please, if we could just do this quickly..." Aigis smiled a bit. She wasn't aware of Justin's circumstances, but he got what he was trying to say. He didn't want to fight, but he had to because time was of the essence. And regardless of the conclusion of the match, so long as she got the aid she needed, it wouldn't matter. So he was proposing an alliance. Aigis didn't see a problem with that, save perhaps how they were going to both leave once the match was over.

"Of course. Let us engage." She bowed with respect before donning a more aggressive fighting position. Justin took a deep breath as he struck a fighting posture of his own. He didn't feel good about this, but if she understood why they had to do this, maybe he wouldn't feel as bad afterwards for punching some girl in the face. No one made a movement for a while, and while Justin would have preferred to have not had the first blow, he realized he couldn't just stand around in fear of hurting his pride. He took a deep breath before running forth, letting out a battle cry as he thrust his fist forward in a straight punch to her torso…

Bad idea. His hand practically cracked in two as his fist collided with her metal chasis. If there was any doubt that that weird outfit of hers wasn't just a costume, that was long gone after he tried punching her. She was built like a rock, and within seconds Justin was jumping around waving his fist as he tried to numb the pain. "Ow, ow, ow ow ow ow ow!" He chanted over and over again, trying to massage his sore hand with the fingers from the other. Aigis didn't even seem all that surprised; like she had expected him to break his fist from trying to fight her. You know, a warning would have been nice. How exactly was he supposed to fight what he couldn't hit… Even worse…

How was he supposed to win a fight where the opponent had an entire arsenal of guns sprouting from their back? Her hands gave way to a machine gun like structure, her shoulders to rocket launchers and assault rifles. She looked like a walking weapon, and there was a good chance she was. Justin's jaw hit the ground almost immediately. What was she trying to do, kill him!? They were supposed to be working together dammit!

"Hey, hey, hey! What do you think you're doing!?" Justin shouted with fear as her weapons started to rev up, ready to barrage Justin with a fury of bullets. And had he not started running, he would have been caught up in it almost immediately. The bullets seemed to get closer and closer the longer he ran, each shot hitting where he had stood only a split second earlier. If she was trying to kill him, she was coming pretty damn close. Holy hell; and to think he was going to go easy on her. All he knew was he couldn't keep running from this; his legs weren't that good. He needed cover. His eyes darted around for a moment before he noticed a stack of chairs off to the corner. He took a deep breath as he ran that-a-way, trail of ammunition following him the whole way there. Timing was in his favor, as just as he passed by the desks stacked on top of each other, she launched a rocket at Justin, sending him flying forward and knocking the desks over. He hit the ground hard, though thankfully for him, it seemed Aigis needed to reload her weapons. By the time he was back on his feet, he still had a short head-start. Before the weapons could rev up again, he had dived behind one of the desks she had knocked down earlier.

Bullet after bullet ricoched from the desk's surface. It wasn't exactly bulletproof, but it did stop Justin from getting shot for a little bit, and it did give him some breathing room and time to think. Not much, but it helped. He had to think, what could he possibly use to break a killing machine like that? He couldn't use his fists, and he had long stopped carrying his revolver around, so he couldn't exactly fire back. He needed some improve weaponry. But the only thing around here were a couple of basketballs and some desks. I don't think a basketball was going to do much damage, but… Justin had an idea. He turned about so his back was no longer facing the bullet filled desk, but rather so he was facing it head on, foot positioned against it's underside. With all the holes in it now, it had become significantly lighter. And that made it rather easy to make airbourne.

Justin gave it a quick kick, sending the desk flying at Aigis. It did nothing more than distract her for a moment, her bullets still trained on the desk as she suspected Justin to be hiding behind it. In fact, it was nothing more than a distraction. Before she could realize it, Justin had grabbed a hold of a chair from the stack and used all his strength to send it flying at her. The chair smacked her in the head, knocking her down in an instant. Steel could only take so much pressure before folding after all, and in Aigis's case, the wiring in her neck had crackled abit under the pressure of a folding chair hitting her dead in the face. She laid on the ground, trying to twist her head back in position. If tearing someone's head off didn't count as a victory, Justin wasn't sure what was. In truth, the match was far from over.

He approached Aigis, hand extended to help her back to her feet; though she had other plans. She quickly raised her foot towards Justin's stomach as he approached and activated what one would assume would be jet boots, sending Justin flying so far he had managed to actually hit the ceiling of the room before tumbling down. Needless to say, he wasn't getting up anytime soon. Aigis wiped some dust from the guns along her wrist, pride in her victory as she readjusted herself. "What a shocking victory! Did that weaponry meet regulation standards?" Teddie joked a bit from the intercom hanging above Justin. He was in too much pain from his spine hitting the hardest thing it could have possibly hit to care though. "The Heartless Armed Angel wins the round with a sneak attack. Friend against Friend, beating the heck out of each other!"

Aigis ignored the voice transmitting across the intercom. She was a little more concerned about the young man twitching violently on the floor as he tried to hold back screams of pain. After all, she had made a promise. She always kept her promises. She smiled as she extended her hand to the young man, who heaved heavily with pain. A fight was a fight, but goddamn, thrusting him into the ceiling? Not cool. "You're very resourceful." She complimented, that smile of hers still across her face. It was oddly comforting, yet really annoying at the same time. She could have killed Justin and she was just kind of playing it off like nothing had happened.

"I work well under pressure." Justin groaned as she helped him up to his feet. Aigis was actually rather impressed. She wasn't expecting that fight to last very long. Most fights she had with humans didn't last very long; her reflexes were just too good; and yet, she hadn't even seen what should have been obvious to her. If she hadn't been made as durable as she was, that could have ended the fight fatally. Works well under pressure indeed. She was rather impressed to say the least. It was only a shame she couldn't detect a Persona in him. He would have been quite the catch. Justin looked around, grabbing at his ribs in pain as he analyzed his circumstances. Well he lost now, so he was stuck here, right? How was he supposed to save his sister when he couldn't even leave? He wished he had thought this all through better. He needed Aigis, and after that little display, he was confident she could defeat his shadow. "So… you're a, uh… robot?"

"Yes. I am not human." She clarified. It probably should have been obvious to Justin immediately, but whatever. He was more than fascinated by the girl. A living, breathing, robot. One who could walk and talk and could have conversations. One who could show compassion and emotion. She would be a damn convincing human without the whole walking weapon thing going for her. The tech geek in Justin was squealing like a little girl right now. This was beyond the realms of his imagination. I mean, he always believed that scientists would reach this point eventually, but so soon? This was extraordinary! Especially one so human like.

Someone was going to have to remind Justin to rub this in Kurt's face at some point. Aigis smiled as she scanned the room for an exit. She was well aware Justin wasn't getting out through the door. She paced around, Justin following slowly behind her hoping that maybe she was making her way through a maze or something to the exit. In actuality, she had been deep in thought on a theory. And as with any theory, it could only be proven through testing. She quickly pulled that rocket launcher out of her shoulder again, to which Justin immediately ducked. She fired the explosive off into a wall separating the hallway and the gymnasium, leaving a big hole there. "I suspect that the host of this tournament could not create a barrier where there already was one." She smiled as she stepped through the hole, extending her arms to encourage Justin to follow in her stead. Much to his amazement, there was nothing there. There was no way he could make a hole like that, but dear god that would have been useful to know earlier.

"Aigis, you are a goddamn genius."


	246. Chapter 245: Round 5?

CHAPTER 245

Round 5…?

* * *

**"Why are you doing this?"**

The shadow stared down at Maya as she struggled to try and hold herself up on the floor, bruised and bloody from trying to fend him off. He didn't have the slightest scratch on him, but Maya? You would think she was hit by a truck twice in a row from the way she looked right now. She coughed a bit with pain, trying her damndest to keep fighting despite her physical limitation having long since been reached. The shadow was needless to say intrigued. Why would she keep fighting even knowing in the end it was hopeless? She was so far outclassed at this point that continuing to resist was only sealing her fate. T'was the stubbornness of being human he supposed. He sighed before kicking her in the gut again, dropping her to the ground once again. He was losing his patience by this point. How easy it would be to just slit her throat and move on; yet, he was just too fascinated with her endurance that he couldn't bring himself to make this quick and easy. Slow. Painful. Perhaps part of him just wanted to see her suffer because he reminded him of a fallen queen. A traitor to the great cause; she deserved to die more than once… Well… twice.

"**Are you humans really this stubborn? Let me make something clear to you; if you don't stay down, I am going to kill you. Do you understand?" **The shadow crouched, lifting her chin so that her eyes focused onto his. Maybe it was just that she didn't understand just who she was fucking with. He would gladly remind her that she was staring down death on two legs; and he had come to collect. They had one job, and that was to keep his world from reverting to the hell hole it was before. That was it; all they had to do was will his world to remain prosperous and beautiful. But that was too much for humans. They were backstabbers, willing to deceive just to get what they desire before giving into their twisted little games. They could never be trusted, he should have realized that a year ago when they stood on the cliff overlooking a brave new world. Maya took a deep breath through her nostrils, chest inflating in and out in pain. She probably broke something in her little last stand here, but she didn't care. Justin may have been long gone, but the moment she let his shadow go, he would find Justin. And he would kill him. She couldn't let that happen.

Why? She wasn't sure. She'd like to say it was just because he was a good friend, hell even a brother to her. But risking one's life just for a friend was not worth it at the end of the day. She was pretty sure what had made her jump to his rescue back in San Diego was a combination of guilt and love. She didn't feel guilty about anything, and she was pretty sure she had long since moved on from Justin. Maybe part of her still loved him deep inside; I mean, how could she not? He did so much for her, even when she didn't deserve it. But it was all platonic by this point; at least, so she was sure. It was moments like now that made her question that sometimes. She was just going to assume it was because she would feel guilty if something happened to Justin. Sometimes she was just too nice for her own good. There had to come a time where she put her foot down and said, 'No, I will not get shanked in the gut for you.' She glared at the shadow, his blank eyes staring down hers like an empty abyss. She couldn't give up, as much as she wanted to. So instead she spit in his face.

The shadow simply groaned with disgust before letting go of her face. Even in the face of death she refused to give up and let him get on with his schedule. In a way, he admired how bold she was, how courageous, if outright fucking stupid she was. But alas, at the end of the day she was still human. He blood coarsed red, and her heart beat with the rhythm of life. And so long as that was true, they could never be friends or allies or anything like that. They were enemies to the bitter death, and if that meant bitter death came now for the poor girl rather than later, so be it. He kicked her in the face as he wiped the spittle from his face. If she was going to hit him in the face with her saliva, he was gonna hit her in the face with much worse. Tears had started rolling down her cheeks almost immediately as she clenched her nose in pain. If Justin didn't break her nose, his shadow certainly did. Blood was rolling from her nostrils more than she could possibly clot and still expect to be able to breathe from her nose for the next month or so.

"**Beaten, bloody, a horrible mess of flesh and bones… And yet you keep resisting. You humans confuse me so much sometimes." **The shadow sighed, pacing around eyes examining the hallways around him. Of human construct. The skies outside were so beautiful and blue, but that was just an illusion. Beyond the veil, the world was tainted and the skies a sickly green. And this eye sore of a building wasn't exactly much better either. What was the point of this, uh… school? To get an education? Learning was pointless, ignorance was bliss and intelligence was grounds for execution in this world. This was practically a death camp waiting to happen… And it was attracting quite the show of shadows. It was as if the humans wanted nothing more than to destroy shadows simply for existing, like some kind of unjustified prejudice. Ironic given who this was coming from. **"Why do you persist knowing you will die? You gain nothing. You change nothing. You have no REASON to keep fighting, yet you do. Why? Why do you continue to throw your life away for him?" **The shadow demanded an answer with great curiosity. Maya stared at the shadow from her bloody heap on the floor, anger but determination in her eyes. He could break her flesh and bones, but he'd never break her spirit. He'd never break her.

"_Because he's my brother and I love him. Of course, I don't expect you to understand what it means to love." _The shadow's head twisted to the side with irritated astonishment. What, because he wasn't human he couldn't love? It wasn't a strictly human emotion, hell very few if any of them were specific to humans. If anything the humans could never understand the emotions that ran through him. Hell, even hate was not their emotion; they had stolen it long ago when they fell from grace. The shadow knelt down in front of the girl looking deep in her pain filled eyes. There was fiery determination in her eyes, confidence in the fate she had chosen for herself. She did not fear him, even though she had everything to fear.

"**And I don't expect you to understand anything about what lurks in the shadows. You think you know me? You haven't seen shit." **The shadow objected with irritation. Maya crawled forward a bit, lifting herself from the ground just enough that she could support herself on her palms. Her eyes never stopped piercing through him like darts through a dartboard. Oh she despised the shadow, not only as a captive would her tormenter, but as a guardian would an invader. Whose guardian? Well Justin's of course, even if she didn't necessarily want that job or deserve it. She had realized long ago that Justin needed a guardian angel; not even just someone to save him from shit like this, but just everyday life, and more importantly, from himself. She had passed the crown off to Chie long ago, but… even then, she still felt she had some responsibility.

"_Then show me."_ She growled back. She wanted to know legitimately; what could ever compel anyone to be such a monster? Why did he insist on torturing Justin and them so? He claimed to fight for his home, but the more she watched that lustful grin on his face as he shed blood, the more she doubted that was true. Oh perhaps it was true shadows could feel love, and Justin's shadow loved blood. The shadow lifted her chin up with his index and middle finger, so their eyes locked once again. They were different; green. Those weren't the familiar eyes he had grown up with all his life, the eyes that had been taken from him so long ago. It was probably the one thing that reminded him the human Maya was not HIS Maya. His Maya chose her path, and never again would their roads cross again. Even in death she refused to rejoin him so that they could be together once again; it killed him a little. He hated her so much, she made his life a living hell, and yet…

Maya's eyes widened with immediate shock as the shadow pressed his lips against hers. Alright, so when she said that he should show her, that's not what she meant at all. She was talking about that fog shit he always did with Justin, she was not talking about pseudo-rape. It only took a split second for her to break the lip lock the shadow had placed upon her, backing away with disgust from the now smirking shadow, a smug grin on his face as she stared at him with horror. **"That my dear is what you took away from me." **He chuckled sarcastically. For a man who lost everything, he sure didn't seem to care. His mind had snapped a long time ago, but the lack of empathy had only recently gone into play as his mind started to deteriorate with time. He had his convictions… and that was it. He was a walking harbinger for the good of his brothers and sisters in the fade. He had no soul, no heart, no mind. He was a tool, and a tool's mind was its holders mind. So then what about a tool that never leaves the confines of the toolbox?

"…_You did that yourself." _Maya signed off, chest inflating in and out with a combination of disgust and fear. She couldn't quite explain the sensation that was flowing through her chest right now, but she knew she didn't like it. You know, she had always dreamed of this moment, but not with Justin's shadow, and not now that she had moved along with her love life. This? It felt like a parasite, sucking away at the blood of her heart, turning the dreams of the past into nightmares of today. The shadow's smile slowly faded as Maya shifted the blame. Of course, humans never were one to take responsibility for what they did. He quickly narrowed the distance between them, even as she tried to back away in freight. It didn't last long as he held her in place by the skin of her cheeks.

"**I did nothing but set in motion a revolution. I gave the most important thing in the world to me so that we could live. If it wasn't for you, she never would have left me. And you have the audacity to mock me?" **Justin's shadow growled at her with the fury of a thousand suns. Maya's glare intensified as best it could with the skin of her face clutched between the shadow's fingers, shaking her head the best she could with her movement restricted by her captor.

"_You know what your problem is? You don't take responsibility. You were the one that shot her, no one is to blame for her death but you. Not Teddie. Not Justin. Not me. But you're too afraid to admit it; you'd rather be some kind of perfect messiah to the downtrodden. You don't care about anyone else, you just care about your fucking self." _The shadow froze in place, shocked by the audacity of this girl. To have the balls to blame him for the damage she and her little friends had done to this world? He loosened his grip on her, just enough for her to turn away. _"If you're going to kill me, don't lie about why. You're going to kill me because you enjoy it, not because you have some noble cause." _The tension in the shadow's forehead increased significantly as his eyes focused on her again, his hand wrapped around her throat as he held her against the wall behind her. Not a single smirk crossed his face as he pulled out his switch blade and pressed up against her face, making a small slit along her cheek where the blood trickled down.

"**No… This one is for pleasure."**


	247. Chapter 246: Round 5

CHAPTER 246

Round 5

* * *

"Sorry, I don't mean to keep gawking, it's just… I don't see a living robot like you everyday."

Justin gasped for air as the two ran down the hallways in search of Justin's sister. It was a long ways away though, so he had tried to make some small talk while they made their way there. But the fact of the matter was Aigis was a scientific marvel of technology. His mind felt like it melted every time he looked to find one of the most human looking androids he could have ever imagined. If she just hid those shoulders and stuff under some clothes, she would totally pass as human. And that just blew Justin's mind. He had so many questions he wanted to ask. Who made her was the first thing to come to mind, because god knows they deserved some kind of medal, but there was other stuff too. I mean, the way she acted was just so human. Could she feel emotion? How exactly they you translate that into ones and zeros? Since she was so human, how did she cope with being anything less than what she had clearly been designed to imitate? So many things boggled his mind; he couldn't even imagine being in her shoes. And yet, she didn't even seemed fazed by the fact that Justin could not keep his eyes off the circuitry lined chassis around her shoulders or her feet.

"It's quite alright." She smiled. Justin would think having someone stare at you just for being what you were would be offensive, but Aigis took it in stride. She may not necessarily have been an expert on human emotion and the like, but she was aware that a robot was not considered normal by normal human conventions. And that made her somewhat of an oddity of sorts. Human reaction just never offended her because she could always look at the logistical reasons as to WHY they reacted the way they did. And understanding was really all there was to overcoming any kind of gap. "I understand my appearance must come as a shock to you."

"It's… not really your appearance." Justin clarified slightly. I mean, I guess it was. She looked so human, and it wasn't just her anatomy either. It was he hair, her eyes, all of that. There was just a certain human quality to the way her pupils moved, the way her lips synched up with her speech. Nothing about that seemed artificial. It was almost frightening in a way to think just how real what had seemed like just a fantasy was real. "I mean… I never thought we were so advanced already. I couldn't even tell you weren't human until you did that shit with the rockets and crap." Justin pointed out. "…Uh… Don't get offended if I ask but… Someone like yourself isn't really just left to wander around, right? I mean, I would think scientists would be surrounding you twenty-four seven."

"Oh no, I've been allowed to wander free for a couple years now." Justin's eyes widened with amazement. A couple years and no news of this had even escaped? And she seemed pretty honest when she said allowed. Not allowed like 'I shot my creator and ran' kind of allowed. It just astonished him to think that someone had created the first human like android would just kind of say fuck it and let them do whatever. Perhaps it was a social experiment? Hell, maybe it wasn't for the science, maybe it wasn't for the fame and recognition. Kind of like those feel good summer blockbusters, where the scientist learns the true meaning of family or some cliché bullshit like that. She seemed socially apt enough to engage a man in a legitimate conversation; could just be some guy got lonely one day and wanted some form of companionship. Though it was hard to support that theory when she was here alone.

"Well if it's worth anything, I couldn't tell you were a robot." She smiled a little wider at that, as if getting some satisfaction out of her secret. Out of being human. Apparently it was actually worth a lot to the girl. Justin smiled slightly in turn. It wasn't much and there was a lot causing his heart to clench up in his chest as of recently, but it was nice to just see someone smile in this twisted fucked up world. The grin on his face however was quick to fade away as he rounded the corner and spied both his shadow and Maya. And they weren't exactly in a very friendly position. "There she is!" Justin shouted with a sigh of pain as he witnessed her being held against the wall by a twisted version of himself, switchblade at her throat. And to think this was all a product of his cowardliness. The shadow exhaustedly turned it's eyes to the source of the noise, annoyed with being kept from his goals every step of the way. Before it had been finding Justin. Now it was cutting a piece of the puzzle out of him the way those two had cut the pieces out of his life. An eye for an eye. He was filled with a combination of sinister glee and fury as he laid his eyes upon his counterpart. Did he suddenly find a heart deep down in that black hole of his? Was that why he returned to the graveyard he had help build? Aigis... Well he had never met here, so to him she was nothing. She didn't demand the same presence Justin did, both on a metaphorical and physical level.

"That is your sister against the wall, yes?" Aigis questioned investigatively. Justin nodded with confirmation, though somehow Aigis didn't quite buy it. She could do thousands of databank searches and calculations within minutes within her system hardware, and out of thousands of possible points that one could genetically share with someone of the same blood line, only about fifty or so did Maya and Justin share in common. It was true that statistically it could be possible for the two to be related with such a low count of similarities, but the odds were astronomically low. One would have to inherit almost all the father's genes while the other inherited almost all the mother's genes. In the end though, Aigis supposed it didn't matter; that girl was in danger all the same, and her job was to protect people... Especially from shadows.

She could practically feel the waves of power pulsating from the shadow ad he turned to glare at them, never letting go of his grip on the girl. She had never quite seen a shadow that looked just like another, though she had certainly experienced shadows born from human, so it didn't surprise her too much. The connection was obvious, and perhaps her past combined with this revelation was making her a little more weary of the blonde haired teenager standing next to him, but not enough to ignore the obvious threat in front of her. One was a shadow. One was not.

**"Nice of you to come for the art show. I'm painting the walls red as you can see."** The shadow smirked at his own, rather awful joke. Justin wasn't pleased at all to say the least, and had he not been in a possession where the shadow could easily slit her throat if he made one bad move, he probably would have tackled the fucker. Instead, Aigis simply trained one of the rifles in her arm at the shadow, aiming to disabilitate, or better, kill.

"Let her go." Justin snarled at his reflection. He may have ran away before, but he was sick of running from himself, especially with his sister's life so clearly on the line. She had given so much for him over the years; it only seemed right he should do the same. The shadow simply shook its head before pressing the blade even closer to the skin of her throat. It had no intention of letting go now that he had started.

"**And why should I? You think you have any say over me anymore? I am more powerful than you could ever possibly imagine, you are nothing but an INSECT to me. And I don't bend my knee for cockroaches." **The shadow spat with bitter irritation. He had reached a point where he was practically a god; why should he subjugate himself to the demands of a mere human? Well maybe it wasn't so much as bending his knee to a human as it was bending his knee to a robot. Before he could react, the chambers of the weapon in Aigis's arms span around, firing a few single, but accurate shots. One to know the knife out of his hand, one to hit him in the head. Thankfully, the knife was dislodged without Maya getting her throat slit by accident, but the bullet to the head was a lot less effective than she had hoped. Surprisingly, where as a bullet to the face still seemed to do damage to people like Kurt, it completely ricocheted off Justin's shadow's skull. That was concerning to say the least. Still, it looked painful given the way his head flinched, so he supposed it wasn't too bad. **"Girly… That was a big mistake." **He glared before rushing at Aigis, who immediately struck a defensive position, crossing her arms in an x position in front of her torso.

"Orgia Drive activated!" She recited out loud in a rather stiff voice. Seemed certain aspects of her personality were still infused within the limits of technology. Her chasis glew a bright red tone, like red hot iron being smelted down for scrap metal. It didn't look like the most pleasant conditions to be fighting under, that was for sure. It must have been rather painful to heat up her circuitry to the point where her hull was burning brighter than the stars above. But he supposed it worked, given she had begun to movie quicker than Justin had ever imagined she could. Within a split second, she dodged out of the way of the shadow's punch, following it up with a heavy uppercut without missing a beat; as if in complete synch with her opponents movements. The shadow backed away slightly as he readjusted his jaw from the blow. He was still cocky and confident though; he just needed to adapt his strategy. He tried various ways to get around her defenses, though ultimately just going head on wasn't doing much good. She was much too quick. But then, so was the shadow. It wasn't long before what had started as a missed blow followed by a counter turned into volleys of fists and feet being exchanged between the two. More often than not Aigis won these short little bursts, but sometimes the shadow got in a good hit or two. And that wasn't even getting to the fact that her circuitry burned hotter and hotter as they fought. It wasn't exactly the most stable power output levels she had tried to exemplify here.

"Maya, are you alright?" Justin questioned as he ran over to her, leaving the fighting to Aigis and his shadow. It seemed like she had it covered… Justin couldn't even keep up with his eyes. So he'd leave that to them just long enough that he could make sure Maya hadn't been seriously hurt while he was gone. Blood was dripping from her nose where the bone had broken not to long ago, and bruises coated most of her skin. She looked like shit, and that was being generous. And despite the amount of pain she must have been going through, she smiled weakly from her resting position along the wall. She hadn't expected him to come back for her. She didn't want him to, but secretly, she had hoped he would. And that filled her with a combination of joy and guilt, not to mention annoyance he would put his life back on the line after what she was willing to sacrifice for him.

"_You are such an idiot, you know that?"_

"I know." Justin smiled back, though the corners of his mouth curved downward with disgust as he stared at her. Dear god, what had his shadow been doing to her this entire time? It was almost horrific to stare at her and see her in this condition. He should have never left. If they worked together as a team like always, surely they could have taken his shadow on, right? This was not okay; and yet Justin had let it happen. He wasn't exactly in the best of shape either with his bloody lip. He wished they could just find some band-aids or something. Go home. Forget all of this. But they couldn't, especially nto when they had fallen into Justin's shadow's trap.

"**I'm growing fed up with these games." **The shadow declared after a moment, crossing his arms with impatience as he stared Aigis down. Her movement was becoming more and more jointed, a sign of overheating if he had ever seen one. But it didn't matter; holding out wasn't going to do him much good when he was getting punched in the gut every move he made. Power wasn't exactly the best barricade against physical contact it would seem. It still hurt even if it didn't do as much damage… The worse part thought was that he was being beaten by a mere… whatever the hell Aigis was. He had the powers of a god and then some and he still wasn't powerful enough. No, he needed more. MORE. His eyes canned the hallway, looking for something he could use to his advantage… And then something occurred to him. Sometimes you can't win a fight with brute force. Sometimes, you got to hit where it really hurt. In Justin's case he was tough on the outside, but deep down, it just took the right tug at his strings to send him onto his knees. Aigis, he wasn't sure. He had never seen the girl so he couldn't tell for her, but assuming she was an ally of his human counterpart, she would fall just the same.

The shadow smirked slightly as he raised his hand up, like the way one would holding puppet strings, purple flog flowing around his finger tips. At first it seemed as though the intent was to control Justin, but at the end of the day, he had long since exhaled that fog that filled his lungs. Aigis never had lungs in the first place. No, the only one who still had a little piece of him inside them was Maya. And it all started out with a little kiss. What, you thought he was just trying to be deep and philosophical? That he was succumbing to emotions? You thought there was more to it? No, Justin's shadow was a fucked up man; it was all just for the illusion of control. She had taken that from him, so now he took it from her. Within a second her body stiffened up, her muscles frozen in place, only to move at a twitch of the shadow's fingers. Her movement was disjointed, and it didn't take a genius to tell why that was so. Justin's jaw opened with great concern and fear ash e turned away from his sister and over to the shadow. "What are you doing!?"

"**You know exactly what I'm doing." **The shadow smirked, moving his fingers as if he were playing an invisible piano, composing a symphony of destruction. Justin's eyes were turned away, but Aigis had detected something was up. There was always some kind of method to madness, and the way he seemed to tug at the invisible strings wrapped around his fingers was too precise to be considered a man just going batshit insane. She quickly turned to keep her vision focused upon the girl, whose hand had just crawled out to grab a hold of the switch blade that had been flung out of reach a moment earlier. Before Aigis could rev up her weapon and knock the blade out of her grip, she had already raised it to her own throat. It would be impossible for Aigis to knock the weapon away where it was positioned.

"Justin-san!" Aigis turned her attention over the boy. He should probably at the very least notice that his sister was trying to cut her own neck open. He was needless to say not at all pleased to find her in a position where one foul move and she would unwillingly kill herself. To die at one's own hand, and yet at the will of another… Justin couldn't think of a worse way to go out. But she wasn't go at all. He wouldn't allow it. He quickly turned his attention back to his shadow, panic in his eyes.

"You monster."

"**Oh I'm not the monster here. Look around you. You humans are the true monsters." **The shadow responded with annoyance. Let no one question what he did, especially not someone as pitiful as the humans. They were hypocrites, all of them. They acted all innocent, so pristine and pure, but in the dark this was what lurked in their hearts. Hell. Someone outta give them what they most desired and put them twelve feet under.

"…What is it you want?" Justin demanded. He wouldn't let the shadow hurt his sister; he would pay any price to insure that. It was only a shame that the price was so high. The shadow smirked, leaning his head back with twisted satisfaction. Once again, he held the strings. Now what DID he want. Obviously he wanted the humans gone, but he couldn't extend that into a deal like this. For them to control themselves and restore this world to beauty? No, they couldn't be trusted. What he really needed was more power… But he sure as hell wasn't getting it here. So what did he want? Well it was fairly obvious in retrospect.

"**You know what I want." **Justin bit his bottom lip a bit. Yeah, he had a pretty good idea. He didn't like it. He didn't want it. Hell, he had to question if it was worth weighing one life against the thousands his shadow could take given more power. But his heart never was in the greater good. He was selfish in a way. He cared about himself and those dear to him. No one else. They could all melt away into the fog. I guess that was Justin's answer. He sighed before falling to one knee.

"…Let's get this over with." The shadow smirked with victory as he let loose the strings that bound Maya's hand. She sighed with slight relief at first to have the blade fall away from her skin, though she was quick to realize the deal being made here. And she was not okay with that. She tried to shove Justin out of the way now that her shackles were loose, but she was much too worn down from the beating she had received earlier. She could barely poke the guy as she crawled up to him. She had no say.

The fog quickly shrouded Justin, and soon the fog and him were one once again.


	248. Chapter 247: Intermission

CHAPTER 247

Intermission

* * *

"_Justin, are you alright?"_

Justin groaned as his eyes fluttered open to the sight of both Aigis and Maya hovering over him, the latter staring at him with concern, the former… Justin wasn't even sure what Aigis was doing, but he did notice that she had shoved a needle in his shoulder at one point. Goddamn, what did they NOT have built into her. Weapons, medicine; she had it all. But then, she wasn't actually applying medicine, she was just drawing blood due to curiosity sake. He certainly didn't approve though, and had it not been for the flimsy needle in his arm, he would have jumped up almost immediately in panic. He hated needles. Hate, hate, hated. He could just feel it jiggling around in his arm, ready to snap of just the tiniest bit of pressure were applied. And he did NOT want a sharp little syringe flowing through his bloodstream. For all he knew that could go down to his bladder at some point, and that was the last thing he wanted to piss.

"About as fine as I'm going to get with an evil shadow living inside my skull again. Can you, like… not steal my blood without my consent!?" Justin shouted, unable to ignore the fact that he had a syringe stuck in his flesh right now. He didn't know Aigis, and while he'd like to say she was pretty cool, especially being a robot and all, he was not okay with her just taking his blood like that. She didn't move, getting a few last drops of blood before eventually retracting the syringe. That was immediately proceeded by her rubbing her chin and then sticking her finger to wipe some of the blood from Maya's nose. Oh what, because she was bleeding she didn't need a needle? Bullshit… Actually, wait a second. Wasn't Justin bleeding too? He quickly ran his index finger along his bottom lip to find the cut that had been there a moment earlier completely gone. "Hey wait a second, did someone stitch this thing up?" Justin questioned. If Aigis had a blood test kit inside of her, one would assume she had bandages as well. God knows she seemed like she could do everything.

"_Uh… No. Actually, now that you mention it…" _Maya mused as she stared at his now clean lip. The cut along his stomach was gone as well; and she knew for a fact she had seen something there. She wasn't crazy, even if her nose was broken and her skull felt like a million daggers digging through her brain. She clearly took some damage to her head, but not enough to hallucinate shit. Speaking of which, her head really hurt. Actually all of her hurt, but mostly her head. She signed before allowing herself to drop to the floor, rubbing her temples as she let herself lay down for a moment. Would it be a crime for her to just take a quick power nap after what she had just gone through?

"While I do possess the training for the treatment of insite injuries, it would appear your wounds had closed on their own." Aigis explained to Justin. In her line of work, people got shot more often than not, so she needed to know how to treat that kind of stuff, you know? She was a little ashamed though to admit she had actually ran out of stitches and had forgotten to restock. Strange, she never forgot. Her programming was supposed to insure she could NEVER forget. There must have been a break in code at some point. Still, it meant she couldn't do much for Maya's nose, nor the cut across her bottom lip. It was pretty deep from the looks of it, but it should heal on its own. Justin groaned as he rolled the tips of his fingers under his forehead. His shadow's doing perhaps? It was frightening to think that the shadow could heal his wounds; if he could work on such a molecular level within his body, the things he could do to Justin… none of them probably pleasant. It was petrififying. This was the kind of fear Justin had tried to get rid of years ago when his shadow had departed from his body; and now it was back. Using him as a tool; but to what end, Justin wasn't sure. What more did he expect to gain from Justin? He didn't fight shadows anymore, Justin's shadow was wasting his time catching a ride in Justin's skull.

"Okay, well that's one more mystery I don't want to explore. And speaking of mysteries, what in god's name are you doing with our blood?" Justin questioned with annoyance. If she was going to stick a needle in his arm while he was a sleep, at the very least she could tell him what she was using it for. She smiled a bit as she analyzed the samples she had managed to collect. It was rather confusing given the contradictions to Justin's claim they were siblings, but interesting none the less.

"I thought it was odd that you and Maya Jefferies don't share a surname if you're related, and the facial differences between you suggest no blood relationship." Aigis smiled slightly, though Justin just crossed his arms with annoyance. She took his blood because she was curious? Because she thought he was bullshitting her? Had he lied to her yet? She could have just fucking asked instead of stealing the twos blood. He didn't want that getting sent to some database in Antarctica or something.

"We're not related by blood. I guess you could say Maya's adopted." Justin shrugged slightly. Adopted by him would technically make her his daughter though, wouldn't it? Kind of creepy to think about it. Still, Aigis didn't seem fazed. Partially because she had suspected so, partially because the blood test had been confirmation of that fact. Whatever it was, she clearly wasn't surprised by the revelation that the people that didn't seem to bare any resemblance to each other were not related. And yet…

"That would be an inaccurate assessment."

"Come again?"

"Without paternal DNA, I cannot say for certain, but there are certain segments of DNA code that are a perfect match between both of you. Nothing substantial, but the possibility of having a common relative ranks in at a 76.74% probability." Maya woke up just for a moment to stare at Aigis with intrigue. She was pretty sure they weren't related at all, but who knows. It certainly got her thinking if maybe they had a cousin or something they both shared. Justin rubbed at his chin slightly, though no matter how hard he thought, he couldn't think of anyone that Maya could be related to. Most of his relatives live in England after all. I mean, on his mother's side of the family, there were a few people from over here, but he was pretty sure Maya and them had been in the same room at one point and she never brought up the connection. So that immediately rolled that out.

"I don't believe we do. Maya, you wouldn't happen to have any relatives in England, would you?" Justin questioned. Justin's American relatives clearly weren't Maya's relatives as well, so it would have to be someone from England. Maya rubbed at her upper lip, accidentally irritating her nose in the process. Shit, she really wished there was a doctor around here or something. She'd have to tough it out for now. For the moment, she'd just like to see if this was coincidence or if there really was some relation.

"_Actually, yes. Uncle Pete lives in England, though he used to fly out to visit us sometimes." _Maya tapped her chin as she contemplated the matter, a small grin creeping across the corners of her mouth. She liked Uncle Pete; he always had these really goofy, corny jokes. They were the worst jokes Maya had heard in the entirety of her lifespan. But it was the way he laughed at his own joke that made them so worthwhile; it was contagious. Maybe it was just because he was family and you expect that kind of shit from relatives that made it all so bearable. Justin's eyebrow raised slightly with intrigue. Funny. HE had an Uncle Pete in England too.

"No shit? Uh… what's his last name?" Justin questioned. His Uncle Pete didn't use the Tylor family name, so he supposed it was entirely possible Maya wouldn't know about his relation to Justin if it was the same Uncle Pete.

"King."

"Not the same guy then." Justin sighed with just the slightest bit of relief. He would have zero problem being related to Maya legitimately, but something about it seemed… weird to him. Perhaps the thought of having some distant cousin that used to have a raging crush on him just didn't seem quite right to him. I mean, it's not like she was like that NOW, but some things you just can't forget. Justin still felt bad he never noticed to this day. He wasn't sure what he would have done if he had noticed she liked him like that all those years ago. Maybe things would be different. All he knew was Maya was like family to him, related by blood or not; and that was something that would never change between the two. Maya shrugged a bit with indifference. She wasn't really surprised; it wasn't like Pete was an uncommon name.

"I see… It's quite the coincidence then." Aigis smirked slightly. She would do some more research on the matter, but she didn't have the tools available to her for such investigations at the moment. Perhaps when her mission here was done she would look into the matter. 30% was still a pretty big chunk, but I don't know. She just got this feeling deep in her circuitry. Is that what humans called 'a gut feeling?' Or was it 'instinct?' So many things about being human she still didn't understand. Perhaps that was why she was so interested in this little twisted tapestry of human connections Justin and Maya had weaved. Could it be possible that what should have been near impossible was in fact an actuality? It was a complicated scenario, and the probability mathematics that were running through her machinery was fascinating to say the least. How complicated the simplest of things could be!

"I appreciate what you did for us." Justin interjected, changing the topic. It didn't end the way he wanted it to, but if Aigis hadn't stepped in, it could have ended a lot worse than Justin losing his mind. She smiled a bit. It was always nice to be thanked for something, especially in her line of work where it was somewhat uncommon to be thanked for a job well done. Even when she performed feats no human could be expected to do on their own. She never got a single thanks for that hostage situation on the plane, for all those lives she saved. She didn't need it of course, it was her job, but… I don't know, it was nice. Perhaps that was the human heart growing inside her speaking, longing for the praise and support of the people around her; to be treated as a valuable member of a society she so desperately longed to be part of.

"It was my pleasure to assist." She smiled with glee. Justin in turn smiled back. For a robot, she had one of the most fantastic smiles he had ever seen. It was just so natural, but more importantly, more genuine than any smile he had seen in all his life. A robot that was more human than any of them. It was like he had always hoped would happen someday, but never believed it would come to fruition. And for the record, he was seriously going to rub this in Kurt's face when all of this was over. Lucky bastard didn't even get dragged into this. Look, Justin got that he never really showed up to meetings or anything, and he was kind of a pacifist, but fair is fair. He should have been here kicking the shit out of his friends just like everyone else. Whatever, Justin would just have to hope Aigis would agree to a picture after all this was over or something. She seemed like she would be cool with it. He groaned with a smile on his face as he pushed himself off the ground, dusting off his pants a bit as he rose to his feet. Man these clothes were completely ruined from all the blood and shit; a shame, he really liked these jeans.

"Well you said you had a mission, right? I think it's time we finished this thing and all went home."

"Indeed. We found your sister… now it's your turn to help me find mine." Aigis smiled in turn. She had been here with others, but communication with them had been shaky as of recently, and it only seemed fair that after lending Justin and Maya a hand they should return the favor. And by no means would they object to lending a hand after all Aigis had done for them... but, uh... there was something a little odd about her request for assistance. Justin brow tensed up with curiosity, as he stood up, eyes focused on Aigis.

"Uh... Sister? Robots can have sisters?"

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTES**

**I have a wedding I'll be attending tomorrow, so there will be no update until Monday.**


	249. Chapter 248: Round 6

CHAPTER 248

Round 6

* * *

"Okay, so she's not like a 'sister' sister. She's just a previous model?"

Justin, Aigis, and Maya were making their way down the halls, punching holes in walls where needed to get around Teddie's barricades. He was having a hard time working all of this out. It was enough to take in that Aigis was actually a walking piece of machinery; but to consider that there was more than one of her? THAT, he couldn't understand. He would figure Aigis to be one of a kind. To think there were more of her out there and somehow no one knew about this little scientific breakthrough… it was baffling to say the least. Aigis nodded with confirmation a short grin on her face. She was eager to be reunited with the sibling she had never known she had until just recently. I guess that was the bonds of family kicking in; though it was strange, illogical even to be reunited with someone you never met. It was the kind of joy you got out of trying to meet up with a celebrity you adored from a distance. Oh you had no emotional ties with the person, all you knew about them keep from a slip of paper, but you were still excited all the same. It was kind of like that, just without the fame or reputation to justify the anticipation. All Aigis knew about her sister was a simple description of her appearances. Not that she would need it; she had scanners for that kind of stuff.

"That is correct."

"This is all too much for me. I'm amazed and yet somehow repulsed at the same time." Justin commented to himself under his breath. He wasn't repulsed by either Aigis or her sister herself mind you. Aigis was a wonderful person… well… robot. It was just… Why was all of this happening now? Justin was just starting to get a hold of his life again. He had gotten the bulk of his trust fund, he was doing well in school, and things were great with Chie. And never did he have to fear waking up in the morning to find another corpse hung over an antenna. It wasn't a glamorous life he led, but it was all he had ever wanted. And yet it seemed he couldn't have even the simplest of things. He was being dragged back into an occupation he had long since tried to claw his way out of. And now HE seemed to be back in Justin's skull… The monster that had haunted his nightmares for an entire year. And all because he had almost literally held a gun to his head, blade raised to Maya's throat. Oh he hated the sick twisted games his shadow played; and yet he was powerless to resist. That was the worst part; his fears were coming true simply because he was powerless to fight back. It made him sick. "So, you have any idea where she may b-…You alright Maya?

Justin paused as Maya ran straight into a wall, smacking hersekf in the face again. He sighed with disappointment as she rubbed her nose, a grunt of aggravation as she massaged her now sore skin, tears rolling down her cheeks from the immense pain shooting through her bones. Enough with the invisible barriers already. Justin knew what was going on, so what was the point of it? To delay the inevitable? It was all just a waste of time. If the gang was smart they'd kick a hole in the wall and just leave. Leave Teddie behind and never return, allowing him to wallow in the pain he caused… But then, what of Rise? I mean, she was being kind of a bitch endorsing all of this… I don't know, it didn't make any sense to him. Still, he was able to go through this wall, but it seemed Aigis and Maya could not. "Dammit… Aigis, you know the drill." He pointed towards a nearby wall using the tip of his head. He had expected her to blow a hole open in the wall with a missile or something. Instead she shook her head with refusal.

"Negative." She refused, eyes scanning the area around her. "Any more damage done to the infrastructure of this establishment could lead to a collapse." She regretfully informed Justin, much to his annoyance. They had blown so many holes in walls while they were here that logistically the structure of the building had weakened significantly. Assuming shadow buildings followed the same architectural laws of physics as the real world, any more damage done to the walls would cause a lack of stability. As long as people were inside this building, that wasn't something Aigis could risk. Instead, her eyes dilated slightly as she searched her memory banks for an alternate solution. Successfully too, if I may add. "However, I detect an alternate route we can take around this barrier based on openings we have already created."

"Alright then, it'll have to do. You two circle around and catch up. I'll try to keep moving on." Justin nodded a bit with disappointed understanding. If they had to run around, they had to run around. There was no complaining about what they had to do when there was no alternative. For now, he could just keep on trucking and hope Teddie was just around the corner.

"Roger." Aigis nodded with confirmation before quickly dashing off in the other direction. Maya hadn't really assumed they were going to be RUNNING around, so she was slightly caught off guard as Aigis jetted on by. And needless to say, she had some trouble keeping up with the super-fast robot skiing by her. Justin could only hope she wasn't going to fall far enough behind she couldn't catch up. He shook his head and sighed before turning about to keep walking. The way the invisible walls were layed out around him though, it seemed the only direction he could go was back, or right. And right lead to his homeroom. He needless to say wasn't anticipating what could hide behind this door. And rightfully so. His heart nearly froze in place as he opened the door to the sight of Chie trying to kick an invisible wall down. She wasn't having much luck.

"Chie!" Justin shouted, a slight smile creeping across his face as he ran over to her. Chie smiled in turn as the embraced in a sweet hug. With all the shit that was going down, it was just good to see the other in a good health and condition. Chie had a couple bruises, but nothing too bad. Justin was only hoping that her father wasn't going to assume it was him again. Chie and him had been dating so long that her father had started to ease up slightly on Justin over the months. I mean, any guy that had been with his daughter for this long without pulling any funny tricks must have been alright. But then, he didn't really realize that Justin was pulling dirty tricks right under his nose. That wasn't any of his business anyway, so what he didn't know wouldn't hurt him. Still, he was suspicious, and Justin would rather not go back to a state where her father did nothing but stare him down whenever he walked through the door.

"Oh thank god it's you. Yukiko and Kanji have completely lost their minds…. I-I ran into Maya too but I couldn't understand a word she was saying." Chie frowned. Of all the group, she knew the least, if any, sign-language. Justin was aware of that too, and he dreaded it all too much. Communication with her was going to be a game of charades at best if Teddie tried to pull that trick again where he altered their words. Justin smiled as he placed his palms on her shoulders.

"Don't worry, Yukiko didn't mean anything you heard her say. Teddie's been fucking around with our voices or something. Everything you've been hearing has been altered by him somehow." Justin tried to explain to her. Thankfully, he wasn't interrupted by Teddie's little magic trick this time… Unfortunately, that was because he didn't need to to set Chie off on a river of paranoia. She backed away slowly, eyebrows lowered with cautious confusion.

"…Then how do I know Teddie's not messing with your voice right now?" She questioned an almost afraid tone to her voice. She had fought enough people today; she didn't want to have to fight Justin. It was too late for that though. The intercom buzzed through the room, deafening the two for a brief moment as Rise took the mic once more, optimistic as ever about the event she had helped arrange.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the fight you've all been waiting for. Love is a battlefield here at the P-1 Grand Prix, and all is fair in love and war. The Carnivore Whose Discarded Womanhood versus Captain Chivalry for the semi-finals!" She announced with glee, taking some sadistic pleasure out of pitting two lovers against each other. Justin turned his glare to the intercom once again, a combination of panic and relief in his heart. Semi finals meant this would all be over soon, right? But at the same point; at what cost. "Let's get a word from out contestants. Justin Tylor, how are you doing today?" Justin simply kept his mouth shut as the intercom buzzed. He had nothing more to say to Rise; and furthermore, he was afraid to really speak with Chie around now that his words could be manipulated at any second. "It seems the cat has someone's tongue. Now he's more bite than bark."

"I'm expecting great things from this fight. The winner of course will be going on to face none other than yours truly in an attempt to win the grand prize." Teddie boasted over the intercom, laying out the stakes for the two. Whoever won this match would ultimately be the one to beat the shit out of Teddie it would seem. They both wanted to kick his ass, so it was tempting to try to win this encounter… but fighting each other to do it? It wasn't worth it. Why did THEY have to be the semi-finalists? Why couldn't it be Yu or something? "Let's put on a good show for the audience Justin-senpai. You're good at that right?"

"…asshole." Justin muttered under his breath as the intercom flipped off. He turned his attention slowly to Chie, hands drawn up to his face. He wanted a show; but this show would not go on. He refused to let it happen so long as he was in control. _"Chie, he can't manipulate your actions, just your voice. Use sign-language, and whatever you do, DON'T fight." _Justin informed her to the best of his abilities, knowing full-well she wasn't going to understand most things he tried to say through use of his hands. She just seemed confused though… Then angry… Very angry.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean!?" She shouted with annoyance. What had originally been a remark of her asking what Justin was doing using sign-language had quickly been morphed to a full power blast of aggravation and annoyance. Justin froze up ever so slightly as she bitched him out for something he was hoping would be a work around. "You are such an asshole!"

"_Chie. Don't talk." _He tried to encourage her again, knowing all too well what she was saying wasn't coming from her lips… but also knowing it hurt all the same. She just shook her head though, as if to refuse Justin's instructions. I don't think she could understand what he was trying to communicate. She was one of the few people that just didn't have the intellectual capacity to learn three languages, so to her, it was Justin just playing around with his fingers.

"Oh you'd like for me to keep quiet wouldn't you. Chie's all looks, but the moment she opens her mouth she's a disappointment, huh?" She rebutted with anger. Justin shrunk back slightly, a look of sorrow spreading across his face. He kept trying to remind himself that wasn't Chie, but hearing even the slightest amount of pain in Chie's voice, hers or not, was enough to send a shiver down his spine. "So typical of you. You don't care about me."

"Chie… You know that's not true." Justin whispered in a slight moan as his heart froze up in his chest. In his pain, he had forgotten that speaking was only going to encourage more of this. For Chie, she was probably hearing Justin call her a fatass or something right now. And for him? He was hearing nothing but nightmare fuel, things he had never hoped to hear come from his beloved's mouth.

"Oh yes, you treat me just like a queen, is that it? That you're my Prince Charming? You think that you can just come in and save the day, but you know what I don't need saving and especially not from you." She rejected him boldly. Justin shook his head with disbelief. He knew this was Teddie's doing, and yet even then it seemed he was deceived into believing that SOME part of this was Chie speaking. It was her voice after all; and why would Teddie say this stuff?

"What are you trying to say?"

"I'm saying you're obsolete." She growled back in a matter-of-fact tone. "Worthless. All you do is stand around and try to pretend you're some kind of knight in shining armor for everyone, but you know you're not. In fact, you know everyone despises you. I despise you. You are the biggest prick to everyone you meet! Had it not been for the case you can bet I would have filed a restraining order on you within a second." Justin slowly approached Chie, shaking his head with refusal to believe what was happening as he reached out to grab her hands. She was quick to rip them away from his grip though.

"Stop… Stop it!" He muttered with a glance of pain across his face. She claimed to love him on a fairly regular basis. They did everything together, and I do mean everything. Justin had never felt as alive as he did when he was beside her side. And now she was claiming that she hated him. That she never liked him. That she thought he was insufferable. And she clearly wanted nothing to do with him. Oh yes, he felt like his heart had just been ripped out and thrown into a shredder.

"I never loved you. In fact, I hate you. I hate you more than I hate Mitsuo, or Adachi, or Izanami. I wish you would go fall down a hole and DIE." She snarled before slapping him across the face. His face was red and his eyes were wide, jaws wide open. It was all a lie. It was a trick by Teddie… And yet even knowing that this was all just a sleight of hand, he fell for it all the same. His heart was broken in two. He felt nothing inside the heavy chassis of flesh and bone his soul resided in. Like the one thing that gave him meaning in life had been stripped from him.

"…You don't mean that…" Justin muttered to himself, trying to reassure him that he knew what was really going on, but deep down, he knew that wasn't true. He had zero idea what was going on, and he could no longer differentiate reality and the illusion. This could really be Chie talking for all he knew. All he knew was that in the end… he wouldn't fight. Within seconds he could feel the flat bottom of Chie's shoe hit him in the face, knocking him backwards. He didn't so much as react; just staring at her with those wide eyes of pain and sorrow. Again she lashed out at him. And again and again and again. Each time he refused to strike back, just taking the pain. Why should he fight? She had taken everything he held dare from him. Better him to lay down and let hell take him than to live a moment more in his grief. Again. And again. Blood smeered from his gums, and bruises rose around the surface of his skin. She wouldn't stop, even though Justin refused to fight back and even though he refused to talk. Chie was literally beating a defenseless man… He must have said something completely shitty to her somehow to motivate her like this. But he still would not raise his arm in defense; letting the blood flow down his skin, watching his beloved become the executioner.

"Stop, stop." Suddenly Teddie's voice echoed from the intercom. He was incredibly dissatisfied with the battle going on right now. Chie was playing her role, but Justin? With a short fuse like his, you would think he'd have sprayed Chie's blood all over the walls by now… Instead he just stood there and took the beatings he believed he deserved. A beating for how foolish he must have been to be blind to the truth. And yet, Teddie's voice only reawakened the more logical side of him, reminding Justin that this was indeed just Teddie fucking with him. That Chie didn't actually say any of this. He had fallen right into Teddie's trap… and he was ashamed. "Why aren't you fighting!?"

"I won't fight her… You might as well call the match right now." Justin replied timidly back. It wasn't really a forfeit, but it was a formal acknowledgement he had no intention of playing these games. Teddie was needless to say infuriated… And that fury just may have given him away.

"**Imbecile! You don't get to decide who you fight! You just do what you're told!" **A shadowy voice echoed from the intercom, the overlay of several, twisted shades of a person's personality all fading into one harsh sound. Justin and Chie immediately jumped with surprise as they recognized the immediate fact that wasn't Teddie…

"I am not a slave."

"**You are just a slave as I was!" **The voice echoed with irritation, followed by the harsh sound of forced breathing. Clearly whoever this 'Teddie' was, they were losing their composure. And they must have caught on to that fact because the intercom soon boomed with static like adjusting a microphone. It was completely quiet after that, nothing but the sound of birds chirping outside. Minutes passed before Justin slowly turned to Chie. Now they had Teddie on the ropes. Now they knew some serious bullshit was going on. But now Justin needed to know one more thing.

"…Chie?"

"Y-Yes?"

"Do you love me?" She paused for a moment, staring at Justin with cautious curiosity. After the things he had just said to her, it was a little out of the blue, so she was skeptical to say the least. After a while though, a gentle smile crossed her cheeks.

"Of course I do."

It was only a moment later that Justin found his arms wrapped around her as he cried tears of relief into her shoulder. Clinging on tightly to his very heart and soul.


	250. Chapter 249: Pre Finals

Chapter 249

Pre-Finals

* * *

"I would NEVER say that!"

"And I would never say THAT!"

Justin and Chie had been dashing down the hallway, trying to navigate their way to wherever Teddie's little studio headquarters must be. With no official winner or loser for last round, it seemed both could proceed without a problem. Either that or Teddie just kind of said fuck it after a while. This was all coming to a close very soon, and perhaps that struck a combination of impatience and irritation into Teddie. God knows he had to be a cocky son of a butch to try and take Chie AND Justin on at once. Assuming that's why he was letting both progress of course. Aigis and Maya still hadn't caught up yet, and that made Justin a little uneasy. But he was sure Maya was in good hands so long as she stuck by the android's side. And assuming that they didn't get locked in a room where they had to fight. Justin was still sore from that match, god only knows the damage Aigis could do to Maya with her injuries taken into account.

Regardless, that left Chie and Justin alone as they tried to find their way to Teddie's broadcasting station... Or whoever it was that was impersonating Teddie. That echo in his voice was not unlike that of a shadow, and given Teddie had already defeated his shadow, it couldn't be that this was Teddie's own fucked up little world. Plus Justin's shadow kept ranting and raving about how the humans were responsible for all of this. It was hard to tell if he was just blowing steam or if he knew something about all of this. All Justin knew for certain was there had to be someone else pulling the strings. He should have known that Teddie wasn't dumb enough to pull a stunt like this.

Still, whoever it was who had done this, they had managed to tear holes in the hearts of Justin and his friends. Right now Justin and Chie were busy discussing what they had heard the other say... after some explaining on Justin's behalf that their words were being twisted around this whole time. He was surprised it took her so long to catch on to be honest; he figured it out during the second battle after he figured Yu would never say that kind of stuff to Justin. As it would turn out, Justin himself had been pretty nasty after 'Teddie' did a little editing. He essentially called Chie a violent psychopath he was too stupid to do anything on her own. And that's without delving into some of the fucked up shit he said about their love life. Oh his altered self was sure to use as many dirty details as possible as he essentially called her a tool for his pleasure. It sent a shiver down his spine thinking of some of the things Chie recapped to him. That was no way to speak to a lady, that's for damn sure.

"I'm just glad you're alright. I was so worried with everything that was going on..." Chie sighed with relief, eyes wide with the slightest hint of concern. He had said some pretty messed up things to her; things she was having trouble forgetting... But at the end of the day she knew that wasn't her Justin speaking. She just had to remind herself it was all a dumb prank. For now, she was just happy enough to see Justin in one piece. "You're not hurt are you? I know Kanji gave me one hell of a black-eye." She groaned as she rubbed the sensitive skin around her eyeball. Justin crossed his arms with disappointment. What the hell was Kanji thinking hitting her that hard? Justin was seriously going to have to kick his ass later... And then remember Kanji was twice his size and could snap him in half like a 2x4. Point was, probably not a good idea to be defending Chie's honor against Kanji of all people. He'd do anything for love, but he won't do that.

"...Well, there's... uh... o-one thing..." Justin mumbled a bit with shame. Oh he had gotten hurt, but those scars had healed. The scars that remained and glistened in the night belonged solely to his Shadow, laughing at him as he hitched a ride to his destiny. Justin hated being a tool; especially to someone like him. It was shameful, even fearful to have succumbed to the might of an all powerful mad man who could take control of Justin and drive him of the cliff in a second's notice. He was afraid. And that would ultimately be his downfall. But for now... He just wanted to pretend he was still normal and that he could still leave a normal life with Chie... His shadow did not constitute as normal.

It made his heart fill with loathing and pain when he realized he would have to deprive Chie of a mentally stable boyfriend if he admitted this to her... And it only amplified that sensation with a boost of guilty relief as a clicking sound tan through both of their ears. Oh no, it wasn't the relief if hearing that familiar navigation Persona reaching out to them... It was the relief of being a liar whose truth would continue to be false for just a moment longer. The two stopped short in the hallway before pressing their index and middle fingers up to their ear drums. Oh they didn't NEED to do that, but it helped them block out outside noise and focus solely on the sound running through their heads. "Rise? Is that you?"

"Oh thank goodness I've found you!" Rise gasped with relief. She tried contacting the others, but she either couldn't be found or they refused to respond; probably believing she had a role to play in all of this, ignoring her so they wouldn't have to put up with anymore of her bullshit. Justin and Chie were the first to pick up; and had it not been for the fact that their Teddie had been a clear imposter, Justin may have continued the trend set by his predecessors. After all, if Rise had been responsible for this after all he had suffered today; he would want nothing to do with her. As it stood, Teddie was fake, so there was the possibility of it being a fake Rise as well. He had to give her the benefit of the doubt. And from the panicked sound of her voice, Justin was going to assume that was a benefit well bestowed. This certainly didn't sound like someone getting a sadistic kick out if watching others suffer. This sounded like a girl, afraid and panicked by what was happening around her. "I don't think I have much time. That Teddie imposter just left the room, and I don't know how long he'll be gone." Rise recapped for Chie and Justin quickly, assuring them that time was of the essence when she was being monitored.

"So it is a fake Teddie... Rise, please tell me you have some idea what's going on." Justin pleaded with her, hoping maybe being in the studio booth would grant her more insight into what was going on around her. She paused for a moment, contemplating what she had been able to make out. Very little, truth be told. She knew the phony Teddie was in fact a shadow, and she knew the real Teddie was down in the school somewhere. Mostly because she was stuck watching all the fights as part if some kind of sadistic torture. No one wanted to watch their friends practically trying to kill each other after all. Other than that though, her knowledge was fairly limited.

"I-I don't know. All I know is the Teddie and Risette you guys have been hearing over the intercom has been the imposter. It's been messing around with some machine up here... I-I think that's how it's making you guys fight." She theorized, practically on the verge of tears. She couldn't take anymore of what she had been seeing on those security cameras any longer. It was tearing her heart in two to see her friend manipulated so easily... to see their faith in each other clipped like a soaring bird's wings. Maya was one of the most painful to watch. She didn't fight back... She just ran with tears in her eyes. And the imposter let her go giving her opponent a victory by default just because the drama was so thick you needed a chainsaw to cut through it. It wasn't fighting, but it was destroying a relationship all the same. And the imposter could live with that.

"Uh, this imposter... What did he look like?" Chie questioned. She was hoping Rise had gotten a glimpse or two of their culprit so they could shut this case, go in, and kick ass for retribution for the pain they had been caused. As was commonplace for the Investigation Team, however, nothing could be so easy.

"No... She's been dressed like Teddie this while time..." Rise explained to the others. It certainly took dedication to hold that form for so long, but it would seem the imposter had anticipated the potential of their true appearances being used as a toll against them. Not necessarily by the Investigation Team, but by other guests. Unwanted and wanted a like. Justin rubbed at his chin with perplextion for a moment. Chie referred to the imposter as a he, and yet despite that fact, Rise still referred to them as a she. That seemed like an oddly specific adjustment between the two's exchange.

"She?"

"Mhmm. I heard her talk without the voice changer on a couple times. She had this really thick Brooklyn accent." Rise recapped, slightly pleased as she realized that an accent like that could actually be really useful. I mean how many people in Japan could say they had a Brooklyn accent? Well... Admittedly, Chie had a very slight accent. They said watching all those Kung-fu movies would rot her brain, but never did they warn her about those American action movies. Who would have thought she would pick up an accent from imitating her favorite movies on the playground when she was but a wee lass? Of course, this was still a comparison between a heavy Brooklyn accent and a slight one. Chie's accent was barely noticeable compared to this girl's.

"Nevermind that!" Chie interrupted after a moment. Her accent or appearances or anything like that didn't really matter if they were just going to confront her in a moment regardless. They just needed to know where to find her, right? Justin would have to respectfully disagree... He knew there was still an unaccounted for girl in here that he had been searching for earlier... But... Could a robot do this? It sounded like a shadow, and he doubted robots could have a shadow... And honestly? Who programs a robot to have a Brooklyn accent? No, it probably wasn't her, and according to Aigis, there were two other individuals here that she could attest to the innocence of. No, logically, this must have been another third-party. "Where are you Rise? We're gonna come find you."

"The PA room. It shouldn't be far away from where you ar- AH!" Rise cut off with a sudden screech, much to Justin and Chie's immediate panic. The imposter must have come back and caught her communicating with them. God only knows what a twisted bitch like her could do to Rise given the opportunity.

"Rise!? Rise!" Justin shouted, hoping to reconnect with her... But it was much to late for that. Justin and Chie passed each other a glance of great concern. Rise was clearly in danger now... Time was of the absolute importance. They were quick to dart down the hallways, avoiding invisible walls as best as they could as they navigated their way down to the PA room. "Dammit Rise..."

"She'll be alright... Right?"

"Depends how long she can kick and wail for."


	251. Chapter 250: Finals?

CHAPTER 250

Finals?

* * *

"Alright 'Teddie,' or whoever the fuck you are. If you stand still I promise I'll plant my foot up your ass real qui… What… the… hell?"

Justin kicked in the door to the PA room, anger in his eyes as he expected to see Teddie probably trying to strangle Rise or something along those lines. At the very least he had thought he would run into that stuffed bear and his ridiculous general costume… Indeed, he was nowhere in sight. Rise seemed to be fine, if not petrified. That was a relief at the very least, though what else he had found… not so much. For starters, there was this one girl with long white hair and deep red eyes. That wasn't necessarily scary or anything like that, but it was confusing. Why was she wearing Yasogami's school uniform? Justin had never seen that girl at school in his life; and believe me, he thought he would recognize a girl with long white hair like that. But that was another matter to be addressed at a different time. For now, something else was bothering him.

What Justin had saw just left him flabbergasted if not somewhat concerned. And that was coming from him. When Chie came following in, ready to kick ass and not take names… well, you can imagine her reaction when she found not Teddie, but rather a splitting image of herself across the room. Justin and Chie both opened their mouths to say something, but no matter how many times they tried to comment on the strange predicament they had been thrust into, they could not find the words to describe how completely and utterly illogical this was. Shadow Chie? Now, it was no surprised that Justin's Shadow had still been wandering around, but Chie's Shadow had already became a Persona, right? I mean, that's how she got into the television. So who the fuck was that?

"Huh? Wha- How!?" Chie stammered with great confusion, eyes wide with panic as she stared into a pair of golden eyes she knew all to well. Like mirror images of her own, only full of hate and greed. And yet, there was this sinister look of glee with the way her pupils danced around in their irises. And that smile… that… twisted smile that seemed to stretch futher than any mouth should stretch. It gave Chie a cold sweat just looking at it.

"**Oh, you're finally here? I was wondering what happened."** The shadow giggled with glee, excited to see its human counterpart for some reason. Knowing the shadows, Justin was going to guess she didn't exactly have the best of intentions. Chie stepped away with slight caution, keeping the door close to her back just in case she decided this situation was about to get very dangerous very fast. And when shadows were involved, that was more often the case than not. She didn't want to lose control again, and while she was sure knowing what to expect this time she could keep a cool head about all of this, she didn't want to risk it. Better safe than sorry.

"Why is my shadow here…?"

"I don't know! She suddenly appeared…! The fake Teddie vanished, and then…" Rise tried to explain to Chie, though she didn't really get far. I guess Shadow Chie wasn't very pleased with the possibility of her little charade being discovered by her human counter-part before she could have a little fun. Justin just sort of felt bad for the poor girl in the corner, so confused by what was going on around her and trying to decipher in her head why there were two Chie's in front of her. Given her confusion, Justin was going to guess she WASN'T one of the people Aigis had taken in here with her to try and find Labrys… and if those were the only uninvited guests, then… Would that make this Labrys? Well one way to find out. If she opened her mouth and had a Brooklyn accent, she was their girl.

"**Ugh, will the outsiders shut up and be quiet? My only business here is with myself."** The shadow cut Rise off, growing impatient with the interruptions and the questions. And Chie was growing impatient with the fact that her shadow should not logically be here. And Justin was growing impatient with this entire tournament. You know what? Everyone just had no more patience after this ordeal. Not now, not ever.

"You became my Persona, though… I don't get it. Why are you back again!?" Chie panicked frantically. This shouldn't be happening. This COULDN'T be happening. This was pure nightmare fuel incarnate haunting her. Like the worst dream she could ever have come to life and trying to drag her away to the darkest reaches of her nightmares. The shadow laughed with a combination of amusement and pity. Oh did she really have to spell it out for Chie? It was just so obvious. But then, Chie never was the brightest bulb on the tree. At least, not when it came to putting two and two together. She was in fact a brilliant strategist, a master manipulator. The world was her stage and all its inhabitants her puppets to put on a grand illusion.

"**It's because you're weak."** Chie's aggravated expression slowly faded away to that one of blank shock. As if something had just set of a bomb inside her brain pan, completely obliterating everything inside. **"Did you think your Shadow would never be back to haunt you after you gained your Persona? Wouldn't that be nice! But no one can ever let go of their weaknesses. I'll stay inside you… and I'll keep screaming your true feelings for everyone to hear…"** Chie backed away just enough to hit the door behind her, somehow locked shut since they had walked in. Probably as part of the shadow's sinister games. There was no escape from herself it would seem. Her eyes were aimed at the floor, still wide with horror. Was she telling the truth? She was a shadow after all, and while they did tell a half-truth at all times, they were sure to spin it around to their advantage.

"Wait… when the General said the Grand Prix was for me, he meant…?" Chie whispered with pain, unable to cope with the thought that all of this was a direct result of her losing control of her feelings again. Why? Everything was going so well in her life and then THIS happened!? The shadow smiled again, clearly pleased to be making progress chipping away at Chie's sanity. That was all part of their sick game, to twist and warp the mind of their hosts and shatter them so that there was nothing but pieces of glass to wade through to their freedom.

"**You want to become stronger? You want to be a police officer? Why did you really wish for that? The desire to protect those who are precious to you was only a cover story. What you really want is to be a hero! A shining force for justice!" **Chie gasped slightly as her Shadow's claims grew to be more and more forceful, more and more 'definitive'. And of things she didn't want to be true, things she couldn't believe were true. That wasn't like her at all; she wasn't doing it just to be a hero… was she? Sh-she just wanted to protect people, like Yukiko and Justin… though I guess Justin really needed more protecting from himself than any criminal. She… Couldn't seriously believe this down in the darkest realms of her heart, could she? **"You're ordinary in every way, but you want to be a winner! And to get there, you'd even use those precious to you as stepping stones!"**

"That's not true and you know it. There's nothing in this world that means more to Chie than her friends. Yeah maybe she takes them for granted sometimes, but we all do... She cares about as, and she would guve her life for any of us. That's what it means to serve and protect; not to get the fame and glory. She isn't a manipulative bitch like you." Justin interrupted, putting himself between Chie and her shadow. It didn't take a genius to realize where this was heading. Besides, if Justin knew Chie, and you can beat your sweet ass he did, all of this? Completely false. I mean, everyone had thoughts like these at times, the belief that they were using others to their advantage. And in some cases it was true, some cases people were afraid to think it COULD be true. In Chie's case she had experience with the former, and now she had fallen under the latter. She was afraid to revert back to her old ways, as secretive to even herself as they were. And the shadow was intentionally using that to her advantage. The shadow took a deep sigh, her smile slowly fading away as Justin got between them. How was she not surprised? She should have accounted for his interruption in the first place. She glared at him for a moment.

**"I said this is between me…" **She snarled under her breath, before backhanding Justin and sending him half way across the room. She had one hell of a back hand, that's for sure. But there was something odd about the texture of her hand as it slapped against his flesh… Felt more like bone on bone than it did skin on skin. Heavier even… Something was clearly off about the shadow… and somehow, he thought he had a good idea what it was. You know what's heavier than bone? Metal. Justin groaned as he rubbed the sore flesh along his chin as he tried to balance himself off the floor again. **"And myself!"**

Chie stared at the scene, completely flabbergasted as Justin was hurled across the room. And you know what? He was right. That wasn't like her. Yeah sure, maybe sometimes she wanted to be a hero... But she was young. What was wrong with fantasizing? Deep down, at the end of the day, she wasn't doing this just for fame or the thrill of beating people up on the job, but she was doing it for her friends. The reward of being a hero was just a little extra on the side... All she cared about was her friends and family and loved ones and all the innocents who were hurt everyday by the forces of evil... Forces of evil like Chie's shadow... laughing as Justin groaned in pain, using the wall for support...

I think it was time for someone to show that bitch just how much she really did care about protecting the people she loved. Her expression of timid shock eventually gave way to furious anger, fury coursing through her veins like venomous blood. She wouldn't let her hurt Justin like that... especially not after he reminded her of who she truly was deep down inside. "Hey! Who the hell do you think you are? Huh? You think you can just talk smack and do whatever you want? Well think again. You can insult me, you can hurt me... But don't you ever put a finger on my boyfriend again!" Chie shouted before charging forward, ready to punch her shadow right in the smugass face.

"Wait, Chie! Don't!" Justin called out to her, trying to stop her before she did something incredibly stupid. It might have seemed like a good idea to literally tackle her inner demons... But whoever that was, that wasn't Chie's shadow. Oh no sir, that cold metal fist that had hit the bone of Justin's cheek? Who else would have it but Labrys? Regardless of who it was though, it was clear things were not as they seemed as Chie rushed onwards to take herself down a notch. Alas, Justin's warnings went unheeded. She was too fired up to stop now.

The shadow smirked, eyes shining with glee as she hopped up to get some more momentum on her punch. It was exactly as the shadow had expected. Within a second, the shadow dodged to the side, where Chie's fist would sail right past her face, much to Chie's panic. And with a quick swing of the shadows arm, it's cold outer appearance ripped away in strands of shadow like fabric, giving way to her true form. Before Chie could react, the android had revealed it's true form... Hammer included. All it took was one quick swing to smash every bone in her body. She screamed out in pain on first contact...

The screams stopped though when she hit the floor... Unconcious. Justin watched with horror as the splitting image of the white haired girl, save for the now golden yellow eyes placed her foot over Chie's body like a dirt mound, a wide smirk of victory on her face.

**"One down, two to go."**


	252. Chapter 251: Finals

CHAPTER 251

Finals

* * *

"**I am a shadow, the true self…"**

Justin crawled his way over to where Chie now lay, bloody face from where she had managed to get smacked straight in the face by the newly formed shadow's weapon. Her pulse was fine, and the cut wasn't too deep, much to his relief, but that didn't make any of this okay. It figures she had the bravery to stand up to her other self and THIS was what happened to her. God, Justin wished he could be even half like she was, to reject his shadow the way she rejected hers. Refusing to let themselves be controlled by the hatred that lurked in the hearts of all men. But Justin was a coward, and no matter how much he wished to stand up for himself; he lacked the strength. And yet how the strong fell here to day. Bravery, as it would turn out, was not a substitute for a cool head and even cooler trigger finger. He sighed with slight relief as he pushed himself off the ground, satisfied knowing that Chie was a-okay. What he wasn't satisfied was that she had been hit in the face in the first place. He turned his glare slowly to the uniform clad cybernetic being in front of him, yellow eyes staring at him with twisted glee, a sick smirk on her face as she looked at her handy work. Kill, kill, kill and then kill some more. She was on a roll, and she didn't want to stop now that she got her violent juices going here.

"N-No!" The OTHER white haired girl shouted, backing away in horror as she stared at her mirror image. Only where there was skin on her arms, there was nothing but machinery along her shadows. Yeah, so Justin could more or less confirm that was Labrys at this point, though that didn't help much at this point. There was a clear threat in front of him, and that was all that did matter; the details were irrelevant. The shadow smiled with glee as she turned her head to face her other self. Oh yes she had plans in mind for her.

"So Labrys's shadow was the culprit all along… Yah hear that other me? A fucking robot did this." Justin shouted to himself, hoping his shadow could hear. He was blaming humans for something that was clearly beyond their scope of influence. Something they had in fact not been responsible for in the slightest regard. The shadow wasn't really paying much attention though; it just wanted to be pulled away from here and somewhere where he could really do some damage, somewhere he could really amp up his abilities. Perhaps this shadow was the means to that, but ultimately the shadow didn't care. And even if it did, the fact of the matter is, a robot pulling this tournament wasn't going to alter his opinion on the matter. First of all, humans created the robot, which means that whatever its programming executed was a direct result of human error… or human intention. And that made them entirely responsible for their creation's actions. Furthermore… did Justin truly believe she was the mastermind behind this? No the human's influence extended far beyond the realms of this little school of theirs… There was more at play than some rogue circuitry with an error in its coding going rampant in the locker rooms.

"**That's right. And like you just saw, I can distort people's appearances and words…"** She shouted with pride in her abilities. And yet… her smile slowly started to fade away as she thought about the matter. Oh yes, she was like a god here in the confines of this tournament, but was that really what she wanted? No, no, power may have been the agenda of some shadows, but her agenda was very short sighted. She wanted revenge. And then she wanted chaos. She wanted fire to rain down from the heavens and burn this whole fucking place to the ground, ember by ember, flame by flame. **"Why do you think I have such power? It's because I'm her, and she's me… That's right! She's the real liar here!"** The shadow tried to shift blame, turning her eyes towards the other girl.

"Yeah I figured that much already. That hardly explains why you have the power to alter perception… Or why you're such a bitch." Justin threw in, perhaps feeling civilized conversation just should not happen with someone who had smacked his girlfriend in the face with a giant steel axe. It was a wonder she didn't get cleaved right in half. She was lucky enough to get hit by the bulk of the object and not the razor. And even then, that still must have hurt like a bitch. Justin just hoped that damage wasn't too bad. He had already checked and it looked fine; but he wasn't exactly a doctor so his medical opinion should be taken with a grain of salt.

"D-Don't be ridiculous! I… I didn't lie…" Labrys tried to defend herself, though the nervous tone of her voice ultimately betrayed her. Especially when she was talking to someone who knew her every feeling, her every thought. And intended to twist it around in a way where she could hurt her counter-part the most. The shadow laughed for a moment, almost maniacally at the assertion that her "human" self was telling the truth. The truth? Everything that came out of her mouth was a lie. For god's sake, she was pretending to be the student council president of a school she didn't even go to. The shadow was only surprised not a damn one of the Investigation Team had caught on to that fact. Did they even pay attention at school?

"**Oh, please. Just look at me. I look exactly like you." **The shadow pointed out amused by her counterpart's refusal to accept what was so fucking clear. She was just making all of this so easy. She slowly approached Labrys, arms extended to show off her cybernetic appendages, making clear just what she was. Now, Justin was almost entirely positive Labrys was the robot Aigis was speaking of, but… She looked completely human, unlike Aigis who had a few parts here and there, or her shadow who was… well almost entirely machinery. It was quite the contrast, and it made it hard for Justin to decided whether the shadow actually was telling the truth or just mocking Labrys. It was always difficult to find the truth and not twisted propaganda when dealing with a shadow. All the same, it was clear that putting the shadow and the real thing together wasn't going to fly. Justin was quick to jump between the two and cut off the path between Labrys and her shadow.

"Well maybe except for the eye color and the fact that you're kind of a walking super computer… And you have a sword for a hairpin- Why would you ever think that's a good idea?" Justin questioned with slight curiosity. I mean, the sword was just ATTACHED to the hair pin, but that didn't make it any better of an idea. Was she trying to accidentally stab herself in the back if she tilted her head back too much? Because let me tell you, this was a good way of doing that. "Don't be scared. That IS you, but it's a twisted version of you that's trying to amplify the thing you hate most. All it wants you to do is deny it. If you tough it out, it can't hurt you. But whatever you do, do not try to pretend that isn't you. Because then it can hurt you… And probably kill you."

"**A twisted version of her…?"** The shadow scoffed as if that were the stupidest thing she had ever heard. SHE was the twisted version of HER? If anything she was the closest thing to the true Labrys there was… And that was saying something coming from a shadow, someone who's existence came from taking the worst traits in a person and amplifying them tenfold. Accuse her a lot of things, but don't accuse her of being a liar. **"Nuh-uh… She's the one that's twisted."** She shook her head before turning her eyes away from Justin and back to Labrys, who had been backing away despite Justin trying to keep her close behind him for protection. **"You still refuse to remember? Look at me… and stop deluding yourself!"**

And then the shadow snapped her fingers. Labrys froze in place before letting out a frightend scream. Justin immediately turned in panic, expecting her to be in some kind of danger. What he had found instead was just as surprising. Her form seemed like static, fading in and out of reality and little bursts of electricity. And when she reappeared, her form morphed to be more and more prostethic and appearance. Where skin and blood once ran now steel and circuitry. Oh yes, it seemed the imposter here hadn't been that shadow after all. Either that or she was making it a clear point of trying to trick Labrys by altering her appearances the way the shadow could to herself. "No… No! Don't look at me!" She shrieked in horror as she noticed her hands grow pale with the color of metal gleaming in the light. She was horrified as she became less than human at the snap of a finger. Justin raised his hand in reassurance. He had suspected this was the case in the first place, so he wasn't exactly caught completely off guard. Besides, he met Aigis earlier, and she seemed pretty cool about all this; he had nothing to fear from her sister. To him, she was just another person… She just looked a little stranger and her heart ran on binary instead of blood cells.

"**I think it's time to finish this." **The shadow remarked, unholstering her weapon and spinning it brandishing it about in all sorts of swirls and spins. She clearly was having fun showing her handywork with the weapon. Justin took a deep breath before crossing his arms in a defensive x position, ready to take on what the shadow was willing to deal. Given she had manage to take Chie out with one attack, he was a little worried how long he'd be able to last on his own. Not very long most likely… But… He couldn't just let Labrys take her own shadow on, right? Especially not when she was curling up on the floor in pure shame and fear. She was in zero condition to fight… Even if a robot vs a robot seemed more like an even match to Justin.

Oh but he needn't worry about that. Before Shadow Labrys could take a swing at Justin with her might axe, one of the walls gave in, the cement barrier flinging across the room and smashing the shadow through the other wall with the greatest of ease. Justin flinged his head quickly to the side to find the source of the disturbance, a small smile on his face as he turned to find Aigis and Maya standing there. Seemed Aigis had picked up on what was happening in here and decided to take action. Maya was uh… less than useful in that regard, but she felt like a badass all the same, striking a somewhat heroic pose as the dust cleared to reveal her and Aigis's forms.

"I hope our arrival was timely." Aigis smiled as she readjusted herself, scanning the room. She was somewhat disappointed to find one human unconscious on the floor, but her vital signs showed she was alright. For now, her main concern was Labrys's shadow… who Aigis could strangely not find as the dust cleared in the gap of the freshly opened wall. Justin sighed with relief before approaching Aigis and Maya, a sad smile on his face.

"Yes perfect timing. I would have been a goner if you hadn't blown that wall open…" Justin paused for a moment. A sudden thought occurring to him. "Wait, didn't you say that you couldn't blow any more walls open without risking structural weakness?" Justin questioned. Seemed kind of like she wasn't telling him something here. She simply nodded her head with explanation.

"It seems I miscalculated. Now come. Let us make haste before she escapes."


	253. Chapter 252: Escape

CHAPTER 252

Escape

* * *

"Come out here and face me you coward!"

Justin, Aigis, and Maya were moving room from room in search for the cyborg on the run. For a bitch who had just a moment or two earlier insisted on trying to kill him and the normal Labrys, she sure seemed in a rush to escape now that she was equally matched. Oh yes, she was an unstoppable bull of destruction so long as no one was waving the red cloth in front of her face, eh? Still, she was giving the already tired Justin and Maya a run for their money searching the entire premise in search of her. Rise had opted to stay behind to keep an eye on the normal Labrys… After all, they didn't need Shadow Labrys sneaking back and chopping her head clean off while they were gone. Rise wasn't exactly a great fighter admittedly, but she could call them back if there was a problem. Justin and May trusted her there. And as for Aigis… Well she could do this all day. Mostly because her programming didn't allow for fatigue, partially because when a goal was set by her machine complex, that goal had to be met. T'was the way she was coded. She could do now less than her primary objectives.

"I do not sense the shadow's presence her either." Aigis pointed out as her eyes scanned every little object in the room. They found themselves in the gymnasium again, much to Justin's annoyance. It felt like they were running around in circles at this point. Why was the shadow going to delay the inevitable? Didn't she know that running had truly sealed her fate? Justin had no problem with shadows except when they acted up. She had tried to kill him and Labrys, so that was grounds for him to be pissed off, but her refusal to surrender and run instead was only proof she intended to attempt it again when Aigis was less of a threat. Was it so hard for a shadow to just cooperate? Actually, don't answer that, it seemed pretty obvious in retrospect. Justin tapped his foot as he nodded with understanding, trying to spot anything that could prove to be a hint as to where Labrys could be. In actuality, the answer to their inquiry was within their sights this whole time… and yet, not at all. Justin walked forward, ready to check the halls again when he bumped into one of those invisible walls again. They had kind of disappeared since Labrys's shadow had been cornered… For it to suddenly reappear? Something was fishy here.

"What the fuck?" Justin mumbled to himself, running his hand up and down the invisible surface of the barrier in front of him. Don't even tell him they were starting this shit again. It probably got a little worse when he realized Aigis and Maya were having the exact same problem, trying to get through an invisible wall between them and their destination. At first Justin just assumed this was a dead end of sorts, but as he turned around to walk out the door they came in through, he found a barrier had been erected their too. And not only just there. All around them, they were caged in like animals, herded to their pen like dogs. And as we all know, there's nothing better to do with a pen full of dogs than have a dog fight. These barriers had been freshly erected, it was clear what the intention was even before Labrys's shadow appeared in the doorway across from them, a sinister smirk on her face.

"**The game's not over yet. Why don't you three just chill out for a moment there will I get some work done." **She laughed sadistically as Justin tried to charge at her, only to plow straight into another invisible barrier. They were domed in pretty damn good it would seem. He growled, not only with pain but irritation. Enough with these goddamn fights. The tournament was over, Justin TECHNICALLY won. Adding more matches was pointless. Especially matches against people he already had matches with. It was already clear who the victor in each situation would be: Justin beat Maya, Aigis beat Justin, and if this worked anything like Rock, Paper, Scissors, Maya beat Aigis.

"You're not getting anymore views from a repeat match you know." Justin pointed out, hoping that somehow he'd be able to convince Labrys's shadow to let him go. But why would she? It wasn't about the views or the entertainment anymore, oh no. She was so close to achieving something she had waited to do for so very very long. And now the only thing that could stop her was stuck in a cage. Hopefully the power of their friendship would keep them there while she did a little dissecting. She shook her head, crossing her arms with victorious refusal. Oh she was the one in charge once again, not that robot who had come here just to drag her back down to hell.

"**We'll consider it a title bout. A rematch between two titans …and little miss mute over there." **Labrys's shadow dismissed Maya with a flick of her wrist, laughing at how little of a threat she believed Maya posed. Maya, needless to say, was very angry. One, why was she NOT considered one of the titans? Why, because she didn't get into any fights? She'd have you know that at one point she was considered the hope of all humanity… Or at least the hope of San Diego. And at least until something went wrong somewhere down the line. She wasn't sure what. All she knew was, she was kind of a big deal. Furthermore, she didn't care who the hell the shadow was, she was NOT going to be referred to as 'little miss mute.' It hurt enough that she could never speak to the people she loved, she didn't need some bitch she didn't even know rubbing it in for her own amusement. Justin and Maya soon found themselves feverishly trashing against the wall in an attempt to break free, to little or no avail. The shadow smirked before walking off, a skip to her step and whistle on her lips as she followed the yellow brick road to her destiny and this afternoon's source of entertainment.

"It seems the rules of engagement are still in effect." Aigis explained, as if Justin and Maya hadn't really caught on to that as they tried to break out from their invisible prison. Not even a breakable wall to their side; the shadow had learned her lesson the last couple of times. They were there to stay. "We must make haste, otherwise Labrys will be in great danger." She added, the slightest hint of panic in her voice. Which was surprising for a robot who was essentially monotone. Justin sighed before backing away from the wall. She was right, as much as Justin hated playing these games.

"Those are the rules alright…" Justin sighed with sarcasm. You know, he didn't approve of this fighting stuff as it was without going up against a literal war machine. He still hurt a little from being flung iinto the ceiling earlier today… Hell he could steel see an indent in the CEILING where he had collided with the building's infrastructure. To be honest, he would not mind at all just throwing his hands in the air and letting Aigis go on a head. But at the end of the day, he doubted it was that simple. Assuming the walls were automated and not under Shadow Labrys's control, then certain stipulations would need to be met before they faded away. And I'm pretty sure that includes a fight. "So… Who wants to be the one to go on?"

"I believe that should be decided through a test of aptitude." Aigis raised a point. While she certainly had the most right to proceed, and probably the most strength, it was all a matter of who was most likely to protect Labrys. What Aigis wanted would be irrelevant if they didn't save her sister after all. Maya sighed and shook her head as the three formed an almost triangle like position.

"_You guys can duke it out…"_ Maya sighed. She didn't want to proceed, nor was she in the best condition TO proceed. So rather than get involved in all of this, she'd just leave it up to the more apt members of their little circle. Aigis and Justin passed each other a slight shrug. That was fine, they could argue amongst themselves in a moment. But for now, the rules stipulated who ever proceeded had to win in a battle of strength… Maya just forfeiting wasn't really going to cut it. _"I'm too tired for this crap…"_ She sighed as she leaned against the invisible barrier behind her, letting her body slide down its surface and to the floor below. Justin almost felt bad for her. She had clearly already went through a lot without constantly being thrown into these fights.

"The barriers will not disappear if you refuse to fight." Aigis pointed out to the girl as she tried to stand clear of this trainwreck. She sighed and rolled her eyes with annoyance. No, fuck it. She wasn't going to fight. Her nose was broken and she had cuts all over where blood still trickled out if she stretched the wrong way and reopened the wounds. She couldn't if she wanted to.

"_Well then what would you suggest?"_

"Well… You could always just throw the fight." Justin pointed out, crossing his arms. So long as she got hit and stayed down after that, he supposed it would still count as a fight. Just not a very good one. "Someone will smack you, then you just stay down after that." Maya shrugged a bit as she forced herself up from the ground. She didn't want to get hit, but you know what, better than nothing.

"_Alright, alright… Let's get this over with." _She sighed as she positioned herself in front of Justin. Obviously she didn't want to get punched by the robot, and Justin would know to go easy on her. Or so she suspected. Justin took a deep breath as he got his composure together. After all he didn't want to punch his sister or anything like that; but he supposed it was neccesary. He balled his fist up drawing back before quickly taking a swing at her. In his haste, he had completely forgotten she had a broken nose. Really, he shouldn't have been swinging at her face anyway, but details details. She immediately winched in pain, mouth wide with the shock of having her nose hit AGAIN in its current condition. And dear god the water works.

"Oh Jesus, I'm so sorry." Justin apologized as she squirmed about. She was going to take the fall, but alas, she was really in pain right now after that. It wasn't something she could really fake right now. It took a moment, but eventually she turned back to Justin and smacked him right back. Oh and not just like a light slap or anything like that. She fucking nailed him. You could SEE the spit go flying out of his jaw as he hit the ground.

"_Fuck you Justin! Why would you do that!?" _She communicated to him, though really, it was kind of pointless. She had only intended an eye for an eye when she punched him back in her pained fury… but uh… she might have overdone it. She had apparently managed to punch Justin hard enough that he couldn't actually regain his balance as he tried to climb back up to his feet. It was like the whole world was spinning around him. Eventually he just gave up and fell to the floor. It was surprisingly nice just to lay there in the cold floor, even if it felt like an earthquake below him. Maya bit at her fingernail slightly as she realized that her little counter attack might have been a little too much. I mean… yeah, fuck Justin for punching her in her broken nose, but… maybe this was a little overkill. Aigis only seemed somewhat amused. What a twist of fate. She hadn't expected Justin's plan to eliminate Maya from the tournament to backfire like that…

"It seems Captain Chivalrey has been dethroned." Aigis chuckled to herself with slight amusement. Maya just shook her head a bit. She didn't mean to; god knows she didn't want to get in a fist fight with a robot with missile launchers. "Then I suppose we should engage for the privilege of proceeding." Aigis continued, somewhat oblivious to Maya panicking ever so slightly as she realized she was going to get punched in the face by an android. She backed away slowly, not really wanting anything to do with that. Come on, she already got punched. Couldn't she just lay down and call it a day? Say she lost the round? Aigis clearly didn't believe so as she slowly paced her way towards Maya, stopping just past Justin's body sprawled across the floor as she struck an aggressive stance, ready to tango. "Let us begin."

"_R-Really, that's okay. I'll just lay down and bleed out." _Maya waved her arms with objection, hoping to talk Aigis down to little to no avail. She simply unveiled another one of the guns that were hidden within her circuitry, aiming them straight at Maya. Unfortunately, Maya wasn't quite as resourceful as Justin was, so she just sort of ducked for cover, cowering on her knees and hoping the bullets would fly past her head. She could hear nothing but the grinding of the revolver in Aigis's chasis, pumpling lead into the weapon, heating up to fire lead based death upon her.

And then nothing happened. The sounds just kind of stopped. Maya peaked her eye open with curiosity, trying to locate the interruption… Only to find Justin ad reached out for some exposed circuitry on Aigis and ripped it clean out. He was still a little dizzy, and he felt like crap completely shutting Aigis down like that by yanking her wires until they tore in half… But what was he supposed to do? She was trying to shoot his sister. He sighed with slight relief. "Well this wasn't exactly how I imagined it was going to end." Justin remarked with slight fear. Maya wasn't exactly in great condition TO be the winner of their little scuffle. Maya looked around for a moment, trying to soak in that yes, she was in fact the one that was going to have to go fighting Labrys.

"_N-Now wait a minute… I-I don't- I can't fight like this!"_

"Well maybe you shouldn't have decked me so hard." Justin pointed out with bitter sarcasm. "You'll be fine, but you have to go. That girl's life lies in your hands now."

"_But I don't want to fight!"_

"And you thought we did?"


	254. Chapter 253: Chase

CHAPTER 253

Chase

* * *

"_Dammit Justin, why can't you take a punch?"_

Maya panted heavily as she rushed down the hallways, trying to make her way back to the announcement room, where no doubt Shadow Labrys was already making advances on her mirror self and Rise. And maybe Chie if she woke up, but she might actually be able to put up a fight. After all, if Maya had to do it, she could too. There was nothing but pain shooting through her face right now. I mean, if you had your nose broken five times over in the span of one day, you would definitely be in a lot of pain. She just wanted to go home, put that thing on ice for… how long does it take for bones to heal? Couple of weeks? Crap… Looked like that meant a trip to the doctors… M-Maybe if she looked online she could find an alternative. Would probably be just as safe, even if it was coming from the largely inaccurate Yahoo Answers. Really anything was safer than a damn hospital.

Justin and Aigis had been left behind, since it seemed even though she tried to force him out in her stead, he couldn't get through the invisible barrier. God, you can imagine the rush of adrenaline that went through her heart as she realized her, with a broken nose and cuts and bruises, was going to have to fight a robot with a giant fucking axe with JETS on it. The one that took Chie out in one strike despite Chie being the strongest woman Maya knew. And she was definitely at liberty to claim that because Chie had smacked her a couple of times. Once when they first met, and a few times in what Maya could only presume was 'that time of the month.' Maya still couldn't really justify how that pissed her off that much that she was willing to punch people in the face. I mean, how do you think Maya felt? For like two years of her life she had one fucking pair of underwear, alright. If anyone had a right to be cranky that time of the month, it was her; and you didn't see her picking fights. But let's not delve into matters that are really none of your business, reader. The point was, Maya knew from experience Chie could hit hard even when she had no real reason to. Aiming to disabilitate, Chie probably could, even with her injuries. Maya could only pray she was up and fighting, because god knew she didn't want to.

But as I was saying, Justin and Aigis were a bit preoccupied, not only with being trapped in an invisible cage, but rather trying to fix the damages they had managed to cause with their little scuffle a moment or two ago. Justin, surprisingly enough, was able to fix the wiring he had managed to tear out of Aigis. You would think that a high-tech machine like hers would have thousands upon thousands of circuits, wires, bits, and pieces. But in fact, it seemed the main component to what made her move and breathe was a soul… Try finding that in a hardware store. Still, Justin always was a tech wiz, so it wasn't all too surprising he was able to connect the red wire to the red wire and the blue wire to the blue wire… Though if Maya were Aigis, she'd have a more professional repair done when all of this was over. The very fact that her circuitry was exposed near her ankle in the first place meant she had sustained a little too much damage somewhere along the line. Probably when she encountered Justin's shadow.

And that left Maya… all alone to fend off the horrible killer robot that would be lurking in the next room. Why had god seemed to send her to certain death oh so often? I mean, I guess she survived the impossible on a fairly regular basis, so she couldn't really say she didn't deserve this shit. But at the same point… She didn't. All this stress was going to lead her to an early grave, swear to god. Assuming a heart attack didn't get her first, that is. Still, she was just a girl with little to no ambitions in life other than to live; and yet it seemed she couldn't even have that. She sighed as she heaved a bit, lungs feeling as they were going to collapse on themselves, using the walls beside her as support as she kept walking. She was out of breath, and what she saw as she rounded the corner only took the last of her breath away.

She wasn't sure whether to smile or back away with shame and horror as she noticed Yosuke furiously trying to get into the PA room. Seemed he had managed to find his way here at some point. Perhaps the invisible walls from earlier were starting to go down? If that was the case, why was Yosuke the only one here. It didn't matter how he got there in the end, she supposed. Only that he was there and he was fiddling around with the lock of the door using the top of his knife. Seemed he was trying to pick it, but alas, someone with no experience picking locks using a knife didn't exactly equate to an open door. "Dammit… come on…" He mumbled to himself before eventually giving up, throwing his knife to the ground in his anger… And in the process catching a glimpse of Maya out of the corner of his eye. He frowned a bit at first; after all she had ran away from him earlier with tears in her eyes… he wasn't sure what he had done to make her like that, but he hated it. Still, he was happy to see her, especially given the conditions, and eventually his pained frown gave way to a gentle, timid smile.

"_H-hi." _Maya waved timidly at Yosuke. She knew everything she had heard was nothing but an illusion, but at the end of the day it still hurt. The wound was still open and just seeing Yosuke seemed to tear an even wider gap in her flesh. At least it had, but then Yosuke flung his arms open and ran to her, embracing her and wrapping his arms around her body. Maya was caught off guard immediately, cheeks turning red with a combination of surprise and embarrassment. But then, she'd be lying if it wasn't some relief to see he really wasn't mad. If anything he felt bad, about what, well Maya would rather not think about it. All she knew was it was just so comfortable in his arms. Her arms were caught beneath his, so it was impossible for her to hug him back, so she was forced to do the next best thing and rest her head against his shoulder, taking just a moment to soak everything in. And it was nice… Even when Yosuke pulled away and planted a quick peck on her nose. She immediately flinched in pain, much to his shock and confusion.

"Huh? A-Are you alright?"

"_I think I broke it."_ Maya communicated, tears in her eyes and lip clenched between her teeth as she tried to pretend the pain wasn't there. How could something as sweet and splenderous as a kiss be so painful at the same time? And the amazing thing was that despite the pain that was shooting up the bridge of her nose right now… she couldn't entirely say she regretted it. Yosuke backed away with shame and horror. Two for two it would seem. He wasn't trying to hurt her today, but it seemed everything he did left her in tears.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to… Who did that to you?" Yosuke questioned, concern and anger in his voice. He got that the fights were necessary and that no one understood what each other were saying; he caught on to that very quickly. Still, that was no excuse to be hitting a girl so hard that she broke her nose… Especially when he realized Maya had never had any intention of fighting back today. Hell, she completely ran away from their encounter; no punches thrown or anything.

"_Chie…" _Maya sniffed carefully, trying to stop the mucus from running from her nose, but also being careful enough not to hurt her nose in the process. It didn't work. Yosuke's face immediately turned red with anger, eyebrows dropping down into a glare. Oh he was completely pissed off to find Chie of all people did it. For a couple reasons really; besides from Yu and Maya, Chie was probably one of his closest friends. Sure she kicked his ass a lot, but she usually had good reason. Not to mention she was the only friend he had when he first came here. And he knew Maya and Chie fought from time to time, but she never broke her goddamn nose. That was one of the bigger issues, but still not the only one. No, perhaps it would be more accurate to say he wasn't angry at Chie, but rather she was angry at the man behind the curtain. Because you just know the reason she had been getting increasingly aggressive was because she spent so much time with Justin. He was rubbing off on her in the worst way possible. Oh yes, let's just add that to the pile of firewood to the bonfire that was the rivalry between Justin and Yosuke.

"I'll have to talk to her about that later…" Yosuke sneered under her breath. He didn't really mean talk, he meant more like bitch out. And that was ultimately going to get him kicked in the balls again, he was sure. But it was the principal of the matter; and she didn't get to just walk around breaking people's noses without retribution. Maya sighed with a concern, eyebrows curved upwards as she looked up at Yosuke. She really didn't want there to be a storm brewing her. She's just put some bandages on it and… maybe hide away from the public eye forever out of embarrassment. God knows she wasn't going to go to the doctor just out of principal. "But for now…" Yosuke mumbled before crouching back down to the door to try and get this thing open. He could already hear what was going on in there, and god knows it needed to stop. "I don't suppose Justin taught you a thing about picking a lock, would he?"

Maya crossed her arms as she stared at the lock. He hadn't, but that's because she taught him. He was much better than her since he seemed to like to fiddle around with that stuff on his freetime. Still, Maya was poor, and while most everyone would attest to the fact that she was a good person, no one would argue she got into a lot of trouble trying to engineer the fun she could never really afford. Plus… well… You don't live on the streets for a year off of thrown out McDonalds scraps. Look, she didn't steal anything big, just a bag of chips or something here and there. Was that a crime, trying to feed herself? And to be honest, as afraid as she was to go to jail, it might have been for the best. At least then she'd have a bed and daily meals. I guess freedom was just a more valuable commodity. She sighed as she tried to wipe the awful shades of her past out of her mind. What was done was done; she couldn't change it. She realized that. And still it bugged her.

"_I do… but uh…"_

"What's up?"

"_You realize that there's a hole into this room on the other side, right?" _Yosuke froze in place almost immediately. That would explain how he could hear everything so clearly.

"Oh… Well what are we doing still sitting here!"


	255. Chapter 254: Confrontation

CHAPTER 254

CONFRONTATION

* * *

"Miss President? You in here?"

Yosuke called out as the two circled around to the other side of the room, peering their heads through the hole. Labrys's shadow didn't seem to be nearby, despite the sound of rattling metal filling the air. With any luck, that meant Kanji or someone had managed to ambush her before she could get here and was beating the ever loving shit out of her. Still, this wasn't the time to be locating the source of the sound; they needed to find the real Labrys and get her out of here before shit went down. Luckily enough, she wasn't all that hard to find, what with her having a giant robot axe attached to her back now and all. She was standing across the room from Chie and Rise, griping her own body tight as she tried to stop herself from shaking in fear. Chie seemed to be somewhat fine now, rubbing her head at her bloody injury as she sat just next to Rise, who was crouched beside her trying her best to help out. Labrys's eyes shot up after a moment, a look of fear in her eyes. That other girl… She recognized her alright. Kirijio. They were trying to take her back. Back to hell. They wanted to lock her away again, to make her do all sorts of terrible things. She wasn't going back. They'd have to kill her first.

"That girl told you to come here, didn't she!?" Labrys shouted back towards Maya as she noticed her try to make her way through the door. She rubbed at the back of her neck slightly with embarrassment. Yeah, unfortunately that was true. She didn't want to be here… But hey, Yosuke was gonna help her out, so I guess it would be fine. She'd just stay out of the line of fire and let Yosuke let loose his inner 'Captain Chivalrey.' Hopefully. God knows Yosuke could be a pretty big coward at times; today was hopefully not one of those days."You just wanna capture me like all the others… Well…" Labrys pushed herself away from the wall she had been leaning against a moment earlier, positioning herself in front of the rather alarmed Yosuke and the cautiously concerned Maya as she reached her hand towards her back to grab a hold of her battle axe. They just wanted to use her as a weapon, to destroy what they couldn't possibly understood. She refused; she wasn't going to be their slave any longer than she already had been. She wouldn't suffer the pains that no one person should be forced to endure, every day, over and over and over again, like a broken record on loop. "I'm never goin' back there. I never want to get put through that again…! I'm gonna run away! Just you watch me… if anyone gets in my way… I'll stomp 'em all!"

"Wh-What? Hey now wait a second." Yosuke started waving his hands defensively, trying to calm her down. He was just asking to see if she was here and alright; he wasn't going to whisk her away or anything like that. I mean, technically that's what Maya was here for, but really, she had no reason to. She just wanted those invisible walls to go down and for everyone to go home. And really, what was the problem anyway; didn't she want to see her sister? She had fought so hard to bring Labrys home, and now Labrys was essentially flipping her the middle finger. But then, that wasn't the only thing she had been throwing around. She threw her arm back before giving a strong flick of her wrist, tossing her axe towards Maya and Yosuke like a Frisbee. Luckily, they both ducked before anyone could get decapitated, though I think Maya had managed to get a bit of a haircut. Like she didn't have enough self esteem issues without a missing patch of hair.

"Why? Why won't anyone understand?" She questioned with anger as she ran forward, ready to fight. I don't think she realized that Yosuke and Maya really meant her no harm, as much as they tried to reassure her they were just here for her. Not for getting their heads chopped off that was for sure. And in Yosuke's case, it was not getting punched through a wall, but alas it seemed not everyone could get what they want. It only took one blow to send him tearing through the concrete wall, stunning him for a moment as he tried to catch his bearings. It wasn't often you were used as a human demolition charge after all. But even more so than that, it seemed as if the hole Labrys had just punched in the wall didn't lead back to the hallway Maya and Yosuke had just been through, oh no… It lead to a dark room with TV monitors all around, glass walls to see what lurked outside… And what lurked outside wasn't pretty.

It was a dark red, almost bloody color that filled the fog beyond, wires and metal structures bending across the foggy abyss in non-symmetrical forms. And from each of those metal bars that stretched out into infinity hung the mutilated corpse of other robots, not all that different from Labrys or Aigis. Even though they were just robots, Maya couldn't help but gasp in horror as she peered past Labrys and into the glass room. The way their bodies were hung like trophies, wires barely keeping them in place, faces split open and their wires crawling out where their brain would be. And that look of horror on each's face, frozen in place forever more. There was a trash compactor in the middle burning the chasis of other, somewhat less mutilated robots as well, but that just wasn't quite as disgustingly cruel as seeing one with their face cracked open, hanging from their ankle like meat on a hook. Labrys seemed just as horrified, if somewhat out of breath as she peered into the room herself. She had never seen this place, and yet it seemed so familiar and horrifying to her. How could it not be? This was monstorous.

"**Don't you get it… That'll never happen." **Everyone in the room immediately turned with shock to find Labrys's shadow had managed to sneak in without so much as a sound at some point. A feat that was probably made easier by the small scuffle that had broken out between Labrys and the humans. Or perhaps it was that she never left. After all, your deepest hatred always sticks close to your heart, and even closer to your fears. The shadow didn't so much as smile, just remaining this awful eye contact with her otherself, assuring her in the most sinister manner that everything she saw, everything she heard, everything she feared was a true nightmare being lived in the world today. Her nightmare. And she couldn't wake up; not now, not ever. **"Of course Maya-san's angry. You did lie to her, after all. And wow, you didn't hesitate for a second to attack her. So you do want her to suffer then. You want to make her go through what you did, right?" **Labrys hung her head with slight shame as her shadow came to a stop but inches in front of her, glaring deep into her very being. It was true; at least the part about attacking without hesitation. She wasn't sure what came over her like that; I mean, this was a girl who had saved her life just a few minutes earlier, and she had tried to chop her head clean off. She should have been ashamed of herself.

"Th-That's not true…" She objected. She didn't mean to hurt anyone, let's make that absolutely clear. She was just afraid. She didn't want to go back to that pisshole for them to torture her day in and day out again with their sick twisted games. She didn't want to be another pawn to be sent forth on the board. But as with all games of chess in the scope of life, they were all pawns; she was just aware of it. And no matter how hard she tried, she wasn't going to loosen their grip on her. After all, how many chess pieces do you know that had the ability to squirm. The shadow took another step closer, cutting Labrys's bullshit in half like wood simply by keeping eye contact as she pressed the girl.

"**You want the everyday boys and girls to experience what you had to go through… Right? That's why we're in a school, having a fighting tournament. You want to see close friends fight for their lives against each other… because if they do that, then they might understand… You want to MAKE them understand." **The shadow continued, twisting the secret desires deep in her heart against her, amplifying them to ten times intensity as she barraged her with the same hate that she hid deep inside her soul. She could deny it all she wanted, but deep down it was there… it just took a little teasing to get it to come out. And when it did, there would be disastrous consequences for everyone here. Labrys was having a hard time believing that could ever be true though… Or perhaps she believed it but she refused to acknowledge it. She clutched at her head as pain shot through her temples, or whatever the android equivalent would be for migranes.

"That ain't true…!"

"**But it was all for nothing… It just left you more of an outcast than ever… It's all right, though. I'll take care of everything from here. You are me after all…" **The shadow's lips curved back up in that familiar, disgusting smirk of hers, finding amusement in her counterpart collapsing under the pressure. **"I'll destroy anyone who doesn't understand you and comes to get in your way… just like you once did!" **It was all it took to finally send Labrys over the breaking point. She snapped, eye twitching in what was hard to determine if it was her losing her mind or if the motor that controlled her eye lid broke.

"That's all a lie! You're not me!" Maya's eyes widened with panic as the words left Labrys's lips. Oh no, no no no. That was NOT an okay thing to say to a shadow under any circumstance. She quickly ran forth, trying perhaps to try and cut her off before she could finish speaking; but alas, it was over before Maya could even react. The shadow laughed maniacally, a twisted purple aura raising from her body as the shackles that bound her to this form were let go. Now she was no longer Labrys, now she was her own being. And her first order of business? Kill everyone in this goddamn room.

"**Finally… You've finally said it…! Now… I can be myself!" **She laughed maniacally, the room growing dark with the black smog that now flew from her form, the gusts seeming to blow everyone away. Maya stood firmly in position, trying to defend herself from whatever was coming, though more importantly, to serve as a barricade to keep it away from Labrys, who had simply fallen down on her ass in horror as she watched the shadow's power flow from its body. Chains ripped out from the ground, hooking themselves into the ceiling like disgusting decorations, pulleys to pull horrible things out from the dirt beneath. More specifically what could be described as a giant, almost muscular in shape skeleton with the skull of a bull, the black ooze of shadow form surrounding it like a cloak. Maya's jaw slowly opened with fear and amazement, her thumb running across the bottom of the lip as she subconsciously made the sign of the cross. After all, when you saw something like this, you were usually confident the only person who could save you was God himself. The bull puffed hot air from it's snout as the fog started to clear, his sinister glare shining down on Maya. And Shadow Labrys, stood their holding his chain, laughing maniacally as she loosened her grip on his leesh. Chie and Yosuke slowly got to their feet, and even though they were pretty hurt, they would stand together to fight this malevolent force of evil.

"We've got your back, Maya." Yosuke reassured her. She would have rather had Yosuke have her front instead, but she'd take what she could get. She nodded her head before bowing her skull, eyes closed and hands folded as if in prayer, the slightest light irradiating from out of her eye lids as she summoned out her Persona. Right, no more holding back.

"_Persona."_

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTES**

**It's the week of my Graduation here, and alas, I don't exactly have much time to work on the story because of the hundreds of ceremonies I have to attend for it. As such, Requiem will be taking a one week vacation. Hey don't look so sad, we'll be together again soon. Apologies for the inconvenience and I hope to see you all again next week.**


	256. Chapter 255: Round 7

CHAPTER 255

Round 7

* * *

"Let's go! All in!"

The three dashed forward, personas beside them as they rushed towards the sinister android in front of them, smirking with pride at the power that flowed through her circuitry like red hot fire, unstoppable as it gained momentum. She was unstoppable as far as she was concerned; it was a common belief amongst shadows once they were free from the shackles of humanity. After all, when you felt the power that these shadows did, you would believe yourself a demi-god as well. And had it not been for the existence of Personas, that very well might have been true. Hell, it still was in some cases. But alas, as it was with all shadows, pride would be her downfall, and hope her folly. Never doubt the power of the bonds between people as a force to be reckoned with.

Still, sometimes the odds were a funny thing, and even though fate seemed to favor the good guys, it didn't necessarily make it easy on them. Sometimes it outright slapped them in the face. Sometimes it just turned its back and walked away. To assume that history would repeat itself would be just as foolish as to assume that it wouldn't. Variety is the spice of life after all, even in matters of life and death. Perhaps it was that variety the shadow was willing to bet on as she drew her weapon and swatted at the Investigation Team like they were just flies. She managed to smack Yosuke away with the blunt side of her axe, though Chie and Maya were a little better at dodging. In Chie's case, she was actually able to climb onto the axe by carefully jumping and positioning her feet along the flat side of the blade, immediately following it up with a kick to the shadow's face to take advantage of her higher ground before being tossed aside like a ragdoll. The shadow recoiled in pain, though it was quick to follow it up by picking Chie up by the throat and slamming her into the ground.

The personas were busy trying to fight off the large bull like creature that had spawned from the shadow's being, though it seemed the more they struck the angrier the cattle got, steam blowing from its nose as it swept out to catch the Personas in its clutch, crushing their bones like twigs between its fingers. It managed to get a hold of Maya's persona for a moment, but Chie and Yosuke were quick to divert Suzuka Gongen and Susano-o respectively to focus their power on the trap that ensnared Izanagi. They were able to loosen his grip eventually, though Maya did hit the ground from the pain shooting through her Personas body at one point. That was the real problem with Personas. You were one and the same, so anything they felt, so did you.

The rattle of chains filled the air as the bull struggled with the Personas whittling away at his defenses from all angles, occasionally the echoing of a flinch-inducing sound of bones crushing as it got a good swipe at the Personas swirling above him. It was unnerving to say the least, but the Investigation Team pressed on, trying to dodge each swing of the axe the shadow took at them. They had become rather good at dodging this kind of stuff over the years, not to mention the pressure of decapitation really helped motivate them not to screw up as they ducked under each swing. The shadow was slowly starting to lose her patience as each swing was dodged with the upmost grace and elegance, only to be countered by kicks to the face, the gut, whatever had been exposed in her attempt at taking someone's head off. For all the power she put in her swings, she didn't have the agility or grace to match the Investigation Team's movements.

"Quit moving you little shits!" She shouted as she knocked Maya down to her ass with a jab of the blunt end of her axe. Maya groaned as she hit the ground, pain shooting up her already incredibly sore body. She tried to get up on her own, but she had already taken quite a few cheap shots from what was essentially a wrecking ball with fists. It hurt just to breathe at times from the beating she had taken. She was probably bleeding internally to be honest, which was of course not a good thing in the slightest bit, but she didn't have time to worry about that. For now, she was in a rather vulnerable spot, and the shadow was raising her axe above her head, ready to slice Maya in two straight down the metal. She smirked, a sinister glare in her eyes, twisted glee in her heart as she was ready to watch the red fly.

Maya instinctively tried to take a kick at the android, but unlike Chie, she didn't exactly have an immunity to whacking cold hard steel. Chie could kick holes in walls. Maya could not. Instead she simply flinched back from what she could only imagine was her breaking her toes. She was in a position where, unfortunately, she had little to no way to defend herself. And she was almost ready to see her brain matter stain the shadow's blade when Yosuke out right thrust himself upon the shadow, tossing his body onto her and clinging tight in an attempt to disorient her. And it certainly worked. Maya quickly crawled away from the furious shadow trying to throw Yosuke off her back, sighing heavily as she silently thanked god she was still alive. Though that did leave Yosuke to take the bulk of the shadow's anger. At least, once the shadow could get him off and take a good swing at him. Seemed she was having a lot of trouble dealing with anything that happened to be on her back. Maya rubbed her chin for a moment. She thought she might have had an idea. Risky, but if it worked, it could end this all here.

She made a quick hand gesture towards her Persona, who was doing one hell of a job trying to avoid that bull's horns as it rampaged about, trying to destroy everything like… well a bull in a china shop, conveniently enough. At a snap of her fingers, Izanagi quickly darted away from the rampant bull to come to Maya's aid. Or perhaps, more so Yosuke's. Assuming that the bull and the shadow were both separate, but equal beings the way a persona and their human counterpart were one and the same yet different entities, one would assume damage to one would hurt the other. That's what she was counting on anyway. She flicked her eyes towards Yosuke who quite honestly was holding on for dear life lest he end up getting split in half too. Alas, he was gonna need to let go. Their eyes locked for only a brief second, just long enough for Yosuke to get the picture. He was quick to hop off of the shadow, much to her confusion. She turned, ready to strike Yosuke down now for being a nuisance…

Alas, there was one rule about the battlefield; never turn your back to the enemy. The moment she turned her eyes away from Maya, she left herself wide open from behind. And that was all it took to end the fight as Maya sent Izanagi at Shadow Labrys, thrusting his sword into her back and out her chest. Sparks shot out from the open wound as her mouth opened wide with pain. A quick turn of the blade and she screeched a second time in pain. Seemed even robots could feel pain surprisingly enough. It was almost heart-wrenching in a way seeing her body hung up there on the blade. The bull simultaneously howled in pain before shrinking back, it's form flowing back into Labrys's shadow the way a shy child hides from a stranger. Deep breaths all around from the Investigation Team. It wasn't very often you managed to defeat a robot with a giant fucking axe trying to murder you. They were both relieved to have survived and excited to have overcome this challenge. Especially when most of the team wasn't even here.

"Why?" Silence rang through the room for a moment as the Investigation Team turned their eyes down to Labrys, who had been knocked down in the ensuing fight at some point. She seemed horrified, confused, every emotion one would be to find that some part of you wanted to kill everyone you knew. But more than that, she was confused why the team didn't just let her shadow kill her. It would be so much easier, wouldn't it? "Why did you protect me? Weren't you mad?" Maya and Chie passed each other a quick glance. I mean, part of them were angry that all of this was directly caused by her shadow, but… They weren't necessarily mad at HER. Maya nodded her head with denial.

"We weren't mad at all! Actually, it's you who should be mad at us." Chie tried to reassure her. Though given that when she got mad earlier she had punched Yosuke through the wall, Yosuke and Maya were both quick to make that cut it out gesture near their throats. No one wanted THAT to happen again after all. "I said so many awful things to you… I'm really sorry." Chie apologized. Maya scratched her head slightly. She could only imagine what kind of conversation was going on in here since she had been gone earlier. Might explain why Labrys was in such a shitty mood when they burst in.

"I could never be angry at you. I'm the one who did all those awful things…" Labrys hung her head in slight shame as she timidly approached her shadow, skewered by Izanagi's sword. She was staring down at Labrys with a combination of pain, anger, and sympathy. It was hard to explain. And part of Labrys screamed out in pain seeing the other her slashed and torn like that. She was vile and despicable… but deep down, she was part of Labrys too.

"Hey about the grand prix… yeah, it was tough, but… it wasn't all bad." Chie tried to reassure Labrys. Deep down in Chie's heart she really thought this was all just awful, but sometimes you gotta tell little fibs for the well-being of others. In this case, it was all about stabilizing Labrys and keeping her in control of her emotions, and subsequently her shadow. Though more important, she needed to realize that they were all her friends, even if she found that hard to believe. Labrys seemed surprised enough anyway, so it was clear she didn't quite think any good could come of all of this. "It taught me a lot of important things… That's why I want to thank you… and your other self over there too. I still don't know what kind of pain you've been through… So tell me about it. I want you to tell me everything like, how you feel and what you're thinking."

"Tell you about myself?" Labrys questioned, as if no one had ever given the slightest shit about her in all their lives. In a way, it was kind of true. But that's just because she was surrounded by bad company; now… now she had people that actually cared about her and her feelings. She would never have to live the way she used to before. Not if the Investigation Team had any say in the matter.

"Mhmm, I'll listen. If you have something that's too painful to bear alone, then let's work it out together."

"Together? I…I'm not alone anymore…?" Her head fell as she let the thought sink in. All this time she had felt everyone was out to get her, that friends were but a fading thought that would disappear in the passage of time, just like so many before them. She was a paranoid android. But not anymore; she didn't have to lead that life anymore. She didn't have to be alone. Never again. She slowly turned her eyes back up to her shadow self, a small, timid smile creeping across her face. "I'm sorry I ignored you all this time. I was the one who left you all alone…" Izanagi withdrew his blade before his form faded away to light once more, allowing the shadow to drop down to its feet in front of her, so they could meet eye to eye. And while the shadow's balance was a bit trippy due to her wounds, she never evaded eye contact. And Labrys… she never stopped smiling. She simply wrapped her arms around her shadow's form a horrified, yet relieved expression sweeping the shadow's form. "You are me after all…"

Light burst from the shadow's figure as her form warped to that of Labrys's Persona. It was a moment that never seemed to fail to amaze as the Investigation team watched with wide eyes and wondrous smiles, blue sparkles illuminating the once red room. It was blinding, but they didn't really need to see much anyway. As the light faded away, there was only one left standing; the horrific red station they had been in had since faded away to the appearances of the original PA room. And everything was back to normal. Or at least, as normal as a robot could be. Chie smiled before stepping towards Labrys, putting her hand on her shoulder.

"Come on. Let's go home."


	257. Chapter 256: Homeward Bound

Chapter 256

Homeward Bound

* * *

"Try not to play with it for now. I'll try to do a better repair when we can get out of here and grab some tools."

Justin leaned up against the invisible wall behind him, watching as Aigis playfully twiddled around with the wires in the exposed slit of her machinery, most likely with the attempt of doing a better repair job without cutting off any of her critical functions in the process. After all, Justin was good with computers, but androids were just a little bit more complex. Best he could do at this point was attach the red wire to the red wire and the blue to the blue. It seemed to work, though without the tools to make a proper repair, Aigis might as well have been running on a potato battery with the reliability of the maintenance job Justin had done.

And yet, she wasn't mad. She still sported the same sunny attitude she always did, as if she hadn't a care in the world. An admirable disposition, though hard to comprehend given human motivation. Aigis wasn't human of course, but she breathed, laughed, talked and smiled like any man or woman, and in Justin's eyes that did make her human. Her apparent lack of anger or selfishness only went to make Justin believe she was more human than human. It was funny how humanity seemed to slow down one's natural growth towards being more human. "Hey, sorry about the leg. I didn't think it would completely shut you down like that."

"It is of no problem." Aigis smiled with reassurance, turning her eyes away from the miniature welding flame that burned from her finger tips. "If anyone should apologize, it would be I. My programming forces me to engage unregistered persona users as high priority threats, regardless of affiliation. I had no desire to use lethal forces on Miss Jefferies." Justin raised his eyebrows with curiosity. Something about Aigis's plea for forgiveness rubbed him the wrong way. He understood the matter of programming dictating her course of action; if then statements had to be followed very precisely by a machine. He did believe that somewhere in her coding she was forced to take these measures, regardless of personal choice. That's not what bugged him.

"Registered? Wait, there's a registry for Persona users?" Justin questioned with great interest. He simply could not wrap his mind around the concept of there being more Persona users out there. It was hard enough wrapping his head around Aigis's supposed allies being Persona users as well, though I think at the end of the day Justin was more concerned than he was confused. Not all Persona users had the best of intentions, and to discover there were enough in there to justify an entire registry, well, the possibilities could either be very good or very bad.

"Yes, the Shadow Operatives, an unofficial government task force used in dealings with shadows. Any and all known Persona users are legally obligated to register for this organization due to the powerful and dangerous nature of a Persona ability." Justin practically spat up his lunch at that. Govermentally regulated was a surprise in and of itself, though the real kicker is that apparantly possessing Persona and not being a part of this super secret governmemntal agency was against a one hundred percent unknown law. Justin, by very nature of possessing a Persona was a criminal, and by simpy existing was commiting a crime. How in God's name was that even considered legal. It was discrimination to the highet degree, persecution even. How could he be held accountable for laws he didn't even know existed?

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on one fucking second!" Justin objected angrily. Aigis was not going to call him a criminal for an unjust law and especially one that no average human being would be aware of. "I am NOT a criminal just because I have a Persona, okay? I didn't choose to have this power, and I will not be held accountable for something I have zero control over!" He ranted as he pushed himself away from the invisible barricade he had been resting against earlier. They would not put him in cuffs for some bullshit law based on what most would believe a myth. Aigis smiled awkwardly for a moment, one of those 'I may have just screwed myself' smiles. There was clearly either somethin lost in translation here or Aigis hadn't meant to let that slip, which actually would make all of his worse.

"I would not be concerned about legal ramifications. The law is not known or enforced by law encorcement or the court system. It's primary purpose is simply to allow for the engagement of hostile unknowns with the Persona ability." She tried to explain. It was kind of like an arrest warrent that was always in effect and was completely discriminatory. Justin crossed his arms with annoyance. Aigis had nearly shot him and his sister twice today because of that damn law, god only knew when she would break out the cuffs. And what of the other Shadow Operatives? Would they hunt the Investigation Team now that they knew about the unregistered Persona users that resided in Inaba? Aigis was pretty clear they had no intention to make arrests or otherwise aim to kill, but that didn't do much to alleviate Justin's concerns.

"So what, I'm a fugitive now? This is ridiculous, encorced or not." Justin defended. Call him a lot of things, but a criminal or a terrorist be was not. Aigis nodded her head with understanding. She understood how he felt, really she did. He wasn't exactly the first that had reacted he way he had to the law. And no one wanted to be drafted to a war they did not support. In Justin's case he was sick and tired of fighting shadows. Life was hell for Justin for as long as he walked this earth, and now that things seemed to be going smoothly, he'd like to keep it that way. He didn't want any part in this government bullshit for a power he never wanted in the first place. He didn't want himself or his friends to be persecuted for what was beyond their control. He wasn't the criminal here, oh no. He was the victim.

"If it would please you, I'd be more than happy to register you and all your friends as Shadow Operatives." Aigis smiled. Justin wanted to immediately object to being drafted, but Aigis just cut him off by raising her palm. Stubborness, pride, integrity. All equally self-destructive traits. At the end of the day, she was sure she could get past Justin's convictions and make him an offer that would benefit him and his friends greatly. "Honorary of course. This way you and your friends will be considered registered, but will have no need to participate in active duty."

"And what do you get out of this?"

"Well, it's always beneficial to know who hour frienda are." Aigis smiled timidly. Justin had been leaning forward agressively to fight back against this notion, but the smile on Aigis's face was just so genuine that it was hard to accuse her of being a persecuter. All the things she would do for Justin and his friends were true, and yet she seeked nothing in return other than some dying trace of a friendship. Robots as it would seem showed more charity than humans. More human than human indeed. Justin bit his bottom lip for a moment before sighing in defeat. His pride said not to support such a discriminatory law by registering, but his heart wanted only the best for his friends. And I guess that included Aigis now.

"...I... Appreciate it. You're a good person Aigis." Justin smiled as he leaned back, reqdy to rest again while he waited to get out of his invisible cage. Much to his almost pleasent surprise, as he went to lean back he stumbled and fell straight to the floor, like a trust fall exercise where everyone leaves you before you fall. He hit the ground hard, much to Aigis's mild amusement. She never understood why this kind of thing was funny to her, but he humans did have a word for it: slapstick comedy. That in mind it perplexxed her how it was funny, though it did not confuse her as to if it should beconsidered funny.

"It appears the walls are down again. I believe that means Miss Jefferies has succeeded. "

"That-a girl- ow... Come on-ow. Lets go before my back starts to kill me even more."


	258. Chapter 257: Welcome Home?

CHAPTER 257

Welcome Home…?

* * *

"Now, I have to ask in advance. Show of hands, how many of you still want to murder me?"

Justin smugly spoke out as him and Aigis found their way back to the entrance where most everyone had gathered. Given that the invisible walls were gone and the shadow was nowhere to be seen, he was hoping that meant that whatever had been morphing their words was gone as well. Given that Yosuke had shakily been raising his hand in the back, Justin was going to take that as a yes, they could understand him just fine. Chie and Justin ran towards each other and shared a quick hug before turning their attention back to the rest of the group. Everyone seemed happy enough that this was all over, even Labrys who was rather exhausted. Still, even though Justin was thrilled to see all his friends here something was off. At least for him anyway. Aigis seemed more than happy to see the faces of the few strangers amongst their group. One had long red hair and was wearing a fur coat… The other was wearing a red cape. You know what, Justin wasn't even going to question it after half the shit he saw today. Sides, Chie seemed to really like him the way she kept staring at him… Hmm, maybe Justin needed to keep his game up just in case.

"I am more intrigued by her than Teddie though... May I examine your internal workings for a bit?" Naoto continued to speak as if she hadn't noticed Justin even appear. But then, Justin didn't even notice her, so I guess that was fair. How or when she got here was a complete mystery to Justin. I mean sure she appeared on the television set, but wasn't she away on business? She certainly didn't enter the television with the rest of the Investigation Team, that's for sure. Hell, Justin didn't even hear about Naoto from any of the others when they were trying to piece together what was going on. It was strange. Probably for the best though that the two didn't really cross paths, because as much as Justin didn't support this tournament, he really would not hesitate to punch her in the face. I mean, they were on better terms than they were before, and that was certainly good, but Justin still felt this unexplainable anger towards her anytime she walked in a room. I guess some things just can never be forgotten, and others never forgiven.

"Nao-chan! If you're going to touch anyone's internal workings, do mine!"

"…Yep, that's our Teddie alright." Justin groaned a bit. There was the concern that their Teddie and the General could be the same person at first, but I think that idea was long since discarded when the shadow revealed her true form. Still, it would be a lie to say no one was suspicious of Teddie as a result. The fact that he was trying to get laid right now, however, probably helped ease that concern. Unless you were Naoto of course.

"With all due respect, I shall have to decline." Naoto refused near immediately. There were a couple of giggles around the room, though Labrys seemed to remain silent, despite the light-hearted atmosphere she had wondered into. She seemed confused. Why wouldn't she be? After all that had gone on, you would think everyone would be pissed off that they had got the crap kicked out of them, and she was right in one person's circumstances, but yet… everyone was smiling and laughing. Even the sister she didn't know she had.

"You guys aren't angry?" Labrys questioned after a moment, curiosity getting the better of her. She was expecting everyone to be furious after what they were forced to do. Instead everyone seemed pretty cheerful. Hell her question seemed to be met with very confused glances as if they weren't even sure where this was coming from. Angry? Them? That was the most preposterous thing they had heard since… Well actually they had heard a lot of pretty stupid shit today, so maybe about fifteen minutes or so ago?

"Huh? Why would we be angry?" Yosuke questioned with intrigue. What was there to be mad about exactly? Everything was said and done, and besides, it wasn't like this was really Labrys's fault. I mean, it KINDA was, and that made them maybe slightly peeved, but no one was ANGRY. "In retrospect it wasn't actually all that bad." Yosuke muttered, crossing his arms. He said that, but then Maya just kind of gave him a death glare as if to remind him that she was still walking around with a broken nose. So yeah. It was THAT bad. Not even to mention that Justin was stuck with HIM again. Justin almost told Yosuke off too, but he figured it would be better for everyone's sake if they didn't know. Though he did have to wonder… his shadow blamed humans for all of this, but… Wasn't this all the result of a shadow? And the shadow of a robot at that. Justin didn't get it. All he GOT was a bad feeling deep in his gut.

"The battle to decided the strongest man was pretty intense, though!" The group was finally interrupted by the sound of Kanji's voice piercing the room as he joined the rest. I guess that explained why he was missing this morning, though Justin couldn't quite explain the glare every single girl in the room gave him as he stepped onto the platform. Remember how I said that there was one circumstance where everyone was pissed off that they got the shit kicked out of them? This was that circumstance. Kanji had, uh… not quite realized what was going on. I still don't think he does. But the girls, oh they knew. And they knew Kanji hadn't held back in the slightest. They were pretty livid. "Uh… Did I miss something?" Kanji questioned. Yeah he did, he missed the part that where next time he walked down an alleyway they were all going to jump him.

"Looks like everything's working out nicely." The man in the cape finally spoke out after a while. Most of the Investigation Team seemed somewhat alarmed by his interruption. He had been unusually quiet, and most everyone had little to no interaction with the man. Chie was probably the lone exception. Just like how Aigis hadn't really interacted with anyone other than Justin and Maya. And god only knew about the red haired woman. Aigis smiled slightly before making her way over to the rest of her group, happy to put this scenario to rest and go home.

"Hello, my name is Aigis. Thank you all for rescuing my older sister." Aigis responded with a smile. Justin raised his eyebrow with slight surprise. Older? I mean, I guess if the goal was to make a human looking robot, Aigis was a lot less conspicuous, but… In terms of weaponry and machine power, Labrys… was… well… a raging bull of destruction. And that's not even getting into the fact that Aigis just seemed a lot more mature than Labrys, not necessarily in personality, but in the way she conducted herself. It was hard to explain. Chie's body stiffened slightly as something slowly started to sink in. Aigis was Labrys's sister, and Aigis was with the other two. The red head, according to the man in the cape, was one 'Mitsuru Kirijo.' Yeah. That Kirijo. They were kind of a big deal company. And that… That made Labrys their property. Her body started to stiffen before she took a slightly defensive stance, placing herself in front of Labrys. The others were somewhat concerned since clearly Chie was aware something was wrong, but none of them could tell what. These people seemed like reasonable folk, right?

"Chie-chan, it's okay." Labrys interrupted, moving away from the barricade she had begun to form in front of Labrys. Chie only seemed confused if somewhat sad. Labrys knew what was going to happen and yet she was just blindly accepting it. This was the kind of thing she had ran away from in the first place, unbeknownst to the Investigation Team. And yet she just accepted being shackled and chained as if it were nothing to have her life held in the palms of someone else. "You've come to take me away, yeah? …I'm ready."

"Labrys!?"

"Chie-chan, I can't ask for anything more. I've made so many friends… and you've all accepted me. I'll be okay now." She smiled back at Chie, requesting she fallback. Fighting the inevitable would cause nothing but trouble for them. She was still stuck in place for a moment, unable to accept this, but Justin was pretty quick to try and get her to lower her guard. After all, that could be considered a hostile action, and until Aigis registered all of them as honorary Shadow Operatives, that was grounds for lethal action. The red head cleared her throat as she watched Justin nervously try to lower her guard. Aigis had whispered something to her earlier, though Justin wasn't sure what. It could be that she was letting her know they were going to get registered and not to kick anyone's asses, it could have just been a plea of parole for her sister. Whatever it was, this Kirijo person seemed somewhat sympathetic to Justin trying to calm Chie down before she did anything rash. Seemed pretty obvious to Justin that she was aware Justin knew about the laws in place for this kind of thing.

"…I'm sorry to interrupt the heated discussion, but I have no intentions of sealing you away. Your Shadow going beserk was an irregularity caused by this world. It wasn't due to any malfunction in you." Mitsuru reassured her. Let people say whatever they want about their business here, but they understood the concept of human rights. The fact that Labrys had a shadow was proof that she was in fact human, that she had a heart deep down in that metal chasis of hers. It would be morally wrong to put her in a box just because of what she was. Besides, it wasn't like she posed any danger to anyone. What would be the point in doing that? "Luckily, because of what happened, you are now in complete control of your Persona. Isn't that so Akihiko?" She questioned, turning her attention over to the caped man.

"Yeah Mitsuru, that's right."

"I'm… not gonne be locked up?" She laughed slightly as it slowly sunk in. She had been so willing to accept demise head on, and yet, she never contemplated the idea of these people chasing her having her best interest in mind. Even if one of them was her sister. I guess when you don't really know your sister, they're just a person to you. "This is like a dream." She smiled, doing a quick spin on the tip of her foot with glee. And for just a moment everyone in the room was incredibly happy for her; even the people who didn't really know her. But alas, it was only a brief moment, because in a single instant things could, and often times go quite wrong. Mid-spin she suddenly stopped, her smile fading her eyes suddenly growing very wide.

"Hey Labrys, you oka-" Before Chie could finish that sentence, she spun around and took a swing of her axe at the girl. If Justin had been slower on his feet to tackle Chie, she would have had her head chopped clean off. Quickly everyone jumped to a startled defensive position. They didn't know what the hell just happened, but something was clearly very wrong. No one makes a sudden 180 in disposition like that. No one goes from being filled with joy to bloodcurdling, murderous anger. Her eyes were wide, and where before they had been tinted red, now they were blue like a camera lens, just staring vacantly into space.

"_**It's not over yet…"**_


	259. Chapter 258: Stalemate

CHAPTER 258

Stalemate

* * *

"Everyone, step away from Labrys!"

Quickly everyone put some space between themselves and the once friendly android, a vacant stare on her face as her eyes glanced over each and every person there. They were empty, cold, calculating, but more importantly vicious. And even more important than that, they weren't hers. Her voice, her eyes, everything about this sudden change in disposition in Labrys was wrong. For starters, last Justin checked, Labrys had a very natural Brooklyn accent. What he was hearing was more like a text-to-speech program, and yet… it wasn't. There was the slightest hint of what sounded like a strong Irish accent to Justin, but he couldn't really tell. He was too busy backing away with shock to pay attention to the minor little inflexions in her voice… Or his given the circumstances. Certainly didn't sound like a female on the other end.

Aigis's eyes darted back and forth along the figure of Labrys's hull, scanning for something, though it was impossible to determine what exactly from just watching. It was safe to assume she was probably looking for some kind of coding defect, something that could cause her to pull a complete one eighty like this, a glitch in her system. What she found instead was concerning. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say what she didn't find. She couldn't actually get access to Labrys's software; someone had erected a firewall. Now, Aigis was no expert on the older models of her engineering, but she herself did not have one and she could only assume that meant neither did Labrys. Why? Well how many people did you know that could hack a robot, especially when the chances of you actually knowing the person in question WAS a robot. That firewall was not built into her programming, thus that means it was coming from an outside source. "I cannot gain access. She is being hacked!" She closed her eyelids tightly as she tried to concentrate and pick up any signals coming in or out. Much to her surprise, there was a very faint signal coming in from through the television set in the center of the room. It made sense; you had to be so close to the television to get a signal, so if someone had intended to hack Labrys this entire time, well… this was the only opportunity they had throughout this competition. "It isn't coming from inside this facility… The signal originates elsewhere!"

"You mean outside the TV?" Akihiko questioned with curiosity. He knew Mitsuru was having trouble keeping in contact with them without her Persona due to the signal issues in this place, so it came as a bit of a surprise to him. To the Investigation Team, it just sort of made sense; it hadn't been the first time they had been exposed to the strange physics regarding receiving and sending signals through this place. But then, it's not like televisions were exactly covered by most wireless plans in Japan, so it was understandable that their signal would be dropped once they came in. It was just the part where they could still send and receive calls near the television they didn't quite get. Perhaps it worked like a router of sorts; it could transfer signals so close to it outwards on either side of the portal… Though that only helped so much inside when they couldn't use their phones very far away from the TV.

"_**This is just a little extra resistance. Now, entertain me!" **_Labrys, or whoever seemed to be in control of Labrys demanded. There was the slightest hint of excitement in his voice as he raised his axe again, pointing it straight at Yu, who in turn drew his own blade. He didn't want to fight of course, but he wasn't just going to take an axe to the skull. He was just gonna have to hope he could parry her attacks long enough for someone to subdue her, hopefully through non violent means. I mean if this was a hacker, all they had to do was interrupt the signal, right? If he was in direct control, once the signal was lost Labrys would be in control. The android dashed after Yu who quickly raised his blade in defense, steel scratching against steel and sparks shattering outwards from the impact.

"Sister!" Aigis shouted as she tried to interrupt the conflict. She didn't want to see this end with violence after all, not after all they had fought for. Though it was hard to say what was worse, the fact that she was not in control of her actions or that whoever was clearly aimed to kill. Their blades disconnected for a moment, and in a brief show of skill, Labrys spun her axe around, passing it from hand to hand and behind her back. Clearly just parrying wasn't going to be an option. Yu backed up slowly and cautiously, hoping to stay at a decent enough range that her apparent flexibility wouldn't be a problem. Aigis dashed forward, hoping to interrupt this engagement before someone got hurt. And yet, before she was even half way there, she was tossed like a ragdoll across the room. Not by Labrys mind you, but what DID throw her wasn't much better.

"Is that…?" Justin questioned with slight horror. Oh man, double teamed by TWO of them!? This was going to be a serious problem.

"**Who would think you would fight back so fiercely? No wonder you were able to fight back a God." **Aigis crawled back in slight horror as she stared at a mirror image of herself, golden eyes piercing through her very being. No. Her own shadow? This couldn't be. What did she have to hide? Hell, there was really nothing in her programming to encourage or even allow keeping secrets. Granted, she had been breaking free of the shackles of her electronic limitations over the years, but… What could she possibly have hidden in the depths of her heart? **"Things are going splendidly. This is my chance… No, more like marvelous entertainment." **The shadow smirked with sinister glee eyes lighting up as it watched Yu trying to fend Labrys off from gaining distance on him.

"Entertainment…?" Aigis questioned with great confusion as she pushed herself back to her own feet. What was so entertaining about all of this? It was sick, even to her. Labrys stopped for a moment again twirling her blade around to showboat just how powerful she was. A shadow and an all powerful android with the skill to cut down people like a knife through butter. These mortals that tried to stand against them were like trees to be cut down by lumber. Oh sure, they stood strong and sturdy, but really, just a couple hacks at their roots and they came tumbling down… And became tools themselves to ruin their brothers and sisters of the forest.

"**Now… may you suffer and curse your fate! Relinquish your Personas!" **A couple of shifty glances were passed between the group. Relinquish their Personas? One, why one earth would they do that? Two, HOW on earth would they do that? And three, fuck that. If anyone was getting their Personas it certainly wasn't going to be a shadow. Justin froze in place for a moment, something itching at the back of his skull. And then it hit him. Not necessarily HIM persay, but his shadow. His jaw slowly started to open and his eyebrows raised with fear, his iris's mixing back into that golden yellow tone as he backed away. Even the gods could be afraid it would seem. **"Personas and Shadows are one and the same. If I poison your hearts, I can rercruit… Shadows with unparalleled strength." **The shadow chuckled slightly as her eyes fell on Justin's shadow. He knew what the shadow meant. Only, this wasn't an ordinary shadow. In fact, it wasn't a shadow it all. He knew the face that hid behind the face. And it paralyzed his very soul with fear.

"**No… NO NO NO!" **Justin's shadow muttered with fear before tripping and falling flat on his ass. Maya and Chie passed him a shocked and very much afraid glance. Now Maya knew about his shadow coming back, Chie did not. Seeing those golden eyes again turned her heart to stone with a single glance. So much shit was barraging them all right now that it was hard enough to process everything without HIM showing up again. Her liquid froze in place and the blood in her face quickly drained, skin turning pale as she stared down at the frightened shadow. Perhaps that was the worst part. Justin's Shadow was afraid. Oh he was always a coward, but he always tried to put on a good show. This time? He wanted nothing more than to run and flee. Aigis's shadow turned again to face Justin. He was a perfect specimen in more than one way: he was powerful and yet weak at the same time.

"**The heart is frail. Its weaknesses are never fully vanquished. Given the opportunity, it can betray you and return to darkness. Old wounds that you thought you had overcome opened once again." **She grinned as she continued to stare at Justin's shadow. Much to the horror of everyone watching, especially the shadow, her eyes started to bubble like hot fluid before melting away into a black ooze like substance, dripping from her eye sockets until there was nothing there; that smile never leaving her face. That was about all the shadow could take before trying to make a mad dash away screaming. Had Chie and Maya not practically tackled Justin to keep him from crawling away, he damn well might have gotten away too. What in god's name was getting into this guy? It was creepy, but to see him scream out in terror like this? Something was very wrong. **"You almost let go of your hearts…your Personas. This one's desire to make people suffer was perfectly suited for such a plan."**

"…You've gone too far." Aigis remarked as she pushed herself to her feet. The shadow simply crossed her arms as if indifferent to Aigis's resistance. Oh boy hoo, her feelings were hurt. By the time the shadow was done, more than her psyche would lay in ruins across the floor. Aigis struck an aggressive posture. "You're not my shadow." She frowned as her eyes scanned up and down the malevolent entity's being. It just smiled in turn. Oh, it seemed the machine actually had a brain in there somewhere.

"**And the last horse crosses the finish line."**

"Whatever you are. We're gonna stop you." Yosuke stood, pointing his finger at the malevolent entity, an intense glare on his face. It was hard to tell who was the real mastermind here, the hacker or the shadow whom he seemed to be working with. But did it really matter right now? They were both working co-operatively towards the same goal, whatever that goal was, and they needed to be stopped. For the sake of everyone. Everyone drew their weapons, save Chie and Maya who didn't have weapons in the first place, but more importantly were trying to keep Justin from running. It was really hard keeping him pinned too with the way he struggled. The wicked shadow like being nodded at the hacker before both dashed forward ready to strike.

It ended here.


	260. Chapter 259: Final Battle

CHAPTER 259

Final Battle

* * *

"A little help here!?"

Yu leaned back as he tried to fight off the iron blade of his opponent's axe, slowly inching close and closer to his face as their blades collided together, the screeching of metal against metal ringing through the room like an ear piercing choir. With each strike of Labrys's axe, he found himself being pushed back more and more, and even more difficult, he was finding, to keep his sword arm steady enough to keep that axe from embedding itself in his skull. Chie and Maya were finding it difficult to really help out since Justin's shadow continued to freak out, and as they knew, this was not the kind of guy that should be left unchecked. Aigis was busy trying to fend off whatever it was that was talking her form, alongside her comrades. And that left the Investigation Team to deal with Labrys. You would think focusing on the insane robot would be an easier feat then fighting whatever hellspawn had disguised itself as Aigis… but it was still a war machine, so it was hard to really say who got the better end of the bargain here.

"Amaterasu!" Yukiko shouted, extending her fan as she summoned her Persona to aid in the battle. With a quick slash of her fan her persona waved her arms and shot out a blast of hot molten sparks at Labrys. She narrowly managed to dodge the flames flying past her face, but it did manage to put some distance between her and Yu again. He sighed with slight relief as he jumped away, happy to get some breathing room if only for a moment. He adjusted his glasses before readjusting his fighting posture, moving from defensive to aggressive. Obviously Aigis was in no position to expel the hacker from Labrys's systems, so obviously he was going to have to fight back. Luckily, Izanagi had lighting based spells which could have one of two effects on Labrys: It either could cause her to short-circuit and shut down her systems, or completely fry her circuitry. Yu was gonna have to hope for the best, then.

"Izanagi!" He summoned with a thrust of his hand as his Persona's figure formed above him in spectacular blue light. Labrys didn't seem all that frightened though by the powerful Persona he had called upon. If anything the hacker seemed unimpressed, as if he was expecting more. He spun the axe once more as Yu braced himself to start flinging spells. "Zio!" He ordered Izanagi, his hand held back before shooting forth a large bolt of lightning at Labrys. He was expecting that simple strike to be the end of their encounter, but with a single swipe of her axe, she was able to reflect the electric current with her shiny steel, like light off a mirror. That shouldn't have even been phsycially possible, and yet she didn't even seem amazed by the fact that she blocked fucking lightning. Yu gasped with slight alarm as his attack was deflected with the greatest of ease. But he couldn't give up. Surely it was just a fluke, right? Again, Zio after Zio, he shot towards Labrys, expecting that if he just attacked in quick enough succession she would be defenseless against the electric barrage. Instead, she simply spun with the upmost grace, volleying back each attack as if she were playing tennis with thunder itself. Each bolt she reflected brought her just a little closer to Yu, and he was well aware of that. It was disorienting the way she moved, though her long hair seeming to get in the way of Yu's view probably helped with that. It wasn't long however before she was a mere axe length away from Yu, her blade at his throat.

And she would have probably slit it right open had Kanji not come to the rescue. He didn't even need his Persona, he just ran up and punched Labrys right in the face. And that was enough to send her across the room. She landed on her feet with a quick flip, but alas that split second of being flung might have been just the opening Yu was looking for. Kanji quickly summoned his Persona and in a feat of teamwork, they both shot out their own bolt of Zio. Labrys was able to deflect one in time, but not the other which got her right in the knee cap. Her body twitch and seizure as the electricity overloaded her systems, her body shaking as she tried to output the power quick enough that her circuitry wouldn't get fried, but not too fast that she would break down her systems. It was working, though very slowly. And that was enough for Kanji and Yu to both charge in and lay down an all out attack. Kanji did most of the work, but Yu got a kick or two in there… Okay one, and then he started jumping around and holding his foot in pain. It was a wonder it didn't hurt Kanji to constantly be barraging her with fists.

"Kanji-kun, that's probably enough." Yukiko interrupted after a while. He had managed to take Labrys down and yet he continued to try and lay a beat down on her. Granted, he tried to pull this exact same shit with them so she wasn't surprised, but that didn't mean it was suddenly okay. She was done for, that was sure. Kanji took a deep breath before retracting his violent advances on his downed opponent. Yukiko had a point; they were trying to neutralize her, not completely and utterly destroy her. He wiped some sweat from his brow and waved his now red hand to try and alleviate the soreness as he backed away. He was going to count that as a victory. Aigis's doppelganger on the other hand was not. She was getting an advantage on the other three in their battle, but apparently her ally's defeat was enough to get her to disengage combat.

"_**My, she was quite easily defeated. Evidently I didn't push her far enough…" **_The cyborg coughed as she laid on the ground, some loose circuitry in her chasis buzzing with electric sparks. It wasn't painful, if anything it almost tickled; but that didn't make it a pleasant sensation. _**"Well… she is a test unit, so this is as far as my little game goes. I should thank you all. Although this didn't work out, you did stay in it to the very end." **_Mitsuru took a deep breath, eyes darting carefully back and forth between her foe and Labrys. She couldn't lower her defenses, but alas, it seemed her opponent had long since lost interest in this fight. Perhaps she could risk turning her ire to the other for just a moment.

"I see now. Labrys was only responsible for the tournament. You're the one who stole her away in the first place." Mitsuru glared at the downed hacker, who only giggled slightly with amusement. This was all just some twisted game to him; and that's the most disgusting part of it. He was practically enslaving that poor girl and as far as they could tell he didn't have any reason other than to take her for a ride.

"_**That's correct. Since I don't have a Persona and can't enter a TV, I needed a puppet that could run amok for me. Labrys' Persona was only partially awakened, so I had a feeling her Shadow would appear if she underwent a little suffering. You got the better of me this time; you deserve to know at least that much."**_The hacker giggled once more, slowly backing away from the group to the best of her ability, electricity still making her movement jolted and stiff. She was smart to back away too, because she managed to piss every single person in that room off… Well… More than she already had.

"This time? Are you still planning something!?" Chie questioned angrily, still trying to pin Justin to the ground so he wouldn't do something stupid. "What the hell…? Labrys has a heart! Do you even understand how much pain she went through because of you!?" The android raised its eyebrow with almost gleeful curiosity, as if intrigued by the question but amused by how ridiculous it was. Did he know that she was in pain? Who cared? He was evil, remember? Even he was aware of that. And you know what? He didn't give a fuck. Not about her, not about them, not about anyone.

"_**A hear, hm…? Meaningless. Whether or not she has one matters not at all to my plan." **_Shocked glances were passed around the room as the hacker dropped a small little fact on them. The android was just step one in his master plan. And if was just the beginning… no one wanted to see the end. _**"Well then, everyone. Until we meet again!" **_He laughed as his body grew limp and plopped to the ground, his blue eyes fading away to Labrys's normal, red irises. Everyone watched on with concern and confusing. Everyone except for whoever it had been impersonating Aigis, who simply laughed with amusement. The game wasn't over just yet; this was just a pawn being removed from play. They had yet to unveil their true motives, their true play.

"**This is fine with me. Good enough for my purposes that I confirmed you have enough power to meet my expectations." **She giggled with glee as she stepped away from the small ring she had formed with the Shadow Operatives, a move clearly intended to show surrender, admitting defeat in this engagement. But then, pretending that at the end of the day she was still victorious was not much of a surrender.

"Those are the words of a sore loser." Naoto pointed out, verbalizing what most of them had been thinking. Though it was hard to tell if they thought that because they were legitimately convinced they had already defeated their opponents or because they were somewhat concerned about what else could lie ahead.

"**I doubted there'd be any meaning in changing my appearance, but sure enough, it made for a very enjoyable game. All that irritates me is having to feign cooperation with that foolish one until I obtain the one true vessel…" **She chuckled as she aimed her eyes at the now dormant Labrys. Clearly this little alliance of there's wasn't exactly as in the hacker's favor as he seemed to believe. They both thought they were in control, manipulating the other. And that only meant their team was destined to collapse on itself in no time. But until then, they were still a threat to be reckoned with. Especially when one was decidedly inhuman, and the other… Well… That tinny voice of his wasn't exactly the most human thing anyone had expected to hear. You would think if it wasn't a direct feed from an audio capture device on the hacker's end, it would sound like Labrys was talking. But it didn't. Quite the mystery, actually. **"I will see you in another guise next time. Just wait until then." **It laughed with heavy, sinister glee, as if this were the funniest thing the malevolent entity had ever seen. It was in fact all just a game to whoever that was, some sick twisted entertainment. His form slowly disappeared in the air, dissimilating into the atmosphere until there was nothing there, leaving nothing but a sense of dread behind in its wake. And yet despite all that, the very first words to come out of the Investigation Team was simply…

"Sheesh, it even had to exit on a lame evil laugh!"

"Shut up, Yosuke."


	261. Chapter 260: Aftermath

CHAPTER 260

Aftermath

* * *

"So uh…"

"Don't."

"I really think we should talk about th-"

"No."

"But Justin."

"The fact that I've interrupted you before you've finished a single sentence thus far should have been the first clue I have no intention of talking about this."

"First? What was the second?"

"Fuck if I know."

Justin grumbled as the Investigation Team sat around the shopping district, tired eyes watching the few cars in Inaba fly down the street. They had manage to get out of the television with Labrys in tow, though it would seem waking her up wasn't quite as easy as flipping on an electric switch. So the Shadow Operatives took custody of her, claiming they were going to do their best to get her repaired with the equipment they had on them. Justin wouldn't be all that surprised if they just threw her in a car and bolted off. He trusted Aigis, truly he did, but those other two? He didn't like the looks of them one bit. One of them was the epitome of upper class scum; the kind that frivolously spend their money on things they don't need, like fur coats and fancy automobiles. These were the kind of people who would go out to spend money they could give to the needy on shinier versions of what they already had. It sickened Justin, though not as much as the fact that having that much money, he'd probably would do the same. Hell, he HAD done the same. When he got his trust fund, what did he do? He went out of his way to blow a shit load of it on jewelry. Oh sure, he saved some for college and he offered to pay his girlfriend's way through as well, but those were all mere plans for the future. Even the greediest of people could claim to desire to give their money to the needy.

As for the other, well… How much exactly could you trust a man in a cape? A shirtless man in a cape. A shirtless man in a cape that your girlfriend could not seem to keep her eyes off of for some reason. Justin paused his reflexions for a moment to look down at himself. Well he could see the problem already. In a battle of abs versus no abs, the six pack wins every time. If Justin rolled that way, he'd admit that Akihiko probably was attractive. But he wasn't, and he certainly could see no appeal in any man who wore a cape around like that. No matter how beefy he was.

It was the middle of the night and lights illuminated the sky like fire burning bright and hot as they sat there, tapping their feet and twiddling their thumbs as they waited for the car to pull around with Labrys, hopefully bearing good news. A lot had happened today, and I think it was safe to say most everyone wanted to go home and go to sleep. But they stayed up for the well being of a friend; a friend who, most likely, would never be a part of their lives again. T'was how long distance relations tended to work with someone who barely counted as an acquaintance. Especially when that person just so happened to be a robot with massively destructive powers. Basically, the chances of her getting out and about were very slim. And yet despite that fact, they still waited. Of course, as much good will as they had sitting out there in the crisp night air, that didn't mean they didn't get bored; and boredom more often to not lead to contemplation. In this case, Chie could hardly keep her mind off of what she saw inside the television. Justin possessed by a shadow she had long thought vanquished, screaming and trying to claw his way away from whatever it was that had been taking Aigis's form. It was hard to say what was more gut wrenching, the fact that HE was back in the picture, or that he was actually afraid of something. Say what you want about Justin's shadow, but he was cocky and pretentious. He wasn't one to run.

Justin of course had no intention of speaking on this matter though and simply dismissed her and her questions with a wave of his hand. It was hard enough on him knowing he could snap at any second again, he didn't need to be constantly reminded of the demon living in his skull. Chie just sighed before falling back to the pavement. She wasn't getting anywhere with this interrogation, as much as she would like to. Why did Justin never seem to get that she was there for him. Yeah it would be hard, but once he opened up and let others help him, it would be over so much quicker. Instead he was content to just be bound by grief and anguish. Justin could only thank god the car swerved around the corner when it did. He couldn't take much more of these questions about ol' golden eyes up in his head. Though he still couldn't help but groan when the car in question turned out to be a tricked out limo. No, why did it NOT surprise him Miss Bourgeoisie was rolling around a small town like Inaba in a limo. What, it wasn't enough being rich, she had to flaunt it too? Typical. He groaned slightly as everyone approached the limo, greeted by the sight of Akihiko, Mitsuru, Aigis, Labrys, and some young girl with greenish hair Justin had never seen before in his life. She was fiddling around on her computer though and didn't seem to interested in the conversation.

"I'm sorry for calling you here so late, but unfortunately we must be leaving today." Mitsuru informed everyone. It was truly a shame this little reunion had to be so abruptly short, but there wasn't exactly much she could do about it. Business was business, and they had much bigger matters to attend to now that they had heard of the sinister masterminds behind these little episode. Big fish swimming in a little pond; sometimes that was all it took to wipe out an eco-system. They needed to be accounted for immediately before the possibility of more harm coming to innocents could arise.

"The follow-up is over after all. Out work here is done."

"I'm glad to hear that, Master." Justin had been leaning into the limo to try and get a brief word with Aigis, since she had proven to be a good friend for the few hours that they knew each other, but at the mere sound of Chie referring to cape man over here as master, he couldn't help but freeze and slowly turn his head towards her, a combination of disgust and confusion on his face. Master? Okay, hold on just one second. One, when did this start, and two, WHY did this start. Akihiko was only lucky he seemed to share resentment for the title, otherwise Justin would consider reaching into the limo and punching him right in the face. Because honestly, he highly suspected that if anyone was putting the ideas of discipleship into Chie's head, it was this guy.

"I told you to stop calling me that…" Akihiko sighed with annoyance, several funny glances falling upon him as Chie stared at him with admiring eyes. Mitsuru seemed the most creeped out of all, oddly enough. You would think she would be used to this kind of thing honestly, but alas, it seemed Chie was just a special case. Justin was hoping it would just end at that, but Chie shook her head with refusal, as if personally offended by Akihiko's refusal to take hold of his crown. If you looked carefully you could see the Investigation Team slowly backing away. Oh, not from Chie, but Justin, whose face was growing redder and redder with rage as this conversation went on. He tried to convince himself this was a misunderstanding, but uh… Seriously. Master. You ever have the urge to just slap someone upside the back of the head? Yeah, that was Justin right now, though he couldn't tell if he should to Akihiko or to Chie. I suppose both was also a viable option.

"No, you're my Master! Though… I gotta admit, part of me has just always wanted to say macho things like that!" Chie continued to gush. Justin simply leaned against the limo and tapped his fingers with impatience. It took a moment before Chie realized Justin was giving her a dirty look; and even then she didn't get why. I'm sure a week from now it would hit her like a bulldozer. "What?"

"…But you're not a man." Mitsuru pointed out. As if that meant someone couldn't be a macho. I mean granted it was more acceptable to be feminine if you were a chick, but who honestly gave a fuck. I mean besides from Mitsuru apparently, who seemed completely bewildered for some inexplicable reason. Almost in complete synchronization Chie and Akihiko both gave Mitsuru a dirty look, as if they had never been more offended in all their lives. Though to be fair, it should have been pretty offensive to Chie since Mitsuru had inadvertently insulted her personality and life style. And yet, Chie wasn't even the one who gave Mitsuru shit for the comment.

"A true man isn't bound by his sex!" Akihiko shouted in counter argument. I'm sorry, was Justin missing something here? Wasn't just earlier today Chie freaking out over being called the Carnivore who Discarded her Womanhood, and yet now she was readily embracing the idea of being a man. Either they needed to have a serious talk, or there was some pretty freaky shit going down here. Mitsuru sighed and gave Akihiko a funny look. Sure that seemed… okay no, it didn't seem plausible at all.

"Your leap of logic is so extreme it could reach the moon." Aigis chuckled slightly. Why did no one tell Justin robots could be snarky? No seriously, he would like to personally thank whoever programmed Aigis to be witty for the greatest invention in scientific history. A sarcasm machine.

"You're going with them too, Labrys…?" Chie eventually questioned, turning her attention away from her 'master' (Justin wanted to vomit just thinking about that) to stare at Labrys. She smiled softly and nodded her head. She seemed alright with it surprisingly enough. You would think she would want to enjoy her freedom a little more, but alas, here she was shackling herself down again. Perhaps she just needed a purpose in life. So many people did. It was just sad to see her devote herself to a cause such as this. There was so much out there for her. Though granted, she'd really need to hide those robot parts first.

"Yeah, I decided I'm gonna work with Mitsuru-san and them. I'm gonna find whoever it was that set you all up and catch 'em myself. I won't let any danger come to you guys. So… this is just a short farewell." Smiles spawned across most of the Investigation Team's faces as they admired Labrys's sacrifice, for people who barely knew her and vice versa. Hell, Chie actually started to tear up a bit. The only one who wasn't really smiling was Yu, who seemed deep in thought. He eventually approached Justin from behind, tapping him on the shoulder before whispering in his ear.

"Can we have a quick word when this is over?"

"I already said I'm sorry about hitting you in the balls."

"No, not that!" Yu objected angrily. Though it was hard to say whether he was angry because Justin was trying to be a smartass or because he was reminded just how much his crotch still hurt. That was a seriously cheap shot. Justin shrugged before nodding with confirmation. Wasn't like he had anything better to do today anyway. By this point Chie had almost started bauling, much to the alarm of pretty much everyone there. The sole exception perhaps being Akihiko.

"A true man is only allowed to cry when he loses his wallet!" Akihiko shouted at her. The tears stopped almost immediately as she stood at attention, perhaps trying to impress. Well I guess there was a bright side to this entire fucked up relationship those two seemed to have, though Justin still wasn't too happy about it.

"It's true that the mental scars one would face if one lost one's wallet in an unknown land halfway across the globe would be immeasurable."

"I left my wallet in America when I moved here, so I can attest to that." Justin shrugged for a moment. He was lucky he didn't keep his passport in his wallet or else shit would have hit the fan.

"Ouch. Must have been tough when you got here."

"Nah, not really. I only had like three bucks and a Subway gift card. I don't even like Subway."

"But Inaba does not have a dedicated subway system." Aigis interrupted to point out. Justin raised his eyebrow with curiosity.

"No, not that kind of… You know what, sure. Why not."


	262. Chapter 261: A Plan

CHAPTER 261

A Plan

* * *

"Are you out of your fucking mind!?"

Justin and Yu stood there in the dark, starry night sky. The others had long since gone home to get some rest, or in Chie's case, immediately get to writing a letter to her "master." Justin seriously was pissed off about that. He wasn't sure why either; it was just a title of respect, right? Perhaps it was the fact that it was such an unusual title of respect, or the fact that it could have other connotations to it. After all, on order for one to be someone's master, they must submit themselves to their will. And that was offensive in and of itself without considering what their will might consist of. But that was of no importance right now. While Justin would very much like to rip that pen out of her hand and get her to write a proper title down for her new best friend forever, Yu had insisted on having a word with Justin in private. Yu had tried to speak with Yosuke on the matter, since generally he was a lot more level-headed on matters such as this, but alas, let us not forget for a moment that Maya had a broken nose and an unsurpassable fear of hospitals. Yosuke was only thankful Naoto and Kanji had helped drag her to the hospital before he got his teeth kicked out. Again.

"I know, I know. It's probably not something you'd put on your bucket list-"

"It might as well be!"

"Poor choice in expression." Yu sighed. Okay granted, what he had proposed was pretty damn dangerous, and he was aware of that. But they had overcome much more dangerous than this before, right? Surely just sticking their nose around and keeping their ears to the wall wouldn't be too huge a hassel, right? Alas, what Yu had forgotten to take into account was that Justin stood by the very few convictions he had in life, and at the top of that list was simply: stay safe. Not just for him mind you, but for the people he held near and dear to him. He had lost so much, and what he didn't he came pretty close to losing on several occasions. His fear of losing what he held so dear would never push him to take a risk like this that would not only jeopardize himself but others. Hell if it were only himself, he might have even considered it; though that consideration would probably be met with a resounding 'no.' Justin may have walked the walk and talked the talk, but the truth was he was actually fairly cowardly. You weren't going to rope him into something he wanted nothing to do with.

"I get that you want to help and be the hero again, but come on. Think about your friends for once instead of everyone else, would you?" Justin countered with annoyance. Today alone was a perfect example of why this was a terrible terrible idea. Hell, Maya was at the hospital right now; and knowing her, the fact that the team had to drag her there meant she had gotten hurt pretty bad. And that, according to those involved, was only a taste of the beginning. It would only get worse from there on in if they tried to involve themselves. And it wasn't like they HAD to involve themselves either. There were others out there who could take on the burden now; those more willing to involve themselves. Yu tightened his brow with slight irritation. It was one thing to deny his proposition. He was okay with that; really. It was a tough decision to make and he wouldn't hold Justin accountable if he decided that wasn't that path he wanted to take. But he wouldn't be accused of not caring about his friends. He sacrificed freely of himself specifically for his friends so much. Hell, he couldn't even make new friends back in the city because he had to rush back home and jump on Skype. His parents constantly had to lecture him about going outside and getting friends in the real world. These friendships he was maintaining were actually making life for him a living hell. But he persisted because at the end of the day friends were friends to the very end, and their bonds could never be broken. He asked nothing in return other than some mutual respect and understanding for what he had to do to keep these relationships working. It was practically a job for Yu.

"Don't you start, I do everything for you guys."

"That's not-" Justin sighed, pinching his forehead with annoyance. That was not at all what he meant. He was just saying that they had already done enough to save the universe from complete and utter destruction. What more could THESE posers possible do that they hadn't already overcome? There was no reason to go up in arms when there were others out there that could deal with minor threats like this. They could rest and live life without having to worry about death. Yu needed to realize that. "I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that Aigis and the others have this covered. And given that Kirijo girl has a goddamn fortune, I'm sure they can do more than we ever could."

"It's not about what good we can or can't do." Yu crossed his arms with a bit of annoyance. Now, Yu wasn't exactly Christian, but he was aware that Justin was. Wasn't there a bible passage about some person who donated a single coin and found more favor with Jesus than all them rich folk? Yeah, this was something like that. "It's about the effort and doing what we can for the better good." Justin shook his head with refusal. They were going in circles by this point, truly, but that didn't matter. Justin was sticking by his guns on this. Yu could convince him to do a lot of shit he didn't want to, but he wouldn't do this; it was crossing the line.

"Oh so now it's a matter of honor."

"Of course not!"

"That's what it sounds like to me." Justin growled a bit. Trying to do good because it was their 'duty', because they needed to at least put an effort into it… sounded like bullshit to Justin. Sounded like he just didn't want his hour of fame and glory to fade away. "The Investigation Team is done Yu. Let it go." Yu sighed throwing his hands up for a moment before slapping them back against his sides. How do you convince a man who had their mind so set in stone on a matter? I mean, the obvious option would be to just do it anyway without Justin's consent, but alas, he really didn't need the temper tantrum that would no doubt follow it. Besides, this was a group decision, he couldn't make this decision by himself.

"So what, you want them to just get away with it? Because that's what it sounds like to ME." Yu countered angrily. He wasn't sure why he was getting so angry over this; it wasn't a decision he wanted to force on anyone, and yet, that's exactly what it seemed like he was trying to do. Sometimes no just wasn't an answer and choice was just an illusion. Unknowingly to Yu at the time, he was making this one of those circumstances. And that only went to infuriate Justin more. What was the point of asking for his opinion on the matter if Yu wasn't even going to listen.

"I can't even go into a television anymore because of this fucker…" Justin tapped at the side of his skull with annoyance, reminding Yu just how dangerous this would be even without the danger their enemies posed to them. "It's hard enough out here! No Yu, I'm not doing this. Don't ask again." Yu sighed raising his palms in slight defense. Alright fair enough point, he hadn't taken that into account; I mean, to be honest, he had sort of forgotten all about the shadow in Justin's skull. He had been gone for so long that Yu wasn't used to it anymore. Still, that didn't mean they shouldn't do ANYTHING. There were other ways to help you know.

"Then don't go in the television. We can just keep our eyes peeled like we used to do for Adachi." Yu countered, trying to convince Justin there were ways they could do this without anyone being put in danger. Alas, Justin has just about had it with this conversation. Yu wanted Justin's opinion and now he had it; what more could Yu possibly want from him? His blessing? He wasn't going to get it. He got what he wanted and now he was going to argue with Justin because he didn't like what he was hearing? He got Justin's opinion… what he did with it now was of no concern to Justin. But he would not drag anyone into his little schemes because he wanted to be in the spotlight again. Justin got up into Yu's face growling slightly under his breath as he looked him dead in the eye.

"You do what you want. But we're not going to have any part of it."

"You can't talk for them."

"I'm sorry, isn't that what you're trying to do?" Justin countered. Yu froze in place for a moment as the comment assaulted his ears. As much as he hated to admit it, Justin was right; these two were debating back and forth trying to decide what to do with others lives like they were mere play things. That made them no better than the evil they were trying to fight. People's lives were not play things, and they did not hold anyone's strings. They were no one's masters but themselves. "Yeah. That's what I thought." Justin sighed as he turned about to walk away, leaving Yu behind.

You know, it was funny. This entire reunion was so Yu and them could get together as friends once again… And it ended with Justin leaving him on the side of the road.

* * *

ACT 2 END


	263. Chapter 262

CHAPTER 262

* * *

"I'm losing my patience."

Justin sat there, silence gripping on him like a clamp, the aroma of smoke filling the air. Another day of being interrogated on matters his father truly had no right to know. Oh sure, it was his job to keep the peace and all that, and given that Justin had been wrapped up in acts that were vaguely terrorist in nature, but really, this wasn't about that, was it? If it was his father wouldn't be the one interrogating him; hell he probably shouldn't have anyway due to conflict of interest. Nothing Justin said would ever hold in a court of law because of it. And that was just another reason to keep his mouth shut. Why waste his breath defending himself or his friends if it wouldn't matter anyway? Sometimes Justin honestly believed his father was purposely trying to sabotage this investigation just with his presence, and sadly, that meant the police department was probably in on it. Paranoia? Perhaps. Or perhaps Justin had just long since stopped trusting people; especially his allegedly deceased father. Whatever it was, any incentive Justin had to keep talking was long gone. Distracting the police? Fuck it, they'd have just as much on their plate trying to get him to talk as they would listening.

"What. Happened. Next. This hacker and this… shadow were both working behind the curtain so to speak. Clearly whatever it was they were working on is coming to fruition now. So what. Happened." His father continued, refusing to let up on the child as he sat there, smoke flowing from the cracks of his mouth and eyes aimed towards the table beneath him. At the moment, he was busy analyzing its surface; the material, the scratch marks along it's surface, the color, all of that. Why was he doing that? No reason in particular. Perhaps because it served as a better distraction than feigning interest in any of this. In the end, Justin just kept his mouth shut. He had nothing more to say. Sure he could probe the Shadow Operatives innocence, sure he could tell his father just who the culprits were and what it was they were planning, but that would be giving the asshole who made his life a living hell exactly what he wanted. He never cared about what Justin wanted, why should the opposite be true? Oh sure, it was petty, but after what Justin went through, he had the right to be petty.

"Why do you care?" The detective glared at Justin slightly. Oh no, they were making progress here, he didn't have time to deal with his kid's angst right now. He folded his arms with disapproval leaning back into his chair. He was sick and tired of playing these games. It was always 'dad did this,' and 'dad did that.' Well you know what? He didn't have time for theatrics. And quite honestly, he wasn't sorry. Not if his child was going to keep acting like a spoiled brat while he was trying to investigate an act of terrorism that could very well reach beyond their small little community. This was not about a family feud, this was about the safety of everyone and everything, was it not? And he was interrupting that with petty grudges that his father had no control over anymore. He needed to get the fuck over it.

"Because it's my job, and you are getting in the way of that." His father responded somewhat aggressively, leaning across the table to give Justin the stinker eye… As if that would change anything. Justin just flicked at the tip of his cigarette, allowing the ashes to fall like rain drops into the ash try beneath his hand. He averted eye contact as he took puffed a cloud of smoke from his lungs into the air around him. He was finding it increasingly difficult to even look the man in the eyes now. It was hard to tell though if that difficulty stemmed from all the hatred deep in his heart for his father, or because he was afraid. He knew what it was like when his father got angry, and he had subconsciously trained himself to react accordingly years ago. Flinching, raising the arms in defense, all that stuff. He knew when to anticipate a cheap shot, and he knew when to shield his eyes from broken glass. Was his father going to strike him here in the interrogation room? Probably not, if only because these things were probably monitored, not to mention Justin could argue police brutality if he so much as laid a finger on Justin. But I think that only made it worse… The thought that the only thing restraining his father was the possibility of an inconvenience, at the thought that people were watching. You know what should have been holding his hand back? His love for his son… But I guess that was never going to happen in the first place.

"No of course, blame me. Always blame me. Have you ever considered the possibility that you're just a shitty interrogator? That you don't know how to do your job? Maybe you're just not a people person? But no, it's my fault. Always my fault." Justin ranted for moment, his irritation getting the better of him for a moment. Maybe it was just that he was sick of swallowing his father's bullshit like some mindless drone. Maybe he had just enough of his father. Hell, maybe he just wanted to tell his father what he wanted to tell him for all these years. That he was a horrible person. That he hoped he burned in hell. Amongst other things anyway; these are some of the nicer remarks Justin had deep in his brain pan. Not very flattering for sure. Justin's father leaned across the table, pointing his finger right in the kid's face.

"Watch your tone." His father scolded Justin, having just about enough of the attitude he was sporting. Justin couldn't help but chuckle at that one. When did his father think he had the right to treat him like a child anymore? He was nineteen years old for one, he was legally an adult and he didn't need to be treated like a kid. But furthermore, and much more importantly, where did his father get the idea that he still had the right to fill a parental role? He abandoned Justin long ago, even before his alleged death. To think he had any right to treat Justin like he was still flesh and blood… The audacity of it all!

"And what'll you do if I don't? Throw another bottle at my head?" Justin scoffed at him with anger. "Actually come to think of it, I should be the one interrogating you! You know child abuse is still illegal. But of course I don't expect you to acknowledge that. That would make you look like a hypocrite!" That was about where the interrogator lost his patience. Justin didn't know anything, who was he to judge!? Who was he to condemn his father for shit he didn't even understand. And perhaps it was true that he didn't understand, but what he understood all too well was the pain of bone against flesh. Within a split second his father lashed out and slapped him across the face, and hard to. His eyes widened and within a second ever muscle in his body froze in fear the slightest, his lips trembling and his voice whimpering.

"Are you going to keep whining or are you going to answer my question?" Not a word of response left Justin's mouth, his eyes were wide with shock as a rush of rather unpleasant memories flowed into his mind like a river of pain and suffering. It was amazing the things sensory memory could do to a man. They could help you remember some things, and they could just as easily break a man's psyche. The father grunted with slight annoyance as he watched his son shiver as all the trauma of the past finally caught up with him. He groaned and shook his head with annoyance as he snapped his fingers in the kid's face. "Hey. Answer me." Again, no reply. Not even a glance. His eyes were vacant, as if he were here only in body, as if his mind had long since gone. He just sat there, starring, pain filling his soul. He sighed before pushing himself up out of his chair and pulling his walkie talkie out.

"Yeah, this is Detective Tylor. We're not getting anywhere today, have the guards take him back to his room."


	264. Chapter 263: April 11, 2014

CHAPTER 263

April 11, 2014

* * *

"Happy Birthday!"

"Chie, you know I don't like celebrating my Birthday."

"Well I do."

Justin opened the door to his house to be greeted by the tight embrace of Chie's arms wrapped around his waist. To be quite honest, he hadn't even remembered today was his birthday. Partially because he never really had anyone to celebrate it with, so he just ignored the occasion. Partially because he had been so busy. College started tomorrow, and he had bags to pack and arrangements to make. Iwatodai University to be more precise. It was uh… not exactly a great college admittedly. It wasn't awful mind you, hell he knew for a fact Yukiko was going there as well, so it couldn't be all that bad. But given the options Justin had open to him, to pick Iwatodai… Well he had to be out of his damned mind. He knew exactly why he did it too. Chie only got accepted to one college, and I'm sure you could guess which one it was. Oh sure, Justin could try to pretend it was because it was cheaper and he could afford to take Maya with him there, he could argue they had a good forensics program, but at the end of the day you knew he was talking out of his ass. It probably helped, but it certainly wasn't the deciding factor. Out of his mind? Most likely. Justin yawned slightly before letting Chie inside. She really should have been at home making her own preparations, but he wouldn't hold it against her if she needed to get some air. Besides, he appreciated the gesture, as unnecessary as he perceived it to be. Why celebrate being another year closer to a coffin six feet in the ground?

Maya came marching down the stairs only a few seconds later, a single, small cardboard box in her hands that she proceeded to plop onto the kitchen counter, her name scribbled crudely on the side. You would think it was written by a twelve year old with that handwriting, but Justin wasn't one to judge. Besides, the actual size of the box was much more surprising than her bad handwriting. Did she really have so little? I mean, Justin knew when she entered this house all she had was the clothes on her back, but… Christ, he felt bad looking at it. He had the money now to allocate to getting Maya clothes and shit. Why couldn't she have just asked? Now he felt like a douche for having never noticed. And the sad part was that half of those clothes were probably from Yosuke's wallet. I mean, I guess it was nice that he was spending his own money on Maya like that, but that should have been Justin's job, not his. Just add it to a long list of regrets he had in life he supposed. She sighed and rubbed at her forehead as she made her way to the couch and plopped down almost immediately, as though completely oblivious to the fact that they had a guest who would probably like a seat. Luckily, Chie didn't mind standing.

"Sheesh, you look really out of it Maya." Chie pointed out. You know that just got out of bed look that you had when you were having a really bad day? Take that and amplify it be twenty five percent, and you had Maya at this moment in time. She hadn't been sleeping well truth be told, though Justin was having a hard time telling if it was nerves or if something else was bothering her. You could say it was a little of both. She was pretty nervous about going to college, but that wasn't what kept her up at night. She just couldn't help but wonder what happened to their home now that they were leaving. Sure, the deed was going to be in Justin's name regardless of how long he was gone, and he'd probably keep paying bills on it, but… A nice looking house like this completely unoccupied for four years, maybe more depending on whether someone changed majors or went for further education, well… It didn't take a scholar to point out that even in a nice town like Inaba, the chances of those windows being smashed open and all its contents stolen were particularly high. She didn't want to see her home, Justin's home desecrated like that, and yet deep down in her heart she feared that's probably what was going to happen. It seemed ridiculous to keep herself up at night thinking about something that was unlikely to happen anyway, but it did. It was kind of like when you were a kid and you imagined just what could be hiding under your bed and you just didn't know it because it scurried off anytime you looked. The unknown could be anything; it contained infinite possibilities, and those possibilities, more often than not, weren't pretty. And that was what scared the shit out of Maya.

"_I'm fine, I'm fine, I just… Need a nap." _She countered with a slight sigh, eyes closing slowly but surely. But alas, as much as she'd like to fall asleep, she wasn't having much luck. It was too bright outside, Justin and Chie were talking, not to mention standing right beside her bedside, which was never exactly a comfortable sensation. After all, you never know when they might be waiting for her to drift off just to smutter her with a pillow. It was a defensive instinct, as ridiculous as she realized it was. You know she couldn't even fall asleep in the same bed as Yosuke? Now don't get the wrong idea, they never… Well… You know, as much as Yosuke probably would have loved that. But there were just times were she slept over, usually around Christmas, and hey, why waste a futon they didn't need? Truth be told she entirely needed it, but she didn't want to seem like some freak who couldn't even sleep in the same bed as her boyfriend without having an anxiety attack. Could you imagine what Yosuke would say if he found out? No, she just kept her mouth shut and listened to the clock tick away as she laid there, hoping for the sandman to take her away to slumber, only to be disappointed every time by the sun shining through the window. So yeah, people standing around her while she tried to power nap; not helping all too much. It was always like that though. The only time in recent history she could think of where she had fallen asleep around other people was at the party the Investigation Team had for catching Mitsuo; and even then, that was because her body had long since exhausted itself past safety protocols.

Furthermore, as much as she liked to pretend the thoughts bustling inside her mind were not an issue, her heart still believed it, already fooled by the probabilities of such a case occurring. God why did she have to have such an active mind, and in all the wrong ways? She didn't want to think about this right now, she just wanted to catch up on some sleep so she didn't look like a homeless person when they all went down to college tomorrow. Yukiko, Chie, Justin, Maya, and Yosuke. Pretty much all the senior members of the Investigation Team… The lone exception being one Yu Narukami. Granted, they didn't talk much about college with him, but from their understanding he got accepted to some prestigious school in America or something. No one even imagined Yu would be interested in going overseas for college. Chie, Justin knew was interested in that, but Yu? Uh-uh, came as a surprise to everyone there as well. Still, five out of six wasn't bad. Was like the gang wasn't even separating… Until they remembered Kanji, Naoto and Rise were getting left behind when they moved on. I mean, it wasn't like they weren't gonna keep in touch, but… You know. It gets hard when they didn't see each other on a daily basis. Not that Justin wasn't happy to be rid of Naoto and Maya to be rid of Rise. They both had the problem of holding onto grudges for far too long. Maya sighed before sitting back up.

"_Christ… Justin, do we have any Nyquil? I'm dying over here." _She questioned as she slipped her hands behind her head. She figured she might as well straighten herself up a bit since they had company. She quickly slipped her hair through an elastic band she had, tying it into a neat pony tail. You know how people change with time? When most of the Investigation Team had slowly developed their own styles over the years, Maya was the last to change. She usually wore her hair in a ponytail these days, and instead of hoodies, she tended to prefer track-jackets. It wasn't that drastic a change, but it was a change all the same. Still it would be hard to say she was the LAST to change. Even after Maya had stopped messing around with her wardrobe and shit, Justin was still experimenting himself. It was mostly t-shirts and cargo pants these days. And of course, he had started growing out the rest of his beard so that he had a light stubble across his entire jaw line instead of just his chin. After about a year of just the soul patch, Justin decided it kind of made him look like a douche bag, so he trimmed that baby down and evened it out. That way everyone wins.

"Yes, and you're not having any." Justin crossed his arms with slight annoyance. Now, there were Nyquil pills on the market that were made specifically as a sleeping pills that would have been perfectly acceptable for this situation, but Justin did not have any of those. No, he had the cold medicine, you know, the kind you only took when you had a cold? Maya clearly didn't have one though, she was just having trouble going to sleep. So no, she would not be getting pills for a condition she did not have. God only knew they didn't need Maya getting used to tripping balls after taking pills she clearly didn't need. Assuming NyQuil could make you trip balls. Justin was just assuming it could though. Maya sighed before allowing herself to fall back down on the couch. Why she thought Justin would be kind enough to let her sleep, she wasn't quite sure. That would be asking too much of mister 'everything is trying to kill you and drugs are bad, mmkay?'.

"_Gee, thanks Justin."_

"No problem." He turned his eyes away from Maya, just in time for her to flip him off mind you, to focus on Chie. "Hey, did you get your room allocations yet?" Justin questioned after a moment. She raised her eyebrow with a combination of confusion and concern. Well, yeah. Months ago. This was kind of stuff they needed to know. Was Justin STILL waiting for his to come in the mail? Oh dear God, Justin really dropped the ball on this one.

"Yeah, Iwatodai Campus, House E, Room 202. You didn't get your packet yet?" She questioned, clearly worried that Justin showed no sign of knowing where he was going. He shook his head with denial. He really wished he knew they were supposed to get that stuff ages ago. He just sort of assumed they would find out the day college started or something. I guess in truth they were just moving in, all that other stuff had already been dealt with. He rubbed the back of his head with a combination of embarrassment and worry. I assume it wouldn't be a huge huge deal, unless he needed to sign off on something. In which case he screwed both himself and Maya over. Hell, you have no idea how hard it was forging her parents signatures and shit on her applications. He was just hoping no one realized that she was considered missing in America, otherwise this could be a huge problem. He'd just hope he could see someone at the help desk about this shit.

"On a scale of one to ten, how screwed am I?"

"Eight."

"Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence."

"No problem."


	265. Chapter 264: April 12, 2014

CHAPTER 264

April 12, 2014

* * *

"Look, I don't know what you want me to tell you, I didn't get a letter for housing accommodations. I've got my license, my student ID, all that stuff, I just don't know where to go."

Justin groaned as he tried to find his way to his dormitory. Locating the actual building probably wouldn't be a problem, it was the fact that no one would actually tell him which building it was that he needed to look for. Oh, he should have had all those papers filled out, so there was nothing they could do for him. What a load of bull. If it was that important, they would have sent out a second letter or a reminder that he needed to submit the forms. And they knew that; now they were just buying their time and biting their fingers hoping he'd just get tired and leave. Because they knew for a fact that the error was on their end. Or at least, they would if they actually turned that computer on and looked at their mailing list. Maya was pacing about the lobby, clearly nervous about all of this. She totally blamed Justin, even if she knew she shouldn't. For all she knew, he accidentally threw the letters in the trash with Adachi's desperate attempts at garnishing attention, pleading for forgiveness. Justin didn't even bother reading the letters anymore. After what he did, he had some serious balls mailing him at all, let alone to ask forgiveness.

"Like I said, we don't have a rooming request here from you or your, uh… sister." The secretary paused for a moment. She totally didn't believe the two were related in any capacity, mostly because she had the paperwork to prove otherwise, but whatever; she wouldn't judge. That wasn't her job. What her job was was to sort out little breakdowns and communication like this. Justin folded his arms with annoyance and pinched at his forehead.

"Because no one sent me a form!" Justin continued, clearly irate. I mean how could he be held responsible for their error. How could he be screwed over by their incompetence. Oh sure, he could always go back home and live there instead, but given the distance between Inaba and Iwatodai, it simply wasn't plausible to travel back and forth between the two places on a daily basis. No, it wouldn't work, he need on campus housing; the same kind he should have received in the first place. "Just give me the paperwork now, I'll fill it out and write you a check." Justin countered trying to propose away this could all be sorted out immediately. The secretary wasn't very amused by his impatience though.

"It's not that simple, we need proof of medical insurance, medical forms as well as a list of accommodations that would need to be made, especially so in your sister's case with her disability." She pointed out, though she was only scratching the surface. There was also the matter of every other person who applied already having their rooms. She doubted there would be any rooms left to offer the blonde haired teenager, even if she truly want to extend to him a stay here on campus.

"Do you really need that information right now? If you give me the forms all have all that information for you by the end of the day, I promise." He pleaded with her. He had no intention of leaving empty-handed; especially not after all the goddamn packing he had to do. Besides, do you realize what a pain in the ass it was sitting on the train with all the luggage Justin had brought with him? Maya would be fine with her whole one cardboard box… Justin had two suitcases worth of shit. But all the same, that was more a petty complaint than anything. In terms of the bigger picture he absolutely needed to be here. Not just for ease of travel mind you, but because if he got one more letter from Adachi he swore he was going to slit his own throat. It was depressing. He needed to get away from all of that, and moving just might be his own little vacation from all of that. The secretary sighed before punching a few keys in on her keyboard for a moment. God knew he wasn't going to leave until either A, they got him a room, or B they called security. And they'd rather not lose tuition from a prospective student, so she was gonna have to meet him half way here.

"…We have one dormitory open. Co-ed. Iwatodai Campus." She punched one last button on her keyboard before shuffling through her desk for some papers, a clearly irritated expression on her face. She had a feeling her superiors were going to bitch her out when all was said and done for doing this. "Here are the forms for residency application and medical accommodations respectively as well as a list of expenses. These forms need to be filled out by the time this office closes at eight today, and the funds will need to be in by tonight and clear by the end of the week. Until then these are the only rooms available, so if you wish to stay I'd suggest unpacking and getting that paperwork done immediately."

"Oh thank god… Thank you very much ma'am. I'll be back real soon with all of this." Justin smiled with relief. I mean granted she still hadn't told him where to go and that meant he'd be doing paperwork all day instead of exploring the campus and figuring out where the hell his classes and shit were going to be, but whatever. He was just happy enough to know that he had a chance to fix a mistake that wasn't even his fault in the first place. Yeah, not something he should have been happy about, but if you were in Justin's shoes, you'd feel the same way. The secretary leaned to the side to peer over Justin's shoulders as he briefly scanned the papers in front of him. Oh Christ, Maya's paperwork was going to be difficult. She didn't have health insurance, so… Yeeeeeeah. This could be problematic. Whatever, Justin would pull his hair out over it in a minute.

"Perfect timing." She called out to someone in the backdrop. He seemed somewhat surprised to be called out to, though not at all offput by it. Like it happened on a regular basis or something. He smiled a bit as he made his way to the counter ever so nonchalantly. He was wearing a purple baseball cap and he had the stupidest soul patch thing Justin had ever laid his eyes on. Which in turn just caused him to rub at his own chin. He had to wonder if he looked that dumb when Chie encouraged him to grow that thing out. Probably. "Iori-san, are you heading off to the freshman dorm now?" She questioned.

"Yes ma'am, sorry I'm so late." He apologized in turn, but in that really sarcastic 'I'm actually not sorry at all' kind of fashion. It was hard to describe, so just imagine him smirking ever so slightly as the words left his mouth and him talking really slowly as if he were talking to a child.

"We've got some late housing applicants that'll be in that dorm as well. If you could just take them with you that would be great." She requested before spinning around in her chair, not so much as waiting for an answer. It wasn't so much a request as it was an order it would seem. He shrugged with indifference. Hey, he didn't like that it was being forced on him, but it wasn't like he was going to say no. He had to go that way anyway. He eventually smiled again before extending his hand to shake Justin's.

"Junpei Iori, upper classman." He introduced himself with cocky pride. Justin tilted his head slightly to the side with intrigue. Upper classman? Wait, was Maya and Justin both getting put in an upper classman dormitory or something? I mean, I guess it wouldn't be a problem, but… He could only imagine the upper classmen weren't going to take it too well.

"Justin Tylor. And this is my sister, Maya… Um… Upper classman?" Justin interrupted his own greeting to interrogate the guy. He'd rather know in advance what was going on. Luckily for Junpei, he didn't even have to answer. The secretary, who had still been listening in on this conversation despite having gone back to her work, interrupted for just a moment to explain it to him. God knows he wasn't getting any memos, she might as well explain it to him in through detail so he didn't miss anything else.

"Freshmen dormitories have upper class man chaperones to make sure that prohibited substances such as alcohol are kept off campus. Junpei here was one of the volunteers for this year." Justin nodded his head only slightly with understanding. He got then what he was doing at the freshmen dorm, though he certainly didn't understand what could possess him to want to volunteer for something like that, babysitting the younger guys like that… Sounded awful. Besides, didn't he have other friends he'd want to hang out with? Clearly he didn't know Junpei, because if he did, that question would have answered itself.

"Well I'm not sure how I feel about big brother watching over me, but I don't suppose I'm in any position to complain. I'll grab my shit."

* * *

"So what are you two majoring in?"

Justin and Maya marched behind Junpei, luggage in hand as they were lead to their dorm rooms. Maya was having no trouble keeping up; she only had a cardboard boxes worth of stuff compared to Justin's two suitcases. Junpei had found that rather curious, but he wasn't going to say anything on a matter he didn't know anything about. For all he knew that second suitcase in Justin's possession could have his sister's stuff as well.

"I'm looking at forensics. Maya's undecided." Justin replied in turn, trying to catch his breath as he held his heavy as luggage in his arms. Would have been nice if Junpei helped carry some of that luggage since he didn't seem to have any of his own. He must have already unpacked or something. Justin knew Chie and the lot had already made it to their dorms like an hour ago, since they didn't have to deal with the secretary telling them to get lost. Maybe the same was true of Junpei. Though it was somewhat unlikely giving that he claimed to have been running late today. He might have unloaded yesterday so he could get his room first. Junpei curved his eyebrows down with slight curiosity as he stared at Maya. She hadn't been talking at all and it seemed like her brother had been answering everything for her. You ever get the feeling that there was something going on that you weren't aware of? That's the sensation that had crept into his stomach. He'd figure it out soon enough if he was staying in the same house as those two.

"Oh that's cool. I had a friend a while back in the Forensics program." He smugged confidently as they moseyed along the path way and up a set of stairs to the dormitory's porch. It was a nice place, like… really nice. Most of these buildings looked more like prisons than an actual house, but this? It was hard to think that they were built after the college. What probably happened was someone bought a mass of land and all the homes on it; and the homes became the dormitories. Justin wouldn't complain, anything to feel more at home. Or at least as at home as he could when he was living with like twelve other people. He opened the door for the overburdened teenager, as he probably should have. Justin couldn't even see where he was going because being the idiot he was, he didn't pack suitcases with handles on them, so he had to carry them in a stack in front of his face. If he could see, he probably would have been less surprised when he entered inside. "Welcome to Iwatodai Campus, House E."

"Wait, did you just say hous-"

"Justin!"

"Yes, yes you did." Justin smiled to the best of his ability before dropping his luggage off to the side. He'd carry them upstairs in a moment, but for now, he needed to give his back a rest. And of course he needed his hands free to give Chie a hug as she came rushing to the door. I guess last minute housing had its perks after all (though part of him was somewhat suspicious of the fact that Chie had signed up for co-ed housing… then again, so did Justin, so I guess this was a great case of the pot calling the kettle black.) "Christ you have no idea how much of a hard time I had getting a room."

"Oh, you two know each other already?" Junpei questioned after a moment, eyebrow raised in a rather creepy fashion. Not that Justin really caught wind of that.

"Mhmm. This is my girlfriend Chie."

"Oh, looks like you lucked out man." Junpei grinned that wide grin of his again before turning his attention to a clipboard he had been carrying around with him. He had to get some business out of the way first. He cleared his throat a bit as his eyes fell down onto a sheet of paper in front of him. "Alright everyone, my name is Junpei Iori, I will be the senior chaperone for Iwatodai Campus, House E. There's a big list of rules here you're supposed to follow, but what they won't know won't kill them." Junpei smirked slightly before ripping a page off of his clipboard and crumbling it up. Justin like this guy already.

"Uh… Are you sure that's such a good idea."

"What's the worst that could happen?" He waved her off dismissively. "I just need to account for everyone quick quick and give room assignments and then you're free to do whatever you want. Uh… I don't see either of your names here." Junpei pointed out to Justin and Maya.

"It was a last minute transfer."

"Ah, I see. Well then, let me just scribble your names down here… Chie Satonaka is here…" He muttered to himself as he tried to check off the residents in this house. "Let's see… Erin Holliday? Are you here?"

"Yo." Justin turned his attention to the doorframe where two other people had slowly made their way into view from what looked to be the living room. One of them was a girl, probably about 19 years old with short, wavy brown hair. Her eyes were a light brown and she was wearing a hooded jacket and a red t-shirt. The other one was a guy, a little older, maybe in his mid twenties. He was probably going back to school or something. He had really long black hair, like almost to his ass kind of long hair, and a pair of perfectly round, pink sunglasses that made it impossible to see what color his eyes were.

"Alright Erin's here, uh…"

"Izzy."

"Got it." He scribbled down. There was no Izzy on the list here, though there was a name that bared a close resemblance to it on paper, so he just assumed he either heard wrong or there was a misprint. In truth, that's because Izzy wasn't that guy's legal name; not quite a nickname either because most people didn't call him that. But hey, if there was ever a time to reinvent yourself, college was probably around that time. Junpei tapped the pen in his hand against his chin as he counted out the people in the room. One, two, three, four, five… He only counted five people. He was supposed to have six if he were to include the sudden transfers of Justin and Maya. "We're still missing someone… Did any of you happen to bump into a-" Before he could finish that sentence, the sound of a door creaking open filled the room as the young man pushed his way through the door, back turned as he tried to drag his luggage in. The present Investigation Team members had their jaws drop almost immediately once he stood up to reveal his silver hair.

"Surprise." Yu sighed as he tried to catch his breath, wide grin on his face as he stepped through the door. That was met by Justin immediately punching him in the arm. Here he had been telling them he was trying to go to College in America, and all the while he had actually applied to the same school as everyone else. It was hard to tell if it was a heart-warming gesture or a really asinine one. "I'm gonna be honest, didn't expect to be in the same dorm as you guys. I was just gonna find out where you were all staying and pop into say hi."

"You realize Yukiko's gonna kick your ass when she finds out you've been lying to her about all this, right?"

"Nah, she wouldn't do that."

"Wanna bet."

"Not particularly."

"Smart man."


	266. Chapter 265: April 13, 2014

CHAPTER 265

April 13, 2014

* * *

"God, I am so happy I opted for afternoon classes."

Justin yawned as he stepped down the stairs of the dormitory, eyes drooping from drowsiness. He had worked on those papers all fucking day yesterday, and by the time he finished, he just had no energy in him to really do ANYTHING. He just sort of went to bed and left everyone else to stay downside and chat it up… amongst other things if the mess he showed up to was any indicator. Junpei seemed to have acted rather quickly on that 'fuck the rules' policy given the beer cans that littered sofas and tables around the house. He had ONE job. Just the one! Most everyone had classes this morning, so it seemed they had already left the house, hangovers in toe, though a few of the others had opted for afternoon classes as well. Namely Maya and, from the looks of the damage, Erin. Either that or she just decided to sleep in today. Maya was a sleep on one of the sofas, and given the look on her face, Justin was going to guess she succumbed to peer pressure and tried to down a couple shots. It didn't end too well. Erin, on the other hand, was wide awake, her legs spread across the other sofa, television remote in hand as she flipped through each channel, searching for something worth watching.

"God, daytime television SUCKS." She muttered to herself, a disapproving expression on her face as she skipped from channel to channel, trying to find ANYTHING that could be entertaining. I mean, she guessed she could just play video games, but she'd lose track of time if she did; at least with television she knew when her program ended it was time to get going. "News, news, reruns, reruns, shitty direct to television movie, news…" Justin slowly made his way to the couch where Maya had been laying, tapping her on the shoulder in an attempt at waking up. As it would turn out, she had been in fact awake already, but her head hurt so much that she was trying to sleep it off.

"You realize you got to get to class in an hour, right?" Justin pointed out rather smugly to her. She responded in kind by wrapping a pillow around her head and scrunching her eyelids even tighter together, like the mere sound of his voice was irritating to her. It probably was. Justin was all too aware of the downsides of a hangover. He had one twice in his life, and neither case was particularly pleasant. As for Maya, well, this was probably her first hangover. Truly an occasion for celebrating.

"…_then I'll wake up in like… forty five minutes."_

"The classroom is at least a fifteen minute walk from here."

"_Shut up I'll figure it out." _She moved her lips, not even bothering to try and use sign-language. Justin still wasn't a lip-reading expert, but he could pick up words here and there. Forty five stuck out like a clear thumb here, and given the context, he had a pretty good idea what she was trying to say. He smirked a bit before trying to secure a seat on the couch with her, though ultimately that didn't work too well, as she had decided to occupy the entire length of the chair with the length of her body. Justin almost managed to slip in by her feet, but she just kicked him. And there was only one person he could think of that kicked harder than Maya. He had to wonder if she got drunk too. Probably not, Chie gave him too much shit for getting drunk the few times she did for her to turn around and do it herself. Say what you will about Chie, but she wasn't a hypocrite. He sighed and shook his head before raising his eyes towards the second sofa. Occupied by Erin of course, but from the looks of it, she wasn't drunk, so maybe she'd be more willing to move and let her have a seat. "Hey you mind moving over a bit."

"What's the password?" She responded sarcastically, though with little interest, eyes still focused intently on the television. She must have flipped through all the channels several times over, and yet she kept expecting to find something different. Have I ever told you the definition of insanity? Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and over again, expecting things to change. Now that is crazy. By extension, I guess that meant Erin was batshit insane… But that was probably an inaccurate way of deciding her mental state. The fact that she was asking for a password like this was some treefort in her yard, however, didn't help portray her as a mature, sane individual.

"Pretty please with a cherry on top?"

"No."

"Password?"

"Close."

"Password1."

"Proceed." Erin pulled back at her legs to allow Justin sit down. It used to be just password, but now everyone wanted you to add numbers. What was so wrong with having a numberless password? How did it affect Amazon if she just wanted her password to be 'fuckyou?' At least fuckyou2 was a good alternative she supposed. Justin groaned a bit before allowing his body mass to fall into the couch cushion beside her.

"Quite the party it looks like you guys had. I'd say I'm sorry I missed it, but somehow I think I should be grateful for that." Justin remarked sarcastically, analyzing the damages that had been done to the dorm while he was outcold in his bedroom. He was lucky enough that he managed to get one of the single rooms. Chie had gotten stuck with Erin, and Izzy with Yu. Justin, Maya, and Junpei managed to get their own rooms though thankfully enough. It surprised no one that Junpei got his own room either. That's probably why he showed up a day early.

"That depends how well you can hold your booze… Speaking of, watch this." She paused for a moment clearing her throat before raising her mouth towards the sky for maximum quality acoustics. "JUST WANT TO REMIND YOU THAT YOU THREW UP AFTER THREE SHOTS, MAYA!" She shouted. At first Justin thought she was crazy, but soon it became clear she was doing that on purpose just to piss off Maya. She laughed ever so slightly as Maya clung the pillow even closer to her ears, the greatest of pain shooting through her forehead. It was hard to decide what was more annoying; the fact that she was constantly reminding Maya she couldn't drink much without losing it all over the floor, or the fact that she was so fucking loud.

"_Ugggh, fuck offfffffff…"_

"I was wondering what that smell was…" Justin mused to himself, taking another good whiff of the odor in the air. Well hopefully that would just serve as a deterrent against whatever it was that had gone down here. As if the hangovers weren't enough on their own. I guess you either got used to them after a while, or you figured out how to get around it. A hot shower tended to help; so did drinking a lot of water inbetween drinks. Not that Justin knew that from personal experience, but he did know that from observing his father.

"Yeah Izzy cleaned it up this morning. The look on his face was priceless. Like just, whoa."

"You guys just let it sit there all night?"

"Hey I wasn't touching that shit. You should have seen what was in there. There was like chips, and bread, and chips, and it all smelt like smoked ham." Erin raised her hands with defense. Besides, just because she didn't have a hangover like Maya over here didn't mean she didn't get drunk either. You think she was sober enough to clean that up without falling into it? Think again. Justin shrugged and shook his head. That smell was never going to get out of the carpet, he could tell you that right now. "Bet you five bucks Izzy managed to get his hair in that crap. It's really long like that." Erin pointed out before turning her attention back to the television screen. With hair that long it must have been impossible to get that out without getting his hair caught up on the vomit. Which means someone else probably should have had it covered. Izzy seemed like a weird guy like that. "So Justin was it? No don't answer that, I'm pretty sure it was. That's a fairly American name for an Asian."

"Latin actually, but yeah. I'm not Japanese." Justin raised his eyebrow with curiosity. He didn't even look a little bit Japanese. He was hoping she was just trying to be sarcastic and that she didn't really think he came from here. I mean come on, it was pretty obvious him and Maya weren't from around here. "What about you? Erin doesn't exactly scream Japanese either." Justin pointed out. Let's not call the kettle black just yet, shall we?

"Irish."

"Now when we say Irish, we talking straight from Ireland or the kind of Irish you find in America where every single person has a hint of Irish in them." Justin questioned. As far as he could tell Erin was probably an overseas student. Though why she'd want to study here and not a more reputable university, Justin would never understand. Maybe it was the only option available and she just wanted to check out Japan or something. Like being a tourist for four fucking years. She shook her head.

"Neither. I'm French. Like… From France French. You know, like the kind that actually live in France." She clarified slightly, since she already knew Justin was going to follow that up with 'well how French are you.' To be fair though, she only had a slight accent. She sounded more American than she did French; plus she had a really good grip on the English Language. He had never been to France so he couldn't say with any degree of certainty that it was a common language spoken over there. If it was anything like Canada, then it probably was, but you never know. Justin didn't know English was widely spoken here at first either. I guess it was just a practical language to know. Kind of like Spanish.

"Really? I couldn't even tell."

"I get that a lot. Like all the time. People used to think I lived in Canada. True story." She shrugged.

"Alright, so you're French, we're American, Junpei, Yu and Chie are Japanese, what about Izzy? Is he Japanese too, or…?" Justin questioned out of curiosity. The answer was probably Japanese, but given that so far they had almost a fifty percent foreigner occupancy rate, he was willing to guess he could be from somewhere else.

"Hell if I know. I'd be able to if I could get a look at his eyes, but he never takes those damn sunglasses off. Who even wears sunglasses at night?" She ranted off-topic for a moment with bafflement. There was being mysterious, and then there was being mysterious because you're doing some really weird shit. "Maybe he has like some weird bug eyes. Oh oh, maybe he only has like… one eye. Yeah, and then the other's like a prosthetic, but not just any prosthetic it's like... like a robot eye or something. That shoots lasers."

"…That's, uh, quite the imagination you've got there." Justin questioned, slightly weirded out, slightly offended. He really didn't like the idea of missing an eye being considered on the same level as having bug eyes. Unless she meant bug-eyed like just having really big eyes; but somehow he doubted that was the case. Erin paused for a moment, trying to recatch her bearings.

"Sorry, haven't taken my pills yet." She sighed rubbing at her forehead. She had to take ADD medication every morning, otherwise she just kinda of bounced off the walls, like she was on a sugar rush. Justin passed her another funny look. Some context would be much appreciated; truly it would. "I'm supposed to take them every morning, but I decided to watch a little television, and I forgot all about them."

"Well then… I need to get ready for class, so…" He cautiously tried to excuse himself. Erin could tell he was just trying to get away from her too. Dammit, this is why she needed to stop forgetting to take her meds.

"Yeah, k, bye. Hey if you bump into Junpei can you tell him he needs to get some fucking breath mints?"

"I'll… uh… be sure to do that."


	267. Chapter 266: April 14, 2014

CHAPTER 266

April 14, 2014

* * *

"I hate all my classes. Really boring. Like the teacher just goes on and on and on and on and on and on and on- I was tempted to go to the bathroom and pull the fire alarm. True story. But then I remembered the have cameras on, and then I actually did have to go to the-"

"Did you forget your pills again this morning?"

"Oh crap I did. Stupid, stupid me. I should put post it notes on my door. But then what if I forget to look at the post it notes too? No, instead I should set my alarm clock to tell me to take my meds. But what if that bothers Chie. No that wouldn't work. Unless I wear earplugs. But what if those fall out when I slee-"

"Erin!"

"Sorry!"

Justin sighed as he pushed open the door to the dormitory. Unfortunately for him, it would seem that Erin just so happened to have the same class as Justin did at the end of the day. Now, that wasn't necessarily a problem in and of itself; from what Justin could tell Erin wasn't a bad person. A little off her rocker perhaps, but not bad. The problem lied in the fact that she never remembered her fucking meds. Like, it had only been two days and Justin could already tell this was going to be a reoccurring thing. And she was just… insufferable when she wouldn't shut up. And it wasn't necessarily that she wouldn't shut up either, it was that she pretty much said the same exact thing over and over again, that she covered every single fucking angle of every single fucking issue. Forget what Justin said about insanity earlier. THIS. THIS RIGHT HERE. THIS WAS TRUE MADNESS.

Needless to say, he was happy to get inside, hoping that perhaps someone would take her off his hands for a while. Though unfortunately for him, either everyone knew just how hyperactive she could be, or everyone was too busy with their own problems. Either option seemed completely viable and understandable to be quite honest. He sighed as he threw his jacket onto the couch, completely ignorant to the fact that Maya was sitting there trying to eat when she was coated by Justin's… well… coat.

"_The fuck, Justin? You think I want your sweaty clothes in my ramen!?" _Maya gestured off quickly in fast, aggravated succession. Justin rubbed at his temples a bit. Great, now he had madam talks a lot talking a lot and madam doesn't talk at all pissed at him. Two sides of a coin Justin would rather deposit in a vending machine and just grab a coke right about now. Hell, he might even consider giving alcohol a shot if it would dull his senses enough that he wouldn't be consciously aware of everyone around him. But he wasn't quite there yet. 'Sides, Junpei and Izzy were the only ones legally old enough to drink, and Junpei was out right now. And no one dared ask Izzy for anything. Why? Well that's a good question actually. Wasn't like he had given them reason to doubt him, and it wasn't like he wouldn't do it. I guess it was just weird seeing a guy that old just now going to college.

"Yeah, that's pretty gross. You know what we need, we just need a coat rack, like right here, or or, we could have one right here. And not just coats either we could put like hats and… and… hats and shit on it. Actually here would be a good spot too. Not by the window though, then it would get all hot with the sun shining in; no it's gotta be right on or near the door… but then when someone opens the door would someone knock it over? Maybe it would be better if we put it-"

"Dear god woman, take a breath." Izzy spoke up from the kitchen rubbing his own forehead with annoyance. He had a shit ton of homework he had to do and he could not concentrate with her constant yammering about. And mind, you, this is the guy that had a big set of headphones wrapped around his head right now blasting heavy metal. No, heavy metal would be an understatement. Screamo, Death Metal; THAT would be more accurate. He flipped some hair out of his eyes… well… sunglasses, and lit up a cigarette with annoyance. God knew he was going to need one if this was going to keep up today.

"Well fuck you too." She countered, hands on her hips before making her way towards the couch. Which Justin found strangely discomforting since just a moment earlier she was commenting how she had forgotten her pills again. Shouldn't she be… you know… taking those now? Either she had the world's shortest short term memory, or she was doing this on purpose. "Hey anyone got any gum? Like none of that peppermint or spearmint bullshit though. Like bubblegum flavor bubblegum." Izzy could not have been quicker to pat at his pockets for the gum he had in his possession. Why? Because if she was chewing gum she couldn't talk. Hell once he found it, he gave her the whole damn pack. Hopefully that would keep her quiet for longer. He quickly tossed it over to her on the couch before turning his attention back to the sheet of paper in front of him. "Thanks, you mind if I take two pieces? Oh but what if I need one later… Maybe I should take four-"

"You can take the whole damn pack if you start chewing." Izzy rolled his eyes as she shrugged and plopped a piece of gum into her mouth. Hey, she wouldn't object to free shit, even if Izzy was kind of being a dick about it. Justin sighed with slight relief before making his way to the kitchen where Izzy was sitting and doing his work. He had no plans to interrupt, but he did need to get something to drink, alcoholic or not. He opened the fridge and grabbed a can of coke as quietly as he could. Not that it should have mattered when he was blasting his music like that, but I guess he could still hear to some extent. Like he had trained himself to not be deafened by someone growling in his ear. "Hey can you grab me one too."

"Yeah sure." Justin shrugged before sticking his hand in a second time, grabbing a hold of Izzy's beverage before turning about and closing the door with the tip of his foot. He placed it on table beside him, taking only a second to peer over Izzy's shoulder to see what he was working so hard on. Justin couldn't understand most of it. Not because it was written in a different language or anything like that; the words were clearly Engish, or at least Justin assumed, but he had no idea what most of them meant. And that's coming from the guy whose favorite book was Hamlet. "What are you studying, Biology or something?" Justin questioned as he popped his own can of cola open, curiosity getting the better of him. Izzy tightened his brow slightly. The guy went out of his way to grab him a drink so he couldn't just tell him to shut up… but that didn't mean Izzu didn't wish everyone would just be quiet.

"English Comp." He answered quickly and decisively with a small sigh of aggravation. He wasn't exactly a social butterfly, was he? Granted, most everyone in the house right now wasn't though. Yu, Chie, and Junpei; all there classes ended at least an hour ago, which meant they were probably off playing pool or doing something that didn't involve hanging around the dorm like a child afraid to leave home. Either that or they were lucky enough to have not gotten the shit load of homework Izzy seemed to be getting. Erin, Justin can definitely see why she didn't get out much, or if she did, why she didn't so much now. Same with Maya, but that was less because she was annoying and more because she was too ashamed to try and interact with people because of her disability. Hell, she barely even talked in the dorm when Izzy, Erin, or Junpei were around. Junpei and Izzy gave her funny looks, though Erin proved to be a lot less judgmental. That did not, however, stop her from speculating at a thousand miles an hour how it happened.

"Oh, you want to be a writer?"

"No." He cut off quickly, flipping a page of the packet in front of him. "I write screenplays, but every agent I've talked to keeps telling me they suck ass." He explained with just a hint of anger in his voice. Those agents wouldn't know art if it popped up and bit them in the ass. They just couldn't understand the deep symbolism in his work. Everything had to be explosions and crap to them right. "Get this, they told me this twist I wrote where the protagonist is actually dead the entire movie was cliché. Fucking imbeciles."

"But… Didn't they do that in the sixth sense." Izzy paused for a moment, biting at his bottom lip as his hand slowly stopped following the words on the homework in front of him. That was… actually a kind of valid point. But you know what? Izzy was much to proud to admit that a plot point he had so carefully engineered had already been done before.

"It's not the same thing."

"Sounds it to me."

"I'm sorry, did you need something or are you just going to bash my writing!?" Izzy turned to Justin, having finally reached his wit's ends. Justin in turn simply raised his palms in defense and backed away. He didn't mean anything bad by that; he was just saying without context it sounded like the exact same plot twist. And he wasn't going to get any context either, because truth be told, the context actually made it seem even MORE like the same plot twist.

"No, I'm good." Justin excused himself before making his way back to the living room, taking a free seat next to Erin. He would have preferred sitting next to Maya, but she was still kind of giving him a death glare for throwing his jacket at her. Look, he wasn't AIMING for her; he was aiming for the seat next to her. He just didn't have a very good throwing arm… or aim. Erin had been blowing bubbles for quite a while now, each pop growing to be more and more irritating to Izzy, who had thought that would keep her quiet, not make more noise.

"Oh yeah I think I saw that movie. Was that the one with all the aliens? No wait, different movie. Both of them had Bruce Willis. I think. Probably not. But you know it would probably be better if it did have Bruce Willis. This was the one with the psychiatrist whose kind of a ghost but you can't tell because he looks like Bruce-"

"YES." Justin cut her off as quickly as he could. She was going in circles again. "…That was the one." He sighed, pinching at his forehead. What did he do to deserve a fate such as this.

"Yeah I liked that movie. I think. Actually I might have not. Yeah actually I hated it." Erin mused to herself before shrugging it off and going back to what it was she was doing before. Justin shook his head before turning his eyes up to the ceiling. Sometimes he couldn't tell if this girl had ADD or if she was just bipolar. I suppose both was also a valid option. Maya's gaze passed from Erin, to Justin, then back to Erin again.

"_You know what? I forgive you for the jacket."_


	268. Chapter 267: April 15, 2014

CHAPTER 267

April 15, 2014

* * *

"You know the best thing about college is you only have class, like, three days a wee… Oh dear god."

Justin walked down the stairs of the dormitory, rubbing his eyes as he woke up with glee to his day off from having to sit in class and be lectured. He didn't have many plans in particular; he'd probably just hang around with Chie all day, maybe do a little catching up with Yu since they hadn't seen each other in so long. And yet even though he had little to no plans on how to spend his time to day, he did know what he had planned NOT to do. And that was listen to Erin go a thousand miles an hour. Now, part of him was hoping she had remembered her pills today, and perhaps she did, but alas, that wasn't really the problem. What Justin saw as he marched down the stairs struck him to his very core. He would have been happier to have walked down the stairs and found everyone lying in pools of blood. His eyes darted back and forth for a moment before resting on Erin once again.

"Alright. Who the fuck gave her coffee!?" Justin shouted angrily. She was hyper enough without giving her caffine. He was seriously going to strangle whoever did this. Erin turned around, slightly caught off guard, though smiling all the same. I'm going to guess sure was already on a huge sugar high that she wasn't offended over what was pretty obviously an insult to her and her behavior.

"Oh hey Justin. I made coffee. Not too much though. Like just a pot. Or two. Or three. It's decaf though. I think. I may have put a lot of sugar in it. I don't like coffee black. Speaking of which we're out of sugar. Completely gone. I didn't want to use the last one, because I didn't know if it worked like trash where if you fill it you have to take it out. But I did. So yeah. We need some more sugar. Like a lot more." She spoke frantically; even faster than normal, which was an incredible feat in its own right. Hell she was even jittering a little bit. It was hard to tell though if that was because she probably had a gallon's worth of sugar in her system right now or because it was actually kind of chilly in here. Justin's jaw slowly fell with bafflement.

"There was like… An entire bin of sugar packets!" Justin commented with shock. Who the hell let her put all that sugar in her coffee? Like, even ignoring the fact that sugar and her clearly did not mix well, there is NO way that much sugar could be healthy. It was amazing her blood pressure didn't go through the roof and kill her. But then, she hadn't finished her coffee yet, so that remained to be seen. She smiled, hands still trembling as she tried to keep her cup of coffee as still as possible.

"Yeah I know, it's great. Like it tastes awful. Like swallowing a whole pile of salt, but instead of salt its sugar. But my tongue is tingling. Like a bunch of pop rocks in my mouth. Also I can't feel my toes. Like at all." She grinned before taking another chug of the drink. Justin was pretty quick to dart over and rip the drink out of her hand though. She had to be out of her mind to keep drinking this shit. She seemed almost disappointed as it was taken from her clutches without so much as a 'please' or 'thank you.'

"Christ almighty, this shit'll give you diabetes faster than you can say 'this was a crappy idea.'" Justin shook his head with disapproval as he paced himself towards the kitchen area to dump this down the sink. Of course, in the process he had ran into Chie who was busy trying to get her homework out of the way so she wouldn't have to do it tonight… or perhaps just trying to get a head-start fearing it WOULD take all night. She didn't seem to fazed by what was going on around her, and that only served to annoy Justin. He was not Erin's caretaker, let's make that clear. Really none of them were, but if anyone had a responsibility to keep her from doing stupid shit like this, it was Chie since they were roommates and all. And here she was sitting there like she didn't even care. "And you! What the hell were you thinking letting her drink this stuff."

"Hey don't look at me, I hid most of the sugar packets." Chie tried to defend herself, though it was kind of half-hearted. She had tried pretty much everything in her power to keep her away from that coffee machine, but hey, if she wanted coffee, she wanted coffee. It wasn't really Chie's place to tell her no, she couldn't drink that. She was just happy they had decaf, though that really didn't help when she poured like 12 packs of sugar in her coffee. She might as well have just drank the sugar and saved herself the time.

"Oh that? Yeah you should find a better hiding spot for that. I found it really quick. Like at first I was like, I need more sugar, but there was nothing in the bin, and I was really sad. But, but then I checked the cabinet… and there was nothing there either. But then I checked the fridge. And there they were. Right there on the shelf. Behind the milk, but also kind of not. Like it was behind and to the side. The right side. I mean, not the milk's right side, your right side when you look-"

"WE GET IT!" Chie and Justin cut her off. Dead god, this girl must have no problems bullshitting on an essay, she seemed to have nothing but words, words, words on every topic ever discussed ever. Chie shook her head before slamming her skull against her homework in front of her, effectively sticking it to her forehead when she eventually lifted it back up. "So… uh… You remember how she said she took pills?"

"Yeah." Chie sighed before rolling her chair backwards and sticking her hand into the trash, pulling out a pill bottle. It was completely empty. Now that could mean one of three things. One, she never had any pills in the first place, which would explain why she wasn't taking them. Two, she had either taken all the pills at once or found a way to get rid of them, though the former was much less likely given she was still alive. But then, she just drank a good dozen or so packets worth of sugar, so maybe it took a little more than ingesting lethal amounts of a substance to kill her. Or three, she ran out, which happened with medication, though you had to wonder why she came with such a few amount of pills if that were the case. You'd think she'd fill up before going to college. Wasn't like this was a one night thing after all… unless that was the intention all along. One could only imagine how irritating it must be to take medication on a daily basis that regulated your behavior. Maybe she was just fed up with it. If that were the case though, she certainly didn't act like it. Like, she legitimately sounded like she meant to take them but kept forgetting them. "So, we have the day off, we'll just go to town and get them refilled."

"Do you see a label on there!?" Chie pointed out, with annoyance. You don't think she didn't think of doing that before dropping the bottle into the trash? She didn't want to have her bouncing up and down in the bed all night you know! Justin shifted the tube around, grimacing as he realized that label had been ripped clean off the bottle. It made him wonder whether Erin was the one to rip it off or if this was just a generic bottle she used instead of the one it was prescribed in, but you know, it didn't really matter. Point was, he had no way of actually knowing what her prescription was. How was he supposed to get a refill?

"Erin, do you know what pills you're supposed to be taken." Justin questioned, looking over his shoulder at the girl, who had been kicking her feet back and forth. That was probably an effect of the sugar to be honest, though don't think for a second she wouldn't be fidgeting if she wasn't on a sugar rush.

"Nope, none at all. Ma always filled out my prescriptions for me. It was a really long name though. It was like… pronounced… supercalifragilisticexpialidocious… no wait, that was Disney song. I have no idea, it was really long. Like super long. Like it took her at least three seconds to say the whole name. I think it began with a b. I'm not sure though. Might a have been a c. There's a one in twenty six percent chance it is a c."

"One and twenty- THAT'S THE WHOLE ALPHABET!"

"Mhmm, yeah I know." Justin sighed, shaking his head before dropping the pill container back on the counter. He was gonna have to figure this out, and when he did, he was going to need that. But for now, he had a headache the likes of no other. He darted immediately for the fridge, sticking his hand out and pulling out a can of beer. Yes, in the morning. If you had to deal with this crap on a daily basis and there was alcohol readily available to you, you'd do the same exact thing. Didn't mean Chie wasn't gonna flip out though. She was really not cool with that.

"Justin! That's alcohol!"

"Yeah I know."

"It's nine in the morning!"

"It's five o'clock somewhere." Justin sighed as he popped the thing open and immediately down the entire thing. Still tasted awful, but goddamn he needed to do something to numb the pain shooting through his skull. You know, aspirin would have been good for that too, but this seemed like a much more dramatic option, and you know how much Justin loved drama. He finished that thing in maybe 30 seconds before slamming the can into the floor (because I guess the trash wasn't going to get the message across that he was angry) before marching over to a seat besides Chie and rubbing at his forehead. Chie growled with frustration before leaning back and picking up Justin's mess for him. It was hard for her to decide what she was angrier about, Justin getting drunk AGAIN or that he was going to litter on the floor when the trash was right there.

"Actually if you go by standard time conventions, it's not five o' clock anywhere, it's five twenty three in-"

"I was rounding."

"Oh okay." Justin sighed, bloodshot eyes staring at Erin for a moment before his gaze passed over to Chie, giving him the stinker eye and folding her arms in front of her. It was pretty obvious she disapproved of Justin's drinking antics, though Justin could not understand why. He had one drink to loosen up, that's it. He wasn't getting DRUNK. Though to be fair, with Justin, one drink was all it took to really take him down a notch. "Get it out of your system."

"Are you a complete idiot?"

"No, if I didn't get drunk right now I'd be an idiot. If I got drunk any other time I'd be an idiot. Right now I'm being smart." Justin countered, slightly cranky. Oh sure, he said Chie should just get it out of her system and yell at him so he wouldn't have to argue, but I guess Justin had a hard time just swallowing bullshit. Even if it really wasn't bullshit at all.

"Hey are you guys fighting? You guys shouldn't fight."

"I appreciate the gesture, but-" Justin cut Erin off. It was nice to think she was thinking about them, but really, they could sort this out without resorting to a third part-

"No, I mean these walls are really thin, they'll hear you outside." Okay, so much for that. "Like if you're arguing you should do it really quiet. Yeah, like have a shouting match but whisper it. It'll be really funny and we can all laugh about it. Huh? Huh? Come on, laughings good for you. But seriously, you shouldn't argue. You know when ever ma and pa argued, they'd usually just go upstairs and-"

"Th-That's okay Erin. You don't need to tell us about that."


	269. Chapter 268: April 16, 2014

CHAPTER 268

April 16, 2014

* * *

"Oh goddammit."

"Man, you really suck at this game."

"Yeah well you really suck at your face!"

"What does that even mean?"

"I don't know…"

Justin and Yu were out playing pool, where unfortunately Justin was failing miserably in every possible way. It's like he had never picked up a pool stick in his life the way the balls seemed to never bounce into the holes. Furthermore, he more often than not sunk the eight ball within the first few turns. Depending on the kind of people you played pool with, you'd either have to reset the eight ball, and that was the end of your turn, or the game was immediately over and you lost. Yu was the kind of person who played the latter. Which meant he won every game thus far. It was actually getting to a point where it was almost embarrassing for Yu to keep winning like this. It was like playing Monopoly with a child and then actually aiming to try and kick their ass at Monopoly. You should be teaching them how to play, not taking all of their fake legal tender. But hey, Yu knew that if Justin was in his shoes right now, he'd take him for everything he had; so fair was fair. Justin sighed with aggravation as he slipped his hand into the hole and pulled out the eight ball he had managed to sink… again, carefully realigning all the balls in the center of the table… again. Did Justin ever mention how much he hated pool? No? Well that's because this was a recent discovery for him as well. Also recently discovered, Justin was a sore loser.

"You're lucky we're not betting on this or I'd be the one with a fortune." Yu remarked snidely, though Justin simply responded in kind with a death glare. One; he was just having an off-day. He was sure that was it. He was actually secretly very good at pool. Sure. That was what was happening here, he was just preserving his secret abilities for a true challenger… yes… Second, he did not have a fortune. I mean, yeah he had a shit ton of money, but that was all going towards schooling. He wasn't one of those rich folk that just sort of got by on life because of their inheritance, and he sure as hell wouldn't be compared to one, even off-handidly. He was better than that, let no one believe otherwise.

"Will you stop assuming I'm rich? I'm not, okay?"

"Could have fooled me." Justin's death glare only tightened a bit, in that 'drop it or I will rip out your kidneys and sell them on the black market' kind of way. Yeah we'd see who'd have the fortune then. No one, because then Justin would go to jail. At least, he was pretty sure he would. He had to wonder if there was a bail price for murder, but it was just so high no one could pay it. What a world this would be if that were true, but alas, that was just Justin wildly speculating. Might make a good premise for a movie though. He'd have to drop Izzy a line sometime, though he seemed fairly indignant to other's opinions and ideas, so he wasn't sure how well that would go.

"I have to pay for schooling for not just me, but my sister too, and on top of that I still have to pay the bills for our house back in Inaba, lest it get taken from us. And then I got to pay for food, water, medicine; I don't have the privilege of being under my parent's protective wing Yu. I have to pay for every little fucking thing. I am not rich." Justin countered with irritation before leaning his pool stick against the wall next to him, his patience with this game having just about dwindled.

"Oh, oh, does that mean it's my turn? Like, I don't mean to complain. Watching is fun too. Just not this time. You really suck at pool." Oh yeah, did I mention Erin was free today as well and had been at the pool hall as well? Yeah, because she was. Luckily, she wasn't talking as much as usual. Either that or Justin was slowly but surely numbing his senses enough that he could pretend she was talking like a normal human being. Justin sighed before grabbing the pool stick again and tossing it over to her. She didn't have very good hand-eye coordination though, it would appear. At least, the fact that she pretty much knocked it out of the way when she went to catch it seemed to imply that. Justin shook his head and sighed. Yu just chuckled a bit with amusement. Whereas most of the others found her constant bumbling annoying, he seemed to find it charming. So what she talked a lot; he didn't see a problem.

"Knock yourself out." Justin sighed as he leaned against the wall, allowing Erin to slip in with the pool stick she had shuffled over the floor to grab a moment earlier. She placed her pool stick between her index and middle fingers, only taking a second or two to line up her shot before losing interest and just shooting anyway. Either she had the luck of the Irish (even if she only had an Irish name) or she was onto something here, because she managed to get quite a few pool balls in on the first shot alone. Yu's facial expression immediately shifted from one of playful glee to one of cautious skepticism. He had not expected miss sugar rush over here to not have the patience to play a game like pool, but alas, it seemed that may have actually been working towards her advantage. The world was funny like that sometimes; things that shouldn't work more often than not did, and contradictions were more often than not indicators of the truth.

"Just because you have bills to pay doesn't mean you don't have a shit ton of money, Justin." Yu pointed out as he watched with great interest as Erin followed up her previous shot, and just kind of shot the ball anywhere. It was a complete shock she was able to hit anything in, let alone something that wasn't the eight ball with the way she was playing.

"So you're rich?" Erin questioned with great enthusiasm and interest. "Like how rich are we talking? Like 'rich chocolate' kinda rich or Bill Gates kinda rich. Do you own a Ferrari? No no, you probably have more than one. How about a mansion? How come you're living on campus if you have a mansion? How much do butlers cost. Because if they're really cheap I was thinking I should hire one. You know, to bring me like… chips… and… and nacho cheese and stuff. And also to remind me to take my medication. That might help." She pressed her finger to her lip as she suddenly realized she was going on a tangent again. She should really stop that.

"Let's just worry about getting your prescription first. You called your mom, right?" Justin questioned. It was a bit of a stretch since her mother lived in a different continent, and that cost a lot as far as making calls; Justin would know. She nodded a bit.

"Mhmm. She said it was dex… dex…"

"Erin, don't do this to me." Justin crossed his arms with annoyance. If she couldn't remember it off the top of her head, then she better have it written down somewhere, because goddamn, he couldn't take much more of this. And the sad part was he somehow doubted the medication was going to help all that much. I mean, obviously it would calm her down a little, but she was still going to be hyperactive, just you watch.

"Dextroamphetamine. Yeah that was it. I think. D-e-x-t-r-o…-a-m-p…-h…tamine. Yeah that's probably it. Probably. I have it written in a notepad back in the room. Chie made sure I wrote it down. Several times in fact. She's really punctual about that stuff." She smiled softly. She clearly hadn't caught on Chie wasn't doing that to be helpful, but because Erin had been keeping her up at night. And Justin knew she was because it seemed all Chie could talk about these days. She probably had narcolepsy too, from the sounds of it. But that was neither here nor there. Clearly Erin thought Chie had better intentions than she did, and that she seemed to admire. I guess in the long run it was a good thing she got paired with Chie. Mostly because the other option was Maya. And that was not only going to lead to Erin questioning her non-stop about why she couldn't talk (not that she didn't now anyway) but also Maya tended to be a lot less patient about this stuff. "I don't know where to fill this stuff out though. Do I just, like, go to the nurse's office? No, probably not. Unless the nurse is also a pharmacist. Is the nurse a pharmacist?"

"No." Justin answered bluntly before turning his attention towards Yu. "You wouldn't happen to know where there's a drug store around here would you." He shook his head with denial almost immediately. What, just because he lived in the city, he knew his way around THIS city? Please, it took him at least a month to figure his way out around Inaba on his own, and that was a small place. This? In like a week? HA. Good one.

"Nah. Junpei or Izzy might know, though."

"Somehow I doubt Izzy's all the interested in helping." Justin commented with slight disappointment. Sounded like Junpei was his main bet; which wasn't necessarily a problem. Hell he seemed like he'd be happy enough to help with that, so he wasn't going to object. There was the problem of him seeming kind of creepy around the girls at times, but Justin somehow doubted he had the balls to actually say anything to any of them, so he was in the safe zone for now. It was just Justin seemed kind of disappointed that Izzy wasn't really a choice. He seemed like a pretty solitary guy. He never saw him around campus; he was always in the dorm doing homework or watching television and getting drunk. It was like he was purposely trying to avoid people. Justin could understand that feeling quite honestly; maybe that's what upset him so much. All he knew was Izzy was near impossible to interact with.

"Yeah, Izzy's kind of a douchebag. I asked him about the script he was working on, but he got really mad. Like I wanted to know what his script was about, and he was like, 'ta gueule!' I didn't even know he knew French. But he did. And he was really mean. But he also gives me free gum all the time… I guess he's not that bad." She shrugged after a moment. Justin and Yu passed each other a look of confusion after a moment. What the fuck did ta gueule mean? All the same, that did sound like Izzy. He really needed to chill out. I know Erin could get a bit annoying with the fact that she just kept talking and talking, but it was clear she meant no harm. She just got really excited about pretty much everything. No need to go calling her names, or whatever the fuck it was Izzy had said; she was just interested in what he was writing.

"Someone really needs to say something to him about his attitude." Justin crossed his arms with disapproval. Even when he got pissed off at Erin's rambling he tried to be nice about it. She had a medical condition, blaming her for something she couldn't control was just dickish. Erin shrugged slightly.

"Oh it's not that big of a deal. He tries to swear at me in French all the time, but he usually translates wrong. Like, he doesn't know French at all. It's actually really funny. He accidentally called me a banana sundae with herpes once. It was really hard not to laugh. Then I realized he was trying to call me a whore. Then I was just sad…"

"I-I'm sorry, was there supposed to be a bright side to this story?"

"I don't remember. I think? No. Probably not."


	270. Chapter 269: April 17, 2014

CHAPTER 269

April 17, 2014

* * *

"Chie…? It's like… midnight…"

Justin rubbed at his eyes, exhausted when Chie came knocking at his door furiously in the middle of the night. You would think she were running for her very life the way she knocked at that door. And in a way, she was. All that was clear as he opened that door was she wasn't very happy about something; though what that something was he wasn't quite sure about.

"I can't take her anymore, I'm staying here tonight."

"Oh yeah, sure, that's no- Wait, what?" Justin cut himself off as the thought really started to sink in. At first he had thought nothing of it, but then Chie had started to push by him into his room, and it all hit him like a flood of rushing water. He was pretty sure rules said the guys and girls had to stay in separate rooms first of all, but this was college and they did invent socks for a number of reasons, so that wasn't necessarily a deterent in its own right. Certainly made Justin feel a little uneasy though. Plus, there was only one bed in this room, so there wasn't exactly anywhere for her to sleep, if that was her intention. Could be that she just needed to get out of her dorm room for a while. Chie groaned with some relief a bit as she sat on Justin's bed before allowing her back to flop down against its surface.

"She's not supposed to take her pills until the morning, so I can't get her to calm down and go to sleep. She keeps trying to talk about… well… everything. AND she tosses and turns all night, so all I hear is her tossing her bedsheets around and… UGH" She growled with frustration just thinking about it, digging her fingers into her hair, as if she were ready to pull it out with one foul swoop. She had been trying to put up with it, because you know, it really wasn't her fault… but damn, it was just like snoring. It may have been subconscious, but it was annoying as HELL. And yet there were only two solutions that came to Chie's mind, neither of them were ignoring her. The first was obviously to barge into Justin's room and still his bed. The other was advice Yukiko had given her a long time ago. Put a pillow over her mouth and just hope she eventually shut up. For obvious reasons, murder was not the optimal solution here. Justin sighed and shook his head.

"Have you considered just telling her to shut up? She responds fairly well to that." Justin pointed out. Erin was the only girl in the world who you could outright insult and she would still be full of cheer. She'd just shrug it off and go on with her day. It was like the only time she could show any emotion other excitement was when she out right said she felt a different emotion, and even then, you kinda had to doubt that she was telling the truth.

"I couldn't do that…" Chie sighed with a combination of weariness and annoyance. Oh how easy it would be to just tell her to keep her mouth shut at night, but alas Chie just didn't have the heart to do it. It wasn't like Yosuke where in whenever he did something to piss her off it was because he was just an idiot. "I have to sleep in the same room as her, so I'd rather be on her good side." Chie tried to justify herself. In truth, it really had nothing to do with being on her good side, she just… I don't know, she just wouldn't feel right telling someone to shut up when they kind of needed meds to shut up.

"I don't think that'll matter if you're sleeping in my room." Justin raised his eyebrow with curiosity. Bedtime manners really didn't matter too much if she never actually slept in the same room as her. She sighed with slight defeat. He raised a valid point; if she was going to stay in that room, she was going to have to get Erin to shut up somehow. Otherwise, there was no point in being polite to her in the first place; at least, in regards to sharing a room with her. Obviously she should be polite on the grounds that you should treat everyone with respect and dignity, and really, when she wasn't talking a hundred miles an hour, Chie really did like Erin. Truly she did. It was just… she very rarely WASN'T going on and on about nothing.

"Maybe you're right. She'll probably be fine in the morning… Assuming she actually takes the pills like she's supposed to." Chie rolled her eyes a bit. Somehow, she got the feeling she was going to have to tell Erin to take her meds every morning for… well at least a year. Not exactly how she had intended to spend her college years. "I haven't slept in three days though because of her. Please can I just stay here for one night?" She slowly turned her head so that her eyes locked with Justin's. Truth be told, she really had been looking out of it recently. Justin had no doubts Erin had been messing with her sleep pattern. He shrugged and took a quick yawn.

"I don't know why you're even bothering to ask. You know you're always invited up here… Just… Try to give me more of a heads up next time, okay?" He smiled warmly as he made his way to the opposite side of the bed, quickly allowing himself to slip under the sheets. Chie seemed more than comfortable laying where she was at first, but alas, having her legs hanging off the side of the bed wasn't exactly optimal conditions for having a nap. She groaned a bit as she adjusted the positioning on her body, allowing the length of her legs to reach the end of the bed before curling them up to pull the sheet out from underneath her and toss it over her body. It wasn't a particularly warm blanket, but the body heat being exchanged between Justin and her more than compensated for that. They laid on the mattress, backs touching against each other as they tried to curl up and drift off to sleep, the sound of raindrops pattering against the window, echoing in the night. You would think that would help them get to sleep, but even Justin who rather liked rain had developed an instinctually protective reaction to rain late at night.

"Hey Justin?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you get butterflies in your stomach when it rains at night too?" Chie questioned, trying to ease the feeling of unrest in her stomach, turning in her blankets to face Justin. Ever since the Midnight Channel, whenever it rained at night, she got a bad feeling in her gut. She knew it was all over, but… She was just so used to checking the television when it rained this late that it had almost become second nature. Trying to force herself to stop thinking about it had become almost painful at times… Especially after what happened last time with Labrys. She was sure the Shadow Operatives had it handled, but… she just felt bad knowing she wasn't doing anything at all. You see, Justin never so much as extended the offer to anyone to decide amongst themselves; partially because he knew they'd say yes when in truth he knew that would only hurt them all in the long run. Chie still hadn't the faintest idea Yu wanted to help, and Justin intended to keep it that way. Even if it was chewing away at her inside. She'd thank him one day for it… assuming he ever let her find out. Justin turned about, awkwardly shuffling around under the sheets to try and face her. He couldn't help but find it ironic that she was complaining about Erin talking while she was trying to sleep and then turned around to the same thing with Justin.

"Yeah, sometimes." Justin shrugged. He usually tried to ignore it, but he'd be lying if he said he didn't get a little worried. More importantly though, he never had anything but nightmares at night, rain or shine. Generally the rain didn't bother him so much as the prospect of his dreams did. Chie nodded a bit with a look of disappointment on her face. You know, she thought she would have found some comfort in Justin being afraid of the rain too, you know, so she wouldn't feel so alone in feeling the way she did. And yet, the thought of others going through the same fears and trauma she seemed to go through was just too much to bear. It was a fate she would wish on others, but not one she'd wish to see, it would seem. She nuzzled her head a bit against her pillow, ready to try and go asleep again, even with he stomach in knots when a loud crash filled the room. As if the rain weren't enough, so too was there thunder. She didn't so much as hesitate to jump and latch onto Justin for dear life, as if lightning itself would slip through the window and murder her. "Hey, hey… Don't worry, it's just a little thunder."

A deep breath. She sighed a bit and shook her head as she loosened her grip on Justin's shirt. He was right; she understood just how silly her phobia was, but… she just couldn't stop herself from jumping anytime she heard the boom of thunder outside her window. "Sorry, you're right… I try not to get scared but-" A second boom came echoing through the window, and despite how much she seemed to be concentrating on not being startled by the bad weather outside, she still found her arms wrapped around Justin, as if to seek protection from what was going outside, her body shaking furiously, eyes wide with fear, teeth clamped tightly together. Justin was actually a tad bit concerned. It was alright to be afraid of… well anything; but Chie? She was practically frozen in fear right now. That couldn't have been good for her.

"It's alright, I've got you." He whispered, wrapping his arms around her in turn, hand behind her head as her grip grew tighter and tighter. It was a quiet few minutes as she slowly recovered from the shock of the noise outside, body shivering all the while. Needless to say, you can imagine how embarrassed Chie was when she finally came to. And there she was giving a speech about how she needed to get over her fears… and then immediately succumbed to them. And the sad thing was, she wasn't even close to as bad as Maya got with thunder. Justin could only hope she was asleep, since she didn't have anyone in her room to assure her it would be alright.

"Th-thanks…" Chie stuttered a bit, loosening her grip on him. She almost let go of him completely, but there was something oddly comforting about having her arms wrapped around him, even if her fears had already passed. He smiled in turn, planting a small peck on her forehead.

"You don't need to thank me. You know I'm always here for you." She smiled softly before nuzzling her head into the side of his neck, as if to use him like a pillow. Not that he minded of course. He just squeezed a little tighter as the two laid there, wrapped in each other's arms in the wee hours of midnight, occasionally interrupting their embrace to plant a kiss on the other's lips, like a game of surprise.

It's funny; I think Chie got less sleep in Justin's room than she did with Erin.


	271. Chapter 270: April 18, 2014

CHAPTER 270

April 18, 2014

* * *

"Christ Maya, you really need to lay off the booze."

Justin folded his arms as he watched from the hallway Maya lean over the toilet to heave and ho. They weren't really partying last night, though most of the guys had been watching sports downstairs, and I guess that was grounds to drink it up. At least, it was for Junpei and Izzy. Izzy, surprisingly enough was almost tolerable when he loosened up a little with a drink. Yu didn't really drink. It wasn't necessarily that he wouldn't or didn't want to, but rather, he just realized if someone were to burst through that door and see him with a beer can in his hand, well… Put two and two together. It wouldn't be a good thing to say the least. Maya, on the other hand… you know it was funny; she tried that stuff at Kurt's place once and hated how it tasted. Now she tended to get more wasted than everyone else combined. Either she couldn't hold her drinks real well or she went crazy with the alcohol.

The sound of solids and liquids splashing against toilet water echoed out into the hallway, which in turn caused Justin to shiver a bit at the thought of the vomit expunging from her mouth. At least she was clean about it as she pulled back and wiped her mouth with some toilet paper. Which was one of the last things you really wanted to wipe your mouth with; at least, in terms of conventional items traditionally used for wiping. _"I probably just had something to eat that didn't agree with my stomach." _She tried to justify, perhaps trying to keep up appearances and not look like some kind of booze hound. Justin shook his head with slight amusement, though also partial disappointment. Better she got all this shit out of her system now, he supposed. Assuming of course she didn't become an alcoholic as a result. Because yeah, that might be bad.

"You still owe me 2,000 yen, Maya." Justin turned to find Izzy making his way up stairs, a smug grin on his face. Now, Justin had only been down stairs for maybe an hour or so of this little event of theirs before retiring to his room, only to be interrupted by Chie maybe an hour or two later. Sports weren't really his thing you see. But from what he did stick around for, everyone was making bets about who was going to win. I guess Maya bet wrong. Iggy stopped to lean against the wall, taking a quick peer in before taking a swig at the canister around his waist. Oh you would think it was alcohol, but in actuality it was just orange juice. Granted, it was orange juice with a hint of vodka in it, but at least he wasn't carrying Jack Daniels around or anything super hard like that.

"_I heard you the first time!" _She countered with clear irritation. Sounded like Izzy had been riding her pretty hard about this wager from the sounds of it. He clearly wanted his money. At least he wasn't being an ass about it. I mean granted, he kept teasing her about her debt every twelve seconds, but it wasn't in a malicious way, you know? He rubbed at his nose and took another swig of his drink before screwing the cap back on and spreading his arms out in a Jesus Christ pose, as if to invite her to 'come at him, person of brother like relationship to him.' And by that I mean he was posing like a douchebag.

"I still have no idea what you're saying!" He laughed a bit with amusement. Maya's face turned red with a combination of anger and embarrassment. On one hand, this was something Izzy had known about for a while, so she shouldn't have been all that ashamed about him acknowledging her condition. Yet it was perhaps for that very reason that she was so angry; because he was STILL rubbing her nose in it. She hung her head with embarrassment as she tried to push herself up from the bathroom floor. Of all the places he had to give her shit, it was in front of the shitter… Actually, you know what, on second thought that was pretty clever. Too bad that probably wasn't the intention. Justin shook his head before glaring at Izzy a bit. It didn't look like he meant anything by it, but hey, he could have just been very amused by others suffering. Justin was gonna give him the benefit of the doubt though. All the same, that needed to stop. Like, right now.

"Hey, hey. Don't make fun of her for that. She's not okay with it." Izzy stared at Justin for a moment before shaking his head and unscrewing the cap on his canister again, his smile slowly fading to a frown all the while. He wasn't trying to offend anyone; he was just making a joke. Those two needed to lighten up. You know what they said about comedy; you had to find where the line was drawn and cross it as many times as possible.

"Fine. I won't." He groaned after a moment taking another sip out of his canister. It was hard to tell if he was really thirsty or of he really needed that vodka right about now. "On an unrelated note, I'd just like to take a moment to advise you you're supposed to put a sock on the door, kid." He turned to Justin, shaking his canister at him as he imparted his words of wisdom. Justin just seemed a little caught off guard; for a number of reasons. Primarily because he wasn't sure what Izzy was talking about, but he had a guess. And if he was right, well… he'd really like to know how Izzy knew Chie was in his room.

"What are you talking about."

"I passed by your girlfriend in the hallway to my room, no need to be shy man." He raised his eyebrows up and down in that wink wink nudge nudge mannerism. Mostly because he couldn't actually wink at Justin with those damn sunglasses on. One of these days Justin was just going to smack those of his face so he could see the guy's actual eyes for once. This wasn't that day though; after all, Justin was too busy being completely mortified. Same went for Maya apparently, though that was more an expression of disgust than anything. She… really… really didn't want to have that image in her head. Like picturing your parents fucking. You didn't want to think about it, but the image was so horrifying that the moment it popped in your hard it was hard to stop. And then that in turn scarred you for life.

"_Ughhh… These are really thin walls too." _Maya shivered slightly. Her room was next to Justin's, so if anyone heard that crap going on in the middle of the night, it would be her. Luckily, she didn't really make it back to her room until long after both Chie and Justin were unconscious, due to the thunder outside. She ended up latching onto Junpei, much to Junpei's pleasure. Turned out he was quite the player; or at least, he wanted to be. Sadly, Maya acknowledging she had a boyfriend anytime in the future would probably replace any awkward flirting from him with awkward 'did you fuck?' questions. Quite frankly she'd rather prefer the first one. At least she could just brush that off without much thought.

"Now hold on one second, we did NOT… Y-You know!" Justin countered, face completely red. Maya and Izzy passed each other a glance of complete disbelief. Oh sure, Maya wanted to believe nothing happened when Chie slipped into that room at night, but she had a little thing called a brain that told her otherwise. Izzy scratched at his nose a bit before turning his ire back over to Justin, eyeing him carefully.

"Oh, I'm sure you just had a nice conversation. By the way, do you normally wake up with scratch marks along your neck." Justin's eyes widened for a second before rushing into the bathroom, damn near knocking Maya over in the process as he stared into the mirror. Sure enough, there were four long red marks reaching down from the back of his neck on each side; one for each finger. He growled slightly to himself and hung his head with embarrassment and mortification.

"Goddammit Chie."

"Hey maybe I should be the one majoring in Forensics." Izzy remarked smugly pride in his little investigation skills. It came with age it would seem, but he had apparently become an expert on knowing just when someone was doing the dirty. And then immediately rubbing it in their face. And by immediately, I mean he was going to rub Justin's face in it for pretty much all week. And that was saying something considering Izzy really didn't interact with anyone… Except apparently to poke fun at them. He was a really strange guy.

"Th-That's not what happened at all. We just slept in a funny position is all; that's it!" Justin tried to defend himself, as if this really were something to be ashamed of. So what, he got caught red-handed doing the nasty in college. Did he really think he was the only one that did this? Hell, I bet you by the end of the year most everyone in the dorm right now will have gotten laid in one of these rooms. The exception probably being Erin because it would physically be impossible for her to get past foreplay. She'd have the dirty talk covered no problem… but then, she'd kind of never stop doing the dirty talk and getting on to the actual fucking. At least she was devoted to her art, I guess.

"_Funny position, huh? Kinky."_ Maya added with amusement. Oh no, it was still a horrifying image, and the fact that she had turned that into asexual innuendo only helped make that image in her mind even worse, but it was somewhat amusing watching Justin get all hot under the collar about this. They could stop pressing him at any time really, but… You know…What better way to spend a morning than torturing your friends and loved ones.

"You know what I meant!"

"_Right. And that's why I said kinky." _She smiled smugly. What he really meant is 'here's a bullshit lie about how we didn't do the nasty in my bedroom last night.' And everyone present was aware of that. Hell, you could even hear Erin downstairs chuckling a bit. Granted, it was because she was watching something on television, but Justin had taken it as her eavesdropping. Knowing Erin, she'd probably gossip about this for hours with everyone she knew, so he was rather grateful she was left out of the loop on this one.

"Yeah okay, screw you guys." Justin threw his hands up in his fit before marching out the bathroom and down the stairs, finally having had just about enough of the two mocking him for something they couldn't even say without any reasonable doubt that he did. All they could prove was he had scratch marks. In his mind this was all running like some kind of court system where without sufficient evidence to prove he was criminally responsible, they couldn't charge him with anything. And of course, he was innocent until proven guilty. Of course, in the real world, evidence more often than not had no common application. It was more of a matter of what one chose to believe and leaving it at that. Maya and Izzy were just lucky enough to get some evidence to shove in Justin's face when he tried to lie to them. It added to the game, not so much the trial.

"No, no, see. That's what we're telling you NOT to do."


	272. Chapter 271: April 19, 2014

CHAPTER 271

April 19, 2014

* * *

"You know, I'm surprised. Cafeteria food usually sucks. But I guess if people have to eat three meals a day from this place it would have to be, right?"

Justin, Yu, Maya and Yosuke were sitting around the cafeteria, getting dinner that wasn't instant noodles for a change of pace. Yosuke had proposed the idea of everyone meeting up for dinner to Maya, but alas, Chie and Yukiko were both unavailable due to their studies. So that pretty much made it guy's night out and Maya. Not that she really minded; she was just happy enough to be included. And hey, as much as Yosuke made Justin want to punch a puppy sometimes, he seemed to be having a good enough time without them anyway. So by all means, he'd consider this a successful rendezvous, even if a good chunk of the team didn't show up.

"Dude, it's not like there aren't other restaurants around her you know." Yosuke pointed out, taking a deep breath as if to try and stop himself from calling Justin an idiot. It wasn't a particularly idiotic remark, but you knew how those two got; they'd blow things completely out of proportion just to feel better knowing that the other was somehow mentally inferior to the other. Justin simply glared at Yosuke a bit. Oh did he honestly think Justin was unaware of that? Perhaps Yosuke had forgotten to take into account the meal plan, and how some people just didn't want to spend money on those other restraints when they have to pay a thousand dollars for this place a year. Granted, Justin wasn't one of those people, but others were, and for them, this was the only food they could eat for four years.

"I didn't say there weren't. I don't see how that matters though."

"_Can we… please not do this today?" _ Maya interrupted. Oh sure, it was a pretty tame argument they were having now, but she knew those two well enough to know the cusses would start flying with the blink of an eye if no one interrupted them. Justin and Yosuke locked eyes one last time, tightening their glare before discontinuing their little confrontation. It wasn't really worth arguing over; even if Justin didn't really find that condescending tone of Yosuke's acceptable.

"Yeah you're right." Yosuke sighed leaning back in his seat a little. She had him on a leash here, don't think for a second he wasn't aware who held his chain. Besides, he invited Justin as a gesture of good will, because as much as they argued, they were still friends to some extent. Plus Maya would give him so much shit if he didn't extend the offer to her 'brother'. Butting heads with him just missed the point of them all gathering here today. And that was simply despite all the years that passed and the hardships they faced, they were still friends to the very end. It was just a shame Chie and Yukiko weren't here. It wasn't the same when a third of the senior members of the Investigation Team weren't here, not to mention the obvious lack of Kanji, Rise, and Naoto. But that couldn't be helped. He was just gonna have to go with the flow. "So how's everyone's classes been?"

"I have a class with Erin, what do you think?" Justin spoke up with slight annoyance. Now having a class with her wouldn't be a problem in and of itself as it was that he sat next to her in class. You see, when they were all grabbing seats, he figured that since he recognized her from his dorm, it would be better to sit near her then near complete strangers. Of course this was before he knew she had some pretty severe ADHD and tended to try and talk a lot on class. And even if he ignored her, you can guess who got bitched out if the professor overheard her. Yu and Maya grimaced a bit, though Yosuke just raised his eyebrow in curiosity. He didn't really know Erin, they met for five seconds when he stopped by the dorm to gather everyone together, so he clearly didn't know just what the implications of sitting next to her in class entailed.

"You have my sympathy." Yu remarked with pity for the young man. He was used to having to listen to people bitch and moan, but at the very least they tended to stop and take a breath at some point. Erin was more upbeat and positive, and in that right she was tolerable, but the fact that she kept talking meant that the only way to stop a conversation with her was to forcefully discontinue it. Usually by telling her to shut her trap. "I have an English class with Izzy, but he doesn't exactly talk once he gets into his work."

"Lucky bastard." Justin rolled his eyes. He didn't necessarily like the attitude Izzy seemed to sport around everywhere, but he'd gladly put up with him being an ass if it meant he actual kept his mouth closed at some point. His professor already pretty much despised him because of Erin, he really didn't want to push is luck. But then again, just how much worse could it get? I suppose if Erin had as much caffine as she did that one time she poured all the sugar in the house in her coffee, then that could be problematic, but as it stood the only damage she could do was annoy the crap out of Justin, and by extension their professor.

"How 'bout you Maya, have you decided what you're gonna major in yet?" Yosuke questioned. As it stood she had pretty much just signed up for the basic classes: English, math, that kinda stuff. When she applied she had applied for an art major, but she quickly realized she had no artistic abilities whatsoever and more or less immediately dropped out of those classes when she got here. Now she didn't know what she wanted to do. She had been giving it some thought, but alas, she couldn't really think of what she wanted to do with her life. Funny, she wanted to be more self-reliant, and she wanted an education so she could get an actual job, and yet, she seemed more than content with the prospect of just working behind a cash register for the rest of her days. Maybe she just hadn't found her calling in life yet.

"_No… I've really been thinking about it, but there's nothing I really want to do… I don't want to be a lawyer or a writer or anything like that… Maybe I should just sign up for some law classes anyway. It's a good paying job I guess." _She sighed with disappointment before taking a sip of her soda. Bendy straw and all. Oh sure, she didn't NEED one, and it was kind of strange seeing a grown woman use one, but you know what, fuck that; bendy straws were fun. Adults were just too up-tight to enjoy the simple pleasures of life. Yosuke scratched at his chin for a moment, contemplating the matter. Obviously he couldn't make that decision for her, but he supposed he could give her ideas.

"Well… What about a doctor?" He questioned. After a moment. He didn't exactly have an encyclopedia of career options stored up in his head, so he was kind of picking at the bigger career options out there for ideas. Too bad Maya had already contemplated those. Though, it did stir something up in Justin's mind. It wasn't an idea persay, but it was the seed of an idea, ready to burst forth and bloom with the fruit of ingenuity.

"_No… I'm not smart enough to be a doctor anyway." _She shrugged, face red with embarrassment. Now that wasn't necessarily true; when Maya put her mind to something she wanted to achieve she could by all means get to a point where she went well beyond the realms of success. But even then, being a doctor was serious business. It wasn't even just that she was worried she wouldn't understand that stuff, but rather that lack of understanding could have dangerous ramifications. Besides, she wasn't exactly interest in dealing with people's organs and crap. That would really be more up the surgeon's jurisdiction of course, but she didn't know that.

"Hey, that's not true." Yosuke objected, giving her a reassuring pat on the shoulder. She smiled softly, though she knew for a fact that was bullshit. She failed Spanish in High School, how could anyone expect her to memorize all that Latin mumbo jumbo, or the names of every bone and every organ, every disease and medication to prescribe. Oh no, she didn't have it in her to be an expert in the field of medicine and biology. And it wasn't like with Spanish where really she didn't need to memorize that crap, she'd just go through life without ever speaking to someone who spoke Spanish; she would absolutely need to know all of that to a tee if she expected to succeed as a doctor. So yeah, not really her thing.

"Hey… what about a veterinarian?" Justin interrupted, that seed from earlier finally starting to sprout roots in the deepest realms of his mind. It needless to say caught Maya a little off guard; in a good way. She still wasn't sure she had the mental capacity to do anything medical in nature, but she wouldn't deny the fact that she really… REALLY liked animals. It was certainly something to consider at the very least.

"_Well… I do like animals."_

"Hey, give it a shot. Better than having no major at all." Justin pointed out. After all, it wasn't like she couldn't just change classes if it weren't working out well for her. Her career would ultimately be what she made of it after all. She liked animals, animals liked her, so it seemed like a perfect fit. She just had to really want it and put a lot of effort into her art. Study hard. That sort of stuff. It was all about willpower, and god knows that people who wanted to dedicate their lives to helping others could always find away. Justin didn't have any fear that Maya wouldn't be able to accomplish her goals; so she just needed to decide what she wanted to do. It wasn't a bad option, even if again, Maya really didn't want to think about organs and shit, but animals, she could deal with just fine. She could work off that angle, even if she wasn't a veterinarian. She could be a zoologist or something… Though granted, that didn't seem like a job that had a very high hiring rate. She'd think about it.

"Yeah, you're right. I'll try talking to my dean tomorrow."

"There you go, just give it a shot and- JUSTIN STOP STEALING MY FRENCH FRIES!"

"Well then maybe you should start eating your french fries."


	273. Chapter 272: April 20, 2014

CHAPTER 272

April 20, 2014

* * *

"Hey guys what's going on in… here…?"

"Pull a chair up, this is gonna get good."

Justin walked into the living room of the dormitory to find Izzy and Maya giving each other death glares, eyes locked as they tried to state each other down across the table, between them a chess board. Most of the others that lived here were gathered around them, watching with great interest. Chess wasn't exactly the most exciting game to watch people play of course, since it could take minutes at a time for someone to make a move, but what was rather fascinating was the pure tension between these two. Like the fate of the worlds rode on the pawn that rested at the tip of their index fingers. And that adrenaline was exactly what kept everyone interested. Well except perhaps Erin who seemed actually very interested in the game, eyes darting around the board, analyzing every possible move, and the move after that, and the move after that. Say what you want about Erin's mouth never stopping, the same could be said of her mind. She was very analytical; give her enough time, and she probably could beat one of those chess super computers. Mostly because she'd talk it to death until it just overheated itself to end the pain, but you get the point.

"Tough move. If you move the pawn there, then if he moves his knight to the right of you, you're open to lose your queen, but if you don't move it, you could lose you rook… unless you were to move the bishop here, but… no can't do that, that would immediately put you in check. Hey, what if-"

"No giving her ideas." Izzy cut Erin off. Granted, she tried to give advice to Izzy too, but that was beside the point. Even advantage or not, a third-party did not result for a balanced or fair game. Hell in that move alone she had completely destroyed his strategy by pointing out to Maya what would happen if she tried to move her pawn. This had happened a good three or four times in the last fifteen minutes alone mind you. It seemed she was determined to see this game never come to an end with the way she kept interrupting. He took a deep breath before turning his eyes back down to the board, index finger fiddling around with the volume control for his CD player. You could tell he was trying to make it just a bit softer when he needed to think or when he suspected Erin was trying to interrupt, but not enough that the people around him couldn't hear it. It was hard to tell if Izzy was just fucking deaf or if he was secretly playing his music super loud so that everyone around him could kind of hear it too. Hell, it was possible that both were true, as unlikely as that possibility was.

Maya's finger traced along the top of her pawn, her lip clenched between her teeth as she considered her options carefully, that glare of hers never leaving her face all the while. Justin wasn't sure what was with all this hostility at first, but he was sure to understand soon enough. He took a sip of the can of soda in his hand before squeezing into the seat next to Erin. He still wasn't seeing what the excitement was all about, but he could get behind a good game of chess, so why the hell not. He'd like to see how this would turn out. Izzy had a slight advantage as it stood, so he was interested to see if Maya could turn this around. His eyes swooped across the checkerboard pattern, trying to identify any move she could move to put an end to the set up Justin had caught Izzy trying to make. It was quite the trap actually; even Justin was having a hard time finding a move Maya could make without screwing herself over. In theory, she could sacrifice her knight to take out his rook, but that wasn't exactly a great tradeoff. Quite the predicament she had managed to get herself in.

Her finger tipped the piece back and forth, wobbling it along its position on the board, occasionally sliding it to another spot on the board, only to slide it back a few seconds later. She was having some difficulty visualizing the board in her mind you see, so physically laying out her moves before committing to one tended to help her make a decision. It went on like this for a long while, Maya never committing to any one move even when she had strongly suspected she may be onto something. Every move counted after all, and this… this was war. It was maybe ten minutes before she finally moved, due in part to Erin's lack of patience slowly starting to kick in and cause her to interrupt again. And not necessarily in that 'you should move here' mannerism so much as it was 'just make any move already.' She had analyzed the board five times over by this point, and she had already decided what the most efficient move would be; but alas without the ability to convey that to Maya without Izzy bitching her out, she was stuck simply watching, scratching at her leg with impatience, trying not to blurt out what seemed so obvious to her. Indeed, she couldn't help but shout when Maya made a move other than that which would be considered ideal.

"OH MY GOD YOU AMATEUR!" She stood up and gripped at her head, a burning sensation sinking deep in her skull. She simply could not believe that Maya had made that move. She had literally just screwed herself completely over. Had she not seen Izzy's queen there on the other side of the board. Izzy grinned with twisted satisfaction as Maya fell in the trap; a trap she still didn't quite see, even with Erin's outburst. If anything she was just very confused. She had thought she had made a really good move, and for all she knew at that point in time, she very much has and Erin was just an idiot. But alas, never confuse annoyance with idiocy; Erin was a lot brighter than Maya often gave her credit for, and she knew exactly what Izzy had been plotting. Alas, it was too late, Izzy had won this battle of the wits with one foul move on the behalf of the mute girl.

He ran his thumb up the volume control on his CD player, music booming in his ear drums and what one could only assume was his own special way of celebrating his victory, pumping up his adrenaline and just generally making him feel like some kind of badass for winning a game of chess of all things. "BOOM. Checkmate. How you like me now!?" He remarked smugly as he pushed his queen into play, doing a quick chest thrust after he had made his move. Maya's jaw almost immediately dropped. As a matter of fact, she HAS completely forgotten that queen was there, so to see herself getting completely dominated from out of nowhere, well, she was needless to say completely caught off guard. Not only by the loss but the overly exaggerated nature of Izzy's little showboating her. He completely jumped out of his chair and put his hands in the air like he just didn't care for one thing. And of course there was the booming of his music blasting from his head-phones that just seemed to add insult to injury.

"_Bu… I… I-I want a redo!" _Maya pleaded. She didn't see the piece there; if she had she certainly wouldn't have made that move. Just give her the benefit of the doubt and rewind this game a little, for the love of god. Of course, Izzy was a particularly proud man when it came to victories of any kind, and in the real world, there were no do-overs when you fucked up. So no, he would not be extending a second chance to her. Not that he understood the request anyway. Maya wasn't even sure why she tried talking with this guy; he never knew what she was saying so what was the point of even trying to communicate with him.

"I have no idea what you just said, but I'm going to assume it was 'here's your money.'" Izzy smiled with glee. Maya just sighed and shook her head before digging her hand into her pocket and pulling out a lump wad of money. She gave it a quick count up, and after removing a few hundred or so yen from the pot, she pushed it all over to Izzy. She didn't want to give him ALL her money after all. He smiled as he swiped the cash out of her hands and pushed it into his pockets. He grined the most unnerving grin Maya had ever seen as he adjusted his sunglasses, pleased with his earnings. He could make this a regular avenue for tax free revenue. "Pleasure doing business with you."

Now Justin had no idea those two were betting over this game of chess, but he was needless to say not very happy with that revelation. His eyes had been focused on Izzy for a moment, shock at how poor his sportsman skills were, but eventually they found themselves slowly making their way to Maya, a glare of strong disapproval across his face. She shrunk back with shame in turn. She already knew what came next; not a pat on the back for the effort or a jab at her ineptitude at chess. Oh no. You see, there was this little thing called combined income, and Maya more than fell under that category when she was under Justin's wing of financial protection. When she had made that bet, she didn't lose a shit ton of her money; she lost a shit ton of Justin's money. Sure he had a lot of money so it was hard to say a lot of damage had been done, but it was just the principal of the matter. Justin had given her so much and then she had the audacity to go and gamble it all away. And for what? A few extra bucks she probably didn't even need since Justin paid for everything for her? Oh no, it was probably a matter of pride, right? It would be an insult if she didn't take Izzy for everything he was worth, right?

"Maya, do you enjoy sticking your hand into a hornet's nest? Because that's what you just did." She sighed and hung her head with disappointment. She had figured that she was smart enough to take Izzy on, but I guess you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover. Otherwise this is what happened.

"_I'm sorry…"_

"Sorry doesn't pay the bills."

"Well, actually-"

"Shut up Erin."

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTES**

**There'll be no updates for the next two days as I'll be out of town for college orientation. I'll see you all Sunday.**


	274. Chapter 273: April 21, 2014

CHAPTER 273

April 21, 2014

* * *

_Well you're dirty and sweet_

_Clad in black, don't look back, and I love you._

_You're dirty and sweet oh yeah_

_Well you're slim and you're weak_

_You got the teeth of the hydra upon you_

_You're dirty sweet and you're my girl_

_Get it on_

_Bang a gong, get it on_

It was the afternoon, not quite dark enough for it to be considered night time, but late enough that most everyone had already finished their classes up and headed back to the dorm. And what better time to play rock band than when everyone was present and in a perfect position to have the ever living shit annoyed out of them by the clicking of buttons and what would no doubt be the constant bickering of what song to play next. And yet Justin was more than content with that; perhaps because he always valued the opportunity to rub his musical tastes in other's people's faces, perhaps under the delusion that if he just played his music loud enough people would hop aboard the Marc Bolan train. Wishful thinking, though ultimately idealistic at best. Still, as far as he could tell he was able to convert Erin since she had hoped in at some point to play bass. Granted, it wasn't because she necessarily liked the music, but rather because she liked the game. Still, he was impressed with how fast she was moving her fingers up and down the controller, never so much as blinking as her pupils swayed from note to note, planning her fingers next movement out with precision. See, there was one benefit to being completely full of energy, and that was time seemed to move at a snail's pace around you. In Erin's mind, she probably had minutes at a time between each note running down the fretboard.

"You know, we got a Green Day Rock Band, when are we going to get a T. Rex Rock Band?" Justin pondered to himself, swaying back and forth in time to the beat as he tapped his fingers against his plastic instruments, grooving to the rhythm of the bass. And under any other circumstance he'd look like a complete freak doing that, hell he kinda did now, but they'd give him the benefit of the doubt that he didn't normally take his plastic instrument rock band fantasy just a little too literally. It was one thing to want to be a rock star; after all, having your name written in bright lights, having people scream for you, trying to reach up on stage at the mere possibility of touching the hems of your jeans, standing on stage, feeling like the ultimate badass, playing the guitar in your hands as you looked out into the crowd, as if unaware you were even playing an instrument… who wouldn't want that? That said, waving your arm up and down over a broomstick is never considered cool, no matter how much you try to pretend that broomstick is actually a double neck guitar and you're cranking out the solo to Freebird at double time speed using only your tongue. In fact, given how easy it would be to believe you were actually practicing making out with the mop under those circumstances, not only was it decidedly uncool, but also decidedly creepy. Very… very… creepy.

"Because they're not very good." Erin countered quickly. Justin's head could not have whipped to the side any quicker. You know there were several ways this conversation could end: the first was a stalemate, in which both parties agreed to respect the other's musical tastes. However, given that Justin was involved here, this was the least likely of the options on a scale of probability. The second was that Erin ultimately succumbed to Justin's infinitely expansive mission to plant his musical tastes into the hearts and minds of every man, woman and child he met and admit that T. Rex really wasn't all that bad. After all, even if she didn't like glam rock, this was one of those songs you just kind of automatically knew and liked regardless of your history with the band. Kinda like Bohemian Rhapsody or Hot Blooded. The third option, and by far the most likely option of actually occurring was that Erin was gonna walk away with the casing of a broken plastic guitar controller smashed against her skull. "They have like, one good album. You know. That one. With the uh… This. With the this." Erin pointed out. In case you hadn't noticed, she had some rather selective memory. She remembered the album… yet she didn't remember the name of a single song on it.

"Bro, do you even Tanx?" Justin argued, a semi-sarcastic tone to his voice. Clearly the way he delivered his argument was intended to be somewhat humorous, if for none of the right reasons, but his actual intent to argue this was about as serious as it gets. Erin didn't seem all that convinced though, as was evident from the fact that she remained silent for once in her life, passing one of those 'you serious?' looks out of the corners of her eyes. "The Slider? Self-Titled? Come on, don't make me go into their later stuff." He grimaced slightly. Even he realized if these four albums weren't going to convince her, nothing past them would. Again, she shook her head as if amused in the worst possible way by his attempt to argue this. That should have been his first clue to quit, but Justin never stepped away from a music war without victory in his grasps. He bit his lip a bit, trying to keep a careful eye on the game while still getting fleeting glances at people around the room. Maya was present and so was Izzy. He was gonna need back up here. "Maya, back me up here."

"_Eh… Glam rocks not really my thing. I guess they're al-" _She began to formulate her opinion for him. Her tastes in music were surprisingly limited for someone who taught Justin pretty much everything he knew about classic rock. I guess just because she knew certain songs didn't mean she liked those songs. It could also just as easily be a case of her just getting real tired of these songs real quick. It took Justin a lot longer to get over a band or a song, so generally when he heard a song he liked, that band was gonna stick with him for at least a year or two. From the sounds of it, he had just rediscovered his Electric Warrior album. And now they were all going to pay the price. Not that her views of this situation and the chaos Justin was about to unleash really mattered. Because at the end of the day, Justin still needed to watch the game in front of him to play, otherwise he'd miss notes. And he couldn't exactly watch Maya using sign-language if he was watching the game.

"Wait, what the fuck am I saying, I can't see a thing you're doing. Izzy, you're up." Justin cut her off once he realized the error of turning to his sister on matters such as this. She crossed her arms and glared at the back of his head, a little peeved that he had asked her opinion only to pretty much say fuck it. Oh sure, she understood WHY he couldn't really use anything she said given the circumstances, but maybe he shouldn't have asked in the first place. This was just a slap in the face to her, like saying 'had guess what, you still can't verbalize your thoughts!' Izzy had been reading the news in just the room over, and when he heard his name being called out, all he could do was fold it down a little and peer over the rims of his sunglasses just slightly; as if this were the most baffling thing he ever witnessed. Only a shame no one actually looked at him while he was doing this, because they would have finally been able to see what his eyes looked like.

"The fuck are you asking me for? The fuck is a T. Rex?" He questioned with great annoyance. He listened to death metal, not this glam rock pop bullshit. He almost seemed insulted by the question. He'd probably be just as insulted by the answer he received to his hypothetical and not at all literal question he had proposed to Justin. Not that Justin was the one to answer of course; madam oblivious over there on the other side of the room had that covered.

"A T. Rex is a really big dinosaur. It's short for tyrannosaurus rex. They're large lizard like creatures that can stand on two legs and have large sharp teeth that they used to rip apart their prey. They also have claws on their arms and legs, and-"

"He meant the band." Justin cut Erin off before she delved into some zoology shit here, or at least, whatever the dinosaur equivalency of zoology was. All those years playing Zoo Tycoon had taught Justin that they were pretty much the exact same thing.

"Oh." She cut herself off. Say what you wanted about Erin talking too much, she tended to end these conversations on a one word note. Which most everyone present was thankful for. "Well they're-"

"I'm being sarcastic." Izzy cut her off again. He didn't listen to that crap, but he did know who the band in question was. He was just being overly dramatic for the sake of being overly dramatic. He didn't need to be schooled on this band by Erin of all people. Speaking of, he was so happy to find she wasn't majoring in education or any other field that required public speaking; even if he knew the chances of him ever being exposed to her once she began her career was slim to none. Hell, she'd probably move back to France once she got her diploma; he was gonna stay right here, happy with the several country long barrier between him and her.

"You're all just haters." Justin countered with angered annoyance, taking others taste in music personally… again. In his mind it was an insult if people didn't like the same music as him, and right now it felt as if he were at the bottom of a dog pile full of fat people with the way not a single person was backing him up. He was going to start ranting and raving at everyone in another futile attempt at trying to convince them to like the same bands and stuff he liked, but alas, there was no changing the minds of some people when it came to music. Hell, the most open-minded person in the room right now was Erin. That should say something. The sound of the doorknob turning filled the air as the rest of Justin's dorm mates found their way inside. Not that he noticed; he was too busy being angry that people had opinions that conflicted with his own.

"Oh hey guys." Yu spoke up, his smile only fading once he noticed Justin going on and on about something. And given the plastic guitar controller in his hands and the pissed off look on his face, he had a pretty good idea. Either Justin was failing miserably at Rock Band today, which was of course very unlikely given this was Justin, or someone had sparked a music discussion. Chie and Yu knew all too well what that meant. "Let me guess… Someone disliked Justin's music."

"Yep."

"Alright then, see you guys in an hour or so."


	275. Chapter 274: April 22, 2014

CHAPTER 274

April 22, 2014

* * *

"Hey Yu, you in here?"

Justin stood outside Yu's door, impatiently tapping his foot as he knocked at the door, hoping to gain entrance for just a brief moment. Both Yu and him had the same math professor you see, and while they didn't have the same class, he could only assume they hadn't been in school long enough for either to fall behind the other. And Justin… Well, Justin being Justin and never taking a note in his life found himself in the awkward position of actually having to study for once. He didn't get any of the shit that was taught to him, and alas math was not something that could be solved purely through deductive reasoning. There was some degree of memorization and applications that was needed to get anywhere in this class. And that had caught Justin off guard. So now he stood here, trying to get some notes from Yu and hoping that they had covered the same material thus far.

"Yu?" He knocked again with impatience. He had been here for a good two or three minutes waiting for someone to open the door, but alas, neither Yu nor Izzy opened the door to see Justin standing there. He would have thought that with all his knocking and shouting, one of them would at least speak through the door if either was present. Alas, it seemed both were either out of the room or sleeping, and given the hour of the day, the later seemed unlikely. Now, that should have been indication that he should bug someone else for notes, but Justin was rather stubborn and most certainly oblivious. It never quite occurred to him that the reason this door was closed was because neither Yu nor Izzy wanted unwanted guests snooping around while they were gone. "Look, you haven't said anything, and I don't see a sock on the door, so I'm gonna assume no one's naked." Justin called out before timidly pushing the door open, just a crack. Much to his relief, nothing stirred on the other side of the door, and that meant no one was presently in the room, or worse.

No one was inside as he stepped through the door, much to his relief as he quickly but carefully searched around the room for Yu's notebook. Now, finding a notebook was not necessarily a challenge, so much as it was finding the right one. They were all stacked up on a desk in the corner of the room where one could only assume Yu did his studies instead of the often noisy housing below. It was quite the dilemma he faced; he could sit down stairs and put up with Erin's inane rambling, or he could put up with Izzy blasting his heavy metal. Either way Yu lost; I suppose in that sense it was a matter of picking between the lesser of two evils, and while it might be useful if Yu could get Erin to talk about the subject he was studying, it could just as easily be disastrous if she got off-topic, which she so often did. Heavy metal it was.

He ran his thumbs quickly through the pages of the multi-colored notebooks; red, yellow, blue covers alternating neatly in the stack for ease of differentiation without having to read the label on the front cover. He was having a hard time finding what he was looking for, however. It seemed like he had found every subject notebook but the one he was looking for. There were only two more notebooks in the stack, so Justin supposed it was a 50/50 chance here of getting the right notebook. It was hard to say he had picked the wrong one, even if it wasn't what he had been looking for.

For you see, what he had picked up that day wasn't notes from math class, nor were they notes for any class in particular. No rather, what this notebook container were names, theories, connections, occasionally a scribble or two. They were all names Justin recognized, but not necessarily ones he would suspect Yu would just casually write about. Labrys, Kirijo, Aigis; oh yes, all of those who he knew for a fact were involved in that situation were there. Not only that, but there were a number of articles taped on each page about the Kirjo group. Clearly he had been snooping around on them for reasons Justin had a pretty faint idea as to why. And you can imagine he wasn't all too happy. Did he have a right to be angry? No, probably not, for while Yu gave him and the others the chance to join the investigation, he never said he wouldn't try to pursue this. And he did stand by his word that he wouldn't drag the others into this if they didn't want to… even if really, it was only Justin who refused to be a part of this little investigation. Yet it filled his blood with hot rage as he stared down at the notes, a sensation of betrayl washing over him. Oh yes, he had no say over what Yu did with this Investigation… but it still hurt all the same.

"Uh, Justin? What are you doing in my room?" Justin's eyes slowly rose from the notebook, fingers digging into the paper, leaving small dents in its surface like potholes on a road. He was the one intruding in this guy's room, and yet, he felt like he was the victim here. A victim of circumstances beyond his control and circumstances that did not concern him. He turned around, fire in his eyes as he held the notebook up to Yu. He wouldn't bother explaining why he was in here in the first place; in his eyes it didn't matter now. All that mattered was he felt his trust violated. Perhaps he shouldn't have put his trust in a promise that had never been made. I guess in his mind he had simply assumed he wouldn't turn around and do something like this out of respect… Maybe just looking back in hindsight that day was a blur to him and he was imagining things that never happened. It's hard to say.

"You wanna explain this?" Justin snapped, showcasing the text on the page to Yu. He squinted slightly before leaning back and folding his arms with disapproval. Without context, it looked like Justin had just been snooping around his room for that; which was completely and utterly disgusting to him. But even so, ignoring the fact that Justin was sticking his nose into what wasn't really his business to begin with, he didn't need to explain himself. He could look into and investigate anything he wanted; Justin didn't own a leash on his friends and what they pursued in life.

"To you? No." Yu remarked with annoyance, pacing himself over to Justin before snatching the book out of Justin's hand with annoyance. It didn't belong to him after all, and if he had no intention of helping Yu then he didn't need to see its contents. Their eyes locked, anger in both their faces for entirely different reasons. For Justin, it was this sensation that Yu had been going behind his back all these years, like he had been betrayed. For Yu, it was the aggravation of Justin thinking he was holding anyone's strings, that he controlled everyone's lives and pursuits. And it just wasn't true. And it was like this with everything too; not just this damn investigation. If you disagreed with him on anything, he flipped the fuck out, as if the world was supposed to bend it's knee to him and conform to his opinion. And quite frankly, Yu was getting sick of it. He had no idea how Chie dealt with him on a daily basis. I guess they shared enough opinions that it just never came up. Either that or Justin was a little less indignant to her opinions.

"When were you planning on telling me about this?" Justin spat with annoyance, deciding he wasn't going to let this go with a simple 'mind your own business.' The Investigation Team included all of them just as much as Yu, and even if this was something he was doing on his own it affected them all just the same. And he knew that. The fact that he went ahead and did it anyway was selfish.

"I wasn't." Yu continued as he shuffled the notebook back into the stack of his other notebooks. He wasn't going to involve the others specifically because Justin said he didn't want to bring the Investigation Team back together. Why was he getting mad that Yu honored his request? This guy was so two-faced it hurt. "I don't see the problem here. Not like you don't have your own secrets." Yu jabbed at him under his breath. These double standards were unbearably stupid.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Justin snapped back with bafflement. He swore to god if Yu tried to turn the tables around on him, he was seriously going to lose his shit. Yeah he kept secrets, but nothing like this. Nothing that could seriously come back and bite his friends in the ass. Yu folded his arms and leaned against the wall behind him, giving Justin this knowing expression. He knew Justin knew what he was talking about, or at least, he suspected he did, and he intended to make sure Justin knew he wasn't going to play these roundabout games of explaining everything so bluntly to him.

"How long you gonna wait to give her that ring?"

"Oh come on, that's not even close to the same thing!" Justin countered with irritation. That wasn't a secret, that was a surprise; there's a difference. He couldn't even believe that Yu was trying to compare the two; one was a complete violation of trust, the other was a symbol of trust. They were literally on complete opposite ends of the spectrum.

"Oh is it? Last I checked what I did with my freetime was my own business. Just like that's yours." Yu flicked his wrist as if to completely ignore Justin's comment. Oh sure, they were different kinds of secrets; he realized that. But a secret was a secret, and that was the point Yu was trying to get at. A secret was no one's business but the one who kept it. "The day you actually give her that damn thing is the day I'll tell everyone I've been looking into this investigation, but until then I don't believe you have any right telling me what secrets I can or cannot have."

"Do you not realize this affects all of us!?" Justin countered. Maybe that was true, but let's not forget that the Investigation Team consisted of all of them; and whoever had been responsible was well aware who was and wasn't part of that team. Yu sticking his dick into a hornet's nest was only going to guarantee they all paid the price. "And I'll give it to her when I'm ready dammit!" Justin countered, somewhat flustered, cheeks somewhat red. Timing was everything; why couldn't Yu understand that? He rolled his eyes slightly.

"You're not asking her to marry her, just give her the ring already." Justin paused for a moment, the stress in his temples alleviating slightly as his eyes disconnected his gaze from Yu for a brief moment.

"Yeah… Yeah, right…"

"…Justin? What was that look for?"

"Huh? Oh nothing. Look I've got to go." He took a deep breath before pushing right past Yu, leaving him and his anger behind in his room. As well as the quite pungent sense of confusion that now filled the room.


	276. Chapter 275: April 23, 2014

CHAPTER 275

April 23, 2014

* * *

"_It's beautiful."_

"Well the gold's not exactly twenty four karrot from what I can tell, but that's a nice looking gem in there. The green really pops. How much did it cost you? Couple thousand?"

Justin, Maya, and Erin were all hanging around the dormitory, where Justin had found himself deep in thought. As much as Yu pissed him off the day prior, he did bring up a good point. He had been carrying this thing around with him for a year now, praying for just the right moment to pop it out. He couldn't just hold onto this forever, could he? Sooner or later he was gonna need to give it to her; but if the right moment wasn't going to engineer itself, then maybe he needed to engineer the moment. He wasn't quite sure he could though. So instead of going out there and being a man, he sat here, far far away from Chie, just toying around with the ring in his fingers, examining it from each side. Maya hadn't really known about the ring, so it certainly came as a surprise to her. Erin, not so much. She didn't exactly follow everyone else's love life after all; all she had known was that Justin and Chie was dating and left it at that. Oh yeah and according to Izzy, they did the nasty in his room. But really, not something she cared to think about.

"Took me a year to pay this thing off." Justin paused, raising the emerald up to eye level to get a good look at the jewel resting in its gold casing. It wasn't particularly fancy or expensive gold, but that wasn't exactly the highlight of the ring. It was the radiant green color of the emerald embedded into the ring's surface. It was a beauty, and the way the light reflected off its surface was a sight to behold. Still, that didn't mean Erin's concerns about the actual ring hadn't caught Justin a little off guard. "You don't think it's outdated, do you?" He sighed with concern, twisting the object in the light to allow it to reflect and show off every little detail on the ring's surface, engravings and all. He wanted it to be perfect after all, and, well, the ring was two years old. He didn't follow fashion or anything like that, and truly, he couldn't say he really knew the ways to a girl's heart, especially in regards to jewelry. This could be so far behind in what is considered fashionable to ring around one's finger and he wouldn't even know it. And that scared him a little, not necessarily because of the money and time he put into this investment, but because he didn't want to embarrass her with an unstylish gift.

"_Of course not. I'm sure she'll love it." _Maya reassured him, a big grin stretching from cheek to cheek as she eyed the ring with child-like wonder. Something about that ring in his hand was stirring some kind of emotion deep in her chest she couldn't quite explain. Excitement, but excitement for what she couldn't quite say. Perhaps it was that she was able to grasp the implications as to what the ring was for without Justin having to explain himself. After all; he could have gotten her any piece of jewelry in the world, but he chose a ring. While she couldn't necessarily say she didn't feel a bit uneasy thinking of those two still to this very day, she could say that she one hundred percent supported what Justin was thrusting himself into, and it was the prospect of him taking the next step that filled her with these tender emotions of admiration… And maybe just a hint of jealousy. Not because that ring was gonna be going on another woman's finger, oh no. Even if there was the slightest reaches of her heart that twitched in pain when she saw the way he looked into her eyes, she couldn't hang onto that any longer than she had. It was over, she understood that, she moved on… even if part of her stayed behind. You'd think that she'd be happy enough with Yosuke that those feelings she cast away deep in her chest would never rear their ugly head again, and yet, sometimes she found herself just pondering about what could have been. And that killed her a little inside.

Still, Justin had made clear he didn't feel that way about her at any point in time on several occasions, so clinging onto that desire enclosed in her chest cavity was nothing but a wild goose chase; and she could heave and ho all she wanted with the sick sensation of butterflies in her stomach when she thought about it, but that wouldn't change a thing. Now, she was with Yosuke, and she was more than happy with that. She just had a few… regrets, I suppose you could call them. Lingering feelings from a time that had long gone. Yet, the jealousy that filled her heart as her eyes examined the ring full of great curiosity was not one of jealousy of Justin and Chie, but perhaps just jealousy of Chie. They had been together for at least three years now, almost four, and here Justin was, ring in hand, ready to make the move forward. Yosuke and Maya had been together for three years too, and yet you didn't see a ring on her finger. Oh sure, it was early yet, and they just had so much to worry about with school that it seemed almost selfish to want him to pop the question on her. Hell she hadn't even thought about it until Justin started showing off this ring of his… But now she was, and the thought that so much time had passed and it felt like their relationship had reached a standstill filled her with a certain sense of longing. Maybe it was just hormones acting up, she didn't know, but laying eyes on that ring just sent butterflies in her stomach,

"So how're you gonna ask her? Romantic dinner? Put the ring in the champaigne? Well actually that's probably a bad idea; what happens if she actually drinks it and it gets caught in her throat? Oh oh, standing out her window and you throw shit at her window… but… then you might break her window. Alright, alright; overlooking the lake at sunset-"

"Did Chie remind you take your meds?"

"Nope." Justin shook his head and sighed. She had one job. ONE JOB. All the same, as ridiculous as her inquiries were, she did raise a valid point. He needed a game plan; he couldn't just keep waiting for the right moment to come along anymore than he already had. It was quite the dilemma. He didn't really want to be cheesy, but then, cheesy worked sometimes. Hell even if it wasn't good for romantic value, it might be good for a good laugh, right? And that would certainly be memorable. And that was another question; did he want it to be sappy or did he want it to be funny. On one hand, it was no joke, and making light of the moment might not necessarily be a good reflection of that, but on the other hand, who couldn't love a funny guy, right? Well except for maybe someone who is completely and utterly dead on the inside. But that didn't describe Chie at all. It was all just so hard; why couldn't it be as easy as pulling the ring out and getting on one knee? I mean, granted, he COULD do that, but that wasn't exactly the most convincing act in the world. Much like Maya, he recognized they were both still in school; they didn't exactly have time for this. If he wanted to pop the question now, he needed to be more convincing than he ever had in all his life.

Oh and let's not even get into the topic of Chie passing the news along to her folks if she said yes. Sure Justin got along with her father a little better. But a little better was pretty much neutral given the way he used to be. It would be accurate to say her father didn't necessarily like Justin so much as he tolerated him. After all, he hadn't done his little girl wrong yet. I suppose then that the prospect of a proposal would actually please the old man in some ways, but considering who she would be stuck with for the rest of her days would only infuriate him in others. I guess it was people like him that made everyone hate their in-laws.

"I don't know. I just know I gotta ask her sooner or later. Yu was right… Mostly." Justin shrugged slightly. He was still being an insurmountable ass with the way he had been hiding everything from them and the way he tried to play off the ring as something so insignificant, but he didn't know better so Justin would give him a break on this one. He rubbed at his eyes for a moment. He hadn't been slipping much, and it was clear to everyone right now. He had the darkest bags under his eyes; there was just so much on his mind that it was hard for him to just close his eyes and shut his brain off long enough for him to doze off. One thing was for certain; he didn't know when or how he was gonna pop the question to Chie, but he certainly wasn't gonna do it on an hour or two's sleep. "It's gotta be perfect. I mean, I guess I could ask her out to do something she likes, but I'm not exactly she mixed martial arts are really suitable for a proposal."

"_She's not gonna care where you do it, you know." _Maya pointed out, folding her arms as if amused that Justin didn't quite see that. Perhaps it was just obvious to her being a woman and all, but if Yosuke popped her the question at a McDonalds she'd be just as thrilled as if he asked her at the fanciest restraint in the world. Of course, she'd expect some kind of joke about fast food to accompany said proposal if they were gonna do it at a fast food restaurant, but you get the point. It didn't need to be as perfect as Justin imagined it needed to be in his mind. Those kinds of proposals only existed in movies and extravagant novels. Justin shrugged slightly. He supposed that if he needed to use the actual means of proposal as a bribery of sorts than it really wasn't worth it in the long run. But that's the thing. He wasn't sure he doubted she'd say yes, but that didn't mean he was gonna just say fuck it and settle for the blandest thing available. It was a special moment, right? So it deserved a little something extraordinary.

"Well then where would you suggest?" Justin questioned, turning his eyes towards Maya. She hesitated for a brief moment, mostly because she didn't want this being turned into something about her, especially not with the twinge of pain that kept shooting through her heart as she contemplated how Justin of all people could be getting married before she did… Well… ATTEMPTING to get married. She never claimed to have been super attractive or anything appealing like that that could warrant a proposal, but goddamn, Justin!? That was her competition and she STILL managed to lose? That's what she got for believing in fairy tales about soulmates and shit she supposed.

"_Hmm… I'd say wait for the holidays, but those are a long ways away." _She mused to herself for a moment. After all, one could only imagine the shock one could endure being proposed to on Christmas or New Years, or hell, as cheesy as it could be, Valentine's Day. But Justin seemed determined to do this now, so for now he shall have to do without. _"Anywhere in particular she likes to go?"_

"Well there's the riverbed back in Inaba, but I'm not exactly going to drag her out there for no reason." Justin mumbled to himself. He'd need to have a purpose for being there, otherwise she'd opt out and he'd waste everyone's times. "I guess there's Aiya's. Her and her steak."

"_Well there you have it, put it at the bottom of a meatbowl."_

"Are you crazy? No one can finish those things."

"_You say it like she wouldn't accidentally eat it otherwise."_

"Alright, alright, touche'."


	277. Chapter 276: April 24, 2014

CHAPTER 276

April 24, 2014

* * *

"_Justin, calm down."_

Justin had been pacing around back and forth the dormitory, sweaty palms and nerves stiff with tension. Chie would be getting out of class soon enough, so that meant he didn't have much time to go over in his head how this was going to go. He had a basic idea, but every time he ran through the scenario in his head, he just got nervous and forgot a major point in his plan. He clearly didn't have the nerves to execute this perfectly, and he could only hope that he didn't forget anything important… Anything else he could only hope he could be forgiven for. Maya was sitting on the arm of the couch, swinging her legs back and forth as she watched Justin make a mess of himself trying to gather his thoughts. It was almost hard to watch him fall to pieces like this, but given what he was trying to accomplish, it seemed his suffering only made the gesture all the more sweeter. Which is probably why Maya was refusing to allow him to back out of this, as he had tried a couple times already. After all, he wasn't trying to hide away from the prospect of bending his knee and pulling out the ring, oh no, he was just too afraid to go through with it. Someone needed to stand behind him and block his route away when he tried to run for his life. And you know, pushing him in the right direction wasn't a bad idea either.

"Christ, what am I thinking. School just started, she probably has so much on her plate; I shouldn't be doing this now…" Justin mumbled to himself over and over in a frenzied panic. He had to be out of his mind to think this was the time or place to pop such a serious question on her. And yet that's exactly what he had been standing at the door waiting to do. That was exactly what Maya was constantly encouraging him to do, as if he had been entrapped in his own plans, like some kind of twisted prison of aspirations and dedications for something that, quite frankly, he really didn't want to do. I mean, he WANTED to do it, but he didn't have the guts or the balls to go through with it. "I can't do this; the timings all right. She'll think I'm an idiot." He eventually settled before turning about, ready to attempt to take his leave and run as far as he possibly could from this door and to the safety of solitude. Alas, however, Maya had anticipated he would do that, and in fact, this was like the sixth time today he had tried to turn around and make a mad dash for sanctuary. She quickly jumped off her seat on the couch and blocked off the hallway, and by extension, his escape route. He arms were folded and her eyes pierced through him with a strong disapproving glare. Justin could only scratch at the back if his head with slight shame in response. He got that he was being a huge chicken, but what was he supposed to do?

"_Goddammit Justin, stop. You'll be fine, I'm sure of it." _She tried to calm him down. She wasn't sure why she even bothered though; his nerves were so tangled up that you wouldn't be able to tell them apart from telephone wires at this point. Untangling them would take more time than she had until that door opened, so the best she could do was keep all the plugs connected in the right sockets. His eyes darted around the room, clearly him trying to find a way to run around Maya without her being able to cut him off. Of course, there was ONE way to get around her, and that was through the kitchen; but alas Maya had noticed he had spotted the way around her barricade and put a stop to that immediately by extending her arms and gripping him in place. Granted, he was probably a bit stronger than her and could break her grip at any second if he tried, but this would probably suffice given that he wasn't trying to run for his life, he was just very jittery and very nervous. And those nerves were what were trying to get him to flee. He just need to chill. He took a deep breath, few seconds passing before finally let go of him and he stopped twitching about in an attempt to break loose of the shackles of her grip.

"I-I can't do this Maya. It's too soon. She'll say no." He muttered, anxiety starting to reach its peak rather rapidly. Maya was not particularly amused by that either. She would have thought Erin would have been her for morale support as well since she was in on the plan; yet she was nowhere to be found. And that left Maya with the sole duty of making sure Justin didn't throw himself out a window in deseperate bid of escaping. Maya didn't get it. He seemed so excited about all of this until it started to get close to Chie getting out of her classes. Now he was just a wreck; like he was watching a train come at him in slow-motion and it just occurred to him he was going to be splattered against the train tracks in a brief moment. Yet he was walled in with no way to escape, and now all he could do was face death head-on. But then, how do you just accept getting hit by the a train with your chin held up high? You don't. And that's why he was panicking, looking for some means of escaping the inevitable; a fatal collision he had brought upon himself by jumping on the track and playing chicken with the train in the first place. The only difference was that he had wanted the train to hit him in the first place, it just never occurred to him what getting hit by a train would do. Also there were no trains. But you get the point.

"_Dammit Justin, if you don't do it I will." _Maya countered, folding her arms with annoyance with the neigh schizophrenic nature of Justin constantly backing out then immediately jumping in. This was gonna be a good thing, a beautiful thing. It was something she knew he wanted, even though for some reason the deepest corners of her heart loathed it. But it wasn't about her. It never was. Justin was gonna go out, and he was gonna do it, because he knew quite simply that pushing this off would hurt no one but himself, and would help no one period. Of course, Maya's means of trying to get him to stay on target were a little strange to say the least. Justin stopped squirming for just a moment to pass Maya this funny look like she had something funny in her teeth. If he didn't do it, she would? Oh sure, what she really meant was she would tell Chie what Justin was trying to do (which kind defeated the point) but the way it came out sounded nothing like an offer to do the hard part for Justin. It sounded more like stealing his thunder than anything.

"I uh… Don't think she rolls that way." Justin pointed out to Maya, the slightest hint of confusion and disgust in his voice. Maya immediately flinched, face turning red in seconds. Now wait just one second; she did not roll that way. I mean granted, her love life should have already spoke volumes of that , but there was always the potential of her being bi she supposed. Don't let anyone think for a second that she was into chicks; even if Justin was probably just being a sarcastic asshole like usual. She opened her mouth with shock and awe as if to stutter with great confusion, but alas, she couldn't really stutter if she couldn't speak in the first place. No, she was just sort off stuck there with cheeks as red as lava and this frightened deer in headlights look upon her face.

"_What!? That's not-!_" She hesitated as she tried to explain. Eventually she decided however that she was much too aggravated to settle this conflict with words alone and settled for just knee him in the groin. Okay, sure, it wasn't the most mature way to handle the situation, and she could already tell if this little proposal of his turned out to be more successful than Justin planed, this could pove to be problematic now that his genitals had just been smashed in, but hey. That's what he got for implying she was a lesbian. He immediately clutched at his crotch and jumped a bit, trying to hold back screams of pain as every muscle in his body screamed out in pain. _"You know what I meant!"_

"Um… Am I interrupting something." In Justin's brief moment of excruciating pain, he hadn't even noticed the door open up and Chie step inside, a look of great curiosity on her face as she saw a red faced Maya and Justin hoping around holding his crotch. She wasn't going to lie, without context this all looked really, really bad. Justin's face only turned red when Chie stepped in to discover him with his hands over his crotch, beign quick to straighten himself out and try to make himself look presentable.

"No! Nothing at all!"

"…O-Okay…" She remarked with great confusion before shaking her head and trying to get that image out of her head. Oh she was sure it wasn't what it looked like, it never was and she had already learned her lesson about assuming, but goddamn, that didn't mean she didn't have an active imagination. She pushed her way inside where Maya began gesturing angrily at Justin over Chie's shoulder trying to get him to speak up. He fought back for a good while too, but once Chie noticed those two were making faces at each other behind her, he straightened up, composed himself, and took his chance.

"Uh, h-hey Chie; I was wondering if… if you're uh… not busy, would you like to… uh… go out for steak?" He smiled widely, palms sweaty as he held his hands behind his back trying to be as cautious as possible. He could already feel himself blowing it though as he paused throughout his speech to prevent himself from having a nervous breakdown. She frowned for only a brief second before smiling and making her way up to Justin.

"Sorry, I've got a test tomorrow. Maybe some other time." She apologized, giving a quick peck on the cheek as a thank you for the kind gesture before turning about rushing up stairs, a whistle in her breath the whole while. Maya and Justin's jaws dropped within seconds. All this trouble and it all ended with her being too busy… for STEAK.

"Did she… Did she just turn down a free steak dinner?"

"_Does the steak here really suck that much?"_


	278. Chapter 277: April 25, 2014

CHAPTER 277

April 25, 2014

* * *

"Oh hey Chie, hey do you got a mo-"

"Not now, I slept in for my test!"

Chie hustled about the living room, gathering her stuff quickly together as a rather timid Justin tried to grab her attention for just a moment. Last night didn't go exactly as he planned, but maybe if she was free today he could try again… Then immediately try to back out until Maya slapped him upside the back of the head. As it stood though, she was much too busy trying not miss her test; as was Erin, though she seemed to be having trouble keeping up with Chie. And that should tell something.

"Slow down a little! I can't keep up with you like this. Can you just let me grab my note- no I'll take that as a know. Wait up!" She shouted frantically as she stumbled about in Chie's trail, trying to gather everything she needed, though ultimately finding that difficult when Chie seemed to be skipping around the room faster than she could so much as find a pencil. Ultimately she had to leave behind most of the things she needed. Like breakfast for once. Would it be so much to ask for them to wait for Erin to make some toast? Yes, apparently was. Before Justin could stop her, even for a brief moment to ask if she was free this afternoon, she was out the door, leaving a bewildered and disappointed Justin behind, arm still reaching towards the door from where he had tried to get her attention. He sighed with disappointment before taking a seat on the couch and resting her face in his hands. This had all been a failure; every time he even tried to get alone with her she just kind of ran off. How was he supposed to expect her to say yes if she wouldn't even let him ask the question in the first place? He sat there for a long while, disappointment running through his veins like the strongest of alcohol. Maybe an hour or so passed of him simply being lost in his woes and thoughts when the door opened to the dorm. He jumped with slight excitement, his hopes raised at the potential of Chie having returned from her test, but instead all he saw was Maya and Yosuke, laughing, having a good time. Basically everything Justin wasn't right now. He sighed before resting his head back in the palms of his hands.

"Hey Justin… Wh-Why the long face?" Yosuke questioned with slight concern. It wasn't like Justin to get down in the dumps, or at least, not to publically do so. Just sitting there on the couch wallowing in his misery wasn't his style. Trying to ignore his issues was more up Justin's alley. So then what would possess him to let his woes get the better of him? Maya had been smiling, her hand tied between Yosuke's fingers as they enjoyed their small little walk, but once she saw the look on Justin's face, her heart just melted away and her grin subsided to a sad grimace. Oh she knew what this was all about. After all, what else had been on Justin's minds all this time.

"_Still can't ask her?"_

"Nope." Maya took a deep breath as she let go of Yosuke's hand and made her way towards the seat next to Justin. Yosuke in turn took the only free seat left on the couch on the OPPOSITE side of Justin. He would have liked to sit next to his girlfriend, what with them having a moment before Justin had to ruin it by being bleak, but that wasn't really an option. That said, he was curious what all this was about. Maya seemed to know what was going on, but him? No, he hadn't the slightest clue; all he knew was it had to do with Justin asking someone something. He was just going to go out on a limb and say Chie. Not like it couldn't be Yukiko, or dare he even say Erin, but the chances were significantly lower.

"Asked who what?"

"_Chie. Justin… well, he uh…" _She paused for a moment, trying to gather her thoughts. She wasn't sure she was in any position to be talking about this with Yosuke when this was kind of private information, but Justin sure as hell wasn't making any effort stop her, so it couldn't have been a bad thing right? Her cheeks turned red and a small grin snuck across her face. She was happy for him, sure, though her face was probably more red because how adorable she thought the gesture was. _"Justin's gonna propose." _Within a second Yosuke started gagging on the spit in his mouth, clearly caught off guard. There were a lot of things he hadn't expected to hear today, but if he were list them all off that would sure be at the top of the list of unexpected utterances. Engagement? Now of all times? I mean good for him, Yosuke supposed, but… He just wasn't sure how to react to this.

"Propose!? Dude…" He shook his head a bit, rubbing at his temples as he tried to make sense of this all. It wasn't all too hard to comprehend, truly; it just seemed like one of those things you never really expected to happen. And it's funny, because you knew it was gonna have to happen sooner or later, but Yosuke hadn't quite assumed it would be sooner. "I mean- that's great news, but don't you think you're rushing into things a bit!?" Yosuke frantically continued. Timing seemed to be the biggest issue of course, but to him, he wasn't quite sure three years was adequate time to make a decision like that. Though that should have been obvious enough by the state of his and Maya's relationship. Justin took a deep breath, as if to contemplate the possibility of Yosuke being right… But as for Maya, she almost seemed personally offended by the remark.

"_Why not? Three years is a long time." _She pointed out. It seemed like an adequate amount of time to decide if they were compatible or not. Not factoring in other matters like finances and what not, if it was truly just a matter of love, then she didn't believe much was gonna change if they waited it out. So why wait?

"Sure I guess, but when are they gonna find the time to have a ceremony with school?" Yosuke crossed his arms. Seemed he actually rather opposed Justin's little plan to bend his knee and ask for her hand; not necessarily because he thought it was a bad idea for Justin perhaps, but perhaps he just needed to cover some extra grounds. He wasn't the brightest bulb on the tree, but he knew when something funny was going on, and that look Maya was giving him just reeked of suspicious. And quite frankly, he'd really rather not know what she had going around in that brain pan of hers.

"_You know, weddings don't just happen overnight. You have to plan everything. Even if he proposed now it'd probably take a year before they actually got married." _Maya pointed out, slightly baffled by Yosuke's ignorance. He seemed a little caught off guard. I guess in his mind that stuff really DID happen overnight. Perhaps he didn't take into account they had to book the ceremony, work out decorations, pick out a dress and tuxedo, send out invitations to everyone, assign best men and brides maids and ring bearers and flower girls, and then there was the reception afterwards, and let's not forget the honeymoon. Basically, if anyone out there could do this all in one night, props to them, because Maya sure as hell couldn't. Not that she had tried of course, but she didn't exactly need to to know she could never do something like that. Kind of like flying; you don't need to jump off a cliff to know you won't sprout wings and soar away. She stuck her nose up on the air in an almost smug, matter of fact fashion. _"'sides, if it were me I wouldn't care when or where I was proposed to."_

"I guess…" Yosuke sighed, passing Maya a slightly suspicious look. Why was she trying to make this about her? He couldn't put his finger on it, but he knew she was up to something devious. It's hit him eventually, but for now, he was completely oblivious to the subtle hints in her tone of voice that told him exactly what she had in her mind. Granted when it did hit him he just laughed hysterically at the prospect and made himself look like a madman, but that's beside the point. "I still think this is a really stupid idea."

"_Well I think it's a wonderful idea. I would want to get married after three years too." _Now even Justin was giving her these funny looks, pausing for a moment before looking down at his fingers and counting off the years that had passed since Yosuke and her had started dating. Two and a half years or so. Not quite three unless you rounded up, but somehow, Justin got a feeling she was. Much easier to say three years than two and a half after all. As for Yosuke he was slowly starting to put the pieces of the puzzle together, even if he didn't have the whole image in his head.

"What's all this 'if it were me' stuff?" Yosuke questioned with suspicion. Maya paused for a moment, cheeks turning red for just a brief second before she tried to hide her embarrassment back beneath her disguise. She was playing her cards too aggressively it would seem. She was trying to subconsciously plant an idea in Yosuke's mind, not barrage him with the thought. She cleared her throat before readjusting herself, trying to come off as natural as possible.

"_I-I'm just saying from a woman's perspective…" _She claimed. After all, she was the only girl here right now, so she was the closest thing to an expert on the matter as you could get. Justin was more than willing to accept that excuse, but Yosuke had already caught on to the fact that Maya was scheming something here. He knew her well enough to know when she was trying to get something. And more often than not he was the one to get it that something for her. Truth be told, she was actually quite the gold digger, or at least, so Yosuke perceived her to be with how often he bought her fancy coats or something. But that's alright, because he was happy enough to see the smile on her face whenever he gave her a gift… And then subsequently less happy when he looked at his wallet. But yeah, he knew she was trying to get at something here.

"I didn't know you were a representative of the entire female populace."

"_Oh shut up."_

* * *

**_AUTHOR'S NOTES_**

**_No update tommorow due to 4th of July weekend._**


	279. Chapter 278: April 26, 2014

CHAPTER 278

April 26, 2014

* * *

"You sure you can't swing by…? Okay… Alright… Yeah, just be careful not to catch anything. Alright, love you too."

"_Still no luck?"_

"Why is it I can never get in touch with someone when I actually need to see them?"

Justin sighed before plopping down on the couch, eyes focused on the television screen in front of him, images flashing across its surface and straight to Justin's eyes, though they completely missed his mind. Where they went after that, one could only guess. Maybe they just went down his digestive track and came out as piss and shit a couple hours later; who even knew. Justin had been trying desperately to get Chie alone, but alas, it seemed Yukiko had picked some pretty convenient timing to get the flu, and thus Chie and Yu were both preoccupied making sure she was alright. Justin felt like this was all part of some game; the moment he tried to chase after his dreams, his dreams were yanked away from him like a dollar bill on a fishing hook. But you could bet that if he hadn't been carrying a ring around with him everywhere trying to get her attention for even a couple of minutes, she'd have all the time in the world. Fate was kind of a cold bitch like that.

Maya gave him a quick pat on the shoulder of understanding. She could totally get how he felt never getting the opportunity to really profess how he felt to Chie; mostly because she had lived that life for so long with so many people. Though I think more importantly was her heart had been aching quite a bit when it dawned upon her that Yosuke didn't really intend to follow Justin's lead at any point in the near future. He was so opposed to the idea, and furthermore, when Maya had subtly tried to implant the thought of maybe the same deal happening between her and Yosuke, he just seemed offended, almost angry. She was lucky she wasn't around when Yosuke figured out what she was talking about, because her heart would have been split down the middle at the sight of him laughing at the thought of a permanent union between the two. Like, could he at least just consider it? Pretend he was interested in the idea? Way she saw it, if he really loved her and really wanted to be with her, there was no real reason not to. Yet, there he was in his dorm room laughing like a maniac when it hit him. The thought seemed so novel and ridiculous to him that he had only assumed it could be a joke. And if it wasn't, quite frankly, he blamed Justin for putting the thought in her head in the first place. It's not like he could afford a ring on his salary anyway if he wanted to. He wasn't like Justin; he didn't have a loaded father who just conveniently died and gave him every cent he owned… Well actually, his father was kind of rich; but that wasn't the point. His father tried to enforce the values of hard work and diligence upon Yosuke; he had to work for everything. And Yosuke could respect that. But you can bet that he wasn't gonna get the funds for a ring while he was still in college just because he asked.

Furthermore, Yosuke's father didn't really seem to like Maya; at least, in that light. When they were both friends, everything was all well and good, but the moment it occurred to him that they were dating, there was just this tense air anytime the family was in the room together with her; like there was a cat fight about to happen. Secretly, Yosuke thought it had something to do with Maya's disability. After all, his family liked Maya as a person, they treated her like their own when she could speak just fine, hell they still did even if his father did so begrudgingly at times. He just couldn't understand why something as silly as a disability could change someone's perception of a person, especially a person they had adored so much before. Perhaps it was just the belief he could do better. I mean let's face it, in some respects dating the mute girl seemed kinda like a cop out. In some cases, people like Maya were a little more desperate. In Maya's case, that was entirely true; but then, she was pretty desperate before too. She'd probably date a tin bucket with a smiley face drawn on it in pencil if it gave her enough compliments. But you know, that's beside the point.

"_I know how you feel…" _Maya sighed, kicking her legs back and forth as she sat on the couch, eyes facing towards the ground in despair. Oh she so desperately wanted to talk things through with Yosuke- No, even more so she just wanted to yell at him, scream at the top of her lungs just how painful it was the way he tore her heart in two by shrugging it all off like it was nothing. It wasn't nothing; it meant everything to her and he knew it. Yet he just didn't get it, and if he did he clearly didn't approve. It wasn't even that it was a clear 'no' that killed her so much as his refusal to acknowledge it. I mean, couldn't they sit down and talk it through as to WHY they couldn't? She was understanding, really! I mean, it would be nice to flaunt about the campus with a golden ring on her finger, but she could leave without bragging rights if she just understood why she couldn't have that ring in the first place. The way he just ignored everything… It was like he just didn't care. And that was the part that hurt. _"Yosuke's such an asshole." _She sniffled slightly. She could feel tears welling up in her eyes, but she held them back. If there were two things she knew for certain, it was this: One, Justin would beat the ever loving crap out of Yosuke if he saw that he had directly or indirectly made her cry, and she REALLY didn't want that as angry as he had made her. Two, never would she shed a tear for a man who broke her heart. She had had love and lost it so many times that it just wasn't worth it. And truly, she did still love the man, that wasn't going to change anytime soon. Perhaps that was why she especially refused to cry. He wasn't going to win, to tear her apart.

"Wait, what did he do this time?" Justin questioned with great anger. You could see his face turn red within seconds as the blood in his face began to boil. He didn't know what it was Yosuke had done, but for Maya to call him an asshol-… Okay, well in all fairness, she tended to do that a lot. She wasn't quite as susceptible to bullshit in a relationship as one would expect from a person so desperately clinging to the fantasy of a perfect romance with her own Prince Charming. But still, point was, she was clearly angry at him for a reason, and very rarely was she angry without justification. He had probably done something big time to piss Maya off like that; he just didn't know what. "You need me to kick his ass again!?" Justin continued. Ah yes, because while Yosuke may have been Maya's Prince Charming, Justin was still her Knight in Shining Armor. It was actually quite the conflict of interest at points. She shook her head immediately in an attempt to dissuade him from doing something stupid. Which knowing Justin he would do anyway. She didn't need him to protect her anymore; or really at ALL. If anything he was the one that needed protection. He was just too stubborn to admit it.

"_Please don't." _Justin sighed before relaxing back in his seat. Alright, he'd play nice for now. But if he found out that Yosuke had done something seriously fucked up to piss Maya off the way she was right now, he wasn't gonna hesitate to shove his foot straight up Yosuke's ass. _"It's just… You ever feel like you're just kind of stuck. You're not moving forward, but you're not going back either?"_

"Ah… So that's what's going on." Justin nodded a bit. She felt like their relationship was at a stalemate; Justin got that. Of course, he didn't know that Maya was trying to make the leap towards marriage, and surely if he did he would laugh at her too. Those two may have loved each other, but they fought just as often as they did hold hands. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say Yosuke tended to unintentionally offend Maya's sensibilities and then she immediately began to give him hell over it. Did you know to this day he still tried to flirt with other girls? One hundred percent true; Justin was almost entirely positive once that if Maya hadn't interrupted Yosuke during one of these sessions with Rise, it would have turned into a make-out session. But then, Rise kinda started that one. You know how she was. Still, how could they possibly survive a marriage when Maya was always trying to claw Yosuke's throat out for something stupid he did? Hell, how could they survive a marriage when it seemed like Yosuke was having a hard enough time remaining faithful without being wedlock? "Well… This probably isn't what you want to hear but… It's been three years. Have you two… well… you know…" Justin tried to dodge the subject slightly. Maya got the message loud and clear though, and she wasn't too happy.

"_JUSTIN!"_

"I'm just saying, typically that's the next step." He raised his hands in defense. It was entirely possible to have a non-sexual relationship with someone of course, and if they wanted to avoid jumping in bed then by all means more power to them; but Justin could honestly say it helped a lot with his relationship with Chie after they had… well… you know. It was almost liberating in a way. Maya shook her head, cheeks turning red with embarrassment. She couldn't even sleep in the same bed as the guy; how could she be expected to SLEEP with him?

"_I… I don't know. I don't think…" _She paused for a moment, trying her best to verbalize her emotions. Truth be told, she was kind of afraid to go there; not even on just a relationship level, but on a purely physical level. She wasn't like Justin, she didn't have a porn stache on her computer she could learn from. She had zero knowledge about how sex worked other than point a goes into hole b. She imagined it must be pretty painful though, and she was kind right, at least from what would be her perspective in this scenario, so in that regard she wanted nothing to do with sex. Why couldn't all just be holding hands and what not? She could live with that! Justin smiled slightly at her.

"Hey, hey, no one's forcing you to do anything you don't want, alright?" He reassured her. "Though, I mean, if you need advice on that kind of stuff, you know who to talk to." Maya immediately gave him a dirty look. Right; because she really wanted to talk sex with Justin. If she was gonna talk about that with anyone it would be Chie, and even then that probably wasn't gonna happen. Because honestly, who wants to talk about what goes on behind closed doors? "It's nothing to be afraid. Just let it happen naturally."

"_I guess…" _Justin nodded a bit before allowing himself to stare back up at the ceiling. He could tell Maya didn't really believe him, even if he was technically the expert here. I guess because from her perspective, he wasn't the one who got the rough end of the stick when it came to sexual intercourse. Maybe it was just she didn't like being lectured about her lack of a sex life. So they didn't fuck. You know what? She liked it that way. She was comfortable with that. Yosuke probably wasn't, because you know how he tried to fuck anything with a vagina, but then maybe he shouldn't have been expecting that kind of stuff from Maya in the first place. Justin sighed, his smile slowly fading away. They all had relationship problems it would seem; they were all stuck in the rut waiting for the rain to pour and clean them out.

"It's gonna be a long four years, huh?"

"_I'll be lucky if it's that short."_


	280. Chapter 279: May 19, 2014

CHAPTER 279

May 19, 2014

* * *

And so time passed, as it so often tended to do. Days turned to weeks and weeks turned to months… or… a month as the situation would warrant. It mattered not, truly, because regardless of how much time had passed, nothing had been accomplished. Chie had so often managed to find a way to be too busy to spend time with Justin, or at least, she had for the first few weeks. Afterwards she just outright avoided the boy, like he had given her herpes or something. Which last Justin checked, wasn't true. She had long since stopped coming up with excuses to stay clear of him and instead shrugged him off with a simple 'I can't do this now.' He was hoping she was just having a bad week or something, but it still was killing him all the same. Maybe Yosuke was right; if he had been trying for a month straight without having any success at even ATTEMPTING to propose; maybe the timing just wasn't right. I mean, was forcing this really in the best interest of anyone? And Maya; well… I don't think I need to explain that her silly attempts at trying to trick Yosuke into putting a ring on her finger wasn't really going her way. There were a lot of things she could coax Yosuke into doing, but that was because deep down inside he wanted to do those things for her. But this was something he opposed with all his heart, and that was what left them at a stalemate. Justin had of course suggested taking baby steps and MAYBE not jumping to marriage when they hadn't even… you know… But as it would go, she wasn't going to take advise that pretty much involved whoring herself out as a bribery. Besides, she had to save herself for marriage right? She wasn't quite the man-whore Justin was where he really didn't care about that stuff, but she took her beliefs in marriage and the union between a man and a woman very seriously you know.

And so fate pretty much gave both of them the middle finger and left them there in the currents of time, forever trying to reach at the hook dangling in front of their face, only to have it playfully tugged from their face each time. Different people with different goals and yet the same outcome: a feeling of hopelessness as chance conspired against them. And that brought them here now. Sitting on the couch and playing video games, trying to forget their worries. Erin had been taking the player one controller, and Maya player two… Justin just watched, his stomach in all sorts of knots that seemed to freeze the muscles in his fingers in place through some bizarre medical science he didn't quite understand. He almost envied Erin. She seemed so cheerful, so carefree with that controller in her hand… Here were Justin and Maya trying to forget their worries, and she didn't have a worry to forget. And it was funny because you would think the world around them would weigh down on her spirits. Justin wouldn't lie and pretend that her housemates were particularly nice to her. They so often told her to shut the fuck up that it was a wonder she bothered to talk at all. And Izzy… Izzy loathed her like she had stabbed his mother in the gut or something. All the names he called her in languages most of them couldn't understand (though it was probably safe to assume it was French the way she cringed)… There was also a brief period where she had tried dating some guy from a couple dorms down, but… well it ended about as well as you would expect: with him realizing that Erin just never shut up. So yeah, it seemed as if the entire world around her hated her guts. Yet she never lost that smile. What Justin would do to have that same attitude; to take life head on and say 'fuck you fate, I don't care what you do to me.'

But he didn't have that same attitude, and as cool and nonchalant as he pretended to be on the outside, his shell had cracked a long time ago, letting all the negative influences of the world around him flow through his very being. He'd smile and laugh, but with every chuckle it felt like he was dying a little bit more on the inside, because he knew there was nothing to laugh at and nothing to smile for. The only thing he had found himself truly overcome with a sense of bliss with, the only one who truly made him happy was avoiding him like the plague, and with that it seemed as if he had lost purpose. So he just sat there, wallowing in his misery, a broken heart that he tried to mend by not giving it the time of day. He just watched the lights dance across the television screen, trying not to make rhyme nor reason of the emotions he held so tightly in his chest.

"Well I could pick the shotgun, but then I'd have to get really close to the bad guys, and I'd end up being a bullet sponge. But it does have better stats than this pistol I'm carrying around… Maybe if I just used the assault rifle instea-"

"_Just pick something!" _Maya quickly gestured off at Erin with annoyance. Of course, it goes without saying that Erin didn't really know sign-language, so she had this look of great confusion on her face as she tried to decipher what Maya could possibly be trying to say. Maya eventually sighed with defeat, shaking her head before trying to turn this into a game of charades in which she pointed towards her wrist as though to point out an invisible watch and tapped her foot with impatience. Erin still didn't get it. But alas, in the short time that Maya had distracted her, she had come to a decision, so I guess it all worked out in the end.

"Hey Maya… You ever get the feeling that something's gone horribly wrong?" Justin spoke up, eyes still focused on the television screen. Which quite honestly was probably a stupid idea given he couldn't really communicate with Maya without looking at her. "Like I mean… Something happened, and it involves you, but… it's like you completely missed it. Like you just kind of skipped the day shit hit the fan or somethin'?" Justin questioned. It was hard to explain. He could tell Chie was upset about something, and that something had to do with him, but as to what he hadn't the faintest idea. It was like he had just gone comatose whenever it had happened, and when he woke up, all there was was the aftermath of some grand fallout he was not privy to. Maya paused for a moment, the annoyed glare on her face subsiding to one of almost disheartened disappointment.

"_Yeah… all the time. Why?" _She questioned. She couldn't help but feel as though she were to blame for the way things were going with her and Yosuke; hell, she always felt everything was her fault. Yosuke didn't want to hang out with her? Well maybe she needed to wear more make-up or find more stylish clothes. He was angry at her? She must have been a horrible person. It was always like that; taking the blame for something that truly rested upon the other person. That was just how she was. But it seemed like lately Yosuke just… didn't care. Sure Maya had high expectations when she was trying to ensnare him in a trap that he seemed so cautious of, but it wasn't her failure to catch him that had broke her heart so much as it was the precautions Yosuke took to avoid being ensnared. Ignoring the issue entirely, and when the topic was even slightly hinted at, she got these glares like she was batshit insane to even contemplate the matter. She wanted to blame Yosuke so much, wanted to be angry at him for being such a dick to her all of a sudden, and yet… all she could blame was herself. She felt responsible for distancing Yosuke like that, even if her hand played no role in the matter other than to instigate him.

"…I don't know." Justin shrugged. "I just feel like things have been different lately, and I don't know why." He carefully tried to sidestep the whole topic of him and Chie; even if it was clear that's what this was in reference to. Something had changed somewhere along the line, in him, in her, he wasn't sure, but it changed all the same. And some people just couldn't deal with change; Justin fell well under that umbrella of thought. Something had happened, and he didn't know what; perhaps he never would. But he could still feel the sting of the consequences, digging deeper into his skin with every day that passed, venomously turning his heart to stone, drying the ocean of blood that ran through his veins. Soon there would be nothing left, and he'd be hollow, seeking some kind of guidance as to what went wrong; a seeker in the night looking for form and shape in a world that seemed so vague and senseless…

…Assuming of course he was being melodramatic; but let's face it, this was Justin we were talking about. He lived off of melodrama.

"Mhmm, yeah, that happened to me all the time. That's why you gotta think every contingency through. Like, all of them. Sometimes it takes a long time though, and that can get a bit boring. Like… Really… Really… Boring." Erin went off on another one of her tangents. I mean, granted, it explained why she was always trying to rationalize every little thing that happened or was to happen in the world around her, but no one was particularly looking for insight into that matter, so ultimately that proved to be pointless. Justin shrugged a bit. Perhaps she was right in some regard, but he couldn't retrospectively change the past by analyzing what he didn't even know happened, or really even if he had known what went wrong. That was the part that killed him. If he could only know…

"Maybe I should text her… She's gonna have to talk to me eventually." Justin sighed. And it was true, as distant as Chie had become in recent days, it wasn't like she was angry at him or anything. She just seemed like something was bothering her. So it's not like he was afraid she was gonna leave him or anything like that; it was just that the way she distanced herself from Justin broke his spirits. And it hurt. It hurt bad. He had about enough of this. Maya shrugged slightly as he whipped out his phone, punching in letters in quick succession, no doubt leaving behind several typos in his wake.

"_I wouldn't rush it. She'll talk about it when she's ready."_

"Well we'll just see if she responds to this then." Justin sighed, pressing the send button before flipping the phone close. From that point on, it was a matter of playing the waiting game.

Alas, the only way to win the waiting game was not to play. She never did text him back.


	281. Chapter 280: May 20, 2014

CHAPTER 280

May 20, 2014

* * *

"Ugh… If I knew going to college meant I'd be drowning in homework, I would have just worked a desk job at some company in Detroit."

Justin groaned as he made his way back to the dormitory, books in toe, a tired expression on his face as he tried to find his way back home and to his desk, where he would no doubt drown away his sorrows with the magic of words; words too big for him to really get a good grasp on. Words that he would probably never really understood what they meant. And that meant he'd probably be an awful forensic scientist. Now, if he wanted to be a detective or a private investigator, that might be more up the deductive reasoning portion of Justin's brain's alley, but as a forensic scientist, he just never had the ambition or willpower to memorize needlessly long words that were no doubt super big just so some people could seem smarter than others at the water cooler. He hated those kinds of people truth be told, and maybe that was why he wasn't learning any of this fancy lingo for ideas that would be so much simpler if they just referred to bones as bones and blood as blood. Maya certainly didn't care much for that stuff either from what he could tell, but she was more on the medicinal side of things with her attempt to get into veterinary studies. It was going about as well as one would expect from someone who failed Spanish in high-school. That is to say she read each word over exactly once, and that's because with each new letter she had to pause and wonder 'how the fuck is this even pronounced?' I suppose it was her gift with animals that hadn't caused her to flunk out yet; after all, it had to take some serious skill to get an animal to willingly lay down to get themselves fixed. Not that Maya necessarily approved of it, but work was work and grades were grades. She's just have to hope those animals would forgive her.

He sighed as he slowly opened the door using his shoulder, the crack only opening little by little as he tried to push himself inside with the weight of all his books carrying him down. It was perhaps for this reason that his attempts to tip-toe inside went completely unheard. What weren't unheard were the sounds of two voices in the living room: Chie's and Yukikos. Justin didn't think much of it at first, but as he started to listen, it slowly became clear to him that Chie had been bawling her eyes out over something, and Yukiko… well Yukiko sounded very concerned. What had been an attempt to go up to his room and study had quickly become him spying on a conversation between his girlfriend and her best friend, trying to make heads or tails of anything going on. He was careful as he stepped in, a curious ear to the wind as he slowly closed the door behind him, trying to make nary a sound. After all, he didn't want to interrupt, nor did he want to give away his presence. Chie had been avoiding him like the plague recently, and if there was even a chance this could have to do with him, he wanted to know what was going on and he wanted to know this very instant. Perhaps it wasn't the most eloquent or respectable way to derive information from someone, but it wasn't like she was giving him much choice here.

"I don't know what to do Yukiko…" Chie sniffed, voice cracking ever so slightly under the pressure of her troubles. Oh did it pain Justin to hear that, and had he not been undercover, he might have just ran over and tried to give her a hug. But he remained undetected for now, and he intended to keep it that way against his better judgement. After all, how would Chie react if she turned around and saw him there, staring, watching, listening to whatever dirty truths she confided to Yukiko in what she had thought to be a private outlet of her woes. "I'm scared." Yukiko bet her bottom lip for a moment, a bewildered expression on her face. Truly she had never dealt with a situation like this before, nor had she expected to be some source of guidance for Chie of all people on the matter. Usually it was Chie who showed her the way, not the other way around. There was just this awkward sensation filling the air as Chie begged and pleaded with her for advice, and she hadn't the slightest idea what she could say. And the sad part was, Yukiko was probably the only person who she could ask; god knows she couldn't turn to Justin, that was part of the problem in the first place. She'd have to eventually, but she just wasn't ready for that yet.

"Are you… Sure that's accurate?" Yukiko questioned. Really, she was putting all her hopes into the fact that Chie had made some mistake somewhere along the line and all this doom and gloom was a direct result of her reading into something that wasn't even true. Granted, it would still be pretty awkward, but they'd still have a solution to their problem and they could laugh about it to some extent. And everyone could go on with their lives. Hell, Chie might have learned a thing or two. Alas, she wouldn't have been freaking out if she wasn't one hundred percent sure this was happening; she'd still be in denial.

"I'm positive."

"Have you… said anything to him?"

"Said anything to him!? This is his fault!" Chie suddenly snapped, tears still in her eyes, but her teeth clamped tightly together in anger. Justin couldn't help but cringe. He didn't know what he did, but he could tell from Chie's extravagant reaction it wasn't good in any way shape or form. It was hard enough watching here like this without being the one to blame for… whatever it was he was to blame for. He sighed, his heart strings playing a sorrowful melody deep within his chest cavity. Unfortunately, while he had opened the door silently enough, Justin wasn't exactly a quiet sigher, if there ever was such a thing. Chie jumped ever so slightly, freezing in fear before turning around to see Justin, a confused and quite frankily hurt expression on his face. He didn't know what had happened, but he didn't want to be responsible. She quickly wiped the tears from her eyes, trying to hide any sign of her sorrow as she stared Justin down across the room, brow tightening up into a glare. "…How long have you been standing there?"

"…I… I just got here." He responded solemnly, his frown only seeming to grow larger with the death glare he was now receiving. Oh, it wasn't bad enough she was pissed off at him for something he allegedly did, but he wasn't even allowed to know what he did in the first place? It wasn't fair. He wasn't the one being the bad guy here… At least… he didn't think so. "Chie… What's going on?" She growled under her breath before quickly jumping up from the couch and rushing her way to the door, pushing Justin aside as run out the dormitory, not so much as answering the question before fleeing in tears. Justin tried to stop her, but alas, she was long gone before he could even react, his arm extended towards a door that had long since shut. He felt his heart constrict for a moment, pain shooting through his body before slowly turning towards Yukiko, who thankfully enough was being much more level-headed about this. Her eyes were downcast, and she wasn't smiling, which was quite unusual for Yukiko. She didn't say a word to Justin until he broke the ice. "Yukiko… what's happening?"

"I… Don't think I should say." She sighed. It wasn't that Justin didn't deserve to know of course, but it wasn't really her place to tell him; it was a little too private for her to thrust herself into the middle of things. Besides, Chie seemed pretty vocally against telling him anything, maybe it wouldn't be such a good idea in the first place.

"Please Yukiko; she's been mad at me for weeks and I don't know why…" He pleaded, making his way over to the couch, though refusing to sit. He was too up at arms right now to let his guard down for even a moment. He wanted to know what was going on, and then he'd probably high-tail it out of here to fix it. She shook her head. As much as she'd love to tell Justin since this was kind of super important for him, it wasn't her place to do so; she strongly stood by that. She rubbed at the back of her head a bit as she contemplated the matter. Funny, here she was thinking that she was going to be giving Chie advice, and now she was some kind of mediator between her and Justin. That wasn't exactly her forte though, and now she was left in the awkward position of not knowing what to do.

"It's something she has to tell you herself." Yukiko eventually sighed. There was no other way she could really put it without outright telling him, which of course wasn't really her duty or privilege. He sighed with annoyance before hanging his head with shame. Somehow he doubted that was going to happen. She practically stormed out of the room at the mere sight of him; how could he expect her to tell him what was wrong?

"How bad is it? Can you at least tell me that?" Justin questioned. He'd like to at least know what he was getting into if she wasn't going to tell him what he had done wrong. She paused for a moment. It was actually a lot harder question to answer than you would think, simply because it was all a matter of persepective. In some regards it could be considered a very good thing, but right now, the shock of it all was simply terrifying. And we can all agree that was decidedly not good.

"I… think that depends on how you look at it."

"Well how's she looking at it?"

"Not well."


	282. Chapter 281: May 21, 2014

CHAPTER 281

May 21, 2014

* * *

"No, not even shitting you. She just kind of ran away. I know it's somehow my fault though."

Justin and Maya were sitting in the kitchen, where Maya was trying to eat lunch without Justin loading off all of his problems upon her. Alas, seemed that wasn't really an option, now was it? She sighed ever so slightly as Justin droned on and on about his apparent relationship issues. To be quite honest, she was probably the last person on the planet that wanted to hear about him and Chie. It was like rubbing a dog's nose in shit after they took a huge dump on the floor, like Justin just wanted to keep reminding her of a time long since forgotten. Furthermore, she wasn't sure what to tell Justin. So what, Chie was mad at him; it was probably just that time of the month again or something. She wasn't a mind reader, she couldn't tell Justin what was going through Chie's head or how to work around it. All she could do was nod her head and pretend she could understand how he felt. To some extent she did of course, what with Yosuke being kind of an asshole lately, but she didn't know what Justin did specifically, nor what about that had enraged Chie. So she didn't know what to tell Justin. And that was about the bottom line.

"_I don't know what you want me to tell you Justin. If she's not gonna tell you what you did wrong then you have no reason to feel sorry." _Maya shrugged, taking a bite of noodles as she finished off her little tid bit of, quite frankly, awful advice. Granted, it must be hard to feel sorry for something you didn't even know you did, but it was easy to feel sorry for the effects it caused. Besides, Justin could tell this situation wouldn't resolve itself unless there was some kind of apology. He just didn't know what to apologize for, nor how to get Chie to stop avoiding him so he could apologize in the first place. He ran his fingers down his face, his finger tips caressing his eye lids and lips and every facial feature in between. Yes, it was hard to take responsibility if you didn't know what you were supposed to be responsible for in the first place, but it was 100% necessary that he needed to, otherwise things would just stay the same.

"It's not that easy Maya… How would you feel if everytime you tried to talk to Yosuke he just ran off?" Maya paused for a moment, half a noodle hanging from her mouth as the comment struck her ears and as her brain tried to process the scenario. True enough, she wouldn't take too kindly to it; but Yosuke wasn't one to be that petty, so she couldn't say she truly understood from personal experience. Sure he could be an ass, and sure he tended to ignore her when she mentioned something he really wanted nothing to do with, but he wasn't petty, and he didn't just run away because he was holding a grudge. She dropped her eating utencils on the bowl in a semi-aggressive, kind of fed-up way; like she was sick and tired of all of Justin's bitching and moaning. Especially when he brought Maya into it. She didn't WANT to be a part of it; she had her own problems and Justin wasn't helping by adding all these 'what ifs' to an already delicate situation.

"_You know what Justin? I-" _She leaned forward aggressively; ready to lay the smack down upon Justin, though as soon as she had began it seemed she had been put in her place, frozen in fear. Her eyes widened a bit, and soon she found herself shrinking back ever so slightly into her chair. She knew when shit was about to hit the fan after all, and she knew when she was right in the shit's trajectory. Justin was a little confused at first as to why she had suddenly stopped speaking, but then he realized Maya had been looking past his shoulder at something, or someone else. He was careful to turn around, curiosity getting the better at him. Truly, it should have been immediately obvious who it was watching over his shoulder._ "…Shit."_

"We need to talk…" Chie crossed her arms, a concerned expression on her face. Justin could only respond by looking around the room with his arm raised in that 'what the fuck do you think I've been trying to do' fashion. Damn straight they needed to talk; that's what Justin had been trying to do for a week now and she had been blowing him off.

"Yeah. Let's." He sighed as he got up out of his chair, pushing his seat in as he got off his seat; being as careful as possible. Chie had already left for her room, fingers gently massaging her sore head by the time he turned around to follow her. He caught up eventually though, even if he was a tad bit disoriented at first trying to decide which way she had gone. And as for Maya, she had just pushed her bowl of noodles away and lit up a cigarette, taking a good puff of tobacco before letting her forehead rest against the table in front of her, head seeming to buzz with annoyance and fatigue with all of this.

"_These fucking people…"_

* * *

"Alright here we are; now you mind telling me what the fuck is going on here?"

The two had found their way to Chie and Erin's room, where Chie was quick to lock the doors behind them lest Erin come back and decide to snoop around as she so often did. After, this wasn't something she wanted anyone to know about; Yukiko was probably the only one she trusted with this, and even then it was debatable whether she even wanted her closest friend to know. It wasn't exactly the most flattering secret to keep from the world. She bit her lip as she carefully checked the door, making sure that it was closed shut before turning to face Justin. Her cautious, but frightened expression almost immediately gave way to anger as she reached over and grabbed a pillow off from Erin's bed and tossed it at Justin. He wasn't really quick to block the pillow, but… you know, it was a pillow, so it didn't exactly do much damage. "Hey, what the hell!?"

"This is YOUR fault!" She cried, tears starting to well up in her eyes again. Yukiko had told her they needed to have a nice calm discussion about this, but the moment she laid eyes on Justin with his arms crossed with impatience, like somehow she was the bad guy here, she couldn't help but feel anger boiling in her blood.

"Yeah I get that, except I don't know WHAT THE FUCK I DID!" Justin countered with irritation. If she was going to start throwing stuff at him now, he wasn't going to stand for that. He didn't even know what it was he did and she was fucking assaulting him? That he wasn't going to stand for. He'd do anything for her, and it was bad enough to think he hurt her in some way, even if he didn't know how, but now she was treating him like some kind of monster, some kind of asshole. He couldn't help her if she didn't let him know what the fuck it was she wanted, and throwing stuff at him wasn't helping ANYONE. Her bottom lip quivered for as second, teeth clamped tightly together, before she eventually let her emotions consume her once more, tears starting to flow from her eyes. It was enough to make Justin's heart melt, even if he had been incredibly pissed off a moment earlier. "I… I'm sorry, I didn't mean… I-I just want to know what's happening…" She sniffled a bit, running her index finger across her eye lashes as she tried to catch the tears that dripped from her eyes, slowly bending her knees to take a seat on Erin's bed, which was significantly closer than her own, and alas, her legs had slowly started to give out under the emotional duress. Justin was quick to take a seat beside her, just enough room between them that Justin wouldn't feel as though he was overstepping his boundries, but close enough that he could be as to some comfort to her.

"I…" She began to speak, though she was struggling to find the right words. She seemed to choke over her own thoughts. It was… hard to talk about this, especially when the mere thought frightened her to no end. "I uh… Well, I uh… missed my period…" Justin immediately responded by giving Chie this horrified expression. He really didn't want to hear about her period, at all. "It was running really late, and I got worried, so…"

"I don't get it." Justin replied in turn. And that in turn caused Chie to look at Justin like HE was insane. Surely she didn't need to spell EVERYTHING out to Justin. She glared at him slightly, annoyed with his ignorance. I mean, this wasn't exactly rocket science, surely he should have known the symptoms.

"Are you serious!?"

"Yes I am. What does your period have to do with me, and why do I have to hear about it." He crossed his arms with disgusted annoyance. Truly, somethings, even between lovers, were not exactly things that needed to be shared. Your menstrual cycle was at the top of that list, up there with every single thing you did in a bathroom and what lurks in your computer's history. Alas, there were exceptions to all of this rules, especially in the case of an emergency, which this more than classified as.

"For christ's sake Justin! Do you not know what happens when you stop getting your period? Do you not remember ANYTHING!?" She countered with great annoyance. Of course, Justin couldn't particularly say he knew what happened when he stopped menstruating, considering he didn't have a vagina, but that was just him trying to take everything she said seriously. Still, despite the fact that his mind was nit-picking through every word she said, he couldn't help but feel extremely uneasy in his stomach. He could tell something wasn't quite right here, and while it should have been obvious what, he just couldn't put his finger on it. He always was oblivious.

"Chie… what exactly are you trying to say?" He questioned with great concern. Her eyes were downcast and a shiver ran through her spine as Justin questioned what should have been obvious. I guess what she was most afraid of was outright saying it. She jumped up from the bed as she rummaged around the room looking for something; perhaps believing that showing Justin would be easier than explaining it to him. She eventually found it locked up somewhere in her desk. She passed it one fearful look before slowly turning about to show it to Justin. And when she did, his skin turned pale and his sin hot with sweat, and soon the shock of the matter was too much for him to regain consciousness. For you see, what she held in her hand was a pregnancy test…

And it read positive.


	283. Chapter 282: May 22, 2014

CHAPTER 282

May 22, 2014

* * *

"Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, CRAP, crap crap-"

Justin's wrapped his shaky hands along his coffee mug, eyes wide with dark rings beneath them from the restless sleep he had. How could he possibly sleep after Chie had laid THIS on him? He felt like his heart had sunk deep within his chest and caught on fire, like his stomach had just been bashed in with a steel hammer and his guts left to just spill all over the floor, where they were immediately trampled by a parade. And that was just how he felt right now. When Chie had told him the day prior, he had passed out, the shock was too great. Now he was conscious again, and after tossing and turning all night long he had found himself with nothing but fire in his chest, burning a hole through his spirits. He felt like he had woken up to a second dream, like some double layer of nightmares on top of each other. Like he had woken up in a Christopher Nolan movie. But alas, this was real life, and he understood that all too well; and that was what made him flip out. Chie was sitting across from him, watching his hands jitter and his pupils retract as he tried to make sense of everything that was going on. She couldn't blame him, she didn't quite believe it herself, and had it not been for all the signs pointing to this being true, she very well might have believed it was a false test. But it wasn't, and now… now she didn't know what to do.

"What do we do now…?" She questioned, a fearfully and concerned expression across her face as she stared across the table at Justin's vacant stare. He took a quick chug of the coffee in his cup before slamming the jug down and cupping his face into the palm of his hands, slightly rubbing at his forehead with the free tips of his fingers. What he did now was just kill himself and not deal with any of this bullshit. What he did now was just go upstairs, find his gun, shove it in his mouth, and pull the trigger. At least, that's what he would do if every muscle in his body wasn't as stiff as a stone wall. No, sir, while he's like to take the easy way out and just bludgeon his own head against a wall until every cell in his brain had just died, it wasn't going to happen. It took a moment before he uncapped his face and leaned his head against his hand, elbow rested against the table and the fingers on his free hand tapping a frantic rhythm on the table. Yes, what did they do now… That was the real question. Well he could only assume, she'd have the kid, her parents would immediately disown Justin on grounds of knocking up their daughter, they'd both have to drop out of school and take up minimum wage jobs to try and make ends meet and support their kid, and they'd just generally be miserable for the rest of their most likely short days. So it tended to go with an unexpected, out of wedlock pregnancy. Still, Justin couldn't help but wonder just HOW long ago this happened… Probably a little less than a month. Last time they had done it was during that thunder storm a while back… A month… wasn't TOO long, he supposed. They could hide it and pretend it was intentional if they were really quick about it. Granted, it would be a really hastily planned wedding, but you do what you've got to do. Alas, Justin didn't have time to worry about the ring in his pocket when he apparently had the fruit of his loin to worry about.

"Depends if we have a hammer…"

"Justin!"

"Sorry, sorry…" He sighed, rubbing at his forehead again. "I'm not really thinking straight today…" He apologized. Granted, he never said what the hammer was for, but I don't think it really needed to be explained. Even if they were to go down that route, which Chie absolutely would not under any circumstances, they weren't going to do it with a fucking hammer. Justin paused for a moment, eyes scanning around the room, perhaps searching for some kind of divine inspiration, perhaps just making sure they were in private. Everyone had classes right now, including Justin and Chie, but they pretended to be sick given the circumstances. He sighed before taking another sip of his coffee, trying to control his nervous shaking, though failing miserably because… well you know, caffeine doesn't exactly help with that. "Christ, I'm not ready to be a father…"

"I'm not ready to be a mother!" Chie countered. He could bitch and moan all he wanted, but he wasn't going to be the one to carry around a fetus in his stomach for nine months and then push a baby out of his genitals; he didn't get the right to complain when Chie had it so much worse. Truth be told, that's not what Justin meant. He wanted to have kids some day, truly he did, but… After everything his father had done to him, he wanted to make sure he was everything his father wasn't; and sure, he could offer his kid all the love and support he could, but alas, his kid needed a dad, not a friend. And Justin didn't have the mental or emotional stability to be that. Furthermore, there was kind of a demon in his head that came out when he got pissed off, and I think we can all agree there is nothing more infuriating than a baby crying for twelve hours straight at five in the morning.

"Perfect, we're both totally inept at being parents. What better people to have a kid…" He remarked with sarcasm, shaking his head a bit with annoyance. Of all the people, it had to be him. This is what he got for never wearing a condom. But I mean, what'd you want; he never planned to get laid, so he never kept them around. He bit his bottom lip a bit. Seemed she wanted to keep it… Justin couldn't say he'd be able to bring himself to get his own flesh and blood aborted, even if it wasn't exactly opportune either… So the end result would be the same, regardless of what they did in between. He supposed it was all a matter of preparation then; making sure they could wrap their lives around this. Thing was, Justin wasn't sure he could, and he wasn't sure Chie could either. She had aspirations and dreams; Justin, less so… He supposed Chie could keep going to school and he could take care of the kid, but… He didn't know anything about babies. Hell, he hated kids; it annoyed him that there were people with a lower IQ than him, even if that was due in part to age and being in an educational development phase. "I don't know what you want me to tell you Chie. You're gonna have the kid regardless of what I say; you already know what you're going to do."

"Yeah, well what about you?" Justin paused for a moment, letting the question sink in. That was the real question, wasn't it? Chie was already willing to make the sacrifices she needed to, to make this thing work, even if she really didn't want to. Justin wasn't prepared and quite frankily seemed to be fighting preparation for this as much as possible. He would love to just dump this all off on Chie and call it a day, but he knew he couldn't. He had to have an equal role in this child's upbringing and he knew it; he just refused to accept that he had the power or the potential to be that father figure. He tapped his fingers again, resting his head against the palm of his hand. Chie was needless to say a little uneasy with his indecisiveness on such a serious topic, and one which she would have hoped he would have supported without much thought. I mean this was his kid they were talking about after all. Didn't he learn what it was like not to have a father figure from his own life? Was he really willing to impart that on his own flesh and blood? And what of her? Last Chie had heard he loved her… Was that done with now that loving her was a lot less convienant?

"You drop a bombshell on my head like this, and the very next question you want answered is whether I'm gonna take care of the kid? A bit crass, don't ya think?" Justin glared at her slightly. He would have thought these questions would have had to do with having the kid, in which case Justin's role was long since fulfilled unless Chie needed to subjugate him to her wild cravings. The matter of taking care of the child was a much more serious topic and one he wasn't sure he was ready to talk about… But alas, he had to eventually, and it was an important question, so he was gonna have to answer. "I wouldn't just abandon you and my son, Chie. It'll be… hard… but I'll be there." She sighed with slight relief, pausing for a moment as she took it all in. She wasn't sure why she believed he'd say anything otherwise, but I guess there was that doubt that Justin wasn't who he seemed to be when under pressure. Thought there was something that caught her a little bit off guard in his remark.

"Son? How do you know it'll be a boy?" She questioned. She didn't know herself; it was much too early for that after all, but she was willing to except that it could be a girl as well; hell, she was actually hoping for a daughter. Not that she'd be disappointed with a boy, but she did have preferences for what came out of her womb you know. Justin took a quick sip of his coffee before quickly putting it down, raising his finger as if to catch her interest. Now that he could answer.

"My father's side of the family has never had a daughter in their entire heritage. I don't know if it's a curse or what, but it's all men. I'm assuming the same'll happen here." Chie shrank back slightly with defeat. Well that was heartbreaking news. I mean granted, that could just be some really shitty luck, but it did mean the odds were against her in her quest to have a girl. She sighed, leaning forward in her chair to lean on the table in front of her.

"Well what if it is a girl?"

"Kat."

"What?"

"Her name. If it's a girl, her name can be Kat." He replied in turn, taking another sip of his coffee. Chie seemed a little surprised to be honest. That wasn't what she was asking in the first place, but furthermore, it seemed as though he had already had a name picked out in his head. Wasn't a little early to be talking about this stuff? Still, it wasn't a bad name; she could think of better, she could think of worse… She could live with Kat. Her curiosity was spiked though. Justin seemed to already have a name picked out for a girl…

"And if it's a boy?"

"Justin Jr." He rolled his eyes slightly with sarcasm. Look, just because he had in his mind considered a couple of names doesn't mean he had definitively decided on one. It was kind of something that Chie had an equal say in anyway, and he didn't know if she wanted her kid to have a Japanese name or an American one. I guess if Justin was lucky, or unlucky depending on your perspective, she'd have twins, and one could have an American name and the other a Japanese name. "I think the real question is what if it's both?"

"Justin! Don't talk like that!"

"What? Got something against transvestites?"

"No, but that doesn't mean we should be hoping our kid is one!" She countered. She knew Justin was just being a smartass, but she really was not in the mood for these games; this was a serious matter that would forever change both of their lives. The least he could do was take it seriously. He shrugged a bit.

"Don't worry. Like I said: all men."

"That remains to be seen."


	284. Chapter 283: May 23, 2014

CHAPTER 283

May 23, 2014

* * *

"_Hey Justin?"_

"Yeah?"

"_Have I ever told you how much I hate you?"_

Maya and Justin were sitting at the kitchen table, foreheads pressed against its surface in misery; though in Maya's case, Justin could only assume it had to do with her hangover. She had gotten pretty drunk last night; hell, so did Justin. Even Chie did, and she normally didn't drink, and for good reason. I guess there was some things that happened in your life that were so awful you'd do anything to numb the influence. Still, as drunk as they had been and as hungover as they were now, Justin couldn't think of anything that could cause Maya to outright despise Justin. It wasn't like he had given her the strong shit or anything like that; oh ho no, that was all for him that night. Hell, even with his head splitting down the middle, he still wouldn't mind getting dead fucking drunk right now. Maybe if he just drank enough he could get alcohol poisoning and kill himself off before life did for him. He had been smoking though, even though he had significantly cut back on his nicotine intake. If there was any time to get back into smoking, it was unexpected pregnancy. I mean, unless you were the mother in that scenario, in which case smoking was probably a really bad idea. But last Justin checked he wasn't the mother, so he was going to smoke his motherfucking brains out. He raised his head from the table just enough to lay eyes on Maya's face planted into the surface in front of her, flicking his wrist slightly to tap the ashes off the tip of his cigarette.

"What'd I fuck up this time?" He questioned. He had enough on his plate without Maya bitching and moaning about him, as she seemed so inclined to do over the recent days that had passed. She seemed pretty angry about something, though what Justin couldn't even fathom. She slowly raised her eyes from the desk, eyes still bloodshot from the heavy drinking from the night prior.

"_Why do you have to go and put ideas in my head when I'm drunk?"_ Justin stared at her blankly for a moment. True enough, giving her any idea while she was inebriated was probably an awful idea, but to be honest he couldn't recall what it was he told her, if he told her anything at all. As far as he knew, she was just so drunk she imagined Justin giving her bad advice, which for the record, Justin very much appreciated how Maya subconsciously saw Justin as some godfather of awful life choices and advices. And by that, I mean he didn't appreciate it at all. It was true, but that didn't mean he liked it. Her glare tightened up a bit as it slowly dawned upon her Justin hadn't the slightest idea what she was talking about. _"You don't remember anything last night do you?"_

"I have a hangover and I still want to get drunk. Does that answer your question?" Justin remarked snidely in turn, playing around with the cigarette in the tips of his fingers, as if to examine it from every angle. Maya just sighed in turn before resting her head against her forearms on the table once again. Yeah, that answered her question fairly well actually. Still, Justin was curious since while he didn't remember anything last night, Maya most certainly did, and from the sounds of it, she wasn't too pleased with Justin. "Feel free to enlighten me."

"_You give the worst relationship advice you know that?"_ She rubbed at her eyes a bit, as if to try and wake herself up from some kind of nightmare. Or perhaps just to see if she was actually awake and what she feared was real had actually happened. Granted, it was nowhere near as bad as Justin's predicament, and in that regard he really didn't want to hear her complaining, but for her, it might as well have been the world.

"Yeah, actually, I kinda do." Justin rolled his eyes a bit before taking a drag of his cigarette. He didn't need Maya to tell him how much of a fuck up he was when it came to one's love life. He was more than aware of that fact without others reminding him. "So what am I expecting to hear happened? You got really drunk, pissed on your boyfriend, then broke up?" He questioned. That was generally how these drunk stories tended to go, especially when a drunk person was getting advice from an even drunker person. No one questioned anything, and there was definitely something lost in translation.

"_No, nothing that bad."_

"You both decided that there's no better time than college to go streaking."

"_No."_

"In a strange twist of faith you proposed to him."

"_No…"_

"You've discovered that you secretly had a raging fetish for handcuffs."

"_If he had them I wouldn't be surprised."_ She sighed, reaching out to take another sip of the cup of coffee she had poured earlier. It was cold from her having left it there on the table while she wallowed around in her feelings of shame and disgust. Justin on the other hand, was in the middle of inhaling some smoke from his cigarette when he started to choke a bit on the puffs of nicotine in his lungs. Talk about the shittiest timing in the world for this to happen. To be fair, he should have noticed from how much of a mess she looked that something along those lines had happened. Her hair was all messed up and tangled in knots, which usually never happened since she had tended to wear it up lately; and of course, her hands were a little jittery.

"Wait, hold on, wait one fucking second." Justin spoke up, a sense of urgent fear washing over him in tides. Look, when he said that the next step in their relationship was to do the nasty, it was long before Chie had popped this shit on him. Now the mere thought of sex sent a shiver down his spine knowing all too well what could happen when you weren't careful. And given that Maya was drunk as fuck, he somehow doubted she was being careful. Hell, technically she never consented in the first place, she was that fucking drunk. Not to say we were heading up the rape alley or anything along those lines, but Maya still probably wouldn't have gone through with it if she was a little more sober. "Oh Christ, what the hell do you think you're doing Maya?"

"_Hey what are you getting angry at me for; you were the one that's been riding me to get in bed with him for weeks no- ugh I just realized the poor choice in words…"_ Maya cut herself off, sticking her tongue out a bit, as if to get a sour taste out of her mouth. She just… never wanted to hear anything about sex ever again. Justin folded his arms a bit. Yeah, it was true he did; but given the circumstances, it was understandable that he was gonna go back on his word. Not that Maya knew what had been going on between him and Chie as of lately, only that he seemed miserable beyond words.

"Yeah, well… I was wrong." Justin sighed a bit. Not really any other way he could put it without giving away the pregnancy, which Chie just wasn't ready to tell anyone about, nor Justin really. I mean, it would be one thing if it had been intentional, but it wasn't, so it wasn't like coming out and saying 'hey we've got a bundle of joy on the way,' it was more like coming out and saying 'hey, we got a mistake on the way!' For the record, Justin was gonna have to make a mental note to stop calling his kid a mistake; that really wasn't gonna do wonders for the boy. He sighed and rubbed at his forehead a bit. "Please tell me he at least used a condom."

"_He pulled out."_ Maya blushed slightly. The specifics about what happened last night were mostly lost upon her, but there were some things she remembered quite vividly; and those things she rather not talk about. They were kind of intimate after all, even in a really drunken one night stand kind of way. But then, you can bet Yosuke was probably bragging about it to all his friends knowing him, so I guess she had just as much right to bitch and moan about it to hers… It wasn't quite the same. Hell she actually felt worse talking about it than she did just looping what she could remember from last night in her head over and over again. _"I feel dirty."_ She eventually muttered, allowing her head to fall back down to the table in front of her. Save it for marriage, she said; had to make him work for it… Amazing what alcohol can do to a person. Which reminded her she never wanted to drink again if this was the kind of shit she did when she was drunk. Justin sighed a bit with relief.

"Well… At least it's over with I guess." He muttered. Granted, he still wasn't entirely cool with all of this, but he did tell Maya to do it in the first place, so he wasn't in any position to complain. He just prayed to god Yosuke was super drunk too, otherwise this was gonna be a heavy handed story of exploitation that ended with Justin throwing Yosuke out a five story window. He tapped his fingers along the top of the table for a moment, soaking everything in and contemplating the matter… As awful as this is, he was a little curious since Maya had seemed so vocally against this before. "So… How was it?"

"_Justin, you are literally the last person on the planet I would tell that stuff. You'd probably go upstairs and jack off to my testimony."_ She countered snidely. Truth be told, he probably would if it were any other person, but given that this was his self-proclaimed sister, that would be… really… REALLY fucked up. Also Yosuke was involved, so that would ruin the entire image for Justin… I mean, whatever wasn't already ruined by thought of his sister getting laid in the first place.

"Maya, I tell people all the time you're my sister. Do you REALLY think I'm gonna jack off to anything involving you?"

"_Thanks for the vote of confidence." _She rolled her eyes. Justin always did know how to make her feel like the ugliest girl in the world with those snide ass remarks. Sometimes she wondered what she ever saw in the guy; but then, there were still times were she kind of heaved with a certain sense of longing when he turned the corners, so it was kind of a love-hate relationship going on here. _"I don't know, it was… Alright I guess… Really fucking sore though…" _She groaned before letting her head fall back down to the table in front of her.

"Yeah, that… tends to happen." Justin answered, trying not to think too deeply on the matter. You would have thought Yosuke would have went easier on her given it was her first time, but from the sounds of it he went all in. To be fair, Chie was a little sore the next day too, but that was more because Justin had no idea what he was doing than he was overstepping his boundries. He sighed a bit taking one more puff off his cigarette before getting up. He had to meet Chie to talk some things over, and it was about time he left. "Don't worry too much about it, you'll be fine." He smiled, ruffling her hair slightly. At least, he had at first. "Wait, when did you start using hair gel?"

"_That's not gel."_

He immediately jumped back in disgust. "Oh jesus! What the fuck were you two doing!?"

"_Look, I was drunk. I didn't expect the trajectory."_


	285. Chapter 284: May 24, 2014

CHAPTER 284

May 24, 2014

* * *

"Justin, you're drunk."

"I know."

"It's nine in the morning."

"I know."

Chie had carefully crept her way downstairs the morning to find none other than Justin, sitting on the couch, bottle of booze in his hands, eyes listlessly staring at the television in front of him; looking for something to preoccupy his mind, even in his drunken state of mind. As it would turn out the booze didn't help as much as Justin had expected it to. It took some real grief to shine through even when one was intoxicated, especially as intoxicated as Justin. People drunk to forget, right? So why couldn't he? He took another chug of the bottle in his hand, squeezing it tight, though loose enough that it kept slipping and he had to struggle to keep a hold of it. He hadn't spilled a drop yet though, so that was a plus. Chie just shook her head and sighed before somewhat reluctantly squeezing into the seat beside him. His breath smelled awful, as one would expect from a drunk, and quite frankly she wouldn't want to sit anywhere near Justin if she wasn't all too aware why he was trying to drown away his sorrows in the first place.

"Is it that bad?" She questioned sadly after a moment. She wasn't too happy about it either, but at least she wasn't waking up and immediately getting piss drink in an attempt to escape from reality. It was like Justin couldn't cope with the idea of having a kid. Granted, it wasn't exactly a miracle that was going on here when neither had planned for this to happen, but was it so bad that he was trying to kill himself with alcohol poisoning. I mean, he still had her, right? They could get through this together. They could be a family, albeit a slightly unofficial one. He took another swig at the bottle, though he was disappointed to find the bottle had run dry. He paused for a moment, taking a quick glance inside the bottle, just to see if he was so drunk he couldn't even taste the booze anymore. Much to his disappointment and credibility towards he sanity, there was in fact nothing there. He sighed before extending his arm and dropping the bottle, allowing it to make a loud clank as it hit the floor. It didn't break though; guess it wasn't a big enough fall. Either that or that was one durable bottle.

"Let's see, I was getting along just fine in life, doing good in class, had big plans, then suddenly my girlfriend comes out of nowhere to tell me she's pregnant from some hook up session I don't even remember. Now, I don't know a damn thing about kids, I have to find out a way to pay for said kid, figure out a way to break the news to her parents, pretty much abandon everything I know just for some kid I didn't want. No, it's just fan-fucking-tastic." He rambled, stammering every now and then as he tripped over his drunken speech. Chie shrunk back slightly, a twinge of pain shooting through her heart as Justin pretty much said 'fuck you, I don't want the damn kid' in as direct a way as one could without outright saying it. Oh sure, he said he'd be there to take care of the kid, and Justin was a man of his word, but that wasn't the point. The point was despite what he claimed he would do, in the end he didn't want to do it. He didn't want a kid with Chie, and from what she could tell, he didn't want her now that she was dropping all this shit on her. But then, that also could be just because he was drunk. That's what she was praying for anyway.

"What do you want from me Justin? You don't want the kid? Is that it?" She countered with slight annoyance and hurt in her voice. "Is that what you want? You want me to get rid of the kid? 'Cause I'll do it. I will go and kill your flesh and blood if that's what you want… Just don't expect this is going to continue between us if you do." Justin paused for a moment, the stern, aggravated expression on his face softening up slightly at her words. She was bluffing of course; she wasn't gonna kill the kid whether he said yes or not. Still, even if she wasn't bluffing, the way she spoke to him condescendingly, as if he were the lowest scum of the earth for even secretly wanting this deep down in the depths of his heart… it killed him. Because he knew, even as drunk as he was, that what he was pressuring her to do was horrid. He cared for Chie, and to some extent he did care for the fetus growing in her stomach. He just didn't know to do. He sighed, resting his head against the palms of his hands.

"No, of course not…" He rubbed at his eyes. For starters, it wasn't his place to say what she should or shouldn't do with the baby when it was going to be living inside of her for nine months… or… eight now from what he was hearing, but furthermore, Chie did remind him of one basic fact: this was his flesh and blood. He may not have planned it, but, in some capacity, he was proud of his unborn child the way a father should be. What he was not proud of was how the kid was conceived, out of wedlock and with an uncertain future. What he was not proud of, was all the hardships they would have to face as parents that Justin wasn't ready to endure. What he was not proud of was that he was incompetent, and that he had no idea how to raise a kid. What he was not proud of was he hadn't the slightest idea what to do with his life now that his life wasn't about him anymore. He was lost without a guide now, thrown into the river without a paddle. "I don't know what to do Chie. I don't know a damn thing about kids."

"That's fine, neither do I." Chie sighed a bit. It wasn't okay really; if they were gonna have a kid at least ONE of them should have some idea on what you're supposed to do with a baby. Chie's knowledge of babies pretty much ended at 'you're not supposed to shake the baby.' But then, she didn't really plan on shaking the baby in the first place, so that knowledge did her no good. Still, there were ways, and its not like either of them expected this. To be lost, to have no certainty of the future or how they were going to get through this… it was all normal. Unpleasant, but normal. If that was eating away at him inside, he needed to take a good look around him, because not a single person who lived in this house could say they would know what to do given the situation… Well… except technically Erin; she did a lot of babysitting for her younger sister back when she lived in France, so she kinda had to know. I guess talking a thousand miles an hour was enough to keep a baby happy; maybe Erin was onto something here. "They have classes for this stuff you know… We'll just have to sign up for one…" She spoke up. It was gonna be super awkward probably being one of the youngest couples at said class, and she was sure to get all sorts of dirty looks from people looking down upon her as if she were some kind of whore, and to some extent she just might believe that, but she was gonna have to suck up the crippling blow to her self-esteem and image for the good of her child. Self-sacrifice, something perhaps Justin needed to learn a lesson in.

"I guess…" Justin sighed, sinking into the couch slightly, allowing his head to fall and rest upon Chie's shoulder. Funny, you would think it would be the other way around; yet Justin was probably the weakest link here. Not the woman who was going to bear unbearable suffering for nine months, and then some in the years to come, but rather the man responsible; the one whose sole duty was to be a father figured for his kid. And yet he was the one who couldn't take the stress. He was the one hoping that if he just drank enough, everything would slip away into the abyss, all his troubles and woes fading away, never to be seen again. But they wouldn't fucking die. They wouldn't disappear in the liquor; they were burnt into his heart like an ironing brand had been stuck right through his chest, a permanent reminder of how much he had screwed the pooch. Chie sighed slightly, shaking her head a bit. You know, it felt less like the child she needed to look after for the rest of her life was the one in her gut but rather the one sitting right next to her. Like he needed constant guidance throughout his life, constant emotional support… After all, no one ever gave it to him when he was but a child himself.

"Everything'll work out, I'm sure of it." Chie tried to be as optimistic as possible; even if this all did kind of suck. Justin nodded for a moment before sighing and leaning forward to grab a second bottle of beer. As if he really needed to get any drunker than he already was. And if there was any proof of that it was that before popping the bottle open, his eyes slowly fell upon Chie's stomach area, where the child was no doubt slowly beginning to develop. In his drunken state of mind, he decided it was probably a good idea to poke her there. Chie was needless to say not very amused, if not rather confused at his drunken shenanigans. "Uh, Justin… what are you doing?"

"Trying to see if he'll start kicking." Chie stared at Justin as if he had suddenly grown a third eye. Surely he was just being sarcastic right? Given that he poked her again and honestly looked very interested in seeing some kind of reaction, somehow Chie wasn't buying this was all him just playing around.

"Justin, it's been a month."

"So?"

"Babies don't grow that fast." Justin paused for a moment, staring at her with this blank look on his face as if he were having trouble comprehending that. Somewhere in his mind, the alcohol seemed to have been going through his common sense files and was burning them one by one, like a wild fire, spreading and killing every brain cell in his head. Either that or he was just stupid. Knowing Justin it was entirely possible he was just incredibly oblivious to how a pregnancy worked.

"…Yeah, but they still have feet, right?"

"Right, give me that. You're drunk enough."


	286. Chapter 285: May 25, 2014

CHAPTER 285

May 25, 2014

* * *

"Friday night, time for the booze."

So it was Friday Night, which over the last month or so had traditionally become something like a guys night out, only they did it in the dormitory, and by extension that meant technically the girls could join in at anytime. And generally, they did, at least in the case of Maya and Erin. Chie not so much. So it was more of a 'let's all get wasted night' for most of them. Junpei had came crashing into the front door what a shit ton of booze already, most hidden in a backpack to avoid arousing suspicion, one already in his hand, as if he couldn't wait to get drunk. Justin had been on the couch, smoking his brains out as he watched with bloodshot eyes Maya struggle with whatever game it was she was playing. Mind you, she wasn't having trouble with the game itself, but rather, Justin had decided to blast music throughout the entire dormitory. You knew he was in a shitty mood too, because we're talking nothing but pure angst booming from his iPod speakers (which actually made it all the more aggravating since he could be wearing his headphones right now; but I guess he wanted the world to know just how miserable he was.) I guess in some regard, what was booming through the room right now was significantly less angsty than what had already passed, but you know, that bloodshot vacant stare that crossed his face as how slowly nodded his head through the smoke, that 'find me the nearest razorblade so I can slit my own wrist' expression on his face… He might as well have been listening to a superband formed of members of My Chemical Romance, Linkin Park and Rage against the Machine.

_Now that the smoke's gone_

_And the air is all clear_

_Those who were right there_

_Got a new kind of fear_

_You'd fight and you were right_

_But they were just too strong_

_They'd stick it in your face_

_And let you smell what they consider wrong_

_That's why I say man, nice shot_

"Please tell me you've got the heavy shit." Justin coughed a bit over the smoke filling his lungs. You'd think he'd smoked multiple packs in a row with the way he was hacking up a lung; but then, the place looked and smelt like he had, so it was hard to say with any degree of certainty whether or not that was true. It probably was all things considered. Still Junpei, didn't really hesitate before he shuffled through his bag in search of something in the mess of bottles he had scrambled up in there. Eventually, he managed to find a bottle of Jack Daniels. A bit harder to get around these parts, which is why Junpei had jumped at the opportunity to grab it when he saw it. He was planning to split it evenly amongst everyone interested, but it looks like Justin needed to call dibs on this, so he just cut his losses and tossed the bottle over to Justin. After all, anyone listening to Filter was going to need to be at least above the legal limit of intoxication. He did not hesitate for a second to pop the cap off and start chugging the liquor like it was going out of style. Maya even paused her game to watch with some disgust and weirded out fascination at how quickly he was swallowing that shit. Let's be honest, Maya got more piss drunk than anyone in this room: even she couldn't drink that fast.

"Given the melodramatic music and the attempt to chug an entire Jack Daniels at once, I'd say you've been having a shitty week." Yu remarked, rolling his eyes a bit.

"Ugh, tell me about it." Justin responded in kind, nothing but despair and disgust in his voice. A shitty week would be a super understatement, but you know what, he'd take it. What else he would take was the opportunity to scream in time with the music as the chorus kicked in. Maya responded in kind by throwing her controller across the room. No fuck it; she couldn't concentrate with the shit. Which is probably why she slapped Justin across the face after about a second or two to cut him off. Not a single person objected either; Yosuke actually clapped her. But then, he probably would have clapped even if Justin wasn't being insufferably obnoxious. "Ow."

"_I'd just like to make the formal statement that if I EVER act like that when I'm drunk, I am giving you express permission to slap me twice as hard." _Maya added, very clearly annoyed. She had discovered something about Justin over the last few days; he was like a whole 'nother person when he was drunk, and not in a good way. I mean, the good news was that he wasn't an aggressive drunk, but the bad news was he was a super annoying and super dumb drunk. And the best part was he was still SOBER right now. Still, it was probably not the first thing she should have given permission to do should she get unbelievably drunk, because in actuality, she was normally just as bad as Justin when she was drunk. Neither of them could handle their booze all too well, but they tried to pass it off like they did. _"TVs all yours Erin." _She gestured off to her. Erin had wanted to watch the news, but Maya was too busy being shit at video games for her to really get the chance to check. Of course, Erin still had no idea what Maya was saying, but given that she was pretty much on top of Justin trying to wrestle the iPod away from him so she could turn down his crappy ass music, she was going to guess she didn't need the television. She was quick to grab the remote and try to find the channel she was looking for, trying not to get too excited by what was turning into a cat fight on the couch beside hers.

"_In other news, the ongoing investigation into a recent break in at the Kirijo Group corporation has still turned up no evidence, but officers remain hopeful that the culprits can be apprehended." _Within a moment's notice, almost everyone in the room stiffened up, their attention grabbed by the booming of the television speakers across the room. And when I say everyone in the room, I mean everyone that wasn't Erin or Izzy… Even Junpei, strangely enough. Justin and Maya even stopped fighting for a moment, though they were stuck in a rather awkward position when they froze to look at the screen; one that Yosuke just couldn't help but scoff at. It was hard to tell whether he was enraged or absolutely disgusted. Granted, it was obviously an accident, but you know, that didn't make it look any better than what it was.

"H-Hey, turn that up." Junpei called out, wide eyes as he made his way closer to the screen, taking the opportunity to lean on the back of the couch as he stared intently at the screen. Maya… for lack of a better word, dismounted Justin as he crawled back slightly to get a better look at Junpei, staring with curiosity, as he tried to figure out why he seemed to care so much.

"Well you seem awfully eager."

"…The president of the Kirijo Group and I went to school together." He averted his eyes for only a brief moment, like a nervous twitch. Justin seemed to accept the answer anyway; but then, his senses were probably dulled by the booze already, so he kind missed out on that little tell that he wasn't saying something here. Still, his curiosity was satisfied on that angle, and now he just wanted to hear about this break in they were advertising in the news.

"_Official reports state that only one item was stolen the night of the break in, and there was no sign of forced entry. Police are currently speculating that this was an inside job. All that remains certain is the Kirijo Group are claiming that the item was of great value, and they are offering large sums of money for any information that could lead to the apprehension of the subject. For now, officers of the law are continuing to investigate the crime to turn up any evidence the culprit may have left behind. Hopefully we'll see more information on this topic arise as the investigation continues." _Justin scratched at his chin a bit. It was a big company from what he understood, so he could only imagine what kind of technology could have been stolen from the labs. I mean, for fuck's sake, this was the corporation that had developed perfectly human androids and didn't tell the world. If that was something they didn't think was worth showing the world, Justin could only IMAGINE what they thought was worthy to reveal to the populace. Maybe he could ask Aigis at some point. Justin and Aigis occasionally exchanged an e-mail or two from time to time, though most of them came from Aigis's apparently unsatisfied interest in getting a blood sample from Maya. Given this was the girl afraid of hospitals, I don't think she would be all that okay with some robot taking her blood for whatever strange experiments she was doing behind doors. You know it was funny, Aigis had some actually pretty horrendous spelling for a robot. She claimed she was doing it on purpose since on average, one in every fifty words a human types contains some type of typo, but Justin somehow doubted it.

"Wonder what it was…" Yu mused to himself, eyes examining the footage as best he could. They weren't letting cameras inside the crime scene for obvious reasons; after all, they suspected this crime was committed by someone who could easily gain access inside, so clearly they didn't need anything being shown off that the culprit could use to their advantage. That said, from the footage of the building, it was true that there appeared to be no force entry, nothing he could see anyway. It was completely, one hundred percent impossible to tell anything from the footage being used in this report. And that pissed him off to some degree. Yu, and a lot of the other Investigation Team, were still super suspicious of the Shadow Operatives, and when stuff happened behind closed doors, for what was essentially a black ops organization, well… it didn't make him feel too comfortable.

"Ah, I'll send an email to Aigis later or something. Don't give it too much thought." Justin flicked his wrists to dismiss Yu. A couple of funny looks; especially from Junpei, though he kept his mouth shut on grounds that he didn't want anyone to know he knew Aigis either. All he knew was there was something seriously fucked going on with the people around him; he just didn't know what yet. As for the others, some were surprised Justin still kept in touch with Aigis, let alone through e-mail of all things; as if they were facebook friends or something. Alas, a lot of them had some contact with the members of the Shadow Operatives, so it was hard to really fault him. "For the moment being though, down the hatch." Justin waved his bottle in the air before sticking the neck into his mouth and attempting to chug the rest down.

This was immediately cut off by Maya elbowing him right in the gut as payback for annoying the shit out of her for the last hour or so. It ended with Justin hurling into the bottle he was drinking out of. The results were exactly as you would expect. Also expected, the chain reaction it caused. Needless to say, Izzy was pretty pissed off that he had to bust out the old rag and bucket of water.

* * *

**MUSIC**

Hey Man, Nice Shot - Filter


	287. Chapter 286: May 26, 2014

CHAPTER 286

May 26, 2014

* * *

"Huh… Still no response. Aigis usually gets back quickly to me on this stuff."

Justin sat on the couch, rubbing his drowsy eyes in the early morning as he continuously refreshed his inbox in hopes of finding an email from Aigis. Now, granted, if this was a really big thing at the company, Justin was in no position to really be demanding information on the topic, but he figured being a part of their little organization and all, he at the very least deserved to know everyone was alright after a break in. Besides, even if Aigis didn't tell him specifically what was going on, she could at the very least say that she didn't have the privilege to say. As it stood, it was as though she were maintaining radio silence or something along those lines. It wasn't like her to not even send an email back to confirm she had gotten an email in the first place. Justin got a really bad feeling in his gut that something wasn't quite right.

"I wouldn't worry about it; she's probably just busy with the investigation." Chie tried to reassure him. After all, she probably had so many questions to answer, she didn't even have time to check her email… Hell, Chie didn't even know Aigis DID have an email. She wasn't really sure why in retrospect. I guess part of her just had to question why a robot spent their time with an email account, but then, she didn't really consider the practical business uses of possessing an account. I think she was more surprised Justin knew what her email was, and even more so than that, that he seemed to be surprised she wasn't responding immediately. Like they emailed each other on a regular basis or something. Granted, Chie did the same with Akihiko, even if through written medium and not through email… and her letters tended to be largely ignored much to her dissatisfaction, but you know, it just struck her as odd that Justin was mingling with an android, as human as she seemed to be. Guess it was just some subtle revenge scheme for all the times Chie called Akihiko master. Justin sighed a bit before flipping his laptop shut. Chie had a valid point; Aigis had more important things to do than be a PR consultant for some kid in college… It was just it conflicted so much with her normal behavior that he couldn't help but wonder just how large scale this break in was.

"Yeah, you're probably right." He eventually shrugged. He was just gonna have to hope and pray things were going alright. In the mean time however, life still went on around him, and he found he had more pressing matters to attend to in his personal life… And then some not so pressing matters as well. Mind you, just because Justin managed to start a chain reaction of puke last night didn't mean some people were deterred by the prospect of partying hard. And by some people I mean Maya. And that's literally it. She had some serious substance abuse problems. At the moment, her head was planted flat against the table in front of her, body limp against the floor in her drunken slumber. For some reason, that pissed Justin off beyond all belief. Possibly because he could never sleep that well, even when he was drunk off his fucking mind. More so, however, he didn't approve of her boozing till she was unconscious; and this was coming from a man who did quite a bit of boozing himself. He grumbled a bit to himself before raising his foot, bending his knee in wards to pose himself to kick Maya right in her side. He had expected that to wake her up, but instead it just caused her to roll over onto the floor. Of course, the collision with the floor managed to wake her up pretty quickly. Within a split second she immediately sprang to life, tripping over herself as she stumbled around a bit, as if trying to escape from some invisible evil. Her eyes were wide and her heart was thumping. It took her a couple seconds to realize where she was and calm the fuck down. A deep breath. She was still alive, so that was good. "Wow… I didn't think I kicked you THAT hard. You alright?"

"_Yeah… yeah I'm fine." _She sighed before running her fingers through her hair, clamping onto the roots as if she feared someone would come and steal it from her if she let go. You would have thought she'd be madder at Justin for kicking her in her sleep, but she just seemed relieved to be awake and in one piece. Give it an hour or so for her to realize that Justin kicked her upside her head, and she'd kick his ass. _"Just a bad dream…" _Chie scratched at the side of her head, as if she had never heard anything stranger. Which is funny because it wasn't all that strange in the first place. I guess she was just surprised that Maya had bad dreams; she seemed like a pretty tough girl when it came to that stuff. After all, if you could sleep in an abandoned, rat infested car for a year of your life just like a baby, you would think nothing could bother you in your sleep. Alas, that wasn't true in the slightest.

"Bad dreams? What of?" She questioned with curiosity; as if she was really in any position to know what went on inside Maya's head at night. Though Justin supposed it was better to see Maya's nightmares than the ones he had; and everyone would be better off not seeing some of their other friend's dreams. God only knows what sick perverted things ran through Yosuke's mind at night; a sentiment that seemed to be exemplified after Justin heard about his and Maya's little bedroom shenanigans. No. He really did not want to know how that shit managed to get in her hair, and she wasn't willing to tell either, so they'd leave it at that. All the same, Justin did know exactly what Maya was talking about, even if no one else did, and even if she didn't talk about it with other people all that much. But then, no one ever asked her about it. Hell, her brother used to tell her to stop whining about it before she left home. Did she ever mention how much of an asshole her biological brother was? Because he was a REAL asshole. Justin sighed, resting his feet on the coffee table on front of them.

"You still have those falling dreams?" Justin questioned. She nodded timidly in return, as if still trying to grasp it was only a dream. She had those dreams so many times, you would think she'd be used to it by now, and yet it only seemed to get worse everytime. For years she had been plagued by nightmares of her just falling, faster and faster, speeding up as she made her way closer and closer to the ground; and just before she splat against the pavement, she woke up. They say that if you die in your dreams you die in real life, which is why you always wake up before you die in your sleep; and given how superstitious Maya was, she totally believed it. She was only grateful she managed to wake up that one time whoever was in charge of her dreams decided to add a plane. Let's put it this way; propellers were the last thing you wanted to see when you were falling from the sky like a stone. Because propellers chewed up rocks and birds NOOOOOOOO problem.

As a result, over the years Maya had developed a slight phobia of falling: not heights or anything like that mind you, tripping, slipping, all that kind of stuff that could cause you to tumble onto your face. And you know that mini-heart attack you had when you slipped on the stairs? Maya got that times three, and it was absolutely horrifying, not only to be in her position, but to watch as she went into this reclusive state of fear. When Justin had caused her to tip off the table and onto the floor, that phobia went into full swing: because now not only was she falling in her dreams; she was falling in real life. And she did hit the ground. She had legitimately thought she was dead for a moment before she realized she hit the ground in the real world and not her dream. If there was ever a reason for her to believe in God, it were these little moments like this where what should have killed her turned out to be some cruel prank by fate. She was completely and utterly convinced the big man upstairs was laughing at her, like this was all some big game of ding dong ditch, and she had just put out the flaming bag of dog shit with her bare feet.

"_I'm alright… I'm alright…" _She mumbled to herself, though it didn't really take a lip reading expert to have a good idea what she was saying to herself. It was a lot less of confirmation that she was fine towards the rest of her friends and more her reassuring herself that it was all just a dream. Justin knew that all too well; he had seen her like this so many times back home where she'd accidentally roll off the couch and wake up in a frenzy, so he already knew that she wasn't okay. He sighed, slipping his laptop off to the side before crouching down to get beside her and wrapping his arm around her shoulder and reassurance. Maya was just happy to have something to cling to; probably because as long as she held tightly onto something she couldn't fall, right? I mean, unless that thing fell too, but she'd rather not think her only avenue of standing still could fall with her.

"Don't worry, it's just a dream." Justin sighed, patting her slightly on the back as if that would cheer her up in the slightest (spoilers, it didn't.) Still, despite how ridiculous it was that Justin was treating Maya like some kind of child who thought they found a monster under their bed, she was more than grateful enough to have something to cling to reality, and for that reason she did not complain in the slightest to find herself in the arms of Justin. Chie had been watching on with concern for a while, still not entirely sure what was going through Maya's brainpan to make her jump like that, but eventually her concern gave way to the light of hope, and she eventually managed to crack a timid grin. You know, it was funny, as much as Justin tried to claim he didn't know a thing about taking care of kids, he took care of his sister so well; and sure, she wasn't a kid, as much as she acted like she was at times, it was that claim to responsibility that tickeled Chie's heartstrings a little.

Of course, more importantly than that, she never wanted to hear Justin bitch and moan about not knowing what to do after today. She was seriously going to hold him to this promise she made with herself on Justin's behalf. And if you think for a second Justin was surprised she was going by some imaginary promise he never actually said, well, you'd be dead wrong.


	288. Chapter 287: May 27, 2014

CHAPTER 287

May 27, 2014

* * *

"Justin, this is by far the stupidest thing you've ever done."

Sunglasses on his head, a wide grin on his face as his feet hit the pavement beneath him, the roar of an engine buzzing in the air. It would be hard to picture Justin as anything but a badass right now, but alas, when you considered that he had just spent a shit ton of money on something he really didn't need when he had a lot more shit on his plate that he WOULD need that money for, well, suddenly he looked a lot less like a badass and more like an asshole. It was like saying 'Hey, you want money for the kid? Well fuck you, you ain't getting a dime, cause I just spent it all.' That wasn't what he was doing of course, but that didn't mean Chie approved anymore of him throwing money out the window. It was like he was suffering an early midlife crisis… But then, there was a lot happening in his life that he hadn't expected to happen for decades. I guess he was just really advanced for his age or something. Though that gave him a rather bad gut feeling he might keel over at the age of thirty if he kept going at this rate, like some kind of rapidly passing by life cycle coming closer and closer to its inevitable end. He smirked a bit, twirling a pair of keys around his finger like a hula hoop, not bothering to consider even locking the doors behind him.

"Whaddya think? Got it super fucking cheap, but she still shines like a diamond." Chie raised her eyebrow with curiosity as Justin referred to the hunk of metal behind him as a 'she.' She was really hoping Justin wasn't gonna be one of those guys that treated cars like people, because there was gonna be a serious conflict of interest here if that was the case. Furthermore, she didn't think highly of it; partially as a result of the blatant waste of money, partially because it wasn't exactly in tip top condition. I mean granted, it wasn't broken or anything like that, but it was all dusty and muddy, and it just looked like it hadn't seen the light of day for a century. It was a black mustang, an early model and used from the looks of it, but while it was a really slick shade of black, that only made every little thing that had died and decayed on it over the last few years stand out like a light in the dark.

"I think you don't need a car so I'm not sure why you decided to buy a car other than to piss me off." Chie remarked snarkily. He didn't really go anywhere off-campus, so it wasn't like he needed transportation to get from place to place, but rather it seemed he bought it just so he could say he owned a… 'nice' looking car. Mustangs were nice vehicles after all, even as old and worn down as this was. American made car too, they weren't quite as easy to find her in Japan, so somehow Chie doubted it was as cheap as Justin claimed it was.

"Don't need one? I don't think you realize how much we're gonna need to travel around when you pop that thing out." Justin countered just as aggressively, pointing at her stomach as evidence. She really wasn't a fan of the imagery she got from the word 'pop' in this context, and it sent a bit of a shiver down her spine. Still, as douche as that remark rubbed Chie, she did have to admit he had a point. They couldn't just walk to the pediatrician with a stroller, could they? There was also the matter of getting back from and to the hospital once her pregnancy started to advance a bit more and they needed to see a doctor on a regular basis. Because the bus is really the last place you want to be when your seven months pregnant.

"That's… true, I guess… But… why THAT car." Chie questioned, curiosity getting the better of her. One, it was an American car, so it was definitely more expensive here than if Justin were to get it back in San Diego. But more importantly, she would have thought he'd pick a more… not necessarily expensive looking car, but more intact car. He ignored the question for a moment as he took a moment to soak in the appearances of the slick black car in front of him. The engine was still running, buzzing through the sky in a sound that was so sweet to Justin's ears. He grinned a bit as he pulled back, adjusting his sunglasses a bit and sticking a cigarette in his mouth. Chie didn't even say anything about his smoking habits anymore. He had quit a while back, but the stress of everything going on, it was understandable he would revert back to his old ways. It was just surprising to see him having such a cool head about everything right now, and still needing to smoke to keep himself from flipping out. It was an oddly drawn line he was dancing on. He lit the cigarette up and took a quick drag at it before stepping back to Chie's side, finger extended to point out every little detail of the automobile.

"Finally, nothing moves. High noon. Black top rolling below the asphalt drive. A concrete fascination scraping the edge of nothing. The wheels of my Mustang exploding on the highway like a slug from a .45. True Death: 400 horsepower of maximum performance piercing the night." Justin took another drag at his cigarette, smiling warmly as he basked in the sleekiness of his recent purchase. "This is Black Sunshine."

"You… named the car." Chie mumbled with exasperation. She wasn't really sure why she was surprised in retrospect; he seemed to have a way with names given how quickly he had seemed to pick out a name for their kid… Of course it was a girl's name and Justin thought they were having a son, so that counted for very little, even if they weren't to consider the fact that Chie had just as much say in naming the kid as Justin and they'd really need to talk it over before deciding anything. Point was, it was like he got some kind of kick out of naming stuff. She wouldn't be surprised if she found out one day he had a tank full of goldfish or a collection of rock pets and took the opportunity to name each and every one of them.

"After a White Zombie song no less. Was gonna call her Black Betty, but then I decided that was just begging for some sort of Dukes of Hazzard bullshit where I have to jump over a bridge; so I passed on that one." Justin beamed with pride, as if he had done something seriously good by dodging a completely non existant bullet. Of course, there was the issue of what the song Black Betty was about given the circumstances, and Justin would rather not have his car be a reminder of how much he fucked up as well. Still, his pride in his car slowly faded as he realized Chie was really not amused by all of this. She wasn't even sure she understood why this angered her so much; Justin's money was his own, and while he did have responsibilities, she couldn't rely on that all her life, could she? They both had to chip in, and so long as Justin did his part, whatever he did with the rest of his money she could give less of a damn about. Or so she thought; yet here she was, anger welling up inside her as she tried to make heads or tails over what could have possessed Justin to think now was a good time to buy a car. "You don't look too happy about it."

"It's your money, it's your car. I don't know what you were expecting me to say." She tried to pretend she wasn't ticked off about this, but it clearly showed. Like she might have tried to hide the anger in her voice, but her words still held power behind them that made it clear she didn't approve. Justin tried to feign a smile all the same, trying to pretend he couldn't tell she was livid. No, he had plans, he couldn't let her fuck this up again just because she was in a pissy mood. Not this time.

"Come on, why don't you take a ride with me? I'm sure you'll love it." He tried to convince her with a warm smile. He had a pretty good idea where he'd drive to. It was late in the afternoon, and soon the night sky would fall upon them. If they hurried up, they might still be able to catch the sunset, shimmering in the waters of the riverbank in Inaba. Alas, Chie just was not giving him the inch he needed to make any of his grand ideas work. She shook her head, pouting ever so slightly.

"I don't think so." She objected rather bluntly. "I've got stuff I need to do Justin. Like, I don't know, figure out what we're doing with this baby. Maybe you should do the same." She shook her head and sighed with exasperation before turning to walk away. Justin's jaw dropped a bit, a sad expression sweeping across his face. Oh sure, he spends some money on getting a car they were gonna need, and suddenly he didn't care. Suddenly he was the bad guy. It didn't matter what he planned to do with this car, or anything like that, because in her eyes every cent Justin owned was now property of the fetus in her stomach. Justin supposed he should have been angry, but all he was was heartbroken. He sighed to himself before turning about to head back to the driver's side door, opening it up, the sound of his radio playing lightly flowing from the vehicle and into the parking lot.

The sound of a burned cd playing cheesy love ballads. The shine of a ring sitting in the glove compartment.


	289. Chapter 288: May 28, 2014

CHAPTER 288

May 28, 2014

* * *

"Wait, you're shitting me right? You're NOT supposed to do that?"

It was the middle of the day, and Justin and Chie had been sitting outside, eating lunch and just generally going over things regarding their kid. Chie had been laying down a whole bunch of shit on Justin that contradicted everything he had ever known about taking care of a bay, what with her apparently having nothing but free time to skim through Wikipedia articles and websites on parenting. Granted, given her position it seemed like something she should be doing, but the things she dug up, and the myths she seemed to brush aside from Justin's mind like cobwebs only gave the impression was sitting in front of a computer all day searching for this shit.

"Nope; not supposed to."

"Well that's bullshit; my father used to rub my gums with alcohol all the time when they got sore." Justin countered with aggravation. It was probably all that nonsense about how alcohol was Satan reincarnate or something, because that shit was like healing magic when applied to the right wounds. I mean, can't let those babies get a taste for booze, right? He growled a bit under his breath with annoyance at all of this; it shouldn't have been infuriating him to learn how to take care of a baby, but the more he actually learned just how wrong everything he knew was, the more he just wanted to scream at his incompetence. How could he be expected to father a kid when he didn't know SHIT about what was considered acceptable. Chie shook her head slightly.

"I don't think your father's exactly a shining model of parental perfection." Chie pointed out as subtly as she could. Oh Justin knew exactly what she was trying to say, it was just no one was comfortable just outright acknowledging the torture of his childhood. Justin's glare tightened a bit; he couldn't explain why, but he felt somewhat peeved at Chie's claims to Justin's Father being kind of an asshole. It was true too, which is why Justin couldn't understand why his blood felt like it was boiling under his skin. Perhaps it was the simple fact that regardless of what his father did when he was on the booze, he was a competent parent. He never did Justin wrong in the regard of providing everything he needed to survive. He just kind of did him wrong in every OTHER regard. Still, his glare eventually subsided because the truth of the matter was Chie wasn't there, and she wouldn't ever know if he was a good or bad father. To her, she had only the words Justin spoke to go by… and he didn't exactly paint a flattering image. And besides, she was right in a lot of ways; he wasn't exactly the picture of perfect parenthood, and no doubt Chie wanted his influence to stay as far away from this relationship as possible. Could you blame her?

"Yes, well, pretty sure my mother used to do that too, and I'll have you know my mom was a saint." Justin countered. As bad a relationship as he had with his father, him and his mother were close. Justin probably held her in slightly higher esteem though knowing his father didn't get anywhere near as bad as he did until she started to get really sick; like some intermediately between them, some final defense that stopped him from going off his rocker. Alas, these were only things Justin suspected, and in truth, probably were just him imagining things in an attempt at glorifying his mom more than he already had, or perhaps it was just him trying to justify his father going from what he was to… well that. Chie shrugged a bit. She couldn't say with any degree of certainty of Justin's mother was any good at being a mom, because as aforementioned she wasn't there. She just had to take Justin's word that she knew what she was doing. Except in this particular instance because every source she checked was pretty explicit about NOT doing that, despite what others may say towards the contrary.

"I'm just telling you what everyone else is saying. The alcohol on the gums trick is outdated." She sighed, turning her eyes back down to the bowl of noodles in front of her, trying to stomach down her lunch, even though the topic at hand did little for the appetite. She was just too nervous about everything, her stomach was in all sorts of knots that made trying to digest food a chore. Like every time she took a bite of food someone ran up to her and punched her in the gut; which given that she was pregnant would be ESPECIALLY bad. She just didn't need all this stress, and Justin's apparent reluctance to accept what was and wasn't good parenting, what he was and wasn't supposed to do with a kid. He was just making it harder on her, since she was getting a really bad gut feeling that she was gonna end up being the one doing everything. God knows if she let Justin lay a finger on the kid he'd manage to screw something up seriously. He'd probably drop him down the stairs or something by accident. Which reminds her, make sure she got a really good crib: one that not only would preferably keep their kid inside but also keep Justin out.

"Old-fashioned still works you know."

"Justin…" She groaned a bit. She didn't want to argue this; she didn't even want to talk about this. She had been running around all fucking week trying to figure out what she was going to do with this kid, and she just wanted a couple minutes to sit down, gather her thoughts, and try to eat some lunch. She didn't want to keep debating with Justin about the efficiency of rubbing alcohol on a baby's gums to soothe the pain, because at the end of the day, he wasn't a doctor so he didn't get to say what was and wasn't acceptable to do with a baby. Justin's stare loosened up a little, eyebrows curving up, tired, sad. He could tell she was completely and totally exhausted from all of this. So was he, truly, but it was one thing to be tired yourself and one thing to see someone else working themselves to the bone. And the worst part is, this was all kinda his fault.

"Look, I'm sorry… I'm just trying to sort everything out." Justin sighed. This was just as hard on him as it was on her, after all, and he was just as nervous to admit he was clueless as she was nervous he wouldn't have the slightest idea what he needed to do. "I think we just need to get away from it all. Go on vacation or something." Justin admitted. What he was really asking of course was 'we should go get dinner or something tonight,' but alas, he was tired, and a vacation sounded really nice about now. If they could leave all their woes behind for just one week, he would feel like the luckiest man on the face of the planet. Alas that's not how vacation worked, and their responsibilities would still be hanging over their heads like ceiling fans. And besides, they didn't have the time or funds to justify going on vacation when they had so much they needed to buy and do. So yeah, vacation? Not happening. It would be nice though.

"I'd settle for night out on the town."

"We could do that." Justin jumped at the opportunity as soon as he saw it. This was literally what he had been waiting to do all fucking week, but she had to keep getting sidetracked with all this planning and shit. He would in fact love nothing more than to just go out and get dinner with her. Talk about something other than their misfortune. Let things be like the way it used to be. It was quiet for a moment, Chie absorbed in silence as she considered his proposal. One night out wouldn't hurt would it? They had 8 months to get ready for this; she didn't have to give up her life just yet. She opened her mouth, ready to accept the invitation and try to leave behind all her concerns about the baby behind for just one day… And then the buzzing of intercoms all around the campus in complete synchronization.

"_Attention all students, please return to your dormitories immediately. Emergency procedures are in effect."_

"Emergency procedures?" Justin questioned, turning around to stare at the nearest intercom system, trying to figure out what the hell was going on. It was probably just a safety drill; they needed to make sure everyone knew what to do in the case of an emergency, right? Nothing to get worried about, though he was curious why it was being broadcasted all over the campus; he could have swore that was something that was handled by individual dormitories and facilities, not the entire campus. Plus, people still had classes right now, right? Chie passed Justin a concerned expression before sighing with defeat. One night out, that's all she wanted. But fuck what she wanted apparently; she hadn't suffered enough misfortune yet. She leaned over, picking up her bag as she stood up, ready to leave everything behind, including her hopes.

"Well… you heard them… Let's just go."


	290. Chapter 289: May 28, 2014

CHAPTER 289

May 28, 2014

* * *

"So, anyone have any idea what's going on?"

Justin and Chie had timidly poked their heads back into the dormitory to find pretty much everyone gathered around the television in their living room, interest if not mortified expressions on their faces. Yosuke and Yukiko were here as well; seemed as though they had been visiting when the lockdown went into effect, and it would be unwise to make them walk back to their own dormatories when they were perfectly safe here. They were accounted for, and the supervisor of their appropriate dorms was contacted. So they had every right to be here, even if the looks on their faces suggested they really didn't want to be. Horrified expressions on everyone's faces, especially Yu, who seemed shaken to his very core. Even the normally eccentric Erin fell silent as she watched the television screen in front of them. Not a single peep came out of any of them as Justin and Chie walked inside, and barely a single glance was tossed their way. So good to see they had friends that cared they were still unaccounted for in the midst of… whatever it was that was going on. It didn't sound too good though. Justin, being as impatient as he was, didn't quite like the silence he was hearing in place of an answer and snapped his fingers to draw attention to himself. "Hey! What's happening."

"I-Inaba, it's…!" Yukiko began, hardly able to find the words to describe what was going on. Justin rolled his eyes with frustration, having about enough of these games of cat and mouse as he tried to find some answers as to why they were shutting the campus down. If it was a matter big enough that it was making the news, and apparently had something to do with Inaba, he could only imagine it was a pretty big deal that they would lock campuses in an entirely different city. A school shooting perhaps? Those tended to spark an influx in security in schools within a large radius of the scene of the crime; and Justin could definitely see why everyone seemed sick to their stomach. But no; what Yukiko had been trying to say wasn't that this crime took place IN Inaba, but rather that the crime was against the ENTIRETY of Inaba. Justin grumbled a bit to himself, making his way to the couch that they had all been gathered around.

"_This is Channel 6 news with continuing news on the terrorist attack in Inaba." _It didn't really take any more details than that to cause Chie and Justin to simultaneously flinch in panic. A terrorist attack? In Inaba? Well besides from being a pretty odd place for a terrorist attack given how small it was, there was the more important matter of all the family and friends they had there. Naoto, Kanji, Rise… In Yu's case he could also add Dojima and Nanako to that list as well. In Justin's, he could add Ai and Daisuke, even if they never really talked all that much. He could feel his heart strings tense up just a little as the shock news flashed across the screen, disturbing footage of this greenish fog covering the town, not unlike the kind that had taken Inaba by storm back during the Hanged Man cases. That was probably the most disturbing part. This didn't really look like a terrorist attack; this looked like the signs of a world collapsing. Dammit, Teddies was supposed to make sure this stuff didn't happen.

"_Forensics analysts claim to be completely baffled by the scale and intensity of the current terrorism crisis in Inaba. This sickly green fog has coated the entire town, though we cannot say with any degree of certainty the damages caused within. The police claim they can't gain access to the small town, citing that the fog may be lethally poison, even with the proper equipment. Perhaps most surprising were police reports of coffin like objects, even on the outskirts of town, standing upright in the fog. Police are currently suspecting this may have something to do with the distribution of the gas, but have found no evidence to support this claim. We'll have more on this in a moment."_

"C-Coffins!?" Junpei jumped back abit, all color draining from his face as something hit him hard in the backs of his head. The others couldn't say they didn't find it peculiar, but even then, no one's reaction was quite as extreme as Junpei's. You would think he had some deep planted fear of tombs and the like with the way he inched back from the couch ever so slightly, adjusting his baseball cap to try and get a better view of the screen without the shade obscuring his vision.

"_As obscure as the means of the attack are, I think what's most surprising about all of this is the Kirijo group's apparent influence in the attack." _The co-anchor spoke up, trying to give his own opinion, as unneeded as it was. All the same, not a single person in that room had been there for most of the report, so the fact that the police had apparently found some kind of evidence linking the Kirijo group to the crime caught all of them off guard… Save maybe Erin, who really wasn't all that familiar with them, and Izzy, who quite frankly didn't care who it was so long as they were shot in the face for their transgressions.

"Wait, what!?"

"_And that's a good point; for those of you just joining us, shortly after the attack, the culprits released a video of themselves explaining the method of the attack. Strangely enough, although they didn't hide their identities, they made no demands. Sounds to me like they want the police to try and catch them. Let's roll the tape again for the viewers at home." _A brief moment of silence as the person editing the video searched around for the video, apparently not having something like that at the ready already. Eventually the screen began to fade to black though; and from that darkness, the barely distinguishable, but all too obvious features of two women, devilish smiles on their faces.

"_Hello Japan. This is Mitsuru Kirijo of the Kirijo Group speaking to you today, and this is my accomplice Aigis." _An even sharper reaction from everyone in the group, though Justin couldn't help but lean forward a bit to look at the details of the screen a little more closely. Something was clearly off, though what, he couldn't quite put his fingers on. He rolled over the screen what seemed like a dozen times before he locked onto the oddity. It wasn't just as though Mitsuru's voice seemed somewhat filtered; after all, bad camera technology can do that, and given the lighting going on here, Justin was going to assume that's what was happening. No sire, the eyes… The eyes were wrong. Now this is probably about the point where you expect me to tell you that their eyes were golden, that they were in fact shadows; but that wasn't the case… at least, not for Mitsuru. No, her eyes were a crystal blue, pupils dilated, gleaming like metal. Something was definitely wrong about all of this.

"That is NOT Mitsuru." Justin pointed out after a moment. "And that's not Aigis! Look at that, their eyes are different colors. And Mitsuru's voice isn't matching up right either." Junpei seemed somewhat surprised to find that Justin knew Mitsuru as well, but he wasn't going to question it right now. He had noticed that too, and besides, he knew Mitsuru would never do something like this; it conflicted with everything she had stood for.

"_We are but a few members of a small organization of a governmentally funded black ops group known as the Shadow Operatives. And for the last decade, we have been working extensively on this:" _The figure held up a small box to the camera, barely illuminated, but shape still clear all the same. _"This device has been the achievement of years of the Kirijo group's money and labor. With it, we have stimulated in a small town known as Inaba a permanent state of what we call the 'Dark Hour,' a hidden hour within the 24-hour time period in which humans transmogrify into a completely immobile, and hibernate state. The test was a 'rousing success, much to my satisfaction, and we will continue testing with the device all along the west coast. Thank you for your attention, and have a pleasant evening." _The imposter smirked, voice gargling slightly from electronic interference as video came to a halt. Justin and Junpei's skin turned pale within a second. Whoever those imposters were, they had specifically called out the Shadow Operatives. Why? Well, perhaps because they seemed like a convenient scapegoat. Maybe just to sell an image. It was hard to say. But whatever it was, they were involved now.

"_Shocking stuff. I must say, it's hard to believe that the Kirijo group had been secretly funding a project like this all along. I mean, what's the motive? They don't want money, and they aren't doing it for god. Is it just for the thrill?"_

"_Perhaps, but more important than the motive was that Mitsuru Kirijo leaked out that these… Shadow Operatives are in fact a governmentally sanctioned group. Do you think this is all an inside job? A governmental conspiracy of some sort?"_

"_I don't think so; law enforcement was quick to put out warrants for any and all persons associated with the Shadow Operatives. A full list of these people can be found on our website, courtesy of law enforcement databases." _Justin's heart stopped within an instant. A warrant? For their arrest? They had nothing to do with this! Anyone who knew Mitsuru would be able to tell with ease that wasn't her! More importantly however, Justin had only signed up for that bullshit because he thought it would make him safe from discriminatory arrests, not put everyone IN that position. He backed up a bit with slight horror, hands on his face; a gesture that didn't go largely unnoticed. There was feeling bad for something that had gone horribly wrong, and then there was that nervous 'oh shit, I fucked up' feeling. Justin feel in the latter by a long shot.

"Justin what's wrong."

"Guys… We… may have a problem." Justin mumbled a little, swallowing as hard as he could, eyes darting from curious stare to curious stare. It certainly wasn't helping with the overwhelming guilt that was in his gut right now. "Uh, you… r-remember that thing with Labrys a while back… well, um… I was talking with Aigis and she was talking about the Shadow Operatives. She said legally, all Persona users have to be registered as one…"

"Hold on wait a second; you guys are Persona users!?" Junpei eventually gasped out. Fuck secrets, they knew exactly what a Persona was. They knew Aigis. They knew Mitsuru. They knew Labrys. They knew everything that Junpei had thought no one but a Shadow Operative would know… and that didn't sit well with him. The Investigation Team all shot a glance at Junpei, just as surprised to see his reaction as he was to see Justin's. Erin and Izzy were just confused.

"The fuck is a Persona user?"

"Never mind that. Justin… what are you trying to say?" Yosuke growled a bit. He didn't like where this was going. Not one bit. Justin bit his lip, trying hard not to cry at just how much of a fuck up he had made here, at just how angry he knew everyone would be.

"Well, we're… technically registered as honorary Shadow Operatives. All of us." Shouts of anger, gasps of shock, hell even a spit-take filled the room. Yosuke was probably the most livid of the Investigation Team, immediately followed by Chie and Maya. Yu was a little more understanding though still somewhat peeved, and Yukiko didn't really feel any blame needed to be placed, she just felt her gut tighten up as the implications hit her. Erin was shocked, though not necessarily angrily so: after all, sounded like they didn't know what was going on, so how could they be held responsible for this? Judge the individual not the group. Plus he was claiming these people were imposters, so maybe she needed to be a little more open minded. Izzy, though. He was livid. The angriest in the room. He outright managed to break some shit on the living room table by slamming his fist into the surface before he stand up.

"What!?"

"You goddamn terrorist!" Izzy called him out, and from the looks of it, was just about ready to deck Justin for pretty much destroying Inaba (even though he didn't), but that was immediately interrupted by the sound of knocking at the door.

"This is Iwatodai Police. We have a warrant for the arrest of several individuals who reside here as well as warrant for entry. We will force entry if you do not comply and open this door immediately." The Investigation Team turned to the door, color washing away from their faces. So quickly!? They must have been ready to make a move as soon as the news came in about the tape. Justin's eyes turned away from the door, ready to dart up stairs. Either they were gonna have to fight their way out, in which case he had a gun as much as he'd hate to use it, or find a means of escape. No matter what though, he would not go to jail for this. He knew that fog all too well; the only ones who could stop this was a Persona user, and the Shadow Operatives have proven to be a tad bit unreliable. It would be for the good of them all truly.

Unfortunately for him Izzy immediately blocked his pathway, and wasn't about to budge anytime soon. "Erin, get the door."


End file.
